Applestar’s 2024 Garden

[applestar]

I needed to start a new garden thread for this year, but I really haven’t done much yet, even though I’ve been meaning to.

I went out in the garden for the first time this year yesterday because the gusty winds had managed to yank out one of the 6 ground stakes holding down the Sunflower Hoophouse tie down straps. The loop of the straps had been flung completely off and I needed a tool to lift it over the roof again — luckily, my handmade persimmon picker with the long bamboo pole handle worked great.

Things inside the hoophouse looked good. I cleaned up diseased leaves from the broccoli, and harvested one of the half-grown Alcosa cabbage heads to eat with lunch.

We started harvesting a couple pods here and there from the Winter Indoor Garden snap peas on 1/7, and have been harvesting eating-size leaves of Early Mizuna, Shungiku, and lettuce since NYE.

I’m also growing wheatgrass this year — started as a treat for our kitty but have expanded to sufficient crop to harvest and juice with wheatgrass juicer that had been hibernating in the back of the pantry … discovered during year-end pantry clean out.

[applestar]

With some extreme weather approaching, I fortified myself with a grilled cheddar cheese sandwich and a latte, and went out to add protection to the veg’s still growing inside the Sunflower Hoophouse (SFHH).

The forecast for the coming week includes nightly subfreezing temps in the 20’s and teens … possibly dropping down to single digits, 4 days, two out of which with consecutive daytime highs below freezing, and snow to boot.

I felt like I should give up on the beets under the one row tunnel (old vented poly + insect mesh + floating cover). I harvested the jawbreaker sized beets as well as some nice lettuce, and stripped the floating cover and the insect mesh to reallocate as additional protection for others — the Komatsuna row was given another layer of floating cover after harvesting all of the larger leaves.

In side the SFHH, I harvested all of the eating sized broccoli side shoots as well as another one of the not fully headed Alcosa savoy mini cabbage, and then added protective covers and set up the 1” pvc for the 2ndary snow load support (JIC).

[applestar]

Looks like strengthening the roof snow load support was the right call —

…This is an ongoing experiment to SEE if it’s possible to keep gardening all winter.

Some plants in the hoophouse “survived” last year but I wasn’t able to go out and harvest during the winter when they could have been — partly because I was TOO THOROUGH about blocking the door.

It didn’t occur to me that the poly sheeting and greenhouse film that I was desperately trying to keep from flapping in the fall storms would then FREEZE to the ground.

This year, the doorway surround is less elaborately, but more effectively weather-proofed, and I’m taking into account the rapid thermal loss during the night after ground has been warmed during sunny daylight hours (can’t remember what that’s called but I posted about it last winter while researching for science to explain the lower temps INSIDE). This morning’s lowest temperature differential between outside vs. inside under the covers with the broccoli was +6.5°F. (Actually 22.2°F vs. 28.8°F). Next few days’ dip into teens and wind-chill in the single digits will be another test.

[applestar]

9.9°F vs. 22.3°F last night. But the low 20’s gals below one of the critical milestone temps of 25°F, and There might be localized micro-variation that puts the temp even lower — closer to the next critical of 20°F, so survival is iffy for some of the crops inside the Sunflower Hoophouse….

[applestar]

11.8°F vs 25.3°F

[applestar]

16.2°F vs. 24.8°F

…I think the lower SFHH temp this morning derives from losing the frozen down tighter covering and the snowcover insulation that helped with the heat loss, since the sun warmed enough to slide some off the roof….

I can’t see from this side, but presumably, without direct sun, the north side of the roof retained the heavier snow cover longer until the hoophouse heated up (to 51.4°F yesterday, while outside temp only went up to 29.8°F).

[imafan26]

It looks good. The plants look good even at those below freezing temperatures. I know some cole crops can take a lot of cold. I am surprised because I would never have thought that a plastic skin would handle wind and snow well.

There really is no application here for a plastic hoop house except maybe as a temporary rain cover. The covering for hoops here are either bird netting, insect fabric, or shade cloth.

[applestar]

Especially during the winter, I’ve always given the rice rinsing water directly to the Winter Indoor Garden potted plants, but I recently watched a YouTube video titled “You’re using the rice rinsing water all wrong!”

