Do you like growing new things in the garden? Then come grow along with us! On this week’s Good Growing Podcast, we roll out our newest project, the Good Growing Grow Along. We’ve selected six new plants/cultivars to grow in our gardens, and you can grow them along with us. We also discuss some new plants that have been in the news lately.
Do you like growing new things in the garden? Then come grow along with us! On this week’s Good Growing Podcast, we roll out our newest project, the Good Growing Grow Along. We’ve selected six new plants/cultivars to grow in our gardens, and you can grow them along with us. We also discuss some new plants that have been in the news lately.
University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator serving Henderson, Knox, McDonough, and Warren Counties
Host
Ken Johnson
University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator serving Calhoun, Cass, Greene, Morgan, and Scott Counties
ES
Guest
Emily Swihart
University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator serving Henry, Mercer, Rock Island, and Stark Counties
What is Good Growing?
Talking all things horticulture, ecology, and design.
Chris Enroth:
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, horticulture educator with University of Illinois Extension coming at you from Macomb, Illinois, and we have got a great show for you today. We are gonna be unveiling a new project that the Good Growing crew is working on. It's going to be exciting, and we want you, dear listener, viewer, to participate. So before we dive into that, let's get into who we have on the show.
Chris Enroth:
And you know I'm joined as always every single week by horticulture educator Ken Johnson in Jacksonville. Aiken.
Ken Johnson:
Hello, Chris. I'm excited for a new venture.
Chris Enroth:
It's going to be a venture. That's for sure. Adventure, venture. We're investing a lot of capital in this, aren't we? Yep.
Chris Enroth:
So Yes.
Ken Johnson:
Yes. Both mind, physical. Mhmm. Monetary. Maybe not monetary.
Chris Enroth:
But Space in the yard. It's very valuable. Yes. Mhmm. That's right.
Chris Enroth:
And we are also joined by good growing horticulture educator, Emily Swihart in now let me get this right, Milan, Illinois. Yes. Yes.
Ken Johnson:
We had
Chris Enroth:
a we had a debate about how we pronounce this thing before we started recording everybody. So, Emily, welcome to the show who is also in Milan, Illinois.
Emily Swihart:
Thanks, guys. And I like that tease that you just you just did for our upcoming project. I think that's enticing.
Chris Enroth:
Mhmm. Yes. And after an hour, we will get to it. But first, these messages. No.
Chris Enroth:
No. We're we we will we will dive into the project that we have in mind very soon, but there's a lot of interesting things in the year of 2024, some new stuff in the plant world. Emily and Ken, we were both we're all together, up in was it where were we? So That was Moline. Okay.
Chris Enroth:
That was Moline.
Emily Swihart:
That was in Moline.
Chris Enroth:
Quad Cities confuse me. There's so many of them. But so we're in Moline at a conference, and we were, like, just geeking out on our phones. Like, Ken, what did you show us? It was this wackadoodle petunia.
Ken Johnson:
Yeah. So there's a glowing petunia now. Apparently, it's so they took I'm not entirely sure how they did it. I haven't read up on it. Hopefully, one of you two did your homework.
Ken Johnson:
But they've genes are something from, was it mushrooms? There's so there's some species of mushrooms that will fluoresce at night, and they took those genes and put it into a petunia, and it apparently glows at night. And you're gonna cut in real quick. We did our homework on how this bioluminescence is actually working. So this actually first started taking place back in the nineteen eighties where scientists took the gene from fireflies for luciferase and inserted that into tobacco plants.
Ken Johnson:
And this kinda gave off a faint glow, but the plants needed special food in order to produce this. Kind of the breakthrough here is that they took the genes from a bioluminescent mushroom and put that into the plants, and this allowed them to sustain that reaction, that glowing reaction without the use of special food. And now we'll return to the podcast. I think I said the like, buds new growth glows the most. I mean, you're not it's not gonna be a nightlight or anything like that, but I think it's just kind of a faint glow that they give off now.
Ken Johnson:
So and they are being sold to the public, which you don't normally see with GMO, however you wanna define those crops. A lot of times, those are more commercial. You think about agriculture anyway, signing agreements and all that fun stuff. Yeah.
Emily Swihart:
Yeah. I was reading about it. It's interesting. I don't know how exactly they did it either, but the company you know, the the article that they were using to describe this new plant. It's called firefly petunia, if folks wanna look it up.
Emily Swihart:
Apparently, this company has been working on incorporating some of these luminescent genetics into plants for nearly forty years. You know, they've been working on it trying to to kinda figure out the right equation, how to how to do it. So this is not necessarily new. And then also with, like, GMOs, USDA does rigorous testing. Ken, you said, you know, that they're not always available to the commercial homeowner.
Emily Swihart:
So this one's different. It's been deemed to be little to no risk. So you gonna get one?
Ken Johnson:
I'm working on my wife. So they're they're not cheap.
Emily Swihart:
Right.
Ken Johnson:
And the shipping is rather high too. So Yes. The shipping is what got me, so I'm I'm working on it. So I don't get in too much trouble.
