Weekly Garden Thread - September 16-22, 2023 [Successes, Failures & Lessons Learned in 2023 Edition]

September 16, 2023 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[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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[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Good hunting! Somebody is still making Racoon Fur Coats!

Racoon Fur Coats

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"I’m tired, LOL!"

Time for Beau to take you Octoberfest in Eau Clair!

[Qiviut]

We are a ‘country’ house & when the weather turns chilly, the country mice come to visit. We have had a mouse in the house for a couple of days .... it ended up in my bedroom where I could hear it gnawing on something at night. If you are saying ‘eeeewwww gross’, yeah that would be the clean version (expletives deleted) of what I’ve been saying.

Anyway, I’ve had a ‘snap’ trap out with no success, but as they say ‘location is everything’ & I got the right location last night. The trap going off woke me up with a start. Was it a hit or a miss? Ms. Mouse (it was a female) was caught - a very fat mouse so I think it was preggers, too .... wouldn’t that have been ‘fun’ (not!).

At least it wasn’t a snake like the bro had in his bedroom a week ago.

[Pollard]

Lean and lower for indeterminate tomatoes isn’t working out with these last two Summers that had near 100 heat waves.

Normally, you would lean and lower letting the bottom stem lay over on the ground. Problem is, the lower stem still had green tomatoes on it that refused to ripen in the heat.

I leaned but had to hang the entire plants horizontally on strings. In one spot, I have three plants, one above the other like that.

With vines 12-15 foot long, they can’t just go vertical.

Naturally, the plants want to grow vertical so hanging them sideways was a battle against nature.

For next year, I’m thinking maybe a cage that’s small around and 6 foot tall and wind the vines around it in a spiral. End stem shape would be like a coil spring.

It would be a way to keep 12-15 foot vines contained in a small footprint.

[Pollard]

The MO state nursery is about 35 miles away from me and starts taking orders on Sept 1st but the good stuff, anything human edible, goes quick.

On Sept 2nd, I managed to order 10 elderberry, 10 persimmon and 10 of 0 hazelnut. They allow you to order stuff that’s already gone so IF someone else cancels and had hazelnuts on their order, I might get 10 of them.

I wanted quite a few other types of seedlings but they were all out. Paw paw, Witch Hazel and 4-5 ______berry plants(beautyberry, chokeberry, serviceberry etc). I tried for the hazelnut anyway because having tree nuts in a few years would be cool.

They really need a bigger state nursery or more than one. Running out of stuff in 24 hours is ridiculous.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You are OBSESSED with Octoberfest, LOL!

German Fest in Milwaukee was always fun. Used to go every year. ‘The Human Glockenspiel’ was fun. Those guys were usually hammered to begin with, but they always pullet it off!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLb0K8M5vlg

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You need some kitty cats! My two are good at keeping rodents out, though sometimes they bring a live one in just to show me they’re doing their job, LOL!

That’s not nearly as bad as the time my Lab brought a live Chipmunk in! That was a circus.

How are your other ‘projects’ going this week?

I’m going to work on the Maple Apple Jam later today. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I had Hazelnuts at my other farm. So pretty when in bloom. I need some out here! Thanks for the reminder.

[Qiviut]

I would love a cat - have had several over the years & one was a good mouser, but now that I’m living with mom, she will not tolerate cats (or dogs) in the house. She about has a heart attack every time I trap a mouse.

I made some project progress!

The fields are at least 3/4 mowed ... just the whole back field, some of the old riding ring, & a few spots in another field are left - maybe an hour’s worth. All the ‘heavy’ spots where the grass gets really thick, are mowed. The yard & both entrances are done plus all around my garden so the place looks nice.

The lumber (scrap & otherwise) is out of the garage. I am terrified of tripping & landing on one or both knees ... now the floor is clear. That also gives me more room to park the mower & I have cleared a spot for the shelving.

