Applestar’s 2021 Garden

[applestar]

So, I scoured (searched) our site for mention of Tidwell German ... and it turned out I did grow it in 2014 - these must be my saved seeds and likely received original seeds in trade the year before.

IT was mentioned by Dr. Carolyn Male as a recommended Pink variety in 2014. I seem to have liked it as well.

Subject: Is There a Tomato Variety that Surprises You?

I don't know if surprise is the right word, but I'm gratified when tomatoes taste fabulous since I'm in pursuit of absolutely great tasting varieties that will henceforth be my regular returning favorites. One such reaffirmed is Terhune -- very stingy production but oh so good!

This year, Tidwell German managed to impress as well... and despite the rather low opinion of reds due to overwhelming supermarket tomato impressions, Wes and Neves Azorian Red were very very good.

[...]

Subject: Applestar's 2014 Tomato Gardens

Enjoy your harvest, Steve!
You are right. It's really fun to find the new ready to harvest treasures in the garden.

Yesterday and Today, there were more big tomatoes that I hadn't expected would be ready:



UPPER PHOTO
(Left side of cukes in a U)

Not Purple Strawberry (2)
Wes
Cherokee Tiger Large Red in 3 gal (2)
Mystery antho variety (was not Brazillian Beauty)
Amethyst Cream
Scarlet Knight or 42 Days
Terhune (2)

LOWER PHOTO
(Counter clockwise from top)

Ananas Noire
Faelan's First Snow
Tidwell German
Scarlet Knight
42 Days (2)
Runty Malakhitovaya Shkatulka
PL Variegated x Big Cheef Stripes
Flathead Monster Orange
Mystery antho variety (was not Brazillian Beauty)
Cherokee Tiger Large Red in 3 gal

Subject: Tomato choice advice

[...]Currently TERHUNE is my favorite even though not very productive but a fabulously delicious and healthy disease resistant indeterminate. Stump of the World is another good one. Tidwell German was really good last year and Soldacki the year before. Another one that may not be easy to find is Missouri Rose. A bunch of pinks are on my list at the tail end of the seed starting schedule. They may or may not get their chance this year, but I really want to try Berner Rose, Gritmire's Pride, Fishlake Oxheart, among others. Oh! You didn't mention -- are hearts OK to include?

WES is a really nice red heart but Neves Azorian Red was terrific last year.

[applestar]

According to Victory Seeds —

Tidwell German Tomato - Heirloom, Open-Pollinated, non-Hybrid Victory Seeds®

This is a family heirloom from the Tidwell family of Middle Tennessee who have been growing it since at least the 1920s.

— a bit more detail at the website — looks like a large beefsteak type pink with some drought tolerance but doesn’t like to be drowned.

This webpage with even more details mentions Tidwells are their ancestors —
Tidwell German Tomato - Heirloom, Open Pollinated Seeds from the New Hope Seed Company

[applestar]

OK, so I was reviewing Flathead Monster Orange (which I also grew back in 2014 — which means I probably received the original seeds in trade in 2013 — see photo above) and found a referencing post from back in 2014 by the grower who was working with the tomato enthusiast who created the original cross.

He said “... we know there is a pink version out there, and both RL's and PL's going around.” He mentioned that he sent out seeds that he received from the creator of the cross (which was probably my original source).

So now I‘M thinking I might be growing a still-segregating unstable cross from these 2014 seeds. I’ll have to be on the look out for the different fruit colors and leaf shapes. But if “orange” (looks ripe yellow to me but anyway) and potato leaf (PL), then I might be supposed to call this line “Orange Orangutan” ... I’ve reached out for guidance. Hopefully I hear back.

...it’s also possible that the segregates have been fully stabilized and made commercially available over the past seven? years, and I will be asked to NOT grow these or at least not share seeds from resulting fruits so as not to re-introduce instability to established varieties (...usually they tell you you can keep them for personal use — I have a few trade-acquired seed packets marked !!!DO NOT SHARE!!!).

[applestar]

This is a new configuration of recycled drink cartons I’m trying this year — two 1qt packs in a 1/2 gal pack fit exactly and saves space. 6 seedlings each might be a little tight but I needed to get these out of the tiny cells

#1- 1@ Yellow Mystery and White Wonder, 4 Wessels Purple Pride in zigzag
#2- 4 Homer Fikes Yellow Oxheart, 2 Indian Zebra Stripes [Burson Strain] — both in zigzag

[applestar]

Our kitty’s sutures have been removed, and she’s almost back to her old self

[imafan26]

yea! After the fur grows back it will hardly be noticed unless you feel for it.

