Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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For this year I decided to grow legumes on my city balcony and I had the first harvest of the year this weekend. I picked 50 grams of legumes from the plant and there was at least 2-3 times as much coming up for the next round. It’s fun to see what you can do with such limited space. I also grow strawberries, lettuce, different tea herbs, thyme, spinach, radish, peppers, basil and some other herbs.
What kinds of legumes do you favor? I have this Italian climbing purple green bean variety that I’m fond of which always produces an absurd amount of food - but granted I’m in Hawai’i and have a lot of space to plant things outdoors.
I’ve tried radishes a few times, but I can’t seem to get them started when I sow them straight into the ground and I’ve heard you don’t want to transplant root vegetables. I do have some chicken wire plant guards, though, so perhaps I could try sowing seed under them to see if it’s just the birds eating them before they can grow.
Currently I grow flat beans which is a more generic sort I picked up at the store. I wasn’t sure if they’d manage as my balcony is kinda shady and my squash plant didn’t do too well last year (though it did gave some squash). But it is going well so far. If I could pick another sort right now I’d pick lentils as I eat them literally every day and I love them lol.
Radish is kinda picky as it needs a bit cooler temps and moist soil so I’m guessing the Hawaii climate might not be ideal lol. It could also be the month you sow that makes the difference. Right now I’m growing red meat radish and they need to be spread no earlier than June.
I have gourd trauma from pickleworms. Seem to have finally managed to beat them back on my lemon cucumbers with BT and picking any fruit with signs of worm damage, but JFC. Only problem is that now I have all these cucumbers I need to figure out a use for.
Lentils are fantastic, IMO. I grew up vegan so they were a pretty common occurrence in my childhood meals.
Also, that makes sense re: Radish. We’ve got the moist soil, but not so much the cooler temperatures. Planting them earlier could help, though it really just oscillates between degrees of hot here. Honestly, the idea of having to plan crops based on time of year is so foreign to me - you can grow pretty much anything here, at any time. My egg donor even managed to grow apples here, although the lack of frost meant that it produced the absolute sourest apples I have ever tasted. Horrible little things.