Monday, September 1, 2014

Harvest Monday 1 September 2014

I did a really poor job of documenting my harvest this week. I do have four photos of the main harvest baskets, but just that. And once again the consistent harvests are always beans and cukes. That is about to stop though. The cukes are dying fast. I got a bitter cucumber and once that starts on all the vines I'll just rip them up. The beans are diseased and barely holding on. There are no more flowers on the plants, but they are ripening up the last harvest or two. I'll rip them out this week. That will give the choys and chards more sun.

Part of the reason is that I wasn't necessarily harvesting in the morning as normal. If I harvest right before dinner like this basket sometimes they get skipped when I'm busy cooking. We had the last of the corn this week. It was very sad, but it was a good four weeks. My husband never got tired of eating it. I didn't either, but that was because this year I told myself I would only eat one ear of corn if I wanted and not two just because it was in front of me. So if I didn't want it, Joel could eat it and I'd just pass. A lot of corn got frozen for the winter this year, which I'm very happy about.

And since the corn numbers are all in for the year I thought I'd see how well I did with this variety. This year I harvested 45.8 pounds. Last year I harvested 27.6 pounds. I have 25% more space this year, so to compare the numbers fairly I'll give last year 25% more, which is 34.5. I harvested about a third more this year than last year. And 20% more than the year before (2012) which was my previous record year. We didn't have nearly the corn growing weather that we did in 2012, but production was very high.

I attribute it all to the variety, Honey Select. Part of the reason was good germination. I had no gaps in my corn grid. All of the stalks produced, which is better than I can say for Ambrosia or Serendipity in my garden. Neither were great germinators in the cool wet soil we have in the spring. Now if I could find an early corn and a late corn that would not cross pollinate badly with Honey Select and produce as well I'd be all set. After one disastrous year when I thought I had two corns with all the right genes (if they have different genes that make them sweet and you cross them, the corn won't be sweet), but I was wrong. Since then I've stuck to just one variety and planted it successively. But it would be better for my squash if I didn't have to wait so long to plant. In a two sisters bed the squash will overtake and smother the corn if you plant it earlier. So it has to wait until the corn is in.

Can you believe I only took one photo of the melons and not one with them cut open? I harvested a lot of melon this week. I've been eating half a melon every day and giving away my excess. I still have one Halona in the garden. The Alvaros haven't even started yet. Three have set and are starting to ripen. I expect to pick today or tomorrow. I don't know why the last Halona is taking so long. I do have to get the melon out of the bed soon as September 1st is my fall spinach planting date. I'm not going to make it. The melons are more important anyway. The spinach will overwinter even if small and give an early spinach harvest, so all is not lost if I have to wait an extra week.

And last but not least. I pick a handful of raspberries every morning for my breakfast. Yum.

  • Beans: 1.83 lbs
  • Broccoli: 0.85 lbs
  • Corn: 8.18 lbs
  • Cucumbers 5.61 lbs
  • Greens: 2.13 lbs
  • Herbs: 0.30 lbs
  • Melons: 18.73 lbs
  • Squash, Summer: 0.98 lbs
  • Weekly Total: 38.60 lbs
  • Yearly Total: 421.93 lbs
  • Yearly Tally: $592.98

  • Fruit
  • Raspberries: 0.37 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.

29 comments:

  1. I've drifted from peach envy into melon envy now. We are still waiting for out corn to ripen.

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  2. Well, have to say that's discipline. No way I can restrict myself to just one ear of corn. Sorry you are at your last, but it sure was a good run!

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  3. That's a lot of corn, 45+ pounds, congrats. How large an area was your corn patch?

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    1. I had two patches of 4'x10' and one of 4'x5'. So I had 100 sqft for them. Corn isn't the most productive use of space, but oh so worth it. And I can grow baby Asian greens or radishes before they are planted - well at least the later planted ones. I don't plant them all at once, but over time to space out the harvests. And I run my winter squash under them or I wouldn't have space for winter squash.

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  4. Your melons do look good. Maybe instead of replacing the dying blueberry bush I should use that bed for melons next year. Something to consider. Thanks for hosting this each week.

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  5. 45 pounds of corn is very impressive! Mine was pitfall this year and I don't think I am going to get anything out of it. The melons look good too as does the rest of your harvest.

