8 MOST OVERRATED Plants to Grow (Skip These!)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 พ.ย. 2022
- Here's a food gardening hard truth: Most plants and veggies we try out don't make the cut for next year. They're not good enough to take space, time, effort, and money from our trusty favorites or future plant experiments.
This video is a fun rundown of 8 crops that we'll never grow again and recommend skipping in your own garden too. We'll cover the why of each plant in detail and suggest better alternatives to consider!
Chapters:
01:33 Cucamelons
03:40 Amaranth
05:12 Litchi Tomatoes
06:56 Turkish Orange Eggplants
08:17 Jack O' Lantern Pumpkins
09:28 Early Girl Tomatoes
10:30 Cauliflower
11:24 Vine Peach (Mango Melon)
#homesteading #peppers #gardening - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
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"Do you love growing tomatoes, but wish they were just a little bit more stabby?"
I laughed so hard. Thank you!
You reminded me how fun this part was to record! I. do. not. miss. those. plants.
As one Baker Creek reviewer said, "Made of hate."
This cracked me up, too!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
For me the joy of gardening is getting stuff you can't find at a grocery store (like actually good tomatoes) or things that are very expensive to buy (like fresh basil and sage). So my overrated list includes anything that doesn't taste sufficiently different from cheap grocery store versions: cilantro, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic. These are things I can buy a huge amount of for a few dollars, and the garden versions aren't astonishingly better -- although maybe I've just not had the right variety.
I've heard others say near the same thing! I do think carrots from the garden can be quite nice but yeah the others are pretty standardized aren't they? Good list.
I am the same way, though I think potatoes and carrots can be different than what you find in the store.
The potatoes cultivated in the U.S. are largely clones suffering from male sterility. This largely bottlenecks what you can get from even a place that sells seed potatoes.
But if you turn to varieties grown from true potato seed (TPS) you have much more genetic variance and much more flavor variation as well.
As for carrots I think some varieties like cosmic purple are somewhat sweeter, especially if you let a frost or two hit them before harvest, and if bitter flavors are more your preference then look no further than the black nebula carrot.
Agreed-except good potatoes at home are significantly better.
Harvesting potatoes is one of my favourite garden jobs. The good nutrient dense pesticide free ones are getting expensive. Growing fancy fingerlings is totally worth it! I just like being able to go out into the garden and pick a meal, including the starch. I am with you on the cauliflower. It is a Prima Donna. I don’t grow prima donnas.
@@ienekevanhouten4559 Well this thread is convincing me I need to do more with potatoes!
Amaranth can be a trap crop for pests and you can consider using it to trellis other plants that need support. Great video by the way. I also have a lack of impulse control when the baker creek seed catalog arrives 😆
I actually didn't know it was considered a trap crop - thank you for the heads up! And that's a good idea; we like to use cosmos and sunflowers as bean trellises =)
Amaranth is better growing along uncultivated areas of the garden with the other edible weeds. It needs very infertile soil, such as along train lines otherwise the leaves are extremely bitter with too much nitrogen and oxalates. In my situation, Chihuahua semi desert, it's an extremely valuable crop. We eat the very young plants when they have about ten leaves or the tender tops when we have pinched off the potential seed heads. We always boil them and drain to reduce oxalates before adding to the meal. The main value is for rabbit and chicken feed supplement. Turning plants into eggs is valuable. We collect a little amount of seeds to add to soups.
@@annburge291 Thanks for the expert tips Ann! You're the second person to mention using Amaranth as chicken feed - I admit that's a very frugal angle I hadn't considered.
Appreciate you chiming in =)
Also, try finding it in a store.
I grew Amaranth out of curiosity this year. It got ate up throughout the year and everything else, for the most part, got left alone. The crazy part is, the Amaranth didn't seem to care. I still got loads of seeds out of it. This is why I think Amaranth is valuable. Protects the rest of the garden and still produces.
One thing I learned last year is to be really careful when plant descriptions ONLY say leaves of a plant are edible (and they don't mention any particular taste etc) because they are probably: bitter, fibery and perhaps worth knowing about if you're living through a famine - or if barely anything grows in your area - but otherwise, totally not worth it. I mean, if I need to blend it into a green smoothy with lots of other tasty ingredients, or cook it and pair it with other veggies that will mask the awful taste.. no thanks. Also, there are some oddball enthusiasts out there who seem to love any all all things leafy and edible, no matter the taste seemingly - I've learned not to believe them.
Yeah, I think that's wise. I don't envy seed description writers honestly - when you have to pump up every variety of every plant to all sound *amazing* it becomes really hard to be truly accurate. Obviously some are better than others on that front =)
If you live in the desert, like I do, knowing what leaves are edible and when is extremely valuable because we have extremely short growing windows early spring and late autumn because cold below -3C and heat above 40C does affect many edible plants. So knowing that leaves, peeled stems, flower petals, young fruits as well as the mature fruit of cucurbits (pumpkin, melons) means that using well water is worth while because it's food all year round. Knowing that tender mulberry leaves boiled and drained are edible when the garden is just coming into spring and everything else is brown except wild broccoli and onions means another flavour to eggs and beans. They are also chicken feed when the grass is dry. We are not the only ones that need to eat.
I’ve got Malabar spinach growing wild all over my garden from last year. Wife says it tastes like dirt. Will use as chicken food. Also planted Litchi tomatoes this year. We’ll see about those. Also planted Korean zucchini, zucchino rampacante, and Seminole pumpkins just for grins. All three are curcubita moschato, and are supposed to be borer resistant. I’m all into heirloom plants. Prepper mindset.
Like dirt?! ;) Ah well at least the chickens will be happy.
My wife gives me grief because I think beets taste like dirt.
I've been very heirloom focused too until this year. I'm going for maximum production and rotating in hybrids. Hopefully they pan out!
Anyhow, thanks for watching!
They taste GOOD but a bit slimy. She should taste maderia vine, it's a cousin plant that's a pest here in Australia. It's has a terrible aftertaste and you need soy sauce on it to even eat it. I don't kill off my patch because it would make a good emergency green in case the wheels fall off the supply chain again. I got 11 dozen pickled eggs in case we end up with major bird flu issues like the US has.
I use Malabar as ground cover in some areas. And they are so good in chicken soup cooked with ginger and lemongrass.
