Applestar’s 2018 Garden

[applestar]

Officially kicked off the 2018 Garden seed starting with artichokes and lettuce. I was expecting the lettuce but was surprised to see the artichokes starting to sprout today





Type, Variety_______ started_in_sprouted_days
—————————————————————-
Artichoke, Emerald F1...1/30...PP...2/3...4d
Lettuce, Black Rose........1/31...CP...2/3...3d
Lettuce, Marvel of the
four seasons ...................1/31...CP
Lettuce, Valmaine...........1/31...CP..2/3....3d
Lettuce, Rosemarry.........1/31...CP..2/3....3d

*PP=paper pot
*CP=community pot

I think I will start some flowers/herbs next.

[applestar]

Found an 8” pot of aged vermicompost, so mixed it with spent WIT (Winter Indoor Tomato) potting mix and extra coir and uppotted the greens that had been started back in... January? Sowing in shallow clamshells then uppotting to deeper and deeper clamshells in randomly separated “sod” might be a new technique to adopt. This saves space and seems to be working so far. Dig up some wormyworms from the garage vermicomposter and put them to work in the greens containers to provide slow-release fertilizer. All the greens are on WPPH.

Greens mix - Lettuce, Asian, mustard - Uppotted (#1)

In the background in the photo above and below —
- Sowed Winter Bloomsdale spinach and Chives seeds along edges of one of the greens (Greenwave Mustard?)
Mustard, Greenwave - Uppotted
— Herb, Chives
— Spinach, Winter Bloomsdale

- Uppotted some of the greens in the 8” pot.
- Sowed Tom Thumb peas with the 8”

Greens mix - Lettuce, Asian, mustard - Uppotted (#2)
— Pea, Tom Thumb

- Started crucifers in shumai cells. Intending to uppot to TPPP as soon as they sprout.


— Cauliflower, Veronica
— Kale, Beira Tronchuda
— Broccoli, Romanosco Italia

— Kale, Dazzling Blue
— Broccoli, Limba
— Kale, Red Chidori

[applestar]

BTW, in the first photo in the above post, you can sort of catch a glimpse of one of my IKEA floor torchere lamps that have been converted for supplemental plant light — I used a Y-extender to put two daylight CFL’s in the one socket, and attached a uni-directional reflector crafted from a heavy-duty aluminum lasagna/roasting pan by cutting a hole for the socket in the center of one of the long sides.

I had one of those 2 ft. Single t5 table-top plant light system which I converted to hang two t5 tubes — I Found one-t5 tube lighting is not wide enough to support a full 1020 tray. I have this sitting on top of the vinyl covered WP (Winter Paradise) plant shelving — this top shelf is called WPPH (WP Penthouse). There is a Mylar emergency blanket neatly hospital-cornered over the WPPH lighting and the lasagna pan reflector.

The entire structure is positioned in front of a NW window, so with everything in place, WPPH can support two 1020 trays of tomato/pepper seedlings placed perpendicular to the t5 lights during the main spring seed starting operation.

[applestar]

Kales -Beira Tronchuda and Dazzling Blue- have started to sprout already. 6 of the artichoke paper pots have sprouted, some doubles (I sowed 2 seeds each to hedge my bet).

[applestar]

I uppotted the Trontuda and some of the Dazzling Blue. The tiny seedlings lift out with a fork from the shumai tray like a plug and fit right in the TPPP (TP Paper Pot) filled to the top as I had hoped

I think I will uppot the Romanesco and Veronica tomorrow. Red Chidori can wait, and Limba was old seeds so I’m not counting on them, thou I think I see one sprouting.

LETTUCE — Marvel of the Four Seasons lettuce didn’t come up — except for that tiny little one that sprouted next to the straw marker. I tried sowing my old Iceberg A seeds a few days ago, but they aren’t coming up either. That row must be jinxed.



ARTICHOKE — I was surprised to see the last two sprouting TPPP’s. I have to remember I may still have to cull weak or albino seedlings.

[applestar]

Update on the Key Limes. I accidentally left them in the garage intending to uppot them, and then got side tracked — they were not happy. (turned yellowish)


...one of my coffee seedlings is next to it, waiting its turn to be uppotted.

Subject: Applestar's 2017 Garden
Sat Apr 08, 2017 8:28 am

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

[applestar]

Reviewing the old post, I realized — THIS must be the other Key Lime!
The sharpie rubbed off and I didn’t know what kind of citrus seedling was growing in this pot with the sedum. YAY!

