The San Antonio Sandbur Patch

[GoDawgs]

Wow! HUUUUUUUUUUGE sweets!

[worth1]

Those are some really big sweet potatoes.
What part of the country are they from?

[Wildcat82]

Those are some really big sweet potatoes.
What part of the country are they from?

The Sandhills of Nebraska. My brother grows monsters like that every year since they have a perfect sandy loam there. You'd think sweet potatoes that size would be tough and stringy but they are tender and stringless. Him and his wife will make one sweet potato that size last for 5 meals.

[worth1]

I don't think a sweet potato can get tough and stringy.
It's not in their makeup to do so.
Hats off to your brother for growing great sweet potatoes that far north.
You really have to know what you're doing and when to plant.

[Wildcat82]

I don't think a sweet potato can get tough and stringy.
It's not in their makeup to do so.
Hats off to your brother for growing great sweet potatoes that far north.
You really have to know what you're doing and when to plant.

Maybe its a Northern thing or some odd variety we planted, but I remember as a kid we occasionally had some stringy sweet potatoes.

[Rockporter]

I don't think a sweet potato can get tough and stringy.
It's not in their makeup to do so.
Hats off to your brother for growing great sweet potatoes that far north.
You really have to know what you're doing and when to plant.

Maybe its a Northern thing or some odd variety we planted, but I remember as a kid we occasionally had some stringy sweet potatoes.

I have had some store bought sweet potatoes that were stringy, I was disappointed, lol.

[worth1]

Well maybe stringy but not so as you couldn't eat them.
Speaking of sweet potatoes.
I heard the other day pumpkin pie filling wasn't pumpkin it was butternut and other winter squash.
I'll have to verify that.

[Rockporter]

Well maybe stringy but not so as you couldn't eat them.
Speaking of sweet potatoes.
I heard the other day pumpkin pie filling wasn't pumpkin it was butternut and other winter squash.
I'll have to verify that.

So stringy that I couldn't eat it, I couldn't chew the strings

How Libby's pumpkin pie filling is made today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwziya1h70s

[worth1]

Well maybe stringy but not so as you couldn't eat them.
Speaking of sweet potatoes.
I heard the other day pumpkin pie filling wasn't pumpkin it was butternut and other winter squash.
I'll have to verify that.

So stringy that I couldn't eat it, I couldn't chew the strings

How Libby's pumpkin pie filling is made today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwziya1h70s

Maybe Libby's but maybe not everyone.
Maybe it's in the wording.
Like walnut and walnut finish with some gun stocks.

[Wildcat82]

My early season Blush, Black Cherry, Sweet 100, and Indian Stripe have been really slow to set fruit. No fruit set for the past 3 weeks in fact. But I see Sweet 100 has just set 7-8 tomatoes now. I'll take it.

I also finally got my Chinese long beans planted and my eggplant have been set back in the raised bed.

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[Wildcat82]

I met my goal of picking my first tomato by 1 April. My Indian Stripe, which set fruit on 10 February, came in at 3.9 oz (111 g). It went from totally green a day or so ago to ripe today. On the other hand I'm absolutely clueless why my green beans have refused to grow. Its day 55 for my Blue Lake variety (DTM 60 days).

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[GoDawgs]

Congratulations on your Indian Stripe! That first fruit is always a fist-pumping "YES!" event.

Wow, those beans aren't where they should be. Have they flowered at all yet? If you've had some cold weather it may have set them back. They sure are partial to continuously warm weather and kind of sulk when they don't get it. They might be on strike!

[karstopography]

Congratulations on the tomato. I’m eagerly awaiting my first of 2023.

Odd on the beans. My February 19th planted beans are just now blooming, about where I’d thought they would be at this point of time.

[Wildcat82]

Congratulations on your Indian Stripe! That first fruit is always a fist-pumping "YES!" event.

Wow, those beans aren't where they should be. Have they flowered at all yet? If you've had some cold weather it may have set them back. They sure are partial to continuously warm weather and kind of sulk when they don't get it. They might be on strike!

The green beans are blooming and I even saw one 2 inch long green bean pod but I can't imagine how a an 8 inch tall bean with only 2 or 3 leaves can produce much of anything. The plants have about the same number of leaves as when I set out the transplants. Since 18 February, we had maybe 5 cool days where lows were in the 40's and the other 45-50 days were in the 70 -80 degree range. I had added 4 bags of Black Kow composted manure to that bed and have fertilized 3 times.

[MarkAndre]

Very fine garden! That Indian Stripe looks flawless. I believe I managed an April 1 tomato once, but it wasn’t anything as tasty as IS.

I have a couple of thoughts on the beans and bed tomatoes, but they are really nothing but wild speculation. I have read (not personal experience) that legumes and alliums, particularly onions, do not like to be grown near each other. I can’t say at all if that’s really true.

The other thing I wondered about was the Black Cow. I had amazing results with it for a couple of years and then one season my garden just sat there. It could have been anything. Some people talk about herbicides in manure. I don’t know if that’s true or if it would apply at all to Black Cow, which I believe is an organic manure. My brother has continued to use it with success. If there was an issue with herbicide, I hear it should dissipate over time.

