Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 235 Entries. Wednesday, January 3 View Page Welcome to my 2024 diary, Tomatoheads! Ding, ding, ding! "Crazy Clayton 2023" tomato seeds may be coming to an auction near you... Get your hands on a set of seeds from the four tomatoes pictured here, my 5.03, 4.76, 4.90, and 5.52. These each came from a different 7.95 Young or 6.48 Young plant. It should be a robust genetic mix. The 5.03 was the same plant as the 7.69. I am taking the year off but nevertheless I might grow a few tomato plants. Have a good year everyone! Will someone break my "balance 20.21 lbs of tomatoes on head" record??? We shall see...   Wednesday, January 17 View Page Basil sprouted well. I've never had much luck with basil, but last year I had one plant that enjoyed being neglected in the corner of a patch of roma tomatoes. So I saved the seed from it. The seed will be in the seed exchange. I plan to take the year off and/or limit my garden space to 4 tomato plants. But I'll post something on here once & awhile.   Sunday, January 21 View Page Beware: dangers of the pacific northwest... lichens so big they might eat your hand.   Friday, January 26 View Page This was a very late sowing of kale. Maybe not a great cover crop, but its better than nothing. Notice the round bale, which could become nutrients for a pumpkin plant or... ?   Friday, January 26 View Page Yep whats this! Just because I dont want to grow a pumpkin this year doesnt mean they arent going to grow on their own, lol. This one germinated outdoors in January under the snow! Thats the magic of 1000 lbs of rotting hay. At this rate, I'm going to be growing pumpkins whether I like it or not, ha ha.   Sunday, January 28 View Page So thrilled with my indoor garden.... I thought the 4 year old asparagus seed was dead for sure but look what just popped up! Basil, cilantro, and onions, are doing well. Its fun trying some new things from seed. Also, I didnt monkey with the dirt too much this year, its mostly just garden dirt. No new potting mix, tight budget & cant afford anything right now, but with results like this, I cannot complain.   Saturday, February 10 View Page What you need on a cold wet day... is an umbrella joke: An 85 year old man goes to his doctor... "Doc, I got a big problem." "I understand you were recently remarried, is that right?" "Yes. My new wife is 23 years old, and that's exactly the problem. She just told me she's pregnant! I haven't been a father in sixty years, and I don't know what to do." "Hmm. Let me tell you a story that I think will help explain what's going on here: A near sighted man decides to go bear hunting. On his way out the door, he accidentally picks up his umbrella instead of his rifle. Once he gets to the woods, he is instantly attacked by a ferocious 1,200 pound bear. He picks up his umbrella and shoots it dead. Does that story make sense to you?" "No! Somebody else must have shot that bear." "My point exactly."   Sunday, February 11 View Page Dandelion, rocket/arugula, laurel spurge and borage are the first flowers of the year. The laurel spurge... to me it has a lovely strong sweet citrus scent, but my roommate couldnt smell it at all. The olfactory sense probably varies more person to person than the other senses. I dont mean to be boring but I have posted first blossoms in the past, not sure its important, but sometimes u got to collect this kind of anecdotal data prior to knowing if it will have any value.   Thursday, February 15 View Page Catfacing on avocado. Ive found that the catfaced avocados are usually perfectly good under their ugly skin... and, while they are admittedly ugly, since no one else wants them they are sometimes the least presqueezed and most perfectly ripe! Its unappealing to most shoppers, and sometimes the grocery gal will ask if I want a different one. But its whats inside that matters, and I figure I can help keep these ones from going to waste.   Saturday, February 17 View Page You're a redneck pumpkinhead if you use your pumpkin lifter to lift the bed off your truck!!! The car repair place wanted $1,100. I fixed it for $45 and 2 hrs of work plus the usual (large and small) risks and indignities of dyi car repair. ...Not really lifting the whole back of the truck here, just funny the photo makes it look that way. It could lift that much, but here it was only lifting 250 lbs or so.   Saturday, February 17 View Page Ps Sorry if I offended anyone with that "umbrella" joke. I thought it was so funny when I read it but it was late at night and really wasnt the type of joke I was looking for which is part of the reason I thought it was funny.   Saturday, February 17 View Page Last years patch getting a pyro-renovation. The hoops are still up from last year... Bit of redneck wisdom here: Its not a good idea to burn near pvc because its very flammable and toxic if it burns, but here the pvc is conveniently already protected inside metal casings. The hoop house didnt have to come down, and the former pumpkin patch is ready to go. Maybe Elaine will grow a huge patch of sunflowers. Who knows...   Sunday, February 25 View Page A few white "carrots" showed up. I must have mixed in some leftover giant parsnip seed. If you're up for struggling through my poor writing, half my neurons arent functioning sorry! But here it goes: How a companion plant can help your pumpkin results? Here's a mini dive into giving your plant a helpful companion. Last year I planted a giant tomato in the rear of where my pumpkin plant was planted. Only a couple feet separated the two plants. Initially, the tomato plant outperformed my other tomato plants, having bigger stems and blossoms, probably because of all the organics and nitrogen I put there for the pumpkin. But then it struggled to set fruit and grow fruit of any significance. So it was like, "Uh-oh... If this soil wont grow even an ordinary sized tomato, how is it going to grow a giant pumpkin?" It was clear there was a problem with the soil, and because it was a conpanion to my giant pumpkin, it was also the same soil that was feeding my giant pumpkin. So that was a stark warning to me that I might not get what I was hoping for pumpkin-wise. Looking back, I think that mid-season 'caution sign' was part of what helped me grow a larger pumpkin last year. Because of what this tomato plant was telling me. I think what the tomato plant was saying was the nitrogen and potassium and phosphorus were all great, but maybe the zinc, boron, and calcium were not so great. It was still guesswork, but it helped cut the guesswork in half, to see the tomato plant displaying weak fruitset. It really clued me in to the fact that my pumpkin plant was probably going to produce a half-sized pumpkin because what was affecting the tomato plant presumably would affect the pumpkin, again because they were both eating from the same dirt. The changes I made to the fertilizer regimen were unfortunately not in time to save any of the large tomato blossoms, but I do think those changes did help the pumpkin. Anyhow, I will try companion planting again (someday) for this reason. It gives the grower different observations to utilize, and it can make patch decisions easier. I like that the right companion plants can give preemptive warnings or second opinions... I'm considering using some jerusalem artichokes as "living moisture meters" because I think they will complain about low soil moisture before a pumpkin plant will. I know this companion planting thing is just a boring side topic to most growers but I like it. I am open to further ideas.   Monday, February 26 View Page Looks like we finally solved where all those baby carrots come from. Ha ha.   Wednesday, February 28 View Page Hulk Smasher sits atop my trophy wall. Last year was a great year for me! Thanks Steve!   Sunday, March 3 View Page She was only "worried for his giant pumpkins". Clearly she was a devoted wife & not a crazy cat lady.   Sunday, March 3 View Page Ironically, Noah didn't know how to say "No". Just squeezing every last drop out of this lemon.   Sunday, March 3 View Page This cold weather should put us back on track for an average spring. It was a warm February with pussy willow blooming late February and small prunus trees blooming around March 1st. But now winter has returned.   Tuesday, March 5 View Page Happy Super Tues. Who is Marianne Williamson? Is it part of the curse of getting older that there's no one to look up to, except perhaps the person who you know nothing about... I cant help but think that it was passive aggression for my blue state ballot to put Trump last, but, "its just alphabetically listed." I'm sure people will stick with their usual choices, what else can anyone do? Its probably a very uninspiring ballot for many people. You get to vote for the white pumpkin or the orange pumpkin, lol. Ron and Chris are green with envy but the Great Political Commonwealth says they are not green enough, so they are DQ'd...   Thursday, March 7 View Page I've had these cactuses since grade school which means they're close to 30 years old. Such slow growth. Pumpkins grow at the speed of light compared to these poor little boogers. Checking last year's diary to guage things... I started tomatoes in February and the pumpkin was started March 10th. I dont think that was a wise start date for either because when they were planted outside their growth was poor/slow, for about a month. And then the pumpkin plant got damaged by frost just after it outgrew its 15' hut, but it all worked out eventually.   Thursday, March 7 View Page Endearing, and enduring, farm animal story: https://www.npr.org/2023/08/30/1196875233/meet-peanut-the-worlds-oldest-chicken   Thursday, March 7 View Page I totally gave up on getting useable horseradish roots, but then I pulled this one up today.   Sunday, March 10 View Page Time sure flies by. I think its time to plant these. This will require a different approach because everything must be geared towards NOT getting a flower/fruit. The hormones and nutrients will need to be telling the plant to stay in the vegetative state. Some speculation here, but the question will be what will signal the flower bud to form vs not form? Too much calcium, too much overall energy, too much stress, too much heat, cytokines from the roots...? I will probably want the humidity up, the roots a bit weaker, more nitrate and potassium, less foliage, more indirect light... growing a long stalk is going to be different than growing a fruit. I vastly under qualified to be attempting this. I know from growing fruit trees that growing the longest branches that are the least likely to set fruit... is mostly caused by overcrowding. So, maybe some healthy but overcrowded plants? There's key micronutrients involved in bud formation. John Kempf might have done a video where he said he could get a shoot to grow indefinitely by supplying it with, loosely speaking, too much of one thing and too little of another. I think nitrate and potassium was the "too much" thing.   Sunday, March 10 View Page So can I keep them in auxin-only mode? Deny them sufficient cytokines to prompt a bud? I think I could.   Sunday, March 10 View Page Tomatoes and tall sunflowers are in. I like using the deli container lids to help keep enough moisture in the seedling mix so that I dont have to water them prior to emergence.   Sunday, March 10 View Page The cilantro is going to have to go outside, because these new chicks need to hatch. There's a volunteer cherry tomato (I pulled out of the cilantro) in the middle of the sunflowers. It will be a companion plant for the sunflowers. 24 tomatoes, of which only 4 will get a spot in the mini grow hut. Thats it for this spring, no more. All my eggs are now in this one basket.   Tuesday, March 12 View Page Yay! I want to grow it all :( The best thing since emptying a bucket of Halloween candy onto the floor!!! The last time I did that was 30+ years ago!   Tuesday, March 12 View Page Pic.   Tuesday, March 12 View Page Fancy packaging, these seeds were ready to go to Mars. Maybe some small Earthlings will plant them instead.   Wednesday, March 13 View Page I think someone will give these seeds a chance, however I know it wont be me. Fly, be free!   Thursday, March 14 View Page This garden bed turned out nice. Stuff is planted, mostly onions and Apiaceae type stuff (thats a new word for me, it means carrot family). A few more things to plant then thats it for this year, mostly going to be growing jumbo sized weeds this year which could actually be interesting.   Saturday, March 16 View Page Soil temp 49 degrees. Its time to break out the rocket stove. A barrel of water fits easily onto this large wood round. Eventually it will burn the center out and I will have to make a new one, but overall its actually easier and better for me to do it this way. The log round will roll to wherever I want to hear some water.   Saturday, March 16 View Page I created a channel to get most of the hot water to flow into the hole. Then I will dump the dirt back on top. Its the instant equivalent to running heating cables for a couple weeks? I had 5/6 of sunflowers germinate and the goal will be a tall sunflower, or if I neglect them too much to be competitive, to at least to get some Meck x Butler seeds. I'm going to dump a few pounds of good fertilizer in the hole and just see what happens. This is it for me. No longer sure if I will grow tomatoes this year.   Sunday, March 17 View Page Runner bean root/ tuber. Will it sprout a new bean plant?   