Better Be Planting This Year. 2022+ And Up MEGATHREAD

Anyone else having trouble finding 'bamboo stakes'? Been hunting around for a couple months in the general area whenever I can. Nada. Had to grab some of those garbage plastic lined metal ones from Ocean State, dang things never last much more than one or two seasons.

Hope y'all got yer maters tied up given the storms that are supposed to roll through tomorrow. Looks like possibly ~10 mph winds throughout the day with gusts to whatever.

Checked the corn, seeing 26 of the 30 planted have sprouted. I'll give it another day or two before I call it official. Baker Creek seeds, new this year, so I'm not sure why they haven't come up. Four of the five sunflowers are up. Those were my seeds gathered from last year.
 
APFSDS said:
I have been using agricultural strength vinegar mixture around the yard. It works great, kills stuff within a few hours. I use this and mix it with a bit of table salt and dish soap per the instructions on the bottle:

Amazon product ASIN B07DKCY2W3View: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DKCY2W3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Thank you. I found some poison ivy at my new place but it is far enough out of the way I didn’t want to roundup it. I will try this!
 
413dan said:
Went to visit my mom and my garden which is at her place. Found poison sumac in one of her flower beds. And believe a bunch of poison oak growing in my fenced in area of blackberries. did I mention I found these things after I started showing the effects. Was just doing typical weeding...ugh my mistake. Still learning and don’t identify everything so easily. We both have rash and bumps. Hers worse than me on prednisone now as was near her face. Wears glasses so must have adjusted them. Any eradication tips? On either scenarios, in the flower garden and in my berry patch? i finally had a good patch of berries going. Been working on it for two years now. Tougher keeping up on weeding no longer living at the residence. She isn’t a gardener much beyond flowers. Food is all me, I love utilizing the space. It is a very therapeutic process As others have elaborated.
thanks in advance. Your itchy comrade dan
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Tenacity is what works best for me. Kill it before it grows. I am not a fan of poisons and will only use them in extreme situations.
I wear leather gloves when i work outside. Once i identify a nuisance plant in an area, i go by once every other week and snip off anything sprouting back up. Eventually the root or rhizome will run out of energy. I have been dealing with poison ivy and bittersweet on my property since i moved here six years ago.
I am luckily not affected by poisonous plants but i do make a concerted effort not to touch my bare skin with the gloves on.
 
kman said:
I'm amazed at how much growth I'm getting from all this stuff. Doing that chicken poop back in April. seem to really work for this considering the other half was just loam. Kale is 2 ft tall now
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Great looking garden!!!

You need to be picking the outer leaves of that Kale, blanching it, chopping it up and freezing it. Same for the beet greens.

If you shelter that kale come winter time, it will survive through the winter and continue next spring.
 
Uzi2 said:
Great looking garden!!!

You need to be picking the outer leaves of that Kale, blanching it, chopping it up and freezing it. Same for the beet greens.

If you shelter that kale come winter time, it will survive through the winter and continue next spring.
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No way! It can come back next year?? I was just thinking the same thing myself about freezing because I can't keep up with it no matter how much I eat by myself. You just put it in ziplock freezer bags?
 
kman said:
No way! It can come back next year?? I was just thinking the same thing myself about freezing because I can't keep up with it no matter how much I eat by myself. You just put it in ziplock freezer bags?
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You have to blanch it first to stop certain enzymes in it. Otherwise it will turn to slime in the freezer.

Look up the procedure on the internet. Then you chop it up and bag it (vacuum sealing is the best) and freeze it.

Yes, it will come back in the spring if you provide some cover for it over the winter. The Kale plant develops a strong, hardy stock and root system and if the plant is mulched and covered with a plastic tent, it will continue to grow when spring arrives.

That might be a lot of work, and kale seeds are cheap and abundant. I'm just throwing that out there because I've had several plants that wintered over here in Kentucky with no cover at all and flourished again once early spring came around.

For a buck, you can get about a thousand seeds and just replant in spring. I was just explaining how hardy they are. Kale makes good fodder for deer food plots as it remains growing and green well into winter.
 
Uzi2 said:
You have to blanch it first to stop certain enzymes in it. Otherwise it will turn to slime in the freezer.

Look up the procedure on the internet. Then you chop it up and bag it (vacuum sealing is the best) and freeze it.

Yes, it will come back in the spring if you provide some cover for it over the winter. The Kale plant develops a strong, hardy stock and root system and if the plant is mulched and covered with a plastic tent, it will continue to grow when spring arrives.

That might be a lot of work, and kale seeds are cheap and abundant. I'm just throwing that out there because I've had several plants that wintered over here in Kentucky with no cover at all and flourished again once early spring came around.

For a buck, you can get about a thousand seeds and just replant in spring. I was just explaining how hardy they are. Kale makes good fodder for deer food plots as it remains growing and green well into winter.
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Thanks!

Do you know anything about cilantro? I seem to be getting flowers at the top of mine and I'm wondering if that means it's too high? My broccoli seems to be doing the same thing.
 
kman said:
Thanks!

Do you know anything about cilantro? I seem to be getting flowers at the top of mine and I'm wondering if that means it's too high? My broccoli seems to be doing the same thing.
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Cilantro will bolt quickly in the summer heat. Have you been pinching it back? That will slow down the process. Once it starts to flower, the leaves will lose some of their flavor. Best thin to do at that point is to let it go to seed. Harvest the seeds and save them, or use them as coriander.