@@chaosbureau Oh wow that sounds amazing right now. We were just talking about growing lemongrass actually...
Thanks for the tip!
In terms of the amaranth….Golden Giant is worth growing in terms of seed size and quantity. But it’s best attribute is, it attracts the cucumber beetle, diverting them from that cucurbit and others.
Ahhhh, that's very, very interesting. I'll have to look into that. Same deal with Litchi tomatoes - good trap crop for PCN.
Thank you for the tip.
hello, i grew 3 golden giants for the first time very easily an i am a new garrdener. i intend to grow more this year in about a 10 ft by 15 ft patch. i am looking for something like this not as just a hobby but as a serious food source. do you harvest your seeds and do you think it is worth it?
@@zakkrueck2362 While researching culinary amaranth, I did come across a site that discussed how to grow it as a commercial crop in the States. It was a trial report of different types and cultivars, and how they fared. There are also TH-cam vids of homesteaders growing it on a small scale. Overall, my interpretation was that both groups found growing it somewhat challenging but worth it. As a nutritional powerhouse, even a small amount ….toasted, and eaten whole or ground …. make a big difference.
@@heidschnucke6836 wow thank you for a great reply. i live in the state of wisconsin which is known for farming and has great soil. i found that 3 golden giants equals about one bowl of seed. more difficult to harvest the seeds than to grow it here.
“Do you love growing tomatoes but wish they were just a little more stabby?” LOL! Thanks for the laugh!
Cucamelon surprised me. It looks so delicate and i wasn't expecting it to thrive in the desert, but mine took over a huge bed with tomatoes in record time. It gave us thousands of fruits. The issue i had was that my kids won't eat them because they're slightly sour, so my husband and i were choking them down by the handfuls trying not to waste them lol. (Very good with tacos though.)
I know the struggle! At least the kiddo loves cherry tomatoes =)
I want to try fermenting them. I'm obsessed with fermenting everything though.
I grew the honeycomb hybrid cherry tomatoes last year alongside the red ones i always grow, and they're our new favorite by a mile. The flavor and texture is great.
Pickling them is exactly why my husband and I gave them a try 2 years ago. We were very disappointed. It’s fun trying new things though.
@@selinamularz9194 nice to hear as i am trying them this year too.
I respect your desire for interesting and unique plants. A "designer garden" is a special and interesting hobby. What is needed here is understanding that Everything you say is "relative"........to where you live, to your interests, your money situation, your food needs, your climate, your culture.....so it really is nice of you to showcase some of your failures and dislikes but its hardly information that can be generalized and set in stone.
I'm in Zone 9 too and my Litchi Tomatoes grew wonderfully well and over-wintered too. However, I'm done with the stabbing and the plants went to the City's compost pile - I wasn't going to risk it in mine!
"I'm done with the stabbing" should be their motto. Put it right on the seed packet.
;)
I'm in zone 7 and grew the Litchi and it also grew well, as a matter of fact it grew back for three or four years. The last year the fruit changed in flavor so I dug them up and threw in the trash. But just last year I found sprouts growing and dug them up as well. The tomato hornworm loved them! I agree the thorns are hazardous.
I’m running a micro garden of burpless organic cucumbers, sun sugar cherry tomato, dill, Oregon sugar pod 2 peas, lunchbox orange snacking peppers. Love it
That's awesome! I was actually just thinking I want to try the sun sugars and some lunchbox peppers in the garden next year =)
I've grown the cucamelon. I've had good success with them. I didn't know you needed a male and female flower for pollination. Even with one plant I got a handful a week. I think the trick is to have several plants to have a good crop. I had a year where I about 6 plants and that was a good year! I'm in zone 5b
Thank you for sharing! Plenty of folks clearly love them so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm just missing the mark. But luckily I love growing and experimenting with true cucumbers these days =)
Amaranth is an amazing crop. It contains substance fighting cancer. You can add leaves to smoothies and make facial masks out of it.
I am so glad I am not the only one who struggles with Jack o lantern pumpkins 😂. Awesome tips to look for varieties that have the strengths you are looking for. I too have an impulse control issue when my BC catalog arrives 😁.
Haha glad to hear it! And this is not the year I'll be developing that control either 😁
We're actually low on seeds (a rarity...) and I'm looking forward to all those catalogues soon!
Entirely agrees, find what you need most from your garden. I did this with Sorghums, leafy greens and tomatoes. Sorghums that are of a variety that actually can set properly at more reasonable temperatures than your usual 80F to even 90F varieties. Then a tomatoes' and leafy greens "breeder" mixes for finding what plants will be selectively bred from there.
I had good luck with the cucamellons... I agree with you on early girl and doll! Lots better maters out there! Great video!!!
Thank you!!! Glad you liked it even if we disagree on cucamelons ;)
I am a fairly new gardener and tried cucamelon for the first time last year. I got a huge harvest, and did absolutely nothing other than water.
Thanks for the information. I'll avoid these like the plague. Some plant are only grown for the sake of boasting this is what they've got.
Perhaps it depends I where you live. What are your weather conditions? I really want to try them.
I too have an expanding "Nope" pile of things, that I am not willing to spend the effort on, in my small backyard container garden. I appreciate the fact that you made a video of some of yours. :)
Haha no problem! Was a fun one really - had to go back through the old seed receipts =)
Care to share any of yours?
@@NextdoorHomestead Broccoli is for sure. Even though you can eat the greens as well as the broccoli, and they "may" produce more than one head once harvested( if living in the right zone), the amount of space and time they take is no longer an attractive plant choice in my Zone 6a area/partial shade apartment yard. Last year's got stripped down by a critter of some sort - I am thinking raccoon, before it even produced a head. Another is flowers. I tried planting flowers from seeds. Dismal. Never had a chance lol. We haven't had a lot of pollinators the last few years, so I wanted to help attract them, but everything got to them first. When I put some in the garden this year, it will be already grown in flower pots. But even then, I am introducing something to my yard/garden that wasn't there before, and you never know what pests lurk in the garden nursery you get them from. Essentially, I am a hot mess lol.
"A field of pain" OMG! LMFAO! Great name for a metal song lololololol!
