Yesterday I planted saved seeds for cilantro and Black Seeded Simpson lettuce in the raised bed. I expect to harvest those before planting peppers outside in May or June. Today I made a trip to Winco, fully haz-matted in double masks, gloves, and goggles, but no flame thrower. I noted some seeds, so bought another variety of lettuce and some spinach seeds. I planted those today. These are probably not candidates for seed saving, which is OK. I have too many of those anyway.
These are more appropriately called "Peach Shrubs" than trees, they are so small. Small shrubs at that. I covered them for the winter, using upturned trash cans. Today I thought, "I wonder what's going on under there". It turned out, one is already blooming and the other is growing, both very very pale from no sunshine.
I covered these for the winter to avoid issues with Peach Leaf Curl Disease, which makes inroads into the peach buds through the rainy fall and winter. I don't know if that will be an issue with uncovering now. There is still some rainy season ahead. With these so pale, it's possible the sun will damage them. I decided to just go with the flow and see what happens.
If I remember correctly, the blooming one is called "Garden Gold" and the nonblooming one is called "El Dorado". That second one was far smaller when I planted it last year . I pruned off the moldy looking branches.
This is the peach curl resistant peach that I grew from seed a number of years ago, progeny from Oregon Curl Free. It's a good peach and on the seed grown tree there has never been significant leaf curl. It's the most resistant tree that I have grown so far, out of many varieties marketed for disease resistance. I labeled this peach "Sunny Day" so that I would have something to call it.
Last Spring I tried to whip/tongue graft scion onto Lovell rootstock, didn't take. So I bud grafted onto the same rootstocks during the summer. They took, but one was lost in hot weather. That left this one.
It's tiny, but I think the bud is still alive. It's a little greener in person than in this photo. I pruned off the rest of the baby tree, above the bud. Now it must grow from this bud or not at all.
Today I planted seeds from "Black Seeded Simpson" lettuce, a variety that I recall my mom growing with I was a little lad. During that era, gardening was especially challenging because there were Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs running around the yard and we had to stay out of their way. Oh, the memories.
I saved these seeds from some lettuce plants I grew last year. Saving lettuce seeds was a new thing for me. The flowers were a little sticky, so it wasn't as easy to separate the seeds from the chaff, but perfection isn't necessary and usually isn't an option for me. They cleaned up well enough.
There is a potential these cross bred with wild lettuce, which might result in bitter, smaller leaves. We'll know if/when they germinate and grow.
Lettuce germinates at 60F to 70F, so I won't use the warming mat.
The variety "Black Seeded Simpson" was introduced in the late 19th century, so people have been growing it for more than 130 years.
Yesterday got a bag of potting soil during senior coronavirus hours at Costco, so this morning I up-potted the three apple seedlings and two of the peppers, from their six-pack cells into individual larger pots with actual potting soil. They had good root systems. My theory, borne out by experience but never tested, is that when the roots reach the sides and bottom of the container and start winding around, the plant growth slows down and it doesn't thrive.
The apple seedlings look surprisingly healthy, considering I don't know what I'm doing. I wonder if, on being in real sunshine, the red coloration will darken.
Background info:
The apple seedlings are Redlove™ Calypso™ X Golden Sentinel.
So far, Calypso™ has red flesh and is sort of cranapple flavored. Quite tart and crisp. Smaller than my other apples, although first year fruits are usually not as large or good as those from more mature trees.
Golden Sentinel is a Canadian development, a cross of ‘Discovery’ X (cross of Wijcik Spur MacIntosh x Delicious). Discovery is an English cross of . Worcester Pearmain with, possibly, Beauty of Bath, reported to have a bit of a strawberry flavor and red coloration that sometimes bleeds into the flesh. So Golden Sentinel has some good flavor genetics. I like it although it seems to be biennial bearing.
My pipe dream is to create a columnar apple tree with reddish leaves, pink flowers, red flesh apples that are sweeter than Calypso™ but more fragrant than Golden Sentinel, which I think is a good apple as is. Since two of the seedlings have reddish leaves, I might be part way there. They have a 50% chance of columnar trait. According to the Canada Plant Inspection Agency, Golden Sentinel has shorter internodes compared to McIntosh Wicjik, so it’s possible that I might see that in seedlings although I don’t know if I would recognize it. I try to put these on a top shelf where they get more sun, because I don’t know if the wavelength of the LED lights is suitable for red-pigmented leaves.
