Reviewing the hits, misses of this year’s plantings

I have yet to see any frost up here on my hill in Conesville as we enter the middle of October. It still feels more like midsummer than mid-fall. I have not had to fire up the woodstove in weeks now.

This warm spell has allowed not only an abundance of tomatoes to ripen, but I do think I may actually harvest some of the carrots I planted back in late August. I planted garlic yesterday, but since I did not get down to the garlic festival in Saugerties, I had to use my own harvest as seed stock. This practice works for a couple of years, but it is good to buy some new stock every so often. For parts of our region, the drought continues and you need to make sure the trees and shrubs you planted this spring get watered at least weekly.

I have canned lots of tomato sauce and may have a two-year supply put up. This would allow me to experiment with other different varieties next year. I want to thank regular reader Louise, who recognized the “mystery” dark-skinned fruit I wrote about last week as one that she grows. It is “Black Krim.” It does have an interesting taste, and I might consider growing one plant next year. I welcome any suggestions of your favorite varieties as well. My email is rlb14@cornell.edu.

My “never-to-be-planted again” Brussels sprouts variety “Fallstaff” have produced enormous plants, but still only a few tiny sprouts. Next year it will be “Long Island Improved,” unless anyone has a better suggestion. I have a few other serious “underachievers” on the “never-to-be-planted” list as well. I was given a pepper plant called “La Bomba” that has turned out to be a total bomb! The plants grew about a foot tall and each of them has produced, exactly two tiny peppers that are the size of small jalapenos. I allowed one fruit to turn red, but it has none of the heat of a jalapeno and the flesh and skin are very tough.

I had better luck with “California Wonder” a large, bell pepper that turns orange and then red from green and is pretty prolific. I generally don’t grow many peppers, since I really don’t detect much difference between store bought and home grown. Local roadside vegetable stands, such as Story Farms in Kiskatom have an excellent selection of them. I generally don’t grow onions for the same reason, but this year I did plant some “Sweet Sandwich” and they turned out excellent! I think the key to success with onions is to grow them from transplants and not from “sets”.

As usual, my spinach plants all bolted before I harvested much of any of them. Even “Bloomsdale Long Standing” turned out not to be very long

standing at all. “Bright Lights” Swiss Chard may be the prettiest vegetable I grow, and it is also one of the most prolific. It is not quite as tasty as spinach, but it is so much easier to grow!

My first planting of Norland, Yukon Gold and Kennebac potatoes was a total failure once more this year, but I did harvest quite a few “volunteer” fingerling potatoes that I grew last year, but, somehow, did not harvest them all. Allowing “volunteer” potato plants to grow is risky, because if they harbor the late blight fungus, it will spread to your tomatoes and you could lose all of them in weeks! I took my chances and it turned out OK.

My second planting of an unknown Maine potato variety that I purchased at Dean’s Mills in Oak Hill very late in June also turned out well. The specific variety was not on the bag, but I suspect these are Kennebac as well.

Both “Tendergreen” and “Golden Butterwax” green/yellow, bush beans did very well this year and I am still harvesting a few of the yellow “Butterwax.” Both of these are very tasty, and I will grow both again next year. I barely got enough cucumbers to make a dozen pints of pickles. I grew “Straight 8,” which is a pretty looking, slicing type cucumber, but highly susceptible to mosaic disease, which, predictably, wiped them out after the first harvest. I also grew a bush type that yielded poorly. Next year it will be “Marketmore” for sure!