Sowed more peas because the last round look puny (likely the insect problem)

Sowed more peas today, in the new soil, in two six-pack peat pots.  Each compartment has two seeds, except all of the end ones have 3 seeds each.

The original round that's now in the ground looks good and strong.  But much of the subsequent rounds will probably be garbage because they look terrible / aren't growing, which I assume is due to the same insect problem with some of the zinnias.

Bought new soil

Bought new soil to use for the rest of the indoor planting. This stuff came from Metro.  I can't help but think the insects came from that second bag of Pro Mix.

So, fingers crossed for smooth sailing from here on in!

Tossed the affected zinnias :-(

Decided to play it safe and got ride of the affected zinnias by putting them into the curbside green bin pickup.  Adios... 

On the bright side, everything else is still looking great.

Beets and carrots round 2 sowed

Sowed the rest of the carrot bed (again with two halves, Nantes Scarlet and Touchon, in alphabetical order i.e. Nantes further west of Touchon).

And, sowed the rest of the first row of beets (again with two halves, Cylindra or whatever it's called and Detroit, in alphabetical order i.e. Cylindra further west of Detroit).

Chard and parsley into the ground

Transplanted all of the chard and parsley today, into the ground. 

Fun to have two kinds of chard and see how they'll differ.

Sowed more purple basil

Hmmm, I know I sowed purple basil, but what happened to it?  I think it never germinated.  Or, maybe the mystery four-pack plant is it and since it's a hybrid this came out like this?  But the mystery plant has zero smell to it so that can't possibly be.

So, anyway, sowed more purple basil today.  Way late, but why not try.

Insects found on deformed zinnias!

Well what do you know.  Pulled a couple of the smallest, most stunted zinnias and examined them in my hand, one at a time.  Found a critter on my palm for each of them:  tiny, long-shaped (but itty bitty) pale green or off-white in colour. 

So, I've removed all of the affected-looking plants (zinnias, one chard that looks a smidge suspicious, and one mystery four-pack that I have no idea what I planted and doesn't match any of my other seedlings.  I put all of these downstairs, on the kitchen table.  Will decide later on what to do...

I assume the same situation is the cause for the stunted peas, but haven't checked them out yet.  Guess it will be another paltry pea year, but at least several are looking decent.

What might they be?
- Thrips?  Photos on the internet seem to resemble these the most, but, they don't seem to be flying, and, the damage looks different from some of the photos I'm seeing.
- Broad mites?  But those seem to be football/pudgy-shaped, whereas the insects I found were quite long and skinny (but tiny).
- ??  what else could they be?


Where might they have come from?
- New bag of Pro Mix?  Everything I potted up earlier looks great so far -- it's the newest transplantings that used soil from the new bag that have this issue.  Actually, a few days ago I repotted the second batch of tomatoes -- and placed them on the same shelf as all the other good looking plants --------- will have to keep a close eye.......  I'm wondering if the newest tomato leaves are looking kind of curly....

- From my overwintered thyme/oregano?  But this doesn't seem likely, because those are sitting on the table, whereas the damaged plants were mostly on the uppermost shelves.

Sowed cucumbers, green zucchini, butternut squash, and jumbo pink banana winter squash

Sowed into vermiculite:  cucumbers, green zucchini, yellow zucchini, butternut squash, and jumbo pink banana winter squash. 

Never grew the pink banana squash before, but my Seed Vault multi-package from several years ago included some seeds, and I decided to expand the garden this year, so why not! 

Oh no! Some of the zinnias and peas are runty and weird

I spoke too soon with that last post.  I had vaguely noticed some of the zinnias were small, but they're on the top shelf so I wasn't looking too closely.  Upon closer inspection today, whoa they're very bizarre.  They're not only very small, but their leaves are crinkled and just very mis-shapen.  It's only some of them, though, and it includes some of the ones from last year's seed packet, so it's not a glitch from saving seeds...

And, some of the newer pea sprouts too, look mis-shapen with hardly any leafiness.

What the!!

Interestingly, it was around this time last year, on May 2nd 2018 that I wrote about everything stunted.  However, a major difference this year is that everything else looks awesome, whereas last year nearly everything was majorly stunted.

This year I did not re-use any vermiculite or soil (recycled the used stuff into the backyard beds).  And, I sterilized all containers (bleach water bath) before re-use.  So, that can't be the issue...

Curious to see if this will affect the final sowings which will be done soon (cukes/zukes/squash).

Knock on wood -- everything looks good

So far everything is looking good and normal, no sign of whatever cause everything to be stunted last year.  The only exception is some of the zinnias, some of them are small and puny but I'm not worried about that.

Chard set outside to harden off

Put most of the chard outside to harden off.  (Still in their containers.)  The smaller chards are still inside.

Onions went into the ground today

Like the title says :-)

Peas round one in the ground

The peas had been sitting outside since Wednesday.  They look good.  Put the peat pots in the ground today. 

Sowed beets and carrots (round 1)

Sowed the first round of beets and carrots in the new beet/carrot bed.

