Tomato Sprouts

The tomato seeds have been in the peat pots and under the lamp light for about 10 days now. The germination rate has been best for the Hungarian Heart seeds (91%). All but two have sprouted and they have grown cleanly, meaning the sprouts haven't had any obvious problems.


The Italian Heirlooms have done a bit less well. There are sprouts, to be sure, but the germination rate has been less (67%).


The germination rate for the John Baer seeds has been 80% so far, but some of these seedlings have the interesting problem of the primary leaves not being able to shed the seed casing. You can see what has happened a bit better in the photo on the right. Both have carried the casing with them. I figure it is just best to let the seedling work it out. My guess is that the John Baer seeds would benefit from being planted a bit deeper so that when the initial stem arches up, the casing remains trapped in the soil. Of course, the other difference, obvious to me, is that the soil they are in is a different type than the soil that the other two sets were planted in.

Chicken Manure

My friend Doug works for Fed Ex. They are closing down the operation he works for in Greensboro and it looks like he is moving to Memphis. His chicken coop has also been recently liquidated by varmints of one kind or another. So, he offered me all the chicken manure we could scrape up from his coup. I got a load that filled my trailer.


There is a lot of straw in the mixture, but sufficient droppings to definitely make it worth getting. I've never had chicken manure before.


I brought it home and ran it through the chipper/shredder. It made big clouds of something as it processed through. I wore a mask to keep the stuff out of my lungs. The shredder pulverized the poop pellets and somewhat chopped up the straw. There were other things in the pile, so everything got pretty well mixed to boot.


I ended up with a bin of processed material. Because it was under Doug's coop and kept away from the rain, none of this has really had a chance to compost. I expect it to take six months or more.


The only other thing of note is that I noticed buds on the pears today. It has been a bit warm lately. Things will be blooming shortly. I wish I had bees in the yard, but I don't. I think I need to do a little pruning in the next week. The pears seem OK, it's trees that haven't shown any signs of buds that I need to get to.

Tomato Seeding

I'm not really sure how soon I should plant tomato seeds, but Saturday seemed like a good enough day to try it. The seeds I had ordered from Seed Savers Exchange arrived a week ago. I planted 24 seeds of each of the three varieties: Italian Heirloom, Hungarian Heart, and John Baer. The number 24 isn't magic, I just had 9 8-packs of peat pots and three cookie sheets to put them on.



I haven't a clue how each of these varieties will actually do. They are all heirloom indeterminate. I don't think I will have room for 72 plants. I plan on giving some away. All may not sprout. I just feel it's just time to get started. That's all I know.

Rhubarb

I need rhubarb. It is a basic food group. The plants we had from twenty years ago when we first moved to North Carolina succombed several years ago. They had survived our move from Clemmons to Oak Ridge, staying 6-months as bare roots in the place we leased in between. But, they finally died out. My sister said they need to be replanted every so often. I think I just had them in a place they ultimately didn't like.

So, I looked around today. I had four paper catalogs (Gurneys, Burpee, Henry Fields, and Johnny's Seeds). I wondered if I could get a better price online. Here is the essence of what I found:

Wallace-Woodstock
Canada Red - Zone 3-8. A fine Canadian variety, has natural sweetness that allows you to use less sugar to make pies, sauces, and other baked goods. The earliest produce in the Spring, this variety produces long, juicy stalks that are cherry red clear through. Cooks up strawberry red color. This is a must for every garden.

Victoria - Zone 3-8. This is a very productive strain for home gardeners and commercial growers, producing large tender stalks of excellent quality. Not as red as Canada Red, but more vigorous and productive. Shows strong resistance to root rot and is a btter choice for growing in heavier soils.
Price: 1-2 $ 7.00 Ea., 3 for $ 19.00, 6 for $ 36.00, 12 for $ 65.00

Holland Bulb Farms
Victoria Rhubarb Plant. What says late summer better than rhubarb pie? Plump, fiber-free stalks with rich red inside color and a sweet only mildly tart flavor make this rhubarb a customer favorite! This is the ultimate rhubarb plant as it is disease resistant and cold hardy. Stalks should be allowed to grow two full seasons before harvesting. $5.48

Garden Harvest
Victoria is one of the earliest maturing varieties and has a flavor a little more wine-like and a little less tart than the Glaskins variety. The stalks are typically 10-12 inches long and the color graduates from scarlet at the base to light green at the top. Absolutely wonderful for pies and cobblers!
Price: $7.00

I went with Holland Bulb Farms. I turns out that, unlike the others, Holland had 3 plants per package, which made it by far the least expensive. Sometimes cheap isn't good. The plants may be very small, for instance. I can be patient. I just need rhubarb.

