What Were Your Boons and Busts for 2019?

thistlebloom

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
16,473
Reaction score
17,390
Points
457
Location
North Idaho 48th parallel
For me my corn was a boon. The Painted Mountain produced 2 ears per stalk and overall I'm happy with the outcome. Many ears were not full, seems like the pollination was better on the outer rows.
The Espresso sweet corn had good germination and the ears (one per stalk) were short and fat and filled out nice. The pollination was good on them.

I have to confess here that I am a serial plant crammer and my corn was way way too tight. That is probably the reason that the Espresso didn't produce corn on every stalk.
The Painted Mtn. didn't seem to do too bad with nearly every stalk making ears, even though some were tiny.

Another boon for the year was using the soaker hoses, buried in the trench I planted in. Watering was effective and I used a lot less than I typically do because it wasn't blowing off in the wind.

Tomatoes did well, and @majorcatfish 's Mariana's were a first for me, and very productive. Just a little too long DTM for my climate, but I harvested a good bit anyway.

New this year were Sugarpot watermelon. No harvestable melons, but it did produce and maybe just needs a head start indoors two weeks before the plant out date.

Carminat beans were great. These were tender and stringless even when the beans were bulging the seedpod. Productive too.

I was the bust in my garden this year. In the end I let the weeds (bindweed mostly) get ahead of me, I didn't keep up with the cucumber or tomato harvest so a lot were wasted, and I was so ashamed of myself for not picking the sweet corn a few weeks ago when I knew it was probably mostly ready.
I avoided going into the garden the past few weeks because I knew there was a lot I was neglecting.

Yesterday I ditched work because I figured if the weather forecast was correct it was now or never to salvage something edible.
I was shocked to peel back an Espresso husk to find a nice ear of corn, and more shocked when I ate it in the garden and it was sweet and tender. I don't understand if they just keep really well on the stalk or if they were just finally ready, but I picked them all and shared with the neighbors. We all agree that it's great tasting corn.
I got the PM corn husked and drying in the house. It was pleasant work husking corn by the wood stove while the snow came down and piled up outside. Kind of weird, but pleasant.

Isn't it beautiful?

20190928_121031.jpg

20190928_121057(1).jpg 20190928_121240.jpg

What were some of your garden boons or busts this year?
 

flowerbug

Garden Master
Joined
Oct 15, 2017
Messages
15,857
Reaction score
23,635
Points
417
Location
mid-Michigan, USoA
i'm not done yet here with everything, but boons were definitely the tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and a few of the bean varieties that were early enough to be mostly done by now. i'm still waiting on the later beans to see if they're going to make much of anything or not before the frosts take them out.

alas, no pictures...

beautiful corns! :)
 

seedcorn

Garden Master
Joined
Jun 21, 2008
Messages
9,627
Reaction score
9,881
Points
397
Location
NE IN
Busts-sweet corn, pumpkins, honeydews, watermelons, honeynut & zucchini squash.

Boon-tomatoes, carrots, parsnips, green beans, eggplants & peppers.
 

Prairie Rose

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
342
Reaction score
683
Points
162
Location
Central Illinois, zone 5/6 line
Boons: peppers and roma tomatoes

Busts: slicing tomatoes and myself. I was doing so well this year, but lost momentum as soon as the heat and humidity started. Last year I had an excuse for being lazy, but this year my yield is nobody's fault but my own. I did do better though, so that's something.
 

Pulsegleaner

Garden Addicted
Joined
Apr 18, 2014
Messages
3,309
Reaction score
6,323
Points
296
Location
Lower Hudson Valley, New York
Booms (in terms of what actually produced something). Peppers (23) Watermelon (1) tomatoes (2 harvested, a dozen or so developing) herbs, cowpeas (sky pointers) whatever that feathery mystery legume is I planted. Rat Tailed Radish.

