Applestar’s 2024 Garden

[applestar]

Warm weather seedlings are officially starting — first up were Jersey Devil tomatoes and the. Chocolate Cake X with brown fruits. These are being pre-germinated until green sprouts emerge then uppotted into cut up cell trays.

Mini pack choi and kohlrabi, etc. are in the front of group photo,

…and outside, my Mailbox bed stepovers are needing to be pruned! The callery pear is blooming already (probably due to warmth reflected from the pavement). Not sure what to do about that Red Juniper volunteer — not really a good companion for the callery pear and crabapple especially if they start trading cedar-apple rust — but might be fun to prune into interesting mini-bonsai style topiary….

…Also, Bearded Irises are starting to creep out-of-bounds onto the sidewalk and will need to be cut back to stay corralled inside the stepovers.

[applestar]

Joining the Eastern Magic and Green Magic broccoli seedlings that have been out in the Patio Hoophouse since the first week of March, I evicted
- baby cabbage Pixie,
- mini napa cabbage Emiko,
- Kolibri and Kongo kohlrabi,
- mini pak choi Green Jewel,
- odd Marveille de Quatre Saisons lettuce here and there, and
- Sweet Marjoram

The created space under the lights inside were immediately occupied by some newly sprouted peppers, eggplants, tomatillos, and tomatoes, as well as the golden sesame seedlings.

I think the pre-germinated and sown garden pea Emerald Archer, and the Blauschokker Bleu and Marrowfat soup peas, plus (maybe) the sweet corn might be able to go out to the Patio Hoophouse as soon as they sprout as well.


…Most of the other newer seeds have pre-germinated — I’m going to be scrambling to get them all sown within the next couple of days!

[applestar]

On Monday, our invalid, “hospice care” kitty enjoyed some sun in front of the house with the DD’s

[applestar]

Seedlings are rapidly germinating and sprouting. I’m having to community plant the pre-germinated sprouted seeds. I’ll inventory later on for ones that failed to germinate and finalize the likely full list.

Sometimes they’ll still surprise you, but I’m going to be super busy uppotting these so I might just cull them from the list….

With the variegated varieties, I need to plant them together in big enough container to grow to 3rd set of true leaves to ID those best performers to grow on.

With others I WANT to separate into non-stunting sized cells or pots/cups if I can manage to find the room to spread out (best scenario would be that the weather would cooperate and let me move them out to the hoophouses….)

[applestar]

Here’s a screenshot collage from yesterday. (If anyone’s curious about any of the details and want to see a better pic, let me know.)

Top Row —
Left is that Winter Indoor Tomato. The fruits are finally color breaking. This was an accidental growout of some seeds last fall that germinated during fermentation for saving seeds. It wouldn’t even l have been my top pick if I was growing intentionally. But it goes to show that for actual winter HARVEST, seeds need to be started much earlier — I believe I had previously concluded that July 4th to end of July at latest would be about the right time.

Center and Bottom-Right show pics of the last group of tomato seeds to be started for pre-germinating/sprouting (my segregating cross breeding projects) … and most of these have one or mor (or most) seeds with root tips, sprout loops, or even unfurled seed leaves growing.

I’m trying something new this year, and started tomatoes late-ish (mid March) and started corn rather early at the same time. (Planting them early is also supposed to be a way to get the corn producing ahead of the corn earworm moth season….)

This will mean the corn will be ready to plant before last average front date, but I have to set up a protective low tunnel agains bunnies, so I can easily cover with floating cover and/or vented poly, insect mesh, etc. as needed.

To make more indoor room, I took the corn seedlings out to the Patio Hoophoise to join the peas and brassicas, herbs, etc.

Since I found a dead mouse in the mouse trap, I had to devise a protective milk crate, just in case there are more and end up thinking I was setting out a buffet on the table.

It was sunny and warm yesterday, and tadpoles were out and about in the pond.

[applestar]

My cross-breeding project segregates have sprouted and are being uppotted into community cells. Nearly stabilized cherry lines diverged last year with some surprises, and last years revived F1 seeds from way back showed promising traits that had been anticipated in the original inspiration for the cross, and are now advancing to F2.

