Hey, it's Tinisha Spain and thanks for joining us for another episode of mid American gardener and as you can see, we are out on the road.

This time.

We're in Kankakee county at panelist Chuck Voigt's family farm.

And during this episode, we're going to talk about his late planting of zucchini.

He's going to show us the right way to dig potatoes and how to get the most out of your asparagus patch.

So let's go find Chuck and get started.

Okay, so Chuck, we're here now in your garden.

Now, when most people think about planting, they think about doing it in the spring.

Sure, but we're gonna learn now that you can get that that harvest later on in the fall with some crops, not everything.

Right.

So what do you have growing here?

And when will you be able to enjoy it?

Okay, well, I have some zucchini that are just not coming up.

It's a little late.

But it's not too late.

It's not too late.

I think by by early to mid September, they should be doing their thing.

It's it's two varieties.

One called butter that I've talked about on the show a lot.

It's a it's a golden zucchini, which produces like crazy, has a little more intense flavor, I think.

And then I did two hills with just a standard black zucchini.

And then some cucumbers are coming as well.

They all come pretty quickly, especially in the hot part of the season like this.

So the nice thing about zucchini now is vine borer stops flying in July.

So we're not going to they're going to come up and they're going to live until they get powdery mildew or until they get frosted or whatever, then they're not going to flop over.

And we'll like like, they say you eliminate one threat.

Yes.

Hi, by doing a later planting Now, is this something that you do every year so that you can have those crops to go into the fall?

Or was this a woopsie It's a bit of a woopsie I would have liked to have gotten them in, like around the Fourth of July.

But conditions were just not conducive to it at that point.

It was hot.

It was it was dry.

Everything else was getting out of control and and it just wasn't gonna happen.

So finding the weeds in the weather and we had a pretty rainy, early summer.

Well, it was strange.

We didn't get that monsoon we've been getting in May and early June.

But then, at the end of June, we just started having lots of rainy weather, which here in Kankakee county didn't translate into lots and lots of rain, just lots and lots of rainy weather when it was too wet to do anything but not storing up a lot of moisture.

Gotcha.

So when do you think you'll be?

You know, will you be budding right up to the frost with these do you think?

Probably yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cuz I would say it might not take six weeks.

So by maybe the week after Labor Day, and then until whenever frost comes, which hopefully it'll be in October this year and not late September.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And everybody knows that you love root veggies.

You're the root veggie guy.

So what else do you have growing?

Well, you talked about that, you know, that burst of string spring enthusiasm?

Yes.

And, well, there are winter radishes.

And I've shown that watermelon radish on the show.

Right?

Well, they only grow well in the fall.

Because you put it in the spring, they just bloom and don't do anything.

So we've got those going here as well.

Along with rutabagas in and again go feather turnips, which is a cross between a rutabaga and a turnip.

And so there again, I would normally like to get those in in July, but it just wasn't happening.

So they're in now they're coming up, which is good.

I didn't know about the first one here.

The second one I'm gonna have to thin because if you want a rutabaga that's four inches in diameter you kind of need the plants to be four inches apart, but you can never count on every seed so so you'll go back through and then these ones they get a little taller my little stool and sit down there and and and choose who lives and who dies which is sad but has to happen.

But yeah, I've got the watermelon radish made me crazy.

So I've got four more winter radishes now I've got a purple daikon, I've got a regular daikon I've got round black Spanish, and China rose and you've got potatoes here that are ready, and we're gonna dig some of these up right?

I think so.

Okay, now what variety of potato do we have?

This one is one that's new.

It's called Lehigh, Lehigh.

Okay.

Another one of those internet things.

Unfortunately, when I was shopping for potatoes in in January, some of the really more colorful ones were sold out because last, you know, gardening was sharing the pandemic guard loaded as has really It made things go crazy.

So this is, I believe a white.

And I've never grown it before.

So now you got to tell us the proper technique.

So walk us through how Chuck harvests potatoes.

My favorite for this is just around point shovel.

Okay, I like this one because it's got a really tight Tang on it.

This is one that I that I bought in, I feel that a street sale.

I think it was two other broken shovels and this for a quarter hay.

And it had a little notch out of it.

So I had to round off the tip.

But this has been, you can see by the shine on it.

My favorite.

And the other thing is, when you're when you're digging things, probably 50% a shovel like this is a cutting tool.

Maybe 40%.

It's a soil lifting tool.

And you don't want to be more than about 10% lever.

Because that's when handles get broken.

Because I've seen people tried to dig shrubs and trees, and they're just prying on him.

And snap.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's not not a good thing.

So do you go out really wide or Well, where do you I don't know this one.

Okay, I would probably stay back a little more, but they're held up really nicely, because every time I call divided, I might pull soil up over them which keeps them from when the soil cracks, it keeps them from getting sunburned.

