Sweet Corn Update and Planting More. And Some Dill Seeds. 5.23.2021

Most of the sweet corn that I planted earlier has germinated.  There are always a few spots that don't come up.  I don't know if it's the seeds, or if birds or other animals have stolen the seeds.   Since I plant them with some to spare. I move plants to empty spots while still very small.

I also planted some main season sweet corn seeds, Ambrosia.  Since I read that sweet corn seeds don't usually keep more than a year or two, I planted new seeds.  These are hybrids and also it takes a lot of sweet corn plants for genetic stability if saving seeds, so I don't plan to save seeds from these.

I also planted seeds for some dill weed.

I keep fencing tunnels as protectors until the corn plants are about a foot tall, or more.  Deer or rabbits eat them when they are small and tender, but not when larger. 

The Trinity seems to have grown better than the Suglow. Next year I should just go with Trinity for the early type.  I think it's more productive and better tasting.  This year I can compare side by side.

Here is the new block of Ambrosia, an SE type.  I also have a packet of the variety "Delectable" which will go into the remaining blocks in about 2 weeks.  The roll of fencing is there to annoy and frustrate birds that sometimes dig out corn seeds.  I can make more fencing tunnels in a few days;

I'm trying not to spend too much time outside due to neighboring properties burning so much wet brush (and other stuff), the air is smoky and breathing cn be difficult.  Country air here in Battleground is not necessarily cleaner than city.  In fact, it's often far worse than Vancouver :-(   I hope they stop burning stuff for a while so I can get back into the garden.  For what it's worth, countryside here is much noisier than the city too - leaf blowers, big mowers, chain saws, and other power equipment.  But it's worth it for now, for the garden size and option to have chickens.

I had some old dill seeds (Burpee) and new (Victory) so I mixed them together in the row.  Dill isn't hybrid, so no problem saving seeds.

Planting Sweet Corn. Germinating Sweet Corn. 5.23.2020

Most years, my rule of thumb is to plant sweetcorn starting on May 15.  This year I started about a week sooner - check prior post for actual date.  That batch was Bilicious, an SE type.  I always grow SE sweet corn.

Then it was chilly and rainy for the past approx two weeks.  Most days in 50s and 60s, nights in 40s and 50s.  I wondered if the seeds would germinate, but most of them did. These were 1/2 new seeds, and 1/2 one-year-old seeds.  I think the majority of them germinated.

I cover with 1 inch square plastic mesh, so birds don't eat the seeds.  Then I switch to low fencing tunnels, so rabbits and deer don't eat the tender young plants.  When they grow out of the fencing tunnels, they usually don't get eaten.

Today I planted "Ruby Queen", from Burpee.  These are red kernel sweet corn.  I imagine the flavor is about the same as the yellow, but since there is a difference between yellow and white, who knows?  Ruby Queen is also SE.

Germinating Sweet Corn Plants.  5.23.2020

Kitchen Garden Update. 5.11.2020

 Here are some photos of my current kitchen garden (potager).  About half is newly worked soil, formerly sod, which I treated during the winter with a cover of black plastic to kill the grass, then added dolomite lime, some compost, and eggshells.  That is not the tomato / eggplant / peppers / squashes / bean area.

The greens and snowpeas are in what was tomatoes last year.  There is mesclun from old seed packets, swiss chard and radishes, collard greens and turnips.  There were all 3 to 8 year old seeds.  The snowpeas were 6 to 8 year old seeds.

I now have a seven foot chain link fence, to keep rabbits and deer out.  I don't know if that will work.

 I set out the fresh eating tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants yesterday.  Also bush cucumbers in a raised bed, for pickles.

This strawberry pot is doing better than I expected.  Last month, I transplanted these strawberries from a raised bed, where they appeared to be dying off.  At least not thriving.  I wanted the space for cucumbers this year.  In the strawberry pots, they need better attention to watering. but I have them in fresh potting soil with some added osmocote.  They perked up almost immediately and started blooming..

 This bed is fresh-eating tomatoes, slicers and cherry tomatoes.  Down the center I planted radish seeds, which should not take up much room and will be done before the tomato plants reach much size.  Along one edge, I also planted a row of Roma II bush beans.

 This view shows the sauce tomatoes.  I gave all of the tomates some osmocote when I planted them, about 1 1/2 tablespoon per hole.

 These squashes may not have enough room.  Space is at a premium.  I may be able to direct the vines of the long vining types, into spare locations as other crops such as potatoes are done in midsummer.

Same comment as for squashes above.  This batch is in ground that was sod last year.

The soil temp is 74F at 10 am.  I've had readings as high as 80F and in early am, as low as 65F.  I think this is high enough for the squashes, tomatoes, peppers, to be planted.  Not sure about sweetcorn and bean seeds, but doing a trail of them now.  May 15th is my usual target date for that.  I also wonder about the eggplants, which need warm conditions.

These are the first three rows of sweetcorn.  They are outside the fenced area.  I have the seed rows covered with screening to keep birds from eating the seeds.

These are the bush cucumbers I planted the seeds a few weeks ago inside.  Now they are in the former strawberry bed, along with some dolomite lime and compost treatment.  I also have a row of dill seeds planted, now germinated, in there, and some cilantro from seeds saved several years ago.

 These are the grafted fruit trees, and oak seedlings.  The fruit trees appear to be taking nicely.  These are on the north side of the raised bed, to shade the pots a little.  I stratified the oak seedlings by planting acorns into these containers last fall.  There are white oak, from a magnificent tree in my neighborhood, and some other white oak from a location in Salmon Creek, and some red oak.  I'm not sure where I will plant them when they are bigger.

Planting Sweet Corn Seeds. 5.7.19

Mesh to protect sweet corn seeds, planted 5.7.19

It may be too early.  However, this promises to be an early summer, hot and dry.  So I planted two blocks of sweet corn.  I generally plant a new block of sweet corn seeds, for 4 rows of 5 plants per row, every 2 or 3 weeks until late june.  If it does turn put to be too early and these either don't germinate or don't thrive, I can replant the beds in a few weeks.

I planted the varieties Burpee's  Farmers' First se hybrid, and Bodaceous se hybrid.  I placed mesh over one block, and fencing low tunnels over the other, to reduce herbivorous browsing of the seeds and small plants.

The soil is quite warm and dry now. Midday soil temp was in the 70s.  It feels like midsummer soil.

Sweet Corn. 9.27.18

These are from the last batch of sweet corn, planted in June.  Trinity.  I'm surprised to be eating fresh sweet corn from the kitchen garden in late Sept.  I think of it as a summer crop.  There are a few more ears to go.  Trinity is my favorite variety, it tolerates the cooler Spring here and produces until now.   Delicious bicolor sweet corn.

Kitchen Garden Progress Report. 6.4.18

Garlic.  6.4.18

Sweet Corn.  6.4.18

 Most of the kitchen garden is doing well.  The main problems have been herbivores.  I've worked on several solutions, and some of those have helped.

The garlic was browsed even in low wire fencing tunnels.  I thought that was deer, but maybe rabbits.  After spraying with deer deterrent spray, the browsing stopped.  That may have been the size of the plant, and not the spray.  I've given a couple of doses of fish emulsion, and am still watering the garlic plants.  In late winter, I had also spread some Milorganite.  Might have been too much.  The leaf tips have some browning, but otherwise the plants look robust.  I think the crop will be good.  The rotation for the garlic bed:  2 years ago, wild/weed/blackberry; last year, sweet corn, this year, garlic.

The first batches of sweetcorn look good.  I forget the name, the first was an early yellow cold tolerant variety.  The second bath was Trinity.  The third batch was also Trinity, but I don't know if it's growing.  I am using the low fencing tunnels on the sweet corn too, to inhibit browsing, and so far that seems to be working.  The rotation:  2 years ago, squash, last year, potato, this year, sweet corn.

Tomatoes.  6.4.18

The tomatoes are looking good.  these were grown from seeds too.  The location was the duck pen from this winter. Some are blooming and have small green tomatoes.  Many varieties.  I planted them deeply for better dry tolerance.  They had some Epsom Salts earlier to green up the leaves, and some fish emulsion, but now no more fertilizer.  They are fenced in to prevent deer browsing.  The rotation:  Three years ago, Squash.  Two years ago, sweet corn.  Last year, garlic.  This year, tomatoes.

Blue Potato Flower.  6.4.18

Potatoes.  6.4.18

The potatoes are looking better than almost anything else.   They are lush and green.  I used store bought starts, and also sprouted potatoes from the garage.  There are Burbank Russet, Yukon Gold, Blue, and some I don't know from the sprouted ones.   This year I planted in trenches, which I filled in as they grew, because I found that hilling them up seemed to require more watering.  The trenches don't shed water.  The first batch had some frost kill, but otherwise they all tolerated early planting and are growing very nicely.   I did use some Milorganite when planting them, otherwise no fertilizer.  The rotation:  Two years ago, Indian Corn, last year, onions, this year, potatoes.

There are lots of other things.  The rabbits and/or deer have browsed the onions so heavily, I don't think there will be much of a crop.  The low fencing tunnels were not enough to prevent browsing, and the rabbit/deer deterrent spray was minimally helpful.  I still have my doubts about the chili peppers, which so far look stunted.  I've given them some Epsom salts and fish emulsion, we'll see.  The gladiolas, zinnias, and marigolds are looking pretty good now too. 

Updates. 8.26.17

Blueberry Pie.  Mid Aug, 2017.

 I haven't been keeping up on the garden blog.  With historic high temperatures, no rain - expected this time of year - and deer issues, I haven't had the time. 

I'll come back and add some text later, but here are photos from the past couple of weeks. 

The blueberry harvest was great.  The difference between this year and previous years, was bird netting.  Made all the difference in the world.

I wondered if there would be sweet corn, due to the slow and irregular germination.  Plus rabbits eating a lot of the plants.  Now, there is a good harvest of sweet corn.

Sweet corn, beans, chilis.  Mid Aug, 2017.

 The beans that I recovered from 15 year old seeds, last year, are doing quite well.

Peppers are doing great in their cement block raised beds.  They do have deer protection fencing.

Two of the chestnut trees that I planted late winter, put on 3 to 4 feet of new growth.  The other one put on about 3 inches.  I'll sort out the varieties later.  They are well protected by deer fencing.

I wondered if I planted the onions too early.  They did amazingly well.  Huge onions.  The biggest were Ailsa Craig.  Growing from seeds, and planting early, definitely worked.

Sweet Corn, various planting times.  Mid Aug, 2017.

Russet Potato Harvest.  Mid Aug, 2017.

Chilis in cement block raised bed.  Mid Aug, 2017.

Chestnut tree, first year, mid Aug 2017.

Chestnut tree, first year, mid Aug 2017.

Ailsa Craig onions.  mid Aug, 2017.

Kitchen Garden. 7.10.17

Georgia Collard Greens and  Squashes.  7.10.17

Chili Peppers and Scallions.  7.10.17

 The kitchen garden is doing pretty well.  Collard greens got  mixes with squashes, when I had extra starts and didn't know where to put them.  They seem to be getting along together just fine.  Others are among blackberry plants and volunteer potatoes.  Big, beautiful leaves.

Chili pepper plants are small, but starting to take off.  Some are blooming. 

Vates Collard Greens.  7.10.17

Squashes.  7.10.17

Ripening Onions.  7.10.17

 Zucchini and summer squashes are looking good.  They are starting to bloom.

Sweet corn seems further behind this year.  The first two batches had poor germination, and I transplanted seedlings together in groups.  The later ones did better, even with rabbits eating off many of the plants.  There is still a good chance for some nice sweet corn later this year.

Both potatoes and onions are almost ready for harvest.  I dug some potatoes yesterday, and there are some nice ones.  I have also been using some of the onions, on an as-needed basis.

Tomatoes and beans are making good progress.  There are small tomatoes on some of the plants.  The pole beans are starting to climb.  I gave them some bamboo poles to climb on.

Sweet Corn, Various Start Times and Sizes.  7.10.17

Kitchen Garden. 6.11.17

Tomato Plants.  6.10.17

Today I planted the 4th batch, probably final batch, of sweet corn seeds.  The variety was Bodaceous, which I bought last fall at Fred Meyer on close out.  I don't think I will try to keep sweet corn seeds any more, they are less able to remain viable with time.  Still, one year old should be OK.

Bodaceous is a yellow sweet corn, SE type (sugary enhanced) - not the supersweet type, but remains sweet longer on the plant - matures in about 75 days, has improved disease resistance, and is well adapted to the Northwest.  Since I'm not planning to save the seeds another year, I planted the entire packet in 4 rows, and will thin to a foot apart if germination turns out to be good.

I noted that a blackberry plant - Arapaho - had purple leaves.  Researching that, it appears to be caused by phosphorus deficiency.  I will need to find a supplement for that.  In some cases, I read that plants with deficient magnesium in the soil, are not able to take up phosphorus.  Since I know from soil test that my soil is magnesium, and probably not phosphorus, deficient, I will apply some Epsom Salts, 2 tablespoons per 2 gallons of water, for more of my kitchen garden plants.  When I did that for Saijo Persimmon, the result was dark green leaves, instead of the usual pale green / yellow leaves.  So I think it helped.  I applied that amount of Epsom salts solution for the tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, and chestnut tree saplings, then ran out.  That kind of gets away from the concept of phosphorus deficiency, but phosphate was normal to high in my soil.  Other side of yard, but that I what I have to go on for the time being.

I don't know if I blogged on this - I added another horticultural blackberry, Triple Crown.  My readings pointed me to this variety, tetraploid - as is Prime Ark Freedom but I don't know about Ebony King.  Triple Crown is described as disease resistant, highly productive, and a delicious fruit that works well in Pacific NW.  I bought the plant at a local nursery, already green and growing; bare-rooted it carefully, removed planting compost, and planted in the native soil of my garden.  I protected from deer and rabbits, with chicken wire.

I read that primocanes should have the growing tip removed, with both primocane-bearing and  floricane-bearing, varieties of blackberry, at around 3 feet tall.  My brambles are young, and only two have primocanes that tall, so I tipped them.  Tipping means the growing tip is snapped off by bending.  That promotes growth of branches, resulting in much higher yield and stronger plants. 

Daylily Seedling in Bloom. Kitchen Garden. 6.5.17

Daylily flower, seedling started in early 2015.  6.5.17

The daylily that I pictured previously, has it's second flower, and many buds.  Now the tepals open too, making for a more conventional daylily flower.  The petals have nice substance, fairly wide and a little ruffled.  The pale pink is very nice, I think.  There was nothing in any of my daylilies that would make me expect such a pale pink.  Very happy with the result.  Thinking further about this result, I think it came from a wide petaled yellow, maybe Happy Returns? and a narrower petaled pink, maybe Luxury Lace.  But I'm not certain, the labels didn't make it over time.

Currently, this daylily is in a container with other daylilies and lilies.  I may keep it there for a while, seems like a good spot.

In the kitchen garden:
-Tomatoes are growing nicely.
-Two days ago I planted the 3rd set of sweet corn.  I transplanted the few plants that germinated from the 2st set, to a grouping of 6.  The second set had better germination, and I think I will have 4 rows of 5 plants each, when they are bigger.   The first batch was Trinity, the second was Bodaceous, and the third was something from Territorial Seeds, but I forget the variety. 
-Peppers are growing nicely.
-I planted the Chinese wide beans that I pre-started in wet paper towel / ziplock, last week.  Some had the first root, or the beginning of the first root.  These beans were seeds that I saved from last year, which I grew for very old seeds, I think more than 10 years - seeds that were in the closet.  They are a traditional wide bean, used as green beans, originating from Northeast China. Germination of those old seeds was less than 10%, but I'm expecting something close to full germination from this batch now.
I expect to plant one more batch of Chinese wide beans, and one  more batch of sweet corn, in a couple of weeks.

Kitchen Garden. 5.8.17

It's been sunny and warm for three days. This was a good time to cultivate the kitchen garden. The potatoes and onions that I planted earlier this year are doing well. I hilled up the potatoes. With rain and winter, it was difficult to cultivate the garlic, which I planted in the fall. I weeded a couple of weeks ago, and today it just needed light cultivation. I planted out some collard greens seedlings, surrounding each with a dusting of blood meal that I found in the garage. The idea is to repel rabbits, which are prevalent in my garden. Then some organic slug bait. Slugs love cabbage family plants. Last year's collards are blooming. I intend to save seeds from those.

Collard Greens in Bloom.  5.7.18

I have mustard green seedlings to plant. 

The tomatoes are growing nicely in containers in sunroom.  Ditto for peppers.  Yesterday the soil temperature was 80 F, so I planted sweet corn, Trinity hybrid which is reported to tolerate chill, and which did well in 2015 and 2016.

Kitchen Garden Harvest. Sweet Corn, Figs, Tomatoes. 9.30.16

Tomatoes and Brunswick Figs.  9.30.16

Bodaceous Sweet Corn.  9.30.16

It's been a spectacular year for me in the kitchen garden.  Not everything works out, but the things that do are great.

Now is the end of September, and still harvesting tomatoes, sweet corn, and figs.

There are lots of other veggies out there too - peppers, radishes, collards, and others.

This corn variety was Bodaceous.  It's great, nice thick juice in the kernels.   Tastes like sweet corn.  Mirai was overly sweet and not very corn-like, watery juice.  Bodaceous is so much better.

