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Garden Gate:  2006 Wins and Losses?  |
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 21 2006 : 09:13:08 AM
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Now that the growing season is more than well underway, I'm curious to know what sorts of varieties have done gangbusters for you, and which ones have failed.
You know how it goes; you choose a new variety of pepper, which is normally difficult for you, and this year you have them coming out your ears. Or you plant your old tried and true lettuce, but earwigs get every last head. Or there's one something that year after year yields heavily for you, that you could call your "mortgage lifter." 
So, how's it going? What's working and what's not? What do you think, as a result, that you'll do differently next year? I look forward to hearing your responses! |
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DaisyFarm
True Blue Farmgirl
1646 Posts
Diane
Victoria
BC
Canada
1646 Posts |
Posted - Aug 21 2006 : 10:21:13 AM
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Funny Mary Ann, I was thinking of starting this thread myself. It's a good time of year to do it too...I always think I'll remember when seed ordering time comes around, but I never do! So, for this year...
Mortgage Lifter - "Big Beef" tomatoes - a beefsteak but more rounded shape so with less waste. Tons of them that average a pound or more each. Truly amazing variety with nice flavor and texture. The plants were robust and set lots of tomatoes, about six per cluster and they average three clusters per plant. And I planted 35 plants...you can do the math! lol
Green Beans - "Venture" - a bust. Were tough, had no holding ability and weren't nice flavored. Might be good for rebuilding my foot bridge.
Peppers - "Cubanelle" - tons of them, about 6" long and nice flavor.
Peppers - "Super Heavy Weight" - tons of them and HUGE without sacrificing nice thick walls and sweet flavor. Definitely a must have for next year.
Beets - "Scarlet Supreme" - far surpassed "Detroit Dark Red", my standby, for flavor and nice greens.
Lettuces were a bust this year unfortunately as they sell well. Just as they were coming into their own, we got a heat wave that made them all bitter. Bummer.
It's too soon to know about the squashes, although I did plant our favorite Delicata and it's growing and producing nice fruit, but they don't look like the Delicata we usually grow?? It was new seed too.
Petunias - "Celebrity" - nice mix of colors on compact plants, looked like an old-time variety like my grandmother used to have. The deer particularly enjoyed them. :)
Gladiolas - started out really pretty. I now have great "glad sticks". See petunias.
Lesson learned this year...don't ever, EVER, plant a tomatillo in your greenhouse! Holy cow, it's about 8' tall! lol
Di
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DaisyFarm
True Blue Farmgirl
1646 Posts
Diane
Victoria
BC
Canada
1646 Posts |
Posted - Aug 21 2006 : 10:30:22 AM
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This poem was written by my mom years ago. It shows the optimism us gardeners have.
This spring with rake and spade in hand,
I raked and dug to beat the band.
Then I sat back to watch things grow,
While the temp went down to hit a new low.
Now I tell you everything's a sight,
From frost and bugs and every blight.
Everything that's tried to bloom,
Has met a very dreadful doom.
The bugs have tried to eat my rose,
And what they left is slightly froze.
My delphiniums leaves are curled up tight,
To keep aphids in and out the light.
Three out of four of my poppies died,
The one that's left has bugs inside.
My tiger lilies just shriveled up,
After visits from the neighbor's pup.
I've green and red and brown wee bugs,
And something black, looks like a slug.
My dusting powder is all gone,
But still the little creeps live on.
They walk around on little legs,
And when they've gone, they've left their eggs.
So I just stand and hang my head,
To see my poor sick flower bed.
My garden was unlucky too,
My strawberries are a sickly blue.
The cutworms seem to like my peas,
There aren't no cukes, cause there aren't no bees.
The carrots didn't come at all,
The potato bugs have had a ball.
But I'll be out again next spring,
Boy, I gotta be a ding-a-ling.
