Monday, June 23, 2014

Harvest Monday, 23 June 2014

I harvested some lettuce before our hot spell. And the first kohlrabi.

But after our hot spell I had to harvest all of the second sowing because some were starting to bolt. I tossed what was bitter and this is what I was left with. I gave half to my townhouse mates and kept the rest. I'll be eating this for the next couple of weeks. And if my townhouse mates need more I'll give them some more. But it couldn't stay in the ground any longer. I also harvested a bit of the third sowing. The deertongue is just not holding well. It gets bitter really fast. So that came out too. I think I won't plant any more of that one.

I did learn something when pulling the plants. There were lots of earwigs in the plants, while the Chinese cabbage had very few. So it wasn't the cold weather that kept them down in the Chinese cabbage patch. It was the biochar. Or more probably the ash from the biochar. I need to find someone that burns wood over the winter and has clean ash that I can have. It kept the earwigs out long enough to harvest my heads without too much damage. Now I don't mind the earwigs in the lettuce too much. They freak me out, but earwigs are omnivores. They may love to eat Napa cabbage, but they don't eat the lettuce much if at all. Instead they eat the aphids. I almost never have aphid problems in my lettuce.

The first harvest of snap peas came out of the garden along with some chocolate mint cilantro.

Also first harvest of carrots came out. Then more carrots and peas. The carrots are Mokum and Yaya. I've grown Mokum for years, but Yaya is new. I learned a couple of things. Mokum is a touch faster than the Yayas. They are both just as nice this time of the year. Many carrot varieties are bitter this time of the year, but these are not. And Mokum has more carrot flavor than Yaya. Yaya is a bit flavorless. They might get better when they are older. I'll have to find out.

The other thing I learned is to not plant my carrots the year after a two sisters bed (corn and squash). I have nematodes in the garden and as you can see above some of the carrots didn't grow long and straight. Even more than you see here were distorted as some were just tossed. Nematodes are the reason. The Yayas seem a bit more affected, but I don't have a good sample yet. I know better. One year I put carrots after tomatoes (when I still grew tomatoes). The addage that carrots love tomatoes is just because the nematodes go for the tomatoes when they are grown together. If you put carrots after tomatoes, there are so many nematodes in the soil they all get stunted and deformed. I know from past experience to put carrots after something in the cabbage family (preferably mustard). But when I made up my rotations last year I didn't take that into account. Whoops!

My strawberries were very disappointing this year. But now it is time for the raspberries. I won't get many as a lot of the small patch died back over the last two years. I found out they are in the rain shadow of the house, so weren't getting enough water. I put in a soaker hose this year and they are doing so well now. I hope they spread back to the areas that died off before. Raspberries are usually such weeds.

And the big harvest this week was the Chinese cabbage, both Napa and Michihili. That is over 17 pounds. It was a good year for them. Better than usual. I even got one of the Michihilis to head up this year (the long head). I think this is because it was not close to the brick path. I ought to switch these to the far end in the future and put the kohlrabi near the path. I've done it the other way so long that I never thought to switch it. But I put in an extra Michihili this year and that is where it fit in. I've used the same layout for so long that I never even thought to change how it was done. But now I know.

All in all it was a great harvest week. But as you can tell it was a pretty good learning week as well. I've been gardening for decades, but I always seem to learn new things every year. Or relearn sometimes.

  • Carrots: 1.27 lbs
  • Greens: 9.75 lbs
  • Asian Greens: 18.21 lbs
  • Herbs: 0.45 lbs
  • Peas: 1.73 lbs
  • Weekly Total: 31.41 lbs
  • Yearly Total: 88.75 lbs
  • Yearly Tally: $-206.32

  • Fruit
  • Strawberries: 0.09 lbs
  • Rhubarb: 0.15 lbs
  • Raspberries: 0.05 lbs
  • Weekly total: .29 lbs
  • Yearly total: 3.12 lbs

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.

33 comments:

  1. Gorgeous! Love all the greens and even the raspberries, even if it's just a few; and truly jealous of those carrots! will have to wait a lot longer for mine. Sorry to hear about nematodes though.

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  2. What a beautiful harvest. I remember your problems last year with the earwigs. Have you tried using Sluggo Plus for the earwigs? Sluggo works like magic on slugs but the Plus version is supposed to control earwigs and sowbugs as well and is OMRI-rated.

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  3. Well, we have tons of wood ash, but I've never heard of using it as an insect deterrent! Interesting! Tell us how you apply it. Beautiful harvests too!

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    1. I hadn't thought it would an insect deterrent. I mixed the biochar into the top few inches of the soil. It was pretty ashy. So I'm guessing the ash is what deterred them. I might be afraid to do it for anything but the cabbage family though. Ash is pretty alkaline. The cabbage family seem to be able to take it pretty well, but other things might now.

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  4. What you say about the need to learn and re-learn all the time is so true. Nothing ever seems to work the same way every time, so you need to adapt to circumstances. As for nematodes, there are evidently good nematodes and bad nematodes. I have taken to adding commercially-sourced nematodes as a way of reducing problems caused by Carrot Root Fly and Cabbage Root Fly. They seem to work pretty well.

