Garden 2020.

[Bacpacker]

Those maters look tasty

 

[Terri9630]

My greenhouse potatoes have fruit on them. At first I thought one of my cherry tomatoes had "escaped" and grown up in them but nope. I may leave a couple on there to mature and plant next year to see what grows.

 

[Weedygarden]

Checked on our potatoes tonight and saw this on top.....

View attachment 47773
View attachment 47774

Then I dug down a little and found this....
View attachment 47775

Does anybody have an tips on when is the right time to harvest potatoes?

Our plants look like this...

View attachment 47776

From what I have read and heard, potatoes bloom and that is when the potatoes set on and grow. Then the plant dies down and you can harvest after the plant is brown. A man who walks by and talks gardening with me, grew some potatoes. He said the plant died down so he dug it up and he only got 3 small potatoes. I really question the state of his potato plants. He told me he adds compost, but the soil is not good. In Colorado, the soil is clay and not good unless or until it is heavily amended. I have added lots of compost and did not find that it was as effective as the peat moss I am using.

I have 14 buckets of 4 different varieties of potatoes, and one bucket of sweet potatoes. One of my potato plants has just started blooming. All of the buckets have large plants on top. I used organic potting soil, wood shavings and a little peat moss in the buckets. I have fertilized them as well.

I do remember as a child, we would dig up new potatoes once in a while for dinner. We did this long before we dug up all of the potatoes from the garden, because they needed more time to grow. If you have lots of potatoes growing, you could dig up one hill, or maybe even part of a hill.

 

[Support Gunner]

First watermelon. Crimson sweet. Crap ton more to come

 

[Meerkat]

@Support Gunner I too just wait until the spud plants die. Keep mounding them up and those little ones on top will grow.
@Bacpacker That’s a lot of maters!
Ours are just coming on. One plant, one pickin’
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Those are some pretty tomatoes LadyL.

 

[Support Gunner]

Update pic of the potatoes.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Neighbor's grandchildren pulled up my pepper plants.
No supervisor at all with those kids.
They wrecked havoc on 6 gardens so far down here.

 

[Bacpacker]

SG, those are dying back nicely. I'm guessing 2-3 more weeks till harvest.....if you want to leave them that long.

 

[Support Gunner]

I want to leave them in there as long as possible to hopefully get some nice potatoes.

 

[Bacpacker]

Not sure where you live, just make sure the vines don't get frost on them.

 

[Support Gunner]

Im in central Illinois. Zone 5B

 

[Bacpacker]

you should be fine barring a freak cold spell. One other thing, after the greens die off, don't let them get a lot of water on them. They can re-sprout.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Looks like I will be moving the end of Sept. It's been hot with drought all summer, so what veggies I planted are going to be used for seed production. I don't think there will be great seed availability next spring and I will be going somewhere remote without a lot of shopping opportunities.

My strawberries are producing runners like crazy so I will be bag potting them all. I am going to try and do the same with the haskap and pie cherry bushes as well.

 

[LadyLocust]

Went up the mountain to take care of the place - first time in 2+ weeks. Picked a huge bowl of pink plums, returned home and got them juiced for jelly. Also, picked about 1/2 gal of blackberries - one of hubby's favorite icecream toppings Picked a handful of greenbeans. At home, have been picking eggplant and kale, and tomatoes. Will have a fresh crop of chard to pick in about a week. More tomatoes to can tonight which is good, we were dangerously low.

 

[Meerkat]

Went up the mountain to take care of the place - first time in 2+ weeks. Picked a huge bowl of pink plums, returned home and got them juiced for jelly. Also, picked about 1/2 gal of blackberries - one of hubby's favorite icecream toppings Picked a handful of greenbeans. At home, have been picking eggplant and kale, and tomatoes. Will have a fresh crop of chard to pick in about a week. More tomatoes to can tonight which is good, we were dangerously low.

Something here killed all our plum and wild grape trees about 15 yr ago.
Also killed off all the Matpops aka Passion flpwers I think its called. And other native plants. So not sure whats going on.

 

[Tank-Girl]

I had a complete and total potato failure due to using potatoes that were treated with sprout nip.
I normally buy brushed potatoes from my supermarket every year for seed potatoes and have never had a issue with them not sprouting until now.
I spent 4 days digging the trenches for those darn things with a mattock and shovel because what passes as soil at my place is rocks the size of my head held together with red clay.
I started to redig the trenches and remove the failed potatoes because if they stay there and rot it'll become a vector for potato diseases in the future.
As it was most had rotted and very few were whole. I had 3 potatoes out of 8 kgs of potatoes planted that had started to sprout.
I managed to find a seed potato producer who actually had stock! Color me shocked.
They also had a variety called Red La Soda which I have never heard of before which is suppose to be drought and heat tolerant. And it's suppose to store really well.
I'll be putting those claims to the test because they are a a 100 day potato so harvest will fall in hot hot weather.
I managed to get a 5kg bag so I have to wait until they're delivered.

