What veg or fruit will be new for you next year?

Apart from any new varieties of tomatoes and peppers for next year I want to try ground cherries, wonderberries, asparagus bean, and maybe strawberries.

What will be new for you?

Tomatillos

I am going to try pea vines. They are supposed to be a great salad addition.

Sweet potatoes, if I can get slips. Perhaps 2 new-to-me varieties of winter squash (only Red Kuri planned so far), rutabagas, and any fall-cold weather veggies since I've never planted any fall stuff. If health holds out, maybe even get a cold frame built and planted for late season greens.

Gosh, what are pea vines?

darius, I've been intimidated by sweet potatoes. I don't know why, I live in sweet potato country. The town about two miles away even has a sweet potato festival. Still I dither about whether to plant. That cold frame sounds nice.

Rat-tail Radishes...you eat the seed pods above ground. Sounds really novel to me!

Pea vines. The tender young shoots of peas. You cut them off & they will continue to grow. You can do this many times. Should be cut when under 6".

Ahhhhhh....I'll have to try that. I grow English peas. Oh, just reminded me I have to get them out and start planning to plant. Their time is near here!

I'm going to try growing from seeds I've saved from Charentais melons and California Wonder sweet peppers. I tried saving seed many moons ago, but was not successful. That was when I lived in South Florida's ultra-humid climate. I'm hoping to have better luck here in NC.

Today I enlarged my list to include cranberries. I only found fresh cranberries for Thanksgiving after several stores and lots of frustration. When I finally found some, they were far too expensive, IMO.

They are easy to grow, and perennial. I don't need many!

darius - I thought one needed a "bog" to grow cranberries. How do they grow, darius?

LOL, at the moment, I'm writing an article about growing them for my blog! I'll post the link here when it posts in a couple of weeks.

You don't actually need a bog, although clay soil helps to keep the roots moist rather than drying out, which IS a must. I've seen suggestions to plant the root ball in a plastic bag with perforated holes for drainage. They DO need an acid soil just like blueberries, and they have been grown as far south as north Georgia.

The soil conservation service sells a high bush cranberry for planting in fence rows & farm groves here. They don't need anything special, but I'm not sure about the fruit. It is usually for wildlife food.

"Sweet potatoes, if I can get slips" it is easy to take sweet potatoes (if you like that particular type) and sprout them in water. You can remove your own slips, start them in soil and the potato will continue to produce slips.

Pod, I'd be lucky to get 2 slips if I did that... my cats occupy the only window that gets any sun, and they would without any doubt nudge off any water-filed jars with a potato seeking sunlight to grow!

I remember my grandma starting slips that way, though.

I had success in sprouting slips last season in that manner. One potato generated quite a few slips.
Unfortunately the dry summer did not help the crop at all. I will try again as the small sweet potatoes showed no signs on wire worms or other problems. Just compacted soil and drought.

Thanks, Terri for starting this thread - very inspirational! Definitely adding sweet potatoes. I've already started a list of growers to order from in the North so I get the right variety for this area. It sounds like Beauregard and Georgia Jets will be my choice. I haven't planted carrots for several years so look forward to trying some of the new colors as well as the orange. I also am planning much less tomatoes (causes my husband too much indigestion!) so will grow more okra, eggplant varieties and lettuces. The Charentais melons also interest me - they seem highly recommended! If I follow this thread enough I should have tons of new ideas!!

A very good carrot is Sugarsnax from Johnny's Selected seeds. Very sweet!
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-335-main-crop.aspx

[b]darius[/b] - it seems I have everything needed to grow cranberries! Thanks for the info.

[b]gardadore[/b] - Charentais melons are not large, but they taste like heaven! It's hard to tell when they are ripe as they do not "slip" like other melons. If you leave them too long they will crack and the ants will get to them. I check mine at least twice a day, and once I see a tiny crack forming, pick them immediately. Unfortunately birds and squirrels love them too, so I cover the bed with bird netting. If you use netting be sure the openings are large enough to let bumble bees and honeybees through - no bees no melons!

The melon on the right is the Charentais - the others are "mystery melons" you can see how small they are compared to the tomatoes. Photo taken July 9th 2010

This message was edited Dec 3, 2010 10:05 AM

HoneybeeNC, I've read a couple of threads about trellissing the Charentais and thought that one had to trellis them. But it sounds like you have grown them in a bed. Hmmm, they might be fun! Although I do have several trellises as I have to really support my tomatoes due to strong and almost constant winds at my house.

gardadore, why thank you, blush! I love to hear what new things folks are trying.

terri_emory - they do grow better on a trellis. Last year the only space I had for them was "free roaming". Here's a photo from 2009 of one growing on a pea fence.

I have since purchased some cucumber fences and plan to grow them there. I saved seeds from a couple of Charentais that were especially sweet and seemed to crack less than others.

Thanks for all the info on the Charentais. I have never had great luck with any melons except a rogue one that grew out of some of my own compost I put in a flower garden. That gave some nice sweet melons but I have been unable to repeat that scenario. Last summer my melons produced and ripened (or so I thought!) but they never got sweet. I don't think I could have harvested them much later as they would have rotted. Is there something you feed melons to help raise the sugar content? I will definitely try the Charentais and trellis them.

After all this chatter, I'm inclined to try the Charentais too. Thanks!

Melons need boron and magnesium; although I haven't done this for a long time, I used to sprinkle a little borax and some epsom salts where I planted them. I also plant my melons in a ring around coffee cans with holes poked in them, inserted in the ground; it's an easy way to deliver a lot of water to the roots. Here's a link about boron and magnesium:

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-05-20/realestate/re-453_1_tasteless-melons

and this is what they say:

GARDENING Q & A
May 20, 1990|DOC ABRAHAM and KATY ABRAHAM
QUESTION: Last year, our muskmelons had a flat taste. We grew them near cucumbers, and we wonder if the cucumbers crossed over and gave the melons a bad flavor.

