Lett Us Discuss Lettuce

We've got tons of lettuce! Sounds familiar, kind of like this time last year. We have been giving lettuce to neighbors, coworkers, and Facebook friends. A few lettuce plants have started going to flower, and have already gotten the associated bitter taste. The spinach is on its way to reproduction mode as well. Our collard greens are doing amazing. We've got some leaves that would make any grocery produce manager proud. It is strawberry harvest time. It's started slow, but with a lot of potential energy. The last few days have yielded two berries each day.  There are hundreds of unripe berries sitting under the canopy. I've got a feeling we are going to be eating strawberries with every meal in about a week. The blueberries are slowly swelling, but they are still a shade of green. The asparagus harvest was less productive than we hoped. We had a few bites of spears, but there simply wasn't enough energy in their roots to fill our bellies.  Most plants are  doing very well. We should get a big tomato harvest this year. We have some new plants we are trying this year including: tomatillos, leeks, sunchokes, zuchino rampicante, and wonderberry. For the first time, it looks like we are going to get a grape harvest this year.  The grape vines are over 6' high.

Did you know that you can cut the tops off carrots, and the bottoms off celery, leeks and onions and they'll grow into new plants? We've been growing some plants from these veggie scraps and they are doing very well! This method grows a full size productive plant faster than any seed will.

I've noticed some powdery mildew lurking in the Bee Balm. I was hoping we would get most of the way through the Summer before that awful fungus showed up. The Bee Balm is near the house, and is in the shade for a good part of the morning letting the morning dew stay for a while.

2012 growing season begins now.

The greenhouse is in full swing. We've got tons of greens growing. We have as much Bok Choi as we can possibly eat. This week we moved some seedlings into pots in the greenhouse. The seedlings were tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, squash, basil, wonderberry, eggplant and collards. We had started them in early January. We planned on planting them directly into the greenhouse soil, however, we heard some bad news. My aunt (Who is letting us use her property for the greenhouse) has decided she wants to start getting her house ready for sale. She wants her yard back to grass sometime this year. We decided to put the seedlings into pots so we can move them to our back yard/raised bed garden in late April. By then, the plants will surely be full sized patio plants. The squash plants won't be movable, since they are viners.  That's ok, we'll probably have some hand-pollinated fruits by then.

I've jotted down a list of some of the supplies Deb and I have already purchased this year:

Drip irrigation system

     irrigation timer

     Limestone

     Dr Earth

     bacillus thuringiensis

     organic fertilizer spikes(on sale)

     yellow sticky traps

     ladybugs (for gh)

     azomite

     cocoa coir

     heat mat

     plastic labels

     useless metal labels

     rootrainers seed starter

Today I decided to put a second layer of plastic over the greenhouse. It made a noticeable difference while I was there. The temperature started rising fast. We have some cold nights ahead of us in the 10 day forecast. It should drop into the mid 20s. I'm sure the 900 watt space heater could keep the frost away with a single layer of polyethylene, however, the temperature should stay about 50 at night for the young tender seedlings. We have a min/max thermometer. Last night the temperature got down to 45 degrees inside the greenhouse with an outside temperature of 31. I'll check it tomorrow to see what the double plastic does.

The cukes keep coming

The cucumber beetles came and went, the powdery mildew claimed the lives of all of Mickey's zucchinis. The sikkim cucumbers however, remain. They are fat cukes, about 6" long. As they ripen, they turn a mustard to brown color with a cracked skin like cantaloupe. They have a delicate mild cucumber taste with just enough sweetness. Sometimes during the hot season, I will find a bitter taste left in some of the cucumbers, but not with the sikkim variety. The last few days yielded just shy of a pound of them, with several more in the waiting.  We also harvested some okra (which is gearing up to be a heavy producer in a couple weeks), some tomatoes, and a few more onions that were hiding in the raised beds.

---

Total produce count for the year:

36 ears of corn

53 strawberries

17 raspberries(golden variety)

12 blackberries

10 blueberries

0.3 lb eggplant

0.2 lb okra

0.31 lb sweet banana peppers

1.01 lb sweet bell peppers

2.76 lb assorted (green)bean pods

20.06 lb cucumber

12.92 lb zucchini squash

2.25 lb yellow squash

5.62 lb butternut squash

3 lb pumpkin

1/2 lb muskmelon

2 cantaloupes

20.21 lb tomatoes

1.8 lb cherry tomatoes

1.7 lb kohlrabi

5.09 lb  onions (bulbs)

9.27 lbs carrot roots

1.25 lb beet roots

1.75 lb potatoes

12 heads of garlic

4 garlic scapes

7.6 lb sweet/snap peas

16.2 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

46.5 lb assorted lettuce

5.1 lb spinach

1/2 lb New Zealand spinach

4.8 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb baby greens

1/3 lb arugula

5 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

A countless amount of:

  parsley, basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, burnet, fennel, thyme, dill, green onions, chives, stevia

We got back from our trip at the beach to find an unkempt garden. Weeds were everywhere, tomato plants were toppling over at the top, and the vining okra with their sharp vines are out of control. We had a plentiful harvest waiting for us. There was a beautiful ripe cantaloupe, along with about a dozen cucumbers,  a few tomatoes, half a dozen yellow carrots, a fat zucchini, a green pepper, an ear of corn, and a 5 gallon bucket worth of kale greens. 

