Applestar's 2017 Garden

[applestar]

Rice seeds are starting to germinate... ... but the temperature outside has gone down -- I was going to sow the germinated seeds directly, but may have to start them and plant started plants instead.

[pepperhead212]

That temp out there is a major problem, isn't it, apple!? I have a number of things I should be getting in the ground, but it is just too cold at night! However, it's not as bad as last May...yet.

[applestar]

It's completely playing havoc with my planting plans, though maybe making me feel a bit OK for procrastinating this spring.

It got down to 36°F before dawn in open areas around here ...my remote sensor on the patio recorded low of 39°F.


...maybe it's a *good* thing that I haven't been able to take these container figs outside yet, for various reasons.


...they have fully leafed out and are loaded with fruits... They do need to go outside to ripen in the heat of the sun once the weather settles, and it's going to be a BEAR to very carefully maneuver them out through the house past THREE doorways. Can't decide if it would be better to roll them out of the garage on their plant dollies to the FRONT of the house, then somehow transport them over the uneven soft grass/ground around to the patio around back.

[SQWIB]

Same here, 39 again tonight.
My peppers are not happy!

[applestar]

Yesterday, I wasn't feeling very well -- maybe fighting a virus -- but mentally, I was full of ideas and projects I wanted to accomplish, so I pushed through it and (but only) planted two hanging baskets and a container, taking blooming overgrown tomato plants out of the protected seedling shelf enclosure on the patio.

Maskotka, which is described as good for hanging basket culture, Marz Pulcent which "only grows to 40cm" but am not sure has a weeping/sprawling habit that makes good hanging basket tomato, and Uluru Ochre -- a dwarf, but may actually grow too big for than the 2.5 gallon container I used. (I noticed later that I had another container that would have been more appropriate, ready to plant by the potting mix bin... )

I took pictures for my own records, but they look pathetic right now so I will wait to photo-and-post until they look more presentable ...unless someone wants see the before and (hopefully) after.

...anyway... I didn't check the weather forecast (I guess I wasn't mentally 100% either) and it got down to 41°F overnight. Oh well.....

I did also sow some radish seeds (saved Bunnytail) where they would get extra moisture, more carrot seeds, (Chantenay Red Core and a Korean variety -- Sinheukjeon5) cleared a small patch and planted more started onion plants (WallaWalla).

I had what I hoped was a mature Littleleaf H-19 cucumber on the counter ...almost all winter so I think it WAS mature... but I noticed yesterday that it had collapsed into a moldy mess on one end when I wasn't looking. So I cleaned it out -- inside was fine, no mold -- and washed/dried the seeds. There were a few seeds in the container that was resisting so I took those outside and sowed them.

[applestar]

Started these herbs and flowers. Need to get my old seeds used up or tossed. I thought coriander might be up by now, but no sign as yet. The lettuce seeds are from Europe. Hope they didn't run into problems while traveling and will germinate.

5.12 Herb, Basil Blue Spice Pinetree'14-15
5.12 Herb, Basil Lemon Sweet Dani Park'13-14
5.12 Herb, Basil Lettuce Leaf '16-17
5.12 Herb, Basil Lime Burpee'08-09
5.12 Herb, Basil Mixed '13
5.12 Herb, Basil Thai Siam '15
5.12 Herb, Dill '13
5.12 Herb, Mexican Mint Marigold '13-14
5.7 Flower, columbine Wm G •long-spurred Y tbug EGT'16
5.7 Flower, Milkweed Spider tbug EGT'16
5.7 Flower, Milkweed tall green tbug EGT'16
5.7 Herb, Coriander 'dynamo' 2016
5.7 Herb, Coriander Lemon scented tbug
5.7 Herb, Coriander Santo tbug
5.7 Herb, Fennel Zefa Fino Pinetree 14-15
5.7 Lettuce, Kado vendor Ellie

[applestar]

I'm back to randomly doing gardening chores. Stepped outside to check on the seedlings, water, etc. decided sparsely sprouted qt berry container of cool weather seedlings needed to be planted -- a couple of lettuce, q/w doz red stemmed chard, a couple of pathetic spinach one of which was trying to bolt with only one pair of true leaves, a bunch of seedlings that were growing well, that was NOT the dwarf kale as labeled ... after some thought, I believe these are the last of red tsoi seeds that @Gixxerific sent back in 2011? They went in available spots in the SF&H and I planted the red tsoi's under the insect screen because last time I grew them, the cabbage whites liked them too much... better than broccoli, even better than kale.

