2021 garden season

[djg james]

here is a dream of mine! sometimes i struggle with the garden plants even after decades of gardening... but alas, never have to struggle with the weeds. they do well even with NO water! ... as i struggle to keep them at bay. i was on a bit of a roll yesterday evening... and was out in garden pulling weeds after dark with a flashlight...

You should see my garden when it's going. I grow a fine crop of weeds every year .

 

[djg james]

got the onion plants planted the other day just as the rains started. Had 3 rows 230 feet long from the 18 bunches.
started a couple seed flats for a few early cabbage and tomato plants but the center cells didnt come up! ---the main crop stuff will go into the hotbed by the house. temps. this morning are 30*, so still a bit cold to start the bed, so will wait a few days on it.
got this poly dump wagon and man is it ever handy! works excellent behind the sunstar and the hitch/handle combo is neat on it.
Hope the ground is dry by this Friday so we can plant the potatoes. we have 300 pounds to cut/plant. we try to get them in either on good Friday OR the hundredth day ---- anytime around there is good.

You put out a huge garden!

 

[sonny580]

We plant a lot on 4.5 acres tillable of our 5.5 total acres. Yes weeds are a problem here too but we manage to keep enough of them out so the crops do well. We always raise enough for us and friends and some for the church and mission as well. We freeze-dry quite a bit and that helps on the onion storage problem! Neighbor loves the freeze-dried sweet corn that we process.
Sweet potatoes will go in the hotbed soon to start some plants. last year we had 5 rows 250 feet long and gave most of the harvest away. probably had over 1,500 pounds of nice potatoes. The regular potatoes were in the small garden North of the house and produced several hundred pounds which we are still using. they store fairly good in our basement for a long time.
We usually can part of the veggie harvest, then put a little in the deep freezer, and a lot in the freeze-dryer, so processing is a 3-way thing here. I try to plant in stages to make the harvest time as long as possible so everything goes in fresh and not all at once.
Planting in stages gives a better chance of a crop ----- if one planting dont do too good the one before and the one after does.
We share whatever we grow to whoever wants veggies.

 

[djg james]

We plant a lot on 4.5 acres tillable of our 5.5 total acres. Yes weeds are a problem here too but we manage to keep enough of them out so the crops do well. We always raise enough for us and friends and some for the church and mission as well. We freeze-dry quite a bit and that helps on the onion storage problem! Neighbor loves the freeze-dried sweet corn that we process.
Sweet potatoes will go in the hotbed soon to start some plants. last year we had 5 rows 250 feet long and gave most of the harvest away. probably had over 1,500 pounds of nice potatoes. The regular potatoes were in the small garden North of the house and produced several hundred pounds which we are still using. they store fairly good in our basement for a long time.
We usually can part of the veggie harvest, then put a little in the deep freezer, and a lot in the freeze-dryer, so processing is a 3-way thing here. I try to plant in stages to make the harvest time as long as possible so everything goes in fresh and not all at once.
Planting in stages gives a better chance of a crop ----- if one planting dont do too good the one before and the one after does.
We share whatever we grow to whoever wants veggies.

Must take a long time to plant and care for. And probably a little expensive too if you don't sell any of it. What part of IL are you in? I'm in Central IL west of St Louis.
You start your own sweet potatoes? Love to see your garden.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

You put out a huge garden!

agreed! 300 spuds harvested would be big by my standards... but 300#s seed potatoes... which have to be cut? omg... I had to ck to see if he lived in Idaho! lol

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Must take a long time to plant and care for. And probably a little expensive too if you don't sell any of it. What part of IL are you in? I'm in Central IL west of St Louis.
You start your own sweet potatoes? Love to see your garden.

i have grown sweet potatoes. used one cut in half and put out on side of a garden area when my garden was bigger. didn't do much, or so I thought... then one day i went to ck it... and had runners all over! I might add, made some tasty sweet potatoes come harvest time.

sweet potatoes from the store ok, but those from a garden are every so much more tasitier... and sweeter, too. imo.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

We plant a lot on 4.5 acres tillable of our 5.5 total acres. Yes weeds are a problem here too but we manage to keep enough of them out so the crops do well. We always raise enough for us and friends and some for the church and mission as well. We freeze-dry quite a bit and that helps on the onion storage problem! Neighbor loves the freeze-dried sweet corn that we process. We usually can part of the veggie harvest, then put a little in the deep freezer, and a lot in the freeze-dryer, so processing is a 3-way thing here. I try to plant in stages to make the harvest time as long as possible so everything goes in fresh and not all at once.
Planting in stages gives a better chance of a crop ----- if one planting dont do too good the one before and the one after does.
We share whatever we grow to whoever wants veggies.

sounds great! know what you mean... and not all at once! lol

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

got my 50 shades of green tomato starts repotted yesterday...

