Whos into home grown
- Thread starter Fordtech86
- Start date
Little bit of wind came through and decided we didn’t need any corn this year…. Damnit.
Happened to our corn 2 years ago. Sucked......
I'd share the greens i got PAID WITH yesterday if it'll make ya feel better LOL.......
Grand daughter and I checked on the bees. The youngest really liked the honey, she is picking it off the queen excluder. We will get about 30 plus pounds our first year even with them swarming once.
Rhubarb -- can you harvest in the fall? The few plants I have grew gangbusters in the spring, struggled thru 8 weeks of dry, and now have put out new stalks. Can you harvest and eat fall rhubarb?
I harvest and eat it all summer in to the fall as long as the stalks don't get tough
We made 75 -- 20 liter buckets of apple juice or 1500 L this year so far. Now waiting for the first frost to press the winter apples.
40L to hard cider
40L to hard cider
Oregano fall collection -- one planter from greenhouse. Dry in the dehydrator for use in the kitchen and chicken feed.The flavor and aroma are outstanding.
Spearmint, thyme, rosemary still in the queue.
Good day.First year for my Chicago hardy figs. Took 5 years and the wait was worth it. About a dozen every 3 days and boy are they good. Be careful how many you eat at once.
View attachment 138289
Tell me about your fig trees. I am considering starting some in our pasture and not really sure about the varieties that are cold hardy. (We were thinking about brown turkey variety). What do you have and why? My assumption is if in NY likely cold hardy?
Thanks.
Blue2Orange
Well-known member
Equipment
BX2380 with LA344S & QH05. SB1051. SG0554. BB1248. RB0560, Vassar dirt bucket
Critters and weather make gardening always "interesting". With the warming trend (officially now zone 5) the extended (+1 month vs. pre-2000) growing season is fine with me. Routinely now harvest winter hardy kiwi. Unless the coons discover them. Plants in the ground for +3 decades. Until the last decade we would get a hard freeze occasionally too early. For those interested in winter hardy kiwi plants. You need 200 sq feet of trellis space per plant and one male for every 2-3 female plants. Which means you better hope you have friends that like eating kiwi fruit. One female is sufficient for a small family.
But still limited fresh veggies during the winter. Have been just growing micro-greens and sprouts. Purchased a few more grow lights and another baker's rack to get into passive hydroponics (Kratky method) for indoors gardening season.
Testing which species of radish will Kratky. So far, couple heirloom varieties. Lettuce grows like a weed. Option to Kratky. Bootstrap Farmer sell a larger size air pruning starting pot. 4 pots per cell. 8 cells fit in a 1020 tray. Filled them with a vermiculite and coir mix. Green onions and radishes do well. Just flood a deep 1020 tray ~1" and check level occasionally. Friend grew carrots in beach sand a couple winters ago. Just filled a rubber maid tote with sand and placed his grow light over it. Keep moisture in the sand at moist based on a soil moisture meter. I need to give that a try. But need to find a tote and purchase another grow light. Other test for this indoors season are trying to grow parthenocarpic cucumber and tomato under the lights using bottom watering planters.
But still limited fresh veggies during the winter. Have been just growing micro-greens and sprouts. Purchased a few more grow lights and another baker's rack to get into passive hydroponics (Kratky method) for indoors gardening season.
Testing which species of radish will Kratky. So far, couple heirloom varieties. Lettuce grows like a weed. Option to Kratky. Bootstrap Farmer sell a larger size air pruning starting pot. 4 pots per cell. 8 cells fit in a 1020 tray. Filled them with a vermiculite and coir mix. Green onions and radishes do well. Just flood a deep 1020 tray ~1" and check level occasionally. Friend grew carrots in beach sand a couple winters ago. Just filled a rubber maid tote with sand and placed his grow light over it. Keep moisture in the sand at moist based on a soil moisture meter. I need to give that a try. But need to find a tote and purchase another grow light. Other test for this indoors season are trying to grow parthenocarpic cucumber and tomato under the lights using bottom watering planters.
Pretty "fruitful" year for our one producing pecan. I'm thinking we'll get 5+ buckets in the end. Going away gift I guess, as we'll be leaving it behind soon...
Blue2Orange
Well-known member
Equipment
BX2380 with LA344S & QH05. SB1051. SG0554. BB1248. RB0560, Vassar dirt bucket
New adventure in gardening this season. Indoor under grow lights gardening. Kratky method for some veggies. Using the larger air pruning pots from Bootstrap Farmer for some veggies. Passive bottom watering planters for parthenocarpic tomatoes and cucumbers.
