Learning about crops - Watermelons

I've grown watermelons for two years now.  In the first year (2011), we did the old tried and true method of letting the runners splay out wherever they please.  This past year, however, we trellised the watermelons.  I built an angled trellis out of 2x4's, 2x3's, conduit, and wire fence material.  Watermelon starters were planted at the base of the trellis with the vines trained upward.  I deliberately chose a smaller variety of watermelon that wouldn't put as much strain on the tendrils from the weight of fruit.  Once the fruit became sizable, I made a melon sling out of women's panty hose to help support the weight until it was time to pick.

Companion Plants
Companion plants for watermelons are the marigold (deters beetles), nasturtium (deters bugs and beetles), and oregano (general pest protection).

Growing Watermelons
Melons like nutrient-rich soil with a pH between 6.0 and 6.5.  General fertilizers work just fine.  They like an air temperature at least 65 degrees, warmer is preferable.  As you'd imagine by the plant name, they need a lot of water.  The plants double in size in the month of July. 

Insect Pests
Cucumber beetles typically prefer cucumbers and muskmelons, but they will occasionally feast on watermelons, too. Insecticidal soap is a safe, effective treatment for most cucumber beetle infestations. If you've endured major cucumber beetle attacks in the past, keep them from getting to your vines with row covers—just be sure to remove the covers when the vines begin to flower so that bees can pollinate them, which is necessary for the plant to set fruit. Spraying young plants with kaolin clay may deter beetles from feeding.

Squash vine borer larvae tunnel into watermelon vines, chewing inner tissue near the base and filling the stem with moist, slimy castings. The attacked vines wilt suddenly and girdled vines rot and die.

From organicgardening.com

Squash vine borers, which are most damaging to winter squash, look like 1-inch-long white caterpillars. They tunnel into stems and can go undetected until a vine wilts. Keep a constant lookout for entry holes at the base of the plants, surrounded by yellow, sawdustlike droppings. Cut a slit along afflicted stems and remove and destroy the larvae inside, or inject the stems with Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki). Hill up soil over the stem wounds to encourage the plant to sprout new roots there.

To prevent borer damage, keep an eye out for the adult borer, a wasplike orange-and-black moth; it lays eggs at the base of the stem in late June or early July in the North, or in April to early summer in the South. During these times, check the base of the stems and just below the surface of the soil regularly for very tiny red-and-orange eggs. Rub the eggs with your finger to destroy them.

How to Tell When a Watermelon is Ripe
Here are a few ways to tell when a watermelon is ripe.

• The little tendril at the point of attachment turns brown and dries up. In some melon types, the tendril dries up a week before the melon is actually ripe.
• Rinds of unripe watermelons have a shiny gloss.  Ripe melons don't have the shine so the rinds have a dull appearance.
• The fruit produces a dull, muffled "thud" sound when thumped, rather than a sharp or metallic one.

Nutritional Information on Watermelons

Watermelons are a "good source" (10-19% of RDA) of Vitamin A.  There are also notable quantities of Lysine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Magnesium, Potassium, Copper, Manganese, Vitamin B6, Thiamin, Pantothenic Acid.

Thinking about 2014

It's almost January 2014 so it's getting closer to time to start seeds for planting.  Last year, I started the first batch on February 10th.  I think I'll start them sooner this year.  I also want to expand my gardening into the spring beyond simply sowing snow peas (or sugar snap peas) so I may really need to start soon.

I got my first nudge toward seed starting this year when both the Baker Creek and Southern Exposure seed catalogs arrived a few weeks ago.  I glanced through each of them and, unfortunately, wasn't inspired to try anything new this year.  I imagine something will pique my interest, though.

I ordered too many tomato and pepper seeds last year so I plan to grow the same varieties of those this year.  I'll plant fewer cayenne peppers and more bell peppers, though.

Fixing the gate, a December harvest

I made a quick trip to the plot today.  The gate needed to be repaired.  When we got the plot, the gate was donated to us.  Unfortunately, whomever made it didn't anticipate the nails they used coming out over time as the gate swung and flexed.  No pictures, but I made a temporary fix (deck screws to the rescue!) to last until the spring.  I'll likely build a whole new gate in the spring, anyway.

While I was there, I wandered inside to see if much had changed since our last trip out.  It was nice to see that some of the garlic has come up through the leaf bed covering I put down.  I also saw some rye grass coming up here and there.