It's a good thing I upgraded the insect screen from the pop-up to the tunnel for the group on the left. More room to tuck things in.



...

Went to do a minor trimming of suspect branch on the columnar apple, then remembered I promised DH that I would prune the tree by the mailbox, that led to trimming and re-shaping the stepover around the mailbox area. Trimmings were piled up and used to mulch one end of the mailbox bed where the grass always try to move in.



The tree trimmings were handy for mulching the new pecan and pecan/chestnut mounds, then

As long as I had the loppers, I might as well prune the nectarine ...nectarine trimmings seemed like a good choice for mulching the Tilla on the curbside. So that led to lopping off all the watersprouts at the base and along the trunk up as far as I can reach.

...yeah already tired, I had meant to plant some tomatoes today...

[applestar]

After a false-start --- everything set out and ready, planted 6 seedlings, then got rained on and rained on and poured, forcing me to retreat inside.... go all of these tomatoes and some leftover peas planted

[applestar]

...I can't decide if the garlic is doing well or there are some premature yellowing going on. Maybe I should have fertilized them some more. I keep forgetting to do that due to too many other things going on in spring....

Now we need some of that steady soaking rain around here. Of course right now, we are continuing to have crazy stupid weather -- 42 °F right now at 4AM. Does that mean I still jumped the gun planting tomatoes? Meh -- I suspect (considering the several sizzling days) the ground temp will compensate.

...what am I doing up at 4AM? I'm hurting ALL OVER -- so much that I couldn't stay asleep even though I went out like a light last night.

[applestar]

Whew! I think I finished planting all the tomatoes that can be squeezed into the Sunflower House + Sunflower House Extension beds (SFH + SFHX). I'll finish by planting some peppers in the remaining SFHX space and then will try to plant lots of basils and possibly carrots and maybe some onions to fill in. Some kind of beans -- pole beans on the arch trellis and some kind of bush beans, adzuki, edamame, etc. as space opens up after the garlic are harvested.



It started raining heavily while I was finishing up, so only a bad tele-photo from the upstairs window



- that Robin swooped in to be included just as I snapped the shot.

I still need to put up or secure the supports.
Grassy looking stuff in rows are garlic. Tzan Turban garlic will be ready to harvest 2-3 weeks before the others. The clump of narrower grassy looking stuff are the perennial Garlic Chives with the mother clumps of Egyptian onions hiding just behind the arch trellis.

[lakngulf]

Back in business. Looking good. I am not sure I could ever be that organized.

[applestar]

Thanks! I will be visiting the PETC meetings soon...

[applestar]

Some of the notable tomato varieties -- more to be photo'ed and posted soon!

(was) Alonzo's Medals [Elgin Purple x Sgt. Pepper's] F3 (HBR 9.11.16) bc/antho shoulders
I'm advancing the 9-11 fruit -- VERY dark stems on these



Sergeant Pepper's (itali'16) large pink heart with antho shoulders


...the tallest has beginning of flower buds on it -- I only noticed after taking the picture and was hurrying off to do something else ... and looking at the photo now, I failed to capture them


Faelan's First Snow (DDsack.september'15 from applestar'14) variegated foliage and large purple beefsteak fruits

...these were in pretty bad shape in tiny cups -- hoping to see some more variegation developing once they recover

Dwarf bed in the SFH.
... Late-started 'Tim' [Dwf Pink Passion x HOZO F3] F2 didn't make it in here but I'm planning to plant some in containers and others in a raised bed on the other side of the house with extras of Mascotka and Marz Pulcent, as well as more of the dwarfs here -- I think I have Chocolate Lightning, Blazing Beauty and Brandy Fred. Maybe Orange Cream, too? Brandy Fred has been very susceptible to the mite infestation, but is think I have a couple that will pull through.

[Shanghaisky]

Wow! When I grow up, maybe I can be as prolific a gardener as you!

[applestar]

thanks!


Here's another one -- I hesitated to post this because these are rather lame looking right now... No fault of the variety at this juncture -- operator/gardener error -- hopefully they will exceed expectations. Location they were given is very good.