Monday, March 18 View Page This was the grow hut I used for my tomatoes last year. Its shaped like an igloo, which... is possibly the best shape for staying warm? Im planting a lemon tree inside it tomorrow. And I just planted an avocado tree inside a different one... both were grown from seed, and 3-4 ft tall, getting too big for their pots so may as well give it a try. Either I am a total fool or superbly prepared for global warming.   Monday, March 18 View Page Lemon and avocado... If I was afraid of failure, then I would never learn anything about how to be successful.   Wednesday, March 20 View Page Someone nibbled my giant sunflower starts. Tossing this one culprit into the the fish pond. Its an eat and be eaten kinda world... My hopes for this sunflower project are quite diminshed now.   Wednesday, March 20 View Page This tomato leaf is showing some yellow. Which could be low nitrogen. But I think its low nitrogen caused by cool temps or low energy because too much energy is going into the roots? Not sure how I could fix it from a nutritional standpoint, there might be a lot of nitrogen in the soil... its hard to tell anything during cold weather. The microbes in the soil want to hit the snooze button and wake up a month from now, and who can blame them. It could be low magnesium too. I might go that route first. It might seem silly to worry about it because its a older leaf, but I think the older leaves do have an important story to tell. The young leaves are blissfully removed from any hardship, but the older leaves know whats really going on.   Thursday, March 21 View Page I mowed a barrel of clippings from my yard. I put the barrel in the grow hut. I put the seedlings atop the barrel. Is this "compost-heater" working to keep them warm...?   Thursday, March 21 View Page Temp outside the grow hut 51 degrees, temp of the sunflowers soil is about 70. The top layer of tomatoes are getting the cold shoulder at just 60 or so. The sunflowers and large central tomato are making good progess. The rest of them are waiting for things to warm up. Maybe they are waiting for their own barrel of clippings? This diary is on track to win me another razzie award.   Thursday, March 21 View Page The indoor greens went nuts when I put them outdoors in real sun for a few days. Even after clipping them down, they still barely fit under the grow lights. I was going to write some ideas here about what I could do better. I thought I had some good ideas... but not really. I guess it just seems like I am really close to having a little utopian setup here. I think the combo of the "wallapini" and the "igloo" plus the natural compost heat plus a hot water/rocket stove "wake up, winter's over" blast of heat... It could all add up... the missing piece of the puzzle is a way to get woody material to biologically decompose and generate heat... because prior to late march the grass clippings arent available (and if they were you'd want a farm animal to be eating them). So I think the missing piece of the puzzle is... how to get the brown stuff to generate as much heat as grass clippings. I have almost limitless pine needles and dead grass and dead blackberry canes. If I could perfect the art of composting "the browns", thereby generating heat and beneficial fungal matter, then "there would be no bad cylinders in my gardening engine." Like spent fuel rods, the barrels will cool down. But unlike uranium, the spent material could be useful yet again, as at that stage they should make perfect worm food... Its interesting to be part of a cycle that never runs out. For example, the all-powerful federal government... might run out of money. Their vast strength is all illusive. But in wild unmanaged nature, there is no conceivable end to the cycle of detritus, and fungus, and worms and new growth. Nature has a very secure plan for us, and it costs nothing except to stoop to the level of using whats already there. Well, its the same dead horse that others have beaten before. We're always just one serpent away from Eden. We're always so very close.   Thursday, March 21 View Page More musing... I will have to post more about the "wallapini igloo" concept and whether I can move barrels of compost in and out of one. I tried last year but the barrel sat in it all year until finally before winter I did remove the barrel (after first removing the compost that was still in it). The problem is there is no space for a barrel except in the center, and then its in such a low awkward spot that it just isnt convenient to move it. A larger igloo-wallipini would be too much work for one person? But maybe not. Everything from wind to snow to weeding gets harder the bigger the thing is. But of course if its going to contain tropical trees then those would probably need a bigger design. Bit by bit, I will try to make it happen. If the barrels could be moved around, moved out of the way for weeding and planting and harvesting. And the trunks and branches of any trees were also out of the way, much as possible... Maybe four small 15x 15ft "wallapini igloos" each with one tree inside, covered by an over-arching 30x30 ft larger greenouse structure.   Thursday, March 21 View Page A.I. has revealed its secret plans to win the 150 sq ft contest... The only thing realistic here was the apparent nitrogen/ potassium deficiency in the leaves, lol. All the nutrients went into the pumpkin, clearly! If pumpkins are anything like chess elo ratings, AI could hit 3800 pretty easily.   Thursday, March 21 View Page The real reason for Stonehenge. The efforts we go to...   Friday, March 22 View Page The slug did not decapitate the apical buds so we are go for launch on 4 out of 6 of the little rocket engines. 2 Meck + 2 Butler. They are going in the ground tomorrow. Hopefully the dirt is 65 degrees and the bugs leave them alone, they arent very big. I could add a grow light... Might help. Credit: A.I. images in this diary are from designer.microsoft.com.   Friday, March 22 View Page Its like cheescake. Two bites is the right amount.   Saturday, March 23 View Page Tomatoes planted, tall sunflowers planted (different location), and lemon tree planted. Most worried about the sunflowers. Maybe adding a grow light will be the key. The tomatoes were tiny. Would have been nice to have them be bigger. Oh well.   Thursday, March 28 View Page The only way to ween myself off pumpkins is by teething on something else. I dont plan to start one of these until May, however. The bushels here all look like good options. How will I choose just one...   Sunday, March 31 View Page Who just added the secret sauce?? Happy Easter!   Sunday, April 7 View Page I discovered a new species of tree, the fiveg tree.   Thursday, April 11 View Page These are not the seeds Ashton sent me...   Thursday, April 11 View Page These are! Thanks, a real temptation for sure. They definitely need to see dirt!   Saturday, April 20 View Page No lack of sun in this spot. The question is, what to plant. Maybe an amaranth bush/tree. Double plastic for solarizing. Technically I should have a single layer during the day and two layers at night but there's a breeze today, so maybe having two layers will be optimal.   Saturday, April 20 View Page This is a compilation of the giant amaranth photos here on bp. It seems like this plant was created in an AI fantasy world, but these pics are all real.   Sunday, April 21 View Page First female cucurbit spotted... maybe next year it will be an Atlantic Giant. Plant was suffering a bit of calcium deficiency but coming along now.   Wednesday, April 24 View Page Sunflower update. Looking a bit bedraggled... the volunteer tomato to the right is growing like a weed.   Wednesday, April 24 View Page Gonna be a scorcher next Wednesday. I think we might have to break out the ice packs, lol.   Sunday, April 28 View Page Will start some bushel gourds soon!   Sunday, April 28 View Page The syrup bucket... a pit of despair for those who think they can swim out, but really they cant. Was thinking about the ways of gardening Ive tried that work, and the ways that dont, and in hindsight I think that my biggest garden helper (second maybe to plant tissue testing) has been the worms... I think they help so much with disease, nutrient availability, and general soil health. No till, or shallow "rake/till" methods where only the top 1- 2" of soil are disturbed seem to fit best with what I think I need to do to get the best results. I think some places are too hot or too cold to see the full benefit of earthworms, aka having populations large enough to make a noticeable difference. If someone devoted 1,000 square feet to growing not pumpkins but instead earthworms, but THEN grew a pumpkin atop that spot... this might effortlessly lead to pumpkin success? The only effort would be in growing the worms. I might try this. This piece-of-cake gardening would basically be to just care the worms, get their health and population as high as possible, and then with just a few minor modifications, the pumpkin or gourd or whatever, would almost literally be the icing atop "the cake."   Tuesday, April 30 View Page Round 1 Bushel Gourds. Aiming for 3 plants... Not expecting perfect germination from the 5+ year old seeds.   Tuesday, April 30 View Page These will be Round Two. I'll start these next week. I might do some sort of blind plant selection later so that I am not biased, either consciously or unconsciously, about the grower, the cross, or the lbs. I really just want to focus all of my attention on the plants themselves. I believe I can get a good result if I just treat it like a pumpkin plant. But I think selecting the right plant will be the key.   Sunday, May 5 View Page 4/4 of the Clayton tomatoes alive still here, if barely. Poor weather and neglect but this is actually a good result for tomatoes planted outdoors at just 2 cotyledon stage. Really, it was an experiment to see if they would even survive. Alive and growing... cant ask for more than that yet.   Tuesday, May 7 View Page The volunteer tomato. If I had started my giant tomato plants sooner, then they could all be this big. A bigger plant isnt better if its just a big mess, with unsolved nutrient issues, though.   Wednesday, May 8 View Page The 193 Sherwood and 243 Brown bushel gourds are coming up. The others are probably duds.   Sunday, May 12 View Page Bushel gourds: 193 Sherwood black pot 243 Brown orangey pot The others either rotted or their seed coats were impermeable to water. I'll have to try the Joe Jutras technique for the next round (which should be tomorrow) and see if it boosts the germination rates. These guys are slower to start than pumpkins! Its all just for fun, so no worries!   Tuesday, May 14 View Page Started the six on the bottom... trying to get a diverse mix. The four on top can be for next year... I tried filing the edges, they are definitely woody seeds, some of them I probably didnt file enough. Hopefully a few pop up.   Tuesday, May 14 View Page Elaine wanted to post this in her diary but I guess she is going to use mine instead. This is such a non-pumpkin diary. But hopefully a sunflower, or tomato, or bushel gourd turns out good. Gotta put these kids to work, since they are already too smart for school.   Saturday, May 18 View Page I made a clone just prior to this momma plant getting sick. 'Queen of the night' is the variety. I used Scott's method (altitude maters). Nothing but water and potting mix and leave it alone for a couple weeks.   Saturday, May 18 View Page Indirect light/ or some am/pm light is sufficient... there's no need for either full sun or full darkness. I used the water bottle as a mini greenhouse (ironically I used the same water bottle as a pot for the momma plant... I am very cheap). The water bottle greenhouse keeps the humidity up which may help the clone get established. Also I trimmed off the furthest portion of the leaf so the ratio of leaf to stalk was lower. The stalk holds water and leaf releases it so having a bit more stalk or a bit less leaf is good. The sucker is broken off where it meets the momma plant, this is where it will naturally break off cleaner and easier. I think a healthy medium-sized sucker/side sprout is the easiest size to use.   Saturday, May 18 View Page After letting it sit for a couple weeks, it has more than doubled in size and it has got some roots! This was a great idea that Scott wrote about last year. Check his diary out last year, or the tomato forum, if you want to read more about this trick.   Thursday, May 23 View Page Bert and Ernie the bushel gourd bedfellows. They are in this tough world together now. The 243 Brown (lets call this one Bert) had weaker roots and is lagging a bit, maybe overwatered it, the 193 Sherwood (lets call this one Ernie) is stronger. The new mix they are in is mostly composted wood chips, some fire pit dirt and some regular dirt. I'll offset any nitrogen drain with miracle grow. Plus I have the fish fertilizer and dead bees which will add nitrogen. I used the decaying wood chips mostly for some aeration under the plants. Hopefully the result is healthy roots and hopefully some healthy fungal biology & worms later on... Now that they are in the same dirt together it will be a fair competition, eventually one will become the main plant and the other will be demoted (but not pulled out, you'll see...).   Thursday, May 23 View Page There's an excess or a deficiency here. It looks a heck of a lot like a virus but I am dealing with non-soil that is about as good as cement mix. The fruit is setting normally, a bit slow to ripen, but... the crinkled shrivelled leaves arent right... Any ideas? It probably needs some humic/ fulvic or something to chelate the minerals and get rid of this cement mix effect. Idk.   