let's see your veggie garden {pics}

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Yes, I was looking at an article about wheat genetics. I forget exactly how many times more genes wheat has than a human, but wheat is almost infinitely more genetically complex. 5,000 years of breeding will do that. There are five different ancestral species that wheat came from.

Durum is descended from Polish wheat, Triticum polonicum vs. Titicum aestivum for regular bread wheat. Durum is excellent for making pasta noodles based on its stickiness (very high starch content). Durum is also a fairly low-yield type that is mostly grown on marginal land that won't produce much else.

Potatoes and peppers are equally (crazy) wild in their genetic inheritance.

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

It takes a lot of genetic trickery to outsmart Mother Nature, when you don't have a brain.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Was that the wheat or the humans who were breeding it?

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

I would guess that quite a bit of the polyploidy of wheat occurred way before domestication. The greatest selection pressure from domestication came by the inevitable process of saving seed that was most easily saved.

In Nicotiana tabacum and N. rustica, the allotetraploidy of both occurred separately, many thousands of years prior to their intentional cultivation. The trait of non-bursting seed pods came later, as a result of those seeds being the most likely to be saved by humans.

Of course, over the last 100 years (that is, post Mendel), a gazillion desirable genetic attributes have been purposely added to nearly every cultivable plant species.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Hidden within the foaming crest of my tomato tsunami are bamboo spars that are each zip-tied to multiple tomato cages. Despite some recent, strong storms with high winds, those cages haven't budged. Over the past few years, I've un-bent and re-stood many a tomato cage. Once the foliage grows beyond the top of a cage, it acts as a wind sail at a huge mechanical advantage. Now, the wind has to tip over the equivalent of a 5' x 12' hay wagon.

Tomato cages used to be sturdy, but over the past two decades, the cages sold at most retailers have utilized thinner and thinner gauge wire. New ones are like pretend tomato cages for a movie set. The only way to have truly excellent tomato cages is to use heavy-duty, livestock grade box fence, and make them yourself. Unfortunately, it's expensive, and is sold in rolls of at least 150', usually 330'. But imagine a square tomato cage made from 4' high, heavy box fence.

With 18" widths for a tomato cage, it would require 6' of fence length per cage. So 150' would make up 25 super-hero tomato cages. Maybe going in with one or two neighbors might be practical. For 330', that would take a village.

Lowes 330' x 4', 12.5 gauge: $179.00

If you need to fence in a pet, then plan for the leftover.

Bob

 

[Brown Thumb]

Just harvested the garlic,

 

[deluxestogie]

That is a lot of garlic. I've been planting about 40 or so cloves each year, and I always have some left by the time the next harvest comes in. Garlic is about the most stress-free thing that I grow.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Some photos taken this morning.



Photo one, two hills of squash. These things are taking over! I had no idea they would get so big and spread out so much. Is it okay to prune on these?

Photo two, watermelon bloom. I'm starting to see a few of these. I don't know if I have enough season left for them make any fruit.

Photo three, poppies. Two different varieties. Maybe these will be ready for the fair, weekend after labor day.

Photo four, asparagus knife. Also a very useful tool for digging weeds.

Photo five, my rose bushes have been doing well this year. I guess a less than spectacular year for tobacco is a good year for roses.

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

...squash. These things are taking over! I had no idea they would get so big and spread out so much. Is it okay to prune on these?
...watermelon bloom. I'm starting to see a few of these. I don't know if I have enough season left for them make any fruit.

I don't know how okay it is to prune squash vines, but when mine get too possessive of my yard, my mower clarifies the situation. It doesn't seem to injure what's left.

Short season watermelon varieties need in the range of 80+ days from seed. Maturity from transplant--Blacktail Mountain: 70 days; Golden Midget: 70 days; Sugar Baby: 79 days; Bozeman: 80 days.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Thanks for the info Bob. Those pesky squash vines just might be in for a little trimming. Later though. We'll see.

My melons are the Bozeman variety, so here's hoping there will be some fruit in September.

All of this is vegetation is highly speculative on my part. I could just as easily left my plot to chem-fallow like the farmers do around here. Since I never had a rod-weeder to start with, I guess I wouldn't have to retire it. (A little agricultural humor.)

