Looks like late blight, doesn't it?
It's a real shame, these were Cherokee purples that I was really excited for but I guess they couldn't handle all the rain we've gotten this month. I guess I understand why most commercial Japanese growers use greenhouses.
Anyways, if you have any green tomato recipes, let me know 😭😭
Ordered seeds of this heritage cucumber variety from Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture (called 加賀太きゅうり) off Mercari, and just harvested today.
This thing is... massive. I wish I remembered to weigh it, but alas, it's already become cucumber salad.
Started some seeds this spring (I believe the variety is Victoria), and the plants themselves are looking great right now. I've heard from my gardening friends that they tend to wilt over the Japanese summer due to the rain, heat and humidity.
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As a Midwesterner I'd love a big harvest of rhubarb in the springtime to make some pies... that's several years down the road though 🥹
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Has anyone successfully babied their rhubarb through the summertime?
Field is about 95% planted out with pumpkins, which all got a generous helping of woodchip mulch. I ended up abandoning the silver sheet mulch since I found out the hard way that my field conditions are extremely windy. Despite the hours of physical labor I spent securing them, they all blew away anyways
The pumpkins made it through yesterday's typhoon relatively unscathed and are beginning to vine! I even noticed a few flowers.
My next big challenge is going to be weed management. The field itself was abandoned for several years, so all sorts of grasses and perennials have moved in. I sowed white clover in between the rows but germination is slow. Right now it's just me and my 刈払機... 😅 Say a prayer for us folks..
By the way, the white film on the pumpkins is kaolin clay! I'm testing it to see if it will deter ウリハムシ. So far I think I see a difference, but I have to reapply after the typhoon.
Does anyone else have to go to their biannual Sunday morning neighborhood clean-up? It's not my favorite way to spend a weekend morning but today I took home bags and bags of semi-rotted leaf mold that are going straight into my compost pile. They were headed for the trash originally.
These might just be the biggest worms I've ever seen! My neighbor joked that they looked like unagi lol
Maybe you remember a post awhile back asking about importing pumpkin seeds. That was me!
I decided to go ahead with my pumpkin patch project. Although I didn't end up importing, I sourced quite a few varieties locally... so far I've got Jack-O-Lanterns, Jack-Be-Little, Turban Squash, Casperita, and several mysterious Mercari varieties 😂 These are some seedlings I started in mid-April. They grow so quickly!
I'm going to try succession sowing over April and May to see which gives me the best harvest results. The field is plowed, manure has been spread, but I'm a bit stressed about laying down the sheet mulch (I'm just one person with no machines).
Some of my neighbors think I'm nuts but I've been surprised that others have been really encouraging. Anyways, first round of pumpkins will be going in after Golden Week. Wish me luck!