[applestar]

We hope so. She needs a little extra attention for a few more days, then she should be able to go back to normal activities. We want her to take it easy for the time being, so we built her temporary stairs to get up to the bed.... She is continuing to wear her onesie and is wearing her “toast” collar to keep her from licking a bit of traumatized suture scab.

... I’m going to work on catching up with my seedlings — transplanted some of the seedzip-sprouted pepper seedlings today — these are going to be a bit delayed but I can’t put them outside for another month at least, maybe even 6 more weeks, so we will see....

[TomatoNut95]

Aww, your kitties are so cute!

[applestar]

I’m feeling the pressure now — Got 6 of the biggest out of those little cells. Note the variegated seedlings that are starting to show up ...remember, variegation typically begins to appear starting with 2nd set of true leaves.

...in case you are wondering, the 200 cell tray is shallower than the solid tray, so I’m maintaining an air gap while keeping supplemented water in the bottom as feeding reservoir. Long roots have escaped into the solution to keep the seedlings growing, but I can’t keep this up too long or they will suffer too much shock and setback when planted in potting mix.

[TomatoNut95]

I have two of your Shimofuri seedlings up! No variegation showing yet, they're still too young. But just out of curiosity, can you recall which generation of Shimofuri you sent to Ellie at Bunny Hop? I'd kinda like to keep a record of it, if that's OK?

[applestar]

Thank you for all of the positive thoughts and well-wishes. She’s feeling much better and just needs to heal up some suture-stressed scabby wounds in her left armpit where cancerous lymph nodes were removed (being protected here with the tie-dye bandanna over the left shoulder). She has graduated from the onesie to a shirt so she can go potty in regular litterbox on her own (the shirt helps to deter her from licking her long — very clean-looking and well-healed — belly scar and keep her naked underbelly warmer for a while longer), and is mostly roaming the house without need for supervision, barring any attempt to jump up to high perches, etc.

...in addition to the accouterments visible in the photo, her daytime-wear also includes a jingly bell collar normally reserved for supervised garden outings ...so we can keep track of her movements

[applestar]

I have two of your Shimofuri seedlings up! No variegation showing yet, they're still too young. But just out of curiosity, can you recall which generation of Shimofuri you sent to Ellie at Bunny Hop? I'd kinda like to keep a record of it, if that's OK?

I have no way of knowing which generation she actually has sold you. I believe she grew out at least one generation for her own satisfaction and to save seeds to offer. It should be close to stable, but she indicates varieties that to her knowledge are still segregating.

[applestar]

I had some seedzip-started pepper seedlings that germinated/sprouted and had been neglected. Some had grown true leaves that had gone runty and were struggling.

Aji Pineapple marked as possibly crossed with Brazilian Starfish had exuberantly sprouted to my surprise — all 5 of them, although the 5th was later and only just germinated.

I’ve forgotten the details — either I did microsurgery on the Aji Pineapple blossoms and intentionally pollinated with Brazilian Starfish pollen, or they were blooming at the same time in the winter indoor garden, and I intentionally left the flower trusses kissing each other.

At any rate, the seeds are from Aji Pineapple so it should be fairly obvious if the cross took. They have very different growth habits and plant characteristics. ...I don’t remember how they looked as seedlings though — look how skinny the seed leaves are, and how tiny these seedlings are compared to other average pepper seedlings.

I also had 2 struggling seedlings — only ones that grew — of my intentional Dwarf Arctic Rose x Utyonok. I have had trouble growing out this cross and trying again. A bit yellowed, but hopefully they will come back and grow for me.

I stuck them in here with the peppers since I had two spots left in my clear egg carton experiment. - - - I’m trying to come up with best way to use them. They are a bit too shallow used as just top or bottom half. I tried this way before and it’s cumbersome to have to cut up the upper part to extricate when planting, but the full egg sized volume, when potting mix is added to top off as the seedlings grow, works better. Right now, the slight subsidence in the potting mix creates an open dome for extra protection and humidity to the tender seedzip-starts.