Yesterday I did some training of apple espaliers. I'm using the espalier form around the perimeter of the fenced garden, for efficient use of premium deer-protected space, and to grow apples without need for ladders or excessive reaching overhead. It will take a few years for these to reach their potential. The Redlove™ Odysso™ and Redlove™ Calypso™ are one year old, the Redlove™ Era™ is two years old, and the Zestar™ is one year old.
I like that I can use the home grown timber bamboo for the horizontal aspect of the trellis. The vertical posts are just fenceposts, and not as stable as I want. Those will need replacing at some point, but I'm not up to it right now.
The tiers will need more growth at the ends, to fully utilize the horizontal trellises. I thing I can let the tops grow and bend/tie them as they lengthen. Also, two trees need another branch for the lower tiers, so I have small branches that I'm leaving in place and hope they lengthen this summer for bending over later.
These may benefit from more nitrogen fertilizer than I gave them last year, which was minimal or none. I'd like to have the tiers more fully developed by the end of the year.
These are situated perfectly for the summer pruning that espalier trees require. I can putter around in the vegetable and fruit garden at the same time.
Redlove™ Era™
Redlove™ Calypso™
It might be too early, but I planted some of the onion and shallot seedlings outside in the raised bed. Given the gentle weather, overcast sky and predicted rain, I did not try to acclimate them to outdoors first. This cleared some space on the seedling stand for additional plantings.
The NY Early onion seedlings look fairly sturdy. The shallot seedlings appear more delicate. It might be early, but since winter onions and onion sets are starting to grow, I think these will be OK too.
I overdid the garlic and onions. I need to decide on space for the other seedlings. The other raised bed is reserved for peppers and pickle cucumbers.
Not much else blooming. A crocus is a welcome sight. Most of the little fruit trees are surrounded by various bulbs. My hypothesis is that these bulbs might be bitter or toxic, so deter tunneling subterranean animals from damaging the young fruit tree roots. I don't know that it actually helps. I do like the cheerful flowers.
Today I sorted through some of the potatoes that I stored in the garage from last summer. It was cool and dark, and most of the sprouts don't seem excessive. They were a mix of types, difficult to recognize. I usually don't regrow from my own garden, preferring inspected, certified starts. However, I plant in a different spot each year. I did not notice any scab or rotting diseases. There was no significant fusarium wilt. So I will take a chance. Last year, I also planted some sprouted home grown and grocery potatoes, and those did fine.
Most looked like the small ones on the right. I cut up the big potatoes, a yellow flesh type, and sat them in the sunroom for the wounds to dry out. They can be planted in a week. If the sprout is a little long, I lay it horizontal or remove it to give the shorter ones a better chance.
Cut potato chunks sitting in the sunroom, with the cut edges drying. These are yellow flesh, although not necessarily Yukon Gold. Last year, I had some sprouted yellow potatoes that were from the grocery store, so grew them. These might be descended from those, or from potatoes that grew on their own in the compost pile.
I also bought some actual tomato seeds ("True Potato Seeds", TPS) - real seeds, not cut up tubers. Those are not easy to find. The variety is Clancy hybrid, an AAS winner. It's not possible to predict how they will do, and while I have my doubts, it is always interesting to try new things.
Clancy Potato seedlings. So far germination is about 30%, which is OK. Some might germinate later. It's only been about a week since I planted them, so not too bad.
The marigold photo I forgot to upload yesterday. Four cells are from the Volunteer French Marigold, and 2 cells are from the Volunteer Yellow Cherry Tomato. So these are the "Volunteer's Offspring".
And one of the tomato six packs. All of the tomato varieties have germinated. It's the start of a good gardening year.
Last fall I saved flower heads from chives. Even though they are perennial and last year's plant will return, I wanted to have some more. Plus, growing new ones from seeds seems to result in more vigorous plants. It's easy to separate the seeds. I did the same thing as I did with basil, storing the flower heads upside down in a paper bag, then crushing them in my fingers to release the seeds, and using my fingers to remove most of the chaff. A little chaff doesn't hurt anything. Here are the germinating chive seedlings. Also, about one week to germination.
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.
More seedlings under LED lights.
There are also storage onion seedlings and some of the peppers, eggplants, and apples, on the top shelf under the sunroom top window.
