19
votes
What is this green-ish thing inside the orange?
Preface: This answer is based solely on the search result. I'm not a gardener and I don't have any gardening knowledge to sufficiently answer this with full certainty.
Looking at the picture, it ...
- 293
18
votes
Accepted
How do cucumbers happen? What does "very poorly pollinated cucumber" mean exactly? How can pollination be "uneven"?
It's not so much the number of ovules that are pollinated, it's WHEN the bees visit that determines successful pollination. This is from the Missouri Botanical Garden:
Weather conditions are key ...
- 17.6k
15
votes
What is this spaceship-like fruit?
Looks like pomegranate, or Punica granatum. Pretty common fruit, you can even find it in the supermarket.
- 13k
14
votes
Accepted
Calorically dense crops that can be grown in southern Ontario, Canada?
"Calorically dense"? Look at fruits. Apples, brambles (raspberry/blackberry), currants, strawberries, blueberries. Pie cherries (sweet will depend on your microclimate, pie are hardier), apricots, ...
- 21.2k
12
votes
Calorically dense crops that can be grown in southern Ontario, Canada?
Are you familiar with John Jeavons? If not, I highly recommend checking him out. I think his "How to Grow More Vegetables" is still the best resource for this type of information. Unfortunately, I can'...
- 9,444
12
votes
Accepted
What is it called when picking the produce the farmers are not collecting?
This activity is called "gleaning". A word you will find in the Bible.
For example, "And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when ...
- 3,639
12
votes
What is this green-ish thing inside the orange?
Definitely looks like something from a sci fi/horror movie! Black areas within oranges are usually caused by a fungal pathogen - it enters most often at the 'navel' end of the orange and then spreads ...
- 131k
11
votes
Accepted
How can I make a single cherry tree bear fruits?
Depending on where you live there could be a compatible cherry near enough that you will get fruit. Fortunately there are good resources out there to find good pollinators for stone fruit. Typically ...
- 5,172
11
votes
Fruit thinning - is that really required?
A picture would be nice. If the trees are young, they may not yet have an extensive enough root system and canopy to support all the fruit so you end up with lots of small fruit rather then larger ...
- 23k
10
votes
Accepted
What vine grows purple grapes which taste like lollipops?
This is the Concord grape, which due to some diligent and patient planting and tasting of wild born vitis riperia vines one was discovered that tastes good for tables and juice and was named Concord. ...
- 6,336
10
votes
Accepted
Why do my Cherry tomatoes split as they ripen?
Small fruiting tomatoes tend to be a lot juicier (that is ratio of meaty pulp to juice) than medium or large fruiting. Tomato produces a skin of a certain size for the number of fruits it has, then as ...
- 19.5k
10
votes
Why do my Cherry tomatoes split as they ripen?
There are two main causes of fruit split - the first is irregular watering. Once tomatoes have fruitlets, and especially as they start to get bigger and ripen, its critical to water sufficiently every ...
- 131k
9
votes
Accepted
What is this round neon-green fruit with a bumpy surface?
Osage orange Maclura pomifera, a.k.a hedge-apple. a.k.a. Bois d'arc and further mangled to bodark. The latter set of names have to do with the wood's suitability for archery bows.
- 21.2k
9
votes
Why is my Orange tree not bearing fruit
They are getting pollinated well enough, you can see the young fruit hips in those pictures. If there wasn't any fruit set, the ovaries would fall of the same time as the flower and you'd see no hips. ...
- 6,336
9
votes
Accepted
What are the best garden uses for 5 gallons of used coffee beans?
We get 30 litres of coffee grounds once a month from the local deli. We're on a list of people who take the stuff to stop it going into landfill. It just goes straight into our compost pile.
Newly ...
- 23k
9
votes
Accepted
Identify clusters of small red and green berries with tripartite leaves
This is Solanum dulcamara, commonly "bittersweet nightshade"*, one of the more deadly weeds one might encounter.
It's a member of the "nightshade" family, Solanaceae. You can see the resemblance in ...
- 515
8
votes
What is this fast growing plant with blue/black berries?
Pokeweed has a particular place in Southern North American ecology and folklife. To me, the methods to prepare it as food sound like detoxification more than cooking.
In France it is probably best ...
- 137
8
votes
What are the easiest and fastest growing eatable plant you can grow in garden
None of those are particularly "fast" examples.
Radish is fast - 3 weeks to harvest for the small types. I don't like it much, but it's fast. You'd need to let some go to seed for seeds.
Since ...
- 21.2k
8
votes
Cleaning homegrown vegetables prior to consumption
Just wash them all in clean tapwater - the hardest are the leafy greens, so the way to do that is immersion in a sink full of water, then picking out the leaves and running them directly under the tap,...
- 131k
8
votes
Is using tomato slices really viable for starting seedlings?
Think of how tomatoes grow "in the wild" fruit drops to the ground, slowly rots, and when conditions are right a new plant emerges. So cut open the fruit and cover it in soil, the results are not ...
- 8,497
8
votes
Fruit thinning - is that really required?
What "full size" IS depends on what you do or don't do (and/or what "June-drop" does or not do for you.) More smaller fruit - don't thin. Less larger fruit - do thin.
From the tree's point of view ...
- 21.2k
8
votes
Fruit thinning - is that really required?
As well as the issue of small-sized fruit, another consequence of letting a tree over-crop by not thinning is that the tree may start a cycle of only producing a good crop once every two years.
...
- 11.3k
8
votes
Accepted
Can I accelerate the ripening of strawberries?
You did exactly what I would have recommended. Very ripe bananas especially. I'd enclose them together with the strawberries in a paper bag, close it off with very little airspace, and keep it at at ...
- 51.6k
8
votes
Calorically dense crops that can be grown in southern Ontario, Canada?
From someone who grows a lot of their own food in a more northern climate, I would say that not only do you want calorie density, but you also need the ability to store long term.
I would personally ...
- 181
8
votes
Accepted
What are these small, round, red berries covered with bumps, on low-growing plants in Upstate New York?
They look like mock strawberries. Duchesnea indica. They are edible (if they are truly mock strawberries), but not as tasty as real strawberries.
- 13k
7
votes
Accepted
Easy trees from common fruit/vegetable seeds
If you find avacado easy, then pretty much anything else will be a cake walk. You can grow pretty much anything you buy in the produce section if it has seeds or a pit.
Pitted fruits have a step you ...
- 6,336
7
votes
Accepted
Why did our frost only affect random plants?
Nothing to do with phosphorus levels - the usual explanation is varying exposure. One plant may shield another from the full effects, one might be further into a frost pocket and is thus more exposed ...
- 131k
7
votes
Desert Fruit - What are good varieties to grow in the desert?
As long as you are willing to water there are many options. Fruit trees that will work: low chill, early ripening apples, peaches, plums, figs, pomegranates, nectarines and apricots and virtually all ...
- 1,057
7
votes
Cleaning homegrown vegetables prior to consumption
If you subscribe to the hygiene hypothesis, then there's no need to wash anything.
If you're not keen on eating insects and eggs, then a good immersion in warm salty water removes insects, and ...
- 23k
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