Applestar’s 2024 Garden

[applestar]

Harvest pics for the past week.

• Harvested all of the squashes from the Haybale Row elevated trellis
• All of a sudden the saffron crocuses bloomed. It’s critical to catch them in bloom because the blossoms last for only a day or two at most and the precious red stamens will wilt and become unusable. I’ve learned to harvest entire blossoms and separate them in comfort inside.

• Harvested first of the Cheong Du mini daikon from the VGA tunnel
• I’m shaking the branches and harvesting Trifoliate Orange ‘Flying Dragon’ fruits that fall to the ground. Time for another recipe that will let me use up quantities although I’ve been using them here and there to marinate meat, add to tea, salad dressing, tuna salad, etc.

[applestar]

Last couple of days have been crazy busy since there were frost warnings on the last two mornings.

I had been trying to cover up in-ground crops that needed to be protected and harvesting what needed to be harvested, as well as cleaning up in the house for the Great Fall Migration of container plants, protecting the container plants themselves by moving them to the sheltered brick patio and covering them, and finally moving them all in.

DD2 helped me with the bulk of the heavy work moving the plants to the patio and into the house.

At one point I heard a stifled scream by the picnic table, and when I rushed over, she pointed to a garter snake that she said had been wrapped around a terracotta pot she was about to pick up. It had jumped into the white water reservoir and initially all I could see of it was a tiny head the size of my thumb.

She SAID it was about half the length of the one she had seen before in the garden. I’m looking at the head and thinking “Oh it’s tiny maybe a foot long?”

We were discussing how I was happy to see it because I hadn’t seen the snake(s) since earlier in spring. And she was saying she’d only screamed because it startled her, and she thought they had startled each other — she’d scared it back and made it jump into the water like that.

Well, when it came out via a couple of branches I put in the bucket to help it, it turned out to be around 20~24” I was doubly impressed by her non-chalance. You should see my phone — DD1 also came outside and thought it was “cute”. They were fascinated and took many MANY pictures.

[pepperhead212]

I wish I had snakes here!

[imafan26]

Well, that was exciting. There aren't supposed to be any snakes here. It must be tiring having to run and cover and uncover things every couple of days. I am glad I don't have to do that. I am having trouble just keeping up with the watering now.

[applestar]

And here’s another Garden Patrol — the wheelbug I put in the Sunflower Hoophouse has been making its rounds

[applestar]

OK, giving another try at baking a sourdough boule (result will be posted in the bread thread later ).

It’s been in the linen-lined basket for about 8 hrs now. I’ll see if it’s ready or need more time.

…

I’ll probably be less “present” today. Got my COVID jab yesterday, and I’m at the “jab shoulder is achy, can’t raise arm” stage.

Plus I already had old rotator cuff injury acting up on the other shoulder (that I normally get my jab in) … because of my bursitis hip which makes it impossible to sleep on that side (side sleeper here). But the jab tech said it’s better to avoid aggravating existing pain so get the jab in the other shoulder.

…with result that I got about 3-1/2 hrs actual sleep and 3 more hours suffering on my back. Haha.

I’ll probably curl back in bed after the bread is baked, and just take it easy for the day.

In addition to strengthened COVID policing, I’m hoping for the side benefit of improved — less easily overwhelmed — allergy/sensitivities reactions once the vaccine is fully assimilated, like the previous times

[applestar]

I got a little confused— so your doc and you two did or don’t get the COVID jab? Why would you have the lung sounds if you didn’t (if the jab side effect might cause that)? …or are you saying you still have lingering effects from previous COVID infection like Long COVID? You had it once or twice before right?

(Hmmm I might pull these discussions out of my garden progress thread and put it in COVID prep thread or maybe a new thread over in the COVID su forum if we have lots of info to share… We’ll see.)

My breathing is fine today — no shortness of breath etc. but I’ll try listening with stethoscope if lungs seem affected and listen for any sounds.

Shoulder is still a little sore but am running low grade fever and am mostly staying in bed. But that’s pretty normal for me day after vaccinating.

I figure that’s means it’s working and my immune system has been activated to generate those markers (“wanted posters” or “APB’s”) and beefing up the responding cleanup crew cells.

