Applestar’s 2021 Garden

[TomatoNut95]

Aww, so sorry for your kitty.

[applestar]

Thank you

[applestar]

Humidity was close to 100% this morning and quickly got sticky hot.

- I did get the chance to micro-foliar spray everybody with super diluted eggshell/crabshell vinegar extract, fermented mugwort/tansy growing tips, plus calcium nitrate and epsom salt.

- Cleared lowest and interior-crowding leaves from all trellised tomatoes and cucumbers for better airflow.

- Harvested the first Suyo Long cucumber even though I might have waited a few more days. Piccolino’s have doubled their pace!

- Replaced the shorter stakes with the longer ones for the eggplant and some of taller growing peppers in VGC, and re-allocated the freed up shorter stakes on ones that hadn't been staked before. (I won’t bore you with another photo so soon after the last )

- Korean melons vines in VG.SIP are at — pinch all 8th~11th grandchild vines leaving 2 leafnodes (and nascent blossoms/fruits) then 12th~20th leaving 1 leafnode. That took a while especially since the spotted lanterflies were hiding on the lower vine stems. (They also hang out on cucumbers vines and eggplants)

- Took care of another task that I’d been feeling the pressure to get done — tip prune all of the big Chicago Hardy fig tree growing ends leaving only one leaf above the last already developed green fig to concentrate on ripening the existing fruits and not bother to grow any more little ones that will not ripen before frost.
>>> happily, found TWO breba fruits that were fully ripe! Imagine I would have missed them otherwise.

[applestar]

I just sprayed yesterday, but DD2 finished a 1/2 gal carton of milk and left the carton for me at the back door half filled with filtered water to rinse out the milk residue, so I combined it in 2L pump sprayer with about 1/4 cup of kefir whey and added some potassium bicarbonate for good measure to spray again some of the cucumbers and tomatoes that had needed to be trimmed of slightly spotted lowest leaves that were starting to show signs of fungal infection yesterday.

Today’s primary task however, was marking the melon vines in the Sunflower House to indicate 8th through 11th grandchildren vines that will become the fruit-bearing vines.

Because I keep this hot-pink surveyor’s tape dangling out of my pocket to pull out easily, the hummingbirds keep hovering around me expecting to find a new flower they didn’t notice before…. Sometimes they chitter at me in annoyance before buzzing away.


…This is I think the 3rd Jubilee watermelon I hand pollinated so far. I’m not sure if I need to since there are usually bees and wasps visiting the flowers already, but I try to make sure. I’m using tomato clips to easily and quickly mark the female watermelon blossoms since I might accidentally bump into them if I try to mark by tying on a string, etc.

[applestar]

Today’s gardening in a collage —

Sunflower House —
- the fruit-bearing grandchildren side-shoots needed to be guide string directed. Each of these has a female blossom on its first leafnode.
- tomatoes and peppers are also growing well

Haybale Row —
- that cold snap we had completely messed up the Latte Bicolor corn and they are starting to tassel and shed pollen at about 3~4 feet
- Stirrup hoe-weeded the Luther Hill corn section devastated by the vole as well as perimeter of Latte Bicolor
- Greek Sweet Red squash vines (3 children vines) are growing well. It’s time to decide which TWO to keep

Spiral Garden —
- stirrup hoe-weeded the melons and culled the Orange Flesh watermelon which had been gnawed on by the vole earlier — it was not recovering sufficiently to reach fruit-bearing stage in time
- turned the compost windrow pile — the “Compost Pile Tractor” will be creeping its way around the outer Spiral
- spread and raked the finished and nearly finished compost in the central circle and garden forked to deep-fracture the soil. (will be planted with the summer squash starts — Cocozelle and Sunburst — that are ready in the hoophouse)

VG Area —
- Poona Kheera cucumbers are starting to come in
- two baby watermelons


…Yesterday, I had to run an errand for my mom so I couldn’t get out in the garden.

In the morning, noticed from the window that the strange wilting of one or two leaves at a time presented by the 2nd Piccolino cucumber plant in the Kitchen Garden Patio.SIP1 seemed to have gotten worse.

By late afternoon, that 2nd vine could be seen completely collapsed. This morning I hurried to get rid of it, roots and all. My suspicion was that the spotted lanternflies and/or the other common planthoppers that have also been hanging around on the vines have infected it with a virus.

