Applestar’s 2023 Garden

[applestar]

Some of what I did yesterday —

— Dug up the ginger that were planted after determinate tomatoes in VGD and potted them up. Also repotted turmeric that had been in way too shallow container. (Harvested loose roots — will be in the collage later.)

— I’m breaking down the picnic table hanging basket/container tomatoes and reusing the potting mix after supplementing with some perlite and a inoculation of home made bokashi fertilizer which hopefully with help counter any fungal and disease spores. Used the mix for ginger, turmeric, and for refreshing citruses (some under and some over the rootball)

No visible pests but hardly any earthworms either since I dropped the ball on “putting worms in every pot” this year. I did find maybe three and evicted two centipedes (they can be beneficial but also eat earthworm eggs) a couple of millipedes and pillbugs. ALSO found several hickory nuts and handful of acorns …one whole peanut in shell — stashed by squirrels and chipmunks

— more saffron crocuses opened today. For past couple of years, I harvest them by picking the flowers then separate out the red threads in the house.

DD2 doesn’t mind and helps me with this kind of detailed/minute repetitive task. She also came outside to help take down the nylon netting for this and other cucumber as well as watermelon trellis — all the knots and tomato rings that hold up the netting drive me crazy. Netting will be washed and stored for next year. They hold up for 3 to 5 years. Less if left out to weather over the winter.

— That last photo also shows I dug up and potted the two Fish peppers that had been growing there for overwintering (I did use some of that reused mix for these as well), and rearranged the lettuce that had been growing at base of the pepper plants, transplanted onion seedlings, etc.

[applestar]

Harvest collage for week of 10/15~21:

Tomatoes are winding down with most of the last of cherries harvested and vines cleaned up on 10/18.

Week’s highlights were the saffron crocuses and the Trifoliate orange ‘Flying Dragon’

10/16 forgot to take pic of the Flying Dragon (they were in a separate bucket waiting to be scrubbed) with the rest of the harvest.

10/18 Recovered and potted up some little aloe pups loose and/or on the ground when the mother plant fell out of the pot it was in while being moved to a more sheltered location

10/19 ginger and turmeric roots— not washing off the dirt … will be brushed off later

10/21 ventured out after rain had stopped to gather the sporadic raspberries and the day’s saffron. Seeing 3 more in bud. Possibly will surprise me with more later.

[applestar]

Day before yesterday, I had run out of time so I stuck my phone against the insect mesh covering the low tunnel of late-planted daikon and napa in VGC.R1 (Vegetable Gardenbed C Row 1), snapped a bunch of pictures in all directions and looked them over after dinner.

THERE WERE APHIDS!

So yesterday, I took off all three layers — insect mesh and two kinds of vented poly — and thoroughly sprayed with mixture of neem oil/liquid soap/garlic and hot pepper oil/vinegar extract. Then for about 5 minutes, gathered up what I needed to improve the low tunnel support structure, and then thoroughly rinsed them all, taking care to rub off aphids that were still clinging on.

I also thinned/culled stunted extra daikon as well as severely damaged ones that weren’t likely to improve much. And hilled to seat them … and in the process, found a slug that had damaged many of the leaves.

Afterwards, I re-constructed the tunnel. It looks much better.

[imafan26]

This is the down side of barriers. You have to keep them exclusive bucause when the pests get in they have too much fun.

[applestar]

That’s true @imafan. And the more secure you make the cover structure, sometime it’s harder and more cumbersome to open up and check for pests….

Today, I tackled the more advanced daikon and turnips (+some carrots) tunnel.

This one has been heavily infected by leafminer flies earlier on, as well as flea beetles, but looked much better overall than the other one. (I think it shows I do need to plant/start earlier like I did with this bed to get the crops to harvestable size… maybe even earlier if possible (using shade cloth, etc.)

I removed all the yellowed and eaten to central vein leaves before taking pictures.

I also snapped some photos to examine later and one of the daikon does seem to have some aphids, so I’ll have to spray them tomorrow, maybe. I did find one slug which was promptly dispatched.

