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Post by macmex on Oct 30, 2017 4:16:38 GMT -6
The Seminole is used in exactly the same manner as Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin or the Buckskin Pumpkin. It has a high quality flesh. You'll enjoy it.
Be aware, however, that the Buckskin, Old Timey Cornfield and Seminole are all c. moschata. So, unless you hand pollinated, you will have crosses when you grow from this year's seed.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 30, 2017 7:50:23 GMT -6
As long as they grow, I won't care. Those were the only ones that beat the squash bug invasion. Crazy thing is, they weren't even planted in the garden. I planted them in the West edge of the woods, where I had cleared some timber so I wouldn't have to mow the tree stumps. They had Southern light part of the day, but the morning and evening sun were blocked by tall trees.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 31, 2017 5:45:40 GMT -6
I pulled a Daikon radish from my Fall garden yesterday, that was every bit of 3" inches in diameter. I pulled as hard as I could with both hands, but couldn't get it to budge. The Monks at Clear Creek Monastery told me that they plant these Daikon radishes so close together that when they pull them up the ground is already worked up and has no need of a tiller.
That sounded like a novel idea to me at the time, and all season I've had these visions of breaking the ground by pulling radishes. I've envisioned how nice that would be and how well cultivated the soil would appear; freshly broken by nothing more than me pulling up the radishes at my leisure.
After trying to pull that one, I decided the only thing that would be broken by the pulling of these giant radishes would probably be my back. I have gained a whole new respect for the Monks through this endeavor to be sure!
Finally, after about 30 seconds of heaving and tugging out my guts, the radish broke in half, catapulting me backward and onto my rear-end, leaving about 1/3 of the giant radish in the ground. The part that came out was about a foot long. It had several 'root fingers' along its length and resembled a giant tooth. It turned out to be woody and hot, so I fed it to the pigs. They loved it and didn't seem to mind at all that it was so hot.
I've been experimenting with eating the greens of these radishes and have discovered that the young greens are good to eat as lettuce. They are very mild when they are young. When they are older, they are really good to cook and serve as greens. They are much milder than turnip greens and have a better, more supple texture.
In future years, I will be planting these radishes with greens in mind, and using the actual radishes as feed for my livestock. They are a very productive plant and were well worth the money spent on seeds, which was $18.00 for five pounds. I've pulled several wheelbarrow loads of these over the past few weeks and have saved well over $18.00 on my feed bill. Not to mention well supplementing the diet of my hogs with much needed green material to give them a break from the mundane daily ration of cracked corn and wheat mid pellets. I try to mix these greens about 1/4 grain with 3/4 greens. The pigs have really enjoyed them. The chickens enjoy the greens chopped and mixed with cracked corn and laying pellets. I enjoy them as fresh raw greens to munch on in the garden or as pot greens served with pork, with chicken, or with beans and cornbread. Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, at that time these greens will be served as a welcome addition to my Thanksgiving dinner.
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Post by john on Nov 1, 2017 15:47:12 GMT -6
I have been doing something similar for the past five years or so. The ones I grow are called tillage radishes. I sow them around the first of August and they get huge! I will post a link to the page where I have a picture of them. THey are sweet and mild especially after a frost. Usually I don't eat them though. I leave them in the ground to die over the winter. Which they will if you have temperatures down around ten degrees or less. In the spring the harrow sinks in deep! THe soil is so soft and friable. The seed isn't cheap but they are a lot of fun and will grow very well even on soil that isn't that fertile. If you give them fertility look out. They do a great job of working the soil.
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Post by john on Nov 1, 2017 15:51:53 GMT -6
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 1, 2017 19:08:41 GMT -6
John, Those are some beastly looking radishes! Thanks for the link to the photo. The egg carton was a good reference to the size. If they're like mine, they are a lot of fun to grow, but not much fun to try and pull... I have a bad elbow from falling off a ladder two stories high a few years back. It hurts like heck after about the second good tug.
I hadn't thought of leaving them in the ground over winter to rot... That sounds like a great plan! What a back saver!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 2, 2017 7:06:17 GMT -6
George,
The bees you caught for me in Tahlequah, have really done well this year. I set the hive right beside my garden fence, Sometimes I just sit there at the entrance and watch them do their thing for hours. I've been known to take a nap while listening to the buzzing. They've never stung me even once. My other bees would sting me at nearly every opportunity. I walk past these new bees every day with no fear of getting stung when I'm out in the garden. They don't even bump hard against me when I open the hive. My old bees would always do that.
A few days ago, during the warm spell, I went to open the hive to check on them and couldn't separate the supers. Thinking the bees had glued the wooden boxes together with propolis, I got my hive tool after the joints between boxes. When I had pried them apart, I discovered, the reason I couldn't lift the supers on the first try was not that they were glued together with propolis, but because they were so heavy from honey!
