edibles – Page 6 – Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Durham County

by Kathryn Hamilton, EMGV

By virtue of both its size and the diversity of its gardeners, Briggs Avenue Community Garden offers a wealth of information and insight. Each season presents opportunities to capture both the favorite varieties of experienced gardeners and ambitious new trials from gardeners eager to improve their gardening lot. The 2024 gardening catalogues are arriving. In case it’s helpful in making your choices, here’s a peek at how different varieties fared at Briggs.

Tomatoes
At the spring plant sale, we offered three varieties that were new to the market this year: Pink Delicious, Jolene, and Lemon Boy Plus.

Pink Delicious turned out to be just that. Big, tasty, and juicy with little-to-no cracking. A regional All America Selections award winner based primarily on good flavor and juicy flesh, this indeterminate also carries a good disease package and has strong, productive vines. Definitely on order for next year.

Mountain Merit (all photos: Kathryn Hamilton unless otherwise specified)

Particularly in 2023, many companies came out with “Plus” versions of old favorites. The “Plus” is
essentially an improved variety adding either flavor, or, more often, increased disease resistance.

Lemon Boy, among the best-selling tomatoes in the US and Canada, has also been a perennial favorite among master gardeners during their annual tomato tastings. Although highly disease-resistant in the original version, Lemon Boy Plus adds additional disease-resistance and increased sweetness. A Brixx rating ranging from 5.7 to 6.6, puts it on par with Cherokee Purple (5.23) and Pink Brandywine (5.96). Tomatoes run eight ounces and larger. During a year in which early blight cursed the garden, this tomato produced well into September on a largely pristine plant. It will return to the garden in 2024.

We were interested in Jolene because it was designed to “resist the diseases of the Deep South,”
promised a high production of large fruit, and was designed to set flowers in extreme heat. Ultimately, it was “just a tomato” without any special flavor. Unfortunately, we were unable to observe its promise to flower in the heat. Master gardeners are likely to keep a better eye on this tomato in 2024 through one of our trials. Will the disease resistance and increased production make up for a lackluster taste? Stay tuned.

The unanticipated tomato star was introduced by one of our Briggs Gardeners, and it’s a product of our own NC State: Mountain Merit. This tomato was designed to provide NC growers with a “high-yielding, disease-resistant, fresh-market tomato cultivar with acceptable fruit quality.” It also carries substantial disease resistance. While it lacked an heirloom-quality taste, it was tasty and juicy. Perfect for a sandwich or salad. It also withstood disease better than any other tomato in the garden and was still producing in mid-October, when the only alternative is store-bought and shrink-wrapped. For that reason alone, we think it deserves a garden spot in 2024.

Cucumbers
We grew six different varieties of cucumbers this year. Old standards included: Spacemaster; Poinsette; and Straight Eight. We chose three varieties for their resistance to bitterness: General Lee (“best-tasting slicer”); Suyo Long (“mild, sweet, and burpless”), and Tokiwa (“the standard for slicing cucumbers; buttery soft, supremely sweet, and never bitter”), and a 2023 introduction, Early Prince.

Unfortunately, we were unable to track production but in mid-August, following weeks of unrelenting 90° temperatures, we held two unscientific taste tests anticipating significant bitterness across the board. Although some tasters detected a “slight bitterness” in some cukes, not one was rated “Icky Bitter” (a very scientific term). However, there were two clear winners, largely chosen for their “crispness,” and General Lee had a slight advantage over Tokiwa.

Early Prince was developed for “early maturity, strong disease resistance, and high yield potential due to greater increase in female flowers.” The Master Gardener Volunteer who grew this cucumber confirmed its productivity, saying she had more than she could give away. Late-August, long after our Briggs cucumbers were done, this was still producing for her. At the same time, tasters noticed that it was the seediest of all the cucumbers we tasted.

It was also good to note that old standard cucumbers, which seeds are readily available in retail stores performed admirably well in very adverse conditions. Our existential question: why was a cucumber with a “greater increase in female flowers” named early PRINCE? For production alone, we plan to trial this cucumber in 2024.

