Monday, August 20, 2012

Harvest Monday, August 20th, 2012

Both the cukes and beans are getting to the end of their life. I think I have one cucumber plant that doesn't have wilt. Half the bean leaves are brown.

The first melon harvest was exciting and as usual one was split at the end. I seem to either pick melons unripe or they split on me.

Another case in point. This one had a smaller split so I had to cut less off. It however was much smaller than the other two. I'm happy to get any melons though. I always am. Usually our summers aren't very hot so they don't grow well. This year was hot enough, but I've had plants die due to wilt. They don't seem as affected as the cucumbers but they aren't resistant like the butternuts either. And as you can see I'm picking corn again. This is from the one solitary plant that came up in the first sowing of the bed. It set two ears since it had no competition. I was hand pollinating every morning so I did get reasonable pollination, but there were gaps here and there. I think this coming week the last sowing will be ready to start picking.

The last of the onions were braided. These were the Copra onions, a very good yellow storage onion. About four or so tried to flower for some reason. I've never had that happen before with onions raised from seed. But I had some do that from most varieties this year. These of course won't keep so will be eaten first. I wonder if the hot early weather in March and April combined with the cold weather in early June caused it. I've always thought onions bloomed due to light, not heat and cold. I'm very careful to keep the plant lights on for no more than 12 hours every day when they are seedlings. And they usually get planted right after the Vernal equinox, so they are planted with daylight of about the same length that they were grown. For those that live in other areas, we are at 42 degrees of latitude so I grow long day onions.

I now have all my storage onions hanging braided in the basement. All in all it is about 45 pounds of onions for the fall and winter. In addition I still have about half my sweet onions left so maybe 8 lbs there. Last year my storage onions started sprouting in March. I really hope they keep longer this year. They might. I had a lot less rot problems while they were growing. I also separated the Varsity from the Copra. The former will be used first as Copra keeps longer. I was also careful to feel the necks. Any that felt thicker were put in braids to use first. Necks that dry down better will keep longer. So I've got my fingers crossed that they will keep into spring. I certainly have many more onions this year than last year. I'll share some with my townhouse mates, but once we get to a certain point, I'll stop. I'd rather share than lose the onions due to rot, but then again I'd rather have my onions to use than having to buy store bought onions.

And in big news, I broke the 400lb mark and I'm about 10 pounds behind last year's totals. So I'm still doing well. The melons help since they are heavy. I try to make about a pound per square foot in the garden (570 sqft in the raised bed section). Though I don't choose what I plant based on that. Certainly planting 6'x4' of mustards for mustard seed isn't very productive in pounds. Nor are my precious dried beans. I really can't eat all that comes out of my garden by myself anyway, so I plant what I'll use even if it isn't productive. But for some reason I still like to see the weights add up. And speaking of weights here are the totals for this week.

  • Alliums 18.7 lbs
  • Beans 0.50 lbs
  • Broccoli 0.38 lbs
  • Corn 1.25
  • Cucurbit 11.94 lbs
  • Greens 0.45 lbs
  • Weekly total 33.22 lbs
  • Yearly total 402.67 lbs
  • Tally $641.18
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

43 comments:

  1. Daphne, congratulations on reaching the 400 pound mark.

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  2. You make the prettiest braids. I still have your instructions from last year but am hopeless so I gave up.

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  3. The braided onions are so pretty! I'll have to try that sometime!

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  4. #1-You have melons! Congratulations! I bet they are super tasty!
    #2-Your onions are gorgeous! I do hope they last you throughout the cold months!
    #3-Your totals continually impress me! I hope my garden will be as productive as yours in the coming years!

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  5. Beautiful melon! It looks delicious. Your onions look great too and congrats on your harvest total! Sounds like you really are having a great season.

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  6. I've always wanted to grow a melon but so far I've failed - we, like you aren't really prime melon growing climate but it should get just about warm enough most years. Having said that I've never managed it - perhaps this will be the year.

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  7. Your garden is always so productive. I learned this year that onions (and leeks and garlic too I imagine) need full sun, so I'll be planning this falls plantings based on where the sun is in spring and summer. I have to have short day varieties and so far have not seen any that are really labeled keepers. This year has not been the best for melons despite the 11 pound monster; the early plantings were eaten by rabbits and squirrels and my latest two split and rotted long before they were anywhere near ripe. There are still some small ones on the vines, but I don't know if they will make it before frost.

