Planting Summer

Just a quick note that I started the seeds for the summer garden in the propagator today, April 21st.

The seeds were:

• Anaheim Pepper
• Carnival Sweet Pepper
• Cascabella Pepper
• Ground Cherry
• Basil
• Cherry Tomato
• Roma Tomato
• Better Boy Tomato

For my raised beds, I only need three of each pepper and tomato, but I planted 5 of each, in case something happens.  I will plant all 5 basil and ground cherry, if they all germinate.

I continued to harvest another cabbage today for dinner.  I added it to the pineapple teriyaki chicken, where it was delicious.  These very successful red cabbages are making way for the tomatoes I've just started.  I'm looking for them to be ready in 6-8 weeks.

Below are the former residents of the Aerogarden, now growing in pots under the lights:

Strawberries

I've been talking about a perennial strawberry bed for a while and this past Sunday I finally got my start.  I had the middle bed basically dormant under a tarp this past winter, and I had planted nothing in it all last year. This spring it was ready for the strawberries. 

At the same time, a new load of compost was ready in the tumbling composter, So i was pleased that I got to use it on this application.  I also amended the soil with organic fertilizer and bone meal.  I planted 5 plants on 2-foot spacing, removing any flowers or fruits to allow the plants to establish well and hopefully get fruit next spring.  The variety I planted was called Eversweet and it is supposed to be everbearing.

Finally, I mulched it with a mixture of mostly mulched pine straw and a few hardwood leaves.  I ran the mower over it and collected it in the bag to chop it up a little before applying. I went with a good thick layer, to help hold soil moisture and prevent weeds.   When the time comes to root the runners, I will have to clear away a little of the mulch to let the runners actually touch the soil.

The area in the back will be used for the Ground Cherries, which are more of a summer crop, like tomatoes.  I am starting them from seeds in the propagator now and they should be ready to plant out in May.

Friday Update: April 17th

Today was a mix of the front yard and the back:

In the front yard, I weeded the front bed with the Japanese maple.  Then I put down two bags of mulch.  The entire front bed will take about 5 bags but my style is to get a good start on it and then use my progress to estimate how many more to get.  This keeps me from buying too many, but it means that I can't get the job done all at once.

Also in the front yard I put down weed and feed mixed with Milorganite organic fertilizer.  Because milorganite is pelletized and very dry, it makes a very good dispensing medium for other materials that have a tendency to clump.  As an organic fertilizer, it is almost impossible to over-apply.

In the Back yard.  I mulched the upper bed with grass clippings, finally.  I had been waiting to mulch it until most of the squares had come up.  I was hesitant to bury my tiny radish seedlings and make it much harder for them to reach the sunlight.  Now that most things are well established in the upper bed, it is much easier to mulch around them. 

The mulch will hold in the moisture, and in celebration I watered both the upper and lower beds.

I uncovered the middle bed and got it ready for planting.  I'm going to start with three strawberry plants on the uphill side of the bed.  The taller ground cherries will be going behind them so they don't block the sun. 

I'm working on two resolutions this summer.  One is to not leave projects half-done.  Like the mulch in the front bed; rather than waiting one or two weeks to finish mulching, instead, just go ahead and buy the mulch and put it out.  Then it will be finished and I can move on to other things.   It seems that I have a psychological issue with finishing things.  I feel more comfortable with things "mostly-done" and I'm not sure why.

The other resolution is to leave the yard in a clean state. I need to get in the habit of putting things away, putting tools away, putting materials away.  Don't leave trash out in the yard.  Don't leave hand tools or even power tools out overnight.  Don't leave waste wood or old concrete blocks lying around the job site after they have been used.  Instead, put them away by the shed so they won't end up broken or in the way.

Focusing on the Fruit Trees

I've written down a distillation of my approach to fruit trees and keeping them small.  Now I need to apply that principle to the actual fruit trees in my garden.

I'm starting with the two dwarf apple trees, since they seem to have the most potential.  Both get plenty of sun and have a small form factor that will allow them to be cared for properly.  In the last few years, they have been neglected and run wild, a bit.  So I basically need to start with first principles and set them back on the right track.

These two trees flowered in the first two weeks of April.  One has set fruit, and the other is still in flower. 

Step One.   The first thing I needed to do was correct some obvious problems with the overall growth of the tree.  Both of the trees had a wild hare branch that went shooting straight into the air like a water spout.  These obviously had to be removed.

• Remove all water spouts.  
• Remove all suckers growing from the base or from the trunk below 18".
• Remove all dead wood and broken branches.  
• Remove weak branches hanging from the bottom of the limbs.  
• Remove branches that are growing back toward the center or trunk.