[imafan26]

Yeah, I know that downside too. I did not pick a lot of my tomatoes because it wasn't worth the hassle of opening the netting picking a handful of tomatoes and sealing it back up again.

[applestar]

Snapshots from today —

[applestar]

I was overly ambitious to save and/or dig|pot up and overwinter during the past couple of days during this year’s “Great Fall Migration.”

Am aching all over and brainfogged, paying the price for over exertion.

Will report later when rested, but expecting to focus my attention on peppers (lots) and eggplants for my Winter Indoor Garden this year.

[applestar]

Trying to catch up —
Harvest Collage for LAST week

…final harvests including the last two large fruited tomatoes (George’s Greek Breakfast PL F4) as the cold weather set in … prolonging the Fall Garden with season extending low tunnels and cover layers … last of the started beet and lettuce seedlings transplanted under row cover in VGC.R2 along with the garlic and volunteer leaf celery … 3 of the four Greek Sweet Red squashes (reported on their weights earlier).

[applestar]

Some of the scramble before the freeze on Nov 2 morning….

Spiral Garden sensor tracks the outside temp; Sunflower Hoophouse sensor tracks the inside under extra layers.

…Now that the extreme freeze is over for the time being and we’re anticipating daytime temps in the 60’s, I have to take some of those extra covers off or create ventilation so they don’t overheat. …But the house and other shadows overtake earlier now with the sun angle being lower, so the periods of high temps in direct sun are not sustained.

[applestar]

Yesterday, I went out and cleaned up/took down the pepper arc supports and the squash trellis supports in the Spiral Garden.

I also removed some of the multi-layer protections from the extended fall/winter season garden inside the Sunflower Hoophouse. Particularly vulnerable plants like some of the potatoes had bubble-wrap bags over them, and leftover eggplants, and peppers that may yet be abandoned or saved had plastic or grocery store re-use bags, and napas had plastic drop cloth directly over them.

The heavily condensed plastic drop cloths are lifted up with hoops and other supports now.

…Happily that BIG Largo de Reus pepper that fell off while still green from the plant I had dug up and was prepping to pot up for overwintering is turning color among the tomatoes. I’m hoping this means the seeds inside are mature enough to be viable for planting next year (also, the two potted plants both have smaller green fruits on and will hopefully grow them to maturity in the Winter Indoor Garden before being sent into dormancy to winter over).

