We had a bumper crop of potatoes, but the gophers come in and eat maybe a 3rd or more! Not sure how to get ride of them and really didn't want to use poison because we have dogs.
@LoudBunch I've never had a gopher anywhere near my garden. I'm afraid if I did I would probably end up doing a Caddy Shack episode. :) I am a big huge zero in helping get rid of them. Have you tried bribes? lol
@Athenaslife I don't plant per square. The bean planting area is about 1 foot wide and 10 feet long. I plant two rows of seed and space them about 6 inches apart as I go down the row.
@rageagainstthedying So far I seem to have a really good balance of good VS bad bugs. Good seems to be winning so far. :)
Forest birds also visit the garden and snag bugs constantly. I've never had a problem with birds attacking the tomatoes. I use a fence to keep my monster birds out. The only problem I've had is mice sometimes nibble on the tomatoes. A couple mouse traps clears that up.
@Praxxus55712 Ohhh well I have yet to get into preserving tomatoes, I eat the suckers like apples straight off the vine, they rarely make it into the house let alone on salads and sandwich's. lol Iv got a beef steak going crazy in the garden right now but It was a end of season, "ohh you poor baby I'm takin you home" buy so I expect a late harvest. I prefer the super juicy and seedy one's with tons of flavor. Know of any good variety's?
@PCOStherealdeal I'm absolutely loving the Brandywines this season. I'll try some new ones next season to see what else is good. If I find one that puts me into a tomato coma, I'll definitely let you and the others know. :)
Oh you have a skid steer . . . drool, drool, drool. I do the same thing with tomatoes -- I BINGE on tomatoes when they're fresh. The beefsteaks and yellow pear are my absolute favorites. Oh wow -- my peas died off about a month ago -- can't believe you still have them. My wax beans won't die. . . I am sick of wax beans. You cut off the corn! What are you going to do for Autumn decorations now?!?! Think man, think! LOL
I went out today and behold i found potato's poppin out of the ground. will have to hill them better tomorrow.. but they are growing quite crazy. may have a few green ones since they likely saw the sun... or maybe they may turn brown who knows but glad i noticed it. so i'm going to have fingerlink potato's Yay!..
That's a sweet New Holland Superboom. They are the most stable skid steer loaders ever manufactured. They licenced the design to John Deere. That hardly ever happens. That's how good they are.
How do you get your cilantro to grow so well? I think it's too hot for it here in NC. It doesn't bush out. It grows straight up to flower. Do you think shade would help it? It has been tough on all plants here this year though.
A fantastic garden as usual Ray. Looks like you were able to stick with it till the end of the season. I was worried you'd put in a ton of work on it and then have to move off and leave it.
Right now my peppers are just a little shorter than yours. I'm pretty sure my tallest plant will wind up getting to about 4 1/2 feet though because my growing season is so much longer than yours. You're lucky you don't have late tomato blight in your area!
Question for weekend edition. I grew my tomatoes without cages this year and they are doing great, HOWEVER, I have big, fat, green worms eating their way thru them!! So now my tomatoes have holes everywhere. Do you have this problem and if so how do you deal with it??? Thanks Ray. P. S. Love your puppy..too cute!
Looks so yummy..love those tomatoes! Well Romas are for cooking mostly to make tomatoe paste/sauce etc. My peas have never looked like that! Geez you're the garden guru, lol. Im jealous, u dont seem to have the pests I do and the heat here killed everything but the okra..they love heat. Great idea on the corn haircuts.
@I3addogy I got the plants from a local greenhouse years ago. I save the seeds each fall. Unlike most tomatoes, they have only a few seeds per tomato, which is excellent since I don't like eating tomato seeds, but that also makes each seed more important for saving.
@sushi123 I weed at the beginning of the season and through early summer until the garden plants reach the explosive stage. I then let everything do it's own thing. Then I weed one last time when I harvest. The weeds make a fantastic ground cover and that means less watering. It's probably not for people who want a picture perfect garden, but it sure works for me. The weeds help hise the fruits from wild birds who LOVE pecking at them. :)
Make me one of your sandwiches please! :-) Your pickled Jalapenos must be great, especially with your carrots onions, and radishes, mmmmm. If I were your neighbor, we could do business, for sure! Do you make salsa?