Rebel Yell [Stump of the World x Bear Claw] is a variety that mostly southern growers rave over. It has very large lush potato leaf foliage that they say provides superb protection from sun scald of the fruits... and the flavor of the large pink beefsteak fruits is supposed to be top notch... grown in the south. This is maybe my third attempt to grow this variety. If it doesn't live up to its reputation this year, I'm giving up on growing it any more.

[applestar]

OK, so here is my one Rebel Alliance [Zluta Kytice X Not Purple Strawberry] F5 on the left -- a bit yellowed but I don't see signs of mites (growing leaf bud looks good) and the trimmed off leaftips had unidentified spots -- going in the ground and hopefully re-joining the fight for the season. It's still being stabilized at F5 generation but is being selected for the multifloral trait from its Zluta Kytice great- great- etc. grandmother. Heart-shaped ridged large cherry sized fruits in the F4 generation. I believe it's supposed to be Purple? ...or maybe Black/Brown with yellow epi?

Poor Isolde -- both of them got sunburned in a careless hardening off moment. Also showing signs of stress from the too-cold nights we've had when I'd left them outside.

[Shanghaisky]

Curious as I'm such a greenie: what are the collars made of/for? Also how can you tell the cold has stressed them? My two little romas have been out in some crazy weather (40's at night to two 90+ days last week, and all in between...), but no leaf color changes and the flowers are still popping up... I'm taking notes from your beautiful garden for future reference! Haha!

[Gary350]

[applestar]

...is this a hint? Are you saying I need some art in my garden Gary350?

It's true, I don't use much art or sculpture -- a few conventional pieces -- metal hummingbird sprinkler, cast cement mostly realistic animals -- bunny, frog, turtle.... I actually am not attracted to folk art so much, though my brother poof-poofed me once when he did a film project on folk art in the American South.

I like this kind of thing though -- not dinky little ones -- this one has good size to the entity

Chris Cook's Sea Serpent Garden Sculpture
https://www.uncommongoods.com/product/se ... -sculpture



I like arranging the garden beds in some kind of a design.... I like the idea of forming living greenery into a sculpture --

9 Living Tree Sculptures: Art Created One Ring at a Time
https://www.visualnews.com/2014/05/27/9- ... ring-time/



If anything, I would love to implement my own long-time back burner concept for a vertical garden.

[applestar]

Curious as I'm such a greenie: what are the collars made of/for? Also how can you tell the cold has stressed them? My two little romas have been out in some crazy weather (40's at night to two 90+ days last week, and all in between...), but no leaf color changes and the flowers are still popping up... I'm taking notes from your beautiful garden for future reference! Haha!

The collars -- I use recycled Kcups for growing seedlings. I've made several modifications in the way I make use of them over the years, and this year, realized that I could easily snip the bottom out with scissors for taking them out with less root loss, and then use the already marked Kcup as the individual plant label as redundant backup system to the garden maps.

I decided to slit one side of the cup so the collar won't constrict the plant if it grew larger than the diameter of the cup. Then made additional fore-head slapper realization that as long as I am slipping the Kcup collar around the stem, I might as well fill the soil around it and secure it in such a way that it will also act as cut-worm collar -- a danger I was advised to watch out for when I sought advice about planting out smaller tomato seedlings than I am used to.


The seedlings that were exposed to the too cold temperatures for too many nights have become yellowed, faded and and purpled. Those are classic appearance I have managed to make this mistake over and over again with out DOING what I KNOW I need to do. So if you read my hardening off and seedling temperature advises, you will see me TELLING everyone what to avoid and how -- all quite true and beautiful if only I would do those things myself without slacking off. DEFINITELY Do what I say and not what I do in this.

Part of my carelessness comes from growing so many seedling starts that by planting time, I have too many to fit in available space. I still have seedlings in the house that have no where to go and hoping for some hapless seedling to falter out there. (Only die-hard survivors need apply ) I already plant them too close -- again, follow my advice and ignore my own foolishness.


Oh yeah, yours may have survived the cold nights better either because the next day's high was sufficient to warm them up again without lasting harm, or because I think you said they are already planted. As long as soil temp has warmed up enough, the temporary overnight cold air temp is moderated by the warmer thermal mass of the ground. Mine were in tiny cups and on a shelf with no ground mass to help them.