Thursday, May 23 View Page I harvested about the best cucumber Ive ever eaten off this plant, it doesnt say what the exact variety of persian cucumber it is, I have found hints of unpalatable-ness in every cucumber I've tried, but not this one. Its got some of the same wacky nutrient issues. Its also growing non-soil that is mostly rock and clay, perfect stuff for a parking lot. The ph could be off and there's probably nothing stopping the clay from binding to certain nutrients.   Sunday, May 26 View Page Had two of the backups pop. Thought I did something wrong and none would germ, but 2/6 is is the same germ. rate as the first round, so apparently I did nothing much better or worse, lol. 234.5 Werner and 263.5 Ciesielski, so some different genetics to add to the mix. Paper bag princesses in the background are doing great. I made them very snug on purpose to help them deal with the wind. I'll probably build them a hoop house not for frost protection but because bushel gourds love heat and we usually dont get consistent warmth until the end of June.   Friday, May 31 View Page Happy Birthday Elaine! On the inside it says, "Hope your day is filled with lots of crazy fun!" With those kids how could it not be!!!   Friday, May 31 View Page Bushel gourd update I have a 5th contender which is the 170 Vial. It popped up a few days later. Its at the bottom of the picture. 5 gourd plants is plenty, since I really only have one good spot. The way I am they will all get planted, even if all I've got for them is a half shaded random bit of dirt where a hose is leaking. The sick tomato is doing better after rinsing its roots off completely and giving them a H202 bath then repotting it in a different potting mix. I've found this to be a miracle cure twice now... Without this "miracle" intervention, the plants health would keep going downhill and it would die. I think its worth a try even with the worst looking plants.   Tuesday, June 4 View Page Rain, rain, go away. Things are lush. Smokey the Bear can do some extra long hibernating this year.   Tuesday, June 4 View Page This mustard got planted at the same time as the tomatoes (a mistake on my part). Its enjoying this weather, clearly. If nothing else, I already grew a pb mustard plant lol. There's lots of baby worms in this spot where this mustard plant is... baby worms indicates good things? I think this could help my results later... ? I will neither till nor broad fork, its easier just to feed my youthful army of soil diggers. ...Cant hardly even see the tomato plants but there are some in this picture. Not a great start, but I had crappy plants last year and when the weather changed they turned around, I hope these will too. ...Cant even describe how poor the weather is but I think this is what farmers here call a cabbage year... aka the opposite of a corn year. Speaking of corn... now would be the time.   Tuesday, June 4 View Page 2024 Bushel gourd spot. This is the spot that grew 2200 lbs of pumpkins last year. Judging by the appearance of the weeds and the garlic, the rain hasnt washed all the nutrients out... Im gonna mow, do a bonfire, then solarize, then put up a hoop house mostly for wind protection, but also a bit higher temps at night.... pumpkins will do ok with 50 degree nights but maybe melons/ bushel gourds want 60 degree nights. I dont want to use pesticides and there is a full ecosystem of bugs out here including some that would like to eat Bert & Ernie, the bushel gourd plants thats why I will sear the soil surface around the planting hole with fire, and solarize the rest. The soil has good potential... I just wonder if I should have gotten some better genetics that include Steve's 470 lber in their lineage.   Wednesday, June 5 View Page Today was planting day for Bert and Ernie. It went well enough, they seem happy. The timing was good weather wise. These bushel gourds are going to be almost as much work as a pumpkin. The other three, Cookie Monster, Oscar, and Big Bird will get planted next. Lol. The 193 Sherwood/ Ernie is the plant to the north. The 243 Brown/ Bert is to the south. It might be possible to grow gourds on both plants. Each would have 300 sq ft or so. This will be the new plan. The only other thing this year would be to grow some field kins. I could probably direct seed one at this point.   Wednesday, June 5 View Page I will have tomatoes, bushel gourd, field kin... plus the tall sunflowers... and large ear Indian corn... thats enough for me.   Thursday, June 6 View Page Day 1. I put a dark tarp in back thinking they might vine down in the direction I want/ grow towards the light. But now that I think about it, some climbing/vining plant are designed grow towards things they can climb on, rather than towards the light. If they always grew towards the light then they'd never be able to climb up the tallest trees because they would avoid them. Anyhow, I dont know enough about these gourds, so the shade will be removed. I'll use stakes or something instead, if needed.   Friday, June 7 View Page Well, I guess I will do a full diary this year despite not growing any full size AG's... Day 2 in the ground for the bushel gourds... I measure some temps. Outside: low 40's. In the grow hut, with 2 layers of plastic and a barrel of compost putting out (guessing) at least 100 watts of heat: upper 40s. Soil temp: 70/ 80. So, the air temp is lower than expected, the soil temp is higher than expected, and... well, I dont know what else to say. The numbers speak for themselves in an unexpected way.   Friday, June 7 View Page Built this "garden shed" for the cost of 50 screws... $5.00 or so... Kinda looks like it. Its made out of various pallets, some XL ones, and odd stuff I had here. Lol, just realizing that it looks like something the microsoft AI would "image generate"... seems to have a couple structural incongruities lol.   Saturday, June 8 View Page As many backups as a Boeing airplane ought to have. 234.5 Warner will be "The Count" as it can clearly count... the 263 Ciesielski will be "Oscar the Grouch" its sitting in quite a pile of organic garbage, and the 170 will be "Big Bird". The FAA doesn't ground birds. If the others all fail... we're still gonna fly. Never mind that it seems Big Bird cant fly... thats ok, in this case, it only needs to lay a big egg.   Monday, June 10 View Page Stopping to smell the roses ought to have been a biblical commandment. It would have slowed down the whole exodus thing a bit too much, I guess.   Tuesday, June 11 View Page Not exactly gourd growing weather. But it was 90 degrees in the hut yesterday and the soil temp was warm also. Ive got multiple barrels of grass clippings adding heat. I think it helps. Maybe a grow light would gain me a day or two as well. Hopefully will have a large plant and some mid July pollinations... I dont know if thats too late... We'll see. Eventually I'll post some tomato stuff.. But this is going to be a bushel gourd diary until around mid July.   Tuesday, June 11 View Page Looking at Steve C's diary from 2020 I'm a good 2 weeks behind his world record plant. I'm not trying to grow a world record, I'm just trying to get the best result I can! His record seems out of reach. But he did go with a mid-July pollination. I'll try for some mid July pollinations too, but on more compact plants. Vines are down so thats good.   Tuesday, June 11 View Page I presoaked these seeds for a few days in a paper towel using some h202 to keep things fresh (my water doesn't have any chlorine it does tend to go bad faster than city water.) They started showing roots so I put them into my home made potting mix, and a couple days later they have now popped up.   Wednesday, June 12 View Page I did get a few first truss megas but I'm not going to bother trying to pollinate any of them. The plants were neglected & they are weak still, and the forcast isnt great, so I dont think they can reach their potential. I'll get this spot cleaned up and then wait until the plants are ready. This plant went into the ground in March with just cotyledons and it recieved very little subsequent care. Its my 6.25 dmg #1 from last year. I grew 2 that came in at 6.25... confusing. I should have just trimmed a bit more stem off one, until it was whittled down to "6.24".   Friday, June 14 View Page The grow hut is working great its not fancy there's even a lot of holes in the plastic, but thats ok the holes keep it from getting too hot. I put two layers on at night so a long as the holes dont align the warmth is somewhat trapped. I fed various forms of nitrogen today with the thought that I might leave the plants uncovered when it rains to give them some healthy natural irrigation. The extra nitrogen may allow them to bounce back quicker after being cold. There's no differences between the 193 Sherwood and the 243 Brown, other than the 193 has a slightly thicker vine. I'm trying to observe the plants closely to see if there are genetic differences. The only way to make progress in breeding is if there are some genetic differences. Oh and on the right is my main gardening tool... lol. Mow! Then solarize! Its definitely easier than tilling. A lawnmower creates worm food but a rototiller... only creates bird food. ..One feeds the soil life and the other chops it up. But of course solarizing kills a lot of the good guys, so who am I to talk. For me solarizing gets rid of the "bad guys" and I think the worms mostly survive.   Friday, June 14 View Page I planted potatoes in the tomato hut. I thought this would be a mistake but I was pleasantly surprised by the productivity. Even though they were only watered once or twice they made a nice crop.   Friday, June 14 View Page I was clearing a spot for a 3rd tomato plant. I had six plants in the hut last year and it got crowded. This year I might stick with 3? 4, at most. Ps look how green everything is! Its really putting the 'green' into "the evergreen state" here this year.   Friday, June 14 View Page I got a 2 gallon bucket mostly filled. I havent been having much luck with potatoes elsewhere. Whatever I did here to the soil here, they really liked. I dont remember everything I added but I know I mulched it heavily with chesnut leaves.   Saturday, June 15 View Page I used two buckets to wash them. The round bucket has holes in the bottom to rinse them and have the dirt flow out the holes but the potatoes stay. The square bucket, if you hold it and rotate back and forth has a washing machine agitation effect. The potatoes rub against each other and the sloshing helps remove dirt. Anyhow, it would be beyond tedious to clean all of these one at a time. But agitating the dirt off then rinsing them, then agitating them a final time... there was not a single speck of dirt or sand remaining. Actually... the main trick is to harvest them young. The older they get (the longer they remain in the ground) the harder the dirt is to remove. If they sit in the ground too long they do end up needing to be scrubbed one at a time.   Wednesday, June 19 View Page Elaine and I will be trading some tomato plants. She planted a whole tray this evening... We might cooperate on a tomato project that could give us big results.   Sunday, June 23 View Page These have been above ground for about two weeks. I potted them up to 4" pots today, a day after this picture was taken??? I lost track of which plants were which seed line. Basically no record keeping, no measuring fertilizers. Just a pinch here and a sprinkle there... Its basically all random luck at this point. Not a great recipe for success. Oh well.   Thursday, June 27 View Page Quite the failure with the tall sunflowers. I denied them certain nutrients in the hopes they would not create a flower bud. Now 3/4 have flower buds and they are only 6 ft tall or so. The tomato has a gazillion blossoms but is not setting any fruit. Apparently I denied it the nutrients it needs to actually set fruit, but not the ones needed to bloom. I will have a totally new strategy for next year, which will include more water, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and a different pruning approach. I pruned some leaves off the sunflowers, but I dont think it was the correct ones.   Thursday, June 27 View Page Let me get crazy about bushel gourds now! The Brown is longer, it appears it will be the snout type. The shorter Sherwood here might be a day younger... so it might actually be the larger of the two... if it was the same age.   Thursday, June 27 View Page Both were 3 stigmas, 5 sepals, and 3 ovaries. Technically, each stigma is really a pair of stigmas, and each pair goes to a pair of ovaries. Any way you wish to label it, its still got less than a pumpkin. The pumpkins are a bit more fecund, generally having 5 sets of ovaries not 3.   Thursday, June 27 View Page The 193 Sherwood plant. In the upper left picture I have removed some AG leaves from the AG companion plant. I may send these for testing to see what nutrients I can add more of, I can already guess that I wont be adding more potassium or nitrogen. I was already tempted to throttle these plants back this week, just so that I would not get behind on pruning. But thats a poor approach to competitive growing. I will continue to try to push them full throttle and maybe only ease off if things look really good in August. At some point, you dont try to fix what aint broke. Not quite at that point yet. I even added a little more nitrogen today despite knowing they have plenty. Note the bushel gourd leaves are almost as large as the AG leaves. And some of the secondary vines are large, almost like AG vines! Maybe this is a good sign... I aint complainin.   