More Seed Starting and Transplanting

Today dawned wet and grey. I was hoping for a few breaks in the day where I could do some of the outdoor gardening things on my list. But it wasn't to be. So instead I focused on what I could accomplish inside, where it was warm and dry.

I began the day by transplanting my 20 "Ukrainian Purple" tomato plants. In three weeks, my little plants have gone from tiny transplants with no true leaves - pictured above - to 4" plants with two sets of trues leaves- pictured below. They have now filled up their 2" cells and the tray is getting crowded.

So today I moved them all into 4" X 4" individual pots, hopefully their last home before they get transplanted into the ground. As per usual, this project took much longer than I thought  it would. But I did add 1 tsp. of the new organic tomato fertilizer that I bought yesterday, up at Garland's Nursery. Besides fertilizer, it is also suppose to contain mycorrhiza fungi. Hopefully it will help give my plants an extra boost as they grow in nursery pots underneath the lights.

After I finally finished up with the tomatoes, I turned my attention to the next round of seed starting. But before I could do that, I needed to add the second tier on my new grow light tower. That went fairly smoothly and soon I was ready to start seeding some 6-pack cells. I started with "Gift" zinnias, a pretty red annual I bought from Hudson Valley Seed. I am planning to grow this variety in the "kitchen garden overflow" area, along with the cantaloupe. It gets a ton of sun there and I am hoping they will attract hummingbird and butterflies. I seeded 24 cells and then placed them on the heat mat. Then I filled six 2" pots with potting soil and planted "Giant Primrose" sunflower seed from The Seed Savers Exchange. I am planning to plant these in our new rose flowerbed and maybe also put a few in the sunset flowerbed.

When I was finished, the sunflower pots joined the zinnia cells on the first tier of the tower. I am hoping between the heat from the grow mat and the heat radiating down from the grow lights, that both of these newly planted varieties will germinate by next weekend.

After I finished that project I got out the bags of lilies that we picked up at Garland's Nursery yesterday. Since we won't get these guys planted at least until next Saturday, I wanted to get them out of their bags and temporarily potted up in some half gallon pots. I was really happy to find that all of the lilies bulbs were in good shape. You can never fully tell by trying to look at them through the plastic bags. We ended up with 3 "Casa Blanca", a solid white oriental lily, 3 "Salmon Star", a white and orange oriental lily, and 2 "Lilac Cloud",  a fully double pink and white oriental lily. If they all perform well this first year, we should have one amazingly scented flowerbed sometime in July.

Harvest Monday - A Golden Harvest

As I harvested and weighted this week's harvest, it dawned on me that much of the harvest reflected the fiery colors of Summer: yellows, oranges and reds. So I begin this week's recap with a bowl of yellow "Galina" cherry tomatoes. This is the third week I have harvested them and the biggest picking yet; 1 lb. 1.4 oz. They are such a reliable producer for me and their taste is a favorite of many of my co-workers.

My only other tomato harvest this week is one lonely "Wapsipinicon Peach". But it deserves some kudos becasue as I was harvesting, I noticed than many of my other tomato plants are suffering from blossom end rot. I have never has a problem with this disease before, with the rare exception of a single variety here or there. So I simply didn't grow that variety in future years. But today I discovered blossom end rot on four different plants. I know my watering has been steady so it must be a calcium deficiency in the soil. I will have to really amend the soil next year. So with that in mind, even though it isn't a super producer for me, "Wapsipinicon Peach" gets major point from me for being blossom end rot free. This guy came in at .9 oz.

