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Gary350
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Re: Tennessee 2019 Garden

Squash, cucumbers & melons all have black spots of leaves. Black spots scrap off easy they look like little black seeds. Not sure what black spots are but they don't seem to be causing trouble. Cucumbers have the most black spots, squash have less, melons not many, none on beans, tomatoes, peppers, okra. Leaves are turning yellow probably from low nitrogen caused by too much organic material I put in the soil. Melons are slow to get ripe this year they are getting too much shade they only get full sun for 5 hrs.
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The black things are spore capsules shot up by the birds nest fungi growing in the mulch. You can see them inside the cupped mushrooms in your photos. I learned about them on mushroom walk at a local wildlife habitat. :D


I don’t think they will hurt the leaves.

The fungi will help break down the mulch and make nutrients available to the plants.

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Gary350
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About 12 noon I decided to salvage some garden tomatoes that birds damages and some that were cracked. Then I added some, onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp cumin, salt, garden cilantro, 1/2 of a red color jalapeno, juice from 1/2 lime, pulse it in food processor a few times until is looks like salsa, then put it in the refrigerator.

I have more New Mexico peppers in the garden but not red color yet, not green either, more of a dark green/dark red color. 4 New Mexico peppers 8" long with seeds & vanes removed, 3 cups water, 1/4 of an onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 tablespoon oregano, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 jalapeno pepper, 1 tsp corn starch, 1 tsp oil. Puree in blender then bring to a boil until thick.

Refried beans, 1 can pinto beans in food processor, 1 big T onion, 1 tsp chili powder, 1 garlic clove, 1 tsp salt, water to suit thickness.

About 4 pm we cooked, 1 lb ground beef, 1 large onion diced, 5 garlic cloves, 1 package taco seasoning or 1 large tablespoon chili powder , 8 ounces of Philadelphia cream cheese. Lay 10 flour tortillas 10" diameter each on counter top. Put a large tablespoon of refried beans in the center of each tortilla then spread beans to cover the tortilla on top side. Put equal spoons of meat filling on each tortilla spread it long ways in the center. Roll tortillas up place them on large cookie sheet pan.

Pour Enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas then fill the pan with all the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with sharp cheddar cheese bake in oven 350 degrees long enough to melt cheese about 5 minutes.

This is my mothers recipe she called these, Chili Burros. She usually made this with a pork roast or beef roast that was cooked all day and sometimes it was made with ground beef 97%. I like to make this with roasted chicken pulled off the bone or pork but too late in the day to do that today. Scoop 1 tortilla out of the pan put it on your plate, scoop up extra sauce pour it over your tortilla. It has been about 7 years since I made this recipe I had forgotten how good this is, we won't be waiting another 7 years to make this again.
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Dam, I'm sold on those enchiladas with shredded beef or chicken thanks for sharing..

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I was outside for about 15 minutes when I came inside the house I looked like I fell in a river. Humidity is very high today. Good day to stay in the house.

My oregano plant leaves taste like chlorophyll. I think the correct thing to do is harvest leaves then let them dry until chlorophyll flavor is gone. I don't notice chlorophyll flavor in, basil, cilantro, rosemary, or thyme. I stripped oregano leaves from 6 limbs wonder how long it takes for chlorophyll to be gone?

Older tomato plants are not doing much. Newer plants from seeds have been making tomatoes for 2 weeks today they are loaded. 1 more plant from seeds should be making ripe tomatoes in about 2 more weeks. I totally forgot to plant larger tomatoes from seeds this year so I planted them today. I found another bad Big Beef tomato to harvest seeds from. After washing seeds with plenty of water I planted all the seeds. I want to make sure seeds germinate & also want to see if tomatoes from seeds are same as tomatoes from the original plant before I save seeds for next year.

I picked a few more peppers the New Mexico plants are loaded peppers are about 30% red color another week or so I can make more enchilada sauce.

Cucumber plants are looking bad but they continue to grow more cucumbers. Cucumber use to grow nice green color but now they grow slightly yellow color. I hate to waste food it looks like several people will get a quart jar of Bread & Butter pickles for Christmas. LOL. I have 1 more empty gallon jar not sure I have enough cucumbers to make a whole gallon of pickles. It is almost time to pull up the plants they have lost 90% of their leaves.

