WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD VOLUME 39, SEPT. 26,2014

Free Republic | Sept. 26, 2014 | greeneyes

[greeneyes]

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!

NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.

[greeneyes]

Indeed it is.

[greeneyes]

Depends on variety. From 70 to 90 days.

[greeneyes]

Sure. Post them on the thread if you can.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I could send them to someone who knows how to post on FR...

[Bailee]

Anyone with Experience on Sarpo Mira Potatoes in the US

[Ellendra]

Last weekend's harvest:


Plus the last of the summer squash:


And the "Pile O' Squash" as it stands today:


That's about a third of the garden harvested. The corn needs longer, the T-squash and cucuzzi aren't quite ready yet, and I ran out of room on the sled for the red kuri and the rest of the pumpkins.

I'm a little worried about my corn. The DE I sprinkled into the ears seems to have worked, but now the ears are trapping water inside them. I'm seriously considering getting some cheap socks to put over them to kind of direct some of the rain elsewhere, but that would also slow evaporation and might make things worse. Maybe I should just grow one type of corn per year so I can harvest in the summer when it dries easily.

I'm still battling the mice for my chickpea pods. They've been winning so far, but I'm wrapping the latest pods in row-cover cloth and scattering mothballs around underneath them. If I get 10 seeds out of this, I'll be happy. But those mice are persistant.

The potato bed right next to the chickpeas is ready to dig up. I wonder if that will disturb the mice enough that they move elsewhere? Especially if I have my kitty supervising?

I got some lab equipment from Amazon this week. I'm going to see if I can sell herbal preparations and distillates in addition to my seeds. I even have an idea for my first product: a cat shampoo scented with catnip oil!

[tob2]

Oh, guess it’s too late in the season for them to mature. I’ll keep them on plant to see if that will happen, saying hopefully.

[Marcella]

It is still too hot here to deal with plants. October will be cooler and I’ll get a 4x4 planter, fill it with potting soil mix and put the Walking Onions in it. Will need to buy some net and row cover to keep birds/squirrels off plus enough cover so they won’t freeze.

When the first cold hits, the orange tree will come in the house in a sunny area in the kitchen behind the breakfast table.

Think I will shortly put the stand and grow lamp for it in a bathtub that is not used, to grow a few Cherry Punch tomato seed to try to grow one or two in the house.

We finally got another SUV- Hyundai Santa Fe SUV. These days, you had better know how to use a computer in order to be able to get in your car and be able to start it. The
“key” to this car doesn’t have a key end on it. Don’t need a regular key to get in the car and there is no key hole on the door. Once in the car, the ignition is a button, punch it and the car starts without a regular key. I’m glad the car look and buy is over.

[trisham]

We had “hoar frosts”, but most of our plants are gone, except for the parsley and a few tomato plants, all of which are on the deck. The parsley may overwinter for us, especially given that it is about 12 feet off of the ground, on the south side of the house. Our sage may overwinter as well, being in close proximity to the parsley.

We usually have 3 to 4 feet of snow on the ground all winter, with temps as low as 15 to 20 degrees below zero some years.

[FamiliarFace]

Thank you, thank you! I will try your hints!

[Black Agnes]

Ok, I’ll give you something to laugh about.

I ordered some Yukon Chief sweet corn seeds from bestcoolseeds.com. Planted them out the Thursday or Friday before Labor Day.

They were tassling less than 4w later. They’re only about 18”-2’ tall right now LOL. Fully tasseled out. Our daily highs have been high 80’s to low 90’s and night time lows have been anywhere from upper 50’s for a couple nights to mid 70’s and everywhere in between.

Hubby tilled in a couple of buckets of chicken poop (fresh) before I planted. I soaked the seed overnight in warm water. Once it was up, I strew another bucket of fresh chicken poop directly around the 6” or so tall seedlings, then I mulched it with newspapers covered by grass clippings. We haven’t had much rain so I put a soaker hose amongst it all and I’ve soakered it deeply once or twice a week. Can already see the little baby ears.