@kern0099 For some reason my salsa always came out sub par. The cool thing is I would just dump the jars of salsa into homemade soups and it was fantastic!!
Hah! I played your video over & that Turkey bout made my daughter crap her pants lol
I got 2 pear tomatoes & one grape tomato so far lol, but I have a feeling it's going to be a bust out of red tomatoes, all at once, plus some heirlooms that I don't have any idea what they will look like, cept 4 1 brandywine if it makes it to tomatohood.
Learned some good stuff from you Ray & I think you probably inspired some extra weirdness, as if I didn't have a good supply of that going on already lol
@Praxxus55712 Yeah, she jumped & made weird noises then told me it caught her as she was putting up a hammer & when she jumped outa her skin, she dropped it too lol, good job turkey!
Your weirdness falls on fertile ground here man, lol. Often your ideas send a jolt through my nervous system that ends in an involuntary exclamation of "OH COOL!" or the like. Innovation is a drug to me, or somethin like that.
I was thinking of drying arugula, wonder if it would keep the spicey? Prolly not if cilantro didn't. My green onions are taking forever to grow, still little teeny tendrils. I've got radish pods goin on too : ). Spinich is a mystery to me as to how to save the seeds, feel like pulling them, but the seeds are green. I was wondering how long you needed corn tassles, my corn is pathetic, think they needed more sun. Wow monster tomato, can't do that in a bucket! Maybe a few buckets? lol
"Did I do ok?" Silly Ray. You know you rock and that tomato plant is amazing! I have more tomatoes this year than ever before, using your ideas, but NOTHING like what you are doing!
We are doing a compost pile this year, so next year we will be able to make compost tea. I look forward to the difference that will make. Be well.
My pepper plant thats in a big pot is reflowering too. I am thrilled. My tomatoe plants...one has 6 tomatoes that arent ripe yet and the other one is like a monster in my tiny flower bed..sprawling all over the yard and intertwined with the potatoe greenery ..in a pot next to them... One of the tomatoes also got stuck in the fence but it was yummy anyway. Not big ass like yours tho. That cucumber is obscene ! hahaha Cant wait for your seed saving vid. Rascal is too cute. Love him !
@mukwah1111 Question? When do you harvest your potatoes? I have some in a big bucket ..green growth is great.....invading tomatoe is shrouding it with its greenery too...I am looking forward to seeing how many spuds come out of da bucket.... summer is waning isnt it ????
@theeastwatch This year I got a 75% yield. Some plants just didn't set ears. I'm not happy with the quality/taste of this hybrid. I already have heirloom seeds ready for next year's corn.
@theeastwatch I use 4x8 beds too. I planted three seeds per hole, one foot apart down the rows and three rows per beds. I plant three seeds in each hole to ensure there's gonna be a plant there. Then I let only the strongest of the three stay. The other two are salad. :)
You could easily go with 4 rows per bed. In fact that would ensure better pollination. I'll be going to 4 rows next spring. That's 28 plants per bed. I'm planting Trucker's Delight next spring. Hate the name though. lol
@Praxxus55712 I've seen a lot of closely planted corn around here this year. Something new it looks like. These Farmers really know their stuff so there must be something to it or a new kind of corn. Most of the corn around here is nasty to eat though, made for feed or something, not sweet. Don't ask how I know lol.
My Hybrid corn sucked 2, coulda been deficient sun, only gets 8 hours or so. I have to battle the trees this winter, get some sun back. Nice load a walnut & fruitwood 2 : ) bonus
@Praxxus55712 -- I had really good luck with the 'ol heirloom standby, Bantam early. Yeah, those 12' corn plants in my videos are all "bantams" (that's supposed to only be 4-5' tall). They produced quite well too, but of course, it's not the extra big, extra sweet hybrid stuff. The ears were on average 5-6" long and not overly thick. I plant 3 seeds together a foot apart too, but I don't pull any out. I never could get corn to grow well in my raised beds for some reason.