[applestar]

Uppotted the lettuce and then evicted them to the Garage V8 Nursery so The Cauliflower Veronica that were uppotted in the TPPP would fit under the lights in WPL2. The “Spring Seedling Shuffle” or “Musical Chairs” has started for the 2018 season.

...I only had 8 Veronica seedlings, so I put a Broccoli Romanesco Italia seedling in the 9th TPPP marked with the wooden coffee stirrer.

The brassica seedlings will go out to the Garage V8 once they grow their true leaves.

[applestar]

When we get days like yesterday and today in the 50’s 60’s, it feels like the lettuce should be able to go out any time, but our low tonight is forecast to be 24°F. But starting Wed, the hi/lo are going to be ridiculously mild for the following week or so. I might try to harden them off and see what happens.

But typically, once they go out to the unheated, windowless Garage V8 Nursery, the ambient temp is constant 40’s to low 50’s at most, sometimes in the 30’s. And NORMALLY, outside temps at this time of the year are still below freezing or just starting the thaw/freeze cycle with sap starting to run. I wouldn’t expect them to grow very fast and could wait another two weeks before thinking about hardening them off.

If they were going outside — in coldframe or with other passive protection — they could get higher daytime temps from the direct sun but could also suffer from frost and freezing temps. I do plan on using at least hoops and row covers when they first get planted out.

I’m going to start another batch of seeds now that this first batch has been Uppotted to hedge my bets.


...in the mean time, I Uppotted the Broccoli Romanesco Italia, the one Limba seedling, and the rest of the kales — Dazzling blue and Red Chidori. For these I’m trying another recycled idea — I sometimes get eggs in clear plastic cartons that looks perfect for starting seeds, but has been limiting due to the shallow depth factor relative to the area they take up, and the floppy nature of the long egg cartons filled with moistened potting mix.

It occurred to me yesterday that if I cut the egg carton in two, 6 cells each, then place them side by side, they would be more manageable, IF there was a right sized container that would support them as drip tray — well guess what? There was such a container.

In order to gain the depth needed, last year, I tried cutting off the tops of the closed egg cartons and filling the entire egg spaces with potting mix. That was awkward to fill, and didn’t work too well when it came time to “pop them out” This time, I tried stacking the two halves after cutting off the “tops”. The seedlings will grow through to the bottom half. I may still have to cut off the top half to get them out, but hopefully not as awkwardly.

[SQWIB]

Looking good and don't let the weather fool ya, mid March could mean single digits, last year I jumped the gun with direct sowing

• March 19th

What is the Garage V8 Nursery?

[applestar]

You’re not kidding. I know it’s way too early.

Garage V8 Nursery — I don’t have a single dedicated space for keeping plants in my house... I steal a little space from here and there. I name all my growing areas. Sometimes this is essential because otherwise, I won’t remember where I put something. Also good to keep notes on individual micro-climate for ideal growing conditions.

In my windowless, semi-insulated, unheated garage, I have a 2-shelf space set up on top of an 80’s black lacquer and gold brass trim dresser with a matching huge mirror on the wall behind it. Here’s a pretty good overall picture from 2015:

[applestar]

I LOVE this time of the year, when I’m starting to think about what I might grow in the garden this year, and start armchair gardening with my sketches of garden spaces, last year’s garden journal, crop rotation charts, companion planting charts, ... dropping seeds starting with the early spring crop, flowers, herbs ....

My garden mapping process has evolved over the years — I do almost everything on my iPad now, but way back when, I started out using graph paper and onion skin/vellum overlays.

[pow wow]

Hello applestar,

I am enjoying your thread. It's bringing on the seed starting fever. I only have my Santa Cruz Begonia seedling right now. They're not really seedlings anymore, they were started in Nov.
I need to get my Pansy seeds planted this week and my Petunias very soon.

[applestar]

Various kales and first to be uppotted Veronica cauliflower on the left, Emerald Artichoke on the right:



...I decided since the artichoke seedlings have grown their first set of true leaves, then can be taken off the heating pad now and move to the garage to grow slowly until beginning of April when they should be able to start hardening off.

With the small heating pad+ thermostat freed up, I was able to start 9 varieties of peppers and 3 varieties of eggplants today



...I also started the sundew seeds from the seed fairy. They were nothing more than barely visible specs in the tiny zip bag, labeled 10 sundew seeds. I didn’t even attempt to count them but took out every spec of dust with a toothpick and pressed them into the top surface of the peat moss rinsed 4x with rainwater. They need similar bottom heat as peppers, so hopefully this will work.

[SQWIB]

I'm thinking about taking my Artichokes outside for the next 10 days since the weather looks accommodating.