[Corky]

Well...... probably not but is the SHTF in the next year we may not be as well fed as I had hoped.

This spring we had a major late ice storm that made the national news big time as it was so wide spread.
Trees were down everywhere and power was out for weeks in some areas.

My garden mostly froze. Even the potatoes and peas that are usually tough.

I had to replant both. I did get some peas this year but not many. I might have 8 or 10 pints in the cellar.

Some of the potato plants survived and I planted a big new patch. The vines just died on the newer patch.
I went out to dig them this morning.
I got a 5 gal bucket of golf ball size and smaller potatoes from the whole patch. Should have been a couple hundred pounds.
Can't figure out what happened. I have never had that happen before. The plants were very healthy and strong.
Good thing we can go to the store and buy potatoes but what if we couldn't?
Many of the plants had nothing. Very strange.

 

[floramum]

Well Corky,

Dont Be Discouraged. Keep On Going. Weather Is Out Of Our Control. Surely Wiser Gardeners Will Give You Some Ans. On Here.

One Year My Dad Planted Huge Garden, Use Big Old Field Pump To Water It Out Of Pond, We Had Huge Heads Of Lettuce....beautiful Never Had Any Since Then.....[we Just Eat Leaf Lettuce, Easy To Grow].
Then It Hailed And Ruined The Whole Garden.

He Did Grow Sugar Cane There For A Few Seasons For Local Syrup Festival. Grey Sandy Fla. Soil......

Mum

 

[tamatik]

I had some spuds left over so I planted them in the greenhouse and now they have taken over.Some of the tops are 6 feet long..I,ve never seen potatoes do that but I,m sure theres no spuds to them ..just tops..Looks like I,ll buy a 100# bag this fall and can most of them..

 

[heelpin]

Potatoes need long nights and short days.

 

[NickieL]

I didnt have much luck with spuds either this year

 

[Corky]

Now I figured one or more of you Southerners.... Thats farther South than I am...
Would say... What do you need with potatoes anyway? Buy rice!
Well, I have rice but that is for BREAKFAST! With milk and sugar on it. So is grits by the way.

NO! DON"T THROW THINGS AT ME!!!!

 

[hillsidedigger]

Even with a good well, an electric pump and an hour+ a day spent irrigating these last 4 months, my production has been quite limited, some rows and types of crops didn't produce at all. The complete freeze in mid-April occurred here also and then the weather forgot that I have placed myself in one of the normally very wettest places in America, the Blue Ridge front usually gets 20 to 25" of rain from April thru August, here this year not even 7" during this period.

I was thinking yesterday as I hoed out a 200' row for mixed greens, while kicking up a dust storm, that many in the Dust-Bowl days in the Great Plains must have nearly killed themselves attempting desperately to grow something late in the growing seasons after little or no earlier production there at that time and to no avail.

The world's climate may not be changing but its been very different around here for several years now.

 

[Pouncer]

Potatoes need long nights and short days? I did not know that.

Hmm...wonder if all the potato farms up here have any idea they shouldn't be able to grow any of them with 20+ hours of daylight........lol, maybe it's the heat down south, I haven't ever had a problem with potatoes up here in Alaska? As long as you aren't planting in glacial silt or straight clay, the darned things will produce something, provided you started with decent seed spuds to begin with.

 

[moonwolf]

generally speaking, to grow good potatoes there are 3 major factors.
proper spacing between the spud plantings and keeping hilled up (or with heavy mulch). If too crowded, there may be competition for the nutrients present in order to grow to any size.
good feeding (fertilizer) that is already present down into the subsoil for the roots. Feeding at the top later...is too late. Soil prep needs being done at least a year before planting.... something like composted leaves tilled in or rotted horse manure... let them work the nutrients down where the potato roots need them.
pH....on the acid side about 6 to 6.5...

 

[Guest]

Don't feel along Corky, I'm riding in that same boat with you. I jiggered up about a 1/4 acre and planted it all in taters. Then I had real good small veggie garden growing in another spot when all of a sudden we got hit with a very late freeze and killed everything. All my tater seeds rotted in the ground and my veggies just wilted over. Most died and what lived was stunted after that.

I tilled it all under and was gonna replant and then all the rain moved in. Everytime I had a day or two away from work it done nothing but rain the whole time. So I never did get to replant anything.

So I thought, well I just plant a fall garden. Well it is now staying over a hundred degrees everyday. All the grass and weeds are shribbling up. So I know it isn't gonna do me anygood to try and plant anything now.

Maybe some of those lucky gardeners will throw some table scraps to us!

 

[DQ]

sorry you had such a bad year. I gave up one year. every time things started to come up and get going, we had hail that would completley defoliate everthing. I was one seriously ticked off gardener. the only thing that came back were the jalapenos, I had gobs of them, one canteloupe ripened and dropped off before I found it. a box turtle was in the process of hollowing it out when I found it. when I finally got tomatoes going (after two plantings being destroyed by hail) they all succumbed to the curly top disease before flowering. ugh. by that time I was on bed rest for pregnancy complications feeling completely defeated and said to *^&# with it.