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  6. Your still picking raspberries this late in the season. That's great!!

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    1. We pick them until it starts to get too cold. Usually sometime in October they stop. Occasionally later. These are everbearing raspberries, sometimes called fall bearing.

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  7. Lovely corn, and melons. I'm afraid the melons are done for here. Thanks for hosting Harvest Mondays every week and happy Labor Day!

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  8. It's sad when corn season is over. At least you have the melons and raspberries still coming.

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  9. How far apart do you plant your corn? I've read about some gardeners who plant two seeds next to each other and let both grow. Definitely plan to let the squash and corn co-mingle next year. Thanks for all your tips.
    I'll join with the others in thanking you for hosting this great chance to hear from gardeners around the country and the world.

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    1. I plant them in a grid a foot apart in all directions. I haven't done a lot of experimenting to see if I can go closer or not.

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  10. I’m really impressed with how much corn you’ve been able to grow. I haven’t planted my spinach yet either, but we’ve had such hot weather that I didn’t want to risk wasting more seeds.

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  11. Beautiful melons ... please post a pic with them cut open next time so I can live vicariously. My plants failed to produce anything this year.

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  12. Those are really impressive harvests of corn and melons, well, all of your harvests are impressive. Summer is such a wonderful time in the garden.

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  13. Very nice harvest. I love the melons! Ours are finally coming on this week, I'm hoping to be drowning in cantaloupe for the next few weeks!

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  14. Your fruit is particularly lovely. Nom Nom Nom.

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  15. Great harvest! Hopefully next year will be a better corn year for me. This year, I planted way too closely. I'll have to try that variety. My cucumbers are fading fast as well.

    Nice raspberries. I'm guessing it will be at least a couple of years before we start getting a decent crop.

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  16. Another great harvest week Daphne. Your corn numbers are terrific. What a treasure to have 4 weeks straight of eating fresh corn every night. That's a memory to revive on winter nights. And your melons continue to impress!

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  17. Our internet has been down for most of the day and, were it not for a brief time when it came back up, I was beginning to think that I was going to miss Harvest Monday today. Corn, melons and raspberries - Just yum all around. All the crops I don't have but of course want all the more because of that.

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  18. "After one disastrous year when I thought I had two corns with all the right genes (if they have different genes that make them sweet and you cross them, the corn won't be sweet)"

    Desperately trying to remember high school biology and those white and red flowers.....don't you have a 3/4 chance of a sweet result? NN NS SN SS or is it more complicated than that?

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    1. Yes the sweet genes are recessive and there are different ones. Regular sweet corn (old fashioned sweet corn) has the su gene that makes it sweet. So it would have two copies, susu, if it were sweet. Supersweets are sh2 genes and a sweet corn would have sh2sh2. These are in different loci. So if they crossed you would have Susu and Sh2sh2 which doesn't make a sweet corn. Of course sweet corn is more complicated than that because it has more than just two genes in two loci that can make corn sweet.

      Honey Select though is interesting. It is called a synergistic corn. It can stay sweet even when planted next to another sweet corn because it has 75%se and 25%sh2. But basically I messed up. I thought I had it right, but one variety of my corn ended up being not sweet, though the earlier corn stayed sweet. Then again it could have been a neighbor who grew corn, but I've never seen corn growing around here except at my house. Oh and the not sweet corn was not consistently not sweet. We did have some decent ears out of it.

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  19. Wow 45 lbs of corn, and I'm envious of your melons. I'll have a few melons coming sometime this month hopefully before my vacation.

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  20. It does seem like taking picture of the same things over and over I think! That melon looks so yummy and glad that you got so much corn this year. Nancy

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  21. Your tallies are incredible! Next year I think I'll start weighing everything.
    I grow dwarf French beans under my corn. I tried the 3 sisters once with climbing beans but my corn doesn't grow fast enough. I can't remember if the squash was any good. The dwarf beans are good croppers anyway and can squeeze a lot in. I find them good ground cover too.

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  22. I can't grow corn on my rooftop, plants produce very pourly in containers, your harvests are amazing!

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  23. My cucumbers didn't do so well this year! Looks like you didn't have that problem! Love the corn!! Yum!

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