So far so good with my garlic this year so far, after last year’s bad luck (or poor planting on my part). The leaves are the longest and tallest yet of my 3 yr attempts. I noticed that the price of garlic has soared, so I’ll be grateful if these come to fruition. My only wish now is that I planted more but I’m out of space in my raised beds. Maybe if this year’s crop is good, I’ll have to reserve more cloves next year and try some in pots.
Meanwhile my scallions continue to grow out of control. Way too fast for me to harvest. I wish everything else we as easy! This is how they looked about 3 wks ago.
TIL [for those who don’t know, this is an abbreviation for Today I Learned…(snarky or non-snarky items can follow)] that when a seedling first pops up, its first leaves are often false leaves. Clearly, I’m not a super experienced gardener and I don’t know why I’ve never noticed this before.
In the picture below of my current pepper plants (yet to be transplanted) the circled leaf is an example of the early leaf that came when the seed first sprouted. It’s the same generic long thin shaped leaf I’ve seen on all seedlings I can think of.
Around it are the proper pepper leaves that have since unfurled - they look like actual pepper leaves, complete with the veining we’re used to seeing. Apparently once they get to a certain height where the “real” leaves can do their job and absorb sunlight, you can just pluck the false leaves off if needed. Learned this from a gardening video on Youtube. Was I the only one who had no clue?
Maybe not the only one, but it’s pretty easy to figure this out the very first time you grow something from seed. I think of them as the baby teeth of the plant world.
So, various pots of soil have tiny mushrooms, and others have a white furry fungus-y top layer. This didn’t happen till after the slug pellets went in, so I’m blaming those.
A quick search says to scrape off the top layer of soil.
I’ve started transplanting the biggest seedlings into pots. But I’m going in stages in case something goes wrong - don’t want to kill my “best” seedlings all at once!
I don’t know what seedlings they are, but plenty of light and letting the soil dry a bit should help as well…unless you are growing mushrooms, then good job!
These are from the two little plants we got a month and a half ago from the nursery.
I’ve been babying them, had to aerate the soil when they looked like they were going to die, and I went a bit crazy trimming them last week based on various videos.
I also learned about hand-pollinating today, as there have been many flowers on both plants, but only these two fruit.
My poor slug-suffering serrano plants are also doing well after I covered the top of the soil with wood shavings (another man’s trash and all…). Lots of little white flowers - fingers crossed!
And one of the tiny yellow squash seedlings the neighbor gave us has also been babied into survival - it’s still a tiny thing, but this looks like fruit to me? I moved it into the raised bed this week, because it needs more space than the solo cup!
(Sorry if this is all a bit silly, I’ve never grown anything before, never mind had it fruit!)
When your plants are on a 5th floor balcony and often overlooked by bees, hand-pollinating is a necessity. I’m currently letting the mustard greens flower (they’re in a box on the railing, so more visible) in an attempt to attract some bee action.
I keep my plants from flowering for a while, for just that reason, but these are probably coming to the end of their productivity. Which they’ve earned, since they made it through the winter and, along with the kale, continued to provide me with a modest supply of leaves. I’ve got a new crop of “stir-fry greens” planted around them, so the mustard will flower, seed, and continue the circle of life!
I’ve always appreciated it. And now that I don’t leave the house much, it’s doing a lot to keep me sane. We go out there every night at 7 to clap for the essential workers, and seeing our neighbors doing the same thing on their balconies is nice at the end of a long (and often sucky) day.
Learned this from a gardening video on Youtube. Was I the only one who had no clue?