The old PU now has a new home - the piece of equipment (that attaches to the tractor) got moved out of the small pole barn .... that was a job because it was just ‘me’ and the golf cart instead of being able to use a tractor. I can now pull the PU all the way under the pole barn out of the weather - it’s a drive-thru arrangement, so no backing up & I have room to open the doors. Once I took the cap off the PU bed, rain water could get between the liner & original truck bed so keeping it out of the rain is more important than it was with the cap.

And, just to top off the projects done yesterday (still have a list to go), I made a little thingy for my mom’s TV trays. When she stacks them in the closet, the bottoms slip on the floor & the whole stack will fall. I made a rectangular piece out of wood - keeps the trays from sliding when stacked.

Out in the garden early this morning - just came in as a few rain drops are falling. I picked all the jalapenos worth picking - my brother who lives 2 hours away will be here today - he got the bad seeds & has no jalapenos, asked me to save him some. I also picked all the Giant Marconi & Bell peppers if anyone attending the lunch wants some. The same goes for the spaghetti squash - I have a half dozen nice ones to give away if someone wants them. I think the squash will go faster than the peppers.

It’s actually warm/humid enough before the rain comes in that I worked up a sweat in the garden! The family lunch isn’t until 1:00, so plenty of time to rest up & clean up. We should get nice weather back in by Tuesday.

[MomwithHope]

I am tired too, still harvesting some it has been such a good year. Every year we are blessed and especially with these gardening threads. Diana thank you for taking over for Greeneyes who graduated. I have learned much from the threads, made friends and been able to share. We are still getting costa rican red peppers, chinese long beans, herbs, a little broccoli, zucchini, just a few tomatoes, and about 15-20 butterkin squash still maturing. Shishitos almost done! Two nice recipes that we love, the shishito spread and the tomato bacon jam. I have small freezer containers made up with each.
It had been a lot of hard work, but so worth it.

[Pollard]

Automation update; Got a PLC and it's bricked or something. Even the IT/PLC guy at work couldn't do anything with it. It's on a boot screen and refuses to accept the downloading of a new operating system which is what it needs.

Bought a second one that still had a Aquafine Corporation company's automation program. Deleted all their data and display screens and put my own start up display screen on it, Little Bitty Acres. More display pages can be made. Typically, the start up screen would show for several seconds and then it would go to a status screen. Then there might be a menu to select one of several other screens to see more info or change settings etc.

At the bottom left is the junk one with stock faceplate. The blue one is the new one with a custom made faceplate by Unitronics for Aquafine Corporation. I'm going to swap faceplates to take it back to the stock Unitronics version.

For now, my first project will be to push a button on the PLC that will turn on the drip system for an hour and shut off. Then I might get fancy and have it do Pulse Watering aka Pulse Drip Irrigation as mentioned here not too long ago. I'll need to make the pump wiring goat proof before I can leave it out all the time which a pulse watering schedule would require. My little front yard garden is 15 foot from the house so the PLC can be in here. In the tunnel, the PLC will get installed in the door of a NEMA enclosure rated for outdoor use.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Pollard; I only have a few that make it to the top of my suspension pole, but I usually just throw it over the top if I want it to keep growing. (Sweet 100 and Amish Paste, and several years ago, Stupice.) I suspect that the further you get from the ground the more water and energy the plant needs to keep the long vines growing and quality decreases.

Other possibilities to avoid leaning: Some growers will stop growing indeterminate tomatoes after they produce 10-12 braces of fruit and just call it a day. If you do this you might have a second set of plantings ready to go in mid May to June to take over from the older plants you have stopped. I am doing this now with some of my plants, replacing the indeterminate with fast growing determinate and semi determinate.

You could also choose to allow one of the suckers on one of the lower scaffolds to grow in parallel to your leader and when the original gets too high make that the sucker the leader and eventually remove the old one.

