SeanInVa 2019 - Page 3

jtjmartin · July 29, 2019

Oh, no! Not a good sight to see!

Gloucester is a beautiful area. I'm up for work every month or so. You used to have the cheapest gas prices around but lately they seem to be about average?

Jeff

SeanInVa · July 30, 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

Oh, no! Not a good sight to see!

Gloucester is a beautiful area. I'm up for work every month or so. You used to have the cheapest gas prices around but lately they seem to be about average?

Jeff

They used to be consistently lower. Now, they are still lower than say, NN/Hampton, but maybe by 10 cents at most 4-6 cents seems typical lately. During fluctuations, we seem to trail behind the trend in NN. In those cases, we're a good tick lower - but then eventually we're higher for a short bit.

Also, prices tend to drop slightly the further up-county you get. I usually only get Exxon gas, and if you look at the prices at each Exxon as your driving up 17, each station is about a penny cheaper than the one before it.

SeanInVa · October 18, 2019

Fall dropped in quite promptly after a very long, dry, hot summer. We got our first substantial rain this week of about 1-1.5 inches, after nearly two months with very little. It certainly helped kick start a few things around here!

Tomatoes are about done, but some are still hanging in there. I'm still pulling a couple small Mortgage Lifters, several 4th of July and Gardener's Delights as well. The Pineapple seems to have really gained a second life through the less humid weeks.
ML about done, but Pineapple keeps going and going. I've just let these go at this point

Peppers always seems to really kick into overdrive towards the end of summer, and the one Habanda and one sweet banana is covered in fruit.

In our raised bed, I've cleaned it up and added some fresh rabbit manure and then seeded with carrots, kale and radish along with a few cabbage and spinach starts. I've had to start over multiple times because a couple especially adventurous chickens found there way in and proceeded to roto-till the box a few different times.

I myself got adventurous this year and bought a flame torch and flame-weeded around the cleared out tomato plots. Unfortunately, I think I zapped some roots of a blueberry bush as one side has now turned all its leaves. That'll teach me to go flame-throwin' around pine needles!

Potatoes were a total waste of effort this year. I emptied most of the bags out into one of the three tomato plots as "soil" and threw down some timothy seed to grow some hay for our rabbits.

Next to those, I spread what compost we had in the bin on the other two tomato plots and seeded with rye and lightly mulched with (sort-of-shredded) leaves. All three beds are now sprouting after a week and the heavy rain we had mid-week.

Over near the lasagna bed where I had the squash and a couple tomatoes, I had extended it some with a tarp and then put down some compost and leaves and seeded some cereal rye for a cover.
I am keeping the main plot in production for now with some cabbage, broccoli and spinach.

Speaking of Rye, Since I bought a bushel of seed, I started messing with sprouting it for fodder. Man this stuff draws flies and fruit flies/gnats

As I slowly build out our little hobby "farm" here, I went ahead and setup some chicken-wire bins to hold mulch/compost materials so I can work on composting over the winter
One bin for grass clippings, one for pine needles one for leaves, and little one for leaves that I started with
We have 4 50-60 year old Maple trees on the property, so I just ran the leaves over with our otherwise-worthless electric mower w/bag and hauled them over to the bin. I've already plundered half of the leaf bin

And finally, I went hog-wild and ordered a ton of various micro seeds from Bunny Hop Seeds. I started a few for testing this winter, including:
Venus
Jochalos
Monetka
Yellow Balcony
Andrina
and saved seed from the summer grow of Red Robins
The little silver things all over the place are the plastic squares from my greenhouse dry-rotting out and falling everywhere

I am now looking at options to build bigger-and-better this winter. I'm debating between a boot-strap style hoop house, or picking up the Harbor Freight 10x12 greenhouse.

SeanInVa · December 15, 2019

Pre-winter update

The greenhouse barely lasted the summer season. One half of its cover has deteriorated as mentioned in the prior post. While that is disappointing, I have ordered a small bit of 6mil 4 year plastic, enough to recover the whole thing. The price my wife paid for the greenhouse on clearance was worth it, and the frame is still solid. I expect this one, with the new cover, will easily last the next few years.

I have also purchased another el-cheapo greenhouse, this time from Amazon. It's a 10x26 and I assume the cover it comes with will also likely rot out by this time next year. But for the price, I looked at it as a frame investment much like the first has ended up being. I will likely have to re-cover it next year, but for the price of it + the plastic I will have to buy, I will have a 10x26 "hoophouse" for a quarter of the price of anything else I could have done of that size, save for perhaps a cattle-panel hoophouse.