Emily Swihart:
Yeah. Ken, I had a question. I was reading through this, and you have not I did not pre ask you this, so if you don't quite know the answer, you can get back to me, which would be fine. But so the glow at night and the the from what I was reading and understanding, the glow is actually quite a bit brighter than what the original plant source was, the mushrooms. Is there a thought on how that affects insects?
Emily Swihart:
Like, especially, like, you know, nighttime active insects at all?
Ken Johnson:
I'm not sure. I think it probably did a little bit depend on how bright it is. I doubt it's it's bright enough like a light where you'd have too much interruption. I don't I'm not sure.
Chris Enroth:
I I will add. So I did read a paper because I got grilled one time during a presentation about petunias and hybridization and pollinators, and someone said, I never see pollinators on petunias during the day. In their native range in South America, petunias are pollinated by night moths. So I don't know if that plays into a bioluminescent petunia glowing in the dark at night. Will it draw more moths in?
Chris Enroth:
Maybe. So I read that paper because I I wanted to know more, like, how do petunias get pollinated in the wild? Turns out they're night pollinated.
Ken Johnson:
Sounds like an experiment in the making.
Chris Enroth:
That's right. This we'll need some coffee for that one to keep us awake.
Ken Johnson:
Lots of it. I may have to start drinking coffee.
Emily Swihart:
Well I'll just keep going with it through the day.
Chris Enroth:
Mhmm. So still got some right here. Yes. Well, there is another GMO in the news. This one is an edible GMO, and, oh, I I can't remember who who put this in front of me first.
Chris Enroth:
I don't know if it was Ken or Emily. Could have been our colleague Andrew. I'm not sure who put this in front of me. I didn't find it. But one of someone of you guys told me about it.
Chris Enroth:
Can someone tell me about this tomato I've been hearing about?
Emily Swihart:
Well, can I think you introduced it to me yet, so I'm not sure where you found it or if you did find it in your your interweb perusings? But so there's a purple tomato. We have purple skin tomatoes, right? But this one's purple all the way through, and it is such because it's got a snapdragon gene that has been added to the mix through the magic of science. It's not magic, science.
Emily Swihart:
The idea, the researcher who, from what I read, was trying to create more foods that are higher in antioxidants. And so it was developed with the intention of it being able to be consumed, which I think is interesting. And, you know, antioxidants or
Chris Enroth:
or
Emily Swihart:
plants that are purple or have more purple hue to them are higher in flavonoids, which is related to antioxidants. I'm not a food nutrition person, but antioxidants basically help your body fight off, like, free radicals and, you know, different types of ailments. So it can improve health. I think that is the that was the objective, the reason for doing this now.
Chris Enroth:
Yeah. I think that's why they, like with rice, GMO rice, they what they put in their beta carotene to help.
Ken Johnson:
Build build in rice.
Chris Enroth:
Mhmm. Yeah. Build so if if rice in the developing country, if that is the only thing you have access to, it at least has a little bit of that beta carotene to help in the body's development. So I think, yeah, with the similar thing with the snapdragon, which I learned snapdragons, those are edible too. Well, that's fascinating.
Chris Enroth:
I'm gonna have to eat all my snapdragons now. And so the yeah. So when and and I guess people have been asking, well, how do they do this? Well, when the tomato meets a snapdragon and they come together and then you introduce genetic editing using CRISPR, you can take the specific genes out and put it into another organism. So fascinating.
Chris Enroth:
Yeah. Yeah. It's a little bit different from traditional breeding, I will say. And I think there'll probably be people on both sides of the the argument here of to be or not to be.
Ken Johnson:
Yeah. I think to my knowledge, this is the first food crop GMO that is that you as a homeowner or just general public is able to buy. Again, typically, you think about your GMO corn, soybeans, all of that stuff. You know, there's sites for commercial production, and you're you have to sign your life away. We might quite that bad, but you gotta you gotta sign agreements that you're not gonna save seed and, you know, sell sell it and all that stuff.
Ken Johnson:
So with this one, though, you can buy it directly from the company. You are it is restricted to personal use, so you can't sell the fruit. You can't sell the plants. But I do think they say you can save seed
Chris Enroth:
Mhmm.
Ken Johnson:
And stuff. And you can use it to you know, if they breed with other tomatoes, you can use those, but you can't sell them. So it is available to the masses. And I heard about it on on NPR. So just pulling into the office one day, and I had to sit in my car for a little bit until I heard the end of the the segment.
Ken Johnson:
But
Chris Enroth:
Why is Ken sitting in his car for twenty minutes? That's good.
Ken Johnson:
That's and with this one, you know, normally, when we think purple tomatoes, it's the skin that's purple. But this one, the flesh is purple as well. So when you look when you see pictures of it and before people complain, we don't have permission to use pictures, so that's why you're not gonna see a picture. You'll have to get on the was it the missus Google pants?
Chris Enroth:
Mhmm. Missus Google pants. Mhmm.
Ken Johnson:
And so I know tomatoes are a fruit, but it looks like a fruit. You know? It's that color purple color all the way through. Trying to think of what it kinda look like. But
Chris Enroth:
yeah. It's Like a grape?