I’m not sure if that was correct since the stem of the vine was split towards the base. I think there is a separate “disease” that is related to maybe fusarium?

- As precaution, I put everything in a plastic bag and put it in trash. Also treated the hole where the vine and roots came from with eggshell/crab extract vinegar and “green juice” solution

- In the collage above of the harvest, the bowl of tiny cucumber mostly female blossoms and just set fruits were cut off from the wilted vines. I put them in an existing jar of pickles. Hopefully they will turn out to be useful.

[applestar]

Cucumbers: Poona Kheera, Piccolino (normal and stunted), Suyo Long
Blackberries: Triple Crown Thornless

I started to pre-germinate some daikon and other fall/winter radishes, rutabaga, and chinese cabbage seeds, but couldn’t keep up with their care …and let them get away from me.

Some of these were last of the packet, so I went ahead and carefully plied them loose and planted them anyway. I do think daikon taproots once broken, are not going to yield the straight roots we’re looking for…. BUT supposedly, daikon seedlings CAN be transplanted with care, just like turnips, so we shall see. This is the section of Spiral Garden Inner Spiral where the vole chewed up the watermelon vine intended to grow there. The vine was too damaged and didn’t recover enough to resume growth so I culled it. You can maybe see that the space was clear from the T-post to T-post arc.

Mostly Lettuce and a very few chinese cabbage that did sprout went in these 4-cells as compots. Hopefully I can regroup and uppot them or plant them out individually later.

[applestar]

Caramel Crisp popcorn in Vegetable Gardenbed A are starting to grow tassels and silks

[imafan26]

How has the weather affected your garden?

[applestar]

EVERYTHING is growing in leaps and bounds! Heat and the rain.

Tomatoes didn’t set during the worst of the heatwave — LOVELY floral trusses are going to waste — it’s probably delaying the peppers too although not so obvious since they had just started to bloom and their floral clusters are not as showy — cucumbers are starting to get powdery mildew despite all the sprays to forestall the inevitable. Some of the tomatoes are slowly something spotty something too but so far not too bad, and the later planted tomatoes and peppers are suddenly catching up.

The melons are loving the hot weather — the vines are a tangled jungle after two days of neglect, and so are the eggplants in the sense that they are achieving blooming and fruiting stage.

I was using up all of my eggplant seeds this year and only managed to get the saved Hari seeds to grow. But I really want to buy some new seeds and grow more varieties next year.

[applestar]

We had a special harvest today — I decided that the pineapple is READY. I thought it was ready a few days ago, but I wanted to wait until the rain and heat had passed.

It came off the stalk with an upward swist and SMELLS FABULOUSLY PINEAPPLE-Y

There was a really good-looking Poona Kheera cucumber that was ready to harvest too, but it’s not pictured because I gave it to a neighbor. He said he noticed my garden REALLY GREW A LOT in the past two weeks.

[applestar]

Today’s exciting harvest —

* First tomato harvest AND
* First harvest of my own MoltenSky F5 or F6 segregate (indicative of early maturity?)

It’s difficult to capture in photo but the metallic streaks that characterize this segregate selection is present, as well as the “molten sky” sunset colors in wildly random patterns

Also took photos of some of my other crosses in development —
* Shimofuri 霜降りis finally at F8 in my own garden
— orderly trusses of heart shaped cocktail size fruits
* (Shimofuri 霜降りF7 x Aztek) F1
— orderly and larger than expected double trusses that I think are coming from Aztek genome
* (Dwarf Arctic Rose x Utyonok) F2
— I think I’m seeing clear epi and fruit shape reminiscent of Dwarf Arctic Rose, but am keeping an open mind….

[imafan26]

Looks great.

[applestar]

…what do I need to do to get the cucumbers to green up?

[applestar]

I’m not going outside today. Yesterday, I was out in the morning but came in early.

The sun in the western sky in the late afternoon yesterday looked like this. (It looked particularly desolate behind the dying street tree….)

The air quality was in the red “alert” by afternoon, and it’s still in the orange “low” this morning from the wildfire smokes that traveled on the jet stream all the way to the east coast. It’s visibly hazy and strange, vaguely threatening looking out there.