Also picked up some heavy duty 1020s, and some heavy duty 50-cell inserts from a greenhouse supply store

As for what's going this season - not a whole lot outdoors. I got a late start at what is there, and I think I'll end up harvesting much of it before it's done since we're now in December. The rabbits will enjoy most of it.

Here we have some lettuce, and baby kale and a few radishes past their prime at the top right corner. Things are clustered and all over the place because the chickens kept breaking in and tilling everything up right after I sowed seeds! Pesky birds!

2 cabbages and 2 spinach and a lot of weeds.

Here is the lasagna plot. In the foreground is winter rye, followed behind that is some cabbage that never really got to grow much before frost hit, and behind that is some broccoli that also didn't get to start heading before frost. If nothing else, the leaves make great rabbit treats. I put up a make-shift fence around this by driving tomato stakes (both metal/plastic and bamboo) into the ground and using some bird netting woven onto the sticks. It has worked to keep the chickens out thus far

Had this 30x15 tarp, and figured I would use it to prepare some more space for next year via occultation. I have also ordered some "silage tarps" that I've not unboxed yet. I decided to go with 30x32. That gives me 28' of row length with 1' on either side, with 30" of row width with 9" walk space on either side, resulting in 18" walkways between beds. While the rows aren't long, when I mash the full plots together, I get 2' of space to pull a cart through and they are a good size to fit where we have open space to grow. I am hoping to work towards a market garden over the next several years, so being able to start a couple new plots each year works well.

The Timothy grass hasn't grown a whole lot yet - I'm hoping it will be fine through the winter. I also could have sown a bit heavier it seems

The two tomato plots from last season now covered with winter rye. I don't like how wide my paths are here (5 feet) so I might grow these plots out width-wise next season

And now for the indoors stuff. I started working on two lines from Dan Follet along with growing a couple micros I purchased from Bunny Hop. I already had some LED lights in tents that have that purple color. I found a high-bay led light at Homedepot for $100 that has been working great for seeds and early growth. Started with two trays - I only planted one seed per cell

And now have four trays here, and 8 more in a tent in square pots. These are all in 4" azalea pots

Notice that one tray that is lighter green? They were transplanted at the same time as two others in that shot above, but this one was in a tent with one of the purple LEDs, and I had given them a small dose of liquid fertilizer. The result is they have grown more than the others, but are showing signs of deficiency as well. The other three trays have remained under the high-bay LED I mentioned above, and have had no additional fertilizer. I've moved them back here for now as I'm not sure if it was the light, or the fertilizer that is hurting them (maybe both)

Contrasted to this tray, which looks a bit healthier, if smaller

This is a Jochalos micro, in a nursery pot. It has been living in one of the tents with a purple LED

And just a couple close shots of two other micros as I was playing with the new phone

SeanInVa · January 28, 2020

Micros are progressing nicely. They are in my garage, and it's only insulated on one side, so I've been battling some cold temps lately. I'm also working out the proper nutrient levels so there has been some deficiencies as you can see.

I've redone the mini-greenhouse. It's fairly solid now. Still under a bit of construction (adding shelves, and need to clip the tails off the wire ties). I used some 6 mil 4-year greenhouse poly, and added some wood for framing. The metal skeleton was already attached to the ground by 4' long rebar bent into "U" shapes and pounded into the ground - one at each corner on the long sides. One small window in the back, and two large vent window on each side at the bottom. Need to get some regulators for them yet.
The frame wasn't set on perfectly level ground, but when I framed it with wood, I leveled everything, so there was some misalignments

and inside - I've brought the micros out to get some sun

Some micros from seed from Dan Follett

And a few shots of a couple fruits from those above.

and then a couple non-DF micros. Jochalos on the left, and Andrina on the right. Andrina has been hard to figure the nutes out on. Both of these are planted in Fox Farm Ocean Forest and Andrina immediately responded by going purple/bronze. I'm thinking it might have been a little too "hot" for that cultivar.

jtjmartin · January 31, 2020

Looking very good!

The bug just starting biting me today. When will you start to sow your indeterminate tomatoes and peppers?

Jeff

SeanInVa · February 2, 2020

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

Looking very good!

The bug just starting biting me today. When will you start to sow your indeterminate tomatoes and peppers?

Jeff

Hey Jeff - thanks!

I have historically started those around mid February. I usually plant right around April 15th for the first round. There are some folks in the area that won't plant until ~May 15 or so.