Emily Swihart:
It's a yeah. I would say it's a cherry tomato. So it's a small you know, it's not a slicer or a paste tomato. It's a cherry tomato. So it's small, but, yeah, it kinda looks like a although grapes purple grapes are green inside.
Emily Swihart:
So
Chris Enroth:
Yeah. Like yeah. The the main thing I think that people are talking about with this particular tomato is tomatoes I mean, well, there's probably thousands of different types of tomatoes. Some look very, very ornamental and pretty, but taste awful. And so I think the flavor is going to determine whether this is something that's going to catch on or not.
Chris Enroth:
I've personally never tasted this particular tomato. I hope to this year. But I I think flavor and taste is going to determine whether this particular purple tomato is just a one off novelty or is gonna maybe become more of a staple in a in a garden.
Ken Johnson:
I was reading some an article somewhere. I don't remember where, but somebody in the comments had said that they had tried some at a conference or a trade show, they said it tasted good, like, than a regular grocery store tomato. So which isn't necessarily a very high bar.
Chris Enroth:
Yeah.
Ken Johnson:
But
Chris Enroth:
Step away from water. Yep. I
Ken Johnson:
was saying I was saying these are cherry tomatoes. They are indeterminate. So if this is something you wanna grow, just keep that in mind. And, these are not these are much more expensive than your typical tomato as well.
Chris Enroth:
I I did order them. Did did either of you order some?
Ken Johnson:
I did. Yeah. Mhmm.
Chris Enroth:
Awesome. We'll
Emily Swihart:
have to report back.
Chris Enroth:
Yes. We will. Well so weird things popping up this year, as I said, in 2024 in the plant world. And I I guess the question is, every year, we have the episode where we talk about what are we growing, and it's always new and different and a lot of times something we've never tried before. So, Emily, I let me ask you.
Chris Enroth:
Do you think there's, like, a benefit to trying new stuff in the garden? Like, why why do we like to do this as gardeners?
Emily Swihart:
I don't think I would be exaggerating if I said I think a % there's a reason to grow new things in the garden. As gardeners so it depends on what your objectives are, of course. But there's, like we just talked about, there's always new things being developed. That's the fun that's the art of horticulture, right, is selection and breeding and the development of all of these new cultivars. And there's just not enough growing seasons, at least I'm not counting on enough growing seasons in my lifetime, to grow everything possible.
Emily Swihart:
So there's always something new to grow and explore, and you never know what is your next favorite thing to grow. So I think today we're gonna be talking primarily about growing new food crops. And so to me, like, it's just you can you can grow such unique things in your landscape if you try to get a branch out. It also challenges you as a gardener, as a grower. Like, today, we'll talk about a few things that none of us have ever grown before.
Emily Swihart:
Who knows how they're gonna turn out? It might be an epic disaster, but there's lessons to be learned, and there's fun to be had in that. We might also find, like, some of our new favorite plants to to grow and eat. Maybe our kids will get some excitement out of it. We all have young children.
Emily Swihart:
You know, it's fun to grow kinda weird things, unexpected things, you know, and and just see what what comes of it throughout the year. And it's a pretty low investment. We're gonna talk about annuals. Like, you don't like it, what are you out? One year?
Emily Swihart:
You know, we're not planting our entire garden to all these crops, so there's you know, it's a pretty low risk for a potential, like, really big reward, a really fun fun outcome. I also you'd asked me this question earlier, you know, about, like, why should we try new things? And there's actually research that suggests that it helps trigger dopamine production in your brain. So, like, happy hormones. Right?
Emily Swihart:
You feel better when you're trying new things. It's a creative act. And so it's hard for me to conceive as to how I could get more joy out of gardening and growing, but let's do it. Let's give it a shot with these new things. And so that's all the reasons why I think, like I said, a % reasons why we should grow and try new things.
Emily Swihart:
You guys I feel like I maybe bullied you into doing this. You do this anyways, but this project, I feel like maybe you were suckered into doing, which I'm glad. Are you okay with it? Are you okay with doing this project?
Ken Johnson:
I am. And if I wasn't, it's too late now.
Emily Swihart:
Absolutely.
Chris Enroth:
It is too late. We are committed.
Emily Swihart:
But you guys do this anyways. You have grown, and we've talked about this in the past. You guys have grown new things every year. You try new things. Like, why do you do it?
Chris Enroth:
I'll I'll say Ken inspired me to do this more and try to include my family in it. And so, Ken, you had described how you, like, give your kids a couple seed mag catalogs, and you say, you know, what are you interested in? Circle something. And so I did that this year, and, of of course, my kids picked, like, the biggest watermelon and the biggest pumpkin. So we're gonna try that.
Chris Enroth:
We'll see how it goes. But it it's something new and different for them and me. And so, Ken, you are my inspiration that really got me down this garden path. So how but I mean, is this something you also did as a as a kid? Were you growing weird stuff in the backyard?
Ken Johnson:
We had a vegetable garden. Don't really remember growing anything weird out of the ordinary. Mhmm. I just like growing weird stuff. Stuff you can't find in the store.
Ken Johnson:
Try new things. I mean, like so we've tried you know, we grew peanuts for a few years. You know, I like growing those, but you don't get enough peanuts off of the plants to really do much. So we've stopped that. But cotton, I don't know how many years we've grown cotton now, but we've grown that every year now because it's a nice ornamental.
