We might have a wild mulberry tree

Wifey and I were wandering around the property yesterday afternoon and saw a small tree growing along with one group of pawpaws on the wood line.  We both think the leaves look remarkably like mulberry to us.  I think we'll be looking into transplanting it elsewhere.  Not sure where, though.

We have Robbins Ave Tomato sprouts!

A week ago I did a post about trying to save the Robbins Avenue Tomato.


I'm happy to report that we've discovered we are up to a total of four sprouts!

After we finished dancing around rejoicing at the slowly-growing count, I was corrected by Wifey.  The seeds we're trying to resurrect were ones she had saved from the year after we gave up on our old garden plot.  That year we tried to do something, anything while adjusting to new-parenthood on a smaller scale using square-foot gardening methods in our townhouse backyard.  That means the seeds were from 2011, not 2012 or 2013 as I'd guessed in the prior blog post.  That any of them have germinated truly is miraculous.


I'd feel a whole lot more comfortable with more to be completely honest.  Ordinarily I plant 36 seeds each year when the seed is just from the previous year expecting to lose some from seed pods not releasing from the seed leaves, damage during transplant, damage in the garden, or in the case of last year death from bad water.

This is a fantastic step in the right direction, but we're hardly "out of the woods."

Can we save the Robbins Ave tomato?

My wife's paternal grandfather was a very interesting man.  He had a number of interests, but one that he was known for in the family was his love of vegetable gardening.

Until he died a few years ago, he maintained a large garden in his back yard which he spent a considerable amount of time and energy.  Well-landscaped with hedges and trees towering above, the path to the garden opened up on a large clearing that contained a large asparagus patch, some pole beans, beets for canning, peppers, a couple of raised beds for greens, and his pride and joy -- the Robbins Ave tomatoes.  Legend has it that until the early 90's, he used to do gardening on a large plot on a friend's farm.

As I've been told, Wifey's grandfather always wanted the biggest and best tomatoes.  No one knows what varieties he used originally, but I've been told that he started off with a few varieties of beefsteak-style tomatoes, cross-pollinated the varieties by hand and saved the seeds from only the largest and best-looking tomatoes.  The next year, he would start new plants from those seeds.  For 20 years (give or take), he followed this process until the time came that he just couldn't work in the garden any longer.

His enthusiasm begat success in the garden.  For years, family gatherings had pickled beets, garlic, or green beans, fresh tomatoes, asparagus, or the occasional bell pepper used in a dish.  For all he did, his Robbins Ave tomatoes are the main topic among the family (particularly our generation) when the garden is mentioned.

Those tomatoes were revered so much that a year before his death, a professional photographer was commissioned to take a picture of him holding two of his Robbins Ave tomatoes.  Wifey has such fond memories of her grandfather and the magic held in his garden that we have a framed copy of that picture in our kitchen.

 

When we realized that some of the Robbins Ave tomato seeds still exist, it was instinct to us to plant them to try to keep that strain alive.

The odds are slim that they will germinate -- best guess, they're 5 or 6 years old.  I did some research and found that according to the Virginia Cooperative Extension, the average viability of tomato seed is only 4 years.  Also, we only have 19 seeds and they weren't stored in seed bank-like conditions.

Regardless, I'm going to give it a shot.

Useful Book: What's Wrong With My Fruit Garden?

A week or so ago, Wifey checked out a book from the library called, "What's Wrong With My Fruit Garden?; 100% Organic Solutions for Berries, Trees, Nuts, Vines, and Tropicals" by David Deardorff and Katheryn Wadsworth.

I don't know that I'd really say that we have anything wrong with our orchard (aka fruit garden), but I'm sure there are things we could be doing better.

As Wifey has been leafing (no pun intended) through the book, she came across a section about planting polycultures.  In that concept, you're doing interplanting of a number of varieties of different species of plants that can all benefit one another.  For example, under a fruiting tree, you can plant other plants that could attract pollinators, deter pests or critters, or provide other benefits.  Unlike what many people (me included) think of with an orchard, with a polyculture planting approach, you're more emulating a fruit forest and implementing more of a permaculture approach to gardening.