And most varieties that I deal with, don't travel too far.

Okay, red Pontiac, which is the taller one down there.

Probably traveled the most of anything that I grow regularly.

So I'm using more careful with those I might stay way back and have to go in a couple of times.

But with most things like this, I start out with with the blade of the shovel, not the handle straight up and down about the distance back I think it needs to be go and maybe half of the way so you're past any potatoes that are in the vicinity.

Lean back and kind of work it underneath underneath.

kind of lift.

Hope I see one shake.

And if they have a little bit of green in them.

Sometimes hang on these you're past that apparently there's the mother kind of rotted in place.

Pretty these are gorgeous.

good looking.

Yeah, that's we have sandy loam soil up here.

As opposed to the clay loams down in in champagne.

And so they they really get a nice finish on the on the skins.

Now what would you do with these?

What would you cook?

How would you cook these?

Do do David probably bake?

You know, the idea that a russet potatoes the only kind that you can bake is crazy.

White, right?

These are wide inside?

I think so.

I have to look they might be yellow inside, but I don't think so.

Okay, and so when you get those original ones out of the way, then you kind of lift that.

And then because we didn't get over to that side, too well.

It might be Oh, there's more.

There it is.

I'll be this system.

That's the spirit.

My sister won't get jealous.

I was gonna say.

So that's that's what you do.

And he kind of close it up so that those clouds don't dry out that way.

And there you go.

There you go.

One plant.

And then as my as my grandpa always said, you have time to use a shovel, you have time to clean the shovel.

Now you do that before each dig?

No, just when I'm done.

I go Okay, don't leave it on say while you're dealing eyes.

It doesn't take much left on before you get a discoloration like that.

Gotcha.

Now the taller ones that are those ready as well.

Yes, I can we check out another version.

Check out the other variety.

Will it be a different color?

Yes.

Good.

Let's check those out.

These I've grown for years and years.

Back when I was back when I was a four h gardener we Irish cobbler and and red Pontiac were the two that were most readily available.

So last year, I planted them on Easter weekend, which, you know the ice plan in mind Good Friday.

And Easter wasn't that early last year.

So it seemed like a good idea.

Well, they came up with more robust little plants.

I got frozen in May.

They started to come back and they got frozen again.

And so I had the most dismal little marbles of potatoes last year.

So I went to three rows this year because I had something to prove.

Mother Nature was not going to get the last lap.

I planned it later and it was great.

And still as they were coming up right at the end of May.

There was one night when it almost crossed and it was like What is it guy got to do?

So anyway, here we are good, Tony.

With reds, you do want to get them while they're not over mature, because the color starts to fade if when they're in the soil too long, okay?

There they are.

They're checking those out.

That came, those are hanging out.

But better because it's a little a little less mature.

I would throw those in a crock pot with a rose.

And that's dinner.

Yeah, we have beautiful.

But the main thing is just staying, staying back with the shovel so that you don't slice the potatoes or be willing to have to go in twice rather than chopping through a bunch of them.

Because that's, that's demoralizing when you pull the shovel out, and there's one stuck on the side of the shovel.

Good luck and taters.

Yes.

And because they were in fairly late.

And because he got hot so early.

I think that kept the the size down a bit.

Because with vines this big, I would expect potatoes like a pound.

And that's that's just not happening on any of these.

But, but that's a pretty good deal from a little one little seed potato.

Now you talked about your asparagus.

And I liked that because you said there's something that you would do a little different next time.

And so we always love when the experts learn something because then they can teach us to make those same years.

And and in the book that I wrote, I said there's no need to buy two year old asparagus crowns when you're going to start a new path because the transplanting shop just holds back.

Well, this year, in my online travels, I was tempted by a group do 10 of these and 10 of these both predominantly male, which is good because they don't waste energy on seeds.

two varieties that I heard of, and 10 of each for a bargain price.

Well, that was fine until we came and we were ready to plant them.

And they were the tiniest little things that I've ever seen.

And the reason I thought one year old was it was plenty it was because the other time when I started to do asparagus bed, I grew my own I grew up in a row for a year Captain weeded, and they got up to be nice asparagus plants and dug them up.

They had roots probably like that.

And so in my mind, why do you need to learn and grow for two years?

Well, because you found out the hard way, especially on special deals.

Apparently the nurseries sort out the tiniest things they can find us and give them to you that way.

So let's go check them out.

Okay, so in addition to that advice, you said there was another something you would change with just how you plant it?

Well, yeah.

When I when I saw these tiny little crowns, as most times happen in my life these days, I was in a hurry.

And so I it occurred to me, why am I digging a solid trench to put these every 18 inches, when I could just dig individual holes 18 inches apart, especially since they're, they're not very big.

So that's what I did.

And then I just filled up a little bit over him because you don't want to smother him.

