Lupara

For the performative unwoke: Every generation grows more tolerant than the last unless fascism rules.

The Mrs. has been admiring them on the morning walks. Yesterday I stopped, took a pic and told her I knew who to ask.

Seed display racks in the big box and hardware stores were largely wiped out as well. 

Now the question is how many new gardners will continue gardening after life gets back to somewhat normal.  My guess would be around half.

I don't know about Dubois but the greenhouses sold out very early this year in Elk Co. One owner said there were many starting a garden for the first time. He said the food plants sold out weeks earlier than previous years and they couldn't replenish their stock.

1 hour ago, Petee said:

Oh Heavens, hysterical!  That sound like a lot of my learning experiences and even some today!  

Next spring, contact me on the Jefferson County Master Gardener Garden Hot Line and I can walk you through a perfect landing in the pepper patch!  That's my job.  814-7361 (508)

OK great thanks

6 hours ago, Petee said:

Have your peppers responded to anything yet?

 

They've responded all right. To about everything the Bible could throw at them. First famine in starting them in a medium where roots couldn't grow enough for the plants to feed. The peat pelt lot didn't establish well at all. The second lot established ok then came the insects. In treating the pestilence I committed the sin of spraying them with a Dawn solution in the morning of a sunny day. All this happened  is in the upper garden. I planted some other pepper varieties in the lower garden that haven't been bothered by any insects.

Dappled it is from now on.

I put the second group of tomatoes under the deck umbrella for a few days with good result. When high winds were in the forecast Friday the umbrella went to half mast.

One problem I had was when I hardened off the tomatoes I had some significant leaf burn from direct sunlight. I put them out in the morning in full sun on a sunny day. Brought them inside in the evening. After two days the burn showed up. Too much sun right away or lack of fertilizer? I can describe the plants as leggy. Tall. Some nearly 2' tall with smaller leaves if that was a factor. 

5 hours ago, Petee said:

I raise thousands of seedlings every year and I've learned to just stick with Jiffy Mix.  I add my own starter fertilizer with a mineral mix right in the seedling mix and they grow great.  I do soil blocking, set them on a germinating table, transplant them early into a larger soil block (again with the same mineral mix and a greenhouse medium or ProMix) and then into a paper pot, again with the same mineral mix and ProMix.  Once they are in the greenhouse and have grown their second leaves, I feed the peppers with tomato food.  Then every couple of weeks, again with the tomato food till the end of the year.

Soil blocking looks like the way to go for volume propagation. I'll start about 30 tomatoes  and peppers. The paper pots I used were about  2 1/2 " wide by 5 in. tall. Since it isn't many plants I don't know the advantage of blocking. I will look to improve the starting medium. You start the seeds directly in the Jiffy Mix or some type of seed starting mix? 

52 minutes ago, lavender said:

I think you are probably right about the pellets. I'm betting on the ph being too low. Peppers like a ph of 6-8. Too low a ph will cause yellowing. I found this:

"The pellets have a pH of approximately 5.3 and are wrapped in a thin, degradable net. Ideal for starting your seeds indoors! Just put a few seeds in each pellet and add water. The peat pellets expand into a self contained soil container held together thin netting."

I think pellets are ok for germinating but not for an extended period of time.

OK thanks. Good to know. I've purchased my last pellets. The method I described above for the second run worked fine.

5 hours ago, lavender said:

So how are the peppers?

I cut through the mesh of the pellet as suggested. After more that a week, maybe two there was little or no growth. I carefully lifted them up and peeled the mesh off. By then I believe it was too late. They remain stunted. I'm sure the problem was the pellets. I planted another lot of the same seed without the pellets about 20 days after starting these and they did fine. They're in the garden now. The medium  for those was potting soil with some seed starting mix at the top.

10 hours ago, Basset3 said:

Has anyone used their crockpot for making bread?

No but it occurs to me since you said this that the large round ceramic in one of our crockpots could be used in the oven. Temps called for bread baking range in the high 300's to low 400's so I suppose you could use the whole unit.

First attempt at bagels this afternoon. Good but I'll try other recipes soon. 1 tbs. minced leeks was a nice touch. I'll get my daughter to help shhape them next time.

https://www.artandthekitchen.com/bread-machine-bagels/

Made soft pretzels this afternoon with my daughter. Easy. Really easy. Versatile kitchen gadget when you start googling recipes. We'll stick with this version. 25lb. bags of flour for hotels and restaurants are showing up in the local grocery at about 50 cents a pound. Sauteed a tablespoon of minced leeks to mellow them.  Blended them into 8 ozs of cream cheese for a spread. I can see jalapenos and cheddar in the near future.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/soft-giant-pretzels/

This has been a staple lately. It originally was a whole wheat roll recipe but works just as well with regular flour making a loaf of bread.

