OmahaJB's 2010 Garden Journal

[OmahaJB]

Hi all. Wasn't planning on creating a journal this year, but what the heck. Since I'm hoping for much better results with improved soil, composted cow manure and MG garden soil, plus some grow bags filled with good container soil, I may have better results to write about this season. Plus, keeping a journal helps me to refer back to dates of transplant and other things I might want to reflect on.

BTW, I'm posting this here because this thread would get buried too quickly in the general discussion area, and I've started everything from seed, except for the rhubarb I bought this year. The variety is Valentine, a variety I'm excited to grow, based on the description of it. Last year I started Victoria rhubarb from seed, and can see it's already looking good this year, much better than it's first year for obvious reasons. I'm worried about the Valentine roots as I received them about a month ago, so not sure they have survived. Will be planting them this week, probably Tuesday. Various reasons for not planting out sooner.

Besides my Victoria rhubarb looking good, I have about 50 or so head of garlic growing. Both hard and soft neck types. This year will let them go an extra week or two. Last year probably dug them out a week early. They weren't as big as they could have been, but that was partially from inadequate soil. Will most likely be a problem this year as well. Goal this year is to greatly improve the soil in all growing areas. Cost is a hinderance, but slowly taking care of it.

Almost forgot, daylilly plants are looking really good. Hoping for flowers by mid-summer for the first time. Started them from seed last year.

And my two alpine strawberry plants are filling out and looking great. Hoping I get the strawberries this year, rather than the critters.

This week will be transplanting a few pepper plants, and one dwarf project plant. Last year only had one pepper plant, and wanted many more. Peppers liven up so many dishes, even just as a topping on pizza. Just totally changes the flavor for the better. Had planned on more last year, but many of my seedlings died, including most tomato and pepper.

Thanks to "Mom" here on Mother's Day. Last year she wanted nothing to do with the seedlings, but this year she has been helping a great deal. I transplanted many of the peppers and one tomato into 8" plastic cups, took them to her house, where for the past two or three weeks she has been taking care of them. Even puts them outdoors a few hours a day so they can harden off.

Yesterday I drove many of the tomato seedlings over there for her to set by her window. Not convinced they'll get enough light, but can't keep them here. This time of year mold spores kill them. As I explained in last year's journal, my apartment sits halfway underground, and has poor air circulation even with the windows opened and a small fan on. Don't have problems until usually late April and worse yet in May. Anyways, thanks to her efforts the seedlings may be saved. There has been some damage but I'm hoping I got them out of here in time. The tomatoes need probably another 2 weeks before being transplanted. Got a little bit of a late start. But considering we may have frost tonight I don't mind transplanting a little late.

Off the top of my head, a few of the varieties I can remember that I'm growing:

Eggplant: Diamond, Rossa Bianca

Peppers: Blockbuster, Socrates X3R, and others I can't recall off the top of my head. Will write the names down when I transplant.

Tomatoes: Black Cherry, Boronia F5 dwarf project), Brandwine (both Cowlick's & Sudduth), Toedebusche Pink (have to check the spelling), Emma Pink, 'Not' Emma Pink F2 (outstanding taste), Pattiewhacker (large red cross from PattyB), Stump x Guido (Only one germinated this year, after losing all last year before plant out. Really want this to survive to see what it gives. It wasn't one of my 13 strongest that I took over to my mother's, so is still in danger of getting hit with mold spores.), and others I can't recall off hand. Actually had a couple each of Cowlick's and Sudduth Brandywine. Expecting big things from those two.

Cucumber: Only started Delikatesse this year. Not crazy about cucumbers. Like pickles but don't plan on pickling, so why bother really. Planting this one just to see how they taste. Last year I think poor soil hurt my cucumbers like it did everything else. Poona Kheera was the only productive variety I had.

Squash: Very much looking forward to having success with both squash & melons. Something that did not happen last year. Started some indoors, but also will be direct seeding to see what works, if either does for me. Musquee De Provence and Amish Pie are the two I've focused on so far.

Melons/Watermelons: Ali Baba, Charentais, Cream of Saskatchewan, Orangeglo, and Petit Gris de Rennes (or something like that). So far the old seed I have for Ali Baba and Orangeglo have not germinated. The Charentais seed was just purchased yesterday, but the other two varieties have germinated.

