vgkg - I looked up Japanese Persimmon trees and it looks like there are a number of varieties that are from Japan.

Do you happen to remember the variety name?

vgkg - that's what I thought. I think I've had Japanese persimmons from the store and they were delicious.

Sure seems to me like this site is getting worse and worse as time goes on. Guess they don't give the forum much attention :-/

On the topic of preserving green onions, does anyone dry or freeze chives here? I read something about freezing chopped chives in cubes.

Picture posting test

Edit: Guess it worked. I haven't been having any issues posting from my iPhone.

Speaking of beets... I've never grown them. Thought I didn't like them. I don't like pickled <anything>. BUT...I recently had the opportunity to try a bite of a beet which was roasted. Actually quite good, almost sweet, imagine that! So...Anybody have a variety recommendation for me to try out next year? I'll only grow a few, and they'll be for non-pickled consumption. TIA

I feel the same way, Margi! I don't like them pickled, but they are delicious roasted. I just roast them in aluminum foil with a little olive oil. Ace is a pretty good red variety. Deep red, good size. You should try a few colors though. Chioggia is a beauty, especially with those concentric rings, golden varieties are supposed to be sweet(I've yet to try roasting this Badger Flame) and there is even a white beet. Avalanche is apparently a good white variety.

Just pulled this carrot today. Widest carrot I've ever grown.

nice carrot Cindy

Kevin glad to see you can post photos!

Chris- Thanks for the tips.
Cindy - That’s a monster!

I spent two days cleaning up leaves. Took two days to haul big tarp loads up to the garden. I figure I moved 5 cu yards yesterday and 6 today. Meanwhile the leafs are falling. The spots where the piles were are somewhat bare. The rest looks about what it looked like before I mowed them into big piles.

I think tomorrow I'm going to pick all my tomatoes and put them into 6" deep steam trays. I'm planning to put some card board between the metal and the tomatoes and between layers.

I was looking at my plants while I sat gasping for breath. Some plants look grossely Septoria'd. Some look nice and green. Those plants still have lots of healthy looking flowers. Shame to pick them, but there's 3 days of overnight frost coming. I decided not to fight.

We had a tomato with dinner again. The tomatoes don't taste like beefsteaks. This one tasted kinda like a store tomato. It was picked green and ripened in the kitchen. I picked the plant this came from to make room for my tarp, which I never needed.

We are expecting 3 more inches of rain tomorrow through Thursday!

nice photos everyone!

Margi -- I chop up the bunching onions into 1/2" pieces and freeze in ziplock bags. Have enough to use in soups, stews, eggs, stirrfry for 6 months. Also, give several gallon bags to my parents. All this from two 10 gal containers that produce non-stop for 8 months.

Tony

John - late tomatoes and greenies picked and allowed to ripen off the vine just aren't the same are they? I'm still planning to plant out a couple late next year in mid June after I dig my Yukon potatoes to see if I can harvest some decent maters into mid October. This year my plants were pretty bare by mid September. I actually just tossed a dozen or so maters that I picked green a few weeks ago and ripened in my basement.

Margi - We really liked Touchstone Gold beets this year. We ate them both roasted and boiled. When I boiled them I put them in lightly boiling water for 10 minutes, and then pulled them out and sluffed off the skin and then boiled them for another 15-20 minutes. Yum!! I liked the golden ones because they don't bleed like the reds do.

So far only rain here this morning. The rain has moved east of us now but it's supposed to start snowing around day break and snow most of the day. They are still calling for 2-3"

Jamie - I see that it's raining down there now. Naturegirl is getting some rain too, I think she may be looking at 4-6" of snow by tomorrow.

Yes, LoneJack, we woke up to falling snow. It did not stick and the day is looking quite nice right now. I may try to clean up a few more garden areas and spread some chopped leaves while it is dry. One local weather report says: "HALLOWEEN It will be a M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E day of weather." Never saw that in a report before. It doesn't sound like a day to be gardening. We had a stressful day yesterday with an ER visit. Things turned out well, but I'm ready for some calming garden time so I better embrace it today.

I wish I could send our rain and snow to my daughter's area. She is in California and texting fire updates frequently. She is in a safe area that is almost certain to stay safe but people and places she knows are not. She feels efforts to control the fires are doing a good job of keeping the fires away from infrastructure...people, homes, businesses, roads most of the time. But sometimes all efforts can not control the fury of high winds and non-existent humidity.

You're right, Jack! We had rain all morning, but it has stopped for now. We should have more later on tonight and maybe some in the morning - as well as some cold temperatures tomorrow night. I have a few houseplants outside that I need to move inside this afternoon before I forget.

