Just Grow Something | Evidence-Based Home Gardening

A jar that seals is a jar that seals, and that's about all it tells you. In this episode, we're taking on four home canning myths that keep circulating in gardening groups, on food blogs, and in family recipe boxes: oven canning, open-kettle canning (and its cousin, flipping jars upside down), packing tomatoes and garlic in oil, and the idea that a salsa recipe can be tweaked however you like as long as it tastes right.

For each one, we'll look at what the research from the National Center for Home Food Preservation and university extension services shows, why these methods fail, and what to do instead so your harvest stays on the pantry shelf and out of the danger zone.

We'll also look at a study that checked 56 salsa canning recipes from food blogs, and what it found might make you rethink where your recipes come from. Let's dig in!

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References and Resources:

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Ensuring Safe Canned Foods: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/general-information/ensuring-safe-canned-foods/

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Equipment and Methods Not Recommended: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/general-information/equipment-and-methods-not-recommended/

National Center for Home Food Preservation — General Information (includes the 1943 history on oven and open-kettle canning): https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/general-information/

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Identifying and Handling Spoiled Canned Food: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/general-information/identifying-and-handling-spoiled-canned-food/

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Tomato Acidification Directions: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/tomato-acidification-directions/

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Freezing Garlic-in-Oil: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/vegetable/freezing-garlic-in-oil/

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Burning Issue: Can I Can My Own Salsa Recipe? (PDF): https://boone.mgcafe.uky.edu/files/nchfp_burning_issue_can_i_can_my_own_salsa_recipe.pdf

D'Sa et al. (2007), Survey of Home Canning Practices and Safety Issues in the U.S.: https://nchfp.uga.edu/papers/2007/canning_survey.html

Nummer et al. (2004), Studies on Safe Acidification of Salsa for Home Boiling Water Canning: https://nchfp.uga.edu/papers/2004/04ift-tomatosalsaPoster_combined.html

Nummer et al. (2011), Current Food Safety Issues of Home-Prepared Vegetables and Herbs Stored in Oil, Food Protection Trends (PDF): https://www.foodprotection.org/files/food-protection-trends/Jun-11-Nummer.pdf

Savoie & Perry (2019), Adherence of Food Blog Salsa Recipes to Home Canning Guidelines, Food Protection Trends: https://www.foodprotection.org/publications/food-protection-trends/archive/2019-09-adherence-of-food-blog-salsa-recipes-to-home-canning-guidelines/

University of Maine Cooperative Extension — The Missing Ingredient: Food Blog Salsa Recipes: https://extension.umaine.edu/food-health/2023/07/20/the-missing-ingredient-adherence-of-food-blog-salsa-recipes-to-home-canning-guidelines/

Penn State Extension — Say No to Oven Canning: https://extension.psu.edu/say-no-to-oven-canning

Penn State Extension — Avoid Open Kettle Canning: Always Process Canned Goods: https://extension.psu.edu/avoid-open-kettle-canning-always-process-canned-goods

Penn State Extension — Caution: Canning with Fats and Oils: https://extension.psu.edu/caution-canning-with-fats-and-oils

Oregon State University Extension Service — Herbs and Vegetables in Oil, SP 50-701: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pub/sp-50-701-herbs-vegetables-oil

Oregon State University Extension Service — Preserving Garlic: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/food/preservation/preserving-garlic

UC Agriculture and Natural Resources — Garlic: Safe Methods to Store, Preserve, and Enjoy, Pub. 8568 (PDF): https://ucanr.edu/sites/default/files/2020-09/335681.pdf

Colorado State University Extension — Botulism, Fact Sheet 9.305: https://extension.colostate.edu/resource/botulism/

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Frost is on the way, and the vines are still loaded with green tomatoes. In this episode, we sort out which green tomatoes will finish ripening on your counter (the mature greens and the blushers) and which ones belong in the skillet, the freezer, or a tested relish recipe.

You'll learn what cold does to a tomato, why a stretch of chilly weather can cost you ripening ability before frost ever shows up, and four ways to ripen fruit indoors, including how to stage a harvest for a steady supply into November.

Then we dig into the canning rule that catches a lot of gardeners off guard. National home-canning guidance says not to can tomatoes from dead or frost-killed vines, and we look at why, what the research does and doesn't show, and what to do with those tomatoes instead.

Grab a notebook and let’s dig in!