I did start 'peach' dahlia from seed sent to me by PattyB. The seedlings are doing well. I'll chose a garden spot carefully as they get loaded up with constant visitors of bumblebees, hornets or wasps, bees, and others I'm sure that are equipped with 'stingers'. They didn't bother anyone last year that I know of, but would prefer planting them a ways from the garden.

Have sunflower seeds for Mammoth Russian. Started a couple from seed but think they'd be better off direct sown.

Can't say that's all I'll try growing. I have some early squash varieties a kind trader sent last year, that would be smart to grow. Problem is I only have so much space. But we'll see. I'm really thinking about overdoing it with Charentais melon hoping some grow for me, but then I think of everything I have to make room for. And I haven't even talked about growing pumpkins for the youngest great-niece and nephew for Halloween!

Well, once I transplant I'll post for recordkeeping's sake.

Could be alot of changes in my life this year, including a job change, so gardening will give me somewhere to escape to and find peace.

With luck we'll get enough tomatoes to can, and peppers to freeze some to use next winter.

Good luck everyone with your gardens! Now, I need to actually get to work on preparing the garden soil this week. It's one thing to talk about it.....and another to get off my rear and get to work.

Jeff

[OmahaJB]

Transplanted about half of my seedlings Saturday, May 15th. Varieties:

Rhubarb - Valentine. Planted 2 in ground and 1 in a growbag. Not sure these were still good but will give them plenty of time to start growing.

Tomatoes - Big Green Dwarf. Project plant was planted in ground. By the end of my day transplanting I noticed this one was drooping a little. Rest of tomatoes will be planted at the end of the week, except any that aren't ready.

Peppers - Blockbuster, Chervena Kamba Velina, Soroksari, Tenderness, Troyka, Vigne Doux Piments

Eggplant - Diamond, Rossa Bianca

Cucumber - Delikatessa

Melon - Cream of Saskatchewan, Petit Gris de Rennes

Sunflower - Mammoth Russian

Squash - Amish Pie, Musquee de Provence

Most of what I have left are tomato varieties that like I said, need another week or two before they can be transplanted. Also, I bought a packet of Charantais seeds so will be planting/transplanting those next weekend or the week after. Would LOVE to have some of those melons considering the great write-ups I've always read. And the fact I was unsuccessful growing them last year. My taste buds have been waiting a long time for this one!

The only things I'd still like to buy are a paste tomato seedling, probably Opalka, and possibly a blueberry bush. Not positive about the blueberry bush as I read you don't get blueberries until the third year. It would have to be planted and my mother's house and I'm not positive she'll stay in that house long enough to enjoy the blueberries, something she likes having in the house. Probably will buy it, as I have my eye on a variety that is very productive with a delicious wildblueberry taste. Only problem is it'll cost about three times what I could pay for Blueray which was $4.99 at a local Home Depot. But hey, sometimes you have to splurge a little to get what you really want. Not to mention the one I want only gets 3-4' tall, just about the perfect height.

Really happy with the garden fabric I put down to control the weeds. Looks really good and was easy to work with.

I wont talk about how sore I was on Sunday. Kind of forgot Saturday how bad my knee is, so I felt both the knee pain and the muscle soreness. It was worth it though.

Now today right on cue we are having a nice steady rainfall. Nothing too hard or windy for the transplants to handle. Saved me a trip after work from having to water them.

Next Saturday, hopefully more transplants.

[OmahaJB]

May 30th, yesterday, I transplanted most of the tomato plants I plan to have. Also planted Charantais melon seeds. Was a little upset with one of the local weathermen who Sunday morning said it would only be 84 for the high. I went to work, then went over to do the digging and soil improvement and transplanting. It felt like 89 degrees although I don't know if it got that hot ot not. But it was at least 87. Quite frankly I almost overheated before the afternoon's work was done. And then later after cooling down I was upset with myself for transplanting tender seedlings in that heat. They've been hardened off but aren't used to that type of sun/heat. Hopefully they didn't croak before the day was over. Now today we're supposedly going to get some rain, and possibly alot. We'll see if this turns into a disaster of nearly biblical proportions.

Tomatoes transplanted: Black Cherry, Brandywine Cowlick's (three), Brandywine Sudduth, 'not' Emma Pink, Toedebusche Pink (three).

Still a few tomato seedlings needing another week to plant out. My Stump x Guido seedling is way behind. Will try growing that in a container so if it doesn't grow fruit in time I can continue indoors.

