Prepared the soilless mix -- and bought new bag of seaweed meal from R's at fraction the price of Gaia

 Prepared the soilless mix yesterday -- with ZERO of the leftover promix.

So, it contains only:

- peat moss

- vermiculite

- perlite

- kelp meal

- azomite

- mrp

- alfalfa pellets

- lime

- myke (actually not yet added, bought some today and will add it in before using)

And, since my kelp meal is starting to run low, bought some more from Ritchie's.  The guy at the counter said either I can buy Gaia and pay over $200 for 20 kg, or I can buy a different brand that's marketed for horse feed, and pay $95 for 25 kg.  !!!!  So I went for the horse feed -- made by Acadian Seaplants Limited.  I emailed them tonight just to confirm whether it's kelp or some other type of seaweed, so, we'll see.

Amended the zukes with kelp, mrp, and azomite

Alright alright.  My zucchinis are so pathetic these days that I declare my experiment over and decide that yes I really do need to do a mid-season amendment to keep the zucchini plants happy.  So, today I amended almost all (other than the one dying one) with 2 Tbsps kelp meal, 1 Tbsp mrp, and 1 Tbsp azomite.  Sprinkled it on top of the soil at the root, will let rain/animals bring it down to the roots hopefully.

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.

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...

Fertilized all zucchinis with Azomite (first time), MRP, and kelp meal (1 Tbsp each)

The 7 original/tulled zucchinis have really been slowing down over the past several weeks.  The ongoing/increasing powdery mildew could be a factor, but I figured why not give them a boost with Azomite (bought some today), MRP, and kelp meal, in case it might help.  At the same time I figured why not do the same for the three untulled zukes, though the one by the hydro meter is looking great, and though all three of these will likely succumb to SVB in the not too distant future.

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.

The 1 Golden Glory and 1 Eight Ball zucchini transplanted (from PT a few days ago)

The 8 Ball is in the hose bed (added 1 Tbsp mrp and 1 Tbsp kelp), and the Golden is in the central bed where I removed a puny Waltham broccoli to free up space (didn't add anything here since I think I already added for the broccoli).

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).

Prepared two pots for zucchini

(Prepared the pots, but they won't contain the zucchini plants until later once I have seedlings from the new seeds.)

One pot says on its edge 6 gallons.  The other pot doesn't say but is a bit smaller because tapered bottom, so it's maybe ~5 gallons?

Contents in each pot:

Pro-Mix Premium Potting Mix

Soil from under eaves (north bed)

Vermiculite

Mineralized phosphate:  Directions say 2 Tbsp per gallon, so, 12 Tbsp per 6-gallon pot.  So, that's what I did.  (Oops, the tapered pot got a little extra because I forgot it was smaller.)

Kelp meal:  Directions say 2 Tbsp per gallon, but, I don't want to risk too much nitrogen, so I'll halve that.  So, I put 6 Tbsp per 6-gallon pot.  (Oops, the tapered pot got a little extra because I forgot it was smaller.)

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.

Lettuce sowed in ground (collected last year)

On both sides of the air conditioner.  Ruby Leaf and Black-Seeded Simpson (the mature bag), all from seeds collected last year.

Kelp meal worked into the soil of the south-of-a/c, plus fresh dig-in kitchen scraps.

North-of-a/c has some kelp meal in the part closest to the a/c, but not the most north part bec it has last week's dig-in kitchen scraps which I didn't want to dig up.