Big Stuff

Good looking cabbage Josh .

My big cabbage hasn't really got going ..YET! .. just got to keep the sodding dog away from it as he is a total head banger that tries to escape his leash and tear around the garden like a loon on speed.

I think I'll have to put a seven foot diameter ring of 3 foot high stock fencing around it and fix it on steel posts .



Is all that straw in various stages of decay in your pumpkin bed or do you have a fair amount of blended manures and beddings under it as well ?

Do you have any Bocking 14 comfrey to make a liquid manure for things ??

Seeing all that straw reminds me when I saw a competition potato grower at work ..his bed was on a well drained concrete slab , the bed was nearly four feet high by about 30 feet in diameter and contained only one potato seed . He was aiming for around half a ton of potatoes from it .

Is all that straw in various stages of decay in your pumpkin bed or do
you have a fair amount of blended manures and beddings under it as well ?

I have two pumpkin plants and one watermelon planted in a 1 x 3 six inch deep SFG. I laid several layers of newspaper right on top of the grass in side the SFG, and then added 100% of my own Mel's Mix. Around the 1 X 3 SFG I laid a thick layer of straw around the area right on top of the grass, for an area for the vine to spread, using the straw just for something to keep the grass and weeds from growing in the vines, of course the thick layer of straw may kill out the grass, but I can always reseed the grass after I'm done growing the woulds largest pumpkin... I can't reveal any of my feeding secrets at this time

Giant Pumpkin update:
I didn't get around to digging a hole and filling with weed block and Mel's Mix like first planned.

Sometime ago I transplanted the giant pumpkin seedlings into a third compost heap. I guess I should disqualify myself for not using vermiculite and peat? Still it'll be fun to see what happens with this atlantic giant variety pumpkin in a special compost heap for giant pumpkins.... Hey, the compost would have eventually found its way into a future pile of mel's mix...right?
At this time the vines have extremely dark green leaves and flowers are almost ready to open up. And Josh, as for your feeding secrets, I'm holding back on that information too cause we shouldn't tell! Here's to Giant Pumpkins!

Josh has a gallery going for "Big Stuff" when you get pictures make sure and add them to the gallery.

Here's the links:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t12871-big-stuff-photo-gallery#127574

And I've also added the link to the scroll bar for easy access!

Cool Rooster

Thanks RoOsTeR!

The giant pumpkin vine is really growing! We haven't had any rain lately, I've just been watering it myself, but if we got a little rain I wonder how big it would get, in just 11 days it has really grown.
Here it is on 6-13-12


and here it is today 11 days later

Josh that plant is wonderful!!
I was really happy with my vine, then I saw yours. Wow. I'm a couple weeks behind you but I've got the largest leaves I've ever seen in my life. Keep getting groups of flowers that are about to open, then the plants grows longer and sends up more flowers about to open and repeats. Nothing has opened yet. How about you, any open flowers??

WoW. That's some serious growth in 11 days

wow josh is that ALL from one pumpkin plant?

it looks great

hugs

rose

There's two there, there has been a lot of the male blooms for several days now, the female blooms have finally started to come on the vines, today one of the female blooms bloomed, there was a couple of the male blooms in bloom and one of them had 3 bees on it, I reached down and folded the flower up with the bees inside, I pinched it off and took it over and turned it upside down and released the bees inside the two flowers, hopefully they pollinated it or the pollen from the male flower got onto the female, if not there are many buds both female and male starting to make on the vines.

Wow Josh, those are some giant pumpkin plants! I can't believe you had a blossom big enough to fit three bees in it! You are doing great!

LlamaMama I can picture your plant about ready for blossoms to open and then more stems and flowers. Wonderful!

I bet both of you could actually sit and watch your pumpkin plants grow! Good luck to you both!

It's pretty neat to watch nature do such dramatic things.
Ya know, I put myself in a rough position with a gardening master and friend, Josh. But I plan to learn and why not learn from the best. I know he's got magical rabbit poo and wonderful worm castings, which nutritionally speaking, in part will go up against my aged llama manure and worm castings and other secrets I'm not telling. So we'll see, strange things can happen!

Since Josh was kind enough to share his Giant pumpkin vines with us, I thought I should at least document a teeny-tiny fraction of mine.

I'll show the whole thing when it gets more impressive like Josh's I'm probably a good week or so behind his.

Today I increased the area that I put straw down so the pumpkin can have a larger growing area.


The female pumpkin bloom has more than doubled in size since it bloomed. Do you think that's a good sign that it got pollinated?

For sure Josh! Beautiful leaves Llama Mama. Keep up the good work you two!

looks great josh!

we harvest a bunch of veggies tonight.....one of them being another large cabbage

after taking off the outer leaves it weighed in at almost 4 lbs







hugs

rose.....wants to know how to freeze cabbage

My favorite way to freeze cabbage is as:

FREEZER SLAW
 
1 c. vinegar
1/4 c. water
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. mustard seed
1 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. salt
1 med. head cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, grated
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped

Shred cabbage and sprinkle with one teaspoon salt. Mix well and let stand while making dressing (one hour).
Bring to boil: vinegar, water, sugar, mustard, and celery seed. Boil for one minute. Remove from stove and let cool.
Squeeze excess moisture from cabbage. Mix in other vegetables. Pour cooled dressing over slaw. Mix and put in freezer containers and freeze. Yields 3 pints. Slaw can be refrigerated for use without freezing.
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Recipe #2
Ingredients:
• 1 head cabbage, shredded
• 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. celery seed
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
Preparation:
Toss vegetables in large bowl.
Mix remaining ingredients in saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 2-3 minutes. Let cool. Pour over vegetables. Mix, pack in airtight plastic freezer container and freeze.
To serve, thaw in refrigerator overnight. The slaw remains crisp and tastes delicious. 12 servings