Emma Pink is one of the ones needing another week. That's an important one as I need to compare it to 'not' Emma Pink. Last season PattyB gave me an EP seedling that turned out to be absolutely outstanding but did not fit the description for EP. After emailing her about it it appears likely it could have been a cross rather than a labeling mix-up. It was brick-red, very tasty, meaty/thick, just enough juice without too many seeds, and just about perfect. If it was a cross I can only hope the results are passed down to this F2 generation.

Was hoping to plant an Opalka but may have to forget about it until next year. I'm sure I have enough plants for this season anyway.

This year I decided to start the Charantais seeds properly. I hilled some MG garden soil and planted several seeds in it. And I started two seeds indoors about a week ago and also put them in the hill. Will see what works best, if either works this year.

As for the what was planted a week or so ago, most things are doing well. Although the Valentine rhubarb is probably not going to grow. Guess it took me too long to get those roots in the ground.

I had thought my Musquee de Provence seedling was going to die, but it was doing well, as was the Amish Pie. In fact, AP is REALLY doing super! Very healthy.

Cucumbers doing ok. One sunflower has survived and doing well. Pepper plants doing well. Eggplant doing well and saw a couple of large flower buds growing on it. One of the melon seedlings I put out that week died, and the other was alive but trapped under the garden fabric. So I saved that one. But I forget which was which, and I don't have my garden diagram sitting next to me.

Daylillies are looking very good and are filling out. Hoping to see flowers on them this July. When I first bought the seeds and started them last year, someone mentioned I could see flowers as early as late July of the 2nd year. So we'll see. I have about 10 planted, possibly a little more. Have a feeling this will become one of my favorite things to grow. It's very rewarding to grow from seed and seeing the end result. Since these were all crosses I have no idea what the flowers will look like. And being in a hurry last year while planting I forgot to write down where each variety was being planted. Later when I realized I had forgotten I couldn't believe it! I labeled all the seedling containers but forgot to diagram where everything was planted. Ugh! This reminds me I need to transplant a couple to new areas. For lack of space last year I planted them where the gate hits them when fully open. Not sure how they'll take to being transplanted but have no choice.

Well, I don't have a huge garden but hopefully all of the quality varieties I've planted will do well. Would like to can a little at least to gain the knowledge of how to do so. Will be nice to have garden 'stuff' to eat in January and February if it works out.

Will also be nice to have Black Cherry back in the garden after not having it last year because the seedlings didn't survive to transplant. Two years ago I enjoyed eating them but thought they split a little too easily with the rain, especially later in the season when we had a lot of it. The taste was very good before the monsoon came.

Think I've finally recovered from all the digging and improving the soil. It took a toll on me yesterday.

Now...time for some pancakes....

[OmahaJB]

Today I finally planted the last of the plants I started from seed, mostly tomato but also one pepper.

Black Cherry was planted in the spot where an animal had dug up one of the Cowlick's seedlings.

Pattiewhacker was planted in one of the growbags. I removed the rhubarb that had been in it. All 3 rhubarb roots appear to be dead. I did transplant them in an out of the way area just in case they grow.

In the two other spots where the rhubarb was dug up I planted Emma Pink and a 'Not' Emma Pink. Another 'Not' Emma Pink was also planted.

Stump x Guido was still very small but I decided to plant it anyways. Probably shouldn't have considering all the rain we're and will be getting, but was tired of waiting for it. Sink or swim for this one.

Transplanted the 2 daylillies I've been wanting to move by the others. At some point I plan on moving them all around to form a more perfect circle and most likely plant a Patriot hosta in the middle of them. They are in a semi-circle now and not evenly planted. Hoping for a few flowers this year to see what blooms. They were crosses so it'll be a mystery until they do.
Plants in the grow bags look terrific. One pepper and two eggplant. The latter will have eggplant growing soon as the flowers are closing up. They probably don't care for this cooler wet weather we are having compared to last week.

My project dwarf plant looks great. It was planted in the ground and is only about a foot tall but has alot of vegetative growth. This is a green when ripe variety.

In my last update I mentioned Amish Pie was doing well. It continues to amaze. Very happy with how well the vines are growing. Musquee de Provence is struggling a little, and has white 'splashes' on the leaves. I have no idea what they are. Looks like splashes of soap but it isn't. I'll be watching that one carefully.

Charantais isn't doing so well. And my sunflower was broken down, probably by the wind during the bad storms the other night during the tornado breakout.

