I'm in southern NY State and the weather here has been unseasonably cool and wet.

Anyway, I'm curious about what I have and if there is anything I can do to save some tomatoes this year.

Here are photos of some of the plants.

Celebrity

Black Cherry

Roma

Husky Cherry

Grape Tomato

Jalapeño Mint Jelly

Makes 4 half-pints

2 cups spearmint leaves, chopped fine, divided
2 jalapeño peppers, seeded, diced
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 Tbs lemon juice
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 envelope powdered pectin

In a small saucepan, heat 1 3/4 cups mint leaves with 1 1/2 cups water, bring to boil, shut off heat and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain mint infusion into large saucepan, squeezing out mint leaves to extract as much mint as possible (I used a coffee filter in a small colander for straining). Discard boiled leaves.

Add vinegar, lemon juice, chopped jalapeños, and pectin to the mint infusion, stir well. Heat to hard boiling, stirring constantly. Add sugar and keep stirring until the jelly has boiled hard for about 2 minutes, or until it has started to thicken. This will bubble up quite a bit, so make sure that your pot is at least twice as large as the mixture.

Turn off heat and let sit for a few minutes. Add reserved mint leaves, then pour into hot jars. BWB for 10 minutes. Gently invert jars several times during cooling to redistribute mint leaves.

Also: any of you who suffer rodent damage: Are these holes visible in the tuber flesh looking like the work of an underground varmint? I've not had this problem before, but have noticed mole hills lately in the area. I have to tutor the moles to eat worms, not tubers!

Bites?

Marked with eyes

Marked with where I'd cut. Don't forget to turn the clump upside down to check for eyes associated with tubers on the underside.

One or two cuts from left and right to get these two tubers off the clump. A careful slice between eyes and you'll get two tubers off this "V" shaped offspring.

Eyes marked in red, where I'd make cutting lines in green, brown spot fungus marked in blue. I'll have to use chemistry to kill that in my soil next year.

Notice the stalk is pointing down, so don't forget turn the clump over to get some easily nabbed tubers that may be there.

From last year or 06, marked for dividing. This kind of clump is a real gift: tubers usually only take one cut, are widely spaced, eyes bulging.

Happy dividing.

Obvious eye- looks like an unsitely pimple dead center, pale and raised bump.

45 degrees up to the right of it, see another raised lighter swelling with brown dots below. Another possible eye.

Same line 45 degrees further to edge of tuber, see another pink swelling. Another bump that may be an eye come Spring.

Straight up from the pale center eye, at the apex of tuber surrounded in crusty brown, is a depressed pink bump highlighted in two white flash dots; another potential eye.

There may be others here, but those are my best guesses on this tuber. Incidentally, this is Caproz Razbr'y Twinkle a very dark pink flower and I swear the tubers are pink toned too! Have never seen such a color on a tuber.

Here's another variety still on the clump: 4-5 eyes seen as slightly raised yellow swellings and a more prominent darker swelling dead center. The neck below it is what I will include when cutting these off the clump. The tuber neck to the right has no eyes connected to it; it goes to waste. The blurry tuber to the left has a small, pale swelling. See it? That would be a candidate for harvesting. Directly above the group of eyes pale greenish is the big stalk of the dahlia plant. To the far upper right marked in blue is another obvious eye, nearly sprouting, that will become another tuber.

Marked for you:

Here'e another obvious one, and possibly another eye to the upper right of the blue mark. There must be a reason I chose to mark this one, instead of the more prominent noogie to the right.

Here's the one next to the base of the stalk, as seen above. It isn't the most desirable tuber, skinny neck and all, but I'm going for it. The little fleshy broken tuber underneath it will be cut out later to get it out of my way.
I could have placed my blades/knife/cutting tool a bit further behind the obvious eyes, but I think this will work out. You don't want too flimsy tuber material supporting the eyes- breakage potential and all. I try to leave at least 1/3- 1/2 inch give or take.

Cutting the other side of that tuber, right thru the broken necked tuber, stabbing into stem material at least 1/2 inch deep. The final cuts will be underneath after I get the broken neck mess out of the way. And on top to sever anything the two side cuts missed.

The rugged looking evacuee, (but from photo 4.) A little sharp edged trimming and it will be ready to bleach, dry, sulphur, wrap and/or store.

