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What's Growing in the Garden

trc65

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Had a batch of green onions from last year that were in the way, so cut them off and kept them all.

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Nephew had told me that anytime they use onions, all the leftovers and waste goes into a freezer bag and when full he dehydrates and grinds for onion powder.

Doing the same with these, will grind most for powder and keep the rest whole to add to soups, etc. I'll also keep dried chunks to use for some future salami recipes.

This is the first of probably 4 batches in the dehydrator.

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trc65

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Got most of the tomatoes planted yesterday and first batch of cole crops(cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts) in today. Cole crops have to be netted or they will be gone by morning (birds and deer). Use secs of fencing over the rows then stretch bird netting over that.

Didn't have enough buckets for all the tomatoes so some just got caged.
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Will also be picking the first strawberries in 3-4 days.... Which is way early.
 
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Alan R McDaniel Jr

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I picked the first batch of polka dot tomatoes this morning. These are the first ones ripening after the hail storm. Had to toss about half of them. The next ones should be pretty clear. I only planted indeterminate this year but the storm turned them into determinate I’m afraid. They’ve stopped growing and flowering… I’ll hit them with some foliar phosphorus and see what happens. The worms have decided the corn is ready to pick so my grandson (6) and I will knock that out tomorrow. He helped me stand the stalks back up and has taken ownership of some of the corn. Green beans are done, peas got plastered, I gotta dig the rest of the carrots. A few peppers are coming back and the squash are making a few, but not near as much as they would have if they hadn’t been beat to a pulp. I started to replant but I’m just going to let what’s there play out and spend the summer adding compost and conditioning the gardens for next year. My compost pile has grown to about five yards so I’ll spread that and some composted manure/hay from my buddy’s pasture and hope for NO HAIL next year.

Alan
 

Mr. Peet

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I picked the first batch of polka dot tomatoes this morning. These are the first ones ripening after the hail storm. Had to toss about half of them. The next ones should be pretty clear. I only planted indeterminate this year but the storm turned them into determinate I’m afraid. They’ve stopped growing and flowering… I’ll hit them with some foliar phosphorus and see what happens. The worms have decided the corn is ready to pick so my grandson (6) and I will knock that out tomorrow. He helped me stand the stalks back up and has taken ownership of some of the corn. Green beans are done, peas got plastered, I gotta dig the rest of the carrots. A few peppers are coming back and the squash are making a few, but not near as much as they would have if they hadn’t been beat to a pulp. I started to replant but I’m just going to let what’s there play out and spend the summer adding compost and conditioning the gardens for next year. My compost pile has grown to about five yards so I’ll spread that and some composted manure/hay from my buddy’s pasture and hope for NO HAIL next year.

Alan
The ones tossed, were they full of bugs and slugs? Just wondering why they were tossed. We usually use the damaged for relish and salsa along with other things.
 

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Tomatoes are planted under the plastic row cover, it will probably freeze again but the plastic gives some protection and the hoops make it easy to add a tarp if needed. I fired up the ancient troy built and made furrows to plant a couple rows of spuds. I will plant a couple more rows in a week or two, my peas need a trellis so that's my next project. IMG_20260519_094618701.jpg IMG_20260519_085310833.jpg
 

Alan R McDaniel Jr

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What kind of furrower is that you have on the TB? Mines just a homemade job that really doesn’t work that well. Beats making furrows with a hoe, but not by much. I need to get something I don’t have to wrestle across the garden.

Alan
 

sprucegum

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What kind of furrower is that you have on the TB? Mines just a homemade job that really doesn’t work that well. Beats making furrows with a hoe, but not by much. I need to get something I don’t have to wrestle across the garden.