Still waiting on ripe water melons. The small rain we had made the melons all get about 10% larger.

Here is a terrible picture of my Fennel plant camera takes terrible pictures in full sun. This is my first time to grow fennel not sure what to expect or how to use it. We picked some to eat on food but not much flavor. I want to save seeds they should have good flavor. Plant made lots of tiny flowers but no seeds yet. I will take a better pic about 6 pm to replace bad photo.
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Pepper plants are loaded, Big Bertha, New Mexico chilies, Marconi peppers. This Marconi is 9" long. Pepper plants are 5 ft to 5 1/2 ft tall. Now that corn is gone I can actually see these plants. I gave plants lots of Potassium this year wood ash is calcium & Potassium. Calcium for BER & K for lots of large fruit. I also gave them nitrogen but not much. 16 pints of medium spicy Enchilada sauce coming soon. Nice looking flowers on the fence caught my eye, what is this? These must have got started from birds. Vine has a round green nut the size of a pecan.
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Hey, that’s probably Maypop Passionflower — fruit is edible and I’ve been wanting to grow them for a while.

SQWIB is growing it, so maybe he’ll chime in.

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Yes that's a Passaflora incarnata.
Passion flower, or maypop.
Makes a decent jam.

Image

Image

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I decided to compare a Green New Mexico pepper to a Red New Mexico pepper, Green is much hotter than Red as I expected. I was considering making green Enchilada sauce but too spicy hot don't think I will.

I picked more cucumbers this morning to add to the pile I already had in the kitchen. I can not throw away food so I made more pickles with, carrots, onions, marconi peppers. Some how it turned out to be a perfect fit for the last empty 1 gallon glass jug. I still have 1 quart of brine left over. Time to pull up cucumber plants before they make more cucumbers.

This morning I picked 1/2 bucket of green beans we cooked them all day in the crock pot with salt pork. They turned out great this is how I like green beans cooked.

Wife made several small garden baked potatoes for dinner.

I picked all the okra, sliced it and let it set 2 hours if flour salt coating then deep fried it 400 degrees for dinner.

I sliced some tomatoes and dinner was ready. I went back of seconds 2 times. Everything on the table is from the garden, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, okra.
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I am very surprised to learn oregano I pull from my plant smells and taste more like oregano after drying for 2 days. After 2 days drying oregano has a nice perfume oregano smell. Oregano plant has a dead limb I stripped the dead brown dry leaves from the limb and before throwing them away I smelled them. Perfume oregano smell is very strong on dead leaves I think I accidentally learned something new I wonder if other herbs smell an taste better after drying the leaves for a several days? I have an empty rosemary bottle in the pantry I am pulling rosemary leaves tomorrow after they dry a few days if they smell and taste better I will fill the empty bottle with fresh dried rosemary.

Kitchen is cluttered up with lots of tomatoes & peppers so mission today is clean up the kitchen. I cut all the tomatoes, scooped out seeds, jell, vanes, green & white color insides. Tomatoes were pureed with skin into sauce with onion & garlic then it went into the crock pot. After lunch I add 1 tablespoon corn starch, 1 tablespoon oil, bring to a boil on stove, tomato sauce became thick. Add salt, black pepper, 1 tsp crushed red pepper, 1 large table spoon of dry Italian seasoning mix. Return sauce to crock pot add meat balls and cook spaghetti on the stove. This sauce turned out as good as factory made Ragu pizza sauce. We finally have the recipe we were looking for. Soon as I get another pile of tomatoes in the kitchen we will have several quart jars & pint jars of pizza sauce.

After lunch I sliced up all the jalapeno peppers, boiled them in Bread & Butter pickle brine then packed several jars full. Once I started spooning this into jars choking fumes ran everyone out of the house. Fill jars outside of patio where there is a nice breeze.

I am saving all my seeds.
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I have 15 ft of potato cutting ready to plant. Soon as I inspect all the potatoes maybe there will be enough sprouts to plant this whole 40 ft row. 4 month crop should be ready to harvest about Dec 10.

The other 18 ft row is seeds, Dill, summer savory, basil, radishes, broccoli, grano onions, napa. These don't grow well in spring by the time plants are starting to grow good 90 degree weather kills them. This experiment is to find out if these plants will grow in fall first frost is 3 months away.