Basically, this is a larger scale approach to the companion planting I've been doing in my garden for years now.

One picture (and caption) that resonated with me mentioned an underplanting of rosemary that "helps protect an apple tree from deer as would other highly aromatic plants like lavender, thyme, and sage.  Herbs such as fennel and dil attract beneficial insects to help control insect pests.  Flowers like yarrow, cosmos, and rudbeckia also attract beneficial insects."  They also reinforce my approach to using French Marigolds to deter pests.

The authors also recommend attracting beneficial insects and critters to your garden.  This is a concept I've been gradually working on since the final years of the garden plot.  The authors mention:

• Pansies, violas, and other flowers with streaks or dark lines (aka guidelines) on their petals help attract bees
• Queen Anne's lace attracts parasitic wasps to kill caterpillars.  It also attracts lacewings, syrphid and tachinid flies, assassin bugs, and honeybees.  Dill, coriander (cilantro), parsley, cumin, and fennel do much of the same.  Fennel also is good to lure ladybugs (which are predatory insects) to the garden.
• Members of the daisy family (Asteraceae) attract a variety of bees and butterflies, and tiphiid wasps which help kill beetle grubs as larvae and pollinate flowers as adults.  Daisy family plants also lure other parasitic wasps, ladybugs, lacewings, syrphid flies, and soldier beetles.  Other daisy family plants include: tarragon, chamomile, cosmos, sunflowers, anthemis, echinacea, gaillardia, bachelor's butons, and yarrow.
• The mint family (Lamiaceae) attracts ladybugs and lacewings.  Other mints are: agastche, catnip, catmint, thyme, rosemary, hyssop, lemon balm, horehound, sage, and pycnanthemum.

They also identify a number of ways to get rid of a variety of insects such as the Japanese beetles that kept munching on the apple tree foliage this past year.

The takeaway

There's a lot of good info in that book.  This only represents the tip of the iceberg.  It also has application to the garden and property as a whole.  I think I may end up buying the book to have as a reference.

Figuring out why our indoor plants die

I've been thinking.  Last year almost all of my plant starters died.  I never had that problem in the townhouse.  We also had two fledgling geraniums, a baby bay laurel, and two citrus plants die.

We don't overwater, occasionally fertilize with organic fertilizer, don't put the plants in direct sunlight (that don't want it), and maintain proper temperatures for them.

I don't know why I think so, but I think it's our water that's causing the problems.  We have hard water at our house which has caused problems with mineral buildup in some of the water lines.  To address this, we had a salt water softener installed.  I've assumed that the tech who did the work calibrated the unit to provide the proper amount of salinity to the water, but I'm not so sure.

To test it going forward, I'm going to solely water our plants with water obtained from the dehumidifiers in the basement.

I'm also going to do some digging into how to control the softener control system.

Sifting through the hickory nuts

As I mentioned a few posts ago, we obtained some hickory nuts both from the in-laws as well as some on our property.

Yesterday afternoon, we did what is called "a float test" on the hickory nuts.  It's called that because you fill a vessel (a large bucket or trough) with water and toss in a bunch of hickory nuts.  Those that sink are denser than the water so you know they're loaded with nutty goodness.  Those that float may be bad.  The floaters need to be paid more attention -- a worm could have gotten in or the nut may have rotted inside the shell.  Some floaters are still good, though.  You don't know until you crack it open.

After doing the float test, we found some that passed.

A lot of them failed the test.  We were surprised by the large proportion.  We suspect that we shouldn't have left the nuts out to dry as long as we did.

We started cracking into the hickory nuts.  Of the ones we got into, maybe 1/5 of the total were bad for one reason or another.

We are keeping the hickory shells for now.  We've read that they are a very pleasant addition to a wood fire.

