Rick, I like the Covington, I have better luck with them keeping longer than the other sweet potatoes I have grown. I hope you enjoy the sweet potatoes.

Thanks Larry for recommending them (Covington).

They are good sweet potatoes.

It'll be enough to get through the holidays anyway.

Rick

Down to 31 this morning, I guess it was a good thing that I picked the peppers yesterday, the plants had freeze damage, I expect even more so today. Now we may have another month of good growing weather. The same thing happened last year, an early killing frost, then another spring just after, but it is time for me to put everything to bed, I am tired.

Jennifer, I am interested in how you sweet potatoes do in containers, and an pointers you may have. I am feeling that my gardening methods must change.

I need you fellow gardeners advice on garlic also. This is the first year I have worked at growing regular garlic. I have grown Elephant garlic in the past, but I did not put a lot of thought of effort in it because Madge would not use it, but this past year I have been putting more effort in growing food, hoping the kids might take a little interest.

Here is the garlic that I have left, the kids say that they like it but have plenty, but I expect that will change in about a month. The garlic on the left looks to be okay for now. The pile on the right I think may have stayed in the ground too long, but I know nothing about growing garlic. I already have 280 cloves ready to plant, so I really don't need to plant any more, but I need to do something with the garlic on the right soon.

This is what the ones look like that I think need to be replanted.

This is what I am saying that I may save for a while, with the largest one being the worst one that I would fool with.-------- Okay, now please tell me where I am messing up, and the best way to extend the life of there garlic heads, thank you very much.

Larry, we got a decent amount of sweet potatoes for 3 tubs, I think. One of the tubs made nothing really, but I noticed that the soil in that one wasn't really soil. It seemed almost like sterile seed starting mix. I can't remember what I used in that one. One of the tubs had wonderful potatoes and were good sized. And the two others had decent sized ones. The one that did really well might have been your Covington. Unfortunately I lost my tags somewhere along the way.

Having said all of that, growing this way won't get you the enormous amounts of harvest that you're used to. Although, my neighbor/friend planted maybe 20 fabric grow bags with sweet potatoes and she had a LOT. She even canned some.

If you're looking to grow enough for you and Madge to use during the fall and winter.... and maybe a few to share, putting them in the tubs isn't a bad thing at all. The hard thing about the tubs is tipping them over. Tom helped me. If you can get one of your kids to help, it's much easier with two people. We dump them on a tarp. I kneel down and pick them out of the soil. Then we shovel the soil back into the tubs and put them back in place. Also you can make a funnel with the tarp instead of shoveling the soil back into the tub. But two people are required for that.

About the garlic....

Normally I do soft neck. I plant it at the end of October/first of November. And harvest in June.

If you wait too long, the cloves over-separate. Those ones don't store well. BUT, if you harvest too early, the cloves don't separate enough--the bulb is like one big clove.

You want to harvest when the lowest leaves turn brown not when most of the leaves are brown like you do with onions.

My house isn't cool enough for food storage in the summer, but it's the best I can do. I'll use the garlic for as long as I can. At some point during the year, the outside of the garlic bulb will look decent, but the cloves inside are dried up. This is usually in late winter/early spring.

Soft neck varieties are supposed to store best but they don't have the scape that some people enjoy eating.

We got a light frost this morning, but I had to leave while it was still dark so I don't know the damage done.

Jennifer, thanks. I started counting my seed garlic cloves, and stopped at 600. I have no idea of what to do with all my garlic. I planted 204 last year and that was too many.

What can I do with this garlic that I have shucked out? I expect that I can put some in with some onion and peppers in a pickle mix? I have also heard of people roasting it, or maybe freezing it. Every time I turn around, I can hear my wife and daughter say "DON'T PLANT SO MUCH". All I can say, is, that I like to play in the dirt.

We are having repair work done on the deck, so I have not had time to do anything in the garden.

Rebecca, Your sweet potato harvest is much better than my first sweet potato harvest. I had planned to grow some sweet potatoes as large as water melons, I hauled in a load of compost, worked in into the soil where a chicken pen had been and watered often. When I went to dig my potatoes I had roots about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in dia. and about 2 to 3 feet long, I did not have anything fit to eat. I never tried to grow sweet potatoes again till we moved into this house. I learned the hard way that you can be too nice to a sweet potato plant. I have pretty good luck storing my sweet potatoes in the house, most of the time under a bed in the coolest room in the house.

DixonDale just put out their 2025 online catalog.

https://dixondalefarms.com/online_catalog/

For those already thinkin about onions for the spring.

Might come in handy come January for me.

I just got done plantin in fall onions.