Tomorrow I plan to work on sowing some brassicas and lettuce.

MissS · February 3, 2020

Those plants look great and right at home out there enjoying the sun. Imagine, fresh tomatoes in February.

jtjmartin · February 13, 2020

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanInVa

Hey Jeff - thanks!

I have historically started those around mid February. I usually plant right around April 15th for the first round. There are some folks in the area that won't plant until ~May 15 or so.

Tomorrow I plan to work on sowing some brassicas and lettuce.

It's mid-February - seed sowing beginning!

Jeff

February 3, 2020	#38
MissS Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin Posts: 3,149	Those plants look great and right at home out there enjoying the sun. Imagine, fresh tomatoes in February. __________________ ~ Patti ~

July 29, 2019	#31
jtjmartin Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2016 Location: Williamsburg VA Zone 7b Posts: 1,110	Oh, no! Not a good sight to see! Gloucester is a beautiful area. I'm up for work every month or so. You used to have the cheapest gas prices around but lately they seem to be about average? Jeff

October 18, 2019	#33
SeanInVa Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Gloucester, Virginia Posts: 90	Fall dropped in quite promptly after a very long, dry, hot summer. We got our first substantial rain this week of about 1-1.5 inches, after nearly two months with very little. It certainly helped kick start a few things around here! Tomatoes are about done, but some are still hanging in there. I'm still pulling a couple small Mortgage Lifters, several 4th of July and Gardener's Delights as well. The Pineapple seems to have really gained a second life through the less humid weeks. ML about done, but Pineapple keeps going and going. I've just let these go at this point Peppers always seems to really kick into overdrive towards the end of summer, and the one Habanda and one sweet banana is covered in fruit. In our raised bed, I've cleaned it up and added some fresh rabbit manure and then seeded with carrots, kale and radish along with a few cabbage and spinach starts. I've had to start over multiple times because a couple especially adventurous chickens found there way in and proceeded to roto-till the box a few different times. I myself got adventurous this year and bought a flame torch and flame-weeded around the cleared out tomato plots. Unfortunately, I think I zapped some roots of a blueberry bush as one side has now turned all its leaves. That'll teach me to go flame-throwin' around pine needles! Potatoes were a total waste of effort this year. I emptied most of the bags out into one of the three tomato plots as "soil" and threw down some timothy seed to grow some hay for our rabbits. Next to those, I spread what compost we had in the bin on the other two tomato plots and seeded with rye and lightly mulched with (sort-of-shredded) leaves. All three beds are now sprouting after a week and the heavy rain we had mid-week. Over near the lasagna bed where I had the squash and a couple tomatoes, I had extended it some with a tarp and then put down some compost and leaves and seeded some cereal rye for a cover. I am keeping the main plot in production for now with some cabbage, broccoli and spinach. Speaking of Rye, Since I bought a bushel of seed, I started messing with sprouting it for fodder. Man this stuff draws flies and fruit flies/gnats As I slowly build out our little hobby "farm" here, I went ahead and setup some chicken-wire bins to hold mulch/compost materials so I can work on composting over the winter One bin for grass clippings, one for pine needles one for leaves, and little one for leaves that I started with We have 4 50-60 year old Maple trees on the property, so I just ran the leaves over with our otherwise-worthless electric mower w/bag and hauled them over to the bin. I've already plundered half of the leaf bin And finally, I went hog-wild and ordered a ton of various micro seeds from Bunny Hop Seeds. I started a few for testing this winter, including: Venus Jochalos Monetka Yellow Balcony Andrina and saved seed from the summer grow of Red Robins The little silver things all over the place are the plastic squares from my greenhouse dry-rotting out and falling everywhere I am now looking at options to build bigger-and-better this winter. I'm debating between a boot-strap style hoop house, or picking up the Harbor Freight 10x12 greenhouse.

