Anne's 2015 Nor-Cal plant-out

[aclum]

Hi,

After finally getting the garden area cleaned up and prepped for spring, I got my first transplants into the ground today. Last year I planted out on March 15 and was beset with problems during the season. I'm hoping this year that St Patrick's Day will be a bit more auspicious a plant out date than the Ides of March were last year .

Here's what I planted out today - 9 plants in each 16' long row and some grafted onto Estamino (E) or RST-04-105-T (105) rootstock as indicated:

Row 1

Santa Clara Canner / E
Crnkovic Yugoslavian / E
BKX / 105
Goose Creek / 105
Margaret Curtain / E
African Queen / E
JD's Special-C Tex / 105
Daniels / 105
Gary'O Sena / 105

Row 2

Purple Dog Creek
Wes
Dana's Dusky Rose / E
German Red Strawberry
Russian 117 / 105
Lee's Sweet
Wolford's Wonder
German Johnson / E
Work Release Paste / E

Row 3

Bradley / E
Carbon / E
KBX / E
Red Barn / E
Sweet Linda / E
Virginia Sweets
Eva Purple Ball
Eva Purple Ball / E
Eva Purple Ball / Yorkbec

Elsewhere in the Garden

Bush Early Girl
Yorkbec

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be planting at least 24 more varieties (13 of them grafted). I'll post the names when I actually get them in the ground.

Hope I can keep up with things and stay ahead of the spider mites, etc. this year! Right now the weather is absolutely gorgeous for planting - just hope we don't have too horribly hot a summer with any water restrictions affecting the veggie gardens.

Anne

[JamesL]

Anne,
That is a great list! And Congrats on a good day planting.
Hope you get great results and I am looking forward to your reviews on a few of your combinations.

[rnewste]

Anne,

Great list! You should have some nice ones this year.

I just returned home from our 26 day East Coast trip, and my seedlings are about 15" tall. Got to change out the potting mix in the EarthTainers now, then get these guys outdoor ASAP. Looks like you and Virtex will have the first ripe tomatoes in California this year.

Raybo

[aclum]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the comments! Hoping for good things this year. A lot of the varieties are repeats from last year that I was never able to harvest due to disease issues, etc. My second major batch of plant-outs waiting in the wings are now only about 3" tall - so I'm guessing another 2 weeks before those can go out.

Raybo,

I'm surprised I got planted out before you this year - think it might be a first LOL! I'm sure you would have beaten me if not for your travel. I think maybe Delerium's going to be the first one with ripe tomatoes for Nor-Cal this year. He's had tomatoes in the ground for a while now. And I seem to recall that Virtex might be from So Cal (but not positive).

Hard to believe this weather. It feels like I'm really behind in my planting although, aside from last year, this is the earliest I've planted out. Along with the unusually warm winter/spring, we haven't had the usual heavy tule fog or fierce spring winds in our area. First few years here, the wind was so bad I had to protect the plants with windbreaks. Very odd....should be an interesting year ahead in the garden!

Good luck getting your earthboxes set up. Looking forward to updates with photos.

BTW, hope to have a Dona F1 in my next batch of plant outs .

Anne

[flyfiishn]

Great stuff,

I am probably still a good 3 weeks out from planting here in Lodi.

I planted first week of April 2 years ago and we got a cold spell and the plants weren't too happy about it. I have since shot for tax day as a good plant date but this year I know my soil is warm enough to handle it with the early heat units. Its supposed to hit 81 degrees here by 3pm today.

[Delerium]

I got my plants in the ground maybe end of Feb and most of them are flowering and the temps have been perfect for tomato set. Plants look great so far.

