BajaNomad

growing season

bledito - 7-16-2013 at 07:33 PM

my wife and I enjoy gardening. what types of fruits, vegatables, and spices have you found to grow well in baja ? also is there a difference in planting time/ season vs. the midwest U.S. may to oct season

monoloco - 7-16-2013 at 08:26 PM

In BCS on the Pacific side, for most things the best time to plant a garden is November to January. Greens, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, chiles, basil, squash, corn, melons, beans, peas, strawberries, thyme, radishes, beets, and onions are all grown here commercially. Only the most heat loving things, like watermelons, do well from August to October.

Gaucho - 7-16-2013 at 08:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by monoloco
In BCS on the Pacific side, for most things the best time to plant a garden is November to January. Greens, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, chiles, basil, squash, corn, melons, beans, peas, strawberries, thyme, radishes, beets, and onions are all grown here commercially. Only the most heat loving things, like watermelons, do well from August to October.


You forgot mangos!

monoloco - 7-16-2013 at 08:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Gaucho
Quote:
Originally posted by monoloco
In BCS on the Pacific side, for most things the best time to plant a garden is November to January. Greens, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, chiles, basil, squash, corn, melons, beans, peas, strawberries, thyme, radishes, beets, and onions are all grown here commercially. Only the most heat loving things, like watermelons, do well from August to October.


You forgot mangos!
Tree fruit would be another long list.:lol:

[Edited on 7-17-2013 by monoloco]

mulegemichael - 7-16-2013 at 08:56 PM

same with us on the SOC side; tomatoes, cukes, greens,(especially!), all the herbs...basil and rosemary and thyme of course, are considered perennials here, and don't have to be replanted every year....peas do especially well when planted in early nov.

Mula - 7-17-2013 at 05:13 AM

In San Nicolas, we have 3 growing seasons.

San Nicolas is between Loreto and Mulege on the Sea of Cortez side.

Plant in the middle of Sept. - the vegetable garden.

Take that out the middle of Feb.

And plant the vegetable garden again. It will last until May/June.

Take that out and plant melons and chilis for June to Sept.

We use goat manure for organic fertilizer.

bledito - 7-17-2013 at 06:40 AM

very good thanks? goat manure, cow manure, I'm pretty much working in sand. will just mixing in a good amount of these help prep the soil ? what about moisture retaining conditioners do use use those as well ? I would imagine you need a drip irrigation as well .

mulegemichael - 7-17-2013 at 06:48 AM

we use cow manure and chopped green alfalfa for fertilizer...and yeah, ya gotta put a simple drip system in.

bledito - 7-17-2013 at 06:49 AM

What about potatoes red, and sweet.

monoloco - 7-17-2013 at 08:00 AM

Your sandy soil should be good for potatoes, and sweet potatoes do really well here.

David K - 7-17-2013 at 08:05 AM

To see more on Drip Irrigation for the Baja home gardener: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=31858 :light:

BajaBlanca - 7-17-2013 at 10:39 AM

Les is just starting an herb garden! First one in La Bocana, I reckon.

Skeet/Loreto - 7-17-2013 at 10:47 AM

When I lived in San Nicholas I brought down Alfafa for Chico, It grew great. Also had Tomatoes, Onions, but had trouble getting Squash to Pollenate.

I had a small Palpa very near the Water well so had lots of water.
Terry and Juewy were growing some small Pot plants that did real good, Anytime of the year.

DavidE - 7-17-2013 at 12:18 PM

I had minimal luck growing lettuce and greens in enriched soil in B.A. and Good luck growing potatoes. Near the ocean I first leech out the salt by soaking. Mixing 50/50 with "esterico" dairy manure. Then mixing in 15-15-15 time release fertilizer granules. Sweet corn grew extremely well, but I tried to use natural insect control methods and failed. The next crop is going to be sprayed. I ignored the baloney I read on the internet about growing potatoes and planted white potatoes in very enriched sandy soil. Absolutely different taste than what the source of the sprout chips was. Buttery, sweet taste. Learned the hard way that cool nights is what drives the plant to make larger potatoes. I was satisfied with new and medium potatoes.

Baja Blanca was absolutely RIGHT ON the mark when she suggested that my pickle disaster may have been caused by delinquent cucumbers. They seemed a little tough rather than crisp when I bought them then turned into a BF Goodrich wanna be in the refrigerator. Guess it's time to plant cucumbers and harvest them early.

Thanks to NOMADS I have DILL SEED which I planted 2 days ago in planters. I like a mix of fresh clipped dill and dill seeds in the batch.

Looks like I have lots of time to find SAL de PITO

Sand encrusted Baja experts surely must know what Sal de Pito is, right?

BajaLuna - 7-17-2013 at 12:33 PM

Oh I am lovin' this thread!!!

I was wondering if tomatoes and cukes were a perennial in Baja, thanks so much for that info! It's good to know sweet potatoes can possibly grow there, I can't grow sweet potatoes here in WA, potatoes yes, but not sweet potatoes. Last year here in WA I made these improvements to my 20 raised bed garden...automatic water drip and spray system and mason bees (they don't need or have a queen bee and are not aggressive whatsoever), and my garden was the best it had EVERRR been but before that I had to hand-pollinate my squash.

It will so cool to be able to grow year around! I hope you all will pass along more info on gardening in Baja, I so appreciate any wisdom and experiences you can pass along!