Watermelon- Oh hi Mr tomato! want a hug? -hugs-
Tomato- NOOOO! This is MY box! roar!
Watermelon- AHHH!!!
and that was the last we saw of the watermelon
Tomato - *burp*
Ladydelain 1 month ago
Rascal is so freaking cute! I want him and I have a girlfriend for him too. : ) lol But no really, he is sssooo adorable though.
JuliaP777 3 months ago
Hi Ray! Watched you showing off the Brandiwine tomatoes....have you ever tried fried Green Tomatoes? Really amazing good....alot like fried eggplant.
BTW, that "Brian's Tomato" looks a LOT like the Polish Linguisa, even if it doesn't TASTE as good
DamiettadCarnivalle 7 months ago
What do you do about Gophers?
We had a bumper crop of potatoes, but the gophers come in and eat maybe a 3rd or more! Not sure how to get ride of them and really didn't want to use poison because we have dogs.
LoudBunch 11 months ago
@LoudBunch I've never had a gopher anywhere near my garden. I'm afraid if I did I would probably end up doing a Caddy Shack episode. :) I am a big huge zero in helping get rid of them. Have you tried bribes? lol
Praxxus55712 11 months ago
That's AWESOME... I did not know you could freeze Cilantro, thank you.
LoudBunch 11 months ago
Thank you... I love watching your videos you are s funny! keep them coming! : )
Athenaslife 1 year ago
How many pole beans plants do you do per square and how many did you have in this video?
Athenaslife 1 year ago
@Athenaslife I don't plant per square. The bean planting area is about 1 foot wide and 10 feet long. I plant two rows of seed and space them about 6 inches apart as I go down the row.
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
How do you keep birds/bugs from eating your tomatoes?
rageagainstthedying 1 year ago
@rageagainstthedying So far I seem to have a really good balance of good VS bad bugs. Good seems to be winning so far. :)
Forest birds also visit the garden and snag bugs constantly. I've never had a problem with birds attacking the tomatoes. I use a fence to keep my monster birds out. The only problem I've had is mice sometimes nibble on the tomatoes. A couple mouse traps clears that up.
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
HI Ray, you know you can eat the radishpods. they are a little peppery but really tasty.
liverocks62 1 year ago
I have never heard of polish linguisa tomatoes. Have any idea where I could find seeds online?
PCOStherealdeal 1 year ago
@PCOStherealdeal They are the most amazingly flavorful paste tomato I have ever tasted! Most paste tomatoes have little flavor.
tomatogrowers . com has just about every variety you can imagine, including these.
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
@Praxxus55712 Ohhh well I have yet to get into preserving tomatoes, I eat the suckers like apples straight off the vine, they rarely make it into the house let alone on salads and sandwich's. lol Iv got a beef steak going crazy in the garden right now but It was a end of season, "ohh you poor baby I'm takin you home" buy so I expect a late harvest. I prefer the super juicy and seedy one's with tons of flavor. Know of any good variety's?
PCOStherealdeal 1 year ago
@PCOStherealdeal I'm absolutely loving the Brandywines this season. I'll try some new ones next season to see what else is good. If I find one that puts me into a tomato coma, I'll definitely let you and the others know. :)
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
Oh you have a skid steer . . . drool, drool, drool. I do the same thing with tomatoes -- I BINGE on tomatoes when they're fresh. The beefsteaks and yellow pear are my absolute favorites. Oh wow -- my peas died off about a month ago -- can't believe you still have them. My wax beans won't die. . . I am sick of wax beans. You cut off the corn! What are you going to do for Autumn decorations now?!?! Think man, think! LOL
Michigansnowpony 1 year ago
I went out today and behold i found potato's poppin out of the ground. will have to hill them better tomorrow.. but they are growing quite crazy. may have a few green ones since they likely saw the sun... or maybe they may turn brown who knows but glad i noticed it. so i'm going to have fingerlink potato's Yay!..
niffer58 1 year ago
That's a sweet New Holland Superboom. They are the most stable skid steer loaders ever manufactured. They licenced the design to John Deere. That hardly ever happens. That's how good they are.