Yellow Cap has also colored up fully in the basket (good thing because the plants themselves are wilting — too much transplant shock?), and California Wonder Yellow has finished ripening on the potted up plant, as have the two Fish and Goldfish fruits.

~~~

In the middle of the chaos and stress, I had been undecided on saving all of the little 3-1/2” round and square pots of stunted SuperVar and ExVar Fish starts, but DD1 who helped with moving the plants into the house said “These are bébés…. We HAVE a to save the bébés!” And had brought them ALL in and put them among the base of the bigger container trees while I wasn’t looking.
…DD2 helped by cleaning up and making room in the various rooms where they were to go

And thus, the annual Great Fall Migration was successfully accomplished, AGAIN.

[applestar]

From left to right —

L: California Wonder Yellow
C: ‘Chocolate Cake X’ Plant #1
R: ‘Chocolate Cake X’ #1 fruit near top — looks darker in the photo but same fruit; ‘Chocolate Cake X’ Plant #2

#1 fruits are darker (normal) green
#2 fruits are lighter green and narrower

Both are about 4 feet tall.

[applestar]

Not ready to show pics yet — still a bit of a mess — but I took advantage of the still warmer day today and pounded in the T-posts I wanted to use to support the structure for my ‘BottleHut 2.0’ Side Yard Garden staging area.

I started playing with this idea a couple of years ago and model sketched/tested the idea with bamboo stakes, some thin PVC roof supports, and painters cloth thin poly, and string tie-downs…. Well, that only lasted for two or three gusty storms.

Last year, I began noodling an upgraded design for using T-posts as primary upright supports, but I ran out of time and the ground froze before I could get to it … and then discovered it took way too long in the spring for the ground to thaw again while seed starting and planting became overwhelming.

Now that these posts are in place, I can fiddle around with the rest of the structural supports and materials, and armchair design ideas.

Probably won’t bother trying to build the final structure before winter since that would only leave everything to the harsh weather for several months.

[applestar]

RIGHT NOW, the Sunflower Hoophouse is full — brassicas that were started in early July, growing with protected season extension, have been heading up, with broccoli and stick cauliflower already starting to be harvested. There are also Japanese single stalk and bunching scallions in there, Alcosa mini savoy and mini napa cabbages that are heading up.

There is also one fully mature producing Aspabroc (sprouting) broccoli that survived last winter — about 4 feet tall — that has vigorously resumed growing and have started producing mini heads… as well as one or two others that survived as immature starts that are just becoming productive — almost 2 feet tall. One purple kohlrabi that survived last winter and just matured two side shoots, as well as additional volunteer kohlrabi seedlings and lettuce that volunteered from plants that survived the winter and bolted in spring. The scattered seeds apparently didn’t feel ready to sprout all year but became active once the weather cooled down.

I’m also experimenting with growing “fall planted/started” potatoes, beets, daikon, and napa.

I left a couple of eggplants and peppers in there that almost definitely won’t survive the winter, but I don’t really have any more room in the house… so I’m just keeping them covered to see how long they can.

All of these will be mainly “EXTENDING” this fall season.

Judging from last winter’s experience, I don’t think I’m ready to go to the extreme measures to keep the hoophouses from absolute killing freezes in the teens and single digits. I just don’t have the ambition to go out in that kind of weather, so I can maintain it.

If the potatoes are sufficiently protected, if we’re lucky, the tubers will not freeze. The brassicas that survive will likely bolt in spring, but napa cabbages are supposed to have the sweetest, best tasting shoots.

Last year, I delayed getting back to speed in the garden too long, and almost everything in the Sunflower Hoophouse bolted before I could harvest anything salvageable. Planning to do better next spring.

This fall season, I missed the chance to try growing brassicas to about 4 inches — no more than 4 to 6 true leaves — for overwintering. Same with winter spinach and carrots.

Mature carrot roots so far will not survive the winter for eating, and can only become 2nd year seed producing bolted plant. Which is not entirely bad since the flowers attract the Japanese beetle natural predators.

[applestar]

Harvest Collage from last week (I thought I’d posted this already )

10/29 — The sweet potatoes were grown from slips that had overwintered in my guppy aquaponics experiment last year, and then potted up in that big black nursery tub.

I’m super encouraged despite the modest harvest — am going to try to expand on this overwintered cuttings/slips and container sweet potato experiment next year.

