# Final Summer harvest



## stanb999 (Nov 14, 2011)

With frost on the way the summer crops are done. What a year of abundance.


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## stanb999 (Nov 14, 2011)

How did your garden do? What will you do differently next season?

For myself I will plant many more winter squash, we can use about twice as many, easily. I will plant the cucumbers on the sunnier west side of the garden so they can grow better. I will stagger plant the Chinese cabbage so it all doesn't come at once. I will not plant russet potatoes, they just don't have the yield of the Irish types for me.


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## Hooch (Jul 22, 2011)

I had a great garden this year and still enjoying the harvest time. 

I got 3 jack o lantern pumpkins not a great load but happy for 3 of them...

My amish pie pumpkin was a new variety I tried this year and I got 22 off 2 plants...I was floored! however they are mostly all between the weight of 5 to 10 pounds...I thought they were supposed to be larger but seriously..I have plenty. 

I grew a jasper white and so far I know of one...out of desparation I planted the jaspers in the greenhouse so I now cant get into the greenhouse yet..but I can see one nice medium sized jasper...hee hee!! cant wait!! 

I planted 4 small sugar pie pumpkin plants and I have so many I couldnt keep track and some I cant see because they grew into the corn patch that I havent harvested all the way yet. 

I love growing pumpkins...

I got nice cherries off the trees..finally this year. I had so many I couldnt eat them all..

same with strawberries but between me , my mom and the chickens we had plenty of berries to keep us happy

the corn I planted grew nice..I got nice big ears anywhere from 2-4 per stalk...but...whenI open the corn its not full. Im thinking it musta been a pollanation issue?? I have anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4 full ears..mostly somewhere inbetween that...the chickens love it tho and it's organic and sweet. Ill just have to try again n figure it out. The corn patch wasnt very big so no big loss and I love looking at the stalks.

I kept the taters plants down to a minium because I still have many quarts from last year and I have alot.

carrots did good, onions did ok..I got alot of mutants. I started out with one bulb seed and it grew a twin. so I got all except for two onions medium sized twins mutants..weird...

garlic did terrible.. and garlic has been the easiest veggie to grow always but this year it got some black rot crap n most of the bulbs died n just did had awlful growth...

lettuce did great..

overall fun year to grow stuff


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

My little porch garden did not do well this year. Next year I would like to try and grow some shade loving veggies. I hear beans dont mind shadier spots. Is that correct? Any advice? I do get a couple hours of direct sun but thats about it. The constant rain this year certainly didnt help either.


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## stanb999 (Nov 14, 2011)

Hooch said:


> I had a great garden this year and still enjoying the harvest time.
> 
> I got 3 jack o lantern pumpkins not a great load but happy for 3 of them...
> 
> ...


Did you plant your corn in a block or a row? I've found that unless I plant 4 rows wide or more I get poorly filled corn. What I mean is instead of this for 20 plants..

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

or this

X X X X X X X X X X 
X X X X X X X X X X

I do this... Same 20 plants.

X X X X X 
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X X X X


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## stanb999 (Nov 14, 2011)

CrackbottomLouis said:


> My little porch garden did not do well this year. Next year I would like to try and grow some shade loving veggies. I hear beans dont mind shadier spots. Is that correct? Any advice? I do get a couple hours of direct sun but thats about it. The constant rain this year certainly didnt help either.


I don't due container gardening... But all gardening it takes time and practice to learn. Keep at it and you will due better and exceed your expectations..

Something to consider. Think of plant life as a solar engine. More light, for more time, equals more growth. One of the big benefits of container gardening is moving the pot so it can get as much light as possible throughout the growing season.


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## Hooch (Jul 22, 2011)

stannb999 I did the block like the last example you did. I wasnt very big tho..I put them in a bed about 4ish feet wide and 8 feet long. I had planned on another block right next to it but ran out of time in the spring n basically just didnt have my act together to plant another block. owell..if im still here next year I will try it again


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

Hooch, I used a 4X8 raised bed 2 years ago & had an ear or two on every stalk.
Got to try that amish pie pumpkin next year.
I did not plant anything from the squash family this past year.
I had the tomatoes, which did not do well in the first planting,but better in the second planting.
Onions did well, butter beans did well,cucumber did well, as did the greens.


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## Hooch (Jul 22, 2011)

crabapple..did you get corn actually on your cobs? mine so far is kinda sparse. A few cobs had about at best 3/4 full of actual corn on it but very few so far..I nibbled it n its tasty but im letting the hens have it. 

yea..try the amish pumpkin next year..fun to grow!! I had 3 more amish growing still on the vine that were a few pounds but I pulled the plug on them last weekend. I needed to start cleaning upthe bed for winter and they were at the very end of a vine in the middle of the way..so I figured I had enough anyways. Its funny how that was hard to do tho...love my pumpkins!


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

stanb999 said:


> I don't due container gardening... But all gardening it takes time and practice to learn. Keep at it and you will due better and exceed your expectations..
> 
> Something to consider. Think of plant life as a solar engine. More light, for more time, equals more growth. One of the big benefits of container gardening is moving the pot so it can get as much light as possible throughout the growing season.


If I had a choice I would improve my metods. Unfortunately that is not in the cards at the moment. The only commercial farming I have done is tobacco in a very sunny area (southern africa). Very different than growing vegetables on an apartment porch with no significant sun within 100 ft in any direction and neighbors that would most likely walk off with a potted plant with no apparent owner. Im stuck here due to the price point till I graduate so Id like to make the best of it. Learning in adversity will make me better in better conditions I hope. Seeing your bounty from a great garden just makes me want to try harder. Got nice habernaro, decent parsley and basil, sucky everything else. Gonna try some beans next year and any suggestions I get.


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## TheManComesAround (Jun 18, 2013)

Daughter and I experimented with the "Three Maiden's" technique for Squashes, Corn, and Pole Beans. We had good results, but I think our next attempt will pack a few more plants in together and possibly use a larger bed.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

Hooch,
First the corn was last year, I did not plant it this year.
I used corn, squash & beans in the 3 sisters.
The corn did very well, i planned it close(4 inches X 4- 6inches in the row), after digging in lot of compost.I had a smutt problem, other then that it was great,full ears.
One or two had a few missing corn berry on the end, but I have seen that in a 3 acre field.
Some people plant blocks of four or two rows 6-8 inches apart, then another row 24 inches away, the second row is also two rows 6-8 inches apart.
My father never planted a small garden, with a family of 8.
He planted 4 acres of field corn, which we ate until the sweet corn came in.
He planted 7 rows of sweet corn that were each 350 feet long.
He planted all the sweet corn the same day, instead of two rows a week.
So it all came(ripen) in the same weekend/day.
We picked, shucked & put up corn until midnight.


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## libprepper (Aug 8, 2013)

It was ( and still is ) an incredible year here in Washington. Huge crops of Veggies and Fruit. So may apples, cherries, pears, and peaches I couldn't freeze, can, and give them away fast enough. Huge tomato crop, cucumbers, carrots,beets and potatoes did very well. Corn was so-so and the beans were good in the beginning but didn't last long.
Have plenty of squash and pumpkins in the field still fattening up. All in all a stellar year and the freezer and prep shelves are nearly full of jars. Still have a few dozen eggs to freeze and another big tomato batch is waiting for me as we speak. Maybe another half dozen quarts of apples to put up and this years fruit will finally be done. Couple more weeks and the squash , pumpkins and potatoes can come into the cellar. With that done I hope to take a little break from storing all this abundance. Already thinking about next year. 
If SHTF in the next few weeks we'll be eating well til next summer before getting into the beans, rice, and spam.


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