…My mom’s LTC facility had COVID vaccination clinic last Thursday, and I saw her yesterday. She said she’s feeling fine — just a little sore and tired Fri and Sat, …and her usual complains that she tells me every time

[Gary350]

I got a little confused— so your doc and you two did or don’t get the COVID jab? Why would you have the lung sounds if you didn’t (if the jab side effect might cause that)? …or are you saying you still have lingering effects from previous COVID infection like Long COVID? You had it once or twice before right?

(Hmmm I might pull these discussions out of my garden progress thread and put it in COVID prep thread or maybe a new thread over in the COVID su forum if we have lots of info to share… We’ll see.)

My breathing is fine today — no shortness of breath etc. but I’ll try listening with stethoscope if lungs seem affected and listen for any sounds.

Shoulder is still a little sore but am running low grade fever and am mostly staying in bed. But that’s pretty normal for me day after vaccinating.

I figure that’s means it’s working and my immune system has been activated to generate those markers (“wanted posters” or “APB’s”) and beefing up the responding cleanup crew cells.

…My mom’s LTC facility has COVID vaccination clinic last Thursday, and I saw her yesterday. She said she’s feeling fine — just a little sore and tired Fri and Sat, …and her usual complains that she tells me every time

Wife and I both got Moderna shots & boosters I think my paper shows 5 times. Last weekend of March 2023 we both had what we thought was stomach virus diarrhea for 3 days and felt terrible and took 2 weeks to feel good again. Doctor said, because you had covid shots and booster that does not mean you can not catch covid, you can still catch a mild cast of it, the shots will prevent you from having a very bad case of covid. It is possible what we though was stomach virus was really covid. Covid virus attacks the lungs. Before we had the stomach virus our lungs never made rattle sounds like a bag of potato chips. Our doctor said she now has rattle sounds in her lungs, she is not taking anymore covid shots until she learns more about lung damage and advises us to wait on getting more covid shots. We both had lung X-rays plus MRI with dye injections in the blood vains. Then we went to lung doctor and blood doctor & more test. After 3 more visits to doctor every 6 months we still have rattle sounds in our lungs. That is how we learned people with rattle sounds in there lungs had covid even if it was a very mild case that did not make them sick. I saw my doctor last Wed another 6 month check up I still have rattle sounds in my lungs. Wife has a 6 month check up soon.

I almost forgot to mention 1 year ago I had 1 small blood clot in my right lung covid is known to cause blood clots in the lungs. People that took the shots could have, 10, 30, 50, blood clots in there lungs. People that do not get shots might get 5000 blood clots and die. I took blood thinner meds for 2 months my blood clot is gone now.

Another thing. My 72 year old cousin got sick Friday March 1, 2024, Sunday ambulance took him to the hospital he could not stop coughing, Tue morning 9 am he died, Doctor said, died of septic pneumonia. Ott topsy said, died of covid. My guess is he never got the covid shots.

[applestar]

I’m so sore and hurting all over but it’s because I’ve been feeling better and have been overdoing things.

Wednesday, I felt so good I washed both our vehicles — full size SUV and 4-D crew cab full bed pick up. Yeah, I crashed after….

Been doing a lot of cooking and baking. I posted about some of them elsewhere.

There’s a freeze warning for tomorrow morning and forecast of 31°F, so I’m prepping for 28°F and harvested practically everything and extra-covered where needed. Moved all the pepper plants I want to try to save in the house or in the Patio Hoophouse….etc.

Couldn’t quite bring myself to cut that big squash off, so I put it in a Whole Foods grocery bag to hopefully protect the fruit but I expect the leaves/vine to die from the overnight freeze. (I might still end up going out there in the dark to bring the squash in…. ). I also left the one in the tree out there.

Bottom right two photos are the two major container groups in the Cool Gang area and the Green Room. Looking forward to those already colored kumquats and more green ones on the branches. The coffees have some green cherries on them but between the heat and drought, they didn’t do well this summer.

Also, we’ve been hearing high pitched squeaks from the Green Room. I don’t see how and can’t spot it, but we may have brought a grey treefrog in with the plants.

[applestar]

Took another pic of the squash collection — have used several already (eating the green ones first including mini kabocha which should be eaten between 1~2 months after harvest).

Two more to be harvested out in the garden — one is “in the tree” and the other I think will be the biggest (even bigger than the one in the foreground)

…BTW the chair is from my parents’ dining room set in their house, which had been used as guest chair in my Dad’s memory care room during his stay at the LTC….

