What's Growing in the Garden

[trc65]

Brassicas are always a challenge, I use seven garden dust early then switch to dawn dish soap spray later. My cabbage was hardly bothered this year but I have some brussel sprouts started for fall that are getting chewed up.

That may have been part of my problem. When I had my bees in the backyard, could not use sevin dust. Maybe the those 12 years without much control gave me a problem I cannot control now even with sevin. Have not tried cabbage in a few years now, but last time, unless I kept them picked off and used a constant coating of sevin on top AND bottom of leaf they were toast. And everytime it rained or I watered, I'd have to do it again - which ended up being most everyday - wasn't worth the trouble. Maybe the other problem is that NO ONE anywhere close grows veggies or fruit . All these hungry pests are concentrated on my yard because I'm the only one!

For loopers on brassica crops consider using some of the synthetic pyrethroids. Chemicals that end in -rin like cypermethrin, cyfluthrin, bifenthrin, cyhalothrin, etc. They are very quick acting and effective on a broad range of pests and labeled for use on most veg crops. Safe to humans and pets and have a very short PHI (pre harvest interval) usually from 0 to 3 days. They are toxic to bees, but you aren't spraying them on anything that bees will frequent.

Many of the chemicals that are labeled for veg crops that you find on the shelf in stores are synthetic pyrethroids.

 

[djg]

Been meaning to ask you guys who grow corn. How do you keep the raccoons from getting it? Not to mention in the Spring the deer get the sprouts.

 

[trc65]

Electric fence. I don't have any problems with deer when the corn is small, so not a problem then. About tassel time I put up waist high wire for deer and 6"wire for coons. Waist high wire keeps deer out as they can't see any place to land if they try to jump it. I place the fence about 5 ft away from corn so random leaves blown by the wind won't short it out.

If deer were brousing on sprouts I probably try putting up waist high wire and baiting it with peanut butter. Put a gob of peanut butter on a small square of aluminum foil and fold it over the wire. Usually one shock is all it takes for deer to stay away from an area.

 

[sprucegum]

Shell beans are doing pretty good. They had a slow start due to dry weather in June and most of July. These are some heirloom beans that have been grown by my wife's family for well over 100 years. They don't have a name that I know of, we just call them grama's shell
beans. We can them to eat plain or mixed with corn for succotash, we let some dry on the vine for baked beans and next years seed. They are a very reliable producer.

 

[Greenacres2]

Around here it's going for $5 a dozen bought from the back of a pickup. Picked fresh every morning, probably a dozen different guys in parking lots around town.

I looked at Cameron, IL on Google Earth--a dozen guys selling corn must be about a quarter of the population!!
Originally looked at that to see if you were on the east side of IL, but you're west side. Great looking garden!!

 

[JerseyHighlander]

Shell beans are doing pretty good. They had a slow start due to dry weather in June and most of July. These are some heirloom beans that have been grown by my wife's family for well over 100 years. They don't have a name that I know of, we just call them grama's shell
beans. We can them to eat plain or mixed with corn for succotash, we let some dry on the vine for baked beans and next years seed. They are a very reliable producer. View attachment 229881View attachment 229882View attachment 229880

That is as the youngsters say; Cool Beans! Somewhere Grama is watching over and smiling. Gotta get one of the current Grand kids to do a graphic on the computer and run a blank seed pack envelope through the printer to make it official. Maybe some of "Grama's" lineage on the back side...
May want to look into putting some into the seed savers exchange. https://exchange.seedsavers.org/page/landing

 

[trc65]

I looked at Cameron, IL on Google Earth--a dozen guys selling corn must be about a quarter of the population!!
Originally looked at that to see if you were on the east side of IL, but you're west side. Great looking garden!!

Yeah, there is nothing in Cameron except a grain elevator. We live four miles south of Cameron. When we say town, we're always referring to Galesburg which is about 34000 pop. About a 25 minute trip into Galesburg when we need to do shopping.

 

[Sprung]

Shell beans are doing pretty good. They had a slow start due to dry weather in June and most of July. These are some heirloom beans that have been grown by my wife's family for well over 100 years. They don't have a name that I know of, we just call them grama's shell
beans. We can them to eat plain or mixed with corn for succotash, we let some dry on the vine for baked beans and next years seed. They are a very reliable producer.

Dave, that is real cool - I love hearing about people's stories with their family heirloom seeds. I second Kyle's Seed Savers suggestion. And if you ever feel like selling or trading away a small handful of the dried beans, I'd love some. Beans are our favorite and most eaten vegetable and we love trying new varieties.

 

[Sprung]

Speaking of beans, we're now at the point where we're harvesting more beans than we can eat fresh. Which means beans for the freezer! And eventually dilly beans as well. Some may get canned too, if we start running short on freezer space.

This year we planted:
Wax beans (don't recall the variety)
Provider (A favorite of ours - and we will always grow these)
???? - Some form of Italian bush bean - I don't know how we got these growing, except for maybe we got some mislabeled seed
Dragon's Tongue - pictured below - a new one for us this year. And we've already decided that we will grow these each year. They're good.
Cherokee Trail of Tears - another new one for us this year. It looks like we'll be harvesting the first of these this weekend.
Succotash - another new one for us this year. It'll be a while before we have some of these to harvest.

