by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. June 7, 2014 post here. June 9, 2013 post here.

Things have changed a lot in two years. The cucumbers and peppers are much larger this year than in 2013. I think a big part of that is because we spread the cucumbers out more — the EarthBox instructions call for four in a row along one side of the box. This year we put two on each side with the fertilizer strip down the middle. There is only one “Calypso” — it’s not competing with anything else, and it’s growing faster than every other cucumber we have. It has blooms! Progress!

(In theory the right answer is to prune out the weakest zucchini and cucumbers and leave only one per hole. I’m hesitant to do that though, because if something happens to the solo plant we’re starting over from scratch. This year we pruned the cucumbers back to two per hole, mostly. However, if the “Calypso” continues to beat the bejeezus out of the other cucumbers then we maybe we’ll need to take a deep breath and go with one per hole in the future… Ultimately the final yield will tell use what to do — two plants at 60% production create more food than one plant at 100%… we’ll see how it shakes out.)

Clockwise from front right on a very bright day:  “Calypso” cucumber, Lemon cucumber (2), National Pickling cucumber(2), Lemon cucumber (2) –

For comparison, here are the 2013 Marketmore cucumbers. (This year’s Marketmores are similar to the picture above):

The photo below is facing north. It’s a direction I don’t usually use to take pictures-

Left side, front to back – basil, peppers, tomato

Center – Marketmore cucumbers, pretty container, tomatoes

3rd row – cucumbers, tomatillo, tomato

Far back right – Tromboncino zucchini

A more conventional view. Tomatoes and zucchini on the left. Peppers in the front. The basil (front right) is still floppy, but it’s now growing upwards:

A closeup of the Tromboncino zucchini. The four plants have been trained to their own “space”. One plant on one half of each side of the A-frame trellis. Note the complete absence of powdery mildew.. so far the 1/3 milk spray is working. Or it’s just early yet:

The tomatillos. “De Mipa” on the left. “Mexican Strain” on the right. The “De Mipa” is doing it’s usual flopping thing, and “Mexican Strain” is catching up:

Next week I’ll try to get pictures in the early morning before the direct sun kicks in. I think that makes for much better photos. Today that wasn’t a possibility. Hopefully by next week we’ll have a lot more little veggies to look at.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. June 1, 2014 mini post here. June 7, 2014 post here. (Note the basil, third picture down, front right. More on that below.)

The growth in the garden is accelerating rapidly — here are the first tomatoes (Sweet Million):

The potted raspberries have around 100 fruits or so. It’s year three and they’re really getting going. There’s bird netting strung up over the cage:

The cucumbers and zucchini simultaneously decided it was time to start getting grabby. The “Calypso” cucumbers:

The Tromboncino:

Today saw the first dose of calcium nitrate for the tomato plants (1 tsp down the feed tube). Tomorrow I’m going to try a milk/water solution on the leaves of the zucchini as a preventative against powdery mildew. Hope it works.

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As compared to last year, this year’s basil is twisted, floppy, and sickly looking. The plan is now to harvest it next week and try again with better starts. I don’t think we’ll be using Tilth for basil anymore. Bah.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. May 30, 2014 post here.

I can’t imagine how blown away ancient man must have been when introduced to the concept of planting seeds. I’d guess that it happened like many other of humanities’ great discoveries — totally by accident. Uneaten seeds were thrown into a “garbage” pile, and after a while the garbage pile sprouted food. I’d like to think it wouldn’t have taken that long to figure out what was going on, but with people being people, who knows?

Just a few pea seeds, almost haphazardly thrown around, and bingo. Total Force Multiplier:

I broke down and attached a spare piece of netting for the peas. I’m sure it’ll improve the results.

As an aside:  We went to the local P-patch today to look around — Lots of peas, lettuces, carrots, and various types of alliums. Some tomatoes and tomatillos. One tiny little bit of corn, and one of beans. A little bit of squash. Not a cucumber in sight. The groupthink seemed almost monolithic in its decision making.

That doesn’t make any sense to me. Our cucumbers out-produce everything expect maybe the tomatoes. Maybe they’ll all plant cucumbers after the peas are done?

My guess is no. The food bank boxes are densely planted and well maintained. The other boxes, not so much. It might be because they’ve got so much space to play with, but to my mind they’re “wasting” a lot of it. There are “big” areas with nothing going on… Today is basically June 1st, shouldn’t there be something growing? (Or maybe it’s just me, and that having to deal with super finite space all the time has made me feel like wasted space = wasted opportunity. It’s really my problem, not theirs…. Nah.)