I'm in Southern CA zone 10 and every fall I grow cauliflower. I do exclusively container gardening and I do not have problems with insects. I use mesh pop up laundry baskets to keep the cabbage moth off the plants. I also use organic sprays for other pests. This year was phenomenal for cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli due to the colder temps we had here. Growing brassica in the fall here are always a challenge but when you get a great harvest it's worth it.
That's awesome Cathy! You're timing must be on point too growing in zone 10 =)
And thanks for the tip on the baskets - that's a really neat idea!
Excellent garden talk. I order from B.C. also.
Definitely following you
Thank you for following and watching the video! So glad you enjoyed it =)
Thank you for all this great information. I have to admit that though I’ve never grown amaranth, I must try to now! It’s gorgeous!
You are so welcome! It is really beautiful isn't it? Heads up that the seedlings are a bit fragile - after it gets established it's super hardy though =)
I agree with all the crops you named. I was about to grow amaranth, wasn't sure about this one, now I know. I promised myself not to grow none popular plants this year to keep my energy and space (there's a reason why it's not) but I'm a seeds addict. I only will try the Queen of Malinalco here in Canada. I tried the cucamelon, you're right, waste of time to me, it's cute and fun that's it.
Haha I too am a seed addict! Unite in the garden!
I would *love* to know how the Queen of Malinalco goes BTW. They're on my watch list as I love tomatillos =)
The mango melon bit made me chuckle. This has been the outcome I've experienced with a number of my late-night Baker Creek seed orders. The plant produced, but the fruit needed more prep than I was willing to put in; or the plants were gorgeous, but two small fruits were produced, and they were... fine; or the tomatoes grew vigorously, and produced volumes of heavy, luscious looking fruits that were ...mealy and insipid. "Ah. I see why this heirloom variety fell out of favor." It doesn't diminish my excitement at receiving the catalog, mind you. I look forward to it for months, and I am keeping better notes as I learn.
This comment perfectly encapsulates my journey from mostly heirlooms to mostly hybrids =)
These days I get more excited about amazing production and flavor and consistency over rarity.
i live in Santa Cruz, California, on the Northern California coast. Our summers are cool. Early girl is the local tomato. It is the tomato grown by Santa Cruz market gardeners selling into the San Francisco Bay Area. It is pretty much the only tomato that ripens for us. You live in a hot climate. Early Girl is designed for the Pacific Northwest and other cooler climates. As for taste - this tomato is phenomenal. Flavorful, acidic, sweet, it matches the great tomatoes of Southern Italy IF you grow it as a "dry farmed" tomato. Once established, our farmers do not water their Early Girls. Locally they are sold as Dry Farmed Early Girls. From a Spring planting we do not get tomatoes until later in the Summer.
New Girl has been my favorite slicing tomato for years. It now shares that spot with Chef's Choice Orange. They are both also great for drying.
Oh fun! I was looking at chefs choice orange. Wish I'd grabbed some seeds!
Agree with Early Girl.
I grew it one year, because it had the reputation of growing relatively quickly in cool weather. Taste was bland. Never grew again.
Same with cauliflower -it's a bug buffet.
*Thank. You.* There are plants on here that were hard to select. Those were not two of them =)
My Early girl was pretty good. Could be soil and weather conditions.
@@JNoMooreNumbers I was just going to say this. While I normally grow heirlooms, I always have at least one early girl tomato. They are so prolific and delicious. I think soil and climate determines what will grow in your area.
Cauliflower is like an herb, really. I love to eat it, love the flavor it adds, love to stuff it into all sorts of dishes (especially curries and pastas - soaks up incredible amounts of deliciousness). I don't love paying out the nose for a head of it when I could take a square foot of garden and a little love and get it fresh, clean, and local. So I'm hoping this year it will meet my expectations, despite being a temperamental crop.
To help get more bang for your buck, try lacto fermenting cauliflower stems (especially with peppers). One of my favorite pickles to make, and it uses a large portion of the plant that usually gets thrown out.
Thanks for pickling tip! I hope your cauliflower patch grows beautifully =)
This season I’m going back to my old favorites, I have grown a few of the plants you have here and I have to agree on your points. The only thing I’m doing “new” is trying out some determinate tomatoes but they are award winners - I’m really picky about tomatoes, they have to be good 😂 not just interesting!
I'm shooting for high production this year and not just interesting! Always room for experimenting but I hope to massively increase our harvests this year =)
What determinates are you growing?
Cheers!
Yes, indeed cauliflower can be disappointing. The same goes for Peruvian physalis for me: it grows perfectly in my garden with many fruits. But they hardly get ripe. It just creates expectation during the summer because it grows so well, but in the end there is little to harvest.
Amaranth reseeds itself in garden every year and is a beautiful autumn flower for me.
If you do give a variety of amaranth meant for eating the leaves, be warned that the flower head isn't as striking and does not produce significant grain. Also, you can eat the stems and they are almost asperagas like.
Thank you for the tip! Do you have a favorite greens variety?
I think the cauliflowers really illustrated to me how right you are about everyone's gardening circumstances being different. I'm in New Zealand and have never even heard of most of these, but cauliflower... Cauliflower us our beloved crop from late autumn to late spring. It grows really well where we are and is so versatile (stir fry, Sunday roast, soup, salad...) that it's definitely an every-year thing.
Loved hearing about all the other veg - like I said, most of them I've literally never encountered before
Thank you for sharing Polly! I would so love to learn more about gardening in New Zealand! Cauliflower is an interesting example because it definitely makes more sense the more free space you have =)
Some of these I labeled as "overrated" to be slightly tongue in cheek as they're a bit trendy in some online gardening circles =)
Local pest pressures makes a big difference. In much of Canada, you basically need to grow it totally encased in row covers or indoors (or spray the crap out of it) or it will get eaten to the ground by bloody every living thing in a 10km range.
I appreciate your detailed information- real experience...priceless!
So glad you liked it!
I am gonna grow red amaranth next year because I think it's pretty, but then it's going directly to the chickens haha. The opening to the litchi tomatoes gave me a good laugh 😂
I grew it again this year in the flower bed and did the same thing! It's beautiful and hardy even if I don't eat it much.
