September one of my most favorite times of the year. This is when I usually say screw the garden, if it ripens up so be it, but I am done caring. Of course usually by September we have containers of Tomatoes diced up and frozen and piles that Mrs. PP swears she is going to can (but never does). I bet she starts canning again if things continue to get worse.
This year all we got was the last few weeks of more Tomatoes than we can eat. Ripening up one or two at a time. Maybe half a dozen containers frozen. Half a dozen or so Water-melons and a whole lot of over grown plants with countless unripened fruit on them.
This is typical of this year. A bunch of huge beautiful fruit. We will see how many of them ripen as the plants themselves start to peter out with age like they always do.
I have pretty much fed all the cucumbers and "way to small" to make it water-melon to the sheep and goats...
I also just started removing the drying up vines or just walking on them. I am still waiting on the potato experiment results. The pumpkins are being over run with squash bugs I cannot find and cucumber beetles and I have at least a month yet for the Beans to dry on the vine for shelling.
The chicken did manage to do a bit of damage to about half of one trellis side with her scratching but if all the pods I see now make it I will still have at least 5 gallons of shelled and dried beans for Winter. My guess is I will need to triple that for next year if things keep going down hill like they have been.
This has to be the best growing year and worst fruiting year I have ever seen. It actually has been a new learning experience for me if nothing else. I have produced through drought conditions before but never with this long of a stretch of high unbearable heat and constant sun. Not sure how one deals with temperatures that cause pollen to go infertile for that long. Even shade flies won't lower the overall temperature enough when it gets that high.
Anyway as long as the beans dry properly I got more than a few nights of shelling and like I said see how bad the Potato harvest is. I am afraid I might have caused a lot of rot keeping the plants from dying of the heat. Remains to be seen the plants are still mostly green and some flowering yet.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!
I got about a gallon and put out a lot of plants How many plants does it take you to get 5 gallon of dried beans Thanks, Bob T.
ReplyDeleteBob - I can usually count on about a gallon once shelled per one and a half trellis full and I end up having about 20 to 25 plants per side so 50 or so plants per trellis. That however is for a full season where many beans actually dry out all season long. So honestly we will see but I maybe over estimating this year. I have seven trellis this year but they seem to be over loaded so I am estimating 1 5 gallon bucket. I may find out I am way off cause it is just a rough estimate. I also have another few plants on small trellis scattered around here and there too.
DeleteWhen you let your beans dry on the vine - are you drying them to use as seed for next year or....? - Meritt
ReplyDeleteMeritt - I use mine for both. I let the vines stay on the trellis until they are totally dried. I will start harvesting them when I see a plant and the pods has dried up and just sit around watching a movie and shelling beans into a huge bowl. Generally I just store em in quart canning jars until I use em. I always make sure I have at least half a jar of last years beans ready to replant with. Sometimes I make sure to take seed from early especially large plants first and set them aside for next year.
DeleteAbout the only thing we can do to beat the heat out here in the West is to plant early. I had a lot of trouble with ground squirrels and rabbits early this year. I planted, they ate. I went bat shit crazy with the pellet gun and traps and got them under control. The coyotes came in later and finished off most of the rest. Unfortunately they also took out around fourteen of my hens and the new rooster. This meant I got a really late start on the garden. It was already HOT when I got everything in the ground. All in all though, we did pretty good this year. We got plenty of zucchinis, tomatoes, bread & butter corn, and plums. The fig tree produced, but the birds decimated the fruit. Lemons, limes; great. The oranges, nots'much. The pomegranate is laden with fruit, as is the Fuerte avocado. It's ALWAYS hot in the summer/early fall here. We just learn to work around it. I'm not a believer in "climate change," but the on again, off again cycles of drought are part and parcel to life on Earth. It's hotter and drier this year, even for the West.
ReplyDeleteI bought a book a while back called "Growing Food In A Hotter Drier Land" a while back. It has some interesting work arounds for drought. It's centered more around desert agriculture but the methods can be adapted to any low-water, high temperature situation. If you get this book be forewarned; the author is a "climate change" FANATIC. You'll groan more than once reading this!
Pete - This is the first year I have ever seen it be so hot and sunny for such a long stretch. Killing the pollen was anew thing for so long. I know it has happened here before just never so long with no break. Varmint pests are not something we generally deal with for long. The road in front of our house takes care of most of it. Now it is better than ever with all these new people moving out here. Honestly I would rather have the varmints. I will keep an eye out for that title thanks for the heads up!!!!
DeleteWe have a two-lane in front of our place too, but Wile-E and company have figured that out. They also come in from behind our place, scooting through a plant nursery and scaling a 6ft fence!
ReplyDeleteThe book's available on Amazon. Drought goes hand in hand with living out here. Dealing with it is just something we do. I know it can be a HUGE issue in areas accustomed to normal rainfall. God speed with your situation, PP.
Pete - We are lucky in that our place has traditionally been a junction between 3 coyote groups and the farm itself seems to be a neutral zone. The three groups would come up to the roads and the back of our hayfield a bit but did not cross or get too close. We were also blessed until a few years ago with the BEST watchdog ever until he got blind and had to become an inside dog, much to his dismay at first. Although we live West of the Mississippi droughts are really rare here. We are just barely West by about 200 miles and still within the Eastern side of the rain fall. I have seen more Skunks and Foxes this year than ever though, I am betting coyote are moving away due to all the new houses out here.
DeleteSeptember is a great month! My garden is pretty much a weed disaster, but that's what happens when July and August have been spent in the kitchen getting the harvest ready to store for winter.
ReplyDeleteDrought gardening is a huge challenge. I hadn't thought about heat and pollen production, so that's food for thought. I do know that when soil temps get too hot, plants go into survival mode, even in the shade, like you said. I see that year after year. I don't know what the answer is. The way things are, we all need to be growing and storing more food, but growing challenges have really ramped up as well. Seems like eventually we'd get it figured out, but every year there seems to be something new.