In it, the point was if you *CULTURE* the rice rinsing water, especially the FIRST rinse water (with some of the milled outer bran coating on the rice grains in it) after rubbing the grains, you get more nutritional and beneficial microbial value, and increase the concentration so you can dilute by 1:10 to 1:100.

I was a bit skeptical but tried it — save the first rinse water (about 1L) in a reused plastic 1.5~2L soda bottle, and add 2 packets of sugar per Liter of the rinse water. Cap tightly and shake once a day or so for a week. The solution should start to bubble and smell sweet to slightly wine or sake like, not nasty. Loosen the cap once in a while and release pressure.

Adding sugar DID result in pleasantly aromatic water instead of the more spoiled manure-like malodorous solution. I think the difference is that the less desirable anaerobic microbes and mold spores end up growing, instead of the more beneficial lactobacilli a that could be cultured with the sugar to out compete.

After about 1 to 2 weeks, start using diluted 1:10 water to build beneficial soil microbes (probiotics) for your plants, or diluted as much as 1:100 water as maintenance when watering them.

It’s a simple way to stretch your rice rinse water’s benefits.

[applestar]

Not a whole lot to report, but here are some random photos of the Winter Indoor Garden experiments and seed starts that I have going

Top Left — potatoes in a smallish pot that sprouted. Not very encouraging actually…

Top Center — dabbling in hydroponics — started seeds (Manoa lettuce, Parade bunching onions, and Green Jewel mini pak choi) in cut up kitchen sponge in these mini-cells with 1/2 gal rice milk carton as reservoir — these will be transferred to larger growing cells and separate reservoirs after sprouting (1/27)

Top Right — carrot seeds sown in a 1/2 gal milk carton (1/20 — nothing yet)

Left Center — compot started seeds for Manoa lettuce, Rosemary, Marjoram, and Marveille de Quatre Saisons lettuce (1/22) Manoa sprouted first, and the little ones I’m pretty sure are rosemary, which surprised me (the scribbled chicken scratch labels don’t line up and these seedlings seem to be forming a line exactly between “rosemary” and”marjoram”….

Bottom Left — Thursday’s suddenly warm temperatures brought dense fog rising everywhere, especially near water — we’re about to drive over a bridge across a lake and you could hardly see the surface

Bottom Right — one of my 5 “token” Winter Indoor tomatoes — best performing. Unfortunately unlabeled, but am pretty sure this is one of my S7xA micro dwarfs, and has fully opened first floral truss yesterday-today

[applestar]

Today, I harvested all of the remaining colored and semi-colored peppers in the Winter Indoor Garden. Some were starting to shrivel. I get careless because they don’t spoil quickly like they do outside.

Another overriding reason to pick them all was to actually let the overwintering peppers rest. We’ve had what should have been the coldest days this winter and the days are starting to lengthen.

The peppers will start “waking up” and sprouting bunches of new leaf buds by mid- to late-February or so.

As you can see, some of them have refused to wind down despite the cold and most of them have been forming flower buds off and on. But I keep pinching them off.

— ETA —

This year, I’m experimenting the overwintering process by leaving most of them on slow maintenance in a low temp indoor space of the Green Room rather than defoliating them into sticks and plunging them to hibernation mode in the unheated, dimly lit garage where they normally stay until just before the deep freeze when even the garage temps can fall down to mid~low 20’s. They then need to be rescued before low-20’s to avoid loss, and even then some of them have slow recovery.

So far in the Green Room where they are on the floor beneath the taller large container plants, lowest temp has been in the mid-50’s°F which I deem to be sufficiently cold (based on @imafan’s reports of her Hawaiian climate).

I have been feeding them minimally~lightly, contrary to most instructions for peppers, but in keeping with instructions for winter maintenance of citruses and figs in warmer regions.

In addition to removing flower buds as they formed, I removed the largest mature leaves to reduce transpiration loss, and trimmed back each plant when all fruits were harvested and continued to remove any leaf showing signs of deterioration, to minimize need for maintenance efforts while they rested. I also limited watering during the coldest days, which coincided with lowest humidity due to the house heater running 24/7. But the lowest was still around 50% which hopefully has been keeping mite populations from exploding.

