ruggr10
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What's the weirdest/most unique thing you grew this year?

I'm always looking for weird things to grow in the veggie garden. I'm curious about the rest of you.

This year, I tried serpent melon but it didn't make it. It came down this year to the giant cape gooseberry and my Hmong Red Cucumber. I'm going with the Hmong Red. Funniest thing about them, I waited and waited for it to turn red and it never did. It was yellow and brown but wouldn't turn red. So, I looked it up and the red in the name comes from the people who grew it in Vietnam. Well, at least it was ripe!

So, what about you?

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jal_ut
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I didn't plant much unusual this year, at least not unusual to me, but the things that got attention at the market were kohlrabi, curly mustard and kale. I guess a lot of people don't see that stuff much.

Last year I did plant some lagenaria gourds. The so called bird house type. I got some fruits, but they didn't get mature enough in our short season and didn't dry up good, but spoiled instead.

Its fun to try different things. Sometimes they turn out good and sometimes are a total failure.

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soil
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gotta be this amaranth that someone gave me seeds from south America. they grew to 15-18ft, some of the flower heads were 3-4 ft long. amazing yellows, pinks, purples and hues in between. excellent yield.

Bobberman
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I always look for unusual things. Tamitillas were a nice tomato crop with the tomato in a pouch! They use them in salsa. they came on great with huge plants with 30 or more on a branched out plant! I like all kinds of different color peppers & tomatoes! Egg plant next year! All kinds of flowers also. I am going to start about 6 boxes of the mixed flowers that you can buy in large packs! FUN in the SUN!!

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rainbowgardener
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With limited space I don't grow much unusual, but a pokeweed forest grew itself! It was a bunch of stems of pokeweed that grew all together. It turned into a forest, like 12 or more feet tall with a huge "canopy." I don't know if it's unusual, it is a common weed, but it was pretty impressive, and beautiful when it was in berry.

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digitS'
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I've been fortunate to have enough ground to grow things that aren't found in every garden - field crops!

There are sunflowers. This was the 1st year that I haven't had wheat in my garden out of quite a few. Millet is fun to grow because of its looks and because the birds like it. I've had soybeans for the last few years and have made good use of them! And, this was the 2nd year that I've grown Painted Mountain flour corn.

Now, I am NOT going to say that growing a corn that was derived from native American seed stocks is "weird" but it is probably unique to have it in a vegetable garden. The 1st year, the Painted Mountain corn just had ornamental purposes after harvest. This year, I made cornbread!!

Steve :D

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lorax
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For me, it's probably white pineapples, which are absolutely out of my zone and altitude range. They're going strong, and I should have fruit next year.

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Duh_Vinci
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Nothing too unusual, but... I grafted Kosovo tomato plant onto the root stock of Emperador variety (which by itself is non-eatable, but said to be very disease resistant, huge vigor and root mass that attributes to better nutrient uptake)

Why? One of the spots in the garden has shown a presence of Fusarium Wilt (one side the plant half way through the season just turns yellow and dies). Well, co incidents or not, 10' grafted plant showed NO signs of this disease this year at all!!! This was my first time attempting something like that, it was fun and extremely productive!

Regards.
D

gumbo2176
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Like many others, nothing really unique. I do have a couple artichoke plants that are thriving and they are beautiful plants. I also grew purple yard long beans this year that unlike some varieties of purple hulled beans, didn't change color when cooked. They actually got darker to almost a deep maroon color.

I had lots of volunteers in my compost pile that got transplanted into the garden when space was available. That was a plus. If I had more room, I'd likely try many different things not easily found in the markets.

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rainbowgardener
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I didn't do it this year, but some years I grow the purple millet. Very striking in the garden! I grow purple hyacinth beans on trellis, that are very pretty too.

DeborahL
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Nothing weird but a miniature pomegranate tree is unique for me. Got two fruits that never ripened, then rotted.

ruggr10
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I was just talking in the veggie garden, but if we're going to talk about fruit, I grew lots that are considered weird to all the people I know up here in Maine. I think my neighbors just assume I'm nuts!

From seed I grew Chinese Wolfberry and Sea Buckthorn.
I also planted 3 honeyberries, 3 aronia,3 beach plums, 3 bilberries, and a weeping mulberry. The mulberry at 8 inches even fruited with 4 whole mulberries this year. My first ever taste of them and they were quite good.

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GardenRN
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Didn't get to grow anything VERY unusual this past year, but I got to do Asparagus and plant a pear and peach tree, which are some "slightly more obscure than the average backyard gardener" plants I think. And both were long term plantings meaning I had to tend to them all last year to reap the benefits this following year. A lesson in patience that I am rarely able to succeed in. But I have done well so far. :)

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!potatoes!
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in fruits, we did lots of grafting of young trees in the spring (haven't dug the whips up yet - there's some apple [including new varieties], asian pear, & peach)

lots of weird-to-other-folks stuff is turning normal to me - yacon, oca, popping sorghum, husk tomatoes, red sunchokes...

also tried a couple things that were new to me, that other people are more used to - like lima beans, which was an almost total bust, and winged beans, which was a total bust. guess I need to get those in earlier. also new zealand spinach, which is awesome in the heat.

this year was the first for growing crosnes for me, there's a weird one. aka chinese artichoke; tuber-producing mint-family tasty little crunchers.

also several other perennial vegetables for testing out - sea kale, good king henry, lovage, sylvetta arugula, yellow asphodel, and toon (aka fragrant spring tree, asian tree leaf-crop), groundnut (a couple kinds)...also planted xanthoceras (yellowhorn) from seed...

and moth beans, drought-tolerant (tiny little) beans that I decided were way too much effort for too little payoff.

viva le weirdness.

edited for when I remembered a couple things.

