Today's harvest

[GotGarlic]

https://www.growveg.com/guides/how-to-grow-eggplant-in-cooler-climates/

Sometimes the words on the screen can't be heard, as someone said, people only see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear.

Stop being anyone's google momma GG, let people that want to fail then, fail. That's what happens to me when my opinions are dismissed and invalidated. What harm is done?

Even people get bitter when put out in the cold.

Gee, thanks, bliss. That's very sweet of you

My goal is to help people to be successful. I guess yours is different.

 

[blissful]

Gee, thanks, bliss. That's very sweet of you

My goal is to help people to be successful. I guess yours is different.

Oh no I have the same goal, I'm just frustrated at being dismissed and invalidated, as though they aren't listening. You can't make people care when they don't care.

 

[GotGarlic]

Oh no I have the same goal, I'm just frustrated at being dismissed and invalidated, as though they aren't listening. You can't make people care when they don't care.

That's true.

 

[GotGarlic]

A recent harvest. I have plenty of green jalapeño and Fresno peppers in the freezer, so I'm letting some turn red before I pick them.

 

[taxlady]

For five months?

Not yet. And, I don't know when dragn put out her eggplants. Didn't she originally ask if they were possibly not ripe yet and if that could be the problem?

 

[dragnlaw]

Micro climate

** Thank you**

I agree with bliss on the temperature stress aspect. I looked up the temps in Montreal this summer and the 70s and low 80s on occasion are not really that hot. Eggplant is a tropical plant that needs consistent temps in the 80s and 90s for several months in order to bear well.

"How to Grow
...
It thrives in full sun and requires at least five months of warm weather for fruit production.*

I bought these as seedlings, grown in green houses here in Quebec. they were maybe 8" tall. Although our usual annual planting date in this area is around about 24th of May (the Queen's birthday) I planted them in late June (couldn't co-ordinate weather with my helper ) and this is mid/late Aug. Each plant has lots of flowers and quite a few started fruit. Just picked 2 more today and weighed them, just under 1 lb. ea. Remains to be seen what happens with the rest! Please keep your fingers crossed for me..

"The optimum daytime growing temperature ranges between 70°F and 85°F. When temperatures rise above 95°F, eggplant ceases to set fruit and may drop flowers or abort immature fruit. Fruit set is also reduced when temperatures fall below 60°F.*

... daytime temperatures are consistently above 70°F.*
Yah!! June avr. 76, July avr. 80 and Aug. avr. 78... so I'm right in the good zone!

"A gentle reminder here - temperatures below 50°F can damage these tropical natives so, if an unexpected cold spell hits, cover the plants to provide protection.".... didn't happen! whoopee!

No sign of bugs (yet) and if they survive our torrential rains on and off today with big time threat of hailstones... we're good!

Not arguing with you guys - I'm just telling you like it is! No matter what the books say we can still grow lots of tropical things here (but don't think pineapples are on that list LOL)

I tried to post this much earlier but the storm knocked out my internet - again... the fibre optic line is still laying across my front yard... felt like running out grabbing it and stuffing it into the computer somehow..

Think my rosemary plant, which tried to put on its lifejacket today... has drowned.

 

[dragnlaw]

Oh no I have the same goal, I'm just frustrated at being dismissed and invalidated, as though they aren't listening. You can't make people care when they don't care.

blissful, no one is dismissing you... I hear you (and GG) and I appreciate all that you say! It truly helps me to understand the nature of (in this case eggplants) and what could be a problem or other such things.

But nature is not written in stone and there are always exceptions to the rule. So I ask you to please not dismiss us when we do things outside the box! Lots of people successfully grow eggplants, various hot peppers and other warm temperate items here. We are in a fairly temperate zone. They may not be as plentiful or get as big as they would in their mother land but they do pretty well!

 

[blissful]

Our small potato harvest.

 

[larry_stewart]

nice potatoes!
We've been harvesting ours on an " as need' Basis up till now.
Probably do the ' big dig' in a few weeks.

Do you have a root cellar to store them in ?
If not, how do you store them, and how long do they last?

 

[larry_stewart]

Not arguing with you guys - I'm just telling you like it is! No matter what the books say we can still grow lots of tropical things here (but don't think pineapples are on that list LOL)

Never say Never
Sure I started it inside ( from a cut pineapple top)
And , sure it took about 2 years ( of patients )
but I got my pineapple here in new york.