December 15, 2019	#34
SeanInVa Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Gloucester, Virginia Posts: 90	Pre-winter update The greenhouse barely lasted the summer season. One half of its cover has deteriorated as mentioned in the prior post. While that is disappointing, I have ordered a small bit of 6mil 4 year plastic, enough to recover the whole thing. The price my wife paid for the greenhouse on clearance was worth it, and the frame is still solid. I expect this one, with the new cover, will easily last the next few years. I have also purchased another el-cheapo greenhouse, this time from Amazon. It's a 10x26 and I assume the cover it comes with will also likely rot out by this time next year. But for the price, I looked at it as a frame investment much like the first has ended up being. I will likely have to re-cover it next year, but for the price of it + the plastic I will have to buy, I will have a 10x26 "hoophouse" for a quarter of the price of anything else I could have done of that size, save for perhaps a cattle-panel hoophouse. Also picked up some heavy duty 1020s, and some heavy duty 50-cell inserts from a greenhouse supply store As for what's going this season - not a whole lot outdoors. I got a late start at what is there, and I think I'll end up harvesting much of it before it's done since we're now in December. The rabbits will enjoy most of it. Here we have some lettuce, and baby kale and a few radishes past their prime at the top right corner. Things are clustered and all over the place because the chickens kept breaking in and tilling everything up right after I sowed seeds! Pesky birds! 2 cabbages and 2 spinach and a lot of weeds. Here is the lasagna plot. In the foreground is winter rye, followed behind that is some cabbage that never really got to grow much before frost hit, and behind that is some broccoli that also didn't get to start heading before frost. If nothing else, the leaves make great rabbit treats. I put up a make-shift fence around this by driving tomato stakes (both metal/plastic and bamboo) into the ground and using some bird netting woven onto the sticks. It has worked to keep the chickens out thus far Had this 30x15 tarp, and figured I would use it to prepare some more space for next year via occultation. I have also ordered some "silage tarps" that I've not unboxed yet. I decided to go with 30x32. That gives me 28' of row length with 1' on either side, with 30" of row width with 9" walk space on either side, resulting in 18" walkways between beds. While the rows aren't long, when I mash the full plots together, I get 2' of space to pull a cart through and they are a good size to fit where we have open space to grow. I am hoping to work towards a market garden over the next several years, so being able to start a couple new plots each year works well. The Timothy grass hasn't grown a whole lot yet - I'm hoping it will be fine through the winter. I also could have sown a bit heavier it seems The two tomato plots from last season now covered with winter rye. I don't like how wide my paths are here (5 feet) so I might grow these plots out width-wise next season And now for the indoors stuff. I started working on two lines from Dan Follet along with growing a couple micros I purchased from Bunny Hop. I already had some LED lights in tents that have that purple color. I found a high-bay led light at Homedepot for $100 that has been working great for seeds and early growth. Started with two trays - I only planted one seed per cell And now have four trays here, and 8 more in a tent in square pots. These are all in 4" azalea pots Notice that one tray that is lighter green? They were transplanted at the same time as two others in that shot above, but this one was in a tent with one of the purple LEDs, and I had given them a small dose of liquid fertilizer. The result is they have grown more than the others, but are showing signs of deficiency as well. The other three trays have remained under the high-bay LED I mentioned above, and have had no additional fertilizer. I've moved them back here for now as I'm not sure if it was the light, or the fertilizer that is hurting them (maybe both) Contrasted to this tray, which looks a bit healthier, if smaller This is a Jochalos micro, in a nursery pot. It has been living in one of the tents with a purple LED And just a couple close shots of two other micros as I was playing with the new phone

January 28, 2020	#35
SeanInVa Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Gloucester, Virginia Posts: 90	Micros are progressing nicely. They are in my garage, and it's only insulated on one side, so I've been battling some cold temps lately. I'm also working out the proper nutrient levels so there has been some deficiencies as you can see. I've redone the mini-greenhouse. It's fairly solid now. Still under a bit of construction (adding shelves, and need to clip the tails off the wire ties). I used some 6 mil 4-year greenhouse poly, and added some wood for framing. The metal skeleton was already attached to the ground by 4' long rebar bent into "U" shapes and pounded into the ground - one at each corner on the long sides. One small window in the back, and two large vent window on each side at the bottom. Need to get some regulators for them yet. The frame wasn't set on perfectly level ground, but when I framed it with wood, I leveled everything, so there was some misalignments and inside - I've brought the micros out to get some sun Some micros from seed from Dan Follett And a few shots of a couple fruits from those above. and then a couple non-DF micros. Jochalos on the left, and Andrina on the right. Andrina has been hard to figure the nutes out on. Both of these are planted in Fox Farm Ocean Forest and Andrina immediately responded by going purple/bronze. I'm thinking it might have been a little too "hot" for that cultivar.

January 31, 2020	#36
jtjmartin Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2016 Location: Williamsburg VA Zone 7b Posts: 1,110	Looking very good! The bug just starting biting me today. When will you start to sow your indeterminate tomatoes and peppers? Jeff