Getting Going 2011

It has taken me a bit of mental energy to get myself started this year. I think the winter has been so cold that it has discouraged me somehow. Things in the winter garden just didn't amount to anything. The bees all died. The greenhouse is missing panes. But I've realized you need to move forward.

This week I went to the Guilford County Beekeepers Association meeting. I haven't been able to go for some time because of family history duties. I decided to get a new package at least for the hive in Clarence's yard. Larry Tate is selling, so they are going to be local bees, which is a plus. The meeting had an extra benefit. I talked to Jackie Wiggers to see about getting the feral hives. She suggested I talk to Tom Sawyer who has done extractions before. I called him. There is nothing scheduled yet, but I am at least moving forward. I went by Clarence's this morning with Doug Shaw and cleaned the dead bees out of that hive. There is a place ready for either the package or the feral colony.

I also ordered seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. I looked for some of the varieties that I had planted in the past, purchased from local stores. They didn't have the exact varieties, like Rutgers tomatoes, that I was looking for, but I decided to take what I could. Here is what I have ordered.

Bean, Provider OG, Packet 50 seeds
Bean, Empress , Packet 50 seeds
Cucumber, Parade OG, Packet 25 seeds
Cucumber, Japanese Climbing OG, Packet 25 seeds
Pepper, Tollies Sweet OG, Packet 25 seeds
Pepper, Bull Nose Bell , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Italian Heirloom , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, John Baer OG, Packet 25 seeds
Tomato, Hungarian Heart , Packet 50 seeds
Bean, Fin de Bagnol OG, Packet 50 seeds (back ordered)

I still need to order rhubarb and sweet potatoes. But it is a start.

I think the challenge here is a philosophical one. It is getting started when you don't have all the motivation in the world. I still have a pretty deep commitment that the garden and bees are things that need to be done. I continue to sense a challenge to long-term survival and the only way to deal with it I know of is to prepare in every way I can. There is no imminent threat. But, unless you prepare when the threat is far away, you can't respond when it arrives.

I was reminded how quickly things can change this week. I walked out the front door to start my daily walk with the dogs. A package had arrived and was sitting on the door step. I tried to step around it, felt my ankle give way and ended up on my back. It all happened so fast. There was truly no way to prepare. I recovered, went on the walk with a weakened ankle (that recovered as I walked because I have sprained it so many times that I guess more real damage wasn't done). But it was how quickly it happened that caught my attention.

The world can changing rapidly. Tunisia a couple of weeks ago. Eqypt this week. Centuries ago it was the Mongols charging through China and the Middle East and the black plague sweeping through Europe. Decades ago it was Germany and Japan. Best to be prepared. Best to know when to leave and have something to take with you when you go.

Death to Fruit Flies

Beginning sometime in late December, we experienced an invasion of fruit flies. You never know where these things come from. As the name implies, you always expect they hitched a ride on a piece of fruit. But then they multiply. It wasn't clear where they were hatching their young, but by New Years, they were plentiful.

My first response was to try to kill them with a fly swatter. The problem is that this isn't a very efficient method and, small as they are and with a brain to match, they are actually pretty good at attack avoidance.

My next strategy involved using a small hand-held vaccuum. Our little Oreck came with a long tube and a narrow slot end piece. My method then became sneaking up on the fly -- rush to them and they would fly in a random direction -- and suck the little bugger up. Over the course of the last week, I plied my hunt three or four times a day, starting at first in the kitchen where they seemed to be most prevalent and then gradually expanding to all rooms. The long tube was especially helpful picking them off the ceiling.

Our final stroke of luck came from two sources. Lisa discovered a bunch of bad potatoes near the pantry where they had been laying eggs. Then, the Orkin man came by to treat the outside of the house and he suggested putting a cup of baking soda followed by a cup of vinegar in the kitchen sinks. He said that is where they are also probably laying eggs. (I've liked mixing baking soda and vinegar since I was a kid.)

I searched the house over to find a fly to include as a photo in the blog. This one was in the laundry room on a white plastic garbage can we use to store dog food. I need to find him again. I think there may be one or two more and the hunt will continue until they are completely exterminated. It's a strange sense of accomplishment to kill fruit flies, but there it is. Death to fruit flies! All of them!

Early January

I guess I should expect much from the winter. I've not succeeded very well with the cold frames this year. I think the main problem has been that for four out of five, there were gaps that let cold air in.

The one that was well covered was one of the new beds that had the new soil in them. My suspicion all along has been that the new soil wouldn't hold moisture well. I finally uncovered it today. It rained all night and the snow melted and the temperature was in the 50s F yesterday. I was mostly right. The soil looked very dry. However, many of the spinach plants had sprouted. They just hadn't grown much.



The onions and garlic are still limping along.



I think my next year's plan is to get plastic that will cover all the beds like the last one I created and then use the older covers on the bottom and double layer them.