This is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com.
Today I have another exciting episode for you, and, you know what?
I give up.
I give up gardening.
Not forever, only for the summer season here.
The weather's getting colder and things are not producing as fast and, you know, it's
at this point where I'm actually just harvesting all the summer crops now and then replanting
the winter crops.
This is the dilemma you guys may have each and every year.
It's like, 'Man, John, how long do I leave my tomatoes or my peppers in?'
Well, I always encourage you guys to leave them in as long as you possibly can.
I mean, there have been some years actually I'd leave them in and they'd frost outside,
which is not a good thing because then you may lose the fruits and the produce you're
making that's already on the plant outside, you know.
So, waiting too long is not good, but then you don't want to like harvest too early when
you still might have another month.
I mean, you wouldn't want to plant things out in May and then harvest in august.
Well, I guess it depends where you live, 'cause that might not be too long of a growing season,
you know.
We are here in the middle, nearing the end, of November, and I know the frost is coming
soon, probably within the next 15-30 days, and this is always the gamble I play.
What I'm harvesting today here is actually my peppers and what I'm doing is for most
of my plants I'm actually just uprooting the whole plant here.
As you guys can see, you got a lot of nice peppers on here.
While I could actually dig some of these guys up and put them in a green house and try to
overwinter them, pull the peppers off and allow them to still grow, I'm going to focus
more on cold-tolerant varieties that I'm going to grow in the unheated greenhouse that'll
still produce reliably.
These peppers, you know, they may stay alive, but they won't produce during the cold winters
in the greenhouse, but the kind that I like to grow in the greenhouse and I have videos
on it in the past are the moxonoes, the ricotes, they're more cold-tolerant, even in the winter
in an unheated greenhouse here.
It's going to flower and produce the peppers for me, whereas these guys would just basically
fight to stay alive.
So, what we're going to do with all these peppers, because I do have a lot of them,
is I'm going to be eating a lot of peppers for dinner, but besides that, I'm going to
actually be dehydrating them for the winter.
Stay tuned and be sure to subscribe to my videos for future videos on my favorite ay
to preserve my food, which is food dehydration.
Besides just the harvesting and when you should harvest, and it depends on the season and
it depends on your schedule, like if you're going on a big vacation, you know you're going
to be out of town, and it's going to freeze probably while you're out of town, you're
going to probably want to pull this up earlier instead of later.
Another thing that I want to do is, you know, as the days get shorter, the nights get colder,
right?
I should've probably already planted out my fall garden, like, you know, a couple weeks
ago, maybe even a month ago, because the longer you let your summer crops in, especially in
a limited space, right, we're talking front yard residential garden, the longer the time
you let your summer crops grow, the less time you'll have for your fall and winter crops
and the problem arises is that for me actually in past years, when I've let me summer crops
go so long into like December, and then I finally pull them and then I finally put my
transplants in, you know, the weathers already so cold, it's not getting as much sunlight,
my winter plants don't have a chance to full develop, you know.
If you put in your winter plants or your fall crops a little bit earlier, they're going
to get to be a nice big size and by the time it gets really cold and then there's not a
lot of sun, you know, they're going to be at a nice size to grow.
If they're still really small when the cold hits and when it gets really colder, they're
going to, you know, not grow as fast and they're not going to produce a reliable, you know,
good quantity source of food for you guys.
So, besides this fact, I also want to share with you guys just some of the other things
just happening in my garden, actually, at this time, to show you guys.
So, the thing I want to show you guys is actually the cucumbers.
So, I'm growing 2 kinds of cucumbers, what you guys would know as standard cucumbers,
including pickling cucumbers and lemon cucumbers, but I'm also growing some awesome Bolivian
cucumbers, also called achichas.
So, let's take a look at those next and share with you guys what is growing actually much
better than the other at this time.
Now, were looking at my standard cucumbers.
Actually, my favorite cucumbers to grow are the lemon cucumbers.
As you guys can see, these look like little lemons, and I like these kind of cucumbers
because they don't have that bitter, kind of like skin taste.
Much more mild, you know, like your standard market more cucumbers here.
This season I've also grown the little pickling cucumbers and I've also grown the Armenians.
The Armenians tend to do well in like warm climates, but I find the lemons do the best
here.
As you guys can see, this is loaded with tons of lemon cucumbers, and I know what some of
you guys might be thinking.
'John, you let those go too long,' 'cause optimally for the lemon cucumbers, what you
want to do is you want to harvest them when they're this color.
Check it out, this is a nice color for eating, when the seeds inside are still nice and mature.
If you let them get to this color, you know, they're a lot more mature.
So, the seeds are really hard in there, but guess what?
If you're saving seeds, like me, you want tit fully mature so you can save the seeds.
Another thing I'll do with the mature ones, besides saving the seeds, is I will juice
them.