We are also experimenting with different methodologies of breaking them open.  Wifey used a nutcracker while I used a pair of channel-locks.  I tried the nutcracker first, before trying the channel-locks.  I felt like I had more control over the channel-locks, could impart more force on the nut thanks to the longer lever arms, and could grip the nuts better thanks to the teeth on the wrench.

We're still working on the approach.  As you can tell from the picture above, there is some wasted nut meat that we left inside the shell.  We decided it wasn't worth spending a ton of time trying to get every little bit out, especially, when some had been tainted by shell shards in the meat.  We'd rather abandon some of the nut meat than take a chance in feeding shell to someone.

The walnut bits that we did keep are in the freezer until we get cracking, again.

Expanding the Orchard: Adding Raspberry Plants

Since inception, I've wanted to convert the far field into an orchard.  Since moving in, we've struggled with having enough time to work on it, tried to work around when it's best to plant things, and had a big drain on the wallet for a variety of reasons. 

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I ordered some Royalty purple raspberry plants.  They arrived just in time for us to go out of town to visit Wifey's parents so my parents have held onto them until I could retrieve them.

I took the day off so The Bear could get tubes put in his ears.  Once all that was successfully accomplished, I dug four holes in the orchard to accommodate the four Royalty plants.  The Boy and The Girl provided copious amounts of moral support.

Some details about the hole-digging:

According to the Maryland cooperative extension, purple raspberry plants need to be a minimum of 3' between plants with a minimum of 8' between rows.  To be on the safe side, I dug each hole such that the center is 4' apart with 10' between the base of the blueberries and the center of each hole.

I've seen how much space some of the blueberry bushes take up from many trips to Larriland Farm and I've seen how large some of the raspberry plants can get on their guide lines.  Although my tendency is to try to maximize the number of plants in a given area, I think encouraging airflow is necessary.  Also necessary is the ability to allow the plants to stretch out their growth.  Thus: 4' and 10' distances.

Other useful info:

The botanical name is Rubus strigosus 'Royalty'.  According to the cooperative extension, a "bramble" type is any species belonging to the Rubus genus.

Oh. So we have hickory trees. What in the world do we do now?

Please bear with me, this is going to be a long one.  If you know me, you aren't surprised.

A few weeks ago, Wifey handed me a nut while we were driving down the road.  I said, "that's lovely.  Why are you handing me this nut?"  She replied that the kids (The Big Two) had collected a bucket of them from the side yard and hulled them themselves.  She also told me she was pretty sure it was a type of hickory tree.  She's much smarter than I am with that sort of thing so I believed her.

Husband Pro Tip: If she's better than you at something, compliment her every chance you get.  Also, try to learn from her so you don't keep using such awesome vocabulary like, "thingy."

Or in my case, "You know......that tree over there that isn't the pawpaw, oak, pine, or maple.  No, not that one.  THAT one."

Fast forward to last Thursday.  I recruited The Big Two to collect more of the nuts while I was mowing the lawn.  Once I finished, I helped them and enjoyed it immensely.

Last weekend, Wifey and I relayed what we had done and my mother-in-law (she's awesome, too, by the way) replied, "well, you know we have hickory trees here, too.  The Girl and I spent a few hours collecting nuts off the ground shortly thereafter.

Wifey did some research and, apparently, Buckeyes look similar to Hickory nuts and are inedible.  She (and her mom) have determined that my in-laws' trees aren't Buckeyes by comparing the leaves of the trees.  My in-laws have three Shag Bark trees and a Pignut Hickory.

Once all was done, we sorted the hulled nuts from those that need to dry out.

There were also some that were able to come out of the hulls (outer skins).  The Boy and I were able to remove some of the hulls from the nuts.  As the nuts dry, it's supposed to be much easier to do the removal as the hull shrinks away from the sides of the nut making it easier to try it apart.  Also, the four "petals" of the hull spread out making it easier to open.

Since we'd collected a number of the nuts, we cracked them open to try the nut meat ourselves.  After reading a number of suggestions online, we hit the nuts about 1/3 of the way down from the tip with a hammer against a brick.  It wasn't foolproof.  We will be trying other ways to open them.

