George's 2015 - Yokohama Down In Flames

georgej · Mar 1, 2015

first time with azomite. i got 1kg for transplant holes. got myco and humic acid on the way too.

first time growing tomatillo. had literally never heard of them before moving to japan and making american friends. It isn't something used in English cooking and mexican styles/salsas aren't hugely popular back home.

would love to know a few good recipes. PM me with anything you wanna share. I'm growing them because they sound like something i will like.
Ground cherry are also a first. Thanks to Filmost for the seeds!

filmost · Mar 1, 2015

You got more tomatillo to come up than I did, lol!

Careful with that azomite, pretty dusty stuff. Sorta cakey too. Should try to mix it up real good when you TP. I have a 2kg bag waiting to get opened up, and planning to pick up some glacial rockdust and/or greensand on my trip in April.

That's a shit ton of cuppies you got there mate lol.

georgej · Mar 1, 2015

noted.

still got while till TP. hope next weekend is dry enough for me to get some gardening done

also wanna let the hedgehog run around a bit outside when its not so cold. they love to run.
they can run 6ft/second so they are pretty quick!

filmost · Mar 1, 2015

georgej said:
noted.

still got while till TP. hope next weekend is dry enough for me to get some gardening done

also wanna let the hedgehog run around a bit outside when its not so cold. they love to run.
they can run 6ft/second so they are pretty quick!

Hope it doesn't take off on you! ;-D

And yeah no kidding about the weather. Was it as windy in your area as it was mine? I could have sworn there was a tornado outside last night!

stickman · Mar 1, 2015

georgej said:
first time with azomite. i got 1kg for transplant holes. got myco and humic acid on the way too.

first time growing tomatillo. had literally never heard of them before moving to japan and making american friends. It isn't something used in English cooking and mexican styles/salsas aren't hugely popular back home.

would love to know a few good recipes. PM me with anything you wanna share. I'm growing them because they sound like something i will like.
Ground cherry are also a first. Thanks to Filmost for the seeds!

An excellent recipe for home-canned Tomatillo salsa... http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_salsa/tomatillo_green_salsa.html

And for northern Mexican-style Chile Verde with Pork... http://mexican.food.com/recipe/authentic-mexican-pork-chile-verde-360072

The other thing about Tomatillos is that they'll easily grow to at least a meter and a half, and the stems are fairly flimsy for the size of the plant. You'll need to stake them well.

filmost · Mar 1, 2015

Nice @stickman! Only sad thing for us Japan folks is the lack of US style sour cream (like whipped cream). The stuff I have been able to find here is like a cream cheese consistency -_-. It works, but you really toss a dollop of cream on your food T-T

stickman · Mar 1, 2015

filmost said:
Nice @stickman! Only sad thing for us Japan folks is the lack of US style sour cream (like whipped cream). The stuff I have been able to find here is like a cream cheese consistency -_-. It works, but you really toss a dollop of cream on your food T-T

Can you get whole milk yogurt? It's almost the same thing. If you want it a little tangier you can add a little lemon juice. The Green Chiles they mention in these recipes are Hatch-type New Mexico chiles like the 6-4, Big Jim, Improved Espanola or the Joe E. Parker. Some folks call them Anaheims. You can get the seeds from the University of New Mexico or this commercial site... http://www.sandiaseed.com/mildmed.html

filmost · Mar 1, 2015

stickman said:
Can you get whole milk yogurt? It's almost the same thing. If you want it a little tangier you can add a little lemon juice. The Green Chiles they mention in these recipes are Hatch-type New Mexico chiles like the 6-4, Big Jim, Improved Espanola or the Joe E. Parker. Some folks call them Anaheims. You can get the seeds from the University of New Mexico or this commercial site... http://www.sandiaseed.com/mildmed.html

Yep, whole milk yogurt is all over the place, as is whole milk haha. I'll have to try that next time we do tacos!

georgej · Mar 8, 2015

Started hardening off today. It's raining the next few days so maybe a good time to start

Hope it makes them grow a bit. I got to admit I'm very disappointed how they are growing this year, too slow!

Received this yesterday

moruga welder · Mar 8, 2015

nice grow ! good luck , really love the hedgehog ! :onfire:

georgej · Mar 8, 2015

cheers!

yeh im disappointed in this year, chinense just arent growing. i think im gonna repot a few with some store bought seedling mix. my only variable this year was the soil. which suggests its not working well

filmost · Mar 8, 2015

Hopefully repotting helps. I think we figured out what the issue was. And you still got a few weeks so they should bounce back.

georgej · Mar 8, 2015

fingers crossed! they are still ghealthy but stunted.

for the benefit of people who weren't in the conversation with Filmost and i, my soil was a bit different this year.

first year i used peat moss which i limed and mixed with bark and perlite. second year was coir which i didnt lime and mixed with bark and vermiculite.
This year i couldnt find coir so used peat moss. i didn't lime it cause i stupidly thought 'didnt use lime last year'. i used a leaf mulch/bark compost mix and vermiculite.

between Filmore and I talking im pretty sure i shot the PH value of the soil this year.

literally my own stupid fault. im using the same lights and heat mat as the previous two years and so the variable is the soil, i didn't think about it enough

so my plan is to get some PH neutral seedling mix tomorrow. add some azomite and mykos and try repotting with fresh soil. the seedlings are healthy but need to be growing faster than they are. fingers crossed it works.

stickman · Mar 8, 2015

Good thing you caught it early G... That's one reason I go with Pro-Mix for seed starting... it's buffered with agricultural lime to a neutral pH and inoculated with myco-bacteria for good early root development. No nutes added, but I can do that at the proper time. Keep up the good work!

georgej · Mar 8, 2015

im quite confident that the problem has been caught and im very grateful for Filmost's second opinion and helping me find the culprit.
still pretty early so watch this space. hopefully withs are gonna get better from here on!

promix sounds good! Japan makes gardening bloody difficult if you cant read well. i ask my wife to translate stuff gardening wise and she doesnt understand what the text says even though shes native.

Sawyer · Mar 9, 2015

Good catch on the peat. I use Sunshine Mix #1 and it's peat-based, buffered with dolomite.

georgej · Mar 9, 2015

I'm gonna pick up some neutral potting mix later, add some myco and Azomite then transplant.

Still early enough. Fingers crossed

georgej · Mar 10, 2015

Transferred 8 into better seedling soil this evening. Washed majority of old soil away with water and put in new soil with Azomite and myco. Then made sure there were watered in. Hopefully no roots damaged but I will wait and see before doing others. I was gentle as possible but I won't be surprised if there's a few casualties

georgej · Mar 11, 2015

Tomatoes and tomatillo went for surgery yesterday. Attempt 2 was much fastest when you know what you want to achieve and how to go about it.

Azomite went in. As well as myco

What's the point in trying to do gardening without adverts for useless Japanese gadgets on a nearby newspaper

Sawyer · Mar 12, 2015

Babies got some new shoes.