Applestar's 2017 Garden

[applestar]

PEA snow XTpole, CAROUBY DE MAUSSANE (Superseeds'15-16)
PEA shelling Xdwarf, TOM THUMB (Superseeds'15-16)

Started on 3/30; Starting to sprout on 4/3 -- 4 days



...other egg cartons contain...
Pea snow pole, Shiraz (tbug)
Pea snap dwarf, Ambrosia (Ellie'15)
Pea shelling pole, Mayfair tbug
Pea snap pole, CASCADIA (Superseeds'15-16)
Pea shelling dwarf, Knight (Ellie'14)

[pow wow]

You're very organized. I need some of that.lol Your seedlings are looking heathy.
Enjoyed reading through your posts applestar.

[applestar]

Thanks, pow wow!

This is the fun part -- I love starting seeds and watching them grow.

...I have to say... I usually do pretty well up to this point. It's the next phase when things get a little hairy.

[applestar]

Late-but-must-have tomatoes and pepper seeds are speed-and-control-germinated in spoon seedzip of sandDE (“spoonzip method”). Two seeds have germinated in the top-right seedzip


F2 seeds of {Dwarf Pink Passion x (Husky Gold x Orange Minsk,dwarf,F2 x Zolotoe Serdste x Orange Minsk,F1)F3}

[applestar]

I'm not ready to plant them, but they are ready to be planted

...these are...
PEA snow XTpole, CAROUBY DE MAUSSANE (Superseeds'15-16)
PEA shelling Xdwarf, TOM THUMB (Superseeds'15-16)



I don't want them to grow through to top opening and unfold their leaves because then it will be a pain to extricate them

[applestar]

DD helped me to set up the Cabbage Kids Nursery -- I saw a Cabbage White butterfly out and about already.



...I'll put the lettuce seedlings in here too for now. It should help them avoid the aphids for the time being...

[applestar]

These are starting to sprout, too

LEFT PHOTO:
Shiraz and Ambrosia on the left; Mayfair on the right

RIGHT PHOTO:
Cascadia and Knight



Pea snow pole, Shiraz (tbug)
Mar 30, 2017 Apr 5, 2017 6d

Pea snap dwarf, Ambrosia (Ellie'15)
Mar 30, 2017 Apr 5, 2017 6d

Pea shelling pole, Mayfair (tbug)
Mar 30, 2017 Apr 5, 2017 6d

Pea snap pole, CASCADIA (Superseeds'15-16)
Mar 30, 2017 Apr 5, 2017 6d

Pea shelling dwarf, Knight (Ellie'14)
Mar 30, 2017 Apr 5, 2017 6d

[applestar]

Uppotted another bunch of indeterminate tomato seedlings in 14 paper tube in Rice milk carton. Only since 4/2 but the first one went through explosive growth. Every year, I think that the K-cup seedlings are like seeds themselves and happily grow into whatever larger containers I put them in.

Here's a comparison of the two. The three varieties you can see best in the left photo are antho (purple) stemmed Sgt. Pepper's and the two Marz Pulcent.



It will be tricky to extricate the tubes of leaf interlocked seedlings later, but I can cut the sides of the rice milk box open for easier access.

Compared to these, the seedlings that have been out in the cooler garage V8 temperatures for longer are darker and toughened up more. The Pill Bottle Soil Blocks are approximately same size as the paper tubes, small white cups are 3 oz, and the larger clear cups with my oldest dwarf varieties are 9 oz.




I have something odd going on with the Delicious seedlings -- one of them is a PL (potato leaf). Maybe an accidental cross? The eggplant Hari is in a 5 oz cup.


... I just brought these out to the V8 Nursery today as well -- so the foliage is soft and lighter green like the new rice milk group.

[applestar]

Discoveries among the tomato seedlings --

Spotted this bit of variegation starting already on the first set true leaves -- this is my Whippersnapper x Faelan's First Snow F4 (WS.FFS.F4) from a heart-shaped pink saladette last year. Variegation showing this early should mean we could expect a pretty good show in the next several sets of leaves while the temperatures are cool to moderate


Not sure why these and ONLY these two Dwarf Chocolate Lightning seedlings have these lighter colored new leaves.

...according to my notes, I have 5 of these -- 2 more in 9oz cups which are in the Garage V8 and 1 more KCup -- somewhere... I'll have to go find them tomorrow and see if they look the same.

-- just realized the 9 oz Dwf Chocolate Lightning is in the front in the pic I posted yesterday, and it looks all green. Maybe these two are in that faulty mixture I managed to make. I'll repot them in a fresh mix tomorrow and hope for the best.