I'm still bitterly unhappy with the two roma tomato varieties I planted this season.
I'm looking at my rows and there just isn't 100 pints of sauce in the production I'm seeing.
I'll be trying Amish Paste in the next planting as soon as these miserable failures are finished.
Quite frankly the sight of them disgusts me and I'm having to stop myself from ripping them out even before the first fruits turn red.

 

[Bacpacker]

What type Romas did you plant? Amish Paste are supposed to be nice. We are growing San Marzano's this year. They are producing pretty well. Good size for Roma's

 

[Tank-Girl]

What type Romas did you plant? Amish Paste are supposed to be nice. We are growing San Marzano's this year. They are producing pretty well. Good size for Roma's

I planted Polish Giant ( new variety for me) and Roma VF.
Last year's Roma VF's were good. This year Forget about it.

 

[Bacpacker]

Hate to hear that.

 

[Tank-Girl]

Hate to hear that.

Thank you.
You know things are pretty grim when you can't get 100 pints of sauce out of 3 30 foot rows with plant spacing of 20 inches.

 

[WVDragonlady]

Just been picking kale, green beans, swiss chard, sweet peppers, herbs and tomatoes.
Almost time to cut the celery and dry the leaves for this year.
Had two volunteer onions appear this year in a window box so I let them go to seed. Have 2 large heads of seeds that have dried and I cut them this morning. Plan on growing them next year

I've been sauteing large amounts of the greens with onions and the peppers then I use some every morning for in my eggs I scramble.

Also been getting enough of the greens to shred and then freeze for the winter.
The green beans I cook with olive oil, tomatoes and onions and some oregano as a side dish. Although hubby said it'd go good with some italian sausage cut up in it. lol

 

[Support Gunner]

One more watermelon picked.

It looks like the potatoes are getting closer.

 

[Bacpacker]

Still picking a few maters, okra, 4 kinds of peppers, green beans. Also harvested my kidney beans and working on great northerns. Still need to dig my taters. Hopefully this weekend

 

[backlash]

My garden is pretty bad this year. I have a squash bug infestation and all my squash died.
My tomatoes and peppers are doing OK so far.
I planted 2 different types of cucumbers and they grew very well. The problem is they are so bitter even the neighbor's goats will not eat them. I replanted some new plants and those cucumbers are also uneatable. My peas all died and we didn't get enough to eat.
I grew potatoes in bags and I harvested them yesterday. I got about a pound of grape to walnut-sized potatoes.
I am never going to plant potatoes again. There is a potato farmer close by that sells them for $6 for 50 pounds. Why grow them myself?

 

[Weedygarden]

My garden is pretty bad this year. I have a squash bug infestation and all my squash died.
My tomatoes and peppers are doing OK so far.
I planted 2 different types of cucumbers and they grew very well. The problem is they are so bitter even the neighbor's goats will not eat them. I replanted some new plants and those cucumbers are also uneatable. My peas all died and we didn't get enough to eat.
I grew potatoes in bags and I harvested them yesterday. I got about a pound of grape to walnut-sized potatoes.
I am never going to plant potatoes again. There is a potato farmer close by that sells them for $6 for 50 pounds. Why grow them myself?

I'm sorry. I have winners and losers every year in my garden, and they are not the same from year to year. That is an excellent price for potatoes.

 

[Tank-Girl]

I'm sorry. I have winners and losers every year in my garden, and they are not the same from year to year. That is an excellent price for potatoes.

Exactly.
My potatoes were a complete bust BUT I'm trying again this time with better seed stock.

If we want to eat SHTF we've got to keep trying and keep adapting or we'll go hungry and or the variety in our diets will be reduced.

 

[backlash]

I just told my wife I am not going to have a big garden again.
One tomato, one cherry tomato, one jalapeno pepper if she wants one and that's about all.
We live in an area that has a bunch of fruit and vegetable stands and the prices are cheap and the produce is all very good.
Our favorite stand is a family run business and they have been open for years.
They grow everything they sell and every September they have a month-long sale when everything is really cheap. Things like corn 8 for a dollar, any watermelon for $3 and boxes of peaches for $10. We went there yesterday and I splurged and bought a Sugar Baby watermelon it wasn't cheap (.60 a pound) but it's the best watermelon I have ever eaten. They had all the other melons for $6 each any size or type.

 

[Bacpacker]

Sugar babies are my main melon. And yes they are very good

 

[Support Gunner]

How do sugar babies compare to crimson sweet?

 

[Support Gunner]

The potatoes are almost there, I think. Lol