 

[Ravenlost]

Now I figured one or more of you Southerners.... Thats farther South than I am...
Would say... What do you need with potatoes anyway? Buy rice!
Well, I have rice but that is for BREAKFAST! With milk and sugar on it. So is grits by the way.

NO! DON"T THROW THINGS AT ME!!!!

I'm a Southerner and I much prefer taters to rice any day! Never had rice for breakfast, but do love grits or taters for breakfast. No milk or sugar in my grits though!

As for your garden, time to think about building some cold frames/hot beds and doing some Fall and Winter gardening. That's what I'm doing this year. The late frost in April wiped out a lot of my stuff, then we had a very dry Spring which didn't help. Then we had some heavy rain in June that waterlogged everything. Now it's crispy dry and extremely hot. The garden hasn't had a chance this summer.

Hubby and I are going to put a lot of energy into experimenting with Fall and Winter gardening this year.

 

[Corky]

My garden has always been a big success and it has been this year too.
The only crops that did not do well are the root crops.
Beets and potatoes.
I think that even though I deep mulch and put lots of critter droppings on it, it is probably lacking in some nutrient that root crops need.
I grow potatoes every year and have very likely used up too much of the stuff they need. Time for another soil test me thinks.

As far as eating southern food,( I was married in Boloxi Mississippi, lived there a year), I could never get used to the rice in everything and I hated grits until someone showed me to sprinkle a sugar packet and pour one of those little creamers in the hole they put in the grits in a restaurant. That was good.

 

[Gailann Schrader]

Beans and rice are nearly a complete protein. Add some cheese or dairy and you will do fine.

Grow blackeyed peas next year. They take some time to produce but produce well, sprawl everywhere, and are interesting to grow...

Homeground field corn for cornbread feeds a lot. Paired with chili (more beans, tomatoes, rice, a little venison) will feed a lot...

Bulgar wheat (steamed and cracked wheat) is a great substitution for starch. More starch? But you can barter a fresh 5 gallon bucket of wheat when your neighbor is harvesting. Now? Get a 5 gallon bucket of wheat from the elevator/Co-op.

Homesteading = adaptation.

Mebbe relying on potatoes from your garden isn't a great idea anymore...

Or find a cooler place to grow them. Like the lee side of the barn...

 

[Corky]

...
Mebbe relying on potatoes from your garden isn't a great idea anymore...

Or find a cooler place to grow them. Like the lee side of the barn...

The bucks would just love that. That is where their pen is.

We have lots of rice and beans but DH reminds me, we can't grow rice here so when that is gone we just might not be able to get more.
By golly, I sure can grow beans though!

 

[Rita]

Potatoes, bush beans and cabbage were the big disappointments this year. Everything else is doing great but I'll have to forget about second crops as it is all I can do to keep up with the watering of what is still growing.

 

[elliemaeg]

I planted a garden this year. The tomatoes did fairly well. The green beans made beautiful vines but little beans, the okra and corn didn't do good at all. I think it was t he drought we had end of May and first of June.
104 here today.

 

[suitcase_sally]

My garden is doing great, but I learned a lesson early on. I can for two years out. (I'm canning this year for eating in the winter of '08-09). I had a failed garden one year and ended up having to buy far more of my veggies than I had planned to.

I'm growing potaoes in 55 gallon drums this year. They are on the west side of my grapes. Now the grapes have grown so much they are shading the drums. I'll post how many I get in the fall as this is my first time doing this.

 

[ladybug]

Sorry to hear about your garden Mine was awful this year too, but I have my houdini goats to blame for that! They took down the fence around the garden more times than I could count this year, until I finally gave up on trying to keep them out(once they had eaten everything in sight). We had 37 tomato plants this year, hoping for a big yield so that we could can some for us and share some with family and neighbors but no luck :shrug: They got the tomatoes,beans, squash, corn, potatoes, even the beets and radish! I'm working on growing some to keep inside this year since they tore up the greenhouse too lol~bad bad goats! I love rice for breakfast, my granma used to put butter and a little sugar in it for me when I was a kid, it was great! Is it too late to start a second crop in your area? I hope you are able to get some kind of harvest out of what's left!

 

[All country]

Our beans, tomatoes, beets, turnips, potatoes and pickles did fine.
We put up 170 quarts of sweet corn we got from a friend.

We lost most all of our apples, peaches, & cherries because of a late freeze. The black raspberries shriveled up & strawberry season was short for lack of rain.

Squash has always done great here, this year we lost all of it the summer and winter squashes. Watermelon & honey dew plants shriveled up and died. The cantaloupe produced great, I picked 7 yesterday, but they are small softball size, this has been a very dry summer.

Carrots & onions didn't do well at all. We will have to hit the stores this fall.