Last group that was started and sprouted are these — (mostly) my variegated microdwarf project segregates… and I was surprised to see the high antho in the sprouting seed loops of the S7xA.F4 crosses.

They had been ousted to downstairs ‘Winter Wonderland’ due to space constraints in the upstairs ‘Yellow Room’ — maybe it got significantly colder during the night?



They ARE derived from the Shimofuri segregate which exhibits antho pink in the stems during the cooler spring growth period. I have to review notes but I think I saw some of that last year in the F3’s … which may explain the dark purple hypocotyl, especially if antho traits begin to show up more in the F4.

In any case, these will provide another exciting growout.


…Have started assessing the non-viable/abandon seed list and am ruthlessly tossing them out rather than dragging on, hopefully, but ultimately ending up with moldy seeds most of the time. Even when rare straggler shows up, they tend to be weak seedlings that may or may not manage to survive….

NON-VIABLE/abandoned seeds/varieties (as of 3/31)

Tithonia Fiesta del Sol Pinetree’22
Listada di Gandia VG.SIP’16
Hari g2’15
Hon Naganasu Hosoda’15
Orient Express F2 2.1.15
—
Rosella Asian Sour Leaf 北澤’16
Nasturtium Alaska mix
—
Donkey Ears paddymc
Largo de Reus “original”
Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn 2018
Pepperoni di Senise Italigarden’14

[applestar]

We are on round the clock care rotation for our little invalid, and I’m on watch right now. She will go in the litterbox, but needs to be reminded every 3 hours, and recently, needs to be carried to the bathroom and her onesie released and pulled up above hind legs.

Afterwards, when she is feeling well, she is able to (determinedly) walk back to the TV room or even climb the stairs to the bedroom, but she often needs to stop and rest along the way once or more times.

Over the winter, she has also preferred our lap to the catbed in front of the space heater in the family room, or the catbed on the heated stadium cushion on a bed.

When we’re downstairs, she toddles over to the computer chair, sits in front of it, and stare at it — to DEMAND someone sit there: “I WANT LAP.”

Here I am, obliging her — she really seems to sleep most comfortably this way in between her potty breaks.


…The reason the computer chair is the established LAP location is because this is the best ergonomic work chair setup with memoryfoam hiney cushion and flexible lumber support backrest and footrest…

[applestar]

The weather has been so wet! At least I have that as excuse for not having prepped beds to plant in outside.

I also need to prune fruit trees and clean up the winter debris, mend plant beds and supports, fences, etc. etc.

Indoors, I did plant the last group of pre-germinated and sprouted tomato seedlings, and also spread out some of the seedlings that had been planted last week.

Earliest ones are ready to be uppotted, too.

I took pics but haven’t had the chance to organize them yet.

…The problem is that, true to last average frost not being until end of April, we are in for some near freezing temps overnight near dawn for the next few days.

My tomato seedlings will need to be uppotted and spread out really soon though….

[applestar]

Pictures of some of the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers seedlings from the last couple of days:

…and randomly arranged seedling maps including the brassicas, peas and corn, etc. in the Patio Hoophouse:

[pepperhead212]

Everything is looking great, apple! So how much did you feel those vibrations yesterday? You're a little closer than me, and I definitely felt it, first thinking if might be the train, that runs a block and a half from my house. But after a few seconds, I knew that couldn't be it! Hmmmmm...I wonder if the vibrations benefit the seeds???

[applestar]

That was wild wasn’t it? I was seated at the time and felt the motions — truck? construction? were my first thoughts but immediately (I guess from childhood experience, though that was LONG time ago…?) recognized it for earthquake as I verified by looking at hanging things swaying, just long enough to be sure — they said it only lasted about 20~30 seconds.

[pepperhead212]

apple, There was a time in the early 90s, when we had an earthquake in this area - I remember the time period, because I was working inside at a postal building, because I had screwed my shoulder up, so I was working on the computers for about 4 years, when the PO was just starting to enter everyone's addresses in the system! The computers, and other things in that building started moving, and everyone evacuated, and we were outside for about 2½ hours! I don't remember the level of that one, or where the epicenter was, just where I was, because they had to OK it for us to go back inside. The next building over had a lot more workers, and heavy machinery, and it took them even longer to get back inside.

