23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

WHITE Russian Kale -- I wonder if it tastes like Vodka, Kahlua, and milk. ;)

Kevin

Thanks florauk- just never noticed it do that before

woohooman- no-but it does taste very good and is the most productive variety I have tried.

I plant my garlic in the fall and sometimes they do come up by November if the temperatures remain mild. To me this not a problem, but as i am in Norway and temp can get to 0F, i always put a layer of straw on the top of the bed to act as an insulator for over winter.
Ralph

You don't have to mulch them. I've left garlic plants in the garden for two winters and the plants are fine. I do this because from one clove, you get 6 new bulbs...each clove in the first summer's bulb makes a whole bulb the following year. They're very hardy.

"And, IMHO, if you haven't grown or tried a Jimmy Nardello pepper yet, you have really been missing out on something (although I find the thin walls to be rather disappointing)."

Considering how many people cook and make salads with sweet peppers...Jimmy Nardello and Aji Dulce types (various) are grossly underused in most countries. They're thin, but rather uniquely and richly flavored.

Thanks Tom,. sometimes we have different tastes and preferences, like Jalapeno, that came up.

I have stopped growing bell peppers for more than one reason.
--- Not very tasty and flavorful.
--- They are always available in the produce section, at a reasonable price.
--- Honestly, I could not grow them successfully.
Just this past season , I bough a bell plant with 4 good size tomatoes on it. @ $3.95 I though it is worth trying it. Well, what you know, they were the only peppers all season long it had.

BACK TO POINT>

I have a pepper grow list . Right now all I am lacking is ALMA PAPRIKA. I may try Jimmy Nordella, if I have space for it.

The grasshopper lives :-) Still hanging out in my pepper plant, which I thought for sure would be spent by now but continues to pump out more jalapenos than we will ever, ever eat... Perhaps this particular grasshopper is a lucky one?!?

The grasshopper lives :-) Still hanging out in my pepper plant, which I thought for sure would be spent by now but continues to pump out more jalapenos than we will ever, ever eat... Perhaps this particular grasshopper is a lucky one?!?

Would it be ok to harvest some of the bigger outer leaves to eat, while I'm waiting for the heads to form?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sure thing. you can. They might be even tastier.

Same thing that happened to me in the spring. They kept getting bigger and bigger, and I was just about ready to give up on them heading. All of a sudden, heads!

Sure. You can harvest some of the outer leaves, but maybe just a couple from each plant at a time. Those large outer leaves create lots of surface area for photosynthesis.

Glib, I've got the hardware cloth and raised beds. Also new raised containers, no bunnies or squirrels (maybe turkeys, not sure!)
I grew beets a couple of years ago, got distracted, and when I went to check they had gotten all woody!
I don't can any more (might start again since I've retired), but can they be frozen? I have a Food saver and freeze most things I grow/sauce/chop/etc. Nancy

I don't know if beets freeze. But I think that in Zone 8 they can stay in the ground uncovered, unless your rodent pressure is overwhelming.

To some degree, it may make a difference where you live. (Just one more reason why it's helpful for you to include your zone in every post.) In my zone, Kale grows all winter long, so I would not want to cut the entire plant. I harvest the larger lower leaves and leave the smaller top leaves to continue to grow. In this manner, I harvest continually from fall to spring from the same plants. Last year, I actually used Red Russian as the background of my pansy planting of Ultima Morpho pansies. It was a beautiful bed all winter and we ate from it too.

But, if you live farther north, it might be better to harvest the entire plant.

Red Russian Kale may just be my favorite green of all, and I like nearly all of them. It's delicious. Enjoy!

Even up north, we harvest the leaves and leave the growing tip. If the plant winters over, it will grow sweet side shoots in early spring (snap them off and eat them.)

sweetquietplace,

How do you normally do it?

To everyone else posting on this subject, I appreciate your input and thank you for the time that you spent to put up additional information! :)

Lots of videos on Youtube showing exactly how to can veggies - I'm sure some discuss potatoes. You'll need a pressure cooker to can spuds.

I had a drier spring in 2012 and saw 5 Japanese Beetles. This spring was wetter and I saw 24 JBs.

ps, I trapped an estimated 270,000 in 2003 and killed hundreds more that year.

Potato beetles live in the soil. So if you were diligent last year and didn't allow any to mature, then it stands to reason there won't be any this year.
We also know that they 'fly in' from surrounding areas, perhaps your neighbours were more diligent also.
Lucky you!!!!!
We tend to forget, this years actions affect next years bugs?

Thanks for the help. I cut one open and it was still white inside. Maybe I'll have better luck next year.

not sure if you have tasted the white one, but last year I picked a sugarbaby that I thought was ripe, but was still white. I tasted it anyway, and to my surprise, it was sweet... not quite as sweet as a full ripe red one, but it was definelty edible..

I know this was asked a long time ago, but this also happened to me. It was not good to make spaghetti squash at all, so I cut it up and took all the seeds out and cooked it in a small amount of water. I added molasses and a stick of cinnamon and it was actually pretty good. Way better than letting it go to waste. :)

marbella ...I agree. spaghetti squash, when mature just develops more texture an has slightly less water contents. it is similr to other squash types called SHARK FIN and COYOTE(?). The latter is sold at Asian markets when quite young. It is often is substituted for SHARK FIN squash in summer. I have made shark fin (faux) soup with it many time.

Yes, they will rebuild their population quickly, but they don't "come back " when washed off. Aphids have an astonishing reproductive system but can't return to their host plants once removed.

That's why you have to repeat the process every few days. It's a far superior method than using sevin which very quickly kills any beneficials that might be wanting to chow down.

Once again Rhizo1, people using Sevin need education.

I have a bag of Sevin in my garage. I use it all the time. Whenever somebody comes over and asks me what I use for pest control and attract beneficials, I point to the bag of Sevin and say, "Not that!"

Uscjusto, make it a point to research IPM. Plant beneficial plants to flower year round(or almost year round). That will take care of a a majority of pests, IMO. But for now, jets of water every couple days and or insecticidal soap. As mentioned already, you gotta stay with the treatments though. Eventually the populations decrease to livable amounts.

Kevin

Sweet potatoes would be beautiful. I also have seen trailing blackberries grown this way in California.

support is only needed for winter squash. beans and sweet potatoes will support themselves, as will do summer squash and tomatoes if kept picked. tromboncino should be good there.

At the risk of taking this further off topic for a moment (please excuse me), do either of you guys also have moles as a problem in the light soils? Because it seems to me the problems mainly start with a mole tunnel the the little tuber-eating bast*, er, voles move into and use to get near the plants underground without making a single hole I can spot from above ground. So I was thinking if I could get the moles out of the garden, maybe the voles couldn't be as destructive. Or is it just wishful thinking on my part? Because those little jerks are really getting on my nerves with the sweet potatoes... I have better luck with the irish potatoes in spring.

I also really like the Korean Purple SPs.

I can't say that I have any clue about that, other than I never see moles and I see lots of active digging and I see voles often. When I lift any large piece of cover there are voles underneath. That's at my remote garden, at home I have rats, sometimes huge numbers. However because they eat from the compost pile they don't do as much damage to crops.