Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 7 Entries. Saturday, January 3 View Page An icy morning scene to wake up to. Moisture must have come up from the creek over night and it formed as ice on the branches. It's been a cold winter so far. It's been several years since we have had a real winter Monday, January 12 View Page I have been using these Tetsukabuto interspecific squash hybrid seeds for the past 3 to 4 years. Initially, it was thought that these wouldn't work because they are too aggressive . I've had many failures with squash rootstock over the years.. Especially early on when we I was trying to figure them out. I don't knowwhat has changed, but they have been working for me with about the same rate of failure as the bushelgourds and Rampart gourds. Saturday, January 24 View Page It has been several years since I have participated in the giant and unusual veggie exchange here on bp. Well the last year I was involved in it pork chop (Steve Marley) had donated some of his shade leaf tobacco seeds. I kept those seeds in my collection for several years until last season. In 2025 I finally got around to planting them and I saved some seed. I now have enough shade tobacco seed "dust" to plant like 50 acres!! lol If anyone wants to try growing Some, you can just send me a self address stamped bubble, and I'll send you some seed. If this is the real CT Shade leaf strain, it may become extinct soon... as they are no longer growing this type. (There may be a couple CT MA growers who still grow a few dozen acres under the shade tents.) It just was too labor intensive. It is harvested one leaf at a time from the bottom of the plant up as each leaf matures and ripens. The only remaining shade leaf that is currently grown these days is produced in third world. Saturday, February 7 View Page Big Full moon earlier this week Saturday, February 7 View Page Coldest night of the year coming tomorrow night Tuesday, February 10 View Page I just looked at Matt D's diary from last year, What a season he had! To describe it I will use a baseball analogy..... Matt hit a deep fly ball out of the park, unfortunately it went foul just before crossing the foul pole. What happened, was a very rare and unfortunate horticultural event. Not caused by a disease or insect... but taken down by a few simple weather conditions that caused a weird thing to happen in the plant called edema. (Note:I have been in and around horticulture all my life and had never seen it, or paid attention enough to notice it!) I had heard from bedding plant growers that it can quickly disfigure a crop of climbing (ivy leaf) geraniums in a greenhouse situation, but thats about it. I had no idea it could be yet another thing to worry about on a giant pumpkin!!! Matt showed to us that it can happen! and is now one more thing to add to the list that we giant pumpkin growers can have nightmares about. (Continued) Tuesday, February 10 View Page I did a quick google search about edema and found this helpful article. It seems those who grow in a greenhouse may be more vulnerable to its occurrence! https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/edema/#:~:text=Edema%20(or%20oedema)%20is%20a,other%20plants%20sheltered%20under%20plastic.