Cleaning Wallo’ Waters
I finally took your advice and bought some Wall-o-Waters this year and planted our tomatoes earlier than the recommended date. Actually I chickened out and only planted them 3 weeks early, but they did so well that I’ll be brave next year and plant them a full six weeks early.
Here’s my question: How do I clean and store these things? Somewhere along the line dirt got inside some of the tubes. I’ve tried hosing them and just can’t get the dirt out of the very bottom corners. How do I get them dry so that no water remains to form mold? Or is that even a problem?
Charlene Nelson
Casselton, North Dakota
Not really. Some of mine are more than 20 years old and sure look cruddy, but perform perfectly. You can swish them around in some detergent/bleach water, which will help, but they won’t look “new” again. Just dry them in the sun for a couple of days, then fold them up and put them in a storage container. I have two large plastic totes for mine, which I keep in the basement. — Jackie
Kale and Swiss chard
My question is about kale and Swiss chard. I just picked 2 grocery sacks full of Swiss chard and kale. Pretty bitter tasting. What is the secret? Should I dehydrate it? My husband thinks I took up garden space to grow this and it tastes terrible. What do you do with yours?
Jacqueline Wieser
Sidney, Nebraska
I’d try to cook up a batch first. Use plenty of water, then throw away the water and taste the greens. They should be much less bitter. I’ve never had bitter tasting chard or kale. Is it very mature? Sometimes mature greens get a little strong; harvest it younger. It will come again after being cut if the first go-round was too strong for your taste. Heat will also cause bitterness. Both crops like cooler weather, so again, the second cuttings might be much better. — Jackie
Our chard has been some bitter at times, which the various recipes took care of. Sometimes tho, there is another ‘taste’ that nothing fixes and I wouldn’t describe it as bitter. It tastes like cotton poison smells. This has happened more than once with chard from raised beds, pots, or regular garden rows.
hello Jackie: I remember growing up on a farm and haying in the summer. My mother and I had to feed the workers my dad hired to help so we cooked all morning it seemed. We made lemonade by the gallon for the workers. Today I would give them water but 55 years ago we didn’t know better. Brings back memories. We raised guernsey cows and my dad milked about 40 cows. Today that would be a small herd but then it was a good sized herd. We had a large barn and filled the 2nd story with hay which after the cows ate it and it went into the manure pile was spread on the fields in the spring. We girls wanted to get gone when they did that cause it had a certain smell to it. I have fond memories of growing up on a farm. My mother still owns the farm and my brothers farm it. My dad passed away in 1998.
WallOWaters: Most of mine are at least as old as Jackie’s – 20 years or so – and the channels are pretty disgusting inside. I used to try to wash them out. A long skinny bottle brush about the diameter of the WallOWater channel works well. Then I got too busy, and they seem to hold up and work just as well dirty as clean although with lots of dirt you won’t get as much light transmission. I dump them out, let them dry a bit in the sun, and fold them up. Yes, there’s a collection of Stuff in the channels the next season. I sure wouldn’t put my hands in the yucky water from those channels. I wear vinyl gloves to fill them.
BTW the best $16 I’ve spent on a garden tool in years is the Fast-fill Nozzle from Lee Valley Tools item AL840. It slides right in the WallOWater channels, and the thumb operated nozzle allows filling a channel and moving to the next one in seconds. My WallOWaters go up in a few minutes with no hassles now.
Bitter kale and Swiss chard: Like Jackie, I’ve never had either get bitter, even when left in the ground for months. I’ve grown Italian kale and rainbow and regular Swiss chard for years. My Swiss chard can have almost a buttery flavor, just steamed and eaten without anything on it. I steam the kale too. I agree with Jackie that it might be caused by heat and/or lack of water, but because of where you live I’d also suggest having your soil and water tested and closely examining the results of the tests. Choose your tests carefully even if it means paying more for them so you get useful information. And your soil survey information is online now and can be queried and printed out. If you haven’t amended your soil with tons of vegetative (not manure based) compost, I’d try that too as well as a green manure cover crop this winter. Don’t let the ground dry out while these crops are growing – mulch both at least 6 inches deep with straw, coconut husks, or whatever else you can get. And if you are using any type of chemical pesticide, try growing the crops without it. A combination of your soil, lack of continuous soil moisture and chemicals may be causing the taste. You can use floating row covers instead for pest control.
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