[applestar]

Whoo hoo! Lettuce mix and Fun Gen (which seems to be the favorite slug pick), and Michihili+ Asian mustard greens -- Tatsoi and Tokyo Bekana I think -- they practically overflowed my 2 gal harvest bucket.



Some purple passion asparagus... First pair of ripe White Gold cherries, first strawberries -- these are wild and alpine white soul. And spearmint and peppermint sprigs.

At first my heart sank to realize that the aphids somehow got under the insect netting, though the netting is mostly to keep out the cabbage whites and moths, but then 2nd look revealed that practically every one of those aphids are already mummified, meaning the aphid mummy maker wasps are on the job.

This presented a different sort of difficulty -- I decided to trim all the parts of the leaves with aphid mummies on them with a pair of scissors. This sounds a bit crazy, but it wasn't difficult and I ended up with a nice pile of unhatched aphid mummies. So I scattered them among my seedlings that are being hardened off and then spread them around the tomato seedlings I planted in the SFH and SFHX.

[applestar]

L: Getting ready to plant dwarf tomatoes, eggplants, maybe some of the smaller peppers in containers. The water-filled bucket in the group is 18 qts. White Small 2 gal bucket and a 5 gal.

R: 7 gal bucket I'm thinking of turning into a SIP. Testing an azalea pan for fit as possible riser/water reservoir separator.



All the brown water are from the catch trays -- we've been getting a lot of rain and I have been emptying the nutrient rich water in these buckets to save and use later.

[rainbowgardener]

Love the dragon!

I always admire how resourceful you are, re-using all your cooking water and saving the catch basin water.....

an area I could still be better at.

[applestar]

Thanks

I'm trying to catch up to you -- pre-germinating corn


-- these are Japanese Striped Maize ...seeds were gift from a friend

[bri80]

At first my heart sank to realize that the aphids somehow got under the insect netting, though the netting is mostly to keep out the cabbage whites and moths, but then 2nd look revealed that practically every one of those aphids are already mummified, meaning the aphid mummy maker wasps are on the job.

This presented a different sort of difficulty -- I decided to trim all the parts of the leaves with aphid mummies on them with a pair of scissors. This sounds a bit crazy, but it wasn't difficult and I ended up with a nice pile of unhatched aphid mummies. So I scattered them among my seedlings that are being hardened off and then spread them around the tomato seedlings I planted in the SFH and SFHX.

Aphid mummies?? Awesome... I was unaware of this parasitic behavior! I feel like I've seen some mummified aphids and didn't know what they were. I will be keeping a close eye out for these this year!

[applestar]

I thought this basket was Alpine White Soul strawberries -- as soon as they started to ripen red, I realized leaving it here under the mulberry tree was a BAD idea.


Volunteer yellow peach -- probably from an organically grown fruit/variety. Very healthy.


Blackberry Triple Crown nearing full bloom


Pear espaliers -- good fruitset of dark colored Seckel and lighter colored but will grow to about 3x as big fruits on fireblight resistant Magness ...which doesn't appear to have as good resistance to Cedar-Apple Rust....

[applestar]

Slooowly making progress....

Pre-germinating more seeds -- Korean melon seeds from H-mart was coated in some pearly pink stuff ...Nutter Butter butternut squash, Valencia peanuts selected for maturing early, more interesting corn (two varieties together but can easily tell apart)

[applestar]

Today's harvest wash bucket was so colorful and pretty! (Except for that one strawberry which got "cooked" in the unvented protective clear clamshell box ). Darker colored "berries" are mulberries which I don't go out of my way to harvest for us -- mostly for the birds and animals -- but I couldn't resist the ripe ones within my reach on lower hanging branches

Overwintered peppers -- yellow Aji Pineapple and red 3rd year Shishito (these fruits that set during the winter will be least likely to be accidentally cross pollinated so I like to save seeds from them rather than the summer fruits when not bagged). Shishito pods are small because it was in a 6 inch clay pot.



Lavender is starting to come in.

[applestar]

Bah! I don't know if I have ever been THIS late planting "pre-germinated" -- actually already SPROUTED -- corn seeds! You can see some of them have become confused from being tumbled around in the sprouter and have roots and the shoot growing in the SAME direction. Lots of secondary roots already starting to grow instead of jut the single taproot. These are the giant purple and pink Mexican Corn and that is a 4 inch diameter ice cream tub lid.

