Seedling Update. 4.18.2021

 Here are the current seedlings.  Some of the tomatoes, all of the potatoes, a few of the peppers, the marigolds, and early started lettuce are all planted outside.  Today I up-potted the seedlings of dwarf tomato varieties and kept a few extras.

All that's left to start are some squash, pumpkins, and cucumbers.  If I'm in the mood for it, I might plant some Swiss chard and a few other veggies directly in the garden now, and of course corn and beans in May and June.

Seedling Progress Report. 2.28.2021

 The seeding mat was a bit too warm, with a brief period up to 100F earlier this week.  For most of the seeds, it does not seem to have hurt them and many are germinating earlier than expected.  Not all are growing yet.  So far, most of the tomatoes, the basil, and French marigolds are growing.  The marigolds were first.  The basil and marigolds were seeds I saved from my plants last fall, and the marigolds were from volunteer plant, so now 3rd generation in my garden.

Basil seedlings.  There are a "typical" basil - not one of the fancy big leaf or Thai varieties.  Last fall I cut off the seed heads, and stored them upside down in a brown paper bag in my home office.  Last week, I crushed the dry seed heads in my hands, transferred to a bowl, used my fingers to separate the chaff.  it was very easy to get a large amount of seed, and the process smelled very nice, like basil.

Tomato Seedlings.  Only two have not germinated yet, one of the Moskovic and the home saved volunteer yellow cherry tomato.

Marigold Seedlings - not pictured but similar to the tomato seedlings.  I still have the original plant, blooming in the sunroom.  It's a nice, reddish brown color with orange edges and centers, only about 9 inches tall after a year.

 

Plus, some of the earlier seedlings are doing very well so far.  First, the shallot seedlings are growing nicely.  Germination was poor, but the plants that did grow are doing well.  I also have a shallot bulb that I planted in the garden last fall.  It will be interesting to compare how they do.

 This container has peppers, on left is Banana pepper and with the reddish-leaf apple seedling is Thai pepper.  Those will get separated when I repot the apple plant.

More seedlings under LED lights.

 

 

Celery seedlings.  I planted them too thickly.  The seeds are tiny and I didn't know how good the germination would be.  I thinned them to a few per cell.  Probably thin to one or two per cell, later.

There are also storage onion seedlings and some of the peppers, eggplants, and apples, on the top shelf under the sunroom top window.

Pepper Plants. 5.11.19

Pepper Plants, started from seeds in January.  5.11.19

I'm moving these on to outside life.  I potted them up from tiny 6-packs into these pink packs that were saved from petunias that I bought last year.  Peppers like it warm, and it's been in the 80s during the day.  The largest, in bloom, are Cayennes, followed by Jalapenos.  This year I want to keep them in containers, for protection from soil herbivores and to keep them warm for better performance.

Pepper and Onion Seedlings. 2.31.19

 These are some of  the pepper and onion plants that I started from seeds in January.  Doing quite well under LED lights.

Starting More Seeds Indoors. 2.11.19

 Here are the seeds that I started yesterday.  It's too early for tomato seeds. I wanted to test them, and also see how they do in the sunroom.

The Supersweet 100 seeds are from 2015, as are the Sunny Boy hybrid.  The Brandy Boy seeds are from 2018.  If any don't germinate, there is plenty of time to try again.

I'm also teying again with the peppers that did not germinate 2 or 3 weeks ago, and trying a very early start of some perennials, Ridbeckia, Echinacea, and  Goldenrod.  Interesting, the goldenrod seeds were so tiny, they were like fine dust.

Starting Peppers and Onions under LEDs. Update 2.9.19

Here are the pepper and onion seedlings under LEDs. I bought an additional unit.  I think this one was 35 Watts.  I did not realize it would give, in addition to the blue and red lights, some yellow and white.  That's fine, and from what I read, better.  I also have aluminum foil sheets that I hang on side and ends of the plant rack to reflect more light onto the plants.  So far Im very happy with how the plants are doing.

The bottom photo shows my old CFL light.  I got it out for getanium cuttings that I started from last fall's plants, and a couple of orchids.  Those geraniums are growing fast under this light.

Seedlings - tomatoes, peppers, some brassicas, and onions. 3.31.18.

 The tomatoes, peppers, and brassicas germinated nicely.  They are under lights in a West window.

I always plant several seeds per cell.  I thinned to 1 or 2 plants per cell.  When they are a little larger, I may separate some into 2 plants for further growing.

The Brassicas (collard greens and brussels sprouts) are a little leggy.

 I may try again outside.

The onions seedlings that I started 2 months ago didn't do as well.  I was not able to give them the attention that I wanted to then.  Still, they look OK, so I planted them in the garden bed. 

Starting Seeds. 3.15.18

 Now the seeds are tucked away into a seed starting tray.  I like to start peppers now or a little earlier, and tomatoes a little later, but there is flexibility and you never know what the weather will do.

This time I tried 3 different types of sauce tomatoes, which I process and freeze in the summer and freeze for winter use.  I go through a lot of those.  "Roma" and "San Marzano" always seems to have a lot of blossom end rot, which none of the others have.  Last year I added more lime, but there was still blossom end rot.  So this year I'm trying 3 other types of paste tomatoes: "Big Mama" hybrid from Burpee, and "Ranger F1" and "Heinz 2653" from Territorial seeds.  I'm holding on cherry tomatoes, because there are always lots of started plants of those in the Spring anyway.  There are also my favorite, "Better Boy", and some others for early crop ("Beaver Lodge 6808 and Glacier") which did seem earlier last year, and some experiments.

