GA: Tomato "victim" for experiment! (cool nights coming up, and not yet sun-hardened)

Decided to throw caution to the wind and do an experiment by planting one tomato at GA now rather than waiting until the end of cool nights and before finishing the sun-hardening.

So, at the south-most edge, planted a Damsel.  Dug as deep as I could with the spade because the tomatoes are so dang tall.  Then sprinkled the usual (mrp, kelp, az, alfalfa) along with a few leaves.  Watered it, covered it more, added a few more of the amendments, then covered it the rest of the way.  The only babying I did was to tie it to the pole to help with wind support.

Several cool nights are coming up, the coldest being 8 degrees based on the forecast today.  Tomorrow will be full sun -- whereas the only sun hardening it's had so far is basically today with ~1 hour of morning sun!

So -- this will be a fun experiment to see what happens!

I'll probably try planting a pepper plant too for the same experimental purpose.

Potato harvest in yard -- north of the broccoli

Today was part deux of reclaiming the central part of the yard for the dogs!  So I pulled the rest of the potatoes -- these ones being from north of the broccoli.  The plants had long since flopped, but were very green, so I'm sure if I had left them in longer, the smaller ones would have kept growing, but that was not the priority this year.

A good harvest from that patch!  Many nice big ones!  These were Kennebecs.  They did at least as well as, maybe even better than, the AC Chaleurs.  So, I will definitely grow both of these varieties again in future.

Re-reading my note from the spring -- I had done the following experiment:  "The experiment is that in each type's northerm-most row, I added 1 Tbsp alfalfa (in addition to the above amendments)."  Well, ha!  I completely forgot about that, and have no idea how the northern-most rows did.  Oh well! :D

Indoor stevia flopped due to many small flying insects! Moved outside

Yikes, tons of small flying insects!!  I had noticed one a week or two ago, didn't think anything of it.  Came back from camping and now there are so many!

So, moved all three indoor stevia outside permanently.

I wonder if they came in on the stevia that I bought -- that's my theory.  (Two of the indoors stevia were mine, one was from the store.)

The plants look happy, but no way in heck do I want to risk insects for the winter, so putting a stop to this now.

The pill beetles are the ones decimating the beans!!!!!! Not the slugs!

Yet again this year, the beans have been devoured by something, as soon as they came up.  I've planted dozens of pole bean seeds, yet only maybe 5 are actually growing, and they look not great either.

But anyway, I've been doing slug patrol nightly for the past several nights (soooo many slugs in the yard) and wasn't seeing a ton of slugs on the beans.  But tonight, my suspicions proved correct when I saw that the newest bean to pop out of the ground is absolutely covered by pill beetles!!  They are having such a feast!!  Sighhhhhh.

So, with the latest beans that sprouted inside in paper towels, today I put them into the pink rectangle thing with three rows -- with garden soil inside.  The tray isn't very deep, so I don't know how well this will work, but my plan is to let them grow there until they're a few inches tall with a few leaves on them, then transplant them, because the pill beetles don't seem interested in the older ones, just the newest ones.

Results of carrot experiment = [EDIT: FLOP!!!!! README] success! (and no freezing needed) -- and part b of round 2 carrots started

EDITED ON MAY 20TH 2024:  Actually, this was a total flop -- although they germinated beautifully on the plate, it looks like none have "taken" in the garden.  I've repeated this several times in recent days and so far all a flop.  I won't do this again -- too bad, because they germinate sooooo quickly this way.  Next year it will be burlap method all the way!  Though  maybe I'll try an experiment with doing 48 hours of plate, then when they go into the garden, covering with burlap.... Hmm....  worth a try!

