Seedlings, Yay!

Well, I have seedlings of my large-seed crops up now!  You may recall I had pre-soaked them a few hours and drained the water out of the individual containers to let the initial seedroots develop before planting them.  It works really well!  It is guaranteed germination.  You have to handle the seeds gently so as not to damage the 1/4" root, but it is well worth it.

Of the 10 cukes I planted, 9 are up and there is time for the 10th.

2 of the three cantaloupes are up in each of the 2 places I planted them, as are 2 of 3 of the watermelon seeds and honeydew seeds in their single spots.  In any case, it looks like I will have a good initial growth of those this year.  We will see later if there is enough sun for the melons to ripen.  I mention that because I have not had success with melons previously.  But 2 years ago, I had a couple of trees removed that I think provides 2 more hours on sun on the garden.  Last year was just bad all around, so that doesn't count.

The flat italian beans are emerging; only 2 so far, but I expect all of the 10 to emerge. I expected the beans to come up first because they are robust seedlings, but they ARE planted deeper, so I guess it balances out.

The heirloom tomato seedlings are thriving.  They got 4 daylight fluorescent bulb treatment this year (2-bulb lights make them leggy) AND I waited a week longer to set them in the ground (til the soil temp was over 60F at the coolest).  That seems to have helped.  They are greener and stockier than in past years and the stems are noticably thicker after 1 week.  I am looking forward to a superb harvest this year.

In case you are wondering why there are 2 cages, it is because something ate 1 of the seedling's top off and I had to replace it.   The small green cage is to discourage the groundhog or rabbit (I have at least 1 of each in the fenced yard).  I didn't know any mammals ate tomato plants!  Well, that's why I grow extras...

I have 2 Brandywine, 2 Cherokee Purple, and 1 each Prudens Purple, Aunt Gertie's Gold, and Tennessee Britches.  Everyone has their favorites and while Brandywine generally wins contests (and I love it too), here in MY yard with MY conditions and habits, Cherokee Purple is the winner.  The taste is more complex, it is more productive, and it is more disease resistant.

I also have a hybrid Stupice as an early tomato, and a Sweet Million in a hanging pot for snacking in the garden.

I am not using the permeable red plastic groundcover this year (supposed to reflect the best light frequencies back up to the leaves).   It may or may not work, but I noticed last year that water was not penetrating it.  Maybe the pores get clogged after a few years.  I don't want to have to buy it new every year!

I planted bi-color corn, too.  It is just a 2'x3' block of 6 (its just me and I only eat one a day at best).  But I will plant a 2nd 2x3 block next weekend and another 2 weeks after that for succession.  I know how to maximize pollination in small plantings.  In case you are wondering about that, you snip off a tassel each day and rub it around the silks for a week.  If it is a really calm day, you can tap the stalks to make pollen fall straight down.  If you REALLY want to maximize pollination, you can put a plastic bag over the stalks and THEN tap them.  Here, 1 ear per stalk is good.  This is NOT "corn country".

I don't know why I bother to grow corn.  At harvest time, bi-color corn is available cheap.  I should grow something more expensive like red lettuce  That stuff is ALWAYS $2 a pound.  Bi-color corn is sometimes 25 cents an ear.  But its the challenge, I suppose.  I stopped growing green bell peppers when they were 10/$1.  But just once, I want to grow really good corn.  Straight from the garden to boiling water in 1 minute!

The flowerbeds are doing great.  I probably have them in better shape than in the past 10 years.  I got them pruned of old stems early, got the beds weeded early, fertilized them with organic slow release 6-10-6 early (a blend I make from 2 sources), and (for once) I got cages around the large sprawling ones early!  I let the cats show off the flowers in their Garden Tour Thursday posts.  You can see that HERE.

OK, no plant in its perfect conditions should need cages.  But I get less sun than they would like, so several are a bit leggy.  The cages help that.  With the slightly increased sun and good fertilizer, the troillus are standing on their own, the coneflowers are stockier and other larger patches of flowers are standing up aganst the weeklong heavy rains.  OK, only 2", but it comes in heavy downfalls.  In past years, they would all be bent over.

So things are looking promising here.