Sawyer '14 - Seed Offer

Sawyer · Sep 8, 2014

Yeah, that's the place. I realize I just pasted the link into my text instead of embedding it. I guess THP doesn't like pasted links. I'll edit the post to embed the link. I am considering large quantities, and I can beat their prices on that substantially. By the time I break them down to smaller packages and everything, the per pound price works out only a little better. I'm not looking to make a lot, but I do have to cover some of my time and expenses.

Maybe you should present the idea to the hunt camp fellows that a winter cover crop doubles as a wildlife plot. How could they not want to attract game right to the camp?

I don't use any herbicides at all, so I can't offer any advice on that. My garden requires constant effort and I'm still losing out to the Johnson grass in a couple of spots. This is another case where cover crops can help, by smothering weeds. Not just in winter, but any time. Over time, the weeds will become less of a problem. Also, this is the main reason I'm trying to get native ground covers going in my garden. Chickweed and wild bean are the two that are becoming pretty well established, but I also have seed for wild purslane. I let yellow wood sorrel grow, but as far as I can tell, it neither helps nor hurts much in the garden. It's good to eat a few leaves or pods as a thirst quencher. Have you considered using a heavy mulch to keep weeds suppressed? You could use plastic, but I'm not a big fan of that. Kraft paper is pretty cheap and decays into the ground over the course of a season.

Seacowboy · Sep 8, 2014

The garden is literally right behind the house and I am sire it would attract deer there they are old school there to in the hunting respect. I have been trying for 10 yrs now to get food plots going but have zero help.

If it were irrigated I would use a black plastic mulch, its 100% reliant on mother nature for water since our ancient hand dug well doesn't even keep up with the toilet and dish washing most the time. I will probably be using the woven mats next year along with a test area using corn gluten to suppress growth after transplanting the peppers. Hauling or buying bark mulch down there just isn't an option. But the matting is not cheap when considering the size of the garden but the best option. I only planted 1 125' row with I think 36 plants. Spacing wasn't an issue and I can easily make more rows, its just a matter of germing enough and keeping them going before plant out time which is the crux of my operation in that I am gone for 3 weeks at a time and rely on my wife to keep things going while gone.

Sawyer · Sep 8, 2014

Sounds like a challenging environment, to say the least.

Seacowboy · Sep 8, 2014

It is but I cannot complain too much. Happy to have a little assistance even if it is rare and not quite enough. Peppers and really most everything else we throw in the ground there thrives. Wish I could have a bit more time and control of that piece of land, will keep trying to make improvements on my own.

Sawyer · Sep 8, 2014

You might consider looking into the comfrey a few of us have or are trying to have. If it thrives, it would provide mulch for you on site. And the Bocking strains are sterile, so you don't have to worry about it spreading by seed.

Devv · Sep 9, 2014

Thanks for the reminder on the Comfrey. Ordering it soon, sticky on my desk (dang I'd die if it weren't for stickies)

Wes Newman · Sep 10, 2014

Another review from John's garden.
This time Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion.

Apologies for the poor lighting.
I'll probably be getting a new camera setup in the near future.

-Wes

Sawyer · Sep 11, 2014

Thanks for the review, Wes. I haven't actually tried a JPGS yet, but after your review, I am slightly less unnerved by the prospect.

I picked a giant yellow something today that I'll try to get a picture of up tomorrow. I still haven't got a feel for what's what in the chinense patch without notes, but I think this one is supposed to be Yellow BS. It looks more like a giant Scorpion.

Sawyer · Sep 12, 2014

Yes, it's a Scorpion, a rather large one, at that. That's my MacBook touch pad it's on.

It has the typical Yellow Scorpion fragrance, flavor and heat.

Some time ago, I harvested the shallots, potato onions, and elephant garlic. They have been "curing" under a shade tree on pizza boxes, not the best approach, I know. They've all been rained on multiple times, which is not desirable for curing. Here's what they look like. First up, shallots:

If you look closely, you'll see new roots on some of them. I hadn't been turning them often and the ones on the bottom of the pile had already begun to root. These will be fall planted soon, with the more dormant ones being stored for spring. I think I have enough now actually to start using some of them, which is the whole point, really.

Potato Onions:

They look similar to the shallots, but typically grow with each bulblet a separate "unwrapped" entity joined at the base with others to form the bulb, whereas the shallot cloves grow more like garlic, with several contained within a single outer wrapper, if that makes any sense. The big difference is in the flavor. The potato onions taste just like a regular, strong-flavored (i.e., hot) onion.