I had to tie up my pepper plants limbs are getting too heavy with big peppers and breaking off. I lost 6 nice big peppers they were wilted limp as a wet rag when I found them.
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This morning I picked 24 New Mexico peppers. They are not yet 100% bright red color this means they will be a tiny big more spicy hot than full red color peppers and not as spicy hot as green color. This should make about 6 to 8 pint jars if Enchilada sauce. Plants are still loaded with more peppers not yet this red color if I need to I can pick more peppers to adjust the spicy flavor and change the color. I'm not sure I have enough oregano, instead of driving 30 miles round trip to Mexican flea market to buy 1/2 lb of oregano I bought 98¢ bottle of oregano at Walmart flavor was very good on the first batch of Enchilada sauce. More seeds to save, I need to plant a few fresh harvested seeds to make sure they germinate. No point in saving seeds that will not grow.

I also harvested 1 Big Bertha pepper we like flavor of these better than Marconi.
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I have 1 tomato plant that grows these strange spotty looking Big Beef tomatoes. If nice red ripe tomatoes don't look spotty already in the garden they will soon after taking them into the house. Slice 1 in 1/2 they look red inside and taste good. Eat them or cook them they are good. If they don't get eaten within 24 to 48 hours they rot from inside out. I have seen this in the past. I think this might be blight???
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Is it yellow and red on the inside, too? If so, could you post a cut cross section photo of this? Vertical cut please.

If it’s red inside the way it should be, do you see white dry spots under the skin? That would indicate stinkbug damage. They infect the fruits with their saliva when they pierce the skin and suck out juices, and cause fruits to spoil faster.

What do the plants look like?

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Today I made 1 gallons plus 1 quart of Enchilada sauce. After removing, seeds, stems, vanes, from peppers I put them in a cook pot with 1 gallon of water, 1 large onion sliced, 10 garlic cloves, 6 tsp cumin powder, 12 tsp oregano, 6 tsp salt. Bring to boil turn off heat let it set 2 hours. Puree in food processor then add, 3 T corn starch, 3 T oil. Bring to boil stir until sauce becomes thick. Pour into 5 quart jars pressure can 20 minutes. These will be perfect for making, 10 Enchiladas, 10 meat burros, 10 chili burros, 10 burritos, Spanish Steak, each time they are good with lots of sauce. Sauce taste good can't wait to try it on Enchiladas.
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I made 3 jars of pizza sauce today, 2 got canned in pint jars, 1 jar went on home made pizza. Pizza sauce turned out good we need about 15 more jars.

Applestar, I used the spotty tomatoes to make pizza sauce. There might be another spotty tomato in garden soon. It has been so hot humidity makes it feel like 120 degrees. I was at Death Valley 1 summer it did not feel as hot as TN today.
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That’s OK. When you get the chance.

Isn’t it great that as long as they have the basic necessary flavors, even sub-par tomatoes still end up tasting good when cooked? I make to-die-for sauce out of really great tasting when fresh tomatoes if I have too many and family can’t keep up — sometimes jut cut up and freeze for cooking something special later — but split and not quite full ripe, watery, and too-mild maters all get cooked down into everyday sauce.

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Every year about 2nd or 3rd week of July when weather is hot an not much rain tomato plants suddenly start dying. I tried a lot of different things in the past nothing worked until now. Dead leaves made it hard to see if there are green or ripe tomatoes hiding in there so I started cutting off all the dead. Then I see yellow dying limbs and leaves so I realize this limb are going to die anyway so why wait cut them too. There are also do nothing limb that once grew tomatoes and once had leaves but now they are 6 ft long limbs with nothing on them so I cut off too. Suddenly plants start doing better, growing new tomatoes and lots of them. Plants have few leaves on the 2 month old section of the plant while all the new growth and nice green leaves are out on the end of every main limb. Then one day I was watching Nature TV show they were is a hot summer climate talking about certain plants die in hot weather because plant moisture loss is more than roots can supply the plant with water even with irrigation moisture loose is more than roots can supply in hot weather. Cut some of the plant off to reduce moisture lose the plant comes back to life and does good. This TV show made me think about my tomato plants, maybe when I cut off all the dying and do nothing limbs plant suddenly starts growing better because roots could now supply enough water for a plant that is no longer too large. Take a look at the pictures, dying yellow limb & leaves cut off, old plant parts that once grew blossoms & tomatoes cut off. Then look at the plant several weeks later almost no leaves but loaded with new tomatoes. Tomato plant is about 8 ft long with new leaves on the top 2 ft that is laying on the ground.
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applestar wrote:That’s OK. When you get the chance.

