I am passionate about growing food and my goal is to inspire anyone who watches to grow more of what you eat and to see the beauty in the process of doing so!
I live in Central Florida and planted pinto beans from the grocery early in June, when the rain became more frequent. The plants are beautiful with a lot of flowers, but NO beans! I have a bell pepper plant that is increasing in it's fruit bearing, so it's not a lack of pollinators. When it doesn't rain, I water it. I have added banana peel to feed the plants. My only thought as to why I'm not getting any beans is that these may be GMO , therefore sterile. I'd appreciate any/all suggestions!
Cool. Came here b/c I just watch a news report saying they may have found a cure for cancer, which is a virus that grows on black-eyed pea plants, and which is harmless to animals and humans. I saw the news report here on YT, CBS 8 San Diego, and it's called "UCSD unearths new cancer treatment." Maybe I can grow the plants and eat them for prevention while I'm waiting for them to finish the studies. Very exciting!
I didnt know there was a bitter melon cultivar that grew on full size trees. I thought they were all creeper vines. Interesting. BTW, AFAIK blossom end rot, be it on a tomato or a bitter melon, is a sign of calcium deficiency, most commonly caused by either a soil deficiency or possible issues with root stress/damage. Some powdered gypsum (calcium sulfate), or liquid CalMag applied to the dripline should clear it up within a week. As a preventative, I save, dehydrate and grind my eggshells into a coarse powder. I'll stir a heaping teaspoon or two into a pail of soil (plus a scoop of compost) when transplanting a seedling into say a 3, 5 or 7 gal growbag. It functions like a slow release calcium source.
I love this vegetable and grow a lot of plants in January onwards in the polytunnel for spring greens. Never sure of the spacing for it though and I find it starts going up to seed by May even when I just harvest the outer leaves. What do you find the optimum spacing, as your plants look to be far more robust than mine, and when do you sow them? Which other kales can you harvest in a similar way apart from dino kale or 'Cavalo Nero' as it's called here? That doesn't taste as good.
I'm germinating a variety of store bought dried beans now. The plan is to grow them with corn and sunflowers so they can climb up the stem of the larger plant
Thanks for trying this and putting it up! I've been thinking of growing it, I think I'll avoid it only because I saw how high it climbed your tree - it would take over my house!
