The Dawg Patch

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#561

Post: # 52574Unread post GoDawgs
Sat Aug 21, 2021 9:24 am

I didn't taste it. Guess I should have just out of curiosity. :shock:

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Whwoz
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#562

Post: # 52608Unread post Whwoz
Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:46 pm

If crossed with a citron or jam melon, flesh will be a lot firmer than regular watermelon

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#563

Post: # 52683Unread post GoDawgs
Mon Aug 23, 2021 12:24 pm

Yesterday it was time to start more fall plants. I'm staggering the starts again this year but after last year's effort I learned I needed to start earlier. Those started last and set out late didn't do as well as the other plantings.

This is the first round of plants for this year, started Aug 11; 8 broccolis, 2 trial brussels, 8 cabbages (three different kinds total), 3 cauliflower, 2 each of collards and kale (all of them) and one more yellow squash and zucchini.

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And this is yesterday's planting; 6 more broccoli, 4 more cabbages, 3 more cauliflowers, 6 each of two kohlrabi varieties, 2 kinds of onions and one scallion variety, and three more micro tomatoes (Joshalos, Red Robin and Pinocchio Orange). There will be a third round of some plants in early September.

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Today I did some planting in the garden. I planted Provider beans down both sides of the bed with the pea trellises. The snow peas on the far end were planted 8/11 and today I put some Wando peas on the near end trellis.

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Turnips were planted down the right side of the Stickless Wonder field peas. The peas aren't quite the "don't need support" as advertised and they lean towards the east so I planted on the west side. Hopefully the peas will be gone by the time I need to plant kohlrabi plants on that east side.

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And the final garden task this morning was to deadhead the zinnias and marigolds. The butterflies love them and an occasional hummingbird comes buzzing in to check things out. Life is good today. :)

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PlainJane
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#564

Post: # 52685Unread post PlainJane
Mon Aug 23, 2021 1:37 pm

I decided it’s still too hot to start my fall/winter crops so I started more zinnias instead. Yours look great!
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein

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JRinPA
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test - seeing if I can post

#565

Post: # 52780Unread post JRinPA
Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:56 pm

Since the owner can't post (internal server error) I'd say it's party time at the dawg patch!

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MissS
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Re: test - seeing if I can post

#566

Post: # 52781Unread post MissS
Tue Aug 24, 2021 9:14 pm

JRinPA wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:56 pm Since the owner can't post (internal server error) I'd say it's party time at the dawg patch!
I'm still looking for help.
~ Patti ~

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#567

Post: # 52806Unread post GoDawgs
Wed Aug 25, 2021 8:33 am

Testiung...testing... Ah! Success! Thank you, MissS! Now, where was I? Oh yes, a reply to [mention]PlainJane[/mention] .

Thanks, [mention]PlainJane[/mention]. I think the key to longer life is deadheading them. I gotta find a better yellow. They're in another bed and not doing well for the third year in a row. Three strikes, you're out!

I planted bush beans Aug 22 last year and they did fine with first picking Oct 8 and last pick/pull out on Oct 24 so starting 11 days earlier this year shouldn't be a problem. However, for the first time I'm trying beans in mid summer, planted July 9, first bloom 8/10. They're flowering just fine but very few beans are setting. Temperature problems? Time for some investigation and it seems that it's probably not daytime temps but warm night temps that may be a problem.

Now... it would let me post the above paragraph but would not let me post a quote from an article about this subject, if that's any help.

BTW, y'all can still party in da Patch. Cyberlibations of every sort and I can spike one of those remaining watermelons if needed. :D

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MissS
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#568

Post: # 52818Unread post MissS
Wed Aug 25, 2021 12:58 pm

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] Glad it works. Quotes should work now as well.
~ Patti ~

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GoDawgs
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Spring/Summer 'Maters Done

#569

Post: # 52888Unread post GoDawgs
Thu Aug 26, 2021 8:42 am

The spring planted tomatoes are now history. Yesterday Pickles took down the ones by the house. This morning I took down the garden tomatoes with one exception. the Koroleva Rynka ("Market Queen") which has only had a little bit of funk here and there all summer. Natural resistance? And now, when all the rest are eaten up with it, the Queen is healthy and putting out more flowers. It's a really narrow upright grower. The Queen will stay in place and has earned a spot for herself in next year's lineup.

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A few thoughts to start off the usual "after actions report". Next year I will paint the buckets white to keep roots cooler. Over the winter I need to rethink not only a better way to rig the shade cloth but also an inexpensive way to keep the squirrels out.