I've never tried to lift a super full of honey before and was expecting a much lighter box. I don't have the heart to rob them though. They worked too hard for all that honey. Still, I was utterly amazed, knowing how late a start these bees got from the day we caught that swarm.
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Post by macmex on Nov 3, 2017 6:02:30 GMT -6
I had the same experience with all four of my hives! I was expecting that i'd need to feed some. But no! They were chock full! I only harvested a tiny amount of honey this year, as I was trying to get each hive up to 2 deeps for their own brood and stores. At least that has been accomplished!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 4, 2017 15:47:09 GMT -6
Bon,
I planted my Daikon radishes in mid-July, right after the sweet corn harvest, while it was still raining. Then, we had a 45-day drought, so they got really hot tasting from lack of moisture, but when it started raining again in mid-September, they really took off! They are huge now, but it's the first week of November, so they are pretty old. Some of my turnips are getting up to softball size now. Most are only tennis ball size though, but they'll grow until mid-December if the temperatures stay above 10 degrees or so.
Next week looks like rain nearly every day. That ought to get them up and going again before Thanksgiving.
I don't know if my broccoli will come back though? It got hit pretty hard by the freeze we had last Saturday morning. All the big leaves have fallen off and only the main stems remain.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 4, 2017 18:08:02 GMT -6
I just now hand dug two of my sweet potato vines(as in I didn't take a potato fork with me to dig them.) I got a 5-gallon bucket so full it wouldn't hold any more sweet potatoes. I think I remember planting 9 vines? I hope I can remember where all of them were after that freeze killed the vegetation. Some were planted in my pumpkin patch out away from my garden. I haven't checked those vines yet. The deer were pretty rough on them, so I don't know what to expect? I also harvested a compressed bundle of Rabbit Tobacco plants and flowers to make tea this Winter. The bundle is about 6" inches in diameter. The flower heads were bigger around than I could fit through my truck door. It was all I wanted to try and carry out of the wild blackberry patch where it grows, with it being this close to dark. Man! Did I get stabbed with a lot of blackberry thorns! My poor legs will be in no kind of shape for table dancing again for quite a while. Good thing I have my gardening to fall back on as a secondary income. Edited November 7, 2017 I didn't think until just now, to take a photo of the sweet potatoes I harvested on November 4th. We've eaten a few of them since then, but here's what's left of my two vine harvest. I didn't weigh any of them, but they are in a plastic 5-gallon bucket with a leather work glove on the rim for reference. They were Beauregard sweet potatoes.
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Post by john on Nov 5, 2017 7:18:26 GMT -6
Bon, You are right a large portion of the radish does grow above ground. I grow on sandy loam and I would say half of the radish, is above ground. In the ones pictured, you can see that they penetrated about 12" into the ground. The other 12' was above the ground. (you can tell this because the part that is above ground carries a slight green color, the part beneath the ground is a pure white.) Also I feel your pain about the squash bugs! They carry a disease called Yellow vine disease. Every year I lose at least one or two of my giant pumpkins to it.
Ron, That is a huge harvest of sweet potatoes from just two plants, I hope your other plants produce the same as the first two!
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Post by john on Nov 5, 2017 7:25:33 GMT -6
I have found if I plant the radishes too late, all they really give me is a green cover. You have to plant them early enough for the roots to get big. For my location that means they should be planted by Mid August for maximum size. Also they won't get as big if you plant them too thick.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 5, 2017 9:51:13 GMT -6
Bon,
The radish greens are better than the radishes themselves I think. If you plant later, you will have the best greens you ever tasted come the Fall of the year. Either way, planting early or planting late, it's a win-win situation with tillage radishes.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 5, 2017 9:53:09 GMT -6
Here is a photo of part of my 2015 sweet potato harvest. They made my half bushel fruit baskets look like Dixie cups. The bottom photo is my Daughter posing with a sweet potato that weighed about 6 pounds. This year, they weren't as big, but it looks like we'll have enough to last us a while for home use. Back in 2015, I was growing them to sell to restaurants. They liked the big ones because they were cooking them in mass. My Wife didn't like the big ones because they have to be butchered before you can bake them, and it was too much trouble. I like the looks of the huge potatoes, but I like the way I can bake the small ones, just to feed one person at a time. Trying to eat a six-pound potato is like trying to eat a whole turkey. It ain't gonna happen.
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Post by john on Nov 8, 2017 16:45:44 GMT -6
Hi Bon The physical characteristics of the soil were vastly improved. Like I said, There really is no need to plow the soil is so soft after the radishes rot in the soil. I just ran a disk harrow through the garden and it sunk in deep. Just like it would have if I had plowed it first. I haven't noticed a smell, although I have heard that they can smell for a few days after they freeze and then thaw.
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