Applestar’s 2019 Garden

[applestar]

Historically, I have trouble getting them to germinate. Especially Eggplants. Last year, though, if I remember correctly, 2nd round of peppers that were started something like 2 weeks later benefitted from the generally warmer ambient temperature, so it’s a trade-off.... do I start extra-early to compensate for the long wait for them to sprout, or is it better to wait until later when growing ducks are better lined up?

[applestar]

...look what you started... not sure if I should go down this rabbit hole — I might get obsesssed enough to plug in the numbers for all of them

[applestar]

...I am soaking the seeds for 8-12 hrs in condiment cups — eggplant seeds were soaked in front of the heater, cabbages, etc. we’re soaked on kitchen counter. (Later on with peppers and tomatoes in mass production, I will be using the little seed-zip bags to conserve space)
- I used doubled K-cups for starting eggplant seeds, and am continuing to use the clear egg case for the brassicas.
- artichokes in the little pot with the juice bottle miniature greenhouse
- top right photo — Aztek and Pinocchio Orange micro dwarf tomato seedlings with first set of true leaves starting to grow. The characteristic short and stubby growth are already evident. They will continue to remain very short with very close internodes.

[applestar]

Even though not impressively tidy and organized, I think I like seat-of-the-pants gardening, and indulge in it before the rush of main season starts.

Here, I had been busy and distracted for the past couple of days, and only noticed late yesterday PM that the Green Goliath broccoli and Michihili Chinese cabbage seeds had Sprouted maybe 2 days ago

I put them on a riser so they can be closer to the light. Hopfully I noticed them in time. There is room for them if I organize that area better — in the morning.

[lakngulf]

I almost decided to grow peppers and eggplant from seed again this year, but no more than I plant in the garden the local Bonnie Plant Farm can provide. All my space, light and heaters for Cherokee Purple and Gary O'Sena tomatoes

[applestar]

Priorities

[applestar]

Progress report -

- Some of the early trial lettuces on the left. The seeds were started in a shallow divided candy tray and are at 21 days since sprouting according to my notes. These all need to be Uppotted since about 1 inch long roots are escaping from the drainage holes. (You can start some seeds in too-shallow containers, but you need to be careful not to dry them out if the roots grow down out to the drip tray.) Bottom photo shows some that are already Uppotted to a 6-pack cell.
- and Dazzling Blue kale will be hardened off to plant out once the overnight low stays above 28°F (or I might try setting up a low tunnel or other simple protection and plant earlier.



- Brunswick Cabbage and Hestia Brussels Sprouts
- Green Goliath Broccoli, Michihili Chinese cabbage
- Di Cicco OR Limba broccoli

- Aztek and Pinocchio Orange micro dwarf tomatoes
- Hari eggplant from saved seeds

[applestar]

Seeds started today —

Spinach Bloomsdale Longstanding
Spinach Tyee F2
Greens Arugula
Herb Cilantro

Pepper *Rocoto Canario
Pepper *Rocoto La Paz Rojo
Pepper *Rocoto Manzano
Pepper *Rocoto Montufar
Pepper *Rocoto San lsidro
Pepper Aji Dulce Amarillo, deck 8.30.18 - P, seasoning, mild
Pepper Chocolate Cake - gixx
Pepper Chocolate Cake - itali’17
Pepper D.K. Snacker, deck 11.21.17 - P, sweet, red
Pepper Doux Long d’antibes ellie’14
Pepper Fish ‘Goldfish’ - MedVar Fish orange ripe winter’14-15
Pepper Fish ‘SuperVar’ - Jan’15
Pepper Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn - SGW’18
Pepper Hab Chocolate
Pepper Pale Rider F6, deck 9.18.18 - P, hot, blushing

Tomato ** Mini? DWF** Totem F1
Tomato **IND** Aunt Ruby’s German Green (Marsha’14)
Tomato **IND** Opalka (WW’13)
Tomato **IND** *** PINEAPPLE PIG (appaloosa)
Tomato **IND** *** PINEAPPLE PIG (applestar’13)



Since the eggplants did not respond favorably to just warm water pre-soak (except for the home saved Hari), I’m pre-soaking these pepper and old/late tomato seeds in cooled willow leaf/bark and oolong tea.