Here was my original note when I wrote this on May 15th:

~~~

Wow!  The carrots I "sowed" on plates which went into baggies indoors 5 days ago germinated!  I'm sure they mostly germinated yesterday even (given the length of several of them already), but I hadn't checked.

The plate that had spent 24 hours in the freezer was about a day behind the plate that never went into the freezer.  I'm convinced that the freezer step serves no purpose and just wastes a day.

Today I put them all into the carrot bed, NOT by carefully transplanting one by one, but by sort of gently dispersing them around (after I re-loosed the soil).

Didn't have enough to cover the whole area, so started more in the same way today, but without the freezing of course.

Results of experiment with beets round 2: Indoor starts a clear winner

Wow, the beets I started inside 6 days ago have now mostly germinated and popped up a cm or two or three, whereas the beets I started outside 6 days ago and are under row cover are mostly nowhere to be seen.

Today I transplanted the indoor beets.  The ones that had multiple split apart easily, so I split them up.  We'll see how they take.

Carrots -- round 2 -- new method, and, an experiment

Well, next year I'll for sure use the burlap or cardboard method.  But the problem is this year, though germination was spotty, there are a decent amount growing -- so I don't want to throw all that away.  So, how to fill in the gaps?

I'm trying out the method in this video:

- Sprinkle soil (I used soil from the garden) over a plate (I used my real plates, not paper plates).

- Moisten the soil.

- Sprinkle carrot seeds generously over top.

- Don't cover the seeds -- just press them firmly down.

- I then misted the seeds to make sure they're moist (but the video doesn't do that).

- Place the plate of seeds into a large ziplog bag, and seal the bag.

- The video says to then put the plate in the freezer for 24 hours. EXPERIMENT:  I did two plates -- one went into the freezer, the other didn't.

- After 24 hours, remove from the freezer.

- Place bagged plate in indirect sunlight (either inside or outside).

- Monitor until they germinate.

- Once they're popping up, sprinkle the soil with the seeds into the garden.  She doesn't "transplant" them one by one or anything like that -- she just brushes them around the area.

- Done.

So, today I got round 2 carrots started using the above method, with the experiment noted above (one plate went into the freezer, the other didn't).

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!

Carrot experiment: lazy sowing under leaves

I lazily sowed some carrots in the following way, to see if it works.  My guess is it will work.

After planting the broccoli/kale/green onions into their same bed in the central bed (all under one double-layer of tulle), along the west and south sides of this I spade-dug the soil, flattened it down, sprinkled some carrot seeds, watered them with the little green watering can, and loosely placed some leaves over top.

That's it.  I'm not going to baby them or anything -- no daily watering, etc.  

Que sera sera!

More barese chards are flowering -- won't grow this variety again; dwarf kale looking great though.

Barese chard:  Oh well, it was good as an experiment.  I'll likely pull these soon and replace with bush beans.  In future years I'll just stick with good ol' fordhook, which as usual is doing just dandy.

Vates Blue Curled kale:  Looking good!  Nice dwarf size so far but good harvestable size and no sign of flowering or whatnot.

Success with going away for a few days by bottom-wondering the basil under lights

It worked!  I put the basil that I haven't yet transplanted due to cool nights, in the black litter box bin under the lights (after pruning), with about 0.5" water at the bottom of the bin.  Got back 2.5 days later and the water had all been absorbed and the soil was damp.  So, should have been fine for another day or two.

Shade success: Potted short zinnias

The potted short zinnias (in the fake terracotta pots) did great in the shade along the fence.  Would definitely do this again.

Removed all miner-damaged chard leaves for the second time

There were tons and tons of badly miner-damaged swiss chard leaves, so the first pass I did on July 23rd wasn't the end of it.

Will see now if those miners are finished for the year once and for all...

Shade container potato experiment cont'd: Results of containers #2 & 3 = 1.25 lbs from 7 seed potatoes

Emptied the last 2 containers along the fence, which were in full shade, and their plants had fully died a while ago from blight.

The black pot had 4 seed potatoes and yielded 0.5 pounds.

The big terracotta-coloured plastic pot had 3 seed potatoes and yielded 0.75 pounds.  The bottom third of the pot was soaking wet -- bad drainage and zero potatoes down there.  Might have had more yield if it had had better drainage?

So far this makes a total of 4 pounds of potatoes for the $27 of seed potatoes.  The last patch is by the a/c (where I had put the runtiest ones) -- those plants are still quite green (though blighty), so won't harvest them yet.

Leaf miner damage still happening to (untulled) chard

The experiment I started a few weeks ago by removing all miner-damaged-chard -- well, there's now a bunch more miner-damaged chard.

No big deal, just goes to show I guess chard needs to remain covered the whole summer.

Shade container potato experiment: Results of container #1 = 0.75 lbs from 4 seed potatoes

Emptied the first of the three containers along the fence, which were in full shade.  This container's plants are fully brown/dried/disappeared, so figured it was time.

At first I thought there were zero potatoes, but it turns out they potatoes were all in the lower ~third of the container.

So, a non-impressive 0.19 pound of potatoes per seed potato...  Better than 0.0, but, yikes!

The blight might have been a factor for sure, since the yield in the north bed was low too.

Will see what the next two shade containers bring, later on once their plants are 100% dead too.

Experiment result: Short zinnias do equally well in shade

The potted short zinnias against the fence (full shade) are doing equally as well as (and actually a bit better than) the potted short zinnias in the sunny part of the yard.  Lots of flowers on both.

Swiss chard experiment: Are the leaf miners finished with laying eggs for the year?

Today I removed all of the miner-affected leaves of the swiss chard (all of which has been uncovered for a while).  The central bed, which as been uncovered the longest, had a lot of badly affected leaves, but also some untouched leaves which don't even have eggs on them.

So anyway, I will see now whether more miner eggs appear and more leaf damage.

Experiment: Started cucumber (x3 Eureka) and zucchini (x1 Eight Ball) to go into pots (started in PT)

Given how well the in-ground zukes are doing, I decided to try a late-season experiment to see if I can get a potted zuke to grow as well.  And why not try some cucumbers too.  If I'd actually get any harvest out of these, the zukes (50 days) should be harvestable around September 10th and the cukes (57 days) around September 17th.

So started seeds in PT today.

Prepped their pots today (pots are my standard black pots), with the garden soil and with this mixed in:

- 6 Tbsp mrp per pot

- 4 Tbsp kelp meal per pot

(no alfalfa added)