Tomato Seedlings Growing Fast. 4.3.22

The tomato plants are in Black Gold potting soil.  For most, I'm using taller pots, 4" across, so they don't get root bound too fast.  There are still about 6 weeks before they can go into the ground. These are all slicing tomato and a few cherry tomato plants.

It's a lot of plants, but about half are for gifts.  

At this early stage, the dwarf types are easily distinguished from regular height plants.

The three on the left are dwarf, the two on the right are not dwarf.  The far left plant is "CC McGee", a "potato - leaf" dwarf.  

The one exception is Reisentraube, which so far is as small as the dwarf types, even though they are a regular height - type plant.

All were in the sun for a few hours yesterday.  They looked fine afterwards.  In fact, I think the leaf color looks better.    They will be in the sun for most of the day today, too.  I'm actually hoping that the dwarf plants can be in pots longer than the regular height plants, to give me more time.

Potato Plants Emerging. 3.31.22

There are several potato plants emerging from the early planting of sprouted potatoes.  This variety has red skin.  They will need a little cultivation soon so the weeds don't compete.  I don't know its name.  The yellow ones have not emerged yet.

I just checked on the Fedco  website.  They should be shipping potato orders in April.

Fig Buds. 3.31.22

 Fig growth buds are swelling (green tips) and so are the buds that, if conditions are favorable, will become figs.  Yummy!  Plus, maybe this year if there are enough of them, I'll try canning a batch.

Forsythia Blossoms. 3.31.22

Here is the forsythia bush that I grew from a cutting about fifteen years ago, then transplanted about nine years ago.  It's been pruned back pretty heavily a few times.

Last year, I took about ten cuttings from this bush to start a privacy hedge.  It's nice, they bloom even when only one year old.

These one is from that batch of cuttings.

I have two jars of new cuttings in water for another batch, about ten more potential plants.  No roots yet but it's quite early for that.

The challenge is, should I water and fertilize the young shrubs this year?  Then they will grow faster, but it's (a) more work and (b) growth on the watered, fertilized plants is more lush and tender, so deer eat them.  So then they need protective fencing, too.  Still, I might do that anyway.  Without fertilizing, they grew about one foot to eighteen inches the first year.  I'd like to get them at least five feet tall un two or three years.  Growth also seems to be faster on well-established shrubs.

Asian Pear Blossoms. 3.31.22

 Asian pears are blooming.  I did a major pruning last fall so I can reach the fruits to thin them and apply protective bags for coddling moth etc this year, but deer cant reach them.  I see lots of jars of canned fruit ahead this summer :-) but not too many to manage.