- I gave the eggplants a squirt of the tea each to hopefully encourage them a little.

- The 3 KCups are the mini cabbages that were started on 2/24 which should sprout without difficulty.
Cabbage, Mini Red Express 62d
Cabbage, Mini Gonzales Mini F1 55d
Cabbage, Mini Quick Start F1 55d

[applestar]

Time to get serious — SpoonSeedZips and KCups to pre-germinate

- peppers on top
- spinach etc - ran out of time so just blended with moistened vermiculite for tonight and will wintersow them tomorrow
- rocoto seeds are bigger, so used KCups

- tomatoes are grouped in a separate bag since they don’t need to be incubated as warm

Ref Subject: Starting pepper seeds >> spoon in zip bag germination

[applestar]

More peppers started 2/27:

Pepper Big Jim Legacy
Pepper Bill’s Striped’17
Pepper Domalik Biber
Pepper Donkey Ears
Pepper Pasilla Bajio’17
Pepper Peperone di Senise’15
Pepper Quadrato d’asti Giallo’10
Pepper Saroksari Paprika ’14
Pepper Sweet Ingrid 2014
Pepper Yellow Cheese Pimento ’14
Pepper Yellow Giant Bell AgG


Got one shelf set up for the cool temperature wimps....

[applestar]

My SIL gave me a 1.5” cube box:


I recognized “seedbomb” so knew what to expect to find inside, but it was still kind of fun to see a single dry ball of clay, about the size of a large marble of average/small gumball.

I have so far gathered that it is a seedbomb of wildflowers... probably European native. I’m going to set aside a small flowerbed for it and lay the seedbomb in the center — maybe casually toss it in for full effect.

...I hope to identify the flowers as they grow...

[applestar]

I’m not sure if I’m doing this correctly but these are my “wintersown” seed containers —

- two onions
- big vinegar jug of spinach, arugula, and cilantro
- apple cider jug contains some seeds of rugosa rose collected from fall hips. They are from my MIL’s garden — white fragrant double flowers that I believe bloom all season. The stems are fiercely bristling with thorns. Not sure if they will grow, but I thought I would give them a try.

For the time being, they are going to stay here in front of the garage doors where I can keep an eye on them. Once I start regularly going out in the backyard, I’ll move them there.

[applestar]

Inside, things are getting more interesting —
Hari eggplants and Opalka tomatoes, with Veronica Romanesco and deCicco/Limba broccoli greening the egg case — each of the other egg cells are also starting to sprout — Kyoto no.3, Carabrese, Early Snowball ....



...and underneath in the heated tub, more seeds are germinating....

[applestar]

Screenshots of my Numbers app spreadsheet seed starting log. I try to keep up with starting and 1st seed sprouting dates as well as when they are Uppotted and into what. Location becomes crucial as the number of seedlings increase exponentially and they get moved around, but I sometimes don’t make a note when it seems *obvious* at the time, then later regret it.

Hon Naga eggplants started sprouting all at once today. I’m so happy since I think I couldn’t get them to sprout last year. Orient Express seems to be thinking about coming up, too.







— I’m going to start working on the boxed tomato varieties today —

[applestar]

seed starting season obligatory close-up of sprouting babies

[applestar]

Micro Dwarf tomatoes — if you haven’t tried growing them, I highly recommend. Currently available varieties are mostly super cute extra early determinate cherries. I think some saladette sized varieties might be turning up?

Beware of earlier varieties that are tart, crunchy, mushy, or flavorless. I’m trying out some new to me varieties, though varieties I grew last year were all pretty good to great.

These are my Aztek and Pinocchio Orange seedlings at about 3 weeks. They have been growing in 55-70°F conditions. For size reference Aztek are in Chobani yogurt containers.



...I’m going to try to grow Peas two different ways — these will be pre-germinated and started indoors in something small — I tried plastic egg cases before but found them to be too small and difficult to manage the connected cells if the seedlings get overgrown. I think individual separate cups would be better for starting this early — trying to remember if it was 3 oz or 5 oz that was recommended.