We’re hopefully getting some rain this afternoon that will wash the air somewhat — I was irrelevantly wondering if there will be some nutrients in the air that my garden will benefit from… or toxins? Will it be some kind of acid rain? …

[applestar]

I confess I have another reason for not going out as well…

I have “something” going on with a hip joint — bursitis? sciatica? arthritis? — that acts up sometimes. Effect can be mildly bothersome to occasional sharp pain to what I’m experiencing today — sustained shooting pain that ranges all the way down the leg and causes the muscles and the joint to tighten and lock up.

This has been bothering me off and on for the past week, but I’ve been pushing through it and, I thought, carefully managing and avoiding the worst offending ranges of motion.

Well, yesterday, I was in the Spiral Garden when I remembered that the way I planted the summer squash starts did not create the smooth, inward spiral that connects to the existing Inner Spiral form.

I had already made up my mind to call the summer squash arc the “Central Spiral”.

But I had not intended to do any heavy work in the Side Yard Gardenbeds yesterday so didn’t have ANY tools with me — not even a hand trowel.

The soil was soft if somewhat heavy with moisture from all the digging and subsequent irrigation the previous day — and I made a miscalculation.

I used the heels of my gardening boots to dig and shape the curve of the Central Spiral into organic curvature flowing from and joining the Inner Spiral, and used the side of the boots to shovel up the loosened soil onto the raised, mounded shape.

I was describing this rash action as probable cause for my punishing pain today to my DD1, and told her it didn’t hurt when I was doing it —

And she declared,
“It NEVER does, IT NEVER DOES.”
“YOU were being AESTHETICALLY greedy… and LAZY. If you had just taken the time to go get a tool, …”

“but… I was already starting to hurt a bit so it seemed too far to walk ALL the way to the shed (at the opposite corner of the property)…. It didn’t hurt while I was doing it. I thought I was being careful….”

“WELL, it never does. In that case, you were JUST being AESTHETICALLY GREEDY!”



*I believe this is due to some kind of strained hip muscles and just needs to be rested — so I will make use of ace bandages and elastic hip brace, and take it easy today*

[told2b]

Stay well and listen to your body.

[applestar]

Thanks @told2b I will try ….

[applestar]

… I did find this … not sure how much it all applies at the presumably diluted level we are getting right now, as it is, maybe it’s OK that I didn’t get to go scatter epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) before it rained as originally planned….

I'm Glad You Asked: The Effects of Smoke and Ash on Plants - UC Botanical Garden
https://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/gl ... ash-plants

If there is a “silver lining” to ash it is related to the fact that ash is organic matter suspended in the air and is itself composed of many of the essential nutrients that plants require, including calcium, magnesium and potassium. So, if the ash accumulation is not so great as to bury the plant, the ash can be thought of as acting as a fertilizer. That said, we can assist our plants in recovering from ash coatings by irrigating the plant, by hosing down the leaves and the fruits, and by applying fertilizer to promote healthy roots and the production of new foliage. Hosing down the plants also will dilute the effect of ash that may be basic in nature.

[applestar]

DD2 helped me harvest and take pictures today

* We harvested the rest of the breba (spring developed/ summer ripened) Chicago Hardy figs. These are sweet and delicious.

The tree is still loaded with half-grown hard green fruits that will develop through the summer and ripen in the fall.

* I’m so used to them by now, but the spotted lanternflies on the cucumber vines unnerved her as she had to get in there and individually cut all these cucumbers off.

* I’m sticking with only harvesting the “perfect-looking” blackberries from only where I can reach without extraordinary effort

* Those watermelons that I showed pics of after setting fruit have already grown this much They really need to be put in a sling/hammock asap.

* FIRST BIG FRUITED TOMATO to blush — this is a ‘Wes’ in VGB

* Caramel Crisp Popcorn are silking and shedding pollen. These are too tall for me to collect pollen so I am leaning the stalks and shaking to help direct the pollen over the silks

[applestar]

Today’s notables —

LEFT COLUMN — watermelons in VG area
- a newly set fruit and the two that have been net-bagged.

CENTER — melons in VGC
- one had split and had to be culled — is this physiological or disease?
- one looks malformed and one looks perfect
- I wonder if I missed-counted the leafnodes or had been too cavalier — 6th or 9th what’s the difference? …but the instructions did often talk about how female blossoms on lower leafnodes often develop malformed/imperfect fruits….