[applestar]

Yep. It’s a big deal when it happens around here… and exposes all the ways we’re not structurally and mentally prepared….

I remember that quake— wasn’t it centered around Valley Forge or King of Prussia. It was felt a bit more severely if I recall.

[imafan26]

Quakes can be scary. There have been a few here. The last major one cracked the perimeter tile wall and put an "X" in my garage floor. It also put some cracks in the walls. We get more small quakes. The Big Island gets the most up to 300 a day because of the volcanic activity.

I'm glad everyone is safe. Earthquakes usually come in a series as the tectonic plates aournd the world reset. It also can trigger new volanic acitivity.

[applestar]

I finally got the chance to start working on getting my garden beds started for the season.

I uncovered the overwinter low tunnels down to the insect mesh layer and assessed what survived, and what I’m letting get out of hand.

Komatsuna in the Spiral Garden arc have all bolted but I didn’t get the chance to take care of them or harvest the floral trusses today. I also forgot I’d planted garlic along the edge in there and was pleasantly surprised to see them. It looks like they benefited from the extra winter protection.

I also took photos of the other garlic in the Vegetable Garden beds. You can see the difference in the less protected mini-row of garlic (insect-mesh and loosely covered vented poly) compared to rows that had been tightly covered with insect mesh+vented poly+floating cover.

I did pull some weeds around the garlic.

I *harvested* some of the more vigorous purple dead nettles (I want to try some fresh herbal tea which is said to help with spring allergies, and, later after I’ve accumulated some, make a skin healing salve.

In the Sunflower Hoophouse, I got all of the secondary interior coverings off and harvested the side shoots and bolted floral bud trusses, then loosened some of the outer hoophouse coverings for additional airflow.

[applestar]

I didn’t have too much time today, but was able to get started on scrubbing the green mildew from some of the vinyl fence panels. This year, I’m trying my rechargeable cordless bathtub scrubber and found that, using three different brush heads, I could get one side of two panels clean before the battery lost too much power to scrub effectively. Third panel was almost done but needed some hand scrubbing finish.

Only peppermint scented liquid soap, some dish soap, and a bit of borax (to discourage wasps and kill ants along with removing bird poop/greasy dirt and mildew) — plus the long handled electric rotating brushes. There were a bit of gray stains left from worst of the lichen patches (that probably could be removed with oxyclean or bleach, but I won’t) — all in all, a success!

I want to get the section behind the Vegetable Gardenbed area finished first and replace the floating cover barrier to reduce the amount of drift through the pickets from the neighbor’s lawn service. I took the old sheets down the other day because they had become tattered and shabby. The other parts of the fence can be worked on with less urgency.

I’ve been uppotting more tomato and eggplant seedlings in the house, and need to make room in the Patio Hoophouse by planting out the cooler crop seedlings.

I checked the Patio Hoophouse and watered those seedlings with fortified water. I also found a big fat mouse in a snap trap I left close to the milk crates protecting the corn and pea seedlings, so it’s a good thing I took that precaution.

I don’t like using this kind, but we were having a “stray mouse that wandered in from the garage” problem, and we only use the live trap in the house — fortunately the hoophouse trap made a clean kill (broken neck).

Wandering mouse in the house was never a problem before, but our little invalid biddy was only able to alert us to its presence under the washing machine. It did elevate her interest and engagement for a couple of days — she was more alert and less moping around. (Yes it’s gone already).

[applestar]

I found some carrots that survived the winter freeze AND hadn’t bolted yet in the minimally protected VG.SIP (Vegetable Garden Sub-irrigated Planter) and the 3-layer low tunnel protected “daikon, etc.” bed, in which all the daikon and napa suffered an early demise in late fall from a massive aphid infestation.

I also managed to get the picket fence barrier in place — in spite of the sudden drenching rain (I was SOAKED )

I walked around in the drizzle taking pictures of spring blossoms, but forgot to go inside the Side Yard Garden enclosure for pics of the blooming two pears and apple espaliers.