[applestar]

Harvested the last two squashes because I got tired of the crazy rollercoaster weather. It’s forecast to freeze again, and then jump to over 80°F on Wednesday.

— I don’t want to let the fruits be damaged and lose their ability to store until spring.

The “biggest one” — a Greek Sweet Red that crawled out of the Rain Garden Rice Paddy area WAS biggest. I weighed it — exactly 3700.0g (8.157 Lbs)

I’ve extra-covered the interior of the Sunflower Hoophouse again, and harvested more lettuce, a couple of mini daikons (Bora King and Cheong Du), etc.

Earlier in the week, I found another cutworm that targets center-rosette growth point of napa along with a big slug in an extra mini napa I had planted near the entry door.

Just before the big freeze last Sunday, I put a big clear bag over the ONLY White Marseilles fig to set on my tree because it was still hard. I took the bag off during the week, and had visibly grown larger and softened to touch. Yay! I’ll give it a couple of days to fully ripen in the kitchen and fridge. Hopefully there will be more next year.

[Gary350]

How did your corn do that you grew in the tunnel? You must have a tall tunnel or short corn.

[applestar]

…?… Not sure what you are referring to @Gary350 — no corn in recent posts.

…

Here are a couple of photo gallery screen shot collages —

• Container peppers in Patio Hoophouse still waiting to be brought inside for the winter

• Last tomato to be valiantly producing in a container on the patio.

• I don’t remember what this ornamental little bush is called, but they produced big batch of berries that the birds are enjoying right now.
• Broccoli and cabbage in the Sunflower Hoophouse

[applestar]

I planted 20 biggest cloves of garlic from this year’s harvest today, after 10 minute sterilization soak and overnight fertilizer soak, per instructions from Keene Garlic where the original planting cloves were obtained last year.

It seems so late, but solid freeze is still not in the forecast.

I’m trying to get at least some of the framework finished for that Recycled Bottle Shed project from couple of years ago that had been back-burnered.

Big harvest today was 4 turnips and lovely full bunches of turnip greens from inside the Sunflower Hoophouse. The Wheelbug was still in there — on the inside screen mesh of the back gable.

I had to add water to my little pond — it’s been so dry that water level was down by about 1 foot. It needs to be cleaned if I can manage it. I did see many tadpoles that got stirred up by the influx of water. They make it hard to scoop out stuff. I’ll have to figure something out.

[applestar]

[…] The forecast changed and now, we’re looking at overnight mid-20’s Wed morning and Thurs morning. — This calls for draining garden hoses and putting away clay pots, all vulnerable plants need to come inside or super-protected…. Wish me luck!

They keep changing the forecast so not sure what to expect overnight — my guess worst case 24°F ~ better case 27°F…. Everything should come through OK if no lower than 28°F.

Hope I won’t regret not harvesting more of these beautiful lettuces

Added another layer over the VGA, VGB, and Spiral Garden daikon beds; and secured the covers over the VGA lettuce bed more closely. NO additional protection for the little square patch in the Spiral Garden

[imafan26]

The lettuce looks great. Lots of work at the end of your season.

[applestar]

Considering if I don’t cover/protect them, they’d fall victim to these couple of days of mid~upper 20’s°F only for the temps to warm up again for a couple of weeks, plus the unusually warm albeit dry weather we’ve had this year, making extra efforts to extend the season like this have been very rewarding. The last of the tomatoes finally died from the recent freeze/frost temps, and I cleaned up the remains.

I’m also loving the quality of the fall lettuces. Even earlier with just the insect mesh, as well as more recently with the non-woven fabric, the lettuces have remained very clean with hardly any aphids, only a little slug damage quickly controlled with bait (and the extraordinarily dry conditions), and the leaves have remained tender with no frost or wind burn.

I hadn’t gone out in a couple of days but did harvest some more lettuce today

[applestar]

My Winter Indoor Garden is starting to assemble as some container fruits and veg’s have been brought inside to overwinter, and others are waiting out in the Patio Hoophouse for more space to be cleared inside.