Ken Johnson:
And artichokes, we've grown for a couple years now. We'll probably keep growing those every year. So and there's stuff we've grown that we haven't like, peanuts that, you know, we like, but just wasn't worth it or other things that didn't work out. And we're not gonna grow it anymore, but we can say we tried. Now we have a reason for not growing it.
Chris Enroth:
Well, we have been teasing this project now for, oh, fifteen minutes. So maybe we should dive into what exactly we are talking about. So we we we did get together, and Emily had a wonderful idea. You know? What if you know, we're talking about, hey.
Chris Enroth:
Let's let's grow some of these different things in our gardens. And and Emily said, what if we invite you, the listeners and viewers, to come along with us, and we even supply the seed? And so, it started out as the the good growing unofficial official trial. We have rebranded that into the grow along. So we would like you, viewer, listener, to grow along with us.
Chris Enroth:
And we have selected six different crops that at least the varieties, the the names of these different crops, none of us have have ever grown before. Maybe some somewhat maybe, I think, Emily, Ken, you both mentioned you've grown a couple of these. I have not. I've not grown any of these, before. So I am I am excited to try these in my garden.
Chris Enroth:
And, I I guess, you know, we should probably ask why are we doing this? Did I explain why we're doing this? Should you edit this part out, Ken? I don't know.
Ken Johnson:
Why not? Why not?
Chris Enroth:
There you go. Why not?
Emily Swihart:
Well, I guess I'm thankful that you all agreed to go along with this idea because you've the listeners to the podcast and the readers of the blog are are the reason, at least, that I get so excited about work. Right? Like, it's sharing this love, sharing this passion, sharing this experience with people. And so why not takes, like, a bunch of the risk out of it? All we're asking viewers and and listeners to invest in this is a little bit of garden space and a little bit of time.
Emily Swihart:
And then you get to try something new. So, you know, why why not? And and we have six Chris, like you said, we have six things. You don't have to grow all of them. You can choose one of the one of the species to grow along with it.
Emily Swihart:
You can choose all six if you want, but you don't you know, kinda pick and choose and see see what is of interest to you, what you might like to eat. So we didn't really talk about how we came to the six of these species. We were all you know, it was a very cold winter day, I think, when we got together. Like, steam catalogs had arrived, so we all had sparkles in our eyes. And we're looking at all the new the new things and talking about different options.
Emily Swihart:
And so, you know, kinda said, like, let's let's pick things that span, the flavor profile. Right? Different growing conditions. Some are really compact. Some are upright.
Emily Swihart:
Just so that we can make it available to to more people. So anything to add? I mean, we all kind of brainstormed. Right? I don't even know who who brought what to the table, but brainstormed some different ideas.
Ken Johnson:
And one thing so we obviously had all kinds of stuff. We had a big old spreadsheet full of stuff of things we all picked and then and kinda windowed it down. I think one thing to point out is everything that we picked can be direct seeded, so you don't wanna have to have any seed starting capabilities. That's there are some things you need to start early or or start indoors that we kinda got rid of just so that's not a barrier to anybody doing this. These are all Yeah.
Ken Johnson:
Except maybe one. All are gonna be put out after frost, but they can all be direct seeded and get it grow successfully.
Chris Enroth:
So I guess we should probably tell people what we are planning to grow. And, again, these are going to be crops that are primarily these are all edible crops, different. And and as we're narrowing down the field here, I mean, I was really looking at just cool names. And I think this first one
Emily Swihart:
Yeah.
Chris Enroth:
Is who has the best name. So, Ken, could you tell us about the runner bean who the the name of this one is the black knight. So, I mean, this is like our Batman here in the garden.
Ken Johnson:
Yes. I think most people are probably or a lot of people are probably familiar with scarlet runner beans. So that's your I'd say probably your typical runner bean. I just as an aside, going through this and looking at all the different runner bean cultivars are, It's ridiculous. I didn't realize how many there were.
Ken Johnson:
So your your typical scarlet runner bean, you got your bright red flowers, and they have green pods that they produce. And those you can eat those beans those pods kind of as a green bean or let them dry down, and you can use the seeds once they've dried. With black knight, so you still have those nice red scarlet flowers. It's still, you know, runner beans, those are gonna be vining, you're gonna need a little bit of room or a trellis to grow this on. But the seed pods are this really dark purple, almost black color.
Ken Johnson:
So I think you'll get a nice in pictures I've seen, again, we don't have any pictures to show you because we have not grown this particular type of runner bean. But there's a nice contrast with the green leaves. You got the red flowers, and you have these dark purple, almost black seed pods on them. So be good for an ornamental that you can also eat if you so choose.
Chris Enroth:
So our next crop that we decided to grow, I remember bringing this one to the table. So I one of the things I looked for was maybe, like, a one that was noted for good performance all around. So I went to the All American Selection website, and I kinda just perused, you know, the the multiple years of winners on that one. And so I brought to the table an okra plant, and this particular one is called candle fire. It is a hybrid, but it is a a a fairly different type of okra.
