2023 garden season

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. so decided to try a mix. got some from grocery and mixed. i wanted some pulp, too. and together
got a winner! maybe best ever peach jam i have tasted.
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don't think the batch will last too long... lol
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Transplanted our peppers today into something a little bigger for now! they were getting a little root bound by the looks of it! Had some 6” pots there so I said why not for now, better than the 3” they were in
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Lettuce coming along too, almost time for some bigger pots, and I know I’m probably a little late to the party lol, but I planted some tomato seeds yesterday as well, they’re under the dome tray there in the picture
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Made Kraut yesterday, I only cut two heads and made 2 quarts, plus a little slaw. I only planted 12 plants and the rest will probably be ready by next week. Tomato plants are 4ft high and not a single green tomato, plenty of blooms, but I dont understand the lack of maters. Potatoes in my pots are doing excellent. Baseball size taters that taste great . especially with the gresh green peas. Taters in the field, are big, planted red pontiac and kennebac. The red tater vines are surprisingly still growing, the kennebac vines are starting to die off and will have to be harvested soon. I am debateing planting a second crop if I can find the seed. I have never planted taters in the heat of summer before, and dont know of anybody around here that even tries it. I;ll probably only plant a couple of rows just for a test.
How big of pots for your potatoes? Like to see your pots and rows. I can't seem to grow them. Green plants but very small potatoes.
 
too many peaches! lol. so we had to can up some. some to freezer, but did up some 1/2 pt jam jars other day
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batch turned out a bit cinnomony! recipe called for 1/2 tea per batch. but was very tasty, sweet... but had to hunt for the peach flavor. so decided to try a mix. got some from grocery and mixed. i wanted some pulp, too. and together
got a winner! :numberone: maybe best ever peach jam i have tasted.
Man I envy you. I had a tree that use to produce small ones and I'd make peach syrup from them. The tree is on it's way out and the squirrels get the ones that do form.
 
Morning folks!
Got the lettuce’s all transplanted this morning! Good in these pots for a couple weeks now I’d say!
Transplanted and thinned our sage the other day as well, they seem to be taking that well! Peppers too are showing some newer growth since transplant the other day! no tomorrows coming up yet, give ‘em another couple days I’d say we’ll start seeing them pop out!
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How big of pots for your potatoes? Like to see your pots and rows. I can't seem to grow them. Green plants but very small potatoes.
I use everything from 5gal buckets to old flower pots. I bought several of those cloth grow bags a few years ago and they did well, they just tended to dry out quickly. I found the 5 gal buckets to be a tad to small and am using some 10 gal grow pots this year. To keep the pots from drying out I left the drain holes in the bottom plugged and drilled some 1/2 in holes in the sides about 3-4 inches from the bottom. The lets the pots hold some water in the very bottom without causeing the taters to be in direct contact with the water and rotten. With the cloth grow bags, I bought a bunch of those clear plastic drain trays that you use under pots. I would water the bags daily and keep the trays full of water. Those bags drain and dry out very quick, but with the trays under them the water would sort of wick back up the dirt and keep the plants damp. This is my first year using the bigger pots, but I can already tell that the drain holes off the sides is a better method. I am having problems posting pic lately. I cant send them from my phone to this site so I have to send them to myself, then save on my computer and than post. I just took a few a few min ago and as soon as I get them uploaded to my computer, I'll try to post them here.
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Green plants but very small potatoes.
One thing I do different than everybody I know, right or wrong it works for me. I mix tripple super phosphate, (0-46-0) and potassium sulfate (0-0-50) in my potting soil before planting. and topdress with 10-10-10 when I hill them. I dont like a lot of nitrogen on my taters as they seem to grow more tops than taters. Hilling and top dressing in pots is pretty easy. When I plant, I only fill the pots about a 1/4 full of soil. lay the taters on top and fill to half full. When its time to hill, I throw in a small handfull of fert and finish fill the pot with soil. Done until time to harvest. To harvest, I dump the pot in my tractor bucket, sift out the taters, add my admendments, mix and then put back in the pot. I always need a little extra compost,( wood shaving mixed with chicken poop, and maybe some ,more topsoil) and I am ready to plant next year. I dont know if you can tell from my pic, but the kennebac taters are dieing back. They have made all they are going to make. I will probably harvest them in the next couple weeks, eating as we harvest. The red Pontiac taters are actually blooming again. One other thing I have noticed growing taters in pots is no tater bugs.. My tater patch at my sons house get attacked hard each year, but I havent seen a taterbug in 3 years of growing in pots.
 
One thing I do different than everybody I know, right or wrong it works for me. I mix tripple super phosphate, (0-46-0) and potassium sulfate (0-0-50) in my potting soil before planting. and topdress with 10-10-10 when I hill them. I dont like a lot of nitrogen on my taters as they seem to grow more tops than taters. Hilling and top dressing in pots is pretty easy. When I plant, I only fill the pots about a 1/4 full of soil. lay the taters on top and fill to half full. When its time to hill, I throw in a small handfull of fert and finish fill the pot with soil. Done until time to harvest. To harvest, I dump the pot in my tractor bucket, sift out the taters, add my admendments, mix and then put back in the pot. I always need a little extra compost,( wood shaving mixed with chicken poop, and maybe some ,more topsoil) and I am ready to plant next year. I dont know if you can tell from my pic, but the kennebac taters are dieing back. They have made all they are going to make. I will probably harvest them in the next couple weeks, eating as we harvest. The red Pontiac taters are actually blooming again. One other thing I have noticed growing taters in pots is no tater bugs.. My tater patch at my sons house get attacked hard each year, but I havent seen a taterbug in 3 years of growing in pots.
Oh well there you go. My problem is I don't have a tractor. Guess I'll have to get one :laugh: .