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Annab
True Blue Farmgirl
2900 Posts
Anna
Seagrove
NC
USA
2900 Posts |
Posted - Aug 21 2006 : 12:53:14 PM
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We planted Pink Girl variety tomatoes. they did exceptionally well and are still baring a few bigger fruits
Made the mistake of trying Beefsteak variety again.....no such luck glad the chickens got some use out of 'em. they all turned in and never plumped out peppers were pathetic due to grass up too high before peppers had a chance to get established
cukes made well and I canned 2 dozen quarts of pickles YEA!
and best of all, our money crop of watermelon are still coming on too, are are x-tra sweet all 3 fields yielded exceptionally
you know you are a farm gal when you pick a watermelon, bust it on the ground and scoop out just the heart w/ bare hands....if that's no good, pick another and try again who needs a fork! We swear bt the Crimson Sweet variety. Congos are impressive, but still aren't as tasty
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Aug 21 2006 : 2:37:06 PM
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Oh my goodness, you ladies make me laugh this afternoon!!! 
Diane, your Venture green beans really made a picture! Oh my, I'll be sure and stay away from those. Thanks for the heads up! The Big Beef tomatoes are working well in our garden, too! Delicious flavor, nice shape without those rediculous wasteful shoulders, eh? The plants are taking over the garden! Also, the Fourth of July salad tomatoes are really prolific, although they're a bit prone to cracking. Oh well, even though they're mulched, I haven't been good about watering to maintain even moisture. I had some tomato hornworms earlier in the year, and just about wore myself out picking them. Finally I just broke down and sprayed with Bt. Voila, no more worms.
One of the lettuces we got that did so well was Buttercrunch, which is a more heat tolerant, slow to bolt variety. I was surprised, because even as it began to bolt, the tops stayed tender and sweet. The arugula stayed good for a long time, too. We didn't harvest as much spinach as we should have; it bolted almost overnight.
We lost all the vine crops to stupid squash beetles, even though I sprayed every five days with rotenone. The plants were thick with them. Next year I'm going to plant first in the house, so I can get more zucchini before the squash bugs win; and I'm going to try Waltham butternut, since it seems to be more resistant to most the squash pests. I'm going to forget about pumpkins and acorn squash next year, unless I have plenty of space in the hotbed/coldframe to waste. I'll grant that we did get a respectable amount of zucchini before it succumbed, so I'll go around with that one again next year.
And the seedless watermelon plants were checked when I set them in, and they never rebounded. They laid in the ground and barely grew three leaves each. I got sick of stepping over them and finally began stepping ON them. 
I tried a new (to me, anyway) yellow onion called Candy. It was very sweet and grew huge, thick bulbs. They cured really easily, too. The red onions did very well too, but the white onions really never took off. They stayed puny. I'll get just red and yellow next year.
Peppers have done about average. Good meaty walls, but nothing spectacular. I don't even remember what I bought anymore; I do remember that what I'd wanted was sold out before I got my lazy butt in gear to order. I ended up taking something else. Next year I'll do it from seed, rather than buying plants. Much more variety available that way, anyway.
Also, I got some parsley this year. Something had eaten just about all the basil, and I'd pretty much given up; but I found some hiding amongst the renegade tomato vines. I kept thinking, "That smell isn't tomato plant...." I was glad to see it, even though it tried to fake me out. The parsley, on the other hand, has taken off until it's come to resemble shrubbery. It's huge! I've never grown so much parsley in my life! What in the world does one do with that much parsley???
I have to tell you about my Romano beans. Years ago, when my kids were little, I saw a plan for a teepee made out of poles and pole beans. The beans were planted at the base of the poles, and were allowed to run up them to make a leafy green teepee. I always wanted to do that for my kids, but never had it together enough to do it. And now they're grown with kids of their own, so I figured it'd be my piece of whimsy in the garden for my grandkids. Well, I got some nice saplings cut, all about ten feet long, and made the teepee. Sunk them deep into the freshly tilled garden soil. Planted the beans all around, and waited. Soon they were on their way. They grew, and grew, and grew. Lots of foliage, no beans. And they grew some more. They took over all ten feet of the teepee, the little red chair inside becoming almost completely covered over with leaves. They started after my tomato plants, the squash vines, and even are threatening to climb a tree that's ten feet up! FINALLY we got some bean blossoms, and now we have tiny tiny Romano beans. The thing looks like a jungle vine rising out of the garden, threatening to wrap around your leg and pull you in! My grandkids won't sit in the little chair; I think they know something I don't. If this thing bears like I think it could, we'll be eating Romano beans until 2010. Maybe longer. I'm going to have to use a ladder to harvest some of it though, and in next year's plan I think I'll go back to my standard blue lake bush type. Man, it's a monster!
