Gardens for 2021 season

[DJ54]

We had a raised garden last fall for the first time. Raised broccoli and lettuce that worked out well. We also had lots of cabbage but, most of it got Infested with bugs. See picture below.

Anyone know what these bugs are and how to prevent next season?

MoKellyView attachment 683881

Cabbage worms. I get them here too. I use Spinosad, and BT (Bacillus thuringiensis " sprays alternately. Both approved for orgainic use. BT is often considered to be the best pesticide for cabbage worms because it targets only specific pests; it won't harm ladybugs, parasitic wasps, honeybees or other desirable garden residents. Do understand, pests need to injest/eat a bit of the leaves for it to work. It produces a protein that is toxic to larvae. I had very good control using both of those products. More than several companies make these sprays containing these products. Use Google, or your preferred search engine to find them, or read about them.

This year, pay attention, looking for white butterflies flitting around the garden. Those are the rascals responsible for laying eggs on your crops, that lay eggs for those worms. Personally, I also sow Daikon Radishes either side of the row of cabbage, and vining plants as a trap plant. In a normal year, they will bolt before cabbage forms heads, and the flowers will attract those butterflies, and will lay their eggs there. I spray the radishes when I see the butterflies working them, killing what larvae may emerge. Daikon seeds are relatively cheap when bought in bulk of 1/4, or 1/2 lb. amounts, and go along way. A second planting here, about 2-3 weeks after the first one will produce flowers, after the first one's die off. My first planting last year did not do well due to the weather, but the second one did. It did get me through the harvest, along with the BT, and Spinosad.

 

[DJ54]

TOMATOES! Nothing like a vine ripened tomato! I hate what we get in the stores or in restaurants. I have determined that most people don't know what a tomato should taste like or they wouldn't eat or more importantly buy these tasteless things. Maybe then the grower/grocer/supplier pipeline might start producing worthwhile tomatoes!

We will use raised beds we made last year out of left over cedar pickets. In NTX the afternoon sun is too much so we have a box on the east side of the house under the eave. It gets morning to noon sun and it's close to the back door so easy to grab one to eat anytime.

You got that right..!! Most stores,and restaurants sell what is commonly known as shipping tomatoes. Look good, but no taste. They are bred to withstand the bumps of shipping. Most are picked fairly green, and either hauled in refridgerated trucks at certain temperatures to enhance, or deter ripening, then gassed to finish ripening. I have afriend who just retired from hauling only tomatoes from points such as Arizona, to the Carolina's, to a produce house in Boston. Depending on how many, and what point of ripeness he had on hand, he would tell him at what temperature to haul them at.

If you do a little searching, you'll see where they are building huge greenhouse's to grow "hothouse" tomatoes popping up across the country. We have several here in Ohio. Literally acres under glass to grow them, in climate controlled/nutrition controlled conditions.

Somewhat like Sonny, I grow a lot of tomatoes, no less then 12 dozen plants, but usually 16-20 dozen plants. I preserve a lot of my own juice, and sauces for personal use. The rest I donate to a local food kitchen that prepares meals for thse down on their luck, and or homeless. Plus, give to friends that also can up tomato products. I know last year, I gave away a minimum of 30 bushel's of tomatoes. Better to give them to someone that can use them, than let them go to waste.

 

[MoKelly]

Cabbage worms. I get them here too. I use Spinosad, and BT (Bacillus thuringiensis " sprays alternately. Both approved for orgainic use. BT is often considered to be the best pesticide for cabbage worms because it targets only specific pests; it won't harm ladybugs, parasitic wasps, honeybees or other desirable garden residents. Do understand, pests need to injest/eat a bit of the leaves for it to work. It produces a protein that is toxic to larvae. I had very good control using both of those products. More than several companies make these sprays containing these products. Use Google, or your preferred search engine to find them, or read about them.

