# Garden 2017



## Buckshot00

Planted 1 row of yellow onions and 1 row of sweet onions. Also planted 1 row of red and 1 row of white potatoes. Got 8 rows of sweet corn planted today.


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## chuckwood

Here's mine. Broccoli, cabbage, onions, taters, beets, carrots, sugar snap peas, and leeks in so far. Sugar snaps are a new variety that is supposed to grow more quickly with better yields. We're just about past the last possible frost date for this area, so the tomatoes, corn, beans, and okra will be going in later this month.


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## amberg

Got a row of potatoes and 2 rows of peas and snaps in Wednesday, Hope it is not to early for the snaps.


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## chuckwood

amberg said:


> Got a row of potatoes and 2 rows of peas and snaps in Wednesday, Hope it is not to early for the snaps.



I planted my snaps back in early March , gambling on the news that we would have mild weather here in the south. It took a while for them to germinate in cooler soil, but they are doing great and around a foot tall right now. They did just fine the few times we had some hard frosts in March. In years past, I used to plant the snaps too late and I'd have poor results due to the weather getting too hot for them.


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## Buckshot00

Got 4 rows of pinto beans and 4 rows of field peas planted. Onions, taters, and corn is up.


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## Buckshot00

Planted 4 short rows of Indian corn today.


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## amberg

Noticed a few peas popping through a couple days ago, still not sure on the snaps, we are having another little cold snap here again.


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## chuckwood

amberg said:


> Noticed a few peas popping through a couple days ago, still not sure on the snaps, we are having another little cold snap here again.



Don't worry about the snaps, mine did just fine here in March when temps were in the 20's. What messes the snaps up is hot weather.


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## Buckshot00

So far so good.


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## amberg

chuckwood said:


> Don't worry about the snaps, mine did just fine here in March when temps were in the 20's. What messes the snaps up is hot weather.



The peas and potatoes starting to come through, the snaps are at the other end of the rows, they have not fared so well yet, I did get another packet of snaps today, My brother has a pack of pole beans that he is giving me to try on the trellis this year, we will see how that goes. Any ideas on how far apart to plant pole beans on the trellis, Think I planted the pole Lima's too close last year.


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## amberg

Buckshot00 said:


> View attachment 576143
> So far so good.



You have the best damn dirt down there, all we have up here is grey dirt and rocks! What is the little square in the middle?


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## Buckshot00

amberg said:


> You have the best damn dirt down there, all we have up here is grey dirt and rocks! What is the little square in the middle?


The green far green square is corn, the left square is indian corn and the right square is field peas. i didnt till those areas yet.


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## Ash_403

amberg said:


> The peas and potatoes starting to come through, the snaps are at the other end of the rows, they have not fared so well yet, I did get another packet of snaps today, My brother has a pack of pole beans that he is giving me to try on the trellis this year, we will see how that goes. Any ideas on how far apart to plant pole beans on the trellis, Think I planted the pole Lima's too close last year.



If in rows, plant seeds about 8 to 12 inches apart.


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## chuckwood

Ash_403 said:


> If in rows, plant seeds about 8 to 12 inches apart.



I'll be thinning mine to at least two feet between each plant. It seems that when the pole limas are too close together you get lots of vines and leaves but not as many beans.....


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## Ash_403

Yeah, I could see that being an issue, chuckwood. I've never grown pole limas. I was thinking pole green beans, and would actually err to the high side with 12" spacing. I'm guessing the pole limas require a little more space between the plants due to the root spread.
Cheers.


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## amberg

chuckwood said:


> I'll be thinning mine to at least two feet between each plant. It seems that when the pole limas are too close together you get lots of vines and leaves but not as many beans.....



I am pretty sure that was my problem last year with the pole lamas, I planted them about 6 inch's apart, and all I got was total coverage with the vines and almost 0 beans.


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## Buckshot00

May 13,2017. Coming along.


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## chuckwood

Here's some of my garden '17. I tried some bok choy or chinese cabbage this year, bought 6 plants, figuring they wouldn't sell 'em if you couldn't plant them in spring. It didn't work. I got no heads but did get big flowering stalks. So I decided to just let 'em grow wild and harvest the seeds for fall, assuming they aren't hybrids. They make a rather startling flower display, with lots of insects buzzing around in them. Taters are doing great, here's tater flower.


