by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  August 19, 2014 post here. August 10, 2014 post here.  August 18, 2013 post here.

19.1 pounds of produce this week.

This harvest picture was taken on Wednesday, just before our first tomato tasting of the year:

(L-R, and top to bottom)  Roma, Oregon Spring, Tigerella (top), Taxi (yellow), Cosmonaut Volkov (bottom), Black Krim

Monday:

(top to bottom) Boy cat, Tromboncino, Lemon cucumbers.

Tuesday:

(L-R)  Sun Gold, Tomatillo, Sweet Million

We had a heavy rain storm on Friday, after basically no moisture for weeks. Some of the tomatoes split, and a pepper branch fell over. Overall though, we got off pretty light on damage. The next picture is Saturday morning’s harvest. 13 pounds total, including 6.7 pounds of Oregon Spring tomatoes:

The tomatoes are Taxi and Oregon Spring, with Sun Gold and Sweet Million. In the nearer sheet tray are King of the North peppers (the big ones), Carmen (top), Yellow Bell (the orange ones on the far top right), Lipstick (middle right), and Bullnose Bell (bottom right).

There are lots more yellow bells to go:

One Iko Iko is almost ripe:

The Black Krims are all getting really close to ready. It looks like we missed a few Sweet Millions (left rear of the photo):

The Romas. The cascading perspective of the picture reminds me a little bit of a Van Gough painting:

The Lemon cucumbers, Tomatillos, and Tromboncino. We almost pulled the Lemon cucumbers today to make room for garlic. That will happen next weekend at the latest:

The Marketmore cucumbers were pulled on Wednesday and replaced with radish seeds — French Breakfast, Cherry Belle, and “Dragon Hybrid”. The Dragon variety should overwinter, the other two types we’ll consume this fall and then replant with more Dragons. We used Ultomato stakes as a reference to make sure that we got even rows:

The salad table is taking off. The spinach (center) has a five day head start on the other plants:

(L-R) Dill, Spinach, Cilantro, Arugula. There are a couple of tiny Little Gem seedlings in between the Dill and Spinach too.

The girl cat in her favorite spot — basking in late afternoon sun on the bed:

 

 

2013 total weight to date:  52.0 pounds

2014 total weight to date:  62.7 pounds

2015 total weight to date:  110.6 pounds

More Progress!

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Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  August 10, 2014 post here.  August 11, 2013 post here.

Total harvest for the week was 13.5 pounds. It was a little bit of everything, including the first Oregon Spring tomatoes and a sheet tray of tomatillos. We roasted the tomatillos, buzzed them up, and froze them for easy future green salsa (The link is to Rick Bayless’ Roasted Tomatillo Salsa on this website. It’s especially good when combined with avacado.)

Wednesday — (L-R) Two Tromboncino, Sun Gold tomatoes, Sweet Million tomatoes, tomatillos, a Lemon cucumber, Tigerella tomatoes:

Friday — (L-R) Oregon Spring tomatoes, Sweet Million tomatoes, Lemon cucumber, tomatillos, Tigerella tomatoes, Tromboncino, Sun Gold tomatoes.

I expect it’s going to be an even bigger week this week — everything pictured below is still on the plants.

We’re almost even with last year’s total harvest of Tromboncino, and there are still more to come. (20.7 pounds in 2014. 19.0 pounds to date this year.)

Pictures:

An overview from a 2nd-story window. In retrospect, we had the same bright idea for this perspective in the 2013 post linked above..

The peppers are ripening. The Carmen:

Iko Iko:

The Lemon cucumbers are still cruising along. The others varieties have all gone pfffft. I may remove the Marketmore vines this week and plant garlic or scallions in that box. The Lemons:

We’re going to have a lot of tomatillos this year:

The Cosmonaut Volkov tomato plant is finally “doing something”. The color of the leaves hasn’t ever been very good, and it hadn’t been growing much fruit, but the vegetative growth was crazy. I trimmed back the tops of the plant, and it seemed to set more fruit after that… or the fruit set was going to happen anyway…

The Black Krims:

Taxis:

The Taxis are sharing a box with the Oregon Springs:

The Romas:

This week will see some side-by-side tomato tasting!

On Wednesday we sowed spinach, cilantro, and dill in the salad table. The spinach is already popping up. The spinach should overwinter. We’ll enjoy fresh cilantro and dill for as long as it lasts:

 

2013 total weight to date:  37.0 pounds

2014 total weight to date:  44.1 pounds

2015 total weight to date:  81.5 pounds

More Progress!

———-

Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

 

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  August 3, 2014 post here.  August 4, 2013 post here.

The 2013 post includes one of our more popular pictures — girl cat with bags and bags of green stuff:

It’s about 1.5 pounds of basil, though the internet must have other ideas.

11.6 pounds of produce this week, including the first tomatillos!  Tuesday:

Today. The tomatoes are a mix of Sweet Million, Sun Gold, Taxi, and one Tigerella:

 

A pre-harvest picture of the Lemon cucumbers. They’re still doing well. Note the powdery mildew on the right. I believe that’s the pickling cucumbers calling it a year.