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  5. Lovely basket of green,and good looking carrots too. I need to pull some of mine and see how they are doing. I use the Sluggo Plus too and it does a good job of controlling the sowbugs. Thankfully I don't have earwigs.The heading Chinese cabbages always bolt on me in spring so I grow them in fall, if I remember to sow them.

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  6. That is a lot of lettuce. So glad you were able to save most of it from turning bitter. We were lucky, it wasn't as hot as they predicted it would be. Our lettuce is still ok.

    Interesting about the biochar. I knew some people use wood ash to help adjust ph, but I didn't know that it also prevented pests. I should have made the connection though, because many chicken raising resources recommend adding wood ash to the dusting area to help control pests.

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  7. Your cabbages look amazing! Congrats. My dad used to grow kohlrabi when I was a kid. I've never grown it myself but am thinking about putting it on my seed list next year.

    Your carrots are so ahead of mine. It doesn't appear to be a good year for me in that department.

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  8. Those carrots look so pretty. And I must confess, I've never had kohlrabi...I might have to try that next year. Nice job (as always!)

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  9. Look at those carrots! I should pull a few and see where mine are at. I bet they aren't that far along yet!

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  10. 31 lbs.? That is one might impressive harvest week! And all of your veggies look lovely, as usual. I've never had kohlrabi, but it looks like such an interesting vegetable. In fact, when I was purchasing seeds last week for fall crops, I grabbed a packet - now I just have to figure out how to grow it.

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  11. Beautiful harvest, Daphne!

    I can't possibly grow carrots in my concrete-like soil. I'll admire yours from afar....

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  12. Great cabbage harvest! I love chocolate mint but don’t have any growing this year - I might need to see if I can find some.

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  13. Oh, raspberries! Those don't do well here, but they are so yummy I wish they did better!

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  14. I think your carrots look lovely. I pulled one of mine and it was maybe three inches. That's good to know about carrot planting rotation. I will hopefully remember that for next year. I wonder what else the biochar helps with? I've never seen an earwig in my garden, but we have a wood burning fireplace. I currently just throw the ashes into the compost.

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  15. You had a huge harvest week, those cabbages are amazing! I have read about using mustard cover crops as treatments for nematodes and other soil pests, it's interesting to hear about your experience with brassicas vs nematodes. I cover cropped one bed this spring with a mix that was mostly brassicas/mustards. It certainly seemed to be beneficial, I couldn't believe how many earth worms there were and the soil seemed to retain moisture better than ever (a big concern in light of our current drought).

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  16. What a nice looking harvest. That'll keep you well fed for a while :)

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  17. Wow what a great week! It amazes my how much you harvest in Greens. Your weekly total about matched my yearly total in "greens" harvest!! Great Job!

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  18. Gorgeous! Now, have you found that your peas have gone tough and stringy yet? It seems as though everyone's here in NM went from not being ready to tough immediately. Total bummer.

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    1. Nope. They seem fine. Some do have strings on the backs, but I can string them easily enough.

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  19. Great harvest! :)

    I havent grown carrots this year, soil in my garden became so thick and impenetrable after a year break, that I decided to give carrots up, I doubted if the seeds manage to come out of the soil.

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  20. If only we could swap, I have so many strawberries at the moment and not enough greens - I am so envious of your fine selection of greens, especially salad leaves. I hope my kohlrabi does as well as yours.

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  21. Our summer raspberry canes were only just planted last autumn and so won't produce much at all but one of our plot neighbours is going on holiday and has told us to help ourselves to any fruit that ripens whilst he is away :) Then we have the autumnfruiters to look forward ro

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  22. Maybe nematodes are the reason some patches of my carrots turn out badly and why the damage is unpredictable. I always thought it was due to rocks or other clumps in the soil.

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  23. I couldn't grow napa cabbage in spring, it always bolts before forming a head, I'll have to wait until fall when the temp is cooler.

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  24. Your Chinese cabbage look fantastic. I have not had much luck with cabbage of any variety in my garden over the years. You've got the touch.

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  25. I'm always impressed by the variety of your harvests. What a lovely array of veg.

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  26. Incredible harvest Daphne. Beautiful greens and, well, pretty much everything!!

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  27. Another beautiful harvest! I am so impressed. This year, my earwigs don't seem to be as bad, I'm not sure why. And your cabbages are wonderful!

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  28. It seems like a gardener is always learning something. Nice lettuce, kohlrabi and snap peas! Wonderful carrots!! I have not looked at mine yet but don't think they are ready yet. Yummy raspberries. Hope mine start soon. Lots of rain here so they should do well. Nancy

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  29. Lovely Harvest, Daphne. Your lettuce looks awesome.

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  30. I am going to start participating next week!

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  31. Am equally creeped out by earwigs but now less so at knowing they eat aphids! Gorgeous harvest, wonderful variety! We're still relying on our first planting of greens...

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