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digit_gw

There's Always Something

digit
12 years ago

Wow! Weather! It was 79F yesterday - far and away the warmest temperature this year! But . . . average wind speed was 18mph with gusts to 41! There's always something.

Cucumber, melon, pumpkin starts are in the greenhouse. The lemon cuke seed must be defective - terrible germination! I'd hate to be without that one. There's always something!

I already found some more lemon cuke seed. I'm convinced that most people grow this as a novelty but - ya gotta eat them before they look like a lemon! Anyway, that's my preference.

New-to-me, Santon Charentais melon from good old Ferry-Morse Seed Company just kind of fell into my hand at the garden center. It looks like this is kind of an exclusive for this seed company. It has stayed completely under my radar as I've desperately sought a replacement for Honey Girl Charentais which Burpee seems no longer willing to make available. Five years out of 6 (or so), I could count on Honey Girl to ripen in my garden. Charentais melons have to be picked at full ripe and just before they start going downhill. After a swing-and-a-miss last year with Edonis, I've really got my fingers crossed for Santon. There's always something!!

This morning, I'm dragging my feet about getting the tomato plants out to harden-off with some continuing wind. So, I've been searching Gary Ibsen's Tomatofest catalog and drifting off to Laurel's heirloomtomatoplants.com. These people are so cool! It really hasn't been very many years where I only had one slicer variety and one cherry in the garden each year. These days, it's above 20!

I'm reading about "Black Ethiopian." Why? I just happened on it. I mean, how could a east African variety be appropriate for my garden? Turns out, it's from the Ukraine! Well, that sounds appropriate!

I'm looking at Blondkopfchen cherry to try next year. And! Tobolsk just kind of jumped out at me! Maybe that yellow slicer, too. And, I really should get around to trying Azoychka !

Haven't even got all my seeds in the ground nor all the plants in the garden. There's always something!!!

Steve

Comments (15)

  • colokid
    12 years ago

    All ways something. It sure is. I though I was done with a smaller list of tomatoes this year. Then came into my view "hoy". that one will make you hunt. Search functions don't work for 3 letter names, so you search for hoy*. 100 year old, big red from one plant last year to New Zealand last winter to me and some other this year. I got 8 seeds and have 5 sprouts started...hope they make it.
    Even my green house is cold at about 60 degrees in this strange weather. Peppers are 2 inches tall and standing still. I got to build a couple of raised beds if it will warm up enough for an old man to stand it out side.
    I bet we go straight into summer when it warms up.
    KennyP

  • digit
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    A hoy, KennyP!?

    Being the paranoid person that I am . . . I began wondering whether I'd sown some Komatsuna seed in the Asian greens bed. While looking for the packet (it was open, seed's already in the ground), I came across the Senposai packet.

    I fully intend to take advantage of Senposai's ability to hang in there thru hot weather but it occurred to me, I wonder if this stuff would benefit from being sown indoors weeks early and set out like broccoli! Would it grow into monster greens like collards does in warmer climates? (Maybe I can try that in '12. :o)

    There's always something!

    Steve

  • digit
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    That's one Big tomato, KennyP!

    Good luck with your plants!

    Steve

  • gjcore
    12 years ago

    Well my "There's always something" today included continuing to put in new fence posts to prop up these old fences so I can start trellising as much as I can along the fences. I have virginia creeper cuttings, hops, cucumbers (if they ever germinate), peas, beans and maybe squash and melons growing up the fences. I installed alot of chicken wire today stapled to the fences.

    Then there was alot of transplanting from the cold frames to the beds. That included some basil, hyssop official, hyssop purple and white, DeCicco broccoli, cabbages, summer savory, winter savory and more that I can't remember now.

    Greg

  • david52 Zone 6
    12 years ago

    I have a weakness for clematis vines, and just discovered two new sources, gardenvines.com and silverstarvinery.com, and, well, always a sucker for a pretty picture.....

  • digit
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Gardenvines offers jasmine! What could survive -15F winters, any ideas?

    Virginia creeper, Greg? I was immediately reminded of the thread linked below from a few years ago. You can see that we started and got very far off topic . . . but . . . you sure you want Virginia creeper?

    We could talk more about my neighbors . . . (There's always something ;o).

    Steve

    Here is a link that might be useful: Who's afraid of Virginia Creeper?

  • billie_ladybug
    12 years ago

    Thought I might get to replant the bed around the well pit this year. (was invaded by bindweed, morning glory's ungly cousin) Couple weeks ago I noticed a single iris that was still surviving the harsh treatment the bindweed got so that I could eradicate it. Yesterday I thought I would evaluate the weeds so that I could get started on it after swap. More bindweed popping out. There's always something. UGGGGHH

    billie

  • gjcore
    12 years ago

    The more I think about it I'll get a few grape vines to put along the back fence but I'm not afraid of the the creeper I would just rather have something that is productive.

