Thursday, July 10, 2008

Opps

Sorry, y'all. I have been going on and on about my three sisters plantings. I was so happy with my first group of five that I planted two more. The first groups have popcorn, red noodle beans, and heirloom squash varieties. The popcorn varieties are strawberry and calico. The squash varieties are straight and crook necked yellow squash, and three types of zucchini include the cute little Ronde de Nice.

In the two new plantings, I planted sweet corn, more squash varieties to be determined and regular green yard long beans. Another pumpkin vine showed up and it gets to stay as well.

My popcorn is beginning to put out tassels. This prompted me to do some research. So after the fact, I go look up how to grow, harvest, and store popcorn. Step 1 pick your varieties with this warning "Don’t plant popcorn and sweet corn near one another, as they will both suffer if their is cross pollination." CRAP. I can only hope that the popcorn is finished with the pollination thing before the sweet corn starts it. I still have so much to learn.

Here is the article from gardenguides.com. There are some good popcorn recipes. That's right folks, popcorn recipes.

Have you made any gardening mistakes this year? Do you have popcorn recipes to share?

15 comments:

  1. I'm still learning when it comes to veggies too. My mom told me it was a good think I planted the tomato and cucumber in pots, because if you plant some veggies with cucumber everything ends up tasting like a cucumber. :( I hope it all works out with the sweet corn and the popcorn.

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  2. You know, Debbi, this whole corn cross-pollination thing is just an aggravation to me. Even if different kinds do cross-pollinate, which would only happen if they tasselled at the same time, it should only be an issue for the next generation--i.e., if you're trying to save seed for the following year's garden--not for the corn you're planning to eat. But somehow I too have an uneasy memory of learning in hort classes that cross-pollination affected the current year's corn crop, though of course I can't remember clearly at this point and it makes no sense to me botanically. Aaarrgghh!! because of this, I've never dared to grow corn here at Hawk's Haven because the property is backed and fronted by fields of corn. Guess I'd better go dig out ye olde vegetable crops textbook and try to get to the bottom of this...

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  3. I make mistakes all the time. Today's fix involved pruning a beautyberry I had planted it too close to an iris and sage. It grew out of bounds (note I am blaming the beautyberry and not the gardener who planted it too close!) That is just the most recent one. Sigh.

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  4. nice work. and experience is the best teacher, right?

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  5. but pg, I have been growing vegetables for 32 years. I should have known about the corn thing by now. Never heard that about cucumbers. I break another rule and always plant them in the same place. So far it works and only the cucumber taste like cucumbers.

    Hi ofb, Wow I never even considered the other corn growing around here. Mine may be doomed.

    Tina, bad beauty berry, very very bad.

    Hey sarah, how've you been. Glad to see you back.

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  6. Oops is right. Well, it's easier to remember lessons learned that you actually experience right? BTW, it sounds like something I'd do! LOL.

    I've planted many plants way too close. I had to get out my metal gates to reign some in so I could still enjoy all of the flowers. I guess I'll be rearranging some plants when it cools down this fall.

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  7. I make gardening mistakes daily, but I didn't stop by to confess thT...I stopped by to say that my niece calls me Aunty Monkey (true!) and that your blog made me squeal with laughter. Love it.

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  8. Hi cindy, i have really got to quit putting in too much stuff.

    hi margaret, glad to make you happy. Confessions are good for us.

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  9. I've got some Indian Corn coming along nicely and hope it doesn't get a stray pollen grain through the wind. It's good to see you.

    My very big mistake this year was letting a case of squash boring maniacs stay on the squash too long and now it's ruined. I couldn't figure out how to solve that without chemicals--and so they feasted till the plant died. I only got two harvest.

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  10. Hi anna, I just found your new blog. Yeah. Sorry about your squash. Seriously, this planting is doing some really cool things for my squash. The squash bugs are totally confused and borer have not been seen so far. It is a messy jungle-like garden, but it is working for me.

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  11. Never having made a mistake myself...I can't comment on that BUT don't you know by now anything we plant is going to be FERTILE!

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  12. You are not trying to make some kind of snickering comment as to my having had babies 15 months apart are you, meme? At least I didn't have them two at a time.

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  13. Our first planting of carrots didn't come up because we planted it too close to the fennel. The 2nd and 3rd plantings of carrots are doing fine at th eother end of the potager.
    --Curmudgeon

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  14. Curmudgeon, I never thought about it, but out carrots didn't do too well this spring and I had dill growing a few feet away. Hum.

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  15. Wow, I just came by to catch up...you post like a bunny! ;-) I'll have to come back tomorrow, but I wanted to chime in on how "fast and loose" vine crops can be. One year I planted my vine crops too close, and it all turned out gross! We had "squatermelon", "zucumbers", and "pumpourds"...*sigh*.

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