...rest of the tray...

[applestar]

Newest babies to join my expanding citrus family collection -- a friend sent me a fully ripe key lime fruit from her tree when I mentioned wanting to try growing from seeds and lamented that I couldn't find any in the stores and the produce guy said maybe in the summer time.

After keeping the fruit -intact- in refrigerated storage, I extracted and sowed the precious seeds on March 8th in two different conditions for insurance. I usually tell people it takes about 4 weeks or a month... these were right on the money

[Taiji]

How do you keep track of it all? How do you have enough room when setting stuff out? I'm in awe! I have maybe one tenth the variety of stuff that you have, but invariably I still get stuff mixed up!

Seems like every year some of my tomato seedlings get that yellowing too while in the little pots. Seems like Rutgers are most prone to that for me. They always seem to get over it when uppotting and setting out.

[applestar]

I use a spreadsheet and a tablet.
I used to input the numbers in an app on my cellphone then upload, etc. ...then I got an iPad, then iPad Air, now I have iPad Pro. (Easier on the eyes )

Tablet is handy. You can plug in the data as you work so you don't lose track. To me it's not as tedious as taking inventory of everything after the fact, and real-time data entry means no unexpected reality messing up carefully made pre-activity plans. No erasing or scratching out mistakes written in pencil or pen....



...I ignore the space and practicality issues. In this phase, it's all about whether I can grow them at all. I really enjoy seeing them grow from the ittybitty seeds, and seeing the variations even in the seedlings stage. They are all precious and I am rolling my eyes at the already ridiculously large numbers while lamenting that some of the coveted varieties haven't sprouted.

There are still things that can happen. I'll regret it if I don't grow extras and back-ups, I like having extras to give away, and I just have to deal with the excess if I grow more than enough and they all survive. Also, this way, I will have a selection of plants to choose from and the healthiest to plant out.

[applestar]

In addition to the Key Lime seeds that sprouted, it turned out that more things have been sprouting just in the last couple of days. Isn't it odd? I wonder what the signal was?

Here I have Japanese Maple seedlings that sprouted. Look at the label -- I put them in these zip bags of media to cold stratefy in fall of 2015. Last spring, there was nothing going on and I forgot about them. Left in the garage for the entire last season, I found them while rummaging around my garden stuff earlier in the winter, and plunked the container on the surface of one of the fig containers. Just a while ago, I was watering the V8 Nursery plants and looked down



I removed the cover of the container and opened the zip bags and gave them a bit of water, then put them under the V8 lights. Maybe some of them will survive?

The photo on the right is the pot of sprouted spicebush seeds (thanks !potatoes! ) I took them out of the fridge stratification and had them under the lights. I peeked under the condiment lid which had been flat on the surface of the potting mix and discovered these little sprouts.

[applestar]

Repotted, separated, and Uppotted all the yellowed peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes. The mix was wet and stinky/anaerobic. Roots were stunted. Also separated many of the community started Kcups.


Here are the biggest yellowed peppers (and eggplants) which were planted in the PTinRM#3





TOP 3 --Paddymc's cross Steelhead (Itali'15 Plant 2 -- GWR with red core) -- seeds were from last year.


BOTTOM 7 -- Raymondo's Australian Mist -- supposed to be PL but only 2 out of 10 seedlings were PL, remaining 8 were RL or rounded RL....

[applestar]

[rainbowgardener]

Your seedlings are beautiful and amazing because there are so many. I used to start that many seeds, but that was because I donated half of them to the plant sale. I never quite understand where you put everything!

But it is the middle of April! What do you have in the ground!

[applestar]

Sad to say not much except the "perma" plants and garlic (which are doing fantastic, btw). Don't know if it's the allergies but have not been able to gather up enough energy. I missed the window and the weeds have taken off, so it's going to be even harder to get the garden beds ready. VG beds need the bamboo trellis system rebuilt, and the pallet sided beds sank down by half and need to be refilled. The Spiral Garden needs compost and the spiral swale path needs to be re-dug. SFH and SFHX beds are the only ones I've mapped with preliminary planting plans so far....

Plenty of seedlings in the house, some tomatoes could be planted out if weather would cooperate and settle down. A whole bunch of them need to be uppotted. Actually trying my best to keep up the seedling care so as not to lose them -- last year mites devastated my tomato and pepper seedlings after all that early seed starting stage work, so really hoping to get these babies to stay healthy for planting, but nearly let them dry out to wilting a couple of times already.

