Time to Grow On

It's been an up and down start to the gardening season to say the least.  On the plus side, I've finally finished the layout, the construction of the new beds and the reconstruction and relocation of the old beds.  All that's left to really do is install some automated irrigation to all of the beds, a project that should be commenced, and hopefully completed, next month.  On the down side, the weather hasn't been as kind.  One thing you come to learn about weather in Northern Utah along the front of the Wasatch Mountains is that the only thing consistent about it is that it is inconsistent.  In the early spring, you can have a week of sunshine with highs in the 60's and lows in the 40's only to have it all turn on a dime and be followed by a week of cold rain and snow with high's in the 40's and lows in the 20's & 30's.

Needless to say, some of my spring vegetables aren't nearly as far as along as I had hoped.  Part of that is due to the weather and me not being on the move quick enough to cover some things up.  Other factors are that a number of seeds I had tried experimentally starting in straight coconut coir failed to come up.  Others are struggling to grow beyond their first sets of true leaves, probably due to the straight coir they're in and lack of regular fertilization.  This can all probably be attributed to all of the time and effort spent to detail and complete the structural components of the garden so that it can all be ready for automated irrigation before summer hits.

Anyhow, now that the structural work is virtually completed, I can start to spend more time nurturing seedlings and so on.  I actually spent some time this last week preparing and germinating some new seeds for starting indoors and planting direct out into the garden. I still have at least a good 6 to 8 weeks to get some good growth out of many of these crops in addition to what I've already been able to plant in the garden or have re-seeded into better seed mixes.  While many of the crops may never reach full maturity before I need to pull them out to make room for some summer crops (i.e. tomatoes), I think most will have the time they'll need to reach full maturity before I end up having to pull them out to get the rest of the summer crops in.  I hope to be able to have all my tomatoes ready to go and in the ground by end of May through the first week of June with eggplant, peppers, corn, melons, cucumbers, and squash to follow in the next couple weeks thereafter.  I'll be planting out several different varieties of beans we want to try through out mid-May through mid-June as much as space permits as well.

In the mean time, here's a look at some of the progress that's been made and what there is to look forward to in the next several weeks...

A couple of weeks ago, I successfully germinated a wide selection of tomato seeds in moist paper towels sealed inside of snack-sized plastic bags.  It only took them 2-3 days to germinate.  The tomato plants I now have in progress are: Super Sweet 100, Amish Paste, Abe Lincoln, Beefsteak, Big Red, Brandywine, Rainbow Cherry, Cherokee Purple, & Tomatillo (all in one flat pictured below).  In another flat I also have 8 Romas and 8 "Rainbow Heirloom" varieties, all from a mixed variety packet from Burpee that I couldn't say no to that consists of Bonny Best, Brandywine Pink, Golden Sunburst, Black Krim, Evergreen and Djena Lee's Golden Girl.  I have no idea what each will turn out to be, since I can't tell the seeds apart, so they should each be a fun surprise.  I wish I knew I was getting one of each, but the probability isn't there and I won't have the space to grow them all.  Hopefully there's at least enough diversity to make the bed they go in extra colorful.

Tomatoes in Progress

After a couple rounds of speeding up seed germination using the "Baggie" method with these tomatoes and some other seeds, I opted to see how coffee filters really compared.  While the paper towels did their job well, if the seeds weren't caught right when their radicle (first root) started to emerge, they would often end up growing into the paper towel.  Because they are so delicate at this point, you have to rip or cut out the piece of paper towel with them and still risk damaging the root which would likely kill it.  With the number of seeds I was trying to start, this process became more painstaking and tedious than I expected.  I had read that those who use coffee filters found the material to be more dense and much harder for the tiny roots to penetrate.  I picked a pack up this last week at the store and enlisted the help of my wife to make labels while I prepped the filters and wrapped the seeds in them.  I then arranged them all onto some plastic dome covers (all my flats were full) and placed them directly on top of my grow lights to give them a touch of extra warmth.

Germinating Seeds using the "Baggie Method"

As of yesterday, we successfully germinated all of the following:

All of the pics were taken yesterday, April 14th.  Note the date they were placed in the filters with the number of expected days to germination according to their seed packet.  You can click to enlarge. 

Beets (Detroit Dark Red)

Beets (Chioggia)

Swiss Chard (Rainbow)

Pak Choi

Spinach (Matador)

Spinach (Round leaf)

Spinach (Bloomsdale)

Kale (Blue Curled)

Being cold hardier and spring season crops, these seeds were all planted straight way out into the garden yesterday afternoon.  Now I'm only hoping they can still take root and survive the next few days of light snow and colder temps we'll be getting. We already woke up to a bit of snow this morning.

Indeed, the coffee filter proved to be a much better at keeping sprouting seeds from penetrating it.  While not a coffee drinker, I'm now the newest fan of coffee filters.

