Turan in the Western Mountains

Turan wrote:written June 15th- A friend put 1000 starts of mixed winter squashes into her field last Friday.  It frosted lightly on Saturday.  Some are done and some look fine.  Risky business.  I only have 6 and they are in Wall-o-waters for now.

These squash were planted June 7th.  Fifteen weeks later and they harvested 27,000 pounds of organic winter squash. Here is a picture of some of it spread out to cure.


And here is my harvest minus a couple we ate already.  That lobed green pumpkin thing came from the hill planted with what Baker called "Red Kuri", they get seeds mixed I have noticed.  I want to try their Lakota seed next, hopefully the packet will have in it what the outside says this time.

Turan, Kudos to you for posting a reality photo! Some seasons our harvests are minimalistic.

sanderson wrote: Some seasons our harvests are minimalistic.

Ain't that the truth.  

On the first page of this thread is a picture of my winter squash harvest from 2016.  Same number of outdoor winter squash hills, same varieties planted.  There was nothing at all from the Red Kuri, 3 buttercup (same as this year) and 8 Australian butter pumpkins (more than double this year).  Honestly I do not know how much I should expect from each hill, or plant.

Feast or famine. We just. Don't know which will which

The corn bed, after the last of the corn was harvested and before the horses devoured it (clean up crew).

Turan wrote:The corn bed, after the last of the corn was harvested and before the horses devoured it (clean up crew).  

I LOVE IT! 

It is so way past time for wrapping up 2017 and thinking what to do for next year.
I  had a few experiments going.
 
Of three varieties of zucchini all did well, but we liked the Green Machine and Cocozella best.  They seemed to take turns in burying us in fruit.  I have had little success in the past with any zucchini, I think this year they liked being started in pots, they liked having plenty of room and water and a mulch of unfinished compost.

Cosmos among the corn is too tall, next time I'll try a short flower to cover the ground (nasturiums or allyssum?). I had planted Ira Hooker sweet corn with a row of Painted Mountain flour corn between.  Ira Hooker had poor germination and not great pollination.  DH liked the taste of PM flour corn better as well.  There was not enough corn to save seed from.  

Mice ate the top inch or two of the orange carrot roots but ignored the purple carrots.  We had a fine crop, it filled one crisper drawer of the fridge.  The orange are sweeter but the purples store longer and are best cooked.  We are still adding purple carrots to all our stir fries and curries and stews.

We are still eating potatoes and garlic stored in the mud room.
Here is a young hen inspecting the potato harvest.

Hi, Turan. Good to see you. Those are some beautiful potatoes! They looks so clean that I am wondering if you hosed them?

sanderson wrote:Hi, Turan.  Good to see you.  Those are some beautiful potatoes!  They looks so clean that I am wondering if you hosed them?  

+1

Thanks, good to see you as well.
Yes, I laid them out on a clean bit of lawn and hosed them off. They are not very dirty anyways coming out of the deep mulch. The hen was very interested and wanted to try a nibble.

Impressed by TD's seed collection I went through my own and culled all seed older than 2013. That left me with 20 packets. So I ordered more from Baker Creek and Territorial.

This year I am trying out Lakota winter squash and Beit Alpha cucumber. These are both varieties I heard about on this site. I also am getting a butternut hybrid to grow in the greenhouse. And I am going to try to grow parsnips, something I have no experience with at all.

Turan!!! Those red potatoes are gorgeous!

Turan,

What variety of red potatoes are those?  How many pounds did you plant to get such a great harvest?

donnainzone5 wrote:Turan,

What variety of red potatoes are those?  How many pounds did you plant to get such a great harvest?

I planted one pound of French Fingerling that I got from Johnny's seed and got 30 pounds of potatoes. There would of been more but the mice ate one whole plants worth of potatoes, leaving me the hollow skins below a healthy looking plant. These are a very vigorous and tall growing late season potato. I plant them inside an old cold frame whose top is gone. That way I can plant early enough to give them a full season, and I can mulch/hill them until there is about a foot of mulch on them.

Turan,

Wow!  From what I understand, the typical yield is more like 10 lbs. potatoes per pound of seed potatoes. 

Those "fingerlings" look huge!

donnainzone5 wrote:Turan,

Wow!  From what I understand, the typical yield is more like 10 lbs. potatoes per pound of seed potatoes. 

Those "fingerlings" look huge!

+1

Whew, I just finished cleaning the greenhouse. I started last fall.

I planted 4 squares of lettuce and 12 of sugar snap peas. THe lettuce is where I will eventually have peppers and the peas are where cucumbers and squash will be planted.

It feels so good to grub in the dirt. DH says I have a garden high.

Happy Easter!

It doesn't feel like spring, but the days are advancing. I made soil blocks and got my tomatoes and peppers and broccoli seeded. Nothing new in varieties, I used seed I had. So Tomatoes are Speckled Roman, Cuore di Bue, and Sungold. Peppers are Krimson Lee and Hot Hungarian.
I do have one experiment in tomatoes, a plant that came from a salad served on 4th of July. It appeared in a potted citrus that was summering on the porch. So it has lived with hte citrus all winter in the window, and it has produced a steady trickle of cocktail tomatoes. I want to take a cutting from it and plant in hte greenhouse. Should I wait to make the cutting and plant direct into the greenhouse in May? Or should I make a cutting now and plant it in a pot?

Try the pot now. If it doesn't work (and I can't believe that you couldn't make it work!), you can take a cutting later and plant in the green house.

I planted the tomato cutting in a long narrow plastic juice bottle.  It is sitting on the heat pad with the sprouting seeds.  Here is hoping.  Meanwhile the broccoli is sprouted and some tomatoes and even a pepper!

Meanwhile there is a winter storm warning saying a few inches of snow.  But this afternoon when I got home it was sunny and fine.  So I weeded where I intend to plant carrots and parsnips and covered it with black plastic.  I am hoping to force a flush of weeds sprouting and after that plant carrots.  

In the to be carrot bed were some Johnny Jump Ups, and one was even blooming!  I transplanted them to the corner of the pea bed.  I found 2 garlic starting to sprout and some walking onions.  And dandelions starting to green.  I dug a big clump of them for the chicks.

I have this uneasy feeling that this late start on spring is going to flip and suddenly become hot fast.  I need to be ready.

Turan wrote:. . . this afternoon when I got home it was sunny and fine.  So I weeded where I intend to plant carrots and parsnips and covered it with black plastic.  I am hoping to force a flush of weeds sprouting and after that plant carrots.

I use clear plastic to force sprouting. One year I had 100's of tomatoes spout from the home made compost.

Hmmm, I think you are on to something. I use black plastic mostly as a way to kill off weed growth, especially grass. But a lot of annual weed seeds need light to germinate, and I want as many of those seeds as possible to germinate and be snipped before planting carrots. I grabbed what I had handy. After this storm passes I will check the garage, I think there is some clear plastic and if not that a light row cover will do the same. Thanks

Turan wrote:I made soil blocks and got my tomatoes and peppers and broccoli seeded. 

How do you make "soil blocks"?

CN, I was just going to contact you to see if everything is okay. Haven't seen you around. There are a few topics on soil blocks under the Search feature.