Garden Report 2021, Part 5

Some of the dry beans bunched and hanging in the loft; see the previous entry in this blog.

Every year I make some notes about the progress of the vegetable garden and how the varieties turn out. I thought I'd share my notes (abridged for readability) here, in case they're of interest. There are also some notes on the apple tree crop. Many blog posts from earlier years were about the apples and the cider wine that I made from them, but it's been several years since I've done that.

Garden and orchard notes, 2021. 

            Spring and early summer thru July had many days with significant amounts of rain. Late July/early August was the wettest period here on record. As a result, vegetables grew well till the end of July when some of the plants started to show mold and mildew. August continued very wet, and as a result yields on everything were below average. Every year I save some bean seeds for the following year.

            Sugar Ann peas—a fair emergence and yield, some mildew, overall not worth the trouble. Snak Hero peas—a new variety, very tasty, but poor emergence.

            Natascha potatoes—good emergence, good taste, fair yield, some scab. Red Maria potatoes—good emergence, fairly good taste, good yield, a lot of scab. Carola potatoes—good emergence, good taste, good yield, little scab.

            Lettuce did very well, including the New Fire red.

            Space spinach grew slowly, fair yield.

            Beet greens grew fast, became tough after a couple of weeks; best to plant in 2-week successions.

            Snap beans:

            Provider beans – good emergence, but very susceptible to mold, poor to fair yield. Good fresh or frozen.

            Big Kahuna beans-- good emergence, but very susceptible to mold, poor yield, best taste.

            Top Crop beans—good emergence, in season with Provider, mold resistant, very good yield, decent taste.

            Tendercrop beans—good emergence, later than the others by a week or so, mold resistant, good yield, decent taste.

            Accelerate beans—good emergence, moderate resistance to mold, fair yield, good taste.

            Dry beans:

            Dry beans did fine thru July. The rain plumped them up. Japanese beetles ate some leaves though. Kenearly seems to be the earliest, drying on the vine ahead of the others now. But continued rain diminished yield and made them moldy. Overall a poor to fair year. Light Red Kidney beans were most susceptible to mold, Kenearly next, Black Coco least susceptible. Flash shell beans even less susceptible.

            Better Boy bush tomatoes smaller and later than the indeterminate varieties. But the one indeterminate Better Boy didn’t do even as well this year. Lower leaves yellowed. Sungold did all right, but staking them cuts down on yield. Best to put them in cages.

            Kale did well so far (i.e., by late September), though bottom leaves are yellowing and dying.

            Cabbage is not doing well. Only three out of six will make decent heads. One succumbed to rot, the other never headed up properly.

            Summer squash: the Delta variety is a shy bearer, compared with Gentry which is about 1/3 to ½ again more productive, although compared with last year not as productive. General Lee cucumbers the same, and they don’t like so much water as the leaves start to yellow out. Altogether they stood up better to the rains than I thought they would, although yields were down some.

            Apples: in the orchard the browntail moth caterpillars ate the emerging leaves from many trees, but they put out a second batch of leaves. Liberty had a good stand of apples but the porcupines are eating them now. Planted three new varieties: Zestar, Williams Pride, and Pristine. Had to get the browntail moth caterpillars off them and keep them off till they turned to butterflies in July. Most of the leaves dropped early in October. Trees by and large are not healthy. Did not get any apples to speak of in the orchard, but I did get some from the trees down the road to the neighbors; in fact, the third and last of the planted trees (Summer Scarlet) was the most productive it’s ever been, while the Shiawassee or Fameuse (not sure which of the two varieties this is) that I grafted in the blueberry/now sweet fern field across from the house was also productive. Apples are very tasty, skin is tart in that Shiawassee/Fameuse tree. Must do more trunk painting with diluted latex white paint for the new young trees in orchard in the fall if possible, and in the spring if not; and shore up the fences and stakes around them.