I know I was doing a lot more by this time last year, so kind of bummin'

Yesterday and a couple of days ago, transplanted "token" lettuce starts and some of the plastic egg box peas -- just a tiny patch about 2 ft by 3 ft and was all out of breath. Lost a bunch of the pea seedlings due to that one day when we had frost, but have a late started batch in the house starting to grab at Indoor plants with first tendrils that need to be planted.

Started more lettuce, chard, ... still have a bunch of other stuff that should have been started already like basils and marigolds. It's time to start corn and rice soon... may have missed the window to plant barley...... still have the seed potatoes and onion sets in the house by the back door and my own onion seedlings are on the picnic table waiting to be planted.

Some of the container plants/trees like citrus and figs can be moved out already... but are still inside.

... I love reading about what you and others have started already in the garden -- it helps to inspire me to get a-move-on.

[rainbowgardener]

So sorry you haven't been feeling well. I understand the frustration of feeling like the season is moving on and you can't keep up.

I think we all need more gardening buddies! Things go so much faster when you have other people helping. Have 1-2 people come by and you could get everything up to speed in your garden in one day. Then the next time you all go to someone else's house.

In Cincinnati, I had a couple of friends who were partly disabled and couldn't do much in their gardens any more that I used to help out, once or twice a season to get the heavy work done. That wasn't a trade off thing, since they couldn't reciprocate the same way. But they would sit with me and chat and direct and feed me lunch, while I put in a day of work. I have looked around here for people who would like that, but haven't turned up any yet. I'd rather do it for friends, not strangers.

[applestar]

Thanks, rainbowgardener -- I appreciate your

[applestar]

...OK I'm starting to feel overwhelmed... Yesss, they ALL need to be uppotted.



-- I've heard of mushrooms starting to grow in seedling containers, but this is the first time it happened to me. Yeah, this looks a bit alarming.

[applestar]

More recent successes:


...and some re-starts and more starts -- first batch Land Seaweed didn't sprout and I have given up on those, but I'm DETERMINED to grow these this year, so started some more. Bhut Peach has one that germinated and stalled in the seedzip. Not sure if it will make it.

SURPRISE germination from my saved "could be any cross-mixture of those since they were all in the same bed" Asian greens seeds harvested from Kyoto No.3 Chinese cabbage sprouted in actuality less than 1 day. Closely followed by a Chinese heading mustard.

Mustard, Kyoto#3 x Komatsuna•Tatsoi•Red Russian Kale 2016
Mustard, Bau Sin Kai Tsai (pinetree'16-17 Ellie)

[applestar]

So, nothing to be particularly excited about, but I finally planted one section of the Sunflower & House with lettuce, peas, and onion seedlings. (There are existing garlic chives and radicchio here -- the radicchio overwinters but only heads up if the conditions are right. Also overwintered clump of parsley and a couple of self-seeded chamomile. Not seeing any sign of catnip that used to be here.)



Last year, I meticulously started lettuce varieties separately and labeled them. This year, I dumped them together, so I have no idea which one the speckled beauty is Mostly planted the WallaWalla onion seedlings in the bed to the left, and planted small number of White Wing onion seedlings to the right. This was just a trial to see how the seedlings looked -- they are at just the right condition to be planted, so I should plant the rest in the next couple of days.




Compared to Carouby de Maussane and Tom Thumb which were the fastest to sprout but were seriously blasted by unexpected/unprepared-for frost then near 90°F heatwave, this Miragreen starts looked really good this morning, and I wanted to plant them before they deteriorated. ...it turned out they had grown roots out of the little Kcups ages ago... but no biggie because I could snip off the bottom and easily slip them out. But the experimental 1/2 toilet paper tube paper pots were even better. I will go with those next time.

...oh yeah... TONS of earthworms under the path mulch. They will probably happily move over to the cardboard mulch.

[applestar]

This one was best out of the three variegated seedlings I uppotted today. Two more good looking ones are waiting their turn. I'll take their pics then.

[rainbowgardener]

Yay! Plants in the ground! Looking good!

[applestar]

Subject: What kind of bog plants are you growing?

...my triple PawPaw planting dubbed "Paw and Paw and Baby Paw"

BOTH Paw and Paw are blooming this year, so high hopes for seeing some fruits later this season. I am as intrigued as ever by the gorgeous maroon blossoms.


...Baby Paw is still a little twig to the left...