Family activities took the front seat to veggies.



TP tubes are actually shorter than what I would like for corn starts -- normally would plant them in rice milk carton standing on side panel -- but last night, I had run out of pre-mixed potting mix and these had been prepped and filled ahead of time and available. I will REALLY have to hop and plant them within the next week.

I did most of the prep for the Spiral Garden bed where the corn are going on Friday so that area is mostly ready to plant.

[applestar]

Today's harvest

Garlic scapes -- familiar slender curls as well as Elephant garlic. Some needed peeling -- were diced and sautéed with polish kielbasa and bacon, green onions, yellow carrots, and white birch mushrooms as base for a risotto. Good grinding of Himalayan pink sea salt and my own chili powder (with citrusy notes from dried lemon verbena and lemongrass) on top. 2nd helping also got scoops of buttery ripe avocado.

Daily harvest of strawberries, mulberries, and increasing raspberries... spearmint -- only the best top sprigs -- a peppermint that needed to be weeded out, more lavender....



...Between harvesting and rinsing, ants found the garlic scapes where I had left them, ignoring the berries. I realized the scapes are sweet when I ate them.

[applestar]

Do you think I should have made a separate on-going thread about seed starting like I did one year?

Here's an update collage of the pre-germinated/sprouted cucumbers, melons, watermelons, squash, corn, and peanuts:



Crazy-looking -- no way! You might think -- but I grew the cukes and squash this way using “spoonzip method” last year and they did great. Corn for several years now. You can see how some sprout faster than others and end up with a head start, even after germinating at the same time.

[applestar]

5/26

-- pre-germinating corn


-- these are Japanese Striped Maize ...seeds were gift from a friend

They are ready to be planted ...maybe tomorrow
I started extras, hoping for 24, but I only count 19 seedlings in the photo.... oh well -- but that's the whole point of pre-germinating and starting them as transplants.

[Shanghaisky]

My amusement with what you find for starter containers will not end. It gives me good hope for next season.. starting seeds not just on a budget, but basically "for free" with all the containers we have around here!

[applestar]

My VG beds are STILL not planted I finally got around to clearing and generally assessing today.

I would like to re-fill the high raised beds. Ideally, I would take everything out, put down semi-decomposed wood from the wood pile, hugelkultur style, scrape up the paths, THEN layer the nice soil back on top.... IDEALLY. But, if I'm too pressed for time/energy, I might just plant in what's left which is still about 8-12" high raised bed level.



...well OK, there is a daikon radish in one of the pallet beds. A bunch of chervil going to seed in VGB, a whole bunch of parsley from last year in that VGD bed that will bloom to attract beneficial insects... with a few volunteer radish and parsley coming up here and there. The square VGA bed has a few gobo leftover from last year that I'm hoping will make seeds as well as purple passion asparagus that had grown from seeds trying to take over one corner (I need to dig that up if I can ... it might be too late ). I think there's some kind of a carrot, too -- only letting that bloom for beneficials, then pulling it. Somehow, a few strawberries started growing in VGC. Waiting to see if these are wild variety or maybe Sweet Charley.

[applestar]

My amusement with what you find for starter containers will not end. It gives me good hope for next season.. starting seeds not just on a budget, but basically "for free" with all the containers we have around here!

LOL -- it make me happy to hear this

[applestar]

Yesterday's harvest -- strawberries, raspberries, a couple of first peas, an aji pineapple pepper, looseleaf lettuce, Tokyo bekana, Michihili -- took all of these to my parent's




Today's harvest -- strawberries, raspberries, more peas, purple asparagus, garlic scapes, a stray peppermint, garlic chives blossoms

[applestar]

I'm trying to be mindful of pepper maggots threat, so I planted these sweet peppers under the insect tunnel:

Shishito (3)
Chocolate Cake (2) -- these didn't grow true last time but I'm trying again to see if it was the seeds or operator error
Sweet Chocoloco (1) -- this may not be sweet pepper actually. Don't know if the pepper maggots will bother it
Liebesapfel (1) -- this is probably one of the most likely to be targeted

What is this picture? I don't know where it came from. I don't think it's mine.... is Flickr having problems?

THIS is the correct picture....


