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The Sprout 2018

Thanks guys. Looking forward to your 2nd round Aaron!

So I thought I'd do sort of a 'mid year' recap of my garden...

We've had some pretty tough weather here in Dallas, first with near freezing overnight temps back in April then a few weeks later daytime temps in the 100's. Crazy. We've had pretty hot weather all summer with this weekend hovering near 110°.

Overall I'm pretty happy, although the tomato production was lack luster and from an input perspective, not really worth it. But one can't quantify the learning experience and satisfaction from gardening in general.

The Peppers (Serrano and Ghost) were a surprise with both plants getting absolutely huge. The Serrano is now nearly 6ft tall and more of a small tree, the Ghost is more bushy but about 42" across and is invading a good part of my raised bed, even with pruning about a third out of both. 24"-36" my foot! (thats what the little markers that came with both indicated as max height/width). Production on the Serrano has been impressive but the Ghost has only flowers at this point, save for one pepper so far.

Early in the year I had a leafhopper and whitefly infestation and later my mint patch got hit with mealy bugs. I was really happy with the way neem oil/soap spray knocked both pests down in pretty short order. Other than that, I haven't had any other pest issues.

I haven't had any disease issues either aside from one Tomato plant getting late blight. It does look like I may be losing the blight battle on the other two however, but the truth is I've gotten a bit lazy with the copper spray the last couple of weeks.

Overall my garden seems healthy and relatively happy (the heat) so we'll see how the rest of the year goes. I'm hoping that once cooler weather sets in the plants will start producing much more fruit. Hopefully I can keep my remaining tomatoes going to see that point.

I'm ordering some grow bags this week and plan on setting a couple more tomato plants out in mid Aug. I'm getting 10ga bags for the tomatoes, and maybe some 5ga for plants like basil, etc... Also, I learned that 'trade gallons' used in nursery lingo is not the same as regular gallons. For instance, a 5ga nursery pot equates to about 3.5 'regular/normal' gallons. Learn something new all the time!

Cheers!

Thanks for the recap BT, great to see, hear what others are doing elsewhere, successes, failures what works and doesn't, how different the growing environment is and the challenges faced. Always much to learn.

I'm guessing the pot volume is just calculated using diameter and height without taking into account the taper, or are bag volumes exaggerated s well?
dave
 

DoctorShavegood

"A Boy Named Sue"
Thanks for the recap BT, great to see, hear what others are doing elsewhere, successes, failures what works and doesn't, how different the growing environment is and the challenges faced. Always much to learn.

I'm guessing the pot volume is just calculated using diameter and height without taking into account the taper, or are bag volumes exaggerated s well?
dave
My 7 gallon grow bags are very close to what is advertised; 13" Diameter and 12" Height. using the equation for cylinder volume = πr2Xh= 6.895 gallons. The ones I have are straight walled, but there are many out there with a taper.
 

shavefan

I’m not a fan
I'm guessing the pot volume is just calculated using diameter and height without taking into account the taper, or are bag volumes exaggerated s well?
dave

Dave, I'm not certain about the bags vs pots but I came across the info when I was looking around and different growing containers. and like I said it was news to me.

From Wikipedia:
A trade gallon is a unit of volume for standard plant containers in the horticultural industries. It equals 3 US liquid quarts or 0.75 US gallons (2.8 L; 0.62 imp gal), although some sources state that a trade gallon equals 2.7 litres (0.71 US gal).

Notably, 10 trade gallons equals 30 US quarts, which in turn equals 1.0 cubic foot, a common unit of measurement for soil.

 
That's a new one on me too, never heard of that.

I was curious so went out and measured a 5 US gallon fabric pots, 10"h x 12"d, plugged into google calculators and converters, 1130.97 cubic inches -> 4.9 US gal, close enough.

dave
 
Today started replanting the space the garlic occupied, 6' of mixed and Watermelon radishes, 18' of various carrots, 3 square feet of filet beans and another 3 square feet of scattered mixed lettuces. Instagram post from one of the farmers i buy from, today sowed 3 miles of beets and carrots for fall harvest...

Garden tour today, excellent year so far...

Before the squirrels get here, from a chipmunk planted clump of black oil seed sunflowers.
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Wild Boar Farms's Amethyst Cream, need to explore their catalogue for next year.
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Amish Paste & Costoluto Genovese
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Dino kale and rainbow chard that was started inside the same time as the tomatoes.
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///////////////dave
 

shavefan

I’m not a fan
Looking great as always Dave!

So I made the decision to take down my remaining tomato plants, the blight is winning the battle now so I'll regroup and try some new starts in a few weeks...
 

DoctorShavegood

"A Boy Named Sue"
Coming along nicely Dave @davent . I like the use of your velcro straps to support the weight of the tomatoes. I use plastic hooks that work great but I like your method too.

Did I read that right, "3 miles of beets and carrots?" or, is that some ole gardening term?
 
Coming along nicely Dave @davent . I like the use of your velcro straps to support the weight of the tomatoes. I use plastic hooks that work great but I like your method too.

Did I read that right, "3 miles of beets and carrots?" or, is that some ole gardening term?