... Sunset Aloha F2 is saved seeds from grocery store red-yellow striped pepper which was most likely a hybrid, but some one-line chatter indicated the trait was a mutated sport and can only be replicated by cloning, not seed reproduction. If nothing else, it should result in thick walled sweet yellow or red bells of good size... unless they used self-destruct gene?

...Oh, and the Goldfish (possibly x Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn? F2) is my own stable, orange-fruited sport of the classic Fish pepper — which I am calling “Goldfish” — that when grown out from saved seeds, one plant grew 2x larger than normal orange fruits. They were not intentionally crossed but had been unbagged and were growing overlapping branches in the same bed.

[applestar]

Here’s EGG1 peppers I did before. They’ve settled in well:

...and the peppers in paper dixie cups. I planted 2@ and am not going to separate them, but may cull one if that seems better than planting both. You can see some good variegation starting on some of the Goldfish X seedlings

[applestar]

Just started hardening off 1st tray of maters. Expecting to put together a larger protected setup to set out more seedlings on Monday or Tuesday.

Weather has made the usual sudden leap from too cold to too hot... and back again. Overnight forecast calls for 35°F with windchill.....

[applestar]

...wow I just realized... Today is my anniversary

Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm

[TomatoNut95]

...wow I just realized... Today is my anniversary

Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm

Congratulations!!

[imafan26]

Congratulation Applestar!

[pepperhead212]

Happy Anniversary!

[applestar]

THANK YOU

[applestar]

...watching this video to see if I want to try adopting some of these techniques from a Japanese market farmer — conventional greenhouse cucumber growing with tips for critical early pruning and training the vines to supports for best airflow and production. In an earlier video from 4/9, he mentioned that he is growing grafted seedlings:

キュウリの育て方は最初が肝心・芽かきと整枝方法　21/4/27 - YouTube

[imafan26]

Wow, that is dedication. I used to train tomatoes on a string. It is a lot of work tying and pruning but it does cut down on disease. It is hard to do it outside of a shade or greenhouse because taking off a lot of leaves does make it easier to see the fruit, but exposed the fruit to the sun if it is outside. It does allow for greater density since, it would be similar to square foot gardening where you can increase the number of plants if you can contain the space each plant takes up by pruning anything that gets out of its square.

[applestar]

I decided to “call it” on the pepper seeds that haven’t sorouted. During the final inspection, I found three seeds — rocoto olive x , rocoto olive Iso, and yellow cap had made last minute efforts to germinate in the Seedzip bags within the last three days since previous cursory inspection. I refreshed the moisture level of the vermiculite with fortified water (fill then withdraw excess) and put the bags under a cfl light for increased warmth and light. If they manage to pull their seedleaves out, I’ll plant them and see if they can continue to grow.....

[applestar]

We’re having this crazy weather where it’s Mother’s Day weekend, and we’re STILL looking at hi/lo temps of 60’s/40’s °F. My DIY frame high tunnel/green/rain shelter/screen house is on hold until I get my VIM back. And I lack the wherewithal to micromanage the seedlings in and out of the house and/or cover/uncover, move around chasing the sun.

...so I bought myself a present —

I’ve started moving more tomato starts out of the house. I will have the room to spread out and take care of the younger/smaller started plants better, and I have a place to hang out close to the garden. (I’ve positioned the structure so I might be able to also access it from the Green Room window via the back zippered door if I can figure out how to secure the screened flap up halfway….)

I’m hoping this will be my way onward to a fully charged new season.

[applestar]

She’s doing great! It’s just that her shaved-bare belly is keeping things a bit drafty, so she has to curl up tight to sleep. She’s wearing a shirt with back cut-outs so she doesn’t get overheated.

[applestar]

I spotted the tadpoles in the pond… there were at least 4 and these already have tiny legs growing —

F35CFBEF-A0A7-413D-8027-6F51B018C16A.gif (2.87 MiB) Viewed 864 times

...update 5/13 — I counted 14 tadpoles ...some with legs, some not yet.

Also released 5 of my less spectacular guppies in the pond because there were some mosquito larvae. I wasn’t going to put any in the pond, but the tadpoles are useless in that regard Since they are vegetarian right now, but will potentially Start eye-ing up the guppies as potential food as they transform into frogs.

[applestar]

Inside the hoophouse— struggling to keep up….