Busts Potatoes (never made a single tuber) rice beans (one pod seen but either eaten or mown down before being able to harvest) peas, soybeans, cowpeas (all others) (eaten almost as soon as sown) azuki beans mung beans Experimental plants (all others) (never came up) Fava beans (eaten one apparently from under a wire cage) common beans (never made flower one.) Corn (never even got sown). Tomatoes (seed grown) (never came up except 1) Jalotomato (one grew but you apparently need at least two for berry production.)
 

baymule

Garden Master
Joined
Mar 20, 2011
Messages
18,308
Reaction score
34,264
Points
457
Location
Trinity County Texas
Boons were Maestro English peas, Sugar Snap peas, New Yorker tomatoes.

Bust-everything else.

DH had prostate surgery and couldn't pick up anything, ride the tractor, not even the Kawasaki mule, nothing, nada. When I should have been planting the garden, I got a lot of stuff set out, but then couldn't keep up with it, drought set in and the weeds took off. I never even got the planting finished. Better luck next year.
 

digitS'

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
25,682
Reaction score
28,527
Points
457
Location
border, ID/WA(!)
I'd better start with the boons. Surprisingly, sweet corn did just fine. Espresso sounds really good, Thistle'. Of course, it conjures up the idea of coffee and sweet corn! Also, it's a synergistic with good cold soil tolerance. Hey! I have hardly drifted from SE varieties because a cold soil start.

Pumpkins certainly did well, better than usual. How that was possible, I don't know. Rock Star has always done well, zucchini do fine, so I tried their winter squash cousin - spaghetti squash. Generic seeds ... I'll have to get an earlier variety. There were only a few plants that grew just fine but half the squash weren't ready when I was out there on Thursday.

The early planting of potatoes did okay despite being hit by beetles, hard! I tried a 2nd planting of mostly the same varieties. There was the boon! Surprisingly productive.

The Jade green beans did well. Mostly, that was because the bugs left them alone so the 1st and 2nd plantings were both producing at the same time a few weeks ago. Lots of beans!

Oh, it's easy to think of the 2019 busts: almost anything that needed a warm spring. The peppers and eggplant did horribly! My garden was probably a C- this year. I learned some things in 2019.

Tomatoes didn't grow much, produced ripe fruit late, and there wasn't much of it compared to most years. The exceptions were the 4 plants growing in pots of my compost in the backyard! Healthy, tall, productive ... especially so! I have just covered them with tarps against the cold. They are still covered with tomatoes!

Those 4 backyard plants were fairly well protected all season. How the open garden corn got through the fickle spring weather okay, I don't know. Even the Buttercup squash, which has done so well for me for so many years, had a real tough time surviving. That was a surprise. The near-failure of a U of New Hampshire cantaloupe was also a surprise. I had only a few fruits from the Goddess vines. On the other hand ... the Passport galia melon came through just about as its usual productive self! What a blessing.

Steve
 

flowerbug

Garden Master
Joined
Oct 15, 2017
Messages
15,857
Reaction score
23,635
Points
417
Location
mid-Michigan, USoA
...
On the other hand ... the Passport galia melon came through just about as its usual productive self! What a blessing.

i was interested in those until i see they're a hybrid. looking for a shorter season melon that will do ok here. don't like the honeydew sorts, much prefer more like canteloupe or water melon like plants. i know very little about melons.
 

digitS'

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
25,682
Reaction score
28,527
Points
457
Location
border, ID/WA(!)
Honeydew was never a favorite, @flowerbug . It's been a long time since I had a Crenshaw melon. I'd like to find another Charentais that could grow here ... but yes, it is the cantaloupe that I have searched for mostly.

It may be that all galia melons are hybrids. I haven't come across an account of how these were developed but, could be, they are crosses between honeydew and cantaloupe. Exterior: cantaloupe, Interior: honeydew. However, the flesh isn't what I think of as honeydew except in color.

Brent Loy at UNH is responsible for Passport and many, many other cucurbit varieties. Take a look at Earligold, Earliqueen, Goddess, Strike, Halona and Milan melons. That is, if you can bring yourself to grow a hybrid. Sweet Granite might be an OP.

Steve
 

Latest posts

Top