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## chuckwood

This year's taters are doing great. There are just a few Colorado potato beetles in them this year, doing very minimal damage. Usually I spray using expensive organic pesticides, but this year I may just leave them alone. Years ago, when the soil on my garden site was worn out and depleted from many years of gardening on that same spot, these pests would completely destroy many of my tater plants, stripping the leaves completely off them and leaving nothing but a skeleton plant. I had read in a few organic gardening books that if you have extremely healthy plants in extremely rich soil loaded with compost (no artificial fertilizer) that these beetles would leave the taters alone. I didn't believe this at first because in my mind, the better your plants are the more the bugs should enjoy eating them. However, each year I'm adding more dump truck loads of compost and plowing it in, and each year I get less bug problems. I just cut my first crop of broccoli, and I've not done any spraying there either, and have had no bug problems in the broccoli either. I'm getting more and more convinced this might be true. When I look at my tater plants, it seems that the tater beetles are only on the smaller, stunted plants that aren't doing so well. The most lush and healthy looking tater plants have zero bugs on them. Hardly any flea beetles on them either. I'm getting more and more convinced that it might indeed be true that bugs hit the sickly plants first, sorta like wolves cull out weak and sick deer first. The tater beetles are pretty ugly looking critters, here's one......


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## amberg

chuckwood said:


> I'll be thinning mine to at least two feet between each plant. It seems that when the pole limas are too close together you get lots of vines and leaves but not as many beans.....



Pole snaps, Kentucky Wonders for the cattle panels, spaced about 10 to 12 inches, seems way far apart to me, compared to bush beans. ( chicken wire is for rabbit control ) Can the snaps be planted closer than the lamas?


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## Buckshot00

May, 24,2017.


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## chuckwood

So far, the weather this year has been wet and a bit on the cool side. Everything, including the weeds, is growing very fast. My tater plants are huge this year, Supposedly if you plant taters on the wrong moon sign you get lots of greenery but not so many taters. I'll find out in about a month I reckon when I dig 'em up, don't know what the moon sign was. Haven't sprayed taters yet, potato beetle damage is still minimal. Corn is the best ever so far, growing very fast, and I've got pole beans coming up in the corn for a double crop on this patch of corn. Aside from watering transplants, I've done no watering so far this year.


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## Buckshot00

Cut my first okra today. Pintos are ready also.


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## chuckwood

Here's my okra, nothing yet to cut. And problems are developing again from blight/fungus because of all the rain and cool weather we've been having. I'll be spraying it soon with some copper based fungicide, hopefully non toxic for humans. Last year the heat and dry weather gave me a bumper crop of okra, gave about half of it away.


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## amberg

Got the girls to pull the pea vines up for me to pick and shell. Much cooler sitting in the shade to pull the pods off. Finished shelling them a few minutes ago, ended up with 3+ quarts from the load on the cart.


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## amberg

Update on the tomatoes and the Kentucky wonder pole beans from post #20, they have taken a notion to start climbing the trellis pretty good. ( notice my pvc irrigation system ) I think it works much better than a hose if I remember to turn the water off. I also put up another cow panel out at the garden for the Fortex pole beans and 2 more tomato plants. I have never grown Fortex beans before, so I will see how they do.


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## Buckshot00

Got the pinto beans picked. Shelling them right now.


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## Buckshot00

Pulled the onions today.


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## Del_




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## Buckshot00

Del_ said:


> View attachment 587508
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Very nice.


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## amberg

Very nice indeed, that looks like a full time job!


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## chuckwood

So far, this has been a very good year for my corn. We've had plenty of rain, some of the plants are over 8 feet tall and I'll have bushels of the stuff to process this year. Some of it I'll give away, it's more than I need, I'm also growing pole beans in there with the corn. It's a good combination. I've used no fertilizer or pesticides this year in the corn. With the corn ear borer worms, I just chop off the tips that have them and carry on.


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## amberg

We are finally getting some rain tonight as I post this. The corn and black eyed peas are looking better already.


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## amberg

chuckwood said:


> So far, this has been a very good year for my corn. We've had plenty of rain, some of the plants are over 8 feet tall and I'll have bushels of the stuff to process this year. Some of it I'll give away, it's more than I need, I'm also growing pole beans in there with the corn. It's a good combination. I've used no fertilizer or pesticides this year in the corn. With the corn ear borer worms, I just chop off the tips that have them and carry on.
> 
> View attachment 588912



Glad you got some rain, we are just now getting rain. I used no fertilizer this year either and the corn looks good except it has had no rain until tonight. I think it will really pick up now. 

As for your corn, you can always ship it up here to me. lol!! As you know that I can process it for you!! ( I will take it by the dozen) No less than 12 dozen!! Ha ha!!


