The Dawg Patch

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wildcat62
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#501

Post: # 49279Unread post wildcat62
Fri Jun 25, 2021 12:13 pm

I'd like to see that recipe please. I've ended up with more pepper plants than ever this year. Going to need to try & use them up.

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GoDawgs
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#502

Post: # 49310Unread post GoDawgs
Fri Jun 25, 2021 4:43 pm

[mention]wildcat62[/mention] , I've posted it in the canning recipe section. Easy peasy!

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GoDawgs
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Tater Diggin' and Squash Problem

#503

Post: # 49457Unread post GoDawgs
Sun Jun 27, 2021 11:42 am

It's hot and sticky out there today. Since there are hit and miss showers forecasted, we got out there around 9:00 and dug the Red Pontiac potatoes. Pickles put them safely under the pole shed but hasn't weighed them yet. There are probably more of these than there are of the Yukons.

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The watermelons are reaching out towards the potato area . Now that the potatoes are gone it is time to prepare their playground and just in time, too!.

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I raked out all of the leaves, leveled the potato ridges and then raked the leaves back in, adding more. This is going to work out well. The watermelons will cover that area.

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The Tahitian melon squash has a problem. I don't see any evidence of SVB on the stem and none of those droopy leaves. It's received regular treatment with Serenade fungicide and peroxide but I guess it could still be funk. Or.... it could be nematodes at work. The first squash is developing down there near the end of the vine. Waaaahhh! I'll probably lose it. Any thoughts?

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I have pork char siu in the oven for lunch and Pickles will be doing an eggplant stir fry with yesterday's picking of those Chinese String eggplants. They look so funny but they're nice and tender, including the skin. Peeling not needed.

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This afternoon will definitely be spent indoors. I need to research planting garlic bulbils. If anyone has experience doing that, I'd love to hear about it!

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Amateurinawe
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#504

Post: # 49471Unread post Amateurinawe
Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:40 pm

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] I had to look twice, I thought your hand had some horrible mutation.

They do look like they will make a superb meal! (Eggplants not fingers...)
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PlainJane
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#505

Post: # 49494Unread post PlainJane
Sun Jun 27, 2021 6:28 pm

Bummer about your melon squash but maybe it will pull through.
Do you have to prop the watermelon off the ground as they ripen?
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#506

Post: # 49495Unread post GoDawgs
Sun Jun 27, 2021 6:46 pm

[mention]PlainJane[/mention] , I've never done that. But I've learned the hard way that I'm going to have to put tomato cages over them and tie the cages to stakes driven into the ground to protect the melons from the thieving coyotes. They'll bust them open and tote 'em off! Caught them on the game cam one year. I didn't realize coyotes messed with watermelon but in doing some research online I found that coyotes are a huge cause of losses among commercial growers.

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MissS
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#507

Post: # 49497Unread post MissS
Sun Jun 27, 2021 7:30 pm

I'm no melon pro but that Tahitian melon appears to me to have some sort of problem with it's roots. Perhaps if you buried the stem at the leaf nodes, it would root along it enough to support some fruit.
~ Patti ~

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#508

Post: # 49540Unread post GoDawgs
Mon Jun 28, 2021 11:41 am

MissS wrote: Sun Jun 27, 2021 7:30 pm I'm no melon pro but that Tahitian melon appears to me to have some sort of problem with it's roots. Perhaps if you buried the stem at the leaf nodes, it would root along it enough to support some fruit.
Thanks for that, Miss S! I will do that this afternoon.

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GoDawgs
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Possible Garden Infrastructure Project

#509

Post: # 49541Unread post GoDawgs
Mon Jun 28, 2021 11:42 am

We’re thinking about a garden infrastructure adjustment. Below the raised beds there are two areas that have been used to grow corn and squashes every year. Those two are rotated back and forth between the two sides with field peas always following the corn.