I'll try the fertilizer thing on part of my row next year.

How big are your pots? I've got 55 gallon barrels cut in half that I thought about doing what you do in pots. Never got around to trying it. Next year, always next year.
 
Oh well there you go. My problem is I don't have a tractor. Guess I'll have to get one :laugh: .

I'll try the fertilizer thing on part of my row next year.

How big are your pots? I've got 55 gallon barrels cut in half that I thought about doing what you do in pots. Never got around to trying it. Next year, always next year.
A wheel barrow will work as well as the tractor bucket. As for pot size, a 10gal pot is easy to move around. A half barrel will hold more taters and should work just fine. Only thing I would be concerned with the the surface area of the open end of the barrel. My taters make a lot of tops and completely cover the top of my pots. A barrel isnt that much bigger than my pots, would the difference in surface area effect how much sunlite the plants get, and possibly limit the amount and size of taters grown? Maybe half the barrels lenght ways? I dont have that answer, but if I already had the barrels, I would try them, but not sure I would go looking for barrels to use. In my pots, I only put 3 or 4 chits per pot. I found trying to put to many chits I endup with a ton of marbles and not many big taters, I guess by planting to many, the tater just run out of growing room. For that reason, I wouldnt plant all my taters in the barrels and depend on a bumper crop. Of course, I could be very wrong, never know until you try., Just for info, I have had good luck with sweet potatoes in pots also.
 
going black berry picking tomorrow, if it isnt raining. I mow at my mommas homeplace every 2 weeks. A couple weeks ago, I bushhogged all the fields, which makes it easier to get to the black berry briars. We tryed picking berries last week, but they werenot ready. There is a bummper crop this year, if I can get them before the deer and birds.
 
going black berry picking tomorrow, if it isnt raining. I mow at my mommas homeplace every 2 weeks. A couple weeks ago, I bushhogged all the fields, which makes it easier to get to the black berry briars. We tryed picking berries last week, but they werenot ready. There is a bummper crop this year, if I can get them before the deer and birds.
I have a 150' row of wild black berries that I used to get 10 gal or more from. They got overgrown with honeysuckle and I'm trying to recover them. I do have a 16 trellis of tame black berries that really produce, not yet this year. Birds don't seem to bother the tame (tart) ones.

On our farm, we used to pick dew berries. Those are my favorite.
 
Good news, I saved the strawberry crop!

Currently picking 1x 8 cup container every day, except for last night which was 1.5 containers.

We really need rain though, very dry here. We've only had 1.7" of rain in two rainy days over 2 months.

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Birds got mine.
 
A wheel barrow will work as well as the tractor bucket. As for pot size, a 10gal pot is easy to move around. A half barrel will hold more taters and should work just fine. Only thing I would be concerned with the the surface area of the open end of the barrel. My taters make a lot of tops and completely cover the top of my pots. A barrel isnt that much bigger than my pots, would the difference in surface area effect how much sunlite the plants get, and possibly limit the amount and size of taters grown? Maybe half the barrels lenght ways? I dont have that answer, but if I already had the barrels, I would try them, but not sure I would go looking for barrels to use. In my pots, I only put 3 or 4 chits per pot. I found trying to put to many chits I endup with a ton of marbles and not many big taters, I guess by planting to many, the tater just run out of growing room. For that reason, I wouldnt plant all my taters in the barrels and depend on a bumper crop. Of course, I could be very wrong, never know until you try., Just for info, I have had good luck with sweet potatoes in pots also.
I was talking about cutting a standing barrel horizontally to make a pot, just to be clear. Fill half full with dirt/mulch and then plant seed. As plant grows, fill with dirt. Tops extend out the top. Dad said they use to do that with straw when he was young.
I have made raised beds by cutting the barrels in the other direction. Currently have strawberries in them. I could make another to try potatoes. Didn't think it would be deep enough.
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But I am trying sweet potatoes in raised beds made from totes.
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I have a 150' row of wild black berries that I used to get 10 gal or more from. They got overgrown with honeysuckle and I'm trying to recover them. I do have a 16 trellis of tame black berries that really produce, not yet this year. Birds don't seem to bother the tame (tart) ones.

On our farm, we used to pick dew berries. Those are my favorite.
I sometimes buy tame blackberries to mix with the wild ones when I cant get enough wild ones for jelly and jam. Nothing beats the wild ones for taste in my opinion. Growing up, we would hit all the cow pastures and railroad right of ways and pick up to 10 gal at a time. Cant do that now, everybody keeps their pastures mowed and the railroad sprays everything to kill all the brush. I got burnt out trying to grow blackberries, bought a bunch that was supposed to be thornless, durn things had more thorns than multaflora rose. Dug them out and got rid of them and havent tried since.
 
I sometimes buy tame blackberries to mix with the wild ones when I cant get enough wild ones for jelly and jam. Nothing beats the wild ones for taste in my opinion. Growing up, we would hit all the cow pastures and railroad right of ways and pick up to 10 gal at a time. Cant do that now, everybody keeps their pastures mowed and the railroad sprays everything to kill all the brush. I got burnt out trying to grow blackberries, bought a bunch that was supposed to be thornless, durn things had more thorns than multaflora rose. Dug them out and got rid of them and havent tried since.
I prefer the wild ones too. Maybe I can clean up the wild row.
 

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