A lot of people worry about growing non organic seeds, GMO seeds, and Hybrid seeds. I’ll share with you why you don’t need to worry about any of those but you might want to steer clear of heirloom seeds. Plus what I’m growing this year.
MENTIONED LINKS
Next Level Homestead: https://www.youtube.com/nextlevelhomestead
Blue Pumpkin Seed Co. https://www.bluepumpkinseedco.com
Johnny’s Seeds: https://www.johnnyseeds.com
Park Seed: https://parkseed.com/
Burpee: https://www.burpee.com
36 Comments
Yes, please on the companion plants. I can never remember what goes where. Thanks for the great information. I live in the south west and we do get hard freezing most winters. Otherwise, the climate is much like yours. 😅
You should try chocolate cherry tomatoes. They taste like they already have Italian seasoning in them. So yummy💕
I followed your advice last year and did a video of my garden. Thank you for that! 😊 I've watched it and ordered my seeds a week ago. I will stick with my same tomatoes as last year as they were very abundant! I can't tell you the variety because I use the seeds I save every year for the past 10 years. All I remember is they were an heirloom variety lol. They have always grown very well for me. I have a small garden and decided to stick with the vegetables I love the most: tomatoes, sweet peppers, bush beans, okra (new for me last year),carrots, lettuce, garlic and new this year because of the space they need, is winter squash – buttercup. I will still have chives, oregano, mint, basil and for flowers: zinnia, cosmos, cleome, alyssum, nasturtium, sunflowers, marigold, radish and borage. Hopefully the peppers I'm overwintering will come back (last year I lost all but 1 to a bug infestation). I will also have more herbs and hot peppers in pots on my back porch. I've learned so much from you and I'd love the companion planting video to learn more. Thanks for all you do Brian!
BRIAN: I’d like to know more about your plan for shading your peppers. I have the same problem in zone 8b/9, Sacramento, CA.
Last year I used 40% overhead shade cloth and added old bedsheets on the south and west sides when the forecast was for 100+. That mostly prevented scorching, but I wonder if 40% is too light for this purpose, since there was some scorching.
Moving house definitely results in new issues, but we’ve been in the same house for almost 30 years. Between rising summer temps and the loss of venerable old shade trees, I don’t know my own garden anymore. So, thanks for the idea of planting hybrids until I figure things out!
Absolutly no GMO!!!!!!!!
I too was disappointed with my poke green beans. They started off strong with lots of little beans but that’s as far as they got. Definitely going with a different variety this year. And will plant way more paste tomatoes this year. Had more than enough slicing tomatoes last year but had to go to the farmers market to get enough for canning. Thanks for all the info!
We are in zone 9b and we loved growing the red noodle beans but they end up playing a different role this year. They worked to keep the aphids off all my other plants in the garden. So this year planting them in the back of the garden so they attract that plant and not the rest of my garden.
I must say Brian, that all these years and I have never considered clipping my beans. DUH!!! Never!!! I carefully train them over (where I now live) to wrap around the 5th line of my permanent clothesline that runs down a path beside the garden where I grow my beans and that has worked quite well.
Now I’ve added another garden up the back fence and they want to go ver to my neighbour behind me.
So thank you, these I WILL clip.
Each year I remove some soil from the fence line I grow my beans up and replace it with new compost with some water crystals mixed into it. They crop till the frosts hit us. I dehydrate beans as well as eat 5hem.
Thank you for your tip. In the morning, armed with my snips, I shall deal to my runaway beans.
Now I will listen to your video you made a year after this one. Admittedly my watering has not been so great this year so that’s a very timely reminder as my beans are starting to flower. Also our spring in the South Island of New Zealand where I live, was cooler than normal. We had snow mid September. It’s been interesting. We are on track now.
So we are 6 months ahead of you, and I’m guesstimating we are in your June.
Thank you.
Of course as you did this 3 years ago I should send it to one of your current ones as you might never get to read this. I will do that as well. Both places.
Margot
❤❤❤
NZ
Thank you! As soon as you said it will be a long video grab some coffee, I went the the garage got my seed box, and envelopes that I ordered a few here and there and sat here listened to you as I sorted my seeds!! I am making my list now and have my plan out trying to figure how to fit all this in my tiny garden 🌻🌻
I mostly grow Herlioom but corn is one I prefer hybrid
Love Rutgers tomatoes. Found out a couple years ago I have tomatoes named after my ancestors (Jory tomato) found that adaptive seeds still sells seeds for them. Tried them last year but got a late start and had to ripen everything indoors so gonna give them another shot this year. Moved from Ohio to Montana 1.5 years ago; definitely still learning the climate. Similar temperatures but shorter season and much much drier.
Where do you live?
Hope the rain stops soon.
About those pollinators…. Last summer was my 3rd year growing a garden. 1st year? No pollinators. Just cabbage loopers and slugs. I learned about blossom end rot and hand-pollinating. The second year I grew several marigolds in small pots and moved them around the garden. Some bees showed up and if I didn't pollinate the summer squash, I didn't always lose the fruit. Last summer I grew marigolds plus a couple other flowers and we had so many bugs of all kinds! It was endlessly fascinating. So it's possible that they'll find you in time. Here's hoping! Now if I can just get on top of the cabbage looper and slug problems, I might be able to grow some unholy greens. Thank you for the update, Brian, and a very happy new year to you and the family!
