Shule's 2023 grow log

[Shule]

A family member is growing Marketmore 76 cucumbers, this year (and I've been watering them). I've grown them before; they didn't do so well. This time, they're being grown with potting soil in cardboard boxes on top of regular soil, with no added fertilizer. I thought the cardboard boxes would have been destroyed, but they're holding up decently for a season. We're getting lots of big cucumbers. So, I think the secret to growing cucumbers on our property is to do one of these things:
- Use potting soil instead of our garden soil (and water a lot; direct-seed)
- Grow Spacemaster (whether or not in our garden soil; direct-seed)
- Grow West India burr gherkins
- Grow Metki Dark Green Serpent melons (with added potassium; start early and transplant)

I forgot what brand of potting soil we used, but I liked it. It was suitable for indoor use, and it was advertised as organic, whatever it was.

[Shule]

We have a few groundcherry volunteers growing; they're descended from the conical Christmas-tree shaped ground cherry fruit that I discovered; this is the second time they've volunteered, I think. The spider mites like them, this year.

[Shule]

Cherokee Purple is tasting better and less sour than it was. I think the issue is actually not the variety, but the Verticillium in the garden. I think getting sour was its way of fighting it. That's probably what made it require so much water without wilting, too. It's prolific and has big, nice-looking fruits.

I don't think it's a resistant variety as I was hoping (but it did survive and eventually overcome after the heat subsided with lots of water during the heat).

[Shule]

My favorite tomatoes for taste this year are these, in this order (so far; I haven't tasted Amana Orange or Marmande, this year, yet):

1. Carolina Yellow
2. Cilantrovaya_B
3. One or two of the Snacker_ plants
4. An unamed red tomato bordering on large in size; maybe Cal Ace VF (I'm not sure what else I planted that could have red fruit that big)
4. Galapagos Island (tied with the unnamed red tomato)

Those were all pretty good.

Carolina Yellow tastes really excellent, this year. It was good last year, but it's a lot better this year. It has a lot of flavor, and it's good flavor. I plan to grow it again next year, and hope it cross-pollinates everything. I recommend it, if you're into flavor.

So, next year, maybe I'll grow these:
- Brandywine Pink (it's been prolific without problems, unless you count mild cracking and requiring scissors or such to harvest)
- Cilantrovaya-B (tasty, sweet, early, prolific; I might try more Cilantrovaya-A seeds, too)
- Carolina Yellow (tasty)
- New varieties
- Probably Galapagos Island, again, too (it volunteers heavily, and it seems to be Verticillium-resistant)

I'd love to see a cross between Carolina Yellow, and Cilantrovaya_B. Also, a cross between Carolina Yellow and Galapagos Island.

[Shule]

The peppers are prolific and big, this year. We had a ripe Canary Bell the other day (ripened yellow—not orange, this time).

I've found that peppers seem to enjoy deep waterings (as opposed to just using the shower nozzle). I have to water less often that way, which I love.

[Shule]

I harvested the ripe Brandywine Pink tomatoes, as I didn't want them to spoil on the vine, and a few of them did. We're not ready to can tomatoes, just yet. The elderberries are being canned pretty much every day, now. So I turned the Brandywine Pink tomatoes into sauce and made three pots of spaghetti with them all. I'm saving seeds from the tomatoes that went in the latter two pots. I'll probably refrigerate and/or freeze the rest of the spaghetti (most of the first pot has been eaten).

There were probably about 12 to 16 Brandywine tomatoes that I used in the sauce. If you're wondering how I fit so many tomatoes in the pictured spaghetti below, you should know that I like a lot of sauce, but letting it sit for about 40 minutes causes the noodles absorb the excess juice. In addition to that, it's probably more spaghetti than it looks like it is. Comparing the picture to the camera, it looks like there's an extra inch of spaghetti in real life.

[Shule]

Here are the two pots I have left to refrigerate or freeze.


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[Shule]

Here are the two pots I have left to refrigerate or freeze.


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I finished off my spaghetti some days ago, and then I tried the same thing again with Cherokee Purple tomatoes, instead (except I only made two pots). I added hamburger, this time. The sauce was really good, but thin. It was sweet, too (so the tomatoes must be sweet, now). It was juicier than the Brandywine Pink tomato sauce; so, my noodles got a lot softer. However, I found that baking them to make them crispier helped a lot.

[Shule]

Our Amana Orange tomatoes are big, this year. Very colorful. There's a tall fence to the east of them, so they're somewhat milder than usual, but they're delicious.

[Shule]

On Thursday or so, I harvested 16 or 17 pounds of sweet peppers. I'm dehydrating the last of them now, to turn into powder. These are all pictures from the same bowl of peppers. They're probably mostly Canary Bell (possibly some other similar-looking peppers):

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There are more to harvest later.

[Shule]

We canned 15 quarts of ripened storage tomatoes on Thursday. A high percentage of the ripe storage tomatoes didn't rot/mold; so, that's nice (especially considering the ripe tomatoes were molding quickly earlier in the season, not too long ago; that's a miracle). I think that was about half of the storage tomatoes (I could be wrong).

We've been canning grapes. We have a lot left on the vines to harvest and can.

[Shule]

The volunteer tomato I thought was Sheboygan was not. It ripened purple. So, that means it's Purple Russian (or is it Russian Purple?)

[Shule]

We canned more storage tomatoes, yesterday (13 quarts).

[Shule]

I stuffed the last of the peppers with string cheese and tomatoes, today. They had started to dehydrate. I was impressed that our last peppers lasted so long (considerably longer than some of the other ones before the season ended)!