Today's harvest

[larry_stewart]

Just di my first ' big' harvest of tomatoes ( which wasn't too big). In the beginning of the season looked like I was going to get more, but with the 3 weeks of rain in the beginning, then the heat wave, the plants kinda got pissed off, so Im not doing as well as Id like.

Cukes pouring in. Almost to the point where I cant eat another cucumber or pickle.

Eggplants above average for me.

Peppers off to a slow start, but I had that one year where my biggest pepper harvest was in September , so Im not worried.

Zucchini and yellow squash nearing the end. Had a mad rush for a few weeks, now nothing. Plants are looking sloppy and no evidence of anything new, so I may just rip them up.

Spaghetti squash vines also seem to be dying down. Good year for them.

Okra kicking in

Chard healthy and flourishing. Made my first ' spinach' pie yesterday.
Probably make some palak paneer over the weekend to use up more chard and tomatoes.

Second planting of string beans flowering.

Some potato tops dying off ( in one bed anyway) so probably pick them in a few weeks.

Currant bushes loaded with currants, got to get them before the birds do ( like they did with my blue berries)

Most likely will plant some peas, carrots and beets for the fall
debating whether I should also do some broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage too, as I usually dont have luck with them ( and honestly dont have the space either)

 

[blissful]

We are harvesting cucumbers, raccoons, rabbits, skunks.....we'll you get the current picture.

 

[dragnlaw]

video made me smile blissful - didn't recognize too many of those vegies and fruits. Daikon made me laugh though.

https://www.facebook.com/149214495753451/videos/2369035936486615/

 

[blissful]

dragon, it made me laugh but after I posted it, it wouldn't work on this computer so I took it out. Glad you saw it and posted it.
I loved the big watermelon!

 

[blissful]

Here's a mutant twin cucumber, joined at the side. I didn't have the heart to cut it up.

 

[pepperhead212]

I had two of those bottle gourds joined like that - resulted from two flowers joined together, together, like a figure eight, but slightly open at the center. Really strange!

 

[pepperhead212]

It's pepper time!

Only one - chocolate habanero - without a single ripe one, but that may have been due to the damage, and hopefully, it will repair itself, and come back. Still, only a few ripening on some, nut the Thai varieties will have a lot of ripe ones quickly. Some of these I wouldn't normally harvest, when they just start ripening, but I'm sending a package to a friend, who moved this year, and couldn't set up much of a garden this season.

That unknown round pepper was supposed to be Fresno, but that's not Fresno. And both plants have the same peppers. I'll see what it's like - who knows, maybe it produces better, and has similar flavor!

I uncovered my protected pepper plants today (It's usually around 8-1 when I uncover, and I haven't seen any of the pepper maggot flies on my sticky traps in well over a week, so I figured it's time) - the ones in 3 Earthboxes, with the PVC posts, supporting the Agribon. The height of those things is 5 ft, minus the depth of the EB, so those plants are TALL!
Pepper plants growing through the tops of the covers 7-28 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here are some of the plants, loaded with the peppers:
Jalafuego, uncovered 7-28 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Longhorns, uncovered 7-28 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And some of the harvests:
Longhorns 7-28 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Thai, and a few Superchilis on the bottom 7-28 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

4 red savinas, a gold bullet, and 2 aji dulce on bottom. 7-28 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

4 Hanoi Markets, an unknown round, 6 Jalafuegos, and one Aleppo 7-28 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

That one jalafuego plant had over 20 peppers on it (not including the smaller ones)! I'll definitely be making some jalapeños en escabeche soon!

I also harvested a few more tomatoes, EPs, and okra, but the peppers were the catch of the day.

 

[bbqcoder]

Very nice peppers, Dave!

I pulled a bunch of my garlic over the weekend. Have them tied and hung up for drying. Still have more to pull tonight and tomorrow. Trying to wrap things up before we leave for vacation on Friday.

I figured out why many of my garlic at the community garden did not do well. Last fall, I had dug out about 6" worth of dirt in the garlic bed and put in composted horse manure. It had looked good and was loaded with worms. Since the garlic had yellow tips from the get-go, it clearly did not like the stuff. The plants in my garden beds at the house did much better as I used regular black compost.