10/30 — With peppers being dug up and potted to overwinter, fruits were mostly removed intentionally except the big Largo de Reuse which I wanted to save seeds from, but broke off. As noted above, it’s turning red in the kitchen now so hopefully, the seeds are mature.

10/30 and 10/31 — Harvest photos were taken in the dark with flash because I was working past sunset, scrambling to protect everything from the anticipated freeze.

11/01 — Had a reprieve when morning temp didn’t dip as cold as predicted, but 20’s expected overnight, so harvested best daikon.

[applestar]

Third post in a row? Yeah well, I crashed earlier around 7pm and woke up a while ago, so ….

Took advantage of the upper 60’s day yesterday to use the rechargeable battery mini-chainsaw pole pruner.

Had a good minute of panic when the thing wouldn’t start - a tick, and a series of tiny beeps. Battery, check. Oil, freshly added. WHY!!??

Hubby was no help, predicting dire demise of the unit due to my unconventional and improper non-use of proper machine chainsaw oil — opting to using Canola oil. (I have VOC sensitivity and get brain fog and muscle weakness — while using a power tool? Not a good scenario.)

True, it seemed to have gummed up a bit, but all indicated advice said using Canola was possible as long as temperature remains warm-ish (I’ve picked 55°F as cut off based on varying advice). So I chalked it up to my utter lack of experience and ignorance, and likely insufficient clean up job at last use.

Gingerly took apart the chainsaw mechanism to assess — yep sawdust and chipped bits gummed in oil … oh, I didn’t take this part off last time … and the motor wheel is supposed to turn but it’s not … plus the chain is being a bit sticky and not flexing very easily.

So, a shallow cup of fresh Canola oil and a tooth brush to clean up a bit and the main gear turned click-click-click, as was supposed to, and I tested each link until they all flexed smoothly … reassembled and it worked fine when turned on, joyfully spitting excess oil.

Yay

Yes, people with experience with these things have said Canola oil can be used. And MY justification has always been that Canola oil was originally developed to replace Whale oil which had been used as the original machine oil until people learned to be (at least a little bit) better about our responsibility as Stewards for this blue marble.

Aches and pains deep in the core muscles after hefting and lopping down high branches of the overgrown Prok persimmon tree and others that absolutely needed to be cut before winter set in.

That’s what crashed me earlier — dinner and

BTW…THIS time, I thoroughly cleaned before putting away. — Today or before, it had picked up some kind of Nylon string bits — wrapped in the gear and inside the chain bar.

Chain bar groove was jam packed, too — didn’t know to check that last time — completely scraped the groove out with toothbrush and forceps

… Soaked the chain in fresh Canola to get the little bits of sawdust out.

Tried to pour out remaining oil in reservoir but it seemed to be empty — did I let it ran out at the end? Did I free up where the oil comes out while cleaning?

Not sure what more to do….

[applestar]

With the craziness of the past week+, I had STUFF scattered all over the back yard. Today, since it wasn’t too cold, I decided to pick up and wash all the discarded nursery pots and planters, and generally clean up.

With another 20’s morning lows looming, I also needed to check on the protective covers, and also finish “hilling” the fall potatoes in the Sunflower Hoop House.

Busy, busy….

Little broccoli heads are developing…. Everything in the Sunflower Hoophouse is doing really well.

I did harvest the lone purple kohlrabi.

[applestar]

4 foot tall 2nd year Aspabroc broccoli:

This is the primary head of the 2nd out of 3 major branches to have started heading up (already harvested the one from 1st one).

Excited to see the buds for the side shoots ready and waiting to develop after this one is harvested. I’m supposed to harvest the primary head early to encourage the side shoots to develop vigorously, so probably next time I’m in the Sunflower Hoophouse.

[applestar]

Largo de Reus in basket and “Chocolate Cake X” Plant #1

“Chocolate Cake X” Plant #2, Fish … (hard to tell in pic but possibly Goldfish if it doesn’t get any redder), and Yolo Wonder starting to color up

[Gary350]

Do the chocolate pepper taste like chocolate?

[pepperhead212]

My chocolate habaneros never taste like chocolate, but they are always some of the sweetest!

[applestar]

Yeah, these are sweet bell peppers and last year, tasted sweeter than the usual — close to the orange snacking peppers my daughter likes. Can’t say these would be representative of their potential since they ripened after being uprooted and brought inside.

Hoping they will overwinter and let me try growing as 2nd year plants.

I’m also hoping to resume my SIP experiments next year — @pepperhead shows us year after year how well the method works!