And speaking of things that don't really grow well for me, its time to talk peppers! Each year I am seduced by the amazing selection of pepper plants being sold at the Farmer's Market and nurseries. And each year I purchase 3-4 plants, knowing that I never have much luck growing them but hope springs eternal each May. In my rational mind I know we just don't have the hot days and warm that peppers adore but I keep trying just the same. Not surprisingly, this year's results were no different. Four plants, each producing 2-4 peppers. Sigh. On the bright side, I did have a few little gems to harvest today. Left to right:

• (1) "Padron" pepper ; 1.0 oz
• (2) "Yellow Sparkler" peppers; 1.6 oz
• (2) "Cute Stuff Gold" peppers; 1.7 oz

And to round out my yellow theme, I was able to pick 3 more "Lemon" cucumbers yesterday, weighing in a total of 1 lb 2.9 oz. It is suppose to be another very warm week here in the Willamette Valley, so ripening should continue at a good pace in both gardens.

Monday Harvest Recap - Watermelon Edition

The exciting harvest news this week was that I harvested the first watermelon from my little watermelon patch. My 3 "Blacktail Mountain" plants set four melon this Summer. Two melons set in July and another two set in August. This melon is from the first flush and I think I might have waited a little too long to harvest it. I will have to see what my taste testers think. But nonetheless, I am happy to have grown a watermelon to full maturity in Oregon. This guy weighted in at 6 lbs. 15.2 oz.

I continue to see a steady ripening of fruit on the tomato plants. I did have some splitting damage this week, I am sure due to the rain we finally received. The damage was minor but you can see it on the two "Esterina" cherry tomatoes pictured on the truss, above. This week's harvest:

• "Galina" - (63) 11.9 oz
• "Mountain Magic" - (27) 1 lbs. 2.4 oz
• "Matthew" - (27) 9.3 oz
• "Esterina" - (63) 10.3 oz
• "Matina" - (22) 10.1 oz

"Mountain Magic"

I also harvested my second round of "Mystery" peppers. These are the peppers that were suppose to be "Padron" but clearly are not. They are a hot pepper and the plant is very healthy and vigorous. This week's harvest was (11) more peppers weighing in at 3.8 oz. They are headed off to become some fiery salsa.

End of August Harvest

A truss of "Matina"

With our much needed rain storms arriving Friday night and again Sunday afternoon, I wasn't too sure what damage I might find in the Kitchen Garden. My whirligig art piece had toppled over and was laying in the pumpkin patch, directly one on of my two pumpkins. Fortunately, when I picked it up, the pumpkin - and whirligig - were both fine. Really the only damage, if you can call it that, was some cracking on some of the tomatoes. A very small price to pay for that wonderful rainfall. In the end, I ended up having my biggest tomato harvest of the year this week, just over 4 pounds.

• "Galina" - (63) 11.9 oz.
• "Mountain Magic" - (23) 12.5 oz
• "Matthew" - (58) 1 lbs. 4.4 oz
• "Esterina" - (132) 1 lbs. 4.5 oz
• "Matina" - (18) 7.4 oz.

I also harvested all of the ripe peppers on my mystery pepper plant. I hadn't really looked closely at this plant for a while and was surprised to find a few red peppers. Apparently the peppers on this plant ripen from green, to deep purple, to red. Since I am not a huge fan of hot peppers, these will be bagged up and delivered to a friend at work. Today's total pepper harvest was 13 peppers, weighting in at 3.6 oz.

Monday Harvest

A truss of "Matthew"

The theme of this week's harvest might be called "The Salsa Garden". It was pretty short and simple. The heat lovers are ripening and ready to harvest. I started with my tomatoes. Once again, all of my varieties, with the exception of "Mexico", had lots of fruit to pick. I am beginning to wonder if "Mexico" will ever ripen. This week's harvest was:

• "Galina" - (43) 8.4 oz
• "Mountain Magic" - (8) 4.4 oz
• "Matthew" - (41) 12.7 oz
• "Esterina" -(47) 7.3 oz
• "Matina" - (10) 4.4 oz

I also picked the last two peppers on my "Gypsy" plant. It only produced 3 peppers this year but all the were big and beautiful. I don't know if I didn't give it enough water or if it didn't like our super hots days. It bloomed like crazy but never set any peppers after the first three. I think I will give it one more try next year since the fruit it did produce was so nice.

