2016 SFG in Brooks, Ga

Wonderful, Yolos!  Your post gives me hope. I only had one out of about a half a dozen seeds germinate and it's now approximately 4 inches tall.  I'm going to put up the trellis up today. Last year I couldn't get any of the female flowers to open before the fruit shriveled up and fell off.

Are you feeding your tromboncinis anything special? I need all the help I can get!

CC

Nice haul on the beans!  Those squash look Paul Bunyan size!

Really beautiful, yolos! And yummy. For sure!

Corn is looking good.  Silks are out and pollen is dropping.  Hope it is landing on the silks.  I tried to do some hand pollinating to insure they get pollinated, but it is so hot that the pollen was falling all over me and sticking to my face and arms so I gave up and just let nature take its course.


My largest tomato ever.  1 pound 9 oz.  Brandywine Suddath strain.


Tomatoes waiting to be processed into marinara sauce, I think.


I planted Edamame in 8 squares.  I kept them covered with burlap until they germinated.  Two days after removing the burlap, something dug up every single one and left about half of the sprouts sitting on the soil.  Must be my pesky chipmunk.  

What a Goliath! Brandywines rule! This is the first year in 20'that I haven't grown them.....

What eats soybeans? Really? NOTHING. that is what. Stupid squirrels. You will hate those soybeans.

Yolos, Do you have a favorite Marinara canning recipe you would like to share? I had to laugh when I saw the photo of all your tomatoes because I picked 1 1/2 cups of tomatoes yesterday!

sanderson wrote:Yolos,  Do you have a favorite Marinara canning recipe you would like to share?  I had to laugh when I saw the photo of all your tomatoes because I picked 1 1/2 cups of tomatoes yesterday!  

I don't have a recipe for canning Marinara sauce.  I tried making it last year from one of the tested recipes but did not like it.  The current year recipe (loosely called a recipe) was given to my daughter by her friend who owns an Italian restaurant and whose family is from Italy.  When we make it, we will freeze any leftovers.  Because it is not a tested canning recipe, I will not be canning it.

Thanks.

yolos ... wow that is quite a haul of tomatoes you have there. Well done.

yolos wrote:Today's Harvest

I have been researching how to preserve cucumbers other than pickling.  Did you know they can be frozen or dehydrated.  I think I am going to freeze some to use later in smoothies and cucumber infused water.  Also dehydrate cucumber chips with vinegar flavoring and dill.

I thought of you on Wednesday.  A new Sprouts market opened in Peachtree City on Wednesday, and we visited it that morning.  They had dehydrated cucumbers and carrots for sale.  Before seeing your post, I did not know that could be done with those particular vegetables.

Windmere wrote:

yolos wrote:Today's Harvest

I have been researching how to preserve cucumbers other than pickling.  Did you know they can be frozen or dehydrated.  I think I am going to freeze some to use later in smoothies and cucumber infused water.  Also dehydrate cucumber chips with vinegar flavoring and dill.

I thought of you on Wednesday.  A new Sprouts market opened in Peachtree City on Wednesday, and we visited it that morning.  They had dehydrated cucumbers and carrots for sale.  Before seeing your post, I did not know that could be done with those particular vegetables.

Thanks Windmere -I hate going to Peachtree City but I will have to try this out.  I went to their Website and they have some interesting recipes.  And you can print out a shopping list of things you need to buy to make the recipe.

Yea, last year I dehydrated some carrots but haven't used them yet.  I have on my to-do-list to try some dehydrated cucumber chips.  

I made some Gazpacho a couple weeks ago.  I remember Mark saying it could be frozen so I tried freezing some leftover.  I just defrosted it this morning and it was delicious.

Well, I guess I let these cucs get a little big.  Too big to eat so I will feed my compost pile.  I did get about 5 reasonable size cucs.  I have to pay a little more attention to this garden that is next to the house.  The green tomatoes were cut off by me because the truss was so heavy that the branch started to break and the stake was bending too much.  Fried Green Tomatoes anyone.

