Tomato Seedlings. 4.10.22

 I started the tomato seeds about March 15, I think.  I have been up-potting them into individual cells of the silicone 6-packs over the past 2 weeks.  This is about 2/3 of the plants.  The 

The green packs were up-potted a week ago, the blue packs were up-potted yesterday.  Growth has been much faster since repotting (green packs) compared to the ones I just did (blue).  The delay is OK, it's still very early.

Some went into taller containers, if the stem had stretched taller.  That was mostly the romas that were in the window instead of under LEDs.

As for varieties, Most are dwarf types or determinates.

From my saved seeds:

Dwarf Extreme Bush (heirloom) (red, small)

Livingston Dwarf Stone (heirloom) (red, medium)

Dwarf BrandyFred (open pollinated, dwarf tomato project) (brown/purple, very large fruit)

Dwarf Golden Champion (heirloom) (golden, large fruit)

Dward Tanunda Red. (open pollinated, dwarf tomato project) (red, very large fruit)

Dwarf Champion Improved. (heirloom) (pink, medium fruit)

Roma VF (heirloom) (sauce tomato)

Reisentraube.  (heirloom, not dwarf but seems fairly compact) I thought the Reisentraube looked too vigorous, compared to last year.  In case it was mis-labeled, I re-sowed those seeds last week.

From newly purchased seeds:

Sakura (Cherry hybrid, red)

Puck (open pollinated, very small plant)

Supremo (determinant, red sauce type hybrid)

Dwarf Moliagul Moon (open pollinated, dwarf tomato project) (light yellow)

Dwarf Eagle Smiley. (open pollinated, dwarf tomato project) (red, cherry)

Honeybee (hybrid, semideterminant, from an old seed pack) (yellow cherry)

Overwintering Peppers. Update. 4.9.23

 Some of the overwintered pepper plants are looking very nice.  Aphids continue to be an issue,  I spray them off at least twicexdaily with water, containing 1/4 tsp miracle gro in 2 quarts of water.  That knocks of the aphids, and seems to boost growth both health and rate.   Thecheating mats are off now.  The sunroom is warmer too.

Jalapeño.   One blossom has opened, and there are lots of buds.  I should probably remove the flower buds.

The Tabasco pepper plants are both growing great!

The Serrano pepper plant is recovering.  The main challenge is keeping aphids in check.

I use a water spray, containing 1/4 tsp miracle gro in 2 quarts of water, to dislodge aphids and provide more nutrition to the plants.  That seems to help growth, and the leaves are darker green.

One Thai pepper plant died.  The other is on the top sunroom shelf, close to the sky window, because it doesn't fit under the LEDs.

The Cayenne is struggling.  The buds seem to grow, then stall.  It's alive, so I continue to take care of it.  It is also on the top shelf.

Overwintering Pepper Plants. 3.26.23

 Here are the three best looking ones.

Jalapeño

Tabascos.

The biggest challenge now is aphids.  Unfortunately, the sprays are toxic to new growth.  That may have killed this Cayenne pepper plant.   It might still survive, I don't know.

This Serrano is even sadder.

As is this Thai pepper.

The only thing that seems safe for the plants, for removing aphids, is water spray.  I did add foliar-feeding strength fertilizer to the spray, 1/8 tsp per quart.  That doesn't seem to hurt the plants and might givevthem a boost, I don't know.  It also seems OK for seedlings.   I'll continue trying.

Red Star Quilt. 3.26.23

 I bought fabric for backing, but it had a cream color that I did not detect in the internet image.  I don't think that goes with the colors in this quilt.  Also, my bag of fabric scraps is too big, so I used a majot part of it to make this quilt backing.

The squares ate big, to reduce the number of places where the needle has to go through multiple layers when I'm quilting it.  This view is the back side, to show the seams.

Then I layered the backing with batting and the quilt top, and safety pinned it together.

I don't like the basting spray, the solvent is so strong, it smells like an auto body repair shop and it doesn't work that well for me anyway.

I like this quilt pattern enough that I decided to do a second take on it, this time with deeply intense batik fabric and cream colored backgrounds.  Here is the start of that idea.  It will take a few months to make, but easier than using upcycled shirt fabrics.  A lot of the pieces are from precut jelly rolls, and some from extra blocks from a prior batik quilt, or some fabric in my fabric bin.  The diamonds are 2.5 inches on a side, which is also the width of the jelly roll strips.   The squares that become hald square triangles are also 2.5 inches.  So the only parts that can't cone from jelly rolls, are the big background triangles.

Planting Potatoes. Bag Method. 3.26.22

 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.

Red Star Quilt, So Far. 3.16.22

 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.

Red Star Quilt. Update. 2.13.23

 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.

The original pattern has some fairly large expanses of un-pieced fabric.  I'd like for my quilt to have a more pieced look on the sides, but not detract from the rich red shade stars.  I got out some shirt collars and cuffs that went into previous quilts.  The diamonds are two inches wide, about the same as the shirt collars.  I removed stitches from the seams, to give the diamonds a 1/4 inch seam allowance on each side, and ironed them flat.  This was just BARELY enough, but I think they will look nice, when assembled.

I did the same with some shirt cuffs.  Same idea, but they are a bit easier.  This is all that remains from those shirts, after using the fabric in various quilt projects.  The cuff had a fused interfacing on one side, which I did not want.  Fortunately, the collar interfacing was not fused, and there were two cuffs, so enough fabric for four diamonds with no interfacing.

I think these will look nice on the quilt sides, breaking up the expanse of back ground fabric without detracting from the red stars.

Some Overwintering Hot Pepper Plants And New Seedlings. 2.5.23

 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.

Seedling Updates. Echinacea, Onions, Chinese Chives. 2.5.23

 Here are some of the seedlings I planted a few weeks ago.

Chinese Chive (Also called Chinese Leek).

Hybrid Onions.

Cheyenne Spirit Exhinacea

All are doing well, and on track to plant outside in two months.

Growing Tigridia From Seeds. 2.5.23

 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!

Saving Galeux d'Eysines Pumpkin Seeds. 1.27.22

 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.

Winter Garden Update. Garlic and Daffodils. 1.27.22

 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.