Easing into Spring

Just a few tomato plants this year. These are Black Cherry and Red Brandywine: my usual favourites. They started out together in a little tray of potting soil and I transplanted them to this tray not long after the first set of true leaves appeared. No problems so far. This picture was taken a few days ago and they are getting close to a size where I'm ready to transplant them again to larger containers before I set them out on the balcony to harden off.

A couple of weeks ago, or maybe three - I can't remember, I seeded a container outside with some greens: mizuna, arugula, red oak leaf lettuce, freckles romaine lettuce and black seeded simpson lettuce. Also some bulls blood beet seed. It was quite warm outside in the middle of April when I planted these but near the end of the month it got quite cold outside. One morning I checked this container and the top half inch of potting soil was frozen. At the time the plants had just started to break through the soil surface. I figured I would have to re-seed but apparently not. Everything is growing well now.

Germination testing of some old seed

Having a limited space to grow outside is a challenge but my space is limited inside as well. I don't have indoor space to start 100 seedlings when I only need 2. So it helps when I know the seeds I'm planting have a high germination rate. And having good seed lets me eliminate non-viable seed as a problem source when things don't grow. I never remember to write purchase dates on my seed packets. I've got a hoard of half used seed packets from previous seasons and I'd like to not have to purchase a lot of new seed packets if I can help it. So I set up a little test to find out if any of these old seeds are any good.

Pretty simple. I used this seed starting tray to hold little bundles of damp paper towel and in each I wrapped a bunch of seed from a few questionable packets. Put the lid on the tray and tucked it away somewhere and waited. No need to add water or anything. Just wait. I checked on the tray after a few days and it was obvious which seeds were still good and which were a waste of time. Then I forgot about the tray for a week and discovered some thriving sprouts. These were the biggest: beets, radish and arugula. No need to buy more of these seeds for this season.

In a proper test, I would have counted the number of seeds in each pack and the number that germinated. Divide germinated count by total to get the germination rate. Instead, I just eyed them up and if it looked like more than 60% or 70%, that was good enough for me. Of the 24 seed packs I tests, most tested adequately and a few were clearly duds. But there is still hope for some of the seed with poor germination rates. Now that I know which seed packets have a lower germination rate, I can put out lots to germinate and only transplant the few that sprout into proper seed trays to grow.  For example, I had some tomato seeds that didn't germinate too well: something like 3 in 10. Knowing this, I won't be seeding them directly into individual seed tray cells. Even if I plant 3 seeds per cell I know I'll end up with lots of empty cells. Instead, I'll plant all of those seeds into a single tray and once they sprout, gently transplant them into the cells of the seed starting tray. Or maybe I'll do what I did for the germination test: wrap a bunch of the seeds (maybe the rest of the packet) in some wet paper towel and pick out the healthiest sprouts to transplant in the seed starting tray. I've done it both ways with similar results. The paper towel way is easier to set up but you have to keep an eye on them and get the sprouting seeds transplanted before they get too big.

Last Season

I let things slide into the end of the last growing season. And I didn't bother with any blog updates. But I did take some pictures.

Mildew took over the Charentais melon plants. Poor things. I would routinely spray them down with a soapy neem oil solution but the mildew always came back (of course). Spraying the leaves is just a temporary thing. It washes the spores from the leaves and makes them look better but this stuff spreads too fast. If the plants got rained on from time to time it might not be all that bad. But I'm sure there were other problems. The saddest part was not getting any melons. Only one grew to tennis ball size before the end.

The one Brandywine tomato plant I grew did ok and gave us quite a few decent tasting tomatoes. Not the biggest but consistent as far as shape and taste goes. The Olpaka tomato plants did well even considering blossom end rot was a problem as it always seems to be with these tomatoes. The best producers were the peppers. Lots of Hot Wax peppers, as always. And lots of Jimmy Nardellos. I got a few harvests like this one pictured here. The Nardellos were perfect for frying. It made them even sweeter. 

Curled Leaves on the Peppers

My peppers have been growing well. Hard to tell in the images but all four plants are loaded with peppers. I've had to prop the Jimmy Nardellos up to prevent them from falling over. I don't know what I'm going to do with the Hot Wax peppers this year.

Something I noticed a while back was that all of the leaves are curling at the edges. I haven't figured out exactly what is causing this. There are no bugs on the plants which is a miracle. I think this is the first time I've grown peppers and not had problems with aphids. There are no spider mites to be seen anywhere on the balcony. It must be a nutrient deficiency but I'm not sure which one or why that would be a problem. There are no other signs of problems. No yellow or dead leaves. No problems with fruit set. Nothing. Perfectly healthy plants with.

The first Charentais melon

It was very windy last night and I lost a big branch from my brandywine tomato plant. And it had a couple of small green tomatoes on it so I wasn't overly happy to see that. But I was looking over the Charentais melon plants and was quite surprised to discover a new melon.

These plants have been growing well. A bit of powdery mildew but it hasn't completely taken over yet. The plants put out lots of male flowers and occasionally a few females. I've hand pollinated at least a half dozen female flowers and this is the first to produce. The flowers are quite small and the males don't appear to produce much pollen.