2022 Veggie gardens!

Is anyone else expecting an early garlic harvest? I started cutting scapes at the end of May which is the earliest ever. Leaves are all ready starting to turn brown. Typically harvest here isn’t until mid-June. Zone 6.

I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden. No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Such a variety of subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, and instead of one harvest a continued one through the year.

Thomas Jefferson

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Sounds normal, since mid June is next week. If your region has been warmer than usual, that can quicken maturation.

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Lovely sentiment! I agree! :slightly_smiling_face:

Had one serving of Swiss Chard last week, then the flea beetles moved to town.

LOL.

They found my Swiss chard, mixed Greens, Choi sum, kohlrabi, kale, spinach, eggplant, peppers, green bean plants.

They’re leaving my tomato and fava beans alone.

Cutworms took down half my new Saskatoon bush. I’m guessing it’s cut worms that killed my tarragon and have hurt my cucumber.

I am covering all my delicate vegetables with a white cloth to keep flea beetles out, and have sprinkled diatomaceous earth and coffee grounds around my berries, and planted some marigolds in addition to my perennial rue to dissuade visitors.

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Sorry, I meant mid-July.

I cut scapes about 10 days ago, and pulled all but one plant. I pulled four plants. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:. Might be my smallest garlic heads ever!

“Had one serving of Swiss Chard last week, then the flea beetles moved to town.”

@Phoenikia I wonder if that’s what was on my April 20th picture of buggy favas.

Oops! Looks like we already ID’d them.

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Our leaves haven’t died back enough yet but it looks like they will do so earlier than usual. Where are you located?

Northern California, half way between San Francisco and Sacramento. It gets very hot very fast here; usually by May first, but that is not the only problem I have growing garlic.

The peppers like it here!







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We are having a n “Excessive Heat Warning”. I’m putting shade cloth over the maters.

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Wow- I didn’t think any bugs ate tarragon. Oh boy- tomorrow I’m going to go out and have it be decimated…

Here is what I think of as my “poor little Aji Charapita” , started with seeds from the very generous @bogman .


I hope to have done it justice, but I wondered if there was something wrong. It seems to have struggled for months, but I think it’s going to make it! It’s still in a solo cup, and I think I see flower buds! What would you do next?

I found this sort of journal that might represent what to expect over a few years.

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I’d put it in a larger pot, at least a gallon size for now, and provide good nutrition. Yours looks normal for this time of year. They’re very small at first, but accelerate, like most C. chinense, when the weather gets hot. In the field, they get a large, strong root system. I’d guess it will eventually need a 4-5 gallon container.

It should be cranking out peppers by August, but the highest yields here were Sept.-early Oct. Here’s some in early Oct., 2019, which were about three feet high:


The peppers pop off easily if you bend the fruit’s stem (peduncle*).
*Now that’s a silly-sounding word!

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Thank you! Did you need to give it any support?

In 2019 the plants did fine without support. I didn’t support them in 2021 and 2 of the five ended up laying at an angle, propped up by their branches; they had more fruit per plant last year. It didn’t hurt them, but they were in-ground, didn’t have far to drop/lean. In containers, it may be wise to use stakes and hoops kind of a •O• (looking from the top). Where the bullet• is a stake and the O is a loop tied to the stakes. Like many C. chinense, they spread out and become wide plants. So, a hoop support system works better than tying to a single stake.

In garden row plantings, tomatoes and peppers can be supported using the “Florida Weave”. Here’s a good video about it. Tomato cages may also work with Aji Charapitas.

I don’t recall if thunderstorms caused the two leaning Charapita plants, both by wind-rain and turning the soil to soft mud.

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Flowers opening on the coolest day of the last several! I hope it makes a difference.


One of those was an eggplant, which I’ve never grown before.

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It’s an orange eggplant.

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I planted an assortment of garlic last fall but failed to label any of them. I cut scapes from a lot of the plants as they looked familiar (curvy and bendable) but a few have different looking scapes-tall straight with a bud on the end. Pic below.
Am I supposed to cut them off as well?

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I cut off all scapes.

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My tarragon is toast. LOL. I give up.

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