We really enjoyed the nuts.  In general, they had a mild flavor with a hint of a maple-like undertone.  From what we've read, they can be used as a substitute for pecans or walnuts in baking.  We did find, though, that the hickory nuts that came from the green hulls had a little bit more of a bite to them and weren't as mild in flavor.

After getting back home, I spread the un-hulled nuts out on a piece of scrap plywood to dry in the sun.  From what I've read, it's recommended to leave them to dry for a few weeks.

I also took the hulled nuts and put them in a basket to dry out some as well.

Collecting walnuts

One of my hobbies is dabbling in woodworking.  Since I learned that we have black walnut trees, I've wanted to figure out how to harvest the nuts from inside their skins both to retrieve the nuts, but also to try to get the oil out for use as stains.

Last year we harvested walnuts from the yard, but never actually did anything with it.

Now that things have calmed down somewhat, Wifey and I decided to try it again this year.
 
This morning, we took the three kids out on a walnut-collecting expedition.  As we meandered around the woodsline of the orchard we collected what we could from the ground.  We also used a fruit-picker to get some from the trees.

In the end, we collected a decent number to mess around with.  Now we need to sort out how to actually retrieve the nuts and oils from them.

Tomato Diseases - Septoria Leaf Spot

When I was harvesting the crop yesterday, I saw that some of my tomatoes have a disease.  Based on a comparison of what I see online, it appears to be Septoria Leaf Spot.

The pictures below were taken yesterday of two of my tomato plants.

Based on my reading, it's a disease in the soil that affects tomato leaves and stems with the indicator being spots like these.  Typically, it starts low on the plant and increases in elevation.  As it further develops on the plant, the spots grow and the leaves will defoliate the plant causing you to have sunscald and fruit cracking.

Solution: Don't allow the tomato plants to remain after the season if you leave your vegetation for future years.  Use a copper fungicide to help inhibit the disease in the plant.

Garden under attack: Nature on the Defense (part 2)

I did a previous post discussing Tomato Hornworms and the Braconid Wasps that attack them.

As we were checking out the garden progress after our weekend away, Wifey saw another Tomato Hornworm that had been attacked.  In this case, this Hornworm was very much dead.  At first glance, I thought it looked like something else.

Further proof that the Braconid Wasps are doing their jobs against the Hornworm population.

The garden is under attack: Nature on the defense.

While meandering through the garden yesterday, I came across this interesting sight.  I'd never seen this before.

After doing some research, I've discovered that this is a Tomato Hornworm that had (has?) been victimized by a Braconid Wasp. The wasp is a predatory insect.  To quote from the Master Gardener site linked to before,

They like to feed on things we don't like in our gardens: hornworms, caterpillars, beetles, aphids, squash bugs and stink bugs are among the many pests that members of the Braconidae family consider gourmet delicacies.

These Braconid wasps lay their eggs on the host, the larvae eat their way to the surface of the worm and make their cocoons as seen in my picture above.  Once the adult wasps come from the cocoons -- and you can see that a few of the tops have been popped off -- the Hornworm dies.

So, apparently, we have Braconid Wasps at work in the garden to help protect our plants from predators.

Learning about plants - Proper Pruning Produces Plentiful Produce

I don't know if it's the engineer in me, but I typically try to find the most efficient way to do something.  I'm always trying to figure out a better way to do something, particularly in the garden.

Since I started gardening, I've made a lot of mistakes -- particularly in the first few years.  Here are some things I've learned regarding pruning of my vegetables.

Trimming Suckers

Suckers are little growths that sprout from the crotch between the primary trunk and a primary branch/offshoot.  When allowed to persist, they end up creating volume in your plant and give extra medium with which to grow the fruit from the plant.  I see them particularly in tomatoes and pepper plants (which are related).