I’m ready to conclude my garden’s clay subsoil contributes to the slow warmup of ground temperature in spring to early summer, and most crop that are affected would be better grown in containers or hoophouses.

[applestar]

Yesterday’s random photos —

• Didn’t see frogs but the pond is full of tadpoles.

• Couldn’t resist harvesting these last drooping heads of sweet brown rice and almost full size figs that hadn’t frozen on the branches (still hard so maybe not actually edible).

— I did find a recipe for processing green figs but it started out by boiling them for 2 hours….

• I did a casual test of my little rocket stove —

* It was a reminder of how miserably bad I am at starting a fire …used up all the matches in a little box (abut 8 ) and was only able to burn up the dry grass, dry pine needles, and wads of paper towels I found in my pocket — didn’t reach the kindling twiggy sticks or the actual dry branches

* Of course I didn’t actually take it apart and make sure it wasn’t clogged (The metal pan is put on top of chimney for storage purposes only — I sit on it while tending the fire. That round pot has no bottom — froze off one winter when it was left out — and acts as top part of the chimney and to weigh down the pan so it doesn’t blow away.)

* I didn’t get the chance to make fire in the copper fire pit because I ran out of matches….

* Just as well since wind started picking up and would not have been safe if the rocket stove or the fire pit really got going

*** I did have the garden hose ready, just in case ***

[applestar]

We’re having bonus 2 days of 60+°F weather. Today, I’m going to prune some overhanging branches with the mini chainsaw pruner.

Yesterday, I took the opportunity to tighten up the Sunflower Hoophouse before the winter temps set in. I’ve done this in the cold before, but it’s much easier when the poly sheeting and the plastic tube clamps are more pliable in warmer temps and with the sun shining.

2nd layer 3-mil covering the roof, and wrapping the corners and closing up the end-walls, gables and door, as well as securing the side wallls with the bottom wigglewires. (DD1 helped )

I loosened up the interior protective coverings and had the opportunity to take some update photos of the Alcosa mini Savoy cabbage and broccoli… one of which had a pretty big resident spider in it.

There were also tiny Aphid Mummymaker wasps flying among the napa. They are not that effective at keeping down the aphid population, but they do slow the damage.

[applestar]

It’s Sunday and I’m still aching all over from the Friday’s pruning activities.

My neighbor had offered to prune the branches from their trees that had been growing way over the fence, and I offered my battery mini-chainsaw pole pruner to use.

He did the bulk of the work with the extra extension attached to reach the high branches.

Well, I had jokingly told my neighbor that once you start pruning, you always see “just one more” that *needs to be cut*…. And that’s exactly what happened — to him AND me.

I let him take the pruner to cut down some things that had been bothering him in his own yard.

And after he returned it, I tried using the pruner with the extension on some of the higher branches on my own trees that I had been wanting to prune.

I eventually gave up and removed the extra extension because for me. the extended length was unwieldy and made everything heavier and harder, but I kept going for a while longer, stopping often to rest when my heart was racing too much — I think it’s all the overhead lifting motion.

I got a lot done and am happy with the results.

I did have to give up pruning branches overhanging the pond, however — when I saw that first two small dead branches I cut fell in the pond and immediately produced blooms of floating oil droplets. I stopped immediately and used the skimmer net to scoop up willow oak leaves floating on the surface, hoping they will also snag the oil droplets and let me remove them — and that worked well enough that there were no larger coalesced oil slicks that could coat and suffocate the tadpoles and other pond denizens by the time I felt enough had been skimmed off (I was going to run inside and get masses of paper towels to soak up the oil if that didn’t work….)

Still feeling aches and pains, stiffness …especially in shoulders and neck … and deep fatigue.

Yesterday’s Potato Butternut Squash Soup (mentioned elsewhere) sure made everything better.

[imafan26]

I know what you mean about once you start pruning. However, the capacity of my green can limits how much I can prune. I also know about how heavy it can get using an extension on the pruner. The power pruner is worse because the wt is at the end. Although it hurts, sometimes for days, it is something that just need to get done. Usually, I end up sleeping with my heating pad after a workout in the yard.

[applestar]