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As you can see in the photo, there’s a problem with standing water every early spring. It's been a lot worse than this some years. Some time between Jan 1 and March 15 you can count on them being under water but they always dry out fine by late April which is corn planting time. The reason the area is wet in the first place is simply because it is at the bottom of a slightly sloping garden and at the end of the garden the land slopes back up. There’s nowhere else for the water to go.

We’re considering converting those two areas to raised beds like the rest of the garden. Four new 4’ wide beds would fit perfectly on the left and three on the right. I don’t want to bring in soil from the outside to raise the level as that’s how nematodes came here in the first place. However it can be a gradual raising through dumping 20-some 15 gallon buckets of used tomato soil (a pickup load) in there every year plus an extra pickup load or two of that same compost soil as we go. It’s just $40 per cu yd.

Advantages:

- The ability to grow the sweet corn anywhere in the garden now that I’ve gotten the hang of growing it in beds. The corn can be grown anywhere in the garden.
- An increase in the number of beds available for overall crop rotation.
- Beds with nematodes can lie fallow a year, knocking populations back through starvation.
- I can actually grow soil improving cover crops in a few beds each year. Currently the beds are needed for early veggies before cover crops are ready to be turned under. And then once turned under, cover crops take too long to compost down.

It won’t happen all at once especially with the price of 2x8’s being what it is. Maybe start with one or two beds this fall. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will this project. It will be an ongoing conversion. Something new to play with!

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Amateurinawe
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#510

Post: # 49550Unread post Amateurinawe
Mon Jun 28, 2021 2:57 pm

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] sounds like a nice project.
The behaviour of light means you observe me as i was then, and not as I am now.
I cannot change history, so I do hope i gave you a good impression of myself

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GoDawgs
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Possible Garden Infrastructure Project

#511

Post: # 49658Unread post GoDawgs
Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:38 am

This morning I made notes on two things to do for next year, one about bean planting. The garden beds run north-south. I picked Contender beans yesterday and noticed how much taller the Blue Lakes (on the right or east side) were.

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Then I noticed that the BL's were shading the Contenders in the morning. Note to self: when planting two kinds of beans in one bed, plant the taller ones on the west side to eliminate morning shading.

The other note was about cukes. For several years I've noticed how they always grow towards the east and cover the adjacent walkway. This spring I planted them off center, more to the west but apparently not enough. They're off and running towards the squash/lima bean trellis. Maybe next spring I'll plant them just 1' inside the west edge. I'll have to measure the final spread of the plants as that might be too much.

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This morning I got a few more cukes and cut the garlic bulbils. They'll get tied together and hung up to cure with a paper bag under them to catch any that fall off. And the Chinese broccoli Yod Fa seed pods that had been drying are ready for seed collecting. I might have to do that on the porch as it could be messy.

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Amateurinawe
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#512

Post: # 49664Unread post Amateurinawe
Wed Jun 30, 2021 2:41 pm

Love these tips from experience...
The behaviour of light means you observe me as i was then, and not as I am now.
I cannot change history, so I do hope i gave you a good impression of myself

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#513

Post: # 49674Unread post GoDawgs
Wed Jun 30, 2021 5:23 pm

It makes me wonder if everybody's cukes grow towards the east or just mine. LOL! I might have to do a poll.

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pepperhead212
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#514

Post: # 49687Unread post pepperhead212
Wed Jun 30, 2021 10:43 pm

I have some growing towards the west! I know this because I try to train them up, or east, and they like to go west, towards the tomatoes! :lol:
Woodbury, NJ zone 7a/7b

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arnorrian
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Re: Tater Diggin' and Squash Problem

#515

Post: # 49773Unread post arnorrian
Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:15 am

GoDawgs wrote: Sun Jun 27, 2021 11:42 am I have pork char siu in the oven for lunch and Pickles will be doing an eggplant stir fry with yesterday's picking of those Chinese String eggplants. They look so funny but they're nice and tender, including the skin. Peeling not needed.

