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Post by bixaorellana on May 19, 2009 15:51:50 GMT
So cassava melons aren't really in the melon family.
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2009 1:35:38 GMT
The melon I'm trying to grow I got the seeds from Luke and he described it as a sweet melon that grew on a vine. The botanical illustration I posted appears to be another type of cassava. When I looked around I discovered that there is an edible tuber also known as cassava. Then there was a cassaba. I'll let you know what develops in my garden.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 20, 2009 2:06:07 GMT
Let's settle this for one & for all! I looked it up, & your illustration is of the plant that produces the tubers. Apparently cassava melon and casaba melon are the same thing: www.foodreference.com/html/tcasabamelon.html. From peering at that picture, I'd say the seeds are very similar to cantaloupe seeds. True? Plants of the Southwest says: Cassava (Spanish Melon) Dark green outside, sweet green-gold inside. The fruits average 10 lbs. each, with 4 or 5 fruits per vine. Very sweet, even when immature. Excellent keeper, to 4 months, if kept cool & dry. (140 days)10 pounds!
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2009 2:11:27 GMT
Yes,the site I looked at was Southwest and their description matched Lukes.Then,I tried to find a picture and inadvertently found the cool botanical illustration which I posted. There the confusion lies and we all learned that there are more than one type of cassava/cassaba plants.
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Post by spindrift on May 20, 2009 9:25:54 GMT
Cassava tubers are a staple of the African diet. As far as I know cassava contains few nutrients but fills the stomach of the hungry. I've often seen it growing in Kenya and Zanzibar.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2009 3:52:04 GMT
The melons,both the cassava and the bitter are growing like crazy. The bitter melon has blossoms on it,tiny yellow. I'm excited about growing something new and exotic this year. The okra is allow taking off,hasn't bloomed yet but as we have been hitting the 90F mark a few days in a row now it won't be long. They love the heat. I may plant a second crop. I give most of it away to some of the older folks down the road.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2009 17:50:37 GMT
I spent the morning weeding the vegetable garden. Wasn't as bad as I thought. Am prepping the beds for the fall vegetable garden early this year. I added a bunch of compost to amend the soil and mulched real thick to keep too many weeds from coming back. Tonight I will go over a couple of catalogues and place my seed order by the end of the week. Am still harvesting eggplant,okra and the last of the cassava melons. I really want to put in a much bigger fall garden this year. Lots of greens,several lettuces,a lot of spinach. Haven't decided if I'm going to bother with the brassicas like broccoli or cauliflower.Will definitely do beets,carrots and radishes again.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2009 22:18:57 GMT
Tomorrow I am going to harvest my long awaited garlic (9 months it's been in the ground!) After tasting that fresh roasted garlic sauce last night I'm anxious to experiment.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 17, 2010 21:03:50 GMT
Just found this thread. Apart from cacti veg are my next favourite (after Mrs Cactus of course...).
More follows...
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 18, 2010 12:44:57 GMT
This year -
Successes -
Parsnips - first time I've grown them for years. germination very good and if the roots match the leaf growth they'll be excellent.
Lettuce in a container outside the back door so Mrs C could cut and use almost daily.
French beans in containers - good crop of the purple ones. However also a failure in that yellow french beans have been sown twice and germination very poor.
Onions - excellent crop again.
Potatoes - Charlotte. Delicious and decent crop.
Sprouting broccoli early in season was prolific.
Sweet corn looking good.
Courgettes. Lots of them and the round one from seeds of Italy really delicious.
Cucumbers - Crystal lemon. Slow to get going but producing well now and delicious.
Carrots again in containers.
Failures-
Tomatoes. All grown in pots but I placed the pots against a fence that had been treated with weedkiller a few months ago to kill off ivy and the residue must have affected them as they were stunted.. Only half the crop I would have expected. I shall grow them direct in the ground again next year.
Leeks - didn't grow to much of a size and might be the same problem again this year. Time will tell.
Beetroot. I grew a red and yellow variety from seeds of Italy. The red are small and the yellow so fibrous as to be uneatable.
Broad Beans - masses of flowers but a small crop.
Spring onion - poor germination and too slow to grow.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2010 13:38:19 GMT
How big is your garden? You must have a certain amount of space if you can grow such a variety!
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 18, 2010 14:04:07 GMT
About 140' long.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2010 14:17:31 GMT
So, 42 and a half meters -- yes, that's pretty sizeable.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 18, 2010 14:37:58 GMT
Sorry Kerouac2 - not metric minded...
It's fairly narrow though, say 8 metres.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2010 19:05:49 GMT
Containers are good for certain crops. You can move them in and out of the sun.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2010 19:15:19 GMT
Containers are good for certain crops. You can move them in and out of the sun. They sure are Fulgenzio,especially light weight ones,or one year,and I should do this again,I grew spinach and some other leafy greens,staggered the seeding of so,wouldn't have too too much at one time,and I planted them in a Radio Flyer red wagon with wheels on it,and a long handle,I was able to really easily move the wagon with the greens growing inside it,in and out of the shade. Mick,I've grown those lemon gem cucumbers before,they're delightful!! I'll brag on my fall/winter garden come November!!! ;D It's almost time for me to start seeding my autumn garden. I have the soil all prepped,newspaper down to keep out the encroaching weeds,pine straw on top,ready to go after returning from my trip. The only thing growing right now in there is okra and a few melons (cantaloupe).