It’s a shame you cannot keep so much of the materials for use — I generally separate the leaves and green twiggy branches into types for mulch or compost, dead/decomposing wood for hugelcultur (burying and soil building) and thicker healthy limbs for garden bed surrounds.

I’m also looking forward to finally getting the opportunity to learn how to use the electric leaf shredder/chipper.

I only get rid of diseased stuff preferably by burning to turn into hardwood or softwood/dried greenwood ash (different uses) or (ultimately) biochar … or when I just don’t have the time, energy, or inclination for burning, putting out for collection.

Until I have the chance to get to them, they are kept in different wood piles that are visited with enthusiasm by various wild birds (and of course other wildlife as well).

In fact, as soon as I cut down some of the dead mulberry and plum branches, chickadees, titmouses (titmice?) and downy woodpeckers, …and for some reason cardinals and blue jays came to visit and were excitedly going over those branches.

[applestar]

In the cooler and low humidity “winter” indoor temperature (especially right now when we’re not always using the heater yet), the ripe peppers keep well in a basket without getting moldy or turning mushy, IMHO.

They finish coloring up while slowly shriveling, intensifying their ripe flavor. (This only works if they have no bruises, insect damage, etc.)

* Note the Fish pods never turned any redder, so these two fruits from one of the overwintering peppers dug up from the Spiral Garden are ‘Goldfish’ (I lost track when I failed to label them in the garden — but it was always more likely that I planted ‘Goldfish’ in that prime spot, rather than ‘Fish’ )

— Bottom photo is Yolo Wonder, still working on ripening on an overwintering plant in the Green Room.

[imafan26]

A great winter harvest. I have some peppers I can harvest, but I want to see if the Giant Alcongua can get a little bigger. It hasn't turned color yet so I have time. The hot chilies are doing their thing, I don't have to worry about them. The birds will get them too.

I don't have space for a compost pile and it would be too near my house since the perimeter at most is 30 ft away from the house and 5 ft at the minimum. My whole lot including the house is 5400 sf. I think Gary's garden is the size of my lot.

As I am getting older, having to do less tree pruning is a good thing. I gave up my community garden because I just can't spend 6 hours in the garden any more. Even taking care of my yard is a stretch, but I am glad that it does keep me active even though I can't do a lot at one time and it takes me weeks to finish a project.

[applestar]

Not much going on — I haven’t been able to go out in the garden since we were so busy last week.

I did start some snap peas in the Winter Indoor Garden — some sharing one of the overwintering eggplant pot in front of a vertically positioned t12x2 fluorescent 4ft shoplight (Cool Gang near Winter Wonderland hanging overhead t8x4 fluorescent 4ft shoplight), and just a few more in 2”? cells in front of a vertically positioned t5 LED 32in (Green Room under hanging overhead t8x4 fluorescent 4ft shoplight).

I want to start some greens — lettuce, shungiku, mizuna — in milk cartons to grow on the windowsill — only one side of the house receives any direct sunlight now — and under lights. (This requires planning because if our kitty finds these, she’ll eat them….)

{I might add pics later}

The peppers and eggplants for overwintering are settling in, with near-ripe fruits harvested and immature green fruits either culled or deemed sustainable by the root and branch pruned plants. Some have deteriorated and are now mere sticks, hopefully in “dormant” phase, and others are slowing down with gradually yellowing leaves.

Sweet Potatoes that had been rescued for overwintering have fully recovered and ones in pots as well as ones still in bucket of water have started vigorously growing — potted one winding up intentionally positioned string support, and one of the bucket vines having found a power cord for one of the supplemental lights to wind and climb (I have to do something about them asap).

A couple of saved tomato plants are also establishing and growing, while just about all of the green harvested cherry tomatoes have ripened and have been consumed.

We’re looking at another dip in the temperature outside — forecast of 23°F will likely equate to as low as upper teens.

— I consider mid-20’s°F to be one significant mark for winter survival, and low 20’s dropping down further down into the teens as another critical mark.

I’ll have to get out there and harvest anything that’s ready … just in case.

[applestar]

Inside the Sunflower Hoophouse today —

I harvested all of the little broccoli side shoot heads and culled a couple of side shoots on the 3rd year Aspabroc, but decided to risk the 1/2~3/4 grown big central head on I think this is Green Magic.

Not in the bucket but also harvested the last cabbage and biggest mini Napa heads — both were still a bit loose and not completely filled.

