Weekly Garden Thread - April 2-8, 2022 [Garden Goals for 2022 Edition]

April 2, 2022 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memorium

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

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[Pollard]

All American is the cream of the crop. No gasket to need replacement. Lasts lifetimes. I've got a Presto from walmart because that's what I could afford. Works fine, has the jiggler instead of pressure gauge. I prefer the jiggler because I can hear it from the next room so I don't have to visually check the pressure. That and it's a familiar sound from my childhood. My mom didn't can but she did pressure cook. Gaskets are pretty well universal and easy to find for brand name canners like Presto. I'm still using the original and should get a spare sometime soon just to keep on hand. I treat it carefully, store the lid upside down instead of leaving the weight of the lid on the gasket for extended periods. I rub a little oil on it occasionally so it doesn't dry out but I don't leave it oily. I oil it and then wipe it dry but some soaks in I'm sure.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html Guide 01 Principles of Home Canning - page 1-19 talks about pressure canners. They mention the disadvantage of jiggler type being that you can't make small adjustments for altitude. I'm at 1,100 feet and anything over 1,000 feet, you add weight/pressure.

The jiggler with no weights is 5 pounds, jiggler plus one weight is 10 pounds and jiggler plus both weights is 15 pounds.

For my 1,100 feet altitude, using a dial gauge canner, I would do tomato juice 15 minutes at 11 pounds but using a jiggler type, they say do 15 pounds due to the 5/10/15 selection.

I cheat. I weighed a jiggler weight, divided by 5 and added a washer that weighed that amount. That way, I can use one weight plus the washer to get my 11 pounds instead of having to use both weights for 15 pounds. Works in my mind LOL. My house is at 1,100 feet but the other, low end of the property is 1,000 feet.

Only a few recipes are like that. I mostly do low acid foods which are all pretty much 90 minutes at 15 pounds. Covers meat, stock, non-tomato veggies, soups etc. Tomatoes are a special case. Some varieties have enough acid for water bath but others don't so tomato based canning recipes always have you add some acid. Lemon juice, citric acid. Recipes that have vinegar as an ingredient are usually considered acidic.

Old canning recipes really shouldn't be used. I lost a bunch of canned tomatoes one year because I did a joint canning session with a neighbor. She did what she thought was her grandmother's method, water bath and I used my pressure canner. The head space she left was all over the place, 1/4 inch to over 1 inch when it was supposed to be half inch. She didn't add any acid. We both got done and put the jars on the counter to cool. I went home for a little bit and when I came back, they had rearranged and mixed up all the jars and she pulled out half but not necessarily her half. I didn't trust what she had done and had no idea which ones I ended up with that she has done, aside from a few obvious ones where the head space was totally wrong. I used a few jars right away and ended up tossing the rest after a while because I didn't trust them.

There are plenty of recipes that were developed in test kitchens and tested for safety. Ball Blue Book, the above USDA recipes etc are safe. Misc canning recipes found on the web or recipes from old books, ymmv.

That Guide 01 Principles of Home Canning will tell you all you need to know about the methods and equipment. You can buy a water bath canner as a kit with accessories like a jar lifter, head space gauge, jar funnel and it's just about as cheap as buying the accessories by themselves plus you get a big stock pot when not using as a water bath canner. Depending on your selection of stores, you might find an accessory kit without the black kettle. The kettle with accessories is what I found at the time/place we were at.

[Pollard]

Got my front yard garden fence put up and all of my cool weather seedlings put in the ground yesterday, regardless of size. Got two types of mustard greens that germinated fine but have stayed tiny. They’ll either make it or not.

The exception is Tokyo Turnips because I just got those seeds. Might seed them direct in the ground and put toilet paper rolls over them so I know where they are and to keep those stem chewers off of them.

Lost a few seedlings because I missed watering for a day and a half.

Half the peas that something chewed down outside came back. Nothing kept munching them even though there’s been no fence until yesterday. Meant to soak some more seeds last night to stick in the ground today. I have no idea what’s planted for peas because I didn’t keep track when putting them out and I started two different types, Lincoln and edible pod. I think its the Lincoln that are still out there and the edible pod that got eaten. Either one will never make it in the house. I tend to snack on them right off the vine. Can’t imagine growing enough peas to can. Maybe next year or later this year when I get the big garden area squared away. Need to fence the goats out because it’s in their 12 acre fenced area. Got everything I need to do it.