Chris Enroth:
Now I'm I'm familiar with okra having, like, ribs and ridges going down the length of the pod. This one is does not have that. It's, like, cylindrical. It's smooth, and they're this bright red. So candle fire, bright red ochre pods.
Chris Enroth:
They also have red stems, and so kind of like that's that black knight being this is a pretty plant. Like, this is an ornamental plant. And now as I'm thinking about all these other crops we picked, they're all really have an ornamental appeal to them. So, I mean, you could put this okra in your front yard probably, and it would look good. And people be like, oh, that's a cool shrub that you got there.
Chris Enroth:
What are the pods hanging off of them? Oh, they're okra. You can eat them. Excellent. So so it is a since it's an AAS winner, all American selection, that means it's been evaluated across The United States, and it has been rated very high on its performance throughout The US, which means this one's probably should do well throughout Illinois.
Chris Enroth:
Again, this is barring any crazy weather that we might have, but, you know, it it should thrive in, like, good our heat our summer heat that we have, does have some decent disease resistance spread into it. And so it's it it it's a very versatile okra plant. So I am excited to use this. And the other thing I noted that okra seeds, I did not realize this, are a coffee substitute, but there's no caffeine in it. So if you want a decaffeinated coffee, harvest your okra, get the seeds out, dry them, and roast them, and grind them up, and you got decaffeinated coffee.
Emily Swihart:
I'll pass. I like my caffeinated coffee. Yeah. Yeah. But that's fun to know.
Emily Swihart:
I'll have to I was excited, Chris, when you brought okra to the table. I've never grown okra, any cultivar. I'm not even sure I've ever eaten okra. And so I'm gonna have to do some recipe searching, and I welcome viewers to share any of their favorite okra recipes. I'm I'm excited about this, and I I thank you for bringing this one to my garden.
Ken Johnson:
Mhmm. Fry it.
Chris Enroth:
It.
Ken Johnson:
I like it personal. I like it plain. Just eat it right off the plant.
Emily Swihart:
Yeah?
Ken Johnson:
Does get may turn some people, but it does get a little kinda snotty. So that's something to keep in mind. So
Emily Swihart:
What do you mean by that?
Ken Johnson:
Well, mucusy.
Emily Swihart:
Okay.
Ken Johnson:
When you when you eat it sometimes. So Okay. Just keep that in mind. If you're eating it raw, if you cook it, it's not. In my experience, when you fry it and stuff, you don't have that anymore.
Chris Enroth:
Okay. Gross. Is that I was trying to think, is that why the Southerners say, you Northerners can't grow okra? Because it gets snotty. But, well, we will find out this year.
Chris Enroth:
Again, candle fire okra, and we I think we probably could pop a picture in of that because All American Selections does allow us to use pictures. So we might pop one in of that here or before. So, Ken, you're driving the boat this week. So yeah.
Ken Johnson:
Randomly popping up.
Chris Enroth:
Here you go. Right now. I think this next one, I I don't remember if it was if it was me or might have even been a joint effort because when we saw the picture of this next crop, we were just like, woah. And and this is one that is a little bit different than all the others. Now, again, they can all be direct seeded, known for growing throughout the summer, but this one, which is a mizuna.
Chris Enroth:
It's called Japanese pink, and mizuna is like kind of an ornamental yeah. Emily has a picture of it right there. Like, ornamental has these bright purple stems and these dark green leaves. So, again, very pretty. But mizuna is more of a cool season type crop.
Chris Enroth:
It's a green, and so it performs better probably in the spring and the fall. Doesn't mean that we can't maybe keep growing this throughout the growing season, but, you know, if you wanted to target probably the the the time of the year when you're gonna get really good flavor, it's more than likely with with, generally speaking, our greens is gonna be during the cool times of year. And so this is it's an Asian green. It's something that you can use raw. It is also something that you can throw into a stir fry, and it holds up.
Chris Enroth:
So I I think what was the description that I read? It's an upscale green. So you have to eat this with your pinky up. This that's just the rule, I guess. It's, you know, one of those rules that you sign when you buy the seed.
Chris Enroth:
But it's it I am excited to grow this one if not for having a a kind of an interesting, kind of, Asian green that I can add to some of my cuisine. This thing just looks so pretty. I I I'm probably gonna maybe try it in some containers and see how it does and and maybe move it around the yard.
Emily Swihart:
It is a brassica. Just wanna you know, while we're trying these, I guess, maybe we haven't made made the comment, which is do pay attention to crop rotation as we're as you're considering joining us for these different crops. So it's a brassicaceae plant. And so where you had broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, all those things last year. Don't plant it there.
Chris Enroth:
And and it's considered frost hardy. So, again, I'm probably I'm probably gonna plant some in the spring, and I might hold some seed back for a fall planting later on this year.
Ken Johnson:
Yeah. And so with with the ones we've talked about so far, you could still I mean, if you've got the capabilities, you could start these indoors and transplant. So you're not No. You're not required to to direct seed them.
Emily Swihart:
Yeah. And I think, Chris, you're right. We did a number of us brought this to the table. I think I did suggest it too, and I just like that it's called Japanese pink because I'm here for anything pink.