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## amberg

chuckwood said:


> So far, this has been a very good year for my corn. We've had plenty of rain, some of the plants are over 8 feet tall and I'll have bushels of the stuff to process this year. Some of it I'll give away, it's more than I need, I'm also growing pole beans in there with the corn. It's a good combination. I've used no fertilizer or pesticides this year in the corn. With the corn ear borer worms, I just chop off the tips that have them and carry on.
> 
> View attachment 588912
> [/QUOTE
> 
> Love that corn!!


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## Del_

We use urine one gallon mixed with 8 gallons water for an excellent corn fertilizer. Will be experimenting with soil injection next season. I have had the equipment 4 years in the tree business. Soil injection as a side dressing technique should help develop deep root systems on corn. Stay tuned I will report results and grow comparison crops.


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## chuckwood

amberg said:


> Pole snaps, Kentucky Wonders for the cattle panels, spaced about 10 to 12 inches, seems way far apart to me, compared to bush beans. ( chicken wire is for rabbit control ) Can the snaps be planted closer than the lamas?



I plant all my pole snaps in my corn, that way I never have to fool around with bean trellises. The beans have nitrogen fixing bacteria with them that helps fertilize the corn a bit. I thin them to not much less than around a foot apart. Limas minimum of two feet apart, and that may still be too much. I'll try one row of limas three feet apart.


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## chuckwood

Del_ said:


> We use urine one gallon mixed with 8 gallons water for an excellent corn fertilizer. Will be experimenting with soil injection next season. I have had the equipment 4 years in the tree business. Soil injection as a side dressing technique should help develop deep root systems on corn. Stay tuned I will report results and grow comparison crops.



Well, you can offer your guests some fried corn smut fertilized with urine! Just kidding....... I've been experimenting with chamber pots and using urine as a nitrogen garden source as well, seems to work and saves just a bit on the water and sewer bill. It's completely non toxic. But I rarely tell anybody about it, there is a common misconception that urine is loaded with dangerous bacteria - not so. Feces very well can be, and that's the source of the confusion. Here's my corn patch today, tassels are starting to turn brown. With the constant rain, some of my hybrid sweet corn plants are reaching 9 feet. I've never had that happen here before. I could get the non hybrid "roasting ear" varieties like Hickory King to do that, but not the Golden Queens or Merit hybrids.


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## amberg

chuckwood said:


> Well, you can offer your guests some fried corn smut fertilized with urine! Just kidding....... I've been experimenting with chamber pots and using urine as a nitrogen garden source as well, seems to work and saves just a bit on the water and sewer bill. It's completely non toxic. But I rarely tell anybody about it, there is a common misconception that urine is loaded with dangerous bacteria - not so. Feces very well can be, and that's the source of the confusion. Here's my corn patch today, tassels are starting to turn brown. With the constant rain, some of my hybrid sweet corn plants are reaching 9 feet. I've never had that happen here before. I could get the non hybrid "roasting ear" varieties like Hickory King to do that, but not the Golden Queens or Merit hybrids.
> 
> View attachment 589983
> View attachment 589984



I have a pack of rattlesnake pole beans that I might try planting in a row of corn if it is still not to late. This patch of corn is starting to tassel now. If it ever cools off up here I will try planting some in the first row and see how they do.


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## chuckwood

I checked my corn yesterday to see if it's ripe and it seems the raccoons feel it's ready. I noticed the very back section of the corn patch has been raided already, and I set out a trap. The critter was in the trap this morning. Cute little feller, ain't he?


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## amberg

chuckwood said:


> I checked my corn yesterday to see if it's ripe and it seems the raccoons feel it's ready. I noticed the very back section of the corn patch has been raided already, and I set out a trap. The critter was in the trap this morning. Cute little feller, ain't he?
> 
> View attachment 590847
> View attachment 590848



Good job, they always know about 1 week before it is ready. You can always set your traps 3 weeks before the corn is ready, and bait them with honey buns. I have over 35 traps, and try to get them before the corn comes in. ( need more info pm me ) Love them beans, I hope I can get my Rattlesnakes planted in the corn soon. It looks like the beans are dragging the corn down. What sweet corn do you plant? Mine is always Silver Queen.


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## chuckwood

amberg said:


> Good job, they always know about 1 week before it is ready. You can always set your traps 3 weeks before the corn is ready, and bait them with honey buns. I have over 35 traps, and try to get them before the corn comes in. ( need more info pm me ) Love them beans, I hope I can get my Rattlesnakes planted in the corn soon. It looks like the beans are dragging the corn down. What sweet corn do you plant? Mine is always Silver Queen.



