Growing Pink Oyster Mushrooms

...summer. I need to improve step 4. The difficulty with getting mushrooms to fruit is that they benefit from humidity and oxygen–you can’t just put them in a bag with no ventilation. While I’ve grown mushrooms outside without any kind of humidity control, I think I’d get bigger mushrooms with some kind of fruiting chamber. A lot of people make what’s called a Martha, named after a Martha Stewart mini greenhouse. I’m of two minds about this kind of t...

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On the Many Frustrations of Gardening: Pierce’s Disease

...pectively, and eventually leaf margins dry or die in concentric zones; (2) fruit clusters shrivel or raisin; (3) dried leaves fall leaving the petiole (leaf stem) attached to the cane; and (4) wood on new canes matures irregularly, producing patches of green, surrounded by mature brown bark.” “Fruit clusters shrivel or raisin.” Turney described the life cycle of the sparpshooter, one of the main carriers of Pierce’s, who spread the diesase by feed...

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I picked a peck of pickled peaches

...to his pickled green almond recipe (p. 103) West notes that immature stone fruit such as peaches and nectarines can be pickled in the same way as green almonds (almonds are a stone fruit too). If you don’t thin this branch it will break off. I’d share Kevin’s recipe with you but he’s a fellow author and you really should own his book, Saving the Season. It’s the classiest food preservation book out there. Plus Kevin could have me killed and pickle...

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The Fine Art of Determining Peach Ripeness

...ess to a few tools that can make ripeness determination easier such as this expensive gadget that measures firmness or a brix meter for determining sugar content. These tools could only be justified if you were planning on growing, shipping and selling fruit. More useful for us backyard growers is this gallery of peach fruit color stages. I’ve been picking them a little on the green side and letting them ripen inside in order to stay ahead of the...

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Saturday Linkages: Beetle Party, Floating Homes and Cilantro

...ple) June 9, 2018 Now, we consider Burbank’s ‘Santa Rosa’ plum an heirloom fruit…112 years later! https://t.co/a1zkd9w0zR — Fruit Cornucopia (@ValenzuelaJohn) June 8, 2018 Cilantro is one of our favorite crops to succession sow. Start a row in your garden every couple of weeks so you have a constant supply. Plant some this weekend! pic.twitter.com/MbbEacOH2k — The Works Seattle (@theworksseattle) June 8, 2018 LAPD Announces Arrests in Hit-and-Runs...

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