Back to our stuff. Clockwise from the top left:  a “Calypso” cucumber (the other one got broken by something), Lemon cucumbers, “National Pickling” cucumbers, Lemon cucumbers.

For scale reference:  The squares are 8″ x 8″.

The tomatillos. The Mexican Strain is on the right. It’ll have a vertical habit. The de Mipa is on the left — it’ll sprawl somewhat. The de Mipa is “ahead” of the Mexican Strain. That’s the opposite of what happened last year. I think last year’s Mexican Strain was a stronger plant:

The tomatoes, with the Tromboncino in the back. Nothing is huge yet — the tallest of the indeterminates are about waist high. (The Sweet Millions, middle left.) Note the pvc attached with cable ties for cage support and the labels attached with clothespins. It’s less work, and less thinking every year that we continue to do this — those are old, and preassembled ideas. (Just like the new trellises this year, next year we won’t have to build them again.) I’ll likely reference this photo again in about a month for comparison:

It’s been cloudy the last few days, but it’s not stopping the peppers:

The Tromboncino. There are four plants, one in each corner of the box. They’ll need to be coaxed to the sides and onto the main trellis soon. I added some netting going from the box to the sides, just it case it helps:

Note the repurposed binder clips, holding the net onto the box. Those were used to attach the row covers this last winter. The clothespins now securing the labels did double duty that way too.

I really enjoyed this cat meme. Here you go:

 

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. May 16, 2014 post here.

We spent five hours on Saturday building three new trellises and attaching the netting, assembling Ultomato cages, and caging & staking all of the plants as needed:

It looks really different than last year. The 8′ trellis contains the Tromboncino. The 6′ trellises are for cucumbers and the tomatillos.

I still need to add the tomato cage supports (pvc lengths with elbows.)

For reference, pictured below is a partly-completed trellis. It’s 6′ tall, the crossbars are 3′. Home Depot sells the RTA12 corner supports and associated screws. The tops get connected with 3 galvanized hinges that are 1-1/2″ on each side of the hinge:

Five hours was longer than we’d planned for. Everything took some time and it added up. Fortunately we won’t need to build any more trellises any time soon.

Next time I think I’ll spread the staking out over a few days. Oof.

by A.J. Coltrane

I’ll stick with “Container Garden”, though right now it’s basically “EarthBox Garden” again.

The vegetables were purchased on Saturday, May 2. The cucumbers and zucchini were transplanted on May 3. On the night of May 5 it got down to right around 40 degrees, so I rolled those three EarthBoxes into the garage for the evening. (The other stuff was already coming in every night.) By the middle of last week it looked like we didn’t have any more really cold nights coming up, so on the Thursday the 7th I transplanted everything else after work. As of yesterday, it’s all settling in:

Front Row: Determinate tomatoes (Cosmonaut Volkav & Roma), Sweet Peppers (King of the North), Peppers (Lipstick, Iko Iko, Carmen), Peppers (mix of sweet & hot), Basil

Row Two:  Indeterminate Tomatoes (Sweet Million & Black Krim), Determinate Tomatoes (Taxi & Oregon Spring), Pretty Flower Container, Cucumbers (Marketmore 76)

Row Three:  Indeterminate Tomatoes (SunGold, Tigerella), Tomatillos (Mexican Strain & de Mipa), Cucumbers (Lemon, National Pickling, “Calypso”)

Row Four:  “Tromboncino” zuchinni

 

Rear view,from a 2nd-story window:

Far row: Basil, Peppers, Peppers, Peppers, D. Tomatoes

2nd row:  Cucumbers, Pretty Flower Container, D. Tomatoes, I. Tomatoes

3rd row:  Cucumbers, Tomatillos, I. Tomatoes

Closest:   Tromboncino zucchini

 

We didn’t want to devote a container to peas, so I threw a few “seeds” into spare pots. They’re just now starting to peek out of the soil:

Those are Ultimato stakes stuck into where the walkway meets the grass. The string may need a little more help, but it’s a start. (I guess I could have used netting, but I already had the string..)

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Do you like mockumentaries? Does a silly movie about vampires sound like your thing? Then go see “What We Do In The Shadows.” It follows the “lives” of four vampires “sharing a flat in New Zealand”.

by A.J. Coltrane

High winds, intermittent heavy rain, and new plants. Not a good combination. The EarthBox with the tomatillos got rolled under cover next to the house. The tomatoes and peppers are hiding in the cold frame:

The picture makes the plants look shorter than they really are. As of right now the peppers are spindly enough that they need the protection. I left the lid mostly open so that they wouldn’t cook if the sun came out.

 

by A.J. Coltrane

We purchased $135 of vegetable starts on Saturday at the Seattle Tilth edible plant sale. (All descriptions from the Tilth PDF.)

