Thread: In The Garden 2023

Originally Posted by rolodave

No
They go in next. You ifdid mean WW sweet onion??

hehehe--There is a USDA growing restriction or a Marketing Order on where the onions can be planted. Outside of that growing area they can't be labeled "Genuine Walla Walla Sweets'.

https://www.sweetonions.org/marketing-order.html

So in your case they Would be Minnesota Sweets.

I believe that Tc calls his 'Gorilla Sweets'.

If you look at Burbee's seed catalogue for instance you'll find that they offer 'Walla Walla Sweets-seeds' NOT GENUINE Walla Walla Sweet-seeds.

26 April 2023 video tour of the garden

Originally Posted by CrescentCityRazors

I just picked this gnarly beast of a broc about two hours ago. A hair under a foot across, over 2-1/2 lbs. Wife calls it
BROC-ZILLA.
Attachment 347638
This is the second head, the first one was a couple days ago and was huge, but not as big as this one. Variety is Castle Dome, and I will be planting more of this in the fall. I am very impressed. Compared to the Sun King, this is gargantuan, a veritable Tyrannosaurus of brocs.

I’ve never had any luck with broccoli. They grow and then go right to seed. Must be something in the soil chemistry.

Planting date in Ontario is May 24 to avoid a late frost.

Originally Posted by DZEC

I’ve never had any luck with broccoli. They grow and then go right to seed. Must be something in the soil chemistry.

Planting date in Ontario is May 24 to avoid a late frost.

Try planting earlier. Broc can tolerate a light frost. BTW, you can eat the leaves and their stems. Cook them like collard greens or bok choy. We start the seeds indoors and transplant at the 50% frost danger date unless the 10 day forecast predicts a freeze. We set backup seedlings just in case the first transplants don't make it, then the backups go in the ground.

Planted 3, 8 foot rows of green bean seed last night. A nice light rain, today.

I picked about half the remainder of my tobacco this morning. Above are some nice leaves from the one Monte Calme Yellow that the bugs didn't get. Tape measure in pic, for size. 29" long leaves for the visually unblessed. Also picked Moldova 456, Golden Burley, Yellow Leaf, Big Gem, Piloto Cubano, and CT Broadleaf. The Piloto is a very popular cigar filler. Most of the others I wanted to try, looking for a better wrapper variety that does well in this terroir. Leaning toward the Golden Burley because it matures fast and makes beautiful leaves. The Moldovan was a big experiment. It is a "turkish" or "oriental" variety, often added to cigarette blends or used locally for hookah or pipe, and it cures to a beautiful yellow tan, so I am really looking forward to trying it for a cigar wrapper next year when it is sort of ready. The Yellow Leaf and Big Gem are old school varieties that are no longer popular. Now I know why. Meh. The CT Broadleaf did well for me last year but oddly enough not this year.

I just set the seeds for the second crop of tobacco and peppers of 2023. Check out the cute little label flags, huh? Rainproof.

I'm still liking the Jiffy trays and peat pellets, for seed starting. Super easy and effective, consistent results. Good for most veggies, too. But these days before moving the pucks to a cup of dirt or right into the ground, I always remove the "biodegradeable" paper/cloth wrapper.

A few days ago and again today I found myself with more Boxcar Willie tomatoes than we could eat. I cook with RoTel tomatoes and chiles a lot so since I also had a bunch of Jalapenos from the garden, I figured I would can some tomatoes and chiles, DIY style. Three jars before, three more jars today. Starting to get the hang of scalding and chilling the maters for easy peeling. These tomatoes run a bit small so it is a lot of work peeling them. Next year it will be either FloriDade, or Better Boy.

Well I'm making progress--



And the first two little blooms--

Are you pollinating them? They need to be out in the wind or where the blossoms will get disturbed, to pollinate. I use an electric toothbrush on the stem or the back of the bloom, to shake the pollen off the boy part so it falls onto the girl part. Without that, you won't get no maters. Bees can do the job but bees aren't highly attracted to tomato blossoms. They don't give up nectar or pollen easily. The bees buzzing and landing and taking off again can get those little flowers knocked up but doing it by hand is more certain. Electric toothbrush works good, or you can rapidly tap the blossom's stem part. The ones facing down are the best, get them every day after they open fully and get them every day until they start to close back up. You will double your yield if your plants are in a semi sheltered location like next to your house. Try to plant them out where the wind will shake them up a lot and you won't have to hand do them.

You know it didn't take when the base of the blossom and its stem turns yellow. The blooms will soon fall off when that happens. What you are looking for is for the yellow petals to turn brown, close up, and dry up. Then if you knock the dead flower off and look up in there, you should see the embryonic tomato and it will start growing over the next few days and become visible without peering into the private parts of Mrs. Plant. Or Mr. Plant. The flowers contain both sexes, unlike some other plants such as zucchini.