Posted on 07/06/2012 10:51:22 AM PDT by Ellendra
It's Friday once again, and our regular gardening threadmasters still seem to be MIA. If anyone has the gardening ping list, or if anyone can get hold of JADB and have her send it to me, it would be much appreciated. In the mean time, I'm going to try and rebuild the list. That's going take a while.
Welcome to the Weekly Gardening thread! Fell free to jump in, whether you're a master gardener, or have never touched a seed in your life, this is the place to have fun and learn! It's impossible to get off-topic, since this thread can range all over the place. So, pull up a lawn chair, grab yourself a lemonade, and join in!
Thanks. My wife and I picked apples at a U-Pick farm in Mi. a couple of years ago and wished that we could have an apple tree. Hmmm.
I hope JADB is alright. For those who don't know JADB and her husband have a 3000 acre farm plus something like 20 bee hives that keeps them very busy.
I have a guestion for every one here.
Is there away to freeze corn on the cob?
Added you back in!
Can we hand polinate the tomatoes?
Sharpie markings last a couple months if I make sure they face north. Right now I’m trying writing on the part that will be in the ground so the UV can’t get to it.
We visited South Texas this past weekend. At breakfast, I asked the waitress for a fresh jalapeno. She told me she had some salsa made from the hotest pepper in the world, “would I like to try some?” of course I said “yes”. It was very nice and “spicy”. Hubby put a drop on his little finger and said “WOW, that salsa is HOT!” It really didn’t have much “ghost pepper” flavor, other than the normal spices, minus jalapeno flavor, it was just “spicy”. She didn’t have the plant, just the pepper. Evidently she didn’t save the seeds, and needed some seeds. I sent her 4 of mine. Hopefully she’ll plant them and save the seeds. I’m looking forward to see my little peppers begin to sprout. They are in a pot with a tomato, I’ll move them to their own pots when they get some leaves.
What are wild peas? I’ve seen pea post on vetch, are wild peas similar?
When does one plant garlic? and onions? Honestly, I’ve planted white and purple onions in March and they still look like they did when I put them in the ground, except they are bigger around, but no bulbs. My garlic was put in the ground in March. I planted them with my tomatoes and now they are somewhere, the green tops are gone. Hopefully the “bulbs” are growng underground and the green tops will reappear, sometime in the future. I’m befuddled.
OH Red, Habeneros are great with all sorts of meats, beans, both dried and fresh beans. I have a habenero sweet sauce for barbequed chicken. I’ve even been known to put some in vanilla and chocolate icecream, it is that “unknown” flavor, I do the same with jalapeno. I prefer the jalapeno flavor over the habenero.
What a wonderful garden you have Kitty. It looks like your raised gardens are made from concrete blocks, am I seeing right? Your Thai peppers and kohlrabi are beautiful.
I know a fellow who had quite an apple orchard over in Lufkin, Tx. He worked for the Forest Service. He could grow anything.
I fot some corn from a local farmer, 30 ears. I just left they husks on, put them in a plastic bag and froze them. When it was dinner time, I pulled out 2 at a time, thenI ran them under the faucet, removed the husks, then I nuked them. They were good.
I live in Western Pennsylvania so I plant garlic in October - around Columbus Day. They started coming up in March, I believe. This is my second try. Year before last, I took the shells off of each bulb. They didn’t come up in the spring. In fact, they completely rotted into the soil! LOL! When I planted last October, I separated each bulb into segments and left the skin on. It worked this time!
We always plant onions in March. They are one of the earliest that you can plant. Usually, you’ll get an “onion snow”. The snow won’t hurt the onions. We just did a second planting to be harvested in the fall.
The University of Florida has also developed a low-chill (200-250 chill hours) apple variety called TropicSweet. You might be able to mail order it in Texas. It should be available from mail order nurseries, but you might need to hunt a bit. Einshemer is another low-chill variety. You might be able to find Dorsett Golden and Anna in nurseries in Texas. If not, those two, plus and Einshemer are available from several mail order nurseries.
I have Anna and Dorsett Golden in my yard (N FL). The Dorsett Golden is indeed a lot like a Golden Delicious in color and taste. The Anna is partly red and is more of a sweet-tart apple. (Not as tart as a Granny Smith, though.) I prefer the Anna fresh over the Dorsett, but I like fruits with a little tartness - I think it complements the sweetness. It's all personal preference. I have not grown or tasted Tropic Sweet or Einshemer, but I've heard that they are both sweet apples.
In addition to fresh eating, the Dorsett makes a fine applesauce, with little or no sugar needed. The Anna is a good baking apple - it makes good apple pie, etc. It also makes a tasty applesauce, but you'd probably want to add some sugar.
If possible, plant at least two varieties for pollenization. Most of them are partly self-fertile, so you'll probably get a few apples from a solo tree, but the yield per tree will be much higher if you plant at least two varieties.
The main problem with Anna and Dorsett is that they don't keep very well. Plan to use, share, or preserve the harvest pretty quickly.
I think Ky has been relocated to the heart of Texas.
I nearly tapped my pond dry watering.. It got me through the whole summer last year with plenty of water to spare.
Discovered when I tried to switch over to “real water” that I had a busted pipe.
Plumber came..couldn’t fix it because the pipe is poured into the concrete foundation.. Had to be rerouted.
Finally got to soak everything very well. Most expensive drink of water any plant will ever have.
Beautiful and verdant.
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