Mystery Seedlings

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Maybe they would like aerogardens...essentially plant and forget. No bugs, temperature controlled, get notices on when it needs fertilizer and H2O. They make small ones, IIRC, that has like two or three pod holders.

Yeah, three pod... https://www.aerogarden.com/sprout-2020.html maybe perfect to get your granddaughter in the garden mode...

So, we looked up the sunflower thing and found exactly what you said...normal. Our garden going well now...the Red Kuri squash is really looking good as well as the straight eight cucumbers and Ali Baba watermelons. These were planted about 3 weeks ago, so they are still growing. The three crimson sweet watermelons are growing and looking good. The cantaloupe is getting more of the brown, rough skin and looking good. Beefsteaks have flowers and peppers as well. I think things are doing better as we are getting more rain, and the sun is shifting a bit. The heat is still here, but maybe a degree or two cooler during days as we are not in the triple digits like we were a month ago.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Sounds like rain and a slight drop in temps is just the ticket for your garden. Your plants & produce will spend less energy fighting the heat and focus on growing 👍 There is only so much energy living things can expend.

It's cooler today after the monsoons rolled through. The temp dropped almost 20°! I'm noticed that the cauliflower is sprouting, and so are the beefsteaks 😆 and...well, everything has sprouted. This weather is just what my seeds needed.

I'll see if I can interest them in an aero garden. Daughter isn't keto but is low-carbing it, and my granddaughter is an athlete, so both need healthy food. By the time we got home from the airport, husband and granddaughter went fishing, and we had time for a quick swim before the rains came. It was raining sideways! We visited for a while and then got dinner ready, ate, and turned on some football. Turned my daughter onto toffee peanuts, my favorite snack, and looks like we need to make some more! 😂 That's about it for today - just loving having my daughter and granddaughter here.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

So glad they are there...family is so important.

Planted my Aerogardens yesterday....with just pepper plants, and only six of them as my wife is really loving her fresh peppers. So six different types of her choice got planted today after the units were cleaned and sanitized. One thing I have learned is that if you plant in every hole then things get out of control as the plants fight for the light. So, this time I only planted six, four in the big unit and two in the small unit. May be under-kill but I would like to have good plants and harvest. I have tomatoes going outside that seem to be doing good...just started to flower, so adding more peppers for her was what was important right now. We have some mild jalapeños, seranos and cayenne peppers outside, but she wanted some a little "hotter"....:eek:

[surviort_wwdnet]

It's so nice that you're planting your wife's favorites. I need to see about aero gardens for the coming winter. Has she frozen any of them or just eating them?

I hadn't seen my daughter and granddaughter for almost 3 years, so it's been wonderful to have them here. I've always gone to NY to see them once or twice a year, but CV and other health issues on both ends of the east coast paused those visits. My oldest grandson and family came for a drive-by visit last summer at the end of their vacation but my daughter hasn't been able to get away.

Tomorrow I need to go out in the container garden and pull weeds - just a few days of neglect and it's ridiculous!! The last tomato plants need pulled and one of my squash plants has wrapped tendrils all over them😡😂 I did get one spent eggplant pulled and into the trash. Some of my new seedlings are already due for transplant - unbelievable. The jalapenos are going crazy right now and I need to harvest them, along with some Bell peppers. I'm going to hold off on the spaghetti squash for a few more days.

I sprayed everything and there was a cloud of aphids. Durn things! Trying to keep up but it's hard with people here and more fun things to do. Of course, we spent the morning shopping, so I can't complain too much😉 Then we went swimming...and I never complain about that!

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Wife has been dehydrating the peppers we have not eaten. She just puts all peppers together to make a pepper "powder". We gave several away to our neighbor as well. They said they cannot eat a hamburger now without sliced jalapeños mixed into the grown beef.

fertilizer day today for the garden. We now have what looks like loquat fruit showing up, so this will be a nice surprise. Cantaloupe and watermelons seem to be doing okay. Corn has worms so they will get pulled today...guess I started too late with the sevin....

[surviort_wwdnet]

Shame about the corn🥺 Next year you can start treating earlier. Use Neem oil.

Pepper powder - interesting concept - I like it! How does she use it?

Picked half a dozen jalapenos today and made jalapeno poppers wrapped in bacon and air fried - my daughter loves them👍 It was nice to have someone in the house who will eat them. BTW, they weren't hot at all but tasted like jalapenos. Also picked a few bell peppers and tossed them in the crisper. My pinto bean seedlings need transplanted before they fall over! I watered both gardens but didn't get any weeds pulled. That may have to wait while my daughter and granddaughter are here - this time is precious.

Fishing trip tomorrow morning and swimming afterward. Swimming every day, actually😁 Granddaughter and husband watched a movie after dinner - she really came to see him anyway💜

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Pepper powder in anything she wants to have a little more spice taste. Some jalapeños are not that hot and yet other varieties are. Grandson headed over as mommy has appointment, so garden will get another set of eyes looking at it this morning...LOL...he is 18 months old...he does love going outside with me though...

