Weekly Gardening Thread – 2011 (Vol. 32) August 19

Free Republic | 08-19-2011 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. Weather has been great here in East Central Mississippi but my garden is basically done for the season. I do have some paste tomatoes coming along just fine and hope they produce before the first frost. They have a good chance to produce because the first frost around here is usually in late October or early November.

If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.

I hope all your gardens are flourishing.

[tubebender]

I grow Heritage Raspberries here and they spread by the roots like some mutant Kudzu plants. In the begging I bought a 2’ x 5’x 18” stock watering trough and cut holes in the bottom, set it in a pit I dug and filled it with potting soil and some native soil and planted 12 or 18 roots. Within 6 months it had jumped the planter and today that bed is 8’ x 25’ and the only reason it hasn’t spread beyond that is because we mow the suckers down. Lady Bender picked 5 or 6 GALLONS of berries which she pureed and froze, made fresh pies and still gave away 3 gallons...

[Ladysforest]

Has anyone noticed the size of the canning jars this year?

I have some 4oz.ball jars purchased a few years ago. They will hold 6oz., but are only marked up to the 4oz. level. All sizes of my ball jars are that way.

Last week I purchased new jars for jelly/applebutter, and when I took them out of the box they looked miniature and cute. I thought I had gotten mixed up on the size, but no - they are 4oz.

4oz. and “headroom” and nothin’ else. Seems the “down sizing” of products has hit the canning jars as well.

And I messed up my first batch of peach jam to boot! I’m blaming the jars.

[Aliska]

Wow! Those are red, and they have a different propagating habit and cultivating needs. You planted them too close together from what I read tonight, but it sounds like it's working for you and what is the difference if you plant close together and they sucker/cane close together? Ordinarily I like plants that sucker because it's an easy way to get more, but they can be a nuisance and don't always pop up where you want them. And it's best to sever the connecting root from the mother plant and let them put down more of their own roots before xplanting. I had terrible losses trying to grow freshly dug rose suckers; luckily just one took and puts out suckers now, took about 3 years to get to that point.

I can't bury anything that big (physically), and looked up those factoids about Bristol. It propagates from I guess it would be nodes on the root and if you want more, you have to bury the tip several centimeters.

I don't really have an ideal place for them here, and they need lots of water and fertilizer in the spring and other things for optimum cultivation. I'll be lucky if I get these in the ground soon enough to set roots down further to survive the winter. I'll plant mixing compost with the soil and lay out cardboard or layers of newspaper covered with lots of grass clippings which is all I have for mulch. In the fall I hope I can grab some oak leaves from the neighbors, lost my mulch maple tree last year. Oak leaves are the best.

I think both red and black like slightly acidic soil but need nitrogen fertilizeer so have to watch the ph and I don't have a tester. From your high yields, you're doing it all right. I will have to remember the fruit on the cane the second year and then the cane is done, hope I can tell the difference, should be similar to roses.

I have some red ones in the fridge from the store, frozen, thawed and have to add your own sugar now, got them for a treat. I like them over vanilla ice cream.

Thanks so much for the response. I wish I had some veggies going as that's what most here are doing which is a good thing.

[Aliska]

No, I rounded up many I had and bought a lot of jars several years ago when I canned. Luckily I got some little ones for cranberry sauce I make with raspberries, but it didn't can well. I wouldn't like the new ones at all. Maybe you can find some used ones. I don't know; I'm hanging onto mine even if I probably won't can anything this year.

Sorry you messed up the jam. I haven't done that but once, wild grapes. I'd have to buy some pectin and use a recipe. I don't know if my grandmother used pectin or not; she made all kinds of yummy jams and jellies.

My Mormon friend got ahold of some red grapes and made jam out of them. I knew the juice from the red ones was special, but that jam was indescribably delicious.

[onyx]

PREFECT ©

[Ladysforest]

The jam would have been fine, but I was paranoid about it setting right - so I overdid the pectin a bit. I think it will work just fine baked in a coffee cake, but as jam it is a bit too firm.

I know my mother always used pectin, and I’m sure my grandma did too. I believe you can make something like pectin using apples....but I’m fuzzy on that.

I guess Certo has a “low or sugarless” liquid pectin out now. I will try that next time as I do not want SEVEN and A HALF CUPS of sugar in one batch of jam. I only put 5 1/2 cups in this batch, and the flavor is very nice, but it’s also why I over did it on the pectin. I was afraid it wouldn’t set if I cut two cups of sugar from the recipe. I didn’t know about the “low sugar” pectin till I was reading the insert while I was cooking the peaches.

I have much better luck using the liquid Certo pectin by the way. More predictable results.

Well, wish me luck!
We just got a T-storm warning with possible big hail.
I ran out and grabbed off all the tomatoes that had any color at all, and a bunch that didn’t. Threw some plastic over as much of the tomatoes as I could manage even though it will just be blown right off.

Also grabbed three acorn squash, a doz. cucumbers well very ready to be picked anyway, and a quart of green beans. Oh, and two nice bell peppers.

Think I’ll go cover my three whole cantaloupe.