This is the other side taken from by the brown mess on the clump. Cut off all brown or rust colored icky stuff from tubers. I soaked this in bleach water a good half hour after trimming it down to nice white tissue.

Final result: tidied up, labelled and ready to go.

John

1/1/04

Linda

1. Cut paper into a 3 1/2" square, wider if you need a larger envelope. I might make my next batch with a 4" square for larger seeds:

2. Fold the square into a triangle. I forgot all the geometric terms, so please forgive me if the explanation is unclear:

3. Fold the two flaps almost all the way to the base of the triangle:

4. Fold the two corners of the triangle toward the center:

5. Unfold the flaps. Place a piece of tansparent tape over the two corners as shown in the photo above. The envelope will look like this:

Please note the base of the flaps. If the two corners of the triangle are folded a little deeper so that the flaps are not perfectly triangular, small seeds will not leak out.

6. Seeds go in between the two flaps:

7. Fold down the flaps and tape the tip or insert it into the envelope, like so:

I usually fold the squares up to stage 3 on the train to and from work. I do the rest at home where I have more space. It is not easy balancing all my supplies on my lap during the train ride. :-)

Have fun and please let me know how they turn out.

The question I get asked the most about dahlias is "How do I dig, divide, and store my tubers for the winter?" Dahlia tubers will be destroyed if they are left in the ground during the winter here in Westchester County NY, so they need to be dug up each year. After the first frost, the dahlia plants will turn black and the leaves will collapse against the stems. Once this occurs, cut the plant down to about 4 inches above the ground and attach an identifying tag to the short stalk. Use a shovel or digging fork to carefully loosen the soil around the tuber clump and gently lift it from the ground. Wash all excess soil from the clump using a garden hose being careful not to damage the thin protective skin of the tubers. Let the clumps dry overnight in the garage allowing the protective skin around the tubers to harden or "cure." This will help maintain the proper amount of moisture in the tuber during its long winter’s nap.

Dahlia clumps should be divided and separated into individual tubers, using a knife or a long nosed clipper. Before dividing, remove any damaged tubers and all hair roots. Each tuber must have an eye. The eyes are located near the stem of the clump. I usually first divide the clump in half, making it easier to see the eyes more clearly and divide the individual tubers. Remember that you must remove part of the stem with an eye for that tuber to be a viable tuber. That being said, on occasion I have divided a tuber without a visible eye on the stem and an eye did appear during the over-winter storage period. Next, use an indelible marker such as a Sharpie to label each tuber. Place them in a one-gallon Ziploc bag filled with one-third vermiculite and 2 tablespoons of a fungicidal powder. (You can put a number of tubers of the same variety in one bag.) Shake the contents around in a Shake ‘n Bake fashion to get the fungicidal powder to coat the tubers. I then write the variety’s name on the outside of the bag and place the bags in a cardboard box that’s lined with 12-15 sheets of newspaper for insulation. The bags are left open in the box and the box is closed and placed in my attic for winter storage. Tubers do best when maintained at a temperature between 38-50 degrees so it’s critical to find the right area in you home, whether it’s the attic, garage, or an unfinished basement.

I usually check on my tubers once a month during the winter to ensure they aren’t rotting. If you do notice a tuber rotting, remove it from the bag so that the fungus doesn’t infect the remainder of the tubers. These steps will result in a viable supply of healthy tubers for the next growing season.

Happy gardening,
Ed Bonci
MG 2006

I would carefully divide any tubers you think are worth saving, dip them in a 10% bleach/water solution for up to half an hour, then go on to dry well and inspect for more bugs. The other part of the clump I would tie up in a garbage bag or dip in soapy water bucket ( use the old bleach water) to kill the bugs, then discard.

It could be your lucky day: I've never found any underground bugs- just worms.

Cherry Toms, multi-colored Bell Peppers, Caribbean Red Habaneros and Jalapenos, destined for tonight's fajitas, and stuffed peppers for sometime during the week:

Here are a few step-by-step pics of the dehydrating process:

Tomatoes get sliced, in half for cherries and in 1/3" slices for larger fruits. They spend some time on paper towels, to soak out the gross fluids:

Some get seasoned with a variety of dried spices; salt, fresh ground black pepper, Basil, Garlic powder, Onion powder, etc.. Then they get laid out on the drying racks. Each shelf is 21.5" x 16".