Finally set the overall height of the tree.  The maximum height is six feet, though some trees would do better if they were even shorter.  Use your 6' rod to accurately measure the height at which to cut your leader.

Once complete, the tree immediately looked better.


Step Two.  In renovating the tree, identify the primary scaffold branches.  There should be 3 branches at each whorl or tier.  The lowest tier can have 3 or 4 branches as scaffolds.  These should be strong and extend at a 60 to 80 degree angle from the trunk.  All other branches that attach directly to the trunk should be removed.  It can help to mark these scaffold branches in some way to make it easier to go on.  Use flagging tape, hanging labels or even diluted latex paint.  Primary scaffolds are color coded to green.

These apple trees use a central leader profile.  (In this case, the central leader is clipped at 6 feet to limit the height of the tree so it is technically a modified central leader.)  The central leader profile usually has two tiers of scaffold branches.

Tiers should be at least 18" apart. So once you've identified  your 1st tier scaffold branches,  travel 18" to 24" up the trunk and identify a second tier or whorl of lateral branches.  The second tier should have only 3 scaffolds.  Once again, identify the three scaffold branches of the second tier and mark them in some way.

Using a thinning cut at the branch collar, remove any other branches from the trunk except the primary scaffolds you have identified.

The primary scaffold of the lower tier should extend 2 to 3 feet from the trunk, depending on the overall size of the tree.  One of my apple trees is a smaller one and more graceful, and a 2-foot scaffold is appropriate.  The tree pictured above is more vigorous and can support a 3-foot scaffold.  The scaffolds of the upper tier should be shorter than those below, usually 2 feet or less.

The drawing below shows a typical unpruned tree that is about 12 ft tall. (The lines represent 3-ft intervals)  For a commercial tree, 12 feet might be a good height, but for a backyard orchard, we need to trim the height of this tree at 6 feet, near the second line.  All the growth above that point is counter-productive.

Each of the yellow highlighted boxes shows the general location of the lower and upper tiers or whorls of branches.

 Keeping in mind that it is always challenging to represent a 3 dimensional tree in a flat drawing, look more closely at the first tier:

This drawing shows the four scaffold branches highlighted in green.  These are just the attachment points where the scaffolds meet the trunk.

As we look more closely at the lower right scaffold branch in the drawing, several things become clear.  The orange branches are too close to the trunk to be saved, and too long to be fruiting wood. They also hang below the horizontal, making the overall branch weaker. These orange branches will likely have to be pruned away with thinning cuts.

The yellow branch is not part of this scaffold branch; it belongs to a neighboring scaffold. Since it branches too close to the trunk and then immediately comes over and crosses the green scaffold, it likely just needs to be removed as well.

The extent of the green line shows a 24" length, so our scaffold can end anywhere just beyond that point.  That means that the magenta branch heading straight up is just not far enough along the scaffold to qualify as a secondary.  And, it's growing the wrong way and is crowding other branches.  Magenta needs a thinning cut to remove it.  The two blue branches at the transition are good candidates for secondaries. If this is a young tree, I would separate them with wooden spreaders.   Or, you could make a hard cut at the transition and prompt two new branches to grow.


Step Three. At the end of the primary scaffold, the limb should branch into two secondary branches.  If they are not already present, use a heading cut just beyond two suitable buds to stimulate this growth. If they are present, head the primary branch just beyond them.

As before, identify the two secondaries for each primary scaffold and mark them in some way.    Secondary branches are color coded to blue.

These two secondaries should extend from the primary another 24 -36".  Secondaries should be headed at that length.  Use your rods to accurately measure where this break should occur.  I the drawing above, one of the blue secondaries is rather long and probably needs to be headed back by several inches.  This cut may promote fruiting spurs to develop along it, but watch out for water spouts.

Secondary branches should not extend in height above the central leader, especially where it was cut at 6-feet.  You may need to trim the central leader annually; make sure your trim the secondaries as well to remain below this tip.

Step Four.
Growing laterally from the secondary scaffolds are other, shorter branches.  These are the source of your fruiting wood and may contain thickened spurs where your fruit will form.  Since you are completing your pruning in summer, you can easily see where fruit and flowers have formed on these fruiting branches.

Identify the fruiting branches and separate them from non-fruiting growth spouts.  Remove any that crowd other fruiting wood, or cross with them.  These fruiting branches should be 10-12" long but that may differ with the variety of your tree.

Thin the fruiting branches to have at least 6" between them, and head them so that they don't grow very long past their 10-12".  This fruiting wood should be unbranched, and not break up into smaller and weaker twigs.  It may form 1/2" fruiting spurs off of itself to hold the flowers and fruit.