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Wonderful. I wanted to get it but BC was out of stock. I'm getting it next year.
Climate: Cfa
USDA hardiness zone: 7a
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bower
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#516

Post: # 49775Unread post bower
Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:58 am

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] re: bulbils, just plant them at the same time as your garlic. They don't take much space. I like to put mine in a shallow drill for ease of weeding between rows, but broadcast works as well. Or really large or precious ones, I'll plant in a drill spaced a half to one inch apart. Depth as with regular garlic or a bit shallower, I make my dibble about 4X the height of the clove, so there is 3X its height of soil above it, bulbils maybe 2X. IDK if best depth is different in another climate though. Doesn't matter if they lay on their sides in the drill, you will get some twisted stems but not that many. I only try to stand em up in the right orientation if they're big ones.
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#517

Post: # 50009Unread post GoDawgs
Wed Jul 07, 2021 8:03 am

There is fungus among us in the garden. Powdery mildew on the summer squash and alternaria on cukes. I'll post about that separately in the Disease section.

Meanwhile, the trombone squash is doing well except for a bit of blossom end rot, probably caused by uneven watering. The supported squash is still growing and the unsupported squash will remain so.

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The watermelons have run about 3' into that former potato area and are happy. The Kaho watermelon (one of this year's "toys") is climbing the trellis (on the left end), blooming and I found the first baby.

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Of Kaho, an annotated Baker Creek description says "...salmon-orange flesh that is delicious right up to the super thin rind...one of the best we’ve tasted. Elongated fruit weighs about 2-4 pounds and is perfect for 2 servings." Customer comments vary from "good" to "wouldn't produce for me". I'll see for myself.

This is the Tahitian melon squash which is another toy. This one is about 12-14" long. I hope the vines (funked up) will survive long enough to let this one mature. They're supposed to get huge.

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'Small Wonder' spaghetti squash is one we've grown for a good while now. It's the perfect size for two people. I've picked the first one and there are about 6 more on the vine. One year I got about 20 off two plants.

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And finally, I sat down on the garden bench to take a break and the light was just right on the crape myrtles so I took a photo. That space between beds is between the upper and lower beds and allows the mower and cart to cut through. Popcorn on the right, trellised sweet potatoes on the left.

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Y'all have a day without hassles. :)

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PlainJane
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#518

Post: # 50017Unread post PlainJane
Wed Jul 07, 2021 10:20 am

Looking so good!
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#519

Post: # 50038Unread post GoDawgs
Wed Jul 07, 2021 1:27 pm

[mention]PlainJane[/mention] , oh how quickly things change. Just several posts ago you will see beautifully green cucumber foliage. They went downhill so fast it made my head spin. Photos and narrative have been posted in the Disease section. I pulled them all out today. The roots were knotted up by nematodes but it was the funk that got 'em.

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Fortunately we had picked enough already that most all pickling needs have been put up. It would have been nice to still have some for salads etc. I will be planting a 4' section of trellis with some free Beit Alpha cuke seed on Friday. Never tried that one before but hey, it was free and is supposed to be trellis friendly.

Yesterday I cut off majorly affected leaves on squash plants and sprayed unaffected foliage with baking soda spray.

Meanwhile, there's one squash that's pretty healthy... the one on the small compost pile behind the house!

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Today it finally identified itself with the first flower and baby fruit. TROMBONE SQUASH! From last year's discarded seed.

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This afternoon I gotta prep a bed for planting on Friday before TS Elsa's rain gets here. It's a mess. On the left I've got KY Wonder pole beans on half of the trellis. The rest of that side will be another 4' of KY Wonders and 4' of Beit Alpha cukes. In the middle are the volunteer coneflowers from last year that I still haven't found a home for or figured out where to replant them. I will dig up the right side, lay in some 5-10-15 and let the incoming rain melt it in for planting Provider beans Friday.

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PlainJane
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#520

Post: # 50049Unread post PlainJane
Wed Jul 07, 2021 5:26 pm

I’m looking at a real mess of a cleanup myself after Elsa. Absolute soaking and a tornado just missed us.
Good luck in your neck of the woods!
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein

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