In keeping with this method to minimize stress, I’ve opted to spray with neem oil/potassium bicarbonate/soap occasionally and more frequently as needed, rather than releasing/relying on Indoor Garden Patrol this winter, although there have been some spiders and aphid mummy maker wasps helping out.

[applestar]

By end of January, I’m eager to start seeds for the new season, but it’s way too early for summer crops and the more tender spring-starts. So I’ve started pre-germinating the cool season, early spring crops like lettuce, broccoli, and radish.

I transplanted some of the Manö lettuce seedlings from 1/22.

[applestar]

It’s only taking one day for some of these radishes and brassicas to germinate.

I potted up germinated and sprouted seeds for Green Jewel mini pak choi, Pixie mini cabbage, Kolibri and Kongo kohlrabi, and German Giant radish

Some of these will go in my hydroponic experiment, others will be uppotted or transplanted later in conventional manner.

Center photo of milk carton shows one of the carrots in here from Jan. 20th has sprouted.

[applestar]

These are MORE pre-germinated seeds that have been planted. Lettuce, turnip, radish, broccoli, kohlrabi, mini cabbage, mini pak choi etc.

I realized if I start with coir pellets at this stage, I can choose next stage — container, hydro, or even direct to outside gardenbed later.

I was going to revisit soil blocks, but my problem with them is that it’s not as easy to dig a deep enough hole to nestle the germinated seeds in them, and they do take up a lot of space.

As you can see, so far, these little coir pellets are demonstrating versatility in numbers and shapes/sizes of containers to fit into nooks and crannies in the Winter Wonderland growing space ….

Here is my best Winter Indoor Tomato, and some of the snap peas in front of the Cool Gang vertically positioned 4 ft T-12 shop light —

[imafan26]

I like using the cupcake containers for seeds. I considered using an oversize muffin container but decided against that. Actually I was going to use it as a tray for my 3 inch pots. I don't pre germinate seeds much because I am not adept at transferring them without causing damage. But it could be something I could do to test seeds right now. I just put more seeds in a pot when testing and that is usually when too many germinate.

[applestar]

I use a pair of bamboo skewers, holding them like chopsticks. Sharp pointed ends are better for fine manipulation than regular chopsticks.

Also, dry things stick to them when they are wet, and wet things cling to them when dry. A cup of water and a paper towel to create either condition as necessary increases their value.

[Vanisle_BC]

Applestar; soill blocks have their pros & cons but I'm surprised to hear you say they take up much space. I regularly put 60 two-inch blocks on an 11x14 inch baking tray. It has a lip and can hold about 1/4" of water. The blocks and seedlings get transplanted to grow on in pots or (seldom) straight out to the garden.

[applestar]

My mom had to move into a smaller apartment at her LTC facility, and I lost a lot of my own space to her belongings when she downsized. I’m still trying to organize….

I won’t need to grow entire trays until tomatoes and peppers are uppotted.

For now, I’m nestling smaller units — of the expanded small coir pellets and cut up plug/cell trays in recycled water reservoir trays of egg cartons (great for utilizing narrow spaces), take out and bakery clamshell containers, etc. — in available spaces.

I’m thinking I can create temporary accommodations for the growing collection of just sprouted seedlings if I reallocate a wire shelf unit I’d bought for organizing the back door area for the time being….

I’m also going to experiment with growing radishes and turnips, kohlrabi, beets in simple recycled container hydro setups — I saw these last year and was intrigued — these round root vege’s that typically grow halfway out of the ground can grow in cell trays over nutrient solution reservoir trays and end up filling up and pushing up out of the cells.

There is a Japanese YouTuber growing cut up cells in 2L bottles and another YouTuber in 1/2 gal milk cartons on their sides. If I emulate this method, I could probably set them out in the Patio Hoophouse in March and still grow the warm season seedlings inside the house until they need to be uppotted.

[applestar]

I REALLY need to go out and check on the Sunflower Hoophouse, but haven’t been up to it.

Here’s a quick collage of some of the seedlings and onion bottoms in the Winter Wonderland, and the tomato in front of the Cool Gang light with first fruitset.

