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Gary350
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Re: Tennessee 2019 Garden

Yesterday this was a broccoli plant. Today it is just twigs. Something made fast work eating it. I hope it got filled up. A big fat worm was probably bird dinner. LOL.

I found 2 more cucumbers, 2 more ripe tomatoes & another yellow squash.

Today I dug deeper into the beans and found these. Beans are loaded but I only picked the very largest beans. Maybe tomorrow we cook these an have them with dinner.

Corn is growing tassels it seems too early 4 more weeks will be 72 days.
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2 1/2 rows of bean plants.
2 1/2 rows of bean plants.
Last edited by Gary350 on Sun Jun 30, 2019 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Gary350
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Blackberries are getting ripe faster. I have been getting a pint every morning and a pint every evening. There is a 1 gallon bag of blackberries in the freezer. This morning I picked about 3 cups of berries I need to start filling another 1 gallon freezer bag or this could be another cobbler.
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I’m not familiar with that broccoli damage — most animals I know of would eat leaf stalks and stems, ...this looks like caterpillar but there would have to be a lot of them all at once ... so that leaves ... armyworms?

...the blackberries look yum! I’m sure the wine will be superb.

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applestar wrote:...the blackberries look yum! I’m sure the wine will be superb.
They do make great wine. Even better can be Blackberry liqueur - vodka, sugar & berries left to meld for as long as your patience will allow. You can also use other berries - rasps etc. We strain out the fortified berries for later use in trifle and other desserts; store them in the freezer labelled "adult berries."

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Today I made 1 jar of Bread & Butter pickles. Having done this already it was quick and easier than before. I used larger cucumbers this time to compare to small cucumbers I used last time. It took 15 minutes to slice the cucumber, go to garden pull up 1 onion 2 1/2" diameter slice & dice, add 1/4 cup pickling salt, mix well then add 1 quart of ice. I sliced about 20% more cucumber than will fit into the jar hoping after dehydration they will all fit in the empty quart jar. After 2 hrs in refrigerator I stirred well then return to refrigerator for 2 more hrs. Next I poured cucumbers, onion, bean, mix into strainer to remove salt water. I filled container with clean water, rinsed cucumber mix, strain and rinse 3 more times. I had the brine boiling on the stove so in goes the cucumber mix. It took about 5 minutes for brine to come to a boil again. Turn off heat move pan to counter to spoon cucumber mix into a quart jar. To my surprise I guessed about perfect dehydrated cucumbers all fit in the jar including sliced onion and 1 green bean cut into 5 pieces with room to spare for expansion. Seal was waiting in boiling water, jar top was cleaned, the seal & ring screwed on jar. No pickle crisp lime added this time. Jar will stand upside down until tomorrow.

Vanisle BC I will try that Blackberry liqueur it sounds good. I have no vodka but I have E&J Brandy or Moonshine.
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This evening 7 pm when it was not so hot I picked a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of beans.
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Super! Your garden sure is switching into high production mode! :-()

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Cucumber plants were loaded with finger size cucumbers. No rain in the forecast and not wanting to wait I watered the plants. Next thing I know we have 2 bowls of cucumbers. I went to the garden and pulled up several onions. I sliced cucumbers and onions, rubbers them with salt, packed them in ice then put them in the refrigerator for 4 hours. Mean while I made a gallon of brine it took 10 minutes. After rinsing off the salt everything went onto the boiling brine for about 4 minutes then into quart mason jars. Jars were filled with brine then stood upside down until they cool. Soon as I mark the lids they go into the pantry.
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Gary350 wrote:
Taiji wrote:Love the Big Bertha! I put in a few Big Bertha peppers this year after having read about them on this forum. Mine are way behind yours of course, but can't wait to get something like you have there!

I'm always envious when people in the south get tomatoes so soon! Took a chance and planted out some peppers and tomatoes a couple of weeks ago. Had to go out 2 times and cover with buckets to protect. I think I'm safe now at last.
Taiji, what elevation are you? What AZ town are you near? I have always thought 7000 ft would be a good elevation for a summer garden in Arizona mountains. When I lived in Phoenix area only things that grew well in 114 degree summers was, melons, okra, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, grapes, garlic, onions.



