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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:28 am 
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I would love to hear from anyone that has planted seeds or seedlings for your fall vegetable garden. What did you plant?

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PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 6:58 am 
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No one has planted fall veggies? Tell us about it!

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 Post subject: fall veggies
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:19 pm 
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Location: Allen,0
Fall veggies are a challenge because it's still very hot when seeds need to be planted. I planted some seeds labor day weekend: bush beans in containers; zuchini and cucumbers in 4-in starter pots.

The cuke plants sprouted and grew for about 10 days before turning all shrivelly and dying. The zuch grew nice and strong and I transplanted them into one of those earthbox-type containers. From two plants, I only got two female flowers that turned into actual fruit. (But they were delicious.) I guess I was too late on both the zuch and the cukes for fall.

The bush beans, on the other hand, are doing great. I cooked some up the other day and they had to be the best-tasting green beans I ever ate (Tendergreen). This morning I picked a bunch of Bush Blue Lake that I hope will be equally tasty. These same two varieites did not do well in a late spring planting in the ground, but another variety did--I think it was Contender. Not as tasty, though. It seems that beans really do not like long, hot days and they need more sun and better drainage than what my unsuccessful spring attempt had. Next spring I will plant them earlier in better locations.

I planted purchased transplants of brussels sprouts beginning of Oct. and something is eating all the foliage. I suspected cabbage worms (since I'm seeting lots of cabbage white butterflies) but I do not see the caterpillars on the leaves as I would suspect. Any helpful hints on growing these? Did I plant too late? I will try BT for the pests.

I have also seeded spinach, endive, chard, and lettuce in containers. I can protect them and even move them in the garage when nights get much below freezing, but I have found in the past that these crops, once established, can easily survive most freezes we have in North Texas. During the first few weeks after seeding is when they are most vulnerable.

My pepper plants did not produce much at all during the summer but now they are finally loaded with fruit in various stages of ripening. Had chilis rellenos last weekend! The sweet peppers are turning beautiful colors of yellow, orange, and red. One pepperoncinin plant is producing enough for several jars every few weeks. Still searching for the perfect pickled pepperoncini recipe, as they are softer and tend to turn mushy using most other pickled pepper recipes. What's best--hot or cold pack?

I have seeded more winter greens in little six-packs that I will transplant later into the bed that the peppers now occupy. Hubby built me a sort of cold frame that I place over this bed during winter months. I open it during the day and close it at night. Maybe I'll post a picture in a few months. It protects my winter greens beautifully.

Would love to hear about everyone else's fall veggie plantings!


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 7:37 am 
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I have a couple of questions for you; 1- where do you buy your seeds and/or transplants? 2) I had a problem with my pablano peppers this year..the fruit was tiny. So tiny that I knew I'd never use it. Just wondered if you had that same problem during the summer and it improved as the weather got better? I took my plant out before the weather broke.

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PostPosted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:03 am 
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Location: Allen,0
This year was strange for my peppers. They were not setting fruit--even under similar heat conditions that we've experienced in the past. The blossoms would just drop off, which I never had a problem with before. However, they started setting fruit like crazy in late August and Sept.

Here are my seed sources:
Tomato Groowers Supply (Ariane orange bell)
Johnny's (Carmen long, red, sweet Italian typed)
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (Senorita mild Jalapeno)
Bian Chili Ltd. Co.: (New Mexico 6-4)
Bavicchi Seeds for 'Stavros' Greek pepperoncini
I used Bonnie's plants for Santa Fe Grande, NuMex Big Jim, Yellow Bell, Red Bell, and Whopper. I'm not a big fan of Bonnie's and most of their plants did poorly until fall.

Carmen was especially productive, but again, not till late season. Of course, the New Mexico green chilis are always prolific, but even they were late. Pepperoncini very productive but leaves look diseased.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:13 pm 
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Location: San Antonio,TEXAS
I built a 70' by 35' garden in August at our pecan farm near Seguin. This fall is my first crop. Turnips, kohl rabi, beets, mustard greens, romaine lettuce and carrots were all grown from seed. Brussels sprouts, brocolli and cauliflower were put in from transplants. My spinach did not come up because I planted the seed in too warm of a soil temp. I had 40 yards of screened landscape mix brought in to start it and will till in compost, green sand and other ammendments for the spring crop. It has been producing like mad and I have a lot of happy neighbors.


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 8:58 am 
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Wow, that sounds wonderful. Did you get any good images that you can share?

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PostPosted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 9:14 am 
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Location: Allen,0
Lettuce, lettuce, lettuce! This is the first time I've had lettuce mature enough to eat by Christmas. I always waited till the peppers were done before seeding lettuce in their place, but then I didn't get havestable lettuce until March. This year, instead of direct seeding, I started seeds in cell packs and put them in the garage under lights on cold days. I staggered the seeding so I now have lettuce plants of all sizes, about 12 or so varieties. Most are growing in a raised 4 X 8 bed with a homemade cold frame sitting on top. We close it at night if the temp is going to dip too low. Others are in containers that I cover with frost cloth or bring into the garage if it's going to get down to 30 or so. I also have escarole, mache, and spinach. This is so cool because now we have unlimited salad greens until it gets too hot at the end of April.

