What Were Your Boons and Busts for 2019?

[Zeedman]

i like learning about this sort of thing. so keep on, keepin' on!

as far as failures due to weather @thistlebloom this year my garlic was ok even with all the rain we had and also the fact that it was grown in fairly heavy soil. the main part of what works there is that patch is one of the raised beds inside the fenced area so that it does not hold any water for long. it is about a foot above the pathway a 3 feet by 20ft area or so along the south edge. i have been planting garlic in parts of it the past few years and just finished the rotation so i'm not sure where i will plant it for this coming season.

originally i wanted to remove the pathways and to fill that end of that fenced garden all in (to get it above the flash flood water level as shown in:

)but we just don't have that kind of fill available. the pathways are pretty much the drains of that space and there is a few drain tubes installed to remove the water without taking away any more topsoil.

on the whole, even with all the weather oddities of the year i'd say we did pretty good. all of the main crops did well enough: peas, garlic, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers. the squash didn't do as much as usual because we didn't plant as much but also because it was much later than it should have been. it looks like the whole crop is the kabochas, i see none of the buttercup crosses we have had before in this harvest. i'm not sure if they are gone or not for good.

beans have done well enough for the efforts put in. i do think i have to downsize my experimental plantings though because i get a lot of marginal production from a lot of those so i should plant more productive plants in more of the gardens and limit some of the experiments. it's a bit too much here in my room trying to keep track of about 100 flats as they are drying down and another bunch that have various other things going on at the same time. hard to resist planting them though when it really is the only way i have of answering questions.

Wow!!! Your garden gets even more standing water than mine - it looks like aquaculture. You'll know you've reached the point of no return when some of your worst weeds are cattails, and willow & cottonwood seedlings. Ask me how I know this...

 

[Zeedman]

And at the very end, the outside turns florescent orange.

But seriously, that red stuff is actually good. It's sweet (unlike the melon) and high in vitamin A (bitter melons are in the same genus as Gac fruit). In India they use that red stuff in desserts.

Sweet, and very slimy when fresh; but I can't see eating very much of it. It's better when dried, and easier to remove clean seed at that point as well. One of our Filipino friends says you can put it in the rice cooker to dye the rice red... thus far, I've been unable to convince DW to try that.

 

[digitS']

As gardeners: We have heard about the dangers of mono-cropping to ensure food supplies. We can see this year that commercial farms are having real problems because of weather (and trade policies).

My problems this year with Burgess Buttercup were already pointed out. The Cha Cha Kabocha disappeared! Some vines died in the squash patch. Some produced fruit too late for any maturity by frost. I'm telling you, there was some scrawny vines out there that never recovered from the temperature ups and downs of spring!

About half of my other winter squash, standard Spaghetti variety, failed to mature. Kabocha faired worse, I'm sorry to say because I really like the flavor. I'd best not give up on either the buttercup or kabocha and should try an earlier spaghetti. Diversity!

I've seen seasons like this before, and we all gain with enough experience and willingness to have different varieties. Many years ago, I grew 4 different carrot varieties in 4 rows of equal length. It's one reason I like Nantes varieties. The Half-long out-produced all the others, combined. Of the Nantes, I have grown Scarlet, Napoli, Ya Ya, Nelson .... all have been good choices.

What happened to my Utah Sweet onions this year? They have always done better than the Walla Walla. Candy? I like its storage quality and it does okay and okay in 2019. Utah's were small and some bolted.

@flowerbug may have developed his own land-race, adapted to his gardening environment. He and @Zeedman and @Pulsegleaner work on improving with seedsaving. I have never saved seed from carrots or onions but was willing to diversify in seed purchases. It helps me to have some "depth to the bench"

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

Wow!!! Your garden gets even more standing water than mine - it looks like aquaculture. You'll know you've reached the point of no return when some of your worst weeds are cattails, and willow & cottonwood seedlings. Ask me how I know this...

i've bermed that edge to try to keep the water from coming back across there since that picture was taken but there is still some standing water at times when the rains are heavy.

http://www.anthive.com/project/water/

on this page you can see towards the bottom pictures of the place i've been planting garlic the past few years (on the left side of the picture you can even see some of the garlic). i've since raised up the strawberry patch (and leveled it more so it is easier to get into and pick).

we had maple tree helicopters all over the place this past year so that was fun to get all those seedlings out of the rocks. and we have a lot of rocks...

oh yes, cottonwoods/poplars too. i've pulled thousands of those this year.

http://www.anthive.com/project/from-the-roof/

 

[flowerbug]

@digitS' i think only the kabocha's came through this year and they barely gave us much because of how late we planted them. we roasted some up the other night. one was decidedly not fully ripe, but still edible even when young. a bit harder to clean. the downside to cooking up these squash was that the skin was not really cured so the eating of them pretty much means the skins crumble and fall apart. i ate a fair amount of skin (which doesn't bother me unless i happen to forget to get all the dirt off - then it is extra minerals... just don't chew too hard. )...

we have one more batch to cook up, but i'm hoping they will last a few more weeks to properly cure a bit more.

i still saved seeds from those that were plump enough and looked viable. perhaps others will grow them next year. i have plenty of older seeds to use up yet with i'm hoping our buttercup/pumpkin cross seeds still in there. if not, then they're gone... must plant more next year and get them back into the mix. i know i do have some fresher seeds in that container so some of them should be good still.