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

been keeping some more wet on kitchen counter. mostly for grins. see them start to root. usually do... if i dont forget to keep the batch moist.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

got some cilantro repotted, too. 5 plants. started from seed. coriander.

 

[djg james]

got some cilantro repotted, too. 5 plants. started from seed. coriander.
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I've always wanted to start my own herbs, but the seed packets contain too much for one season. Can you save the seeds from year to year, and if so, how?

 

[djg james]

i have grown sweet potatoes. used one cut in half and put out on side of a garden area when my garden was bigger. didn't do much, or so I thought... then one day i went to ck it... and had runners all over! I might add, made some tasty sweet potatoes come harvest time.

sweet potatoes from the store ok, but those from a garden are every so much more tasitier... and sweeter, too. imo.

I was told to cut a potato with eyes and place in a jar of water. Once the potato sprouts to 6" or better, place the sprouts in water again until the produce roots. It worked one year, but not the next. And I'm not good with bare-rooted plants. I usually kill them.

 

[sonny580]

we work mostly full time in the gardens. seeds/plants getting expensive, so we try to grow our own plants as much as possible. -- some seed packages have more seed than needed for one year so we save the un-used part for next year.
We have a fair amount of "saved seed" that we plant every year too, so that cuts down on seed cost.
some of our "saved" varieties are not found in seed books either . currently have a unknown red bean variety that came from overseas in the early 1800's that we came across and have been planting it for the last 32 years.--- GREAT soup bean---real mild, has tender skins and little gas! lol!
For sweet potato plants we just lay whole potatoes down in the hotbed, cover with dirt, wait till sprouts get 4 to 6 inches tall then slice them off the tato and plant in the rows. --- have 3 in jars of water on the window sill just starting to sprout. will put the second round in the hotbed a little later.
The regular potatoes will be cut and planted this Friday,---(I hope!) or the hundredth day --- 2 good days for spuds according to the old timers and who can argue with them!
pix. of my homemade tato planter. Virginia rides the planter and tosses the pieces in behind the front shovel spacing them about a foot apart and the disk hillers behind the unit covers up the row. Used to pull it with the old cc 147, but this year we will use 1 of the sunstar 20's on it. Hydro drive lets us go slow enough to give time to plant accurately by just crawling along.
Neighbor wants to use it too, and he has a IH 235 hydro that he wants to try on it, so we see what happens!
we are central IL., east of Bloomington, IL.

 

[muddstopper]

I was told to cut a potato with eyes and place in a jar of water. Once the potato sprouts to 6" or better, place the sprouts in water again until the produce roots. It worked one year, but not the next. And I'm not good with bare-rooted plants. I usually kill them.

I have to do things a little different this year with my sweet potatoes. At my old place, I had spent years composting the garden and the soil was in pretty good shape. I would just take a whole tater and stick it in a mound and it would produce slips I could trim and place in a row. This year, I dont have a good garden spot and will be planting in containers. We had some sweet taters my wife kept on top of the fridge in a glass bowl. The eyes had started growing runners so we cut the taters into chunks, each with a runner, and then placed them in little pots in the green house. It is our hopes that we can transplant the runners into the large containers and it will produce sweet taters. To early to tell how well this method will work, but the runners are already producing leaves so thats a good sign. My tomatoe plants started from seed came up in the green house and then died, I think it might have gotten to hot. I have a few cayenne pepper plants and carrot plants that are still alive. We have replanted the tomato seeds so hopefully this go around they will turn out alright. We have 20 degree temps forecast for later this week, but once that cold snap is over I am going to try putting everything outside during the day and only moving them back into the green house when cold weather is forecast

 

[Goinwheelin]

your peppers look great! i like the deep green color. spells healthy to me. as in.... v.e.r.y. !

