Leaf collection in full swing -- putting pre-soaked alfalfa below leaf layer

So far, have collected 2 garbage bags and 1 garbage bin worth of leaves.  I estimate 2 more garbage bins will probably be enough to cover the rest of the yard.  It's a lot less now that the central bed has gone back to the dogs as of a month or two agol

Below the leaves I'm scattering pre-soaked alfalfa pellets.  The only place that doesn't have the alfalfa is under the big rock pile in the south part of the west bed -- that's where I'll put carrots next year.

Potatoes planted in yard -- with an experiment

Today I planted out 12 x Kennebec (north of the broccolis) and 12 x AC Chaleur (south of the broccolis) in the central bed.  A few days ago (on May 4th) I had cut some in half, and they look to be sealed over now.

In each potato hole, I added 1 Tbsp kelp, 1/2 Tbsp azomite, 1/2 Tbsp mrp, and ~1/2 tsp of myke.

The experiment is that in each type's northerm-most row, I added 1 Tbsp alfalfa (in addition to the above amendments).

It will be interesting to see if any difference in the ones that have vs. don't have alfalfa.  Last year (2023) I didn't add any alfalfa to the potatoes, and they did well enough.

OMG!!!!! EXPERIMENT RESULT! YES add alfalfa to the tomatoes' & ground cherries' potting mix!!!!! *HUGE* difference for those with / without alfalfa!!!

Lately I had been noticing that some of the tomatoes and ground cherries just weren't very well -- they were soooooo slow growing and still tiny, whereas others were much larger and better.

Well, only today did I think to have a closer look.

Sure enough, ALL of the ones that are so small and slow-growing are the ones from which I omitted alfalfa in their potting mix!  ALL OF THEMMMMMMMM!  Not a single one that didn't get alfalfa is doing even remotely well!

For the ones that had alfalfa in their potting mix, almost all of them are doing quite well.  A few are slower, but still way bigger than the no-alfalfa ones.

I am shocked and amazed at the huge difference!!

So, today I pre-soaked some alfalfa pellets and put them over top of the ones that didn't have any, and gave a watering.  Hopefully it's not too late to save them!  We shall see!

Bought more organic alfalfa pellets

 A nice big bag for only $38 all in!

Quite the white fuzz over the alfalfa under the leaves

Had a peek under the leaves and found there's quite a lot of white fuzz over the moistened alfalfa that I had put over the soil before laying the leaves over top.  I'm not worried -- hopefully it's all good bio stuff happening there.

Celery: In-ground is harvestable! Potted is behind but getting there. Some potted yellowing, so added alfalfa.

^^^

Cukes, zukes, and zinnias transplanted -- including 2 zukes in pots

For the cukes (all Eureka, 6 of them, consisting of 4 from round 1 and 2 from round 2 for staggering the harvest),  and zukes (7 in ground (3 8 Ball and 6 Golden Glory) and 2 in big pots*), amended with lots of mrp, semi-lots of azomite, and some kelp.  Oh and for a few of the zukes I did add some alfalfa but not a lot.  Also put some of the freezer rabbit poop in with most of the zukes, but not the pair... oh which pair.... I think not the SW-most pair.  Or was it not the pair in the central bed.... Ah well.

Didn't amend the zinnias with anything.

* 2 of the zukes (both Golden Glory) are in big pots.  The soil in these consisted of a mix of garden bed soil and a mix of my potting mix (peat, ProMix, lime, kelp, mrp, azomite, and a small amount of alfalfa).  I've never had success with potted zucchinis before -- the plants have always been wimpy and never produced anything -- so I'm curious for this year, now that I have bigger pots and lots of mrp and azomite in there.

Mulched most of the things with the last of last fall's basement mulched leaves.

Undecided which of the zukes I won't tulle.  For sure I'll tulle at least 6 of the 7 in ground.  I may also try tulling the potted ones and the hydro bed one while they're relatively small at least.

Organic alfalfa pellets bought

From Kinburn Farm Supply.  $34 total (there's no tax) for 55 pounds.  So, I'll use up the last few cups of my non-organic alfalfa pellets, then will be happy to shift to these.  Should last a good long while!

Decided not to buy soybean meal (for fertilizer) unless can find organic

Saw this blog post recently.

A google search for "Aminopyralids" and "soy" shows they can be used for soy.  So, I won't risk buying non-organic soybean meal for now.  Haven't been able to find an organic source yet, so, will just keep doing without soybean meal.

The article says it's not used for alfalfa, so that's good.  (Besides, the next bag of alfalfa pellets I'll be buying will be organic.)

Home-blended seed starting mix -- First attempt

Mixed up a fairly small batch, which will be used for the onions, begonia, and whatever else things whose starting time is coming soon.

Here's the recipe I used:

20 cups peat moss

10 cups ProMix Premium Potting Mix*

3/4 cup perlite

3/4 cup vermiculite

1/2 cup kelp meal

1/2 cup alfalfa pellets **

zero cup soybean meal because I don't have any yet, but when I do I'll use 1/2 cup

1/4 cup rock phosphate

1/8 cup dolomite lime

1/8 cup myccorhizae

1/8 cup azomite

* It's supposed to be 10 cups of compost, but I don't have my own and haven't found a vegan source yet, so for now using potting mix to replace it.  ProMix told me (when I inquired by email) that their Premium Potting Mix has no animal-based ingredients; its fertilizer is chemical-based.  I wonder if I even need to use ProMix at all, given the other nutrient aspects of this mix...