I also took a look at the daikon to see if any was finally large enough to harvest.  Sure enough, there was!  I pulled somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the total in the box.  As I started removing the tops to put into the compost bin, it occurred to me that the greenery might be of use, too.  I reasoned that since some people eat radish greens, since daikon is a type of radish, their greens should be edible, too.  As a result, I kept the greenery that wasn't rotting or looking too frost burnt.

I ended up making some soup today using one of the daikons and two or three of the tops.  It turned out well.

Not including the one that I had for lunch, the daikons (minus tops) weighed 16.2 oz.

2013 Year's End Review

Since the weather has finally become consistently cold and the plot is in the throes of winter hibernation, it's time to do a review of 2013.

2013 has been the most productive of any year we've gardened to this point.  We had bursts of success in the past -- when The Boy was 1 and we didn't have a plot we had a lot of tomatoes in the yard, for example -- but this year was consistently good.  From the snow peas in the spring to beans/tomatoes/peppers in the summer then lettuce and onions in the fall, it was a good year.  A lot of the lessons I learned from failures in the past also panned out.

Financial Review

In August, I wondered if gardening really could pay off from a financial standpoint.  Unfortunately, my curiosity was a bit belated in that I hadn't weighed the snow peas from the spring harvest, but I was able to create a bit of a baseline.  From that point, I kept a spreadsheet that tracked certain bits of info.  It wasn't all-inclusive.  I never harvested enough carrots (by weight) to justify comparing them vs store prices, for example.  Having said that, I'm pleased to report that this year was "profitable" when compared vs the $191.50 that went into the plot this year.  Even if I included money (which I would have had I tracked those expenses) spent on structure building this year, given the purchases were from Community Forklift I still would have come out ahead.

Lessons to Learn

As I mentioned above, a lot of the lessons I learned from the past paid off this year.  There's always more to learn from to improve.  Here are things I want to do in the future.

• Become more proficient with composting. 
• My compost bin finally yielded some good soil this fall.  It took two years to get to this point, though.  There has to be a better method to use to get things to break down faster than what I've done to this point.
• Row covers
• In order to really become more organic (less/no use of "bug dust"), I'd like to use row covers for the beans.  They could also extend the growing season.
• Fine tune crop rotation
• I lost the ability to grow more crops because I had an overlap in the growing seasons of snow peas and green beans with them in the same boxes.
• Learn more about crop plant dates
• Carrying on from the crop rotation theme, I need to get better at knowing when to planting additional crops of plants.  I should have planted two crops of beans instead of the single crop, for example.  I could have also done so with tomatoes.
• Improve soil prep
• I have a lot to learn here.  Doing soil testing to amend the soil to add nutrients and adjust the pH are things I need to do.
• Figure out what I need to do to get cucumbers to grow.
• Two years of trying to grow cucumbers have yielded very few cucumbers.  I imagine this has much to do with soil prep.
• Learn more about companion planting and other natural ways to deter pests.
• Sort out more efficient ways to support tomato plants.  
• Cages take up a lot of space.  Creating teepees from stakes doesn't really do a good job supporting them.
• Learn how to improve green pepper yield.
• This year I tried pinching off leaves of the plants when they were first getting established.  That worked to a point, but I either need to do more of that or add something else.
• Experiment with emulsions.
• A neighbor at the plot occasionally makes a fish emulsion to use on his plants.  This is a good organic way to fertilize his plants.  It's also "free" in that he's fertilizing with his waste food products.

Fall leaf application in garden boxes

The family made it to the plot for a little bit of time yesterday afternoon.

As I'd mentioned elsewhere, the previous visit to the plot had me removing the rest of the summer plants and putting down rye grass in empty boxes.  In the visit yesterday, I put down mulched leaves in some of the boxes.  I had enough to apply to the garlic boxes, both shallot boxes and a little bit in the original Walking Onion box.  I need more to finish off that box, put in with the new Walking Onion box, in the snow pea/lettuce box once those are all done, the 2nd flower box, and the compost bin.

As I prepared to put down the leaves in the 1st shallot box, I was happy to see that a 3rd shallot has sent up sprouts (tiny ones in the middle of the box).  Wifey will be happy when she sees that.

Planting garlic and shallots

This is the method I use to plant garlic and shallots.  I followed this on November 2nd when I planted them in our plot. 