Thanks! It’s hard to gauge the watering needs when growing indoors like this so if I think I’m overwatering a plant I move it to the back of the tent where it’s harder to get to lol.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I've always wanted to start my own herbs, but the seed packets contain too much for one season. Can you save the seeds from year to year, and if so, how?

i save seeds all the time. my current post froeeze sugar snaps are all producing big pods currently they have large seeds (peas) in them. will let them all, could be 30 - 40, maybe 50 or so pods (pod w/8 +/- peas in them) fully develop. then dry on vine to tan colored. and pull them off pre-pod split time. will save all the pods/seeds/peas and let them dry. then put into a container and put into refrigerator. secret to keeping/saving seeds is to keep them cold. 34f or so. should be plenty info on line: how to save seeds

it can be hit n miss. bit ago i planted some lima beans i had put away over 2o years ago. almost all gemrinated and produced fine lima bean plants. great harvest/pods. i have some carrots that seem to be dead. won't germinage. but usually, all mine i put away into cold storage will germinate when planted. herb seeds usually are small. but fold over packet and put into plastic baggie, sammie size or snack size, etc.

i separate my seeds into two bins in refer. one for summer. one for fall.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I was told to cut a potato with eyes and place in a jar of water. Once the potato sprouts to 6" or better, place the sprouts in water again until the produce roots. It worked one year, but not the next. And I'm not good with bare-rooted plants. I usually kill them.

when i did my sweet potato seed... i just cut the potato in half length-wise, set on edge of a garden bed and covered with some mulch. mother nature then took over... and few months later... had runners coming off it. replanated and got some nice spuds.

 

[sonny580]

You can split them, but its not necessary as they will grow up from the bottom side without any problem. I would have to use saz-all to cut mine---- fingers/hands too stiff ant sweets are one hard thing to split with a knife! commercial plant growers just dump spuds into beds with a skidloader , rake them around so they lay single layer and dump dirt over them.--- kinda neat to watch them work! --- when the beds come up they are thick with plants!
when you harvest sprouts without roots----plant them right in the ground!! never let them stand in water as they rot kinda easy. Just keep the ground moist around the plants and they will grow a lot faster.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

You can split them, but its not necessary as they will grow up from the bottom side without any problem. I would have to use saz-all to cut mine---- fingers/hands too stiff ant sweets are one hard thing to split with a knife! commercial plant growers just dump spuds into beds with a skidloader , rake them around so they lay single layer and dump dirt over them.--- kinda neat to watch them work! --- when the beds come up they are thick with plants!
when you harvest sprouts without roots----plant them right in the ground!! never let them stand in water as they rot kinda easy. Just keep the ground moist around the plants and they will grow a lot faster.

i wouldn't mind growing sweet potatoes. quite tasty fresh from the garden. i like oven roasted best. but takes a lot of space and i have scaled back as my years continue to scale up... lol

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

i save seeds all the time. my current post froeeze sugar snaps are all producing big pods currently they have large seeds (peas) in them. will let them all, could be 30 - 40, maybe 50 or so pods (pod w/8 +/- peas in them) fully develop. then dry on vine to tan colored. and pull them off pre-pod split time. will save all the pods/seeds/peas and let them dry. then put into a container and put into refrigerator. secret to keeping/saving seeds is to keep them cold. 34f or so. should be plenty info on line: how to save seeds
i separate my seeds into two bins in refer. one for summer. one for fall.

i thot about that temp i posted up. 34 as in cold but not freezing. then remembered i have a thermometer in my refer i put in there to see how cold my setting actually is. I don't save seeds there and it keeps beer just fine! up at the farm and it reads a steady 42f. then i noted this online:

Keep seeds dry and cool. A temperature between 32° and 41°F is ideal, so your refrigerator can be a good place to store seeds. A small amount of silica-gel desiccant added to each container will absorb moisture from the air and help keep the seeds dry.

i don't add anything to keep moisture down. i do in my cast aluminum dutch ovens. just a section of paper towel. works great. prob work good in saved seeds bag, too...