Then they go into the machine, which will hold 12 drying racks:

125°F for 25-30 hours, and you have lovely shrunken tasty treats!

You can't imagine the smells coming out of the kitchen right now. The dehydrator is pumping out Tomato, Pepper and spice aromas, and chicken slices are simmering in the wok, in a wonderful cumin-laced marinade.

Anyway, any thoughts, prayers and seeds would be appreciated. Email me anytime just to talk if you like. It get really lonely not being able to do as you please. I will remember each and every one of you who would help me out and will help you out in the nearest future possible. Thanks again for reading and god bless!

Here is a link that might be useful: Arrested for brown lawn..

I heard about the upside down method for Pelargoniums too, but decided to try another method in the last two years. I dig them up, shake the dirt off, leave them to dry for a couple of days, shake the dirt again, and then throw in a box. After closing the box, I place in a dark closet in the basement where the temps get no colder than 5C.

When I uncover them in April, sometimes some of them are sending little flowers up even though there's no light, soil, anything! They all survive, so for my lazy gardener ways, this method is great! Just plant and go.

wintersown tomatoes in trays with 8 varieties per tray...as many as 16 plants, because I put two seeds for each variety to make sure that I'd get something in each spot. ($6 per tray, and I give them a list for their tray so they know which plant is which variety. The "tray" is actually the bottom of a 1 gallon kitty litter plastic bottle. We saw the top off with a tablesaw and they worked great for wintersowing.)

You can see from this list that quite a few of the plants are very common. My bigger ticket items were some hostas, peonies and some nice hanging baskets, and a few hydrangeas, but 90% of the sales were from $3 perennial pots.

Peonies I sold for $6,7 and $12, depending on how many stems...4 stems were $6, 8 stems were about $12. Peonies are very expensive in the nurseries, so this is good money for me, and a good deal for them. When I had to move peonies from the lawn a few years ago, I planted many where I wanted them, and all of the little bits of tubers, I put out in a field garden to do their thing. Those are the ones I've been selling. I have not depleted them, so in a couple of years, I'll be able to get more for another sale.

I even sold newly sprouted baptesia from my winter sowing, not more than 1" tall in a styrofoam coffee cup...I sold 2 of them like that! The trick? My own large baptesia is coming into bloom right now and looks fanstastic.
This is one of the best tricks for selling the stuff...have lots available of whatever is in bloom at the time of your sale...last weekend, my girlfriend and I did a one day sale at our arboretum. It went so-so. I couldn't give away Siberian Iris. These last two days, I'm nearly sold out because my own plants are in bloom.
I have trays of Sundrops that look beautiful but people aren't biting much...and I don't have a good picture of them like I do some of the others. I have no fear, I will put up the sign when it is blooming like crazy in my garden, and those things will fly out the door in one afternoon.

How do I get this stuff? I do have an acre and I have areas that I just use for holding plants that I don't want in my garden...like in a back woodsy area, I had sundrops winter over in cardboard beer trays, totally ignored...about 3 weeks ago, I brought them out, threw out the old tray, cleaned them up and watered, and now they look great. I'll probably make more than $30-50 on just those...and they are so easy to keep going anywhere.
And now, I will be winter sowing plants just to sell them...

I also dig stuff from my garden during the sale, including my more common hostas that I have mass plantings of. That brings in larger amounts of money. And if you have a place for ferns, plant them, and sell them! People are always wanting ferns. They grow naturally in a little "clump", are easy to dig right then and people pay $3-5 for one little clump without batting an eye...because they aren't always that easy to find in the nurseries. I bet I made almost $40 just from the ferns, and I don't even have them in a prominent spot. They grow behind my garage and around my air conditioning unit, so I needed to thin them out, anyway.

Common hostas...my girlfriend dug up her huge albomartinatas, labeled them "monster hostas" and sold 3 of them for $25 each! That's a fast growing hosta and she has a ton of them...

I guess my point is...it pays to keep some plants around, even if they aren't your favorites. Many people groan about Sundrops, but I actually like them and they have a purpose in my yard. Plus, the money is good when they sell and I always am upfront with people about anything that's even got the potential to be invasive.