[momtothree]

Mine are the pink ones (although now you have me very interested in the pink/lavender/sky blue tipped ones.. very exotic sounding). My Mom had some when I was little and we sort of got use to calling them “Fairy lilies”. I guess that they seem to just pop up overnight, no leaves or anything.. almost magically. My Mom use to tell us when we were really little that the fairies planted them when they thought we needed a bit of color. For some strange reason, I still never see them grow. One morning, they are suddenly there.. so I guess some of the magic still remains.

Sorry to hear about how much you need rain. I feel so sorry for people who work so hard on a garden or some plants/bushes.. only to see it dry up and disappear. I think your next year’s plan on vegetables and herbs is a fantastic one. (((hugs))) Mom

[momtothree]

“... a member of the garden club was very offended by the name”.

Well... it is just a name! I think it has to do with the fact that it doesn’t have leaves... so the stem is, well... naked. I had to laugh that someone got offended by the name. I’m still chuckling! I like them because I find them unusual and they appear when all the other “lily” types are done.

[tubebender]

I forgot to mention that our planting is over 20 years old. Our soil is on the acid side of the PH scale here in the Redwoods and I do fertilize a couple of times a year and water regularly. In another climate the Heritage would put on 2 crops I believe?

[Aliska]

I know why I never tried harder to make jelly. Recipes call for straining through cheesecloth, and I never know where to get it except maybe the fabric store, always another errand. Then I don't think you use it again.

Peach jam sounds heavenly (jams shouldn't need as much pectin) and I agree with you to try to reduce the sugar, using so much just to get it to set.

Sounds like you've been VERY busy. Nice assortment of fruits and veggies you've got going there. I'm an apricot freak and sacrificed my poor old crooked but healthy apricot tree to the power company. It was a standard, and I couldn't get at the fruit because it was on the top, picked up what I could off the ground if the ants hadn't gotten it too badly. Moorpark. Often the frost would get the blossoms, but that had the best apricots I ever had the years I did get any.

Hope the storm wasn't as bad as it sounded like it could be. I don't see how hail could do much damage to acorn squash lol. Good luck with your jars. Only somebody who's tried canning knows how much work it is. I think that's one reason I never had a full garden. Just canning tomatoes, corn and grean beans I was burned out but I was working a lot of those years.

My mom always bought a lug of peaches and canned them. Some of this is just too expensive unless you get a good deal at a farmer's market or grow it yourself or people will just give it to you. Those smaller white peaches used to be more available around here, free for the asking, people didn't bother with them. You have to slip them into water after peeling or they brown fast or use that other stuff. Those were exquisite. My mom canned a lot, one of my first memories canning beef during the war. Canned beef is delicious if roasted slowly first but I never tried it.

There is nothing at the store as good as home canned tomatoes.

[Aliska]

The rain isn't such a problem at home here (I don't care about the lawn, pretty brown in spots, definitely drought) but don't know how my crops are doing at the farm. I'd call but can't call that one number because of the rural exchange it's on, 'nuf of that.

We don't have water rationing with the mighty Mississippi (sure keep raising our water bills though) so I could water if I wanted to. Most stuff I grow can take it but won't be true if I grow veggies. Soaker hoses are good for some things but too hard to weed and wrestle with & other probs. Underground irrigation systems, hard to maintain. I collect water in buckets from bad gutters and use that for the plants I do water. I just hope what I let go comes back next year is all or lived long enough to set set and self seed. I didn't care all that much for rudbeckia, but I found I had two kinds, one I started from seed, and I had a great show earlier with all kinds of pretty crosses, lots of color and no maintenance, long bloom time, maybe longer if I'd watered them. Also my crazy daisies I wintersowed were really pretty this year.

Now to the Lycoris Squamigera which is the botanical name, I dug out one of several photos I'd taken in that field for you, took some doing lol. It was back in 2003 and some of my files are missing from too much backing up, restoring, changing computers. Anyway, here it the best example showing all the color variations.

I don't know how those 3 clumps got in that field, but I think the reason they survived and thrived was because notice the undergrowth and queen anne's lace. When that dies back in winter, it would form a nice, protective mulch like I didn't do. Then come spring, these things are tough and just shoot right through all that; some plants couldn't handle the crowding. Then sometime in August come the bloom stalks, the resurrection, and they must be really strong to push up thru that growth. Amazing.

I bought 5 bulbs from Old House Gardens. You can google them. They were expensive but I thought would be worth it especially if they would multiply like I saw pink ones do down the street. Well I didn't notice zone 6. Plus these are imported from Holland so I don't know if they would be as pretty. I think Brent and Becky's might carry them. They are scarce and hard to come by. The pink ones are easier to find. And how do you know but what if you think you are ordering what I want, they won't turn out pink if they bloom? I've had so many disappointments like that.

At Old House Gardens they are under fall planted bulbs>diverse others. 5/$40 or $9.95!!! apiece. Yikes. I've looked some on the web and haven't found a promo photo with as beautiful colors as the one in that field. I wish I could have saved them, even went to the court house to try to figure out who owned the land, got a name, then chickened out, too shy to approach them. Sometimes if you find something on somebody's property, they don't even know they have it or care about it, if they find out you want it, they don't want to let you have any, not all, just one or two to get started. Others I've found couldn't be kinder or more generous.