I’m *hoping* to get a few smallish ears for my kids and to let the rest of it go to seed, IF the weather will cooperate this year. I will likely have to arrange a covering of some sort using tposts, 2X4’s and plastic covering if the weather doesn’t cooperate.

Ok, that’s my funny for this week’s thread. Planting corn at Labor Day. YMMV.

[greeneyes]

Well, that’s a bit late for planting here for sure, and anyone here would give ma a big belly laugh if I did it.LOL
Are they supposed to be small baby ears?

[greeneyes]

I spent an hour and half today working in the garden and sweeping off the patio. I have 12 sq. ft. planted so far.

It was cool when I first went out, but then the sun came out and it go pretty hot. I'll be planting some more stuff for the fall/winter garden later this week.

I can usually grow stuff till around December with the row covers. If the carrots get far enough along, the cold weather will make them sweeter, and I'll have some carrots in winter, and some early spring like March.

I already have some spinach and lettuce sprouting after just 2 days. Same stuff package that refused to sprout this spring.

Glad to hear you have the SUV issue all done. I'm still driving my ole beat up 1996 Honda Odyssey minivan. It had to have some work to pass inspection this year. It's developed a bit of a rattle when we go over bumps, but no one has figured out yet how to stop it.

Bought it in 2004 for $6000.00 and that's the first significant work it has needed. It's a 4 cylinder, so it's good on gas. It will hold all my kids, grandkids, and great grandkids that live in the area, and is great for hauling garden stuff too.

[greeneyes]

Cover with row covers or make a mini green house, and you might get enough extra mileage to get some mature plants. I am hoping to do that with some of my stuff that should have been planted a few weeks ago.

Of course Bastardi’s weather and the Farmer’s Almanac are saying kinda repeat of last year’s weather, so we may have early frost and snow here.

[Black Agnes]

https://bestcoolseeds.com/catalog/vegetables/sweet-corn/sweet-corn-yukon-chief-612

Smallish ears. Which will be perfect for the kids, if it makes. I ordered several packets to plant early next spring (it’s tolerant of cool soils so I hope to get it in sometime in March down here) as an interim for the kids before the ‘real’ sweet corn gets ripe.

It’s got ‘Gaspe Flint’ in its family tree which accounts for the extreme earliness. Supposedly the kernels of Gaspe have the tassel already formed in there early or something. I pulled a research paper on it and haven’t had a chance to read it just yet. This is the variety of corn the Micmac tribe grew in Southern Atlantic Canada near the town of ‘Gaspe’. Gaspe supposedly is seed to dry corn in 60 days. The catch is it’s only about 2ft tall LOL with 4” cobs.

I’m looking for a US supplier for the Gaspe though. It sounds like the perfect ornamental I can grow in the front yard and will look like something ‘non food’ that I can toss into the chickens when it gets done.

[greeneyes]

Thanks for posting the pictures. That's some nice looking harvest. Never had any problems with mice in the garden, but this is the time of the year that they always start to migrate from the field to the house.

They die pretty quickly. We had our house treated shortly after we built it mainly for termite prevention, since we were using a lot of wood in the fireplaces and wood stoves.

I don't remember exactly what they used maybe chlordane , but for 30 years we had almost zero spiders, insects, and the mice all died. Unfortunately, so did the hamsters, if they got loose from the cage and onto the floor.

Now, we have spiders and other bugs especially crickets, but the mice still don't live very long when they come in.

[greeneyes]

Maybe JRandomFreeper would help you out?

[greeneyes]

That sounds perfect for sq foot gardens or containers on the deck. It is edible - right?

[greeneyes]

I planted some sunglow early corn one year, and it did pretty well. I think it was 45 or 50 days - an early hybrid that was tolerant to cool soils of spring.

It tasted real good too, and the ears were around 6 or 7 inches. Most stalks had 2 ears, and I was able to plant about 3 or 4 per sq. foot.

[Black Agnes]

Yes, the Gaspe is edible. It’s a flint corn. Here’s a description of it from a company that doesn’t ship to the US:

http://www.heritageharvestseed.com/corn.html#gaspe

There’s another place in Canada that carries this variety and they don’t ship to the US anymore either. Bah Humbug!