What have you done today in the Garden?

Say Mel, why were you plucking so many blooms off. Fill me in.

 

@Sjoerd I believe she picking them off to encourage more growth rather than producing fruit. There is a bunch of vids out there suggesting that along with the ones saying to prune the tops.

 

Well Clay, I have heard of it…just not plucking so many. Here we usually pluck one or sometimes two, but no more. It was just me being curious. My Bride always says that I have perhaps too many questions. Chuckle.

 

@Sjoerd LOL curiosity is bad unless you are a cat then not so good.

 

Too right, Clay. I’ll just label myself as a cool cat then. Purrdy good idea, don’t you think?

 

Mucked about making a trail through a hillside.



Then I watered in miniature Iris and black-eyed Susans I transplanted yesterday.

 

Looking verrry goooooooood, Jewell.
You are doing such a good job. Are you getting some help?

 

I indulged in tomato bondage this morning. I tied up the Romas to the trellis while playing "catch me if you can" with the plants. We had the usual mild Texas breeze! One of the two cherry tomato plants looks really good, the other, sickly. Can't figure it out, but perhaps the plant was a dud from the start.
Also got the garlic weeded. I am a magnet for the weird and garlic is a magnet for weeds.
Could have picked more lettuce, but decided to let the salad spinner have a day off.

 

Delightful reading your garden adventures, Jane. You are so far ahead of me.

 

Hiya Sjoerd I love curious and I am curious by nature - so please always ask me anything. ( except my weight....that would be a deal breaker even if I was a piece of fluff that could blow away in a windstorm Age...don't care - it's just a number. )

I hope it is okay to merge your question in with a post I was going to make.

My peppers and tomatoes are kind of in the same boat regarding having to start them very early in order to have ripened fruit at the end of the short season. Otherwise it is always a diet of green tomatoes and underipe small bitter peppers.

I start my tomatoes at the end of Feb/first week of March with hopes of a mid to late May transplant. I start my peppers the second week in January with the hope of a mid to end of May transplant to the greenhouse. If I did not have a heated soil cable this would bump to the first or second week of June.

With the peppers my focus is on having as mature of a plant and root system as possible, so that when it is growing it's magic in the greenhouse the large healthy plant sends out multiple flowers and as many peppers as possible in a short period of time. The peppers below were ready to come out of a 1 gallon pot after four pot ups indoors.

If I allow the plant to flower before I have it transplanted it to the greenhouse, all of it's energy is put into forming the peppers, instead of becoming a large healthy plant.

Removing the blossoms does not hurt it, and actually once the plant is throwing blossoms and I remove them it seems to grow with a lot of vigor - part of its plant survival life cycle I guess. The more times I remove blossoms - the more it produces next time it seems. If I allow the first blossoms to remain while I am still growing indoors the plant remains very small. With this process, I have a harvest around the beginning of August, and have once been fortunate enough for a second small harvest of unripe peppers. It is why I do so many plants....I have one kick at the cat to have peppers.

I also pinch my peppers once they have twelve true leaves. If I don't the pepper only produces fruit in the canopy instead of having multiple side branches. If I wait too long after twelve true leaves ( which I accidently did on a couple this year) they still produce side shoots but their height is stunted. I also messed up and pinched the stem instead of the tiny little new growth cluster in the middle and have a couple of stocky plants this year. I try to do a second pinch of new growth that is 6 inches long, but I don't always catch that bus.

Each pinch off sets the plant back about two weeks, but pays off with multiple branching and more peppers in the long run. I have to weigh the delay in growth with my timing for transplanting - To pinch or not pinch....aye - that is the question.

The peppers we transplanted out were anywhere from 24 to 18 inches tall and ready to get out of a 1 gallon pot. They are covered in flower buds and I'm hoping once the evening temps warm up they will set fruit. The ones in the photos in the back raised bed have a heated soil cable burried about 8 inches down that maintains at 14 C to help the roots.

Right now I have lows of 3 C with a risk of frost, so everyone is tented around two heat lamps at night. ( please note the green clips holding the remay/frost row cover fabric together Sjoerd...great purchase at your recommendation last year )



The tomatoes aren't very pleased in this photo with the cool nights, but their roots are happy with the soil cable and they will be okay.




You can see the pepper on the right with leggy top growth - that train left the station without me and I didn't get a second pinch in. It will need a cage to support the peppers. The are Big Chili Hybrids and Aruba. They are 24 inches tall. All have multiple flower buds that really want to open ( if that wicked woman would stop taking out any commrade that has shown itself for the last month...)



These are Sweet Banana Peppers. Hubby made these planters for me. They are on raised foam seedling blocks that were given to me. It helps them to not have the cold ground radiated onto the roots, even though the floor of the greenhouse is covered in black roofing shingles to help with the heat, it is still toque and mittens weather in the mornings until about 10 am.



These ( below) were planted March 17 and on their third pot up. They are an experiment to see how they do compared to the ones started two months earlier. It is supposed to be a hot summer and they will be in the raised bed behind them once the world warms up a bit more. Maybe mid June. They are not throwing any blooms yet. I'm hoping to transplant them around the same time as the first flowers...just to see what happens. They will not have a heated soil cable so the soil must be warm enough.

 

Melody Mc an impressive paced full greenhouse. And it’s normal to pinch plants . I alway do that too to get side branches instead of a tall spindly plant. Your greenhouse is full of veggies . Sending good vibes for a full harvest.

 

This posting of yours is such a good one. It is an example of sub-arctic gardening at its most interesting. All of your timings and methods are what have to be done to have a successful season. I have enormous respect for you and your adaptability. One small example is using the styrofoam under your bakkies. A simple solution…but one has to think of it.

Great posting, mate.

 

Did some weeding and strimming outside the fence. it looks so much better.
Planted some toms in the greenhouse.
On the way to out lottie, we saw a large hare a few allotments away. This is potentially a disastrous thing. I am a bit worried.

 

Won this caption contest some of you all may of heard of; now the search for picture begins..............

 

Thank you for the kind comments Sjoerd. And...that Hare is a worry. Is your lottie fenced?