Thursday, June 27 View Page Oops I forgot I was going to put the bushel gourds in the blossom down diary. Well, for the tomatoheads... all I can say is, its been a slow year. I have some ideas to try, but I'm certainly not excited yet. I will start some more seeds asap. Maybe tonight. Maybe for this next mini round I will try some other folk's seeds.   Saturday, June 29 View Page Messed up nutrients, looks like a virus but I think I just botched the fertilizer on this one. Really though, I suspect that one of my blue fertilizers isnt correctly mixed, it came out of the factory wrong or is labelled wrong. I doubt there's as much oversight or quality control as we might assume. The next post will prove my point.   Saturday, June 29 View Page The plant in the pot is the same, planted at the same time. It is potted in miracle grow's "garden soil". Wow... you'd think if you were going to spend money on something then maybe it would be... worth something? Look at my own dirt, without any fancy soil testing or balancing, just a little bone meal and/or balanced fertilizer. Even without precisely correct micronutrients its just blowing away the name brand store bought product. How many people waste their money thinking they are buying something that has reasonable value when really theyre buying something that has almost none. Anyhow, this is why I believe they would sell a shoddy product. Because thats what they do... Edit/Addendum: Ok, so I thought about it, maybe its not a bad product but for the average person its a confusing product. I think you're supposed to buy two products and combine them. One, is the dirt. The other is the fertilizer. I'm confused by that. My mom was confused by that, she helped start these plants (that gets into a whole other story). Anyhow, I think the only person who is not confused is whoever is doubling the amount of money it takes to have a successful garden by separating the dirt from the fertilizer, lol. I dont think it says explicitly in big letters on the package that you must add fertilizer to their dirt for it to give anything close to good results. But actually it probably does say that in some roundabout, small-print way. Only idiots like me or my mom (she's plenty sharp, really) end up with poor results lol.   Saturday, June 29 View Page I ought to just say this, that there's a huge array of products out there, and if the stuff you're using isnt giving the results you want then simply find something that does. There's no need to be spend too much or to not get good results... Because eventually you will find things that work well enough and also give an acceptable value in return for your money. I dont want to give my whole hearted endorsement to anything (and nobodys paying me, or giving me anything free) but the flipside of my ranting about things that disappoint me is that Id like to give some credit where it may possibly be due. So theres a gazillion products out there, 98% of which Ive never tried so I absolutely cannot say "these are the best" or anything like that. Instead, the below are just a couple that have seemed for me to have reasonable efficacy/value, gave good results as far as I know, and have not seemed to cause any problems that I'm aware of. Getting dirty in the garden, and here on bp too.   Monday, July 1 View Page I put 30 of the 4" pot tomato plants into the ground, leaving a dozen extras for round 1 of my frankenstein experiment. The real goal is probably an August pollination and then to keep the rain off anything thats still growing good in September/Oct. I can probably start a couple more rounds in persuit of an early August pollination but time is flying by and thats gonna be it. I wont try to pollinate any past mid August. One thing I am realizing is that for the most part my soil is still terrible, and my control of weeds is inadequate. Something is getting bound in the soil or depleted it is especially noticeable in my potatoes, but even the garlic did poorly this year. Lots of aphids this year. I wanted to tale a pic of some very fat ladybugs but didnt have my phone with me. I guess they prefer eating the black aphids, the grey aphids not so much. I live in a good area for natural predators. I wont spray I'll just let the natural predators do their thing. They always do an excellent job. The last of the 4 sunflowers is showing a bud. So the tall sunflower thing was a humbling non-success but I wont call it a failure because I did find some dry patches of soil around the sunflowers which pretty much explains why they had no chance of growing very tall. Plants generally take any perceived onset drought as a signal to stop growing and/or reproduce asap.   Tuesday, July 2 View Page Some good sized cherries despite the cool wet spring. The first education we are given about garden plants is just water, sun, and dirt. Then we learn some finer details, like that some plants like a higher ph or a lower ph, the temperature they like, etc. But lately I think there's a third level. Which is that the reason beans, for example, like a higher ph is that molybdenum is something they really value. Maybe potatoes value the other micronutrients like manganese above all else, so they "like a low ph." What I'm reading now is that scab... is maybe not directly caused by high ph really caused by low manganese. Manganese will be lower at a high ph so there is a correlation but its not causation. Potatoes might do fine in a high ph soil if they had access to micronutrients. Similarly, beans might to great in a low ph soil as long as they have the level of molybdenum they want. Think about the cost of spreading tons of calcium carbonate onto a field vs the cost of spraying a few ounces of chelated micronutrients, or maybe a seed coating that had a slow release, specific micronutrient. The third level of understanding is where the possibilities really open up. And unlike other technologies, I dont see how this technology can be misused... Going really far out here, it even presents a solution to global CO2 levels (which may or may not be a problem... the kneejerk "change is bad" reaction isnt going to win that debate) because then you arent releasing carbon from calcium carbonate. The point is, that that while other knowledge seems only to used to enslave us, this knowledge would lead to technologies that would offer us choices. Having choices is a prerequisite for making good choices. We tend to emphasize the later, not the former, to the point where its almost comical or destructive.   Wednesday, July 3 View Page Been shopping at Toys R Us. Justification for purchase is "I dont know what I dont know". Probably nearing $400 into the garden this year, which is kinda my limit. Its a lot less fun for me if the costs become significant.   Thursday, July 4 View Page Garden cloth/ plastic mulch experiment. This stuff seems ideal for conserving water. It puddles at first but then it seems to drain through. Its blindingly bright and this is a partly shaded area, so it should help. I dont know if it will fully control my perennial weeds, they might pop through, but I do expect it would help with annual weeds. Enough light gets through that the weeds should be weakened, not necessarily killed by it though.   Friday, July 5 View Page Far view of romaine lettuce in the shade of a small poplar tree. At 3 pm it gets a break from the hot sun. I was never a fan of permaculture, I thought it could equally well be spelled "_____cult___". But now I've got grape vines growing over trees and mixed landscaping/gardening all over my place. I think more in terms of "where does a good habitat already exist for this plant" and then thats where it goes.   Friday, July 5 View Page Id better get a tomato or cucumber pollinated soon or there's going to be lots of boring salads this summer.   Sunday, July 7 View Page Vine twist, type 1.   Sunday, July 7 View Page Vine twist type 2. The second type here is more like a deformity because I dont think it will necessarily correct itself, although it might. I think these are both nutritional. I think they are related to some minerals not being available in low ph soil. But vining plants will often twist their vines around as they seek something to grow on. So its tempting to say its just natural. It might be both. The plant might interpret low minerals as a sign that it is starving and the only way for a plant to avoid starving is to send the roots more energy and the only way to send the roots more energy is to climb higher to where there is more sunlight. On the other hand if the plant is well supplied with nutrients it wont get that nutritional signal to twist and climb? So all of this could be pro-adaptive, and generally anything pro-adaptive cannot be readily dismissed, no matter how kooky or farfetched as it may outwardly appear. I am going to interpret both types of twisting as a sign that the plant is nutritionally hungry, and not totally happy. The issue, for example, might be that although there may still calcium in the soil, the plant is using it as fast as the roots can send it, so the plant is depleted, even if the soil is not. An important differentiation, in understanding the problem. If there is plenty of calcium in the soil, then my job becomes helping the plant uptake more of whats already there, rather than adding more.   Sunday, July 7 View Page There is actually something in this mostly empty photo that is worth mentioning... I am using this area as a burn pile and there are potato plants growing up through piled branches. Nothing special, right? But these potato plants... they are chest high and still growing! My other potato plants have fallen over onto the ground and shut down. Why would these ones seem to be do better? Well, I think potatoes dont like the heat of the ground in sunny weather. The ground is where the heat collects. But in this setup, there's nowhere for heat to collect. Even in upper 80 degree weather these vines are not getting too hot. The final thing to note is that although there are a lot of weeds, overall the potaoes are enjoying this setup more than the weeds are. Potatoes are wimps against weeds, but here they are winning. I wasnt looking for a better way to grow potatoes, but I think I just found one.   Tuesday, July 9 View Page 97 today but then back to some really good weather.   Tuesday, July 9 View Page Elaine, can kids try: There are 50 apples on this branch. The tree has about 40 branches this size. About how many apples are on the tree?   Tuesday, July 9 View Page Mowing and solarizing. Last round of tomatoes for Team Mega Powers. Saving the best for last, 7.69 Clayton's x 19 plants. If it doesnt have a mega it will be compost, too late in the year to go with anything beyond the first truss anyhow.   Wednesday, July 10 View Page Node length... John Kempf says a shorter, denser, plant will be a more productive one. That strikes me as odd. Part of this might go back to the same hormone theory as the twisting vines... If the roots are getting lots of energy, they won't signal the plant to grow taller. But for me a dense plant might be a bad thing... it might just be a phosohorus deficiency. There's some confusion possible if a well fed plant is supposed to be stout and very dark green, but a phosphorus defient plant would look similar. Meanwhile Steve Connolly's WR bushel gourd and some mean pumpkins are being grown on lanky plants. These plants probably have plenty of everything, including potassium... but maybe a bit less nitrogen. Steve's WR bushel gourd had plenty of nitrogen, too, and eventually it filled in and was a dense plant. It has to do with gene expression/ full development of the desired part of the plant. And if you try to do it all at the same time, then maybe the growth of one part of the plant comes at the expense of another part. The growth of the pumpkin might come at the expense of the growth of the roots, or the growth of the vines might come at the expense of the growth of the flower buds. Most of the time there's not a lot we can do to change the course of things. Even if we knew everything it would still be an intersting tug of war between the limited things we have control over, and the many things we dont.   Wednesday, July 10 View Page Is this a new species...? I dont know if u can see it but there is a solitary hornet (spider is just photobombing). There are some solitary hornets coming and going here from the old solitary bee nests. I saw one drag a caterpillar into one of the small bamboo tube, so they're definitely not bees. An internet search for "solitary hornet" didnt reveal anything. I dont think these little guys are behaving like wasps. They look, and are behaving, like hornets. The place where I live is very predator friendly! But this was totally new for me, I have never seen or heard of such a thing! Edit: now that I am looking closer I can see the narrow waist, so its just a solitary wasp. I havent seen this species or the tube-seeking behavior before. Its probably a common species that goes unnoticed.   Friday, July 12 View Page The solarized area is now carrots. It got hot enough to cook some garlic bulbs. Probably killed a lot of the good soil biology, so I added a thin layer of good compost and watered it in. Having the ground be warm might help the carrots germinate. The water from the well is 40 degrees. Mix that with dirt that is still 80 degrees... it comes out about right. Now is the ideal time to plant carrots because they get to a nice size and good quality and then they can store in the ground overwinter. Same for beets.   Saturday, July 13 View Page I used a rocket stove to heat this sod sampling tool (whatever it was exactly I dont know) to make holes in the new garden plastic. Going to plant cucumbers amidst the corn. Used the same tool to pull dirt plugs out, just the right size for the cucumbers to go in. I think the wide spaced corn and the cucumbers will be perfect companions. As for the weed fabric/ garden plastic, its the same stuff McMillan recommended, and I wont say its perfect but I will say the soil under it looks great, the soil moisture is perfect and even. Its well designed stuff in that regard.   Saturday, July 13 View Page Will sneak a few bushel gourd posts back into this diary, just mixing things up. I got phyto started when I overwatered a few days ago. The only natural remedy I know of is to cut off the bad vines/ leaves and stop overwatering.   Saturday, July 13 View Page They can root if they want to, it probably helps if the nodes are dark and humid. A root can come out either next to the leaf or the tendril.   Saturday, July 13 View Page Bad section, possibly where the disease entered. Burying the vines is a nice idea... But if they are going to rot or get attacked by bugs, then I'm not sure its worth it.   Monday, July 15 View Page Only a triple but cant get too picky.   Tuesday, July 16 View Page Do these products look the same? Well, checking the label, on the back, they're not. The bag is 15-30-15. The box is 10-52-10. They have some different ingredients. Glad I noticed. I think I'd rather use Jack's or something else. I dont like this thing where their products fool me. They have fooled me enough times now that it will be "shame on me."   Wednesday, July 17 View Page http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=335498 If I have any pollen available I am going to try this, but maybe with 15 leaves. I am pollinating one a month later than him, so you gotta cut me some slack. The 15 leaf competition. In honor of... Leif. That should light the fire of female competition in the bushel gourd girls...   Thursday, July 18 View Page Two different kinds of sunburn. In the first picture, the edge get dried out, this dessication usually only happens in the young, but not baby, leaves. In the second picture, there is wilting (umassimilated nitrates may be a factor) and the middle part gets heat stressed but it doesnt dry out... The middle is the part of the leaf still facing up into the sun after the edges wilted down. It probably creates a heat trap under the leaf as well as absorbing all the direct infrared heat from the sun. One of the reasons for pinnate or palmate leaves would be to let heat out from under the leaf. Pumpkins probably prefer solid leaves to help suppress vines and grasses that would take advantage of such leaf gaps, it suppresses the competition much better to have wide solid leaves. The desire to suppress the competition outweighs a few burned leaves, also free nitrate is rare in nature, so this type of burn probably doesn't happen as much in wild plants. Both picture were the same plant, the damage occuring over the same few days. Odd to see both kinds of damage at the same time on the same plant? Either could look like a disease or nutrient issue. There is an indirect link to nitrate but the sun is the direct cause.   Thursday, July 18 View Page Elaine's tomatoes. Warning to arachnophobic viewers... Skip the next entry, or beware...   Thursday, July 18 View Page This is a species Ive never seen. Pretty sure its a garden spider x yellow crab spider. I saw another hybrid spider a long time ago, it was bizarre. Kinda sad since nature doesnt have much kindness towards oddballs but I wish it the best. If it leaves me alone I will leave it alone.   Saturday, July 20 View Page Getting ready for the cabbage patch kids... The beets and carrots germinated, just one last thing to plant and I can call the garden done for this year. "15 leaf" kin pollinated today.   Sunday, July 21 View Page Pollinated Ashtons 694 greenie with both the 1912 and 2554, the 2554 was the bottom ovary/ stigma lobe, the other 3 were the 1912. Ive never tried to get two controlled pollinations within the same pumpkin. There's a chance a grain of pollen could fall off one stigma lobe onto the other stigma lobe. The pollen must be applied with meticulous care to get good coverage but not brush the wrong lobe. The seeds will have to be harvested carefully and only seeds connected to the correct area within the pumpkin will be 'controlled' loose seeds will be uncontrolled. This is probably getting confusing.   Sunday, July 21 View Page I carefully placed the pollen on the segments as pictured. Later when I cut open the pumpkin the seeds from the bottom of the kin can be sorted from the others. Loose seeds will be discarded, only seeds attached to the corresponding interior sections will be saved, if I think they're worth saving. I had this idea a few years ago but I thought it would be troublesome. But its gone really well so far, I didn't accidentally bush the wrong stigma, as far as I know there was no cross contamination.   Sunday, July 21 View Page Elaine's tomatoes are trying out the new weed fabric. Also have cucumbers planted in with the corn. I think this weed fabric could be a game changer for my tomato growing, although the other improvements are needed as well. The soil here is relatively poor. Maybe Elaine can brew up some compost tea for them. These will be first-truss-only plants. Frankly I already know they wont grow anything bigger than a half a pound... if she doesnt fertilize and pollinate them...   Wednesday, July 31 View Page Left, Ashton's Cantrell x 1109 Jutras squash 10 DAP. Right, Ashton's 1109 x 1912.5 Stelts squashkin DAP 13. Small plants < 50 leaves, gonna see what they can do.   Wednesday, July 31 View Page This was the very sick 'queen of the night' tomato plant from earlier this year. Beautiful striped tomatoes, not large though... A relatively tame plant, minimal pruning required and only modest production, it seems to be happily at home in the gourd and pumpkin leaves.   Friday, August 2 View Page Found this one growing in the thicket. It suffered some bug bites.   Friday, August 2 View Page Now on a proper cushion with a dusting of diatomaceous earth. Guessing it could get to 4 lbs ish. Quite a flush of megas to pollinate today. Today will be the approximate DAP 0 for most of my future prospects.   Friday, August 2 View Page Not a good pic but hoping for a heavy single on this one. Down to my last jar of tomatoes from last year. Thats good timing.... So many tomato plants this year I might have to change my name to Lots of Ketchup.   Sunday, August 4 View Page Loaded. They've been tart so far but finally found a sweet one today.   Sunday, August 4 View Page I cut all of these off... there's better ones. This was a direct seeded plant, planted in early June. A really great plant. I'm guessing that the remaining contenders are at DAP 7 or so.   Monday, August 5 View Page I've come up with some new pollination methods that are sort of "duh, why didnt I think of that". Breaking off a single blossom and vibrating it directly onto the mega rather than into a spoon... Just that much more straightforward. There's various ways to get the job done. How did I end up here? I knew absolutely nothing about gardening ten years ago. And now I am breeding tomatoes and trying to break state records. I didn't see this coming.   Tuesday, August 6 View Page Biggest I have seen so far. Big enough it induced a zinc deficiency in the leaves closest to it. I dont think this plant is strong enough to handle it, but you never know.   Tuesday, August 6 View Page The cheap unscientific version, but the same goal as Matt D... Temp and humidity control. Can't see it well but I can irrigate the plastic and throw up as much shade cloth as I want. Watering the plastic and the ground around the hut instantly boosts the humidity while lifting the plastic skirt around the edges keeps the temps lower. I'm not sure if a bunch of sensors is necessary, I can pretty much use my own senses to keep things in the optimal ranges. I want the plants dry now that there are tomatoes growing I cant get the plants wet. But I can get the plastic cover over the plants... wet. Seems quite silly but the tomatoes enjoy being both in the rain and out of the rain.   Wednesday, August 7 View Page When my "new ideas" fail... Ive lost both because I used the wrong product under the kins. This coarse dolomite is like sand but when it gets wet it rots them. Its probably doing the same thing to my roots where I have used it in the soil... I used a different coarse dolomite in the past and I didnt notice any issues so I wasnt expecting this. This dolomite product is very harsh & reactive or the one I used in the past was more inert. In hindsight I should have used dirt, playsand, or clean straw.   Thursday, August 8 View Page One that could be a personal best. Or could have been... I failed to get the last little bit pollinated. It was one of those multiple-fertile-day blossoms. I've got to be more careful. This is the exact same thing I messed up on last year. Last year I had an extra tiny bit that didnt pollinate, and I think it became difference between a 7 lb and 8 lb tomato. The same thing all over again. Its like not checking the O-rings on my rocket. In terms of growing a personal best, that extra bit of care could end up the difference between success and failure.   Thursday, August 8 View Page Close up. That could be a whole pound of tomato there. These little extra delayed bits can be hard to notice within a big blossom. I should have invested more time and effort into this one.   Saturday, August 10 View Page Look at these big schnozes! Go figure that five plants nearby would have none but this one would have three. Choices, choices, choices. I'm gonna need Altitude's help!!!   Saturday, August 10 View Page Its nothing yet, but I started adding pollen. I'll cross this with the plant that has the three "double-row" megas. I couldnt quite pull all the anthers out so it might be x self too, which would be ok.   Saturday, August 10 View Page This is how I hold the single over the mega. The megas probably shouldnt be bent straight backwards but the will usually twist up sideways 180 degree without much fuss... Just be gentle. I then press the toothbrush against the side of the single and it drops its pollen. Its great this way. It's as easy as pollinating a pumpkin, now.   Saturday, August 10 View Page Its easier to make controlled crosses now. Successful big tomato x 'queen of the night'. Other than for novelty, the queen of the night plant seems healthy and productive enough to make this cross worthwhile.   Saturday, August 10 View Page Run boys, she's a man eater.   Tuesday, August 13 View Page These are off different plants but they sure look the same. They're both the result of Ashton's Jutras squash x 2554 cross. Its probably too late to grow a pumpkin unless its grown in a hoophouse but who knows. Indian summer maybe?   Wednesday, August 14 View Page Clockwise from upper left, Elaine's row of tomatoes. Elaine's standout plant with a "super mega". (Maybe she will save seeds from this plant!) My tomato that I twisted the stem on to prevent future problems. It was either that or cull it. I'm curious to see how it recovers from the rough handling... Last, this mulit-day pollination appears to have been successful. These ones sure take patience... It wont be a personal best but thats ok I'm happy with it!   Thursday, August 15 View Page Some pollinations today and tomorrow for some porch kins/ genetics. What's the goal here? Well... maybe breed some undesirable traits out of the squash lines? Maybe leave in the good traits, like the long fruit stems aka pedicel. Technically speaking... ugh. The early June seed start/ early July plant-out date seems like it will be good for getting a tomato to an October weigh off. Was also thinking that if only 1 in 10 plants is a standout plant then I should plan on culling about 1 in 10 and let the best ones remain. I have plants that would be happy with 4 to 6 ft spacing. An initial spacing of 18" would be tight but after culling 1 in 10 then the remaining plants would have an average/approximate spacing of 4.75 ft x 4.75 ft (Math based on 2 dimensional surface/ a plane/ a grid... not a line.) This would be alright. It would work great to have the best lineage from the previous year to use as a pollinator? A big overwintered plant that could just crank out blossoms for pollen?? This is me brainstorming. I wouldnt want to overwinter any diseases or pests. Might have to plant this big ugly overwintered plant in a different part of the garden. Its possible to overthink things. Gotta stretch my old brain out though, occasionally.   Thursday, August 15 View Page Just some notes. Middle 527, main vine is x self. The side vine blossom is x ashtons 2554 cross. Ashton's west Cantrell x 1109 is pollinated with the 527 squashkin to the west. Tomatoes are doing just fantastic. I'll try to cross the gnarliest megas with the healthiest plants. Susceptibility to verticulum isnt cool...   Friday, August 16 View Page Todays controlled pollination: 527 northwest plant x 527 middle plant A couple more pollinations tomorrow then thats it... I cant expect to get viable seeds from anything past mid August. I'm really happy with the middle plant. Its so cool to cross a white one with an orange one and end up with a green one, lol. I may cull the others.   Friday, August 16 View Page Middle plant greenie pollinated yesterday.   Saturday, August 17 View Page More notes. Barn 1109 Jutras x Cantrell pollinated with the middle 527 Clayton. 1912 x 1109, in with the gourds, also pollinated with the middle 527. I tried one last tomato pollination today but I couldnt get any good pollen. Thats it for the competition tomatoes... whats set is set. There's not enough good weather or blossoms coming up to make any more effort worthwhile. The last two rounds of tomatoes were too late to do much good. The first two rounds were fine as far as first truss megas (the 30 I planted out from the 4" pots at the beginning of July)... these did ok. The best ones were planted in June, though. I have only one truly full size plant right now, and that was the one planted way back in March. Ironically, it has some nice tomatoes on it but it never threw a ribbon or super mega of any sort. The good megas are all on side vines on medium to large plants but I mean large like a 20 oz drink is called "large." They're average sized and not truly large.   Sunday, August 18 View Page Triple fused field kin. This plant sure is fun. Unfortunately, for size I think it has reverted itself to standard "grocery store" genetics... its a bigger and better plant than the one that grew my 109 but neither of the pumpkins on it are heading close to or past that number.   Sunday, August 18 View Page It will be another week before I can see if its connected and fully pollinated. It took a whole week to pollinate this one... it just goes on and on more than this picture shows. I missed a couple days, so its probably not perfectly pollinated. In hindsight I can think "why didnt I do this or that". Putting a lot of plants in the ground has a tendency to steepen the learning curve... Which is what I wanted. As Jeff Bezos would say, the key to success and profits, is to fail at a faster rate. In other words, when trying new things, or pushing ourselves harder, we're going to fail. Thats unavoidable. But the part we can maybe control is how fast we fail. Which really means: how fast we learn, dust ourselves off, and then get ready to fail again. Every failure is a success within the context of conquering the learning curve...   Monday, August 19 View Page Up, over the rampart! Nope... it turns itself to the side. "Whatddya think I am, a rampart gourd?" (A joke for a very small audience...).   Monday, August 19 View Page Todays revelation. I realized something about the weeds vs the crop seeds here. The weeds are not necessarily more genetically vigorous than the crop seed, but they ARE being selected to be vigorous, whereas the crop seed (some cabbages, etc)... simply isnt being naturally selected. Thats the difference. To prove my point, not every weed is a vigorous monster weed, 95% of the weeds are average, or weaklings, even. Nature sorts those out and they dont pass their genes on. But nature isnt being allowed to do the same thing on the crop seed. The well-intentioned people breeding the crop seed are unfortunately using unnatural selection methods, they would never stoop to nature's level and broadcast a bunch of seed into a plot of land with insect, disease, and weed pressure. It wouldnt occur to them to let nature take away their good paying job! And hence the resulting human selections wont stand up to insects, disease, or competition... I'm always amazed by my kale plants, how they can out compete the weeds, but thats because it broadcasts a gazillion seeds and only the fittest survive. They can compete toe to toe with the weeds, and even win... because they are selected in the same manner as the weeds. Every other crop could be selected in the same manner as the kale in my garden, if we would give more control back to nature. And conversely if I only pull out the most vigorous weeds, I can select for weak weeds... ha ha. Actually, this really does seem to work.   Wednesday, August 21 View Page I have the periodic table of the elements on the wall in my house. Not trying to be nerdy, actually I put it there for my kids. Not trying to get them to be nerdy either, mostly I just want them to be able to unlock whatever door they want to. "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." No locked doors and hidden keys here.   Wednesday, August 21 View Page Elaine's mega got at least partly pollinated. It will probably BER or something, but there's a slight chance it could reach maybe half its true potential. I would call it maybe an 8 lber if it had better soil and roots under it. As things are, though... it would be really lucky to reach four pounds.   Wednesday, August 21 View Page Your guess is as good as mine on this one. My guess... 5 lbs. Again, probably shedding half of its true initial potential. I think I can beat Elaine though, even without secretly doing what the Romans did to Carthage. (The Romans put table salt in their miracle grow...)   Friday, August 23 View Page I think the brown on this one is some sort of scuff marks. Its been nice not having a large pumpkin to worry about. I'm also not too worried about any of the tomatoes. I've got quite a few nice ones. But I'm not going to hit 10-12 lbs. so there's nothing to stress over really. And the bushel gourd... I dont have much control over it at this point. I've done what I can. Same with the field kin the little breeding stock pumpkins... there's not much to stress about. At this point they'll just do what they want to do.   Friday, August 23 View Page Cucumbers between tall Indian corn. This would have been impossible without the weed fabric. There's two good things about this weed fabric... one is that is does suppress the weeds rather well despite letting a little bit of light through (plus where Ive cut holes in it). The other, is that by letting a little bit of light through, the weeds that depend on light to germinate, do in fact germinate, so it not only reduces the current weeds but it also may reduce the future weed pressure by depleting a significant portion of the weed seeds by tricking them into sprouting. Plants seem to love this fabric, and I've not noticed any additional pest pressure. I dont want to rely on industrial products but I cant think of a natural product that would be an exact equivalent.   Friday, August 23 View Page Covered... It's a small plant, just the main and one side shoot. We'll see. I have gotten some good plants with various traits this year. One is definitely more of a domingo. There's a mix of genes, including some runty off types. So in the future I will have to pay more attention to plant selection. Im not sure what the future holds exactly but if I got really serious about it, then I could even set up a roadside stand to get rid of all the nice singles that I would end up with. People would love the quality and novelty of the big tomatoes that these plants can produce. I'd only let a giant ugly one grow if I thought it had a chance to be 10+ lbs.   Sunday, August 25 View Page My big pumpkin dream would be to do the Travis Gienger thing to this area... dig up the minerals below 12" with an excavator and add some minerals, and then re-establish a good layer of soil biology. I'm short on time and money, but other than that, I could try taking things to the next level. Its just outside my grasp at the moment, but there's a seed of a dream here. This area could fit a 1200 to 1500 sq ft plant. I'd push the plant and pumpkin to the max...   Monday, August 26 View Page 10 DAP the pumpkin girls aint huge, meanwhile though... about the biggest boy I have found. This thing must weigh over 1/4 lb. There's no shrinkflation here!   Tuesday, August 27 View Page More notes. Pollinated the east 1109 x 2554 with the middle 527 Clayton. Pollinated the east 527 with the 1912 x 1109. I am not keen on pollinating things so late but everything is pollinated now. There is only one "x open" pollination the rest are controlled. Lots of itty bitty giants for Halloween, and maybe an intriguing cross or two with viable seeds... if the weather cooperates.   Tuesday, August 27 View Page Culled 3 left 3... try to get this little one here to a late weigh off. I should maybe have culled the other 2 as well, idk. I kinda think that if the pollinations are spaced 15-20 days apart the plant can handle more than one, each having negligible affect on the others, but I dont know. Altitude maters (Scott) noticed a bump up on the first fruit when he culled his 2nd fruit... but those were close in proximity on the plant and close pollination dates, so there would be a direct energy conflict? There may or may not be an energy conflict with the two older tomatoes on this plant... idk.   Tuesday, August 27 View Page Why do the megas develop slower, proportionate to their size, than the singles do. This small single has a deep round shape and it weighs at least as much as the mega. They were no doubt pollinated at around the same time. So I think what this means is that the plant will divide its energy equally despite one having way more potential than the other. This equal division of resources means that the single may reach its full potential while the mega will not. I cant imagine what mechanism would cause the resources to divide equally. Presumably this happens when the resources are limited (that is the case with this plant, because its been severely neglected). If the plant had unlimited resources, then presumably the little single would only be able to consume so much and all the rest would go into the mega and they would both reach their full potential. The only conclusion I can draw from all this, is that in many cases I dont need a bigger balloon, but I do need more of what fills the balloon. And what is that exactly. And why does it divide itself equally between the two flowers. I am totally stumped. I'd think this hobby would be like a textbook and eventually I'd reach the last page. But it never ends... there's something new to learn every single day.   Thursday, August 29 View Page I was looking at some old soil tests. Both showed phosphorus as being "high". And a slew of other nutrients as being low. And yet the tissue tests I have done over the years (plus the visual symptoms) have almost always indicated poor phosphorus levels in the plant. And, the plants may or may not respond to my efforts to boost the phosphorus. Sometimes they do, sometimes they dont. It might be soil temperatures. It might be the ph, the soil biology, or other nutrient conflicts. It might be that I'm simply not adding enough. But if the soil test says there is a high amount, then why should I have to add any at all? I guess because it is largely unavailable to the plants, or because there are excesses of the nutrients that are more easily available. I think ordinary people would throw up their hands and give up on the whole thing. It seems you have to be a glutton for punishment to be a hobby farmer, (and even more so to be a real farmer?).   Thursday, August 29 View Page I need to do controlled pollinations henceforth, for the tomatoes. (But, this goes for everything else too.) Even if I dont know which male to use at the time of the pollination. If I decide later that the male I used wasnt a good plant, that's perfectly ok... as long as no effort is wasted on collecting the seeds or growing inferior plants, then I'll call the loss a partial 'win'. And it will be a full win if I have more time and garden space to focus on any luckier crosses I made... The ones where I like both of the lines.   Thursday, August 29 View Page More writing, just need to throw down the hand I was dealt this year and start reshuffling the deck. I need to do composting in a good way. My haphazard approach to compost is no longer good enough. There's too much weeds and disease getting through. Part of the problem is the deciduous trees drop their diseased leaves everywhere. This, I cant control. But its really not going to be a quest to eliminate disease, (although maybe the weeping willow tree will R.I.P. soon)... its more a quest to get the non harmful organisms to always (overwhelmingly) outnumber the harmful ones. I think the healthiest thing would be to skip making any compost tea but just apply finely pulverized and fully aged compost to the soil surface and then water the soil surface just enough to activate the worms and surface roots. This first watering is to maximize the non harmful organisms and let the plants tiptoe their way into any problems. If the compost is spread around established plants (or around new transplants that are large enough to give them a healthy headstart over the weeds) then the weeds hopefully won't be too much to handle. I've thought about making anearobic tea as a base for adding certain nutrients. Perhaps an aerobic tea could be extracted first, for use on certain plants. And then the anaerobic tea could be brewed up using the leftovers from that. The leftovers from the anearobic tea should be fairly inert? And... might be useable in a seed starting mix or a potting mix... mostly for the texture rather than for the biology or nutrients? Lots of writing. The result of any of this reshuffling won't be apparent until next year. Its easy to reach a plateau and stay there. Its not so easy to try to go up a level.   Friday, August 30 View Page I could tell the plant was out of energy. Decided to remove 2/3. I may have culled the one that would have gotten the biggest. I was concerned about some spots on it, but it turns out they were still healthy.   Friday, August 30 View Page The XL ribbon I had before actually rotted and only partly pollinated. It was all connected though, and its cool that I was close to growing an 11 lb tomato? (The part in orange was an extra 3 lbs or so that didnt pollinate. I know its hard to see all of the potential that it had.) But really I dont think the soil in that spot would have been good enough. Which brings me to the painfully obvious question: why plant anything in the first place, if the soil isnt good enough. I guess its like how runners dont give 110% until the actual race. You run a lot of laps at 70% effort first before you give it 110%. Maybe thats stupid but thats how I think of it. Anyhow there are some flowers on this plant (the one circled in red is the last one on this massive truss) so I might try to grow a controlled pollination single off of it. Honestly, I'd be really thrilled to have some seeds with good potential for next year.   Friday, August 30 View Page Elaine's mega. Hopefully she can push this one slow & steady past BER stage. Would be a nice one for her to take to a weigh off. We'll see!   Friday, August 30 View Page Top view. Very hard to see anything at all, except a big healthy stem.   Friday, August 30 View Page I want to use this plant as a breeder. I like the domingo strains but this year they are getting verticulum. They are still making nice tomatoes though. So idk. But this one has two decent tomatoes on it and no verticulum. Idk. Maybe I'll just take the year off next year, I probably ought to. The flea beetles have built up too much, also.   Saturday, August 31 View Page Elaine's tomato started as perfectly straight line, but its got some bends in it now. I wasn't aware that their shape can change so much that a few days later its like a different tomato. This degree of transformation is not what I would have predicted.   Sunday, September 1 View Page The apple tree thinks it can create more pie this year than any of the pumpkin plants. This is maybe 220 lbs. There's another 150 lbs still up in the tree. It may be correct.   Sunday, September 1 View Page Joel pollinates his first pumpkin. He also showed me a new "use the green end" technique. I've tried lots of things but he's got me beat there.   Monday, September 2 View Page The cucumbers are from seed I saved. It was open pollinated and I had the salad type, marketmore I think, plus pickling cucumbers, growing at the same time. The one on top is a cross between the two, I believe. They are loving being grown in the shade... I didnt realize how shade tolerant they are. As long as the correct nutrients are in the soil, and some hungry bees, they will set fruit.   Tuesday, September 3 View Page A place with no noise, other than happy children.   Friday, September 6 View Page The time stamp on this photo is July 14. This was a slow starter and looked kinda terrible, more gaps than solid, so the kind I would normally choose to cull. And almost did. But now the shape has changed surprisingly for the better and its now measuring over 24". So, I guess you never know.   Saturday, September 7 View Page A single from a different plant to get things started! 2.76 lbs.   Saturday, September 7 View Page Clockwise from upper left. Tomato 2, bottom. Tomato 2, top. Tomato 1, bottom. Tomato 2 weighed 2.73 lbs... Thought we were going to up in weight here but no. :( :( :( 2.76 and 2.73 for team mega powers. Bigger ones coming hopefully.   Saturday, September 7 View Page Thinking about the possible merits of allowing some new uncontrolled growth late in the year rather being strict and traditional about it. I think the auxins in new growth could contribute something. I often feel hesitant to totally dead end everything. Auxins seem to be a two edged sword, either suppressing cell division or enhancing it. Perhaps the key is to reduce the auxins that conflict with the auxins in the fruit, (this would be during a short period of time early in the fruit development) but later in the season, when the fruit is not producing its own auxins, allowing some new growth could help. The same auxins that would previously have been in conflict with the fruit (being produced in other parts of the plant) could be absorbed into the fruit and give it that final bit of mojo. My thoughts are still within the realm of superstition. Not verified by scientific research but if it works then it works.   Wednesday, September 11 View Page The season is quickly coming to a close, first powdery mildew spotted, the plan is to try vinegar on it. Need to build a cover for any of the pumpkin crosses that I want seeds from. There are 3 decent pumpkins the 527 northwest, 527 middle, and ashtons 1912 x squash cross in the gourds... but I dont think they will have viable seeds unless I increase the temps and decrease the rain. The 527's ran their mains all the way to the other side of their patch, 25 ft or so, despite being very late starts. Both the greenies have kept their green color, the other is a pale orange. I'm making compost all the time, but this will probably increase as I do fall pruning and mowing.   Monday, September 16 View Page The grape vine right behind the tomatoes went crazy. There is just something about that spot. (I'll post the results for some of the bigger tomatoes soon.) It was a good year for grapes. I dont drink but I made a 5 gallon bucket of wine just for the heck of it.   Monday, September 16 View Page I got good at growing carrots and beets (finally, by copying my carrot method). So I figured it was time for a new challenge. Cabbage seemed like the perfect new challenge. And, it has been a challenge. First the weeds and lack of vigor. Then it was putting some mulch on slightly too thick, which caused them to wilt. I think its because the roots got smothered (no air/ oxygen... the ones that didnt get mulched remained perfectly healthy.) Now, Im thinking about things, and trying to avoid a third mistake. What I was thinking is, it might be a good idea to use weed fabric with holes punched in it, certainly not an unusual idea. But I dont have any on hand and its a bit late for that, its hard to install it on top of already established plants. I think what I will try instead, is weedwhacking around the plants. I dont know why I didnt think of this before. I have two weedwhackers, theyre different sizes and they spin different directions. It seems like if I was careful, I could bring a whole new level of laziness to my gardening. My smaller weedwhacker doesnt throw stuff too hard. Its designed to cut in a gentle way, which is weird and I never liked it much but I think its going to go straight from my least used tool to one of my most used tools. Or maybe this will be my third mistake. We'll see.   Saturday, September 21 View Page 5.11 Clayton. This one was 69 days old today (according to the picture I took of the blossoom back in July). It was 85 % ripe about 15% green. I would have left it one more day but for getting them to a weigh off the timing doesnt get much better than that. It started a slight blush about a week ago. I doubt it gained much if any weight between then and now. Its largest circumference measured 26.75" which would normally be a 6 lb tomato, but it was thin and rectangular shaped. The "little" part is done. (By Sutherland standards.) The "ketchup" part begins...   Saturday, September 21 View Page ...or maybe some salad first. Nothing wrong with this one, tastes good!   Sunday, September 22 View Page De-seeded tomato. Tomato soup. Im getting better at deseeding them as I cut them up. Ugh.. I'm not sure I'm going to get through this whole tomato by myself... theres a lot Ieft still. In other news, I sprayed home made "apple cider vinegar" on some powdery mildew spots. I think it will work. Once the acetobacter coats the apples the apple mash becomes very, very mold resistant. I dont know how it does this. I sprayed it in the evening. I also "accidentally" sprayed some on some small pumpkins and on a tomato. It wasnt really an accident. I need to know if anything harmful to the fruit can arise out of the vinegar biology. Its weird stuff. I can afford to sacrifice a few fruit that were basically duds. Im curious to know if the vinegar spray would attract or repel any garden pests... some deer & rodent pressure right now. And fruit flies.   Wednesday, September 25 View Page A lot of decent blossoms not amounting to anything. In this case, a small spot of BER. I probably should have done a more invasive surgury when it was young? Or just left it alone to heal on its own but they dont usually heal?? I think part of the reason they dont heal is because they need calcium to heal and they're already short on calcium hence the BER. The surgery would have to cut it back to a place where it had enough calcium to heal. ^ I did this with some others, where I broke off the portion of the tomato with BER. And those ones did heal nicely and grew normally even after losing a whole lobe of the tomato. It was an experiment, and it was an effort to get seeds. (I think the BER was my fault, not a genetic fault.) I think with healthy abundant roots and a plant that isnt top heavy with too much foliage, will help prevent BER. Also, the plants should not be stressed by intense sun, or heat, or watering, or lack of water. The plant wants to have high calcium levels but everything we do from fertilizing to watering to providing full sun, will lower the calcium levels. Its anti-intuitive to let the plant have some shade, and just throw some worm castings at the plant rather than chemical fertilizer.   Wednesday, September 25 View Page 1940 grams/ 4.27 Clayton DMG. Grown off the 6.25 Clayton DMG. This one went downhill fast. It doesnt feel very dense. I originally expected it to be a 3 lber, so 4 lbs is ok I guess. It wasnt BER on this one just an infection from sitting on the wet ground for one day. The weight caused its support tie to stretch all the way to the ground. Its ok for them to sit on the ground as long as it isnt too wet and the wrong kinds of bugs are not present. Like pumpkins, they can grow very well on the ground, but its certainly not foolproof. Very preventable. Ps It does have a bit of vibrant color at the bottom. Its not quite that vibrant though. Its been a bit altered by the flouescent lighting or the phone camera, idk, but I rarely alter photos. If I do, I'll try to remember to make a note of it.   Wednesday, September 25 View Page I was frustrated by the spots on my pears until I realized they are never more than skin deep. . Get yourself a pear tree and dont worry about the spots! They peel off easily.   Thursday, September 26 View Page One last pollination. Am I crazy? I also have another I pollinated a week ago. This one is 6.25 dmg x megabloom east of field kin. Not really sure if this breeding will pan out, but it was the best I could do. In the future I should be careful to not prune too many flowers off the ones I might want to breed from...   Friday, September 27 View Page 4.01 lbs... if I include the slug. An ounce less if I remove it from its hole. The shape was good on this one but it got off to a very slow start. Shaded? Not pruned correctly? Low branch near ground? Low phosphorus? Overall plant health was not so great, just average?   Saturday, September 28 View Page Congrats Jim. He blasted past 2k today AND grew an HD award. 2069 Stelts x 1620 Pritchard. Congrats Russ, on an incredible result, as well.   Sunday, September 29 View Page Back to the gross photo theme, a new black vine disease? Oh, nah... it was just spores from some here-today-gone-tomorrow mushrooms.   Tuesday, October 1 View Page Happy Oct! Nothing too gross under this one despite rain and a few bugs. The fabric seems to be a good surface for them to rest on. The ones that have rotted were not ones grown on this fabric. Overall, not sure I will grow them on the ground anymore. But for general gardening use, this fabric seems to favor the best possible results. I might try growing a field pumpkin, gourd, or marrow on it. It might even be good to use it under a giant pumpkin or squash.   Wednesday, October 2 View Page Paramagnetism??? Only pops up twice in a search of bp. Now it will pop up three times... It must have to do with redox reactions in the soil, or something... over my head. Anyhow, I covered things with plastic again to try to get the seeds to mature. With shorter days, lower sun angle, and no more 80 degree weather, I think I can just leave the plastic in place permanently without cooking anything. I am exhausted, out of patience, & insane, and yet I'm as excited as ever by this hobby. I like that every year is a fresh start, assuming that I didnt ruin the soil somehow. The good thing about where I live is that the winter rain should clear out any excess salts and rebalance the soil ph. I hope I never mess the soil up too badly...   Wednesday, October 2 View Page Just some musings... Helps me with my sanity to write stuff down: The things I've been watching and listening to lately seem to question the value of solarizing the soil, because solarizing the soil doesnt promote soil biology. But I like the fact that killing off the bugs & slugs gives better germination. On the other hand, it can give the weeds excellent germination rates too. I've got some new species of weeds that are gaining ground. I ususlly tolerate any weeds that arent causing much trouble, because there may be some benefits to tolerating some of them. But now I may have to switch to a zero tolerance policy for any weeds so that the most fecund weeds have nowhere to hide. Back to solarizing, I believe some pumpkin growers have gotten good/improved results with solarization. But... perhaps they are adding myco, azos, etc. back into the rootzone at some point after sterilizing the soil. Another thing I've done that in hindsight seems to be wrong is to make burn piles on the garden beds. High intensity burning is similar to solarizing, plus it adds caustic ash, so its not strictly beneficial. It kills bugs which is net beneficial... but its not making the soil better. Is it possible to do a "light" solarization or a "light" burn, that kills bugs but not the soil biology? Maybe. And maybe not. It seems like a "light burn" might be better because the bugs may have less time to dig down and escape and the heating is so brief that the soil temp wouldn't get anywhere above that of being in the sun for a half hour. Plus, it adds biochar which could help with some aspects of plant health. I think from now on I will have to consider no longer using plastic to try to cook bugs. I could use plastic to cook tender new weed sprouts (only the tops) but I shouldnt use it to try to cook out the rhizomes of perennials... it just damages the soil too much to cook the soil this deep. It would be better to dig the perennials weeds out by hand. I dont really mind doing this, I kind of enjoy it. And if I want to kill bugs & slugs then I should probably do a quick burn (at night, ideally?) of some dry straw or hay or pine needles. But sometimes the bugs are actually valuable for weed control so there may be certain crops where I dont want to kill any of the slugs or bugs because they'll do useful work eating many weeds as come up and recycling dead leaves and flowers. As long as they dont bother the crop (garlic, potatoes?) too much, its like they hoe and clean the garden for me.   