Because suckers help you grow fruit, they are a very good and necessary part of crop production, however, they can also be problematic.  From what I've read -- and my experience corroborates what I've read -- as suckers develop and are allow to persist, the plant psychology (if that's even a thing) seems to be given the message that it's fruit-making time.  If you want short plants, you can allow the suckers to develop as happens naturally.  If not, then you need to pinch off the suckers to keep the plant in "growth mode" rather than "fruit-making mode."

I generally prefer to have taller tomato and pepper plants.  By doing so, you have taller trunks which will eventually lead to more overall plant volume to bear even more fruit. 

Pinching the suckers off is typically an easy process.  When the suckers are young, you actually pinch them with your fingers.  The only care you need to have is to ensure you don't accidentally pinch off the primary shoot.  In my enthusiasm, I accidentally did that when I was first learning about sucker-pinching.  I ended up with a beautifully-developed tomato plant that wouldn't produce flowers (and, thus, no tomatoes).

Remove the low-level offshoots

From one point of view, it's nice to have bushy plants.  Particularly when you're very new to gardening, any growth is good growth.  It's definitely a triumph over your noobery.  

Unfortunately, low-level growth is generally a bad thing.  There are a couple of reasons why you want to remove vegetation that's close to the ground.

1. Low-level vegetation traps moisture.

Yes, plants need water to grow, however, by trapping moisture close to the ground you inevitably develop fungus problems.  Once you do that, it's a constant and often losing battle for the plant's survival.  Also, you're robbing energy from the plant that could be better put into growing tasty produce.  It's also annoying for you to deal with and is very discouraging if you're still quite noobish in your gardening.

This is the single biggest reason to remove low-level vegetation.

2. Low-level vegetation helps encourage pest travel.

Thanks to a heavy application of companion planting, I don't typically have a whole lot of pest problems with my tomato and pepper plants.  That being said, you don't want to help out any pests (especially insects) to get to your produce.  Low-level vegetation usually ends up touching the ground and will give critters another avenue to get farther up your plant stalks.

 3. Low-level vegetation can help introduce disease to the plant.

Soil and other nearby plants can have any variety of diseases and fungus.  Leaving low-level offshoots to exist can have them droop after rain or planned watering which will only help to bring problems to your plants.

When pruning off the low-level stuff, I typically prune all horizontal vegetation from the bottom 12" - 18" of my plants.  That gives a respectable pathway for evaporation of ground-level moisture and encourage airflow.  I don't do all this pruning all at once, but do it gradually as the plants grow upward.

Clear out other vegetation

The concept of removing low-level vegetation from your plants also extends to that of other plants around the base of your crop-plants.  Below, you can see where I've pruned off horizontal shoots from my tomato plants.  Nearby, there are volunteer tomato plants as well as some volunteer cosmos plants starting. 

If those volunteers (or weeds in other cases) are allowed to develop, they will end up crowding the crop plants.  That will cause moisture to be trapped around the leaves (encouraging fungus problems) as well as forcing the crop plants to put more energy into competing for light rather than growing in a planned method.

Pinching off flowers

As with suckers, there are times when you want to pinch off flowers.  On crop plants, the flowers become the fruit.  If your crop plants are allowed to continue growing flowers, the plant "psychology" will be to fully transition into "fruit-growing mode." 

As you see the flowers start to form, you need to persistently pinch them off in order to encourage the plants to put energy into growing the plant, not developing fruit. 

Once you're generally happy with the size -- both height and girth of the plant structure -- let the plant continue with flower generation.

Learning about crops - Paw Paw

One of the many advantages of this property over the many others we evaluated is that there are some food crops already in residence.  One of them is the paw paw.

In my reading, I keep coming across variations of the phrase of "North America's tropical fruit."  In looking at the leaves, I can certainly see why it has that description.   

 




For those who know nothing about paw paws - or, like me, had never heard of them before - paw paws are a deciduous fruit tree.  They have rather large eye-shaped leaves in a medium shade of green.  