Another reason I think that I do so well is that I really talk to the people if I perceive that they want help...you can tell right away if someone wants the help or not and it's amazing, the people who engage in conversation and questions seem to be the ones that buy more. And I am not pushy, just informative and friendly. I try to help them figure out what will work for their sun or shade spots and I know a lot about the good and bad qualities of the plants that I grow, so along with the pictures, knowledge of your plants is really helpful. I also try and be generous and sometimes I throw in a bit of this or that...a slip of sedum, or that type of thing.

Another thing...encourage them to look at your garden. Take them to another area to show them the habit of a plant that's not looking all that exciting in the pot. On the way, they nearly always find something else that they like. The next thing you know, you're digging a bit of something you hadn't even thought of digging for the sale. And I never sell anything that I don't want to, or don't have enough of, and I just am honest that I don't have enough to spare yet, and people understand that.

I know this is getting long, but I have to tell you one more thing... I have an area near my garage with annuals that I've been needing to pot up in my planters for myself. Some nice 4-6" pots of king coleus, petunias, that sort of thing... People kept wandering away from my "sale" area and kept looking at my annuals. In the end, I did sell a few of the annuals just because I could spare them. I thought it was funny that I was even making a bit of money off stuff I'd had no intention of selling.

Rhubarb...it's ready for harvest in my garden and I hadn't gotten to it for myself. I made $20 just pulling Rhubarb for people who wanted it.

In a few weeks, I will have another sale...it will be when the sundrops and yellow loostrife are blooming...there's tons of both of those to sell, and I'm sure that in the process, I'll be able to dig a few more this and that's for people. In the mean time, I will work on getting pictures for a few of the things that I didn't have time to do earlier.

If you've been gardening for awhile and you think you don't have much to sell, dig up some bee balm and start putting it in the 4" (quart size) pots. It's amazing how much you CAN'T get into those pots...which means that each pot will have 2-5 larger stalks. You probably only need to dig about a 10" square area of bee balm and you'll have at least 6 good sized pots...that's $18 at 3 bucks each!

Well, I'm sorry that I went on and on, but I really encourage people to try a sale. The first one I had was a big garage sale that I advertised in the paper and I included that I'd also be selling perennials, dug fresh from the garden. I made more than $200 on that sale from plants alone and I never missed a bit of it...

Good Luck!

This year I'm planning to nip them early to force them to be bushier. I tried this with one and it sent up shoots from way down on the base: made its own support, essentially: it looked like a cluster of spires. It still got tall: it was at least 2 feet. I had another that broke near the base (~6 inches above the ground) in a storm and it too made a whole cluster of new spires. Those two were more attractive than the rest, and did not look so rangy after a long period of bloom.

What does it say on the tag for yours? How tall is it supposed to get?

Hope this helps somewhat. Maybe try a google search for Pinching techniques and plants, ect.

Vera

You could even get fancy, and use something spiffy like cobblestones for the cap course. Or use something wider than the bricks, so you could sit on it while working in the bed. Redwood 2x8's would look great.

You are singing my song..lol. I also start out doing well and then they fizzle out on me too. I haven't tried them too many times. I don't have a full day of sun for them and I don't know how much that has to do with it. I am going to keep trying them too. As a matter of fact, I am determined to find something that works, because I really like them.

I would enjoy to have some for cutting to bring in the house and I haven't tried too many of the branching types. The single stalk big ones are so amazing, but no sooner do they bloom, then they are dropping over with the weight of maturing seeds and browning up. I read somewhere that some people sow them every couple of weeks to prolong the bloom and that they are heavy feeders and that is something I have neglected, so maybe if I pay more attention to that this year...

Thank you for the list of favorites. I will look them all up and the Big Smile for a pot sounds great. We'll see. I hope we're not still singing the same song come September.

:-)

T

Seed saving is easy. One rule--if the seeds are going to imminantly disperse they're ready to collect.

I'm going to paste in two links--one is for simple seed saving concepts and some links for common plants. The second link is advise on how to comfortable trade your seeds online. The most important point there is to not over-trade, make your seeds into packs before you offer them so you know how much you can safely trade.

Seed Saving

Seed Trading

I believe in full and honest disclosure. We all make mistakes and we all made really goofy mistakes at first.

Look on a bunch of trade pages and you will get an idea of what you want to convey.

My impatiens walleriana pods are green when they explode, too - the seeds are usually a light brownish, and turn darker when exposed to the air.