RIGHT —
• first MoltenSundrops SunMints or Ladyfingers F5 or F6 — a little concerned that it may not be showing the metallic sheen … but I have other plants growing so we’ll see
• Some of the peppers — purple ones are Oda. The one to the right of it is one of “King of the North or Chocolate Cake” … but it’s bothering me that the fruit start out pointing up. I wonder if it’s actually the one I had asked about before …?
• Korean Melons in VG.SIP are starting to set — these will develop/mature quicker than the other melons

I have a pepper plant I had labeled Mini Pepper Orange, but it clearly isn't. The little ones to the left in middle picture are Mini Paprika RED.

When ripe it's a medium sized red sweet pepper with juicy flavorful thick walls. Oddly, the fruits grow with blossom end up, though some fall over sideways eventually.



The first one shown in the bottom photo had a blunt blossom end. So I thought maybe it was King of the North, but I'm pretty sure that one grows pointing down.

Looking back at my seedling maps, another one that might be the mislabeled plant is Pimento. I don't think it's Lipstick since they are thinner and more conical. What do you think?

[applestar]

Vegetable Gardenbed B tomatoes —

Now that the fruits are fully blushed and nearly ready to pick, I can tell which segregates they are. All three ‘MoltenSky’ are showing good fruit patterns while still green… and I was really happy to see the ‘MoltenSun’ turn up — I thought I lost all of the seedlings. That back center one without stripes/streaks I might be a ‘SunMints’ or ‘Ladyfingers’. If ‘Ladyfingers’, the fruits will develop blunt, larger and more elongated fruits as the plant matures. It doesn’t quite look like SunMints which tend to form pointed mini heart cherries from the beginning.

It could be another segregate that has turned up — a determinate, almost multi-floral version that I seem to have two other plants of. This will be interesting because it makes me wonder if pollen for a multi flora Zluta Kytice had been in the combined pollen mix in the initial cross after all….

First ‘Wild Rosa’ F5 or F6 from the Apple Guild Border

[Gary350]

Your melons look good, I'm surprised hanging melons don't break off the vines. When we lived at the other house I poured sand under the melons to prevent them from rotting on bottom side. I struggled to grow melons for many years. Soil at the other house had too much clay. Soil at our house now use to be farm land melons do good here. Melons love hot dry blistering sun 12 hours every day. Melons don't like competition with, grass, weeds, other plants, other melons, plant seeds 3' apart. In Arizona plant seeds then forget about them they grow with no help same as sweet potatoes, 25 to 28 big melons per plant. I rake vines in a tight circle to shade out weeds & grass.

[applestar]

Thank you @Gary350

The larger melons and watermelons are supported in slings or bagged as the fruits grow heavy enough to stress the vines. The key is to tie the strings for the support to sturdy part of the vertical framework, and in such a way that the strings take all of the weight and not allow the vine to be stressed.

You have to do it before the weight pulls on the vine and kinks it. The Korean/Chamoe melon is generally small enough that its vines can take the weight, but I’ll have to keep close watch.

There were 3 of them that had grown low enough to be resting on the mylar mulch so I put clear egg carton under the front 2 and another plastic dais under the back one.

Clear melon dais is supposed to allow light under the fruits, and allow them to color evenly without the pale spot underneath.

[applestar]

Yesterday’s collage —

• As feared, the 2nd Pecollino cucumber vine in the Patio Kitchen Garden SIP1 collapsed overnight — all baby cucumbers were harvested and will be pickled

• Prepped the part of Haybale Row where the vole davaststed the Luther Hill sweet corn seedlings, mulched with a potting mix bag and planted Fioretto cauliflower, Dazzling Blue kale, Katalina cabbage, and Purple Choi seedlings under an insect net tunnel

• Harvest group photo

• Close-up of MoltenSky F5/F6 and 1st harvested Queen of Malinalco tomatillo to color up

• Queen of M was skin split all over inside the papery outer wrapping. But what an adorable heart-shape! (even though she is not supposed to be so blunt) This was a very low situated 1st fruit. I believe the fruit shape is variable

[applestar]

Wildlife in my garden (random listing based on recent sightings)

MONARCH BUTTERFLIES — I’m a bit worried because I haven only had sporadic sighting of Monarch butterflies and especially, caterpillars. There was a male flying patterns over my garden for a while last week. And I’m seeing them at least once or twice each day.