AugustusLarch 1 year ago
How do you get your cilantro to grow so well? I think it's too hot for it here in NC. It doesn't bush out. It grows straight up to flower. Do you think shade would help it? It has been tough on all plants here this year though.
pantherfan3763 1 year ago
Holy crap that's a big tomato plant!
A fantastic garden as usual Ray. Looks like you were able to stick with it till the end of the season. I was worried you'd put in a ton of work on it and then have to move off and leave it.
Right now my peppers are just a little shorter than yours. I'm pretty sure my tallest plant will wind up getting to about 4 1/2 feet though because my growing season is so much longer than yours. You're lucky you don't have late tomato blight in your area!
Blinkazoid 1 year ago
good video!
jerrydff7 1 year ago
Question for weekend edition. I grew my tomatoes without cages this year and they are doing great, HOWEVER, I have big, fat, green worms eating their way thru them!! So now my tomatoes have holes everywhere. Do you have this problem and if so how do you deal with it??? Thanks Ray. P. S. Love your puppy..too cute!
mombo39 1 year ago
so ray what have you been stuffing those big ass marconi's with?? sausage? cheese?
juststl 1 year ago
@juststl Just cheese, ground beef and onions. They're perfect for that sort of thing.
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
Ray, are those the Pepper plants that you cut the tops off of, they look amazing. Mine aren't nearly as tall or bushy.
I3addogy 1 year ago
@I3addogy They were all clipped back before being transplanted because they grew too tall too soon.
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
Looks so yummy..love those tomatoes! Well Romas are for cooking mostly to make tomatoe paste/sauce etc. My peas have never looked like that! Geez you're the garden guru, lol. Im jealous, u dont seem to have the pests I do and the heat here killed everything but the okra..they love heat. Great idea on the corn haircuts.
kokonutbaby1 1 year ago
Ray, where did you get your Polish Linguisa Tomato Seeds from originally ?
I3addogy 1 year ago
@I3addogy I got the plants from a local greenhouse years ago. I save the seeds each fall. Unlike most tomatoes, they have only a few seeds per tomato, which is excellent since I don't like eating tomato seeds, but that also makes each seed more important for saving.
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
Hey Ray, I noticed you don't have mulch over much of your garden. Reasons?
ToyMaster83 1 year ago
maaaaannnnn..... u don't weed or nothing! u just 1)plant 2)water (with compost which is like steroids) 3)harvest
No tieing ur tomatoes, no maintanance or nothing! they grow like weed...
sushi123 1 year ago
@sushi123 I weed at the beginning of the season and through early summer until the garden plants reach the explosive stage. I then let everything do it's own thing. Then I weed one last time when I harvest. The weeds make a fantastic ground cover and that means less watering. It's probably not for people who want a picture perfect garden, but it sure works for me. The weeds help hise the fruits from wild birds who LOVE pecking at them. :)
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
Make me one of your sandwiches please! :-) Your pickled Jalapenos must be great, especially with your carrots onions, and radishes, mmmmm. If I were your neighbor, we could do business, for sure! Do you make salsa?
kern0099 1 year ago
@kern0099 For some reason my salsa always came out sub par. The cool thing is I would just dump the jars of salsa into homemade soups and it was fantastic!!
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
I have never seen 1 tomato plant grow soo big! I am impressed, your doing something right!
sherylintheraw 1 year ago
Hah! I played your video over & that Turkey bout made my daughter crap her pants lol
I got 2 pear tomatoes & one grape tomato so far lol, but I have a feeling it's going to be a bust out of red tomatoes, all at once, plus some heirlooms that I don't have any idea what they will look like, cept 4 1 brandywine if it makes it to tomatohood.
Learned some good stuff from you Ray & I think you probably inspired some extra weirdness, as if I didn't have a good supply of that going on already lol
omegahpla 1 year ago
@omegahpla Glad your daughter liked that. It always catches me off guard when they do that. lol
ps: If I'm inspiring weirdness fun and alternative thinking with gardening, then I'm doing something very right here. Thanks!! :)
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
@Praxxus55712 Yeah, she jumped & made weird noises then told me it caught her as she was putting up a hammer & when she jumped outa her skin, she dropped it too lol, good job turkey!
