Raising Sweet Corn, Pumpkins, and Squash.

[RSKY]

Here is a link to a site that has instructions for canning or freezing just about anything.

Where to Find Pick-Your-Own Fruit and Vegetable Farms / Orchards for Local, Fresh Fruit, Vegetables and Pumpkins, Along With Canning, Freezing & Preserving Instructions!

They also have instructions on picking, for instance how to tell if the veggie is ready to be picked.

I would like to make a suggestion. Start small and work your way up to a larger garden. I have put out quite a bit one year before I retired, then had to work overtime because somebody got hurt at work. Lost most of that years production. Find out what your family would like to have a supply of and start with that. For instance a few rows of corn and a few rows of green beans or lima beans. Pumpkins take a lot of area for what I consider not much to eat. If you are going to sell them it is a different situation.

A couple at our church farm quite a bit and every year they plant several rows of Bodacious Sweet Corn at the edge of a couple fields. It is planted so that every week there is some coming in. They get up early on each Sunday morning and fill up the bed of their pickup and bring it to church. When the service is over everybody makes a dash for the door and that truck. They have old plastic grocery bags in a box and you get all the corn on the cob you need for that days meal. What is left over they take to some of the older people in the neighborhood.

Had a cousin who died this year do something similar for as long as he had been retired. His garden was three times as big as his family needed. He would pick green beans or squash or lima beans or corn and take them around to the older ladies, widows, and couples in his community. At his funereal there was a huge crowd. Many older people with walkers and canes talking about how he always brought them garden fresh vegetables even when he was so sick he could barely walk himself.

It would be nice to be remembered like that.

RSKY

 

[forgeblast]

Rsky that site is great i have used them before.
Just remember if using the 3 sisters do not put everything in at one time, corn first, let it get some height then beans then squash. I cannot remember the type of corn but I used scarlet runner beans and mother hubbard squash. The squash was huge.

 

[DFB]

I think you are referring to Hybrids, which are not the same as GMO, and GMO in the same sentence. Hybrids are crosses of two parent plants which don't normally produce 'true' from seed. Each time you want to have seed for that hybrid you have to cross pollinate the two parents. Heirlooms or 'open pollination' are the result of cross-pollination that have produced true from seed and thus become their own little part of the family. Their pollination just happens in the garden by bees etc and when you save and grow the seeds you get the same plant as the parent. Heirloom cross-breeding to produce other Heirlooms (open pollination types) and Hybrid breeding (closed pollination types) is how we have hundreds of tomato varieties for example. There is nothing 'scary' about Hybrids, you just won't be able to save seed and replant the following year, you have to buy seed each year.

GMO on the other hand is where genes from a completely different plant or organism are introduced for the traits they express. An example would be bt-Corn where genes from a soil organism (BT) are spliced into the corn to make it toxic to things like corn ear worms.

:thumbsup:!

 

[Green Power]

Hilling is the process of mounding up dirt around and on the plant. Potatoes, like tomatoes, can grow roots from the green parts if they are buried. This gives you a stronger root system and with potatoes may result in an increase in production. Since potatoes turn green and become inedible when exposed to sunlight it also helps ensure there is enough dirt over them so they will not poke out and turn green.

When you transplant tomatoes one technique that utilizes this feature of the plant is to bury almost all of the plant in a horizontal trench so promote root growth. You just leave the top couple leaves poking out of the ground.

Okay this makes sense. I never had heard before that you can bury tomatoes.

 

[Green Power]

Here is a link to a site that has instructions for canning or freezing just about anything.

Where to Find Pick-Your-Own Fruit and Vegetable Farms / Orchards for Local, Fresh Fruit, Vegetables and Pumpkins, Along With Canning, Freezing & Preserving Instructions!

They also have instructions on picking, for instance how to tell if the veggie is ready to be picked.

I would like to make a suggestion. Start small and work your way up to a larger garden. I have put out quite a bit one year before I retired, then had to work overtime because somebody got hurt at work. Lost most of that years production. Find out what your family would like to have a supply of and start with that. For instance a few rows of corn and a few rows of green beans or lima beans. Pumpkins take a lot of area for what I consider not much to eat. If you are going to sell them it is a different situation.

A couple at our church farm quite a bit and every year they plant several rows of Bodacious Sweet Corn at the edge of a couple fields. It is planted so that every week there is some coming in. They get up early on each Sunday morning and fill up the bed of their pickup and bring it to church. When the service is over everybody makes a dash for the door and that truck. They have old plastic grocery bags in a box and you get all the corn on the cob you need for that days meal. What is left over they take to some of the older people in the neighborhood.

Had a cousin who died this year do something similar for as long as he had been retired. His garden was three times as big as his family needed. He would pick green beans or squash or lima beans or corn and take them around to the older ladies, widows, and couples in his community. At his funereal there was a huge crowd. Many older people with walkers and canes talking about how he always brought them garden fresh vegetables even when he was so sick he could barely walk himself.

It would be nice to be remembered like that.

RSKY

I have been doing small for the last 10 years but now i have access to many acres so i can do large.

 

[RSKY]

Here is a video of Webcajun hilling his potatoes. He is in a warm climate unlike yours in Nebraska but he shows how to do a lot of things in his videos. mhpgardener is another youtuber with several good videos.

If you want to know how to do something just search for it on YouTube. Somebody has posted a video.

RSKY

Hilling Potatoes Growing a Vegetable Garden - YouTube

 

[forgeblast]

You could graft the tomato to the potato too called a tomtato The stems of the plants are first sliced, and then secured together as they start to naturally bind. They eventually form into one plant. The process is most successful when the plants come from the same species, as do the tomato and potato.
Meet the TomTato: Tomatoes and potatoes grown as one - CBS News

 

[Depmandog]

Very interesting thread. I am a GREAT gardener...in my mind. I dream of a large and expansive garden full of every type of veggie imaginable / bordered by some beautiful colorful flowers ...just because.

The reality is I have major back issues and I just can't do it. Oh I usually try, but then the weeds get the best of me. That and working 50 hours a week plus two very young grandkids..doesn't leave much time to tend to the garden.

BUT, I will be planting a healthy stand of my favorite sweet corn BODACIOUS this spring. And come h$ll or high water I will be eating sweet corn all year long!

About 6 years ago, I planted 24 rows - 60' long, staggered into 3 plantings. The last two plantings didn't make nearly as much as the first 8 rows (lack of water and like a dummy, I planted the rows way to close - couldn't fit my tiller between the rows to fight the weeds), but we had so much corn we ate it for three years! Actually found a frozen pack in the bottom of the freezer last year - that was a nice surprise.

Enough drivel from me. The following is a video of a most remarkable woman, Ruth Stout.

http://youtu.be/GNU8IJzRHZk

This is a fascinating video about how she gardens, the easy way.

 

[Green Power]

Here is a video of Webcajun hilling his potatoes. He is in a warm climate unlike yours in Nebraska but he shows how to do a lot of things in his videos. mhpgardener is another youtuber with several good videos.

If you want to know how to do something just search for it on YouTube. Somebody has posted a video.

RSKY

Hilling Potatoes Growing a Vegetable Garden - YouTube

Thanks for the video. Nebraska gets VERY HOT in the summer. most days are 100 or warmer.

 

[Green Power]

You could graft the tomato to the potato too called a tomtato The stems of the plants are first sliced, and then secured together as they start to naturally bind. They eventually form into one plant. The process is most successful when the plants come from the same species, as do the tomato and potato.
Meet the TomTato: Tomatoes and potatoes grown as one - CBS News

Thats interesting i just dont think i would have time to do that. Might let one of my brothers try that.