• A couple of lettuces transplanted in clay pots.
• White sweet potato from Whole Foods (organic) began to sprout so I cut the end off and tried growing it in somewhat dry potting mix, increasing soil moisture and removing the clear cup I had over it to maintain humidity once roots started to grow into the potting mix. One piece that broke off is also growing on moistened paper towel.

Whole Foods had variety ID in the on-line description: Hannah — trying to find the DTM for this, but I did find a gardening youtuber in Wisconsin who posted with good harvest (growing in black plastic-covered raised bed), so I hope to keep the vines alive over the winter and grow some next season.

• Meiwa Kumquat and a couple of 3 or 4 year old date palms grown from seeds saved and planted from dried dates. (The leaves have finally started to split from the fishtailed single frond to the feathered palm fronds this summer.)
• One of my “token” Winter Indoor Tomato — next generation of Faelan’s First Snow X … a variegated micro dwarf with saladette sized great tasting purple fruits that was growing in VGC this summer. (Only 1 out of 4 seedlings expressed the microdwarf and variegated traits).
• Peppers in the Patio Hoophouse

[applestar]

November harvest collage to date (some have been posted previously):

Fall garden images:

[applestar]

Here’s the forecast for the next week in my area

— this is more like mid October/early November temperatures… and with those protective low tunnels, the leafy greens are looking very healthy in spite of the several sun-freezing temps in the 20’s we’d had already.

I think the overall average temps have gotten too low and doubt the daikon and turnip roots will fatten up much more, and whether the cabbages that are about halfway to forming heads will fill out completely is kind of tenuous— especially with the lower sun angle and expanded long shadows limiting sun exposure needed for photosynthesis, so I’m going to harvest them every couple of days until deep feeeze threatens and they all need to come in to keep from getting ruined.

Those rainy days should help but I have to watch out that they don’t suffer from being waterlogged.

The two mini daikon I harvested yesterday were covered in aphids so I need to get rid of them from others — this is another reason late season root crops fail.

[applestar]

Today, I was prepping for the coming ”killing” freeze …

Technically I have one more day, but I needed to reassess and decide what I wanted to protect most, and what I can risk and be willing to let go if they don’t survive.

I need to finalize tomorrow and then hunker down with ones that I hope to get through this week.

[applestar]

Some pictures from last couple of days —

…you think they’re bundled up enough?

[applestar]

Official low was 28°F this morning, but it went down to 26°F here.

The 3 experimental lettuce that weren’t covered at all in VGD were frozen solid, and lightly protected group in Spiral Garden showed some freeze damage.

Ones in the Spiral Garden under tulle + vented poly + floating fabric + wind break greenhouse plastic on the north side were completely undamaged, and I also found a good sized broccoli hiding.

I got nervous and harvested most of these lettuces.

BUT, I left the VGA lettuce in place, adding scraps of floating fabric directly on the leaves under their insect mesh + floating cover + incompletely covered greenhouse poly.

I also directly laid floating fabric over the paper mulched VGC garlic bed (That should be plenty for them — I wanted to do raked fallen leaves but I didn’t have the time nor the energy)… and then covered with floating fabric over a wire supported low tunnels.

2nd half of VGC is the taller tunnels with peppers, eggplant, celery and one last Pixie Baby cabbage. I harvested the tiny head of cabbage and a few celery stalks, but didn’t do anything else. I don’t expect anything except celery to survive though….


VGB daikon, radish, and asian greens were all harvested, and I covered what’s left — two short rows of immature carrots.

The unprotected broccoli in the Spiral Garden had stunted purpling leaves and some had tiny heads. So I harvested any that were edible size.

Turmeric pot had been going dormant on the patio, covered with an old nylon shower curtain, but it was brought inside so the tubers won’t freeze. It will sit in some dark corner, and I can harvest as needed from the pots through the winter.

Last of the peppers in the Patio Hoophouse were harvested, and I covered the container plants with the shower curtain that was removed from the turmeric. I didn’t have the space for them in the house (and ran out of energy to do anything else) so I’ll only save them if they manage to survive the low 20°s freeze.

[applestar]

Just copying this here to review and comment re: garden and setup, prospects for survival, additional fall/winter tasks, etc.

