st lawrence nursey in upstate n.y. sells a silver maple tree that has sap as sweet as the sugar maple but grows 2xs faster. they claim you can start tapping them in as early as 15 yrs and they can grow in wetter areas/ heavier soils than the sugar maple does. when i get my land i plan on planting a bunch of them.
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They also sucker like crazy!
Yes, silver maples grow even faster than white pines…and in 40 years are just as dangerous around a building.
But…I didn’t know there was one that has sap sweet as sugar maple??
I’ve not had trouble with suckering…but they grow above the grass often times and are bad to crack sidewalks and foundations. (Silver maples.)
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its called sweet sap silver maple. was discovered by a forester in ontario, canada back in the 60’s. it has 3-5% sugar content and is tapable in 8-10 yrs! if planted in open fields with a buffer of fast growing evergreens to the n.w to break the wind it should do well… said is a supplement to the sugar maple to grow in the areas not ideal to the sugar maple. id like to try enough trees to get my family our own supply of maple syrup. they sell them as 4-5ft. trees for $24 plus shipping.
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Trip around UW Madison Arboretum and Olbrich Gardens. Nice to see trees labeled so you know what you are looking at. The Bur oak (wife is modeling in front of it) is 89 years old (i have one in my yard so its nice to see what it’ll look like when i’m roughly 120). Not sure on the ash tree (me) but they are treating it. Some oddball trees i never knew about (umbrella pine is awesome/the elm has very interesting bark). Huge flock of wild turkeys run around the arboretum//almost tame. Tupelo has great fall color.
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Bought some peaches at Costco. Once I got them home I saw a label saying they where picked 22 days ago in California. They were still hard and didn’t taste like peaches but looked very nice. I should have known better. I’ll return them.
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This year I grew a variety of Asian vegetables in my veggie patch, including fuzzy melons. Fuzzy melons are an interesting edible gourd that has a bit of a cucumber taste to it when harvested and used in an immature state. One got away from me so I let it go since in the mature stage they are known as winter melon or ash melon and can keep for several months due to the waxy film they get on the outside. It just kept growing and growing and I just harvested it. Now I need to figure out what to do with it. My dog doesn’t enjoy the competition for space on the front steps.
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@zendog
It is used as veggie. Peel it and clean off the seed part. Cut into 1-1.5” pieces. It absorbs juice very well so it is often used in curry and clear soup.
That fuzz often irritates skin. Best handling with gloved hands.
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“Fuzzy melon” (毛瓜 sometimes as 节瓜/節瓜), usually refers to something different than “winter melon” (冬瓜) not based on harvesting time. It’s a cultivar difference. The former is long, cylindrical and smaller. It typically has higher lighting, soil requirements, less disease resistance and is more sensitive to nitrogen. At least, that is my recollection. @IL847 @mamuang can maybe jump in.
Nice size winter melon. Friend of mine gave me a one. I plan to make winter melon crystals candy
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@JustPeachy Interesting info. I think some are selected for use as winter melon and some may be better for fuzzy melon, but I’m pretty sure they are both Benincasa hispida. Sort of like the many varieties of bottle gourds. I purchased the seeds from an Asian market as fuzzy melon, but it definitely has the waxy outside, etc. of winter melon on the mature one. Maybe I’ll learn something new when I open it up. This one is about 26lbs, but the fuzzy ones were more on the 3-5 pound size.
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In China, they are considered different 节瓜和冬瓜有什么区别？节瓜在六月份还能种植节瓜吗，如何种植？_网易订阅
Google translate kind of butchers much of the explanation, but it does a decent job nonetheless of explaining. Fuzzy/Hairy melon or whatever you call it is a subtype Benincasa hispida var. chieh-qua. It grows multiple melons/gourds along the same vine, every few nodes. It’s usually more prolific with regards to fruiting, but it requires more heat usually. Winter melon grows more like a melon melon or watermelon. You only get a few per plant.
I was intrigued by the idea of making candied winter melon. But I looked at a recipe for the Indian version (Petha) and it seemed like quite an undertaking. I think I’ll probably try making a curry with some to start as @mamuang suggested. I’ll post a review/picture of whatever I make. I hope you’ll show us a picture of your candied melon and let us know how it came out.
@JustPeachy
Here is the seed packet I bought.
But when I grew them they turned out to be shorter and fatter than the packet showed. They actually looked just like the ones in the artical you provided a link for. Here is one with some other things I left out on my front porch to give away. They were pretty tasty, a bit sweet with a taste that had a bit of a cucumber flavor to it.
I grew two vines that started out sort of weak as seedlings, then grew well once the temps got hotter. I got about a half dozen fuzzy melons from each and then this big mature one that I’m considering a winter melon from one of the vines when I let it go. For the size of the vines they really produced a lot. Do you think the one in my picture above isn’t a winter melon?
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The top of your seed packet got cut off so I couldn’t see the Chinese characters. I think I found a website selling the seeds with the full packet illustrated.
Yeah this is 毛瓜 or Fuzzy melon as you call it. I rarely have seen seeds sold stateside. Textually (to me at least), it’s different from the winter melon (at least the cultivars I have grown), but then again, there are so many cultivars of winter melon that there’s variation in texture anyways. Also, I haven’t heard of people letting fuzzy melon “go to seed age,” as in advance to full maturity. I’d be interested in what the inside looks like. I’m curious if it’s anything like winter melon.
As for photo inaccuracy, Chinese seed companies often rip generic pictures for illustration purposes. The importing company just uses whatever artwork/photo is supplied to them by the seed company. You should see how they sell Fred Hempel’s Bumblebee seeds in China (talk about Photoshop filtering…).
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There are different varieties but in Thailand, they are called them green gourds, fuzzy skin or not. They are used for culinary purposes the same way.
เทคนิคเบื้องต้น การปลูกฟักเขียว - แนวทางเกษตรเกร็ดความรู้.
Unfortunately, the name of this type of gourd in Thai has the same pronunciation as a “F” swear word. I have to remind my Thai friends not to say it out loud when they see this gourd in the US.
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It looks like you bought a fuzzy melon seeds but it ended up to be a winter melon.
I think melon seeds aren’t reliable. This year, I bought burpees big moon pumpkin seeds but ended up half was sugar pie. My blue Hubbard squash mostly are beautiful orange color and smaller in size.