Anna, I sure do understand that kind of decadence! Mmmmm, melon straight out of the garden! We used to drop them on the ground, too! Do you have some critters that like the rinds? Some horses do, especially if you leave a little red for them. Our dairy cow used to like it too, but we had to cut it up for her. It was kind of a hassle, so we didn't do it often.
Oh and Di, your mom is a riot! She sure understands gardening. |
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Buttercup
True Blue Farmgirl
1433 Posts
Talitha
Vermont
USA
1433 Posts |
Posted - Aug 21 2006 : 5:59:27 PM
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To All,
I so enjoyed your garden tales!! And Di, I loved your mom's poem! I do not have a garden, may try in the cooler weather. Thank you all for sharing!
Hugz!!
"If we could maintain the wonder of childhood and at the same time grasp the wisdom of age, what wonder,what wisdom,what life would be ours" |
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garliclady
True Blue Farmgirl
274 Posts
Reidsville
NC
274 Posts |
Posted - Aug 22 2006 : 05:49:49 AM
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This year we had some hits and misses
Tomatoes were the best we have had in 10 years and they are still coming For years we were planting 100's of tomato plants for market mostly heirlooms the yield was not great but last year was so bad I was buying tomatoes mid summer because the only tomatoes we had were cherries and grapes. This year we planted only 2- 100 foot rows(about 80 plants). One row was large tomatoes the other were grape cherry and romas. We planted mostly hybrids Celebrity, parks whopper, pink girls , sungold, Chiquita and a couple of herlooms Caspian Pink and Black cherry. We have had tomatoes running out our ears!!We have sold about 500 lbs of big tomatoes and 50 lbs of cherry types so far off these plants. I have also frozen some and given some to friends as well as thrown some away,These plants are still producing but have slowed down. We have 2 more 100 foot rows coming along I expect ripe ones off them in acouple weeks.
Other hits this year have been okra, yard long beans, cucumbers, zepher squash ,basil,and the best ever crop of blackberries IT was a really good year for garlic and yellow dutch shallots too.The few logs we inaculated last year for mushrooms did well and the ones we incocuated this spring have already started producing
Misses Corn- We had pretty corn but the japense beetles ate the silks off of them rendering them useless. Potatoes - we planted some for a late crop and had a heat wave and fried them in the soil! our roma pole beans did not do well and our gresey beans never came up. We just planted a late crop of bush beans . We still have several months of garden to go so I hope the fall weather is good.
My Farm http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&ext=1&groupid=140532&ck=
My Recipes http://recipecircus.com/recipes/garliclady/]
My blog http://www.epicourier.com/Garliclady/ |
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Annab
True Blue Farmgirl
2900 Posts
Anna
Seagrove
NC
USA
2900 Posts |
Posted - Aug 22 2006 : 08:34:07 AM
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Horsey-
We have enough chickens to assist w/ the leftover watermelon and other tidbits too for that matter. Sadly, our dog died 3 weeks ago. Now she liked a good tomato in the summer and would pluck turnips out to eat in the winter!
I think the chickens think its a cue whenever we hit a watermelon on the ground for ourselves, as the chickens all come running in too! We have to scoop quickly or take it elsewhere- otherwise we'll be getting a little extra "help" eating our melons! Some love the pink, others like the seed. To the side of one field we keep a compost ring (supposed to be for fire) so even when the rind is leftover, the butterflies can benifit too.
Forgot to mention above, we had a bean catastrophe. Actually the beans were more than fine, I just don't have a pressure canner. We stuck ourselves w/ about 2 pecks of picked beans and nothing to do w/ them fast enough. I hate to see good beans go bad. My mother-in-law was kind enough to take what we picked.....and rightfully canned and kept them for herself. I'm still researching canners for next year and plan on getting a BIG one that can hold 14 jars at one time.