Elephant Garlic:

The e-garlic apparently is more sensitive to the limited sunlight reaching through the shade. I think all that greening would limit the storage performance. It's okay, though, because all of these are getting planted soon. This picture shows a common issue with elephant garlic. If conditions aren't optimal, sometimes a planted clove will not produce a multi-clove bulb, but instead just becomes a large, singlet bulb. I posted a picture of one cut open up-thread somewhere; they don't have onion-like layering, just a solid mass of garlic.

Devv · Sep 12, 2014

We hung our garlic, shallots, and onions on a sausage drying rack that's seen its better days in the shade on the porch. After the tops were completely brown we cut the roots and tops off.

A nice breeze blows through there, and they cured nicely. We're still eating the June harvests. One thing we have trouble with is the Shallots, they just don't keep here. They either rot or just dry up and go away.

Any ideas?

Sawyer · Sep 13, 2014

Devv said:
We hung our garlic, shallots, and onions on a sausage drying rack that's seen its better days in the shade on the porch. After the tops were completely brown we cut the roots and tops off.

A nice breeze blows through there, and they cured nicely. We're still eating the June harvests. One thing we have trouble with is the Shallots, they just don't keep here. They either rot or just dry up and go away.

Any ideas?

It could be the variety. I've had others that didn't last well at all. I got my start for these as two lonely cloves from a favorite bar tender, Rose, who got them from her mother. I call them Rose's Shallots, though they are possibly some other well-known variety. Those two cloves, I planted in the spring four or five years ago. They each grew fairly well for a late planting and I left them in the ground until they started sprouting that fall. I dug them up, one had 15 cloves sprouted, the other 16, separated and replanted them, and the race was on. I subject them to a lot of stress, always keeping the best survivors for replanting. If something like this won't store through the winter, it's no use to me and I'll look for a different variety. I can send you a few cloves of these, if you want to give them a try.

Another possibility is maybe you dig them too soon? I never dig them until the tops are already brown. Sometimes they're so far gone, I can't tell where the plants were and have to dig the whole row, turning up jewels of shallot here and there.

I will say, I've had the same problems as you, but on a lesser scale, I guess. I keep them overwinter in a cardboard box in a corner of the kitchen and some of them always turn to dry husks, but only a few. If I'm paying sufficient attention, I can catch them when they first start getting soft and then they're still good for cooking. I like to think it's a self-correcting problem; the ones that don't keep, don't get planted.

Sawyer · Sep 18, 2014

My 7 Pot Primo is doing well:

It doesn't look quite like I remember from last year, but I think it will do.

It stormed here yesterday, lots of wind, thunder and lightning. Got maybe 2.5" - 3" of rain the garden didn't need. I haven't looked today, but am half way expecting the whole pepper patch to be on the ground.

I planted 15 root crowns and 5 root pieces of comfrey (Bocking #4) yesterday. I had delayed a few days after receiving the package and they had already started growing.

Devv · Sep 18, 2014

I know my HH shipment is en-route. I used Paypal for Coe's because I had a balance. Paypal sent me proof of payment, but I haven't heard a thing from Coe's. Is this how he normally does things?

I read up on propagation on the Comfrey. Pretty basic stuff, dig up a plant and separate the the crowns, replant.

Primo looks mean!

Sawyer · Sep 18, 2014

Yeah, he doesn't do email. He'll call whatever phone # you have listed on Paypal, possibly once to acknowledge the order, then for sure to let you know when the order ships.

Devv · Sep 18, 2014

I kind of figured he was old school, can't wait to see the extras....LOL

Jeff H · Sep 19, 2014

Devv said:
I kind of figured he was old school, can't wait to see the extras....LOL

You'll get a kick out of it for sure.

Sawyer · Sep 19, 2014

The comfrey crowns I planted on Wednesday are coming up today. And the pepper patch survived the windstorm. It came from the NE (which is where the worst storms come from around here) and the patch is protected on that side by a wall of bamboo.

PaulG · Sep 19, 2014

Glad to see things moving along color-wise, John.

Awesome Scorpion specimen, bro - that pod is HUGE!

I should have some pics up of pods from your seeds very soon.
They are some of the most productive in my grow this year,
especially the yellow Bhut and 7 Pot Burgundy. There were some
nice pods on the Reapers, red and peach, but some of the plants
from the first round were small for some reason, the Reapers included.

Have fun harvesting, buddy!

Devv · Sep 19, 2014

Sawyer said:
The comfrey crowns I planted on Wednesday are coming up today. And the pepper patch survived the windstorm. It came from the NE (which is where the worst storms come from around here) and the patch is protected on that side by a wall of bamboo.

Mine came in today from both companies, and all of them are sprouting, except the "bonus" root cuttings. I put them in 1 gallon pots until I can get in the garden, it poured here last night

HillBilly Jeff · Sep 19, 2014

Large Scorpion you got there. Must be on the roids

What exactly is comfrey, and what does it do?