iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Never did like cauliflower very much, but this green stem Asian cauli has really converted me, much like sprouting broccoli converted me.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Got to see the sunrise this morning and a full moon moonrise this evening at the beach. Our first vacation in two years has been quite refreshing!

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I think it’s the end of the season when I steam the milk for my morning coffee for the first time since spring. Some cool, slow days ahead as we head to the beach.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Working at dusk because we had another scorcher today. Onions have been sown and will be dug up and transplanted in December. Lots of Vidalia-type sweet onions, but trying a few storage onions too. Love a variety trial 😎

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Reposted by Josh Mayfield

Karre @carrykarre.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Cute little anole hugging a pepper. 🌱🌴🌿🦎

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Sweet potatoes are giving me fits because I’ve been digging up a plant each week in September and didn’t see a single tuber. And now I dig up a couple and see each plant has one or two jumbo tubers 😂 Gonna be hard to sell these! The big one weighs 3.5 lbs. Full harvest next week!

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A lot of 12 hr days this week while we renovate one of our overgrown lots at home, transplant hundreds of radicchio, lettuce, and cabbage, and try to figure out winter squash storage. My yields this year are more than double what they were last year, so it’s a bit of an issue!

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

This guy was just hanging out on my butternuts in storage. Now moved to a nice overgrown area.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Buckwheat being broadcast today as a nurse crop for the winter rye, and as a late pollen source for a friend’s new honeybee hives they caught from August swarms. They apparently don’t have much chance of getting through the winter without abundant late-season food.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Squash yields are insane this year. This is another 900 lbs I picked this week. I’m facing a bit of a storage issue now, better move some wholesale fast!

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Today lady at market saw our shishito peppers and exclaimed “Oh look, they have Shi-toe-shees!” We do laugh at this after they leave.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

🌱I think I’m calling this butternut I’ve bred ‘Honey Badger’. It’s scrappy and delicious! Very high dry matter, so it should be an excellent keeper too.

A butternut sliced in half sitting upright on a table.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Crimped sorghum-sudangrass, about 50 days after planting. Impressive biomass! Hopefully it won’t be too much trouble to plant my garlic and leeks into these beds.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

$5 says this storm evaporates before it reaches the Slater-Marietta farm but still knocks over all my peppers I should have trellised today.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

From a single plant in my mini bell breeding mix, I love the peppers it’s making! The horizontal cracks just look so interesting. Flesh is a full centimeter thick and very sweet. I’m sure there’s zero commercial interest in a pepper like this, but I’m still quite tempted to save these seeds.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Sorghum-sudangrass is 6 ft tall now. Ready for crimping and tarping next week. The plan was to plant my August-sown leeks into these beds, but right now the pill bugs are devouring the 10k or so leek seeds I planted. So who knows what will go in here!

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

First pick complete! 250 lbs today, and probably double that next week.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Some big harvests coming in soon, more than I originally estimated. Market-goers tend to want smaller butternuts, but my hybrid is otherwise about perfect. No losses to vine borer, holding up against the squash bugs, semi-compact growth habit, determinate, zero splitting, and a high yield

Holding a freshly picked butternut in the squash patch

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I follow a lot of farmers from tropical climates to inform my summer cropping practices, even if our summers aren’t that bad. I follow northern growers to inform my winter cropping, tho our winters are usually mild. But extremes are becoming normal, so it’s paying to be prepared.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

🌱 Sweet potatoes flowering, apparently triggered by all the rain we got last week. The plants look lush! You can see how they’re in the same family as Morning Glory.

White and pink sweet potato flowers amongst sea of green leaves.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Interesting, my home state first. SC Dems have skewed toward moderate/establishment politicians in the last few elections - see Clyburn, Harrison, Clinton, Biden. Economy here still ok, much less ICE presence, cost of living still below nat average, so not expecting a true progressive winner.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Dew point of 78F today, might be a new record! This isn’t the hottest weather we’ve had, but it feels the worst.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

🌱 I have a love/hate relationship with okra. Love to grow it and eat it, hate the time-consuming daily harvests this time of year.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Also, tomatoes are either overpriced, or the only summer crop that’s fairly priced. Because our local grocer is offering us $4/lb for tomatoes, and $2/lb for peppers that are arguably harder to grow and much more labor to harvest. How do you even pay fair wages if you’re only getting $2/lb??

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Signup is open for our CSA. If you’re local to Greenville, SC and interested, just comment and I’ll get you all the info!