NG- I heard that there was a chance of snow in the Detroit area also!

We didn't get our garden beds covered this past weekend, but I think they will be ok for now. We should be able to do it this weekend.

I filled my 6" maple steaming tray. That's what I've used it for. All 3-4" green tomatoes. I left the ones that are partially ripened on the plants to pick tomorrow in the rain... probably. I don't want all of them in the warmth of the house ripening at once.

Picked a handful of green beans. Left the remaining potatoes, the brassicas, lettuce, and carrots to fend for themselves. My fall lettuce is just getting to the point that there's something to consider picking, maybe 3" tall Black Seeded Simpson. The brocoli and cabbage I set out in early September never headed up. Neither did the direct seeded cabbage I sowed in mid July.

John - I also picked most of my tomatoes today even though I had just picked them last week. There were another 40 fruits.

Started digging my sun-chokes, too. I tried earlier in the season but they were just too small. They're much better now that we've had some rain though I haven't washed them yet.

Cindy, it's been about 15 years ago when I bought it (seems like 20) but I do recall it's name started of with an "Icyi" sounding name so I'm pretty certain it's an Ichi Ki Kei Jiro Asian Persimmon. If you have a Southern States Coop near you that's where I bought mine, but they're online also. A nice fruit about the size of a medium tomato. We had a similar shaped/size persimmon tree back in the 90's at our previous home too but they had to turn soft to become edible (too astringent). If I were to go into the fruit orchard business this would be one to pick, almost totally care free.

Can't believe some of you are getting snow already! Crazy.

Jamie - that's a lot of rain in one sitting! You get buckets when it rains there.

Naturegirl - we are forecasted to have a miserable Halloween as well. The steady rain enters late tonight and doesn't leave until Friday. At least the weekend looks nice, albeit chilly. I'd imagine many of the leaves will be stripped from the trees after the rain and subsequent winds.

Very sad about California. I hope your daughter stays safe. I follow someone on Instagram that lives in Brentwood and they had to evacuate immediately at 3am, the morning the Getty Fire started. They could see the flames over a nearby ridge as they left. They said the fires were spreading so fast in some areas that people had as little as 15 min to evacuate. To make matters worse, they got the worst Santa Ana winds they've had in like a decade, apparently, reaching 80-90mph. Couple that with relative humidity in the single digits.

Cindy - are you digging the sunchokes up to eat or do you have to store them over winter?

We do get some decent storms, Chris haha

Chris - Actually, most of them will be traded for lobster. I don't store them at all. I can leave them in the ground all winter and they survive here. When we do eat them we've eaten them like baked potatoes.

It started raining here about an hour ago. The worst of it will be when the 'trick or treaters' hope to be out tomorrow night. They're calling for t-storms and harsh winds then.

Supposed to be in the mid 20’s tonight. It’s snowing right now, 33 degrees, no accumulation- unless you count the snowflakes on the back porch chair lol. The high today was 38 at our house, looks to be 41 tomorrow....and partly SUNNY. I’m ready for some sunshine.

Cindy - Congratulations on the Nat's win last night! It's amazing that the road team won every game in the series. I have to admit I only watched a few innings of the entire post season this year.

Richard - my condolences to you and the Astros!

We got about 2" of snow yesterday and overnight. The roads weren't bad this morning but everyone was driving like they were. It's 27 right now but it's supposed to get into the low 40s with sunshine today which should melt most of the snow. The little ghouls and goblins will have a cold but dry evening to collect candy. They never come to my house because my driveway is 500' long and there just aren't many kids in the neighborhood.

It's cool and drizzling rain here this morning. The wind chill is supposed to be in the 30s this evening for the Trick-or-Treaters. I think this is really the official beginning of fall- and Christmas Season officially begins at midnight tonight hahaha (or course Lowe's has had Christmas stuff out since September)

Congrats, Cindy. Sorry, Richard. I’m not a baseball fan at all. For me? It’s college basketball, in particular, my Wichita State Shockers. Their first exhibition game was Tuesday. A friend offer us tickets to their first regular season game next Tuesday. Yay!!!

Cold here this morning. 19 degrees. It’ll warm up quite a bit, into the mid 40’s or so, but it’ll be cold for the trick or treaters.

Family dinner for my son’s birthday Friday night. His requested meal is steak fajitas. I love that I can use so many things harvested from the garden in this meal: onions, green peppers, tomatoes (that I tossed in the freezer at the end of the season) and jalapeños in cheese dip. Love it!

Thanks Margi and Jack. Sorry about your Astros, Richard.