In addition, after a few years of dragging this damn plant in an out side ( to over winter), I got my banana plant to at least flower, with baby, unripe bananas , which never matured due to the shorter (than required) season.

got 2 dwarf bananas growing now, which will be more manageable to bringing in and out during the winter, so Im hoping to get some ripe bananas in the near future.

 

[larry_stewart]

As far as eggplants go, I have hit and miss years, this year being a miss. Picked only 4 ( from 6 plants). 2 of which had bugs or i should say ' bug' in it. I searched they exterior of the whole eggplant and could not see hot the little booger got in, but he ( or she ) did. One faced his ( or her) demise by being cut in 2 as I sliced the eggplant up to use it, not knowing there was a bug inside. Just happened to cut at the right spot. Can only imagine how many bugs Ive eaten over the years ( the ones that housed in between the cuts). Anyway, Ive had years where Ive picked a dozen or two with the same amount of plants. Grown in similar location, same care ... Im guessing it was a temperature/ climate thing in my situation. That being said, My peppers did crazy good this year.

 

[larry_stewart]

Peppers grilled and frozen for later use.
String Beans Blanched and frozen
Kirbies Pickled ( and eaten shortly after)
Tomatoes, skinned, pureed and frozen.

Potatoes , after only picking about 1/10 of what I have underground, appear to be an above average year. But thats the beauty and excitement of potatoes. Never quite know what you're gonna get till you dig em up.

 

[Just Cooking]

Wonderful stories and photos... Thank you Larry...

Ross

 

[larry_stewart]

Wonderful stories and photos... Thank you Larry...

Ross

Thanks,
gotta share the positives , cause with gardening, with the positives, comes a lot of negatives .

Like the mocking bird and wood peckers that peck at my almost ripe tomatoes.
The squirrel that takes one bite out of each apple and peach then drops it on the ground just to take a bite out of another and another.
the Beetles that are devouring the leaves on my cukes and zucchinis.
and the list goes on

 

[dragnlaw]

Larry crop rotation with your eggplants - they suck alot of nutrients from the soil. What is a bumper crop one year will likely be a dud the next if in the same place. That is just one thing you can try.
But like you I am not getting a good crop on the eggplants, a few but not as many as I expected. Especially as I didn't even do a garden there last year and thought it would be great. Thankfully (so far) no bugs in/on them.

Wow! patience with the pineapple - you win the award!
With what and hhow did you start your banana?

Does anyone have a plum tree? My 4/5 year old tree suddenly has a bumper crop after nary a peep all these years. Half of them have bugs but not too worried as there are so many I don't know what to do with them all. They are very small plums - pitting them is going to be the PITS!

 

[blissful]

Larry, your peppers and tomatoes look wonderful!
With potatoes we just dig them up, hose them off, let them dry a day on the grass. Box them, cardboard boxes breathe (instead of plastic buckets), and they go downstairs to the pantry, on the floor. The temperature stays between 55 and 65 degrees F most of the year. They last through winter. In the spring they start to sprout, if they last that long, we use those for planting in the spring.

 

[larry_stewart]

Larry
With what and hhow did you start your banana?
PITS!

