Monday, May 11, 2009

Monday Seedling Update and Harvest Tally

One of the most interesting things about going on vacation is coming back to the garden. Usually I see the garden every day. It grows, but each day the growth is small. After a week the growth seems huge. Leaves are touching. The garlic has grown much taller. Flower buds are bursting out. The seedlings are starting to look like plants.

These are the only seedlings left to be planted out in the garden. I have some extras that are still under the lights - peppers, tomatoes, marigolds and a solitary basil - but they probably won't make it into the garden. I'll only use them if there is a plant failure. The seedlings that will be planted out are pineapple tomatillos, lemon basil, and two types of eggplant. The seedlings are all doing well and I think those tomatillos need to get out soon. They are getting big. I'll probably put them in when I start seeing some good root growth from the bottom of the pots.

In the garden there aren't many seedlings left. Lots of plants, but few seedlings. The corn is starting to grow. Some is about 6" tall right now. Other not so much. About a quarter of the corn is weaker. A couple plants are dead already. I'm thinking I should have planted five soil blocks out for each hill, then I could thin one out and still have four per hill, but maybe three is a good number too.

My carrots seedlings are slowly growing. You can finally see the rows from above. The bottom row is Sugar Snax (hybrid) and it had the best germination and has the best growth. The top row is Danvers and is the next best germinating carrot. Most if its row is well filled out and the carrots are growing well. Big Top, which is the second row from the top is doing OK. Its germination is more spotty but still decent. Atomic Red had low germination and had damping off issues so that row is worse than spotty. It has lots of empty spots. I should still get to eat a few, but if it is as bad in future sowings, there is no way I'm growing it again.

Everything else in the garden is big. I think the prettiest thing I came back to was my spinach. I loved the way the morning light shone through the bed.

I had a good harvest of 10.5oz. I could have picked more, but I was just cutting off the big leaves. I started by cutting the stem at the bottom then clipping the stem off and letting it drop onto the bed. I figured if the stem rots it would be better on the ground than on the plant. Then it was taking too long and I just snipped the leaf off and left the stem on the plant. I hope that isn't bad for the plant at all. How do all you harvest spinach?

The next prettiest thing were the radishes. The Pinetree mix had some pretty ones, but I like the Reggea above. It seems to resist the slugs a bit more. I thought about showing you the French Breakfast radishes from the Pinetree mix, but some of them are so pitted from the little slugs. I even had to pick one off even though it was after 9am in the morning.

I picked most of the radishes (7oz with greens) this morning. I'm hoping to have time to make my radish top soup this week. I also picked some lettuce leaves and a bunching onion. The bunching onion was from the supermarket. It was dying in the vegetable bin. I put it out in the garden and it recovered and was good enough to pick today for my salad. Chives are OK but I much prefer my bunching onions.

I cheated a little today to get the harvest post out. Usually I do the harvest from Monday-Sunday and post on Monday. Since I wasn't home I just picked today and tallied that. The total harvest was 1.43lbs. My biggest harvest yet and I haven't even touched my Asian greens yet. I will. This brings me to a harvest dollar amount of $12.42. So it is slowly starting to add up. Luckily since I was gone last week I couldn't buy anything and my tally went down for the first time.

10 comments:

  1. Your harvest looks great, Daphne! Love the concept of 'Reggae' radishes! I'll have to look for them. And your Radish Top Soup is certainly intriguing. Hope you had a great trip!

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  2. Everything looks fantastic Daphne. Your spinach looks perfect!

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  3. Now, that's a nice looking harvest! I'll have to check out your harvest weight totals, because I bet it's getting up there!

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  4. Everything is looking spectacular. Not good news about the carrots, I just seeded the atomic red, one week later still nothing. So where was your vacation?

    I e-mailed you the measurements of my potato bin, thanks a lot for helping out!

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  5. Healthy, non-irradiated, enzyme packed fresh vegetables. You're making me rack my brain to find somewhere to stick some spinach. It looks so good.

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  6. Welcome home! The harvest looks great. Your radishes are to die for, mine didn't turn out so good. I just planted the icicles you sent, we'll see if my luck is any better with them. We've had a few warm days, now our temps are supposed to drop back into the 60s with a couple of nights in the 30s. Bah-humbug.

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  7. Spinach looks good, but the radishes look great!!!! I can't wait for spring radishes!!, They're so close but I might not make it.....

    I'm glad you've stuck with the weighing of veggies, it really is a good feeling to see what you get for what you give at the end of the day. I know it was interesting for me to see which crops were financially successful.

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  8. our friend Ben, at lunch I had a taste test of the radishes. The Reggae were really pretty but were pretty tasteless. The French Breakfast were my favorite - lots of flavor and just a little bite. The White Icicle were the next with a nice flavor and a big bite. The Reggae were next. I couldn't tell what the pink one was. It was tasteless and a strong bite. I didn't like that one at all. I may have to buy French Breakfast next year.

    Stacy thanks.

    EG, it is slowly going up. :>

    Dan, most of the losses from that carrot were damping off. It seemed really susceptible. Hopefully yours won't have that issue. I saw the email yesterday and I'll do the bin measurements sometime today.

    Cheryl, I'm growing where my squash will be later on in the season. I can't start that until it warms up a bit.

    Annie's Granny, I'm not the person who sent you icicles. I think I just sent you dill and pumpkin. I think :> Too bad about the temps. I hate when we get a late cool spell. Our highs have been in the 60s but at least our lows are still in the 40s. My poor tomatoes are shivering.

    Becky, I hope those radishes get going for you before the heat hits. Radishes always pull their weight. I plant them between other plants so technically they get no space in the garden. They are pulled before the lettuce grows in. The only crop I'm really worried about are my tomatoes. The soil amendments (vermiculite and sand) cost a lot for just six pots. They had better produce well.

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  9. Well, of course you didn't send me the icicles...Cheryl did! The heat must have got to my brain yesterday ;-) The dill you sent is growing like a weed, and I need dill weed for tonight's fish! The pumpkin is just getting its true leaves.

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  10. Annie's Granny, I'm glad the dill is growing so well. If you let it go to seed in the garden it will be one of your biggest weeds :> I love it. I just wait until it gets big enough and then weed/pick it. It grows up in the middle of EVERYTHING. Though I am trying to keep it out of my carrots, not all that successfully but it gets out before it is big enough to eat in that bed.

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