This year, pay attention, looking for white butterflies flitting around the garden. Those are the rascals responsible for laying eggs on your crops, that lay eggs for those worms. Personally, I also sow Daikon Radishes either side of the row of cabbage, and vining plants as a trap plant. In a normal year, they will bolt before cabbage forms heads, and the flowers will attract those butterflies, and will lay their eggs there. I spray the radishes when I see the butterflies working them, killing what larvae may emerge. Daikon seeds are relatively cheap when bought in bulk of 1/4, or 1/2 lb. amounts, and go along way. A second planting here, about 2-3 weeks after the first one will produce flowers, after the first one's die off. My first planting last year did not do well due to the weather, but the second one did. It did get me through the harvest, along with the BT, and Spinosad.

Thank you very much. This is helpful.

MoKelly

 

[Bearsixty7]

You got that right..!! Most stores,and restaurants sell what is commonly known as shipping tomatoes. Look good, but no taste. They are bred to withstand the bumps of shipping. Most are picked fairly green, and either hauled in refridgerated trucks at certain temperatures to enhance, or deter ripening, then gassed to finish ripening. I have afriend who just retired from hauling only tomatoes from points such as Arizona, to the Carolina's, to a produce house in Boston. Depending on how many, and what point of ripeness he had on hand, he would tell him at what temperature to haul them at.

I figured it was something like that. I forgot to mention, we have a local family grower that sets up and sells at the TSC most of the summer. We have gotten good produce from him, even tomatoes that were good. He does a pretty good business, always lots of customers all weekend.

If you do a little searching, you'll see where they are building huge greenhouse's to grow "hothouse" tomatoes popping up across the country. We have several here in Ohio. Literally acres under glass to grow them, in climate controlled/nutrition controlled conditions.

Somewhat like Sonny, I grow a lot of tomatoes, no less then 12 dozen plants, but usually 16-20 dozen plants. I preserve a lot of my own juice, and sauces for personal use. The rest I donate to a local food kitchen that prepares meals for thse down on their luck, and or homeless. Plus, give to friends that also can up tomato products. I know last year, I gave away a minimum of 30 bushel's of tomatoes. Better to give them to someone that can use them, than let them go to waste.

I think we have 6 varieties planted already in our "mini-greenhouse" tub in the house waiting for the last frost to plant. We started watching "Living Traditions Homestead" this year and watched how they do a lot of canning and even freeze drying. My wife has done canning for years but still learns something from them. Freeze dryers are expensive, but hopefully as more people buy, they will come down. I see us purchasing one in our future.

 

[Sonny580]

We have done a lot of different veggies in our freeze-dryer and found it worked best for onions and sweet corn. Havent tried the squash yet that we did last year, but have done tomatoes, peaches, eggplant(which did o.k.). tried potatoes but it didnt work for them---might should wash them first, dont know and gave up on the potato idea. Might do mashed potatoes --- never got to try it yet. ours is a 5 tray and takes a 5 gallon bucket of stuff to fill it and we dont mix batches. If you do the flavor will mix and you end up with a mess of unusable stuff.
Freeze dryers are expensive to run and dont work on everything they say , so you have to be the judge of that for yourself when using them.
The main reason we got ours was to do the big onion crop of nice onions we grow here. They are big sweet onions and do not keep well, so we had to find a way to keep them and freeze drying does the trick.
Sweetcorn is another crop that dries well and re-hydrates back fairly good. It takes a 5 gallon bucket stacked high with cleaned ears to fill our 5-trays with cut-off kernels. Each tray weighs 5.5 pounds wet and come out at 2.25 --- so it takes out a little over 3 pounds of water per tray. and takes around 44 hours total run time to complete a batch. First 9 hours is freezing time then dry time kicks in and goes til sensors say its dry and that can vary a lot. After product is done then you have defrost time which can take from 2 to 4 hours so figure on a 48 hour total batch time. I assume they all run like that. Ours is the stainless Harvest-Right 5 tray model. There are probably other brands out there but we chose this one. Also got a warehouse close-out on this one because they were starting production on the new models and had this one left.
We can a lot and do a bit in the deep freezers too. Sweet corn is hard to beat right out of the jar! We try to put up a 3-year supply of processed veggies, (and fruits if/when we have them) to carry ue over if we dont grow anything for a year or two.
Extra garden veggies go to whoever wants it. some goes the a friends church food pantry. We used to take it to local mission but they kinda said the dont really want veggies---but want money instead! --- well that aint gonna happen! so anyway friends church is glad to get it since they have over a hundred people come in for the shares and we keep them well supplied when we have stuff ready to go.