Got a few maters up-potted and the rest of them plus the peppers will all get up-potted today. All will get a little aged, sifted goat manure and maters will get some bone meal. Need to restart a couple of pepper varieties that died during that man-made dry spell LOL.

The soil in the front yard is rockier than I remember though I’ve only grown a single row of maters out there before. Will be fine for peas, lettuce and greens but I’ll have to see if I can find a spot in that fenced area with less rocks for the kohlrabi and Tokyo turnips. Either that or make a spot by going through it real good and pitching the rocks. Gravel driveway is right next to it and I already tossed quite a few rocks over or through the fence onto it.

[Pollard]

Wow. A Missourian that knows what the name of the mushrooms are. Everyone around here knows what they look like but can’t tell you the name. They’re Spring mushrooms or Fall mushrooms LOL.

[metmom]

I always hot water bath can my tomatoes and have only tried adding lemon juice one year, but have never had any problems.

But I use my sauce for pasta sauce so I cook the snot out of it after opening it anyways.

I got a tomato variety called Old Brooks from Totally Tomatoes that is an older variety and tends towards the acidic side. It’s supposed to be resistant to blossom end rot and early and late blight as well.

Two of the varieties I didn’t check well for size and it turns out they are cherry tomatoes, so I will give those away to friends or garage sale them.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks for the canner info. I asked ‘The Chairman’ this morning at breakfast and he’s behind this purchase. Yay!

He’s usually supportive of ANY food-related purchases. ;)

[Pollard]

I'm doing Brandywine and one called Tappy's from rareseeds.com. Tappy's seems like a good all purpose mater.

I'm also doing 4 types of cherry tomatoes. Rosella, Barry's, Chadwick and Yellow Pear, all from rareseeds. I like them in salads, eaten whole or sliced in half and salted. Doing 4 in search of a favorite. Whichever one I like best, I'll just do that next year.

[Ellendra]

I got an All-American canner several years ago. It’s a good, solid canner. But, I had trouble keeping the pressure steady. I think that had a lot to do with my stove rather than the canner. Jackie Clay recommends the All-American, and she cans enough every year she could supply her own grocery store if she wanted to!

More recently I bought a Presto digital pressure canner. That thing has been a Godsend! No more constant fiddling to keep the pressure steady, it monitors itself. Just plug it in and follow the directions on the screen. I did more canning with that thing in the first few months than I did the 10 years prior.

The only downside to the digital canner is that it requires a reliable source of electricity. The All-American just requires a heat source. If you’re in a situation where wood or propane are more available than electricity, you’ll probably do better with the All-American.

If you have the funds available, hedge your bets and get both, so you can use the digital for normal times and the non-digital during outages. But if you can only get one or the other, choose based on your own situation.

[metmom]

I have never had trouble keeping the temperature and pressure steady with mine.

I also like the weighted thing that jiggles when you are canning. You can listen for the jiggle from the other room and not worry about having to baby sit the batch.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Canning is a lot of work. I remember my father and mother doing it. Its a good way to store your garden produce.

I chose what I hope are high yielding determinanate varieties with good disease resistance. Hope to get enough to do a little canning.

Thanks for the discussion! You also have information in the links on your home page?

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Diana; I have a Jungs Raspberry Shortcake raspberry in a black 10 gallon trade pot....

This is the 2nd year and I do not think I need to do anything yet, but when do I trim the canes? (Such as they are on this hopeful patio plant!)

[Pollard]

Not as much work as sausage making. LOL I made bratwurst once. Lotta work. Made some blackberry jam from blackberries the kids and I collected around the area. That was a lot of work too.

Yes, I went to my home page to get the link to USDA/UGA food preservation site.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Diana; updated photos. I need to thin out the tomatoes and move them to 4"x4" pots for a while. (As you intimated that I would need to do (with the exception of the 6 tomatoes I planted into the low tunnels...3 EarlyDoll and 3 Celebrity.)

Metmom; You can see the inside of the low tunnels here. You can remove sections of the low tunnel one at a time. Its not perfect, but I like this better than draping fabric over hoops and weighing it down with stones or fabric pegs. You do need to secure it against blowing away. I put them down starting on the lee side and work back to the windward side so that the structure sheds the wind. I put block the opening so the wind will not pick it up and blow it off to the next yard. I will probably try some bungee cords with hooks to secure it. Here, Red Tabby and giant viroflay spinach, Cilantro and dill, then Chinese vegetables (Chinese Cabbage, mizuma, golden Choi.) and a lone cabbage plant!