Hi Aaron, The supplier i've bought the clips from in the past also had those hooks like you mention but now they carry neither so it was ad lib time. As long as the clip doesn't fail at the hinge should be fine and i've a roll of that velcro tape to put into use, only three clips left, more on the way.

" 3 miles" i did a double take too. To quote "Seeding fall beets and carrots today. Just about perfect soil moisture after getting much needed rain on the weekend. Almost 3 miles in the ground and ready to grow."

I'm thinking link his rows end to end and he's at 3 miles. And another guess, he's planting those seeds using seed tape so he knows the running total of tape planted. How much area would be needed to run all that tape? For my endless 18' row of carrots i used a patch of soil 2' x 3'.

So far it's been a summer of endless sun and hot to very hot temperatures, if you've kept things watered it's been exceptionally good gardening around here.

@buttrumsfarm should be the Instagram address if you wanted to take a peak.

dave
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
Cucumbers getting ripe and picked . . . more than we can eat. No tomatoes ripe yet to make a tomato cuke salad. Adding slices with every meal . .

A nice problem . . neighbors away on vacation . . . I'll bring some to give away at work.
 

kelbro

Alfred Spatchcock
Some of my late-planted pickling cucumbers are going nuts now. Flowering. Vining out 6-8" a day. Bees were all over them yesterday. I've already put up several jars of pickles. Guess the folks at work are going to be getting some pickles soon.
 
Trying out a couple of 'peach' tomatoes this year, similar in colour to peach flesh and has a skin similarly fuzzy. One variety has ripened a few golf ball sized fruit, nice sweet juicy tomato, perfect for a chef's salad.

Chipmunk planted sunflower clump.

file4-2.jpeg

dave
 
Today we canned six pints of tomato chunks, all Amish Paste tomatoes, has to be our earliest start ever.

Yesterday at a local music festival there was a farm stand selling local garlic. They plant 40 acres of garlic, so had a good conversation with the farmer, bought a few bulbs of the two varieties he had for sale, a white one, Music, similar to the one i've been growing for 25 years, it's possible mine originated on his farm. Then he also had a Yugoslavian Red. Going to plant his come fall, build up a crop of his new ones.

He also put me onto a garlic workshop in September taking place in Guelph, very close by.

Garlic Workshop September 5th

dave
 
Thanks Aaron, it's been a pretty exceptional summer i can't explain, ???

I didn't peel the tomatoes however historical precedent requires my kitchen manager/life coach/better half to peel them so she took care of that as per usual. Very well done! I get to to stoke the fire and play with the giant pot of rolling boiling water during a scorcher of a day.

dave
 

shavefan

I’m not a fan
Looking great @davent!

We were gone for a week on vacation but came back to a thriving 'Serrano-zilla'...

Screen Shot 2018-08-08 at 6.38.05 PM.png


About 4 dozen ripe fruits, and still dozens more green peppers. Definitely the superstar of my little garden this year.
 

martym

Unacceptably Lasering Chicken Giblets?
Serrano peppers are my 2nd favorite of all peppers.
Very flavorful!!! Some milder. Some very hot. Some in between.

My favorites are the wild ones that grow around here and there. The Mockingbirds bring them.
We call the chile del monte!
I love to dry them out and then grind them in a spice grinder. Lastly, put the flakes in a shaker. Just like red pepper flakes in a shaker at a pizza joint just more flavorful!
 

shavefan

I’m not a fan
Serrano peppers are my 2nd favorite of all peppers.
Very flavorful!!! Some milder. Some very hot. Some in between.

My favorites are the wild ones that grow around here and there. The Mockingbirds bring them.
We call the chile del monte!
I love to dry them out and then grind them in a spice grinder. Lastly, put the flakes in a shaker. Just like red pepper flakes in a shaker at a pizza joint just more flavorful!


Sounds great! I definitely need ideas to put these to use. I have more than I could ever use and we've given so many away, our friends are now making excuses why they don't need any more.

-Dry them
-Jelly?
-Pickled?

I have (2) quart containers of frozen serranos with many more on the way...

Do you dry them in a dehydrator or oven? Or just hang them up?

Also, just curious how big the pepper plants around you get. Mine's almost 7ft tall now. I've grown serranos in the past but I don't remember them getting any higher than about 3.5ft.
 

martym

Unacceptably Lasering Chicken Giblets?
Ive never grown Serrano. Just the wild chile bushes and they get huge; tall and wide.
I use a dehydrater.
 

DoctorShavegood

"A Boy Named Sue"
Sounds great! I definitely need ideas to put these to use. I have more than I could ever use and we've given so many away, our friends are now making excuses why they don't need any more.

-Dry them
-Jelly?
-Pickled?

I have (2) quart containers of frozen serranos with many more on the way...

Do you dry them in a dehydrator or oven? Or just hang them up?

Also, just curious how big the pepper plants around you get. Mine's almost 7ft tall now. I've grown serranos in the past but I don't remember them getting any higher than about 3.5ft.

It's because your using a good fertilizer right?

Ive never grown Serrano. Just the wild chile bushes and they get huge; tall and wide.
I use a dehydrater.

The wild bushes are one of two, either they are chili tepin or chili piquin. I've got both growing this year and they are the most flavorful of all.
 
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