Garlic, shallots, and onions can all be planted in both fall and spring.  For larger yields, it's generally recommended to plant in the fall.  I presume this is because it lengthens the growing season such that the bulbs are growing not just in one season (as would be the case with a spring planting), but gets the rest of fall and spring to grow.  In Maryland, it's recommended to plant between October 15 and November 15.

First, the garlic and shallots are soaked in separate solutions of warm water, two tablespoons of baking soda (to kill bacteria on them), and a hefty sprinkling of the organic fertilizer that I use (Garden Tone). I leave that to soak for two hours, stirring periodically because the Tone tends to settle to the bottom of the containers.  I also did this for the garlic and Surprise Onions last year.  This is a variation on a recommendation I found online to use a seaweed emulsion, however, I don't have the emulsion and do have the Tone.  Since this worked quite well for the garlic last year, I did it again.

Garlic and shallots are planted with the pointy tips facing up.  The greenery sprouts from this location.  For fall plantings, you will likely will get modest growth in the fall, everything dies off, then you will have significant regrowth in the spring until harvest.  I measured the height of my garlic greenery at 20" at one point this year.

I've read varying sources to recommend they be planted between 3" and 1.5" deep.  From what I can best tell, the idea is to have a 3" deep hole, plant your bulb (in the case of garlic, an individual clove), then have approx 1.5" soil on top.  A good way to dig your holes is by using a screwdriver to create a cone-shaped hole then you place your bulb/clove in the hole and cover it up.  You generally want to plant garlic, shallots, and onions about 6" apart.

I neglected to take a picture of primary garlic box for this year (it had been inhabited by tomatoes this year and is 3' wide by 5' long), unfortunately, but you can see an overflow box for garlic (on left) and the second shallot box (right) which was populated by bell peppers and basil this year.

And here's a picture showing the boxes (stakes are so Wifey and The Boy don't accidentally step in the boxes.  I will be adding mulched leaves on top as I accumulate them.  This helps with nutrient replacement as well as to help retain moisture.

Belated Posting - Harvests, Fall Clean-Up, Preparations for Spring, a Fall Panorama

It's been a few weeks since I've updated the blog.  In that time, there's been a number of harvests done and the plot has been winterized.  I also had a pretty nasty cold for 2 weeks so that really didn't help; I simply didn't feel like doing anything but sleep.  Anyway, here's one big post to cover a few harvests

October 18

Harvest totals:

• 2 lb 6.1 oz tomatoes
• 1.0 oz beans
• 1.1 oz cayenne peppers
• 0.4 oz carrots
• 0.6 oz radishes
• 0.8 oz snow peas
• 10.2 oz loose leaf lettuce

October 20

Made it to the plot for a few hours along with The Boy.  We emptied out boxes that contained the tomatoes, basil, and bell pepper plants.  Just for an experiment I left the cayenne pepper plants in to see if they'd do any better than bell peppers against a frost.  (They didn't.)  We also made a little friend in a tiny garden toad.  He was cute, but not all that chatty.

I also removed two of the last three green bean trellises.  The only two left are the scarlet runner beans on the arbor and the green beans adjacent to the watermelon trellis.

The total for the final summer harvest:

• 14.2 oz bell peppers
• 2 lb 2.4 oz tomatoes
• 5.4 oz carrots
• 1 green bean

November 2

I took a half day at work since it was a mild day and I'd been unable to get out to the plot due to having been under the weather.  The rest of the cleanup was finished:

• Cayenne peppers, the 2nd misc flower box with Audrey 3, and borage box were cleaned out
• Everything in the watermelon trellis box was cleaned out
• The last green bean trellis was broken down and everything in the box was cleaned out
• The box adjacent to the compost bin with volunteer tomatoes was mostly emptied out
• The string on the arbor and scarlet runner beans were removed
• I added compost from the compost bin to some of the boxes were the soil levels were appearing decreased

All that is left growing over the winter (or late into Fall) are the Egyptian Walking Onions, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts.

I also planted garlic and some more shallots.  Once all that was done, I fertilized everything, and broadcast some rye seed on top of the boxes that are unpopulated.  For the ones that have things still in residence, I'll be adding some mulched leaves to reintroduce nutrients to the soil.

This has been a very fruitful year at the plot for a change.  Frankly, this is our first good year.  There's still a lot of room for improvement, but it's been very enjoyable.  I look forward to planning our crops for next year.