Sowed late-start zucchinis

Sowed five yellow zuke seeds in front of the tomatoes and four green zuke seeds by the air conditioner today.  If more than one sprout will then to one of each.  Curious to see if these late starts will be affected by the squash vine borer or not.

Snipped flowers off some of the ground cherries

All of the ground cherries started producing flowers (and some full on berries) while still in pots, several weeks ago.  Today I decided to do a bit of an experiment, by cutting off the flowers from some of the plants and not others, to see if there's any difference in future growth / plant size.

The plants I snipped the flowers from are:
- the south plant in the middle garden
- the plant next to the compost

The plants I did NOT snip the flowers from are:
- the north plant in the middle section
- the plant next to the air conditioner
- the plant in the pot

Malabar spinach transplanted

Finally bought a T-post (at TSC in Rockland) so was able to get that in place with string, then transplant the Malabar.  What a big difference over last year when it was so small, likely due to whatever had stunted everything.  This year the plants look strong and vigorous, so far at least.

Everything is outside

Nothing left inside now.  The only things not yet transplanted are the last shelf which were the "punies" -- a few puny basils, cukes, zuke, and a puny pink banana squash.

Zinnias not true to seed -- unexpected colours etc.

How interesting -- the zinnia seeds I sowed from seeds saved last year are not at all as expected.  I had carefully saved the seeds form each colour/size into their own little bags.  But the results are all over.  Colours are different (e.g. my "favourite" orangish are pink); even size is off, with some of the short-plant seeds coming up as tall as all the others.  (but other shorts were short)

And there's the matter of the mystery plants that came up in a few of the pots I had labelled as zinnias.

The wonders of hybrids!

Transplanted/planted almost everything

Transplanted today:

- butternut squash x 6 (!!) (from packet)
- jumbo pink banana squash x 4 (from packet)
- zucchini x 3 (from packet)
- tomatoes x 3 (the other three I'll give to Ray) (from my 2018-collected seeds)
- cucumbers x ~6 (from packet)
- zinnias x ~25 (from my 2018-collected seeds)
- black-eyed susan x 1 (from my 2018-collected seeds)

Sowed:

- beans (the west-most pole has "Tenderfreen Improved" from foil packet (spotted seeds); the others are the ones I saved from last/past years.
- beets -- to finish up the bed (from packet)
- carrots and beets -- to fill in gaps of no-shows (from packet)
- poppies (alternating "batches" of dark centre and neutral centre -- really should have done this a month ago but kept forgetting) (from my 2018-collected seeds)

Peas recovered from insects

Almost all of the imperiled peas recovered from their insect damage.  Planted their peat pots into the ground today.

Almost everything is outside now

Almost everything is outside now, mostly still in pots waiting to be transplanted.  This includes the tomatoes, zinnias, basil, can't remember what else.

Still inside are the final plantings:  zucchini, pink banana squash, butternut squash, and cucumbers.

Frost advisory for tomorrow morning

Frost advisory for tomorrow morning.  Haven't put sensitive things out yet, so hopefully what's out will be fine.

Same tiny insect found on one of the questionable kitchen zinnias

Noticed that one of the zinnias that's been kept in the kitchen the past week or two in case it was contagious, has started to have stunted leaves once again, in its newest growth.  Had a very close look and sure enough, saw one of those same tiny long white/pale insects on top of one of the leaves.  So, put the plant out with the green bin today.

The other questionable zinnia that's been next to it in the kitchen still looks strong in terms of its new growth.

Removed a shelf from lighting unit

Removed a shelf from the lighting unit and adjusted the heights of the other two shelves, to make more room for the tomatoes etc.

Potted the cucumbers and the various squash, and the purple basil

Potted up the cucumbers (lots sprouted), the zucchini (only 1 green sprouted, and 3 yellow), the butternut squash (~4-5 sprouted), and the jumbo pink banana (2 nice ones sprouted and 1 odd one).  Looking good!

Thai basil already going to seed, so repotted slightly larger

One of the thai basil is already going to seed.  They were in the tiny flexible four-packs.  So, repotted into slightly larger "pots" (the brown joined ones).

Repotted tomatoes into the big black pots

Repotted all 6 tomatoes into the big black pots.  Haven't used those pots in several years, but these tomatoes are looking great and will be much happier in these big pots. 

Found a small flying insect in computer room

Found a small flying insect in the computer room.  Possibly a thrip, i.e. possibly the kind of insect who damaged the plants?

I remember noticing a small flying insect in the computer room about a month or so ago but didn't do anything about it.

My theory is that these are thrips and that they came from the second bag of Pro Mix.  But I'll surely never know.

In the meantime I'm definitely not using any more of the Pro Mix bag.  Might do some kind of test later after everything has been moved safely outside.

All indoor plants looking great

Thank goodness, it seems everything left growing inside hasn't been affected by the insects I found on the stunted zinnias.

Will be running of grow room VERY soon for the tomatoes, and even some of the basil.

Hail!!! But things look good (they were mostly under cover)

Hail and freezing rain today, May 1st!

Last night I covered most of the things up.  A great idea (not mine) was to use pots as covers!  Brilliant!  So I used a bunch of pots, and other things were covered with plastic sheets.

Looks like things are doing ok.  Will leave the pots on tonight since the night will be cool (again).

Most of the April 27th sowings have sprouted

Up:

- cukes (lots!)

- zukes (yellow and green -- only one of each so far)

- butternut squash (several)

- the jumbo pink banana isn't quite up yet, but it looks like one is about to poke up