Isn’t it great that as long as they have the basic necessary flavors, even sub-par tomatoes still end up tasting good when cooked? I make to-die-for sauce out of really great tasting when fresh tomatoes if I have too many and family can’t keep up — sometimes jut cut up and freeze for cooking something special later — but split and not quite full ripe, watery, and too-mild maters all get cooked down into everyday sauce.
First 4 photos is a spotty tomato. 3rd picture shows knife blade pointing at what looks like a needle hole poked in the side of the tomato. Both 1/2s of the slice show the needle hole. I did not see this hole in the tomato before I sliced the tomato it is a miracle I sliced exactly through the needle hole so 1/2 the needle hole is on each slice. I sliced another good ripe tomato that is not spotty looking. End slices I threw in the trash both taste good. Both tomatoes are Big Beef. Inside of both tomatoes look good so far. We will eat these for dinner tonight with garden fried potatoes & garden green beans.
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See the white corky effect along the outer ring of the cut tomatoes between the skin and the gel cavities. These are what’s left after the stinkbugs suck the juices out, leaving dry patches. I think the overall blotchness in color is coming from overlapping circles around feeding punctures.

This is from 2010, not this year, but they have different photos showing stinkbug damage on tomatoes —
Stinkbug Damage Common in Tomatoes This Year - Weekly Crop Update - Cooperative Extension in Delaware
https://extension.udel.edu/weeklycropupdate/?p=2359

The hole you found looks like it had been infected and spoilage is starting.

...here’s more info...
UC IPM: UC Management Guidelines for Stink Bugs on Tomato
https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/r783300211.html

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Garden soil is so dry top 4" is dust. Push dust away there is moist soil down there. Potato cuttings have been drying for 3 days I have learned potatoes need to be in moist soil not wet soil and should be cover up only 1/2" so they can grow plants that reach the sun quick to get started growing sooner. Potatoes are a 4 month crop it seem to me from my observations 4 months starts after cuttings have rooted and plants have started growing. If I plant cutting in dry dust they will just set there waiting for weather to change it might be Oct before soil is moist enough for them to root & grow it will be cold then. I want plants to grow in this warm weather fast then make potatoes in the cooler Oct & Nov weather. So I did a soil test I made a soil pile 8" tall 3 days later soil moisture has moved up closer to the surface but still 4" below the 8" pile of dry dust. This morning I raked soil flat an level so soil it 2" above the swamp area when we start having rain every day for 6 months. I put all the cutting on the soil surface then covered them with an 8" hill of soil. Soil should become moist where cuttings are in 2 or 3 days then cuttings should start to grow. Plants will be a long time growing through the 8" hill of soil. About 20 years ago I planted a 20 ft row of potato cuttings then covered them with 12" of soil to protect them from winter freeze no plants ever grew but there was 28 lbs of new potatoes when I dug them up in May. So we will see what happens to these potatoes maybe they grow plants by Oct 1. and maybe there will be a crop of potatoes to harvest Dec 15.
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This is what we get from the garden these days. Enough tomatoes to eat. Too many jalapeno peppers. Big Bertha sweet peppers are out producing Marconi peppers 3 to 1 and we like Big Bertha flavor better. More New Mexico peppers. 1 watermelon is getting close to being ripe. Yellow squash has 1 squash almost ready to pick. Okra is loaded with too many okra most are going to seeds. Green beans plants are drying up and dying soon I pull up all the plants save dry beans in a large bag then beat bag against a tree to get bean seeds. Herb plants look weird they are limbs with no leaves I stripped off the herbs to dry. Acorn squash plants have no squash but spaghetti squash has 1 good size squash these plants are giant I never saw squash plants this large.
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Gary looking good, make some chipotle peppers.

Interesting about the yellowing leaves and transpiration, a lot of times folks just toss around it's blight, late blight, early blight, blight, blight, blight.