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2010 19:51:34 GMT
My dill that grew and seeded is now seeding the streets of Paris from my windowsill. Since there are some trees downstairs, I'm hoping that some of the seeds will drop into the iron rings that protect the roots.
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Post by Jazz on Aug 19, 2010 10:36:04 GMT
Your garden is quite generous in size, Mick and it's a wonderful choice of vegatables. Is this just for your family or do you sell some of 'the harvest' at local markets? I would love to see a photo of it one day. In the first years of my garden I planted some vegetables but they provided a banquet for the racoons and squirrels. Casimira, your ingenious idea of putting the container plants in the wagon for ease of movement is great! (cuts down on the physiotherapist bills.)
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 19, 2010 10:47:04 GMT
Just for my family Jazz. I don't have huge harvests but grow a wide range rather than bulk.
I'll have a look for photos. It looks pretty scruffy at present as I'm just harvesting rather than growing but I do need to tidy an area soon to put in Japanese onion sets which sit through the winter but are ready about a month before the main crop.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2010 11:06:54 GMT
Kerouac,I love the idea of dill sprouting on the streets of Paris...fabulous...
My vegetable patch is relatively small,about 60' X 60',it's the only area of the garden which gets full sun.It is also where my large collection of citrus flourishes. I have however,with the use of various types of containers,the most useful being several old terra cotta chimney liners,in various heights,rectangular in shape,made good use of the limited space.The liners/pots are wonderful for plants,giant rosemary,and the like,that require really good drainage,and like to be a bit drier in between waterings in our soggy climate. They are also aesthetically pleasing. I also have a large old cast iron clawfoot tub that I use to swap out annual,smallish herbs that are compatible with one another. It is also where I grow my garlic,it's real easy to just stick the cloves in there,forget about thenm,and let them go. (they take 9 months to mature till harvest).
Would love to see some pics,Mick!!
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Post by Jazz on Aug 19, 2010 12:25:07 GMT
Photo of the Paris sidewalk underneath Kerouac's apartment, Le Monde, Aug. 18,
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 19, 2010 12:25:37 GMT
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Post by Jazz on Aug 19, 2010 12:40:33 GMT
Thank you Mick, this is wonderful! The photo of the tomatoes is lush and beautiful, so good to see the varying shapes and sizes of home grown tomatoes. I very much like the total 'feel' of your garden, an oasis within the city. The greenhouse is sizeable! Is that a small bridge? (you and Monet) Are you experiencing a revival of inner city gardening where you live, or is this your specialty?
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 19, 2010 12:56:11 GMT
Gosh, far too philosophical for me Jazz.
I'm not really in the city - suburbs bordering on country.
The veg plots are larger than they look in the picture and it was taken in spring - looks totally different now and you can barely see any soil.
Tomatoes split because we suddenly got some really heavy downpours of rain.
Yes - a bridge over a small pond - the pond should really be bigger. I have a lot of frogs in the pond and together with my toad they've done a really good job of keeping the slug and snail population down.
Greenhouse is 16'x10' and houses my cactus and succulent collection.
Behind where I've taken the first garden picture is a large expanse of decking hiding an equally large expanse of concrete that couldn't be broken up. I have containers of strawberries here and I'm going to grow more soft fruit in containers on theer next year. Behind that and beyond my boundary is the railway from London to the East of England. We get the odd steam train excursion along it occasionally (another of my passions).
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2010 18:36:35 GMT
The garden looks great, Mick, even more so since you can see that it has been abundantly harvested. The various plots look perfect for a family garden, and the photos of the vegetables are great.
Do you do any sort of canning or freezing if there is an excess amount of something? Give it away? Throw it away? Force yourself to eat it?
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 19, 2010 20:43:27 GMT
What a great space, Mick! Wow, the onions are practically harvesting themselves, and the strawberry plants look like something from the Jurassic ear -- big & beautiful.
Are the small yellow globes the Lemon Gems? What's the big one? The two little containers, one of tomatoes & the other of carrots & parsnips, quite literally made my mouth water.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2010 0:22:18 GMT
Fabulous Mick,jeez....thanks for sharing this. Those are the lemon gem cucumbers I have grown and love the heirloom variety tomatoes you show. ( I know all about the too wet,and the cracking... )
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 20, 2010 8:10:34 GMT
The garden looks great, Mick, even more so since you can see that it has been abundantly harvested. The various plots look perfect for a family garden, and the photos of the vegetables are great. Do you do any sort of canning or freezing if there is an excess amount of something? Give it away? Throw it away? Force yourself to eat it? We freeze excess although I'd like to try my hand at bottling one day... This time of the year we usually have excess tomatoes (not so this year though) and courgettes. Mrs Cactus cooks those down with onions and other spices into a sauce which we freeze and then use as a base for winter stews.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 20, 2010 8:12:59 GMT
What a great space, Mick! Wow, the onions are practically harvesting themselves, and the strawberry plants look like something from the Jurassic ear -- big & beautiful. Are the small yellow globes the Lemon Gems? What's the big one? The two little containers, one of tomatoes & the other of carrots & parsnips, quite literally made my mouth water. Yup - those are the Crystal Lemons. The big one is an Italian Courgette - really tasty too. Too early for parsnips though - they are all young carrots.
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 3, 2010 16:26:47 GMT
Picking and eating sweetcorn now. Still digging early potatoes Charlotte and still plenty of Crystal Lemon cucumbers. They are soooo delicious. One grandson eats all the tomatoes I produce, the other eats all the cucumbers. we have to hide them when they come round or we get nothing........
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