I think you'll like the Maju Ras melons, I live in a dry desert where most melon plants go to die but mine turned out yummy :)
"where melon plants go to die" 😂
I live in a cool zone six where in high summer our nights only sometimes get to ten Celsius. Any tomato is a blessing, however cauliflower and other brassicas love my climate and there are varieties like blumini which is a sprouting cauliflower and a few varieties that produce up to five heads I have forgotten the variety name a while ago I save the seeds. There are many varieties in your warmer climate that are started when it's cool in fall and overwinter to produce heads in spring that are for climates like yours. If you want a happy brassica then put some all natural unscented clay kitty litter in your garden bed. It's pure bentonite clay. The plants grow themselves in my experience.
Thank you for the tip on sourcing bentonite! I do love growing other brassicas like kale and collards =)
Ups I did plant cucamelons. You are right, high hopes. Let's see what it brings. Didn't plant Zucchini, because we hadn't enough pollinators. Well we' ll see.
I really hope you like them more than we did! Make sure you look up how to identify when they're ripe before eating as well =)
We are trying some parthenocarpic zucchini this year as we don't always get enough pollinators either. Fingers crossed!
I always struggle with tomatoes. I've had huge sucess with lantern/ground cherries. They are so pest resistant and prolific. I even like the taste better too. Bonus, the ground cherries are natives, and make good ground cover for my taller crops. Can't wait for them to produce again this year!
Our ground cherries are getting potted up today! Such pretty plants, can't wait to get em in the ground.
Thanks for sharing. So helpful.
No problem! Thanks for giving it a watch =)
I like to try different varieties. I have a Baker Creek weakness as well😅. I have a “three strikes and you’re out” rule. Cucamelons and Dragon Tongue Beans are on the list this year to be traded for a more promising prospect. Malabar Spinach has always grown well for me and I love the looks of it. I haven’t decided if I like the taste yet. I tend to mix it in with other greens for variety in a salad.
Hahaha love it! Three strikes is more generous than I am but that's probably smart - it's always possible I'm just bad at growing the crops I didn't like =)
We've switch over to Johnny's for seeds mostly which unfortunately isn't any cheaper but does at least have fewer pretty pictures I can't resist falling for!
We love amaranth! We grew 5 kinds last summer and plan to grow 10 this summer. Couldn't find an easier, more colorful grain to grow. Seed collection is very easy as well.
It sure is tough once it gets going isn't it! 10 varieties sounds like an amazing patch too =)
I also love amaranth! It showed up randomly in my yard, so I cooked it Caribbean-style and loved it so much I saved seeds for this year lol
Last year I did LLB, emerald tassels(best hanging variety producer), coral fountain, orange giant and oeschberg(dark red/purple beautiful seed). Another grain I am in love with is buckwheat. That will bring in the pollinators en masse😊 Seed is easy to harvest and gives more abundance than any other grain I've tried.
fantastic list! thanks for the post!
Ah, that's so fantastic to hear! Thank you for checking it out =)
I LOVE Black Futsu! Such a good baby! So much food for so little work!
SO EXCITED for the Black Futsu this year (and every year... =)
I fell into the vine peach trap this year too. I did research after I made the purchase and immediately regretted the purchase. I will not plant those seeds. From the information I have read the fruit will not be worth the time or effort. I thought I was overreacting and should plant some seeds, and maybe it would go okay, but after your confirmation that the fruit is less than "meh" I will not do it. Thanks for saving me a lot of disappointment! I am so happy I saw this video!
I'm glad it helped! I think ultimately they simply require more preparation than I want out of my melons =) Others clearly love them though!
I've learned that I am personally too easily persuaded by a nice picture and an exciting seed packet description!
Corn is actually a valid choice if you grow a mixed variety grex or mutt-blend. Let them adapt to your circumstances and they will produce hearty amounts with no amendments.
Very cool! Are you actively developing your own landrace? Or a more casual approach?
Either way, thanks for sharing your experiences with us 😁
@@NextdoorHomestead
Yup. This is my year of landracing. I've got squash corn and beans, and I'm also looking to cross sunchokes and sunflowers for a perennial oilseed crop.
Pick up Landrace Gardening by Joseph Lofthouse. It's short, but lifechanging.
We owe it to our plant allies to give them the best chance at life for many generations to come.
@@trenomas1 Lovely. Thanks for the recommendation!
I agree with everything except amaranth. We grow it stacked with other plants. We use it as greens and for fodder for chickens . But that is our space. It is a beautiful and very underknown edible.
Amaranth seems to be the most common disagreement - that's awesome! So glad to see people loving it.
For what it's worth I am growing it this year, but as an ornamental flower! But giving them to the chickens at the end of the year sounds nice, I think we'll do just that =)
Ah, chickens. Good idea.
LMAO!😂😂I love your subtle honesty! And thanks for the hot tip I'm gonna plant some of those spiney bastards around my prize crops!
We couldn't keep up with our cucamelon harvests. We didn't need to hand pollinate at all. We grew it vertically on cattle panels and didn't have any rodent issues either. I don't care for cucumbers or cucamelons, but I am considering growing these again just because they're fun to grow.
I do like how their little vines just explode all at once!
Turn them into pickles, 2 cups ehite vinegar, 1 cup water, teaspoon if salt and tablespoon of sugar and dissolved. And add dill, pepper, a few slices of onion and a chilli or whatever herbs. If someone is into pickles, you'll have a good supply in the form of cucamelons
They are adorable, they always cheer me up, and I love to eat them right from the vine. All wins for me.
I love the insights you provide on your channel. I do have to say, however, that Malabar spinach was the bane of my existence. I am in coastal zone 8 and have little trouble growing most things due to a very long growing season. This is a problem for tropical Malabar spinach. It literally took over my garden, self seeds way too easily and made it through a few winters down here. It did finally get frost killed. On top of the kudzu-like growing habit, it’s leaves are very mucilaginous. But, I also do not like okra, a staple in most gardens in my area, for the same reason. Slime. 😅
Hahaha oh no, I'm sorry Anna! I'm also laughing uncontrollably at the image of malabar growing like Kudzu - that's a bit unimaginable to me! It's a bit sensitive in our overly hot summers and cool falls honestly.
I absolutely love it in the kitchen and am always a bit surprised to read comments from folks who find it unpalatable. Maybe I should start qualifying it that you should grow it only if you like Okra ;)
Do you have an alternative leafy green you prefer that can stand the summer heat?