Sorry for the confusion Gary! I recently updated my profile to show that I'm gardening in Michigan's Upper Peninsula now. We stay here for 5 months, then go back to AZ. 7000 ft. is a bit high for lots of gardening in AZ. Good for the cool weather stuff but tough on corn, squash etc. Late spring frosts and early fall ones. 7000 ft. is Flagstaff's elevation. Mile high elevation in Central AZ where I live is a bit better!

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6 gallons of blackberry wine. Everything in the garden is growing too fast I can barely keep up. Dinner tonight is, beans & potatoes, tomatoes, chicken. I still need to pick more, tomatoes, blackberries, squash, cucumbers, beans, before dark.
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These blackberry plants are freaking me out they never did this well in 42 years at all the other houses we lived but they were never in full sun all day until now. I have been getting more than a quart of berries every morning and another quart+ every evening, about 3/4 gallon every day. Every day there seems to still be 1000 red color berries that are not ripe yet. There is also a lot of green berries that have not yet turned red. This is the 3rd year for this plant at this house. This plant is native to TN it is a wild Cumberland Black Raspberry same family at Blackberry. This plants are not very big but they are a tangle web of canes. It has new growth coming up all around and the new plant that I transplanted on the other side of the yard last summer has new plants every where too. Next year look out we really going to have lots of blackberries.

I made another blackberry cobbler, every time I make this recipe wife says, it needs more blackberries next time. Original recipe called for 1 cup, then we tried 2 cups, then 3 cups, now this what a difference this is perfect. French Vanilla ice cream & whip cream with cobbler is perfect.

I have been saying all day, we need a 15 minute flash flood corn needs rain, we got BIG rain about 7:20 pm. Blackberry plant is out by the street, end of driveway. I have taken close up pics of the plant & berries but none of the pics do justice to the plant loaded with all the blackberries.
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Dinner tonight was very good, chicken with onions & big Bertha bell peppers, potatoes, green beans, fried yellow squash, tomatoes. Squash are coming too quick we have a back log of 4 squash. Tomatoes are a bit slow but enough for the kitchen table every day. We are swamped with green beans I gave most of them to my son for now, we will put several jars of beans in pantry later. Yesterday potato plants were all laying flat on the ground like it was time to harvest a month early but after that 15 minute flash flood today potato plants have come to life and are standing straight up again. Tomatoes are 6 ft tall I am being lazy this year not tying plants up to the steaks. Soon tomato plant tops will get heavy and fall over an grow down to the ground. Corn is 7 ft tall making tassels and silks. These 72 day corn should not be ready to harvest until about July 26 but it may be sooner than that. I don't remember how long it takes ears to grow kernels and be ready to harvest they have 3 more weeks. We had more blackberry cobbler and ice cream this evening and I picked more blackberries for the freezer. If we get tired of eating cobbler I might make Blackberry preserves to put in jelly jars. I have not made jelly in 35 years, I started making jam it is better but now I want to make preserves it is better than jam. Next year I am going to start planting 92 day corn again instead of 72 or 65 day corn it takes up less garden space, 3 rows of 8' tall corn with big ears will make as much corn as 5 rows of small 5' tall corn with small ears.
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Yesterday morning I picked 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket of beans. We snacked and washed the beans then cooked them over night in 3 crock pots. Soft cooked beans pack into jars tighter. This morning I hot packed beans into clean pint mason jars. We ended up with 4 1/2 jars of Roma Flat pod green beans the other jars are Blue Lake green beans. 1 jar is 1/2 & 1/2 with both types of beans. Hot pack makes pressure caning heat up quicker. I cooked pints 30 minutes at 15 psi.
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Time to fill the pantry! Looking good!