The onion bottoms are from trademarked, named sweet onions, which I believe is actually grown from Vidalia (I could be wrong, but that was the variety name mentioned on their website). So it will be interesting to see if I can get these to bulb by the end of this onion growing season. I intend to separate ones with multiple shoots into separate plants once the roots grow out. I usually plant them out around last week of March~early April.

[imafan26]

My onions I bought from the market are sprouting and I haven't had them very long. I have to cut them up and freeze them but I did use the green part as green onions and they have a very mild flavor. They were just very expensive green onions.

[applestar]

Yep. Even if they don’t form bulbs, onion bottoms as well as scallion bottoms easily grow back, and can be ready-to-pick as needed source of fresh green onions in your kitchen garden.


I DID go outside yesterday — took care of the compost pile and looked inside to check how the Sunflower Hoophouse vege’s are doing — the temperature and humidity have been all over the place lately, so I knew I was going to find some issues.

The grey mold had spread on the broccoli — I pulled off a whole bunch of affected moldy and yellowed leaves, and a couple of small immature heads including two central heads that had been affected with the floral head stems turned mushy.

Napa seems to be unaffected by the grey mold and have been surviving the cold temperatures. Even if they don’t head up and bolt instead as we approach spring, they are said to be very tasty at just before blooming stage of flower buds. So I need to be careful of aphid infestation which ruined them for harvest last year.

I was able to harvest some of the side shoots from the others though.


…Inside for the Winter Indoor Garden, I re-seeded the row of sponges since Manoa lettuce didn’t come up (I need to get fresher lettuce seeds). I’m trying Kolibri and Kongo kohlrabi this time.

In the middle row, Parade bunching onions have all germinated and/or sprouted (even the ones that look empty are on their way).

[imafan26]

When the temperature changes so much and goes from wet to warm, the fungal and bacterial issues appear. It is really hard to get ahead of that.

[applestar]

Our second kitty is deteriorating. She has ulcers on her belly that needs daily attention.

She is “fashionably dressed” in the latest style — a black sheer stockinette body suit to hold her wound dressing, and a fancy Toast or an Orange slice collar that is also practical, since it can be used as a pillow at any time.

Custom made onesies for each day of the week completes her ensemble.

[applestar]

Update on the Winter Indoor Garden seedlings and the tomato which is showing the expected Determinate characteristic — looks like most of the first trusses have finished setting fruits.

I have two French Rosemary and 9 Sweet Marjoram seedlings in the top left photo.

[imafan26]

Looks good. Are most of your tomatoes determinates or dwarf determinate. When you grow hundreds of seedlings outdoors, how do you trellis them?

I usually don't grow more than three tomatoes because it is already more than I use. I primarily use tomato cages because it requires less training of the vines. When you grow so many different kinds of tomatoes, which trellising technique are you favorites?

[applestar]

Actually, most of the tomatoes I grow used to be indeterminates.

Now that I think about it, though, my crossbreeding project trials are taking over the growing list selections lately so that might not be entirely true…. My Shimofuri is semi-determinate,, and micro-dwarfs tend to be determinate.

My preferred support methods for taller varieties are double bamboo and/or spiral stakes per plant (pruned to 2 main stalks; support stakes are crossed at first branching). These are topped with overhead bamboo stake beams secured with wire clips that brace them from falling over and allow longer, heat-hardy vines to be tied on to continue to grow until frost.

I also like building support structure consisting of verticals and the overhead bamboo stake beams and tying strings from them to support the taller vines, securing with tomato clips.

I like larger 4 foot tall cone shaped wire tomato cages for the dwarfs and taller micro dwarfs, and tripod 3 and 4 foot fiberglass stakes for the shorter micro dwarfs.

I do also have some permanent tall wire fencing secured to T-posts that work well for the taller indeterminates and cherries, but they are only in use when tomatoes are in the rotation for that season.

…Generally, they all start out with shorter/thinner rod type support that are supplemented and eventually are replaced for the growing season as they grow.