[Wildcat82]

Very fine garden! That Indian Stripe looks flawless. I believe I managed an April 1 tomato once, but it wasn’t anything as tasty as IS.

I have a couple of thoughts on the beans and bed tomatoes, but they are really nothing but wild speculation. I have read (not personal experience) that legumes and alliums, particularly onions, do not like to be grown near each other. I can’t say at all if that’s really true.

The other thing I wondered about was the Black Cow. I had amazing results with it for a couple of years and then one season my garden just sat there. It could have been anything. Some people talk about herbicides in manure. I don’t know if that’s true or if it would apply at all to Black Cow, which I believe is an organic manure. My brother has continued to use it with success. If there was an issue with herbicide, I hear it should dissipate over time.

I've hadn't heard beans and alliums didn't like each other. Maybe there is a subterranean war going on in my garden.

I always figured cow manure was probably the safest manure since dairymen make sure their cows don't contact any herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, etc, since their milk is tested. But the Black Kow isn't 100% cow manure - it's mixed with others stuff and who knows what was in that. My tomatoes in the next bed were also given several bags of composted manure and they aren't growing that well either so maybe the cow manure is a prime suspect.

[GoDawgs]

...I have read (not personal experience) that legumes and alliums, particularly onions, do not like to be grown near each other. I can’t say at all if that’s really true.

I've hadn't heard beans and alliums didn't like each other. Maybe there is a subterranean war going on in my garden.

One year I decided to test that and planted some beans right next to scallions. The beans didn't do well at all. Maybe they wouldn't have anyway in that particular spot but I've always had good beans there before. Beans planted in other beds at the same time as the ones near the scallions did fine. So who knows?

But that thing about legumes and alliums has been around a long time and I haven't yet read anything that would disprove it. To be on the safe side I don't plant them together.

[MarkAndre]

Very fine garden! That Indian Stripe looks flawless. I believe I managed an April 1 tomato once, but it wasn’t anything as tasty as IS.

I have a couple of thoughts on the beans and bed tomatoes, but they are really nothing but wild speculation. I have read (not personal experience) that legumes and alliums, particularly onions, do not like to be grown near each other. I can’t say at all if that’s really true.

The other thing I wondered about was the Black Cow. I had amazing results with it for a couple of years and then one season my garden just sat there. It could have been anything. Some people talk about herbicides in manure. I don’t know if that’s true or if it would apply at all to Black Cow, which I believe is an organic manure. My brother has continued to use it with success. If there was an issue with herbicide, I hear it should dissipate over time.

I've hadn't heard beans and alliums didn't like each other. Maybe there is a subterranean war going on in my garden.

I always figured cow manure was probably the safest manure since dairymen make sure their cows don't contact any herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, etc, since their milk is tested. But the Black Kow isn't 100% cow manure - it's mixed with others stuff and who knows what was in that. My tomatoes in the next bed were also given several bags of composted manure and they aren't growing that well either so maybe the cow manure is a prime suspect.

A war between the beans and onions. Sounds like a good story in there somewhere. Sort of a grittier Veggie Tales.

If it is the manure, I can’t think of anything helpful to add, but I really hope the toms turn it around and give you a harvest. Is there any chance of tucking an extra seedling somewhere in the landscape? I’m planning some very late plantings of allegedly heat-tolerant varieties for a summer experiment and an early variety did very well for me here last year, so my theory is that late-planted tomatoes can work out sometimes.

[MarkAndre]

...I have read (not personal experience) that legumes and alliums, particularly onions, do not like to be grown near each other. I can’t say at all if that’s really true.

I've hadn't heard beans and alliums didn't like each other. Maybe there is a subterranean war going on in my garden.

One year I decided to test that and planted some beans right next to scallions. The beans didn't do well at all. Maybe they wouldn't have anyway in that particular spot but I've always had good beans there before. Beans planted in other beds at the same time as the ones near the scallions did fine. So who knows?

But that thing about legumes and alliums has been around a long time and I haven't yet read anything that would disprove it. To be on the safe side I don't plant them together.

That’s guts! It can be a real eye-opener when you challenge accepted wisdom, as pointed out elsewhere in this thread. Love that you put it to the test.

[Rockporter]

...I have read (not personal experience) that legumes and alliums, particularly onions, do not like to be grown near each other. I can’t say at all if that’s really true.

I've hadn't heard beans and alliums didn't like each other. Maybe there is a subterranean war going on in my garden.

One year I decided to test that and planted some beans right next to scallions. The beans didn't do well at all. Maybe they wouldn't have anyway in that particular spot but I've always had good beans there before. Beans planted in other beds at the same time as the ones near the scallions did fine. So who knows?

But that thing about legumes and alliums has been around a long time and I haven't yet read anything that would disprove it. To be on the safe side I don't plant them together.

That’s guts! It can be a real eye-opener when you challenge accepted wisdom, as pointed out elsewhere in this thread. Love that you put it to the test.

Hmm, well I am putting that to the test then, I have green onions in the containers that I seeded the beans in. The onions are at least 18 inches from the beans and the beans are growing fine, other than the wind being unkind to them. It seems to me all three of the large containers I have the beans in are all doing well, with only one having onions in it I did recently transplant some leeks into another one of those containers.