This year, I left most of my scapes on. Did cut a few scapes here and there. I was going by my friend's suggestion that it was an old wives' tale and he had huge garlic last year. Well, when I pulled the garlic, I could see a difference between the ones that had their scapes cut and the ones that were intact. They were 25-50% bigger. So the moral of the story is to get those scapes cut!

 

[pepperhead212]

I'm getting a lot of peppers now, and the eggplants are coming back, after that severe heat wave. Can't say as much about the tomatoes, however, but I still get a lot of cherries. Today I froze 4 pints of okra - every day I cut the larger pods, and get 7 or 8 from the 12 plants, but they are starting to produce faster. Both varieties - Emerald and Little Lucy (the purple) - grow side branches, off of which more blossoms are produced, not just on the main stalk, like most varieties do.
This was about half of 6 days worth:
About half of the okra, before cutting for freezing. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

4 pints of okra, before blanching. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

4 pints blanched okra, ready for freezing. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The purple on the Little Lucy turns to a darker green when cooked, just like with purple string bean.

 

[blissful]

bbq, we cut our scapes but more from habit than from observing the difference between cutting and not cutting.


bbq or pepper--one of you brought up cold cellars, to keep potatoes and onions and what not. Maybe start a new thread and we can check out cold cellars, if you like.

 

[blissful]

Also, we've been fighting for our produce against the raccoons.
For the past six days, 10 raccoons so far.

couldn't include the last picture, since only 8 are allowed.
We've never had a year with so much of this.

 

[larry_stewart]

My wife loves snacking on those little sweet peppers.
So, to keep her away from the garden ( and eating everything else) I have a very large pot with 3 or 4 sweet pepper varieties all growing in this pot. They share the same soil, same fertilizer and same water. My question is, why is on of the varieties developing Blossom Rot, while the other 3 varieties in the same pot are not ? All plants look healthy.

 

[pepperhead212]

Larry, I've had some varieties that were extremely prone to BER, in the same soil others have no problem in. Some get it on the first 8_
-10 tomatoes, then not on another, while a few get it on just about every one, and I end up pulling the plant.

Blissful, Sorry to hear about your problem with the raccoons! My problem has been rabbits, this year. I just re-set my traps today!

I don't have a root cellar, though all I save in my basement is garlic and butternut, and similar squash. This year I'm hoping to have some wax melons - something else that stores very long, due to the coating on the skin (I kept one for a year one time, just to see if it would!). Here's the first one forming:
My first wax melon started up! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[larry_stewart]

Only real pest problem I have this year ( so far) are the squirrels eating the sunflowers. Although I did have some insect boring into a few spaghetti squashes.

 

[bbqcoder]

Blissful, Sorry to hear about your problem with the raccoons! My problem has been rabbits, this year. I just re-set my traps today!

What trap and bait do you use for rabbits?

Blissful, what do you use for bait?

I have to setup a trap for a groundhog on my property. I have luck setting up rat traps for chipmunks and voles using sunflower seeds as bait.

 

[blissful]

What trap and bait do you use for rabbits?

Blissful, what do you use for bait?

I have to setup a trap for a groundhog on my property. I have luck setting up rat traps for chipmunks and voles using sunflower seeds as bait.

Peanut butter and marshmallows seems to do the trick. That works for raccoons and skunks. We are on day 7, nothing this morning. We also have large rat traps for the chipmunks. They go into the potted peppers and dig them out from the root and they eat strawberries.

 

[pepperhead212]

I keep rat traps in many of my SIPs, too, as squirrels were digging seedlings out, like you describe with chipmunks. Don't have many of those here, but have caught a few.

More peppers today! This was from just one of the two jalafuego plant that I have. I'll have to make some jalapeños en escabeche soon.
Jalapeños, all from one jalafuego plant, 8-2 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[bethzaring]

couldn't include the last picture, since only 8 are allowed.
We've never had a year with so much of this.

Good Grief. That's a lot of raccoons.

 

[blissful]

Beth, yes good grief!
and we don't have a farm
and we aren't growing corn
we just have 5 gardens on one acre
I think they are being imported from illinois maybe

 

[taxlady]

What do all of you do with the trapped animals?