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

I've grown Blacktail Mountain and Sugar Baby in the past. My own watermelon always disappoints me. One vine takes up a huge piece of real estate, and yields--after an entire summer of manual watering--one or two shrimpy melons. They do taste good, but by the time I subtract the thick rind, I have enough for a couple of generous (the only kind!) servings. I never have to worry about finding a place in the fridge.

Now, in Alabama, for instance, for the same space and an extra two or three weeks, you get watermelons that are a challenge to lift.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Bob:

We have serious melon growing regions here in the Northwest at Hermiston Oregon, and Quincy Washington. Both are low elevation areas (next to the Columbia River) with sandy fine soils, and very long hot growing seasons. And because we don't get a lot of rain, plenty of sunshine. I chose Bozeman because we don't have the fine sandy soils or the extreme hot weather. Hermiston is about 400 feet above sea level and is hellishly hot in the summer. Similar conditions at Quincy. Melons prefer sandy soils, and hot weather. Hermiston is a desert, getting 8 - 10 inches of rain per year. But they have lots of that Columbia River irrigation water.

Squashes on the other hand, will grow just about anywhere you have a growing season.

Wes H.

P.S. I wonder if they test those Hermiston melons for radioactivity. Hermiston is downstream from the Hanford Nuclear reservation. Another dry (5" rain / year) sandy & hot hellhole. 'Nothin out there but sagebrush and jackrabbits. Oh...and a few thousand tons of highly radioactive waste!

 

[deluxestogie]

I wonder if they test those Hermiston melons for radioactivity. Hermiston is downstream from the Hanford Nuclear reservation.

Maybe those Hermiston melons provide their own sunshine.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Maybe that's how they get so big!

Wes H.

 

[deluxestogie]

This smallish, green pumpkini fermented in its brine at room temp for about 3 weeks. Once the bubbling of fermentation ceased, it went into the fridge.

The pith (the part with the immature seeds) never firmed up during fermentation, so should probably be trimmed away before pickling. But the flesh and very thin rind are crispy crunchy and delicious. This lactic acid fermentation always gives me a nicer tasting, crisper pickle than a vinegar brine.

I baked an even smaller pumpkini (cut in half, and filled with butter and brown sugar), and after 1.25 hours at 350°F, it was relatively tasteless, and was surprisingly tough to chew. If I do the same thing with an acorn squash, it transforms into ambrosia.

So, if you grow a pumpkini, and entertain the thought of eating any, I would say the fermented pickle is the winner.

Bob

EDIT: Here's the post with the brine recipe: http://fairtradetobacco.com/threads...ie-garden-pics?p=149489&viewfull=1#post149489

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Or don't eat them until they're orange. They are plenty soft and flavorful when ripe.

 

[deluxestogie]

Well, that makes sense. (Orange is not the pumpkini I know. One is starting to turn.) It's essentially a field pumpkin with a funny shape. All pumpkin can be made into pies. Some are stringy, and need to be pressed through a sieve, while others have no stringiness, and just need to be peeled.

Have you tried roasting the seeds?

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

These are Big Beef beefsteak tomatoes.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

This summer, in an act of unmitigated laziness, I planted some Red Seeded Simpson lettuce in a 1020 tray full of soil mix on my porch. After limping along (...limp...lettuce...) until they began to bolt, I finally ended their careers yesterday, and perked it up in my fridge overnight.

It looks really nice in the photo, but it is very thin and floppy--the kind that gets stuck to the roof of your mouth. A lot of fuss for not much lettuce. On the plus side, it's not riddled with Cryptosporidium, like the stuff they're selling at Kroger.

I paired it up with a fully vine-ripened, never refrigerated Roma tomato that grew nearby, in the corner bed below the porch. So the dubious effort of porch lettuce yielded one small salad for my lunch today. An even smaller step for mankind.

[Despite my agricultural prowess, I did not grow the manzanilla olive or its pimento sliver.]

Bob

 

[Moth]

And the smallest crop of Gothic tomato

If I'm really lucky I'll have a salad