The Marketmores are about done too. In the top left of the picture there are still a few growing, but many leaves are looking terrible:

The Tromboncino. There were actually seven fruits at this size in a small area of the vines. Two lost their blooms early, so I removed those, with the idea that those will wind up being the “losers”. There are still five left, which may still be too many. Pictured are two of the winners:

The big King of the North pepper:

The Black Krims are much larger than last year. They’re starting to show color:

Romas:

Sweet Millions, prior to harvest:

2013 total weight to date:  26.7 pounds

2014 total weight to date:  24.0 pounds

2015 total weight to date:  68.0 pounds

More Progress!

———-

Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

 

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  July 27, 2014 post here.  July 28, 2013 post here.

We think we may have “figured something out” with the Tromboncino. I’ll share that first, then some harvest pictures, then everything else.

Last week a Tromboncino vine looked like this:

The smaller of the two fruits withered over the next few days. I removed it midweek.

By Sunday the “winner” had grown to 28 inches(!)

It seems that each Tromboncino vine sends out two or three fruits at the same time, but can only really feed one fruit. The others just wither away. With that in mind, here are the next two candidates:

If within the next few days one starts to look sickly I’ll remove it. Maybe it’s possible for us to have two “winners” on one vine… as of right now, I’m not so sure that’s the case.

Onto the harvest pictures — Our total for the week was 16 pounds, including 3.7 pounds of zucchini, 1.7 pounds of pickling cucumbers, 4.9 pounds of Marketmore cucumbers, 4.9 pounds of Lemon cucumbers, some basil, and a few tomatoes.

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Sunday. That’s the same zucchini as pictured above, with a smattering of Sweet Million and Sun Gold tomatoes. And an Iko Iko pepper that had a little bad spot on it so I pulled it:

An overview. Note the ballistic basil on the far right:

Cucumbers (foreground), tomatillos (midground), and zucchini (rear). Also a bunch of energetic tomato vines. For reference, the tomatillo trellis is 6′ tall. The zucchini trellis is 8′:

Carmen peppers. The plants have been super vigorous:

Sweet Millions:

The first Tigerellas are almost ready:

 

It rained today. Everything is a little more photogenic when wearing a few water droplets, I think.

2013 total weight to date:  24.6 pounds

2014 total weight to date:  22.3 pounds

2015 total weight to date:  56.4 pounds

More Progress!

———-

Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

by A.J. Coltrane

The Lemon cucumbers are really starting to ripen. As for the Marketmores, we must have missed these monsters over the weekend:

(Left to Right):  Six Lemon cucumbers (2.3 lbs);  The two of the four cherry tomatoes that didn’t get eaten before Picture Time;  Three Marketmore 76 cucumbers (3.1 lbs);  One National Pickling cucumber (0.7 lbs).  6.2 pounds total.

The big cucumber weighs just under 1.5 pounds. It was lying sideways on the wood trellis, hiding behind a leaf. I’m hoping that we can peel it and most of it will be usable.

As a group, the cucumbers are starting to look a little haggard. But then, August is only two weeks away, so maybe the cucumbers should be approaching the end of their run.

——–

For reference. Marketmore total weights each year, through July 15:

2013:  0 — none until July 18.   End of season total:  25,414g (56.0 lbs)

2014:  0 — none until July 28.   End of season total:  20,141g (44.4 lbs)

2015:  3932 g (8.7 lbs).       As a flat guess — the warm summer weather is causing the cucumbers to produce and age rapidly, and we’ll still see something around 40-55 pounds of Marketmores by the end of the year. The candle that burns twice as fast burns half as long. Accelerated Decrepitude.

 

by A.J. Coltrane

The first really good week — total production of 15.4 pounds, including the 12.2 pounds harvested tonight:

(Clockwise from top left) — Marketmore 76 cucumbers (4.1 lb);  the first Sun Gold and Sweet Million tomatoes;  National Pickling cucumbers (the darker two, 1 lb);  “Calypso” pickling cucumbers (1.5 lb);  Lemon cucumbers (0.7 lb);  Tromboncino zucchini (4.7 lbs)

We have zucchini bread and a bunch of cucumber salads in our future. Also zucchini crisps, post to come.

—————–

Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  July 11, 2014 post here.  July 14, 2013 post here.

Some of the lower (south-facing) leaves of the tomato plants are fried-looking from the intense June sun. It’s been (thankfully) a little bit cooler the last few days. An overview:

The basil got a super thorough haircut this week. I made a point to “open it up”, trimming out some of the larger leaves and “excess” growth in the interior:

The yield was one pound of leaves. This is about half of it:

We’re still well ahead of last year. Lots of things are ripening. The first Sun Golds:

Sweet Millions:

Raspberries:

Lemon cucumber:

The Lemon cucumbers are sharing a box with two varieties of pickling cucumbers. The Lemon cucumbers are easily more prolific:

The tomatillos. People often mistake these for an ornamental — tomatillos aren’t mainstream:

This “Yellow Bell Pepper” is the one plant that we purchased at the Master Gardener Plant Sale. There are a whole bunch of little fruits:

The west facing Iko Iko peppers. The white stuff is diatomaceous earth. It’s intended to discourage bugs:

The east facing Iko Iko:

Totally different… I’m not sure what to think.