Rick

I used to plant shallots but never did any good with them.

Just found out that they are long-day alliums.

They don't do well in short day areas.

Guess that's why.

https://dixondalefarms.com/product-category/shallot-plants/

Anybody try to do shallots ?

Leeks is another weird one.

Rick

I like Dixondale onions, but I am trying to keep onions growing all year long, and I have not come up with a replacement for bulbing onions yet. I have a good supply of onions growing now, but none are as good as a good bulbing onion, and I have almost used up all of them, but I have given many to the kids.

I have been trying to get the kids hook on growing things to eat, and Egyptian Walking onions and sweet potato are 2 of the things I got them to grow. My grand daughter told me a week or 2 ago that her home was being invaded by sweet potatoes and walking onions

My Mom put out a clump of Egypt walking onions over east there years ago while she was still living and it's still there

Wish the sweet potatoes would do the same.

Rick

.

Rebecca, good to see your post.

On curing your sweet potatoes in the tub, would the tub stay open or closed. If it was open, I think it would be fine. But if you have to close it, maybe fasten a piece of hardware cloth over the tub (instead of the lid) for airflow and to keep critters out.

Mine are in the hoop house in a cardboard tray.

Have y'all seen the news stories about the large amounts of rodents this year? When I was working outside on Wednesday (fall break), our outdoor cat caught 3 that I saw. I don't like watching that process at all. Usually I'll grab him and make him let the rodent go and I'll put him away somewhere. It messes with my garden zen. There was one dumb mouse that kept hiding under my roselle. Anyway, eventually when I go inside, he gets them and I don't have to watch it.

Josh, I responded to one of your posts last week but it had the eggplant dip word in it. I hope you're able to save your trees.

About the eggplant dip....maybe it's flagged as racial or something? The first word in the name just means "father", I think. But, I don't know what the other word means. The eggplant dip name is on labels and menus everywhere, tho.

I suspected that was the issue with my posts in the past not showing up. Not that specific word, but something else.

Larry, maybe I didn't understand your question about the garlic and gave you information you already knew. What is your question exactly? If my garlic goes bad, I just toss it into the compost. I try not to grow too much so I don't waste food. And, the only way I really preserve it is by pickling it. I eat the pickled cloves at the first sign of a sinus infection. I promise it works most of the time. But getting the cloves ready to pickle is time consuming.

We use a lot of garlic when we cook.

Also, what do you mean by finding a replacement for bulbing onions? You want to find something with the same flavor/taste to an onion bulb that grows/stores better for you?

I'll come back with a picture of the sweet potatoes that I think might be Covington for an ID. The sun is up now so I'll head out and get picture.

I have to stay focused on housework today, tho.

Covington?

I don’t know, but they sure are pretty

I've just lost my comment.

Larry, sprouting garlic is still edible, but you can plant it too. The best thing to store garlic in is a brown paper lunch bag. Use a hole punch to make air holes for ventilation. Keep it in a cool dark place. They sell ceramic jars to keep garlic in. I have one, Ron says its worse than our vegetable bins. I have only dried garlic, to make powder. Sometimes there is garlic in a pickle recipe. Don't do the garlic in olive oil thing because it's dangerous (botulism). I think you could mince it and freeze it in an ice cube tray.

Rebecca I bring my sweet potatoes inside. We put them in a spare room, usually on wire racks. Ideal temp is 80°ish with high humidity. I know I don't get there. Someone said they cured theirs in a tub on a seed warming mat. You don't want them to get cold, so if nights are warm, your shed would work. You also don't want them to cook so maybe check the temp of the space.

Rick, I didn't know they were long day. I grew some once from cloves given to my husband by a coworker. We got a harvest, but Ron didn't like cooking with them. Leeks are one of the few things that will grow during Persephone days. I have tried to grow them a few times. First the chickens dug them up. I was able to bring a few in one time, also not what we would normally cook with. But there are varieties that are hardy in winter. If I remember, you have to be careful to get the dirt out, because their layers are looser than onions.

Jennifer I'm interested in your pickled garlic recipe.

You can freeze cloves of garlic. Cleaned peeled ready to use

Jennifer, on replacing bulbing onions. I love bulbing onions, but they are hard to grow from seed, they take too long, and I cant store them all year anyway. I use the walking onions as much as possible, but Madge does not like them as well, but I am hoping to get to where I don't have to depend on so many people ( stores ) for food. I can save seeds from a lot of veggies, I make my own sweet potato slips from what I have stored, I can grow my garlic from the year before's harvest, and most of my onions I can do the same, but I need to fill in with a good bulbing onion. I have not done well with saving seeds from a bulbing onion. I want to order some potato onions, of onion seeds to see what they are like. I have not tried replant bulbing onion at different times of the year in order to keep a fresh stock, but if that worked I would have surly seen a video on it.