Color this fruiting wood, that is actually bearing fruit, with a red paint wash.  Next year, we will trim off all new growth back to this growth ring, where the paint wash stopped.  Next year, as it bears fruit, we will give it a purple wash, and the following year, we will give it a blue wash. 

When fruiting wood has a blue wash, it means it has been in production for several years and we should then check it to make sure it is still strongly setting fruit.  If it is, we let it go another year, but if it drops off in productivity, we should cut it back and promote new fruiting wood to develop.

Step Five.
At this stage all the branches on the tree should be identified.  Anything that isn't immediately identifiable at this point should be pruned away.  The tree should be more compact, and yet the central area should be more open, allowing light and air to reach the center of the tree.

For this step, clear away all branches that were pruned from the tree.  Do not allow them to lie on the ground under the tree. Rake away any fallen leaves or remnants of fruit from last year.  You want to keep the site clean to prevent fungus and insects from finding a refuge to overwinter and renew their attacks.

With a mower, cut the grass beneath the tree very short.  Apply 4" of mulch under the drip line of the tree, leaving a bare ring around the trunk with no mulch.

The Bok Choi Destiny: Wednesday update

Today we worked with the bok choi and moved it past another milestone.  This is the bok choi and swiss chard that were started from seed back on March 29th.  They sprouted and grew in the aerogarden for two weeks until they were ready to transfer to peat pots under the grow light.

Once in the growing medium, they began the hardening process and after 5 days, the roots had expanded throughout the peat. The leaves had doubled in size and another set had been added.

These plants were eager and were ready to be planted out of their pots and into the garden soil.  With the aerogarden, things definitely grow faster than any other propagation method I've used.  Seeds germinate faster and the intense light and constant moisture makes the plants produce not only true leaves but extensive roots in just a week or so.  This means that they have a huge start when being potted up.

The lower bed had been prepared, and I had designed a dinner kit that consisted of two of these large leafy greens, along with two onions from sets as well as two garlic cloves and a strip of radish or turnip, planted with seed tape.

There are boxes for 12 of these small assemblages, and we filled all but two of them.  These two have all the seeds in place, but are waiting for the straggler chard to make it out of the aerogarden, through the growing -out pots and into the raised bed to complete it.

The final lower bed looks like this:

Of course only the live plants can be seen in this photo.  Note the craft sticks marking the corners of the planting square.

Once again, we've taken another small crop from seed to planting in the garden, completely obviating the need for started plants from Lowes.  Probably saved $16-$20 by starting them ourselves.  Of course, we'll have to see how they do over the next month. 

By May 15th, I will be thinking about beginning the harvest of the greens and radishes, replacing them with peppers.  The onions and garlic might stay in the ground over the summer, but we'll see where they end up.  Bok choi can last as long as 70 days to maturity, but baby bok choy are also delicious and tender after 50 days (less than 2 months). Certainly the radishes will be ready in less than 30 days and we will be ready to thin and replant as needed.

I also began harvesting the outer leaves of the buttercrunch and red romaine in the upper bed.  I picked a few from each plant to keep them from overshading the radishes, and thinned out the radishes as well for some more greens.  In the end, I had enough for a nice salad for two.

The earliest of these was planted-out at the end of March, so these have been growing for about 2-3 weeks.

In the Front Beds  In the front beds the walking onions look like they are ready to dig in and stay the course. There are 5 remaining who look like they will make a good show of it.

On the other side of the stairs, all 12 garlic sets have come up and are showing green fingers above the soil's surface.  Their companions are the sunchokes.  They, too, have been showing the very tips of green foliage.  I had seen 4 of these last Friday, and finally the fifth tuber reached the surface today, so it looks like all of the ones I planted have sprouted.


Looking Ahead
1.  With the bok choi out of the grow lights, it's time to move the rest of the greens into the pots now.  Even the beets and the broccoli, typically slower to develop, are ready to be re-potted. Potting the remaining seedlings will be the next task,

2.  With the propagator clear, it will be time to start a new round of seeds, this time the summer tomatoes, green peppers, green beans, and the rest.

Saturday Report, April 11th

This is an update to the plans I made in the last update.

1.  Repotting the Bok Choi and Swiss Chard.  

     I was able to transfer the seedlings out of the propagator and into 3" pots which are now growing under the grow lights.  For this group, I moved 9 bok choi and 6 swiss chard.

This is the same group taking a little afternoon sun, as I began the hardening off process.

