Half pickedI've been doing well on the preserving front. But the big push is almost over. The spinach is bolting.
DoneMost of the plants have been stripped and will be pulled before I need the bed in a week. A few aren't quite at the bolting stage so I left some leaves on them so they can grow. I'm left with about five or six plants in this bed and some in my cucumber and zucchini bed. I pulled more of those out though to give the cucurbits more space and make sure they get full sun all day. I expect very small harvests of spinach next week. Probably just enough to eat fresh. The big push to freeze spinach is over.
Cladosporium leaf spotIn the last bed I came across patches of something I hadn't seen before in the garden. I had to look it up. It was Cladosporium leaf spot. Luckily there wasn't much of it to spoil all the leaves. Most were free. Just a patch here and there. I hope it doesn't stick around to next year. Our extension service says not much is really known about the disease and how it is transmitted. They implicate seeds though. I'll be getting fresh seed next year for sure. And as always I'll rotate my crops.
I'll miss you spinach. Though part of me is ready say goodbye to my morning blanching sessions. Tomorrow or Monday I'll get out and pull the mizuna. Then the only blanching greens left will be kale and chard. Kale goes until early to mid summer before it is pulled, but the chard will stick around all year long. Though as the other greens fade and the cabbages are all picked, chard will become an important fresh green as it takes the summer heat well. I checked to make sure that leaf spot disease didn't effect chard as they are in the same family as spinach. It doesn't seem to. Thank goodness.
ZucchiniI'll be looking forward to the summer crops. The zucchini, cucumbers, and corn that are taking the place of the spinach. I have a long way to wait though. Grow zucchini grow!
Cladosporium leaf spot is a new one to me. There are so many new surprises awaiting us in the garden, it sure keeps us on our toes. It sounds like you've got a nice stash of spinach in the freezer. Grow zucchini!
ReplyDeleteHi Daphne, I pulled my last spinach out. I got to freeze just a few packages. Next year I need to plant more. When the leaves get pointed does that mean it is going to seed? Nancy
ReplyDeleteI've been reading up about that leaf-spot disease. I hadn't realised that there are so many different types of leaf-spot! My indoor-grown Basil plants succumbed to something similar this year, and I had to start again. Likewise, the cucumbers I grew indoors have suffered very badly from a leaf disease of some sort, though the plants I moved outside early on have escaped it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I have encountered cladosporum but I get some cercospora every year on the beets and chard (spinach is usually gone by then). https://ag.umass.edu/fact-sheets/cercospora-leaf-spot-of-swiss-chard-beets-spinach
ReplyDeleteI get that too sometimes. There is a weed that grows in the garden that has it on occasion too. I try to keep it weeded out as much as possible. Luckily the chard I grow now isn't all that susceptible to it. The Ruby chard that I used to grow got it all the time.
DeleteI've planted several types of seed in the past week or two, now waiting for the magic to begin!
ReplyDeleteI have been doing a bunch of "catch up" harvesting since yesterday and spinach is on my list today. Like you, some is bolting, but it looks like some of it is still ok (although I'll have to take a closer look today once I remove the netting).
ReplyDeleteI think I may have to have a big blanching session this week as well - I practically didn't recognize the garden after 5 days with all the recent rains.