Sawyer's 2013 Glog - Last Harvest/First Sauce

Sawyer · Apr 19, 2013

Woke up this morning to freezing temperatures, but not a hard frost. Glad I brought everything in, though. All the flats I had started to harden off are showing a burst of growth, but it is in a cool, poorly lit environment, so I'll have to start the hardening off process all over when it warms up.

Finally seem to be getting a handle on the aphids, and the fungus gnats are just gone.

annie57 · Apr 19, 2013

Yeah, Arkansawyer . . . know that feeling. I'm thinking some Wayright/Kevin's steroid secrets; I know it involves Gibberellic Acid, lol, but will let Mama Nature decide . . . I'm with Hamlet on this one vis a vis Mother Nature: "Frailty, thy name is woman." :rolleyes:

Naw: I think the frailty or weakness of character could damn-well be my impatience! Really?

Devv · Apr 19, 2013

Cool on the bug reduction, a not on the weather.

I have a low of 40 in the AM, gonna watch the dew point, I'm too far along for this type of weather.

It's supposed to freeze just north of us, that's a 100 year old record broken if it happens. Hopefully not, it will hurt the ag people big time....

Sawyer · Apr 21, 2013

annie57 said:
Yeah, Arkansawyer . . . know that feeling. I'm thinking some Wayright/Kevin's steroid secrets; I know it involves Gibberellic Acid, lol, but will let Mama Nature decide . . . I'm with Hamlet on this one vis a vis Mother Nature: "Frailty, thy name is woman." Naw: I think the frailty or weakness of character could damn-well be my impatience! Really?

Hi Annie, thanks for visiting. I've got some gibberellic acid, didn't even think of trying that on the rocoto seeds until I read your post. I'll keep it in mind for next time.

Devv said:
Cool on the bug reduction, a not on the weather.

I have a low of 40 in the AM, gonna watch the dew point, I'm too far along for this type of weather.

It's supposed to freeze just north of us, that's a 100 year old record broken if it happens. Hopefully not, it will hurt the ag people big time....

Thanks for stopping by, Scott. I saw one gnat and one aphid today and the plants still have leaves, so I'm pretty happy with the effectiveness of my spray.

The cool weather just keeps dragging on here. It got up to the low 60s and was clear here today, finally, so I put the OWs and grain flat back outside and think they can stay until Tuesday. The lows Wednesday and Thursday mornings are supposed to be back down in the mid-30s. I guess I'll begin again hardening off the 3.5" square pots tomorrow.

I'm out of room for more pot-ups, so I have a bunch of plants getting really crowded in their germination flats.

These are jalapenos and large hot cherry in the right half and Aji Joe's Surprise Hot Mix in the left half. It doesn't show up well in the picture, but there are several purplish plants in the Mix.

This is a mix of some annums on the far left and chinenses in the rest. The annums are showing their impatience by showing some yellow.

The garden got soaked again with the recent rain, but I'm not complaining; the county just north of here is a disaster area after extensive flooding. I'm very glad to live on top of a hill.

DocNrock · Apr 21, 2013

Glad you were able to stay out of the flood zone! The plants in those flats want outside! They look great! I don't see the yellow you speak of.

Sawyer · Apr 22, 2013

Thanks, Doc. Yes, they all want outside. It's so wet here, and remaining cool, that I don't know when I'll be able to get the dirt prepared. The yellow is only on a few jalapenos in the far left of the second image.

Edit: typo

DesertChris · Apr 22, 2013

I am happy to hear you are safe from the crazy flooding out there!!

We have the exact opposite situation...yearly rainfall total---> 0"

Sawyer · Apr 22, 2013

The problem around here was flash flooding. Washed out roads and bridges but no casualties that I heard of. We're on the Ozark Plateau and my place ranges from about 1435' to maybe 1420'. It's the folks along the Mississippi River that are really facing trouble. I hope this doesn't turn into another 2011 for them.

WalkGood · Apr 22, 2013

I love that luscious green color on the babies in your flats, hope the weather turns to the better for you. Can't wait to see all your plants outside for good ...

A while back you had stated that coffee spray didn't work good for you, wanted to ask how you made it, cause mines still working good but I only use it for spot treatment as it's no deterrent IMHO. It only works on soft bodied bugs as far as I can tell, so it won't work on everything. BTW we make some super strong coffee (Café Cubano) from fresh bean daily, with those grounds I make a second batch (american style) that goes to a one gallon jug which keeps my spray bottle full. I did a taste test on this second batch one day and was surprised how strong it still is.

Sawyer · Apr 22, 2013

Thanks, Ramon. I'm happy with the performance of my germination station, but the plants hit a wall when moved to the "grow-out" stand. Like many of us, I wasn't expecting the late, cool spring, and the plants just don't get enough light and warmth up there. I'll add additional lighting and heating for next year.

I just used straight, black American style coffee, the same as I drink. It wasn't completely ineffective, but I had to spray two or three times a day. As I noted above, I missed one day and had one whole shelf infested with aphids, plus a swarm of fungus gnats. (I keep chunks of mosquito dunk in the watering jugs, but I got it from Walmart and it may have been inactive.) I switched to a brew of hot peppers, garlic, and mustard and knocked both populations down to a manageable size with just one spraying and have them pretty much wiped out after a few days of continued spot applications. This is a product I'm developing as a rain-resistant mammal repellent, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it so effective on the bugs.

JJJessee · Apr 22, 2013

Foliage looks great, Saw. Beautiful color too!

KiNGDeNNiZ · Apr 22, 2013

Wow. All green and all growing in uniform!! Wish mine was like that!! Keep it up and can't wait for pod porn. Glad to see romy continues his generosity !!!