…Decided the two remaining eggplants were either already dead or not likely to survive, and pulled the protective cover off of them to redistribute over other plants. The pepper plant is still alive so far, and potato tops seemed to be mostly intact. Fioretto 60 cauliflower might have looked a little wilted — it might be meant for summer vigor and not very cold hardy.

I ran out of energy and warmth (even though I was wearing a hat and a warm jacket) and gave up opening up the low tunnels to harvest the roots. Hopefully the ground is still warm enough that they’ll be able to fend off the low 20’s°F predicted for pre-dawn hours.

Snow flurries at 9:30am

[applestar]

I haven’t decided whether to start a separate thread for 2023-24 Winter Indoor Garden, but I HAVE been spending half an hour here, an hour there m, etc. going over the overwintering and winter project plants in the three areas I’m decided to consolidate my Winter Indoor Garden this season — upstairs “Yellow Room,” downstairs “Green Room,” and downstairs “Winter Wonderland/Cool Gang” areas.

My main projects this time are —

(1) study how to care for seed-grown container citruses and advance some of the older lemons and others that might be mature enough/ready to fruit production over the coming season. This will include
(a) winter care, including keeping them awake instead of dormant for early spring growth, and observing early spring and spring pruning/fertilizing schedules as appropriate.
(b) possibly venture into grafting citruses this coming season, including propagating Flying Dragon cuttings into root stocks next summer for grafting onto the following year.

(2) Overwintering dug up and potted peppers and seriously attempt to grow vigorous, large plants for early, high production and yields in the summer season

(3) Overwintering rooted and potted sweet potato vines and rooting cuttings of vines from this year’s sweet potatoes to get a jump on planting out in spring.

(4) Starting from seeds and growing some cool weather crop in the Winter Indoor Garden — Shungiku and snap peas have been started and are growing already. Lettuce and mizuna were also started but slow going — maybe time to buy new seeds.

(5) A couple of bonus tomato plants have been allowed to grow, but less focus on them this year.

(6) Also lower priority attempt to overwinter eggplants — 3 pots this year (vs. 1 last year …last years was heavily stunted by aphids and mites and never fully recovered during the summer. The peach fuzz leaves I think makes them harder to care for, same as tomatoes, during the winter. BUT eggplants’ propensity to grow multiple new buds may mean they can be re-invigorated into growth easier than tomatoes — like the peppers.)

[imafan26]

That is a big wish list. I will be interested in how you get peppers to grow larger. I have problems with premature flowering which basically stops growth.
I will be following your citrus grafting adventures. I have a 100% failure rate in grafting. I have a problem getting a straight cut. Wavy cuts don't work. I was told to practice with softer wood like hibiscus first then try the harder woods after I master that. It is also why I grow more citrus from cuttings. Meyer, calamansi, and Persian limes have done well. Kaffir limes grow well from seeds, but seeds are hard to come by. I think I am going to try marcotting the citrus.

Renewal pruning of peppers and eggplants works very well as some varieties of peppers can live for multiple years.

I don't know if it would really be worthwhile growing sweet potatoes over winter. Even here, I can grow sweet potatoes year round, but the growth and yield in the winter months is very slow and it does not yield well. Sweet potatoes need about 7 months of good light and warmth. I ended up keeping the vines longer because they really did not grow. Eventually they did produce sweet potatoes almost a year later, but by then, a lot of the potatoes were damaged by borers. My sweet potato vines are actually flowering now. So, they need to be harvested.

https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepub ... ES-146.pdf

[applestar]

I know what you mean about “perfecting” the cut. Partly, I try to remind myself that I’m watching videos of people who tend to do this professionally— in one video, the guy was talking about growing 1000 pots of rooted root stock in one greenhouse, and there being 2 more houses… not that he’ll do all of the grafting himself, but his movements were smooth and practiced.

Another point I want to mention is I think a wider knife with

angled /| flat cutting edge

rather than

angled /\ angled cutting edge

is supposed to be better for a smooth cut … and important to support the scionwood you are preparing on a padded immobile surface at first, until you can train your free supporting hand to hold steady OR —even better— move in opposite direction to the cutting stroke.

…THIS much I gathered and practiced the last time I tried. And by the time I was done, I did manage successful apple and avocado grafts. (Apple is neglected but still growing, avocado died from some kind of fungal disease.)