And then as the season has gone along, yesterday, I pulled it in and they're they're just about back to grade level.

So now what is the benefit of doing the trench versus the hole?

You just don't have to move as much dirt.

Gotcha.

Soil and seeds.

You're on the gardener to do it that way.

Yes.

After my second back surgery, I decided that less is better.

At least some of the time.

Good advice.

Good advice.

Now when will you actually be able to enjoy these next year?

Or do you think year after year.

And depending on how they grow next year, we'll see about harvesting just a very few this the next year.

But by the third year, you should start to be in at least like a half production mode and then over the next couple of years get up to full production.

And even though they were skimpy, you said you had a pretty good survival rate.

So I lost I lost one of each kind.

And so it may take me an extra season to get up to full production but hopefully we all survive this pandemic and I can enjoy asparagus four or five years down down down the road.

Okay, let's go check out the sweet potatoes.

Is that where we're going next?

That'll work okay.

And work we can we can look at the at the rhubarb on the way boy Yes, yes.

Yeah, I really like the red stamp ones, although these are fading a bit at this point.

So same company as they got these from I got a This one is is Canada red and this one is crimson, something or other.

And so I got one each of those two, figuring that if they do well.

A couple years I can dig up divided and have more.

That's the that's the they had They're really bright red petioles.

So when you cook it up, it has kind of a pink color, as opposed to when they're green, it gets kind of a grayish green.

Which, although I don't really like, it looks really bad.

So anyway, that's, they don't Well, this one was probably a little bit better division, it had some small roots.

This one was just a big slice taken off a big root with with a bud on it.

And so this one is done better than that one.

But hopefully next year, they're going to come up and, and go crazy, I would suspect as well as that's rooted in, we're gonna probably harvest a limited amount.

Next year on the rhubarb, you know, you grow it for a year, start cautiously the second year, and by the third year, you can probably be up to normal.

So rhubarb comes faster than asparagus.

Gotcha.

You're in it for the long game.

And I always like when you can, when you take care of them, or they do well, and then you can divide, because that saves you money in the long run.

And if you get a really healthy plant, then you can eat on that for years to come.

Yep.

So okay, let's go check out the sweet potatoes.

Okay, so these vines are looking really good.

When did you put these in?

These are your sweet potatoes.

And so when did you put these in?

I think it was still in June.

I waited a little too long to try to start them.

But these first six were sprouted over the winter and came pretty quickly.

So I got them out here six, eight weeks ago, and it wasn't so dry, they would they would probably be spread out even more.

We plan them on a ridge, partly because it makes them easier to dig.

Also, because it keeps us out there as you're nice and warm and they feel like they're back home in the tropics.

So we have Korean purple there at the end.

I this white cream white, a white rooted one.

And then this is red yam which is kind of what you think of as a traditional like a Beauregard with reddish skin and orange flesh.

And why do you build these up on a mound and not like the other potatoes in the other bed.

Because the other potatoes, you held them up but you held them up after they're planted.

You pull soil up around him to try to keep the soil cool.

I mount this up before I plant them.

So it gets warmed up is same reason I used to put black plastic over it, which which really makes them grow.

But which also really attracts voles.

Because they've got a protected environment, the foxes can't see them.

They've got wonderful food source.

That's really, really demoralizing.

When you see what was a two pound sweet potato.

It's just appealing.

And when will you be able to harvest these because everything the foliage I tried before it gets real frosty so that the end of September early October usually, because if they sit in cold soil for any length of time, they don't keep very well.

Gotcha.

And will these lose?

Will the foliage die back?

Is that how you know when to harvest?

No.

Okay, no, usually often it'll be that they'll get touched with frost.

And at that point, there's some thought that that some bitter principle migrates out of the leaves into the into the roots.

And once they get frosted, I try to get them cut off so that they can't do that.

And so once once they're cut off, you kind of need to get them done getting that out.

Okay, just about the mound.

I use the rotor tiller and get it softened up really nicely.

And I take this big landscape rake and pull the soil up from both sides.

And this is nice because just because it takes a much bigger bite than the standard garden rake which you could also use but you'd have to have to do probably half again as many strokes which gets of awaring on the thing and then leaf rake if you know a leaf rake is not really good for moving soil, it's good for picking up leaves without digging into the grass or whatever.

earlier this spring, we did a show a segment where we talked about soft neck versus hard neck garlic, and this is right up your alley.

And so Chuck's gonna tell us how to know the difference.

And then we're going to talk about planting them, harvesting them and just how to get the best bang for your buck.

So first of all, what is the difference?

How do you tell the difference?

Well, the thinking is that the hard necks are more primitive.

Because if you if you're growing flowering alliums, the onion family things they get these ball like flowers on the top of a tall skate well hardneck garlics do that same thing.

And instead of really mature flowers, they make these little bubbles.

