May in the Garden

At the beginning of May, it's time to check in with the outside garden. 

According to the schedule, the Spring garden should be in full swing.  Seedlings we planted in late March and April should now be reaching maturity and in the process of being harvested.

For the Red Romain and Buttercrunch lettuce, that is definitely the case.  I did a series of plantings about a week apart, and the earliest plantings are fully mature and ready for harvest.  In fact, I have harvested outside leaves as well as one whole heads of buttercrunch.  The red and white radishes have been plentiful as well.  Growing beside them, the onions have leafed out and are holding their own.  Their height is allowing them to thrive, even though the lettuce is crowding them at the base.

The other bed was planted later, with Bok Choi, Swiss chard and Garlic.  Despite  later start, the Bok Choi have grown tremendously from their seedling stage and have put on plenty of major leaves in a short amount of time.  Both of these beds have been mulched with grass clippings to retain moisture and help with weeds.

At the far end of the bok choi bed, I've already planted three peppers and two basil.  While they are not suffering at all, they aren't actually growing and putting on any new leaves, either.  The truth is that the weather is still too cool for summer crops, or has been until recently.  While we've had pleasant days in the 70s, we've had just as many days in the 50s and nights in the 40s.  All the peppers can do is sulk and hopefully develop their root structure.

The general guideline is that summer crops like peppers and tomatoes really won't do much in the garden until after Memorial Day.  That's the  marker for putting in tomatoes.

Inside, the summer seeds have all germinated, but they are proceeding at different rates:

The roma and cherry tomatoes have exploded with growth and are ready to be transplanted into pots.   The peppers are taking their time, as are the big boy slicing tomatoes, who wish the roma would go away and give them some light.  On the right, the basil are holding their own, but in between are some seedling big boys.

At the other end, the peppers have sprouted along with the ground cherries, both of which are growing with modest enthusiasm.

Summer Seedlings: day 14

I'm following the summer crops that have been seeded in the Aerogarden seed starter.

We've just reached the 14-day mark, and I've re-filled with water and added nutrients.  We should be good for another two weeks.

Foliage

Here is what they look like on day 14:

Top view:

It appears like there is good solid growth on most species.  I would say that the Nasturtiums are doing less well than the others with yellowing of some leaves even while they continue to produce more leaves.

 Roots

The view from the underside tells more of the story:

Tomato root growth is abundant, as is the growth from the Dill and Basil.  These roots are lengthy and intertwined, possibly reaching the maximum needed for seed starting.  The pepper roots are coming along nicely, but they still have some development left

Tomatoes

The first thing that stands out is that the tomatoes have exploded.  They aren't too leggy yet, and they are not pressed up against the lights, but they have certainly grown effusively.  As I look closely, I can see that most cells germinated 3 and 4 seeds, leading to an abundance of stems.  I knew that I would have to thin, and that moment is obviously upon me.

So I trimmed the tomatoes back to 2 stems per cell and this is the result:

They're not noticeably different, but are in a better place for the future.  All seedlings are putting out their 3rd set of leaflets.  Some of these leaflets are protruding out beyond the grow lights.

 Roots like these are long, branching, and intertwined.  Some rootlets will be broken when separating them for transplanting.

Putting all the information together:

• Weaker stems have been removed, so we are down to the two strongest plants per cell
• Each plant is on its 3rd true leaf.
• Plant height is ample - not quite touching the overhead lights.  This is well beyond all other crops
• Leaves are beginning to extend beyond the lights, where they will probably wither from lack of light.
• Roots are well developed, branched, with fine rootlets.
• Any further root growth will likely be lost when separating the cells, due to breakage.

At the same time:

• the tomatoes will require me to raise the lights soon, even while other plants (like the basil) would benefit from having the lights closer.  
• the tomatoes are beginning to overshadow their neighbors, possibly restricting their growth.
• I am beginning to suspect that the tomatoes are hogging all the nutrients that the nasturtiums would like to use, leading to some yellowing

Taking all this information together, it looks like for the tomatoes, it is time to transplant them to pots under the fluorescent lights.  Any time this week they will be ready to go.  I would like for them to grow another leaf so that they have 4 true leafs before transplanting from the pot to the outside garden.  And some of these are destined for containers.

Herbs

 Meanwhile, the rest of the plants are developing nicely.  Peppers have modest leaf production above ground, and a few exploratory roots below the surface.  These plants look like they are good for another week or more in the Aerogarden.

The dill and nasturtiums are doing well, with good root growth and leaf development that is obviously a little further along than the peppers.  Any time after this weekend (day 21) these will be available for transplant into pots.

Summer Seeds

The time of the Cool Season crops is nearly over. My napa cabbage is going to seed, although the bok choi is beautiful. I know it's only a matter of time for it as well, though. I have been harvesting whole heads of cabbage and lettuce, recently, to hit the 1/3 target by the end of April, and that's mostly been achieved.
 April Challenges:
1. Remove and safely store the row covers. Well, the covers are removed, but I cant get a solid day of sunshine to dry them out for storage. So they are lying flat in the back yard.

2. Harvest at least 1/3 of your cool season crops. This has not been achieved. I've brought in 1/3 of my napa cabbage and butter crunch lettuce, but very little of the Bok Choi, Chard, and Kale. The last two freeze rather well. I definitely need to be more aggressive with my harvest.

3. Sow warm season seeds. Here, however, I've done much better.

 

Here, I have Tomatoes on the far right, Peppers in the center, Nasturtiums on the middle left, and a row of Dill on the far left.  Once again, I have been tremendously impressed with the Aerogarden's ability to sprout nearly everything.

Below are the dill, nasturtiums and peppers. Several of the Nasturtiums have come up, but not all of them have spread full cotyledons.  All the Dill is up, and most of the peppers but there are at least 2 cells that have produced nothing.

 

On the other side, the many rows of tomatoes are growing well.  I have three rows of tomatoes, with the third row (from the right) a patio cherry tomato that is designed to be self-dwarfing.  Other tomatoes include Roma, Better Boy.  Basil is in the fourth row.

 

I can see that 2-4 seeds sprouted per cell, so some painful thinning will have to take place in the future.  This is at about 7 days since sowing

Hardening

Just wanted to confirm that I began hardening the Bok Choi outside for 2 hours.  It was an overcast day, with light drizzle that made it easy for the plants to start the journey outside.

Tomorrow, I will extend their stay into the evening, probably from 5 to 8pm.

the other plants are doing remarkably well, and the garden center starts are almost mature.  I mumbled something about waiting 2 weeks before harvesting, but I am nipping off outer leaves of the butter crunch lettuce already.

My replacement plugs arrived in the mail, and I purchased seeds to start in the Aerogarden.  This is the dilemma:  a package of seeds costs between $1.50 and $2.50.  With my limited garden space, I only have room for 5 or 6 tomato plants, total.  And when you consider the varietes, I really only need 1 or 2 cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, beef steaks, and so on.  So I could spend $2.50 on my cherry tomato seed pack and then look at another 6 weeks of hopeful watching, tending, and transplanting, or I could pay $3.50 for a really nice and good sized nursery plant and start it directly in the garden when growing conditions were optimal.

If I was going to plant 20 paste tomatoes for my tomato sauce kitchen factory, it would absolutely make sense to start them from seed.  But if I only need 2 roma tomatoes for my garden this year, it might make sense to go to Home Depot and pick out one or two of the best, even if they are at a premium price.

Much of this answer depends on how easy it is to start seeds in the Aerogarden.  With the limited success I was having with the Jiffy pots, this was an open question, and the Minimalist Gardener in me had no trouble providing an answer;  let the garden center take the risk.  But considering how easy the Aerogarden started my leafy greens (bok choi and swiss chard) and how eagerly they took to transplanting in 3" pots and from there to the raised beds, it might be a simple decision to make after all.

This first test with tomatoes and peppers will be very informative.