@@NextdoorHomestead Not really. I grow spinach all year successfully but I plant it in close successions (in the shade) because it bolts fairly quickly in summer. Ditto for chard. I have a few tree collards, also in the part shade, that do fairly well and they’re perennial so that’s a plus. But they aren’t good in salads- only cooked (for me). I rely on microgreens a lot in the dead of summer and the dead of winter. One problem with the Malabar spinach may have been that we had a big swimming pool in the yard so that might have caused a warmer, moister microclimate. 🤷🏻♀️On the other hand, I can easily grow lettuce, kale and spinach all winter outside. So no complaints!
@@annaalishauskas Thanks Anna - appreciate hearing what works for you. I think I'm going to try more Swiss Chard with short successions this summer as well.
And maybe get me one of them tree collards... =)
If you have alot of sparrows, they love eating bees so keep an eye out for that and don't make it easy for them to pick off the bees. I even had to put up bird netting along my hedges and around my cucumber tunnel. Also I noticed the sparrows can't see the bees if they're on a dark centered flower. When my pollination dropped off drastically I started watching (from the window) what was happening in the garden when I wasn't there and was amazed to see how destructive the sparrows were.
Thank you! I found the nest of a swallow in our yard once (I think!) so I imagine they're around even if I don't see 'em much =)
Thanks for reporting on things that are not worth the effort. Very helpful. I will look at growing Chinese broccoli and maybe even Armenian cucumbers. Thank you for the attention to detail in your closed captioning, too. I really hate auto-generated text.
Oh, and I like the alternative to a litchi tomato… any good cherry tomato will probably taste better and it’s not going to stab you for your trouble. I love it!
But for real though ;)
I love amaranth- it tastes great stir fried with garlic, although I never tried to grow it for grains. They self seed easily and do well where I live (zone 9b).
It grows so well here too! It was a hard one to include for that reason - we don't have a lot of good options for greens in the summer. But it will definitely be in the flower row this year =)
@@NextdoorHomestead I would try sorghums if you haven't already as a "home" grain to try, doesn't requires much processing either. Just basically dry on an indoor rack and your done really. You probably have more options with them than I do considering you mentioned you got hotter summers.
We grew quinoa last year, and it looks a lot like amaranth. What I hadn’t expected, was a huge amount of black aphids to really love it as well. So many aphids I just didn’t get to harvest any of it!
I’ve never successfully grown Malabar spinach.
My FAVORITE winter squash is Waltham butternut. Sweeter than any pumpkin- even Pie. Stores like a king. At this point I still have bins full of healthy Butternut and delicata squash. Spaghetti stores well too but I don’t tend to really appreciate eating it.
Agree about cauliflower!
Ooooo, thank you for sharing your winter squash picks! I don't *think* I've grown Waltham. Or I've just forgotten! Either way, sounds worth a try =)
If you live in UK try Crown Prince pumpkin, they roast wonderfully and makes the greatest soup. There is a cut n come cauliflower too.
Thank you for the tip! I love cinderellas for soup but always on the lookout for new varieties 😁
I LOVE cauliflower. But it’s very easy to grow them here in Berkeley. I can plant broccoli and cauliflower in late fall and they take almost no care here to be ready in spring.
Thanks for the heads up with the rest. I would love to learn more varieties to avoid!
That's amazing to me! Do you spray or treat for insects in any way?
And you're quite welcome! I'd like to do another video like this one, but it was a little contentious so I've got to find a better way to frame the information first =)
@@NextdoorHomestead no spraying here, but a bit of sluggo at the start. Since they grow over winter most pests are not very active. Cabbage gets filled with slugs tho!
Aw man I’m sorry it wasn’t well received. Still like your videos anyways :)
Ground cherries have a fun paper husk and produce a sweet/savory golden fruit and no thorns like the litchi! You either love them or hate them but they are definitely fun to try. When they are fully ripe I enjoy them, but they are not for everyone.
They are so cool!!! I have 12 growing in my garage right now! I quite like them but the real test is if the rest of the family does - I'd really like to have another option for "fruity" edible annuals that everyone likes =)
Red garnet amaranth is amazing as a flower in the flower garden. It is the number 1 favorite for visitors.
I grow them as fodder for the hens and sheep also. The tiny seed size is comical. Thousands of tiny seeds fit on a spoon. I can’t imagine every growing enough to make edibles out of. They’re more like super mini poppy seeds than a “grain”
I do grow Asian types of amaranth bred for larger leaves. It’s steam wilted and used like spinach in a Korean dish or for bbq wrap addition.
That is making me hungry for Korean food! Do you have a particular variety you like to recommend?
@@NextdoorHomestead The two I usually get are Midnight Red and Lu Hsien from Trueleafmarket (which is a branch of Kitazawa).
@@haikuoflife Thank you kindly!
Kind of the opposite of what you asked, but if you like squash and Japanese varieties like Kabocha, I *love* kuri. They are excellent roasted and give a good amount of flesh for how relatively small the fruit can be
I LOVE KURI SO MUCH. I actually lived in Japan for a spell and have a fondness for many of their squash varieties =)
Listen to Radhaun anyone reading this! If you can't find it, sometimes it's labeled as 'Hokkaido'.
@@NextdoorHomestead in addition to anyone else reading this, their seeds are super easy to save and I've had no problem with germination in saved seeds. So you really only need to buy seeds once if your vibe produces even one fruit.
That Vine Peach melon makes me think of the gigérine, the watermelon exclusively for jam, cannot eat it fresh out of the vine but have to process it into a jam. I avoided the variety because I wasn't interested in having to cook it and I don't like jams anyways. But someone gifted me the seeds, so I couldn't refuse. Funny thing is that these are pretty popular and others love the jam made with gigérine. I just had to get lucky and be the one they chose to giveaway the seeds.
Yep definitely seems like a similar use case! I'm sticking with fresh eating melons for now 😁
Awesome tips! 👍🏽👏🏽
Glad you liked it!
I absolutely agree about the lychee tomato. They have a unique taste that's good in pies but being able to manage this plant is horrible. I'll not grow them again. They are more cold hardy than tomatoes I noticed and I had no pest problems with them.
It's true - they are relatively hardy. We actually had some volunteers pop up this year in February! I was shocked they could germinate with nights still hovering around freezing.
