Hardening update: Zinnias and tomatoes

Zinnias:  Started hardening a few days ago.  Outside all day (has been nice and warm) in shade, some sun.  Inside at night.

Tomatoes:  Started hardening today.  Just because they look so sad.  In shade in afternoon.

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.

WTF is wrong with all of the tomatoes!?!?!

Argh, now it's not just the basil that look like crap -- it's also the tomatoes!!  They're yellowy, curly leaves, some leaves have dried/crisped up.  Potted them up today to see if that helps, but even the newest ones that are very small (they're all quite small though) look like crap.

Basil experiment: Half kept on dry side, half kept on damp side -- all with lights higher up

Decided to do an experiment with the basil to see if I can figure out where I'm going wrong, at least if it's attributable to watering amount.  Half of them I'll water only half as often as the others.  For all of them, the lights are quite a bit higher than I'd normally put them.

Basil up-potted and mixed with vermiculite -- here are the tips I received

 "I’d say either went too long without water or you put cold water on the leaves when watering."

"I had this problem with few leaves. I was watering too much I guess. So I pinched those leaves and dried the soil completely before watering more."

"They need to be re-potted out of the seedling tray and into pots."

"If leaves are wilted slightly or damaged, even t8s will burn them to a crisp. Lack of water or too much could be the cause but as Lori mentioned those cells look really small. Definitely get those little guys potted up"

Cucumber (Eureka), Golden Glory zucchini, and Eight Ball zucchini started in PT

My first time trying these varieties.

Basil (Prospera) round 2 started in PT

.... like last year, decided to start a round 2 in case this first round goes kaput...

Basil looking sad!! Why!?!? Same as last year, despite different seeds/variety??

Argh!  Why are the little itty bitty basils ONCE AGAIN looking bad -- brown splotches on the leaves, as though too cold or burnt.... See my post from May 2nd 2021 and May 10th 2021 where the same thing happened and I ultimately ended up buying basil...

These are NEW SEEDS / a new type (downy-mildew-resistant) so it's a real bummer that this is happening again.

All hardies now transplanted

Planted them all, so none of these to give away.

Carrots round 2 sowed

The first round in the SE corner of the north bed doesn't look promising, too much clay bits on the top (let alone throughout).  A few have popped up but decided to do a new bed just north of there.  Looks much better soil there, just have to hope no big rains to wash out the seeds until they establish.

Goldfinch eating last year's wild evening primrose seeds

Neat!  Glad I left them in place over the winter.

Cold, rainy, windy April!

Sheesh, what a month.  Hardly any sun.  Almost all cloud, rain, cold, and ugh this never-ending wind $%^&*.  Oh, and it snowed yesterday!

Tomatoes round 2 into PT

Just Big Tofu Plus and Tofu Steak, to have a few more since some of round 1 look wonky.

Peas into ground

6 peat flats.  Placed them all along the north side of the 3-pole vertical stretch.  No innoculant, no soil amendments at all.

Forget-me-nots into ground

4 plants from last year's best plant.  All placed into the front bed -- one grouping of 3, and one on its own.  While roots were nice and obvious, they didn't look rootbound unlike last year, so hopefully good timing.

Tomatoes (4 kinds) started in Pt

4 seeds of each kind (thinking 2 for me and 1 to give):

- Scotia

- Tofu Steak

- Big Tofu

- Jasper (cherry)

Beets into ground

 From PT into ground.  

Beets started in PT

^^^

Chards, parsley, and celery transplanted

Several chards, all of the parsley, and several of the celery will share a nice tulled section in the west bed.  These were all started inside and have been living outside full time for the last week or so other than coming in on some cold nights.

More chard to come still, as a few are still hardening, and there's also the winter sowed chards which are still in their containters.