And, the garlic question is, What in the world do I do with so much garlic? I do well at keeping it long enough to replant, but I don't do well at storing it all year. I would be happy to make some storage bin, which I should do any way because I have the wood and hardware cloth on hand.

Jennifer, I that is some potatoes you got from me, I expect thay are Covington. I grew 3 types of sweet potatoes this year, the ones I call Covington ( they were given to me years ago as Covington), Red Wind Velvet, and Purple. Of course the purple are purple inside, and out, the RWV look like they have varicose veins, The Covington just look other sweet potatoes.

Amy,

4 cups of peeled garlic cloves (you can 1/2 or 1/4 that amount)

1 1/4 cup of vinegar (your choice. adjust for the number of cloves you're pickling)

1 cup of water (again adjust)

1 Tbsp of pickling salt (adjust)

Bring the vinegar, salt, water to a boil

Add herbs to jars-- probably about an 1/8 to a 1/4 of each herb per/jar

(you can use coriander, bay leaves, mustard, cumin, red pepper flakes, peppercorns--whatever you have on hand)

Add the garlic cloves

Pour the vinegar mixture into jars. Either refrigerate or waterbath it.

(I put the jars in the refrigerator. They last for months)

You could also add a bit of sugar. I've done that too. Put it with the vinegar mixture.

Normally I'll use half-pint jars.

Kim, congrats on your market sales! I'd love to be able to do that someday. My "retirement goals" are to grow enough to sell plants in the spring and extra vegetables through the summer.

HJ, I saw both of your posts. Maybe they show up later on, since I'm not checking as regularly as I used to?

I have my own issues with this site. When I use my phone, as soon as I hit space the word disappears. But if I use the auto-correct thingy and click the word after I type it, they stay. So I get annoyed and stop posting, thinking I'll go use the computer instead but I never get around to it.

I'm thinking about planting a few heads of garlic in my mineral tubs. That way if we sell I can take them with me. But "if we sell" is getting old. Our realtor says right now is just a slow time, be patient, the right buyer will come along, etc.

Larry, if you're asking how to preserve them, my first suggestion is to dehydrate and grind to powder. Or, fill a jar with minced garlic, then cover with honey. Makes a great honey garlic glaze for chicken and ham, plus garlic honey is good for colds.

Looks like we didn't get too cold here. Peppers are still on the plants, and the basil barely has any damaged leaves. I'm glad about the peppers, two are covered in fruit and I want it to finish ripening so I can make one or two more jars of peppers. Everything else is dried out and extra crispy.

I’m laughing because my mom just sent me this picture. She literally threw a piece of a shriveled up sweet potato into her fliowerbed in the spring.

This is what she dug up this morning so far.

And here we are trying to figure out how to grow them. She did nothing.

I don't know what you could use as aa bulbing onion in the winter. Daylight length is too short to initiate the bulbing process. For cooking with we just chop them up and put them in the freezer.

I've tried a lot of onion varieties to try and find one that stores through the winter. Red creole has lasted the longest. It isn't going to last through the winter though.

I think pretty much all of the onion varieties for production are hybrids now. Pretty much like sweet corn is now a days.

Jennifer, maybe your mom can give us lessons?

I think that I want to try to pickle some garlic and put onions and peppers in it. I expect that my daughter and grand daughter will also want to try dehydrating and grinding the garlic, they are already trying to do peppers like that.

Some of my plants survived the freeze, I should have more peppers coming, I am not sure any tomatoes survived.

I think that I have posted this picture before, but I wanted to show how slow things are growing in the south garden. I think my oldest tag on the fall planting is 9-26, which was Early Wonder beets, which are all the way to the left, I doubt that they are up at the time this picture was taken. Nothing straight anead had been planted yet. The few onions you see on the right are some Egyptian Walking onion plants that had just been planted.

Straight ahead are the Egyptian walking onions, and some multiplying onions. I bought the multiplying onion sets last year to use as green onions. I liked them so well that I saved some for this year, which I am glad that I did because they were not available this year. This picture was taken today, so it had taken 3 weeks for the garden to get to this point. I hope that the garden will get enough growth on it to over winter. The carrots are in between the onion plants on the 2 outside rows of onions, they are still too small to show up in the picture, so may not over winter. This garden did not seem to get as much damage as the north garden.

