My deck temp this morning is on 45F but the lows predicted through May 18th are in the 60’s. I’m assuming that the warmer night temps will get my okra to grow faster. I don’t have a pass reference but the green beans and squash are growing well. The Tromboncino squash don’t appear to be hindered by the 45F temps. They are about 14" high and have several small female fruit hanging but the male flowers look to be a little behind on their development. I probably should have planted these farther apart.
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Okra requires night temps above 70 for normal growth. Your beans and curcurbits are about normal for this time of year. Tromboncino will grow very rapidly once established. Be sure to fertilize it just after it sets fruit. A tablespoon of 13-13-13 or equivalent per plant is about right.
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The honeylocust seeds have been germinating nicely and almost as soon as they came up, they were eaten by slugs. It has been a wet spring here and the slugs seem to love Honeylocust seedlings even better than salad seedlings. Let that sink in! Anyway, I have potted up 2 seedlings they couldn’t get to, now I am able to protect them better. So…2 seedlings, about 15 seeds that have not yet germinated and that leaves about 97 seedlings that were eaten as soon as they came up.
Concerning my original experiment, I have been unable to discern a systematic difference between the two treatments. It may be that the treated seeds germinated slightly earlier (about 2 days) but since germination was very drawn out (it went on for at least 2 weeks), this does not seem a very pronounced effect.
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I started 4 trays of Silver King sweet corn seed today with intent to plant them as soon as they germinate. Sweet corn is very easy to transplant, but there is a huge caution. Corn produces a primary root that grows rapidly as soon the seed germinates. The primary root must NOT be broken. I also started Alabama #1 pole beans and Dixie Half Runner beans, Gold Coast okra, and Country Gentleman corn. I have two trays with watermelons, cucumbers, and cantaloupes that are just now germinating. They will be ready to set out in about 3 days.
Cowpeas, beans, limas, and other seed planted over the last week are germinating rapidly. I still have to plant a row of peanuts, some cotton, and a few other odds and ends.
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Got a late start on tomatoes/peppers. Just spent the morning, up-potting about 200 peppers from a 72-cell flat to individual 2" pots.
I had my garden tilled well and had intended to hook up to the bedmaker/mulch/driptape layer on Friday or Saturday, but didn’t manage that… and probably just as well, as we had over 2" of rain on Sunday afternoon, which washed some serious gulleys in the garden. Will have to re-disc when it dries out, but hopefully by the time I get my beds pulled up, we’ll be past the worst of spring storm season and these tiny little tomatoes & peppers will be strong enough to go into the dirt.
Guess I’ll be waiting another week or two to start melons & squash.
Question: My tomato and pepper starts look like someone threw bleach on them. Anyone know possible cause?
Full direct sun on plants that are not hardened off will cause the leaves to turn white and die. Also, getting the fertilizer balance wrong - usually too much nitrogen - can cause the center whorl of growing leaves to turn yellow.
I planted another row of tomatoes and peppers today. That puts me up to 6 rows with about 72 plants in each row. This is some serious tomato and pepper numbers to grow in one year. I have enough plants remaining to put in about 3 or 4 more rows using 3 plants per variety In other words, about 60 more varieties.
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Thanks, that’s exactly what I did. I’m still new to the seed game, so I’m curious why. I have always direct sowed in the ground before. They get direct sun. Why are these potted ones different?
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As a seed germinates, the first green leaf surface produced makes only enough surface coating to protect against the light levels it is exposed to. Expose to full sun and voila, it hardens off to handle full sun. Grow it under lights and it won’t be able to handle ultraviolet. Hardening off plants is relatively easy. Put them out in direct sun for 1 hour and bring them back in. The next day, put them out for 2 hours. The third day, put them out for 3 hours. Also a caution, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 pm is the most intense sunlight. Earlier and later results in less damage. With a greenhouse, I use 45% shade cloth to harden off seedlings. They can handle the amount of UV that gets through.
An alternative that I sometimes use is to put the plants under a tree where they will be exposed to early morning or late evening sun but not full direct midday sun. Leave them under the tree for 5 days and they will be able to take direct noonday sun.
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Thanks. I’m thinking direct sow might be more my speed.
OMG what are you going to do with that many? Can you actually cook, freeze, can, eat fresh, share that many?
This year I started some sweet corn in peat pot strips on my heating mat. After three days, it is sprouting already, so I set it out in the sun. I’ve never tried this before, but last year I had very poor germination, especially with the later planted rows, so decided to experiment to verify that the seed isn’t the problem. A friend will probably till my garden this week. I plan to direct sow most of the corn.
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I pre-test sweet corn to see how much of it germinates before planting. If it is low, I start in cell trays so I can ensure a good stand. My Silver King sweet corn seed is from 2020 so likely was grown in 2019. It germinated at 60% when tested. This is the primary reason I started corn seed in trays this year.
Edit to add: As of this evening, I have the following planted:
1 row of pole beans and lima beans with a total of 10 varieties in the ground.
2 rows of sweet Buhl sweet corn, growing for seed, is delicious, will be very tempting to eat some.
1 row of snow peas, soup peas, and potatoes grown from seed
1 row of potatoes
1 row of brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussels sprouts)
1 row of carrots, radishes, and turnips.
1 row of cowpeas, a total of 7 varieties, growing for seed and will have plenty for the freezer
6 rows of tomatoes and peppers for a total of about 420 plants
1 row of okra, growing for seed, will have tons to eat and can
1 row of curcurbits (crook & straight neck, cucumber, Tromboncino, Red Kuri, Luffa, watermelons, cantaloupes)
I have 3 more rows partially prepared which will get another row of tomatoes and peppers and add 2 rows of Silver King sweet corn. I have the corn started in trays. I also have Alabama #1 pole beans and Dixie Half Runner beans in a tray. I have some hand made hybrid sweet corn seed in a tray that will be used to stabilize a shoepeg type corn with the sugar enhanced gene. Peanut seed are waiting on me to find a place to plant them. I also have cotton to plant which will be grown for seed.
Corn breeding is a long term hobby for me. I’ve wanted a shoepeg type corn (Country Gentleman is an example) that has the sugar enhanced trait for a lot of years. To my knowledge, there are no open pollinated varieties that tie these two traits together. I made a cross in 2014 between Country Gentleman and Silver King. I’m going to grow about 32 plants in hopes of finding one plant that combines the traits. Trivia time, I’ve never planted 10 year old sweet corn seed and gotten high germination. Since I have kept this seed stored in a freezer for the entire time, it looks like geermination is going to be 50% or better. If you purchase sweet corn seed, store it in a sealed jar in the freezer!
Have you ever grown that 15 foot corn? Is that just a novelty or does it actually have decent corn?
No, but I’ve grown the 35 foot corn. See Jala Giant if you want pictures. Corn has a phytochrome moderated blooming cycle meaning a specific number of hours of daylight triggers tasseling. Tropical corn varieties are adapted to 12 hours of sun and 12 hours of night. Give them 14 hours of sun (or more) typical of temperate climates and they don’t bloom while they keep growing taller. By the time day length is short enough to trigger flowering, the plants can get very tall. They also can’t make an ear of corn because it is time for frost just as they open tassels. I’ve grown Cherokee White Flour corn which typically gets 12 to 15 feet tall. It makes a crop, but often lodges (gets blown over by wind) which makes it difficult to grow to maturity.
Get corn adapted to the number of hours in your day. For most temperate climates, corn should tassel after 2 or 3 months even with day length of 14 hours or more.
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Saw some other people growing the tall corn and thought that would be great to get out of deer range. Sounds like that’s a bust though.
.Raccoons will climb to get the ears no matter how tall the corn. Deer push the stalk over and eat what they want
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Got a late start on my tomatoes/peppers, but they were coming along ok… Movef them out to the back porch - northeast side of house - to harden off.
Some critter - I’m presuming a field mouse, as we’ve been plagued with them indoors this winter - nipped off about 20 in one night. Grrr!
They seemed to have preferred Sweet Banana over any other variety.
Rain keeps interrupting me when I try to plant in the garden. I have 5 rows remaining to put in the ground. The two rows of Silver King will get there tomorrow evening. I have a row of tomatoes and peppers (row 7!) laid out with cell trays in place but too wet to put them in the ground. I will do one more row of beans and one more row of tomatoes. That should wind up most of my planting for the year.
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I’ve got the makings of a pretty good pumpkin and melon patch. How much concern should I have for deer, coon, and possum?