Gardening thread of 2021

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Mixed bag, as always, this growing season. Things seem to be slightly behind In general, but hoping for prolonged summer. Beans, courgettes and cucumbers are cropping prolifically, as are blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. Strawberries seem to having a last gasp. First successions of peas are dying down and replacements don’t look as hardy, plus salad crops keep going to seed prematurely under the changeable weather. Tomatoes have been heavily hit by blight across the allotment site and even most of the resistant varieties have perished - I’m down to about 3 of the usual dozen plants. Tomatillos are recovering after a waterlogging. Pumpkins and squashes seem to be doing well, including a rapid growing pumpkin giant.

But in general we’re at the giving stuff away frantically stage as the glut of beans and courgettes grows. This was yesterday’s fairly typical quick pick, minus the berries
 
RDalman said:
We get a good bit of everything right now also. Don't remember giving the carrots steroids, maybe it's the biochar🙈View attachment 138403View attachment 138404View attachment 138405View attachment 138406
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Well, I’m envious of your fantastic bounty of tomatoes for sure. Lovely looking stuff Mr D!

Anyhow, here’s my all action video from the allotment last night. My attempts at protecting berries with some rudimentary netting have proved sadly inadequate to this point, with blueberries disappearing at the point of ripeness frustratingly often. Higher level netting helped for a while, but kamikaze pigeons seem to be afoot

I’ve accepted this as a berry fail year and have removed my meagre netting to avoid future trapping incidents.

I also,thankfully, didn‘t film my first attempt at freeing the bird. You know, the one where I tugged the net a little hard, the pigeon flew directly towards me….and I fell backwards over a badly placed chair in spectacular Warner Brothers cartoon style.
🤦‍♂️

 
If any have grown Allepo/Isot/Urfa Biber peppers, can they verify that these are typical fruits of such? Bought the seeds a couple of years ago, got 4 plants ripening some peppers now, finally.

And if you've successfully accomplished the sun drying/night time fermenting process said to be used when making the powdered chili sold as Urfa Biber? I'd like some pointers!

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Just reading. Urfa biber is a dried Turkish chili pepper of the type Capsicum annuum cultivated in the Urfa region of Turkey. It is often described as having a smoky, raisin-like taste. Urfa biber is technically a red pepper, ripening to a dark maroon on the plant. Wikipedia .

Do you let the pepper ripen until it gets dark before you pick it?

What does urfa biber taste like?
The taste of Urfa biber is described as smoky and earthy but with subtly sweet and acidic undertones of raisin, chocolate, or coffee. Urfa biber reaches 30,000 to 50,000 SHU on the Scoville scale, which measures heat of chile peppers. This makes Urfa biber about as spicy as cayenne peppers.May 26, 2021
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Scoville scale: 50,000–80,000 SHU
Heat: Very hot



It sounds like the Aleppo pepper is a different pepper than the Urfa.

Is Aleppo pepper hot?

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Aleppo pepper is made from dried and coarsely ground Halaby chile peppers and can be used much like crushed red pepper in recipes and dishes. ... Aleppo pepper is moderately spicy, ranking at about 10,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU).Oct 18, 2018
 
I have purchased small quantities of crushed/shredded dried red peppers sold as "Aleppo" and,"Urfa Biber" from Kalustyans, plus a member here generously supplied a nice sample of Aleppo "good stuff" from his personal stash, these peppers have some similarities as far as heat/type of flavor but are quite different in apprarance, smell and overall taste. They're both quite good... But different.

Hoping for comments by someone with hands on experience in growing & processing.
 
Bert2368 said:
I have purchased small quantities of crushed/shredded dried red peppers sold as "Aleppo" and,"Urfa Biber" from Kalustyans, plus a member here generously supplied a nice sample of Aleppo "good stuff" from his personal stash, these peppers have some similarities as far as heat/type of flavor but are quite different in apprarance, smell and overall taste. They're both quite good... But different.

Hoping for comments by someone with hands on experience in growing & processing.
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The Urfa is a lot hotter pepper than the Aleppo pepper. The Aleppo is only moderately hot.
 
The 6 weeks without rain really did a number on my "painted mountain" flour corn! Last year, this variety had many ears 8" to 10" long, this year, lucky if they're 4" (see picture, those are the biggest ears I can find). Badly stressed from heat & drought, my corn developed tassels 3 to 4 weeks earlier and a couple of feet shorter than in 2020.

I'll get enough corn for re planting next year, probably NOT enough to grind for corn meal. Sad. Even the deer are turning up their noses at the poor little things.

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Below are some of the ears produced in 2020.

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The corn was way too far away to get a hose to, even using a 220 gallon tank in a 3/4 ton pickup bed and a 12V pump, could not find enough "gardening time" to get enough water out there once we hit our busy season (mid June through August). Started out so promising, then it just dried up.

Did manage to get the squash mounds JUST enough water, will have enough for myself + feeding the wildlife. The extra "feeder roots" that the squash vines develop out by the fruits are pretty minimal, they were trying to grow into dry dust until last couple of weeks when it finally started raining again.