— there is another windowside full upstairs, too….
{Reality-check here is that I should harvest plenty of tomatoes if I just planted the biggest ones of these and forgot about the rest…. }

…These have GOT to be planted by this weekend…
* Allons-y,Dr.X (RM1Q)
* VolVGC BackCtr (RM1Q)
* Wes
* Steelhead
* Michalych
* Flathead Monster
* Terhune (RM1Q)
* White Wonder (RM1Q)
* TerhuneX
* Grightmire’s Pride
* Yellow Mystery (RM1Q)

…to be fair (to myself) it DID get down to 40°F last night — as it did down to low 40’s for the last several nights…. I think these are yellowing because of that, but are managing to stay above the critical threshold — and if it weren’t for the +3~5°F differential to unprotected temps and the 80’s~90’s the interior reaches from about noon to mid-afternoon which help them recover from the overnight chill (only in the 60’s outside the hoophouse), they would be showing severe cold damage and deterioration by now. So there IS that.

Creating a planting area/setup that is protected obviously works as evidenced by some of the other fabulous gardening member posts and experiences. I can’t wait to get my projects back on line again. Definitely for next year, but hopefully some of it this year

[applestar]

I got outside to do some heavy gardening work for the first time this season — so you can guess how far I have to go and do to catch up with everything that should have been done a month ago.... It will take time to build up my endurance again. Today, I didn’t obsess over completing any one project, but took care of priority issues and preparations that will make it easier to get to work on the next step.

- First thing I did was to REALLY look at the much neglected plastic compost bin. It hasn’t been turned over etc at all and have been stuffed with paper grocery bags of kitchen scraps as they were generated, interspersed with TP cores. One obvious issue with it is it has not been kept at the optimum moisture level, so nothing has broken down with any kind of speed — meaning ants, and possible/likely occupation by field mice.

Well, when I opened the lid, the last bunch of paper bags had hardly sank, meaning there was hardly enough space to pack in 4 or 5 more new bags that had been tightly closed up in the outer plastic grocery bags and left lying around just inside the wire fence surrounding this particular garden bed area.

But I was determined to get this chore done today, so I flipped that lid off with some enthusiasm — and found myself face-to-face with the garter snake — coiled up on the (dry) top-most paper bag and testing the air between us with its tongue. But, you know me by now — my first thought was “Oh darn! I left my iPhone in the kitchen!” Of course, it ducked down into the pile between other bags and was out of sight almost immediately. I could put the bags of kitchen scraps in, but wasn’t going to be able to dump in the bag of TP cores unless I shoved and packed the bags down, and I was concerned that I might accidentally trap the snake, so instead, I left the bottom compost harvesting door open and left the area, and then later went back and disassembled the bin to turn the contents into a windrow pile, using the bin components to loosely cover and hide. This will let the pile get well and soaked (next rain or when I have the chance to water it) and hopefully Speed up the decomposition so I can get it to at least half done level so they can be trench composted.

- I moved to the other side of the house (and heard rustling along the patio — I wondered if the snake had escaped the commotion at the compost bin and made it all the way to the patio?) ...and cleaned up the VG Garden area a bit. The TOTALLY neglected two 5 foot double rows of garlic Was a jumbled up mess under the insect screen tunnels, but many of them seem to have survived not being harvested last fall and are growing. Some in clumps that are obviously the entire split-clove bulb (which I had intended/hoped to dig up and re-plant separately this early spring, but couldn’t get around to. I’ll decide what to do with them later. At least they are freed from the tunnels and somewhat weeded.

- I also tried to clean up the Pallet Sided High Raised Beds — I need to refresh the soil later — and the VG-A bed. There are huge Poison Ivy leaves under the cherry espalier ...

- There are HUGE poison ivy everywhere I look actually — along one edge of patio, under the garden bench, along the fence, ... etc. — result of neglecting to eradicate all seedlings and eliminating as much as possible last spring, then allowing them all to grow rampant last season, then this spring’s seedlings, as well. I need to get on with taking care of them before they get too, TOO big.

- When I got back to the patio, I tried looking in the pond, but didn’t see those guppies. I might spot them once the sun is shining into the pond... BUT, when I went to wash my hands at the patio spigot, the snake — which btw my DD1 has now named “Sam” —dashed from behind the hose reel along the base of the hoophouse. It was thrashing around trying to find a way in to get away from me, so I told it to calm down and go find somewhere else to hide. It slithered to the front of the hoophouse, and I wondered if it could Really find a way inside — but when I followed it, I saw it’s tail rounding the other corner of the hoophouse. IF Sam is hanging around the patio like this, I wonder if the guppies ended up as snacks? Maybe I will be finding less tadpoles, too.

