What's happening today - 2018 edition

thats funny! we have lots of raspberries here and they do well but crave blackberries which don’t do well here. my montmorency froze to the ground but some how survived and is nearly as tall as my juliet and carmine jewel that were already 2ft tall when i planted them! a tough variety!

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my 4 babycakes dwarf blackberries are finally growing like crazy with this warm weather and full of blooms on florocanes and primocanes! going to finally get to eat my 1st commercially developed cultivar fresh blackberry! might not produce as many fruit as other varieties but just thankfull they are finally going to give me fruit!

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Well, the weather hasn’t been too hot here as of late, so the last couple of days, I’ve been weeding and mulching. On Wed, I did all nine of the blackberry plants and two peach trees, and yesterday I worked on the five pear trees.

It’s shameful the way the weeds had got around my trees, but the main reason is that they’re inside cages, and although I mow around the outside of them, I don’t the inside, so it got quite out of hand. My two big pear trees had a lot of fencing around them because of their size, so I’m leaving them without the fencing from here on, as the pears don’t seem to get browsed on like an apple tree does by deer. Plus, the deer don’t seem to be a big an issue this year as before. YET.

So, 7 trees done, and only 22 to go…

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If I didn’t have the blackberries I would crave them too!! I’ve only eaten cherries once this year. Paid $4.98/lb for them…I enjoyed every one of them.

I have had a little success with Anne raspberry and someday I’m going to plant more of them. We had them by a wrong order and only had a few and when we removed the other rasps they went too. I did like them. Much better flavor and they did better with the heat.

Katy

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So good my are gone as of tomorrow!

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Twice was going to spray again but I thought it was Overkill. Found one more Tomcot today.

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there are some japanese raspberries that grow well in the south. i think they are called wineberries. might want to google them! :wink: burnt ridge nursery has a dwarf one called emerald carpet.

in your area , i would apply at least 3in . of mulch to conserve water in the heat. wood chips are best but any thing would be better than nothing.

We have mulch in our berries and asparagus. Basically in our box beds. Around the trees though we have Bahia grass and it comes up straight through the mulch. It’s impossible to control. I do have a number of a tree service I’m going to contact to see about a cheaper mulch.

round up is your friend! :wink:

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Picked a bowl of peaches today (gold dust) many more to come :smile:

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If you attempted to use Roundup to kill the Bahia grass you would make the Monsanto stockholders even richer…it’s the hardest grass to get did of that I know about. It’s EVIL…the drier it gets the tougher it gets but it keeps right on growing!! :scream:. I officially hate it!

Interesting. The emerald carpet seems an entirely different thing to Wineberry. It sounds like it might grow here. Found a source on eBay but pricey!

Katy

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I harvested my one (and only) Early Golden plum today. Brix between 13 and 14 and tasted exactly as described on most sites. It was fair, not great. Also got a few Methleys. The best two were 17 and 18 brix. I liked these better.

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i use the concentrate from TSC. not monsanto product. $15 a gal. lasts forever! works well for me but our weeds aren’t as persistent as yours. emerald carpet rasp. are $4 ea. and in stock at burnt ridge nurseries. i have arctic raspberries i plant under my other trees and berry bushes that grow similarly. emerald carpet grows in z 6-10 so should work for you there. :wink:

Wednesday I harvested the rest of my garlic. About 2 weeks later than last year. looks perfect, both hard and soft neck. I let it dry on my porch, south facing, but overhang prevents direct sunlight, just about perfect for drying.

Not a lot of huge hardnecks this year, but some are decent.

Surprising this year was how big the softnecks were, some giants in there! A great garlic year for me!


Some onions I had in the garlic bed were ready too, most of mine are not. probably because I didn’t water the bed, these last couple weeks. I did harvest most of the softnecks about 10 days ago, and the hard necks Wednesday.

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Really nice garlic Year for you Drew. This is what I harvested couple of days ago. Biggest ones pictured. Not as big as yours.

Also picked these peppers yesterday.

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They still will be awesome, big or small, I had a lot of small ones this year too. I think they had too much nitrogen. I’m going to try and give them less in the future. Also one guy I know puts them down 4 inches, I tried it instead of 2 inches, and well they were smaller deeper down, 2 inches seems about right. And no I don’t measure, a guesstimate when planting.

I have three ripe banana peppers and some jalapeños, I think i will pickle them today. Not many yet, but enough for a small jar.

My wife wanted more softnecks so she can braid them. I planted Idaho Silver and Nootka Rose. Both are very hardy softs, the Rose is big and awesome, both are very nice. For braids the Rose is awesome, some info
Beautifully colored strain; a Northwest heirloom from the San Juan Islands off the Washington coast. From Steve Bensel of Nootka Rose Farm in Waldron, WA. Cloves streaked red on mahogany background with solid red clove tips. Medium to large bulbs and very attractive braided. Strong flavor. This is one of our most popular. I order from the Filaree Garlic Farm.

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Came back from a week of travel to the East Coast for work. I had asked the kids to water some of the outside potted plants that are not on the sprinkler system. Unfortunately I forgot to remind them and they forgot to water. It was hot last week but they did get an overnight shower one evening, (that helped!) and so the damage wasn’t too bad. The mint is toast as well as some flowers, but everything else made it, although there were a lot of droopy thirsty plants when I got back.

I was able to harvest some orange bell peppers and a couple of Black Krim tomatos. The peppers were good in a salad we had for dinner, although they were a bit on the small side. The tomatos were over ripe and a bit mushy, but they were pretty tasty. I saved some seeds for next year, so hopefully I’ll get these figured out.

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Gardens don’t like you to leave them

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Hmm, we have a nameless thornless raspberry that does well here in Spokane. Our major heat picks up just after the first flush of raspberry harvest. We get 11 to 15 gallons of raspberries each year.

Wonder how it would do in your part of Texas?
I could try sending you some extra canes next March, if you like. PM me if you want to try it.

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