 

[Sonny580]

Onion plants coming today---2 seed flats started in the basement on heat pads and under grow lights, cabbage is up , tomatoes not yet. only been 4 days or so since I planted them. big hotbed outside ready to plant now. raining today so gardening is out!

 

[Philm56]

TOMATOES! Nothing like a vine ripened tomato!

"Only two things that money can't buy True love and home grown tomatoes" - Guy Clark
I scored some 6' tall chain link fence we demoed from a jobsite I'm currently installing around our garden. Hope it will keep the deer out but may need to put a hotwire around the top for the racoons.

 

[Bearsixty7]

Onion plants coming today---2 seed flats started in the basement on heat pads and under grow lights, cabbage is up , tomatoes not yet. only been 4 days or so since I planted them. big hotbed outside ready to plant now. raining today so gardening is out!

We've got 16 different tomato plants in the ground here and many, many more in "greenhouse boxes" yet to plant. I think every seed sprouted so the wife has given some away.

 

[RalphVa]

Have put in pea seeds and potato pieces, pea seeds around edges of pots on top the deck rails and pea seeds in plots along path to outside shower and potato pieces in one of the raised beds. Got asparagus in 4 of the other raised beds. Think I'll put sweet potato slips in the little garden behind the garage. Later, will put asparagus beans around edges of the asparagus beds and maybe at back of screen on outside shower. Gotta put my 4 tomato plants somewhere, maybe in the plot behind the garage. Later will put some okra in somewhere. Haven't figure out where yet.

No big space stuff any more but might put in some more winter squash at the tops of the slope on east end of swimming pool where I got a bumper crop of them 2 years ago. They grew out onto the pool deck. Have not gotten any squash seed to germinate there but have some in the ends of most of the 6 raised beds: one end with sweet potato slips on the other ends.

Crop failure on the potatoes. Worst ever. Got one little container of potatoes once the wife cooked them. Must have gotten on plump-sized potato/plant at the most. Didn't turn the soaker hose onto the 2 beds where I had them. Finally did, too late. Got too dry.

Got 2 beefsteak and 2 cherry tom plants going nicely with green tomatoes on all 4. I buried them, using a post hole digger. Stripped all the leaves but the top ones.

Pea crop is medium, less than last year, but okay.

Have some bush beans up and keep planting a few more. Put more asparagus bean seeds in. Some have come up in the containers atop the rails around the deck, to replace my peas that are about "cooked" out there. Still some peas to each side of the outside shower beds.

Have sweet potato slips in all the 6 raised beds and a couple in the old "asparagus" bed that never was.

Getting lots of blueberries. Luckily, the squirrels haven't discovered them.

Some Juneberry raspberries. Should be a BIG crop of thornless blackberries. Hoping the wineberries in the forest will start breaking out of their "cuckleburrs".

 

[DJ54]

"Only two things that money can't buy True love and home grown tomatoes" - Guy Clark
I scored some 6' tall chain link fence we demoed from a jobsite I'm currently installing around our garden. Hope it will keep the deer out but may need to put a hotwire around the top for the racoons.

I put up electric fence around my garden 5' high. For double protection, I've always heard Deer don't like the scent of Irish Spring soap. I bought 2 of the 8 bar pkgs., cut them in quarters, drilled 1/4" holes in each piece, then zip tied them to the tops of each T-post spaced at 10'. It worked..!!