** If you really wanted to go full greenhouse this you tube shows how to do it! (Make certain you have a market first!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxyAeoNDNuc

That is big operation with a lot of money behind it. They probably ship a lot of product to Europe.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That Tomato Bacon Jam is to die for! So far friends and relatives that have tried it are asking for more, so I picked more Roma-types today and will oblige. :)

Glad you’re still loving the Shishitos - they didn’t have them at my Walmart this season as they did last season, but they spent the majority of the Spring and Summer remodeling the whole place; the Garden Center wasn’t as fun or plentiful as normal...and I STILL can’t find what I’m looking for on any given day! :(

My broccoli is STILL performing! That ‘Lieutenant’ variety from Bonnie’s is simply amazing. I’ve got actual HEADS of broccoli again to cut!

Right now, I’m down to the last of the tomatoes and those will just be put up ‘as is’ for soups and stews and my beloved ‘Pepper Steak’ which I make with beef (when I have it) or Elk or Bear meat.

Still have apples to deal with, and then garden clean up, but I still have a good 30+ days of growing season left so more salad greens and such are going back in as I clean out beds.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Ja! Viel Spass! Maybe at a local Parish hall and you can avoid the drive! :O

No German bars or restaurants here, but there were in Chicago.

"Tante Emma" might be in the kitchen and would look out to see who was ordering and if she liked you might get a bigger cut of Kaiser Ripchen!

[Pollard]

** If you really wanted to go full greenhouse this you tube shows how to do it! (Make certain you have a market first!)

One little high tunnel is enough for me. Automating it helps me learn things that will help me at work, plus it will run the tunnel while I'm at work. Selling veggies is probably not my thing but building/installing tunnel automation would be my type of thing. I have no plan for that but you never know.

Just found the tutorial video that I need for using the PLC to run my drip irrigation. It will be surprisingly easy. Even the Pulse Watering will basically be creating one instance of an ON timer, then an OFF timer and repeating that for 4-6 pulse watering sessions, 10-15 minutes long per day.

Tomato plants are apt to keep going for at least a month. That will give me time to monitor/test. Pretty much the same soil so whatever works up here, will work down where the tunnel's going, just a matter of scale. Rain will cancel observation up here for some time since there's no plastic roof.

---

Just bought a gas tank for my splitter. Old one got water inside of it and rusted from not being covered and evidently, a crappy cap. Drove the property yesterday looking for dead trees to cut for firewood. Looks like I can get half my wood here and I'm pretty sure I know where to get the other half. I also have a ton of live trees here I need to cut down and those can be for next year's firewood.

[Pollard]

Here’s another - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsD2VJ65hEA

[MomwithHope]

We grew Lieutenant this year and are still getting secondary growth. Will definitely look for it again next year.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Oh, I’m so glad! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Qiviut]

I was right about the spaghetti squash being the most popular produce - gave away the 7 nicest ones to 3 people. The ones I have left are getting brown spots on the side in contact with the ground (even with pine mulch). Usually, that half of the squash is still good, but even if it’s not, you can use the other half. I must have at least a half dozen squash to deal with that are ripe & another 2-3 that are green. Parts of the vine are still blooming so I might just leave it for now & see if I get a few more. The squash vine has grown up the fence - it appears to trellis well, so I may trellis it next year to save space.

There is a volunteer sungold tomato plant next to my herb garden. I almost pulled it up, but it was full of blooms so I let it go. The tomatoes are now ripening & it is nice to have them since the Sweet 100’s are totally done/gone.

After observing the groundhog out and about yesterday, I am going to try trapping it with ripe figs. They like ‘sweet’ & the figs really have an aroma, so that should entice them. Many years ago, we had a groundhog under the barn that ventured all the way to the front field to eat figs off the same bush we have now, so I know they like figs. I am wearing gloves also so they don’t smell ‘human’ on the trap.

We had rain last night .... just over an inch in the gauge. Things were pretty dry, but now ‘all’ will be growing again - great for the deer food plot, but I will be back on the mower before long.