The fruit are the most intriguing part of the paw paw. You can find them dropped from the trees (they're ripe) or can pick them directly and ripen for a day or so until slightly soft.  They only keep for a day or two after being removed from the tree.

The fruit flavors are very complex.  They have a custard-like quality with a mango/pineapple/banana flavor.  While it is somewhat appealing, I'm not a fan of mango.  While I have no intention of removing the trees, I'm not planning on actively spreading their growth, either.  In our household, we're currently planning on using them in smoothies and, perhaps, as a flavor for homemade gelato.


Growing Paw Paw
Paw paws prefer full sun, but can live in part-shade areas.  For reference, mine are typically found near the south-facing edge of the woods-line on my property.  They grow in Zones 5A through 9 and typically prefer wet-to-moist soil.  At full height, they are 25'-to-35' tall.



Nutrition Information
According to Kentucky State University's Cooperative Extension, regarding a respectably-sized paw paw (think kiwi-sized):

They are high in vitamin C, magnesium, iron, copper, and manganese. They are a good source of potassium and several essential amino acids, and they also contain significant amounts of riboflavin, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, and zinc. Pawpaws contain these nutrients in amounts that are generally about the same as or greater than those found in bananas, apples, or oranges.

Specific nutritional information is found on KSU's Table 2 after following the link.

10% of your RDA of Vitamin B-6, thiamin, riboflavin, folate, and niacin.  In addition, the fruit has 30% of Vitamin C, 35% of your RDH of magnesium, 22% of your RDH of copper, and a whopping 74% of your RDH of manganese.

Bean problems

Some of the beans are having problems.  There's definite discoloration in the leaves.  It's very possible that it's due to all the rain we've had lately, just as the tomatoes are suffering.  It could also be a nutrient deficiency.  I need to read about this.

I've also noticed that there's a distinct lack of flowers on both the scarlet runners and the pole beans.  It's easy to see where the flowers should be, but aren't.

I've found a lot of flowers on the ground and on the Adirondack chair.  Considering we have had a fair amount of tree limbs down in the area, my guess is that this is from the wind and rain.  There are also darker-colored flowers on the ground next to the chair indicating that this has happened on multiple occasions.

What I don't know is if this will have any long-term effect on bean development.

Saving my Watermelons from Squash Borers and Squash Bugs

Last year, my watermelons did fantastic for the first few weeks of their life.  Unfortunately, they were wiped out by a predator.  One day I went to the plot, did some work and admired the foliage and the fruit on the vine.  Two days later, I returned and found all the flowers had turned black and the leaves looking wilted.  I was only able to harvest a single watermelon from six plants.

Logically, that means that something had killed everything at the source.

I did a fair amount of research and I have identified two possible culprits: the Squash Vine Borer and the Squash Bug.

The squash bug doesn't appear to attack the melon plant directly, unlike the squash borer.  The squash bug injects a disease called Yellow Vine Decline into the plant as it feeds.  The disease starts to yellow vines, but can and will kill the entire plant.

The squash borer will fly up to the base of a target plant and lay an egg inside the stem.  Once the egg hatches, the larvae feeds on the inside of the stem blocking the water and nutrients from flowing upward killing the plant.  Once it's large enough, the larvae exits the stem and burrows into the soil to become an adult moth at a later date.  I've found some sources that say that the borer will occasionally attack melons.  I think this is a more likely culprit given the rapid death and the fact it came in June which appears to be when the borer moth is said to go active.

Last year, I was applying Seven Dust to my watermelon plants to deter pests.  I can't say that I really applied a lot to the base of the plants, however.

This year, I tried something different.  I had Wifey save toilet paper tubes and installed them as collars around the base of the plants.  I did this for all my watermelons and also put them around the cucumbers just for giggles.

I really hope this works....

Learning about crops - Cucumbers

I've tried growing cucumbers for a few years now.  Unfortunately, I've had next to no success.  We try to pick varieties that are good for pickling, but are also good for eating raw.  When I get cucumbers, they end up looking like orbs instead of cucumbers. It's my belief that our temperatures have been too high as I've tried growing them.  I'll also be putting more effort into soil analysis this year.