Our Shishito Pepper plants are really taking off too and we're starting to get more than we'll eat right away, so I'll start pickling some. These are thinner, so I'm going to do a refrigerator pickle on these so they don't turn to mush in the water bath.

 

[sprucegum]

Dave, that is real cool - I love hearing about people's stories with their family heirloom seeds. I second Kyle's Seed Savers suggestion. And if you ever feel like selling or trading away a small handful of the dried beans, I'd love some. Beans are our favorite and most eaten vegetable and we love trying new varieties.

I will send you some when the new crop is ready. I suppose sending some to seed savers would be a good idea. Several family members grow them so the DNA is safe for now

 

[djg]

Shell beans are doing pretty good. They had a slow start due to dry weather in June and most of July. These are some heirloom beans that have been grown by my wife's family for well over 100 years. They don't have a name that I know of, we just call them grama's shell
beans. We can them to eat plain or mixed with corn for succotash, we let some dry on the vine for baked beans and next years seed. They are a very reliable producer. View attachment 229881View attachment 229882View attachment 229880

I'm confused. Is the shell beans just another variety of green beans that you let go past the green eating stage or they actually a special variety. My Mom used to put up 'shelly beans' that I thought was just yellow beans left on the vine until they almost dried out. Been over 20 years and I don't remember. Loved the earthy taste.

 

[sprucegum]

I'm confused. Is the shell beans just another variety of green beans that you let go past the green eating stage or they actually a special variety. My Mom used to put up 'shelly beans' that I thought was just yellow beans left on the vine until they almost dried out. Been over 20 years and I don't remember. Loved the earthy taste.

Shell beans can be over ripe string beans or not fully mature dried beans. These are dried beans that make good shell beans. We have used soldier bean and Jacobs cattle beans in the past. I think some varieties like French Horticultural are grown specifically for shelling beans.

 

[sprucegum]

We like succotash better than plain shell beans. Succotash is a native American word which means corn and beans cooked together. I see all kinds of crazy succotash recipes online but to me it's corn and beans.

 

[Greenacres2]

Yeah, there is nothing in Cameron except a grain elevator. We live four miles south of Cameron. When we say town, we're always referring to Galesburg which is about 34000 pop. About a 25 minute trip into Galesburg when we need to do shopping.

That makes a lot more sense. Used to drive out to Foster Coach in Sterling from the race track in Joliet to pick up & return ambulances for the bigger races. That drive across I-80 was pretty dull--6 of us in a van going out, be the return trip was one per box--no radio, no cell phones...just flat.
Awesome garden and grounds!! If we ever do the Dyersville, IA trip for my wife i'll drop off a cold cup of coffee for you!!
earl

 

[Sprung]

I will send you some when the new crop is ready. I suppose sending some to seed savers would be a good idea. Several family members grow them so the DNA is safe for now

Dave, thank you! Always fun to try growing new varieties and I'll look forward to growing these - and seed saving - next year. (And glad that you've got multiple family members keeping your variety going!)

 

[djg]

We like succotash better than plain shell beans. Succotash is a native American word which means corn and beans cooked together. I see all kinds of crazy succotash recipes online but to me it's corn and beans.View attachment 229907

Is that how young you pick them for shell beans? Man I wish I would have paid more attention. When I was a kid, I mowed grass for a neighbor who was a retired botany? professor. He had well maintained and productive fruit trees in his yard. He was going to show me how to prune, but being a dumb kid, I wasn't interested. I wish I had.
Jogging my memory, we used to have something called crotter? peas (or beans?). Mom came from a family of German descent, if that helps.

 

[sprucegum]

Is that how young you pick them for shell beans? Man I wish I would have paid more attention. When I was a kid, I mowed grass for a neighbor who was a retired botany? professor. He had well maintained and productive fruit trees in his yard. He was going to show me how to prune, but being a dumb kid, I wasn't interested. I wish I had.
Jogging my memory, we used to have something called crotter? peas (or beans?). Mom came from a family of German descent, if that helps.

No those are way too small, it's where they are at now. I wait until the beans are pretty much mature but have not started to dry.

 

[djg]

Got the bright idea to google it (lol) and it's crowder peas, southern not German foods. Looking for some seeds for next year.

 

[djg]

I've got store bought sweet potatoes that have foot long slips on them. I don't guess there's anything I can do with them now? Certainly wouldn't make it to next Spring?

 

[JerseyHighlander]

Ok, I need advice from the experts. Have a few tomato plants that were transplants back in spring, they both grew well and healthy one of them nearing 8 foot high before I topped it off. The other slowed down about 6.5 feet and started flowering, getting good bunches of fruit one after the other but about two weeks ago I noticed the earliest bunch had stopped gaining any size, just froze where it was, but otherwise looked normal. Leaves were looking a little haggard but figured it was the heat or it needed water. Now, leaves look like this and I'm stumped.




Another plant three feet away looks fine, though it's barely been flowering. But the leaves are nice dark green and it's healthy. I'm thinking it's a deficiency of some kind but just don't know which way to go.


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