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

Started more peppers, and chard, forget-me-nots, and coreopsis

The forget-me-nots are from the prime seed collected in 2023.

The coreopsis are from my collected seed from 2023.

The peppers are Early California (typical green bell peppers) and Hungarian something or other, both new to me this year.

The chard is of course the good old Fordhook.

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.

Bye-bye barese (all were bolting and bitter); replaced with bush beans

Won't grow barese chard again.  Oh well, it was worth a try.

The bush beans I put in their place:  The northmost ones are the speckled brown beans; the ones in the south section are the white beans. 

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

 ^^^

Some barese chard are bolting! Similar to when I used to try bok choy

^^^

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.

Barese round 2 in PT (because didn't start enough first round)

And because the outdoor WS ones are so far behind, might as well start an indoor round 2.

Wow -- the March 12th seeds are all a-popping! Potted up, including WS some kales and chards

So yeah, for the WS-style, I potted up some of the kales and chards into the outdoor WS containers and taped them up.  I'll put them outside when it's not much colder than around zero, and will either bring them in or put them under a blanket when it's colder than zero.