Another thing to do with extra kale is to make kale chips. There are a lot of good recipes on the internet.
 
MrsStrangeNH said:
Cilantro will bolt quickly in the summer heat. Have you been pinching it back? That will slow down the process. Once it starts to flower, the leaves will lose some of their flavor. Best thin to do at that point is to let it go to seed. Harvest the seeds and save them, or use them as coriander.

Another thing to do with extra kale is to make kale chips. There are a lot of good recipes on the internet.
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Thanks. So I picked up a dehydrator at a yard sale along with a bunch of canning stuff including a stainless steel boiler. I was thinking maybe I could make salsa in September and can it. Is there anything you can do with canning of kale? I should try making kale chips this weekend..
 
kman said:
Thanks!

Do you know anything about cilantro? I seem to be getting flowers at the top of mine and I'm wondering if that means it's too high? My broccoli seems to be doing the same thing.
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That's called "bolting". The plant's main mission in life is to reproduce itself. It grows, puts a lot of energy into the leaves to produce food for the blossoms, then they flower, get pollenated and produce the seeds of that plant. Some hybrid plants are slower to bolt but in short growing seasons, the plants may bolt quickly.

To slow down the bolting, you have to pick off the blossoms and you also have to pick off some of the leaves as the plant is growing to retard the growth of the plant.

When a / the plant bolts, the leaves of lots of plants usually become less palatable. (more bitter) especially lettuce but In some plants like collards and kale, a late summer planting for a fall harvest, the first frost actually improves the flavor of the leaves.....even if they get coated with ice.

Kale and collards are best picked when the leaves are about the size of your hand +-. That is when they are the most tender, the least stemmy and sweetest. Depending on your taste, they can be left to mature and get very large and stalky......I like them this way and just chop them up and sauté them with a beef bullion cube and serve with balsamic vinegar.'
Same goes beet greens and most other edible greens or root crop tops. When picking beet greens or turnip greens, don't take them all off any one plant, take a couple from each for a meal and leave the rest to feed the plant. This can be done repeatedly until the bulb has matured to the size you want to harvest them at.

EDIT TO ADD: Broccoli is a flower and the crowns are the immature flower seed pods. That's why you have to pick them in their immature stage, otherwise they'll bolt and flower and not be edible. If that happens, the stalks and leaves are still edible.
 
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Found three of the four corn that had sprouted but not broken the surface. Seems the soil had compacted around them a bit. Moved the soil out of the way and they are now starting to reach for the sun. Couldn't even find the kernel of the fourth so I'm guessing I never actually planted it (or a bird took off with it).

The volunteer tomato plants are doing well. I think they're Roma.

These were the first maters to start. Roma.
 

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enbloc said:
Never had kohlrabi. Looks like little alien hearts...

Tasty?
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Ever had really good broccoli with crunchy, sweet flesh in the stem under the tough outer skin? That's what (peeled) kohlrabi is like, but more so. You can steer it in two entirely different directions: raw - such as yesterday's slaw - and it pairs really well with citrus. Or roasted and it brings out that brassica broccoli/cabbage funkiness, which wants to be dressed with some grated parm and maybe a drizzle of truffle oil.
 
SpaceCritter said:
Ever had really good broccoli with crunchy, sweet flesh in the stem under the tough outer skin? That's what (peeled) kohlrabi is like, but more so. You can steer it in two entirely different directions: raw - such as yesterday's slaw - and it pairs really well with citrus. Or roasted and it brings out that brassica broccoli/cabbage funkiness, which wants to be dressed with some grated parm and maybe a drizzle of truffle oil.
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Started from seed? Want to try some next year. How long from germination to harvest? Does it store well raw and uncut just as root?
Thanks, ~Enbloc
 
enbloc said:
Oh! I thought the bulb developed below the surface...
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Nope. I'll have to check when we planted the plants - the transplant date will be on the tongue depressor out in front of the plant. The seeds were started in Jiffy pellets, so I'll have to try to remember when I did. Early springtime IIRC.

Incidentally, I really dig tongue depressors as plant labels. Write them with a Sharpie. And since we (post germination in the Jiffy pellets) grow them in Cowpots, I write what they are with Sharpie right on the side of the pot.

cowpots.com

CowPots

CowPots are an American made, biodegradable, plastic-free, seed starting pot using composted cow manure. CowPots are a sustainable alternative for growers.
cowpots.com cowpots.com

Plants in Cowpots:




The date on that photo is April 26, and those little guys on the bottom are brassicas, so the kohlrabi were started around the same time, so I'm guessing a couple weeks before.
 
I have a couple of radishes that bolted, and because I was not ready to pluck them. They had nice flowers the bees liked a lot and it's always good for the bees to know where to come. Think "bee bait"...
I let them go. Now I have like a hundred seed pods, and thought "OK, I'll harvest the seeds."

I just watched a video that said the early, unmature pods are great eating. So, I picked a nice looking pod and ate it raw. Fantastic!

Taste like a spicy snap pea. A little hot with a radishy finish. Wonderful!

My plans are to add some to salads, stir-fry's and such. Saving the mature pods for seed stock and will plant them in late August here in Zone 5b.

 
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oddly, the plant made way more pods than it would have made a radish...
 

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