  • digit
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    We had over 2/3rds of an inch of rain yesterday and the coolest afternoon temperature (47F) in over 100 years! I didn't quite have time to de-tangle the too tall tomato plants that were out in the terrible weekend wind so that effort will have to continue, today. Can't do much in the rain-soaked garden.

    The smaller tomatoes have now been in the same soil for about 5 weeks. They've already had a tiny of sprinkle of dry, organic fertilizer about 2 weeks ago. (Older tomatoes were potted up to 4" pots with a little fertilizer about the same time.)

    Usually, I get some fish emulsion on them and since it is starting to run late, decided to do that yesterday. But, their soil was still moist and bringing them out into the open meant they would be in the rain . . . what to do, what to do?!?

    So, those tomatoes went back to being bottom watered in the fish emulsion/water that I'd otherwise have sprinkled on them!

    I don't know if this was a good idea. Seedlings are in fertile soil mix during the first few weeks of their life. Fertilizing only comes in the last few weeks before they go out into the garden. It has always been just sprinkled but their feet got a good soaking yesterday.

    Risk-taking; but they look happy this morning -- even if the entire backyard smells of fish emulsion! (oops, there's the neighbor, mr. manicured lawn. i wonder what he thinks of the atmospheric conditions this bright, sunshiny morning.)

    The peppers are just as root-bound and nutrient-deprived as the tomatoes. I guess I can risk dipping them in the mix . . . a new approach . . . there's always something!

    Steve

  • colokid
    12 years ago

    My tomatoes are still in the green house where they will stay until the ground warms up here. Some were falling over, so i got a fan running to toughen them up .A couple of 4 inch peppers have been 4 inches for a month. Best I can do for temperature is about 60 degrees, When the sun comes out I jump to 85 or so in there. Waiting for my friend to unload filler from my truck to thr new planter boxes.

  • david52 Zone 6
    12 years ago

    This year, I tried using the 'Fox Farm' potting soil that the local "alternative crop' folks use for their medical enterprises, on the recommendation of buddy at nursery. My 80-odd tomato plants are all well over 2 feet high and sprawling all over the place in a real tangle. When I do get around to setting them out, probably next week if the stars are properly aligned, an awful lot of that stem will be buried.

    I'll either start the plants later, or use a different soil next year.

  • digit
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I've got the earliest sown tomatoes tied to bamboo stakes. I'm really not too sure how to grow a lot of tomatoes that can be moved around easily in flats with an appropriate amount of room for growth.

    They don't really seem to need a larger container than 4" but that means 18 plants to a flat in 3 rows. THAT is crowded!

    There might be 2-row flats where I could space the flats out and give the little monsters a chance to grow - sideways. Or, forget the flats and move them in their individual pots a few at a time sigh >.

    Steve

  • Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
    12 years ago

    Checkerboard them, Steve! Nine in each flat, every other space. I just did that with mine since we're expecting more rain for the next few days, and there's now way in the world I'm gonna get them in the ground before the swap. Now they have extra room to spread out, and when they're outside they can still be blowin' in the wind to keep them strong without leaning on each other. The problem with me is finding room for them inside when they can't stay out, but I'll just have to deal with that for the next couple weeks. Mine are gonna be able to go nice and deep too when they finally get into the ground!

    Skybird

  • david52 Zone 6
    12 years ago

    I have 7 or 8* of those 18 pot 4x4 flats, all on a 3 foot high table in the green house. I'll need a major effort to untangle them just to separate the flats, let alone read the markers and figure out which monster belongs to which label.

    *Can't tell for sure, impossible to count now unless I use a machete to clear some of the foliage

  • digit
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Checkerboard? Well, that's an idea!

    I've got a case of 4" pots, enuf for the next few years. So, I could use 9 empties per flat for spacers.

    Frost on Sunday and again this morning . . . I had expected fog instead what with the saturated ground. Light frost and I suspect that few of the neighbors realize their roofs (and the top of my pickup) are covered with ice. This measuring air temperature 5' above the ground makes sense but a surface temperature would be revealing. But then, which surface? Could they measure my lawn, roof top, the surface of the leaves in the nearby tree?

    I could have crammed everything back into the greenhouse but the plants are probably okay under their plastic tunnels in the yard. The tomatoes are nowhere near as tender as that 37F tunnel they were in last year when some of them actually died!

    It isn't the time to be thinking of the weather as an enemy here. The blue-sky day yesterday and this morning are just delightful and so very promising.

    Steve

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