...I think I’m also going to try direct sowing later, although I think I had the best results when I pre *sprouted* the pre-germinated peas in the plastic egg cases, then planted them in the garden barely covered so they would actually sprout in 2-3 days, so I might try that way again.

[applestar]

Today’s batch of Seed/SpoonZips —

- After reviewing past seed-starting notes, I decided to try skipping the spoons for these square seedzip bags ... just a little bit of DE sand.

- But the deeper/longer bags definitely need the spoons for easily removing the germinated and sprouted seeds, and cut-off spoonheads are sometimes difficult/dangerously sharp-edged to handle, so I‘m using space-wasting whole spoons with just these 5 CHERRY varieties.

- largest is a snackzip bag with a vitamin lid of DE sand. I’m going to be looking for 2 or 3 particular/special traits with this one — my Shimofuri F6 segregate — so I will start off with a lot of seeds.


...I realized if I copied and mirror image flipped the spoon labels, I would be able to read them, so heh.

[applestar]

Aji Dulci Amarillo pepper — I’m told this is a wonderfully flavored aromatic seasoning pepper. Looking forward to tasting it and mixing it into fermented pepper sauces and dehydrated paprika’s.

[Allyn]

The Aji Dulci Amarillo pepper sounds lovely.

Where did you find the square Ziploc bags?

[applestar]

@Allyn, I get the the little ziplock bags on Amazon — you can find them under bead crafts (or I think coin collecting) — I keep ones I’m looking for in the shopping cart and watch the price go up and down, then buy when it’s at mostly lowest. I tried getting them at a local W mart which is usually suggested, but I could never find any. I finally asked, and the woman stocking the shelves there said kids steal them (presumably) for nefarious purposes. I must admit I had mixed feelings hearing that.

[applestar]

OK, I forgot to take pics of the germinated Emerald Archer and Sugar Magnolia peas, but I decided what to do with them and sowed (only the germinated seeds of) Emerald Archer in 1/2 gal rice milk cartons standing on their narrow side, and Sugar Magnolia 3@ in 5 oz paper cups yesterday.

Today, Super Sugar Snap and Iona Petit Pois are germinating and need to be sown.



The peas are easy and quick to pre-germinate at 55-65°F. Put the rinsed and thoroughly drained pea seeds in warmest part of the fridge if room temp is too warm since they also spoil easily. They should germinate within 3-5 days.

[applestar]

Here are some sprouted Pineapple Pig seedlings being potted up. I’m starting these in community pots since I’m growing out two different batches of seeds from different sources — grown in my garden in 2013 and original source seeds which presumably were harvested in 2012 but wasn’t marked.

Pineapple Pig is an extra tall-growing Indeterminate and seedlings tend to grow vigorously. When using this technique, if you are very careful, it doesn’t hurt them to get as big as the one with very long taproot and side roots starting to grow while still in the seedzip bags. Vermiculite was used for germinating medium in this case.

[SQWIB]

Ok, I have to ask, "where the hell are you gonna plant everything"?
Lol.

[applestar]

...I don’t know?

(Um. I started the rest of the dwarf, indeterminate and my own cross tomatoes ....)

[applestar]

List of started tomatoes — kept total number of varieties under 75 . Nomination for this year’s main season line up is CLOSED. Variety selection is based on flavor — some are on my family’s annual returning fave list, many are repeats pending addition to the fave list, and new-to-me have been chosen for reputation of excellence

