Ok...why are they so short? Ours are about 40 inches tall. They grow very little if any each year.
What's Growing in the Garden
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These are all just the primocanes. Although I could get two crops, a late spring small crop from floricanes and then large crop from the primocanes in fall, it's easier for me to just cut the floricanes to the ground in spring and get one large continuous harvest late in the year.
I know commercially they favor that spring crop for higher prices, but mine just go into the freezer and I always have carryover from year to year.
The variety is 'Prelude' and it's favored for early spring crop, but this method works for me. It may not work well for other varieties and other regions. By late summer, the canes will be ~ 7-8 ft or more tall/long.
Another reason I've started going for a fall only harvest is the Japanese beetle which is bad around here. The adults typically emerge before the spring harvest and trying to control them to prevent berry damage and defoliation is tough even with short pre harvest intervals (PHI) on some insecticides. With no spring harvest there is no worry with PHI and allowing some defoliation doesn't seem to affect fall harvest.
We had June beetles out last week, about 4 weeks early. Our raspberries are just plants that have always been, no clue other than red and good. Our black raspberries (R. occidentalis) get bigger and berries are more firm. Black berry canes get 12' high (R. alleghaniensis). They can be nasty. Wife had a run in 2 weeks ago and I would say many are now cut flush with the ground and the canes are on the camp brush pile to enjoy later.
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If I had to choose one, I'd pick black over red and have two varieties of black. One patch is being overtaken by bindweed though and I may have to abandon it to control the spread. We also have copious amounts of wild black raspberry that although smaller than the cultivars are just as tasty if not more. The buds are already visible on the blacks so looks like they will be early this year.
I've never cared for the torus on blackberries, so have never planted them. There are wild ones in the timber behind our place though and used to pick a few for Dad as he liked them.
I've never cared for the torus on blackberries, so have never planted them. There are wild ones in the timber behind our place though and used to pick a few for Dad as he liked them.
Blackberries are weeds out here, they take over once established. I think most gardeners who plant berries prefer red raspberries. Wife planted a cherry tomato in a pot on the deck yesterday. We do well with the cherry tomatos, the full size tomatos don't do well on the deck. I think it radiates too much heat which makes the watering inconsistent.
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I planted the peas yesterday. It's s been pretty dry but raining today and more coming tonight. I never soak my pea seeds because they won't go through my planter after they swell up, l just try to plant when there's plenty of moisture. I have planted the extremely tall Alderman peas in the past but decided to go with some progress #9 and some sugar snap peas this year. They will still need a trellis but only 2 or 3 feet instead of 6' for the Alderman.
I love wild blackberries, some years they are abundant. Last year was looking great then we had a drought and they dried up to nothing. Maybe this year.
Agree, I'll pick them when I find them while I'm fishing. But when we go specifically for picking berries we go for huckleberries and blueberries.
Got a pleasant surprise while cleaning up my red raspberries for the first time this year.
Just getting my row going so a couple pf volunteer plants are welcomed.
Just getting my head wrapped around primocane/floricane bearing vines. I just let them go a couple of years and then may cut them back in the Fall. I so use to just the floricane bearing on blackberries. And I'll be able to cane more plants for future years.
Just getting my row going so a couple pf volunteer plants are welcomed.
Just getting my head wrapped around primocane/floricane bearing vines. I just let them go a couple of years and then may cut them back in the Fall. I so use to just the floricane bearing on blackberries. And I'll be able to cane more plants for future years.
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I got all the weeds weed-whipped down along the fence and around the newly planted starts. And D@mn! I cut two of the new ones off!. One only the top couple of inches; plenty of leaves still present. The other, I wacked an inch from the ground. Only one or two leaves left. I had tomato cages around them to protect from deer and was going to put bottomless buckets over them to protect them from me. Well my hand was getting numb, I lost control and the line caught the basket. Should have quit when I was ahead.
I made a round to the gardens and yard this morning. Everything was thriving and green. Could use some rain but...
1:00 PM - Hurricane force winds Micro burst rain and hail parallel to the ground. Trees uprooted, limbs twisted out of others, leaves an inch thick on the ground. My corn. squash and green beans look like the aftermath of Mt. St. Hellen’s eruption… Rain guage says 1” but I know it’s a lie. There’s no way that water could have gone in the guage. I’ve had corn lodge before but never flattened to the ground. I’ll try to stand it back up tomorrow when maybe I won’t sink in the quicksand that was my garden.
The whole thing lasted about ten min, then it just rained some.
they say Mother Nature is a B...
Alan
1:00 PM - Hurricane force winds Micro burst rain and hail parallel to the ground. Trees uprooted, limbs twisted out of others, leaves an inch thick on the ground. My corn. squash and green beans look like the aftermath of Mt. St. Hellen’s eruption… Rain guage says 1” but I know it’s a lie. There’s no way that water could have gone in the guage. I’ve had corn lodge before but never flattened to the ground. I’ll try to stand it back up tomorrow when maybe I won’t sink in the quicksand that was my garden.
The whole thing lasted about ten min, then it just rained some.
they say Mother Nature is a B...
Alan
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That's devastating! Hope you can still salvage something out of all that. Really sucks after all the work you've put into it.
All my tomatoes and peppers are in growboxes and they are getting waterlogged with that same system
It is aggravating, but I’ve been at this for a long time and I just salvage what I can and replant. That’s all that can be done except to quit, and I just don’t know what I’d do if I quit.
Alan
It looks like it’s about to pass over you.
I’ve asked a number of people around us if they had the winds like we did and not many did. The ones that did were all in a line. At Point Comfort (about 40 miles southeast of us) they clocked 119 mph winds. I don’t think we had that here but it was headed in that direction. I’ve sat out several hurricanes and we had a ten minute hurricane this afternoon.
On the bright side, I’ve got a big mesquite log laying out in the lot with the root ball still on it. It was full of dirt and rocks. Maybe this rain softened it up so I can pressure wash it easier before milling.
Alan
“Always look on the bright side of life” (Monty Python)
I've never had such a catastrophic weather event as that but we've had some pretty damaging storms over the years. Sometimes damaged plants have recovered better than I thought possible, hopefully you can salvage some of your crops. I'm envious that you have corn tall enough to lodge, I'm still running heat in the greenhouse some nights to prevent frost.
I'm always amazed that every year my tomato season is complete and the vines burned up by the time my brother in Springfield, VT has any growth on his tomatoes
Yes and Springfield is a good Two weeks ahead of where I am. My greenhouse has been a big help, we had a ripe tomato on my wife's birthday July 23. I bought one of those cheap diesel heaters this year and am hoping to get some a little earlier this year. It's probably not very cost effective with the high diesel price, about $3.00 to run it all night. I had 5 gallons on hand from last fall but that ran out yesterday and I had to pay the high price.
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I'm just now putting the tomatoes out in the cold frame. Really late getting them started this year, will plant next week if temps allow.