4 temp/humidity sensors recorded at 7AM ::

— NE side of the house
• Spiral Garden (out in open ~3ft Ht.) 18.2°F/91.9%RH
• Sunflower Hoophouse (inside ~2ft Ht. above floating fabric covered plants) 21.2°F/95.2%RH

— SE patio
• KGP Hoophouse
(inside ~3ft Ht. under old nylon shower curtain over plants on glass patio table) 29.0°F/95.7%RH

— SW Vegetable Gardenbeds
• VGA lettuce bed (~ 1ft Ht under protective covers) 23.0°F/82.9%RH

[applestar]

Winter Indoor isn’t the best time to grow variegated tomatoes because you really want to start a bunch of seedlings and then select the ones that express the best variegation…. But I couldn’t help trial growing one of my Faelan’s First Snow X (FFSX) microdwarf segregates.

Luck of the draw, and this one is only expressing variegation on three leaves so far, but the sturdy dwarf form and the very close microdwarf internodes are excellent anticipated traits . I’m hoping to see more variegated leaves develop on secondary/sucker growths.

This is from the large purple fruited segregate line. I’m not going to be able to grow it in a big container due to limited space, and I just uppotted to a 1/2 gallon, but it will be interesting to see what kind of fruit type it will manage to grow.

[applestar]

This is the season for slow, LOW temperature culturing that takes a while but avoids or minimizes unwanted contamination by more vigorous fungal and bacterial microbes that prefer higher temperatures that can ruin the collected resources. There are also less animals and birds, bugs, etc. to worry about and guard against.

The downside is I have to do this indoors, and more often INSIDE the house since the outside temperatures are in or near deep freeze levels and too low for culturing anything at all.

I’m having fun experimenting and don’t mind some of the odors as long as the fermentation is progressing as expected, but I have to give up if my family complains….

Today, I looked up how to culture used oil and strained bits from deep frying — recently, I made croquettes, breaded squash, funnel cake, and puffed shrimp chips.

It turns out only additional ingredients needed are equal amounts by weight of rice bran and soil. I don’t have raw rice bran, but am going to try with the small bag of heat treated one I have, and also separately with rice bran based horse feed pellets, which works well for making bokashi.

In case the mixtures don’t contain enough live rice bran microbes to actively culture (should be able to tell if they don’t generate heat), I’m thinking of coffee-filtering rice rinse water which I make liquid cultured rice bran fertilizer with, to collect some amount of rice bran to inoculate with.

This will basically take all winter, but if successful, will result in organic nitrogen fertilizer to use in spring. The finished product is diluted in water to culture into liquid feed, then is used diluted by x100, only a small amount is needed.

[imafan26]

Considering how hard it is to get fertilizer here. I should beef up my vermicompost too.

[applestar]

Yep. They’d happy in your temperatures right now.

[applestar]

I checked on the lettuces, etc. in the Vegetable Gardenbeds today. The ones under cover in VGA were doing really well, and I harvested a nice big bowlful for salad.

The three experimental uncovered lettuces in VGD we’re not looking so good, and the little beets and carrots in VG.SIP were looking wilted. The potting mix was frozen solid.

[imafan26]

I have cats, so I don't grow anything indoors. I tried starting seeds, but I was really bad at it and I would forget it and I usually keep the blinds closed so it does not get enough light. it is easier for me to start plants on a shade bench. This cat does not bother plants the way my other cat did. I can leave and orchid seedling in the pot on the table overnight and he won't bother it. But it is the reason why I only have living Christmas trees that stay outside the window. I used to grow black pines for Christmas trees but after about 3 years they get too big to lift. So now, I just pick something I have in a pot already and designate it as the Christmas tree.

[applestar]

I have some of my lemons and limes, as well as a coffee and aloe vera here in the upstairs Yellow Room window.

It’s difficult to find a good resource/reference for my climate where these fruit trees are not winter hardy outdoors, and appropriate microclimate indoors is not always obvious.

These are also my seed-grown hobby projects, so their fruiting-readiness is uncertain and they’ve been stunted over the years in their small containers and/or underfed…. And they have yet to fruit, let alone bloom — I think at least ONE of the lemons did try blooming a couple of years ago … (except for the coffee — it has in fact a couple …only a couple… of green cherries that it has been holding on to since September or October.)