I have three more chard that can be transplanted some time this week.  I though they could benefit from a few more days in the aerogarden released from the competitive pressure of their overgrown neighbors.  What this means, however, is that I am still 6 plants short of the 24 I need to fill the lower bed.  I'll go to the garden center and pick up a 6-cell pack of something appropriate to substitute.  I seeded 12 of each, but a few of the cells just didn't germinate or if they did, the plants were weak.  In the future, I should probably seed 15 cells (three rows) of each plant type, to make sure I grow enough.

2. Prepare the lower raised bed.

Out in the garden, the lower bed has been completely prepared for planting.  I weeded it, topped it with compost and then drew out my squares.  Into each of these squares, I will plant a single meal kit.  As you look at the markers, you will see the garlic on the left, the bok choi and onions in a diagonal pattern and the radish tape in a line between them

I repeat this pattern down the length of one side of the raised bed.  This photo was taken after I had done an initial planting.

Here's the story:  The bok choi and chard I repotted earlier are destined to be planted in this bed.  But, they still have a week, at least, of growing out and hardening before they are ready to be put in the garden.

However, I have plenty of onion sets, garlic bulbs, and radish seed tape ready to be planted right now.  So, I decided to plant all of those in the garden except for the big greens.  This will give the onions and garlic a week or more to break dormancy, and for the radishes to germinate before the chard and choi make an appearance.

Since all of these are planted below ground, I left some stakes in the ground to remind me of where to plant the greens when they arrive.

3.  What's Next?

A.  I still have many onion and garlic sets.   The next step is to prepare the other side of the bed the same way, waiting for their companions.

B.  I know that I will need to buy a single 6-cell pack, so I might as well go ahead and buy that and put it in right away.

C.  The upper bed is fully planted, for the moment, so it is ready to be mulched with grass clippings when I mow.

D.  I also have rows in the propagator standing empty.  It is time to reset those cells and start some of the summer crops in them.  Peppers might be a good place to start.

I want to put the broccoli and beets into the upper bed, into the space occupied by the winter cabbage.  Those two are slower growing than the eager greens, which means an extra week in the propagator and an extra week growing out in the pots.  However, that still means that some of them will be ready to put in the garden in three weeks.  It may be time to harvest the winter cabbage.

4.  Food for Thought
The middle bed is ready for strawberries.  I need to plant them next.  There is literally no need to wait, except that I don't want to feel rushed or pressured to do gardening.  If currently I have plenty of things to do to occupy my gardening time, then the strawberries may wait.

The skeleton of the hoop house needs to come down, and something needs to be done with the beautiful apple trees.

• Mowed underneath,
• Mulched
• Fertilized
• Sprayed?
• Pruned
• heading cuts to limit height
• thinning cuts to reduce the tangle.
• Need to be protected with some kind of netting

Garden update: April 10th

By the end of the first week in April, we are well into the Spring garden.  All danger of frost is past for this area, and that is certainly the case this year.  However, it is still too chilly for high summer plants like tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini.  Put in now, those plants will basically sulk until the middle of May.  On the other hand, spring vegetables like lettuce and bok choi are in their prime.

Today, the high will be 55 F. and breezy.






In the Garden.  Outside, I have harvested the last of the green cabbage and replaced them with the salad meal kit plantings: red and green lettuce, radishes, and onions.  The image below shows two meal kit plantings:

 

 Now, I have the happy task of harvesting the red cabbage, 1 per week.  This should allow small secondary heads to grow, permitting a final round of harvests before they are done.  The radishes need to be thinned while I harvest a few leaves for a salad.

Inside, the seeds I planted in the Aerogarden 10 days ago are coming up strongly. The bok choi and swiss chard are clearly ready to be transpanted out of the propagator.  If I wait any longer, their roots will be too long and entangled, and I will actually lose progress by pruning them back as I remove them.  At the same time, they are already competing strongly for space in the light and are beginning to overcrowd their neighbors.

The key to success with the Aerogarden as a propagator is to know when to move on; to know when to begin the transition.  Things are growing so well in there now, that it seems a shame to break up the party.

These bok choi and swiss chard seedlings could go longer, but those in the middle would grow spindly and weakened from crowding.  The choi are starting to shoulder the chard aside.

I will start moving the bok choi into paper pots for a week, and begin the hardening process.  Next week they will be ready to be planted out.

Released from the competition of the choi, the chard will also be ready for the paper pots soon after.



The other end of the propagator is more of a puzzle.  Here I have the combination of broccoli and beets.  Both have developed nice and strong true leaves.

I don't want to wait too much longer to put the beets directly into the ground.  I won't be paper potting them.  So after I'm finished with the chard, as mentioned above, I will move the beets outside. 

