Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 125 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.