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  8. The onions are very nice. Thanks for the tips, I may try growing more onions next year, instead of planting more greens and lettuce than I can handle. At least onions can be stored.

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  9. Oh to be able to grow melons again! I used to grow them often when I was living and gardening in the hot dry central portion of Washington state (near Annie's Granny in fact!), but since moving to the rainy and cool western portion of the state, I just don't even attempt it. It's hard enough to grow tomatoes let alone melons here. Guess I will make do by admiring your beautiful ripe fruit.

    I am hoping my cucumbers keep going for a while yet, as I have not quite yet accumulated enough to do a batch of dill pickle relish (almost there) and have only done refrigerator dills so far - would like one batch of regular pickles too.

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  10. I am glad you shared about your melons splitting. All of my watermelon (Orange Sweet and Crimson Sweet) split, except one variety: Black Diamond. I need to figure that out because they split before they were mature. My canteloupe (Ambrosia) did not split.

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  11. Hey, I live in the deep south and I have a hard time growing melons! There has to be some magic trick to it! ;-)

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  12. I hope your melons tasted good. Melons are definitely a challenge for us to grow in New England. I find the hybrid Fastbreak Melons pretty reliable but the squash bugs and cucumber beetles were numerous this year and reduced yields. It's always something.

    Love the braided onions. Sadly, I didn't plant any storage onions this year due to lack of space. I am already regretting it.

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  13. I'm wondering if you have any tips for growing melons?

    Last year I planted butternut squash for the first time, and they overwhelmed the garden. So I figured this year, cantaloupes should do well. I mean the plants sort of look alike :-)

    Zilch. One vine grew about a foot, the other about two feet. They got the same care as the squash last year. The only difference is that it was much hotter this year. I'm just south of you, in zone 6 in RI.

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    1. I wish I could help, but I'm no expert on it. They hated my last garden which was clay. They like this one much better and it is more of a sandy soil. Last year I got tiny one pound melons. This year they are regular sized ones. I give them a 2'x 2' spot. I've got a whole 4'x 8' bed of them. I'm thinking I'll get two or three more melons, but depending on the wilt, I might not get one per plant. Maybe. Maybe not. Melons are frustrating sometimes. They need a lot of water when growing, but not at the last stages of fruit development. For me it always seems to have downpours in August when the fruit is ripening. So I get tons of cracks.

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  14. Delicious looking melons, split-end or not! We don't even try, and rely on the farmers' market for those. We save our heartbreak for growing tomatoes, though the season's been good so far. Now it's a race between them ripening and the plants dying off...

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  15. Such a difference in our gardens. Yours is winding down and mine is just starting yet we live only about 3 1/2 hours apart.

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  16. Lovely onions, and the melon is pretty too. I didn't try to grow any cantaloupe this year. Maybe I should try next year again.

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  17. Mmm, Melons! Haven´t got any this Year, sadly! Sorry about the splitting! Love your onion-braids! Must braid my galics this week! And thanks for hosting! Have a nice week! :) Mia

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  18. That's an amazing onion harvest! I was excited about my little 2 lb. harvest, but 45 pounds--wow! I didn't braid mine. We'll probably run through them within the next few weeks.

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  19. Daphne, on the subject of onions blooming...I grow mine from seed, under lights 14 hours a day and transplant, usually by April 21. Generally, none of my seed grown onions blossom. My lights are in the basement, where it is 60-65 degrees in March and April. I put them outside whenever it is warmer than the basement. I'm in Poughkeepsie,NY, only a bit south of you.

    I suspect your problem is due to temperature differences. How warm is it in the area with your lights? If the plants go from a warm house to a cool garden, then get a hot spell (which always comes sooner or later) biennial onions might get the urge to flower. I've seen greenhouse raised parsley bloom in June because of temperature changes. The problem was the seedlings were raised with too much heat then went into a cool garden.