Yesterday afternoon Pickles hollered about some big bug attacking another one on the kitchen screen door. I checked it out and saw it was a Robber Fly, something I met in the garden last year and had to look up. They hang around and wait for a meal to fly by then go attack it and carry it to a branch or somewhere to enjoy their meal. Looks like the screen door was the chosen place to dine on a lazy old wasp. Robber flies are good guys and eat lots of garden bugs.

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PlainJane
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#570

Post: # 52906Unread post PlainJane
Thu Aug 26, 2021 5:05 pm

Wow, have never seen a robber fly - amazing!
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein

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Amateurinawe
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#571

Post: # 52928Unread post Amateurinawe
Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:58 am

What a hunter, makes you sure glad you're not an insect.
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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Spring/Summer 'Maters Done

#572

Post: # 52961Unread post GoDawgs
Fri Aug 27, 2021 12:23 pm

Last summer I was in the garden and heard a loud buzzing fly by, close enough to make me duck. I caught site of the buzzer (robber fly) when it landed on a pepper stake. Wow, I had never seen one and had to look it up. They'll leave you alone unless you mess with it, at which time they sometimes can deliver a good bite. There are many varieties of these critters so they all don't look alike.

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#573

Post: # 52985Unread post GoDawgs
Fri Aug 27, 2021 6:34 pm

August is dragging itself to the finish line. The first two 2" green-husked walnuts were on the ground today, probably more due to dry weather than the approach of fall. The first half of September here can be as hot and dry as August except for maybe the quick passing through of some tropical storm remnant.

The beans still aren't up but they've only been in the ground four days and they usually take about six. It seems like they've been planted longer than that but the calendar doesn't lie. Patience is not one of my virtues. No sign of the turnips yet either and they usually take only three days.

The good news is the first picking of Beit Alpha cucumbers, something new to the garden. A fall "toy".

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Pickles found them on the other side of their trellis, hiding among the coneflowers. I sure missed them. The packet narrative says they're best picked at 5-6" which the smaller of the two measures. The other is 9" long. The skin is covered with tiny prickless spines so that they feel like a light sandpaper. The vines are just covered in flowers so I'll have to be more vigilant. We'll see tomorrow how they taste.

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rdback
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#574

Post: # 53242Unread post rdback
Tue Aug 31, 2021 1:06 pm

I was thinking of trying Beit Alpha next season. I'm interested in what you think of them.

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#575

Post: # 53254Unread post GoDawgs
Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:41 pm

@rdback, We've only picked three so far (a very late planting) but they were firm, crisp and a bit on the sweet side. I like 'em! And they'll be done again next year as a late summer/fall crop since we do National Pickling in the spring for putting up pickles and fresh eating.

I've not done cukes on a trellis before so this is a first for me. They're absolutely loaded with flowers and the vines are rather well behaved (not so long). The leaves are starting to lighten up and I spied cucumber beetles on them this morning so I think some funk is trying to move in. I need to hit them with some neem oil once the stray rain remnants of Ida are out of here.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#576

Post: # 53732Unread post GoDawgs
Sun Sep 12, 2021 1:03 pm

I've not posted in a while because there hasn't been much going on except routine garden maintenance. It's been that slow time between winding down summer and gearing up for fall. The tomatoes are mostly gone and the several fall tomatoes are struggling. At least I have three new micro toms almost ready to pot up.

Yesterday I got the first round of brassicas planted out. This bed got the first 6 of the eventual 12 Packman broccoli, 2 Jacaranda broccoli (a trial from donated seed) and three of the eventual nine cauliflowers. There will also be four Packman broccoli that I'm doing from seed I collected this spring, just to see what comes from that hybrid plant. The white markers are where succession plants will go.

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The other bed got 2 kale and 1 collard (enough greens for two people), three of the eventual 11 cabbages and two Red Bull Brussels sprouts. Yeah, I know. I swore never to do them again. Well, into the breach one more time! I was given some seed by someone who successfully grows them in north Florida (thank you, PJ!) so perhaps they'll do here. But this IS IS IS the very last time if they don't make. Tomorrow I'll mulch both beds with leaves.

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This morning I went to the garden to pick up the last four Black Diamond watermelons that never really finished because the vines finally funked up and died. They’ve just been sitting there a good while and I cut them open with a machete. They look the same as the one that did mature and slip off the vine earlier this summer. I don’t think I’ll grow any more next year and will stick with the Charleston Grays that were so good.

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Earlier this summer a plant came up behind a trellis in an area where I had planted Jerusalem artichokes this spring. They had come up back then and when about 3” tall something munched them hard one night and then totally made off with the tubers by the next evening. There were just small indentations in the ground where they had been. Could this mystery plant be the sole survivor of those I planted earlier? Not knowing what the JA plants look like, I let this new plant grow.