Thursday, October 3 View Page Trying to change how one thinks isnt easy! Credit: Microsoft Image Designer.   Friday, October 4 View Page I thought this would make a cool photo. The leaves froze twice, a few days apart, so there's two layers of damage. We're putting up a good fight against ol' Jack F...   Saturday, October 5 View Page I just weighed a 9+ lb tomato at Baumans. Its still sinking in. I still can't believe it. I said if I ever grew a big one that I'd say I learned everything I know from Porkchop. But what do I really know. I appreciate gleaning knowledge from Porkchop, but I'm not precisely copying him, but thanks to him for lifting lowly beginners like me up. Jim Sherwood grew a heckuva pumpkin btw. I dont know how he wrestled it away from the Hard Rock Hotel/ Bishops. But it was so cool to get to see it in person. It truly is a $20,000 dollar pumpkin. Thanks PGVG for a premier event & generous prizes for non-pumpkin items. Congrats Cindy on the marrow win!   Saturday, October 5 View Page I did not take many, or perhaps any, pics of the 9 lb tomato, because I didnt think it would amount to much. I was only hoping it would reach 6 lbs. I looked at it all the time and it kept growing and growing. Eventually I thought to myself "thats a nice tomato". But it was only yesterday as I was picking it that I began to suspect that it might be a personal best. A tomato diary with 200+ entries and yet somehow not even close to telling the story of this tomato! Go figure. The Razzie Diary for 2024...   Monday, October 7 View Page Unable to figure out with certainty if the parent of the 6.25 dmg was the 7.95 Young or the 6.48 Young. John's seeds from 2022 are an excellent genetic mix, so I dont know that it really matters. It was a different plant than the plant that grew my 7.69, but it may have (95% sure) also been a 6.48 Young. Thanks to AltitudeMaters for the tomato genetics tree, the genetics would be way over my head without his chart. https://ibb.co/CnZkhwt   Tuesday, October 8 View Page Its a little bit hard to tell but this squash has a recessive pumpkin gene clamoring to take over. Its really difficult to make a good selection early on because up until DAP 20 this was just as green as another one nearby. Then it turned light green, which is fine. But now there's all this recessive pumpkin color stuff coming through. Its hard to see in a photo, but seeing it in person you could tell it has recessive pumpkin genes. ...I'll post some tomato pictures eventually I promise.   Tuesday, October 8 View Page My final tomato broke its support. Does that mean its a big tomato or that I do a gumpy job of tying my tomatoes up! Fan, grow light, 10 days...   Tuesday, October 8 View Page I heard it said that the microbiology in the soil needs constant food. Otherwise it has to go dormant or die. I previously did not understand this. I figured feeding the worms was sufficient. Feeding the worms is good but its only half the biology in the soil. There's a whole soil biology thst isnt decomposers. The other half is biology that takes sugars/ exudates from the roots. It grows from and is effectively completely dependent on those sugars, not the cellulose in organic matter. Long story short, I think the soil doesnt want to "rest". Rest, anthropomorphically, sounds good. But to the soil its more like death. Sure, the soil CAN rest (degrade, really) and then be brought back to life with some effort (and innoculants, perhaps). But if an olympic athlete sits on the couch for a month, it will take at least a month to get back into shape. If the soil "rests" for a month, will it not take a month to get back into shape, also? If the grower wants top level performance, then why would they think it was good for the soil to sit on the couch, so to speak...? I think top level results cant happen until the athlete is in top shape and the "sitting on the couch for a month" kind of rest isnt right kind of rest for an athelete to win a race, nor is it the kind of rest that wins a veggie competition? Cover crop going in asap, I think.   Wednesday, October 9 View Page I had another garden revelation. Which is that just because there's a crop or cover crop in place, doesn't mean that its building the soil up at a high rate. For example, I have a good size bed of carrots. I havent given them any fertilizer lately though because I'm like, "How many lbs of carrots do I need? I will have enough." But a higher yielding/more highly photosynthesizing crop would also feed the soil more... so while I may not need more food, I could be pushing those carrots more in order to feed the soil. The same would hold true for a cover crop. Why fertilize a cover crop? It doesn't feed anyone! But it will feed the soil, and it will feed the soil more if it is given the nutrients it needs to do so. If someone wants to improve their soil fast, then I cant really see any other way to do it.   Thursday, October 10 View Page Your tomato not fitting into a 5 gallon bucket is a good problem to have. Its slowly turning red... Maybe Elaine will take another picture of it before it becomes ketchup?   Thursday, October 10 View Page Made some golden grape jelly out of the green grapes... Probably should have filtered it. Bumper crop of concord grapes also, knock on wood but it seems the birds and rodents and deer are all stuffed (with food, not by the taxidermist. a step ahead of you on THAT one pumpkinpal...) so I guess its my turn to eat now.   Saturday, October 12 View Page Thats not a tomato knife... This is a tomato knife!   Tuesday, October 15 View Page This is a controlled pollination on the same plant that I just picked the nine pounder from. I love doing things that have no chance, like pollinating a mega in Oct. because sometimes they surprise you. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that this would fail yet here it is! I just need to buy or borrow a grow light and then spend at least a hundred bucks on electricity... For the sake of competitive tomato breeding , is it worth it?   Thursday, October 17 View Page These clones I pulled maybe 5 days ago. The weird thing is they never wilted. They are in a coarse cactus potting mix. It seems to provide both more air and more water than a standard potting mix.   Sunday, October 20 View Page I pushed this tomato as hard as I could the past couple weeks. Which still doesnt mean Im in control of it, it just means I tried to make sure the plant had enough potassium and microbes in the soil and minerals and energy to be able to do its thing. The hard part is realizing that ultimately, I'm not the one making it grow... the way I am seeing now, is that a good relationship between the roots and the soil is what really makes it grow. That view may change... But for now, thats how I am trying to see it.   Monday, October 21 View Page My 527 squash. Props to the carver. I have their contact info if anyone has an event or pumpkin display that needs a backlit carving or pumpkin art.   Wednesday, October 23 View Page What happens in 1 year... a round bale of hay decomposes enough that it fits into a 55 gal barrel. After I chop it with the lawnmower it becomes this fine soft material. Good food for worms... It might even work as a substitute for peat moss.   Wednesday, October 23 View Page When I think about how to be successful, I keep coming to the conclusion that I still do not know very much. My tomato plants... in July they got the leftover foliar spray from whatever I was feeding the bushel gourd. But after that they were kinda on their own. I might have fed a little of this or that maybe once or twice a week. Everything I did was such an afterthought and I certainly didnt record anything I did. At one point I spread fish bone meal? and calcium (lime) under the drip lines. I fed boron a few times. I think 90% of my sincere gardening effort was on the bushel gourds. I guess the real question I need to ask is, why were most of the tomato plants just average, and the two in the grow hut so much better. I think its just balance. The correct amount of light creates the correct amount of root exudates to support the correct amount of soil biology... and the correct amount of organic matter and the correct availability of nutrients (no excessive fertilizer salts but no actual deficiencies). I think one of the worst things is excess nitrogen. People say to not add too much browns to your soil because you will deplete the nitrogen. Well, that may be true for sawdust or something, but I think brown leaves are perfect. I think they create the perfect low-but-sufficient nitrogen levels. And they add good minerals. Compost, micronutrients, and a little calcium/phosphorus/nitrogen stimulation... just enough to get a nice size flower bud. Healthy roots... and low salt levels. Sufficient, but low... Except potassium...? And why were the other plants not in any way exceptional? I got some fat singles from the tomatoes planted in with the carrots. That was about it. I think the answer is, everything must be perfect. Its not a matter of needing to be a perfectionist, its more an issue of... doing anything "wrong" cuts your results in half.   Wednesday, October 23 View Page You can probably see that this is not the work of a perfectionist. And yet, I did create an environment where there wasnt anything "wrong". Hmm.   Wednesday, October 23 View Page I will have seeds available soon. Email me your address, and all I ask in return is to please support the pgvg and pnwgpg.   Thursday, October 24 View Page So this is the blossom that grew to 8.68 lbs. This photo was August 10th and I know that it is about a week old in this photo. How old was it when picked? It started to blush a few days before the weigh off on Oct. 19th. So it was 77 days on the vine when picked. Granted, the last few weeks had many cold days and nights. If the weather remained cold enough, it could have delayed ripening almost indefinitely. Other being naturally refrigerated for about a week, it was perfectly timed to make it to the weigh off at precisely the right time, with every last ounce having been summarily squeezed into it.   Thursday, October 24 View Page This is the blossom that went to 9.5 lbs. This was August 14th. It is probably at least 2 weeks old in this picture. It didnt grow very fast at first, I think it was pollinated maybe 5-8 days ahead of the 8.68. It was very slightly blushing when it went to the weigh off on Oct 5th. I think this would put it right around 70 days old when picked.   Thursday, October 24 View Page This one looks like a quintuplet. So, should it have gone to 9 lbs also? I pollinated it, pruned the plant, and gave it a chance, but I had had a feeling it wouldnt get very big. Why? Well, with this one the stem was exceptionally small. It had the stem of a single. And guess what? Yep... you guessed it, it only grew to 4 lbs or so! Not even 5 lbs despite clearly being "5 fused"? More of a dweeb than a stud... So some blossoms may outperform your expectations, but there's a flipside, too.   Thursday, October 24 View Page Pic for altitude maters. Credit: Microsoft's image designer.   Sunday, October 27 View Page The first two might be the same answer?! The only reason computers are loveable because they manage to tell the truth in their own unscripted way, like children.   Monday, October 28 View Page "An ineffectual affection." My bet is that for most of us, politics has become the art of being untrue to our own selves. But maybe I'm wrong about that. "May your tomato plant be true to its best self." Ah, now thats better!   Monday, October 28 View Page I dont know why anyone would need a thousand celery plants, but I'll put a copious amount of celery seed into the exotic seed exchange. For success at growing it, I think its similar to giant onions. It may be better for the seeds to be lightly pressed into a moist soil surface rather than buried and it will take 10+ days to germinate. I think its a cure-all for general health. I'd wager there's nothing you can buy at the local pharmacy that will exceed the healthiness of a small amount of fresh organic celery or parsley.   Monday, October 28 View Page The growth on this one stalled last week but then I added a grow light and it seems to have resumed growing. I certainly didnt need this large a blossom. The goal here wasn't size it was seeds from a controlled pollination. I may pull the plug (literally) on this experiment but whatever, at the moment its the most fun that $1/day can buy.