- Oh! …and I saw a hummingbird!

[applestar]

This is one of my overwintered Fish peppers from the Winter Paradise Penthouse. I’ve started hardening it off, and to my surprise, it had a nearly ripe fruit on it that I hadn’t noticed.(you can see it still had visible stripes)

If you look closely, you might be able to tell that it had been badly infested by mites earlier on in the winter. The good news is it seems to have recovered somehow, and has a good amount of new growths already.

This begs the question HOW did it recover from the mite infestation?

Normal years, I buy one or two packages of predatory mites with (supposedly) 1500~2000 mites. When I distribute the mites, it’s true there are signs of improvement within 2 weeks or so.

HOWEVER, this year, I didn’t get any because during the timeframe that I normally purchase them, The COVID case numbers and infection rates in the source states were astronomical, and I questioned if there was any chance I would be importing and scattering thousands of possible carriers inside my house.

I wonder now if my Garden Patrol native predatory mites that I know live in the garden and protect my plants outside during the season also carry on with their natural lifecycle and spend their dormant winter season as eggs in the container plant potting mix, etc. And they wake up sometime during the winter a little earlier due to the moderate temperatures and just proceed with preying upon the infestation of mites they find…?

[applestar]

There are huge Poison Ivy leaves under the cherry espalier ...

- There are HUGE poison ivy everywhere I look actually — along one edge of patio, under the garden bench, along the fence, ... etc. — result of neglecting to eradicate all seedlings and eliminating as much as possible last spring, then allowing them all to grow rampant last season, then this spring’s seedlings, as well. I need to get on with taking care of them before they get too, TOO big.

Took care of the poison ivy that was crawling along the edge of the patio behind the grill yesterday — one large farmers market bag and a medium I think big box store bag.

LISTEN — BREAD BAG ...you know those narrow long ones a loaf of bread comes in? — EXCELLENT to use as a layer of protection. I used a bread bag on my right hand (covers me almost to my elbow, but I’m short) and a produce bag on my left, then filled the two plastic bags holding each of them as if I was picking up dog poop — You have to hold onto the bag handles with the left hand — pulling taught and being sure not to let the ivy parts beyond the opening as you yank and could up to manipulate through the two bag layers ... then eventually turning the bag inside out and tying closed.

To help with my campaign to eradicate the PI’s I took pictures and then used the photo editor’s magnifier tool to circle the PI’s in red. This way, I won’t be saying “Oh, poison ivy! Gotta remember that when I get around to taking care of it” ...over and over again anymore. I’ll have the targets marked, and can pre-plan my attack including number of bags needed, etc....

[applestar]

I looked as much as I could, but my seed stocks are scattered in various locations, some securely “put away” ...and I could NOT get my hands on the cucumber seeds, so I HAD to shop around for some (of course).

I ended up ordering these seeds —

Fioretto 60 Cauliflower (F1 Hybrid, 60 Days)
Adelaide Carrot (F1 Hybrid 65 Days)
Mokum Carrot (F1 Hybrid 54 Days)
Picolino Cucumber (F1 Hybrid 52 Days)
Poona Kheera Cucumber (Heirloom, 53 Days)
Suyo Long Cucumber (65 Days)


...it’s going to get HOT for the next several days, and the temp inside the hoophouse jumped to 108°F today. I rushed to set up a fan — could NOT find the one I was looking for, which is a high output but noisy, industrial model that had been put way in storage in favor of newer, tower models. But I did dig up an old desk-top personal air filter ...its white housing yellowing from age and completely dust covered. The HEPA filter when removed was thick with lint and dust. I set it up with just the internal foam filter out in the hoop house, and the temperature alleviated right away.

(the precipitous drop indicates when the house shadow blocked the sun)
It’s going down in the 50’s overnight. I didn’t think of it earlier, but I have one of those thermocubes (somewhere ...I do have a pretty good idea where that is ). I’ll put it on tomorrow so it doesn’t run all the time.

[applestar]

I haven’t been able to spot the 8 guppies I put in the pond. I don’t know if they are still around. I did notice that the 3 I put in a bucket near the Veg Garden area had originally stayed near the surface like they have always done inside, but had taken to staying near the bottom of the bucket and would sometimes jump out of the water, startled, and rush to dive when I walked by. So I suppose they have had some scary encounters with birds, etc.