Cream of Saskatchewan is doing as well as Amish Pie as far as vine growth goes.

Now I need for the warm sun to show it's face again to help speed things up. The plants responded well last week with mid-upper 80's.

Now...the waiting game begins...

[Tormato]

Jeff,

Does your Musquee have leaves like this?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ata_leaves.jpg

Tormato

P.S. One of my daylilies, from your seeds, should be blooming soon.

[OmahaJB]

Thanks 'Tormato'. Mine look very similar, except I didn't notice the white running up the leaf veins. It was much more pronounced in the pic, but that could be due to the age of the vine. I've been worried mine was being affected by a disease and would affect Amish Pie which isn't far away from it. Looks like I have nothing to worry about. Good news indeed!

Glad the daylillies are doing so well for you. Some of mine are growing strong but no hint a flower will develop any time soon. When I planted the seeds last year someone told me I wouldn't see flowers until at least mid-summer of the 2nd year, which is this year of course. A couple days ago I moved two so they could all be in one spot. While transplanting my observant self noticed the ones I was transplanting were larger. Duh! I was moving them into an area that receives a little bit less light than where they had been. I'll see how they do this year and possibly move them all in 2011. Hoping for flowers this year, but wish I had made a diagram where each cross was first planted. Now I have no idea what they are. Foolish on my part.

Thanks again for the link. Jeff

[Sherry_AK]

Hi, Jeff. I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading these posts.

Sherry

[OmahaJB]

Thank you Sherry. Hopefully I've given everyone a laugh or two reading about an amateur in the garden!

Knowing how much work having even a small garden can be, makes me appreciate those who plant hundreds or thousands of seedlings. It's always been my dream to have land to have a farm/ranch, so I envy those who do. But they work hard, I know.

I haven't been using sevin dust or any other insect killer, but eventually I'll need to if I continue gardening in future years. Also will need to do a much better job of soil preparation and then later weeding during the summer. Although the garden fabric is helping quite a bit with the weeds. Really haven't been fertilizing much out of fear of overdoing it and killing the plants, but this year will push the envelope a little more.

Glad you are enjoying the thread. It's something that helps me as I can refer back to older postings to see when certain things were done.

Jeff

[OmahaJB]

Realizing there probably wont be enough time to get anything from these, I went ahead anyway and planted some seeds today. Since I don't have any cucumbers I sowed Delikatesse (one more try), Poona Kheera, Bush Cucumber (old Burpee seed from '06), and one squash - Early Prolific Straightneck. Starting them indoors and will transplant outside about a week after germination. Will use growbags since they are working so well for the 4 plants I'm using some for already.
Cucumbers may have a chance of producing but not sure about the squash. Maybe we'll have a late first frost.

[Tormato]

Jeff,

Early Prolific Straightneck matures in about 45 days.

Gary

[OmahaJB]

Cool....It's possible I could get mature squash from it before cucumbers I'm starting at the same time. Regretting not starting the other squash seeds you sent Gary, especially Winter Luxury Pie. Read Jeanne's post in the squash forum and then googled info on it. Sounds great. In the spring I guess I was so enamored with the idea of growing Amish Pie and Musquee de Provence that I overlooked the others. But hey, sounds like I still have time to get some Early Prolific Straightneck if they germinate fairly quickly.

Saw my first daylily flower today. Yellow neck, a dark lavender ring about 1/2 inch wide, then pale lavender, with dark lavender ruffled edges. Attractive but the coloring is pale. Still like it. And they are about 5" across.

Pulled two roma tomatoes today that had BER. Hopefully this is not a trend for the rest of those roma tomatoes in the grow bag.

First fruitset of my project plant Big Green Dwarf. Very nice looking plant. Small but solid dense vegetation. Haven't measured it but I'm guessing it's about 12-14" tall.

So far two Diamond eggplant and one Rossa Bianca eggplant growing.

Jeff

[Mischka]

Originally Posted by OmahaJB

Realizing there probably wont be enough time to get anything from these, I went ahead anyway and planted some seeds today. Since I don't have any cucumbers I sowed Delikatesse (one more try), Poona Kheera, Bush Cucumber (old Burpee seed from '06), and one squash - Early Prolific Straightneck.

Poona Kheera matures fairly quick in comparison to other varieties I've grown so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does for you too.

As for summer squash, I have faith you'll harvest a few before Jack Frost pays your garden a visit. I will be direct-seeding some here this weekend, specifically for a fall harvest.