[surviort_wwdnet]

That's so sweet - they are wonderful at that age, full of wonder and curiosity and boundless energy!

Took the granddaughter fishing at Whitey's Fish Camp - she is totally at peace when she's fishing, ate some lunch, and headed on home. Hot and sticky day so we jumped in the pool. No work of any kind today, inside or out. Nice for a change.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

pulled up corn and getting those bags ready for something else. Cannot let good soil go to waste. So what can I put in there? peppers? LOL

Everything else is doing okay, fertilized and watered in the morning and copper fungicide in the evening. Cantaloupes are growing, melons are growing and tomatoes have flowers. Peppers are popping. Will sevin everything today.

I really believe that the few degree drop in temp has been very helpful to the garden. Things just look better.

The lack of work in garden has given me time to work on a med class I am teaching Friday, so that was a nice break.

[surviort_wwdnet]

It's 84^o, down from 103^o about 2 hours ago - the garden is looking wilty...

Peppers? Definitely! I used one bell pepper today for a crustless pizza, and 3 more in the crisper awaiting my command. I got my sky-high pinto beans planted in the bag garden, and sprayed everything with some Bonide for powdery mildew. It was honestly too hot to be pulling weeds, so we went swimming instead. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

What kind of med class are you teaching?

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

I have several classes, but I call them Armed Citizen Casualty Care or AC3....this one I am teaching tomorrow is a 2 hour class on stopping the bleed. I am an instructor for Stop the Bleed, but this company wanted me to customize a class for them. They wanted a basic class and then said several of their employees want further instruction. I have built my classes to be 2-4 or 8 hours depending on what depth people want. Most will start with 2 hours and then decide on more...

Sprayed Sevin yesterday, but not much else except watering. Just waiting on melons to grow, and peppers to keep producing. Tipped my container over to look at sweet potatoes and they seem to be doing well, so put container back on and tipped back upright. Not sure when they are "done" though. Cucumbers, Red Kuri squash seem to be doing well. Cut a bunch of oregano and dehydrated for us and gave a bunch to neighbor for dehydration. Have much more to cut and give away or keep for us. Have a bunch of new growth on basil as well...I clipped some small branches off Mulberry tree and just pushed into ground. Leaves wilted and died and brach bent over. Left in ground and a week later have leaves showing. Now about 6 weeks latter we have a small plant...so soon I will be able to transplant 4 mulberry bushes. Neighbor has done the same except they are doing about ten plants....

[surviort_wwdnet]

Interesting class! I always did 1st aid/cpr training and some 1st responder training. I took a wilderness survival class back in the day, but don't think I could do some of the physical/lifts/carry texhniques that I could then😉

Sounds like your garden is going great! Sweet potatoes are done when 1) the vines start dying off; 2) when they get to the size you want them. I've overwintered sweet potatoes and they were fine. You can kind of feel around under the soil to get an idea of their size.

I think I need some kind of berry plants. I'll have to start looking into that after my family goes back to NYS😢 We've had a great week doing nothing special but catching up and watching some football.

All of my seedlings are begging to be transplanted. I can do that next week, and pull those weeds I didn't get around to. Granddaughter wasn't interested in gardening, but she loved the pool and hot tub. She's 14 and a typical electronics-addicted teenager, but also plays softball, soccer, and basketball, and loves to fish. We went twice and maybe tomorrow if she can get up before noon😂

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

I bought a mulberry tree from Lowes this year. Then I found out you can literally take off a branch and shove it into ground. If you do this it will look like it died after about 8-10 days, but keep watering it. All mine that I have done this (6 in total) have started growing leaves again. The first time I did it, I was close to pulling it and calling it a failure. Then i noticed little green buds showing us and now they are all doing well. Not time to transplant them, but doing well. I plan on trimming these to remain a bush instead of a tree as they will be easier to get the berries. My tree, I will top off at about 8'-10' so I can harvest the berries easier. Neighbor has done the new propagation as well. Not sure about other "berry" plants/trees.

We are keeping our fingers crossed on melons and cantaloupes that they keep doing well. I have Red Kuri squash showing some buds for flowers and my Ali Baba watermelons have a few flowers showing up. Tomato flowers are taking their sweet time to open, but trying to be patient.

It was actually only 75 degrees this morning when we got up....maybe, just maybe we will continue to see a drop in overnight temps. Yesterday it was only 95 degrees at about 2pm...not sure of the temp at 4pm though, but it was warm.

[surviort_wwdnet]

I was up at 6:30 this morning and it was about 75°; now at 10:30 it's 91°🥵 I'm wishing for autumn!

I'll have to look for mulberry at Lowe's - likely in the spring. Right now I'm going to have a full time job getting the gardens back in shape!! My spaghetti squash is ready to harvest but it's too hot to turn on the oven to bake it. It's just going into the freezer anyway so a couple more days won't hurt it.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

You don't need an oven to cook things in the summer if FL, just set it out on the side of the asphalt and it will cook itself...:p

Have you thought of making a solar oven? I have looked at them over the years, and thought about making one a few times this summer, but never got around to it....

If you lived close by, I would give you a branch or two from my Mulberry tree...