I’m trying to follow tips from a Japanese fruit tree nursery who grows blueberries and figs and in recent years lemons and I think tangerines or mandarins in Niigata Prefecture, where the temperatures are similar (but they get snow like in New England and other northern states). Recently, he stated that lemon leaves will yellow in winter in the greenhouse, which is normal, but if you let them do that, it takes a long time for them to recover in the cooler spring of the north, so he’s found that it’s better, despite ALL the advice to the contrary, to continue to feed them through winter and remediate as soon as you see any sign of yellowing…. He also said keeping them pot bound is the KEY to getting them to fruit.

I have to review fall-winter pruning. Last video I watched from a southern (like Florida) climate citrus grower was to cut off ALL angular summer-fall growths back to rounded branches… but another video from a different channel showed the fruit growing orchardist keeping ALL branches, even ones with tattered leaves full of holes eaten by swallowtail caterpillars, until spring pruning time. He said the trees need all the leaves for photosynthesis, and the tattered leaves provide indicators for which season they developed in for deciding which branches to prune. He was from an extreme south prefecture though….

In the mean time, I’m constantly battling mealybugs. This winter, I’m going to be proactive and demolish the pests myself.


…my bigger containers of coffee, citruses, avocado, etc. are downstairs in the Green Room and Cool Gang area. They are staying colder — mid-50’s to mid-60’s°F, which is the usual overwintering recommendation. It’s actually mid-40’s°F for some citruses, according to the oldest instructions I used to try to follow (“unheated porch or sunroom”), but that’s impossible in my house, and never seemed to work out.

[imafan26]

I wishi I could help you. There are some varieties of citrus that are more hardy but it never gets lower than the upper 40's and it has been awhile with climate change it is usually the upper 50's at most. Citrus does need to be in the sun. It can take partial shade but it is not loving it. Most of my citrus bloom in cycles. I have some citrus that are starting to bloom again now, but they produce multiple harvests like the calamansi, and Meyer lemon. The Okinawan tangerine has small fruit on it now, but I don't expect it to be ready any time soon. I also have lemons and limes that need to be picked. My temperatures are in the mId 60's to around 80 degrees. The coldest months here are January and February. This is the rainy season but La Nina is keeping things dry. I have 10 hours and 50 minutes of daylight, but some of my citrus get less than that because they are in the shadow of the neighbor's tree. Humidity right now is dry 53%- 82% Normally humidity is around 88%. In the past citrus trees will have sweeter fruit on the side facing the sun. I live in a higher elevation. At higher elevations sour fruit will do better than sweet fruit. I could still grow them, they just would not be as sweet at they would be where is it warmer. I am anywhere from 3-9 degrees cooler than at sea level.

[applestar]

Thanks @imafan. Yeah, I envy your garden sometimes.

They DO provide hours of “fun” though during the dreary winter months here

[imafan26]

True. I do have seasons here. They are just different. I have a lot of things blooming now that you might consider to be Spring plants. Citrus, avocado (ripening), lychee (flowering), zinnia and basils blooming (providing food for butterflies, bees and beneficial insects, I can grow cilantro and nasturtiums now through about April. Green onions flowering ( because of the cold), Chayote is growing again. Eggplant, peppers, okra slow down because they like warmer temperatures. I always have a green Christmas.

[applestar]

I’m going to mostly finish up with the outside garden for 2024 since there IS a forecast for 9°F overnight/Monday morning after weekend morning in the teens.

Today, I harvested everything out of the Spiral Garden. The daikon tunnel (protected under insect mesh, vented poly, garden fleece, then another thin loose painters dropcloth poly covers) was in unexpectedly good shape. I got some nice Saitaro mini daikon and Misato Rose radish — probably smaller than they could have been if I’d given them more space in between. There were three good kohlrabi as well.

Moreover, these were not infested with aphids the way previously harvested daikon greens under tunnels over in the Vegetable Gardenbeds were. So almost all the greens are good to eat. (They are wonderful as soup greens.)

It was way too wet today to turn the beds over, but I’ll want to prep these to be ready to plant early spring crops … if I can, before the ground freezes solid.

After harvesting the little bit of lettuce from the small very lightly covered bed in the foreground, there were tiny carrot seedings left. I’m not holding out any hope for their survival, but I did pin some fleece scraps directly over them, rather than leaving them bare to the elements.

[applestar]

It got barely above freezing today — just enough to start melting the light snow cover from last night, and letting me remove the VGA protective lettuce tunnel and open the Sunflowet Hoophouse.