We also started an assortment of flowers including Marigolds, Violas,  different varieties of Cosmos & Zinnias, etc. The Marigolds and Zinnia varieties had all also sprouted as of yesterday so they were potted up last night and placed under lights. 

Other vegetable, herb, and flower seeds placed in filters and bags on the same evening (4/11/13), that had yet to germinate are: Swiss Chard (Bright Lights), Swiss Chard (Pink Flamingo), Arugula, Dill, Sweet Basil, Lemon Basil, Oregano, Painted Daisy, Lavender, and some others.  We fully expect most of these to germinate and be grown to maturity while others are solely an experiment, such as the Oregano which seeds are tiny and may or may not survive the process of moving them into a pot once and if they germinate OK. 

I had researched and read up on different steps different people use in their application of the "baggie method" for speeding up the process of germinating seeds and have tried to apply all that each of the steps that made the most sense to me and sounded reasonable.  Assuming we are able to raise most, if not all, of these germinated seeds to maturity, then I will be sure to make a future post and possibly a video documenting and demonstrating each of the steps we applied.  Some of the different steps I employed and the inspiration for the method can be found at the following places: The Wealthy Earth, Garden Betty, Robs Plants, & GardenWeb.  Simple searches of "paper towel germination" and "coffee filter germination" on YouTube can yield lots of helpful demonstrations as well.

Moving on...I was also able to plant out some Red Pontiac and more Yukon Gold seed potatoes yesterday.  Earlier in the week I had picked up some cheap 5 gallon buckets from Lowe's and drilled 4 drainage holes into the bottoms of each with my largest drill bit.  I then filled each up about one-third with a mix of left over peat moss, compost, and raised bed mix.  I set up 4 buckets for each kind and planted one potato per bucket into the bottom of the soil mix.  Once any green shoots have grown up a couple of inches I will fill the buckets up another 1/3 of the way and then repeat again one last time to top off the bucket. 

Potato Buckets

Red Pontiac Seed Potato

Yukon Gold Seed Potato

A couple of weeks ago, I also planted out some cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts that were started from seed.  I was in need of some more flats for the tomatoes, and since all of the former had a couple of true leaves on them, I had figured it would be OK to get them out into the ground. I let them sit outside through a few mostly cloudy days and a few peeks at the sun.  So far the Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts and the one cauliflower are all looking happy and healthy.  The broccoli plants have really started to take off with a couple pairs of new leaves on them.  The cabbages, while looking fine for the first week, suddenly showed what I thought might be some disease on their outer leaves.  It turns out it may just be a bit of sun scald on them as a result of transplant shock and not being fully hardened off all the way through.  They probably would have been better served with more gradual exposure to a full day of sun, but as mentioned earlier, the weather here has been unreliable for a full process of proper hardening off.  With that said, the younger inner leaves still appear to remain unaffected thus far and are still showing some new growth, so hopefully all will be well with them.

Sun Scald?

More sun scald?

Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts & Pea Bed

So, while many of our garden beds, and newly planted containers still look pretty bare for the moment, that will all hopefully change over the next few weeks.  For now, here is what things are looking like from abroad.  The flower beds surrounding the backyard are full of spring bulbs adding a lot of color.  We think the previous homeowner did a great job with spreading out the colors on them.

Spring Blooms

Lastly, our kitchen window sill has been filled to capacity with some basil plants, sweet potato and yams, and a few sunflowers.  For the last few weeks it has been the home of some sweet basil that I started from seed back in February.  My wife has already harvested from them for a couple of recipes we've enjoyed over the last couple of weeks.  As soon as they recover and grow a few more leaves out, I'll probably pinch the tip off to encourage some bushier growth.  We're also going to try our hand at some sweet potatoes and yams this year.  We just started the process of trying to grow some slips this last week as well.  As of this morning, I can already see some little roots poking out of the bottoms into the water containers they've been placed in.  A week ago, our girls planted some sunflower seeds as part of a family night activity and since they're already too tall for the grow lights downstairs, they've been moved up by the kitchen window.  During the daytime they piggy back on the basil plant holder.

Sweet Basil

Sweet Potatoes (light) & Yams (dark)

Sunflowers

You can see lists of all that I currently now have in the garden, or am in the process of starting from seed indoors (in baggies, in cells, pots, etc.) in the left margin.  I'll try to keep the lists up to date as much as I can.

I also hope to be able to post an update and maybe even an occasional video every couple weeks as the year goes along.  I hope to do other posts that will feature reviews on specific varieties of plants and most likely some recipes we use them with (all dependent on the successful growth and harvest of them).  I also hope to do some posts sharing and passing along tips I develop or discover and am able to prove with success (such as the "baggie method").