Garlic
Already

Kim, looking good. I have approx 40 planted in two mineral tubs, but I have not even watered them in yet. Maybe tomorrow I can get the ones planted in the garden and water them all in. It is as dry as a bone here. I was out cleaning around where I was shucking out garlic cloves today and pick up 11 cloves from the ground, I am still carrying those cloves around in my shirt pocket.

No frost here yet. Tomorrow is the last day of the farmers market here . We picked all the green tomatoes thinking we were going to get a frost. We made a bunch of tomato relish and there are still a bunch . I don't like green tomatoes that are artificially ripened. They have no flavor. Hopefully we sell a bunch for fried green tomatoes.

I like fried green tomatoes more than I like ripe tomatoes, but I have to admit that nothing make a sandwich taste better than a ripe tomato does.

I like green tomatoes fried too in the fall.

I like to stir fry them with onions.

They're a little tart but ok for the fall season.

Rick

I am getting hungry.

Not me Larry, but if y’all start talking about Okra or potatoes I am in. I am trying to read all the posts and comment, but I feel like I’m going to have to pull out my computer to keep up with y’all. Hope everybody’s having a great Saturday and I got to go make some videos.

Did I catch a wisp of patchouli in the air ?

I think I did and it led me here :)

The writer / performer of the song I always think of when I here the word patchouli will be in OKC on Nov 5th, at Rose State College, its Year of the Cat by Al Stewart.

I bought tickets. Made me think of HJ.

Haven't been here in a while. Come August, I've had all the gardening I want. I've cleaned out the garden and planted my winter cover, but its not going well.

In summer of 2022, I bought this rye seed from Amazon . I planted in 22 and 23 and still had half of it left. It germinated great. I had more rye grass than I really wanted.

But I threw the seed out this year and got no germination, at all. NONE , ZIP, NADA. I put everything I had left out.

I could understand if half or less was still good. But ALL of it . wow. I did mix some Austrian Pea in with it, and its coming up. But its gonna be sparse.

5 Lbs No-Till Winter Rye Cover Crop Seeds - Non-GMO Rye - Deer & Turkey Food Plot Seed - Winter Hardy Cover Crop

Lynn, I wish we lived close, I have about 75 pounds of grain rye that it does not look like I will be able to use much of it. I also use turnip or mustard as a cover crop, but I get a lot more root mass with the grain rye.

Is you rye, rye grass or grain rye? I most often use Elbon Rye, it was developed in Oklahoma, and works well for me if I can keep the deer out of it.

Jen, I'm not sure why you could see my "eggplant dip" posts and the others couldn't. Maybe it's on a delay with certain words. Could you see the others' "test" posts using those words?

Larry, I have some Red Wine ones too. And maybe something else.

Kim, I'm going to plant garlic after it rains. IF it ever rains.

Busy1, I also chop and freeze a few onions for when the stored ones go bad.

I also chopped and froze bell peppers last week when we were supposed to get a frost. No damage was done from the very light frost, tho.

I never did see the comet. I did enjoy the Hunter's Moon. Ethan is going hunting tomorrow. In Tillamook Forest. I sent him one of my favorite instrumentals called Goddess of the Hunter's Moon. It's just so pretty. I only allow myself to listen to it in October, tho.

I made moon tea too..

Maybe I'll catch that comet in another lifetime. lol

Lynn, it's cool that you're going to see Al Stewart. I do have some herbs warming in my house right now, but no patchouli. Mostly just sage. I deep cleaned the bedroom today and always like to warm herbs in rooms after deep cleaning.

I started a growing list and plan for next year back in August. It's one of those things that I need to get it figured out in advance because garden time will be difficult to come by. I can't dilly dally around. Basically, in the kitchen garden, I'm going to grow 2 each of 5 of the heirlooms on handy panels in 5 different beds. At the end of each of those beds, I'll do 4 peppers. That will give me 20 pepper plants. I'm only going to do 1 Isis and 1 Sungold for cherry tomatoes. I might put those in mineral tubs. I would like to put the sweet potatoes into one of the raised beds but haven't figured that out just yet. Onions will go in the kitchen garden too next year.

IF we can rebuild the back garden, it's possible that the sweet potatoes could go there.

I'm going to try a few new varities to keep it interesting. Baby Butter squash, Honeynut squash, Jade bush beans, and Pixie cabbage. One of the squashes MIGHT go into a Vego bed.

Work has me really busy right now. I've often done the creative parts of events and whatnot, but doing the actual technical stuff is out of my comfort zone. I have to learn it. I have no idea how to use a green screen. I've written scenes and gotten costumes, characters, etc. together for green screens. I've even ordered the green screen and hung it up.... but I'm not a photographer or videographer. Or editor.