They make an amazing juice, especially when juiced with leafy greens and some apple, maybe
some lemon and just a tad of ginger, and I've also actually used, made a lactic acid fermented
lemon cucumber juice.
So, check my past videos for that to see how to do that exactly.
Any case, the point of this was to chow you guys the vines here.
I mean, we are getting cold in the nights.
It's now in the 40's and pretty soon it'll be in the 30's, and I did have a bout with
the white powdery mildew, but these guys just look tore up.
Now, yes, while these guys are still flowering a little but and putting on some babies, the
production for all practical purposes has stopped and it's time to remove these vines.
As much as I like the standard cucumbers, and I always encourage you guys to grow a
genetic variety, you know, I grew a small patch of these guys this year, but I focused
more on the Bolivian cucumbers because of one main reason, the health of the plants
and it's resistance to bugs, disease, and the weather.
So, let's take a look at those guys next.
These are the cucumbers that I'm really excited about.
I grew a few plants, like 3 or 4 plants last year for fun, and it yielded tons of fruit,
tons of seeds, and more importantly, a lot of volunteers that I dug up and replanted
them where I wanted to.
Now, they don't necessarily like being replanted, but they've still done fine, as you guys can
see.
We put up a sine trellis along the middle of this 4-foot raised bed.
It's 4 feet wide and 15 feet deep, and as you guys can see, this literally made and
achicha wall.
If you do live in somewhere where it doesn't get any freezes, you know, south Florida,
you could probably just grow this as a year-round vine.
I mean, this filled in really nice and this is like totally in layers.
It's like layer and layer and layer up leaves.
I mean, this thing's, if we just go back into it, is like, you know, at least 8 inches deep.
Maybe even a foot deep of just the achicha vines, and if we go in there we can see the
ones in different stages.
So, there's like the little leaf, and I want to compare really quick for you guys the leaf
of the standard cucumber.
The standard cucumber leaf's kind of like a yellowish, kind of got some disease spots.
This guys, I mean, this whole thing is just still vibrant green.
Now, we could leave this and it'll last pretty long here, but still it'll finally succumb
to cold weather.
This cucumber is more cold tolerant, but not first tolerant, than the standard cucumber.
So, if you live in a protected environment, maybe Oakland, Freemont, where it doesn't
get super cold, or San Jose, you may be able to actually overwinter this in the ground
and keep it growing year round, which would be definitely really cool.
Now, let's go ahead and show you guys the fruit this makes.
You guys saw the regular fruits from the cucumber, you know.
Here's the little flowers and one of the things I want to show you guys, 'cause you won't
be able to see it too good in the video there, these are the little flowers, and these guys,
they take a while to start setting fruit.
So, don't be alarmed if you plant this and 'John, my achichas are growing and it's been
growing and the vine's 20 feet long no and there's no fruit on it.'
Don't worry, man.
It likes to put out a lot of vines and get totally solid in its place and then finally
it'll start busting out the fruit and when it's busted out, it'll start busting out real
good.
So, here's one of the little baby fruits here, and on each little area it might produce a
couple fruits, and this is what it looks like.
It's really small.
I don't know it you guys'll be able to see the definition on the camera there, but when
they're this small, I pretty much, just like that, pick them and eat them.
I mean, this is about the size, a little bit larger, than a bebe, for those of you guys
who have bebe guns, maybe even the girls, and then if we go back here further, let's
see if we can find some mature pods.
Alright, so here's amore mature pod.
So, as a pod matures, it gets kind of like a white color and when it gets kind of white,
while you could still eat this, you're just going to eat the outside now.
You're not going to eat the whole thing.
This is kind of like hollow like a bell pepper, right?
And it kind of tastes like between a bell pepper and a cucumber, you know, reminiscently,
but of course it tastes like its own thing, but inside you're going to have a little seed
pod thing, like this, and the black seeds are developed seeds and the white ones are
probably still not mature and not fully developed, and then inside, you know, nice and crunchy,
I guess in south America, where this is from, they stuff it like you would tuff a bell pepper.
I kind of like to juice them or just actually eat them out of hand.
Achicha, it's defiantly one of my favorite plants to grow.
Plus, it's different.
If you have people in your front yard trying to steal stuff to eat, I mean they might go
and get your regular cucumbers, maybe even your lemon cucumbers.
They might know what that is, but this thing, man, this thing looks all gnarly.
People aren't going to eat this.
This looks poisonous.
Don't eat it!
Just kidding.
This is totally edible, totally good.
Water-rich, too.
The next thing I want to show you guys is actually a plant that's going to remain in
the ground for the fall and winter and continue to produce for me, is this guy right here.
You're like, 'John, what is that thing, man?
It's pretty huge.'
Well, this is what happens when you use the power of composted wood chips.
Check it out.
This is actually my Swiss chard plant.
I challenge anybody.
Check it out, how big this thing I, man.
It's bigger than my head.