Type Variety
Tomato ** Dwf MICRO** Aztek
Tomato ** Dwf MICRO** Pinocchio Orange
Tomato ** DWF** Blazing Beauty
Tomato ** DWF** Blush
Tomato ** DWF** Chocolate Lightning
Tomato ** DWF** CTBS, PL Ind F3
Tomato ** DWF** CTBS, RL Dwf F3
Tomato ** DWF** Manö x Matt’s Wild Cherry F3
Tomato ** DWF** Mikado NOT White - Mottled Dark Pink PL
Tomato ** DWF** Monomakh’s Hat
Tomato ** DWF** Mr. Snow
Tomato ** DWF** Pink Passion
Tomato ** DWF** Sweet Splash Pink, A2, F5 PL
Tomato ** DWF** Sweet Splash Yellow, A2, F5 PL
Tomato ** DWF** Totem F1
Tomato ** DWF** Uluru Ochre
Tomato ** DWF** Yellow Dwarf x Sungold F3
Tomato ** DWF** Yukon Quest
Tomato **CHERRY** Anna's Multiflora
Tomato **CHERRY** Champagne Cherry
Tomato **CHERRY** Coyote
Tomato **CHERRY** CoyoteRosa Bébé (pink coyote-like volunteer)
Tomato **CHERRY** Earl’s Green Cherry/Bassett’s Bleen
Tomato **CHERRY** Green Doctor
Tomato **CHERRY** Lady Fingers MR.C F4
Tomato **CHERRY** Matt’s Wild Cherry
Tomato **CHERRY** Molten Sky MR.C F4-A3
Tomato **CHERRY** MR.ZM F3 4B-P3 (yellow pt.grape striped)
Tomato **CHERRY** Wild Rosa MR.C F4-A1
Tomato **DET** 42 Days
Tomato **DET** Bloody Butcher
Tomato **DET** Manö
Tomato **DET** MR.C F4-Xshort
Tomato **DET** Pennheart Dwf/Det
Tomato **DET** Shimofuri F6 #1-5
Tomato **IND** Pineapple Pig
Tomato **IND** 1884 Purple
Tomato **IND** Allons-y,Dr.X F4
Tomato **IND** Ananas Blau
Tomato **IND** Aunt Ruby’s German Green
Tomato **IND** Believe It or Not
Tomato **IND** Big Cheef
Tomato **IND** Brad’s Black Heart
Tomato **IND** Cherokee Lime
Tomato **IND** Cow’s Tit
Tomato **IND** Earl’s Faux
Tomato **IND** Faelan’s First Snow
Tomato **IND** Fish Lake Oxheart
Tomato **IND** Gold Medal
Tomato **IND** Grightmire’s Pride
Tomato **IND** Homer Fike’s Yellow Heart
Tomato **IND** Lucky Cross
Tomato **IND** Opalka
Tomato **IND** Prue
Tomato **IND** Royal Hillbilly
Tomato **IND** Sgt. Pepper’s
Tomato **IND** Snowball /White Beauty
Tomato **IND** Steelhead
Tomato **IND** Terhune
Tomato **IND** Wes
Tomato **IND** Wessel’s Purple Pride
Tomato **IND** White Wonder
Tomato **IND** Yellow Brandywine
Tomato **IND** Zena’s Gift

[applestar]

Tom Thumb peas started to germinate yesterday, so I sowed them in this plastic tub. It looks shallower in the photo, but is actually about 4.5x4.5x10” ... but 9 peas 1 inch apart might have been pushing it. Advantage of these recycled food containers is that there is no problem in cutting the bottom off with a box knife and settling it on top of a larger container full of fresh potting mix for the roots to spread out.


For the time being it will go on top of the Winter Paradise shelves (dubbed ‘Winter Paradise Penthouse’ ) — two 24” t5 tubes and a torchere floor lamp fitted with Y adapter and 1 26W daylight CFL and 1 100W equivalent LED bulbs (and a DIY sideways reflector made of aluminum foil lasagna pan) — with the other peas where Emerald Archer and Sugar Magnolia are starting to sprout.

[applestar]

Yesterday’s started tomato seeds have been zeedzipped— vermiculite again. Ran out of spoons so some are using forks with straws to lift the plastic away a bit.



But the DE-only seedzips of tomatoes are starting to germinate (so this works, too ) and some have sprouted while I wasn’t looking



...because this pre-germinating method to start seeds is initially extremely space-saving, you can get in REAL TROUBLE (these are my Shimofuri F6 seeds on a vitamin lid)




— since I usually start out with mixture of old and new eggplant and pepper seeds (and I always have trouble starting those), tomatoes —especially the vigor of last year’s home garden-saved seeds— inevitably blow me away.

But it’s very gratifying to see older seeds like this 2013 Pennheart and 2014 Manö come alive.

...it’s getting pretty crowded in the tub. I had a narrow windowsill heating mat in there, side-by-side with the full size one connected to the thermostat.

