Garden round 2
May. 23rd, 2021 07:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeIt got super hot here this week and it spelled the end of frost risk for sure. If I'd been planting ideally, I would have planted last weekend but I was helping my parents plant strawberries on the farm.
Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far, 87F so I planned my day only to do about a half day of work because I melt when I'm not used to it being so hot. It is current 68F this morning. Hot. Ew.
Got up, made the drive and collected my tools and things. I also grabbed my transplants. I had potatoes (from true potato seed), peppers, tomatoes, and sesame.
We put up some rescue irrigation for my plants this week, it has been so dry, probably two full weeks without rain and it's been at least 80F and sunny for a solid week.
How I started:
I first went and worked the whole open area with a hoe. It had been worked a couple of weeks ago, so there was some things germinating and the quackgrass was coming back up. It was a perfect day to weed because getting the weeds onto the surface off the soil when it is so hot and dry kills them really well, they can't reach the cooler moist soil under the dry top. I got all but a four foot strip on the right done and that I have time to work on more. The squashes and melons and things are going along that edge and they take time to get going.
My garbanzos and peas are doing excellent, they are very happy with the watering and I think they are also just reaching the cooler soil below. The mustard looks good as well. My other random things aren't going as well, but I don't care if they do good.
Then, I laid the new drip lines for two more rows so I could transplant in my babies. I have two spots for my plants, one is in this field, which is things I'm saving seed from and a few other things. So I put in one tomato variety, Grandma Mary's, which is a paste variety that grows enormous round fruit, generally 8-10oz each. Excellent for paste. I thought I had saved seed from it in the past but I dug through all my stuff and can't find any record of it so I'm saving seed this year. It's the only tomato being planted in this section to get good isolation distance from the tomatoes in the big field. Same thing with the pepper. I got Guajillo peppers from Seed Savers Exchange as part of their Member Growing Club and I'm hoping to like it and start maintaining it.
I also planted two varieties of sesame in my little field to see if I can make them do anything.
The potatoes were having the time of their lives in the high tunnel and were just enormous and growing way too fast. Some already started to set tubers. WHY. Everything I read about TPS germination and growing said they were difficult to germinate, would grow slowly and die easily. I have monster potatoes. I may get a full crop of tubers out of them when most people get 1 inch diameter tubers by the end of the season. The larger ones in this photo are about 12 inches tall. Most were partially rootbound and would have been bigger if I got them in a field last week. Wild.
Got all those transplanted to my field with irrigation.
Then took the rest of my tomatoes and peppers to the main field. My coworker has a farm field where they grow vegetables for sale and they've been making a little space on their plastic for my plants as long as I take care of them. So five other tomato varieties got planted, all paste, some new for evaluation and some I know already for fun. I'm interested to see how the dwarf paste variety does again. Then three pepper varieties, a jalapeno, and one or two other things.
I'm farm sitting for my coworker next weekend, so I'm going to actually get all my direct seeded crops in the ground then. Beans, cowpeas, peanuts (to see if I can), sorghum, melons, squash, corn and maybe one or two other things. I ran out of time yesterday because I had to get ice cream and get home to watch Eurovision. And also it was extremely hot.
Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far, 87F so I planned my day only to do about a half day of work because I melt when I'm not used to it being so hot. It is current 68F this morning. Hot. Ew.
Got up, made the drive and collected my tools and things. I also grabbed my transplants. I had potatoes (from true potato seed), peppers, tomatoes, and sesame.
We put up some rescue irrigation for my plants this week, it has been so dry, probably two full weeks without rain and it's been at least 80F and sunny for a solid week.
How I started:
I first went and worked the whole open area with a hoe. It had been worked a couple of weeks ago, so there was some things germinating and the quackgrass was coming back up. It was a perfect day to weed because getting the weeds onto the surface off the soil when it is so hot and dry kills them really well, they can't reach the cooler moist soil under the dry top. I got all but a four foot strip on the right done and that I have time to work on more. The squashes and melons and things are going along that edge and they take time to get going.
My garbanzos and peas are doing excellent, they are very happy with the watering and I think they are also just reaching the cooler soil below. The mustard looks good as well. My other random things aren't going as well, but I don't care if they do good.
Then, I laid the new drip lines for two more rows so I could transplant in my babies. I have two spots for my plants, one is in this field, which is things I'm saving seed from and a few other things. So I put in one tomato variety, Grandma Mary's, which is a paste variety that grows enormous round fruit, generally 8-10oz each. Excellent for paste. I thought I had saved seed from it in the past but I dug through all my stuff and can't find any record of it so I'm saving seed this year. It's the only tomato being planted in this section to get good isolation distance from the tomatoes in the big field. Same thing with the pepper. I got Guajillo peppers from Seed Savers Exchange as part of their Member Growing Club and I'm hoping to like it and start maintaining it.
I also planted two varieties of sesame in my little field to see if I can make them do anything.
The potatoes were having the time of their lives in the high tunnel and were just enormous and growing way too fast. Some already started to set tubers. WHY. Everything I read about TPS germination and growing said they were difficult to germinate, would grow slowly and die easily. I have monster potatoes. I may get a full crop of tubers out of them when most people get 1 inch diameter tubers by the end of the season. The larger ones in this photo are about 12 inches tall. Most were partially rootbound and would have been bigger if I got them in a field last week. Wild.
Got all those transplanted to my field with irrigation.
Then took the rest of my tomatoes and peppers to the main field. My coworker has a farm field where they grow vegetables for sale and they've been making a little space on their plastic for my plants as long as I take care of them. So five other tomato varieties got planted, all paste, some new for evaluation and some I know already for fun. I'm interested to see how the dwarf paste variety does again. Then three pepper varieties, a jalapeno, and one or two other things.
I'm farm sitting for my coworker next weekend, so I'm going to actually get all my direct seeded crops in the ground then. Beans, cowpeas, peanuts (to see if I can), sorghum, melons, squash, corn and maybe one or two other things. I ran out of time yesterday because I had to get ice cream and get home to watch Eurovision. And also it was extremely hot.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-23 12:15 pm (UTC)I'd think evidence of being favoured by the god of potatoes is highly auspicious!
(May things be at least so auspicious at harvest!)
It comes across as things going well; I hope that continues. It's been stupid-hot here, too; having the air conditioning on in May is Just Wrong. (But not as wrong as not being able to sleep...)
no subject
Date: 2021-05-23 03:02 pm (UTC)I'm really grumpy at the weather. Sticky and gross just in time for the busy time of the year. I'm so glad I put my AC unit in the window when I did and that Jade has gone back to work so I can crank the living room unit down without issues and be able to bake and do things without cooking myself.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-23 09:01 pm (UTC)Pacing is a thing!
(Especially when lack of pacing runs into becoming a heat casualty.)
With respect to the weather, I could really wish the tropical/not-tropical climate zone forecast wasn't looking so plausible. Glad you've got effective aircon!
no subject
Date: 2021-05-23 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-23 09:04 pm (UTC)Last week, before (I hope!) the odds of frost faded, one of my weather apps displayed a ten day forecast with a temperature range; to get the temperature forecast to fit, the outer range bars were -10 and +40 C. I have a lot of sympathy for your plants not knowing what to do with the weather!