Chris Enroth:
Mhmm.
Emily Swihart:
It'll be fun to try.
Chris Enroth:
Malibu pink. Yep. That was my favorite color. Old Barbie.
Emily Swihart:
Going down the list, can I talk about the next one that I also chose because of the name and the way it looks, which is the I'm just gonna give everyone permission to do that? That's fine. Do some research, make sure that it's an okay plant to put in your landscape. But it's fine to go for the plants that are, I think, adorable, is the way I would describe this next one, and the name. So it's an acorn squash.
Emily Swihart:
It's called honey bun, and it is I've grown acorn squash in the past. And so, you know, I I do like acorn squash, so I'm expecting to enjoy eating honey bun. But this one is it's described as striking dumpling squash. So it's smaller in size than your traditional acorn squash, which for me was appealing. I'm about the only one in my family that likes acorn squash.
Emily Swihart:
My family likes other squash varieties, and so having a kind of a personal sized acorn squash was appealing. The outside of it is kind of a dappled, dark green, yellow coloration, which is it's eye catching. It could be ornamental. You know, acorn squash can store for a while, and so you could use it kind of as a fall decoration while you're waiting, you know, for the next meal where you're gonna have acorn squash. It's got some resistance to powdery mildew, intermediate resistance to it, which is which is appealing with, you know, our hot human summers.
Emily Swihart:
That powdery mildew can can sneak up on you with those those squash varieties. And so very excited. Very excited about honey bun. You guys fans of acorn squash, or we're just doing this? Because I like the name and thought it was adorable.
Ken Johnson:
Like smart squash. We're we're more of a we usually do butternut. Mhmm.
Chris Enroth:
I'm also a fan of honey buns, the pastry. It is a pastry after there's I think it's like little Debbie or someone makes honey buns. So, yeah, those are good too. So this should taste just like that.
Emily Swihart:
That did not occur to me. It has been decades since I've had honey buns, and now I'm going back to that time. But maybe it could be a whole meal. Honey buns. Squash, honey buns as your carbohydrate.
Chris Enroth:
Yes.
Emily Swihart:
We'll see. We'll see. Well, I'll finish with my my choices here too. So the next one would be cucumber, lemon cuke. I have grown this one before.
Emily Swihart:
This was not my suggestion. But since I've I have grown it before, I am happy to grow it again because I I liked it. So it's a it's an heirloom cucumber, and it has a lot of different characteristics that are not you would not identify this, I don't think, to the untrained eye as a cucumber based on the fruit. So it's described as you know, it says it's lemon. Well, it's round.
Emily Swihart:
It does have a yellow flesh. It's a thinner flesh. This is what I really like about it, and this is why I actually prefer this to a traditional cucumber. I don't like the the skin, you know, of a regular cucumber. I always peel it off.
Emily Swihart:
I don't I do not care for it. This is a a thinner flesh and it's a milder and sweeter flavor, and so I don't mind eating it. You could eat it like an apple because it's about apple size, and it's it's very it's pleasant. It to me no. I'll save it.
Emily Swihart:
I'll let every I'll I'll save my my comments about the actual flavor
Ken Johnson:
of
Emily Swihart:
it till later. I'll let everybody grow it and try it. But it's also more of a bush variety. And so I when I grew it, I put it on a small trellis. It wasn't this huge vining cucumber.
Emily Swihart:
It was just on, like, a three foot trellis, and that did help create some airflow through help with some management of of disease. Also was they're smaller fruits, and so easy to harvest, kinda ornamental in the garden. You can do that. You don't have to stake it. You can let it grow on the ground if you want.
Emily Swihart:
But yeah. Are you guys have neither one of you have grown lemon? Nope.
Ken Johnson:
Not lemon. Nope. Okay. Be a new one.
Emily Swihart:
Alright. Excellent. I will say too, though, when folks are growing this, one of the mistakes I made is that I thought, like, it it was harder ish to figure out when to harvest it because it just kept getting, like, brighter and brighter. Lighter yellow is better. There's, like, a there's a a sweet spot, and luckily, cucumbers usually produce quite a bit.
Emily Swihart:
And so you can kinda play around with, like, exactly when to harvest it. But it'll turn, like, more, like, golden orange as it as it matures, and then it's it becomes a little less less favorable to eat. Still edible, but kinda loses that some of that sweetness, some of that tenderness that those earlier those lighter yellow fruits would have. So if folks choose to grow it, just don't be afraid to harvest it when it starts turning kinda just like a a lemon colored yellow.
Ken Johnson:
You use it for just fresh?
Emily Swihart:
Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't do any processing with it. Sometimes we would make, like, cucumbers into pickles, but that year, we didn't do any of the we didn't process any any cucumbers.
Emily Swihart:
So I had heard one thing I might try this year with it is to freeze. Do, like, a freezer pickle. I've never done that. So in addition to growing something that's a little unusual, I might try a different preservation method. We'll see.
Emily Swihart:
TBD on that one. But if it goes like most of the cucumbers crops go that I have, I'll have a lot of extras to play around with.
Ken Johnson:
Get the green food coloring out so people aren't confused.