[applestar]

I tried starting some Eucalyptus seeds in that empty plastic egg carton cell for herbs last Sat. 2/17, and I found they’ve started sprouting! Yay

[imafan26]

Great. Some seeds require a lot of patience. Sometimes the less attention you pay to them, the better the results are. It's like watching a pot of water boil. Slow germinators can be slow growers as well. If you plant a radish seed it is up in a few days and ready to harvest in three or four weeks. Other things can take a month or more to germinate and still be only a couple of inches tall in 4 months.

So, as I envision it. It is a form of line trellising with the vines tied to strings on an overhead support. It does maximize the number of plants you grow but it does require some pruning and training. Especially, if they are indeterminate.

[applestar]

Winter Indoor Garden has been growing — and early season seed starting has been mostly successful when tiny containers for the potting mix have bern used. The coir pellets and hydro experiments have had mixed results.

Rosemary and marjoram are growing better than expected (harvesting ”pinched” tips from the marjoram to add exciting touches to omelets, salad, pasta, etc.), mini cabbage are almost ready to plant out, lettuce hydro’d in drinking cups are growing well enough to yield occasional sandwich greens

…and newly started Emiko napa cabbage seedlings have sprouted.

You can also see the lone carrot (out of 4) that is growing in the milk carton. There are also radishes in the coir pellets, turnips that are starting to show some white in the roots,

…and way in the back so hard to see but there are broccoli seedlings that are growing slowly in coir pellets — I intend to drop them in cell trays or individual 3.5” pots of potting mix to speed up/get them to 2 or 3 pairs of true leaf stage for planting.

…I think Green Jewel baby choi and Parade scallions that were started in sponges for hydro culture need to be (should have been) moved up to net pots of hydrotron in a more dedicated set up — hoping to get that done before I’m overwhelmed by warm weather seed starting….

I also FINALLY got the chance to go outside in the garden for quick assessment, compost duty, and most importantly, to vent the Sunflower Hoophouse.

It had reached 90’s in the sunny warmer weather and, it’s CRITICAL, that the temps don’t get that high for sustained periods of time right now while the cool weather crops are recuperating from their winter stress.

We’re expecting overnight lows of 40’s until Friday, so I uncovered the door and loosened the rear panel poly to expose a small gap at the base of the window (screen mesh layer still in place and will be all season).

I was able to harvest a small broccoli head’s worth of side shoots. They were mostly clean of bugs — no visible aphid infestation — no doubt thanks in no small measure to this and at least one other 3/4 inch spiders that were living inside the interior tunnel.

I took a pic of the small/short garlic tunnel in VGA (Vegetable Gardenbed A). I wasn’t feeling up to opening the gate to go inside and look under the more secure tunnel for the main garlic row in VGC…. Maybe next time.

I forgot to take a pic, but I also pulled the container figs out of the “Siberia” just inside the garage doors. I need to watch out for freezing temps, but I can let them come out of hibernation now, I think. I soaked their potting mix with diluted microbe- and micro-nutes rich soup to wake them up.

[applestar]

Overnight lows for next 4 days are 39°F, 38°F, 35°F, and 33°F… Subtract the usual 3°F for the lower temp microclimate in my garden.

So I went out to cover up the door to the Sunflower Hoophpuse with the greenhouse poly flap again, and re-tightened the corners to minimize drafty leaks.

— I started by checking the Vegetable Gardenbeds on the other side of the house first though — fixed the floating cover fabric lining the picket fence that acts as windbreak and also will help reduce the amount of neighbor’s lawn treatments from being directly sprayed into my side.

I took pics of the conditions under the winter low tunnels, and it looks like the other garlic row is also growing well will garlic along one side and some lettuce on the other, plus the celery at the near end and some of the … barley or oats covercrop. The blurry photo is the daikon tunnel that had been decimated by aphids. There might be beets or something still growing, but I’m not counting on that one and will take up and prep the bed for earliest spring planting of something as soon as the ground dries out a little from all the spring thaw and rain.

— I harvested the last two Alcosa mini savoy cabbage heads. One was underdeveloped and the other had started to bolt. Also culled and harvested more broccoli side shoots.

