Gardening Diary...post 1
Seedlings: broccoli, lettuces (3) and spinach seeds sprouted on 6/18 (1 1/2 wks ago) and vary in length from 1 to 3 inches above soil. Sprouted in potting soil in a clear baking dish. Soil kept moist and dish kept on living room coffee table- warm, ambient daylight. I've gotta plant these soon but I need more compost.
Outside containers are watered with drip lines on a timer every MWF morning. The soil has compacted quite a bit since initial plantings (date unknown...I will have to investigate!) The result is that my 8" containers have max 6" of soil. Not great.
Tomato plants (Early Girl and Better Boy) began producing ripe fruit about 1 week ago and continue to have a fruit ready at least every 2 days. Early Girl fruit are from 1 to 1 1/2" in diameter and spherical. Better Boy's are more ridged and squat. Boy's fruit are more solid (without juicy seed sections), but even girl's fruits are not quite as hollow as the store bought crap.
My two good lettuces bolted a couple weeks ago due to heat waves, but I don't know which variety they were due to the fact that I planted them "artistically" instead of methodically. Come to think of it, I don't know which lettuces were numbers 1, 2, and 3 from the mix packet I sprouted on the 18th. I should take a picture of the sprouts so I know what they look like if I want to try a certain one again. I guess a camera might come in handy. I never ended up harvesting any leaves becaues they were still relatively small when they bolted.
This broccoli has never quite made it past the baby stage. I don't know whether to blame seasonal conditions, which are obviously not right, or my little green nemeses, the hungry little caterpillars. They really love the leaves. Chomp, chomp. I have not tried any pest repellant methods other than going out in the early morning to do search and destroy. The broccoli I planted last August did considerably better in comparison, apart from the fact that it only made one tiny "broccolo" which then flowered. Someone said they think I overwatered it....it did grow quite tall, with giant leaves. Are you supposed to underwater broccoli? At that time the drips were on every morning.
The spinach never made it big either (before it bolted); it was always tiny and shriveled. Something was out there eating everything, and I don't know whether it was *only* the green guys or something else as well.
The strawberry plant made one and one half strawberries before the heat. I haven't been in close enough lately to see if it is flowering or just sending out more leaves. The stems which might have had flowers are shriveled and brown. They might have been eaten. I've read stuff about cutworm but I don't know.
The squash has flowered and just produced one little squash, but before it fully developed, the flowering end started to rot. None of the other flowers are fruiting, even though I forcibly pollinated two of them. They just dry up and drop off. This squash plant is a pain in the ass...it has prickles EVERYWHERE. All over every leaf and stem.
The basil plant I bought on the 18th is repotted in a terra cotta pot. The pot sits on the front porch behind a pillar so that it never gets direct sun, but is in a very sunny and warm place. The leaves are doing much better than the one I tried to keep inside, though some of them have a bit of whitish speckling. A couple of smaller leaves from the bottom have yellowed and I think they dropped off, but I didn't take a good look.
I don't know whether the gnats which appear to be endemic to the potting soil I bought are good or bad. I'm not crazy about them flying around the living room, but that's not really hurting anything, is it? Are those little yellow liquid-filled balls from the potting soil some kind of gnat nest? Or fertilizer, or water absorption mechanism?
The heat wave we had, well, EXTREME heat wave with temps above 100, lasted for about a week and a half. I don't remember what it was like before that, as I generally live indoors during the day. For the past few days it has been in the 80s with cooling overnight. I suppose this info is availble online on Weather.com or something. I'll have to figure out how to get past weather data.
OK, enough! I will try to post again at least by next weekend. To do this week: buy compost and fill up the boxes, and plant the seedlings. I should probably tear out the old bolted spinach and lettuces too.
Outside containers are watered with drip lines on a timer every MWF morning. The soil has compacted quite a bit since initial plantings (date unknown...I will have to investigate!) The result is that my 8" containers have max 6" of soil. Not great.
Tomato plants (Early Girl and Better Boy) began producing ripe fruit about 1 week ago and continue to have a fruit ready at least every 2 days. Early Girl fruit are from 1 to 1 1/2" in diameter and spherical. Better Boy's are more ridged and squat. Boy's fruit are more solid (without juicy seed sections), but even girl's fruits are not quite as hollow as the store bought crap.
My two good lettuces bolted a couple weeks ago due to heat waves, but I don't know which variety they were due to the fact that I planted them "artistically" instead of methodically. Come to think of it, I don't know which lettuces were numbers 1, 2, and 3 from the mix packet I sprouted on the 18th. I should take a picture of the sprouts so I know what they look like if I want to try a certain one again. I guess a camera might come in handy. I never ended up harvesting any leaves becaues they were still relatively small when they bolted.
This broccoli has never quite made it past the baby stage. I don't know whether to blame seasonal conditions, which are obviously not right, or my little green nemeses, the hungry little caterpillars. They really love the leaves. Chomp, chomp. I have not tried any pest repellant methods other than going out in the early morning to do search and destroy. The broccoli I planted last August did considerably better in comparison, apart from the fact that it only made one tiny "broccolo" which then flowered. Someone said they think I overwatered it....it did grow quite tall, with giant leaves. Are you supposed to underwater broccoli? At that time the drips were on every morning.
The spinach never made it big either (before it bolted); it was always tiny and shriveled. Something was out there eating everything, and I don't know whether it was *only* the green guys or something else as well.
The strawberry plant made one and one half strawberries before the heat. I haven't been in close enough lately to see if it is flowering or just sending out more leaves. The stems which might have had flowers are shriveled and brown. They might have been eaten. I've read stuff about cutworm but I don't know.
The squash has flowered and just produced one little squash, but before it fully developed, the flowering end started to rot. None of the other flowers are fruiting, even though I forcibly pollinated two of them. They just dry up and drop off. This squash plant is a pain in the ass...it has prickles EVERYWHERE. All over every leaf and stem.
The basil plant I bought on the 18th is repotted in a terra cotta pot. The pot sits on the front porch behind a pillar so that it never gets direct sun, but is in a very sunny and warm place. The leaves are doing much better than the one I tried to keep inside, though some of them have a bit of whitish speckling. A couple of smaller leaves from the bottom have yellowed and I think they dropped off, but I didn't take a good look.
I don't know whether the gnats which appear to be endemic to the potting soil I bought are good or bad. I'm not crazy about them flying around the living room, but that's not really hurting anything, is it? Are those little yellow liquid-filled balls from the potting soil some kind of gnat nest? Or fertilizer, or water absorption mechanism?
The heat wave we had, well, EXTREME heat wave with temps above 100, lasted for about a week and a half. I don't remember what it was like before that, as I generally live indoors during the day. For the past few days it has been in the 80s with cooling overnight. I suppose this info is availble online on Weather.com or something. I'll have to figure out how to get past weather data.
OK, enough! I will try to post again at least by next weekend. To do this week: buy compost and fill up the boxes, and plant the seedlings. I should probably tear out the old bolted spinach and lettuces too.