Applestar’s 2018 Garden

[applestar]

Some tomato seedlings: The Witz is back from last year. So productive and yummy and pretty yellow/orange — my DD2 declared this one better than Dwarf Blazing Beauty, which we had been favoring until The Witz started ripening. (Growing both again this year ).




Zena’s Gift is supposed to grow into an XL vigorous plant/vine with 1 Lb+ pink blunt oxheart fruits (maybe a contender for 2018 Largest Tomato Contest); King Aramis is a dwarfed version of Grandma Oliver’s Chocolate — hoping this one will join Dwarf Blazing Beauty, Dwarf Choclate Lightning, and (Dwarf) Uluru Ochre) line up as one of our faves. (BTW - You can see how the genetic dwarfs are much more compact with reduced internodes.)




Featuring Napa Rosé cherry in this photo, but note Pinocchio to the right which is a micro variety — growth comparison is interesting — and please note my Ladyfingers F4 (I have to fix that label!) behind and Molten Sky F4 in the paper cup

[digitS']

Can you put something black under them? Maybe a black tote/storage box with black lid filled with water? Black stock tank with a cover ... if you are doing that, maybe even connect to a solar water heater (DIY or otherwise).

Well, that's an idea: try to separate the heat lovers from the cool season plants in the greenhouse.

It's good to know about your family members' preferences in your tomato tasting trials .

Part of my problems is probably being a tightwad, AppleStar. I have a pretty good idea how fast that 200 sqft of greenhouse space loses (& gains) heat during weather like today: a day that starts off at 27°f, has wind gusts above 20mph, broken clouds, by afternoon it's 42° outdoors, the greenhouse is open on east & west ends with an automatic fan at ceiling height, it's 80° ... But later, I turn the heat down to 60° for overnight. Well shoot! They may have nearly as cool of nights with July days above 90°, just like in 2017 with 14 such days & nights!

I was up-potting more peppers today along with zinnias, marigolds and broccoli. Should get to the cabbage and tomatoes ... what a mixed lot in there!

Steve

[applestar]

...Haha I am officially in denial... according to my spreadsheet tally, I now have over 50 tomato seedlings containers, each looking something like this with average 4-5 seedlings in each.

These are mostly my cherry and cocktail sized named segregates from the (Maglia Rosa x Coyote) cross breeding project. Oh, Shimofuri is a highly variegated segregate from the (Whippersnapper x Faelan’s First Snow) cross.


Shimofuri #1 F5 (light blue container)
Afternoon Rosé F4 (white)
Buttermints F4 (white)
Wild Rosa F4 (white)
Ladyfingers F4 (paper cup)
Molten Sky F4 (paper cup)
Wild Rosa F4 (paper cup)
Dwarf Chocolate (paper cup)

...there was a container of Shimofuri #2 F5 (less variegated but better tasting fruits) in the middle but they got too tall and had to be moved out. This will let me uppot another variety to put in the middle.

[applestar]

- The chitted russets (sprouting eyes cut from huge baking potatoes) are ready to plant — this week, I hope ...since the local yellow forsythias are in full bloom!
- the box on the bottom contains cut pieces of Yukon Gold potatoes. They don’t look as ready as the Russets even though they were “started” a week earlier....

The sweet potato — two Methods —
- a Whole small potato in water is starting to grow white roots... and
- I tried cutting off sprouting ends and eyes from REALLY BIG sweet potatoes and planting the pieces in this little container with a loose cover on and sitting on the heat mat with the Seedzip-germinating pepper seeds and sprouted seedlings (thermostat set to 82°F). I checked under the lid today and found these two sprouts

[applestar]

I’m so relentless in posting progress that the tomatoes and peppers end up needing their own thread

I’ve started the solanacea progress thread for this year. Now that they are developing true leaves and graduating from neonatal to pediatrics nursery, I will continue with their progress in the new thread:

Subject: Applestar’s 2018 Tomatoes (and peppers ...maybe eggplants)

I estimate 4 more weeks until tomato planting weather, 5-6 more weeks until pepper planting weather....

The seedlings are chugging along This should mean 3-4 more sets of true leaves on the tomatoes by then. Peppers are generally slower-growing.


...Tomatillo seedlings in the top-left photo — First time growing these ... I started them with first round of peppers and they are growing fast (one of them was touching the light bulb in the morning and got scorched before I noticed it). I probably could have waited to start them with tomatoes.

...I’ve started moving seedlings with true leaves out to the cooler Garage V8 Nursery. These will be Uppotted to individual and divided community containers soon.

[applestar]

To make room for the tomato seedlings being moved out to the Garage V8 to toughen up, I finally got around to dealing with 2 community containers of stunted seedlings that I had been almost ready to give up on, I discovered that for some reason I had filled this and only these two 1 quart berry container with mostly sterile organic seed starter (which I never use) and vermiculite. no wonder they were stunted — they were starving! I think only thing that may (or may not — we have to see) have saved them was that had been moved out to the V8 way early while it was still chilly (40’s°F) and they were only growing slowly.


