23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

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.

Ah, thanks for the clarification and information. Pests, here I come!

Regarding whether to eat the holey leaves. I would certainly eat the one on the right but not the one on the left. Nothing to do with the holes but the left one just looks too old to be palatable. If those holes are representative of the type of damage you're getting I personally wouldn't do anything except give the plants a good shake and maybe a blast from the hose.

I don't know what Bt costs in the States but here it is extremely expensive and almost impossible to find for sale. I don't know why. It has to be ordered from the US and the postage at least doubles the cost. I wouldn't bother going to that amount of effort unless I had a massive problem and my livelihood depended on a perfect crop. A few holes are par for the course and will do you no harm.

Just for the record, you can't buy GMO seeds unless you are a farmer buying large lots of corn, soybeans or similar agricultural crops. Most of the garden veggies we grow do not have GMO versions available to the general public.

Thanks for the input everyone. Much appreciated.

I raise Black Swallowtails (as well as Monarchs, and other swallowtail species) and usually have a few black caterpillars each year.

The Monarch caterpillars can have more or less black in their striping too. There is a theory that they are blacker in cooler weather - to absorb more solar heat.

This was a self-sown dill next to the house in late July.

Jim

Hawaii doesn't have more diverse climates than CA. HI doesn't even have diverse seasons. There's no place in HI that has high chilling and a warm growing season. That rules out all crops and fruits that need chilling and summer heat.

CA has blazing deserts and the biggest trees in the world growing in a cloud forest. It also has all combinations of cool, warm, and hot summers/winters except truly tropical, ie warm all year. And the elevation extremes in CA are as large as in HI.

This post was edited by fruitnut on Sun, Oct 6, 13 at 17:52

Yep: just going up the Palm Springs Tramway, one goes from desert to alpine in a 15 minute ride. I went on it one time in April when the temps at the bottom were in the 90's and there were people cross country skiing at the top.

Kevin

It would be interesting to know if the beta family can be used to remediate slightly salty soils. The Dutch use salt hay first, but I wonder if beets are next.

Seems reasonable to me.