GA: APHIDS ON THE KALE/CHARD! AND BLACK FLIES IN THE BROCCOLI!!!!

Oh no!!!  I haven't looked at the kale in ages, and went I went to harvest some today, I saw that it's full of green aphids!!! There are some on the chard too, but the kale especially.  So, I'll pull and discard all of the kale and chard next time I go.

I didn't see any aphids on the broccoli, so I brought that home.  But at home I found that there were many little black flies within!!  It took many rinses/soaks to get them all out, but otherwise the broccoli is gorgeous, so I used it.

I have no idea how these aphids/flies got in under the netting (which is a sheer sheet thing, not tulle, so no holes to get in).... My best guess is that they may have overwintered in the soil and therefore popped up under the cover.

GA: Planted potatoes, broccoli, chard, kale

Another busy day:

- Potatoes:  In the west bed (the slightly smaller bed) is the potato variety whose cut ones had less mold.  In the east bed (the slightly larger bed) is (a) the potato variety whose cut ones had a lot of mold, and in the SW corner of this bed are 6 potatoes from last year's harvest that sprouted, to fill in the bed.  Covered both beds right away with the same expensive agri-cover bought last year (which annoyingly has a few small holes already!).

- Broccoli:  In the 5-broc centre "row", the east-most is Belstar; the other 4 are Piracicaba.  Covered the bed right away (after planting the chard and kale in the same session) with one of the 5-set of huge sheets from VV, over hoops.  I can't get it taut and am a bit worried that it may tear badly quickly, but we'll see, and there are 4 others un-used to replace if needed...   I'm going to likely add a few more broccolis here soon, consisting of the wimpier ones.

- Chard:  In the broccoli bed.

- Kale:  In the broccoli bed.

Transplanted yard kale, chard, parsley, and green onions

The chard and kale are in the ground and covered.

The green onions are in a pot and covered.  As the seedlings were dense, I dumped them out into water, and it's true what they say, it was fairly easy to separate them out this way though some I left together.

The parsley is in the ground uncovered.

Started kale and chard

Kale:  The same as last year -- Vates Blue Curled -- but mostly using seeds collected last year, and a few of the bought seeds separately.

Chard:  Good old Fordhook as always.

First lettuce harvest of the year; chard will be soon; kale are small

The lettuce, which is all in the three grey rectangular planters, have sprung and are looking great!  Took a first harvest today, with falafel.

The chard aren't far behind.

The kale are looking pretty puny still -- the slugs have a clear preference for them over the chard (they share a bed).  I think the kale will get there though.

Next year start the greens earlier -- it will be a while before first salad harvest

^^^

Hardies have been transplanted into yard

Today I transplanted these into the yard:

- broccoli x 3 (all piracababa) -- with double-layer of tulle

- kale (all dwarf vates) x 9 in north bed and x ~3 or 4 in with the broccolis -- with double-layer of tulle

- chard (all fordhook) x 9 in north bed -- with double-layer of tulle

- green onions x ~5 in with the broccolis -- with double-layer of tulle

- lettuce (Ruby and romaine) -- all the long grey rectangular containers

Left over of the above plants, that can go into gaga later on:

- broccoli x 2 or 3

- kale

- chard

- onions

Kale started in PT (only one kind: Vates Blue Curled ie the dwarf variety that was great last year)

^^^

Little green caterpillar found ON the kale tulle cover (central bed)

Interesting!  Found a little green caterpillar which I would assume is the cabbage butterfly's doing, on TOP of the double-layer of tulle over the kale in the central bed.  Relocated him/her.

Did a harvest of kale after that and didn't notice any worms inside the tulle..... fingers crossed...  Though I had been a little delinquent in harvesting enough to keep them completely from touching the tulle -- but not badly...

I think the tulle buffer is working -- have seen multiple cabbage moths, none landed/laid

Fingers crossed, but so far it seems to be good in terms of success by making sure the target plants aren't touching the tulle.  The moths flutter and flutter, and circle and circle, but haven't been landing (at least, from what I've seen).

I do think that one oddball caterpillar a few weeks ago must have been one who spent the winter there somehow.

 

Cabbage moth fluttered around but I didn't see her land on any of the tulled host plants

... though I didn't see her full visit.  But still, what I did see she showed no interested in the tulled plants -- I've been harvesting leaves etc. to ensure the host plants aren't touching the tulle.

Leafy green harvesting galore: kale, chard, broccoli leaves

(The broccoli leaves are from pruning to avoid them touching the tulle, to hopefully avoid cabbage moth egg-laying.)

Alternating with a salad one day, and sauteed the next.  And OMG adding nutritional yeast to the sauteed version takes it to major NEXT LEVEL.

NOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!!!! BIG GREEN CATERPILLAR ON THE NORTH KALE (IN BROC BED)!!!!

S/he must surely be the cabbage moth caterpillar!

HOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW?!?!?!?!?!?

I tulled the bed on April 28th, and added a second layer of tulle on May 22nd, and none of the kale/broc in this bed were anywhere near touching the tulle.  

Could it be that maybe...

- I tulled too late?  Moth came along while hardening off?

- This one emerged from the soil this year from last year's life cycle type of thing???

- An egg was laid on top of the tulle, and fell down onto the plant???

OMG

Now I'm going to have a realllllly close look at all my kales/brocs............  

DO I TEAR THEM ALL OUT AND PUT POTATOES!?!?!?!

TBD...

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.

Great greens harvest: Chard (fordhook and barese), kale, lettuce

 ^^^

Added second layer of tulle to both broccoli beds and the dwarf kale-chard bed

I just couldn't bear the thought of using floating row cover as a second layer and not being able to peer inside without pulling it aside...  So I'll use this as a trial year, to see if my dual strategy of never letting the brassica plants touch the tulle, plus using a double layer of tulle, might work.

Fingers crossed!

Tulled all transplanted broccoli, kale, and chard

I'll still need to add a second layer of floating row cover for at attempt at full protection against the moth, but for now at least there's a barrier in place.

I gave what seems now while the plants are small a generous buffer from the tulle/cover, but we shall see.  Inside the broccoli enclosures I put some green onions and some barese chards that I'll keep very small / remove if they get too big re: touching the tulle.  Adding those in makes me feel a lot less annoyed at how much space I need to give the broccoli/kale/chard in order for them to not touch the tulle.

Broccoli, chard, kale, celery, parsley, lettuce transplanted (some still left in pots for now)

The broccoli's soil was amended with the following into each plant's hole:  1 tbsp kelp, 1/2 tbsp mrp, 1/2 tbsp az, and a generous sprinkling of alfalfa.  Forgot to add myc.

All the others were amended with a bit of each and some myc.

Haven't installed the tulle/cover yet.

Lesson learned: Start/grow all kale and chard inside -- WS not needed

The WS ones are wayyyyyyyyyy smaller than the indoor-raised ones, and all were started in PT the same day.  As long as I don't start the seeds too early, the kale can spend days outside on warmer days and come in at night.

And start kale and chard earlier -- curious to see if the Vates kale can tolerate the warm indoors.

First lettuce harvest -- from indoor-sown/raised on March 12th! Kale slow and didn't start enough?

Wow!!  Less than one month from sowing to first harvest!  I'll definitely do indoor-started/raised lettuce in future, instead of just the outdoor sowings.

Good thing this lettuce is on the go, as the kale might be a semi-bust this year... The only indoor-raised kale is looking a bit slow and wimpy (Barese)... and the WS kales are all only barely starting to show hints of their first true leaves.