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

🌱🌶️ Mini bell breeding update: huge harvests this week. Plants look good after a foliar feed. A little BLS and wilt showing up, but less than my other varieties. I think I really have a winner here!

A pepper plant loaded with ripe bell peppers.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

First cauli I’ve every grown! You’ll notice the long green stems - this is an Asian type, almost a sprouting cauli. I did a bit of a stress test, growing them during the hottest weather of the year, and they performed admirably. The broccoli next to them is completely rotted.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

My 5 yr old Phoebe was telling Christiana that Queen Elsa has a very calm voice. To which Christiana replied, “Yes, but she’s also very powerful.” And Phoebe said, “Yeah, being powerful is a lot like being calm.” Whose kid is this???

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

You guessed it! Near Greenville, South Carolina, in the foothills of the Appalachians. Same latitude as Kyoto and Cyprus. Warm and quite humid climate. Summer highs average 30-37C, winter lows average 0C but drop as low as -12C pretty regularly. We average 48" of rain yearly.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Just to explain a bit what you’re seeing, the mulch on the ground is crimson clover and goldenrod. Goldenrod is a perennial, so I have to tarp it for 8+ weeks to terminate. Good tarp management the first year almost eliminates weed pressure the following year.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I shelled 12oz of fresh Whippoorwill southern peas (cowpeas) today. So-called because they look just like Whippoorwill eggs when dry. I’m convinced they’re the most savory legume there is. I planted 50 feet of them, so lots more coming in that I’ll probably dry.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Tarps coming off the pumpkin patch. I had time to get four 100' beds in the ground, so double last year. Hoping for 1500+ lbs if they yield as well as last year.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

My trial of direct seeding leeks for transplanting worked out alright. I did lose a lot of seedlings to heat and army worms though. Still, I think this is much easier to scale than starting them in trays. Only change I would make next year is to seed them a month earlier to avoid some of the losses.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

My most right-wing take is still that drinking raw milk is fine, provided it’s legal and tested at regular intervals. Federal legalization and required testing would make it safer. Probably safer than iceberg lettuce.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Last farm update today: The second succession of tomato harvests have begun. These were completely dry farmed… because I forgot to put irrigation lines on them. Also never fertilized for the same reason! Still loaded with crack-free fruit, so I’m attributing their health to good ol cover crops!

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

First butternut harvest about 3 weeks out, may push it to 4 so I don’t trample them too many times. Determinate squash that only need 2-3 harvests are necessary at this scale. This hybrid I made last year is productive! Definitely growing lots of the F2 gen next year if it’s equally delish.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

No-till sweet potatoes looking incredibly healthy, crimped buckwheat going to seed 😡, and a first for us – shade cloth! Using this for fall brassicas and root veg

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Leeks and red bunching onions sown today. A few weeks earlier than last year, so they should size up a little better. Still, it’s pretty rough keeping keeping seedlings alive in this heat. Next year I’ll try to sow most of them in March, and a smaller amount in August for late spring harvests.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Here are agriculture my hot takes: - Organic ≠ regenerative - Michelin Guide is dumb - Lettuce is overpriced - Alliums are underpriced - Tomatoes don’t need a lot of fertilizer - Woodchips won’t leach nitrogen from your soil

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Well it turns out that Valencia, the one OP onion I overwintered, has produced nicer looking bulbs than all the hybrids. These actually have a couple layers of good skins, and look like they’ll store a few months. Might grow them again in a couple years, the seed is so affordable compared to hybrids

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Last year I grew a 150 bed feet mostly heirloom tomatoes. We made $1,341 entirely from market sales. This year I have a 100 ft bed of determinate tomatoes (still going for heirloom flavor) that I’ll probably harvest $1,700 from, a mix of market and wholesale. Conclusions: 👇🏼

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

@maaronweber.bsky.social since I’m not as up on cars as I used to be and my brother is asking, would you recommend a 2021 Model 3, a new Civic hybrid, or a new Prius plug-in.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Edamame (soya, soybean) harvest is coming in now! I grew enough to sell at market this year, so it’ll be interesting to see if there’s any demand for it. I think this is my favorite legume to grow.

Soybeans in their pods, still on the stems.

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Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Talking about some of the winter squash I’m growing this year. No inputs besides the inch of compost these beds got last fall to help the cover crop grow. I’ll do more videos of the pumpkins and squash breeding work in August.

youtu.be

2026 Winter Squash Patches

YouTube video by Joshua Mayfield

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