— One more thing I did today was to drop those coir pellets of broccoli seedlings in some deep cells — 10 Eastern Magic and 11 Green Magic, plus I think there are three radishes or maybe Tokinashi turnips that survived out of 10 or 12 (one with a lettuce growing with it)

… I’m keeping the broccoli, etc. seedlings inside a bug proof mesh (laundry net bag) “capsule” — which I posted about last year — and made space for it in the Patio Hoophouse

— Also uppotted those Sweet Marjoram and French Rosemary that are growing so well, as well as separated the Baby Blue Eicalyptus seedlings — all had been started in clear egg carton cells.

[applestar]

Had to run out around lunch time and open the hoophouse poly flap covering the mesh-screened door to the Sunflower Hoophouse — We’re looking at mid-60’s to 70’s highs and mid40’s to 50’s lows for the next several days.

After the last couple of days of gusty windstorms, the arch trellis over on of the backyard fence gates has been pulled apart/de-coupled at the top, and the gate itself is askew although it can still be locked. That’s going to be my priority as soon as I can elicit a volunteer to help, and get out there in full gardening outfit.

[applestar]

I started most of the non-tomato solanacea. This is just a preliminary report and wishlist since I have many seeds that are way old. I’m pre-soaking them to improve their chances for successful germination.


— Peppers —
Anaheim 2012
Mammoth Giant Jalapeño 2014

Donkey Ears paddymc
Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn 2018
Largo de Reus “original”
Pepperoni di Senise 2014

Aji Dulci Amarillo

GoldfishX red ‘23
Hab Chocolate 2017
Hanoi Market g3 10.21.16
Numex Lemon Spice 2016
Yatsufusa 10.16.15

Sunset Aloha Red/Yellow striped WF 9.15.18
World Beater (Ruby Giant) SESE’22

— Eggplants —

Black Egg Pinetree’22
Hari g2’15
Hon Naganasu Hosoda’15
Kamo 北澤’16
Listada di Gandia VG.SIP’16
Money Maker 北澤’16
Orient Express F2 2.1.15
Shoya Long 北澤

— These bell peppers and tomatillos are from last year so I’m not worried about them —

Chocolate Cake X (Ingrid x Marconi?) dk. green -> Brown thick wall SGO’23
Chocolate Cake X (Ingrid x Marconi?) lt. green -> red thick juicy wall tasty SGO’23
Jupiter Renee’s Garden’23
Orange Sun Renee’s Garden’23

Queen of Malinalco X squat with antho into flesh SGI’23

Queen of Malinalco large yellow elongated sweet SGI’23

[imafan26]

That is quite a list. How many square ft are in your garden? I know you do a lot of these vertically, but they still take up a lot of space.

[applestar]

Haha I know — if you look back, I go through this every year.

I couldn’t tell you the ft^2 because I never bother to count them up properly. I only know how much I ultimately end up planting. I probably don’t always use up ALL of my available spaces because I run out of energy or time.

But I’ve also had disastrous seed starting failures that left me with less than 1/4 of what I started with … or sometimes way less number of varieties but plenty of sprouted seedlings from the more viable batches of seeds.

We’re testing for the first time if plain warm water then saltpeter solution soak periods (24~36 hrs total) really do make a difference this year.

[imafan26]

I probably have about a hundred tomato seedlings now just from what has fallen and sprouted, but in the end, the rest will be weeded out because I only have room for three tomatoes and that is more than I need. I'd like to grow more peppers because I just get better yields from them, but they are in fairly big pots too, so I have to limit the big ones that need the 18 gallon pots and grow more annuals that can grow in smaller containers. Saltpeter is sometimes required for some hard to germinate peppers. I am having problems with the chiltepins. They all look like popolo plants when they come up, so I have been pulling them out. I guess I should wait a little longer to see if they start looking more like tepins. Popolo is a weed.

https://nativeplants.hawaii.edu/plant/view/Solanum_americanum/

[applestar]

Sounds good @imafan. Hope this works.