In South India, we eat both green and red amaranth, the young leaves and tender stem only, we stir fry them with freshly grated coconut and eat with rice.
The red amaranth when mixed with rice is the most beautiful color.
We never eat the seeds or grains. Also we don't let it grow too much till it produces the grains, but we harvest early to make use of young leaves and tender stem.
Stir fry with freshly grated coconut sounds amazing! And the red amaranths are unbelievably pretty - no getting around that =)
In Arizona I couldn’t get regular cucumbers to produce much but Armenian cucumbers in partial shade produced tons and tons,never bitter,wonderful plant. Not as productive in North Carolina though.
I need to try them again. I haven't loooooved them but I do wonder if I have given them a fair shake. Got some seeds, maybe we'll slip a few in 😂
I planted 4 cucamelons and had lots of them. No rodent issues and they never made it in the house as my kids loved them :)
Another vote for cucamelons! I feel like responses are pretty split on that one =)
Gotta love anything the kids will eat off the vine! Here that seems to be primarily cherry tomatoes ;)
Early Girl is beloved in the PNW becasue of our super weird weather. It's nothing like any other part of the country.
No kidding! Beautiful hiking country.
Have you tried any of the parthenocarpic varieties developed at Oregon state like Oregon Spring?
@@NextdoorHomestead Eh, I dont really care for tomatoes. I grow Juliet and Cupid becasue one of them is the best veggie I've ever ate and I never can rember which one, and Either Cherokee Purple or Black Krim depending on my mood on seed starting day.
Great video. My only disagreement is the vine peach. Ours were very good. Sweet with a tang. I know a lot of people use them as a fruit extender
Thank you! And I love the disagreement 😁
And that's very interesting to me. Sweet with a tang just haven't described ours, which makes me wonder if there are environmental factors influencing taste.
Cheers!
@Nextdoor Homestead - To be honest we didn't expect much from them. Our fruit trees won't produce much for a few more years, so we grow a lot of melon varieties. Ground cherries, and berries too.
If you want a great big looser, try the kiku melon. They weren't awful, but compared to every other one we grew they were tasteless. Very pretty though. Tiger melons were kinda boring. Kajari were awesome!
@@christines2787 oooo thank you for the heads up! I am actually finalizing my melon list soon; currently most excited to grow the Golden Giant variety of Korean melons =)
0:21 This is why I am guided by ANCESTORS and doNOT follow gentrified gardening recommendations from ppl who are affiliated with/benefit from soopreemazzy's narratives.
I appreciate your no-nonsense, transparent delivery of truly information and appreciate the way you blend your academic knowledge with LIVING COMMONSENSE/EXPERIENCE. The way you've thought these things through and is really beautiful and I appreciate the transparency in the delivery.
This is such a genuinely kind and thoughtful comment. Thank you very much not just for watching but taking the time to share your reaction =)
I hope your garden grows beautifully this year!
I'm only a renter down here in Florida so I make do with a few pots... but if I had the opportunity to grow I'd certainly be growing just for the sake of discovery and variety, or indulging in collecting behavior.
Discovery and collection are super valid gardening motives =)
We're big on upping our food production this year, but that's just our jam!
In my experience, watermelon (especially small varieties) and other kinds of sweet melon, are super GREAT producers and I've not had a pear problem with them. They grow great in sand too. I especially love heirloom varieties from the middle east
Thanks for sharing Penelope! Do you recommend a specific variety from the Middle East?
Not Middle Eastern, but the Madhu Ras from India grows well here - seems to handle heat better than most.
I planted New Girl 2 seasons. It was planted next to my Early Girl (yes, I am one of those 🙂) These were planted in zone 9, Northern CA. EG outperformed NG in quantity, taste, first to table both years. I won't plant NG again. I also plant several varieties of cherry tomatoes but I want an early tomato I can use on sandwiches as well.
Oh fascinating! That's a really cool result Mary; thanks for sharing =)
Couple years back I wasted an Earthbox, a bunch of dirt, and a summer's worth of watering on some tomatoes called "best boy". After cutting around all the massive splits and blossom end rot I managed to taste part of *one* tomato and it was disgusting. Maybe there's a climate where they're "best" but it sure as heck isn't the Idaho panhandle. Seeds went in the woodstove but only because I don't have any tomato growing enemies I could have given them to, lol.
Hahaha this may be my new favorite comment! I'm just imagining storing up the very worst seeds to give to my enemies. Revenge served cold ;)
I've had good luck with Jersey Beefsteak tomatoes in Ohio and in Tennessee - 2 very different environments. And I'm not a gardener. If it doesn't grow when I stick it in rhe ground and water it once in a while it can just die. I can buy good tomatoes at the farmer's market without all rhe work.
I also have an impulse control issue when it comes.to gardening! thanks for the tips, I will.save myself some work in the long, except for the vine peach. Already fell.for.that one, even made a taste test video (kids were not happy lol)
Hahaha I love the taste test idea! Super fun.
I hope both of our impulse buys work out this year!
@@NextdoorHomestead thanks! And ditto 🤣
Join the club. Late night half asleep laying in bed scrolling thru ebay has led to A LOT OF daft impulse purchases, not JUST vegetables. I might be in a country were there's no restrictions on any kind of cacti, not that I would even bother waiting 5 years for a mind breaking experience.
😂 I would try to grow it, probably wouldn't eat it....probably..
I was surprised at the Early Girl entry. That's the most prolific tomato in our garden and also the best tasting. I also grow heirlooms. WARNING: Last season I read everywhere how wonderful malabar spinach was, I bought some seeds, grew some and 🤢YUK! It tastes awful.
Oh no! I'm a big fan of malabar but I know you're not alone in disliking the taste (others seem grossed out by the texture). I'll always love it for giving me greens in 100 degree weather though =)
Mouse melons' flavor sounds off-putting! I've never had them, but steered clear based on what I've read. A lot of effort, and not enough enjoyment. Thank you for confirming that I'm not interested. Pumpkins need plenty of room! Only watered in drought! I've killed them by over watering watering two years in a row. Broccoli over cauliflower every day. Thank you for your opinions. They have some good points.
Thank you for watching and sharing your pumpkin tips! I am partial to yod fah broccoli in particular 😁
Typing as I go as usual lol.
