And the winner is . . .

Calypso, by at least four cucumbers. The Cross Country has set a few, but they aren't big enough to be picked. I'm thinking by then Calypso will have produced a few more. But the real trial is in the long haul. Which cuke will succumb first. Which cuke tastes better. Which one produces more. Calypso is a hybrid so already has a strike against it since I can't save seed.

But really cukes aren't what I was going to talk about today. The excitement of getting to pick the first ones distracted me. Earlier this week was seed collection and clean up time for the earliest planted of the peas. I planted three sections each about three weeks apart. The hope was to extend the harvest. I'm guessing it won't help much with the unusual heat we have had this year, but I still left the later planted ones in the ground. They may produce a few more. Normally I get three waves. Each wave has smaller and smaller peas. I'm thinking the later planted ones won't. I think the second wave may be the last, but time will tell.

As I ripped the plants out I went through them and picked off the peas that had dried. Any peas that seems just slightly over ripe when I pick (usually because I missed them the first time picking) I let dry. They will be my seed for next year.

I also pulled the flowering lettuce in front of the peas. I'm not collecting seed this year, so no need to let them go that far. I had nothing else to put there so just left them. The roots as you see above have those white nodules on them. These are nematodes. Nasty things in this bed that are killing my parsley and already killed the dill. The carrots are not growing was well either. This bed had the solanums last year. I just hope the other beds that I want to grow carrots in are not as bad off. One of them is the previous brassica bed, so that ought to be fine. Nematodes hate brassicas. Often fields are planted in mustards to get rid of them. But I should have chopped up the plants and buried them when I pulled out the last of them. Maybe if my mustards are done going to seed in time, I can put some of the left over foliage in the soil then. Or come to think of it, I could plant carrots in the mustard bed if it is free in the next week. Otherwise carrots might not have time to produce (this part of the bed gets shaded in the fall).

Later in the week I pulled up the coriander and took off enough seed for me and my townhouse mates. I'll clean and winnow it later.

Much of the left over plants were put back on the bed. There are still tons of seeds that I didn't get off. I didn't take much time getting them off since I needed so little of what was produced. So the bed has lots of seed to germinate when it gets cool enough in the fall.