Emily Swihart:
So, Ken, I
Ken Johnson:
Thank you.
Emily Swihart:
Do you have the last one?
Ken Johnson:
I have the last one. So this is one I've never grown before, this this type of plant. So it's southern pea or cow pea, and what are some other names? There's all kinds of different names. Crowder pea, black eyed pea, lubia, neeby, coop, frioli.
Ken Johnson:
There's all kinds of different names you can call these plants. This one specifically is called hog brain, which is pretty much why I picked it because it's a cool name. And reading the, you know, description from the the company, they're not really sure why it was called hog brain. Was it because it was cooked with hog brains to the somehow remind people of hog brains? So not sure why it's hog brain, but that's what it is.
Ken Johnson:
So southern peas, so this is you know, even though they're called peas, they're actually, a bean. So they can be, shelled and eaten fresh, so kinda still immature once those peas or beans get kinda full side before they harden, or you can dry them and use as a as a dried product. They can be roasted like peanuts. Apparently, scorch seeds have been used as a coffee substitute, you can have your cow pea and, okra coffee there. So, and and this is from reading a little bit about more about cow peas, this is kinda one of the first among the first plants domesticated by humans.
Ken Johnson:
So these are native to Africa. So this is these are probably more popular in Southern states. They like a little warmer temperatures. I think this one is has got a short enough growing season at sixty two days. On that sixty two day sixty two days is until you can get harvest those those fresh beans, use them as fresh, and then add couple weeks onto that if you want them dried.
Ken Johnson:
So we still should have plenty of time even if we're direct seeding those in, you know, May or something like that. So excited to try that one. That's that's a new one on the list.
Chris Enroth:
I was I was really all about this one too, Ken. I there's something about trying to grow, beans where they can be dried and stored. I I just see that as as a potentially a valuable food source for for gardeners and and people that wanna try to grow their own food. And so I and I've never grown bean to try to harvest the the beans out of it dried and and and then and then eat those. It's always been green beans for me.
Chris Enroth:
It's like 100% everything I've ever eaten, green beans. All the dried beans are just been stuff I bought at the grocery store. So I'm I'm really excited to try this one. That's why I was really yeah. When you brought this up, I'm like, oh, yeah.
Chris Enroth:
We should really try this because I would my goal is to grow it out to a dried bean state and and preserve it that way.
Ken Johnson:
Yeah. And not just for this one. For us, for our garden at home, basically, any green bean we grow now, we buy a cult or a variety or cultivar that can also be used as a dried bean because inevitably, we don't pick them in time. And that way, we can just let them pick the the dried bean like rattlesnake. I think it's one we've done in the past.
Ken Johnson:
So you can pick it as a green bean or let it dry. So that's that's kinda where we've gone in our home garden so we don't lose stuff.
Emily Swihart:
That's a really good idea because, yeah, those those beans inevitably do get away from I think all of us are busy. We have lots going on. So it it always feels wasteful to me whenever, you know, like, a green bean gets passed, and I get real frustrated. So, yeah, I had not explored this. So same with you, Chris.
Emily Swihart:
Like, I I love the idea of having dried beans grown in the garden. I might do the coffee substitute. I like, we should do that. We should give it a shot.
Chris Enroth:
We can we can try. Mhmm. Yes. So and maybe folks growing at home in our grow along, our good growing grow along would like to try the coffee substitute as well. You don't have to.
Chris Enroth:
But I think it's probably time to say to to let everyone like, first off, ask some questions that people listening or watching might have. Who can do this? So, Emily, who can do this, particular Grow Along?
Emily Swihart:
So we've set up a registration for anyone in the listening area that is Illinois or the surrounding states. So, we do have a limited supply of seeds. This is our first time doing this. We wanted to be responsible with, you know, how much seed we we bought. Like, we're not dedicating our entire gardens to to this.
Emily Swihart:
So in case this is of zero interest to anybody, we didn't wanna have all of the seed left for the three of us. I don't think that'll be the case. I hope we've convinced everybody that there's at least something in here that is fun to grow. So go to our registration website. We'll link that in the show notes, and we'll put it, you know, on the attached to the YouTube video.
Emily Swihart:
It will also be in the email that we send for good growing. If you don't get the email as a part of the good growing suite, I guess. What what do we call this? What I I guess I've never really thought of the the good growing empire. Multiverse.
Ken Johnson:
That's
Emily Swihart:
So we'll put a link in there too. So consider as you're making plans for your garden, think about what and where you wanna incorporate one or more of these these plants. Go to the website. We're going to close the registration on April 1, the end of the day, April 1. That's not an April fool's joke.
Emily Swihart:
That'll be closed April 1, the end of the day. So then we can package and mail all the orders. There's no fee to participate. We'll send these to you in the next couple of weeks. And so you'll get them in plenty of time to to direct seed them in your garden.
Emily Swihart:
You will get an email. We'll send a follow-up email once all the seeds are in the mail so that you know they're coming. You can expect and and watch for those seeds to be delivered, hopefully, in the next couple of days depending on how quickly and how far you are where we're mailing them. And then you plant them. Right?