I completely understand. Even though our garden is small, I sometimes forget about my daughter's patch.

You might have a storm coming your way.  We just now getting heavy rains and our power went out for a bit.

Windmere wrote:I completely understand. Even though our garden is small, I sometimes forget about my daughter's patch.

You might have a storm coming your way.  We just now getting heavy rains and our power went out for a bit.

Yep. Lost power. Still out. Sitting on porch on cell phone. Still light outside. Hope comes on soon so nothing defrosts.

Power is back on.  It was off for about 2 hrs 30 minutes.  Never opened the freezer but temp still increase 8*F during that period.

Beautiful! Summer is hitting you hard! LOL!

Just harvested my first Silver Queen Corn.  This is only a small portion of what I will be harvesting in the next week.


On a sadder note.  I think Southern Blight has hit my tomatoes and beans.  This is very different than Early or Late Blight.  It is a soil borne disease and very difficult to get rid of once it finds it's way into the garden.  I have removed 4 tomato plants and I took them and one bean plant to the extension office today.  They said they would be able to diagnose what disease has actually entered my garden.

Sorry to hear about the toms & beans, Yolos...

But GREAT looking corn - very full ears. How many did you plant/square?

Yipes!  I'll be interested to find out what happened.

AtlantaMarie wrote:Sorry to hear about the toms & beans, Yolos...  

But GREAT looking corn - very full ears.  How many did you plant/square?

This first planting of Silver Queen Corn was planted 1 per square.  I realize this is not SFG spacing.  But I want a lot more space for this planting because. (1) this bed is in partial shade and I wanted as much sunlight to enter the planting as possible. (2) This corn grows huge.  Right now it is 9 feet tall and still growing.  (3) I believe hilling up the soil around the stalks is essential for stability and you can't hill around the stalks if you plant to densely. (4) If I only get 1 ear per stalk, that gives me 48 ears of corn.  And some stalks will have two edible ears.  Plenty for my purposes. (5) I still can't see how the pollen can drop down from the tassles and make it thru all those leaves to the silks if there are too many stalks per square.   


To help keep the stalks from blowing over, I also used cord to do a type of Florida Weave to help support the stalks per above.

For my second planting, I planted 4 rows (in a 4 x 6 bed) with the plants spaced 4 inches apart.  I will see how that works.

Lovely looking corn.  I bet they are tender.

Kelejan wrote:Lovely looking corn.  I bet they are tender.

I have never eaten a more tender piece of corn.  I was watching a lot of videos to determine exactly when was the best time to harvest the corn.  In one video, the guy actually pulled the corn off the stalk, shucked it, and started eating it raw.  Well, my grandson and I were at the corn patch last night and we harvested just enough corn for dinner.  Then I remembered that video and pulled one more cob off the stalk.  We shucked it and ate it right then without cooking.  Delicious.  I was out working in the garden this evening and my grandson came out and asked me for another fresh ear of corn so he could eat it right then without cooking.  How could I refuse.  He is the main reason I started gardening again.  I wanted him to learn to enjoy fresh veggies.  I was raised on only frozen veggies without much seasoning.  So I am glad he is experiencing fresh safe good veggies.  Hope it starts a new family tradition of growing and eating home grown veggies.

Although I have encountered Southern Blight on Beans and Tomatoes and Rust on the beans, I still have had a successful year.  Many beans and tomatoes and cucumbers and corn and cowpeas just comming into harvest.  Here is a tomato I tried for the first time this year.  It is heirloom and is supposed to be a dwarf but it is getting huge.  It is the most productive slicing tomato.  The tomatoes are actually very big.  Look at all the fruits ripening.

That tomato looks like something I'd like to try. What is the name of it?

countrynaturals wrote:That tomato looks like something I'd like to try. What is the name of it?

Sorry, I forgot to put the name in the post.  New Big Dwarf.  It is not much of a dwarf.  Right now it is 5 feet tall.