Sawyer · Apr 22, 2013

Thanks, JJJ and DeNNiZ. I've been rotating the flats out into the sunshine today, including the first flat pictured above. The second one will be in the next round. Just because they're still in the nursery doesn't mean they can't get some sun.

I discovered some bad news today. I was making the rounds of the grounds (and seeing how far behind I already am with mowing), and noticed the honeybees are no longer in the hollow tree. This disappoints me greatly. I guess it is at least partly my fault because we had such a mild winter I didn't think I needed to feed them. There are plenty of other hollows in the silver maples, so I am hopeful they moved, but I'm not optimistic.

On a positive note, as I was moving the flats out earlier I left the door open and a blue orchard bee flew in. It took a hectic few minutes, and I almost collapsed the grow stand (really think I need to glue up at least sections of it), but I collected the bee in a cup and returned it to the outdoors. I'm not sure how effective they are on vegetables, but at least my fruit trees should be well pollinated (assuming where there's one, there are more). I also encountered a red wasp and some sort of bumblebee. I couldn't find a picture similar to the bumblebee.

Devv · Apr 22, 2013

Your plants are looking good and I'm sure dying to be outside. Hopefully this last front will be it, they have run way late this year.

Sorry about the bees. I was in the garden last week watering and I kept hearing bees, lots of bees, I was looking around because I don't need to be stung a few hundred times. A huge swarm was overhead heading west, now I have very few hitting my bee feeder compared to a few weeks ago.

Here's to warmer weather!

Sawyer · Apr 23, 2013

+1 for the warmer weather. One more cold snap here over the next couple of days, but hopefully that will be the last one. Actually, the average last frost date here is April 21st, so we're not that far off. It's just that last spring really spoiled everyone's expectations.

Almost all of the peppers got some sun yesterday, some of them spending most of the day out (1/2 full sun, 1/2 partial). A few got a little sunburn, but nothing serious. I am losing a few of the runts, slackers someone else called them, which is making me reevaluate my "everyone gets a chance" philosophy. Especially if I have multiples of a given variety to choose from.

Anyway, I was going to leave them all outside overnight, since the forecast had the next cold snap getting here tonight. Then I listened to the late forecast last night and they said it would get here overnight, with storms, including hail, and temperatures dropping from the then-58ºF all day today. So out I go into the dark to lug everyone back inside. Got up this morning to 63ºF temperatures (holding steady) and no overnight rain, much less hail. Oh well, the cold is coming so they'll stay where they are until Thursday.

But it was nice while they were out yesterday. One of the OWs had a visitor:

Here's a few nons, starting with a blueberry, Ozark Blue, I think, but it could be O'Neal:

I lost the Gala apple to the heat and drought last year and the Fuji is too shaded by a silver maple to thrive, but here's a William's Pride apple:

King David apple:

Liberty Apple:

Unnamed green pie apple:

I haven't definitively identified this yet; I think it might be a choke cherry. The blossoms have a delicious almond fragrance.

And a couple of angles on a quince blossom. Note the baby quince below.

This quince is a true heirloom. I grew the tree from seed from a tree I grew from seed from a tree on my Dad's place, that he in turn grew from seed from a tree on his childhood homeplace.

Sure hope we don't get a hard frost.

capsidadburn · Apr 23, 2013

Awesome tree pics John! I'll be thinking frost shield Patronis charm for you!

PIC 1 · Apr 23, 2013

Getting to crowded or not your pepper flats look great. If you're potting up to larger containers or simply planting out, what always helps to prevent transplant shock is to mix some of the medium the plants were grown in with the new soil. The easier the transition the faster the plants will get a foot hold.

Nice appletree blossoms. Do you ever use the branching for smoking meats?

WalkGood · Apr 23, 2013

Awesome non’s and apple blossoms … my smoker would love your trees

Sawyer · Apr 23, 2013

capsidadburn said:
Awesome tree pics John! I'll be thinking frost shield Patronis charm for you!

Thanks, Mike, for the compliment and the charm. I thought at first you were talking about tequila, but then I remembered. Still, it got me thinking about that bottle of Buffalo Trace whiskey in the other room.

PIC 1 said:
Getting to crowded or not your pepper flats look great. If you're potting up to larger containers or simply planting out, what always helps to prevent transplant shock is to mix some of the medium the plants were grown in with the new soil. The easier the transition the faster the plants will get a foot hold.

Nice appletree blossoms. Do you ever use the branching for smoking meats?

Thanks for stopping by, Greg. I use the same Sunshine Mix #1 for seed starting (except for topping with a finer germinating mix) and potting up, but yeah, I try to include as much of that mix as practicable when setting out in ground.

I haven't done a very good job of keeping up with pruning my apple trees, but smoking wood is definitely on my mind. The named trees have only been in the ground for four or five years and it's very poor soil for apples, so they aren't very big yet. I'll probably do some shaping on them this fall. The bigger pie apples were there when I bought the place and are definitely in need of attention. I may take out a couple of them that the neighbor's goats got into a couple of years ago. Ate the bark right off the trunks. I'm surprised one of them didn't die outright.

WalkGood said:
Awesome non’s and apple blossoms … my smoker would love your trees

Thanks, Ramon. I bet. :lol:

I'll definitely save whatever cuttings are large enough for smoking. I have at least three or four wild cherry trees that never recovered from the ice storm of '09 and finally gave up the ghost this year. Those will go to a nice pile of smoking wood. May charcoal some of them, if I get a system put together.

stc3248 · Apr 23, 2013

Just got your order for warmer and drier weather, I am processing and will have it out to you shortly!

Looking good Sawyer, they'll get out for recess soon enough! Think this was Old Man Winter's last punch...At least you weren't fighting this weather with plants already in ground.