** This time I just put in the pellets as-is, but for next time and for adding to this batch -- for better / more even distribution I'll pre-soak the pellets to get them to disintegrate, then spread them out to dry.  This will integrate into the mix much better.

I'm wondering about adding some of the shredded leaves stored in my basement... haven't done it yet as I'm not sure if it could introduce disease etc...

Sowed lettuce (Romaine "Paris Island Cos"), radishes ("Cherry Belle"), and forget-me-nots in north bed

Sprinkled all together throughout this bed south of the buckwheat sowed today.

I hate radishes!  But just for fun, figured why not.

The forget-me-nots are just for fun too.

Sprinkled some pre-soaked alfalfa pellets in the bed here at the same time (not a ton).

Broccoli fall crop transplanted into ground, fertilized, and covered with LV floating row cover

Transplanted the 4 PT-sprouted piracicabas into the ground today.  Maybe risky as they're at the same spot as 4 of the removed ones, so chance of caterpillar in ground and re-emerging?  But it's the only spot I have open, so I'll give it a go.  Amended the soil as below.  Placed the row cover from LV over hoops, BUT I don't like this stuff because it also has sections of small "holes" where if a butterfly landed just so, the egg would definitely go through the cover.  So I'll ask around and see if I can find a better one.

Mixed these into the ground today at the 4 spots:

1 Tbsp alfalfa

2 Tbsps kelp meal

2 Tbsps MRP

And set the seeds into vermiculite to make sure they don't get stuck underground.

Fertilizer applications on broc (alfalfa, kelp, & MRP) and zukes and tomatoes (kelp & MRP)

For the zukes and tomatoes, sprinked 1 Tbsp kelp meal and 1 Tbsp MRP around the base of each plant and lightly scratched it into the top of the soil.

For the broccolis, same as above plus 1 Tbsp alfalfa pellets.

No special reason as things are looking good, just figured it can't hurt.

Celery turning yellow (oldest leaves) -- will add alfalfa pellets for nitrogen

Both the potted and in-ground.

Picked off the yellow leaves from the potted a few days ago, and now more are turning yellow.

So, today added alfalfa, but to the potted only.

I don't think the celery had the yellowing last year; hopefully it's just a nitrogen deficiency.

Basil transplanted; results of the basil experiments are inconclusive

My home-started DMR variety is in the south part of the north bed (looping around the beets) -- the round 2 ones looked good, and about half of the round 1 ones rallied and look good now, though for the life of me I couldn't tell a consistent pattern with my experiment of keeping some wetter and some drier and giving some alfalfa and others not.  But next year I'll plan to aim on the side of drier.  Added some alfalfa just to the two or three southmost ones, then for the rest added only kelp (in the specific dig holes for each individual plant).

Store-bought ones are in the north part of the north bed.  Added alfalfa and kelp throughout this bed.

Prep for zucchini & tomatoes: Dug in mineralized rock phosphate and/or kelp meal and/or alfalfa (experiment)

See my paper with my notes of how much mineralized rock phosphate, kelp meal, and alfalfa pellets (pre-soaked) I dug in to the various zucchini spots and tomato spots.  Didn't actually plant anything yet, so marked the spots with rocks.

My original notes, before I scrapped with this method and instead went with the hard copy paper: 

In the west bed, prepared two spots for two zucchini.  The westmost one against the wall has a total of 6 Tbsp mineralized rock phosphate and 3 Tbsp kelp meal.  The one a few feet east to that has a total of 6 Tbsp mineralized rock phosphate and zero kelp meal.  However, that east one's soil is semi-crap, so, not a perfect experiment.

Basil experiment expanded: Added alfalfa/kelp to half wet and half dry

 ^^^

Added alfalfa and kelp to all of the tomatoes

Mixed together pre-soaked alfalfa pellets and kelp meal; then scratched off ~an inch of soil to add a good handful, then put the soil back.  Maybe the ProMix Premium is crap, or at least this bag of it.  It's just weird because I've never had this problem with seedling tomatoes before... and I've definitely used ProMix Premium before... maybe it's just a problem with the new bag of it that I bought a few months ago.

Also, noticed that the Jasper variety is substantially greener than all the others.

Pea harvest going great

I had put "lots" of alfalfa pellets and kelp meal when transplanting.  Looks like peas were happy with it (unlike the poor zucchinis and tomatoes).

Transplanted chard, parsley, onions, and wimpy broccoli

 General approach was to mix in these:

- kelp meal

- alfalfa pellets pre-"dissolved" in hot water (they dissolve really quickly, 10 minutes is plenty) (this is my first time ever using alfalfa pellets, bought them from Ritchie's yesterday)

- some of the leftover horse manure went under the parsley, onions, and broccoli (not the chard bec I forgot)

Used pencil crayons as cutworm defense for a few of them "just because", though I haven't seen any cutworms or grubs or anything in the central bed.  I always worry I'm piercing key roots when poking the crayons into place.