McClellan Ranch

McClellan Ranch Home page

Overview

The McClellan Ranch Community Gardens are bounded by oak woodland and riparian habitat.  Gardeners have challenges to successfully grow crops.  The alluvial soil is extremely fertile.  However, vagaries in the microclimate occur because of its location at the base of a canyon.  Wildlife abound, especially gophers, squirrels, rats, and rabbits.  Deer are often present in the park but the garden perimeter is fenced to keep them out. 

Our garden plot was surrounded by other garden plots before the realignment of the gardens and the 4H facilities to accommodate a new hiking and biking trail.  The surrounding plots insulated ours from major pest damage.  Now the south and west sides of our plot are bordered by 4H livestock enclosures.  This provides easy access to garden pests which attributed to the 2008 crop failure.

The goal this year was to plant a variety of soy beans (edamame) that local gardeners could grow in their home gardens or in their community garden plots.  We could then have a tasting so the public could determine which varieties suited their specific palate.

McClellan Ranch Home page | Appendix A | Appendix B | Eggplant Photos

Overview

In 2004, members of the University of California Master Gardener McClellan Ranch project team completed a very successful summer vegetable trial in Cupertino that focused on eggplants. Forty different varieties of eggplants from all around the world were grown for the research project. Varieties for the trial were selected to represent the breadth of color, shape, and growth habit available to the home gardener.

Plant characteristics along with pest and disease problems were observed and recorded. In addition, as the eggplants were harvested, elapsed days between seeding and germination and days to maturity of each variety were recorded. The harvest yield in ounces/pounds, number of fruit, and the size of the fruit were also tracked.

A public field day was held in September where people toured the garden and tasted the different varieties of eggplants. The rating sheets from the field day were used to pick the top ten varieties of eggplants based on flavor and texture. When selecting which eggplant varieties to grow, home gardeners can consult these tasting results as well as the plant characteristics and pest and disease information.

Families are invited to join the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and over a dozen other environmental organizations to celebrate nature and wildlife.  There will be live animals, educational presentations, a poster contest and many hands-on activities including nestbox and a bird feeder building.

For "Early Birds," we'll have a guided shoreline walk at the Charleston Slough in Mountain View's Baylands at 8 a.m.  Following the walk, participants will caravan to Wildlife Education Day festivities in Cupertino.  RSVP is required for the walk only.  Please call 408-252-3740 to RSVP or send email to programs@scvas.org.

The Master Gardeners will host a booth with fun hands-on gardening-related activities.

Report

Photos of the bean varieties grown at McClellan Ranch in 2007.

Bean Variety Photos

Introduction

The McClellan Ranch Project is located in the community gardens of the City of Cupertino at McClellan Ranch Park. The team members interface with community gardeners there on a regular basis and discuss any problems presented during work days. The objective of the project is to do trials of vegetables that the local gardeners might be able to grow. At an appropriate time during the growing cycle, the team puts on a tasting of the vegetable(s) of the year and invites the public to the tasting. The team thus provides input to the community to help them with their gardening activities. This year beans were the vegetable of choice and 19 varieties were planted (20 if you count the Kwintus seeds from 2 sources). The public field day was held on August 11, 2007. Flyers announcing the tasting were posted in a variety of locations in Cupertino and Sunnyvale. The weekly papers for Cupertino and Sunnyvale post free announcements of events on a space available basis. Our event was not in the papers this year.

Twenty-one varieties of sweet potatoes were planted which could be grown by the home gardener. Plant characteristics along with pest and disease problems were observed and recorded.
A public field day was held on November 11 when people toured the garden and tasted eight varieties of sweet potatoes. Due to the inclement weather only about 65 – 75 people came to the tasting vs the ~120 who attended in 2005. Rating sheets were available at the field day tasting. These were tabulated and used to pick the top varieties based on flavor and texture. (See the section on Public Tasting Results.) When selecting which sweet potato varieties to grow, home gardeners can consult these tasting results as well as the plant characteristics and pest and disease information.
The public will find that sweet potatoes are easy to grow but require a lot of space for the vines. The soil needs to be properly prepared so that it is friable, providing roots the environment in which to enlarge. To insure that the slips can be planted in late April or early May it would be advisable for people to grow their own slips. However, slips ordered by individual type rather than as an assortment from Sand Hill Preservation might arrive early enough in May for production by/in October. Assortment orders are filled after all of the individual orders have been filled and shipped. Very few states are allowed to ship slips to California.

by Tom Jow and Jean Lee

by Tina Lee

There’s nothing like the sweet smell of a ripe melon that you’ve just pulled from the vine. Melons thrive on warm weather and full sun. However, if you live in an area where the summer temperatures tend to be on the cool side, you’ve probably been disappointed trying to grow the heat-loving melons at home. Many people who live in Cupertino and other cities on the northern end of the peninsula, do not try to grow melons because summer nighttime temperatures can drop into the 50s and result in small 2-3 inch melons that are not very sweet. For the 2000 McClellan Ranch vegetable research trial in Cupertino, the Master Gardeners took on the challenge and proved that using a combination of special varieties and growing techniques can indeed result in a successful melon harvest for cool weather climates.

Melon Varieties

We specifically chose early ripening melon varieties so most of the melons could be harvested after 70-85 days. We also picked varieties that were developed to grow well in difficult cool weather areas such as northern, coastal, or mountain climates. We grew 20 different varieties of melons that belonged to the following categories:

End of Year Report

by Eve Cuny-Hanson

Preparation | Year in photos | Squash varieties

Year in Photos (part 2)

Preparation | End of year project report | Squash varieties

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