About 15 years ago, maybe a little bit before the " I can get anything I want at any time on the internet phase", I stumbled upon banana trees for sale in one of my gardening magazines. Of course the pictures looked great , so I purchased 4. After a few weeks, I got a box from Ecuador ( about the size of a shoe box), filled with 4 ' trees' about the size of an average leek ( in height, girth..). Read the instructions , and planted them in the ground. By then end of the season, they grew to about 4 feet or so, no bananas. These were not the cold variety types, ( that can withstand about 40 degrees F), so I did some reading and found out that you can chop off their leaves, dig it up, wrap it up and store it in a cool place ( about 55- 65 degrees, to over winter. So thats what I did.
Next March or April, i potted them indoors, water them, and in a few weeks, they started to grow new leaves. Got them outside when the weather warmed up, and they reached about 8 feet or so. Still no bananas, so i repeated what I did the past year. Problem is they were bigger, and heavier. In addition, they grow suckers from their base, so i read how to separate them, and start them off as new plants. So now, I had twice as many bananas.
Spring came around, out they went. This year reaching 12 -15 feet ( their max). Still no bananas ( season just not long enough, but I figured by overwintering them, I'd get a head start for the following year. As an ornamental , they looked great, so I didn't mind the work). Now they probably weighed about 300 Lbs, so bringing them in and out, up and down the stairs , and my increasing age and lack of ability was catching up, but I was determined to get a banana up here in NY, cause Facebook was catching on, and all I saw was pics of a friends yard in Florida, and her bragging how many bananas she gets ( I was jealous and envious).
Finally, not sure how many years later, I think in September, I noticed the new leaf coming out was a little different shape, shorter and there was a swelling inside it. Almost looked like an un-shucked ear of corn. finally it opened and I was thrilled. I felt like a new parent ( felt the same way about the pineapple, which actually appeared on fathers day). So i took pics, proudly showed friends and relatives ( not on Facebook, cause I'm not one of those people who need to display my life to everyone, and I really didn't use it much anyway). Being September, I knew there was not enough time for it to fully mature, but after the flower opened and seeing the little green bananas, I was thrilled. In my mind, I got bananas up here in NY.
Problem now, is once a banana tree produces bananas, it is done ( or at least thats how I understand it). So, I had a few of these huge banana trees that were facing their final year. I let them go as long as the frost( which ultimately killed them). Bringing them inside was not a possibility, due to the size of the root ball, the weight, 8 ft ceiling vs 15 foot tree, and lack of a green house ( unfortunately). But, what I did and have been doing, is salvaging the sucker plants , and starting all over again.
Now, with the internet and the ability to find whatever you want, I found a dwarf variety, that is great in pots, only gets about 3 or 4 ft tall. So, I still grow the large ones for ornamental purposes, and the hope that once day I ll score a bunch of banana's from it. But, Im now banking on the dwarf variety to come through. Ive had them 2 or 3 years. Didn't grow at all those years, but this year I transplanted them and they have tripled in size. Still no bananas, but at least its a more manageable size.
Plants were inexpensive maybe 10 or 20 dollars, got them at local nursery, also easily found on the internet. For some of my more exotic ( to me ) plants I shop at Logees.com. They are located in Connecticut, and you can also visit their greenhouse and check out all the plants.
Things to be careful for anyone wanting to try. Not all Bananas are edible ( there are ornamental varieties too). They also have a range of what temps they can survive in. And then there is the height, Dwarf vs regular sized. In addition, there are plants that produce red banana, short and fat bananas .... They drink a lot of water and grow extremely fast under the right conditions.
Sorry for the long story, its just really early here, wifes still sleeping, Im in a hotel room bored out of my mind with nothing to do, so I figured Id give you the life story about me and my banana tree experience.

In the pic, my daughter and the banana tree. My daughter is about 5ft tall. This was not the tree at its peak height. The one she is standing next to is the ' mother' tree, all the others are ' pups' from the same root system. The leaves are about 4 ft long, and 1 to 1.5 ft wide. Probably an early October shot, seeing the pumpkins, leave slightly changing and the yard looking messy.

 

[larry_stewart]

Larry, your peppers and tomatoes look wonderful!
With potatoes we just dig them up, hose them off, let them dry a day on the grass. Box them, cardboard boxes breathe (instead of plastic buckets), and they go downstairs to the pantry, on the floor. The temperature stays between 55 and 65 degrees F most of the year. They last through winter. In the spring they start to sprout, if they last that long, we use those for planting in the spring.

Thanks.
Last year i kinda built a make-shift root cellar that did work out relatively well. Not terribly big, though. My basement ( or at least one room in it) probably gets to the 60 degree mark. I may split them up, some in the root cellar, some in the basement.

Im always afraid of not getting anything, so I plant more than I can handle. On the thing I can store, freeze or dry, no problems. But, on the things that have to be eaten as they ripen, thats when we are stuck either giving it away, or having it on the menu for the few weeks they are harvestable.

 

[dragnlaw]

Amazing Larry, thank you! Perseverance certainly pays off for you and a little bit of stubbornness thrown in for good measure?

 

[Just Cooking]

Amazing Larry, thank you! Perseverance certainly pays off for you and a little bit of stubbornness thrown in for good measure?

+1... Love it...

Ross