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Cucumbers are tricky to find among 15 plant vines and all those leaves. I did not want to make pickles today because it is Sunday and cucumbers are piling up. 1 cucumber is about 1 day late getting picked. Another cucumber is very large about 2 or 3 days late getting picked but I decided to make pickles with it any I need to see how it turns out. I use a french fry cutter to cut cucumber this time plus I cut slices extra thick as a test to see how they turn out. I got 9 onions from garden, 5 for me, 4 for wife. I also got a dozen potatoes, 6 tomatoes, another yellow squash, beans need to be picked again. I think this makes 14 quarts of pickles in the pantry that will be enough. Not sure what to do with more cucumbers, I hate to pull up plants because we don't need them anymore.
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I almost did not pick blackberries today, I am tired of picking berries. Berries are slowing down only 3 cups today. I have another 1 gallon zip lock bag of berries in the freezer. We had 2 cobblers and I made wine, I was going to make Jam or Preserves but changed my mind so we wait. We might want a blackberry cobbler for Christmas dinner. Blackberry pancake syrup is always good.

I think it is time to harvest potatoes some leaves are dying. Online says, Kinnebec is a short season hybrid but it does not say how many months most potatoes are 3 or 4 months. It has been 3 months and we have been eating a lot of them early. I am going to start canning tomatoes there are several ripe in the kitchen and several more ripe in the garden. More beans to pick tomorrow.
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We have too many yellow squash, we are experimenting with different ways to cook them. I made Pico de Gallo for dinner to eat like tomato salad. I picked another 1/2 bucket of beans, more onions, more potatoes, more tomatoes. Thin slicked squash coated in fish beer batter baked 450 F in oven 15 min turned out very good. We are loving these Kennebec baked potatoes every night for dinner. This pick is almost as many beans as I picked a few days ago. Roma Flat Pod beans do not reproduce as quick as Blue Lake Bush beans after first harvest. Blue Lake first harvest is about 65% of total summer crop, Roma is about 90% on first harvest. So far Blue Lake has produce 2 times more beans than Roma & I have 50% more Roma bean plants. If this years crop is like last years crop it will be better to pull up all the Roma plants then plant new ones its not worth waiting for another 10% harvest, but we will see.
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Do you have a dehydrator? I’ve made dehydrated sliced vegetable chips with summer squash that tasted good. Experiment with simply salted, allowed to sweat, then pat dry and dehydrate, or then coated with some kind of dressing and dehydrate.

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I finally tied up the tomato plants today and found several ripe tomatoes hiding in there. I canned 8 pints of green beans that cooked all night in 2 crock pots. 19 pints of beans will be enough. 9 pint canner had 1 empty space so I canned 1 pint of tomatoes. I picked another pint of blackberries.
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Corn is looking good especially after all the trouble I had 2 months ago with the soil ph being too high. Water melon plants have 2 melons largest one is soccer ball size. Tomato plants are loaded with tomatoes. Onions are ready to harvest I pulled up several to use today. Potato plants keep giving me mixed signals water shortage seems to be the problem maybe they will look better after tomorrows big storm. Bean plants are loaded with tiny beans after tomorrows rain beans will be larger and time to harvest. I have lots of cucumbers, don't need anymore pickles but will make more anyway next summer I won't need to plant cucumbers if we have 30 or 40 quarts of pickles in pantry this summer. Pickles will all be relish for, potato salad, hot dogs, chicken salad, etc.
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You really have a big garden! Are the unplanted areas waiting for succession planting something else, or are you letting the space lay fallow for this season so you can rotate crops over next year?

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applestar wrote:You really have a big garden! Are the unplanted areas waiting for succession planting something else, or are you letting the space lay fallow for this season so you can rotate crops over next year?
The unplanted area in first picture gets no direct sunlight because of 50 ft tall trees on the south border of the yard. About Sept 1st the row closest to the unplanted area will be in full shade too. By Dec 21 about 90% of the garden will be in full shade. I hope these trees don't grow much faster than they have been or they could become a shade problem for the garden. So far so good some plants can use afternoon shade in the hot summer weather. Plants all seem to do good with 7 hours of cool morning sun. About 2 more weeks okra should be ready to pick.

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Maybe you could use the shady area for growing covercrops like clover or maybe something you can mow and then use for mulching or tilling into the growing area — “green manure” is the term I’m looking for.

