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ducks4you
Garden Master
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Didn't have time to upload my pictures, but I post later the pictures later this week.
Tomatoes
I harvested/canned 4 quarts of Romas yesterday, and it looks like I will have enough red fruit for 4 more quarts by the weekend.
DH has already decided that the more pink beefsteak tomatoes are the sweetest, so I will save seeds from them at the end of the season. You know how it is, you miss a few after a hard freeze or several good frosts, and you can get a bunch of seeds to ferment from a single piece of fruit. Dunno what kind they are, but I understand that several years of cross pollination will create a tomato somewhat unique to your own micro-climate.
Sweet Corn
I harvested 5 ears of sweet corn to super dry it out on the picnic table, at the risk of the local squirrel making off with them. When they are dry enough I will store the corn seeds in a glass jar for next year and test them before planting time in 2020.
Brussels Sprouts
I started these seeds end of July in Jiffy Peat Pellets. TOTALLY worthless and I'll never use them again!! Brussels Sprout seeds were 2019 and 2018 coated seeds and almost every one Sprouted, but they got leggy and weren't growing any bigger and sat there at that stage for 6 weeks. I decided about 3 weeks ago to transplant them into larger pots. I pulled off the plastic wrap on the pellets and carefully transplanted into some indoor plant soil that retains water. I used 4 inch diameter pots and put them under lights on top of my refridgerator with the lights on 24/7 and the finally looked like the ones you buy from the garden centers in box stores, big and leafy. My garden spot for Brussels Sprouts ended up being covered with plastic to "solarize" it for 3 months straight. Whatever grass or weeds that managed to find any holes was very easy to hand weed and I lightly tilled same area, then tilled heavily the rest of the garden area that doesn't have tomatoes, peppers or beets/french breakfast radishes after hand weeding/mowing. Everything I pulled out went to the horses. Everything I mowed got dumped to burn bc of the weed seeds.
I dug each hole with a hand trowel and regretted not taking out my shovel. The soil is very rich but it had compacted in places. That was disappointing. I transplanted 17 Brussels Sprouts about 15-18 inches apart, 2 rows of 7 each and a 3rd row began. Most of them had Good root systems.
I watered them well this morning and will keep them watered for the next few weeks.
The other groups of Brussels Sprouts are under grow lights. I took the next largest groups of seedlings up to the grow light above the fridge. The light set up is lower and closer to the plants than any other ones that I am using. I bought it this year and it was a Good Buy.
I think that this group will be ready to be transplanted in the garden in about a week. I rotated the other 2 groups of Brussels Sprouts to the basement gro lights, again, lights on 24/7.
Tomatoes
I harvested/canned 4 quarts of Romas yesterday, and it looks like I will have enough red fruit for 4 more quarts by the weekend.
DH has already decided that the more pink beefsteak tomatoes are the sweetest, so I will save seeds from them at the end of the season. You know how it is, you miss a few after a hard freeze or several good frosts, and you can get a bunch of seeds to ferment from a single piece of fruit. Dunno what kind they are, but I understand that several years of cross pollination will create a tomato somewhat unique to your own micro-climate.
Sweet Corn
I harvested 5 ears of sweet corn to super dry it out on the picnic table, at the risk of the local squirrel making off with them. When they are dry enough I will store the corn seeds in a glass jar for next year and test them before planting time in 2020.
Brussels Sprouts
I started these seeds end of July in Jiffy Peat Pellets. TOTALLY worthless and I'll never use them again!! Brussels Sprout seeds were 2019 and 2018 coated seeds and almost every one Sprouted, but they got leggy and weren't growing any bigger and sat there at that stage for 6 weeks. I decided about 3 weeks ago to transplant them into larger pots. I pulled off the plastic wrap on the pellets and carefully transplanted into some indoor plant soil that retains water. I used 4 inch diameter pots and put them under lights on top of my refridgerator with the lights on 24/7 and the finally looked like the ones you buy from the garden centers in box stores, big and leafy. My garden spot for Brussels Sprouts ended up being covered with plastic to "solarize" it for 3 months straight. Whatever grass or weeds that managed to find any holes was very easy to hand weed and I lightly tilled same area, then tilled heavily the rest of the garden area that doesn't have tomatoes, peppers or beets/french breakfast radishes after hand weeding/mowing. Everything I pulled out went to the horses. Everything I mowed got dumped to burn bc of the weed seeds.
I dug each hole with a hand trowel and regretted not taking out my shovel. The soil is very rich but it had compacted in places. That was disappointing. I transplanted 17 Brussels Sprouts about 15-18 inches apart, 2 rows of 7 each and a 3rd row began. Most of them had Good root systems.
I watered them well this morning and will keep them watered for the next few weeks.
The other groups of Brussels Sprouts are under grow lights. I took the next largest groups of seedlings up to the grow light above the fridge. The light set up is lower and closer to the plants than any other ones that I am using. I bought it this year and it was a Good Buy.
I think that this group will be ready to be transplanted in the garden in about a week. I rotated the other 2 groups of Brussels Sprouts to the basement gro lights, again, lights on 24/7.