Resources and References:

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Colorado State University Extension — Ripening Tomatoes Indoors: https://extension.colostate.edu/resource/ripening-tomatoes-indoors/

University of California, Davis, Postharvest Research and Extension Center (Suslow and Cantwell) — Tomato: Recommendations for Maintaining Postharvest Quality: https://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/produce-facts-sheets/tomato

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach — Can I ripen green tomatoes indoors before frost?: https://yardandgarden.extension.iastate.edu/faq/can-i-ripen-green-tomatoes-indoors-frost

National Center for Home Food Preservation (University of Georgia) — Canning Tomatoes: Introduction: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/how-do-i-can-tomatoes/canning-tomatoes-introduction/

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Resources for Home Preserving Tomatoes: https://nchfp.uga.edu/resources/entry/resources-for-home-preserving-tomatoes

USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, Guide 3 (electronic version by Utah State University Extension, 1995) — Selecting, Preparing, and Canning Tomatoes and Tomato Products: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1600&context=extension_histall

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Freezing Tomatoes: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/vegetable/freezing-tomatoes/

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Freezing Green Tomatoes: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/vegetable/freezing-green-tomatoes/

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Every empty bed in your garden is either growing something for you or growing weeds and losing topsoil. Cover crops are how you make sure it's the first one.

In this episode, we get into why cover crops work in both in-ground beds and raised planters, which ones perform best when you sow them in fall, and which ones are worth a spot in your rotation come spring. We'll look at nitrogen-fixing legumes like crimson clover and hairy vetch, soil-building grasses like winter rye and oats, and fast-growing summer options like buckwheat that can turn a bare bed around in a matter of weeks. Then we'll cover how to actually terminate a cover crop, whether that's mowing, crimping, tarping, or letting winter do the work for you, so it feeds your soil instead of becoming a weed problem of its own.

Let's dig in!

References and Resources:

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University of Maryland Extension — Cover Crops For Gardens: umd.edu/resource/cover-crops-gardens

University of Maryland Extension — Offing Cover Crops for Weed Suppression: Featuring the Roller Crimper and Other Mechanical Contraptions: umd.edu/resource/offing-cover-crops-weed-suppression

University of New Hampshire Extension — Cover Cropping for the Home Garden [fact sheet]: unh.edu/resource/cover-cropping-home-garden-fact-sheet

University of Missouri Integrated Pest Management, Missouri Environment & Garden — Cover Crops Improve Garden Soil: missouri.edu/meg/2014/9/Cover-Crops-Improve-Garden-Soil

Oregon State University Extension — Buckwheat Makes a Good Summer Cover Crop for Gardens: oregonstate.edu/news/buckwheat-makes-good-summer-cover-crop-gardens

Cornell Cooperative Extension Vegetable Program, Cover Crop Guide for NY Growers — Buckwheat as a Summer Cover Crop for Weed Suppression: org/blog/buckwheat-as-a-summer-cover-crop-for-weed-suppression

UF/IFAS Extension Duval County — Cover Crop Termination: What Do I Do When It's Over?: ifas.ufl.edu/duvalco/2025/09/15/cover-crop-termination-what-do-i-do-when-its-over

Purdue University Center for New Crops and Plants Products — Hairy Vetch: purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/vetch.html

USDA Agricultural Research Service — Crimson Clover Cover Crop Fact Sheet (PDF): usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/60100500/FactSheets/FS04e.pdf

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Onions are having a moment in the seed catalogs right now, and a lot of that buzz is about overwintering them, tucking small transplants into the bed in September, letting them sit through the cold, and pulling bigger, earlier bulbs the following June. It sounds like a clear win. But the biology underneath it is more particular than the marketing lets on, and the trade-offs are real.

In this episode, I'm breaking down the day-length science that controls when an onion decides to bulb, the separate cold-exposure trigger that can send it to flower instead, and why those two mechanisms together explain both the promise and the risk of overwintering. I'll walk through the specific varieties that university research has found reliable for this system versus the ones that bolted their way out of a harvest, and I'll lay out the honest cost side of the ledger: a bed occupied for the better part of a year, a real chance of premature flowering if timing or variety selection is off, and whether any of that beats simply direct-seeding or transplanting in spring.

Whether you've got seed garlic already planned for a bed and you're eyeing the space next to it for onions, or you're just trying to figure out which system fits your garden, this episode will give you the research to make that call yourself. Let’s dig in.