Zucchini
We were absolutely captivated by Elevator Zucchini, a new trellis-grown variety from Renee’s Garden Seeds. While the plant exhibited an upright growth structure and had tendrils, we literally had to tie it up! We direct-seeded four seeds in each of two beds. Both produced healthy plants, but unsurprisingly the plant in the sunnier location produced more fruit sooner. These were very long-growing vines, which ultimately took up quite a bit of space. Is the production worth the space consumption? Check back in 2024. Nonetheless one healthy, but not overly seedy zucchini was more than enough for the three cups we needed to make a delicious Piña Colada Zucchini Bread.

Okra
Baby Bubba Okra was a genuine surprise: delicious, prolific okra on a fully grown plant standing a
petite 41 inches. According to Burpee, it is perfect in a large container and produces twice as much
fruit as a standard Okra plant in only 53 days. On October 14, the plant was replete with buds. It’s on the list for a 2024 trial.

About Mountain Merit
https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI.45.10.1547
https://mountainhort.ces.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/release-Mountain-Merit.pdf
Delicious Zucchini Bread Recipe that Freezes Well
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pina-colada-zucchini-bread/

Article Shortlink: https://wp.me/p2nIr1-3Jf

by Eric Wiebe, EMGV

Are out of control tree and shrub branches getting you down? For fruit and nut trees in particular, branch spacing and angle are important for both fruit and branch health. Proper spacing allows for good air circulation and optimal light gain for the leaves. Branches that grow at too steep an angle are also at risk of snapping off under a heavy load of fruit. While branch angle modification is probably most common on edible fruit trees, these techniques can also be used on ornamental trees and shrubs to improve their aesthetics and plant health.

If you have a branch that you want to preserve but it is growing at too steep (vertical) an angle, the two most common methods for getting it more horizontal is either spacers or weights hung off of the branch. Over the course of a season, as the branch continues to grow, it conforms to this new angle of growth and the spacer or weight can be removed. In many ways, weights are the most versatile method of pulling branches down. This blog post will show you how to make your own weights to use at home.

With very young branches, sometimes something as little as a clothespin provides enough weight to pull them down. However, as the branches get thicker in girth or more vertical, more weight is needed. For these cases, additional weight can be added directly to the clothespin in the form of hanging weights made from cement.

Making these weights only take a few supplies (Figure 1):

Powdered concrete patch mix
Disposable sample cups (2-3 oz)
Large paper clips or other stiff wire
A container for mixing
A stirring stick (like a paint stirrer)
Water
Clothespins (for hanging the weights)

Fig. 1: Supplies needed for the project. All photos: Eric Wiebe

Set out as many cups as you want weights. Keep in mind that the cement hardens quickly, so you may want to start with a dozen or fewer. Now bend your wire/paperclips into a shape like seen in Figure 2. Note that one end will sink into the cement and anchor it while the other end will fit into the clothespin.

Now you’re ready to mix up the cement. Follow instructions on the cement package. You may want to use disposable gloves, as the cement can be an irritant and will stick to your skin. Add water in very small quantities, as it is easy to get the mix too liquid. You will want something the consistency of a cake batter (Figure 3, proper cement consistency).

Pour or scoop the cement into the individual plastic cups. Note that you will probably want differing weights, so fill your cups to different levels. Immediately work the wire hangers about ½” under the surface of the cement (Figure 4).

Make sure all the wire hangers are straight and let the cement harden for the time recommended on the package. Once the cement is hardened, you can cut the cups off the cement and your weights are complete! You can use an old egg carton to hold your weights in (Figure 5).

Try out your weights out on some branches. Your wire hanger should sit comfortably between the two pin halves near the spring. By adjusting the weight amount, the location of the weight on the branch, or both, you can get varying degrees of pull down on the branch. Don’t overdo it, as you don’t want to break the branch off.

Happy growing!

References

Producing Fruit Trees for Home Use – NC Cooperative Extension

Extension Gardener Handbook – Tree Fruit & Nuts – Pruning and Training

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