[Comments:  The cucumbers and zucchini have been planted. The tomatillos arrived in tiny pots that instantly dessicated, so they got planted and are rolled into the garage at night. The other plants are still in their original pots — they come into the garage at night too. I came home today to see the wind beating the hell out of everything, so bedtime in the garage came early. The cucumbers and zucchini are low-slung enough that they should be ok.

I think that each year we’ve targeted shorter and shorter maturity dates. There are no more Bradywines. We didn’t do 80-100 day Brussels Sprouts this year. I’m interested to see if we really *are* moving the maturity dates that much — it will likely result in a mathy blog post at some point.]

The List:

Tomatoes (8 total, 2 per box, 4 boxes):

Sweet Million (Cherry) – 65-75 days. Indeterminate. 3 ft. tall plants produce 1-1 1/2 in. fruit in grape-like clusters. 65-75 days. One of the besttasting red cherries with a crisp sweet flavor. Fusarium Wilt (races 1 and 2) and Tobacco Mosaic Virus resistant. Winner of best cherry tomato at the 2007 Tilth Tomato Tasting.

Sungold (Cherry) – 65 days. Indeterminate. Wow! Sungold’s fruity or tropical flavor is a big hit with everyone who tastes it. Apricot-orange round 1 1/4 in. fruit. 10-20 fruits on grape-like trusses. Generally we try to offer open pollinated and heirloom varieties, but we just can’t give up Sungold! Winner of Best Cherry Tomato at the 2005 and 2006 Tilth Tomato Tasting.

Black Krim – 75 days. Open pollinated heirloom. Indeterminate. From the Black Sea region of Russia, these 10-12oz beefsteak type tomatoes have a strong, rich flavor that is common with black tomatoes. One seed catalog noted that the fruit is best when half green and still firm. Very productive. Reportedly is a consistent favorite at tastings, so why not give it a shot?

Cosmonaut Volkov – 68 days. Open pollinated heirloom. Semi-determinate. Ukranian variety named after a Russian Cosmonaut. This tomato delivers that perfect sweet-tart beefsteak flavor in an early-maturing variety. Fruit are large 10oz – 1lb and produce reliably by mid-August.

Oregon Spring – 60 days. Determinate. An extra-early variety that sets loads of meaty fruits weighing 3 to 5 oz. Compact plants set fruits even in cool weather and continue to yield all season long. Nearly seedless. A perfect choice for ketchup and sauces.

Roma (sauce) – 75 days. Determinant. Premium canning tomato, ideal for sauce and paste. Pear-shaped scarlet fruits are thick and meaty with few seeds.

Taxi – 65 days. Open pollinated. Determinate, early, prolific production. The best yellow tomato for short season gardeners. Expect heavy yields of mild, non-acid tomatoes for 3-4 weeks. Grows well in a container.

Tigerella – 65 days. Open pollinated. English Heirloom. Indeterminate. Interesting green turning to red and orange tiger-striped fruit . Very early and prolific – produces throughout the season. Excellent for salads. Low acidity variety.

[Comments:  Six repeats. Cosmonaut Volkov is new. I’ve wanted to try it for a couple of years now. This is the first time we’ve had a space and the variety was available at the sale. The other new tomato is the Sweet Million. It should complement the SunGold nicely.]

 

Tomatillo (2 plants, 1 box):

De Milpa – 60 days. Open pollinated. Mexican heirloom. “Di milpa” means “from the fields”, as this type commonly grows wild in the cornfields of Latin America. Small fruit but great storage quality, remains green and firm weeks after picking.

Mexican Strain – 65 days. Open pollinated. At 2 inches, these fruit are larger than most tomatillos. They are savory and fresh tasting, great for making salsa verde or adding a Mexican flavor to your dishes. Tomatillos produce tons of fruit on sprawling vines, but don’t usually need to be trellised. Fruits will burst out of husks and fall to the ground when they are ripe.

[Comments:  Both repeats. The Mexican Strain has a vertical habit. The De Milpa sprawls by comparison. They fit well in a box together. It ain’t broke…]

 

Cucumber (8 total, 4 per box, 2 boxes):

Calypso (Pickling) – 52 days. An early producer with astoundingly abundant yields, ‘Calypso’ is also highly disease-resistant, making it any easy care and dependible pickling cuke. You can expect 1″ x 3″, blocky, medium-green fruits–just the right size for snacking. Preserve some of the harvest for the lean months of winter, give ‘Calypso’ a try!