I'm also experimenting with brussells sprouts this year, but I may have been too late. There are teeny tiny baby sprouts begining to form, but will I ever have enough for a meal? We'll see.

Isn't it great to have fresh homegrown veggies in the winter?


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:44 pm 
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i have 2 4x4 raised beds, in september i replanted green bush beans, garlic, mustard, spinach and lettuce....replanted squash which had been devoured by pill bugs (or some other irritant)
much too early/hot at the time for the greens, i have replanted mid-Oct with garlic, mustard, spinach, chard, kohlrabi....also snow peas (hoping to get a quick batch in before the cold)...
i am trying fava beans, which i have read do well in fall/winter.

and, i have FINALLY harvested a squash...i have grown great blossoms all summer, but never had male blossums and female blossums overlapping (and, obviously, no fruiting)


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:55 pm 
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i have been buying my seed from willhite seed in poolville-good online catalog and great service
http://www.willhiteseed.com/

they offer both "hybrid" and common seed with good variety...

i did everything from seed this year with mixed results-usually novice mistakes...


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:19 pm 
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From summer crop, still holding: Tomatoes from summer are loaded and hoping for sun/warmer temps. Still have okra (which I need to pull out), bell pepper, eggplant and lots of basil.

As part of my fall nitrogen fixing legume program:
*heirloom purple bush beans (having some for Halloween dinner tomorrow!)
*Blue Lake Bush Beans
*Edamame
*Snow Peas

*radish *mesclun salad mix *2 varieties of romaine *3 varieties of spinach *swiss chard *sucrine lettuce, *red deer tongue lettuce *cucumbers *broccoli *red and green cabbage *cilantro *dill *parsley *borage

And I planted over 200 cloves of organic Warm Winter Mix garlic

Still have typical ongoing herb garden too (thyme, rosemary, oregano, etc.)


Maybe, if we can get a string of sunny days, I'll even take some pics!


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 7:59 am 
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Everything here kept healthy with Texas Worm Ranch Worm Wine (TM)
www.txwormranch.com

Image

Here is a shot of some of my broccoli and cabbage.

Image

Organic Mesclun lettuce as a living mulch between bush beans

Image

Broccoli closeup

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Purple and Blue Lake Bush beans..and a few cherry tomatoes

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Romas first week of November


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:19 am 
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Location: wilmington,nc
Hey WormRancher,
I have a bunch of coffee grounds saved up and want to start a new worm bin. Can I use the grounds as the main bedding and then add scraps as I go? I'm looking for a reasonably price ph meter for soil and worm beds, you know of a good source and brand?
thx Tar


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:17 pm 
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Hi Tar,
Since I have a serious Java fixation, and get scraps from a nearby restaurant, my worms go through a lot of coffee grounds. I haven't tried it as a primary bedding, but our good vermicomposting friend at Red Worm Composting has with mixed results:
http://www.redwormcomposting.com/worm-c ... conundrum/

I think if you pre-composted the coffee past the heat stage with some browns (fall leaves, newspaper, cardboard, straw, etc) it would be ok to use as a bedding. Maybe put the coffee grounds on one side and half done compost on the other--the worms would have somewhere to go if they didn't like it at first. Also, you might want to add ground up eggshells to reduce acidity of the coffee. If it is a new bin, I would inoculate it with a little compost or Vermicompost form another bin and let it sit for a week to buildup a microbe colony before introducing the worms.

A preferred PH seems to be about 6.5-7, but I've read that worms are fairly adaptable between 4-9. Since all the inexpensive PH meters I have looked into got raging horrible reviews, I tend to "feel" my way with my worms and use common sense (don't overload on acid, or add some calcium source to reduce it, only put acidic stuff in a corner of a bin so worms can go elsewhere, etc.).

I would love to hear more about your bin when you get it up and running.


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:05 pm 
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Location: wilmington,nc
i have an old 14' jon boat that I was going to convert into a big worm bin, but I think it's too low and awkward to utilize. I saw some bins at http://www.growingpower.org/ the ones they use. They have some great videos on youtube that describe what they do and how they do it, but I noticed they use a 3'x4' wood box that's about 3' tall. I guess something like that would work, but I wanted to build something that I could harvest out of the bottom so I never had to mess with the worm and bedding inside. If you have any ideas about that I'm all ears. I keep my current bin outside and will have to build the new one outside, so I'm not sure how I'm going to keep them from freezing when we get those really cold spells, I'm in zone 8 in southeast NC.


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