I haven't looked at the garden today at all, but should go check it out. See what's happening out there. The cabbages are looking good. And the kale and collards. There's lettuce in little pots that needs planting. Maybe tomorrow after work. The pumpkins are growing, but they're still very small.

We are going to take a break tonight and go see a movie. We really should continue with our tasks, but we're not.

Jennifer a break sounds good. I took one today. Played cards with my sil. My watermelon is really trying. Poor thing doesn’t stand a chance unless I build a greenhouse over it.

Kim, I hope you have better luck with late watermelons than I do, if they do make they don't have much taste. It seems as if my watermelon don't make in the summer heat they just are not as sweet.

Jennifer, I would like to be more like you when it comes to planning. I think that is one reason I cant get things planted on time, and never know where I want to put things.

I planted more onions today, I don't need them but I hate to throw anything away. I found more multiplying onion sets today that I thing are still good enough to reproduce, and of course I had to plant them along with a few more walking onions.

I don't have a lot of faith in my fall plantings, other than the onions.

I found Rootknot nematode damage today when I pulled a tomato plant, that is always disappointing for me, but I put onions back in that spot anyway. I seem to have more nematode damage when it is very dry.

I’m not gonna have much luck since it’s only 4 inches long, Larry. I am going to let it go as long as possible just for fun.

Larry, IDK what rye I had. All I know about it is in that Amazon link where I bought it. Its advertised as a winter cover. I won't buy it again.

Lynn, what is it that you don't like about your rye?

It was too expensive to only get two growing seasons from it. I thought my germination rate would go down, but I did not think it would go to zip.

I would think grain would have a better germination rate than that as well.

Lynn, I buy Elbon grain rye at the Farmers Co-op for $20. 00 for a 50# bag, and empty it into gallon milk jugs to seed the garden. A bag of grain rye will fill 6+ jugs, I buy rye grass a Tractor supply co. for more money for a 50# bag, but I have not bought any in about 3 years, but I expect you would get, maybe fill up to 10 jugs of the rye grass from the bag of rye grass. I feel sure you can buy smaller sacks of seed, but I have a 500# seeder that fits on my small tractor. I buy almost no seed from Amazon, but I do buy quite a few parts and tools from Amazon.

If you want to seed with wheat, I think it was going for about $12.00 a bag this year, and I think the wheat seeds are a little smaller than the rye, but I have only used wheat a time or two because I seem to get more biomass from the rye.

I stored it in the garage. It gets heat and cold extremes there. I probably should've put it in the freezer.

Larry, I think this year I'm gonna ride with the Austrian Pea. Generally, the rye chokes out pea. I'm kinda curious what the pea will do without any rye. It grows a lot slower than rye, but its also easier to take out in February.

Its pretty amazing what else is coming up from seed volunteer. I've got tomato, cilantro, basil, dill, marigold, zennia, and who knows what weeds are coming up. But that will all be gone with the first freeze.

Lynn, my only complaint with Austrian winter peas is their slow growth rate, they are very easy to work with..

Larry, if you were working outside the home, you would find it easier and necessary to cut back especially if you were the one in charge of cooking, cleaning, and laundry, as well as animal care, making shopping lists, and correspondence and planning things with family.

If I didn't work outside the home or didn't have all the other responsibilities, I would more than likely grow too much like you do.

There's nothing wrong with it. You do what you want to do with your own garden even if that's growing "too much".

A break-through with my job. I figured out that green screens are completely unneccesary with Canva. Just choose the background. Upload it. Choose your photo, upload it. Remove the background on the photo and instead of having a child dressed as a shepherd standing in a classroom, you suddenly have that same child standing in a field at night with sheep in the background.

Green screens are SO 2019. LOL

Didn't do a lot of gardening today. Just watering. Pretty sure we don't have good rain chances on the 9 day. :(

Jennifer, Madge does all the work around here, although I did go this morning to buy some groceries. I had 15 ton of gravel brought in Fri,. and will start moving it tomorrow after I go to the Dr., and, pick up some building supplies. Madge, nor I are able to do much, but some think we do to much, but, we ARE cutting back, health issues are forcing it.

Jennifer canva is amazing. I am using it for my thumbnails. It is so easy. Larry I think you and Madge make a perfect team.

It is, Kim. How it formats all the things for social media. I haven't used it yet for that purpose, tho, other than once when I played around with a picture I took for my personal FB cover photo awhile back.

Larry, Kim is right. You and Madge make a perfect team

I'll try to start a new thread for the week before heading over to my other job.

Jennifer we have one Amy started.