It's snowing leaves here. Lots of leaves. Tomorrow night's prediction is for the low to be 31. That's down two degrees from yesterday's Friday prediction. Guess it's really fall now.

Chris - Have you still not had a frost/freeze. John?

Thanks, vgkg.

No hard frosts here SW of Pittsburgh yet. A couple light frosts that did in the beans but surprisingly left the outdoor peppers alone. Like John said they guessers are saying below 32 the next few nights. With the overcast skies and rain I'm not worried about frost tonight. Tomorrow night is supposed to be clear sky - if the rains quits and lets things dry out a bit I bet we get a good (bad?) frost Saturday early AM. I think my hoophouse will keep the tomatoes and peppers going for a while still - its easily 3-4 degrees warmer in there than outside - maybe even moreso with all the vegetation. I really should yank everything out and get the beds prepped for winter growing but part of me wants to be giving away/selling fresh tomatoes and peppers for Thanksgiving. ;-P

John- I dont even know where to begin with that link! Are all the varieties tested or are they just random - I guess i could just go for some random ones and use as practice for grafting... I have a few apple and pear trees going now I could try to graft the scions to? I need some edumacation.

Asparagus with dew, through the window.

Ginkgo tree (in the foreground) with falling leaves.

Cindy - Beautiful picture of the asparagus! Ah...Ginkgo...I had one in my previous house. I loved that tree. If the fall is mild enough it would turn a vivid gold. But all it takes is one really hard freeze (28 or lower?) and the leaves all drop in a day. I've watched as the leaves fell from the top of the tree to the bottom of the tree as the sun hit it on a really cold morning. I recently heard that male (or was it female) Ginkgo trees have a very unpleasant odor. I really want a Ginkgo, but now I'm hesitant.

Margi - Thank you. We are now predicted to get a freeze tomorrow night so I'll be watching the Ginkgo leaves.

Did you know that ginkgo trees are endangered? It's because of 'it's rarity in the wild.' http://ginkgobilobatheendangeredplant.blogspot.com/

". . . an oddity in nature because it is a single species with no known living relatives; a living fossil that has been essentially unchanged for more than 200 million years; and an inspiring example of how humans can help a species survive. https://e360.yale.edu/features/peter_crane_history_of_ginkgo_earths_oldest_tree

If you can, or any one else, I encourage you all to grow one. It's a beautiful tree, especially the leaves. It is a very slow grower.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

I meant to say that first thing this morning.

Happy Halloween!

Kevin

From my observations reading various items descriptions. All are isolated for a number of years. They seem to have tested them for diseases, like fireblight, scab and black rot. They seem to track when each item blooms and ripens. Looks like a lot of study is done. Myself I ignore the fireblight thinking it's a problem of the south east??

For now the important thing is to get an order in. Rootstocks are fairly cheap. I plan on ordering ten M111 from Fedco for $2.95 per root. I might have an extra. I'm also going to order a few OHxF97 pear roots and a couple Mazzard cherry roots from Cummins Nursery as they allow onesie orders. . The expensive thing is the shipping $22.50. I can split an order with you. The order should go in around the first of the year and nothing gets shipped till March. Fedco allows a choice of March or April. I think March allows the grafts to heal before putting in the ground. The link scions ship about Christmas time, maybe a little earlier. So if you have the scions then I think a person may as well do the grafts as soon as possible.

I have a fair amount of scions for Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, Yellow Transparent (Many), Bartlett, and Stella cherry. Also a maybe-Cox's Orange Pippin, the trunk is at least a foot in diameter. I store my own scions on the tree as it's my coldest storage place and has been a tested method of storage for eons of time.

Happy Halloween all!

Gingko, when I was a kid my brother and I found out about the smell. Was it berries or nuts, smelled like puke. We called it the pukeberry tree after that episode!

Thanks Cindy! Right back at ya!

It seems more like Christmas here today. I can't remember having a white Halloween before. It will probably be sunny and 60 on Christmas.

Actually all of the snow exposed to sun has already melted. By sundown most of it should be gone.

I think I might start doing some germination tests on my saved tomato seeds pretty soon. Probably just 4 at a time so it will take a couple months to do all 22 varieties that I saved seeds from.

John - My two pear trees (one Asian, one Moonglow) have been getting fire-blight the last two years. Whereas before then I never saw it.

Cindy

I agree it's possible to get any disease, or problem. I was looking at the new Shenandoah pear at the "link". It's resistant to fireblight, but more important to me it's also precocious. Precocious to me means I might see some of the pears in my lifetime. But after following it for close to a year, it's unavailable.

Ha (one ha)

I stopped watching baseball ever since the Cincinnati Red Stockings closed doors....

