Mystery Seedlings

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Picked this yesterday...my wife is holding it...

[surviort_wwdnet]

WOW!!! That's a beauty. I'm impressed. My little cuke is now almost 4" long and would be like a flea on your huge cuke. That thing looks like a small watermelon.

Did you decide what else to plant? Between the last roof estimator and a trip to Publix, plus some laundry, I did manage to water the garden but that's it.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Picked (and ate) the first pickling cuke from the garden - it was so delicious! Picked radishes, turnips, peas, and snap beans - will process them tomorrow. Peanuts have multiplied to 4 sprouts now, and the sugar baby watermelons are really starting to fill out. I didn't plant anything today, as it was just too hot to be in the garden for too long, but I did manage to hit the pool...

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

I decided on making 2 of the 4 growbags white potatoes. waiting on some to produce eyes before planting. The other two just not sure yet. I want something that will produce something we eat...

OBTW, the Kratky is so so....but I have two cukes, two basil and one serrano pepper growing. One cuke plant is huge and growing daily. I will take a pic and show you. others are starting but not taking off as fast as this one cuke plant did. I really need to look at this method again. I believe this needs to be in a greenhouse as when it rains it floods the tote. When I am done with this growing season, I will get a greenhouse and place it in there.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Let me know what you end up doing with your Kratky setup. I'm thinking I need a small greenhouse for starting the spring plants next winter. I just don't have a great spot in the house for starting seeds, and I need to get an earlier start for the spring garden. It's not a problem for the winter garden as I can just start them on my little potting table next to the garden hose.

One of my potato plants got knocked over by the last storm and wilted to death, so I pulled it up and found one tiny potato.


Picked radishes, turnips, sugar snaps, and peas, and got them processed and into the freezer (then cleaned up the mess, including my hands!).


I got my black soybean seeds so tomorrow I plant after I go to Lowes and pick up some bins for the garden shed - they're on sale this weekend - and some more potting soil! This will force me to get the garden shed cleaned out and reorganized. I've been putting it off for a month while I played in the garden.

My 3 peanut sprouts are now 3 plants and 1 sprout! I counted 5 or 6 watermelon, and I swear I have a yellow squash/zucchini combo (almost ready to pick). Impatiently waiting for my biggest spaghetti squash to make it to harvest age...along with my biggest acorn squash. In the meantime, my bush lima beans are spreading all over the place, and 2 of my eggplants are getting bigger and finally looking like eggplants. Most of my cukes are still tiny and I can't wait for them to take off.

[surviort_wwdnet]

We went to Lowes this morning after the roofing guy came by with some paperwork. I got some potting soil, three 27-gallon bins for the garden shed, a soaker hose, pool shock, and more catnip seeds. I planted 5 black soybeans, and one each acorn squash, spaghetti squash, zucchini, yellow squash, and okra.

I watered the garden, trimmed off some dead stuff, sprayed the bag garden with Natria, lugged in a case of quart canning jars from the garden shed and put them in the dishwasher to run after dinner, and now it's 94, I'm dripping sweat, and am heading out to cut some lettuce. Then it's almost time to swim, thank goodness If I was a trooper, I'd go set off a bug bomb in the garden shed in preparation for the cleanup... we'll see.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Here is the two cukes in the Kratky totes....this was yesterday and you can see how small the one towards the bottom of the pic is....I will take another pic tomorrow as the smaller one has grown quite a bit....I now have all three red cayenne peppers coming up in there as well. Still thinks it needs to be under some sort of cover as rain will fill it up and the fertilizer in the red filling bucket will not be able to trickle in...

[surviort_wwdnet]

They look healthy - nice bright green leaves and looks like a lot of tendrils. ???? What about shade cloth? That would keep some of the rain off too. Speaking of rain, we could use some up here!????

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

did not think about shade cloth....
we are supposed to have 70% chance of rain with severe thunderstorms, but we will see. Plan on fertilizing today before the rain if it does come....
Couple questions from a new gardener....how often to water and how often to fertilize? I have heard different thoughts on YT and read different things. Would love to hear your thoughts...

[surviort_wwdnet]

We also were supposed to have storms - we got 5 minutes of rain. I didn't water because I was expecting a deluge. Weatherliars...

Bag garden gets watered every morning as indicated by the potting soil color (light brown = thirsty, dark brown = moist). I have a moisture analyzer but it lies just like the weathermen. I just lightly fertilized my bag garden today after it being planted for a couple of months. That will get watered in tonight when the irrigation system runs. As I empty parts of the container garden, I add fertilizer and work it into the raised bed soil, then water, before I replant. Potting soil is supposed to feed for 6 months but if the plants start looking tired, it's time to supplement.

I thought one of my spaghetti squash plants was done for, but I fertilized it and now it's got new growth, so I tied up the new growth to the trellis net with soft velcro to keep it from laying on the ground and to encourage it to attach tendrils to the net. I go out every day and walk through the rows to see if anything needs to be maintained. My husband laughs at me and asks me if I'm out preaching to the garden! Maybe I do talk to the plants sometimes...

To see if water is needed, stick your finger into the soil about 2-3". If the soil is moist at that depth, water isn't needed yet. Grow bags are notorious for drying out quickly as they drain very efficiently. Don't forget to remove dead leaves as needed. Most of mine that die are the very bottom leaves, due to laying in the moist soil or being overly shaded by higher growth. As long as I'm still seeing blossoms and new growth, I don't worry about a few dead leaves.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Okay, I water daily and sometime twice a day for grow bags....If it has been clear skies and sun beating down on them and soil looks dry I will water them that second time, but only lightly, while the sun is still on them. I like to feed plants that are producing daily as I just think they need a little more, kinda like a pregnant mom needs a little more....just my thought...not sure its true...

Others I will water daily for the most part.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Same kind of weather here, and same kind of routine. I water first thing in the morning, and after dinner if the plants are looking taxed.

Finally got the garden shed cleaned out and reorganized - that took the majority of my day but it looks great and now I have a lot of extra room. I'll need maybe one more bin (later).

[surviort_wwdnet]

Veggie dysphoria

My confused yellow squash/zucchini

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Interesting....seems like a little shenanigans was going on after dark in that garden....

[surviort_wwdnet]

LOL! Looks like cross-dressing...I mean cross-pollination to me! It's okay - for my purposes, there's not a wit of difference between the two.