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Recipe #3
Ingredients
• 1 1/2  cups  sugar
• 1  cup  cider vinegar
• 3  (10-ounce) packages shredded angel hair cabbage slaw
• 1  large carrot, shredded
• 1  small green bell pepper, diced
• 1  teaspoon  celery salt
• 1  teaspoon  mustard seeds
Preparation
Bring sugar and vinegar to a boil in small saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves; cool.
Combine cabbage and next 4 ingredients. Pour vinegar mixture over cabbage mixture, tossing to coat. Place in a large heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag or an airtight container, and freeze up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator before serving.

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Recipe #4
• 1 medium head cabbage
• salt
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1/3 cup cold water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1 small carrot grated
• 1/2 green pepper, grated
• 1/2 small onion, grated
Preparation:
Cut cabbage into wedges and sprinkle with salt; let stand for 1 hour.
Combine vinegar, cold water, sugar, celery seed, mustard seed, lemon pepper and seasoned salt; bring to a boil. Let cool.
Grate carrot, green pepper, onion, and cabbage. Mix with cooled vinegar mixture, mixing well. Freeze coleslaw in individual containers.
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That way It can be enjoyed for a long time. Did not make any last year but recall using the first recipe in 2010 when about 22 baggies were frozen. more opinions on the recipes would be appreciated. Red peppers and Cabbage are rated 1 & 2 even ahead of fruits for people with kidney disease, Cauliflower, Garlic then Onions rounded out the top 5 then some fruits were listed by DaVita. A well rounded slaw is just about a kidney suffers delight.

westie how so very sweet of you!! (((hugs)))

im going to print them all out!!.....can i freeze them in my canning jars?....or is freezer bags better?

and when you say *A well rounded slaw is just about a kidney suffers delight.*....do you mean eating a well rounded slaw will help them feel better?.....just curious because we know someone who has to go for kidney dialysis and we would love to make this for them

thanks again

hugs

rose

Josh,
I hope that is your first fertilized pumpkin with many more to come - congrats!
So far I have all male blossoms. From what I'm reading it's ideal to have fertilized pumpkin babies by July 6 to allow ample time for huge growth. My forecast for Thurs-Tues. is six days of hi and low 90's. That'll speed up vine growth. Hey you're in Illinois and I'm in Ohio maybe our vines can meet in Indiana.

Thanks Triciasgarden! I'm told giant pumpkins result from luck and skill! Fun no matter what happens.

And Rose Wow!! Love cabbage! OOh that would be wonderful as giant stuffed cabbage leaves! Yummy.

FamilyGardening wrote:looks great josh!

we harvest a bunch of veggies tonight.....one of them being another large cabbage

after taking off the outer leaves it weighed in at almost 4 lbs







hugs

rose.....wants to know how to freeze cabbage

Rose, don't forget to add your pictures to the Big Stuff photo gallery!

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/gallery/Big-Stuff/Big-Stuff-cat_c361.htm

Rose - There is enough liquid in slaw that I am reluctant to put it in glass for freezing, does someone else have advice here ? Bags are just very handy to use and store. May try the vacuum seal on them this year. A friend saves peanut butter jars for that purpose but they seem messy and time consuming to clean out. Slaw like many frozen items does not keep well for extended times so I try to use it or share it in less than 3-4 months. Every kidney patient needs to follow the advice of their Nephrologist who probably will assign a dietitian to work with the patient and their lead needs to be closely followed. At the point of dialysis it is usually a matter of preserving kidney function until transplant rather than hoping to restore normal function. So all things consumed are a key issue in that touchy situation.

Rose your cabbage just keeps getting bigger and bigger!!
That's AWESOME at 4lbs!!!

Kay (walshevak) posted a picture in the Big Stuff Gallery a photo of her BIG STUFF broccoli, a 11 inch head!!!!

Plantoid has a photo of his 7 foot tall potato plants also!

It's going to be a BIG STUFF year!!Keep those photos coming!!!

GWN wrote:not sure what I did right last year, I had soil delivered and I amended it with aged manure from my sons girlfriend.
I have asked them to bring more..... but we will see
Tomatoes are all going into mels mix this year so we will see, they seem to love it in the little pots in the greenhouse....

Just found this thread and started reading it when I came across this comment. Ended up laughing so hard I almost fell off my computer chair! See the bold underlined comment above!
GWN - your son must have one h....of a girlfriend!
Lee

Giant pumpkin - overnight the first 2 immature female flowers appeared on two different vines. Males are blooming and the bees were busy inside those.
If Josh sees this I have a question for you -- some growers do periodic tissue cultures to gauge nutrient levels - are we going that far Josh, or not admitting ???? Either way, I'm scrambling trying to learn fast

Anything goes! Whatever you can do to get those pumpkins to grow big...do it! I think I'll skip the tissue culture thing...that's a little more than I can do...but I've been reading up as much as possible...some things I can share with you...somethings are better left unsaid for now...

I read that you can take the male flower when it is in bloom and freeze it till the female bloom opens and then take the male bloom and thaw it out and hand pollinate the female. I could see that by the time my female was blooming there would be a shortage on male blooms.