There were still some small potatoes, sprouting, in the garage. Left over from last year. They are a mix of varieties. I tried to sort them out, so each group is possibly one variety. The container method worked well last year, and potatoes were the only thing that did well in this planter soil. So, excluding the soil that was used for potatoes last year, that's what I'm using.
I mixed 1/4 cup organic vegetable fertilizer into the surface soil of each container.
Haven't been posting much. Will need to work on that.
Meanwhile, here is the red star quilt, so far.
I have mixed thoughts about this one. I like the general concept very much. It was a challenge, finding thrift store shirts that were right for making a quilt like this. Then again, buying new fabric, I don't always find what I want either. I like the idea of up-cycling fabric, when I can. But there are limitations with that, especially colors and patterns.
Much of the sides and corners, is my own design. The original pattern had large sections that were one fabric, except the red stars. I made it much more pieced together and added the grey half-stars as well.
I'm curious about how the same pattern would work, with rainbow or other color combination in batiks. After so much sort of monochrome, I want to use some brilliant, saturated colors in the next quilt(s).
Meanwhile, I'm working on the backing. I want to use up as much of the left over fabric stash as I can, so I'm not using a purpose-bought fabric for backing. As a backing, it can be pretty plain. I'm using the grey and white fabrics, cut into 9 inch squares. There weren't enough big pieces, so I cut some into triangles. Here is part of the backing. It should go together fairly quickly now.
So far, so good. The pattern is starting to emerge from the small pieces of fabric.
I made more than 220 2 1/2 inch square half square triangles, then kept in sandwich bags to keep track of which was which. Each bag contained 8 each of the red triangle with one of three white or grey pattern fabric triangles. Then I sewed them into strips of various configurations, for the sides of triangles that make the big star. I also cut the diamonds, which become points of 8-point diamond stars. For the Condor theme Nazca line them print, I tried to place a condor in the center of each diamond.
This Jalapeño plant looks like it's making nice buds. It's in the sunroom, under LED plant lights, and on a warming mat. Only about a week in the new conditions.
This is the Serrano. It's harder for me to tell if it is starting to grow. Maybe.
I just moved this Tabasco Pepper plant to the same conditions. There was one aphid on one leaf, but who knows? So I pruned it back a little and removed the leaves. Still, the stems are nice and green.
They are getting lots of TLC and it seems possible they will make it through the winter for a second season of growth.
I planted three cells of this cell pack with seeds from dry Thai Peppers, that I had just harvested from the plant, and the other three cells with seeds from dried Ancho peppers. The Thai peppers germinated quickly! Much faster than bought seeds. I have a feeling the Ancho peppers wont grow, but it's fun to try.
Here are some of the seedlings I planted a few weeks ago.
Chinese Chive (Also called Chinese Leek).
All are doing well, and on track to plant outside in two months.
There isn't a lot of guidance about growing Tigridia from seeds. I saved these seeds in 2021 but forgot to plant them last year. Are the seeds like onions and only last a year or two? I don't know. I also didn't have info on stratification, scarification, heating mat, or soaking. I did read that they need to be surface sown so they are exposed to light.
After about 3 or 4 weeks, I saw tiny spikes. This was just after watering.
The source plants were like these, although I'm not certain if they were these exact flowers. So we made it this far. They will get lots of TLC to see what happens. Assuming these seedlings survive my conditions.
My guess, which is only a guess, is they will need two years to reach blooming size. We will see!
The Galeux pumpkins are keeping great. No signs of mold or drying out. This one was hand pollinated last summer, as shown by the plastic tie -
I really think this is my best pumpkin or squash. The flavor is the best, it keeps well, and it is productive. The Burgess Buttercup did not do as well, and they mostly got moldy before I used them.
I cut this one open to use for cooking.
After sectioning the pumpkin, I cut off the skin and cut the pumpkin into approx 1" chunks. Those get used or frozen. The skin goes into the instant pot to steam for 5 minutes, then is fed to the chickens, who eat it all up.
I scoop out the seeds, wash them (not too fussy about that), let them dry on a paper towel.
After a few days, those go into an envelope for storage. These home saved seeds germinate faster and have more vigor, compared to newly purchased seeds.
I wondered if I had planted the garlic too deep. The Music (hardneck) garlic cloves were gargantuan, so I planted them 4 inches deep. They did not emerge during the fall, like they usually do. I had the covered with tree leaves, so I pulled the leaves aside to expose the ground to the sun. I noticed over the last week that all of the Music garlic is up now. So I feel much more confidant about that now.
Th Lorz (softneck) are further behind. For some reason, one row is up and the other two are not. Or did I plant an extra row of Music garlic there? Last winter, Lorz waited much longer to emerge, so that variety must be slower anyway.