Also interesting about the stinkbug comment Applestar made.

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SQWIB wrote:Gary looking good, make some chipotle peppers.

Interesting about the yellowing leaves and transpiration, a lot of times folks just toss around it's blight, late blight, early blight, blight, blight, blight. Also interesting about the stinkbug comment Applestar made.
We like the salsa in the first 1/3 of this video it is very good with chips. Flavor gets better if it sets in the refrigerator several hours before eating it. Most recipes call for a little bit is lime juice but it can be left out or replaced with vinegar. Since limes are $1 each I use vinegar. When I lived in Arizona limes were 10¢ each. Mexican people in AZ showed me how to make good salsa a little different than the video, I am cooking video recipe today to see how it turns out.

I cooked the salsa recipe in video hoping it would have a roasted, tomato, onion, garlic flavor but taste is no different than Arizona recipe plus AZ recipe is easier. Boil a pan of water, drop in 1 medium onion, 5 large whole tomatoes, 5 garlic cloves, 1 chili pepper, put lid on pan, turn off heat, return in 1 hour. One hour later everything is cooked and cooled enough not to burn your fingers. Put, tomatoes, onion, garlic, pepper, in food processor, add 1 tsp salt, 1 T lime juice or vinegar, cilantro. Blend until the way you like it. I added too much garden cilantro now it needs 1 more tomatoes. I am going to cheat and microwave a tomato. LOL It worked & taste better.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/sear ... tion=click
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I planted, acorn squash & spaghetti squash. This morning is the first time I have seen this big green squash hiding in these big leaves. Wife's family grew these when she was a kid so I showed it to wife she said, that's an acorn squash its a bit big but ok we will eat it for dinner if it's not stringy. So I cut the squash from the vine. Wife looked at the other squash and said, that is spaghetti squash it's not ready yet. This is my first time growing these this is a learning experience for me. Garden is so much FUN and good food too.
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applestar wrote:Is it yellow and red on the inside, too? If so, could you post a cut cross section photo of this? Vertical cut please.

If it’s red inside the way it should be, do you see white dry spots under the skin? That would indicate stinkbug damage. They infect the fruits with their saliva when they pierce the skin and suck out juices, and cause fruits to spoil faster.

What do the plants look like?
Tomatoes are picked only when they are very red color. 2 days later tiny black spots can be seen & tomato is starting to turn yellow. On the 3rd day black spots are larger. On day 4 black spots become small rotten places that look like moon craters. At this point I can slice off 1/2" thick pieces of the outside & the inside is still good to eat but tomorrow the whole tomato will be rotted, seeds can be saved to plant next year. I wonder if stick bugs carry any type of sickness people can catch?
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Looks like Bacterial Canker. I see this every now and then and quickly cut off the blemish and freeze or use immediately

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No no, we don’t want it to be bacterial canker — anything that starts with “bacterial” is bad news. I think more like anthracnose. And still think stinkbugs because of the white flesh under the skin.
Recognizing Tomato Problems - 2.949 - ExtensionExtension
https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-a ... ems-2-949/

Bacterial canker (Figure 8 ) occurs sporadically in Colorado. Symptoms begin with lower leaves turning downward. Dark to light brown streaks may develop on the leaf midribs and eventually extend down the petiole to form a canker on the stem. There may be vascular discoloration. Symptoms on fruit are small, white, scabby, raised lesions, often described as “bird’s eye.” This disease is difficult to distinguish from other tomato diseases and may need laboratory confirmation. If identified, destroy the plants. Do not compost plant material. Do not plant tomatoes, potatoes or eggplant in the same soil for two to three years.

[...]