Companion Plants
Nearby plantings of borage may also help suppress cucumber beetles as they may be intimidated by the insects that are attracted to the borage flowers.

Growing Cucumbers
Cucumbers like nutrient-rich soil with a pH between 6.0 and 6.5.  General fertilizers work just fine.  They like soil temperatures at least 60 degrees, however, they don't like temps that are consistently in the mid-90's.  High temps end up with more male flowers on the plant than females.  If temps are consistently high, providing a sunshade to filter out 40-50% of the sunlight is recommended.

Insect Pests
Cucumber beetles typically prefer cucumbers and muskmelons.  Insecticidal soap is a safe, effective treatment for most cucumber beetle infestations.

Nutritional Information
Cucumbers with peel, raw

Cucumbers are a "good source" (10-19% of RDA) of Vitamin K.  There are also trace amounts (1-2%) of a number of vitamins, minerals and amino acids.  There's a supercallafragiliciousexpialladocious amount (a lot) of water.  97% by weight, in fact.

I won't bore you with the lengthy list of vitamins, etc.

It's worth noting that the serving size is only 1.8 oz.  I couldn't visualize how much cucumber would actually represents 1.8 oz (other than "not much") so I weighed a Persian cucumber from either MoMs or Trader Joe's.  It's 5" long and 1 1/4" diameter.

Let's just say that unless you're looking for a lot of Vitamin K, cucumbers are basically nature's water bottle.

Learning about crops - Goji plants

In doing some reading and meandering around Pinterest, I came across the goji plant.  I'd never heard of it, but considering it produces fruit, I read more and became quite interested.  Given our garden plot doesn't allow planting of trees, we're going to buy and plant either one or two plants in pots.  We haven't decided whether we're going to take them to the plot and set them somewhere in the aisle or place them somewhere either in the back yard or on the front stoop.

Goji plants, also known as the wolfberry,  produce berries that have been described as tasting like a cross between the cranberry and cherry.  We find that to be far more appealing than ground cherries which were (accurately) described as a cross between a tomato and pineapple.  Goji plants grow up to 13' tall and 4' across, but can have their size managed through pruning.  They also can be potted which controls spreading.

Goji fruit is expensive!  In doing a little digging, I've seen prices of dehydrated goji berries between $18/lb online to $22/lb at the local MOM's today.

Growing goji

As I mentioned before, goji can get rather large, but can be potted.  If one wants to grow them in a pot, they should have pots no smaller than 5 gallons since the taproot extends up to 8" below the soil.  Water well in the first year and they can be reasonably drought tolerant later.  It likes a pH 6.8 to 8.2 with low levels of nitrogen.  They should be given something to climb on such as a trellis.  After the first year, be sure to trim their branches below 16" from the ground as they grow taller to decrease chances of fungus growth.  To encourage more growth, prune in the spring.  Few berries will be produced in the first year; yields increase in subsequent seasons.  It's recommended to use bird netting to deter non-human snacking.

They can be grown in a wide variety of climatic zones from 3 to 10.  Preferring full sun, they can handle temperatures as low as -5 F.

Although there are no recommended companion plants, it's recommended to keep them away from potatoes and tomatoes to prevent the spread of blight diseases.

Ripe berries will be a deep red with a shiny skin.  They should readily fall off in your hand when you try to pick them.  Be careful when harvesting as they will crush easily.

Nutrition Information

Although there are many sources claiming nutritional benefits of goji consumption, finding reputable sources of information has found to be a challenge.  While I hate quoting wikipedia, it's the best I've found.

In 100 grams of goji berries, 8-10% RDA of calcium, 24% potassium, 100% iron, 18% of both iron and zinc, 91% selenium, 100% vitamin B2, and a significant amount (percentages vary from 32% to 163%) of Vitamin C.  There are also a number of amino acids, poly and monosaccharides.

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.

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.