Peeka-boo, I see you.
This thing is gigantic, man.
It's huge.
I've never grown Swiss chard this big ever before, until this season.
What did I do different?
Well, you're going to have to check back my episodes.
It's called 'Supersize your Vegetables with Woodchips and Rock Dust.'
Now, while I don't process my own woods chips here, I do buy a fungal dominated wood chip
compost to put in my beds, and I've enriched all my beds, you know, some beds more than
others, with the woodchip compost, and it really makes your plants go wild and grow
bigger.
Think about it, man.
In this one leaf you could make a super gigantic wrap for a family, like if you wrapped it
with guacamole and picodiga salsa, or nut pate or whatever, and it's all because of
2 things, mainly, but also a lot of other things I do.
The fungal dominated compost, which most people are not using, and that's why you don't normally
see plants this big.
Number 2, what I got behind me here, the azomite, or the rock dust.
Actually have 2 differ kinds here, the guy green glacial rock dust and that standard
azomite.
So, want to encourage you guys to always strive for growing Swiss chard leaves this big, you
know, by building up your soil.
Be sure and check my other videos online for how to build your soil and actually what I
did before this growing season to get these amazing Swiss chard leaves.
The last part of this video today is I want to share 2 things.
Number one, I want to share my fig tree with you, and then actually behind me we have persimmons,
and on the borders of the property, I have a foot tree every 6 feet, and it's kind of
like provides some privacy and also provides me with fruits and I have different kinds
of fruit trees, from pineapple guavas, pomegranates, figs, sweet Gomes, actually that are actually
starting to flower now, that's really cool, and my persimmons.
Now, the thing I want to share with you guys when purchasing any fruit trees is you want
to ensure you get a variety of fruit that's going to do well in your area.
So, don't just go to your big box store, home depot, Lowes, and 'oh, they got fruit trees,'
and, 'let's buy one.'
Do your research first.
A fruit tree is an investment that's going to be on your property for many years.
I mean, a fig tree could live 100 plus years.
I mean, I've gone in like a canopy of one single fig tree that you could literally walk
under and the thing is huge, man, produces for years and years.
So, you want take the time to get a variety that's going to produce well and reliably
for you.
Another thing you're going to want to do is make you build the soil up, you know.
Some peoples figs in this area are done producing but because I believe I have a good soil and
good microbiology in the soil, and good rock dust minerals in the soil, my tree's able
to produce longer, for a longer period of time than most people, and it's allowed the
tree to be a lot healthier.
You know, I do have this variety of fig right here, which is actually called the Janice
Seedless fig, and check it out, man.
This is like a seedless fig.
Nice and gooey.
Here we are, eating a November fig.
It's too good, man.
Anyways, I have another fig on another side of the year that I just kind of bought indiscriminately,
'cause I was at the home depot and there's this fig tree and I'm like, 'Oh, yea, I want
a fig tree.'
I planted it, and that doesn't produce figs for beans.
It needs a little but more heat than this one.
So, before you buy any fig tree, check with other farmers, check with other growers, check
with other gardeners in your area and see, 'hey, what varieties of fig trees do you have
planted?
Do they produce well?' or any kind of fruit tree, you want to get trees that are going
to produce well for you.
The other thing I highly encourage you guys to do is plant uncommon trees and fruits that
will more better meet you needs.
For example, you know, a friend the other day asked me, 'John, should I plant a fig
tree or a persimmon tree?'
I said, 'man, that's not a choice.
The choice is easy.
It's a fig tree.'
Why?
If you go to buy figs at the store, how much are they? $6 a pound, $7 a pound for organic
figs.
If you go buy persimmons at the store, well depending on where you live, they still might
be $3 a pound, but in generally, persimmons in this area are dime a dozen.
The figs are much more exotic.
The other factor you may want to consider is how will the fruits store?
Can you freeze them?
Today I was actually freezing persimmons and dehydrating persimmons.
The figs, I never have any left over at the end of the season 'cause I eat them all out
of hand.
They re just so delicious.
So, you also got to look at what's valuable to you.
Another thing that's important to me is actually buying unique and rare varieties of fruit
trees, to save genetic diversity plus to have flavor sensations that literally money can't
buy, like the sweet gomme behind me, like, I don't know, probably anybody else in the
city that's growing that plant, maybe one city over, but, you know, plus this is also
pretty good because people if they're trying to go on your land and pick your fruits, they're
not going to know what the heck these things are, if they're poisonous or edible, and in
most cases, if they don't know what it is, they're not going to eat it.
So, anyways, that brings me to the end of this episode.
Hope you guys enjoyed this video, learning more about the end of season and when to pull
your stuff up.
Also about the cucumbers and, you know, growing larger with woodchips and rock dust selecting
the proper fruit tree for your environment.
Once again, my name is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com.
We'll see you next time, and remember; keep on growing.