- Celery and Red Chdori — brilliant purple color! Solstice broccoli in the background
- I’m a bit scared of those tomato seedlings and the amount of work they represent....
- Swiss Chard sprouted in the garage temperatures

...not pictured are some nice lettuce seedlings, Brunswick cabbage seedlings, White sage and Broadleaf sage seedlings, and a couple of spinach seedlings that may still make it (6-8 other tiny seedlings with two sets of true leaves had given up and we’re trying to bolt — I Put them in the vermicomposter )

The cool-weather seedlings can be moved outside in a couple of days after they settle in and be hardened off.

... oh, here are some more stuff — I think they’ve been demoted to B-team in my mind... but ...

- in the foreground are some overwintered celery.
- Then my little seedling Japanese maple bonsai wannabe — I have red and green laceleaf shrub-type and a neighbor has red tree-type. These seedlings show traits that look like crosses. The brownish leaves to the left are actually the red-leafed ones but crossed with the green or maybe faded due to current insufficient light.
- in the back to the right — dark green leaves are store-bought watercress that I planted last summer to see if they would grow.
- in the back to the left under the tulle netting are some stunted broccoli and kale seedlings actually from last fall. Not sure if they are worth planting/saving at this point... but who knows, they might grow without bolting?

[kayjay]

Wow, amazing. I'm intrigued by the cross-breeding project.

I wish I had more time and space to play like that.

[applestar]

...thanks KayJay! I will report their progress — I’m Super excited about them.

Copying this here because some of the colored tape tags are gone — I Think they were whipped around in the wind while super cold and sheared off:

posted Nov 6, 2017

Finally, FINALLY got the chance to plant the garlic —

[applestar]

Subject: Applestar’s 2018 Tomatoes (and peppers ...maybe eggplants)

TOMATOES in Garage V8 Nursery — I’m running out of room but the community pots are burgeoning... however, with overnight forecast in the 30’s with windchill of 33°F, 33°F, the 31°F for the next three nights, I’m forced to wait.




PEPPERS (and eggplant...odd tomatoes here and there) in the house on Winter Paradise (inside the covered shelves) and Winter Paradise Penthouse (outside the cover above the shelves):

Just had to copy the above here. The progress in these seedlings compared to photos earlier in on this page is just amazing!

...also making note of these two Barker’s Hot pepper seedlings:


I must have significantly damaged their roots when separating them from their sibs in the initial community Kcup to uppot them to individual Kcups — these two had gone completely flaccid and were drooping over the edge. ICU STAT!

So I had to use the black plastic spoonheads I use for SpoonSeedzip to support them, then I put these cutoff bottle humidity domes over them and put them over the heatmat...

...Some 6 hours later, when I took this photo, they are looking much better and don’t really look like they are leaning on the spoons for support, but I left their domes on for overnight. I’ll look in on them later to see if the spoonheads can be removed.

The other 2, smaller, seedlings with less developed roots were fine — so If these pull through, I will have 4 plants.

—- 8AM update —

All better now. They are standing up on their own — I took off the domes as well as the spoons.

[MoonShadows]

I enjoy reading your posts about your 2018 garden. Your enthusiasm shines out in your posts. You sound like you are having a great time and are truly addicted!

[applestar]

Thank-you MoonShadows You have such a lovely, well-organized set up to die for!

...My cobbled together hobby space IS fun, though

[applestar]

Oldest of the tomato and pepper babies went out to play in the sun today:



...they were in the bare branches dappled sun until the sun came around... I covered the top with the shoes shelves to create additional latticed shadows, and later on in the mid-afternoon when the sun was full on, I put the white lids on top of the shelves, held down with bricks and pulled forward to fully shade the seedlings in the front.

I will bring them inside for the night.


So far, my lettuces are doing really well on the patio table. Later, this area will get too hot, but right now with the sun still angled lower, they get bare branches dappled morning sun and then the house completely shades the table by early afternoon. I’m tempted to plant a bunch of them in big pots like I did with the black nursery pot in the green bucket. I’m liking how clean they are, and how nothing has bothered them so far — no slugs, no aphids, no worries about spring bunnies getting in among them — I just step out from the kitchen with a pair of scissors and snip off as much as I need.

[applestar]

what’s the temperature range for the tomatillos? Are they like tomatoes or peppers? ...or can they take even cooler temps? They are already HUGE!!

[pepperhead212]

I would think they'd like warmer, given where they are grown and cooked with. However, I have noticed volunteers popping up with the ground still cool - like right after tomatoes go in. I usually plant them with the eggplants, a week after tomatoes, and a week before peppers.

[applestar]

First batches of pre-germinated and started corn are starting to sprout and grow. These are Pink and Purple Mexican giant corn and Japanese Striped Maize (variegated foliage):