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I just started planting seeds in small pots for our winter garden. I planted 1 kale and 1 zucchini plant each for winter. Next week when it cools off a little more I plan to fill in my garden for winter.

I am having trouble finding seed this year.
 
I've been saving more types of seeds this year than any before, partly due to growing more non hybrid, heirloom type garden plants. 3 well separated garden areas, trying to not cross pollinate varieties of same species.

2 kinds of pole beans, 2 kinds of winter squash, flour corn, sunflowers, musk melon, cantaloupe melon.

Should have thought about hybridization/separation before planting the 3 different varieties of tomatoes and 4 different varieties of eggplants in the same garden, but if I'd done that, the watering requirements for the further out garden areas would have been ridiculous.

Maybe next year.

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Delat said:
Just a quick update to let you know I took your advice. I cut off the two lower branches and trimmed all the flower buds I could reach - there were around 6 and some are still just coming up so I left those for later. Also gave it a solid watering with 2 gallons of reverse osmosis filtered water and will stick with the filtered water for a few months. Spraying with the spinosad this weekend as well just in case.

Fingers crossed that my baby mango appreciates all the TLC and rewards me with some fruit next year!
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Just curious how is your Mango tree doing?
Get it in a larger pot yet? I got a large straight side for my avocado tree so I can move it with my hand truck.
 
Keith Sinclair said:
Just curious how is your Mango tree doing?
Get it in a larger pot yet? I got a large straight side for my avocado tree so I can move it with my hand truck.
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It’s a bit unbalanced - unfortunately that initial fungus killed off all the leads on one of the two branches off the main trunk, so now there’s only one branch. It’s like half a tree. Anyway that surviving branch is doing ok; it’s been slowly growing over the summer since I had it in the shade to survive the heat and the anthacnose is a constant threat but looks like it’s going to survive. The 3-digit weather finally passed this week so it’s back to almost full sun now. I’ll add a pic this weekend.

I have a couple sweetsops that I got at the same that are totally thriving though. Funny how one specific plant is so vulnerable to one specific fungus but others aren’t.
 
we are currently harvesting what little we have in the garden, some grapes....probably just enough to make 4 bottles of pretyy nice red grape juice (the grapes are tiny and contain huge pips)
 
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These are Braeburn apples, a variety developed at the university of Minnesota.

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I've got 4 trees of this variety, last year 3 out of 4 had their heavy year. This year, one had its heavy year, 2 others had just a few fruits set and the 4th set no fruit at all.

Then the crows noticed the ripening apples, it's been a tough year for them too, with the drought and heat. I picked these apples a couple of days ago when the local critters made it clear they were going to eat all of them ASAP if I didn't. That's all I'm getting from this variety in 2021.

Will be taking the rest of my apples (Empire and Macoun) and pears (Golden Spice) shortly too, the local critters are a bit hungry...

The crows and wild turkeys got EVERY SINGLE ONE of my pie cherries from 2 trees in less than 72 hours from the time I'd looked and decided they were "almost ready", then had to leave town for work for 72 hours- I've learned my lesson.

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Bert2368 said:
These are Braeburn apples, a variety developed at the university of Minnesota.

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I've got 4 trees of this variety, last year 3 out of 4 had their heavy year. This year, on had its heavy year and 2 others had just a few fruits set.

Then the crows noticed, it's been a tough year for them too, with the drought and heat. I picked these apples a couple of days ago when the local critters made it clear they were going to eat all of them ASAP if I didn't.

Will be taking the rest of my apples and pears shortly too, the local critters are a bit hungry...

The crows and wild turkeys got EVERY SINGLE ONE of my pie cherries from 2 trees in less than 72 hours from the time I'd looked and decided they were "almost ready", then had to leave town for work for 72 hours- I've learned my lesson.

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I had that same problem with my peach trees. The peaches were ready and they smelled great I was going to pick the next day. The raccoons left me all the seeds at the bottom of my 4 trees when I went out the next day.
 
Bert2368 said:
Yup!

Remember, a fruit fed "trash panda" can be quite tasty. And turn about is fair play!
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Too bad I am in the city actually butted up against a city park where the raccoons come from. I would shoot them if I could.

I no longer have peach trees since I can't protect them.
 
Here, squirrels are my enemy, Went away for a week and got complacent - when I had got back the furry rats (with more attractive tails and better PR) had demolished pretty much all my corn. Turns out they like aubergines too.

Not impressed. With them or the ginger cat that tends to use every one of my freshly turned raised beds as a new litter tray.
 
WiriWiri said:
Here, squirrels are my enemy, Went away for a week and got complacent - when I had got back the furry rats (with more attractive tails and better PR) had demolished pretty much all my corn. Turns out they like aubergines too.

Not impressed. With them or the ginger cat that tends to use every one of my freshly turned raised beds as a new litter tray.
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Had vole(potentially - s) in the carrots so ~50% of them where eaten on 🤬 I did get the last word though as I found it with the pitchfork.
 
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