Cucamelons: 100% agree. Just grow cucumbers lol. You can harvest as baby cukes or let them go full grown. Either is fine. They are adorable, but they are really only for a curiosity. Lebanese & continental cucumber is the one grown here pretty commonly.
Amaranth: Amaranth Viridus. Green Amaranth. I don't use it for grain because I don't have the patience. It is a fantastic green. Has so many nutrients (borderline super food) . It's also a weed here lol. So free food for us. I'd grow that red one for the looks tho!
Lychee tomato? Hmm. That looks like a torture weapon. Also lychees aren't even that sharp haha. I hadn't even heard of them, but I don't think I'll be trying it 😂
Turkish orange eggplant: have also never heard of it. Looks like a tomato. I'll just take it as a nightshade haha. It's cute though, but my concern would be that it takes off like pea eggplants.
Jackolantern: Never understood the obsession with those type of pumpkins. Our classic ones here are Kent, Jap or QLD Blue. And obviously butternut. The Kent or Jap x butternut is amazing too. But we don't carve pumpkins here. And pumpkin pie isn't super popular.
Early girl tomato: another one I've never heard of. Have you tried "Tomato tree"? It doesn't cope well here but would be interested to see how you go. We also like tigerello but we use them as green tomato's 😂
Cauliflow: yeah. Brassicas are such an annoyance here. They get chewed on left and right. However, I'm pretty sure you can leave it to get little cauliflower and of course the leaves are edible. Blooming cauliflower is now very popular here now too.
Mango melon: Huh, have also never heard of this. Have you done African horned melon?
Haha another cool video. A few things I'm going to see if I get some of them and try them here 😂
- I cannot figure out what that Kent pumpkin actually is! Some sources online have it listed as a C. maxima and others C. moschata. There are Japanese winter squashes of both types but I can't figure out which one it is!
- So actually I grew a dwarf tamarillo (aka tomato tree) last year but removed it due to toxicity concerns. Fun, pretty plant though. We didn't let it get big enough to harvest unfortunately. I've got seeds to try again when I find a safer spot.
- We're growing Kiwano African horned melons this year! I'll likely make a video on it =)
@@NextdoorHomestead Most things here apparently class them as Jap pumpkins? But moschata would be the one I would class properly as Kent since Maxima is a Queensland Blue :)
Having said that, what I call Kent vs jap is different, but I'm now realising what I call Kent is actually a cross between qld blue and jap 😂.
African horn melon is apparently a bitter thing with a hard skin and a total waste of time
@@OffGridInvestor Its an awesome food for chickens tho 🐔
I only grow , mangos varieties, peaches , citrus , avocados, lychee, plum ,peppers , herbs , & last tomatoes for my mother .
That's an awesome list! I'd like to try growing mangos and lychee myself soon =)
I think Early girl is popular because of people buying plants and not growing from seeds. For Pumpkins we will be trying a pumpkin where the seeds don’t have hull. Makes it easier to eat the seeds, so 2 crops in one plant. I almost never grow brassicas. I grew the Ugami cucumber last year and liked it. I don’t go for cuckamellons or some of the other weird types. We occasionally have a cross pollinated cucumber/mellon/squash grow out of our compost. We let them grow until we figure out they are not that good and pull them out.
Hey Ann! Can I ask what variety of pumpkin you're looking at this year?
I also steer clear of any volunteer cucurbits as cross-pollination can actually produce a plant this is dangerous to eat.
And sadly I think you're exactly right about the source of early girl's popularity.
Cheers!
@@NextdoorHomestead We are trying Kakai Hulless that I bought from Pinetree. It is a cool looking pumpkin also.
Even growing Early Girl tomatoes from seed is bad. Every time I've tried to grow them they just get blight and die. Cherry tomatoes do really well where I live though. I've had a lot of luck with those.
I swear by pickling type cucumbers. Great for anything you want to do with them including slicing. They're also fairly disease and pest resistant with a healthy amount of spines that are easy enough to avoid when harvesting.
I've grown to appreciate a good spine or two on ours =)
Especially in the backyard where our local cucurbit-devouring pests seem to be much more bold.
Do you have a favorite variety of pickling cuke?
@Nextdoor Homestead Boston pickling cucumbers grow great for me. It's an older type but they tolerate crowding very well and produce buckets of cucumbers. I've even planted them in part shade and gotten good results. This year I've found about a dozen of them that planted themselves from previous years.
tl;dw list -
cucamelon
amaranth
litchi tomato
Turkish orange eggplants
Jack O' Lantern pumpkins
Early Girl tomatoes
cauliflower
vine peach (mango melon)
Question for Mrs. Scientist. Does publication bias also pertain to "profitless" fertilizers like manures for example? I see so much variation in NPK levels for cow/goat/bat guano/ etc.
Do you have a list online that you can share of your go-seeds for a small garden?
I do not, but I am looking forward to making a "my favorite variety of every veggie" style video as we wind down the summer growing season this year. But in terms of vendors, I like MiGardener, dollarseeds, and Johnny's the best. We use a few others when those three are missing something I love, but they get most of our business (I'm not affiliated with any of them FWIW).
It is so hard for me to grow default varieties. I just cannot do it. I do not grow any red tomatoes or any orange carrots, I want to grow weird and whacky fruits and vegetables in fantastical shapes, colors, and sizes.
I just started gardening last year and my pumpkin pick was flat white boer pumpkins. I had a lot of sizable fruits and despite a lot of pest pressure and powdery mildew the plants just outpaced every challenge.
On the subject of corn, I live in a duplex so my yard is limited but I grow a small and very dense patch of corn and I love it. I had several huge bowls full of it and gave much away. I grow two quick growing varieties that let me plant twice in one year.
Gotta love the weird wacky and fantastical! Always room for experimentation =)
Thank you
First video of yours! Love!
Ahhh, I'm so glad to hear that! Thanks so much for the kind words =)
I just bought the indian snake bean gourd, the cucuzi gourd, and I may have ordered the winged bean too. All weird gimmicky vegetables.
The point of early girl isn't to have a ton, just 1-2 plants for sandwiches or something.
But I totally agree. Quite average tomatoes overall, not bad, not excellent.
Cauliflower was awesome for fleshy greens i added to chard. Otherwise weve dropped it and broccoli too tho a volunteer broc in the compost over the winter is a main bee attractor right now so yeah flowers good and head brassicas, not so much i thought it was just me.