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digitS'
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Wow, !potatoes!!

I suppose eating NZ spinach out of Dad's garden years ago, harvesting a few lamb's quarters each year, and having gone bust on Lima beans also -- doesn't count for much. I've seen crosnes (Chinese artichoke) in an Asian market and wondered what it was . . .

There was 1 "field" crop that was in the garden that I missed in my post: How could I forget Nude Avena!? . . . :wink: . Or, Avena nuda (Hulless Oats). But, I only had enuf seed for a short (~ 8') row.

Decided that I could afford to cook a little. Tasted to me very much like brown rice so I used it in a salad. I wonder how it would have been under stir-fried daikon and crosnes :) .

Steve

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applestar
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yellow asphodel
...vaguely remembered from a
Tolkien book -- "Asphodel! Asphodel!...." ...something about an elf maiden.... Maybe one of Strider's fireside tales....
...now what book was that in? I'll have to go look it up now. 8)

Edit: Asphodel was a Brandybuck.... Must have been Meriadoc telling the story... Was it during their adventures between Hobbiton and Rivendell or was it to the Ent? Hmmm....

(Sorry about the OT...)

Edit 2: Icame across this -- so interesting...
https://www.thehpn.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=28&topic=3674.top

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Francis Barnswallow
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I planted asparagus. At the time I didn't know they didn't grow well in Florida. I just got really tiny asparagus.....but in large numbers.

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GardenRN
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Hey Greg,
I have been wanting to try chinese artichokes ever since watching a YT video on them while researching Yacon. Did you grow them straight from the market? Or did you have to get them from somewhere else to get them to grow? They should be pretty fresh right now on a local level so it'd probably be a good time for me to hit an asian market if that's where you got starts!

DoubleDogFarm
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Sense the topic has smeared into fruits. I have, Highbush Cranberry, Aronia, Sea Buckthorn, Shipova, 2 Asian pears, Medlar, Quince, dozen or so Filbert trees, Sweet Goumi, Currants, Chestnut, Gooseberries, Peach, apricot, Serviceberry, Elderberry and Fig. Oh! and a Meyer Lemon in the greenhouse.

Jerusalem artichoke, comfrey, asparagus.

More common, Apples - plums - pears - walnut- raspberry - blueberry - marionberry - Rosa Rugosa

Eric

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GardenRN
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How do those cranberries do for ya Eric? I always thought about trying them but figured t was probably one of those things where unless you have the land to grow a zillion plants you probably wouldn't have much to show for your work.

DoubleDogFarm
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Jeff,

Highbush Cranberry is a Viburnum, not a true cranberry. They are very prolific, but IMO taste horrible.

Eric

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!potatoes!
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Jeff, I was unable to find any crosnes in any local markets of any kind, ethnic or not. I bought potted plants from a nursery --- will give you more info if you don't score at the asian market. hoping to multiply mine out enough to have some to sell/trade next year

I've got a higher tolerance for some bitter tastes than some, but IMO highbush cranberry, when you've let it freeze a couple times on the branch before picking it, is pretty good (if that's not good enough, you can always cook it down with a bit of sugar).

serviceberry should have made one of my lists earlier. did some bud-grafting of AMAZING found american persimmon this fall, too.

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applestar
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I have read that true American high bush cranberry tastes good but that the imported European cultivar has proliferated in U.S.A and they are the ones that don't taste as good.

I've also read that there is a viburnum species that only grow in extreme north -- Zone 3 at the southmost range -- that are excellent.

I think my oddest right now is Trifoliate orange "Flying Dragon"

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!potatoes!
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some other viburnums aren't bad, either, at least as a dried fruit...nannyberry comes to mind.

DoubleDogFarm
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On a job site my brother found a vary tasty Laurel. I will be trying to propagate this one. I have forgotten the name, so I'LL have to get back to you on this.

Any secret techniques on propagating?

Eric

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GardenRN
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DoubleDogFarm wrote:Jeff,

Highbush Cranberry is a Viburnum, not a true cranberry. They are very prolific, but IMO taste horrible.

Eric
AHA, that explains it! ;)

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GardenRN
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!potatoes! wrote:Jeff, I was unable to find any crosnes in any local markets of any kind, ethnic or not. I bought potted plants from a nursery --- will give you more info if you don't score at the asian market. hoping to multiply mine out enough to have some to sell/trade next year.
Thanks, I'll do some recon work and see what I come up with. Maybe considering the harvesting time of Crosnes plus the season (holiday speaking) they will be around. Keeping my fingers crossed to get out and look this week.



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