But I realized yesterday or the day before — maybe too late — that the unregulated narrow mat, which I always thought was rather wimpy, was consistently staying around 95-100°F. So I removed it, but I might have “cooked” some of the seeds that haven’t sprouted so far.... Now, I’m keeping the pepper seeds on the regulated mat, and tomato seeds to the side without the mat.



Top-left - I had to try to plant the Shimofuri seedlings somehow — so at least half of them are in this big container.

- In the Bottom-left photo, Opalka seedlings are trialing my latest crazy idea to uppot in snack size zip bags. I’m looking for perfect large container that would accommodate a whole bunch of them.
- right - WPPH (Winter Paradise Penthouse) peas are starting to sprout

[applestar]

Part of the secret to my gardening style which embodies “organized chaos” and contradictory, apparent lack of sufficient space and material resources for the number of seeds I start and plants I grow, is sort of based on “Just In Time” production concept.

So just as the tomatoes are starting to sprout and fill up the limited “Winter Paradise” seedling nursery space in the house, the weather outside is moving on from late winter thaw to early spring — above freezing daytime temps and mostly upper 20’s (28°F is the magic number), low 30’s to 40’s nighttime — and the “Garage V8 Nursery” can be emptied of frost and light freeze tolerant, started plants and seedlings. AND the unheated garage temperatures are responding to the outdoor rising temperatures, enough for older tomato seedlings that need low 50’s°F and above to grow without being stunted....


...Today, I planted out the remaining lettuce in divided candy/chocolate tray since they were at their limit. They haven’t been hardened but maybe they will manage OK? I’m planting them in the patio SIP and Earthbox without proper prep (refill/lime/fertilizer strip). This might be a mistake... but I WILL prep them properly for planting heavy feeder warm weather plants later on.

- KGP.SIP2 - Sugar Magnolia, Super Sugar Snap at the far end by the watering tube, and Sugar Sprint down the center, surrounded by Anuenue, Blushed Butter Oaks, Jack Ice, Olga, and Optima lettuces from the divided candy tray (look how COMPLETELY root-bound they were).
- - Loosely covered with translucent tub secured with stakes
- KG (Kitchen Garden) - Sugar Sprint
- KGP.EB - Anuenue, Jack Ice, Olga, and Optima lettuces from the divided candy tray (not hardened off) + a winter survivor purple brassica
- - Loosely covered with vented plastic bowl, cut-off open cap bottle, and boxes and weighted with green coated wire grid (and shaded though not pictured)

- Hardening off the oldest Dazzling Blue kale and lettuce plants Anuenue, Blushed Butter Oaks, Jack Ice, Olga, and Optima — placed in shade on top of the (unused) rabbit hutch against the NE family room wall on the patio.
...These Dazzling Blue kale plants were started on December 6 to try growing them as Winter Garden crop in he unheated garage which went down to sub-freezing temps 24°F and above. I have been harvesting some baby to small leaves. It seems like they are at the right size to plant out NOW. Would this work for particularly winter hardy broccoli?
...The lettuce seedlings were started on Jan. 30th. So end of January looks like a good timing for lettuce. I should start another batch for succession planting (I guess I’ll use the -now empty- divided candy tray again since that worked out well.)

...I had to start sowing the pre-germinated pea seeds outside since the massive sprouting Shimofuri F6 seeds took me by surprise and I had to turn over about 1/6 of the WPPH space I had been intending to dedicate to peas seedlings. The peas will be going outside soon in any case, and then this space can be used for growing older pepper seedlings that won’t need the extra warmth inside the covered and heat mat-warmed Winter Paradise shelves.

[applestar]

Look at these Emerald Archer peas! I had to go back to Fedco to re-read the description. It’s an afila-type, which explains the tendrils showing up as soon as they sprouted. Fedco Seeds-Emerald Archer Shell Peas
https://www.cals.uidaho.edu/edcomm/pdf/PNW/PNW0495.pdf

The afila pea varieties have tendrils replacing the leaflets found on normal pea plants

...oh BTW, Sugar Magnolia peas (in the square plastic container of 4 paper cups) are also tendril peas. But I’m reading that Magnolia BLOSSOM is the better tasting pea variety. Oh well, I guess next year.