Alan
It's a original TB furrower hilling attachment. It has wings that bolt on for hilling. I put a new predator engine on it last year.
 

trc65

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I love fresh strawberries, mine are just starting to blossom.
Agree, there is no comparison having them fresh from the garden or farmers market. Nothing better than sliced berries with a tiny sprinkle of sugar and whipped cream, or ice cream if we are out of cream.
 

djg

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Tomatoes are planted under the plastic row cover, it will probably freeze again but the plastic gives some protection and the hoops make it easy to add a tarp if needed. I fired up the ancient troy built and made furrows to plant a couple rows of spuds. I will plant a couple more rows in a week or two, my peas need a trellis so that's my next project. View attachment 288786View attachment 288787
Man your soil makes planting potatoes look so easy.
 

sprucegum

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Man your soil makes planting potatoes look so easy.
I've got a 5' tiller that goes on my tractor. I bought it about 20 years ago and had a pretty good little side hustle tilling gardens. It paid for itself the first season. It was getting to the point that I was going to need a new trailer and a friend bought a tiller and wanted to get into it so I just sent my customers to him, but I kept the tiller. I still do a few local jobs that I can drive the tractor to.
 

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Last night I consumed some outstanding jumbo blackberries. My question to you gardeners is “Are the seeds viable?” I could easily had a hundred seeds and curious if the fruits have seeds I can propagate plants or are the fruits the kind the seeds are duds due to genetic medaling.
 

trc65

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Last night I consumed some outstanding jumbo blackberries. My question to you gardeners is “Are the seeds viable?” I could easily had a hundred seeds and curious if the fruits have seeds I can propagate plants or are the fruits the kind the seeds are duds due to genetic medaling.
Short answer, yes you can grow from seeds. However they do cross pollinate so no guarantee they will be the same as parent fruit.

Long answer, for seeds to germinate, they must be cold stratified for ~60 days. Then they could be germinated and stepped up in larger and larger pots until big enough to be planted outside. Then you would have some fruit the second year.

Best way to propagate them is vegetatively through tip layering, digging suckers, or dividing roots. That's if they were locally grown and you have access to them.

A side note. I started a new black raspberry bed last year. Wanted a new variety, so I bought 3 "plants", basically a 2" section of stem and the associated roots. Since I wanted a larger bed, but didn't want to buy a bunch of plants, I tip layered a bunch last summer, dug and transplanted this spring and have now filled in the bed with about 10 total plants.
 

Webb

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Let me see if this is right. Enjoy the berries and put the seeds in a fridge for a few months. Put the seeds in potting soil and water. Once sprouted, plant and grow until winter hits and hope for berries next year?
 

trc65

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Let me see if this is right. Enjoy the berries and put the seeds in a fridge for a few months. Put the seeds in potting soil and water. Once sprouted, plant and grow until winter hits and hope for berries next year?
Sort of, after cleaning and refrigerating seeds, hope they germinate. Then once they do, it will probably be months of growing inside, or protected outside in pots. Hope they are large enough to transplant in the ground in early fall so they can root and survive winter. You might get a few berries the following year, but most likely it will be the second growing season in the ground before you have any amount of fruit, so two years from now. And, there will be no guarantee they will be identical, or even similar in size or flavor to what you just ate.

If you want some blackberries to grow, I'd advise buying some plants now and you will have a small harvest next year, with a big harvest every year afterwards.

I've never tried germinating blackberry, strawberry, or any other fruits. Germinating seeds is not hard, but when you are dealing with very small seeds that need stratification, there are lots of potential problems that can destroy your efforts - mainly fungal. A small amount of mold while stratifying can destroy the seeds and even if they germinate, root rots while growing in pots can do the same. All for plants that may not be anywhere near the quality of the parents.

Vegetative propagation is the only way to go when you find a variety that you like.

While some home gardeners experiment with seed starting fruits, many (most?) of those efforts result in substandard plants/fruit.

The only ones that routinely start fruit from seeds are plant breeders that are doing specific crosses and looking to improve characteristics. They will germinate tens of thousands of seeds looking for one or two plants that have the desired characteristics.
 
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Webb

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So starts the experiment. I have some I’ll enjoy tonight and will collect the seeds and refrigerate them. It will be interesting to see what happens when I try to start them.

Where I live, wild blackberries are a nuisance and I think a cultivated plant might do well. I’ll report back in a few months.
 

trc65

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So starts the experiment. I have some I’ll enjoy tonight and will collect the seeds and refrigerate them. It will be interesting to see what happens when I try to start them.

Where I live, wild blackberries are a nuisance and I think a cultivated plant might do well. I’ll report back in a few months.
If you haven't grown a lot from seed or ever stratified seed, spend a little time on Google. Lots of info for germinating black berry seeds.
 
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