Our neighbors down the road are seriously into the organics and permatill method. You shoulod have seen HER garden!! The eggplants were all over the place. Her peppers were prolific....also in raised beds w/ minimal weeds and companion plants all aorund. I may try raised beds in one fleld for our own peppers next year. Ended up w/ just enough anyway to make a few quarts of salsa. MMMMMMMM
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BStein
True Blue Farmgirl
75 Posts
Barbara
Westerville
OH
75 Posts |
Posted - Aug 23 2006 : 09:50:51 AM
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For future reference...green beans freeze great. Just trim, blanch and cool, and freeze in freezer bags (suck the air out). I do it when they get really cheap at the grocery. Then we have "fresh" beans all winter.
We had lots of cayenne peppers this year. That's about all we had a bumper crop of. I'll dry them and use them for spicy nuts for gifts at Christmas time. We had pretty many "Sugar Snack" cherry tomatoes and lots of large leaf basil...pesto for the winter!
Barbara (with just a small garden) |
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LadyCrystal
True Blue Farmgirl
593 Posts
Alicia
Rhode Island
USA
593 Posts |
Posted - Aug 23 2006 : 4:39:30 PM
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We have tons of cucumbers. Lots of parsley and basil. The tomatoes are starting to ripen up so they should be good this year. The bugs got all of my broccoli so that was a bust and the corn went in a little late because of all the rain we had at the end of May so the ears are small but tastey. Oh and tons of green beans. I blanched them and froze so many bags we will be set all winter. I made ten quarts of pickles too. I could do some more but I just don't ahve the time. I made salsa also. I hope to can the tomatoes this weekend.
Alicia
http://fromcitytocountrygirl.blogspot.com/
follow your dreams |
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brightmeadow
True Blue Farmgirl
2045 Posts
Brenda
Lucas
Ohio
USA
2045 Posts |
Posted - Aug 23 2006 : 8:09:57 PM
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Of tomatoes, I planted several varieties.
I will NEVER plant Silvery Fir Tree from Abundant Life Seeds again. These shriveled up and died in early July - well, the vines turned brown and all the leaves died, but the fruits kept on coming, so I left them in the garden - but the fruits got all leathery before they got completely ripe.
BeaverLodge from Territorial Seeds did OK, pretty high yielding, but I was led to believe the fruits would be bigger from the description in the seed catalog.
Sweet 100 tomatoes grew seven feet high, as usual, and yielded well, as usual.
The Mortgage Lifter did great, large fruits with multiple lobes (sometimes they look ugly) tastes like a real tomato. I raised these a few years ago and put the plants too close to the hot tub, every time my husband emptied the tub the fruits would all split and rot. They are pretty sensitive to big changes in water supply. They're doing fine this year in the garden.
I also planted Quali T 23 tomatoes from Territorial Seeds - they are the most beautiful-looking tomatoes I have ever seen - round as a baseball - but the first one is just getting ripe - I haven't tasted it yet. They seem to be very disease and pest resistant, good qualities in a late tomato.
One other variety I planted was Burpee's Bloody Butcher, an heirloom variety, which always performs well for me. High yielding, early, and good tasting - the fruits are salad-sized, somewhere between a cherry and a slicer, the stem is small and I can usually just cut the tomato in quarters to put in a salad without having to core it first.
Oh, I almost forgot, Jolly Elf was a grape tomato I tried this year for the first time - high yielding but I find the fruit a little bitter if it isn't quite ripe. And if picked before they ripen, they just rot.
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my blog at http://brightmeadowfarms.blogspot.com, web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
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Mari-dahlia
True Blue Farmgirl
269 Posts
Marianne
Hoosick Falls
New York
USA
269 Posts |
Posted - Aug 24 2006 : 6:15:18 PM
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Great topic Mary Ann!
Best tomatoes: golden jubilee, always perfect never rots or has any blemishes, always a perfect shape
Rutgers- the original campbells soup tomato, very nice shape, medium size, red
amish plum and german strawberry, I also like OLd Germans but they did not do well this year.
did not like the shape or crackability of the Black Krim or Purple Cherokee
Did not like BAby Cheese Peppers
Provider is a really nice green bush type bean
Loved growing yukon and Russian Banana potatoes from Milk Ranch |
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Garden Gate: 2006 Wins and Losses? |
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2006 Wins and Losses?
