Gardening Thread- Show me your gardens!

I agree , thought I had them beat, I just found more

 

I sprayed Malathion and Sevin again . Manually pulled off any egg clusters I’ve seen .

 

For the picklers out there, when I put the jars in the hot water bath there are air bubbles coming out from under the bands. Normal, right?

 

sounds right, should be pushing the air out and then when it cools it vacuum seals.

 

Yes, as the water heats the jars the contents expand, pushing out the excess air. Then when you remove them from the canner and they cool, the contents contract again, creating a vacuum, which is what causes the jars to seal.

That's why you have to be careful to make sure there's nothing on the lids or the lips of the jars that can interfere with the seal, and why you have to leave a certain amount of 'headspace' in the jars (and also why you have to process them right-side-up)

 

Thanks, the Ball Jars site says to remove the bands after 24 hours and try to lightly pry up the lids with your fingertips to make sure they sealed. Do you always use new lids?

 

Reuse the rings but always use new lids

 

On the new steel lids, yes. Once you've used them the rubber deforms and you can't always get them to seal again. The rings can be reused until they start getting rusty/corroded, and then you should replace them. As for testing the seal, I just remove the ring (I take them all off for storage) and pick the jar up by the lid. If it hasn't sealed, the lid will come loose. If that happens you can either reprocess it (if it's jam/jelly, etc) or put it into the fridge for fresh eating if it's pickles or something of that nature. You can reprocess pickles, but they'll be mushy.
I also have some of the old wire bail style jars that I use for pickling, and those you can reuse both the lids and the rubber gaskets.
Edit- There's also a brand out there called Tattler that makes reusable plastic lids, but I've tried them and they're a pain to work with (and expensive) .

 

I've never done that when I make pickles but it can't hurt. I usually just verify the lid popped down and doesn't pop back up if I push on it a couple times. If one of them pops up and didn't seal all the way you can just throw it in the fridge for a couple weeks and eat that jar/jars first.

Yes, new lids every time. The sealing ring forms to the jar and won't seal the same a second time.

 

Be good and sure the rims of the jars are spotless before you put lids on

 

Thanks everyone. I didn't see the part about using new lids until after I canned the okra. I sterilized them and they seem to be sealed.

 

So let it marinate a couple of weeks before trying some?

 

Yeah, you want to give it time to soak up the flavor. You could always eat it right away but there wouldn't be much pickling flavor in it. With my pickles and dilly beans I put them in the cupboard and try to forget about them for at least 2 months before I crack open a jar.

 

I have ball jars with no wires. I have never canned before. Is there an additive that I need to add? I plan on canning tomatoes.

 

Are you processing them into sauce, or just canning whole/sliced tomatoes? If you're just storing tomatoes then there's no need to add anything. If you're processing them into sauce and adding things like Garlic, spices, etc. then you may have to add some acid or salt. Or, you can pressure can them and not have to worry about it. For example, one of my sauce recipes is too basic for safe water bath canning, so I pressure can it instead.

These are the wire bail jars I was talking about:



The modern jars are easier and cheaper to work with, and can be used reliably for pressure canning. But, I inherited a bunch of these old jars from my Grandmother, so I still use them for high-acid water bath canning like pickles and dilly beans, because they look nice and are still perfectly functional

 

Any ideas on dyi calcium foliage sprays.
Tomatoes in grow bags are getting some end rot

 

If they sealed good you will be fine.

 

I'm of no help here; I've never done a calcium spray.

 

So I've got a huge bag of green beans ready to turn to Dillys, a 1/2 bushel of cukes scheduled to be picked up from the local farm stand tonight, and about 20 garlic heads set aside to pickle as well.

So I went grocery shopping last night, and here's the state of the vinegar shelf at the local store:



The canning lid and pickling salt supplies were similarly decimated, lol.

Fortunately, I'm a prepper. Here's the current state of my vinegar shelf: