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

[Tormato]

So, you have your eye on a blueberry that grows 3-4' tall and has wild blueberry flavor. Northland?

If you get serious about blueberries, prepping the soil in the fall, before planting in the spring, is recommended. And, if you would like a plant or two (generally two are needed for pollination), let me know.

Gary

[OmahaJB]

Gary,

The blueberry variety I'm considering planting is indeed Northland. The description in Jung Seeds' catalog sounds very...delicious! Wasn't able to buy it when I wanted to, so will wait until next spring. Like the fact it's so productive. Their blurb says it can yield over 20 pounds! Not bad for a shorter variety than some of the others.

And thanks much for the offer on the plants and for the advice. I'll prep the soil this fall, then next spring I'll be more than willing to buy a couple off you, including shipping.

Now for a short update on my garden. Yesterday I couldn't resist buying a couple tomato plants at HD. One I think was named La Roma, but may have just been Roma, and the other was Pink Girl. I really wanted to find either a couple Opalka or Martino's Roma, but it's kind of late for that. Pink Girl I bought mainly because I don't like Big Beef or Big Boy, and wanted to try another hybrid that has at least a little size. Supposedly Pink Girl gets to about 8 oz..

Another plant was dug up by presumably a squirrel. Will have to check my diagram later to see which one. The neighbor feeds the squirrels peanuts in their shells. The Squirrels find it easy to bury the peanuts in my garden soil. When they get hungry they start searching out their buried treasures. I have to do something about this. Will have to check on different ways to do so short of buying a BB gun. Also had a tomato seedling in a grow bag chomped down to the stem. Everything above it was gone.

Should start seeing peppers, eggplant and tomatoes growing soon. All have or had flowers bloom. The eggplant should definitely have something growing soon.

One of the two Alpine plants has tiny strawberries growing.

Still can't get over how well the Amish Pie squash and Cream of Saskatchewan vines are growing. Didn't expect good results based on last year's failure of any of the directly sowed seeds to germinate, or of the seed started indoors to survive after transplanting. Remarkable difference this year. Although Charantais was the one uprooted by the squirrel this past week, so that's gone.

The 2 daylily transplants are not doing well. Some of the leaves are getting brown. Hoping they don't keel over.

Another month the garlic should be ready to dig up. Reminds me, I need to check the Cookbook section for good chili recipes. Have to start using last year's garlic for something! I'm not much of a garlic consumer but love growing it. About a month ago I watched Jacques Pepin use a couple cloves to mix in while making potato pancakes. That's something I want to try making also. His is the only cooking show I've watched on PBS that I think, "Hey, I'd probably like that." . The other cooks get too exotic with their recipes for my taste.

Still thinking of that Giant Marconi seedling I left at HD. Couldn't buy everything I guess. I have plenty of pepper plants going, but have wanted to grow that one for a couple of years. The GM seedlings they had were probably around 18" tall like most of the ones they have left now for peppers and tomatoes. But $4.98 was a little too much for my taste since I was buying a couple others for about a dollar less each.

Until my next garden visit....

[Tormato]

Twenty punds from a "half-high" blueberry variety seems like a stretttttttttttch. Average harvests for other half-highs is about 3-7 lbs. My Northland probably has the most branching of all of my plants, so more than 7 lbs is quite possible.

The Pure and Simple x Darla Anita daylily flowered on Sunday.

Gary

[OmahaJB]

Originally Posted by Tormato

Twenty punds from a "half-high" blueberry variety seems like a stretttttttttttch. Average harvests for other half-highs is about 3-7 lbs. My Northland probably has the most branching of all of my plants, so more than 7 lbs is quite possible.

The Pure and Simple x Darla Anita daylily flowered on Sunday.

Gary

Hah...you know I have to ask...colors of the flower? And is it of good size? When I bought the seeds I was warned that the colors could be a disappointment, and I read somewhere the size of the flowers are often smaller than the parents' flowers. I tried buying crosses where both sides of the cross had good sized flowers, but that may not matter. Hoping to see flowers here as well, but haven't seen a hint of a flower bud on any of them.

[OmahaJB]

This morning I weeded the garden, and put cages in for some of the tomato plants, and bamboo in for the others that needed it. Not much to report except to say most everything is doing well. A few tomato plants are slow growers still. I did use fertilizer a couple days ago so maybe that'll spark them a bit.

Squirrels are still being pests looking for their peanuts they buried in my garden area. Think I'll buy some of that material people have mentioned you can get at craft stores. Only thing I can do is cover the plants or by a BB gun. And the neighbors would surely call 911 if I start shooting up the neighborhood. And trapping them only to release them in someone else's neighborhood wouldn't be the nicest thing to do.

Have had many leaves on my eggplant and pepper plants chewed on. Today we found a couple dark colored pests on the top of one of the eggplant leaves near one of the blossoms. They were maybe a quarter inch long, and huddled very close together. No idea what they are but I will finally need to buy some type insect poison to put on the leaves.

Good news is one of my daylillies is budding. Will keep an eye out for the flowers.

That's about it. Hoping to see fruitset soon on several plants.

