Might as well add my grow thread

[wordwiz]

Here is what I have received or ordered so far:

Peas:
Lincoln Garden & Oregon Sugar Pod II

Green Beans:
Chinese Red Noodle
Royalty Purple Pod
Old Homestead
Wax Beans
Lima Beans

Squash
Patisson Panache Jaune Et Vert
Tondo Scurd Di Piacenza

Spinach
Bloomsdale
Giant Noble

Mustard
Japanese Giant Red
Southern Giant Curled

Kale
Blue Curled
Dwarf Siberian

Cabbage
Early Jersey
Tete Noire

Eggplant
Black Champion
Ping Tung

Cucumber
Lemon
Improved Telegraph
Sikkim

Peppers
7-Pod
Habenero
Jalapeno
Fish
Pequin
Royal Black
Large Purple
Mesilla
Hungarian Hot Wax
Bell
Sweet Banana

Tomatoes
Riesentraube
Delicious or Better Boy
Red Zebra
White Beauty
Roma
A Stuffer (still need to settle on a specific one)
Yellow
Legend or Silitz

Other Veggies
Black Simpson Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Onions
Garlic
Turnips
Broccoli
Beets
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes

Herbs
Sweet Basil
Holy Basil
Lemon Basil
Cilantro
Oregano

Misc
Cotton
Rice
Sugar Cane
Coffee
Coffee
Jicama
Red Wonder Alpine Strawberry
Yellow Wonder Alpine Strawberry
Peanuts

Randel at Baker Creek (rareseeds.com) is sending me many of the seeds at no charge as a donation to the project. Some of the peppers came from THP members, and I thank you for those.

It is finally suppose to warm a bit and rain, (hopefully not much) that will help wash away some of the snow so I can start building the bed. I'm thinking about 80x4x2', or ~24 cubic yards of mix.

I should end up with a lot of produce if everything grows well. The trick will be having stuff ripe or close to it in the middle of August, while at the same time not having them be finished by then. I may also fall/winter sow/plant some horseradish, asparagus and other two-year crops. Either that, or sow winter wheat so I'll have good materials to add to the soil next year.


Mike

 

[wordwiz]

Thursday evening, I transplanted two Jicama and two Missouri Sorghum seedlings. The latter don't seem to have the "leaves" common to most plants but rather a shoot. I also sowed about 40 banana seeds, 40 eggplants and 20 Valencia Peanuts. Last night I sowed Mennonite Rice, some Trinidad Scorpion seeds I found from a couple of years ago and brocolli.

Transplanted so far in 3" nursery pots:
26 Cotton
4 7-pod
15 Sweet Basil
1 Darjeeling Banana
The Sorghum and Jicama

Tomatoes Transplanted into 7-gallon containers:
2 Better Boy - Both with baby toms
2 Goliath - lots of blooms but they have trouble setting fruit
Celebrity - with baby toms
Legend - not blooming but was sown and transplanted a month later than others
Cabernet - from a cutting- pre-blooms showing
Another one that I cannot recall that is from a cutting

It's a good thing that some of the maters in the GH are almost done for the year - I'll need the space for seedlings soon!

Mike

 

[wordwiz]

Some pics of plants that have been transplanted.

Sorghum:

Cilantro:

Jicama:

Cotton:

Mike

 

[wordwiz]

Apple Banana:

Peppers. Left to right, Hungarian Hot Wax, Tepin and Cayenne.

7-pod. Seeds came from AJ.

A baby tomato growing on a Better Boy under the HPS light:

The color is off a bunch, thanks to the HPS.

Mike

 

[Skydiver]

holy banana farm, batman
Seriously impressive grow list.

Where did you find the seeds/beans/whatever to grow the coffee?

 

[wordwiz]

Skydiver,

Google. But I got suggestions on plants to grow from this forum and Garden Web. Also looked through Baker Creek's online catalog to see different types of veggies they offer.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure and in case you haven't read it in this thread or another one, I'm doing a grow display at the county fair. We are building a raised bed, one maybe 80 feet long, where I will have a row or two of each plant. The fair is ran by the county Agricultural Society and I've convinced the only person I need to that this is something worthwhile and germane to their mission. But on the plus side, I get all the produce or (horrible pun) fruits of my labor!

My backyard garden will likely be only potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, beans, carrots, onions, lettuce, cucumbers, basil and another type of plant or two.

Mike

 

[wordwiz]

I forgot one bunch of plants, probably because they have not been transplanted yet. But they do not seem to grow very quickly: Alpine Strawberries.

Mike

 

[millworkman]

I cannot wait for my bananas this year mike. I have one poking its head through the soil already and should have one more here in a couple days if it has not rotted out already. Everything else is looking real good man.

 

[wordwiz]

From my very limited experience, they start off slow but once they get started, it's Katie bar the door! As far as rotting - I don't think that passing them through a constipated monkey's digestive tract would soften them up. I have some upstairs that have stayed in moist potting soil for three months and they are still as hard as a nail.

Mike