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Oklahoma Gardening

corn harvest over

13 years ago

Well, we got the corn put up--close to 400 ears, although not all of them were perfectly filled out. Part of the second planting didn't pollinate well and very few stalks this year had two ears. We still got quite a bit in the freezer though.

But the potatoes!! WOW, did they ever produce. From 12# of seed potatoes we dug 218# of potatoes. This year I dusted the sets with sulfur which not only protected from disease but acidified the soil a bit. DH also tilled well rotted oak leaves into the rows. That probably also helped acidify a little. As a result we have more potatoes with less scab than in former years. (Our garden soil has become too alkaline for potatoes to do well in recent years and our potatoes have been scabby as a result.) So we're happy about that.

The first of August I will start the fall garden, chinese cabbage seed started on the porch and Cherokee Stripe Beans directly in the garden. Then a little later will direct seed winter radishes, regular French Breakfast radishes and the lettuce and spinach. Maybe a small patch of turnips and mustard althoug I can't eat too much because of a low thyroid condition. (The year I ate mustard and turnip greens every single day for 6 weeks, I suppressed my thyroid function despite taking my usual morning dose.)

Hope everyone else is having a great harvest.

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Comments (3)

Macmex
13 years ago
Our Cherokee Striped Cornhill beans are passed the top of the cattle panel, but not yet flowering. They should flower soon. Such a vigorous bean variety!

I bet we got a great potato harvest, though, only one variety has dried down. It's been a great "potato year."

George
Tahlequah, OK
scarlettfourseasonsrv
13 years ago
That's an awesome harvest. It looks like all your hard work and planning has paid off well. And those potatoes, I'm impressed with the producton.
I've been thinking about fall garden as well, but wondering where I'm going to put it all with the garden already crowded with tomatos mostly. More expansion and tilling I suppose.
I would like to plant some fall potatos but the online prices for certified seed potatos are out of sight for me. I did spy some baby new potatos at the store that looked like they wanted to sprout, so I bought 5lbs of those. And then 10 lbs of Yukon Gold, at least I think it was YG, The package said Golden Butterball or some such. I washed with with soapy water and rinsed and dried carefully in case they had some sprouting preventer on them and hope they will produce for me. Ya, I know it's not the best to use store potatos but in my case here, I figured it was better than no potatos at all.

Hoping you have as good luck with your fall garden as it sounds like you had with your summer crop!

Barbara
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soonergrandmom
13 years ago
I hadn't planned to plant any potatoes for fall, but when we went out to get the ground ready to plant a new crop of something, we discovered numerous potatoes that had not been picked up. Several had been damaged, but they look like they should be OK for seed potatoes, so I think I am going to throw them in the ground somewhere.

Dorothy, you did good.

We have been using ours a lot, and they really do make a good tasting baked potato, which I probably would not have used them for if someone on here hadn't mentioned it. So far they have been boiled, steamed, baked, and fried so I considered them worthwhile.

I don't know how many pounds I got, but I had all I could spread on 5 big cookie sheet pans. I got three pans the first time, then the second little patch added two more pans full. Over a hundred good sized potatoes, and many small ones.

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