[applestar]

- The Zone8 figs have been moved outside from the Garage “Siberia” (just inside the garage doors) along with Stevia and Sage pots to join the wintersown seed containers.
- The Emerald Archer and Sugar Magnolia pea seedlings have been ushered out to harden off, as were Hestia F1 Brussels Sprout and Brunswick Cabbage seedlings.



...making room for the Iona Petit Pois seedlings to occupy the observation corner on WPPH, and for tomato seedlings to be brought up out of the covered shelves. They will soon go out to the rapidly emptying Garage V8 Nursery.

- eggplant seedlings and the earliest started tomato seedlings are starting to grow their true leaves and taller, more vigorous varieties already need to be uppotted or separated if community-sown in Kcups.
- More and more tomato and pepper babies are sprouting and clamoring for their own bit of dirt and space.

- I’m trying planting these tomato seedlings in the clear egg case cells. I usually don’t like to plant seedlings in conjoined cells, but these are all cherry tomato seedlings, and hopefully will undergo nearly the same growth habits.

- Coyote, Champagne Cherry, Bassett’s Bleen, Green Doctors, and Anna’s Multiflora.

[SQWIB]

Your kale plants may overwinter if mature and left alone, but you probabl already know that, mine have lasted two winters so far.
This was planted at the end of 2017 growing season, here is a pic February 15, 2018, you can barely make it out. I cut it back and it ended up as feed for some Rehab Animals at the AARK I mulched right over it.


It came back pretty good by the end of April.


Middle of June I let it flower


was cut back a bit and bounced back


cut back and still growing in September


October


I have been growing Perpetual Spinach and Kale here and pretty much keep cutting it back all season and giving to my daughter to feed some of the animals at the AARK.
This Hugelkultur bed gets pretty beat up by wind exposure and the plants don't seem to be bothered.

Hope you don't mind me cluttering up your page lol.


Question on your brassicas, I have some Baby Bok Choy and broccoli, do you think its too soon to start hardening them off? I was going to up pot them this weekend.
I pot-planted a Celeste fig that is supposedly hardy to zone 6, we will see if it makes it, My sage has made it through 4 or so winters with no problem, although it has never flowered it still makes for an attractive plant in the herb garden

I totally agree on not planting in "joined" pots.
I group mine by specific plants and as soon as they are up, they are moved off the heat mat to another tray, then potted up a few weeks later.

[applestar]

It got down to 23°F which is 3° Less than Forecast.

It got colder this morning than the forecasted 26°F, and consequently, my unheated garage went down to 38°F. So good thing I didn’t sent the tomato seedlings out there yet.

I thought 26°F was iffy but OK, but 23? ...waiting to go out and find out if the fig trees, peas and kale/lettuce/cabbage/BS survived.... I guess we will see. I MUST remember to factor in the typical difference of -3 to -4 °F in my own garden’s thermometers and local/amateur weather station readings .vs. forecast (usually based on “official” data taken in typically/often airport micro-climate).

The ones that went outside from the garage should be OK since they are used to mid-20’s and 30’s, but the peas might be a bit shocked or frozen even. Hopefully, the brick patio in the SE-facing house L corner where they are stayed a little warmer — but I forgot to replace the depleted batteries in my remote sensor there, so I have no way of knowing.

[applestar]

@SQWIB - I think your posts and photos help to widen the scope of mine and explain things more. I appreciate your taking the time to join and discuss issues and share your experiences.

Red Russian kale has been a permanent, winter surviving, self seeding crop for me out there. Every time, I think they might be gone, some popped back up. I’m hoping to add this Dazzling Blue to the selection. But Dwarf Scotch kale couldn’t make it through the winter. So I think there might be varietal differences.

Also, some years, the cabbage white butterfly have been too many, and those are inevitably the milder winters that are followed by hotter summer with more summer pests like harlequin stinkbug and the two kinds of cabbage moths. I have considered NOT leaving any of the kale to overwinter, but then they are at their best during the cold when not even the cabbage whites are around. Besides, there are too many other host plants for them around here — e.g. garlic mustard weeds and the farm fields of green manure mustards that are admittedly beautiful in bloom. So it won’t make much difference.