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    1. I suspect it is due to fluctuating temps too. Last year I didn't have the trouble. It isn't the house temp, it was the outside temp. We had some 80s and 90s at the end of March to the beginning of April outside. Unheard of and broke records right and left. Our soil is usually frozen in mid March still. Then in June we had some really cool temps. So I think it was Mother Nature how did it to me this year.

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  20. 400 pounds! Good gosh if I could put out even half that amount, I'd open up a veggie stand outside our place and sell to the tourists coming up the mountain for some peace and fresh air. Simply amazing!

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  21. Great harvest!! Things are looking really great. Congrats on the 400 pound mark. That's a pretty amazing number considering how few tomatoes you grew this year. My tomatoes are just starting to kick in so I will catch up soon but you are an awesome gardener to be able to get those kinds of yields with out tomatoes!! I'm super impressed.

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  22. I'm curious, do you have any idea what proportion of your harvests go into storage and how much you eat fresh? I love to watch the harvest totals add up also, but it's a year round process from my garden since I'm fortunate enough to live where I can harvest something every month of the year. It also means that I aim to store as little as possible and maximize eating fresh from the garden. I guess I'm just wondering how much you have to put by to get you through the months when the garden isn't producing.

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    1. It is hard to say. I used to do more when I could eat tomatoes and peppers as they are easy to can and freeze. But I try to put away enough spinach or chard to eat it twice a week in the winter. Last year I put away enough carrots to have once or twice a week. I had onions through March and garlic year round. I put away pickles and relish and even some pickled bok choy that I tried for the first time. I canned and froze lots of strawberries, some gooseberries and some rhubarb (sadly without water the raspberries are pouting and not producing we should have watered them). I have some frozen beans and broccoli and frozen bok choy for stir fries and soup. I have frozen grated zucchini for soups and bread. I have a bit of frozen corn. I have all my spices. By fall I'm hoping to have enough celery frozen for my cooking needs. So I do preserve a lot. I ought to do an overview some Thursday. But honestly even with that it doesn't totally cover my veggie needs over the winter. Usually by March I'm buying things at the grocery store. And by late April I'm eating mostly from the garden again except for onions. I tried freezing onions last year. I hated them with a passion and the smelled up the freezer. If only I could find an onion that could last all spring.

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  23. Your onions are gorgeous. Onions and more winter squash are my two main goals for next year. I would love to have each last us through the winter. Though, with how much I love both that might be quite a challenge.

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  24. I love your onion braids. I attempted them this year for the first time, they turned out ok. I was going to check your old blog on explanation on how to do it, but just kept going and was glad to have braids of onions! Everytime, I look at my cherokee purple tomatoes on plants and Red sails lettuce, I think of you :) You gave me the seeds for them!

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  25. Congratulations on 400 lbs. You always have something to harvest and it is great that you will have so many onions to use. Yummy looking melons even if some do split! Nancy

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  26. About one of ten of my red onions bolted this year. They're OK if used within a few weeks. Crazy weather!

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  27. Congrats on your over 400 lbs of harvest.
    Your melons look sweet, I have split melons galore >"<

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  28. Another great harvest Daphne,I always find Melons a challenge to grow, how did yours taste?

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  29. Lucky you to have a decent onion harvest this year! Mine were just horrible. I'm going to have to buy some storage onions to get us through the year.

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  30. I definitely need to learn how to braid onions. What a beautiful and practical way to store them. Thanks for sharing that tip.

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  31. Nice onion harvest! And those melons look delicious! I'm still trying to learn when to pick melons. Congrats on reaching the 400 lb mark! Can't wait to see how much my harvests weigh at the end of the year since this is my first time actually keeping track.

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  32. I'm really super impressed with your onions, and grateful for the information about their keeping qualities. I'm growing storing onions for the first time this year, so I'm flying a bit blind.

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  33. Forgot to link yesterday!

    http://planetpooks.com/?p=4898

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  34. I just harvested my onions. I never thought of braiding them. To bad I already cut the tops off.

    Love your garden pics.

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  35. Those onions are beautiful. We had better success this year than last year with onions, but we're still nowhere near where we want to be. We'll be out of onions by the end of September. Ugh!

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  36. I am happy to see your harvest. god bless you. Keep it up.

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