Asian Vegetables

[Beekissed]

I'm amazed at the pak choi...springs up like it's on steroids, grows fast and lovely and tastes even better. I pick at baby size of around 6 in. tall. I'll be growing that stuff from now on, great in our salads.

This year I'm adding Napa Cabbage to my wheelhouse. Depending on how that goes, I'll likely be growing that from now on too.

Hope to make both of these a staple of a winter harvest garden, if I can get it planted in Aug. like it needs to be.

 

[Zeedman]

Hey Man,
How ya been? Me and George (Mexmac) were just talking about you the other day. We were talking yard long beans and remembered you could always answer all our questions about them.

Feelin' good, HMK. At least you kept the same initials here. I was surprised to see you & George show up again at (the old gathering place). Good to "see" you both again... and to see @aftermidnight and @digitS' here. Wish we could get the whole gang back together, those were great days. I still grow a lot of yardlongs, but have limited myself to mostly uncommon ones now, or those that appear to be endangered. Had my first complete crop failure last year... it was a strange summer, all of my yardlongs & cowpeas did poorly, probably due to near-constant cloud cover.

 

[HmooseK]

@Zeedman

I wish we could get the whole gang back together again too. George and I talk over at a seed saving forum and Annette and I talk here and at "NJT." In fact, I didn't know about this place till Annette told me about it. I'm not able to grow as much as I used to. Those 300 varieties of tomatoes are out of the question anymore. I am going to try to grow several beans and some are very rare. I have one from Dan McMurray's collection and it's very possible I could have the last few remaining seeds as not even the seedbank that got his collection has any. They didn't even attempt a growout. I found that information out thanks to @aftermidnight . I still talk to Harry (Flintknapper.) He's still growing and he's 90 years young. He's growing Nuna Popping beans this year. It seems we all have our age and health issues, but we're all still trying to keep varieties from going extinct.

 

[flowerbug]

Adzuki have mostly done pretty well for me, but only because I found a couple varieties with short DTM's... one red-seeded (Takara Early), one buff-seeded (Buff). Both are true-bush habit, and their seeds are smaller than commercially grown adzuki. I usually start those as transplants (two to a cell), and in a normal year, both will mature most of their seed - about an ounce per plant. I also grow a purple seeded (Murasaki) and it has larger seeds & a heavier yield; but also has a DTM that puts them in a race with the frost. If you are interested in trying any of those, send me a PM.

As for edamame... they are the primary reason that all of my gardens are fenced. Even if you've never really had trouble with herbivores in your vegetable garden, you WILL when you grow soybeans. They are like candy to deer, rabbits, ground hogs - you name it. I used to let rabbits roam freely through my garden; they mostly just ate the clover growing in the paths, and (usually) left everything else alone. Soybeans, they will mow to the ground. I use fine chicken wire to 24", with either 6' welded-wire fencing (at home), or electric fencing above (around the rural garden). I'm glad I seldom have to deal with ground squirrels; you have to trap them, no amount of fencing will keep them out.

thanks, i think i will pass on the adzukis for now as i'm not wanting to fight so much for results. i don't have room or inclination to do early starts and transplant later. and i want to have room for bean network grow outs too.

as for edamame and fences, we have an 8ft fence around the main veggie area because of the deer, unfortunately the bottom is not a fine enough mesh to keep all rabbits and groundhogs from finding ways in at times so i never really count them as completely excluded. a redo of the fence isn't going to happen any time soon either (with a finer mesh and a foot or three higher). anyways, the 8ft fence does well enough and i don't get too much bothering things inside the fence. the raccoons only seem interested in sweet-corn and we don't eat enough of that to bother growing it. they will also sometimes uproot transplants from the greenhouse if they smell the fertilizer (if they use fish emulsions i think that attracts the raccoonians), but i've learned to plant those a little deeper and make sure there is fresh garden soil over the top so they can't smell it as easily.

i hope you have a good season this year. i'm trying to be patient. we don't plant most things until the end of May, but i can sneak some things in earlier and hope the frosts don't take them out completely.

 

[digitS']

The "cabbages" have longer seasons than the "choys." I guess that's it, there are more days for things to go wrong. They are closely related but develop those tender, inner leaves somewhat like their more distantly related, uh cabbage "cousins."

Zeedman, I really like those Asian dessert rolls with the adzuki paste filling. Still, I'm not sure how much commitment I want to make doing the processing and baking to make my own. Stopping (on the right day) after the baker has made a delivery to the Asian market gets me a whole package of those rolls! Besides, that one attempt at growing adzuki was an eye opener on just how hard plants will try to develop seed in what must be an inappropriate environment!

As best as I could tell, they didn't accomplish it. The seed produced was so puny that I doubt if any of it was viable. My gardening environment wasn't appropriate. Ah well, gardening and the possibilities are still therapy for me. I need the successes, however. They reassure me that I have more value than just as someone who could translate cursive English into printed English, for a younger generation .

MexMac. Is that the gardener who lived and gardened several years in Mexico before returning to his home in the States?

You know, I still drift thru 2 forums other than TEG on a fairly regular basis. One has to do with my geographical location. Another is like TEG and more general. Each has a different personality. Complaining seems to throw a very heavy wet blanket on things. It probably has to do with the "therapeutic" nature of modern gardening. We don't go into the garden to be weighed down. If we carry burdens, they should be useful tools and, hopefully, we can carry away images and produce to enjoy.

Steve
who just might complain about those "other guys" but that's probably a character flaw

 

[aftermidnight]

@Zeedman

I wish we could get the whole gang back together again too. George and I talk over at a seed saving forum and Annette and I talk here and at "NJT." In fact, I didn't know about this place till Annette told me about it. I'm not able to grow as much as I used to. Those 300 varieties of tomatoes are out of the question anymore. I am going to try to grow several beans and some are very rare. I have one from Dan McMurray's collection and it's very possible I could have the last few remaining seeds as not even the seedbank that got his collection has any. They didn't even attempt a growout. I found that information out thanks to @aftermidnight . I still talk to Harry (Flintknapper.) He's still growing and he's 90 years young. He's growing Nuna Popping beans this year. It seems we all have our age and health issues, but we're all still trying to keep varieties from going extinct.

@HmooseK , Hemnancy is here too, Has a new moniker, Beanfan, who else can we tempt to join.

Annette

 

[HmooseK]

@aftermidnight

What about Farmerdilla?

 

[aftermidnight]

@aftermidnight

What about Farmerdilla?

Maybe you could ask him to join up with us, I just emailed Dr. Loyd with an invitation to join, I emailed rxkeith about Ralph's beans but didn't hear back, for others Keith is responsible for making Uncle Steve's Italian pole beans available to us. How many more can we scare up? Ah hum, how's this for hijacking a thread , I'm going for my master's degree in this.

Annette

 

[thistlebloom]

@aftermidnight I think you deserve at least a third degree Blackbelt!

 

[aftermidnight]

@aftermidnight I think you deserve at least a third degree Blackbelt!

What an honor , thanks, I'll take it .

Annette