Argh -- the dry beans from last fall have weevils!! (Only the GA ones I think)

Noticed today that several of the jars of beans saved from last year have weevils inside the jars!  And escape holes in some of the beans -- including weevils inside a jar that had only pods that I had carefully inspected that I didn't see any suspicious holes in.

This definitely has me inclined to NOT do dried beans from GA anymore, only from the yard where I don't seem to have had this issue (knock on wood).

Although I guess I could always leave the dried beans for a year, during which hopefully any critters would have emerged, then remove those and eat the remaining beans..... 

STEVIA ALL DYINGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!! and peppers not great either

WTF!!!! All of a sudden the stevia is dying!  I thought maybe I forgot to water for too long, but now I'm thinking no, maybe they were TOO wet, or have a disease.

This will be the first year that I will have ZERO of my own stevia seedlings.  I had SUCH a hard time getting any of the germinated seeds to take -- I thought at least I would have 5, then buy the rest.  Very disappointing.  

And, the previously-best-looking pepper plant seems to have succumbed to the same thing.  Most of the rest of the peppers are stagnant / not thriving and yellow but that seems to be a different issue.

Lettuce sowed directly outside, next to the a/c

 A scattering of romaine, ruby red, and black seeded simpson.

Started peas soaking in bowl; tomorrow will move them to paper towels

^^^

Started tomatoes, tomatillos, and ground cherries

(The tomatillos are a purple variety, my first time trying growing tomatillos.)

(The ground cherries are from the collected seeds from a plant that grew really well in patio stones.)

Basil round 2 started bec several of round 1s dried out due to not enough watering and being in vermiculite

^^^

Basil started

^^^

Hardies starting to harden off -- and they will live downstairs/outside full time

Finally the days are becoming mild enough to start hardening the hardies.

I'm not babying them much in terms of being the shade -- putting them out for as long as the day is mild enough.

Won't start them in sun until later and will definitely do the sun part gradually.

Fungus gnats are still VERY much a thing so I'm glad to have these downstairs / outside.  When they come inside at night I'm covering them to prevent the gnats from invading everywhere downstairs.

Zinnias started

 Random assortment of talls, and yellow shorts.

Fungus gnats GALORE continues

The dunks truly seem to have done NOTHING.

SOOOOO many flies in the yellow sticky traps.

Several newly emerged seedlings have gone kaput, I'm guessing some of which are related to the gnat babies.

Started round 2 of sweet peppers (low germination in round 1)

^^^

Started sweet peppers (California wonder and Hungarian Sweet)

Amidst the hoards of fungus gnats, the seed-starting must continue...

OMG THOUSANDS OF FUNGUS GNATS ARE BEING TRAPPED!!!! Have added 5 of the big yellow hanging traps

^^^

Fungus gnats round 2 -- they are back with a vengeance -- seems the mosquito dunks did zero!?!

As of a few days ago, the fungus gnats are back with a vengeance.  Put out new sticky traps and many have been caught.  I can't understand why -- obviously this is a new batch that hatched, but how did they survive the mosquito-dunk water?  (Which I'm still using -- never stopped.)

Anyway, will continue to use the dunk water and sticky traps.

Stevia: Started round 4 (looks like a total of only ~5 from previous rounds might make it)

(So my experiment with mixing in alfalfa/kelp with the vermiculite didn't seem to do the trick, as a bunch of those flopped too.)

Zero fungas gnats nowadays

Can't remember the last time I saw a fungus gnat.  The yellow sticky traps are still out, and I'm still watering with the original bucket of mosquito dunked water.

I'll finish up the bucket of the water (prob another week before that happens), then will go back to regular water and see what  happens.

Forget-me-not and coreopsis started

All from previously collected seeds.

Witch Stick peppers started

I can't figure out if these are sweet or hot... but anyway started them today.  Not doing any other hots, not even jalapenos which are just so unpredictible in their hotness.

Will start the true sweet peppers in a few weeks.

Stevia experiment... adding soaked kelp + alfalfa

The round 2 stevias that went into vermiculite on top of soil seem -- fingers crossed -- to maybe be taking (?).  But I'm still worried that their roots won't make it to the soil/nutrition in time given the depth of the vermiculite.  So, I added a few dabs on top of the vermiculite, close but not on top of the seedlinguettes, of pre-soaked mixed alfalfa and kelp.  

And, for today's round 3 stevias that have all popped, I put them likewise but with a mix of alfalfa/kelp underneath them before adding the topping of vermiculite.

We shall see...

Started celery R2, stevia R3, and kale (from 2024 saved seeds) and chard

^^^