P.S. do any of you harvest your own seeds, and have any to share/trade?

thanks,
Luna

bledito - 7-17-2013 at 12:42 PM

Luna poses anouther question, bringing seeds in from the states. will one get arrested crossing the bordar by air, or are the seeds just confiscated by customs ? assuming your not allowed to bring them into mexico.

DianaT - 7-17-2013 at 12:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BajaLuna
Oh I am lovin' this thread!!!

I was wondering if tomatoes and cukes were a perennial in Baja, thanks so much for that info! It's good to know sweet potatoes can possibly grow there, I can't grow sweet potatoes here in WA, potatoes yes, but not sweet potatoes. Last year here in WA I made these improvements to my 20 raised bed garden...automatic water drip and spray system and mason bees (they don't need or have a queen bee and are not aggressive whatsoever), and my garden was the best it had EVERRR been but before that I had to hand-pollinate my squash.

It will so cool to be able to grow year around! I hope you all will pass along more info on gardening in Baja, I so appreciate any wisdom and experiences you can pass along!

P.S. do any of you harvest your own seeds, and have any to share/trade?

thanks,
Luna


We grew tomatoes all year; lots of big tomatoes and they were a favorite of the Cactus Wrens.

Be sure to take your favorite gopher traps. You plant it or compost, and they will come. We used smoke bombs, gum and water and all we had were gophers who were kicked back swimming, smoking and chewing gum! We only had luck with traps and the mother of a friend who was good at watching, waiting and then beheading them with a shovel.

There are plenty of bees around there.

BajaLuna - 7-17-2013 at 01:16 PM

LOL!!!!

Thanks for that info, Diana! Oh boy not gophers, that's all we do here too is deal with those darn rodents! LOL! Mind you, we are not successful, they come and go, it's a constant battle. Most traps are illegal here. Yes, I am a composter! I guess I better load up on traps!

We have PLENTY of bees here too, and for years I planted lots of things to attract them (lavender, honeysuckle etc etc and we are surrounded by blackberry bushes) to insure good pollination, but we still don't get enough pollination, but we sure do now with our mason bees, they are not sleeping on the job like the rest of the bees here are!! Hopefully Baja won't have lazy bees!

BajaLuna - 7-17-2013 at 01:41 PM

I was asking if anyone in Baja has seeds from their plants in Baja to share! Although I also hope to be bringing some seeds from SoCal on my next trip down to Baja with me. GMO seeds and ones that are native to SoCal and similar climate as Baja!

monoloco - 7-17-2013 at 01:42 PM

This looks like a much more satisfying way to kill gophers:
http://youtu.be/xprbwmlXKiA

BajaLuna - 7-17-2013 at 01:43 PM

hmmmmmm IS it illegal to bring seeds into Baja? good question!

BajaLuna - 7-17-2013 at 01:51 PM

now if I can just find a way (without killing them) to get our family of beavers that live here too. They think they can keep taking more and more of our land and making bigger and bigger ponds for their mud and stick houses and amusement! The first 5 years here we tried to live as one with the beaver, afterall he was here first..now it's full on WAR between us and the beavers! Sure they're cute, sure this is their home, but gosh darn it, they are causing us so many problems, flooding etc........grrrrrrrrrr. ...and it's illegal to trap them, ugh! sorry for the rant...now back to Baja rodents.....

DavidE - 7-17-2013 at 04:06 PM

Aim a speaker at the lodge and crank up "Hey Mister Tambourine Man" Bob Dylan for a couple of days. If it worked on the Taliban, the beavers don't stand a chance.

DavidE - 7-17-2013 at 04:14 PM

Got some "Incredible" variety sweet corn seed (commercial) available, here. Best corn I've ever eaten. Has a commercial fungicide applied to thwart predators.

Aduana is a bit touchy about seed. Neurotic about seed corn. Since the nearest commercial field corn is 70 miles from here I don't worry about it. Biting into a traditional elote is like biting into a rubber stamp.

How long does it take for a cucumber seed to sprout down here and for the plant to grow to the point of starting to produce cukes? Can I use a planter and let the plant spread out over a concrete slab?

monoloco - 7-17-2013 at 04:51 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DavidE
Aim a speaker at the lodge and crank up "Hey Mister Tambourine Man" Bob Dylan for a couple of days. If it worked on the Taliban, the beavers don't stand a chance.
Or, I Fought the Law and the Law Won, like they used on Noriega.

Bubba - 7-17-2013 at 05:02 PM

Quote:
Only the most heat loving things, like watermelons, do well from August to October.


I was always under the impression that tomatoes love the heat? I have a friend in Fresno that grows them all summer and they are some of the best tomatoes I've ever had!

monoloco - 7-17-2013 at 05:24 PM

Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by Bubba
Only the most heat loving things, like watermelons, do well from August to October.


I was always under the impression that tomatoes love the heat? I have a friend in Fresno that grows them all summer and they are some of the best tomatoes I've ever had!
They don't seem to do that well here in the summer. Maybe it's the humidity, but most of the things in the garden seem to go downhill in August & September. There are also a lot of bugs when it gets hot.

Bubba - 7-18-2013 at 05:09 AM

You could be right, it's a dry climate where we are and the tomatoes seem to do better as it heats up. Good luck with your garden!

vandenberg - 7-18-2013 at 04:12 PM

Quote:


I was always under the impression that tomatoes love the heat? I have a friend in Fresno that grows them all summer and they are some of the best tomatoes I've ever had!


I found that the plants thrive in our hot summer weather, but the fruit won't set. Most likely because the night time temps often stay in the high 80's.:?::?: