Kitchen Garden Progress Notes.

Ning's beans are climbing the string trellis. The volunteer that started itself as a "winter sow" produced a small bowl of beans.

The French Yellow and Roma bush beans have been producing for 2 weeks (not pictured). This is the former garlic bed - dug them up 2 weeks ago (also not pictured). Now it's an experiment - will romas and french yellow bush beans produce if seeds are started now?

Thai pepper. Strange, both are near fig cuttings that I had given up for dead.

Cayenne pepper. One is starting to turn yellow.

The cucumbers are starting to produce. We had one last week.

Upgrading Tomato Seedlings

The tomato seedlings are large enought to need new containers. Plus, they need potting soil instead of just seed starting medium. The only seeds that did not grow were the old "celebrity" - and I see one just beginning now.
A closer photo. The Pondorosa Red is the smallest, possibly because I dropped them and repotted the smashed seedlings. They seem to be recovering.
After repotting. I used "Whitney's organic potting soil".

Of the peppers, only now am I seeing any barely beginning to sprout. So far, it's just a cayenne and Ning's old, old kitchen stored seeds. The house is just too cool to germinate peppers. THe containers are getting moldy - we'll see...

Seed starting.

Yesterday I had to leave work due to an amazingly painful back spasm. I couldn't believe how bad it was. I literally couldn't move from my chair - not even a couple of inches. Today it's about 80% better. Since it's my 'day off' anyway, instead of doing homework I mostly rested, but also planted a few seeds. You can't lay in bed all day (it's not recommended, even), and starting seeds in 3 oz. paper cups is not exactly heavy lifting.

Tomates and peppers. I planted the new seeds that I bought by mail order in december (Hybrid tomatoes including Supersweet 100, Lemon Boy, Better Boy, and Heirloom tomatoes including Ponderosa Red, Black Krim. Also some older seeds, Supersweet-100 about 1-year old, and 1-year old seeds of Black from Tula and Cherokee Purple. There were also peppers, including mail order Bulgarian Carrot and Portugal Hot, and older seeds including some old peppers that Ning had in the kitchen. Ning's peppers were brought from China about 8 years ago, and I grew some about 2 years ago but did not save seeds from those. So this is starting over again. The peppers were in a kitchen cabinet in an old zip-lock bag. Will they grow? Also a 3-year old packet of Tabasco peppers.

The paper cups were left over from last year, as was the seed starting medium (looks like about 3/4 peat moss and 1/4 perlite). The cups have holes drilled in the bottoms.

Here they are planted in the windowsill, south window. These little paper cups last about long enough for the plants to outgrow them, then basically fall apart. That's fine, they can be composted.

I thought that I was showing some self-discipline by waiting until today to plant them. Then I looked at last year's entry - they were planted March 25th. So about the same time.

Here is a gardenweb thread on old seeds. Some writers had seeds much older than these, in worse storage conditions, and they apparently germinated and grew. Here is someone who used 5-year old tomato seeds, with 35 of 40 varieties germinating. Here are some 120 year old seeds at Michigan State - fine, if you want Verbascum (but also hopeful for other types of seeds). They were placed in sand in bottles and buried - not exactly optimum storage for seeds, but who would have known, 120 years ago? Of course, there is the famous Judean Date that was sprouted after 2000 years in desert-dry storage. I did a search on the resultant palm, and 3 years later, it is still growing, and is 14 inches tall. According to the article, if it is female and if its DNA hasnt been damaged in it's 2000 year storage, it is expected to bear in about 2010. Maybe. Oh - here's another article about the Methusaleh palm. according to National Geographic, it was 3 feet tall in 05. I'm not sure about the discrepancy. Then there are these 500-year old canna seeds that germinated. They had been used to make a rattle, by native peoples of Argentina in about 1420. Here is the wikipedia artical on the oldest viable seed.

Planning and seed orders

Tonight I browsed the "Totally Tomatoes" website and placed orders for the seed varieties that are listed below.

Tomatoes
They didn't do so great in 07. Too cool and rainy. Maybe I didn't give them enough of an early boost with warmth and plant food (fish emulsion). Maybe I'll try the 'wall-o-water' again. It helped in 06, but at one point I thought they were getting steamed, and it was complicated making sure that I had them open on sunny days. Here is a photo, including the 'wall-o-water's, from 4/16/06. Spring really does happen, I just need to remind myself of that sometimes.

Better Boy Hybrid Tomato - 75 days- This has been one of the reliable ones.
Black Krim Tomato - 69 days - Tried Black from Tula and Cherokee Black in 2007, good tasting, not so productive.
Lemon Boy Hybrid Tomato - 72 days - My all time favorite, have to keep trying.
Ponderosa Red Tomato - 80 days - Childhood favorite. Who am I kidding? I doubt that this will perform in the Pacific Northwest. Still, all it takes is one tomato.
Super Sweet 100 Hybrid Tomato - 65 days - Ning's favorite and the best growing cherry in this yard.

Peppers
This year I'll try some peppers again. They don't usually produce until late summer or fall. Maybe try the 'wall-o-water' method.
Bulgarian Carrot Chile Pepper - 65-68 days - Never tried before.
Cayenne Long Red Slim Pepper - 75 days - This does 'ok' in my yard, 2 years running. But only a few peppers resulted.
Hot Portugal Pepper - Early ripening at 65 days. Worth a try.

Squash
Sunny Delight Hybrid Squash - Some variety to keep things 'fresh'

I did check out some other web sites, but none had the "Lemon Boy" tomato seeds. I suppose that I could have tried 1- or 2-year-old seeds, but didn't want to take the chance on these favorites.

I may also dig out old seeds and see if I can grow some varieties that I grew before. Viability-wise, they should be OK. I suspect that I can locate some old seeds from past years, and would like to try again.

Chores, sharing, fall update

No photos today.

Steve from Scappose is now in possession of most of my remaining 'orphan' figs - they were not doing so well in containers, there is no room in the garden, so I'm glad that they have found a home. good luck and farewell, Brown turkey, melanzana, and a Hardy Chicago. He brought a nice canna to add to the collection.

Figs are bearing about 1 per day, enough to keep me interested and grateful. thoughts for next year's figs: I wont worry about summer crup. I'll prune more severely in the Winter, for an earlier main crop. Maybe Lattarulla will bear an actual fig now that it's in the ground, on the SOuth side of the house. It will also get a more severe pruning.

Grapes are still bearing, remaining varieties are Canadice and probable Niagra. The probable Niagra is a green seeded grape that grew up into a cherry tree.

Tomatoes have a few stragglers.

Planted several rows of Inchelium garlic in back, and a few German Red garlic in front. I might like the german better.... stronger and larger cloves, but not as productive. Last year i planted them 3 or 4 weeks earlier. Didnt have time until now.

Planted heirloom Yellow multiplier onions, this time some in small bunches for scallions, and some in rows for eating onions. About 30 planted altogether, not a lot but there isnt much room. I do like the flavor. Last year i planted them 3 or 4 weeks earlier. See above.

Planted 80 tulip bulbs in bunches of 3 to 5.

There were 6 nice large cayenne peppers on one pepper plant. Nice little harvest.

veggies

At this time I've barely had time to keep them watered. Still, with large amounts of organic matter added to the soil over the past several years, and a compost mulch, they are producing pretty well. Lots of tomatoes now, plus zucchinis, cucumbers, some cayenne and hungarian peppers. Also, I've been eating about 1/2 pound of grapes daily for the past week, and they are just starting to ripen. First was Interlaken, quickly followed by Venus and Price. Price has the largest grapes, with a 'grapey' flavor, and I don't mind the seeds. Interlaken is the sweetest, but being seedless they are smaller than Price. Venus is interesting - I can't decide how much I like them, but they are not fully sweet yet and they are bigger than Interlaken. Canadice hasn't started to ripen yet. Looking forward to them.

"Volunteers" and today's putteriing

This is probably 'golden nugget' tomato, an open polinated Oregon variety which I grew for three years. It popped up in the rose bed. I didnt notice until I saw the yellow tomato.



This is probably 'gambo' pepper, an heirloom variety that I grew last year. It popped up in a flower pot along with some Italian Parsley; not much room left for the Euphorbia that was planted in the pot.



This is a morning glory that I grew last year. It looks very nice sprialling around the cleome. It's excessively exuberant - and there are others around the yard.

I remember the concept of 'volunteer' plants from growing up in Quincy. The volunteer is a seedling that sprouted, without human intervention, from seeds that fell or were otherwise distributed (such as seeds spread by birds, or a fruit pit abandoned after eating the fruit, or seeds that survived composting kitched scraps). Around the yard are volunteer Rose of Sharon, and semi-volunteer rose bushes (from discarded prunings that somehow survived and sprouted). These represent the tenacity of life, growing without effort from me or any other grower (such as commercial outfits). As such, they are treasures.

Unless they turn into weeds (like ivy, but that's another story).

Today's puttering:
1. I planted a seedling ginkgo, to replace the slowly dying Monkey Puzzle tree. Who knows whether there is something wrong with that yard location (in which case I might have doomed the ginkgo). I hope it's not Sudden Oak Death - but as slow as this tree has been dying (over three years), it's not sudden.
2. Cleaned up the strawberries. Removed old leaves. Pulled out crowded strawberries, and planted at the edge of the tomato bed and blueberry border.
3. Deadheaded roses.
4. Mowed the brown but weedy lawn. Maybe this will be the year to try an eco-lawn?
5. I think I'm going to pick some grapes now.