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Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 12:13 am
by JWH
Going to get a small batch of lemons off my greenhouse lemon tree.
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Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:59 am
by stevelau1911
One thing that I've found to be interesting is how the carrots that haven't been harvested aren't turning soft and rotting away regardless of the soil freezing over multiple times and they still hold onto some green leaves.

Are carrots supposed to be very cold hardy? I guess they can be harvested all the way up until the point they decide to go to seed in the spring.

One thing that does seem to kill them is when I take them out of the ground and leave them on top of the soil which will make them turn soft and die within days.

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Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 6:20 pm
by zxylene
Interesting I will need to try that with my carrots next year. What type of carrots are you growing? are they getting any bigger? I doubt they are growing but it would make for good storage.

Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 7:35 pm
by canadianplant
Carrots are biennials so they have some hardiness. I think its zone 4 or 5. Ive had quite a few survive the winters here under snow and mulch.

Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2014 6:20 pm
by Tarzanus
It's usually wet during the winter around here and they get quite a lot of damage from different animals and insects. If you take them out in the spring, you get carrrotholes and carrottunnels instead of edible vegetable.

Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:55 am
by stevelau1911
Those carrots from the previous photo still happen to be firm and alive which is suprising considering how tough this winter was. Anyways, here's what I have planned to grow for the garden in terms of vegetables.

1. Tomatoes
2. luffa
3. more garlic
4. onions
5. potatoes
6. Ginseng
7. green radish
8. winter melon
9. walking onions
10. canteloupe
11. watermelon
12. malabar spinach
13. Jicama Yam Bean
14. snow peas
15. zucchini
16. Red carrots
17. Ginger
18. bok choy
19. bitter gourd
20. scallions
21. Chinese Cabbage
22. Garlic chives
23. long cucumber
24. water spinach
25. Napa
25. Choi sum
26. Baby corn seeds
27. Parsley
28. giant puffball mushrooms

I would like to include bamboo shoots as number 29, but I don't think I should even think about it this year with all the damage. I might need to add in a lot more trellis space as only 6 luffa plants are known to take up over 1000 square feet of trellis.

I have also added a bosc pear tree, regular fuyu persimmon, giant persimmon, and fuji apple tree in terms of my fruits go. I wished I could grow some of the tropicals such as starfruits or coconuts, but I can only make the most of my climate. These were from Willis Orchid, and they looked pretty good first time around this time as it didn't appear to be bottom of the barrel stock.

Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 5:22 pm
by Mackel in DFW
Hi Steve, I have fuyu persimmon (and fuji apple). The non-astringent fuyu is zone 7 and ripens in October (?); there are other varieties of persimmon (American ?) that would do fine without a greenhouse in your location- just sayin'.

The astringent varieties are supposed to be a sweeter, more complex flavor than the non-astringents, like fuyu; though fuyu is very popular in Japan. I haven't done a taste, as mine is too young to fruit yet. Eureka (zone 6), another dwarf variety like fuyu, is the go-to variety in Dallas. Texas a&m advises to take some precautions with fuyu, in that far North Texas winter weather can burn the top of the foliage (zone 7).

Whatever you decide to do, I seem to recall, I forgot the reason why, you don't let fuyu cross polinate with certain other persimmons- it has something to do with the effect upon the quality of fruit (?). The information about this is out there on the subject, I just can't recall as nobody seems to bring up the subject...

Many of the other things you are growing, will not make it in Texas summers unless cultivated during the spring or fall, and that's where the greenhouse for this climate comes in handy. We basically have two growing seasons for lettuces and other cool season vegetables, with a scorching summer in between. M

Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:01 pm
by stevelau1911
Mine are non-astringent varieties, but I'm aiming to get a crisp apple like fruit that can be eaten or juiced right away. The bigger the fruit the better, but this is just because I want to be able to grow every fruit that is possible in my climate, or at least one of each kind.

It never gets hot up here outside of my greenhouse which is surprising up to 88F today regardless of it only being in the 50s outside. This probably means that the next greenhouse warmup should activate fargesia rufa shoots. Luckily they're not up yet as 7F is in the forecast tomorrow night which will likely drop the greenhouse to around 20F.

Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 12:47 pm
by needmore
Mackel in DFW wrote:Hi Steve, I have fuyu persimmon (and fuji apple). The non-astringent fuyu is zone 7 and ripens in October (?); there are other varieties of persimmon (American ?) that would do fine without a greenhouse in your location- just sayin'.

The astringent varieties are supposed to be a sweeter, more complex flavor than the non-astringents, like fuyu; though fuyu is very popular in Japan. I haven't done a taste, as mine is too young to fruit yet. Eureka (zone 6), another dwarf variety like fuyu, is the go-to variety in Dallas. Texas a&m advises to take some precautions with fuyu, in that far North Texas winter weather can burn the top of the foliage (zone 7).

Whatever you decide to do, I seem to recall, I forgot the reason why, you don't let fuyu cross polinate with certain other persimmons- it has something to do with the effect upon the quality of fruit (?). The information about this is out there on the subject, I just can't recall as nobody seems to bring up the subject...

Many of the other things you are growing, will not make it in Texas summers unless cultivated during the spring or fall, and that's where the greenhouse for this climate comes in handy. We basically have two growing seasons for lettuces and other cool season vegetables, with a scorching summer in between. M

Lucky you, fuyu is the only one I eat and they are best when still crisp unlike most which need to start to wrinkle. Sweet, juicy & crisp the fuyu with no pucker!

Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 3:41 am
by stevelau1911
The persimmons as well as all the other fruit trees are setting bud already so leaves should be out by May.

One surprise is that carrots appear to be super hardy. They can clearly over-winter in zone 6 even if they are sticking out of the ground by an inch. How hardy are carrots?

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Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:22 pm
by stevelau1911
Here are some of the luffa seedlings already getting an early start. I will need to transplant them in a few days to 1 gallon pots.
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Tomato seedlings will need up-potting soon too.
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Garlic will need a fertilization in about a week.
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Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 7:38 pm
by JWH
Ripe Salmonberries! The birds and I are happy.

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Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 2:21 pm
by foxd
Finally starting to see fruit starting to develop on one of the Surinam Cherry Trees. Hardy Kiwi is blooming and the Hardy Orange is developing lots of fruit this year. And we're getting lots of strawberries!

Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 3:28 am
by stevelau1911
Those look similar to raspberries. Mine are surprisingly declining this year so I am guessing that they might be running out of energy from producing too many fruits last year eh?

Blackberry bush is stronger than ever with many new shoots already rising for next year's production. I've found that the lower the branches are on the plant, the more energy they will receive.
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Blueberries should be ripe in another week.
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Peach trees are now getting sprayed often to keep deer away since they can still nibble these leaves.
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Chives
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Asparagus flowering for the first time
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Giant fuyu persimmon tree
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Pomegranate coming back strong after top kill
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I guess comfrey is edible too, but they are starting to outgrow the pots
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Potato vines are getting bigger than ever. I'm not sure why, but they don't seem to self seed themselves unless I manually plant them underground.
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Here are just some of my vegetables

Tomato plants are planted next to barrels to get some extra heat
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The choi sum should be ready to harvest in another 1-2 weeks
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The nappa seedlings will need a top dressing soon so they don't blow around in the wind
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I wanted to test to see if clear plastic made any difference at all in the growth rate of luffa plants, and it looks like there's a huge difference.
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I think the average length of the ones with plastic must be at least double the ones without it.
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Bitter melon
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Soft neck garlic is starting to put out scapes, only on the fertilized ones. A few handfuls of 10-10-10 fertilizer didn't add a lot of height to the garlic, but the stem & leaf thickness as well as how dark they are is clearly greater. I believe that the fertilized ones must have around 70% more bio-mass per plant on average. Hopefully plant size correlates well with bulb size.
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Re: Edible perennials?

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 12:03 pm
by johnw
The garlic in the supermarkets has been awful all winter long and gets no better. What looks like fat cloves turns out to contain multiple tiny cloves, anywhere from 6-8. It takes forever to clean a decent amount for supper.

I have to drive to a specialty market to get hardneck ones with a pinkish tunic. They are unmistakable as the cloves are fat and solitary, 3-5 per head and the flesh is slightly sticky. A friend grows a huge field of hardneck varieities but he's 100km away and sells at inland markets. I'll have to load up next time I visit but then summer storage is a battle.