Friday, April 22, 2011

This and That

Yesterday was a very cold windy day. I had planted out some seedlings on Tuesday and I worried about them. My weather station doesn't seem to do wind correctly. It claims that our gusts maxed out at 19mph. I'm guessing much higher. My husband is convinced that the speed measure is too low also. Though I'm not sure how to calibrate it as what is the real speed?

I feel really sorry for my seedlings that are outside at this point. I should have brought them inside during the wind storm, but I didn't. They really got whipped around. I'm a bad mom sometimes. One of my wintersown containers even blew away and scattered the contents everywhere. This was not a tall water bottle either. It was a short wide container.

We had a frost warning last night. Since Laura told me that celery doesn't like to be frozen I figured I'd better protect it. This wasn't an easy thing in the wind. I was going to take a photo of my upside down barrels with cement blocks. With the wind the cement blocks were necessary. But of course I forgot. It turns out we didn't get a frost. But the four that were under the pails look beautiful and large this morning. The one single one that I didn't protect looks pretty ragged. I guess it must have been a windy night too. Poor little thing. Maybe today will be easier on it.

And speaking of weather, Tuesday they say we will get a nice warmup. Whoohoo! Some say upper sixties, but one weatherman says in the 70s. Either will be a nice change from our cold rainy weather. I can't wait to not shiver when I go out to the garden.

And speaking of shivering. Notice I have to wear my down coat when I go out in the morning ot check on my spinach. Just look at those leaves. This is not some gigantic spinach variety either. It is just Space spinach. But some of the plants are just growing huge in the wet cool weather we have been having.

Or maybe it was just the threat of the trench that got them. They saw their poor tossed off brothers as I was digging in the asparagus. Maybe they figured they had to start growing or that would be their fate.

And to totally switch the subject again, my peppers just aren't germinating well. The last couple of years I've chitted them before planting and they all came up well. I never used my heating mat and I still got them to germinate. This year they are on the germination mat in blocks and they just won't come up. Especially the sweet peppers. I've taken them off the mat in hopes that they will start coming up. The tomatoes are having issues too, but I think I might get enough of them. So I've started to chit more seed. I don't have much time before planting season though. I might just be buying pepper seedlings from the nursery this year. I know I will for the sweet peppers and I used all the seed up in the first round. Note to self: next year don't use a heating mat, just chit the peppers and tomatoes.

12 comments:

  1. That is some nice looking spinach! My peppers didn't do well from seed either this year. I ended up buying 14 plants from the local hardware store. They are doing great though, so no regrets here.

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  2. Wow, look at the size of that spinach...I'm very impressed. Apparently it really likes your wicked weather.

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  3. Hope things warm up soon for you. That spinach looks wonderful. After eating freshly grown spinach, I cannot even look at a bag of baby spinach in the store!

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  4. I had to replant pepper seed (hot and sweet) three times this season! I did get about 20 to finally germ. My son grew fields of peppers when he was in college down at Cal Poly and he told me they were really hard to get to germ consistently...they're fickle.

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  5. I too am having difficulty germinating peppers and some tomatoes this year. Although the opposite seemed to work for me. I pre-sprouted them then plopped them into a tray of waiting soil blocks, but they didn't grow. So I place the soil block tray on a heat mat and then they took off. Of course I lost some time waiting for them.

    Your spinach is very impressive. I have grown Space variety before but never had leaves of even half the size of yours. Bravo!

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  6. Your spinach is mammoth! I think I could fit 5 of our spinach leaves into one hand and not fill it up.

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  7. Boy we also had some wicked wind yesterday! I think that we all are bad seedling mothers at times. I left the window open in the greenhouse the other night right next to the eggplant. They weren't too happy about the overnight wind but recovered quickly. That spinach is beautiful! I have to agree that peppers can be tricky to germinate.

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  8. Yummy looking spinach! I'm waiting on the peppers as well. Tomatoes have just started popping up thank goodness!!

    I'm thinking of throwing a rope light under my pepper containers.. who knows?!?!

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  9. We need to get together. I had 100% germination on all my peppers, hot and sweet, and lousy luck with some of the tomatoes. Your spinach is so far ahead of mine, it's crazy! Weather man says we'll finally get a 70 degree day a week from next Sunday. Cold days and night until then, though.

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  10. That is some gorgeous spinach! Holy Moly!

    Glad your celery got covered and made it through okay.

    Usually I have problems with peppers not germinating well - but this year I got almost 100% and the plants have been growing like they have the devil after them. My problem children have been my Stupice tomatoes... low germination, and those that did make it were weak and failed to thrive. Not a one of that which was left were garden worthy. I guess I am just not destined to grow that variety this year. Usually it is the one that grows the easiest but it sure has been troublesome this year.

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  11. It's not often that we in the UK can feel smug about weather - we usually get more constant rain and wind than most places - but this year we have the opposite problem. April (and the later part of March) has been very dry and much warmer than normal. I'm just hoping that my plants don't decide it is Summer already and begin to bolt. Your spinach would certainly not thrive in our current conditions!

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