Anyway, I've learned that I wasted money on really neat things like 2 of those red rhododendrons (Nove Zembla) which did not flourish for me, now both gone. So I decided not to try to force so much what I want but let nature take the lead and grow what works well for me even if I prefer something I saw somewhere or in somebody's yard.

[Aliska]

Lycoris (both pink and the other) have straplike leaves like hyacinths in May that emerge slowly like most spring-flowering bulbs. Then they die back to nothing like hyacinth or tulip leaves in 6 weeks or so. Then it’s like they’re dead, no flowers. Then in August they shoot up the bloom stalk. They couldn’t survive if they didn’t have leaves because the leaves help it to store food for the bulbs so they will survive and thrive. So if you want your bulbs to come back don’t cut the leaves, let them die naturally and feed them. Some won’t come back anyway, finicky things. Tulips are especially like that, just peter out after a couple years so most people around here grow them like annuals. Someone told me the Lycoris originated in Japan.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Thanks for the heads up on BH&G. I'll look for one at the magazine rack. After a couple of decades of subscribership, I quit Southern Living because it was not the mag that it used to be. My first job out of school was at an office building next to the Southern Living headquaters building, in a beautiful 'buildings set in the middle of an old growth forest' pretty much in Mountain Brook, AL. There were breathtaking views from the offices.

Anyhoo ... here is a photo of the speckled butterbeans that I am canning today. We've picked almost 5 bushels so far and the plants are still blooming. Since we are on our 42nd day of temps above 100, I am appreciating the toughness of a lima bean plant! With watering, I was keeping them alive and blooming, but I didn't expect much. Just as the pods started forming, we had 2 good rains in a 2 week period, which filled the pods with beautiful, fat beans.

If y'all will allow me some rambling, I would like to share my epiphany of the week. I posted about the geese eating my ladypeas a couple of weeks ago. I was out in the garden the other day, fighting with the geese over a few peas that had formed since the mass eating, and it dawned on me. All year, it being so harshly hot and dry, I have included my geese in my prayers so that they might have adequate resources to raise their young and bear the heat. Well, DUH! The Good Lord certainly did provide for my geese ... I just wasn't wise enough to realize that I was involved in the plan. My lesson for the day was: God always answers prayers ... but not always in the form we expect.

Thanks for 'listening'. :)

[Aliska]

Now finally back to raspberries. I don't know my varieties very well, but I believe that one is supposed to recrop in the fall. Maybe it is Logan. You should be able to google it. I think they call them everbearing, but that is misleading.

I forgot about boysenberries. I do not like blackberries but will eat them when I find them outside if they are good ones. I ordered some from Oregon years ago because I'm crazy about them, but they are not hardy here and died that winter, five plants.

Now you don't see much about them any more, hope they don't become extinct or stop growing them. I think I might succeed now that I know how to get better info, help and gave them better care. I thought things like that just grew easily like the berries you find in the woods. Not.

Now you make me want red raspberries because I love them, too, just that the black are not marketed probably because maybe people don't like them like I do. I still can find one brand of good black raspberry jam that has the seeds strained out. Sometimes they are too seedy because they either are not good plants or don't get enough water.

And sometimes the bird will drop a seed, and if they are happy, they will spread and put out a nice crop. I think red might be a little harder to grow from seed.

I'm not of a mind to sell stuff, too many complications, but red raspberries were a good cash crop up near Minneapolis. People grew them for the restaurant market, surprised they are hardy that far north, zone 3 or 4.

You could probably sell your excess at a Farmer's Market at a good price. Look what they charge in stores for fresh ones! It's terrible in CA the price of blueberries like that, and I thought they were bad here.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

I wanted to share a website with everyone. Red Hill General Store is the best place I've found online if you have a pressure canner. They carry virtually every part you may ever need for most brands of pressure cooker/canner. In my case, I inherited a Mirro 22 qt. and that link provides all parts for all Mirro pressure canners.

I have no personal interest in the store, but it took me some time to find a store like this and I thought I would share it in case anyone ever needs parts.

[lysie]

Bringing this over to the Weekly Gardening thread.

Mystery Plant

[WestwardHo]

I’ve been watching your post. I’m not an expert. I hate sudden death syndrome, and like you looking for good answers.
Just asking: How’s your drainage? Do you have clay, or rock that’s keeping the deep roots soggy?
I’ve killed a lot of stuff by over watering.
I’m in eastern NM with high heat and serious drought. Even though I’ve been watering a lot several hardy plants were burned when I applied fish fertalizer....just too hot and dry.
I’m just guessing since your plants died from the bottom up, it may be a drainage problem.
I was hoping we’d see an expert respond!

[Red_Devil 232]

Your Geese are lucky to have a Mom like you!

[greeneyes]

Thanks for the link. The have some interesting stuff.

[eastforker]

OH, OH! Greeneyes and blond in the same post, are either one of you classy?