The biggest King of the North:

Below is the first pepper that the bugs have ruined this year. I cut it open, and nothing was inside. I’m guessing earwigs or stinkbugs, or… If anyone could tell me what what’s causing it I’d really appreciate it:

Marketmore 76 cucumbers:

The Tromboncino. I think we’ll need to harvest the big ones to see new growth. As it is, they’re basically only making male flowers:

Still no powdery mildew, so that’s nice.

What I’ll call the first “real” caprese of the year. It’s our basil with store-bought everything else. The garlic-cilantro balsamic is by Eleven Olives. They’re local. Highly recommended:

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

The Tromboncino zucchini had two large fruits on one vine, so I harvested the larger one with the idea that the other would get bigger, faster.

(Left to Right)  —  20″ Trombocino zucchini (853 grams, 1.9 lbs).  6″ Marketmore 76 cucumber (251 grams, 0.5 lbs).  Boy Cat looking for interesting smells.  Kitchenaid mixer:

It feels like Marketmore cucumbers have been really “blocky” this year, at least so far.

(Picture taken at 9pm with natural light only, facing east. We just passed the solstice. I’m enjoying the late evening “bright” while it lasts.)

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  July 7, 2014 mini update here. July 7, 2013 update here. The 2013 post includes the “zucchini breakage disaster” and a picture of the raspberry plant when it was new.

This time I tried taking pictures at dusk. An overview from last night:

The peas in the front yard are dying from the bottom up. I think it’s too hot:

We left a few little peas on the vines to see if they’d get bigger. Everything else is in the colander. We’d been nibbling off of the plants — the total yield was maybe 50% more than this (it’s more than it looks like):

Considering the late start, I’m fine with that output.

The basil was well overdue for a haircut. I cut out most of the flowers. The bowl contains 1/4 pound of basil leaves:

An attempt at a different camera angle — standing next to the “pretty flower container”, looking towards the zucchini:

The “De Mipa” tomatillo is losing some leaves (note the yellow leaves on the right of the photo), but they’re all on the same position on each node (bottom center). The rest of the plant looks healthy. I’m guessing the plant is sloughing those off on purpose(?)

Cucumbers, Tomatillos, and Tromboncino zucchini. The nearer two trellises are 6′ tall, the rear trellis is 8′. The “De Mipa” is the sprawling tomatillo. The “Mexican Strain” is now growing over the top of the trellis. It’s a good combination from a space-utilization perspective:

Closeup of the Tromboncino trellis:

I’d pruned out a few of the worst looking “loser” leaves earlier in the day. Overall though, they’re still looking pretty healthy and there’s no sign of powdery mildew. The back-right Tromboncino is around 24″ long:

The determinate tomato plants are in full output mode. The Taxis:

The Romas. A different cluster of fruits from last week’s picture, these are on the west side of the plant:

A big, fat Marketmore 76 cucumber that I found while poking around taking pictures. A fun surprise:

National Pickling cucumbers, getting there. 6″ is full size:

(For reference, the “Calypso” are full-sized at 3″ long.)

There are a bunch of Lemon cucumbers around this size. They will will double or triple in size before they’re ready:

 

I think we’re about to get overwhelmed with veggies.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  June 28, 2014 post here.  June 23, 2013 post here.

An overview picture:

We’re still ahead of last year. I’d attribute that to better weather, mostly. We also made a point not to cramp the plants quite as much this year.

We’re also learning as we go — in late June 2013 I was trying to nurse along lettuces. Now I save my effort for stuff that’s inclined to cooperate.

One thing that I noted in the 2013 post was the absence of predatory insects. We had lots of leafhoppers and some aphids. Now we have lots of predators, especially wasps and spiders. I’ve only seen a couple of leafhoppers. Hopefully that’s “equilibrium”.

The flower barrel is much happier lately — I threw a little fertilizer into the container, and we increased the plant density. I think there’s less direct sun hitting the dirt now, and it’s reducing the amount of evaporation, leading to less stress on the plants… That’s my theory for now anyway:

The “late peas experiment” is going well. We’re now harvesting super sugar snap peas:

The pot of raspberries is doing well too. On a typical day we harvest 3-6 of them. It’s a nice little treat:

The basil needs a serious haircut. I’m guessing that will happen on Tuesday:

The King of the North are our biggest and earliest peppers again:

And:

The Roma tomatoes:

Tigerallas:

The tallest of the Tromboncino are now climbing over the top of the 8′ trellis:

A reverse-angle view:

 

We’re going to have a lot of zucchini soon. I didn’t get a picture of the 6-12 largish fruits at the bottom of the plants..