---

Total produce count for the year:

36 ears of corn

53 strawberries

17 raspberries(golden variety)

12 blackberries

10 blueberries

0.2 lb eggplant

0.12 lb okra

0.31 lb sweet banana peppers

1.01 lb sweet bell peppers

2.76 lb assorted (green)bean pods

19 .18 lb cucumber

11.92 lb zucchini squash

2.25 lb yellow squash

5.62 lb butternut squash

3 lb pumpkin

1/2 lb muskmelon

2 cantaloupes

17.65 lb tomatoes

1.69 lb cherry tomatoes

1.7 lb kohlrabi

4.96 lb  onions (bulbs)

9.27 lbs carrot roots

1.25 lb beet roots

1.75 lb potatoes

12 heads of garlic

4 garlic scapes

7.6 lb sweet/snap peas

16.2 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

46.5 lb assorted lettuce

5.1 lb spinach

1/2 lb New Zealand spinach

4.8 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb baby greens

1/3 lb arugula

5 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

A countless amount of:

  parsley, basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, burnet, fennel, thyme, dill, green onions, chives, stevia

Produce update, woah

Heading out the door for a short vacation. Before I go, here's the latest produce update:

---

Total produce count for the year:

35 ears of corn

53 strawberries

17 raspberries(golden variety)

12 blackberries

10 blueberries

0.2 lb eggplant

0.6 lb okra

3/16 lb sweet banana peppers

.91 lb sweet bell peppers

2.76 lb assorted (green)bean pods

12 .05 lb cucumber

11.17 lb zucchini squash

2.25 lb yellow squash

5.62 lb butternut squash

3 lb pumpkin

1/2 lb muskmelon

17.4 lb tomatoes

1.69 lb cherry tomatoes

1.7 lb kohlrabi

4.96 lb  onions (bulbs)

9.08 lbs carrot roots

1.25 lb beet roots

1.75 lb potatoes

12 heads of garlic

4 garlic scapes

7.6 lb sweet/snap peas

15.8 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

46.5 lb assorted lettuce

5.1 lb spinach

1/2 lb New Zealand spinach

4.8 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb baby greens

1/3 lb arugula

5 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

A countless amount of:

  parsley, basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, burnet, fennel, thyme, dill, green onions, chives, stevia

Peak summer enlightenment

I've discovered some miraculous information through means of Google. The bugs that Deb and I have been so frantic to fight this losing battle are actually not stink bugs! They are squash bugs. Apparently stink bugs don't even eat squash, cucumbers, or melons. (We have spotted some stink bugs in our tomatoes, but that is a different chapter. )

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it won't happen this year. We have passed the point of winning or losing this war against the bug, and it doesn't look favorable for us. We've already lost about 10 squash plants, and there are about 5 more left. For next year, I have found some very helpful information. There are several varieties of squash that are resistant to many of the pests that plague cucurbits. Several winter squash, and a few summer varieties are said to resist squash bugs and the other two pains in the rear; the cucumber beetle, and the squash vine borer. It just so happens that a few of these resistant varieties are also better about fighting off powdery mildew disease.

We ate an amazing yellow beet for dinner tonight. We purchased it from MOMS market. The beet had stiff flesh and tasted like corn. I don't know the name of the variety, but it will certainly be on my wish list for the spring seeds to buy.

---

Total produce count for the year:

35 ears of corn

53 strawberries

17 raspberries(golden variety)

12 blackberries

10 blueberries

3/16 lb sweet banana peppers

.85 lb sweet bell peppers

2.76 lb assorted (green)bean pods

8 .61 lb cucumber

11.17 lb zucchini squash

2.25 lb yellow squash

4.49 lb butternut squash

3 lb pumpkin

1/2 lb muskmelon

12.9 lb tomatoes

1.62 lb cherry tomatoes

1.7 lb kohlrabi

4.96 lb  onions (bulbs)

9.08 lbs carrot roots

1.25 lb beet roots

1/8 lb potatoes

12 heads of garlic

4 garlic scapes

7.6 lb sweet/snap peas

15.8 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

46.5 lb assorted lettuce

5.1 lb spinach

1/2 lb New Zealand spinach

4.8 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb baby greens

1/3 lb arugula

5 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

A countless amount of:

  parsley, basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, burnet, fennel, thyme, dill, green onions, chives, stevia

Produce update

---

Total produce count for the year:

35 ears of corn

53 strawberries

17 raspberries(golden variety)

12 blackberries

10 blueberries

3/16 lb sweet banana peppers

.75 lb sweet bell peppers

2.76 lb assorted (green)bean pods

7 .68lb cucumber

10.49 lb zucchini squash

2.25 lb yellow squash

4.12 lb butternut squash

3 lb pumpkin

1/2 lb muskmelon

10.9 lb tomatoes

1.6 lb cherry tomatoes

1.7 lb kohlrabi

4.71 lb  onions (bulbs)

9.02 lbs carrot roots

1.25 lb beet roots

1/8 lb potatoes

12 heads of garlic

4 garlic scapes

7.6 lb sweet/snap peas

15.8 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

46.5 lb assorted lettuce

5.1 lb spinach

1/2 lb New Zealand spinach

4.8 lb turnip roots

2.63 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb baby greens

1/3 lb arugula

5 asparagus spears

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

A countless amount of:

  parsley, basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, burnet, fennel, thyme, dill, green onions, chives, stevia