2020 How does your garden grow

[Carbon 6]

To think that a scant two weeks ago it dropped to 30F overnight.

Fruit walls.

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming.html

 

[nhmoose]

None , Zero of our winter squash has come up. Acorn, butternut and delics.

Replanting and hope with new seed will produce.

 

[TNGhost]

None , Zero of our winter squash has come up. Acorn, butternut and delics.

Replanting and hope with new seed will produce.

I had some what of a strange similar problem with my early squash plantings. I made some starter trays as usual indoors and only about one in ten squash of various varieties, Butternut, Summer, Zucchini, Acorns and some pumpkins, germinated and came up, although Cucumbers int he same trays came up fine. I set the trays outside to harden as usual and kept the mostly empty ones as the cukes were in them.

Lo and behold after literally weeks( I kept them out of the ground longer than usual do to the cold weather and then the extremely hot dry weather) the squash and pumpkins began to germinate, albeit very slowly one or two every several days. Never seem any thing like it and even as I planted the larger ones, the ungerminated cells kept popping up every few days. No explanation, but now germination is nearly 100% form plantings that were made around the end of February indoors.

I wonder if some plants are susceptible to Covid 19?

 

[Eterry]

Took pics today to make my city dwelling friend jealous.

Hell, i'm a city dweller now, but can't get the dirt from under my fingernails.

 

[Carbon 6]

Why mow a yard when you can grow a garden.

 

[Marshhawk]

First year growing Armenian "cucumbers." Actually a muskmellon relative, but they taste like cucumbers and can be treated as such. They also can be used in soups, stews and stirfries as they don't mush up like regular squash. Three plants and they are prolific!

 

[Carbon 6]

I tried growing those one year, no success. I have a hard time growing such things.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I like to try unusual things. Twice I grew rice by making a tarp lined paddy and succeeded in harvesting grain. However I was never able to get the hulls off. Tried pounded and rubbing. No luck. Have tried sweet potatoes without much success. Tried okra. Cantaloupe, Peanuts...no go. This year I planted Japanese Chestnuts and none sprouted.

 

[Carbon 6]

Sweet potatoes take a long time to grow. Regular potatoes are much easier, I have managed to get 2 crops in one year before, but just barely.

 

[Cattman]

ii grow on large round straw bales and in 15 gallon containers and old cattle water tanks. i get the 15 gallon containers from ranchers as they get calf feed in them and then throw them away. the old cattle tanks are every wheres here and i drag them home and fill with compost. the large round straw bales are a trade for better hay bales taken off my property. why i dont use the hay bales is i give them(about 7 or 8 or them) to my neighbor in exchange for some straw bales and snow removal from my drive way in the winter. works out good for both of us. my cucumbers, winter squash and pole beans are doing very well on the straw bales. i ring the edge of the large bales with pole beans. they then grow down instead of up. hanging vine like. same with the cucumbers. i liv at a 4000 ft elevation but it is a good year so far for gardening. very few fruit tress bloomed this spring, it was too cool and wet. the tress and bushes are doing well though. one thing that really grows well here is gooseberries. i plant them next to buildings and they go nuts. grow tall and bushy. always give me a crop of berries. next year i will plant some more next to some bare spot next to a building. good garden year so far.

 

[TNGhost]

Fruit walls.

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming.html

All that would do here is collect the snow to fill in to the height of the walls and it wouldn't melt until the Fourth of July.

 

[TNGhost]

I like to try unusual things. Twice I grew rice by making a tarp lined paddy and succeeded in harvesting grain. However I was never able to get the hulls off. Tried pounded and rubbing. No luck. Have tried sweet potatoes without much success. Tried okra. Cantaloupe, Peanuts...no go. This year I planted Japanese Chestnuts and none sprouted.

Most unusual thing I have grown is tobacco, just to see if I could get it to go this far north, I have had a couple of years with good crops. Had some experience with it growing up in Tennessee on the farm, so I had an idea of what I was doing and what was involved. Selected a short season variety and it worked.

I had tried sweet potatoes, okra, watermelon and cantaloupe as well, and being north of where you are, none were successful. Have had some success with hardy grape varieties though. I understand that area you are in is somewhat famous for its vineyards.

 

[Eterry]

Make sure you dont get the ornamental sweet potato, i hear they don't produce taters

 

[Carbon 6]

Make sure you dont get the ornamental sweet potato, i hear they don't produce taters

I started my slips from a supermarket sweet potato in mid winter. Then planted them after the last frost.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Just as a twist on sweet potatoes, my wife uses them in some decorative pots in front of the house. She used to buy the ornamental ones, but now just gets grocery store ones and plants part of one with a eye instead. They are pretty.

 

[Carbon 6]

Just as a twist on sweet potatoes, my wife uses them in some decorative pots in front of the house. She used to buy the ornamental ones, but now just gets grocery store ones and plants part of one with a eye instead. They are pretty.

Do they produce potatoes in the pots ?

 

[Kansas Jake]

We didn't think to check last year.

 

[TNGhost]

Regular potatoes are much easier, I have managed to get 2 crops in one year before, but just barely.

Unless you get hit by the blight.

 

[Carbon 6]

Unless you get hit by the blight.

Rotate every time.

 

[TNGhost]

Rotate every time.

Rotation is no solution to blight.

Blight is caused by an oomycete, (water mold) that travels airborne(most readily in damp humid conditions) from plant to plant, field to field and garden to garden and effects mostly potatoes and tomatoes. When one garden in a given area becomes infected it is a sure bet that every other farm and garden in the area will suffer unless immediate spraying begins and is kept up through harvest.

A few years back farmers and gardeners in this area suffered a huge costly outbreak that was attributed to seedlings sold at a local Walmart that were infected. So no, rotation will not cut it.

The only measure you can take against it it to spray fungicides as a prophylactic. I have found the only way to mitigate it is to spray with Daconil religiously every two weeks and especially additionally after each rain.

The map on this site shows how it spreads throughout the country(it will also give you a heads up if it is reported in your locality). Lots of good info on identifying it and combating it too.

https://usablight.org/?q=map
Every year it starts in the south, as a hard freeze kills it, and then travels north mostly along the eastern seaboard, but outbreaks in the Great Lakes area and the Northwest are not uncommon.