I guess that's the difference of cold spring soil and warm summer soil! And they weren't even pre-sprouted or anything! (I'm used to waiting several weeks for them to appear above ground.)
They actually must have appeared yesterday or the day before because today when I noticed them while checking the protective cover, they're relatively "tall" already.
Transplanted the 4 PT-sprouted piracicabas into the ground today. Maybe risky as they're at the same spot as 4 of the removed ones, so chance of caterpillar in ground and re-emerging? But it's the only spot I have open, so I'll give it a go. Amended the soil as below. Placed the row cover from LV over hoops, BUT I don't like this stuff because it also has sections of small "holes" where if a butterfly landed just so, the egg would definitely go through the cover. So I'll ask around and see if I can find a better one.
Mixed these into the ground today at the 4 spots:
1 Tbsp alfalfa
2 Tbsps kelp meal
2 Tbsps MRP
And set the seeds into vermiculite to make sure they don't get stuck underground.
So fun. Seeing lots of house sparrows, chipping sparrows (feeding a young'un), and song sparrows. The occasional goldfinches (they're not as fond as the platform feeder, so not getting tons like I did last year, but too bad so sad). The millet is going like gangbusters.
The potted short zinnias against the fence (full shade) are doing equally as well as (and actually a bit better than) the potted short zinnias in the sunny part of the yard. Lots of flowers on both.
Gross... Since the only brown part on the outside was the lower 1/4 of the tomato, I figured the upper part would be ok. Alas, no -- only the uppermost part of the upper part looked healthy. Too offputting though to try tasting it, so tossed it.
Will go in the bare part of the potato patch and maybe a few here and there to fill in gaps.
Sprinkled a bunch of 2021's Black Seeded Simpson, scratched it in, watered it, and covered with plastic.
Next year I'll definitely use actual row cover instead of tulle over the broccoli...
Will leave the north-most plants for seed saving but might remove the southmost ones to grow some buckwheat or something.
Decided to dig out two of the in-ground potato plants. Well. Both together yielded a whopping 0.3 pounds. Probably 0.2 once the dirt gets washed off. Oh my.
Granted it's only 72 days and I think these potatoes are 60-90 days, but still, there was hardly anything there.
Not sure if it's because of the blight, or other factors.
Will leave the rest for longer.
The first Big Beef Plus tomato had started to ripen, and while looking at it I noticed it has BER! I don't think I've ever had this happen on any of my tomatoes before. Anyway, brought it inside to finish ripening and will just cut off the bad parts.
From a quick scan of other green tomatoes I'm not seeing any other BER at this point.
Not surprisingly, Scotia was the first to harvest. Big Beef Plus has lots of really nice sized green tomatoes and Beefsteak has some slightly smaller ones, green as well.
The zucchini that I started in PT several days ago didn't sprout, so in that pot I've now sown some fall carrots (Bolero). I had already recently amended the pot with kelp and MRP.
