Re: Mark's first SFG

**sanderson** 12/24/2023, 6:06 pm

[quote="markqz"
Yeah, fishing for sympathy here is like taking a fishing pole to the municipal pool. Gosh, what a ruckus that was. [/quote] Razz

People might be thinking, "SoCal is always like that." No, this is not usual. It's not only been warmer, it's been brighter than other years.

Do you think that the fewer wild fires this summer/fall helped with the sunshine? I know it did here in the Valley.

markqz 12/24/2023, 7:42 pm

sanderson wrote:Do you think that the fewer wild fires this summer/fall helped with the sunshine? I know it did here in the Valley.

Usually we have a fair bit of cloud cover. So even though it's warm enough, things don't grow much.

markqz 12/24/2023, 7:47 pm

Teach the controversy!
Cauliflower, or broccoli!?

One of only two Purple cauliflowers. Though my daughter says they're more like broccoli.

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markqz 12/25/2023, 8:17 pm

.... four golden zucchini ....

Yeah, I know there should have been 5, but the zucchini weren't in a festive mood.

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**sanderson** 12/28/2023, 4:30 pm

Flawless. Congratulations.

**Scorpio Rising** 12/29/2023, 10:01 am

Nice! Looks like 4 tomatoes….

Why is the purple cauliflower more like broccoli?

markqz 12/30/2023, 12:19 am

Scorpio Rising wrote:Why is the purple cauliflower more like broccoli?

It doesn't form a hard "shell" like cauliflower. And if you let it go it starts to branch out like broccoli. Guess it shows you how closely related they are.

Sanderson assures me that they do form a shell for her, so it probably has something to do with the warmer weather down here.

**sanderson** 12/30/2023, 5:15 pm

The "hard shell" is just the density. I grew a dark purple cauliflower in fall of 2016 and it was beautiful. I later grew a lighter purple and it wasn't as good.

Photo Jan 2017.

I planted this one fall 2018 and harvested the tiny head in January because it was bolting. Some years are good and others I only get nibbles. Today, I harvested the largest head of broccoli ever but I can't post the photo. Sad

My iPhone isn't talking with my email on the PC.

Variety Snowball one year. A little past prime but still good.

markqz 1/4/2024, 5:14 pm

I was out of town, so the test plant hasn't been treated for 5+ days with OH's formula. And there was rain during that time. It looks significantly worse than the plants that have been treated with milk (though probably last treated 2 to 3 weeks ago).

All of this is horribly ad-hoc and not necessarily scientific. These things shouldn't even be growing this time of the year.

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markqz 1/4/2024, 5:25 pm

We had a wind storm, and one of the walking stick kale came down. It's about 10.5 feet here, with another foot of stem left in the ground.So about 11.5 feet tall. Possibly I could make a walking stick out of it, but it would be rather wobbly. I think the 3 year old dinosaur kale was better in that regards.

Here you can see it pictured with a tape measure. As you can tell, both are ... floppy.

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Although this has been interesting to try, it didn't grow as fast or as tall as I had hoped, probably because of lack of water. Also, all the leaves grow at the top, making it impossible to treat, care for, and harvest leaves.

markqz 1/4/2024, 7:22 pm

Purple caulflower and snow fairy tomatoes. The snow fairy has been posed so you can't see the crack in it.

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markqz 1/6/2024, 3:20 pm

Still coming.

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This is not normal. Zucchni actually grows like a vine, continuously making more stem while the older leaves die out. So this plant is nearly 3 feet from it's roots, or would be if I didn't have a deer net over it, frustrating it's attempts to take over the yard.

**Scorpio Rising** 1/6/2024, 5:56 pm

markqz 1/8/2024, 9:29 pm

Two golden zucchini. The larger one was hiding behind the smaller one. Clever girl.

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markqz 1/10/2024, 8:54 pm

Since we entered a new year, I guess these are technically biennials. Now that the days are getting longer, they might even make it to Spring -- except for the mildew.

While it's fun to grow in Winter, I hate to think how hot the Summer is going to be.

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**sanderson** 1/10/2024, 9:02 pm

You lucky "lower left hand corner" folks being able to grow summer crops into winter. Very Happy

markqz 1/12/2024, 11:02 pm

**sanderson** 1/13/2024, 3:43 pm

markqz 1/20/2024, 11:23 am

Zucchini, caught red-handed.

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Just to repeat, this is not a normal year. My first zucchini would be 6 months away typically (because the dense overcast between Feb and May really slows growth).

markqz 1/24/2024, 8:47 pm

First crop of 2024, or tail-end of crop from 2023? Semantics, seamonkeys.

They've been carefully arranged so you don't see the hideous cracks on the back of the smaller ones. As far as I can tell, Cherokees are born to crack.

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**sanderson** 1/25/2024, 5:32 pm

Crackin' Cherokees Razz

Hope my ancestors find humor also.

markqz 1/29/2024, 10:15 pm

markqz 2/3/2024, 1:56 pm

Another one, shown with all its cracks:

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**sanderson** 2/9/2024, 10:43 pm

I still love them, ~~warts~~ cracks and all.

markqz 2/19/2024, 11:25 pm

I gave this one to my neighbor, who kindly posed it so I could get one parting shot.

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Mark's first SFG