Reed's Garden Report(s)

[steev]

That Patience dock may not do much this year, but next year for sure; it's like spinach, not much fiber; it cooks up an ugly olive-drab; I don't like it raw, but it's tasty cooked and thickens like okra; one day I'll put it in a "lasagna". I'd have planted those less close, as the clumps will spread, and as I found on digging those, they become remarkably woody underground.

The tender cabbage "broccoli" is a primo veggie.

[reed]

The patience dock is doing great. One plant is just getting bigger, the other is bolting, I'm just letting them do as they please. the sunroots are about three feet tall and taller than the camouflage weeds. The cabbage "broccoli" is delicious, might be good cooked as well. Cabbage flowers are fantastic! I have a single Brussels sprout also flowering so if its so that they are exclusive out breeding, I have my first hybrid.  

Finally got a little break in the cool wet and spent last couple evenings putting out tomatoes, they are all a little tall and spindly from being crowed in the seed pots and lack of sun.  There is an exception to that last statement. Two plants in toomanyirons's "paste'' mix are about a third as tall as any others, much darker green with much thicker stems. One of them had three cotyledon leaves. Another one, not as strong and impressive as those two has a flattened stem and four cotyledon leaves. I haven't planted it yet but put those other two in a special spot to make sure they get good care. I really like that phenotype, anxious to see what kind of fruits they make. toomanyirons, Any observations or opinions on ones that grow like that? 

[reed]

toomanyirons, I'll definitely be keeping watch on these and posting some pictures. I didn't snap any the other night cause daylight was fading and it was starting to rain and I wanted to get them in the ground. And now I can't find my camera's USB cable.

I put in 5 of your paste mix (plus the two short fatties), 5 from one that grew last year from Joseph Lofthouse's seeds that I named Utah Heart, it has open flowers. 5 Ox Heart types from a tomato an old lady gave the people in the office next to mine (supposed to be a local heirloom) and 10 PPR (Particularly Productive Rutgers), it showed up a few years ago with a more determinate habit and better production than the other Rutgers and came true the next year. It's been our primary processing tomato. I'm de-hybridizing a disease resistant one we liked called Plum Regal and still need to get them planted. I think it has potential to a good one to sun dry and I want to learn that technique. That takes care of the canning / juice / sauce patch. 

In another patch is a couple of toomanyirons's big yellow, I forget what they were called. Another open flower from Joseph I named Utah Red Bottom, Joseph's XH-9 Pineapple, Cherokee Purple and some more de-hybridizing disease resistant ones. 

Last patch is a random mix of current and what I believe to be current crosses. I have them currently quarantined from the others cause in seedling stage they always get some kind of leaf spot disease and this year's weather has made it particularly bad. They generally recover when warmer dryer weather arrives and it rarely affects other plants in the seed bed plus I cull any that it does. It doesn't seem to hurt them much at all but makes them ugly and unsalable as plants. But, like I said it goes away and I have found that although they  grow into huge vines you can sort of bonsai them in small to medium pots and they still produce abundantly.. In full bloom and loaded with ripe and ripening fruits they sell like the proverbial hot cakes.

Crap, it's cool and raining again, so probably won't be able to finish up today. 

[reed]

Well, I wish I had more fun stuff to report but my garden is behind this year due to cold wet weather. I tilled under the field corn planted back in early summer (aka early April) and replanted. Will do the same with sweet corn as soon as possible except there are some plants I will till around or transplant. Brassicas, onions, garlic, radish, lettuce and the like are doing well. Here is broccoli, cabbage and Chinese cabbage. Top right is some garlic I found dried up in the shed last fall, can't believe it grew. Bottom left but you can't see it in the picture are three little TGS plants from kazedwards. In the big pot are sweet potato slips and a ornamental. 



 

My peas that ferdzy sent me are doing well, they have topped a four foot fence and have beautiful flowers.


I'll have to come back later, I think supper is about ready. 