[aclum]

Hi,

Just finished planting out:

Row 4 (10 plants)

Mikado Pink
Brad's Black Oxheart
Cowlick's Brandywine
Malachite Box / E
Dixiewine
Lucky Cross / E
Red Penna / E
Dester / E
Spudakee / E
Barlow Japanese

It's only noon here and already getting a bit warm for me out in the garden! I'm going to try and get in another row later this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

Raybo and Delerium,

Once again, you're both going to beat me on the ripe fruit this year - but I did see one blossom opening on my Yorkbec. Alas, I don't have high hopes for the flavor on this one and am mainly growing it as an experiment for an early variety and also seeing how it might hold up to our heat. And they were Free seeds with an order. For some reason I feel obligated to at least try any free seeds I get from vendors (if I can make room in the garden). It's a mixed blessing .
Anne

[Heritage]

Anne,

An inspirational list! Good fortune with your war against pests and diseases in 2015

Steve

[aclum]

Hi Steve,

(Belated) thanks for the good wishes! Knock on wood, but so far things have been chugging along with no problems.

Last year, as you might recall, I had early problems with possible virus or herbicide damage, over or under fertilization, russet and/or spider mites infestations, and plants lost to cutworms.

This year, the gardeners and close neighbors know not to use any herbicides, I've got bamboo skewers protecting my plant stems from cutworms, and think I've more or less got the fertilizer thing worked out. Probably because I'm starting out with healthier seedlings for transplants I haven't had any early mite problems. I'm hoping to avoid (or at least lessen) the onslaught of thrips, aphids, and whiteflies in the garden this year with yellow and blue sticky cards and reflective silver mulch.

Not sure what preventative methods I can use for mites, but I happen to have a heavy weed block / underlayment material on the paths this year that (along with the silver mulch in the raised beds) might help to hold down the dust and subsequent spread of mites. I put down the weed block material to make navigating the garden in my wheelchair easier - esp after rains. If it does help to suppress mites that will just be a happy coincidence . (So far the weed block fabric is holing up really well but I expect I'll have to modify the paths when we get into the heat of summer - but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it).

Anyway... will sign off for now from this post and write another with the list of plants I put out today.

Anne

[aclum]

Hi Again,

I got the final group (for now) of transplants into the garden today (4-3-15).

Row 5 (reserved for future grafts - probably on LA1777 rootstock)

Row 6

(artichoke plant)
LA1777
Fish Lake Oxheart / E
Aunt Ginny's Purple / E
Donskoi
Captain Lucky / E
Anna Russian

Row 7

Mule Team
Big Rainbow / E
Bear Creek
Blush
Brandywine, Sudduth's
Dona F1
Absinthe / E
Virginia Sweets / E
Purple Bumble Bee / E

My first transplants are starting to flower now and I'll start doing a bit of pruning this weekend.

Anne

[aclum]

Hi Again,

I'm back.... this time with some photos .

Since seemingly conquering whatever snail, earwig, or worm problems I had early on (as noted in a disease and pest forum post), things have been progressing nicely in the garden. I thought I'd better get some photos posted before things start getting too out of control (as they tend to do - in one way or another)!

I've done just a bit of pruning and you can sort of still make out the individual plants in a group shot. Not a lot of detail, but can get a good idea of the overall garden and zoom in on things if you want a closer look. We've been having fabulous growing weather and I expect that it won't be long now before I'll have to start doing some serious pruning to 2 or 3 stems and start clipping the vines to the drop lines.

In the order I uploaded them, the photos they are of:

row 1 starting from the Santa Clara Canner end
row 2 starting from the Work Release Paste end
row 3 starting from Bradley end
row 4 starting with Mikado Pink in the foreground and rows 3-1 in the background
Goose Creek Close-up with baby tomatoes
Interesting "stem" on megabloom on German Red Strawberry
Yorkbec (l) and Bush Early Girl (r) amongst the Collards, Kale, and Chard

I'll have some photos of the remaining 3 rows after the plants get a little bigger.

Anne

[rnewste]

Anne,

They all look wonderful

Raybo

[AZGardener]

Beautiful garden! Gosh..To have a garden that size... Thanks for sharing!

[b54red]

Everything looks great so far. Wouldn't it be nice if it could last?

Bill

[efisakov]

Very nice, Anne. Great set up.
What is that purple stem in the back?