I think broccoli should be fine now but not sure about bock choy. I bet pepperhead212 might be more familiar with the Asian greens. I know the barrel-type Japanese variety of Chinese Cabbage I was trying to grow - Kyoto No.3 - was not as hardy.


What’s perpetual spinach? I haven’t tried that. Hmmm — is it a kind of Chard? The sage were started from seeds last spring and had been growing in the exposed windowbox-on-an-old-picnic bench. I Uppotted them to 1 gal and 2 gal containers for the winter but wasn’t sure if they would make it since they had not been established in the ground, so I put them in “Siberia”. I think they should be fine if planted in much larger container or an appropriate location in the ground. But last time, I lost sage because the location was full sun in the summer but full shade (house shadow) in the colder months, and probably also too moisture holding.... need to see if I have a good place to put them (white sage and broadleaf sage).

[SQWIB]

The perpetual spinach (Beta vulgaris var cicla) is a chard and while not a replacement for spinach that many claim, it's pretty close (smaller leaves). I prefer spinach but cant grow it. The way I mostly use this is small leaves cooked with a tad of oil, pinch of salt and red pepper flakes, then topped with Feta Cheese.

Or in a wrap with chicken and feta.



The leaves are fairly robust







You may also be interested in Lovage, it is also a perennial, I am hoping mine comes back this year.



I also had those nasties on my Horseradish plant.

[applestar]

Those baby plants seemed a little wilty yesterday after the exposure to low 20’s, but looked fine this morning.



I think I haven’t pointed out the one SIP of green overwintered as fall-sown seedlings yet. I had used the simple frame made with extra wire shelving and covered with double layer of plastic sheeting. The plastic sheeting was large enough to drape to the base of the SIP container. But earlier in February, windstorm yanked the tie-down pegs and the plastic had been completely blown off,after which I wasn’t able to securely tie it down.

Among the survivors are spinach (winter Bloomsdale and giant winter were what I planted), arugula, and lettuce (probably North Pole). The purple brassica might be Dazzling Blue kale or Purple Sprouting broccoli.


- I crowded 3 Brunswick cabbage and 3 Hestia F1 Brussels Sprouts seedlings in the SIP with the peas and lettuces.

[applestar]

I’m in trouble as I knew I might. I haven’t been feeling well and haven’t been able to keep up


— need to get organized —


...I discovered a really cool oddball among my already oddball.... This is what I’m calling “Goldfish” — I believe this is a “sport” of Fish pepper — a fruit that ripened to orange rather than red on a single branch on a regular variegated Fish pepper with fruits ripening to red. I grew out seeds last year, and the resulting single surviving plant produced orange ripening fruits. I’m trying again from original saved seeds since the over-wintered plant didn’t survive.

Among the sprouted seedlings, there was this chartreuse leaved cotyledon seedling. I’d been babying it in the seedzip and waited to see if I had overwatered it, but that didn’t seem to be the case, so I planted it in my usual doubled KCups initial container with a normal, green-leaved sibling. For comparison of colors, I’m keeping them grouped with normal and chartreuse-leaved Cherokee Tiger cross tomato seedlings (designated CTBS).

[applestar]

I’m still experimenting and learning how best to use the SIP’s for succession planting, but I HAVE found that they offer first planting opportunities in earliest spring outside. I added dolomitic lime and fertilizer and some potting mix to this SIP (KG.SIP3) and planted some Sugar Magnolia peas, Hestia F1 Brussels sprouts, and lettuce — Anuenue, Blushed Butter Oaks, and Jack Ice.

...Inside in the warm season seed starting area, I’m forced to switch to “time saving mode” which is less space and cost efficient, but will not require as much attention:

[applestar]

Busy, busy!

[applestar]

Something has started to sprout in my wintersown mixed greens/herb container. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what I so carefully arranged in a circle along the outer edge.

Does anyone know which of the three — spinach, arugula, or cilantro — sprouts with that intriguing pointed appearance?? You might think arugula would sprout first out of these but I don’t think these look like arugula seedlings

[SQWIB]

If I were a betting man, I would go for the Bloomsdale Spinach?