I harvested the. VGA lettuce to stubble (2 inch leaves max) and re-covered them with extra layer of plastic bags directly over them underneath the tunnel covers. (There were aphids on some of them.)

I then went over to the Sunflower Hoophouse, got inside and harvested all semi-headed Alcosa cabbage and broccoli side heads, two kinds of mini and baby pak choi and the mini napa, and couple of small kohlrabi. I’m not counting on the hoophouse to survive the impending 13°F and 8°F forecasts (subtract 3°F), and once the covers freeze to the ground and the clips and clamps freeze to the supports, I won’t be able to get back in. Typically, by the time I manage to get back inside, crops have either died or survived and have bolted due to warmer daytime temps…and EVERYTHING will be covered in aphid mummies… but we’ll see how it goes this year.

[applestar]

My token Winter Indoor Garden projects are progressing. I’ve been harvesting peppers from the overwintering peppers that had been brought inside with fruits on them.

Green Room peppers

I cooked them into some of the soups I made recently.

• Fava and snap peas I started on 12/11 have mostly sprouted. (0 Windsor fava, 3 Sugar Ann and 1 Cascadia seem to have failed). I could have re-seeded since this is a long-term project, but I overseeded the empty cells with Broadleaf Shungiku instead.

The trick now is to try to grow the peas to sturdy 4 inches, and the favas to 6~8 inches max (I do have to uppot the favas into 3~4 inch pots… ETA I just saw a video that said 6 true leaves max for favas to overwinter. 7~8 leaves would become susceptible to frost/freeze damage even with protection.) I’m hoping to do this over next 3~4 weeks; then hopefully put them out in the Patio Hoophouse….

• One segregate representative of FFSX (Faelan’s First Snow X) from my variegated microdwarf tomato crossbreeding project has started to bloom . It only has very minor variegation, which is disappointing, but at this stage, you really need to start at least a dozen, preferably 2 dozen, to find the best seedlings to express variegation. I’m mostly curious to see what kind of fruits I get. This plant is in a 1/2 gallon rice milk carton.

…

Tonight is the super cold dip in temp that had been forecast. At 4AM, the outside sensors are currently reporting —

SPIRAL GARDEN: 6.7°F
SUNFLOWER HOOPHOUSE: 12.8°F
PATIO HOOPHOUSE: 26.3°F
…I can’t access report from the VGA lettuce bed unless I go downstairs, but earlier in the night it was 1°F lower than Patio Hoophouse.

According to forecasts, temps will fall another 2°F by 7AM just before sunrise….

[pepperhead212]

And it only got down to 11° here overnight! lol

And they are saying that this is the coldest day in the area so far this year! Nothing this cold even in the winter in January or February.

[applestar]

Yep. And it looks like I might be scrambling to uncover or reduce covers from some things since things are going to warm up a bit.

Inside, I uppotted a couple of the fava seedlings and will ultimately uppot them all. And the Broadleaf Shungiku have already started to sprout.

I thought these seeds were losing viability because I’ve BEEN sowing them outside all through autumn and they didn’t seem to sprout (I sowed at least a dozen on each cell). Hopefully I’ll have good seedlings started in each of these empty cells (except one of the Cascadia cell seems to be showing a very late pea sprouting….).

I took a picture of that Christmas Rib “Roast” getting the final touch in the toaster oven with potatoes and carrots.

Part of our presents were small musical instruments like kalimbas and a little steel drum. After we played around to figure them out, we had an impromptu jam session of imperfectly played Christmas music.

[applestar]

Here’s that Faelan’s First Snow X micro (? I’ve been told that to meet genetically true “micro” definition, they have to stay about 12 inches max … It’s currently 10” tall.) dwarf expressing just a few variegated leaves. First floral truss has almost all opened and I’ve been buzzing with an electric toothbrush.

I uppotted all of the fava seedlings in 1/2 of quart size rice milk cartons now. Some of them are already starting to grow basal side shoots which are what I want to encourage, and ultimately cut off the taller growing main stalk. This is supposed to ensure that the younger, more frost and cold tolerant growths will be left and which hopefully I will be able to acclimate to the Patio Hoophouse for overwintering.

The snap peas are mostly growing nice and tight after a couple more lights were added, and the sprouted shungiku seedlings have opened up their seed leaves.