I plant Merit or Golden Queens. I use tuna fish for bait, thinking that maybe they can smell that easier than anything else. 35 traps? You must have a lot of coons!


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## amberg

chuckwood said:


> I plant Merit or Golden Queens. I use tuna fish for bait, thinking that maybe they can smell that easier than anything else. 35 traps? You must have a lot of coons!



Yes, been planting sugar corn here for many years. Have caught 100's of coons, They like fish bait in the cold weather and sweet bait in hot weather. Your bait has to be sweeter than the corn for them to go in the traps. I also used to plant some golden queen for a neighbor with the planter years ago, I personally like the white corn better by far. ie silver queen, or any of the super sweet variety's, which cost way much per lb. to use in my old no-till planter, which takes about 4 lbs. per unit just to make it plant right. Some sweet corn costs more than $26.00 a lb. I can buy Silver Queen in bulk here at the coop for about $10.50 a lb. which is still way high I think when you have to buy 30 or 40 lbs. just to plant a couple acres or less.

A pic. of the old planter that I plant the corn with. Each box holds over 80 lbs.


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## amberg

The corn patch is looking much better after we had some much needed rain in the last few days. It might be ready in 10 days or so. I did pick a row of snaps Friday that turned out pretty good. I also noticed a few beans on the Kentucky Wonder pole beans, they sure don't all come in at the same time, I think they will have to be picked every couple of days.


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## farmer steve

here's some from today's picking. about 4 loads like this for the market. this is "delectable" bicolor. nice big ears. probably picked about 50 dozen or so today. the husked ears are supper tonite. started to pick some broccoli the other day too. have cut about 75 heads so far.


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## amberg

farmer Steve, do you think that it is to late for these cauliflower sets to make, I just set them Saturday. My pole beans seem to be doing super this year, I have picked the cattle panel trellis'is 7 times already, and they need to be picked again.


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## amberg

farmer steve said:


> here's some from today's picking. about 4 loads like this for the market. this is "delectable" bicolor. nice big ears. probably picked about 50 dozen or so today. the husked ears are supper tonite. started to pick some broccoli the other day too. have cut about 75 heads so far.View attachment 599407
> View attachment 599408



How late did you plant that corn? I don't see any worms. My patches have been done for weeks. 

edit, And you are more north than me.


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## farmer steve

amberg said:


> farmer Steve, do you think that it is to late for these cauliflower sets to make, I just set them Saturday. My pole beans seem to be doing super this year, I have picked the cattle panel trellis'is 7 times already, and they need to be picked again.





amberg said:


> How late did you plant that corn? I don't see any worms. My patches have been done for weeks.
> 
> edit, And you are more north than me.


hey Charlie. not sure about that cauliflower. lots of water for sure. you probably won't have frost for a while and it's been fairly warm here. i just started cutting some of mine last week that was planted around july 4 th. i plant corn about every 7-10 days from may 1 thru july 10. unfortunately it needs sprayed pretty often . late corn is the worst as the moths are pretty active later in the season.


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## amberg

farmer steve said:


> hey Charlie. not sure about that cauliflower. lots of water for sure. you probably won't have frost for a while and it's been fairly warm here. i just started cutting some of mine last week that was planted around july 4 th. i plant corn about every 7-10 days from may 1 thru july 10. unfortunately it needs sprayed pretty often . late corn is the worst as the moths are pretty active later in the season.



Steve, don't forget 1979 with 10" of snow on October 10, in Va. We were shelling corn with a 105 john Deere combine back in the day. Not sure how to get ( sweet ) corn here yet! ( super sweet )


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## amberg

amberg said:


> Steve, don't forget 1979 with 10" of snow on October 10, in Va. We were shelling corn with a 105 john Deere combine back in the day. Not sure how to get ( sweet ) corn here yet! ( super sweet )



Steve I understand about the cauliflower, I guess I will find out! As I am still picking pole beans. The combines started doing corn and beans last week. I also have many beets in the row, but do not feel like canning them..


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## amberg

farmer steve said:


> hey Charlie. not sure about that cauliflower. lots of water for sure. you probably won't have frost for a while and it's been fairly warm here. i just started cutting some of mine last week that was planted around july 4 th. i plant corn about every 7-10 days from may 1 thru july 10. unfortunately it needs sprayed pretty often . late corn is the worst as the moths are pretty active later in the season.



Won't do that anymore.


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## Buckshot00

Bout that time.


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