References and Resources:

Short Day Onions

• Latitude: ~25°–35° N

• Daylength trigger: 10–12 hours

• Climate: Mild winters (USDA Zone 7+), These are generally planted in fall, mature in late spring.

Intermediate Day Onions

• Latitude: ~32°–42° N

• Daylength trigger: 12–14 hours

• Climate: Central U.S. conditions; planted in spring (or early spring in cooler areas)

Long Day Onions

• Latitude: ~37°–47° N

• Daylength trigger: 14–16 hours

• Climate: Northern latitudes; often sweet, specialty, or long storage types. Planted in fall or spring depending on climate

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Episode 296 — Successions: Never an Empty Bed: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/succession-planting-101-how-to-keep-your-garden-producing-from-spring-through-frost-ep-296

Oregon State University Extension — Winter Vegetable Production on Small Farms and Gardens West of the Cascades (PNW 548): oregonstate.edu/catalog/pnw-548-winter-vegetable-production-small-farms-gardens-west-cascades

University of New Hampshire Extension / NH Agricultural Experiment Station — Research Report: Overwintering Onions, 2014–15 (Becky Sideman et al.): unh.edu/resources/files/Resource005477_Rep7652.pdf

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach — What Is a Long-Day Type Onion Variety?: extension.iastate.edu/faq/what-long-day-type-onion-variety

University of Minnesota Extension — Growing Onions in Home Gardens: umn.edu/vegetables/growing-onions

NC State Extension Publications — Bulb Onions: ces.ncsu.edu/bulb-onions

University of Missouri Extension — Planting, Growing and Harvesting Onions: missouri.edu/news/planting-growing-and-harvesting-onions

Clemson Cooperative Extension, Home & Garden Information Center — Onion, Leek, Shallot & Garlic: clemson.edu/factsheet/onion-leek-shallot-garlic

Oregon State University Extension — Plant Onions Early for Bigger Summer Bulbs: oregonstate.edu/news/plant-onions-early-bigger-summer-bulbs

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It's the middle of summer, and I want you thinking about garlic. Not because it's time to plant, but because if you wait until it's time to plant, the good seed garlic may already be gone!

In this episode, I'm breaking down the real difference between hardneck and softneck garlic: the cold-exposure requirement called vernalization that decides which type will bulb properly in your garden, how clove structure and storage life differ between the two, and how to match your choice to your specific climate.

I'll also cover why garlic bought at the grocery store is a gamble, what certified disease-free seed garlic protects you from, how much seed to order for the bed you're planting, and exactly what to do in your garden bed this month to set yourself up for a strong harvest next summer. Whether you've grown garlic for years or you're planting your first clove this fall, this episode will get your ordering and your bed prep sorted before the window closes.

Let’s dig in!

Episode References:

Episode 302 — Mulch Matchmaking (winter mulch materials and application for newly planted garlic beds): https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/mulch-matchmaking-choosing-the-right-mulch-for-your-vegetable-garden-ep-302

All the garlic episodes: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/search/garlic

Resources:

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension — Garlic Production for the Gardener (Circular 854): caes.uga.edu/publications/C854/garlic-production-for-the-gardener

University of Minnesota Extension — Growing Garlic in Home Gardens: umn.edu/vegetables/growing-garlic

University of Missouri Extension — Fall Is a Good Time to Plant Garlic: missouri.edu/news/fall-is-a-good-time-to-plant-garlic

Lincoln University of Missouri Cooperative Extension — Garlic Production in Missouri: edu/publications/garlic-production-in-missouri.html

Utah State University Extension — How to Grow Garlic in Your Garden: usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/garlic-in-the-garden

Oregon State University Extension — Get Your Garlic On: A Primer on Planting, Growing and Harvesting: oregonstate.edu/news/get-your-garlic-primer-planting-growing-harvesting

Cornell Cooperative Extension, Warren County — Garlic: cce.cornell.edu/gardening-landscape/warren-county-master-gardener-articles/garlic

Penn State Extension — Garlic Production: psu.edu/garlic-production

University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (Contra Costa Master Gardeners) — Garlic, Love It or Leave It: edu/blog/hort-coco-uc-master-gardener-program-contra-costa/article/garlic-love-it-or-leave-it

Just Grow Something: https://justgrowsomething.com
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