I have the same problem — most of my garden beds are in full shade during the shorter days from fall to spring. Garlic won’t grow well where it’s in full shade too long.... and DH won’t let me expand out to the front yard where it gets full sun.... :lol: :>

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We started canning tomatoes this morning. Wife wants to make stewed tomatoes so I pulled up a bunch of onions for her to slice and dice with celery while I cut up tomatoes and start cooking. Then I decided I better slice a squash for dinner. Tomatoes came to a boil quick I used potato masker to crush them when strained out the juice and pulp. Wife pureed skins & seeds then mixed them back into the tomato juice to make it thicker. We added a large bowl of chopped onions & celery. Stir well then filled 4 quart jars almost full. The canner holds 7 quart jars so we have to wait for 3 more quarts to cook them.
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Awesome garden and gorgeous produce, @Gary350!

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6 am before it got hot I removed lower dead leaves on tomato plants so they get more sun, I hope this helps tomatoes get ripe quicker.

I notice onions need to be harvested. I was hoping to leave onions in soil all summer and eat them as we need them but onions are no longer attached to the soil by roots.

I had barely enough Amish Paste tomatoes to make 1 pint jar of tomato sauce. This turned out good.

I had a lot of cucumbers piling up in the kitchen so I decided to make more Bread & Butter pickles plus 1 quart jar of mixed vegetables, onions, yellow squash, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, green beans.

Wife made Taco Salad for dinner. Ripe tomatoes & garden onions sure make it good.

TomatoNut95, removed leaves won't be a problem that is the north side of the plants no direct sun on that side. The south side is shaded by 5 ft tall pepper plants and 8 ft tall corn. About 3 more weeks corn will be gone.
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Love those tomatoes....and that Taco Salad!!! Thanks for making me drool!
I hope by removing those leaves your fruits won't get sunscald.

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Great looking tomatoes, Gary. Loaded plants!! What varieties have you planted?

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Five foot pepper plants?????!!! Oh. Wow!!! Mine NEVER get that big! My garden stinks.

Yeah, what kind of tomatoes are those? Beautiful!

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lakngulf wrote:Great looking tomatoes, Gary. Loaded plants!! What varieties have you planted?
I planted 12 Big Beef these grow very well, tomatoes are large and plants produce lots of very good flavor tomatoes. They usually do good all summer, they slow down a bit in 99 degree weather and do better in fall when day temperatures are in the 70s again. Frost will kill them about Nov 7 I pick all the green tomatoes to ripen in the kitchen we sometimes still have 2 tomatoes left for Christmas dinner.

There are 4 Big Boy tomatoes it is hard to tell these from Big Beef they are good.

I have 4 Brandywine tomatoes flavor is about the same as Big Beef but these are very slow produces about 75% less than Big Beef.

There are 4 Beef Master that are having a deformity problem plus all the tomatoes rot before they get ripe. This is why I plant varieties if 1 or 2 variety of tomatoes do bad I can pull up the plants and still have a good crop of tomatoes and put 60 pints and 20 quarts in the pantry.

There are 3 cherry tomatoes 1" diameter these do very well in 99 degree weather and taste good too.

4 Amish Paste is something we have never tried so far flavor is good but they only get rip on the bottom 50% in the garden then bugs eating them up. I have been picking them earlier so they can ripen in the kitchen. Maybe we get lucky and get enough of these to Can 20 pints of tomato sauce & pizza sauce for the pantry.

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TomatoNut95 wrote:Five foot pepper plants?????!!! Oh. Wow!!! Mine NEVER get that big! My garden stinks.

Yeah, what kind of tomatoes are those? Beautiful!
Big Beef, Big Boy, Brandy wine, Beef Master, Cherry, Amish Paste.

I dig an 8" diameter flower pot size hole in the garden then throw in about 1/4 cup of 15-15-15 fertilizer, 1 cup of wood ash, and a hand full of rusty nails or old rusty food can from kitchen in the hole. Stir fertilizer and wood ash into to a quart of loose soil in bottom of hole then fill hole with water. Hour later when water goes down put 1" of soil in the hole then plant your tomato plants deep. Cover bottom 50% of tomato with soil tomato plants have the ability to grow roots any place soil touches them so the whole bottom 1/2 of the plant becomes roots. All those roots give the plants a good water supply in hot weather only time I water is about the first 7 days after planting then mother nature is in charge of keeping them alive. My plants are 6ft tall now. Never give tomatoes nitrogen unless they have yellow leaves you will get very large plants and not many tomatoes. Wood ash is 20% to 30% calcium this is good for BER. Wood ash is also very high potash = potassium this produces lots of very large tomatoes. It is not too late to plant tomatoes I planted 2 Roma and 2 cherry tomatoes 6 days ago from seeds they are coming up already. Today I pull up the smallest plants and leave the largest 1 to grow. If your careful use a kitchen spoon to transplant these time tomato plants.
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Today we are going to Can more tomatoes. We hope to have 7 quarts in the canner today. About 6 am I picked tomatoes & few other things. I only got 1/2 of a Beef Master that is not rotten all the others are deformed and rotten like last year. I'm not planting Beef Master tomatoes again.
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Deformed Beef Master.  Unless I have figure out how to correct the deformity & rot problem these plants need to be pulled up they are wasted space.  I can plant Roma seeds here.
Deformed Beef Master. Unless I have figure out how to correct the deformity & rot problem these plants need to be pulled up they are wasted space. I can plant Roma seeds here.
Deformed Beef Master.  Unless I have figure out how to correct the deformity & rot problem these plants need to be pulled up they are wasted space.  I can plant Roma seeds here.
Deformed Beef Master. Unless I have figure out how to correct the deformity & rot problem these plants need to be pulled up they are wasted space. I can plant Roma seeds here.

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I believe your deformed fruits are due to fasciated blossoms :arrow: Subject: Megabloom/Fasciated blossom and fruits

If fused fruits in this variety is NOT typical, you may be able to find other sources that have selected for less or no tendency to form the fasciated blossoms.

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My Black Beauty here looks like two tomatoes fused together. I think it was born on a megablossom.
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Based on this official photo at Bonnie Plants, I think they selected for tendency to grow smooth doubles/megablossoms that would evenly grow to produce the fused beefsteak typically called “boat-shape” but maybe under heat stress, the fasciation/fusion is not uniform and pollination is uneven, ending up with the lumpy-looking fruits.

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Heat stress is probably what's wrong with my oxheart. I'm fixing to just remove the plant. Is it too late to start tomato seeds now? I could try another one for the fall.

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TomatoNut95 wrote:Heat stress is probably what's wrong with my oxheart. I'm fixing to just remove the plant. Is it too late to start tomato seeds now? I could try another one for the fall.
No it is not too late to plant tomato seeds they germinate very quick 3 days in hot weather and grow faster than buying plants that are already 6" tall. I am going to pull up these Beef Master tomato plants today then replant Roma tomato seeds. I should have ripe tomatoes Sept 23. Cooler 80 deg weather should produce a lot more tomatoes than hot weather. My Brandywine tomatoes have only produced 2 tomatoes so far they are slow produces I should pull them up too and plant more Roma seeds. Roma make good pizza sauce.

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7 quart jars of stewed tomatoes with celery & onion ready for the pantry. I have been using pressure cooker 30 min at 15 psi it is boiling water out of the tomatoes. Maybe I do water bath canner next time.

Taco salad was so good last night we had taco salad again today only bigger with more tomatoes & more cilantro.
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It finally rained yesterday evening about 6 pm both rain gauges show it rained 2" in 30 minutes. Cucumbers were 1" diameter at 5 pm too small to pick. It is amazing cucumbers can grow 3 times larger in only 13 hours. I am not making any more pickles and have no clue what a person does with cucumbers besides pickles. I guess I throw 9 cucumbers in the compose pile.

I dumped the onions on kitchen country to inspect them and let them dry a few hours. They need to dry a few day on the table in the garage so I took them there. I forget 130 garlic has been drying on the garage table for over a month it is time to cut off tops and put garlic in the kitchen. Oriental lady told me, "No remove skin, you eat."
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applestar
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Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Subject: Infused water
tomf wrote:I had some at a hospital when waiting for my wife to get checked out. So I found some recipes on the net. This one is lemon, lime. cucumber and ginger cut up in slices. You just let what you add seep into the water, you can keep adding water to it when you drink some. It gives the water a nice flavor and adds vitamins and good things to the water with out much calories, some recipes say no calories. It is a way of getting us to drink more water and less juice. The cucumber in it is good, who would have thought.

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Subject: Recipes for Cucumbers? How Do You Eat them?



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