 

[seedcorn]

My problems this year with Burgess Buttercup were already pointed out. The Cha Cha Kabocha disappeared! Some vines died in the squash patch. Some produced fruit too late for any maturity by frost. I'm telling you, there was some scrawny vines out there that never recovered from the temperature ups and downs of spring

How can this be since you don’t monoculture?

Meant only as something to consider for all that think growing 2-3 crops by farmers is an answer to “what is wrong with the world”.

 

[flowerbug]

My problems this year with Burgess Buttercup were already pointed out. The Cha Cha Kabocha disappeared! Some vines died in the squash patch. Some produced fruit too late for any maturity by frost. I'm telling you, there was some scrawny vines out there that never recovered from the temperature ups and downs of spring

How can this be since you don’t monoculture?

Meant only as something to consider for all that think growing 2-3 crops by farmers is an answer to “what is wrong with the world”.

i really don't understand your last two paragraphs/points. do you think diversity of plantings by farmers would help or hurt? right now i'm pretty sure that the lack of diversity in plantings does hurt in many ways and i'm happy to talk about why i think that.

i can say from what i observe in my direct area that the field to the North of us has soybeans about 6 inches tall which are just now turning yellow. they won't get anything from that field. i don't even think it was planted with any plans to harvest it other than to turn it under because of some state agricultural plan which lets the farmers claim some credit for using it as a green manure crop and ground cover (which i am all in favor of, but they could have planted something else much more productive than soybeans and kept the soybeans for the next season).

the field to the NorthWest was turned under about three weeks ago right before we got all these rains. it was planted with soybeans. it's now showing signs of weedy growth they'll likely spray and plow one more time before winter sets in.

the field to the West is taller soybeans, they might get some crop from those as they are at least taller and just now getting yellow.

the field to the South is a bit taller than the West soybeans so they may get a harvest from that too.

the deer have been eating both of them. this morning i was standing at the kitchen sink and a car came around the corner shining headlights across the West soybean field and there was a deer standing out there. it's been a pretty heavy deer traffic year on our lot/gardens here too.

this year was a challenge for sure. there was a short window of time to plant this spring because of how the rains came along. the farmers who were able to get their corn planted in that window will likely do ok with those fields if they can get them harvested/dried without too much spoilage. i'm sure there is a lot of worried farmers out there (no matter what the season is like, but this one has had an extra burden).

i'm just meandering along in this post...

 

[Dirtmechanic]

There was too much heat for okra this year. Or something was going on. Both mine and my neighbors plants lost all the leaves and died. They gave a good crop and were mature but seeing them completely give up is unusual. I lost my first efforts at sowing a fall garden because of the heat and drought. Except for the second round of zucchini and yellow squash, those are kicking into gear.

 

[seedcorn]

There was too much heat for okra this year. Or something was going on. Both mine and my neighbors plants lost all the leaves and died. They gave a good crop and were mature but seeing them completely give up is unusual. I lost my first efforts at sowing a fall garden because of the heat and drought. Except for the second round of zucchini and yellow squash, those are kicking into gear.

So did my okra.

 

[digitS']

There is some irony with growing 3 varieties of one veggie and have all 3 come up short, @seedcorn . Of course, the entire garden wasn't committed to squash or my 2019 efforts would have been completely squashed!

Farmers often have equipment for one crop and no other. They have contracts for one crop, not many. They may have skills relevant to the production of one crop.

The commitment is enormous. The farmer has a huge investment in each year's crop and the risk is only partly offset by crop insurance backed by the taxpayer and the taxpayer is at risk, as well. We all eat but our commitment seems to be to a limited number of crops that can be insured. Not many. And, it is not to our advantage to have farms fail.

Farms are no longer forty acres and a dime a dozen. Entire communities may be dependent on a few farmers and one or two crops! Rural risk but national risk, as well.

I'm not dependent on my garden and can comfortably afford to learn something from a bust, even from something that I considered a failsafe, like Burgess buttercup squash . I mean, it's an eye opener after several decades of reasonable success.

I've tried not to ♬ ♫ rest on my buttercup ♬ ♫ Just about every year, there have been more than one variety out there. Not so much to hedge my bet but because it's fun, I like to eat, and there can even be some profit since I can sell surplus produce.

I would like to see more local production of food. More family farms, not fewer.

Steve
♬ ♪ ♩ ♫ Give me forty acres and I'll turn this rig around. ♪♩♫ ♬♫ ♬