Fast forward to today when I was messing with the watermelons. I saw two yellow flowers behind the trellis. Lots of flower buds yet to open. It’s going to be pretty.

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Then I saw that the plant I had let grow had gotten tall enough that the wind with the last storm had blown it over so that it leaned on the trellis.

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After looking at internet photos of Jerusalem artichoke flowers, I think that is what this is! Can anyone confirm that it is or is not a Jerusalem artichoke? If it's not, don't be afraid to bust my bubble. It's still going to be a pretty plant I'll keep and just transplant it somewhere else this fall.

Hopefully it IS a survivor; my one and only. My $15 plant. LOL! And if it is, at least I’ll be able to dig the tubers later and replant the bed. Come spring when they start to pop up I’ll put protection over them. Sometimes Mother Nature lets you win one. We'll see.

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Whwoz
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#577

Post: # 53743Unread post Whwoz
Sun Sep 12, 2021 3:12 pm

Been a while since I have seen them, but they look right for JA's too me @GoDawgs. Basically a perennial sunflower that comes up from the tuber, big plant, yep

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PlainJane
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#578

Post: # 53771Unread post PlainJane
Mon Sep 13, 2021 7:59 am

Boy, I hope I don’t let you down with Red Bull!
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein

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GoDawgs
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Misinformation Alert... My bad

#579

Post: # 53774Unread post GoDawgs
Mon Sep 13, 2021 9:20 am

MISINFORMATION ALERT! In several posts I have referred to Stickless Wonder as a field pea. I forgot... the Stickless Wonders are NOT field peas! They are yardlong beans with edible pods! Yes, cousins to field peas but they're a bean. They sure do look like field peas when they're growing though and I've been picking them right along with the field peas and shelling them out:

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Field peas on the left, Stickless Wonder yardlongs on the right:

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In fact, I now remember that the reason I tried these this year was to find a bean that will produce in the summer heat here, a succession crop filling the gap between regular spring and fall bush beans. Yardlongs thrive in heat. I've tried the trellis type of yardlongs before with varying degrees of success. Only one of those did really well the first time planted but not in succeeding years.

The other reason I tried these was that they supposedly don't need support. For the most part, that's true. They spread a little but don't go running outside the 4' wide bed like wild maniacs. That's a plus.

So yesterday I picked some younger SWs, we cut them up and cooked them with a handful of regular green beans and they were good. I could tell which were the SWs as they were a lighter green and they have a slightly different flavor, like a hint of a floral note. Different but good.

For me, they're a keeper! These will do the job as a summertime bean, both eaten green and as a shelly bean if some get overlooked. Yesterday I noticed that there are hardly any flowers left. I don't know if they're in between flushes or if they've had their run. In case it's the latter, I'm going to let some go to seed for collection.

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GoDawgs
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Sweet Success!

#580

Post: # 53861Unread post GoDawgs
Wed Sep 15, 2021 1:01 pm

This year I tried growing sweet potatoes under a trellis made from a length of field fence and it worked like a charm. The vines were up and out of the way and by limiting the length of the vines, most of the plant's energy went into making tubers. The only worky part, which I didn't consider work, was the continual threading of vines onto and through the trellis as they don't have tendrils to climb like beans and cukes do.

The variety is "Jewel", a nematode resistant variety that Pickles bought at a Publix store back in 2016 and all the sweets since then have descended from that one potato!

Two days ago I cut the vines off the trellis.

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This morning after taking down the trellis fencing we dug the potatoes.

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The clumps of sweets around the slip were nicely sized this year, probably from keeping the length of the vines in check so most of the plants' energy could go into the tubers. There were also some smaller potatoes away from the main clump.

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They dried a bit in the sun.

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Then they got sorted by size and put in baskets. That’s when I weighed them. 53 pounds from 11 hills!

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The next part of the process is curing them for 10-14 days. If you ate one of those sweets now they’d be bland and very starchy. Curing converts the starch to sugar so they’re nice and sweet. Sweets need 80-90 degrees and high humidity during the process and I don't have a temp/humidity controlled warehouse.
The process I use for small scale curing was found online and it works very well.

The baskets will go into black plastic trash bags with some holes ripped a little on the top. They will stay in the hot garden shed during the curing. It will easily be warm enough in there. The sweets give off moisture as they cure and the bag will keep a lot of that in to fulfill the humidity requirement. The holes will let out the excess moisture so the potatoes don’t rot.

For us, the trellis system is the way to go. It's a great space saver and has produced the best crop I've ever grown. And once the sweet potato ridge is made and the slips are planted, I think there's enough room down each side to grow something else in that bed too. We'll see next spring!

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