I scattered slug bait on the rows. Slugs can do a job on garlic, and onions, this time of year. I also scattered eggshells for the calcium and nitrogen benefits.
Some of the daffys are also emerging through their mulch.
So far, so good. Most of the seeds are germinating.
All of the eggplant varieties have germinated. So have the basil, yellow hybrid onion, Red Wethersfield historic (non hybrid) onion (seeds two years old), Chinese leek (Chinese Chive, Garlic Chive), Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea (not stratified), and most of the peppers. The Tigridia have not germinated, but at a close look, one seed might be starting. The Thai peppers were slow but a few are starting to emerge. So far, the only peppers with zero growth so far, are Arapaho and all of the Yellow Banana Peppers, from any packet / source.
I thought that none if the Thai peppers were going to germinate, so I used some dried pepper pods still on the plants that I'm trying to overwinter, and collected some seeds to start.
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I also collected some seeds from dried Pasilla-ancho peppers, from the grocery store.
Those don't look promising, but I planted them today, anyway.
That got me thinking, I might like to try growing some other varieties, including Anchos, somI ordered some more seeds :-)
I know it's early, but I started most of these early before and they grew and produced nicely.
The first Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea emerged, without stratification.
No idea what to expect with the tigridia seeds, or if they last a few years. Those were saved from corm-grown plants in 2020. Chives may only last a year, also onions. I don't know about the basil either.
The first onion has emerged, a yellow hybrid.
Still long way to go. It gives me something to obsess over.
The temperature on the heating mats is about 5F lower on the soil surface than at the bottom of the cells.
I always start onion seeds early. They can be planted out earlier than most seedlings, clearing the way for more tender plants.
Last year's onions didn't do well, so this year I'm trying hybrids. I really think it was my growth conditions and not the varieties, but I want to try the new varieties for their hybrid vigor.
I also bought seeds for Chinese Chives (Chinese Leeks) to see if they do better than my 22 year old plants.
The hybrids are long-day (fir this Northern latitude), Red (Red Carpet) and yellow (Frontier).
I planted the onion seeds and Chinese Leek seeds in the green reusable silicone seed starting trays.
I also have some heirloom red onion bulbs planted in the garden to see if I can get seeds from them this summer. My experience is that home saved seeds sometimes do better than bought seeds. Also I'd like to continue to gain seed independence, by saving more varieties.
Today I sowed seeds for most of the hot peppers and some sweet peppers.
Some of the seeds are old. I don't know how they will do. I sowed a lot of the Thai peppers because the label showed poor germination in 2018, and they are much older now. Of course, there are the overwintering plants too.
I have some more to plant. This should be a good start. I start peppers early because they take SO much time to get growing.
This time I'm using re-usable seedling starters that can be washed in the dishwasher to sterilize (after washing to remove grit etc). In theory, these can be re-used many times over the years. They are larger than the usual six-pack seedling starters, which I think is better.
They are on seedling warming mats now. I need to get a new thermometer, which I ordered today.
The green seed starters are silicone trays, also reusable. I used them at least twice in last year 's seed starting, washing in dishwasher to sterilize before re-using. Those contain the Echinacea and onion seedlings.
This year I want to grow Echinacea "Cherokee Spirit". The colors are very nice, and the plants are more compact and bushy, compared to species Echinacea. They are expensive, so I ordered seeds. Species Echinacea seed requires cold stratification. The seed packet did not mention that, so I'm stratifying half and starting the other half directly. I don't know, but maybe early starts will give first year flowers. With species Echinacea, I don't get flowers until the second year.
I use the same method that usually works for me - place the seeds on a moistened paper towel, place that into a zipper sandwich bag, and place that in the refrigerator for two months.
I'm also starting some Goldenrod. Same method.
This will be another quilt that starts using a pattern in Modern Quilter, by designer Lynn Goldsworthy. I like her designs very much. I made changes, based on my use of (mostly) upcycled fabrics. One major change, the original design has a lot of background in cream colors, wide areas of fabrics. Mine will have patchwork background, mainly greys and minimalist patterns on white.
The changes have taken quite a bit of trial and error on paper, but I think I have it.
Here are the shirt fabrics, curated, washed, starched, pressed, cut at the seams.
The reds are mostly a deep color, sort of ox-blood, or burgundy. One is light, sort of mauve.
This is a preview of the star pattern, minus one point.
I could do a few things to fill in the missing point. Such as, repeat a fabric, vs. buy something at the fabric store, vs. continue shopping for shirts to upcycle. One point is the reverse side of another, I could try that. I decided not to be a purist, and ordered a yard of a deep red Indonesian Batik on Amazon. That will add a little something extra, if I actually use it.
The original pattern was published as a supplement in Today's Quilter, Issue 75. The complete link seems to be broken.