But when I mentioned it to my hubby, he said he didn’t think we start seeing them more often until mid- to late-August.

HUMMINGBIRDS — I see them every day. I don’t set up feeders but grow numerous favorite flowers that bloom throughout the season. They will even visit tomato blossoms. DH said he saw one sipping from the heuchera (coral bells) in the flowerbeds from the front porch. Yesterday or day before, I saw one in the shrub under the bedroom window, and when I leaned for a closer look, it FLEW UP TO THE WINDOW and hovered for a couple of seconds looking in. I realized I was wearing a bright pink shirt — rarely happens when I’m inside the house, though when I’m out in the garden, they are constantly mistaking my wardrobe for an unnoticed/unvisited flower that sprung up while they weren't looking.

TIGER SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES—These gorgeous butterflies used to be rare in my garden when I think they were only using tgd sweet gum trees in the back woods for larval host, but since my Tulip poplar tree has grown to respectable size, they are here more often — today, I saw one laying eggs way up in the tree leaves.

CARDINALS — they bring their little fledglings to forage for food. Sometimes male and a baby or two, sometimes a female and a baby or two. And they are constantly visiting when raising their young, although they don’t seem to build their nests in my garden very often.

CATBIRDS — they are constantly here visiting from somewhere else, raiding the various berries, and for the first time, I saw one building a nest in the arrow wood viburnum this year

ROBINS — I feel like I’m seeing a lot less robins this year. I’m worried that this is the impact from the mystery bird disease. YESTERDAY, I saw one in the spiral garden that looked as though it was injured or had a tumor on its side— a large pinkish lump with just a few odd feathers sticking out. It did fly in and fly off so not entirely incapacitated….

HOUSE WRENS— they are regulars. One brood fledged just a couple of days ago out of a birdhouse, and another brood is clamoring in another house that I thought wasn’t occupied because it has a broken roof, but apparently it was still acceptable

[applestar]

Molten Sky F5/F6 and Molten Sun F5/F6 harvested today.

These fruit traits are DEFINITELY the ones I want to carry forward

They are tasty, too. Solid sweet front end with burst of umami and bright tangy finish, Assertive enough to be sliced lengthwise and nestled in a layer of mayo in a hamburger (I had one with thinly diagonally sliced Suyo Long cucumbers and a large winter squash blossom subbing for lettuce today). Best flavor within a day or two of harvest since they already resist being picked earlier. Skin is not too thick, flesh is not mushy but juicy, never crunchy.

[applestar]

Rest of today’s harvest — Suyo Long cucumbers got away from me since I had to run an errand with my Mom early yesterday morning and didn’t get the chance to spend time in the garden in time to beat the heat and weather.

I gave her some Japanese style refrigerator pickles and a few of my tomatoes.

I also gave my neighbor some Molten Sky this morning — I’ll see if I can get a review from them later.

[Gary350]

Applestar, You have an amazing variety of vegetables, I don't know how you can keep up with all that, I don't think I could do it. Any time I grow new things, I don't know how to grow it, it does not grow well in TN, I don't know how to cook it, don't know how to eat it or we don't like it & don't want any more. Years past garden was to small to have variety. It would be fun to have a salad bar of all those vegetables just to taste them all.

[applestar]

Thanks @Gary350

It’s all still a hit or miss for me. Yes some things have become more routine and I know what to expect, but I keep trying new things each year instead of sticking to a known formula, and the variables — weather in terms rain or temperature, early or late frosts etc. makes for fresh surprises.

But I guess I’ve always wanted to see “can I grow that?” more than “can I harvest enough to justify the cost?”

[applestar]

… btw …
The plastic supposedly “humane” traps (kind of like mouse/sized version of a harvahart trap) have been working … and there have been 3 more smallish presumably voles caught in them. I say presumably because these were small enough to fit in these traps whereas I think the first 2 fat voles would not have fit inside— it’s possible these were mice — the ones that move into the garage attic and also gets inside my car and leaves droppings and sometimes chews up wires during the winter. They are not in the garage or the car during the summer so they must be out there somewhere.