6 tomatoes in a different tunnel with chinese vegitables and lettuce. By the time the lettuce is picked --4 or 5 weeks--we will have had our last frost and I can plant basil and marigolds behind the Tomatoes.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Bratwurst. Diana lived not far from the the epicenter of Brat production! (Beer too!)

At my parents place in WI they had black raspberries in the woods. You collected several buckets and ended up with several small jars! (A lot of seeds!) They also had a regular red raspberry patch. Never saw blackberries until I came out here.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Comes with a Maltese cross inside!

(Off to do things!)

[metmom]

Neat.

Thanks for the photos.

I showed mr. mm those and told him I want to try that.

[metmom]

I usually make canning a three day process.

The first day I set everything up and make sure I have washed jars and lids, etc.

The second day, I do the actual processing and basic clean up that must be done. The jars cool that day also.

The third day, I wash the jars and label them and then put them in the basement and put the canning stuff together for the next batch.

That keeps it from killing you by trying to do it all in one day.

It is a lot of work but there is so much satisfaction in doing it. Plus, you know the quality of it, where it came from, and what is in it.

[Pollard]

Some people in windy areas reinforce their high & low tunnels with criss-crossed ropes. It helps to keep the plastic from billowing out when the wind blows in one end and also helps keep the roll up/down sides in places.

Some screw in ground anchors would give you something to lash down to as opposed to lashing to the frame like they do with high tunnels.

There are quite a few different styles. Some might work better in sand where another would be better for clay.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=screw+in+ground+anchors&iax=images&ia=images

The orange ones above are 15" long with a 4" dia helix and are 4 for $20. https://milspecanchors.com/ground-screw-anchor-1-2-x-15-with-4-helix-set-of-4/

Orange Screw ™ brand looks like they'd be good for rocky soil but are pricey. $25 for two large anchors. https://www.orangescrew.com/products/large-ground-anchor-black-2-pack

I would imagine you'd find china knock offs on ebay/amazon. They were designed with tens and canopies in mind. Paracord would work good as the rope/line because it's smooth and less apt to rub through the plastic. It's also strong and cheap.

I made a bunch of ground screw anchors once using 1/4" fender washers which are thin and almost 1 1/2" outside diameter. I made a cut with tin snips from the outside edge to the center hole and then used pliers to bend into a helix. Then I slid one on an eye bolt and tack welded it and repeated for the rest. That was for Florida sand and just holding 4x8 tarps for a day.

For this clayey loam I have here in MO, I would use 3/8" fender washers and eye bolts or maybe try and find 3/8" rod or #3 rebar, cut them to length and bend my own eye on one end. The #3 means 3/8". The #4 rebar is 4/8" aka half inch. A 20 foot length or #3 rebar is $15 or so and fender washers are $0.30 ea. That's a lot of anchors for $25-30.00 but I have a welder and torch so that would work for me.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Pollard, thank you for the suggestion! I wish I had room for a high tunnel! (Like the one at the photo link to your home page / Pollards prepper links!)
One of the reasons I am using a lite weight insect barrier is cabbage loopers that totally destroy any cabbage type plants.
I'll use it as far into the season as I can.

Since mine is small low tunnel I have been throwing something on top to keep it from blowing away and that has worked so far.

However, I have some of these squirreled away somewhere and I think I'll dig them out:

Coghlan's Twist Anchor Plastic Tent Stake, Orange $1.88

These are meant for tents for camping and I would NOT use these for a real high tunnel, I would use the ones you mentioned.
(I used mine as anchors for the paracord for my suspended tomato plants!)

**Looking at that high tunnel, it might make a great run for poultry. Till the soil, put the coop at one end,
put up your high tunnel, provide ventilation, and let your chickens eat and fertilize the run, and occasionally move it to your next vegetable plot. (Says the man who has no poultry!)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

In the 10 years I worked for Jung’s we had to replace our Hoop House plastic (and a few metal parts) 2x due to straight-line wind damage.

Man, what a job!

I’ve been lucky so far this season - no damage to my greenhouse like there was this time last year. Of course NOW I’ve jinxed myself!

[metmom]

That’s what I would need. We tend towards a lot of wind.