In order into the machine:

1 1/4 cu water

2 tbs. oil

4 tbs. honey

1 1/2 tsp salt

4 cu flour

1 tbs. yeast

Dough cycle until ready.  Place in pan. Cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise for 40 to 60 min. Our convection oven on bake takes 25 to 30 min at 350*.  Golden brown or an internal temperature of 180*

A pic appears in the Bread Recipes Topic.

8 hours ago, Petee said:

The peat pellets were probably sterile but they have absolutely no nutrition in them, just peat.  If you used a potting soil in the paper pots then it would depend on which one you used.  Some of them have no nutrition at all and others are just a starting dose.

Peppers are very specific in what nutrients they want, they demand good drainage, and they like a warm temperature and lots of light.  I'll post an info sheet here for you just as soon as I find it.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/propagation/seeds/seedlings-turning-yellow.htm

You have some excellent tomatoes going there!  I'm jealous!  Mine just went into the soil blocks tonight by lantern light as we had no electric for a couple of hours.  I was teaching my 11 year old granddaughter to make the blocks while I planted and we had a really good time. I do have a really nice germinating table which has seen a lot of use and success with seedlings.

We do the paper pots also but we do not put a bottom in them as it can block too much oxygen and water.  Another part of that problem is that if they are sitting in a smooth bottomed container, then the excess water really can't drain away. You also have to keep them a little drier than plastic pots because the newspaper holds water and if the pots are pressed tightly together, you will get the same effect.  Don't water till you see that the plant leaves are looking a little dull.  Then don't over do it.It's better to keep indoor starts drier than when they go outside.

I would pick up each pot and give it a tiny sideways squeeze to get oxygen channels back into the soil and then set it back in some sort of a container that will actually drain.  Don't over water and you won't have this problem, and don't water paper pots from the bottom for the same reason.  Once your soil seems to be breathing and draining better, then you might want to try an extremely weak high nitrogen fertilizer on them but be sure they are draining freely first.

 

Great advice as well. Thanks. 

2 hours ago, lavender said:

You are welcome. Let me know what is in those starter bags. I haven't used those in years but did find that they were difficult to water if not kept really wet. Some of the stuff at the back of the racks always gets overlooked. I plant too much every year. 

They were are all of 15+ yrs. old. Left over from my seed starting days gone by. Since I wanted to reproduce the orange tomato, I started back up. I remember they swelled with water right away. These, as you described, were like getting a brick to absorb water. I almost gave up. After more water and some time they finally swelled. I threw the bag away so I don't know what the material is. I did start the same pepper variety in seed starting medium surrounded by potting soil about ten days ago. They are just coming out now. I'll watch for any yellowing with this lot and report back. Thanks again.

2 hours ago, lavender said:

Are you sure the water is getting to the roots? I would suggest that you give them a thorough watering rather than dribbling water on them. Those starter thingys that you germinated in are generally filled with peat moss that is very hard to wet once it has dried out. Peppers don't like wet feet but then again they don't like drying out either. Peat moss has a very low pH too. It is around 4.4. That would cause yellowing as well. I'd cut those bags open and at least give the plants some access to the soil in the pots. Even if it is a soilless mix it would better than what is probably in the bags. 

Peppers grow slowly and the roots don't penetrate those starter bags for a long time. The tomato roots grow much more quickly so perhaps that is why they are doing better. 

OK will do. 

I'm seeing some leaf yellowlng and in some cases the plant dies off. Not watering much. A couple tsps. a day I would say. Lavender, Petee. Any advice appreciated.

On 1/21/2020 at 3:14 PM, Petee said:

If you can take wood chips with a 24 hour notice, then go to www.budsgardeners.com

and add your location to the list.  When the tree service has chips, they will check the list to find a location, and you may be the lucky receiver.

I'll have to contact them to see if there is a hickory list.

1 hour ago, Petee said:

What seeds are you planting inside soon?  Mine will be onions, leeks and pansies for the street pots in DuBois.

I'd appreciate a heads up when its time to start peppers and tomatoes.  Any chance of having leeks at the plant bazar this spring?

On 8/28/2019 at 11:50 AM, lavender said:

Some tomatoes will cross pollinate and others are only self pollinating. Generally tomatoes self pollinate unless deliberately crossed.  San Marzano, purple Cherokee and yellow pear are  heirlooms and the seed is stable. If you save the seed you will get the same tomato if they self pollinate which they do.    Sun Gold is an F1 hybrid which means that even a self pollinated seed will not match the parent. Celebrity tomatoes are hybrids and I don't know if the seed is stable or not. Some hybrids are back bred until the seed stabilizes. Tomato breeders generally keep this a deep dark secret. From your description here I'm guessing that the F1 Sun Gold self pollinated and the resulting seed had some of the characteristics of whatever was crossed to produce the hybrid thus the larger size. What you have may or may not produce the same tomato from he saved seed. F2 hybrids are rarely stable.  I hope it tastes good!

Here is a pic of the "Orange  Holdover" tomatoes alongside some Yellow Pears. I've saved plenty of seeds for spring. The flavor is initially sweet with a slight acid finish. Tasty.