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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 *** 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.