Don't Bother Growing These 9 Crops

We've grown our fair share of plants here at Epic Gardening...and not all of them are worth the effort! The crew gets together to share 3 crops each they feel are NOT worth the time.

00:00 - Intro
00:23 - Jerusalem Artichokes
01:39 - Thorned Blackberries
02:36 - Kiwano
03:51 - Lemon Cucumber
04:59 - Lebanese Squash
06:29 - Edamame
07:39 - Purple Tomato
08:31 - Napa Cabbage
09:56 - Malabar Spinach

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[epicgardening]

Do you agree with our picks? Any veggie or fruit you WON'T ever grow again?

[susanmiller]

Sounds like napa cabbage is the perfect thing to grow. It draws earwigs away from other vegetables, and chickens would love eating cabbage with tasty treats inside.

[rhysfirth]

For the Napa cabbage, grow it in an enclosed run with quail. The quail will eat any earwigs they find. Chickens would also eat the cabbage but quail roaming free amidst the plants will leave the leaves alone while eating the bugs.

[catfunksfabulousfinds]

I planted 10 Zuccini last summer. The price of food has gone way up, so I grew lots of it to give away to help people. I make lots of egg zucchini dishes & tomato zucchini dishes that I learned from my Mom. Every bite reminds me of her and my grown sons say it reminds them of her making it for all of us.
Once I tried this as a kid, I love Zucchini.
Saute zucchini, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, add Italian spices & Parmesan cheese on top.
I've eaten it with no meat or added cooked diced chicken.
Sometimes I serve it over brown or white rice.
It grows really well here in Oregon and doesn't need as much water as tomatoes.
You can also freeze zucchini to add to soups & stews in winter. Yo can also grate 4 cups and freeze it and make zucchini bread later when the garden is all done.
My Mom would bake zucchini bread in hot summer and then freeze it to eat all winter, but I like to do it after the gardening & canning work is all done.

[tangleknotlightstep]

Edamame tip: Soybeans cultivars were bred into maturity groups (MG). You must grow the correct MG for your latitude, or the pant will either be small or get too long and fall over. For an example in Canada they must grow MG's 00 and 0, mid Missouri typically grows MG 3-4, and the deep South will have MG 7 + growing. MG's are based on flower timing in respect to photoperiods. Soybeans are incredibly easy to grow organically, you just need to grow the right ones for your latitude.

[ralphheasty]

I used to have an issue with Earwigs, I built a small ornamental pond and I got Toads to start breeding(long story) the influx of toads into my yard eliminated any visible Earwigs.

[catfunksfabulousfinds]

To me, lemon cucumbers are like eating a memory.
I remember enjoying them with my Dad & Mom.
My Dad always had a big smile on his face when he ate them because he remembered eating them with his parents.

[Colleepoly]

Our traditional family recipe for Jerusalem Artichokes is to peel them, cut into big chunks and then cook them in lemon juice and a few tbsps of olive oil (+ pinch salt) until they become soft (cooked through). Lemon juice helps to break down the complex carbs that make you fart!

Another great thing about this is that as a product of that complex carbs breakdown, the cooked chunks in lemon juice will become sweeter and sweeter with time as more simple sugars develop, so we store it in the fridge and it becomes such a taste-bomb, it's amazing! ^_^

[zeraus.w.]

I think there is a basic rule when growing members of the family Cucurbitaceae for their fruits, if one's issue is high moisture content: let the plants' roots dry out for a week or so before harvesting. Doing this forces the plants to draw their moisture needs from their fruits, resulting in less watery, and more flavorful harvests.

[Metqa]

as far as a pretty purple tomato that also tastes good, look into Indigo Rose tomato. It is a small round tomato, bigger than plum tomato. They are very mild, not acidic and have a wonderful flowery aroma. The sunlight turns the shoulders a deep purple color as it ripens to red in the shaded areas, It's a nice compact bush tomato and was very nice to eat!

[zarroaster]

I always grow a couple of dark tomatoes, I got hooked by Cherokee Purple. Its such an amazing savoury slicer Its the best for sandwiches IMO. This year I found some Black Prince and Im experimenting with that. fruit isn't ripe yet but I'm excited for it. Rule of thumb I've found is that more yellow varieties are usually sweeter whereas darker varieties are typically more savoury. I usually stick to more yellow varieties for cherries such as Yellow Pear and Sun Gold because theyre like candy you can pick right off the vine. I like darker varieties for slicers and I use all of them when I make pico de gaillo. I love having the full spectrum of flavours in my fresh salsa.

[d.c.]

Thank you for bringing Chris to the channel. As someone who also lives near Vancouver its really great to see the gardening perspective of someone in the same climate.

[capnstewy]

Jerusalem Artichokes and Thorned blackberries are mainstays for me. Deer don't eat the blackberries and every Thanksgiving we eat roasted sunchokes. They are like potatoes but nutty, the inulin can be a problem for the unprepared though.

[robinferdinandsen]

I think the jerusalem artichokes are a crop that thrive in colder climates. We grow them here in denmark and we harvest them after the frost has set in and we harvest them over winter from straight in the soil. So maybe they just need the cold weather to "set" for eating. It's an amazing veggie that tastes nutty and does so well in stews and other heavy dishes for cold weather but also pan fried in slices. Thx for another great video

[robyndudley]

For me, it’s peanuts. You need a lot of plants to get any meaning volume. So true about the novelty tomatoes. They look great, but flavor is lacking. And thanks Jacques for inspiring me to try a different summer squash.

[rogadev]

8:00 Crazy. I grew purple cherry tomato's (blueberry tomato was the name, from good earth farms) and I had an INSANE amount of yield. Although it took them longer to grow than other cherry tomato's, they grew an absolutely ridiculous amount of weight. They take longer to ripen and they were a real pain grow from seed with a low strike rate - but that may have been due to me providing them with poor seedling conditions more than anything. When they did get going, they produced easily over 130-150 tomatoes per plant and stood about 6' tall when I finally cut the main vine back. They take an extraordinarily long time to ripen, also. BUT they are also DELICIOUS.

Anyways. I hope that helps someone...

[micheleschielka]

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I love it when you pop up or out of somewhere❣️ super fun! And thank you for all the great info and helping us have access to quality products. 😁

[paulorod]

I absolutely loved this style of video, you three together rock!

[dldarby]

As someone who "succeeded" in growing malabar spinach, let me share my experience. It will stay small, compact, and make you think it's not going to do well. Then you'll wake up, and it'll be like something out of Jumanji! I used a lead line, that led to some hog panels I leaned against the side of the house... Then my house was covered in malabar spinach. The leaves are very thick and mucilaginous, almost like a succulent, but they have a very interesting flavor. Cooked, they wilt down like spinach, but taste way better in my opinion. The berries taste like nothing, but have a ton of pigment, so we used them in tinctures.

[jalepeno]

I live in Bend Oregon (high desert). In my greenhouse, Atomic Grape was one of my best performing tomatoes, looked exactly like the package and tasted amazing. Climate makes such a huge difference