I’m pre-soaking the rest of the newer pepper seeds and the tomatillos, as well as the very old tomato seeds from my stash that I want to give one more chance —


Chocolate Cake X (Ingrid x Marconi?) dk. green -> Brown thick wall SGO’23
Chocolate Cake X (Ingrid x Marconi?) lt. green -> red thick juicy wall tasty SGO’23
Orange Sun & (red) Jupiter Renee’s Garden’23

Queen of Malinalco X squat with antho flesh SGI’23
Queen of Malinalco large yellow elongated sweet SGI’23

Cherokee Lime 2014
Jersey Devil 2014
Liz Birt PL (purple) 2012
New Big Dwarf very late 90d
Redfield Beauty 2013
Royal Hillbillie 8/7/14

[applestar]

OK, I’ve organized my tomato list for this year — “varieties” and actual number will depend on whether they all germinate/sprout and how many seedlings I end up planting in the ground.

My cross breeding projects will need more per variety to grow out for finding segregate characteristics, especially the variegated and newer filial generations.

Main medium to tall and cherry varieties —

18 Op/HL incl. unID’d
Bull’s Heart mega Jul/Aug HBR’23
Captain Lucky 8.14 HBR’23
Cherokee Lime 2014
Coer de Antuza Aug HBR’23
George’s Greek Breakfast PL HBR’23
Jersey Devil 2014
Liz Birt PL (purple) 2012
Mikado White PL 7.21.23 HBR’23
Opalka wes’23
Pineapple clear epi bicolor HBR’23
Pink Berkeley Tie-dye or Brown Wild Boar? HBR’23
Redfield Beauty 2013
Royal Hillbillie 8/7/14
Terhune HBR’23
Tidwell German HBR’23
Unlabeled med. size pink beefsteak — Caspian Pink? Terhune? HBR’23
Volunteer PL (HBR’14) Pink beefsteak short-med ht. HBR’23
Wes HBR’23

4 crosses
Allons’y,Dr.X SFH or AGB 2019 or 2020
Schmeig Stoo X 8.11 9.33.23 HBR’23
Wessel’s Purple Pride X WPPX-2 (Mislabeled Wes?) red green shoulders some flat wavy pleats HBR’23
Wessel’s Purple Pride X WPPX-2 sm. salad purple sausage gr. shoulders IND HBR’23

2 variegated varieties
Captain Lucky Sport VAR fruit from var branch bicolor regular looking fruit — may have been a sport? HBR’23
Faelan’s First Snow HBR’23

9 cherries (my crosses)
KIKI’S AFTERNOON SNACK = Round thumbprint. Ripens green with pink BE blush IND 8.9.23 VGB’23

KIKI’S SUNNY SPOT = Round globe. Ripens white/butter yellow with pink BE blush. IND VGB’23

L’IL WILD ROSA (お茶目なローザ) = Amorphous swirls. Ripens to swirly dark pink. Variably sized. Leaf-blade knife or teardrop/pointed teardrop shaped. DET 3~4ft VGB’23

MOLTEN SKY (紅蓮の空) = Well defined irregular streaks. Gold metallic sheen. Green streaks turn into gold metallic streaks. Large Boat-tail bullet shaped, Leaf-blade knife or teardrop/pointed teardrop shaped. SEMID VGB’23

Moona’s Hug SG’22

MoonaMints F7/F8 Front-1 Blushed when ripe mini heart sPL IND 7.26.23 VGB’23

MoonaMints F7/F8 Front-2 Rounder smaller Very sweet, Super tasty 7.28 8.18 VGB’23

MoonaMints F7/F8 Middle PL IND Small white fat ovoid VGB’23

WILD ROSA (オテンバ娘) = Matte, pink mini-oxheart with round equatorial cross section. Ripens dark pink. IND VGB’23

3 new crosses
Maglia Rosa x Stump?HBR/FFS/Manö F2 Big 2”x2.25” VGD’23

Whippersnapper x Stump?HBR F2 VGDf VGDb 4 locules 8.12.23 VGD’23

Whippersnapper x Stump?HBR F2 VGDm 2 locules 8.8.23 VGD’23

Micro and Dwarf Varieties (mostly my cross breeding projects) —

8 dwarfs and taller micros
DARxU.F6 Biggest fruits 8.16 VGD’23
New Big Dwarf very late 90d
S7xA.F4 BS6 Tall wispy yellow july SGI’23
S7xA.F4 FT3 - tall red 7.19 7.21 7.26 7.27 SGI’23
S7xA.F4 ST2 - tall pink 8.4.23 SGI’23
Shimofuri(霜降り) F10 VGB GREAT VAR smaller than VGDb 8.7.23 VGB’23
Shimofuri(霜降り) F10 VGDb Big fruit small plant 8.7.23 VGD’23
Shimofuri(霜降り) F10 VGDf Excellent VAR 24~28”H VGD’23