I hate to admit it, but I can’t tell what they were because I keep not finding the sprung trap until they have been decomposing for a while (nothing left but fur, skull, and maggots). I *think* I’m glancing at the traps to see if the spring-loaded door has shut, every time I’m working where they had been situated, but I don’t visit all of the garden areas every day….

These may have been the part of the nest of voles as somebody was wise enough to mention — if you see one….

…Other pests currently being actively hunted with success so far are hornworms on tomatoes and peppers, and stinkbugs on practically everything (squished adult in Sunflower House along melon supports, found a hatching Brown Marmorated stinkbugs egg cluster on a tomato leaf in VGB, three 1/2 inch ~ 1 inch hornworms on VGB and container tomatoes and a pepper.

[applestar]

Oh, one more thing. I found Spotted Lanternfly adult wings in the Spiral Garden path. Just wings. I hope this means SOMEBODY ate it.

[Gary350]

… btw …
The plastic supposedly “humane” traps (kind of like mouse/sized version of a harvahart trap) have been working … and there have been 3 more smallish presumably voles caught in them. I say presumably because these were small enough to fit in these traps whereas I think the first 2 fat voles would not have fit inside— it’s possible these were mice

I catch a lot of mice/voles with a tall 5 gallon plastic bucket & a board they can walk up. They can climb up anything just like a cat or squirrel. They can jump out of a shorter bucket but not the taller buckets. Peanut butter is a very good attraction also, bread, potato chips, crackers, corn. I never have a mice problem in the garden but they come inside the garage for winter. No matter how high up I put saved seeds they get up there and eat my seeds. They can climb right up any wall. I have never seen mice walk across the ceiling but they must be to get to my seeds. Seeds are safe in glass jars.

Board has 1 screw on under side to snag inside the bucket so board does not slide away. Mice walk up, see the food then jump in & can't' get out. When you come next day to check the bucket mice go crazy trying to jump out. Put a sheet of plywood over bucket opening mice stop jumping if they can't see you. Sometimes there are several mice in the bucket. Decide what to do with the mice, drive 1 mile away then let them go or some thing else. Wife had a mouse in her car 1 winter I caught it in a bucket. Put 2" of water in bucket mice drowned.

[imafan26]

good harvest. BTW suyo does not get a deep green color. It is normal.

[applestar]

Well that’s a relief @imafan. I’ve been wondering if I’m not taking care of the cukes enough….

And thanks @Gary350. I will see if I can “up my game” Haha (I’m hoping that snake is still around slurping up the little ones, too….)

[applestar]

CULTURED AND FERMENTED NUTRIENT FEEDS AND SUPPLEMENTS AS FOLIAR SPRAYS

I have to admit I’m also using a few “salts” that are commonly recommended for garden use — Magnesium Sulfate (epsom salt), Potassium Bicarbonate — these are still considered permissible for “organic gardening use” … and another staple by earthbox and other SIP (sun-irrigated planter ) gardeners — Calcium Nitrate. This last one according to wikipedia is not considered “organic”

Part of the reason for this is that I have not been able to find dolomitic lime (mainly for calcium and magnesium plus other minerals, as well as pH adjustment) anywhere nearby. I could drive to. farm supply store 30 minutes away for curbside pickup, but have not been inclined to, and I already have these and they can all be used for foliar application.

I do typically use the potassium bicarbonate for fungal disease preventative. So I have been alternating what I think of as “cultured pro- and pre-biotic” foliar sprays with the chemical sprays… probably twice a week or at least once a week (two ferments and cultureds then one chemical). THIS IS MORE FREQUENTLY THAN I USUALLY DO.

THE MOST NOTABLE effect so far I think has been that the tomatoes have not shown as much foliage disease (early blight and septoria)…as previous years even though we have had some extra rain earlier in June and July. The cucumbers have shown more leaf diseases than the tomatoes but only recently started sporting powdery mildew in the last couple of days — prior to this, I believe the yellowing and wilted leaves were more from sucking pest induced/transmitted diseases.

Unusual heat and tropical storm remnants has been bringing the hot weather pests like leaf and plant hoppers and spotted cucumber beetles, stink bugs and squash/leaf footed bugs earlier than is usual.