Your weirdness falls on fertile ground here man, lol. Often your ideas send a jolt through my nervous system that ends in an involuntary exclamation of "OH COOL!" or the like. Innovation is a drug to me, or somethin like that.
omegahpla 1 year ago
I was thinking of drying arugula, wonder if it would keep the spicey? Prolly not if cilantro didn't. My green onions are taking forever to grow, still little teeny tendrils. I've got radish pods goin on too : ). Spinich is a mystery to me as to how to save the seeds, feel like pulling them, but the seeds are green. I was wondering how long you needed corn tassles, my corn is pathetic, think they needed more sun. Wow monster tomato, can't do that in a bucket! Maybe a few buckets? lol
omegahpla 1 year ago
Great progress! How often do you water? Do you only water your garden with compost tea?? Thanks for sharing!
lunaone 1 year ago
"Did I do ok?" Silly Ray. You know you rock and that tomato plant is amazing! I have more tomatoes this year than ever before, using your ideas, but NOTHING like what you are doing!
We are doing a compost pile this year, so next year we will be able to make compost tea. I look forward to the difference that will make. Be well.
gcarped 1 year ago
@gcarped Let me know next summer if the tea makes a difference for you. I'm betting you're going to be extremely happy. :)
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
My pepper plant thats in a big pot is reflowering too. I am thrilled. My tomatoe plants...one has 6 tomatoes that arent ripe yet and the other one is like a monster in my tiny flower bed..sprawling all over the yard and intertwined with the potatoe greenery ..in a pot next to them... One of the tomatoes also got stuck in the fence but it was yummy anyway. Not big ass like yours tho. That cucumber is obscene ! hahaha Cant wait for your seed saving vid. Rascal is too cute. Love him !
mukwah1111 1 year ago
@mukwah1111 Question? When do you harvest your potatoes? I have some in a big bucket ..green growth is great.....invading tomatoe is shrouding it with its greenery too...I am looking forward to seeing how many spuds come out of da bucket.... summer is waning isnt it ????
mukwah1111 1 year ago
Very cool. Thanks for sharing.
How many ears do you get out of one of your beds?
-TEW
theeastwatch 1 year ago
@theeastwatch This year I got a 75% yield. Some plants just didn't set ears. I'm not happy with the quality/taste of this hybrid. I already have heirloom seeds ready for next year's corn.
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
@Praxxus55712 Do you have a rough # of the 75% yield? I'm gonna be planting corn in 8x4 raised beds next season and was just wondering...
ps. I planted a hybrid corn this year as well and had crappy results.
-TEW
theeastwatch 1 year ago
@theeastwatch I use 4x8 beds too. I planted three seeds per hole, one foot apart down the rows and three rows per beds. I plant three seeds in each hole to ensure there's gonna be a plant there. Then I let only the strongest of the three stay. The other two are salad. :)
You could easily go with 4 rows per bed. In fact that would ensure better pollination. I'll be going to 4 rows next spring. That's 28 plants per bed. I'm planting Trucker's Delight next spring. Hate the name though. lol
Praxxus55712 1 year ago
@Praxxus55712 I've seen a lot of closely planted corn around here this year. Something new it looks like. These Farmers really know their stuff so there must be something to it or a new kind of corn. Most of the corn around here is nasty to eat though, made for feed or something, not sweet. Don't ask how I know lol.
My Hybrid corn sucked 2, coulda been deficient sun, only gets 8 hours or so. I have to battle the trees this winter, get some sun back. Nice load a walnut & fruitwood 2 : ) bonus
omegahpla 1 year ago
@Praxxus55712 -- I had really good luck with the 'ol heirloom standby, Bantam early. Yeah, those 12' corn plants in my videos are all "bantams" (that's supposed to only be 4-5' tall). They produced quite well too, but of course, it's not the extra big, extra sweet hybrid stuff. The ears were on average 5-6" long and not overly thick. I plant 3 seeds together a foot apart too, but I don't pull any out. I never could get corn to grow well in my raised beds for some reason.
Michigansnowpony 1 year ago
Just one tomato plant, that is amazing!
MegaShaytardfan 1 year ago