Have been collecting hardware (pots, racks, lights, net cups....) when sale priced. But I don't want to add up the total investment. Guessing couple hundred dollars for the first head of lettuce harvested a month ago. Now the radishes, green onions, greens are "free". Hopefully the cucumber and tomato test pots deliver.
Have been collecting hardware (pots, racks, lights, net cups....) when sale priced. But I don't want to add up the total investment. Guessing couple hundred dollars for the first head of lettuce harvested a month ago. Now the radishes, green onions, greens are "free". Hopefully the cucumber and tomato test pots deliver.
Grand daughter wants to have her own bee hive after helping me with mine this past summer. We are making our own hives and frames, I have a wood shop with all the tools needed to make them. I think it’s a good project for us. I may get another nuc this spring too.
That’s great! (I am assuming you have a homemade jig to help assemble the frames too)
those boxes look pretty solid and what a great way to involve a youngster in making for themselves. Great job!
this week at home we may see 60!
Unbelievable for this time of year…then it is right back to winter.
I suspect my girls (assuming they have not died out) may be able to get a cleansing flight in tomorrow!
Last time I peaked in they were already hitting the candy board pretty hard.
well I hope your girls are doing well.
Merry Christmas!
She is excited to get a hive next spring she got a bunch of bee equipment for Christmas so she is all set once we get the hives done she will be ready for the bees.
To cold here to open the hive, but they have been cleaning I see where they have pushed out some dead bees.
Merry Christmas
To the top!
MX6000 don’t care about no grass! Two passes in opposite directions and you can’t even tell there was knee high weeds anywhere.
MX6000 don’t care about no grass! Two passes in opposite directions and you can’t even tell there was knee high weeds anywhere.
That’s a similar experience I’ve had breaking new ground too. I honestly think it would has the ability to run a bit wider tiller than what I have that just covers the tracks. Anyway I am very happy with mine.
thanks for bumping the thread (I thought it was all but dead - not much action last year)…it was basically dead I think but I like seeing how other members in other locals are using their machine in the garden and hobby farm.
from the top of this page I see I pulled scapes 6/14 last year. That’s interesting as I have pulled some already and plan to pull the rest this weekend weather depending.
as far as the honey and bee situation, a few weeks back I was stung by a kamikaze bee and went into anaphylaxic shock (stage 3). I was not previously allergic (or never had a reaction) and have been stung a lot, and now it appears I have been sensitized and I begin immunotherapy in 2 weeks. We plan to harvest honey this weekend weather depending 🫣.
otherwise our micro homestead is doing well. Potatoes planted, tomatoes (at this point I a really missing vine ripe tomatoes) and peppers planted, other greens in, and maybe this weekend will start our sweet potatoes and squashes/cucs which are in the grow tent exploding. Home brew compost is all tilled in and what’s in the compost stations is in hot zone as I text
. Maybe we will plant some beans this weekend weather depending too. This is really go time now that we are to a little warmer weather. (Buckwheat hits the dirt end of the month
)
I hope all is well for the other hobby farmers / homesteaders.
thanks for bumping the thread (I thought it was all but dead - not much action last year)…it was basically dead I think but I like seeing how other members in other locals are using their machine in the garden and hobby farm.
from the top of this page I see I pulled scapes 6/14 last year. That’s interesting as I have pulled some already and plan to pull the rest this weekend weather depending.
as far as the honey and bee situation, a few weeks back I was stung by a kamikaze bee and went into anaphylaxic shock (stage 3). I was not previously allergic (or never had a reaction) and have been stung a lot, and now it appears I have been sensitized and I begin immunotherapy in 2 weeks. We plan to harvest honey this weekend weather depending 🫣.
otherwise our micro homestead is doing well. Potatoes planted, tomatoes (at this point I a really missing vine ripe tomatoes) and peppers planted, other greens in, and maybe this weekend will start our sweet potatoes and squashes/cucs which are in the grow tent exploding. Home brew compost is all tilled in and what’s in the compost stations is in hot zone as I text
. Maybe we will plant some beans this weekend weather depending too. This is really go time now that we are to a little warmer weather. (Buckwheat hits the dirt end of the month)I hope all is well for the other hobby farmers / homesteaders.
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