——

TOMATILLO QUEEN OF MALINALCO

I have to admit I haven’t tasted them yet…

I DID EAT that split baby melon that I culled from July 23. I had stored it wrapped in paper towel inside a zip bag in the fridge along with peppers and eggplants and cucumbers, and I was reheating some leftover curry, so I trimmed off the split part, cut up into chunks and put them on top of a mound of rice and curry and mashed potatoes, kernels cut off a leftover corn on the cob, along with slices of one of the purple Oda peppers. 32 minutes at 325°F in the toaster oven, and voila! The melons were tender to the skin/rind and somewhat nutty — kind of like a summer squash.

[applestar]

Here is an exciting development in my Goldfish sport/variant of the Fish pepper:

I had a (I believe mediumvar) Fish pepper that grew a SPORT branch low near the base of the plant during an overwintering grow out, which resulted in a single ORANGE at mature ripe fruit (rather than the normally RED fruit) then the branch promptly died. I named the grow out line from this fruit’s seeds GOLDFISH when they grew true and produced orange at ripe fruits for two consecutive generations.

If you remember, the background is I planted one of these Goldfish pepper to grow intermingled with Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn one year in a deliberate attempt to have them cross.

I didn’t pursue this project attentively, so I was pleasantly surprised when a subsequent grow out of Goldfish developed a larger than normal fruit during an overwintered grow out.

This year, I planted two of the Goldfish (xGSDH?) in the Patio Kitchen Garden SIP3… and look what they are doing

>> they are competing with Rocoto Olive to see who can grow taller (Fish in general is a small, up to 24 inch tall plant) so that is kind of exciting to see. (The original vendor reported that the GSDH grows tall in the ground …and the SIP in some respects provides an even more favorable environment due to the massive initial fertilizer application in the planting prep)

>> PLUS the stem is developing these wonderful wild dark streaks that contrasts beautifully with the sucker growths which ALWAYS develop more intense variegation on the supervariegated segregate since they are more mature growths (in terms of plant age).

The peppers were set back earlier in June when we had the odd super cool days, then the multiple heatwaves that prevented fruit-set. I hope these blossoms will set fruit — can’t wait to see what kind of fruits these turn out.

[TomatoNut95]

I'm so stupid, for a little second there I thought you were talking about planting an actual goldfish. Was your Goldfish pepper hot? The Fish pepper I grew last year (or year before) wasn't hot. Strange.

[applestar]

Original Goldfish (Fish sport) had seemed comparable in every respect to Fish except the color of the ripe fruit. Fish I think is spicy (complex flavor) but not particularly high heat I think — maybe in the neighborhood of jalapeño?

This one going forward, I will be looking for some level ~ highly detectable level of front end sweetness and mildly spicy complex flavor profile.

[applestar]

I compiled a collage of all the melon hopefuls in the VG beds and the Sunflower House.

These are large enough to need net sling/hammock, etc. or at least larger than a chicken egg. The biggest watermelons are pretty substantial already — probably at least size of Nerf football.

These include

• Montreal Market

• Sweet Freckles

• Honey Rock

• Chamoe

• Jubilee watermelon

…I’m now ready to own that there would have been a melon that would have been ready to harvest earlier than any of these if I hadn’t cut the vine it was growing on during a spate of enthusiastic pruning (I thought it was an errant side / grandchild vine….

Perhaps it was cathartic that I cut this immature but pretty sizable melon up today and added it to a roasted vegetable medley along with all of those peppers in the same harvest, eggplants, cucumber, and tomato plus store bought onions and carrots.

The immature melon was a little more firm than the tiny one I already tried, but it was also edible rind and all, and the seeds were completely undeveloped like a summer squash. I did detect a very slight bitter aftertaste and astringency but not enough to be a deterrent.

There are additional probably set fruits and just blooming/bloomed female embryo melons in VGC and VG.SIP, Sunflower House as well as the Spiral Garden. They don’t always make it — maybe they didn’t get pollinated properly, or their location on the vine is not suitable. So I won’t count (on) them until they reach sustainable size. I may also have to cull some later to give the already well developed fruits better chances of growing to full size.

[applestar]

Ha! Look at that. I didn’t realize I’d accidentally cropped out the watermelon in the VGC photo —