June 27, 2016

Harvest Monday, 6/27/16

Viola Francese garlic. I planted garlic in styrofoam boxes at the end of November last year and went ahead and harvested them today, a couple of the heads were starting to split open so it was time. They're not large but they seem ok.
Rossa di Sulmona garlic. I also planted a couple of  unnamed varieties but they perished during the winter. The garlics are currently hanging out under the carport out of the sun.
A handful of green beans were harvested from the pole beans. The snap pole beans are infected with rust which is inexorably killing the plants.

Honestly only the Smeralda romano type pole bean is setting pods and it's the bean that's heavily afflicted with rust. That's about 10 different varieties of pole and bush beans that are not setting beans at all. I truly think it's the unbearably hot weather. We grew Cherokee Wax and a bunch of the other bush beans last year and they set lots of beans, but then again last year was much cooler and wetter.

Come join is at Harvest Monday, a place where gardeners share what they've been growing and harvesting in their gardens.

16 comments:

Susie said...

That garlic looks wonderful, much bigger than my Red Russian garlic usually gets. But I think I have a few more weeks to go before I pull mine up.

A shame about the rust on the snap bean plants.

David Velten said...

Nice job on the garlic. I tried both of those two years ago but they didn't do well in my garden and didn't get replanted. I also have trouble figuring when to dig up the soft neck types of garlic. Too bad about the rust. Last year I had a virus wipe out the beans. This year I got very spotty germination, so again a small beans year for me.

Eight Gate Farm NH said...

The garlic looks great. I'm sure you posted about the Styrofoam box method, but I guess I missed it.

Dave @ HappyAcres said...

Your garlic looks great! My bush beans are setting on but no pole beans here. I am hoping the 'cooler' weather this week will help them. we're also getting much needed rain today.

Margaret said...

That garlic looks pretty darn amazing. And I wouldn't be surprised if the hot weather is the culprit in your beanless situation. I recall the 1st year that I grew pole beans - they gave me some beans for about a month and then stopped all of a sudden when our temperatures went up. I didn't put two and two together until they started to flower and set more beans later in the summer when it cooled off again.

gardenvariety-hoosier said...

That's a shame about the beans and the heat. I think you live a few hundred miles south of me, I'm in SW Indiana,and the weather here has been somewhat hot but not unbearable and the rains have been regular. Mother Nature is very unpredictable, you never know what will grow well in any given year.

Julie said...

Your garlic looks lovely and way bigger than mine! Too bad about the beans, you should have plenty of time to replant them.

Michelle said...

It's interesting what diseases are problems in different areas and climates. I've never seen rust on my pole beans but it has destroyed my garlic more years than not, so I'm envious of your garlic.

Phuong said...

Hi Susie,
I hope your garlic does really well this year. I feel a bit bad about the rusty bean plants and the lack of beans in general, but the weather's been so extreme the last few years there's bound to be some crop losses. The weather's finally cooled down into the 80's (29 degrees Celsius) and all living organisms in the community let out a collective sigh of relief.

Phuong said...

Hi David,
You've been hit two years running with the lack of beans, that's a horrible trend. They're definitely one of my all time favorite things from the garden, but it is what it is. Our bush beans have stopped flowering right when the weather cooled off, so it looks like they won't be producing beans this year either. I'll leave them in the ground though and see if they put on another flush of blooms.

Phuong said...

Hi Eight Gate,
I planted the garlic in November in the styrofoam containers about 6-8 inches apart. And then spent a lot of the winter moving them around, trying to keep them form overfilling with water. I probably won't be growing them that way again.

Phuong said...

Hi Dave,
I'm glad the rain finally found your garden, this has been a strange year to be sure. It sounds like you'll be swimming in snap beans soon. We got our first Sun Gold tomato yesterday. Another one will be ready tomorrow, it would be pretty funny if they only ripened one at a time.

Phuong said...

Hi Margaret,
It's good to know that you think the heat is the culprit for beans not setting. I've never had it happened before, but the heat did come on crazy early. Some of our peppers and eggplants are finally setting little babies since the weather cooled off a bit this week.

Phuong said...

Hi Mike,
It's probably why home gardeners grow so many varieties of vegetables, we're hedging our bets against disaster. I just wish we were get regular rainfall, it would sure help the plants withstand the heat. Your okra looks really good, I'm regretting not planting any.

Phuong said...

Hi Julie,
I was debating between replanting them, or waiting and seeing if they put on another flush of flowers. Maybe I should just pull out the diseased plants and start again.

Phuong said...

Hi Michelle,
It's been incredibly humid and hot here and the plants were already stressed by insects, so I think it just made them more susceptible to it. It's very early in the season for them to be getting rust. The rust on your garlic is insane, your plants seem so big and healthy and yet you still get rust. Crazy.