ANSWER: Cucumbers cannot cross with muskmelons, watermelons, or squash. There is no way for the bitterness of cucumbers to get into the melons. Flat, tasteless melons can be due to a lack of magnesium or boron in the soil. It has been found that such fruits can be sweetened by giving them a dose of Epsom salts and borax. For home garden use, use about 6 1/2 tablespoons of Epsom salts and 3 1/2 tablespoons of household borax, all added to five gallons of water. Spray the plants when the vines start to run and again when the fruits are between one and two inches in diameter. Weather can also affect flavor. Rainy, cold days cause flat, tasteless melons.

It's not just melons that need boron. I belong to a List for Brix, and boron has been discussed a lot recently. The advice is to have a soil test that includes boron, as many gardens are deficient.

I've never done a soil test; it always seems as though I'd be aiming at a fast-moving target because of all the amendments, such as compost and mulch, that I put on my garden.

I've never had a soild test done, either. By next year I'll have ten raised beds, and each one will have a different soil make up depending upon what I throw in it! So having a soil test done would only give me the results for that particular bed in that particular spot.

Because I only use organic methods, I've not had too many failures over the years. Except "beets" - I've never been successful growing them!

Where a soil test is exceptionally important is testing for micronutrients (like boron!) and we seldom, if ever, apply the full spectrum of necessary plant micronutrients. They are lacking in almost every manufactured amendment you can buy, and rarely found in our compost and mulch. (That's because our soils have been depleted of micronutrients for a long time, and compost can't add back what it didn't get when growing.)

It's kinda like cobalt ... we humans only need a miniscule amount yet without it we are in serious trouble.

Off my soapbox.... Has anyone grown Belgian endive? How hard is it to manage?

But would you get reliable results if you tested the soil after adding the compost? And then how long would it take to get the information back?

Soil tests are generally quick this time of year (compared to spring), and are free in some states. I think I paid $6 for mine via the land grant university system here in VA. Compost doesn't change the soil nutritional values much at all; it is best at helping the soil become looser for root growth, yet hold moisture via the organic matter.

Also, what you get from a soil test varies wildly by area. My state gives only the barest of information, but that's about what I expect for the price. There are some great soil test labs (I'll use Ag-Labs when I send samples) but I haven't learned enough soil science yet to really know what tests to request, nor how to interpret and use the information they send back. I'm working on it.

I still have some Peter's Trace Elements left over from when I used to grow African violets. Each spring I incorporate some into my fertilizer mix in the vegetable garden. A little goes a long way. Scotts produces Micromax Micronutrients

http://www.growersupply.com/mimi50lb.html

I doubt very much that backyard gardeners such as ourselves will ever need a 50lb bag!

I looked up the company where I purchased the trace elements you will find it on page 10:

http://www.violetshowcase.com/sup10web.pdf

SOLUBLE TRACE ELEMENT MIX For those mixing their own potting soil. Mix 1/4
teaspoon thoroughly in 1 gallon of moist soil. Adds trace elements such as boron,
manganese, etc. back into soilless mixes.
Item #357 16 oz. container, $4.89 ship. weight 18 oz.

LOL, you are probably right!

I side dress my leeks, shallots and garlic with a bit of greensand mixed with azomite, and of course I put a couple tablespoons of it in all my planting holes. It doesn't take much in the way of minerals to provide better plant nutrition... after 4 years, I'm still on my first bag of azomite and my 3rd bag of greensand which is a smaller bag.

Thanks, Honeybee. I'll do a comparison of minerals between that and what I use later when I get a chance.

You're welcome darius :)

Darius, thanks for giving us an example of what one might use. I imagine I could find greensand and azomite in a garden supply store? Or did you have to order it? I have used Spray 'N Grow in the past and that seemed to work well, but this year the nozzle jammed and I got behind and never started again. I have some kelp that I ordered but I never used it because I didn't know how much or for which plants...

Lots of the greensand is mined in New jersey! I cannot get it in my small town, but the feed store in the next town carries it. Seems like I paid under $20 for a bag that was probably 30 pounds. The first 2 years here I only used greensand, mainly because it helps break up clay. Interestingly enough, it also helps sand hold water better!

I added azomite, picked up from the closest organic supplier 100 miles away, because it contains trace elements not found in greensand. A few of the organic farmers from the local market trade with produce instead of gas $, and I swing by the organic supplier 2-3 times a year en route from my doctor visits in Charlottesville... unless they are getting 2,000 pounds of something! It's not much out of my way, so it's a win-win.

This photo is the azomite mineral and trace element breakdown...

Thanks darius and greenhouse_gal for the interesting discussion on trace mineral, especially for the melons. I printed the "recipe" and am now setting up beds for this coming planting season so this is very timely info!

I'm heading off to the farm co-op this morning. It is becoming apparent to me that almost all I can think of needing is somewhen in the farmer's co-op.

I have to downsize this year so I will be growing fewer tomatoes. I want to grow some red okra and I want to try some new and interesting bush beans. Going to try burgundy beans. Any of you have any ideas for beans. They have to be bush beans. I also want to try a few more basils and other herbs. I grew herbs for the first time last year and loved it. I want to get some fruits growing too. Pineapple tomatillos is on my list. I have lots more wants than room. LOL

I am trying to downsize, too, but I'm not sure how. We like to have enough of various things to freeze or store for the winter, so that makes it tough!