However, the broccoli could benefit from another week's worth of development before being potted on.  All in all, that gives me two pleasant weeks of indoor gardening to look forward to .

Seeding for the Summer Gardening
With the plan in place to move the spring garden plants out of the propagator, that means it will be time to start the seeds for the warm summer garden:  It's time to start the tomatoes, peppers and all the rest.  I have to keep in  mind that I don't need 12 tomato plants or 10 zucchini. I will be more careful in seeding, while still starting a few extra so I can select the best ones to transplant.


 
Front Beds
Outside, the front beds haven't moved much.  I think the Egyptian onions are starting to take hold. It hasn't been easy for them






  The sunchokes have sprouted and I'm seeing the first shoots breaking the surface of the ground.  I was waiting to see how they would grow before planting my garlic. However, the garlic is sprouting now and it may be time to get started.

Checking in with the garden at the beginning of April

Each month, I need to check in with the garden.  I have a list of things that need to be done each month, but this is a check on what I've actually accomplished.

Inside:
Aerogarden.  My Aerogarden produced a crop of lettuce, which I have planted in the Aquaponic garden as well as outside. I also harvested quite a few leaves for salads along the way.  As always, germination was 100% and there was prolific root and leaf growth for the variety of lettuces.

At this stage, I have re-planted the aerogarden with the seeds I need to transfer to the garden outside.  Spring crops include Bok Choi, Swiss Chard, Broccoli greens, and Beets.  These have sprouted but not uniformly:  after one week: 50% of the beets failed to sprout, 7 of the 10 Broccoli sprouted, but all of the bok choi and all but 2 of the Swiss chard.

So phase 1 is still a general success and I'll continue to hold out hope for the stragglers.  The great thing about the aerogarden is that if you set it up correctly and you will definitely get some useful results.  This is far more certain than previous experiences with jiffy pots or direct seeding.  What this means is that in about 2 weeks, I will have started plants that are ready to plant outside.

Aquaponic Garden.  The aquaponic  garden was producing very well but then began to get a little spindly.  I realized two things.  First, the 30" light I was using simply wasn't large enough and I replaced it with a 48" led light.

The other thing I learned was that the amount of fish that I had in the tank weren't producing enough nitrate to satisfy the plants.  Nitrate testing was always at zero, and still the plants had yellowing leaves indicating a nitrogen deficiency.  I added three more gourami to the tank to up the ammonia production slightly and then I'll see how the nitrate test and the plants in the grow bed react.

Front Beds  The intention was to plant more edible permaculture in the front yard.  To that end, I did three things.  First, I planted the walking onions in the front bed, behind the Japanese Maple.  That bed was enhanced with compost first and then I had about 9 viable onion starts that I put in.  Some of these didn't thrive, but I think that about 6 of them have taken hold.  Theoretically, they should self-multiply and will fill in for the plants I lost.

On the corner bed by the stairs, I cleared out all the mint and instead planted Jerusalem Artichokes.  This is another perennial and a prolific spreader that is hard to contain, hence the need to keep it in that particular raised bed.  The sunchokes are already in the ground and I intend to put a row of garlic in front of them.  We'll see how well suited they are as bedfellows.  The garlic is currently inside, sprouting.

Raised Beds  The cabbage in the raised beds are still growing strong.  The green cabbage never did do especially well, though they produced well enough. They had a tendency not to form heads and were susceptible to a fungus that rotted the leaves.  The red cabbage is huge and beautiful, so that I am hesitant to pick them and wonder what another month will do for them.

Where the cabbage has been harvested, I have replaced it with a Meal Kit garden of two lettuces (one red and one butter), Two onions, and a short row of radishes complete the meal kit.  Already the radishes have sprouted and some of the onions have started to grow, though others still seem dormant.

Structure  I have turned my compost boxes, and they seem to be working.  Some composting is happening.  In addition, I moved one box to the tumbler and have been trying to keep it moving.

However. the lower bed appears to have greater problems with underlying roots that need to be removed.  Also, the middle bed, where we were going to plant strawberries, is still covered with a tarp.  Nothing is stopping us from throwing off that old tarp, refreshing the soil underneath and then starting to plant my Strawberries first, followed by the ground cherries when the earth gets a little warmer.                                            

Overall, for the month of March, this seems very productive

Looking ahead to the current month of April:  in two weeks, and following, I will need to transplant spring seedlings outside, and start summer crops.  In order to do that, I will need to harvest those beautiful red cabbage in all their majestic splendor.  So now that the garden season has begun in earnest, its all about keeping the process working,  keeping the harvest coming, keep planting new meal kits where the old ones have been removed