[OmahaJB]

Thanks for the info, Mischka. I did grow Poona Kheera last year and it was my most prolific cucumber. Soil was poor so the cukes were still small when they needed picked. Taste was just ok for me compared to all the posts I read about it, but I'm not one who should judge taste - even though I like pickles with the added flavoring, not really a big fan of eating fresh cucumbers. Growing these more for my mother who likes them - although she wasn't a fan of Poona Kheera either last year. She likes what she refers to as English cucumbers. They are about a foot or more longer, fairly skinny and wrapped in saran wrap in the stores. One of the stores just calls them 'greenouse cucumbers'.

My Delikatesse seeds have had great germination rates and all 5 came up within 2 days. Poona Kheera has 2 poking through the soil but they are taking their sweet old time doing much else. No sign of the squash seeds germinating but I realize they should take longer.

Good luck with your squash seeds, Mischka. I've had no luck direct seeding melons and squash the past three years, but you obviously know what you are doing.

Weather's been pretty good this year for the most part, and it's helped the garden. Seems the plants like warmer weather than I thought they would. I knew eggplant would, but thought high-80's & 90 degree temps might be detrimental to tomatoes at least. It wasn't partly because humidity wasn't terribly bad on those days.

Ahhhhh...time to tend to the laundry in the dryer... a single man's work is never done.

[OmahaJB]

Silly me....yesterday I did some research on the internet because it seemed I was mostly getting female flowers on the Amish Pie squash vines, and no squash were growing. Since there are few bees around here I decided I'd need to pollinate by hand. BTW, I learned from the info I read that you need to get in the garden early to hand pollinate because the flowers will close up in the heat of the day.

So this morning I drive over to the garden, about 10 minutes away, with Q-tips and scissors in hand. Q-tips for transferring pollen and scissors in case I decided to cut the petals back on the males rather than pull them back. Turns out scissors really aren't needed. Having learned yesterday that the female squash flower has about 4 stigma and the male 1, I knew they'd be easily identified. I had assumed the larger flowers were female and smaller were male.

Looking around I realized all the 'males' were dying off, so I decided to pull one off and see if I could get pollen off of it. To my surprise I saw at least 4 stigma. Then I glanced at the 'female' flower and noticed it only had one. Obviously I had them backwards. The larger flowers were actually the males! At that point I remembered something else I had read. The males will start flowering a couple weeks before the females in July. So that should explain why I'm not seeing many females yet. Kind of panicked for no good reason.

In the process of that I noticed a couple flying 'things' by the flowers but didn't see well enough to know what they were. Definitely not bees but they were interested in the flowers. Hopefully they'll help with pollination without destroying the plants.

That Rossa Bianca eggplant is going to have good size.
Which leads me to something that was happening last year. All eggplant but two very small ones were stolen by what I thought were squirrels, as well as some of the cucumbers and tomatoes were either completely gone or a bite or two taken. I mentioned to my mother today that it was odd the squirrels haven't taken anything since they are still around. She said maybe it was the possum who took them last year. I asked if she saw any out there and she indicated she had last year but not this year. In the spring of 2009 she said she hadn't seen possum but obviously she did later and failed to mention it. So I'm guessing that was the culprit or culprits. Nothing missing yet. I can only hope we don't have that problem this time around.

Lost a 'Not' Emma Pink, and another tomato seedling that had never recovered from the storms a few weeks ago. I had to prop them up with soil and stake along with a couple others, but these two didn't make it. Seems I forgot to write down the name of the second plant on my diagram. It was a fairly latecomer, planted just before the roma and Pink Girl seedlings.

The peppers are doing well this year. Troyka now has 8 peppers. I have a plant where the peppers point bottoms up towards the sky, which I think might be Soroksari. Can't be certain because I messed up my diagram a little in that area of the garden. Another one is kind of a golden or yellowish color right from the start. Regardless, they are doing well as are the other pepper plants.

Tomatoes need to get busy. I do have a couple growing on my project plant, and La Roma is productive already but BER will be tough to combat in that grow bag. Just drys out too quickly.

Looking forward to tasting those Troyka peppers. The description I read said they get about 2" across at the top and about 6" long. Would make a nice pizza topping. Oh yeah....

[danwigz]

Just wanted to mention that I've been enjoying reading your garden's progress. Hope things keep going well for you.

Danwigz