Tag: experiments

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Last ditch tomato efforts

Two of my new tomato varieties (Amish Paste and Hungarian Heart) have either not flowered (Hungarian Heart) or only fruited twice (Amish Paste, literally TWO fruits on what is supposed to be a very productive variety.) Several websites suggested adding phosphorous as a potential solution for not flowering, so the dog helped me go to Ellison’s feed (she waggled at the store people) and I bought some bone meal and watered it into the soil around each of the three plants of the two varieties. We’ll see if it makes a difference in these last few weeks of the warm season!

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Suspense

Did the tender plants (tomatoes, peppers, ground cherries, potatoes, and runner beans) make it yesterday??? Tuesday night into Wednesday morning it got down to 29F in Norman, apparently a new record low (the previous being 30F in 1918. SEE WHO WEATHERED THE WEATHER!!

Tommy toe tomato did not make it. Note how the leaves are a darker, mushy/soft green and drooping. Goner.
Both of my new tomato varieties, supposed to be better for canning, died. One was the Amish paste (not pictured), which I have more of in pots. The other was Hungarian heart tomato (pictured). I have planted some more seeds and put them in the warm plant window to sprout. The culprit is pictured on the left… oatmeal container cardboard does not insulate enough. I thought it would be nicer since they’re tall and big, but apparently you need more, like the air trapped in corrugated cardboard. All the survivors were under towels, glass jars, plastic jars, plastic pots with newspapers, cardboard boxes, or even leaves-as-mulch (one Peruvian ground cherry in the backyard). A few branches got frosted but they can be trimmed off.
One branch of this potato died when the box top fell in (I had set another bag of potatoes on top). But the rest of the plants were fine. An example of corrugated cardboard doing its insulation job. I was surprised that an uncovered potato in a raised bed did not completely die of frost. Only a branch or two was dead.

Three casualties of a late frost, and all due to poor choices of insulation (which I now know to avoid), are really not bad. I’m pretty pleased.

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30s next few nights

I put towels, newspapers in pots, glass jars, and plastic jars over the tender plants (peppers, tomatillos, tomatos, ground cherries). The unplanted ones will go in the garage or house.
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Another night, another earwig

I put petroleum jelly around the bases of the four test plants. I took pictures of two. I also covered the Brunswick cabbage again with a jar since it got eaten a lot last night when uncovered.

You can see the messy petroleum jelly right near dirt, at base of ground cherry stem. I took care to make sure no other parts of the plant were touching the ground.
Here’s the poblano. Its seed leaves (cotelydons) were touching the ground so I put the petroleum jelly above them.
While I was finishing up the other two plants in the earwig battle zone (raised bed 7), I noticed the newly planted William’s pride apple has flower buds. Wow! It might even get pollinated as the neighbors have a crabapple tree in bloom…
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Earwig battle

Several interested earwigs on oil jar edges and a few already in oil! Yay!

Don’t think too hard, earwig. It’s totally fine.

Less yay: more earwigs eating the Peruvian ground cherry (which is farthest from the oil).

More yay: big beautiful toad patrolling the backyard prairie.

An excellent friend.
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Testing summer plants in the land of earwigs

I set out some of the tomato cages today. In the raised bed with the worst earwig depredations, I put one each of poblano pepper, Rio Grande verde tomatillo, Tommy Toe tomato, and Peruvian ground cherry.

I put out these four plants to see if the earwigs attack them and if so I’ll try petroleum jelly around the stem. I have other plants of all these so if any get completely consumed it won’t be the end of the world.

There have been fewer earwigs out in that bed since I’ve started putting out diatomaceous earth. However, in the adjacent bed, they have now moved onto a lettuce that was less dusted. So, maybe it’s helping?

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Native seed stratification success

Several seeds I pulled out of the fridge recently are sprouting in their humid containers so we planted them today!

Liatris mucronata from Mom!  Yay!
The yucca has a really long root! Mom, is this Arkansas yucca?  It’s the one from your house.
The green milkweed (Asclepias viridis) had tons of seeds sprouting and a very brushy or fluffy root for each seedling.  We put them root down, I just wanted to show the fluffy root here. Dad got these seeds for me!
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Removing seeds from cold stratification

I checked on seeds in the fridge this evening.  Two species have started sprouting so I planted them in sprouting trays and also some directly in the ground. The others species I think I’ll keep out and see if they sprout as they’ve been in since January I think.

Desert globe mallow with little roots before I tuck them into their new dirt.
Blue flax also before covering the roots.
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Seeds and apple tree on a drizzling morning

Paula came over and we planted many things, as well as doing some trimming and raking.

The semi-dwarf Arkansas Black Apple arrived.
We planted it and pruned it to ensure it will have lower main branches for ease of picking fruit. The hose there burst in the freeze (I didn’t drain it) so we’re using the break to water it.
We trimmed up the garlic (this picture), as well as Salvia greggii and mealy blue sage.
The potato experiment results say don’t plant potatoes when there’s about to be a major freeze. There was a lot of rot and slime.
We put the leftover seed potatoes in that I had saved from two weeks ago.
Four varieties of cabbage for Paula’s fermentation needs and Wes’ occasional soup needs. As soon as they sprout, the best seedlings will get covered with a jar to protect from bunnies. They seem to be tasty for bunnies. We also planted assorted other cool weather things (greens and carrots).
Better than nothing, Briar says, but why don’t we do something fun instead?