Early girl did amazing for me in Washington state. (Totally different climate from where you grow) it’s an amazing plant, just need to be growing in the right ZONE 🤓🤪
The Pacific side I take it? I miss the Seattle area - what an incredibly beautiful state.
How do you like the flavor though?! A lot of folks seem to think they taste better dry farmed but I remain unsold🤪
@@NextdoorHomestead The taste was ok. Nothing special. I just remember it being sold everywhere since it did so well in our area.
Washington is beautiful for sure.. but the Seattle area is probably very different NOW from what you remember:)
I'm on the peninsula. Last year I did Black Prince tomatoes. Grows well in cool climates and the taste is really good. Was able to propagate starters over winter indoors from last years plant
@@eldiablomanatee1 Black Prince is so incredibly tasty!
Oh no! I love growing cucamelon! I grow them on an arch so they give my garden a really nice visual space in addition to fruit.
That sounds very pretty! I do like the absolute profusion of vines on 'em. They're really a fun plant to watch grow even if they're not my jam =)
I grow them for picking..it helps with the bitterness..😊
It would help if you were using some of these properly. Mouse melon aka cucamelon isn't primarily for fresh eating. I curry it or stir fry it, like dosakkaya (aka sambar cucumber). Some people also pickle it, I've not tried that. I've never had any issue with pollination, I get more than I can keep up with whenever I've grown it, thought that may change now that I have a dehydrator. I've never had a rodent issue except the odd squirrel trying to raid my bird feeders.
You mention Armenian cucumber in a disapproving fashion. Firstly it is not a cucumber, its a melon, and it, too, is not usually intended for fresh eating. I curry it, dehydrate it (and rehydrate for curry or use it in sambar or other soupy type things), and it would probably make a decent stir fry though I've not tried that yet. It has thrived in our 100+ heat here nearly every day since April. But the name notwithstanding, its not a cucumber nor even a fresh-eating-melon. Look for Tar Sabzi recipes but really just cook it like most any edible gourd.
It's not that you CAN'T eat either of these fresh, but if you do, its not going to taste like some kind of generic cucumber or melon. They taste like themselves. Its like trying to describe what snake gourd tastes like. It tastes like ... SNAKE GOURD. I mean real snake gourd, not the various varieties of edible bottle gourd that get called snake gourd. Those taste like ... bottle gourd.
Dissing amaranth greens when you admit right up front you didn't get a variety intended for greens is useless at best. We get about 3 days each spring where you might be able to grow spinach. I grow chard, collards, and AMARANTH for greens here. Love likes bleeding isn't even a good grain amaranth - its ok, but its primarily an ornamental.
I'll have to see if I can find Mango Melon and see if its a proper cooking variety. Given the uses you mention, I strongly doubt anybody in Victorian times was growing that for fresh eating. A fresh eating melon wouldn't stand up to making jellies or pies, they're too mooshy. It'll probably be a couple years before I get the chance to grow something like that to maturity as we're SUPPOSED to move late Spring next year 2024 (but then we were supposed to move Spring 2022 and we're still here, so we'll have to see).
There is nothing wrong with expressing a preference for one variety over another as you did with pumpkins or why you don't want to go with a particular veggy like cauliflower, but some of these, when it comes to prep, you're just doin' it wrong. Although I will say Chinese greens, while fine on their own, are not a cauliflower substitute any more than Armenian cucumber or Cucamelon are much good as cucumber substitutes.
My garden is "backyard" rather than "homestead-style", if the distinction means anything. Wheat - growing it now, for the second time. Not worth it economically, I suppose, but it does get me whole wheat, most of its growing season is in the winter when I can't grow much else, and it's not as hard to process as lots of people claim. Corn - This will be the third year in a row that I have grown field corn. I grow a red corn, which is colorful and interesting. Like wheat it produces a lot of calories. If you prefer not to eat GMO (I'm fine with GMO, myself), then growing your own corn is a good option. Watermelon - Grew them last year, and loved them. They'll be following the wheat this year.
Corn was one of my favorite things to grow as a kid - such a cool plant. We don't grow it now but I expect at some point we will in the "toddler garden". I'll check out that red corn =)
Ive only got 3metres of balcony,so far potatoes, parsley,coldframe of salad,dill,and on my windowsills tomatoes(dont think they will fruit)3 pots of carrot seedling which will be moved out once they grow a bit,and a tea plant. Dont have room for anything spreading!
Wow, that sounds like an *incredible* balcony! Congrats on building up such a cool area. I'd love to get into tea plants, that's been kicking around in my head =)
@@NextdoorHomestead I got my tea plant off amazon. It only had 10 dusty leaves. It is doing quite well now.
@@pheart2381 Oh you're convincing me to get one here haha!
Would have loved tasting a cucamelon, unfortunately growing indoors couldn't pollinate. I'll stick to watermelon 🍉
Are you growing watermelons indoors? That's intense!
We grow the cucamelon as a garden snack food.
Nice! Always good to have something to munch on 😄
My Mexican Cucumber is producing fruit easily. I am growing them on a balkony in a big city. And I don‘t polinate manually either. It surprises me, that anyone has troubles with this plant.
Reports on these seem to be very mixed based on the comments! How do you enjoy eating them?
Such a disagreement list that actually make sense! Most people just assume too much on these or too generic like "I will never grow a grain ever again".
Thank you Ricky! I tried hard to make it a genuine list based on our actual experiences 😁
@@NextdoorHomestead You are so much welcome and you sure did! :)
Oh man, I'm just waiting for my cucamelon seeds to arrive and I'm about to grow it for the first time. Actually, I never even had a chance to taste it 😂 but it sounds like something I would literally devour. Fortunately, we are swarmed with pollinators and our first neighbour has over 20 beehives, so I hope I'll get a harvest satisfying enough for a foodie.
I'm jealous! We finally have a lot of bees in the front yard but none seem to want to head into the backyard =)
Best of luck with your cucamelons - I hope you love them!
I grew cucamelons for the first time last year and I am totally hooked. They are tricky to germinate but I had great success in a little milk jug mini greenhouse. They love hot sun. I'll be growing about a dozen plants this year.
...But you can make alegrías with amaranth! :)
I have never had one and will endeavor to fix that. Those look like my jam ;)