[applestar]

Most of my garden beds are protected with rabbit or chickenwire fence to keep out critters, but I have a few unprotected beds where I rotate plants that are mostly unappetizing to bunnies. I was going to clear one of those of vetch covercrop and plant onions, then I noticed a grey matted fur and a hole. I couldn't see into the darkness of the hole without clearing the overhanging vetch, so I took a picture and then zoomed in and pushed the exposure....



...now what am I going to do with that bed? I planted garlic there last fall and they are getting overgrown by the vetch, and who knows what happened/will happen to the saffron Crocus. I hope they get to grow a bit and go dormant instead of getting munched down as tasty snacks. O_o

[applestar]

I found a surprise in the Garage V8 today -- one of the tomato seedlings has started to bloom

From the relative position to the extra-tall antho/purple-stemmed plant, which can only be Sgt. Pepper's, I believe the one that is blooming is Marz Pulcent (the top-middle one). Sgt. Pepper's is actually outside of the reflector so as not to touch the T8 bulb, which will burn.



...time to take these outside to join the RM (Rice Milk container) with Pill Bottle Soil Block tomato seedlings which were the first to be sent out to harden off.

[applestar]

Did I post these maps already?

[applestar]

Can you see the three super dark/antho stemmed, wispy foliage seedlings (one in left photo, 2 in right) that have outpaced the fellow seedlings and are growing past the reflector or into the lights, trying to touch them?

These troublemakers are all Sergeant Pepper's. The fruits will be Pink heart with antho/purple shoulders.



...

I weeded and dug a trench for planting seed potatoes in one bed -- I couldn't finish today, but hope to finish prepping and plant the taters tomorrow.

I weeded the beds and and buried crab guts and shells in the path between Haybale Row (HBR) and the Sunflower House (SFH) beds well as in the bottom of a compost pile I started IN the SFH. HBR will be winter squash bed and SFH will be tomato bed this year.

DH cleaned out the chest freezer and pulled out some vacuum sealed old trout. I'm burying them in the Spiral Garden Spiral swale/path -- this year's corn patch.

[McPeg]

Okay, do you own a farm? Or just have total garden around your home?
I'm drooling over your plant list...and jealous because my last frost date is the last weekend in May. Ughhh! And then it often flips to hot weather quickly.
I love your pics, thank you for sharing.

[applestar]

Yay! One of the seeds for Doe Hill pepper has germinated in the seedzip. I hope this one makes it. Two Bhut Jolokia Peach seeds that had germinated in the seedzip died -- one's root turned mushy, the other one turned into a green mush. Damped off?

...somehow not having luck with the Bhut Jolokia varieties in general ... maybe the universe is laughing at my temerity in thinking I might possibly be able to eat them

[applestar]

Okay, do you own a farm? Or just have total garden around your home?
I'm drooling over your plant list...and jealous because my last frost date is the last weekend in May. Ughhh! And then it often flips to hot weather quickly.
I love your pics, thank you for sharing.

Haha I answered that on p.3 of this thread. Thanks for the feedback. I sometimes feel like I'm just rambling on and on....

...Last weekend in May (I usually abbreviate that as 5/E) ...so you could be planting cold weather stuff now, right? Peas, carrots, Lettuce, Spinach.... onions... potatoes soon. Looking forward to hearing about your garden.

[McPeg]

Hi again, I'm going to check out page 3 in a bit. I LOVE this website. I was a founding member on GardenWeb before it was sold. I LOVE gardening and live in the country. I only garden around the house which is enough for me but I do help our friends with their small garden and share a lot of plants and seeds. For a few years I helped our local farmers market with administration and hung out for socializing until our computer business started getting busy on the weekends and I was needed to answer the phones. Talking dirt comes naturally for me. Hahahaha. I've just returned to this site after a long absence. The first thing I do is check the unanswered posts to see if I can help people. Especially the newbies. I will share garden photos later once I get going more outside.

So yes here we are planting cool weather plants. I should have waited until early June to put in my green beans but ... I got impatient. Last couple of years I ran out of major energy due to health and searing heat all summer kept me indoors with the a/c on. I cannot do the heat so my garden suffered greatly. Being on a well and given that some homes were low on water last summer we were careful with our water. I will get a post going about myself and my garden history like you have done here.

I hope to make many new friends and try to help people with their questions. I do a small amount of carrots, I love white turnip too. Lettuce I do a bit but I love swiss chard. I'm working to improve my soil and slowly digging out a lot of rocks and boulders. Nothing worse than hearing the twang of my garden fork hitting another boulder to dig out....

Gotta get to your page 3 and start catching up.
Cheers or ta ta for now!

[applestar]

.
.
.