[farmermike]

reed, why till under the corn? Wouldn't it start growing again once your weather finally warms up?
Also, wouldn't it be a good chance to select for plants that tolerate cold, wet weather? I guess you would need a large enough surviving population to get good pollination though.

I hope you didn't lose all you best corn seed.

[reed]

It was in the borrowed garden across the road that I used for the first time last year and has lots of annual and perennial grass weeds including Johnson grass. Some corn plants were turning yellow from too much water and almost none was growing, highs in the 40 s and 50 s just wasn't getting it for corn, especially with few sunny days. There probably were a few plants that might have been saved but without having time or good weather to hoe and care for it it was just an overgrown mess. Last year things fell in place just right over there weather wise and all I had to do was hoe a couple times and the corn took over and crowded the weeds out. I have plenty of back up seeds and planting a month earlier than I ever did before I half way expected having to start over.

Sweet corn is in one of my gardens with much less weeds so has only suffered from the cool wet weather so I will be saving probably a 1/4 or so of it. It may not tassel with the replanted patch but I should be able to save the genetics for tolerance to cold, cloudy weather.

[steev]

Reed: FarmerMike is interested because he's in San Francisco; as Sam Clemens said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco!".

[reed]

Finally some planting weather. Got about half of the beans in. NT 1/2 runners cause the woman wants to can them. Nice big row of runners, mostly from my own seeds, my likely runner / common cross, my likely Ideal Market / KY Wonder cross. Nice big row of my new favorite Ohio Pole! Planted another small patch of corn, a mix of four different homozygous SE types with a row of my AD, Anasazi and couple others from last year mixed in. I'll detassel some of that row for seed and eat the rest.

Went ahead and planted my TSPS plants, weather has turned back to high 80s so I think it's warm enough. Pulled and wrapped up a whole bunch of tomato plants to supply the people I work with. Saved back a few, just in case, and pitched a bunch. I always hate doing that but they were so leggy from the cold wet spell I don't want to mess with taking them to the market. They are probably sill better then those little square rooted hot house things but the average customer doesn't know that and I ain't got time to educate. I sold a couple hundred at a swap meet a couple weeks ago for $1.00 apiece so did OK anyway. All the ones in the ground are perking up right nice with the stars, appearance wise being the ones that came up volunteer and survived mornings down to 24 F. Hope they make something nice.

Got the other garden mowed back off and tilled again so as long as weather cooperates I can keep planting. My primary sweet corn patch and landrace pole and bush beans go over there. Gonna dig up about twenty or so strong plants from the first planted corn patch and transplant into a little spot on the edge. Might have to help with hand pollinating but that's Ok. I think the ones that did better was mostly environmental, that garden is a little sloped and the rows higher up took the wet cold better.

My nutty idea of merging brassicas into a landrace type mix to fall plant is getting more and more encouraging. I have been eating the leaves, flowers and stems of cabbage and Brussels sprouts since before the last frost. they just keep making new flower stems as fast as I eat them. spring planted broccoli is ready to eat so if I let one go ahead and bolt I might be able to add broccoli into that mix too. That will be fun to plant those seeds this fall and see what I get next spring.

Spring planted carrots look great, I mixed the seed in a cup of compost per Carol Deppe's suggestion to make it easy to sow evenly and it worked great. Fall planted seed carrots are starting to send up flower stalks while pet Queen Ann's lace hasn't started yet. More and more confident that by removing later side umbels and saving just from the first central one I can easily avoid contamination.

Ferdzy's peas are wonderful. Full of blooms and little peas, hard to resist just eating them all but don't have many and have to save most for seed.

[steev]

My landlady is so frustrated because so much of what I grow is for seed, not consumption; don't know why her Protestant ethic of deferred pleasure doesn't kick in.

