How's your weather . .. 2018

[mskrieger]

Spring arrived yesterday, weather in the 60s. A couple volunteer sunflowers have sprouted, as well as sweet peas and Irish bells in my daughter's cutting garden, but no vegetables.

Sure felt good to lay in the sun after digging a bed, though.

[philagardener]

Some of my overwintered in-the-ground potatoes popped up this weekend. Maybe winter really is done!

[steev]

Last week's farm temps: 32F/80F; that's what kills stuff for me; there had clearly come a cold wind, maybe Tuesday night, which fried all the tender grape sprouts; they're re-sprouting, but there's a loss of weeks and vigor (loss of product); this could happen again, as it has before, resulting in almost no fruit. I've lost several persimmons and walnuts to this whipsaw.

[richardw]

Now in to frost season here, had three mornings of down to -2degC which has fried all the frost tender vegs but hasn't quite killed off the Cape gooseberry yet. One thing did surprise me though, i was told that stevia was frost tender but I've learnt instead its its more frost tolerate. It will be put into the tunnelhouse today, no point killing it by leaving it out, the harder winter frosts would kill it anyway.

[reed]

Over 48 hours of non-stop, dreary, drizzly rain here, I'm about tired of it. All my tomatoes and other seedlings, even the sweet potato seedlings are getting leggy, everything needs some sunshine, including me.

[walt]

Sunshine!  I remember it well.

Much needed rain here, though not enough.  But it was soft and all soaked in.

Severe storms predicted next week.

[richardw]

Another light frost this morning, but these lovely sunny warm days make up for the gales of last week.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Warm and sunny! Yestrday i risked moving the large tomatoes outside, which consisted of the VERY LARGE F2 pennellii hybrid, an 'Anasazi' plant sprouted and growing hydroponically, and a full size LA1996 plant (and also a Nearly spineless cactus from texas). Night temps predicted down to 36F last night but the rest of the week is above 40F. Everything survived! Yay! now it's tomato planting time to start the other tomatoes i need to grow. But it's good to have them outside. Need to transplant the pennellii soon. and give it a much needed haircut. Maybe i'll take a before and after pic lol.

The pennellii has flowers on it, wonder if it will attract early spring blumble bees, unless those appear later in the season (i don't know much about bumblebee life cycles). All i know is there are two types of honey bees out. The typical light colored ones from Europe, and a darker version that i like much better, at least when it comes to honey bees. Though i wouldn't care if all bumble bees died from CCD as i much prefer trying to help and save the native bees. Honey is over rated anyway. Maple Syrup is a good alternative.

I also have a new larger hydroponic bucket thing. Plan to plant tomato seeds in it and sprout the tomatoes like i have been inside, outside. Maybe i'll take a pic sometime if anyone has any interest.

[steev]

Will you try to root the cuttings from the pennellii?

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

No, but I did try before, and it does work a little bit. Compared to the other wild tomatoes they all are harder to root cuttings from compared to domestic tomatoes. Perhaps that was one critical trait that was the result of domestication and was either selected for or just a natural result.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Apr 28, 2018 2:00:25 GMT -5 keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) said:

Compared to the other wild tomatoes they all are harder to root cuttings from compared to domestic tomatoes. Perhaps that was one critical trait that was the result of domestication and was either selected for or just a natural result.

I speculate that because domestic tomatoes are often grown from transplants, that there is a survival advantage from being able to easily send additional roots out along the stem.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

79 here today. Frantically trying to plant seeds for all the tomatoes I can. Found 3 more that I had requested that sounded interesting. 1.speckled white. 2. Prolific leaves 3. High sucrose in fruit.

Planted seed for Magnus. Big Hill. cornulomerii x peruv., peruvianum, The Other line of F1 pennellii, chilense, F3 fern x habr., etc.

[mskrieger]

Came to the realization that I shouldn't plant any seeds in the open garden until the daffodils are in full bloom and the crabapple buds are showing pink. It's a surefire biological signal. Nothing sprouts before then, no matter what the calendar says.

Spring is more than a month behind here and everything is just sprouting now, all simultaneously, no matter how many weeks ago I actually planted it.

[steev]

Crappy light rain this weekend,the sort that barely gets to the ground and doesn't wet things.

[richardw]

Hate that sort of rain.

Beautiful autumn day here today, skies were so clear that it was only earths curvature that curbed being able to see mountains 100's of kms to the south, hey maybe the earth is not flat after all.