My Contender peaches are absolutely loaded this year. I’ve been picking up drops and cutting around bad parts, and picked off the tree some with rots. The birds and bees seem to do most of the “damage”. It’s not terrible. I picked a bag of pretty ones and gave them away to a neighbor. Soon enough I’m going to have to just pick the tree clean.
I also had more of my “Blueray” blueberries. Both plants were acquired from Ocean State Job Lot and were obvious mislabels. They are medium sized, a little bit on the sour side and ripen slowly over several weeks. You get more small harvests and none of these big clumps that others would give. I’m not sure if these are actually Jersey, Elliott, or what. I just know they’re late.
Finally one large Ajvarski and a few Poblanos, I bought the seeds from Rareseeds, but the Poblanos don’t look like the pictures online.
I hope this one has thick skin, I’m unable to grow bell peppers here. Yesterday I pulled out one Anaheim pepper plant because the peppers don’t have thick skin either.
I just updated my kitchen. The new stove comes with the grill feature. It works very well. I grilled the ufo squash( from friend’ garden) for lunch and grilled beef wrapped with Korean sesame leave for dinner.
From left to right: Nagasaki Eggplant, Ping Tung Eggplant, bowl of peppers (Ajvarski, Jimmy Nardello’s, Shishitos, Lesya, Yellow Monsters and Ozark Giants), tomatoes (Cuor di Bue, Midnight Sun and Hungarian Heart), Listada de Gandia Eggplant, a Tasty Jade Cucumber, some Cocozelle Zucchini (a little overgrown) and a Black Beaty Zucchini.
Most of it is going on the grill and the tomatoes and cuke are for a salad. Buon appetito!
In case anyone was wondering what those tomatoes looked like when I opened them up…
I think the Cuor di Bue in the picture above might be my largest tomato so far this year, at 2 lbs and 6.3 oz, or simply 1087 grams for the rest of the world.
Also, the Midnight Sun always looks like a work of art by nature after you open it up (last picture below).
My first Petit Gris de Rennes melon at 4.8lbs after 3 years of trying. First it was mold and voles so i started trelissing them off the ground. Last year it was cucumber beetle induced wilt. This year I sprayed with kaolin clay but some still may have gotten gummy stem blight so probably a limited crop. This was the only ripe one so far! It was good but maybe was expecting more after waiting so long. There’s always next year I guess. I think I’m going to try and graft them on pumpkin to get a head start in spring before all the pests and disease come full force.
@Agc123 Alex – I’ve tried ~75 varieties and currently grow 40+. But I’ve come to some strong conclusions about what works here (borderline Z6B/7A New England. We can discuss, but start here:
These recommendations should work for you west of Boston. Your winter is colder but your growing season is very similar.
A potpourri today – Figs (Improved Celeste, LSU Purple, Florea), apples (Centennial, St Edmond’s Pippin, and an unripe cider apple whose name I forget), and pears (Harrow Delight).
Here’s another trial I did this year and quite the amazing little surprise! It’s the all yellow (inside and outside) and amazingly tasty Lemon Drop Watermelon! These 1 pound-ish little gems are deliciously sweet. Two of them previously cracked on me. I have them on the end of the garden that receives a bit too much water. When I started slicing the very thin rind, it popped on me. They’re a keeper. They earned their place for a better spot in the garden next year!
Charentais Melon and Melon D’Or, I cleaned one melon bed, prepping for winter vegetables now. Charentais is very sweet,I think I did pick it at the right time.