And we try to get those cut off because it puts more effort more energy into the into the real bulb, but sometimes especially smaller ones.

They come out later and say they get Missed, because we make my sister pickles the tender young garlic scapes, and you can stir fry them and do all sorts of fun things with them.

You can also take the little, the little boat, I was just gonna ask you can plant those, you could plant them thickly.

And then in the early spring, when they're coming up, you can harvest those as green garlic, which would chefs would kill shores, it's it is so it's kind of a mild, sweet garlic flavor.

So these do not flower just to be there's some there are some like undeveloped flowers.

And some people at Wisconsin have done some tissue culture work where they've actually matured the flowers and made to garlic seed.

But it's a pretty time consuming gotcha.

And it ideally they be able to develop new garlic cultivars, because as it is we kind of wait on spot mutations, there's nothing to change it because it's just constantly vegetatively re propagated from from the same stack.

But this is a softneck does not have a escape like that.

So it just bends over when it's when it's ready to go.

These are the kinds of that you would normally used to braid, because it's like braiding Tinker toys to do those with escapes center.

Now, as far as planning, you would break up the ball, and take probably the largest clubs were better, because the larger the clove, usually, the larger the bowl, but we'll make take those apart.

Maybe starting late September, but in my mind, the ideal time to put it in is October one through October 15.

In most of mid America, you know, you could probably go a little later as you go south.

And you probably need to go a little earlier as you go north.

But so you harvested these how long ago, I harvested these a little three plus weeks ago.

And it's and you'll just let them sit like this until October or do you break them apart sooner you let them cure for about a month.

And I leave the roots on it because it helps with moisture away.

At about this stage and this kind of humid weather that we're sitting in today, they start reversing that, that procedure and sending it back into the bogs.

So this is when we would come in and and just do away with the roots so that they've done, they're done.

They're they're helpful thing.

And at that time, you know, however you want to, if you're not going to braid it, you can go ahead and take that off.

And at this point with any luck, the paper recovering will just come right out dirty part well, we'll we'll come off if you haven't left them in the ground too long.

And you'll still have a nice paper covering.

And so you leave them like that.

You don't put them in refrigerator because that they'll mold in the refrigerator and probably get a little bitter.

But but don't leave them out in the sunshine.

Sometimes you cure onions out in the sunshine after they're done.

Garlic doesn't like that.

So and plant those in October and then harvest the following.

Depending on variety from about the Fourth of July to the middle of July, usually we'll get most of them.

Because we're humid and we tend to have occasional rains in July.

We can't let them go to full Brown, we need to keep to or at least three green leaves, they die from the bottom up, harvest and while the top leaves are still green.

And that because the leaves go down on are attached to these paper cut coatings, scotch and so when leaf dies, the paper coating dies.

And then pretty soon you get in a little of that there where the paper coating starts to rot off.

Also, as they come out of the ground, the water content in the bulb is high.

And so that curing and drying out process develops the full flavor.

Most of the gourmet types are the hard necks, okay, they stand to have more complex flavor, particularly the California white which is most of what you see in the grocery store is mainly just really hot, without a lot of nuance.

So drawn a connoisseur result.

I just learned more about garlic than I think I've ever done.

You go to a good garlic catalog and you think you're buying wine because you're talking about the aftertaste and where it hits you on the tongue and the notes and things like that.

Exactly, exactly.

Alright, so that's garlic.

So before we go, we wanted to start with this beautiful flower patch.

Chuck tell us what we're looking at.

I can smell them.

I mean, they're so nice.

What what are the what we call a miracle lilies because that's what the person who gave them to my mother called them, sometimes called naked ladies.

And the reason for that is they grow up a big foliage in the spring looks like looks like daffodil foliage on steroids.

Okay, then they dies back.

And then long about the first of August.

They just pop up like this and have clusters of blooms lightly fragrant.

Yes, you can.

And right before we walked over here, they were full of butterflies.

I think we ran them all.

Right back they will.

species is like a risk squam or israa.

And there are other things that grow like this.

But the narrations and some of the things are not hardy here in zone 580.

So these are pretty pretty hardy for me.

I continue to bloom until fall or do you just get one beautiful show?

And then it's it's it's, it's boom, and then they fade?

And then the stocks kind of stand there a little while longer, and then it's over?

Awesome.

No, I want to know do any other like the bees who like to nest?

Does anything nest in the stock?

Does anyone?

Not that?

I know well, but but they could well be because I'm not.

I'm not Phil Nixon out here with checking that out.

I always am interested in the cycle.

But anyway, they're beautiful.

And thank you so much for letting us come out to your farm while we were sweating it out today.

But I told you I kind of missed my time on the air and yeah, my two dedicated fans have missed me they have mystery.

So here's proof.

Here's Chuck out at the farm.

Thanks again for letting us come out.

Thank you so much for watching and we will see you next time.