 For peppers, my favorites last year were the Jalapenos, which were productive and earlier than some of the other chilis. I'm trying a different one, sold as "Early Jalapeno",  I had too many cayennes, so just one cell of those, and Sweet Banana, Bird Thai, Mini Bells, King of the North, Peter Pepper, and Tabasco.  I think the Tabascos are later but would like to make Tabasco sauce this year if they do produce.

I also threw in some hybrid Collards (Hi Crop F1) and Brussels Sprouts (Franklin F1).  I've never grown Brussels Sprouts before, and I don't know when they are best planted, but it wont hurt to experiment.

Reformed Raised Beds. 3.9.18

 During the winter, I rebuilt two of the raised beds, converting from wooden sides to concrete blocks.   The blocks are collected from various other old projects, so were free.  These beds are taller than the old wooden beds, so easier to work in.

I have one more bed to replace.  This time, I had to buy the blocks.  They clost slightly over a dollar each, with 36 blocks being needed, so that bed will be about $36 to build.  Not bad.

I also reused some decking planks to rebuild 3 of the wood sided beds to a higher level to be easier to work.  The wooden beds are starting to degrade.  I don't ecpect them to last a lot longer.

I'm being careful to use the raised beds only for plants that seem to benefit from that method.  Peppers do really well, because they like the warmer soil.  It's easy to keep the soil surface nice and weed free.  Chinese chives and other alliums are also easier to keep clean and weed free in the beds.  Strawberries, being small plants, benefit similarly.  So these beds are mainly Chinese chives, strawberries, Egyptian Winter Onions, some of the garlic, and one will have pepppers.

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.

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. 5.21.17

Tomatoes.  5.21.17

Potatoes and Garlic.  5.21.17

Some life got in the way and I was delayed getting some of the gardening done.  Now, tomatoes are in their beds.  These are the plants I started about one month ago.  They made nice plants.  Also tomatillos and peppers.

The potatoes, onions, and garlic are doing nicely.

I gave up on potato onions, turned the soil over, and planted tomatoes in that bed.  Potato onions do not do well for me, even though I like the idea.

The first batch of sweet corn did not germinate well.  One row sort of germinated, and a couple of plants in a second row.  Might be old seeds or soil not warm enough, or birds ate them.  I planted more today, covered, and if they don't grow, I'll get new seeds.

The first batch of onions that I planted when I thought it was too early and chilly and wet, are way ahead of the later ones.

The peppers are in very-raised raised beds, 4 x 4 feet, made from used cement blocks.  These also have deer fencing.  The tomatoes are in raised beds that are protected from deer.  Animals don't seem to bother the potatoes and garlic, other than a little rabbit munching last fall.  Rabbits munched some of the onions at first, but now are leaving them alone.

Starting Pepper and Other Seeds, Indoors. 5/12/17

 Today I started peppers indoors.  It is a little late, but I hope we still get a crop.  Our Spring is so chilly and wet, early plants just sulk anyway.  Maybe they'll get a better start than last year, when I started them much earlier.

I also started some greens seeds.

I added another batch of tomatillo seeds.  According to the catalog, this is a Polish variety better adapted to cooler shorter summers, compared to the Mexican types.Tomatillo Amarylla.  60 days.

Onion Seedlings. 1.27.17

Onion Seedlings.  1.27.17

The onion seedlings are looking pretty good.  At first I thought germination was not adequate, but they appear to have filled in over the past 2 weeks.  These are on a seedling mat, and under fluorescent lights.

I am also testing some hot pepper seeds, obtained from a package of dried peppers at the Chinese grocery store.  Those are very hot peppers, variety unknown but of the Thai type.

Kitchen Garden Harvest. 10.18.16

Turnip.  10.18.16

Root Crops.  Chinese Radishes, Daikon, Turnips.  10.18.16

 It's been raining every day, and heavily, so I have not been out in the kitchen garden as much.  Today was a reprive.

The July-planted turnips are great, as is the Daikon and a few of the Chinese radishes.  Many of the radishes have exploded, I imagine from the rains.  Still, this is a lesson that there are some that can be planted successfully from seeds, in July.  The broccoli and kohlrabi don't look like much, so I'm leaving those in place.  Ditto for carrots, more an issue of deer eating the tops, than because they didn't grow.

The red-centered Chinese radishes have a mild crispy flavor, nice raw.  Daikon is similar, a bit more peppery, and very good shredded and eaten raw as a slaw, or as a dumpling filling.

Lettuce did very well.  I don't know why deer and rabbits didn't eat it.

The scallions that I rescued mid summer, staged a come back and we have been eating them.

Red-centered Chinese Radish.  10.18.16

Now we are getting a lot more peppers than we can eat.  I planted them too early.  The raised beds with low fencing was perfect, no herbivore predation and yield is amazing.

Still harvesting corn from seeds that were planted in June.  This variety is "Bodaceous".  The ear is more full than it looks, I didn't pull the husk back far enough.  Bodaceous is a high-yielding, really good "corn-tasting" sweet corn, unlike Mirai which was watery and sugary and no much corn flavor.

Leaf Lettuce Mix.  10.18.16

Scallions.  10.18.16

Peppers.  10.18.16

"Bodaceous" Sweet Corn.  10.18.16