Growing two kinds of each this year:

- Beets:  Cylindra Formanova (west square) and Detroit Dark Red (leftover package seeds from before) (square east of the Cylindra)

- Carrots:  Nantes Scarlet (west square) and Touchon (square east of the Nantes) (both are from new seed packets -- didn't use any older seeds due to bad / poor tasting results last year)

Put several seeds into each hole of the square foot spacing so will need thinning if everything takes.

Started more peas

Started 12 more peas today.  Mostly the last of the Aster Lane packet, plus a couple of sugar snap.

Tomorrow will start hardening onions and round-1-peas

Tomorrow I'll set out the onions and the round one peas.  Forecast is for above 0 days and nights.  Sunny tomorrow, then lots of cloud/showers/rain.  But the round one peas are several inches tall now, so time to get them out, and the onions are looking great too.

Started round 3 of peas

Started 12 more pre-soaked peas into peat.  These are the ones from Aster Edibles bought last year.  (The others this year were store-bought typical snap peas.)

Ate the last of last year's garlic today

Had the last two cloves from last year's harvest.  They stored perfectly well just sitting on the counter. 

(I didn't have a huge harvest last year -- just the usual procrastination in finishing it up)

Onions seem to tolerate small pots

The onions are in various size pots, including the smallest little four-packs.  All seem to be happy, doing well.

Pea update, and started more peas

The peas sowed April 7th have mostly come up now, so they're under the lights.  The only room for them is under the old lights.  Still very short, just barely up.  The peat/soil looks good and healthy.  Dug around looking for the no-shows, and they're all actually started, just slow.  So poked a few replacements in those, just in case.

Started another peat flat of peas today, on the bathroom counter again.  Would have started a second flat, but ran out of soil.

(All peas are in peat flats (6x2 type), same as the last year or two due to suspected mole issues)

Indoor over-wintered thyme and oregano doing well

Knock on wood, but the thyme and oregano that I overwintered inside by bringing in their planter and putting it on the table at the window, and that had only natural sunlight until the last few weeks when I started using the grow lights for the other plants, are doing well.  Especially the thyme, looks very happy and smells so nice.

Interestingly I don't seem to have tags for thyme or oregano until this post.  So for the record, these plants are from seeds I started last winter (winter 2018).

Begonias both doing well

Both of the begonias are looking great.  The pink one, which appeared first, has even started having flower buds.  The yellow one, which appeared substantially later, is catching up quickly, great healthy leaves.

Asparagus nowhere to be seen...

No sign of any of last year's asparagus plantings yet, in any of the three beds.  I would have thought they'd be coming up by now... hopefully soon.

New beet/carrot bed prepped; garlic and onions are up, moved some of them

Sunny warm day today, and all the snow in the yard has been melted for a few weeks.  So, got my hands dirty today.

- Prepped the new beet/carrot bed.  Didn't sow anything yet though -- will wait a couple more weeks.

- Garlics are up!  Including not only the ones bought/sowed last fall (of which five are speedy growers whereas most are just little tips), but also -- a bonus one near the hydro meter!  It must be one I accidentally missed last year.  It had four big, healthy looking cloves , each with big, healthy looking green shoots!  So I split up the four cloves and planted them elsewhere since zukes will be going in that bed this year.

- Several onions appearing as well.  Two or three look like grannies that I would think will have seed heads this year.  So, I moved them into a better place.  Some smaller ones here and there throughout the yard, which I also moved.

Favourite zinnias have appeared!

Yay!  How strange that the very day after I dug around finding no signs of life, all of a sudden there are 3-4-5 that sprung up.  But I'll take it!

Oh, and several of the seed-packet zinnias spring up too -- they seem to have better and quicker germination.  Still I prefer my own collected seeds.

Sowed the nice orange-red flower (unknown)

Sowed the nice orange-red flower that was growing in front of the fence last year, from my collected seeds. Not sure what kind of plant it is.

Sowed last year's store-bought zinnia

Given the dreadful germination rate this year from my collected-seed experiment, went ahead today and sowed a bunch of seeds from the "Zinnia Lilliput" packed I had bought last year.  Wonder if these will take better than my collected seeds.

Sowed peas and Malabar spinach

Sowed 10 Malabar spinach (on heat mat -- they're sure to love that)
and 20 peas (on bathroom counter, in case last year's stunting could have been related to dampness of the peat pots / disease).

Favourite zinnias not doing anything :-(

Dug around in my tub of favourite orangey/red zinnias, and no sign of action from any of them.  Sigh.  Will keep them on the heat mat for a few more weeks.

Translated the zinnias that have appeared and will keep those tubs also, hoping for more germination. 

Zinnia germination is slow/sporadic

Not a particularly impressive germination among the zinnias.  None of my favourite red/orange colour have germinated yet... hopefully soon.  Most of the other tubs have only a few sprouts so far.  Oh, they seem to like the heated map (I turned it on for them a few days ago).

Ground cherries appeared

Ah good, the ground cherries have started to appear.  They had me worried there for a bit!