[Tormato]

Jeff,

PS x DA has burgundy petals with a yellow throat, and a small area of dark burgundy in between. The petals have kind of a watercolor "wash" to them. Since I don't have any other flowers this color, I'm not disappointed in them.

Several of my blueberry varieties started ripening over the weekend. This is much earlier than the past couple of years. I'm not complaining.

Gary

[OmahaJB]

Gary,

Sounds like an interesting looking daylily flower. I was hoping some of these would have good color patterns. But with crosses I know you can always be disappointed. How would you classify the flower size? Small, medium, large? And are the edges ruffled or whatever they call it?

Still waiting for my first buds to open up. There are two or three on the one daylily, and it seems it might have some white or light yellow in it, judging by the inside edge where the bud seems to want to open. It sure is growing larger than I thought it would at first. Originally looked like it'd be a fairly small flower, now I'd say at least a medium sized one.

Glad I bought those seeds on that auction site. It's kind of nice having something besides edibles.

On a sidenote, visited the garden today since we had storms very early this morning. Had to build the soil back up around a couple of the plants that were practically laying down. Also noticed the base of the vines of the Musquee de Provence seem to have been eaten away on the top side. The bottom side wasn't touched apparently. Don't know if this would have been caused by a vine borer, or if it's another insect, or what?? Funny, the Amish Pie just a few feet away hasn't been touched. I did notice some red ants close by running around like mad.

Everything else, copacetic for now....

[OmahaJB]

Another storm last night. Two more tomato plants needed to be righted and propped up with soil.

Musquee de Provence is being destroyed around the stem leading farther up. Vine borers no doubt. Worried my Amish Pie will be next. Will do some reading on how best to handle them. May even need to pull the plant. Will do something about this Saturday.

Good news: Troyka which is in a growbag has 3 peppers growing, and another pepper plant has 1. Also saw one or two Roma types growing.

Amish Pie has some huge flowers about to open. Two or three. Should see fruitset on my project dwarf plant soon. A few flowers on it now. Actually gave quite a few flowers on pretty much everything. Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, melons, and squash. Still waiting on the daylilly flowers to open. Should be very very soon.

Another positive is the Stump/Guido cross is still alive. Honestly thought it had less than 5% chance of surviving in the ground since it was so tiny yet. The stem is thickening somewhat but it has a long way to go. If I can just get at least one tomato from it!

Realized today I had planted 3 'Not' Emma Pink seedlings, and one is doing very well, the 2nd 'ok', and the 3rd a little behind at this point in the season. Thought I only had two but was happy to have the 3rd. Increases the odds of getting something close to what I had last year, as in something outstanding.

Good start to the season so far...

[OmahaJB]

Seven, yes seven, peppers were on my Troyka plant. It's the only pepper plant in a grow bag. The next best pepper plant has one pepper so far. Although most everything in the garden is flowering like crazy.

The two eggplant plants each have 1 growing with plenty of flowers as well. They are also in 5 gallon growbags.

The 4th plant in a growbag is La Roma which has 5 tomatoes on it so far.

So for me at least, container gardening is a winner, which also means I need to do much better improving my garden soil for in-ground plants.

Don't think I mentioned this plant by name, but the one that was chomped down to the stump, that was replaced by La Roma in the grow bag, was Pattiewhacker. The only one I had. So if you read this Patty, I'll unfortunately not have results to report for that cross. Maybe next year.

I'm allowing my Musquee de Provence go for now. I've posted alot concerned it might have squash vine borer issues, but I'm not convinced that's what caused the damage yet. I've seen no problems with the plant other than the stem damage and the fact the vine is not as prolific as Amish Pie, which may be normal, I don't know. Will watch it's progress. It is growing buds, but the flowers are not close to opening yet.

Amish Pie is pretty much a monster considering how little space I gave it. To be honest I had no success last year with melons or squash/pumpkins, that I didn't think they'd survive. AP has very large flowers which is neat, but they sure do take a long time to open.

Garlic greenery is looking bad. Hoping it means alot of energy is being put into bulb development. Don't remember them looking this way the last two years.

Daylily flowers on the one plant will open very soon. Thought it would be open before today, however it's just about to start. Still think it'll be a lighter color around the edges.

Cream of Saskatchewan has alot of flowers but none have closed yet that I've noticed, so no possibility of melons yet.

Cheering the Guido/Stump cross on. I planted seedlings in May bigger than this is right now. Am very pleased it didn't die off and is getting stronger and slowly bigger. If I can get at least one tomato from it, it'll be a success.

Considering trying to grow Delikatessa cucumber from seed at this late date. The one I planted did not survive for some reason. My guess is when a squirrel was searching for his buried peanuts he destroyed that plant and my small Charantais vine. I did see an empty shell close by when the plants mysteriously disappeared. Anyway, it wouldn't hurt to try. It was my only cucumber planted.

In another thread I noticed Armenian mentioned. Actually a melon but used like a cucumber. Will give that a try next year if I have a garden.

Another thing I want to grow is Delicata squash. Seems the perfect size for cooking and the posts about it in another forum are good. I googled pics of some of the ones mentioned and that stood out as perfect size to cook as part of a meal. The Amish Pie I'm growing will be alot of squash if it grows out ok. Will have to freeze some probably.

Now....Good day!