You might be able to see the two shaggy green masses in the tunnel -- those are Michihili and I decided I'm going to harvest them today and make kimchi. This bed will get full sun now so they won't last mulch longer, and this way I could squeeze a couple more vulnerable peppers under there as well as maybe some onions to protect them from onion leaf miners.

[applestar]

I really should be posting in the PETC thread ... PLEASE don't try to plant like this -- there will be problems down the line (YES I do know this )

Apple Guild Exterior - insect tunnel




Broccoli Green Goliath SESE
Paprika Alma Édes 2015 asmx
Pepper Chocolate Cake (gixx)
Pepper Doe Hill (Gixx'14) sweet
Pepper Fehérözön or Roumanian Rainbow 2015
Pepper Liebesapfel (paprika'15)
Pepper Shishito (DrBTX'15) 3.14,21 4.8
Pepper Sweet Chocoloco (Ellie'15)
Senposai F1 Fedco '16 cabbage/komatsuna hybrid
Volunteer cucurbit


VGA



Eggplant Hari (g2'15)
Eggplant Kamo (kitazawa '15-'16)
Eggplant Orient Express (F2 2.1.15)
Chocolate Cake (gixx) - may not be true to type
Giant Marconi - mottled (SIP'15)
Jaloro Jalapeño (paprika garden 8.5.16, Ellie's last)
NuMex Jalmundo (vendor Ellie'15) - may not be true to type
NuMex Lemon Spice (patihum 8.16.16)
SuperVar Fish (Jan'15)
Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate (geoffrey44)
"Tim" (DPPxHOZO.F3) F2 (itali'16)
Dwf Brandy Fred PL (itali 2016)
Dwf Orange Cream (itali 2016)
MR.CF F3 1F.P1

--- FWIW, VGA is a deeper raised bed with no bottom. The bit of white you see at bottom left is a 5 gallon bucket remote reservoir for the SIP and the soil level is approx at the top of the bucket --
--- I raked all the loose soil in the VGA to the side and scraped up and tossed in the topsoil under the decomposed mulch (sticks, corn/sunflower/okra stalks, fall leaves) in the path/swales. You should have seen the giant earthworms thicker than a pencil -- I must have tossed at least a dozen inside the VGA. Smoothed the soil back over the top. Already dolomitic limed and rock phosphated in early spring, I raked in Tomato-Tone before planting.
--- oh yeah - high of mid-90's today, Mon, and Tues with clear skies, so I pulled a roll of black landscaping fabric out of the back of the shed (because I never used it) cut a couple of lengths and have them draped and secured over the hoops to provide shade for these little babies. They have been hardened off but not for this when their root systems are still so tiny. I hope I watered enough.

[Shanghaisky]

" I hope I watered enough. "

I didn't get a chance to water last night or this AM, and have nothing to shade with. I haven't checked my garden today because I'm really afraid everything is just fried. 89 high here today with 0 shade. Sigh. Hope yours do ok..

[applestar]

Hope yours made it. Look at what I did this morning. These are squashes and melons that had been pre-sprouted in spoon-seedzip (spoonzip method). For shading/protecting the tender seedlings, I used the 1/2 bottles originally meant for making sip's since they were handy and are almost all the way covered by the label, and put a large strawberry leaf or plantain leaf in the opening to compensate for the clear top and opening.



I checked on them and watered them more thoroughly a couple of hours ago, and most of them looked good. I removed the strawberry leaves which were all dried to a crisp.

One of the butternut squash seedling had been exposed to direct sunlight for too long while still in the seedzip -- I left them in shade but by the time I came back from gathering tools, they were in the sun. It was iffy when I planted it, and looked even iffier -- it may not make it.

Here are the maps.


Nutter-butter nut squash (Annapolis'16-17)
Thai Kang Kob x Seminole TKK#2Bkt F3 (SG'16)

Korean Melon (Worldseed/Hmart'16-18)
Melon, Snow Leopard (Ellie EGT'16)
Melon, Honey Rock (itali'16 EGT'16)
Watermelon, Orange Flesh (ellie EGT'16)

Room for more -- maybe tomorrow....


I also watered the landscape fabric protected peppers, etc. I planted yesterday. They REALLY looked good. I wished I'd taken my iPad with me to take a photo, but I was too busy to come back for it. Definitely using this method for areas that I could set up a frame support.