Posted on 07/20/2012 11:11:39 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning, FRiends, fellow gardeners, and yet-to-be gardeners!
Thanks go out to all that participated in the thread last week. Beautiful photos were posted, and info was shared that will make big differences in the gardening lives of our members.
If you can ... please remember to add keywords that will make our threads more useful when searched. I think that I was the only one that added keywords as the thread progressed.
My thoughts and prayers are with everyone that needs a good rain. Drought is an awful situation.
I am off to the back end of the yard to tend my bees. I have 3 new queens that came in the mail yesterday, and need to get them installed before they are stressed any more. Then, if I have the strength after the heat zaps me, I need to harvest honey. This will be the third harvest in a few weeks ... the girls have been extremely busy.
What is going on in your neck of the woods?
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.
This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
>;(((
I use a Ragu spaghetti sauce jar then fill it with 6 garlic cloves, a dozen cherry tomatoes (if you grow tomatoes you can also take tomatoes that have spots or insect damage, cut up the good parts and put them in)tabasco peppers and apple cider vinegar. Everything is approximate depending on how strong you want your sauce to be.
I let the peppers sit anywhere from a month to a year, depending on when I need to make up another batch of sauce. I'll also cut the peppers in half before I put them in the jar so the juices mix with the liquid faster. The main thing is to let it sit long enough for the vinegar to soften everything up.
Once I'm ready I pour everything into a blender and puree it. I add more apple cider vinegar to make it the proper consistency and a bit of salt. Pour it into bottles suitable for sauce and store it in the fridge.
If you like I can post pictures of the process as I'm getting it ready.
Yes, I do them whole. If I want to save seeds I'll break a few in half to separate them out. Otherwise the peppers go, seeds and all, into a stone bowl where I grind them up and put them into jars to season our food.
I do freeze some peppers but drying and grinding is the fate for the overwhelming majority of my crop.
My husband is a hot sauce and hot pepper lover. I’ll have to do this for him. I make him hot pepper butter and I’m thinking of selling it at the farmers’ market this year: http://www.food.com/recipe/Hot-Pepper-Butter-Mustard-for-Canning-137562
Does anyone have any experience making veggie/fruit powders using dehydrated stuff? I’m thinking tomato powder mostly. Do you take out the seeds before you dehydrate? leave them in? fish them out of the powder once you’ve put it in the blender/processor?
Made any other powders? Zucchini, onion, garlic, english pea, pepper, cucumber, broccoli, spinach, banana, strawberry, blueberry?
Inquiring minds.
you can use charcoal but it’s not the same as biochar...
here is a good link
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Make-Biochar-To-Improve-Your-Soil.aspx
the charcoal is ok but he ashes are not
I’ve had a really evil blight infestation of some sort in my tomato patch. So, I joined tomatoville. There I learned of a recipe from an old timer that involves bleach. Yes. Really. I was >< close to pulling up my entire patch of maters, burning them and calling it quits.
Instead I took a regular pump sprayer (bought one just for this), filled it with exactly one gallon of water. Then added exactly 1 cup (8oz) of clorox bleach. (not splashless, not kroger or other store brand, not scented. Just regular clorox bleach (it’s a formulation issue, some stronger in their bleach component than others)). Sprayed them at/after sunset till they were dripping making sure to thoroughly saturate the new growth.
They have survived. the leaves that were going to die, died. The new growth looks spectacular. The vines are putting out suckers where the old leaves died. I’ve had to redo the spraying 2-3 times a week depending on weather. It’s cheap, doesn’t accumulate in the soil like copper and unlike most ‘organic’ controls for blight actually works. The bleach oxidizes really quickly and is ‘gone’ within an hour or two. Do it after sun goes down so the plants don’t ‘cook’ in the sunlight and after all the bees go home. I usually follow up with a dusting of DE to kill aphids/other critters and then feed them some mater food.
Be sure to stand UPWIND! I wear a mask too just because.
Yes, we mulch. Thoroughly. Once the blight has a hold on your plants though that makes little difference in the deep south.
Now, having said all that, if you have nothing to lose with your potatoes because hey, they’re already going to kick the bucket why not try this?
The guy on tomatoville that uses this method swears it stops most/all foliar diseases/infestations. If, on the other hand, it’s a systemic disease you’re screwed anyways and haven’t really lost anything but a little time.
Again, a day or two later the plants looked like hammered heck as all the infected leaves went ahead and died. BUT, the vines remained green and healthy and the new growth just took off.
The original poster on Tomatoville uses a lower amount of bleach to ‘control’ for and prevent once he’s got his initial outbreak under control, like 6oz in a gallon of water. Too weak and it won’t work. Too strong and you’ll kill the plants.
We have rain!!! My strawberries are ripening again already, and blossoms are opening all over my zucchini and watermelon vines. Some of the radishes I’d planted back in March turned out to be very prolific pod radishes, even though they were marketed as the regular kind. The 3 plants that flowered before they could be eaten are now covered in so many pods it’s hard to see the leaves.
Thanks for the information however I fear it has spread to all 3 varieties and is moving fast. I had hoped the Purple Haze would not succumb but I found it there. In years past it has consumed the tops in 3 or 4 days but at least the RG and YG have set tubers of a fair size. I will post more photos this evening...
I’d give it a try on at least a few plants. Can’t hurt anything. I’ve picked 25-30 gallons more tomatoes that i’d have picked had i not sprayed.
You seen this: http://www.rodentblaster.com/?
With my luck I would blow the house up as this gal is within 6 feet of the foundation. I’ll catch her as soon as I put my mind to it.
I understand. Plus, $1,400 is pretty steep. Still, a clever boy might be able to make his own system and have fun doing in the little buggers - whoomp!
There are instructions for dehydrating just about any fruit or veggie in the Ball Blue Book that I have. I'll dig it up tomorrow and post some of the ones you've asked about. I also have lots of info in the Excalibur book that came with my dehydrator.
This is a shot of my "surprise" bed ... so named because you never know what is going to come up or bloom. The bed is full of all kinds of bulbs. There were crocus, paperwhites and iris earlier in the Spring. The mums have been planted there for 4 years now (they were leftovers from my fall yard arrangement) and they bloom almost continually during the year. The lilies that are there now I planted 2-1/2 years ago and had totally forgotten about. They surprised me beginning 2 weeks ago.
Are those Amaryllis (Naked Ladies) or Rain Flowers?
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