Onion Totals on Harvest Monday

On Sunday, I finally got around to harvesting my onions. Back on April 12th, I planted 8 young "Candy" yellow, sweet onion starts and 17 "Cortland" yellow, storage onion starts in the Kitchen Garden. The tops had fallen over, one by one, in the last few weeks and it was past time for them to be dug and stored.

A bunch of freshly dug "Cortland".

After I got them all lifted, I trimmed and cleaned each bulb and set them in trays. My 17 "Cortland" onions weighted 7 lbs. 12.7 oz. The largest bulb was 10.1 oz, the smallest was 5.2 oz., and the average size was 7.34 oz. I grew "Cortland" this year because I wasn't able to buy the "Frontier" starts that I had grown last few years. The "Frontier" averaged one ounce heavier but it is hard to compare the two varieties with so many variables affecting size. I need to grow "Frontier" at least one more year to see if it is a reliable producer for me or not.

My 8 "Candy" onions came in at 3 lbs. 10.2 oz. The largest bulb weighted 9.9 oz., the smallest 4.7 oz., and the average bulb size was 7.28 oz. In comparison, the "Cortland" were ever so slightly bigger than the "Candy". But the "Candy", once again, performed well, in such a dry, hot Spring and Summer.

The tomatoes have started to ripen at a quick pace. Pictured above, a pretty truss of "Matina".

A loaded truss of the yellow cherry "Galina".

A new-to-me variety that I am growing this year is the cherry  "Matthew". It is producing small, plum-shaped, orange fruit.

Today's harvest filled a pretty blue mixing bowl with a nice combination of fruit size and color. The harvest consisted of:

• "Mountain Magic" - (4) 3.4 oz
• "Matthew" - (10) 3.5 oz
• "Esterina" - (10) 2.3 oz
• "Galina" - (38) 9.3 oz
• "Matina" - (22) 14.7 oz.

So today's total tomato harvest was 2 lbs. 1.2 oz.

I also picked the first on my peppers this past week. I am going to bring them to work for a pepper-loving co-worker to sample. I am hoping her taste-test will shed some light on the identity of my purple, mystery pepper. I don't know what it is but I most certainly know it is not a "Padron" plant as it was labeled. So, my pepper harvest this week was:

• "Gypsy" - (1) 3.3 oz
• "Mystery Plant" - (1) .4 oz.

My Mystery Pepper Plant

Early this Spring, at the Lane County Farmer's Market, I purchased two small pepper plants. The first was a "Gypsy", which I have grown before. The second plant was a "Padron". I was especially excited to find this variety for sale and try to grow it myself.  I first saw "Padron" peppers at the Portland Farmer's Market four years ago. Every vendor had them it seemed and all of the shoppers were raving about their taste. Since then, they have only gotten more popular and are know being sold here in Lane County at many booths.

So, I bought my plant and waited and watched. As the first peppers started to develop, I knew something was amiss. "Padron" peppers are short, round, green peppers and my plant was producing 4" bulls-horn shaped purple peppers! Yesterday I harvested one of the peppers and took it to the market to show the farmer from whom I had purchased the plant. I was guessing that a tag had been switched and he would be able to easily tell me what variety I now had. But when I told him the story and showed him the pepper, he was as confused as I was. He explained that he didn't grow any peppers this year that would look like that. So either the "Padron" had thrown a start - not likely in my opinion - or his supplier had slipped in a seed or two of a mystery variety. Much more likely I think. So now I am no closer to learning the true identity of  my pepper. I am going to take the harvested pepper to work on Monday and have a brave volunteer taste it for me. Then I will at least know if I have a sweet pepper or a hot pepper. Either way, this plant has done really well for me. It has 8 ripe peppers on it currently, and the top is covered with small green peppers that have just begun to grow. I would highly recommend this variety - if only I knew what it was!

Early July in the Kitchen Garden

Now that July has arrived, I have finally finished planting the Summer crops in the Kitchen Garden - I think. It has been so very hot the last two weeks, but for the most part, the plants have come through with flying colors.

I spent some time Sunday re-building my onion raised bed. My watering had eroded one side badly. The onion bulbs were getting quite exposed and most of the water was just running off the bed. So I built up the right side once again and leveled off the top. The onions are much more stable now and my watering is more effective and much less wasteful.

Here's a nice "Candy" onion. I should be able to start harvesting them in the next month.

And here is a "Cortland" yellow storage onion. I am hoping that they will start to size up now that they are receiving more water.

My garlic has done terrific since it was planted last Fall. With the hot weather, I think I am going to harvest the "Chesnook Red" plants this week. They are already half brown and fading fast.

The large "Russian Red" plants are still 2/3 green so I will wait another week or so until I dig them up to cure.

I pulled out the lettuce a few days ago and amended the raised bed in which it was planted. Then I set in two "Bush Delicata" plants. I didn't cover them with remay and I am paying the price. It looks like the finches have eaten out the growing tip on one of them already. Sigh. Now I need to decide what to do in its place.

My two little "Butternut" squash have finally settled in and are putting out some nice, green new leaves. This week's forecast calls for temperatures in the 80's, so that should be a little kinder to them as they get established.

My two "Howden" pumpkins are really taking off. One has already toppled over and is starting to crawl and the other isn't far behind.

The three "Snow Crown" cauliflower plants appear to be surviving this heat wave. All three have white crowns of various sizes.

I am a cauliflower rookie, so I need to read up on them a bit more and see when I should harvest the crown. While they aren't perfect, I am pretty pleased with my first attempt at growing this finicky vegetable.

Both of my pepper plants appear to be on the way to a great growing year. They certainly should be loving the  hot weather. Pictured above is my "Gypsy" Sweet Pepper.

I now have two nice size "Gypsy" Peppers maturing on the plant.

I am growing a "Padron" pepper plant for the first time. It too is doing really well and is covered with blooms and nice, new branching foliage.

This is the very first "Padron" pepper on the plant. It just started to grow a few days ago. Hopefully it is the first of many.

The mixed variety Morning Glory plants have almost reached the top of their tower and are starting to put on a really pretty display each morning. Once again, even with thinning, I have a good mix of pink and purple blooms.

I put the second tier of the towers on my last three tomato plants this past week. I did it in the nix of time. As you can see, two of them are already half way up the second tower.

The original three plants that I put in the garden have almost reached the top of the second tier and it's only early July! And my "Heavenly Blue" Morning Glory, planted in between the tomatoes, has reached the top of its support and is now scrambling over the tomato cages. So far, it hasn't yet bloomed.

A truss of "Mountain Magic".

The  young "Matthew" tomatoes definitely have a plum shape.

The "Esterina" is starting to set fruit.

"Galina" has always been a reliable producer for me and my co-workers love it.

Here are two green "Matina". All of my tomato plants have now set fruit except for my "Mexico" plant.

After I removed my empty Potato grow bag this past weekend, I planted two of the "Hale's Best Jumbo" Muskmelon that I started from seed. They look pretty small right now, but its still early Summer and the weather has been very melon friendly this year.

My three "Blacktail Mountain" watermelon plants are really starting to take off. All three plants developed their first runner this week, so their growth should really explode. I am trying to be vigilant and fertilize them every other day.

I certainly have just about every size of beet possible in my two rows of  "Golden" beets that I planted. You would never know that they were all started from seed at the same time. I do have some fairly large ones now, so I need to harvest a few this next week and give them a try.

The "Gold Coin" cipollini onions continue to look good. Since this is a new-to-me variety, I am not quite sure how they should be progressing. But since they don't grow up into a huge globe onion, I think they are right on track. Also growing under the remay tent, in the kitchen garden annex, is a row of "Cabernet" red onions. They aren't too happy with their cramped growing conditions and are still pretty small at this point in the season.