Today, however, when I first looked in the bucket, all I could see was a bunch of little tiny things swimming in jerkey motion, and I thought OH NO! THE GUPPIES MUST HAVE DIED AND MOSQUITOES TOOK OVER!

Then I looked closer —

(you may have to zoom in to see them — tap or click on the picture)

[applestar]

I’ve been starting on the corn and cucurbits — pre-germinating then pre-planting.

Started with first batch of corn with Mushroom F1 Popcorn — I sowed them in these cells which are small and doesn’t give me wiggle room for failure prevention, but I’m trying to discipline myself this year.

I can combine limited number of different seeds in the sprouter when they can easily be differentiated. So I know these black watermelon seeds that germinated today are Jubilee.

I’ll sow them in 4 inch pots tomorrow.

[applestar]

Mushroom F1 popcorn have started to sprout

Soaked overnight and trying to germinate —

5/21 - soaked for pre-germ

* Squash Greek Red BC’17
* Pumpkin Jaune Gros de Paris vendor’16

* Corn Latte Bicolor F1 Fedco ‘19

* New Zealand Spinach vendor’17

* Watermelon OrangeGlo VGBPSRB’18

* Melon Honey Rock musk HBR’17
* Melon Montreal Market musk Fedco’19

* Melon Korean F2 HBR’17
* Melon Sweet Freckles geoffrey’17

[applestar]

* Oldest Mushroom F1 popcorn seedlings have 2 leaves. In that video I posted elsewhere, the old lady farmer said best size to plant in the garden has 3 leaves with 4th one starting.

* Germinated+sowed
- Cucumber Picolino F1 (R4 x3)
- Cucumber Suyo Long (R4 x4)

* Uppotted last best of the variegated seedlings
- 6 Faelan’s First Snow … 5 in this 6 pack cells and 1 in a 4” pot
- Last one of my Shimofuri (霜降り)F8 from the Winter Indoor Garden (bottom right corner cell)

* Brought the Venus Flytrap out from the Garage V8 Nursery where it has been catching bugs as you can see by the full traps. You can even see a sucked dry pill bug shell about to be discarded
- I’m going to uppot this … peat moss/pumice gravel is soaking now, and the mixture will be rinsed twice before using

…also sowed Fioretto 60 F1 Cauliflower to start in clear plastic eggcase

[applestar]

Ha! I’m hurting all over, but proud to have finished double-digging and trench-composting the Apple Guild Border to plant some of those tomato starts that are desperately waiting for their forever home.

It looks like the last time I planted tomatoes here was in 2015. I planted on the inside of the fence then as well, but those competed too much with the Enterprise Apple tree and DIDNT do so well. The tree is much more wide spread now, too. But I think I should be able to get at least 10 tomato plants to grow in the border. Still trying to decide what to use for support.

Subject: Applestar's 2015 Tomato (and Pepper and Eggplant) Garden

Got the Multiflora cherry tomatoes planted in a new bed. These will be trained as cordons and some of them will get to use the special spiral stakes. Others will have to use regular bamboo stakes. ...the rest of the cherry varieties will be going in after the plastic covered area dies down a bit...

[applestar]

Yes, I think there might be a vole problem. (Did you notice the perfectly round hole in the sidewall where I dug? …top-left frame)

I’m counting on the snake to keep down the population. I saw/we surprised each other today when I stood on a raised flagstone by the pond, and the snake came rushing out from underneath to jump in and swim across.

[applestar]

Pre-germinating seeds is a terrific way to timewarp as long as you don’t mind micromanaging the seed starting process. Those new cucumber seeds from 5/22 and some of those melons and corn from 5/21 have already germinated.

It’s actually kind of daunting to find this first thing on the morning —

Now that I have the hoophouse to grow the seedlings during the initial stages, the extra heat should help them grow much faster. (At least two of the germinated Jubilee watermelon sown on 5/22 were starting To sprout today.)
I’ll decide later if I want to also incorporate low tunnels or plastic mulches to push the heat retention that are said to help the cucurbits. I need to put together a good irrigation system, and I’m not sure if I will be able to get that done.

Plus seeing that vole hole is making me think twice about using plastic mulches this year….

[imafan26]

I still have some fish pepper seed. I like their variegation too. They are a few years old but I may still try them sometime soon I hope. I still have space issues in my garden.

[applestar]