You're welcome Cindy, here's one last shot of our Ichi Ki Kei Jiro Asian Persimmon tree before we pick most of them this weekend. It's about 12' tall and 12' wide at 15 years.

...and here's my new scarecrow at 7' tall protecting our fall garden in the backyard. It's "protecting the collards, cabbages, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes and a couple of old tomato plants. He rotates in the wind for some motion. I put solar powered LED motion detection lights on both side of its neck so when a deer approaches the garden they light up. Not sure if it scares them off or just gives them a better view of what to eat.

vgkg - Wow! That tree looks like it will break with all of that fruit, especially with the winds tonight/tomorrow.

I went out for the remaining tomatoes today. Got soaking wet, like I predicted here yesterday. Later DW pulled the meat loaf from the oven and I thought "Why didn't I dig some carrots?" They'd have been rinsed off before I got back in!

Hopefully the tree will be ok, the limbs are remarkably flexible. That line of storms should pass here in another hour or so. That scarecrow will be flying tonite. Good luck out there!

John I put an order in for pear and apple scions that I thought were interesting but still don’t know what I’m doing lol. I’ll have to do some researching... So can I just graft these onto existing trees? I might give you a call when things slow down a little in a couple weeks.

Hopefully this wind dries things down a little and I can bag and lay a bunch of chopped leaves this weekend.

Jack, you got much more snow than us haha. We had a very light dusting on our back porch early this morning, hardly more than a frost...

It was only 29 here this morning due to the cloud cover, but the wind chill was in the mid teens, and it was blowing! It was a sunny day once the clouds cleared up early, and it barely made it to 40 degrees by mid afternoon. I actually watched my thermometer at the time. It climbed from 39 to 40 for about 4-5 seconds, and then it dropped back to 39 and very slowly dropped until nightfall. It was quickly below freezing again. It's 29 as of now. Tomorrow is showing a sunny high of 53 degrees, and after that mostly highs ranging from the upper 40's to even upper 50's with lows ranging from the 30's to 40's (a night or two here in the 20's), mostly sunny, until late next week, when it's hinting at getting cold again.

I have to get some lights setup soon! It'll be seed starting time before you know it....Time flies.

I am not really a baseball fan I just couldn't let Cindy punk my local team Like that. I have probably seen them play about 100 times because I used to live in Houston and tickets were $1.50. My sister worked at the Summit so I have seen the Rockets 35-40 times and I used to go see the Cowboys every year until they moved. I lived in Austin for 20 years so have seen the Longhorns at least 100 times. I graduated from the University of Houston. I have been a fan of all the above since I was 8 so 5 decades of fandom but the Cowboys, Longhorns and Rockets are the teams where I never miss a game.

It has actually been pretty cool around here-in the 40s with 20-30 mph winds. It looks like my Sugar Rush Peach pepper plant might have frozen or it just died of old age along with the okra but everything else still looks good

Happy Halloween. I gave away all the candy, so there were a good number of trick or treaters out there even in the cold

Kevin

You got me out of my element. From what I know grafting is done when the scion and the root are both dormant, which they aren't right now, but soon will be. There's a method of grafting called T-Budding which is done in July or August. I've repeatedly tried that and never had one take. It's done then, I think, because the bark is very loose and a slit is made in the loose bark and a bud from the donor is slid into the bark. So it can be done. Possibly because it's a small wound in the branch grafted to.

When you're grafting a scion it compares to a leg transplant. That wound has to heal. Last spring I grafted a Keepsake scion to a young tree/rootstock that I'd grafted a Black Osford to the previous year. And I grafted a Cox's Orange Pippin scion to a year old rootstock that had nothing grafted to it. I also grafted a Golden Delicious to a Yellow Transparent tree that was at least a foot in diameter. I got that idea because the apples on the two trees look kind of similar. But all those grafts took.

Next spring my plans are to graft three scion to the young tree with the Black Oxford/Keepsake combo. A Wagener, a King David, and a Fameuse. I would guess that if you graft in early winter after dormancy that it might take but that you're graft has to withstand the weight of ice and snow combined with a winters worth of wind. And I would guess that the graft union isn't as likely to heal. But that's just a guess.

What you're going to receive is 2 scions about 12 inches long for each item ordered. You can easily make 4 trees from each item. Some people can do 3 or more from each scion. So you could try an early graft and then still do a graft in late winter.

You're going to shortly get an e-Mail warning you that you need to order rootstocks, which I think is protection from script orders. I told them in my order that I had the rootstocks and or was prepared to order what I needed and still got the e-Mail. But, you have to respond.

November link?

Hopefully this worked https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5816464/veggie-tales-november-2019