7 Micro Dwarfs
Faelan’s First Snow X VGCX’22 (FFSxDwfChocolate Lightning SFH’21?) BL good var orange Aug HBR’23
Faelan’s First Snow X VGCX’22 (FFSxDwfChocolate Lightning SFH’21?) BR var purple fat egg shape 2” 16~18”H 8.7 8.11 HBR’23
S7xA.F4 BS6 Bicolor/Orange round july SGI’23
S7xA.F4 BS6 M Bicolor/Orange/Red 8.2 SGI’23
S7xA.F4 BS6 Short pink july SGI’23
S7xA.F4 FT3 F(p) 7.19 7.20 7.22 7.23 SGI’23
S7xA.F4 FT3 shorter round pt. july SGI’23

[applestar]

Uppotted the brassicas — these are Mini Pakchoi Green Jewel, Kohlrabi Kolibri/Kongo mix, Alcosa mini savoy cabbage … one Fioretto that sprouted, and a couple of Marveille de Quatre Saisons lettuce.

Out of the pre-soaked seeds, last year’s saved Queen of Malinalco tomatillos started to germinate — the crossed antho appears to be more vigorous than the to-type elongated yellow so far. Broadleaf shungiku has also started to germinate . These have been sown.

I was going to put the brassica seedlings in the Patio Hoophouse, but since we’re expecting freezing overnight temps for the next few days, I’ll grow them inside for the time being. The broccoli seedlings that have been out there looked good. I’m leaving them out there since hopefully they have become more acclimated to being outside and are more resilient.

I did close up the front flap for the Sunflower Hoophouse and brought back a big harvest of broccoli side shoots and bolted napa flower buds and blown flowers (these sweetly fragrant flowers are good for garnish and are yummy).

[applestar]

Forecast was for 25°F — went down to 22°F in the garden and 28°F in the Sunflower Hoophouse.

3°F differential compared to the actual outside was as expected, and 28°F was within tolerance, I believe, for the cool weather crops inside.

I did forget to note that in one of the milk crates, the potatoes — that I planted last summer. and had given up on harvesting before freeze late last fall, that I thought had frozen, rotted, and turned into nutrient source — had started to sprout and grow — about 1” of leaves were showing. I didn’t particularly cover them so now I get to find out if they made it.

Can’t decide if I should just dig them up and see if there are harvestable potatoes, or I should assume they were tiny tubers and let whatever grows grow and try for summer harvest….

…Don’t really have time to go outside today…

[imafan26]

I won't grow shungiku again. It got 1-5 ft all and tried to take over the garden. My sweet potatoes I did not harvest is growing again too.

[applestar]

Haha MONSTER shungiku wouldn’t be something I expected. There seems to be roughly three categories — I’m growing the OP Broadleaf from Baker Creek (which is apparently the type more commonly grown in western and southern parts so might be better suited to YOUR climate @imafan), but in Japan, they have more refined, specific varieties including slow to bolt, disease-resistant, mild salad type that can be eaten raw, narrow-leaf or lace-leaf, etc.

In my garden last year, these have been slug-prone and slow to grow, but easily bolted and flowered under the low tunnel covers once elongated stems reached around 8~10” (produced viable seeds so that was more of a bonus). Floral stalks may have reached 12~18”.

I had some growing in the Winter Indoor Garden, too. But they have become aphid infested (I finally spotted the culprit — tiny sugar ants were shepherding them), then a slug woke up among the container plants… and are very sad looking right now in the Winter Wonderland window counter downstairs.

In the meanwhile… Here is a collage of an upstairs window. I need the weather to settle so all these cool season seedlings and the lemons and limes + kumquat can go outside in the Patio Hoophouse and I can use this window for the warm season seedlings once they germinate and sprout….