[applestar]

Here we have a surprise. That accidental Winter Indoor Tomato started dropping fruits. It turned out to be a GWR even though only GWR I had last year was my surprise cherry variant in one of the cross breeding project… except THAT one grew to be nearly 7 feet tall and was going strong until frost — an INDETERMINATE.

This one is only maybe 30 inches tall. I had fully expected it to be one of my micro-dwarf projects — there were white, yellow, red, pink, and bicolor last season.

The fully ripe fruits are incredibly tasty — solid umami and unexpectedly very SWEET despite the Winter Indoor growing conditions, with strong tangy acid finish.

[applestar]

Yesterday, our kitty followed her sister back to their Hunting Fields in Heaven….

[applestar]

Some of these pics go back to Tuesday, but I got the pics of pear, apple, and beach plum blossoms.

I harvested more of the surprise winter tomato— you can see they achieve jewel-like translucency when fully ripe, with the typical GWR (Green When Ripe) olive to mustard colored blush at blossom end.
— Clear epi, and at least one of the fruits with a point — probably while developing in colder temp.
— Long eyelash-like calyces may indicate potential for larger fruits.
*I started seeds*.

Cleaned up the komatsuna and daikon/turnip low tunnels and, combined with the Sunflower Hoophouse, harvested nearly two loosely filled gallons of brassica side shoots, florets, and tender leaves (broccoli, napa cabbage, alcosa savoy cabbage)

[applestar]

I was planting out my sweet corn seedlings when the pet crematory called to let us know our kitty’s ashes were ready to be picked up. I texted the fam to get ready, had to throw the insect net over a hastily put up low hoops, and rush over before they closed due to Sat hours.

The rest of the corn and peas will have to wait.

…When we returned home, we picked some pretty flowers

I’m falling behind with tomato seedlings, too. But I did take some pics of my micro dwarf cross breeding projects — it’s always fun to note the difference in stature compared to other seedlings

… and discovered an FFSX (Faelan’s First Snow cross) micro that has developed variegation on its FIRST set of true leaves!
— This isn’t the usual case, earliest I’ve seen variegation show up has been on 2nd set, and it’s normally just hints of variegation on 3rd and more pronounced on 4th and subsequent sets.

[applestar]

The Vegetable Gardenbed area is starting to take shape
— VGA (Vegetable Gardenbed A) is fully planted with Alcosa mini savoy cabbage and kohlrabi sharing space with the corn seedlings that were planted on Saturday.

— The rest of the corn seedlings have been planted in VGB. (I used vented poly over wire fence low tunnel here, since I didn’t have an insect netting handy — but this is also why I couldn’t plant brassicas in VGB…. )

— 2 short rows in VGC have been cleaned up and Row2 is fully stocked with overwintered garlic, lettuce, and leaf celery, plus the newly added Pixie mini cabbage transplants (there are some purple hulled barley that overwintered in there too — not sure what I’ll do with those, although it would be a bonus if I can grow them to maturity for seeds).

… It turned out that there were a couple more carrot and beet that overwintered and hiding under the weeds in Row1. VGC is scheduled for tomato rotation this year, so I think I’ll just plant when ready.

— I need to clean up and plant VGD and VG.SIP. VGD is probably going to be some kind of cucurbit — squash? melon? I think VG.SIP can technically be anything this year.

I picked some flowers, washed my harvest of chickweeds and leaf celery, a couple of burdock that were in the way in VGB, then checked on the Sunflower Hoophouse and the peas I planted yesterday in the Spiral Garden since it got down to 32°F this morning. Those few potatoes that survived the winter and started to grow in the crate didn’t suffer even though the Hoophouse got down to 35°F, and the peas looked fine even though I only provided windbreak/bunny protection. (I’m trying NOT watering the peas after planting the starts this year, which is said to be better since the seedlings with attached whole peas are prone to rot when overwatered.)

[applestar]

Taller S7xA-F4 seedlings (not microdwarf) are starting to show their variegation on 2nd set of true leaves.