National Pickling (Pickling) – 52 days. The premium pickling cuke! Bears heavy crops of 6 inch average cucumbers perfect for pickles. Crispy and sweet, this cucumber is also good for slicing.

Lemon (x2) – 70-75 days. Open pollinated heirloom. Dating back to the 1890’s, this old variety is a favorite among many cool season gardeners. 3-4 foot, semi-bush type plants bear loads of apple-shaped cucumbers with lemon-colored skins. Thin skins and mild, sweet flesh make them a joy to eat whole right from the garden! Best harvested when the size of limes. Hermaphrodite – Flowers contain both male and female reproductive parts, which means abundant yields in the garden!

Marketmore 76 (x4) – 63 days. Open pollinated. In the Marketmore series, ‘Marketmore 76’ is very popular with organic growers due to its high level of disease resistance. This dark green slicing variety produces abundant, high quality, uniform fruits about 8 inches long with a wonderful cucumber flavor. This is your classic, all-around cucumber!

[Comments:   The Marketmores have been hugely successful both years, so they get their own box. We had a Lemon cucumber two years ago that did great, so those get 1/2 of a box. Two new varieties of pickling cucumbers fill the 2nd box. Each of the pickling cucumbers is super early. Hopefully we’ll get a staggered harvest from the three broad types.]

 

Zucchini (4 plants, 1 box):

Tromboncino – 60-80 days. Open pollinated heirloom. A Seattle Tilth favorite, the flesh of this variety has a smooth buttery texture and a mild flavor—the taste of summer! The 12 to 18” long fruits are “trombone”- shaped and can grow in curly cues or hang like bells on a trellised vine. Harvest when they are a pale, grass green or leave a few fruits at the end of the season to mature to a buff color and enjoy them as you would a winter squash.

[Comments:  We have yet to have much success with zucchini. This is the 2nd year of the Tromboncino. They’ll get a more premium location this year, and I’ll probably harvest them more aggressively. They will also be less crowded — the weak sisters are going to get pruned. Hopefully all of that will contribute to us harvesting the same million pounds of zucchini everyone else gets…]

 

Peppers (18 plants, 6 per box, 3 boxes. The first three are hot, the rest are sweet.):

Anaheim College 64 (hot) – 74 days. Open pollinated. Medium hot flavor make these short season peppers a hit for dips, sauces, stuffing with cheese or roasting. They are just like the anaheims you find in the store but without having traveled all those miles to get to you!

Early Jalapeno (hot) – 66 days. Open pollinated. Hottest and fully ripe when they turn red but most is familiar in the green stage. 2 ft. tall plants produce 3 in. peppers. Will set fruit in cooler conditions better than other hot peppers.

NuMex Highlander (hot) 65 days. An early Anaheim type pepper in the NuMex line developed by the Chili Pepper Institute of New Mexico State University. Produces earlier and has longer fruits than Joe E. Parker. The plants are large and tall and very productive bearing 7 inch long fruit. Try these peppers sliced and stuffed with red rice, goat cheese and parsley for a simple dinner. Or throw on the barbecue and blacken to accompany your favorite grilled fish.

Bullnose Bell (x2) – 58 days. Large Sweet Spanish. Heirloom. An extra early maturing variety that ripens from green to red. Sweet, sweet flesh contrasts with spicy interior ribs–very nice! Originally from India and very prolific!

Carmen (x2) – 60 – 80 days. Lusciously sweet when left to fully ripen to a deep red, this pepper is perfect for chopping and tossing straight into a salad. A great container plant and a good addition to a sunny veggie bed. 6 inch fruits on an upright plant.

Iko Iko (x2) – 65 days. A reliable, sturdy and upright sweet pepper for cooler climates. Produces a variety of colors, from lavender, purple, yellow and lime green when immature to tangerine and red streaked with purple when fully ripe! Lovely specimen plant for containers

King of the North (x6) – 76 days. Open Pollinated. Here is a sweet bell pepper that will mature in short season climates. Its crisp, blocky fruit will turn from medium green to red if left on plant longer. Excellent raw in salads or dips. Great to use as stuffed pepper or in tempura recipes.

Lipstick (x2) – 55 days. Open pollinated. Early and productive, a great choice for a short season! Chunky, triangular peppers with very nice, sweet flavor.

Yellow Mini Bell (x1) from the Master Gardeners plant sale.

[Comments: The King of the North have been our most successful, so they get a full box. The Lipstick, Anaheim, and Jalapeno are repeats. The others are relatively fast maturing varieties that looked interesting.]

 

and Sweet Basil. 6 plants. 1 box.

[Comments: It’s Basil. We Love Basil.]

 

That was a way longer post than I’d intended, but now it’s documented for next year.