~ ~ ~

…I’m going to try taking cuttings and rooting them from the overwintering sweet potato vines. I learned I made the cuttings too short the last time I tried — you should bury at least 4 leaf nodes below ground for initiating potato-producing roots (when the rooted slips are planted), and still have 2~4 leaf nodes above ground for new growths.

[imafan26]

Actually, I have a grafting knife. Grafting knives come in left and right handed blades. Sometimes you have to be ambidextrous because of the angle you have to work with. People do use other knives and even box cutters work for the softer wood and you don't have to deal with sharpening and sterilizing the tools afterwards. The grafting hui uses cutting boards to prep the scions. That helps to get a straighter cut. But you can't always put the host plant on a cutting board, so I am trying to practice more t budding and side graft techniques. For this I am going to practice with softer wood and I even got a pair of cut resistant food safe gloves. They are not puncture proof if it is stabbed but offers more protection than nothing at all. For sweet potato vines. I layer them in the ground and after the roots form, then I cut them off. It just works better for me.

[applestar]

Haha — it slipped my mind that you are active in your local botanical community and have so much access to expert instructors @imafan!

[applestar]

Random pics from my Winter Indoor Garden —

* Only Meiwa Kumquat fruit to make it inside the house — accidentally knocked off one other fruit and harvested a few previously… but overall, sporadic blooming and fruiting this year which I hope to rectify next year

* One more Chocolate Cake X — Probably the last pepper that can be expected to color up. There are at least three more green ones that are probably better off being culled so the plants can enter their rest period (not quite ready for hibernation, but overnight Green Room temp should fall down to mid to low 50’s during the coldest winter weeks — late Dec to mid Feb)

* Casual tomato experiments and one of my usual onion bottoms


** Early Mizuna and lettuce have sprouted in the 1-2 gal rice milk carton. Thinned and “hilled” for first time today, eliminating late, runty seedlings and ones with yellowed irregular seed leaves.

[applestar]

Thinned, fertilized, and hilled Lettuce/Mizuna and Shungiku in their 1/2 gallon rice milk cartons yesterday. (9 days and 7 days since first seedlings started to sprout.)

…I did replace the polyethylene produce bags they were in with transparent poly ones since they looked a little light starved.

[applestar]

I finally got a chance to check up on the garden yesterday, but had to take care of some household chores first — like taking out the recyclables, putting some things away in the garage, and taking out the compostables.

The weather was dry enough at first — just super foggy and misting/spitting, but by the time I got around to the gardening part, it had started to rain, and rained heavily while I was puttering around in the Sunflower Hoophouse.

There were a lot of yellowed leaves that needed to be removed from the brassicas, and after they were all gone, the soon-to-yellow spotted leaves stood out.

The big broccoli head looks good but could grow a little bit more I think, so I left that in there but harvested a bunch of Aspabroc and also culled some of the interior shoots and sprouts. The young beets and daikon and napa are doing OK, but not particularly growing much. I probably should have thinned/culled yesterday, but I was focused on taking care of the bigger plants.

I did also harvest the biggest (but still small) Alcosa mini savoy cabbage since it felt firm, and one still skinny (about pencil thick) scallion because it was falling over.

I think I have to say the scallions were a failure — they keep disappearing/dying off. Maybe slugs are eating it?

I did find two slugs — one in the hoophouse, and one on a Komatsuna outside under a protective low tunnel (insect mesh+floating cover). I also reached under another tunnel and managed to get 4 lettuce leaves.

I also managed to extract one red turnip and one purple radish (mini daikon) from under another low tunnel (this one is so tightly closed that I gave up on trying to reach under and harvesting anything else — it was raining pretty heavily by then).

I didn’t include in the collage but those fall potatoes in the milk crates inside the Sunflower Hoophouse seem to have been freeze killed — at least the topmost foliage. The soil around the base of the stems were loose and the stalks looked solid so I’m just going to leave them alone for now and will only attempt to dig them up ahead of deep ground freezing temperatures like teens or single digits (I’d have to harvest any other harvestables then as well, and call the Fall season extension finished).

[imafan26]

Are you expecting much rain or snow from the storm system that is moving in the NE?