I Uppotted those silly Sgt Pepper's(es?) -- 1 in 3 oz cup and 1 PTP -- and 1 Ernie's Plump that were pushing at the lights, as well as one of the Wes in a Kcup that I'm giving away in 9 oz bevcups. Biggest three that won't fit under the V8 lights went outside on the picnic table to harden off.

2 Bear Creek and 1 Big Cheef Stripes were Uppotted into PTP's (Paper Tube Pots) and took place of the removed 3 paper tubes in the RM carton.

Look at the roots! I'm very satisfied with the way these worked and will be using this method for the next size up from Kcups in the future. I tore off the upper portion of the paper tubes but left the bottom part intact -- I think the roots are getting out from the folded bottom as well as through the sides fine on their own, and once buried, the tubes should unravel at the spiral seams pretty quickly. Remember, too, that there is a red wiggler in each tube.



I planted the blooming Marz Pulcent in a 9" square x 10" H pot and put it outside on the patio. But I added one of those little tomato cages and covered with a big clear plastic bag -- just have to remember to remove it when it gets hot and sunny. According to the gardening friend who gave me the seeds, this variety is extra early and "red - and delicious!! The plant should reach a height of about 45 cm / 1,5 ft." Another description for the variety "small dwarf plant making very large fruits for the size of the plant (40 to 70 gr). Red tomato in the shape of a cocktail. Tasty a little too juicy, but with a very good taste."

[applestar]

Really slow to get started....

- The little bit of greens growing seem like a bad joke (SELF deprecating. No offense to folks just starting out with a little garden -- I have a LOT of garden space that I haven't got around to planting you understand)

- That trench I dug up for planting potatoes is filled with water this morning after yesterday and last night's rain (silverlining -- I hadn't planted the potatoes yet ...probably would have rotted sitting in all that water. I need to work out a better drainage --at least poke more holes and fracture the bottom and surrounding soil with garden fork.)

- Just one side of the house -- HBR, SFH, SG and their annexes after first round of weeding. If you can see them, the garlic are growing well in the SFH. Also the Elephant Garlic to the left along the fence.



I really need to get planting!

(Studio Ghibli Totoro)

[applestar]

Today -- that tunnel was absolutely filled with chickweed. I have to admit I did NOT do a thorough job prepping this bed. I simply pulled the chickweed -- chickweed is actually very tough to pull out, even with the ground saturated, so I only broke the upper growth off then went over once with Japanese weed hoe which may or may not have skimmed the sub-surface roots from the basal stem. The soil and roots were roiling with earthworms so I had to go easy. The chickweed had gone to seed so seeds scattered everywhere. Yeah it's going to be a mess later.



I "harvested" some of the chickweed. Most of them went into the compost bin. I'm freezing the colanderful and the tiniest portion filled this recycled pasta sauce jar. That one is going to be topped with sesame oil to extract the essence and make a salve.

I planted Asian greens and broccoli. Michihili loose-head Chinese cabbage and Semposai or Tokyo Bekana -- trimmed the biggest leaves since I accidentally pulled off a big section of the roots. Also more of my seed grown WallaWalla onions. I was going to paper then plant, but didn't feel up to it after doing just the one section.

[applestar]

DD assembled the plant shelves on the patio for me, so more tomato plants have been evicted to harden off outside.

[rainbowgardener]

Beautiful little seedlings!

The chick weed is edible. If you know anyone with chickens, it is their favorite treat! They love it. It was the commonest weed in my yard, but I am actually reducing the amount of chickweed in the yard, because I pull a big double handful of it twice a day to give the chickens. When I do that, I try to pull it by the roots.

[applestar]

Well, the tomatoes are STILL being put in the back of the line....

I harvested these lettuces and Chinese leaf cabbages/Asian greens from under the brown insect screen cover:



And planted more overgrown pea plants (Miragreen and Ambrosia). Then lettuce mix, arugula, and brassicas ...some broccoli mixed in there, largest are Michihili -- also planted 1@ bottomless test Kcups of "Mustard, Kyoto#3 x Komatsuna•Tatsoi•Red Russian Kale 2016" and "Mustard, Bau Sin Kai Tsai (pinetree'16-17 Ellie)" -- under another insect screen tunnel. Scattered the seed started WallaWalla and White Wing onion plants among them (they are still looking good).



...also managed to FINALLY plant the seed potatoes and onion sets

[applestar]

Earliest to start blooming out of the 44 varieties (though admittedly not started all at once) is Marz Pulcent. 3 out of 5 plants are blooming



This one is Maskotka:



Both varieties are from a friend in Germany.