Category: Supervisors

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The big freeze: an outdoor stratification event?

Supposed to be really cold (with highs not above freezing) later this week, so I figured I should get my lately acquired native and wildflower seeds in the ground. These included desert globemallow, blue flax, Liatris mucronata, and mystery Aster sp. (the latter two from Mom, thanks Mom!!). The first three I also put some seeds in the fridge for manual stratification and the first two I saved a bit to try planting in the fall if the spring planting doesn’t take.

I also had a few indoor seedings to catch up on. Judy kindly sent me some Chimayo chile pepper seeds, my Jimmy Nardello peppers never sprouted, my ground cherries only had two sprouts, and the poor Tommy Toe tomatoes died of cat and damping off.

Seeds before I put their 1/4″ dirt on them.
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Window rearranging

Some guest plants are departing, so the Salvia greggii cuttings are moving into the plant window where it’s safer from the cat.

The extremely innocent young cat who definitely did not nibble and step on several seedlings causing the current fortification of the plant window and abandonment of the table as a plant staging area.
It looks like two or three of the five cuttings have “taken”, based on the new growth.
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Spring planting! It’s going to freeze next week!

Paula and I were going to plant things tomorrow, but it’s looking quite chilly. It’s just gorgeous out right now. So we spent a half an hour or so and got two kinds of onions (yellow granex and white granex) from sets in the beds, two kinds of potatoes in containers (experimenting with burlap sacks, potting soil bag, and cardboard boxes to make hilling them easier to get more potatoes), and seeds of French breakfast radish, green wave mustard, and Oregon sugar pod II pea. The peas we already have a few little vines of but I figured another round wouldn’t hurt to replace some since they blanch and freeze well if we get a lot.

White granex onions with some moss curled parsley from last year.
Yellow granex bulb onions with some cabbage and chard from last year.
Paula had the excellent idea to show the Yukon gold potato (burlap sacks/top) and Kennebec white potato (box and plastic bag) with their planters. We’re having a big freeze forecast for next week, so I only used half of the seed potatoes in case these die. (Also, I ran out of containers for now.) I am putting potatoes in containers to make them easier to hill dirt around, and also because crop rotation when all you plant is Solanaceae is very challenging.
Briar says it was good sleepy sunshine to supervise in. She was pleased.
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Loofah processing

Wes has been cleaning and bleaching the loofahs and has put them out to dry in the yard on a string.

I’m surprised Briar didn’t bark at the loofahs. Maybe she’s getting jaded to human shenanigans.
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Airflow to prevent damping off?

Wes rigged up a small fan with power supply to pull air through the plant window. Fingers crossed it works! There’s always taking the baby plants in and out each day for sunshine but I’d really rather not. Because I’m lazy.

The small fan. You can see the plexiglass gap there and a larger gap is at the top, which you can see in the next picture.
The cause of all this nonsense (Gram the cat) walks by the clamp I need to put back up to hold the plexiglass in place. Briar supervises.
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Damping off fungus attacks

Well we are having some damping off fungus in the plant window.  Lost the only surviving tommy toe tomato seedling and a lot of onion seedlings are falling over. I had hoped we left enough air circulation despite our cat blocking plexiglass but apparently not. The chef is looking into tiny fans to put there. I’ll have to start another tommy toe too.

Onion seedlings falling over from damping off, which is caused in seedlings ny overwatering. I set them outside in hopes that some might make it.
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Rooting Salvia greggii from cuttings in late winter

One of my front yard Salvia greggii got dug up or knocked over by something last year so I took a few cuttings on Jan. 9. As of Jan. 21 I saw some new growth. Today you can see which ones appear to be surviving. I did multiple because I am not always successful, even though I only need one.

The various jugs and containers are to keep Supervisor Gram out of my plants. You can see which of the cuttings are bright green and growing.
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Trimming the onion shoots for root growth

I read recently (but can’t for the life of me remember which book) that when sprouting onion seeds, you should trim them to promote more root growth. I did this to half of my sprouts. This will make sure it doesn’t kill them first. If these turn out okay I’ll do the other half.

Supervisor Briar is not concerned about onion haircuts. I put them back in the plant window after their trim.
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Fruit plants in the ground!

I planted the peach tree and currant bush in the front and back yards, respectively.

Briar supervised. We have no fence in the front yard but she likes to hang out and watch. The peach tree is hard to see but has the lighter colored bamboo stake next to it. I believe this dwarf tree is a genetic dwarf, not grafted onto a dwarf rootstock, so while I looked for soil line on the tree for planting I didn’t have to watch for keeping the graft above the soil.
Another underwhelming stick picture! The Crandall black currant is a native North American currant. Both this and the peach I made sure to water deeply per instructions. I put this currant on the northeastern corner of my “currant patch” (three others planted last year) just because it’s where there was room.