Emily Swihart:
So the idea is to be interactive. This is an interactive program or or a project that we're doing. Please keep in touch with us. You'll have our email. You should have all of our emails.
Emily Swihart:
You know, send one of us or all of us, you know, a note as to how it's going. There's gonna be a survey that we're going to send that is gonna also give you an opportunity to submit photos. We'll have some questions, some seed questions in there. See what I did there? Because we want to hear back from you.
Emily Swihart:
So we'll check-in. We'll all report back. We're in different kind of areas of the state. I'm the farthest north. We've got Chris and Ken, and we'll we'll kind of all see how it's going.
Emily Swihart:
Good, bad, otherwise, challenges, successes, taste test challenges. We just wanna we kinda wanna know how how this goes for folks. So did I miss anything? It's our first time doing it. So did I miss anything?
Chris Enroth:
I don't think so. Ken, let's reiterate. Who can do this?
Ken Johnson:
Illinois or surrounding slash touching states. Those well, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky. Yep. Debate in Michigan because, technically, borders on Lake Michigan. Mhmm.
Ken Johnson:
Yeah. You're from Michigan.
Chris Enroth:
Why not? And really I mean, I'll just add this little caveat, little footnote here. It depends on how many people sign up, if you're able to get seed or not. We will we will try to get seed to everyone that that does register. If you're not in those surrounding states, send us a note.
Chris Enroth:
I mean, if we don't have an overwhelming I I don't wanna be left with all of the seeds. So at least reach out. And if we do have extra stock, we'll see about sending that out to you. But we just kinda wanted to tie it into the Midwest as best we could. As Emily said, we don't have that much left.
Chris Enroth:
Ken, where do we go where where do people go to register?
Ken Johnson:
So you go to go.illinois.edu/growalong.
Chris Enroth:
Mhmm. And and when does the registration close?
Ken Johnson:
April 1. It's not an April
Chris Enroth:
fools joke. Not not an April fools joke. How much does it cost? $0. Zip.
Chris Enroth:
Zip. Can't argue with that. And when will we mail out the seed? After registration. Yes.
Chris Enroth:
I I'm making gotta make these notes right now. So alright. We have to remember to do all this stuff, guys, now that we've said we're going to. Alright. And we want feedback.
Chris Enroth:
We'll have a survey go out as Emily described. Send us pictures. Say this is gross. Why would any ever eat this? Or say this is the the I'm never going to not grow it.
Chris Enroth:
So we we want to know. Could
Emily Swihart:
we also ask for, if this is a success, if there are fun things you're growing in your garden this year that you think we should try to grow next year? I would be open to suggestions for next year's Grow Along.
Ken Johnson:
Yes. Crowdsource it.
Chris Enroth:
Yep. I like it. Dig it. Okay. Should we close it?
Chris Enroth:
Is it time for the closing portion of the podcast? I think so.
Ken Johnson:
Believe so. Yep. Cue the music.
Chris Enroth:
Here we go. Well, that was a lot of great information about some new things you can try in the garden. So don't forget, go to go.illinois.edu/grow along to grow along with us here at Good Growing this summer. We will mail you the seeds that you need to try something new, try something different. Ah, it's gonna be so much fun.
Chris Enroth:
Well, the Good Growing podcast is a production of University of Illinois Extension, edited this week by Ken Johnson. A special thank you to Emily and Ken. Emily, thank you very much for being here with us to chat about growing unique things and and getting this new project off the ground.
Emily Swihart:
Oh, it's my pleasure. And I thank everybody who's gonna participate. It's gonna be fun to grow along together.
Chris Enroth:
And thank you, Ken. Hanging out with us as always every single week to chat about some of the weird things that we will grow this year. Has this has been a tradition for us every year, so there's another one in the bag for us.
Ken Johnson:
Yes. Yes. Thank you, Emily. Thank you, Chris, for roping me into this. It should be fun.
Ken Johnson:
And everybody who chooses to participate, it'll be fun. It's gonna be awesome. And let's do this again next week.
Chris Enroth:
Oh, we shall do this again next week. It'll be a garden bite episode, so look forward to that. We have a lot more stuff coming down the pipeline for this spring, so we are excited to grow along with you. Don't forget, go.illinois.edu/growalong. That's the registration.
Chris Enroth:
You'll that's the only place you'll find it. So listeners, thank you for doing what you do best and that is listening. Or if you're watching this on YouTube, watching. And as always, keep on growing. Mr.
Chris Enroth:
Zepra.
Ken Johnson:
There's a there's a study on invasive ants in Africa and how they affect the acacia trees because the zebra the acacia ants that live in the trees aren't there. They push them out so that elephants overgraze the acacia trees, which reduces the lion's cover, which means zebras are better able to get away.
Emily Swihart:
Okay. Thank you. And I'd love to read that. What it sounded like was that the ants were, like
Chris Enroth:
What just happened?
Emily Swihart:
Was it very confusing?
Ken Johnson:
Summary. Acacia ants bite the elephants, get in their trunks and bother them.
Emily Swihart:
That's not nice.
Chris Enroth:
Why did you go down this hole, Ken, of ant invasive ants in Africa? What drove you to this? I don't know. Madness. Probably.