Stink bugs cause spots and internal damage to tomato fruit by their feeding. Adults are shield-shaped and brown or green, with red, pink or yellow markings. They release an offensive odor when handled. Control weeds around the tomato patch, as these insects overwinter in such areas. Stink bug damage on green fruit appears as dark pinpricks surrounded by a light, discolored area. As fruit ripens, these spots may remain green or turn yellow. The tissue underneath is white and spongy. Cavities may form under the damaged skin
.
Tomato | Diseases and Pests, Description, Uses, Propagation
https://plantvillage.psu.edu/topics/tomato/infos


Anthracnose Colletotrichum coccodes

[image]
Sunken, and circular lesions on the fruit is a characteristic symptom.
[seversl fruit and leaf images]
Anthracnose on tomato fruit
Anthracnose symptoms on tomato leaf

Symptoms
Fruit symptoms are the most common although stem, leaves and roots can also be infected; disease causes characteristic sunken circular lesions on the fruit; the indentations on may have visible concentric brown and yellow rings; lesion centers turn tan in color as they mature and become dotted with small black fungal fruiting bodies (microsclerotia); lesions can grow very large

Cause
Fungus

[...]

Stinkbugs (Various) Various

[stinkbug and damages fruit photos]

Symptoms
Dark colored pinpricks on fruit surrounded by a lighter area that turns yellow or remains light green; stink bugs often carry pathogens in their mouthparts which can cause secondary infections and decay of fruit; adult insect is shield-shaped and brown or green in color; may have pink, red or yellow markings; eggs are drum shaped and laid in clusters on the leaves; larvae resemble the adults but are smaller.
...it’s possible they might carry some typical dirt germs including ones that can give you a tummy ache, but I think it would be rare for them to happen to be carrying around something serious — Personally, IMHO concern at the level of flies and yellow jackets landing on food at a picnic.

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I just had a thought — you know how you have to wait about a month after cutting live wood to inoculate the trunk rounds and branches with shiitake and other mushroom spawn? This is because while alive, the tree has a functioning "immune system" with enzymes, etc. that resists “infection” by the fungal hyphae and mycelia. — Once these living immune system substances break down, the logs/trunk rounds can be inoculated with better success.

I wonder if similar mechanism is in play with fruits like tomatoes — once they ripen and reach the blush stage, tomatoes still get water from the plant but sugars and flavors etc. nutrients have been fully loaded into the fruit. After that they just blend and develop in the fruit. I wonder if at the same time, the fruits no longer have full immune system circulating through to resist infection, and once the fruits are picked, they are cut off completely and become more vulnerable?

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applestar wrote:I just had a thought — you know how you have to wait about a month after cutting live wood to inoculate the trunk rounds and branches with shiitake and other mushroom spawn? This is because while alive, the tree has a functioning "immune system" with enzymes, etc. that resists “infection” by the fungal hyphae and mycelia. — Once these living immune system substances break down, the logs/trunk rounds can be inoculated with better success.

I wonder if similar mechanism is in play with fruits like tomatoes — once they ripen and reach the blush stage, tomatoes still get water from the plant but sugars and flavors etc. nutrients have been fully loaded into the fruit. After that they just blend and develop in the fruit. I wonder if at the same time, the fruits no longer have full immune system circulating through to resist infection, and once the fruits are picked, they are cut off completely and become more vulnerable?

My Brain hurts lol.
I'm pretty sure that once a tomato blushes it is not receiving anything from the plant anymore. I could be wrong.

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Gary350
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This morning I am slicing up 4 Big Bertha sweet bell peppers and 1 Marconi sweet bell pepper and saving the seeds. Wife put slices in a 1 gallon bag for freezer they will make good stir fly and many other things this winter. Pepper plants are loaded with green peppers slowly turning red and Oct cooler weather there will be a pepper explosion many times more peppers than we are getting now. Next year I will plant only 4 Big Bertha plants, no other sweet peppers. Lots of potassium & nitrogen really did the trick for growing lots of big peppers. If you feed your plants well they are happy. Maybe I slice up the New Mexico peppers later today or tomorrow after I check garden plants again there could be more.
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Gary350
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Today I harvested tomatoes from my newest tomato plant.

If I have time tomorrow I am going to grind up jalapeno peppers into 1 quart of liquid then pour it on my old lawn mower wait about 1 hour then wash it off with the water hose. I did this 35 years ago it stripped all the paint off of the lawn mower then it looked brand new after I repainted it. I want to see if this still works I used all green jalapeno's last time. 1 pepper is starting to rot what kinds of bacteria can live in a spicy hot pepper.

I pull up Blue Lake bean plants about 30 ft of a 40 ft row. I sat under the shade tree and picked a 5 gallon bucket full of mostly dry beans.

Beans with yellow looking pods are soft as rubber and peal open like a banana. These white beans make good soup. I especially like white bean chicken chili.

There are a few green beans that can be eaten there might be enough for one dinner.

Bean pods need to dry a few more weeks then put into an empty 20 lb cat food bag then beat it against a tree to break up the dry pods to collect the dry beans. Beans that are already dry and hard will be seeds for next years garden.
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Gary350
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Another load of peppers & more tomatoes. We had another stir fly dinner it reduced the population of Big Bertha peppers by 1 whole pepper. More jalapeno peppers & more New Mexico peppers. Time to start cutting New Mexico peppers into strips to dry to make chili powder.

My seeds & herbs have dried time to put in bags or bottles. For now I will pour seeds & herds into empty pizza jars.
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Gary350
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I removed, seeds, vanes, stems, from the 16 New Mexico peppers in this top photo then sliced them into skinny strips. Strips covered 2 pizza pans. I put both pizza pans in my 2002 Honda CRV food dehydrator parked in 95 degree sun all day, it is 130 degrees in there. 6 pm NM pepper strips look like pic 3. I used the coffee grinder to make chili power. I can hardly wait to make a pot of chili to see how it tastes. Chili powder looks good 3 1/2 ounces of chili powder in an empty pizza jar.
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Gary350
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New way to remove beans from green bean pods. Green beans have grown too large to eat, pods are tough & stringy, beans inside pods are large about as large as they will get. I pulled up all the Blue Lake Bush Bean plants in 1 row then removed green beans from plants & put green beans on patio table. I decided to leave green beans if full sun to dry out then a few days later I notice several pods have dried enough to become rubbery and yellow looking. These pods pull open easy like a banana then beans fall out. Not all green beans dry at the same speed so every morning I remove the softest pods and remove the white beans inside. Soon we have a pot of white beans soup. Put white beans in a jar of water few days we have beans sprouts for Chinese stir fly. Beans sprouts are good on salad. Beans sprouts are a good substitute on any sandwich to replace lettuce. Beans sprouts on tacos & taco salad.
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Gary350
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Our first spaghetti squash it finally turned yellow today. We are letting it grow 1 more day to make sure it is ripe. Squash bugs are taking over plants will be lucky if they live a few more days. No help from the birds they won't even come to the bird feeder this time of the year.
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Gary350
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I am testing my new food dehydrator today, upside down fish aquarium on a sheet of styrofoam. I sliced 1 New Mexico pepper this morning and put it in the dehydrator about 9 am, at 5 pm slices look dry. I put another sliced pepper in at 3 pm nothing much happened yet. Tomorrow when sun comes up I remove the dry 1 an leave the other one.

We have 7 watermelons. I should have fertilized the plants with potassium so plants will make more blossoms that makes more melons. I have 3 plants it is hard to eat 30 melons that is why I never fertilized with potassium = wood ash. 7 melons are enough for the season. The biggest melon is starting to look a bit yellow on bottom stem will not pull off so it is not ready yet.

I sprayed blight spray on my tomato plants too late again. I always spray too late and loose several plants. I forgot to add dish soap to make it spray even not spotty. So far so good. I need to spray sooner before plants start to die I could save more plants. We already have pantry full all we need now is 2 tomatoes every day until Christmas day.
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TomatoNut95
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Awesome food dehydrator ideas!! Amazing! I so need to try that; but all I have is sweet peppers. Is there such thing as sweet pepper powder?

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applestar
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I think that would be sweet paprika. Maybe try smoking or roasting then dehydrating for added flavor. Try blending with your mild jalapeño.

Be sure to try growing some of the mild “seasoning” peppers next year. I’m growing/trying Aji Dulce Amarillo this year. I grew Alma Paprika last year.

Oh yeah, also growing Pasilla Bajio considered mild heat.

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Gary350
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TomatoNut95 wrote:Awesome food dehydrator ideas!! Amazing! I so need to try that; but all I have is sweet peppers. Is there such thing as sweet pepper powder?
Sweet pepper powder is called, Paprika. Home made paprika has very good flavor in food & good red color too. If your chili powder is too spicy hot mix it with paprika to reduce spicy hotness. You can also make homemade green paprika & green chili powder.
Last edited by Gary350 on Wed Aug 21, 2019 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.



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