I'm with you on the paste tomatoes, I grew San Marzano and Super paste and only ended up with maybe 2 lbs between the the two varieties for the season. MY Brandywine however, are still producing. Go figure. No more corn for me, I personally don't care for it, probably fed 90% of the crop to my chickens. More winter squash, less summer squash. And sugar snap peas!
I'm very happy to learn I picked varieties the right way. I hit up the articles from our Extension Office for what grows best in Zone 4b. good resource.
I also grow hybrids that do well here. You might try Ambrosia Sweet Corn. it is a hybrid. I do help the pollination. it is the BEST I've ever had. good germination, nice size ears.
I didn’t make a video last year but planning to in2023! Another excellent idea as usual❤❤❤
That/Chinese/Japanese/etc. Long Beans might be good to try as they love the heat. Also humidity, but I'm on the east coast and that's a given. They get very tall but the best is picking a fat handful and getting a gallon bag full for the freezer. They taste, to me, a little more green-beanier than pole or bush. Plus 12"-18" green beans are fun to grow.
I like Span Cross corn… It is a 56 day corn. It has spindly looking stems and doesn't grow very tall. The ears are not straight like a jubilee, but the corn is yummy, and prolific….
Sounds like your soil microbiology is bad
Only unhealthy plants get attacked by pests
Another variety may uptake less of the scarcely available nutrients in your soil but that doesn't mean there's fault with the heirloom… It's your soil
Last year I grew the Super Sauce tomatoes for the first time and although the tomatoes were huge for a sauce tomato, the plants produced very few tomatoes per plant, maybe 4-6 per plant. I'm in zone 5 in northern Illinois.
I did make a journal after your recommendation. I had a bad turnout of eggplants which I’m pretty sure Is the fault of the seed provider. These were planted in three different spots with different amounts of sunshine. They all became small dark globes with the consistency of a rock. I’m also planting mostly paste tomatoes. I had another bad turnout in my attempt to grow Aunt Ruby’s German green, (same seed provider). I’m excited to grow Shishito peppers this year! In fact, I’m growing a lot of peppers this year. I’m trying out the winged beans.
Great info! Thank you so much
I used to be a prepper on youtube (the pervy one), but youtube won't let me be….
Having said that, I can share some thoughts on prepping and seed storage.
Preppers have always stressed the importance of storing Heirloom seeds in their Patriotic Tactical Seed Vault collection… but I think there's TOO MUCH emphasis on this.
The reason you want heirloom seeds can be summed in two words: Seed saving. And I agree, this is important for long-term survival.
However, I think this emphasis on Heirlooms-ONLY fails to stress the importance of short-term (IMMEDIATE) survival.
If you don't have an established garden when the air impeller is fecally-impacted, OR if you're forced to leave home (bug-out) so you have to start over in a new place, then you're going to want to start EASY seeds and that's exactly what Hybrids were bred for. They can be started earlier, they're resistant to pests and diseases, they begin to produce earlier and they produce more and produce longer. YOu want to get seeds in the ground that will sprout fast and start producing food ASAP.
Once you have your "Easy-button" hybrids growing, that's when you want to start planting your heirloom seeds, so you can also grow them and start saving more of those seeds, as soon as you can.
The hybrid seeds are insurance for the immediate Emergency situation.
The heirloom seeds are insurance for the future.
Stock up on both.
Major helpful, would love one on companion plants❤❤❤❤
I started growing heirlooms but the first time they performed poorly, but i planted again from the seeds i had saved they performed well, i think they have got used to my climate but not all of them perform well, i have decided to choose the ones that do well in my area.
Dunja = "Doon Ya"
Yes yes yes to flowers beside my veggies! 🙂 I usually just throw in marigolds and basil.
I so wish we could access those wonderful catalogs and seeds in Australia. Good growing luck this year Brian. Cheers, Muffy from Oz ( Australia)
I like heirloom plants because I'm a seed saver, and they don't mix breed like hybrid plants. I got hundreds of tomatoes last year in a 4X4 raised bed. I mixed equal parts of topsoil and potting soil with about 10 pounds of composted cow manure, 2 bushels of homemade compost, and about 4 cups of ground eggshell powder. I also fed them 4-4-4 organic fertilizer and watered them regularly to keep the soil from getting too dry. Best I ever did in 40 years. They were also in full sun, and I placed a layer of organic grass clippings and mower chopped tree leaves as the base before I added the soil which added more nutrients and made less watering needed in the bed. I am going to do this in a new bed again this year to make sure it works and be sure it wasn't just a lucky roll of the dice. Hope things work well for you as last season seemed rough. Thanks for your help and all that you share with us.
Yes please companion planting video. Thanks Brian. 💕
I already don't like you with the into.. no homo
I have to grow Hybrid tomatoes that have resistance to yellow leaf curl virus otherwise the plants get infected and don’t produce – I had the same experience as you trying to grow Brandywines – great info on clarifying the difference between hybrid and GMO since most think they are the same
Sungold cherry tomatoes are the best! I've tried many varieties and this is the one and only cherry tomato I will be planting. Your videos are always so informative and fun to watch. Thank you for your efforts.
question, what state are u in…fl.. stinks…rain, frost an heat.. garden died.. Im in central fl.
May I suggest that when you grow the 2 different types of corn, that they are planted as far apart from each other as possible.