Sweet Corn, Fruit Harvest, and Prior Okra Experience. 7.27.16

Hollywood and Green Gage Plums, and Figs.  7.27.16

 Mos of todays meals were from the kitchen garden.  Pretty awesome to me.  Lots of fruit.  The first batch of Trinity se+ sweet corn is fully ripe.   Compared to store corn, more tender, sweeter, but smaller ears.  First harvest was almost to the day, the same as last year.  The difference is last year I started in containers, then planted out in the kitchen garden.  This year I seeded directly into the ground.    The seeds were planted about 4.15.16 which gives a bit more than 100 days from seed to harvest.  That compares to 70 days on the seed label, but who's counting?

The difference is that climate here is cooler and nights are cooler, compared to sweet corn country. 

Most of the corn plants have 2 ears this year, which is nice.

Lunch.  Summer Squash for Salad, Sweet Corn, and Lattarula Figs.  7.27.16

 I looked back on growing okra in 2014.  I grew it in containers.  Production was minimal and, looking at the pictures, the plants were rather scrawny.  I don't know how this year will turn out, but I was excited to see the first flower today, on a one-foot-tall okra plant.  Not sure, but I think this Spring was warmer, but this summer is cooler and wetter, compared to 2015.  Starting to make up for it.  Today was 90F on my car thermometer, which is a good okra-growing temperature.

Containerized Okra. 9.20.14. 

Kitchen Garden. Another Way to Eat Zucchini. 7.26.16

Basal in Tree Ring Container.  7.26.16

Okra.  7.27.16

Mid Summer is a nice time in the kitchen garden.  Every day feels like a combination Easter Egg hunt and Christmas. 

Basil in Tree Ring Open Bottom container, ready to pick and make a small batch of pesto. 

I'm very surprised to have actively growing okra.  I had given up.  A true Southern gardener would rightly laugh at these puny okra plants.  The first flower buds are forming, and there are still 2 months of warm weather for potential crop.  I don't know which varieties.  I mixed together several packets and planted all of them.

I used tree branches that I saved to construct fenceposts or other garden infrastructure, along with black plastic trellis with 1-inch openings, to construct a rabbit / deer fence.  One might think okra spines would deter these pests, but they eat blackberry and squash growth tips, despite spines.

We continue to get zucchini, of course, and collard greens.  There are occasional peppers.

Use a mandolin with the thinnest blade, and slice zucchinis into leaf-thin slices.  Add the usual salad fixings and dressing, makes a great salad. 

Today the sweet corn appears ready to harvest.  I'm too tired to prepare it tonight, so leaving in the husks. 

I shifted the largest pumpkin to slide a newspaper under it.  That was to protect it from potential rot underneat, something I read about.  BAD MOVE.  The pumpkin came off the stem.  A ripe one is almost red.  This one is golden yellow.   I will see if I can roast it tomorrow for pumpkin pie fillings and pumpkin puree for pumpkin bread.

This pumpkin was Rouge Vit D'Etamps.  I weighed it - 35 pounds.  What will I do with that much pumpkin?  Annoyed with myself for not letting it ripen on the plant, dammit dammit.  But there are many smaller pumpkins and winter squashes, so there will still be more than we can reasonably use.

Vegetables.  7.27.16

 Some of the radish seeds have germinated at 3 days.   I planted all of the Chinese radish varieties, mentioned earlier.  Meanwhile at one week the first Euro radishes, turnips, kohlrabis, are looking good  one week after sowing seeds.  The carrot seeds have germinated.  I also enclosed this raised bed in netting for deer and rabbits.  I don't know if that will keep out cabbage moths. 

Two days ago, we ate the first Sungold tomato.  Today there were a few more.  I'm impatient for tomato season to start, even though there are so many other things to be happy about.

Okra Cage.  7.26.16

Also noting- We are getting figs every day.  Not enough to overwhelm me, but a really good crop.

Not pictured, I harvested all of the potatoes, other than Burbank Russet, which are almost ready.  Probably 50 pounds total of potatoes.  I harvested about half of the yellow onions.  Maybe 10 pounds.   I pulled out one of the raised bed / cages of favas, and used that bed to plant more Chinese Radishes last weekend.

Sweet Corn.  Trinity is shorter variety.  Bilicious is taller variety.  7.26.16

Trinity Sweet Corn Ready to Harvest.  7.26.16

 Rouge Vif d'Etampes Pumpkin, Harvested Too Early.  7.26.16

Radishes, Turnips, Carrots Seeds Germinating.  7.26.16

The First of the Sungold, by a nose.  7.26.16