[reed]

I went out two mornings ago to see if I could find any corn plants to transplant out of a patch that I planted back on April 19. It was 85 F that day and before it came up the weather turned cold and wet and weeds took over. I wish I had taken a before picture cause when I started there were half doze or so plants visible but as I started pulling weeds I kept finding more. 



Ended up with right about a hundred plants. That last spot to the right was the wettest and least full so I transplanted them to fill in other places. I might even have to thin in the upper left corner but will hold off on that for now. This patch is from left over original seed, (trades and purchases) and includes 28 different kinds mostly in the 65 to 75 DTM range but some longer season like Stowell's Evergreen in there too. I think I might plant some F2 generation (PM x sweet) from last year in the empty part, it should be short enough season to maybe trade some pollen with the Stowell's and Silver Queen. 

Another patch of mostly my own seed from last year should go in today. 

[reed]

toomanyirons , funny you should ask. Until a little bit ago one patch was as overgrown as the corn, almost. I start my tomatoes in an unheated cold frame and this year put them in on March 26. Bad weather delayed planting and they were getting quite leggy when I put them out on May 11.  To transplant I just moisten them up and gently pull straight up and replant in their spot. Here is what some extras that didn't get planted look like now beside a one foot ruler.



They were not quite that leggy when planted but I probably buried average of six inches of stem when planting. so now they typically look like this.



Remember these plants had six inches of stem buried when planted and are now mostly just about a foot tall with a few slightly taller. That's one of Joseph's "Utah Red Bottom". 

The ones we are talking about are the exception, they were started on the same day, transplanted the same day and had almost none of their stems buried. One of them had a funny triangle of seed leaves, not just two, don't know if that means anything. 



Another interesting thing about them is that they had nice dark green color when all the others looked a little pale from cold cloudy weather. (sorry I don't think I got my scale exactly right in the combined picture) I love these strong stocky little plants, if they make a large tomato rather than a cherry I'll consider it hitting the jackpot. And even if they don't, I expect to keep growing and trying crosses with them just for fun if nothing else. 

Last here is my volunteers that came up in a pot full of compost that I was using to hold down some plastic. They are the ones that survived temperatures low twenty's and they are the biggest of all. I didn't buty any stem on them I just stuck the basically intact gob of compost they came up in tn the ground. 



One is normal, one is potato leaf. the F2 generation of one I'm de-hybridizing is like that too so I wonder if it is the same as them. 

Overall tomatoes are doing pretty well but still have about forty more to put out. They are both de-hybridizing experiments so I just crowd  twenty into a spot about a five by ten feet. 

If I was prone to typing cuss words I would do so in regards to our current weather. ..... ..... .. ......   ...... HOT. 

[steev]

Aw, Reed! If you use the same sign for every letter, it just makes decoding your frustration harder than Cuneiform (granted that's all triangles, but of different sizes and orientations).

[reed]

I was looking around at Lowe's the other day, I shop there occasionally for perennials that they have abused and then mark down in the sick plant section. I buy them up, nurse then back to health and then sell at flea markets and the like.

Anyway they had a tomato with the same phenotype, a hybrid called Bush Goliath that the tag said made bigger tomatoes. I considered but changed my mind on buying one, just couldn't get my fingers into my wallet to extract six bucks for a tomato plant. Maybe later when they have been sufficiently abused and neglected I can pick one up and pamper it into making some seeds.

[mskrieger]

May 30, 2016 21:41:53 GMT -5 steev said:

Aw, Reed! If you use the same sign for every letter, it just makes decoding your frustration harder than Cuneiform (granted that's all triangles, but of different sizes and orientations).

Don't be silly. I've been reading the Epic of Gilgamesh this week, which was originally written in cuneiform. Even translated into English, it's pretty obscure (perhaps 'delightfully weird' would be a better way to put it). Compared to Gilgamesh, reed's meaning's clear as day.

[steev]

I've a copy of that in the pump-house for hammock-fare.

Enkidu and Gilgamesh; the prototypes of Laurel and Hardy.