Garden Update May 2014

Well it has been a really cold spring.
Then we went on a vacation and left the seeds in the charge of a house sitter, so a few more than usual bit the dust (not enough water).  Now that we have been back a few days I thought that despite today's snow I could do a quick status update by way of a few photos, here we go:

Below - I sow my seeds into Jiffy Pellets -I get 36 pellets for 3.99 at Canadian Tire.  Then the pellets go into a tray, that gets labeled, and covered with a translucent dome, and the tray goes on top of a heat pad.  Due to prolonged cold - even with the heat pad - several seeds just never emerged.

Once the seeds germinate and the first leaves emerge I transfer the peat pellet out of the domed incubation tray up to my grow light tray.  Here the grow lights shine 16 hours a day to strengthen the seedlings - this is the key to making sure to avoid weak and leggy seedlings - seedlings that are too weak and end up toppling over under their own weight.  After a week under the grow lights the roots tend to be escaping the seed pellet and it is time to transplant into pots.

My typical set up post-seedling transplant is shown here.  I transplant the jiffy pellet and seeding into a small reusable green pot, theses are .49c each at Apache Seeds. I think  this is the 4th year I have used them.  I use a soil-less mix that is sterile - again often sourced at Canadian Tire, taking care to make sure the bag says 'suitable for edible crops' because lots of potting soils are NOT suitable for edible crops.  These are full of chemicals, heavy metals etc.

 Here is another look at the interim potting set up. The plants will stay in these pots until roots come out the bottom drain holes and the weather is warm enough to place them outside.  Typically this means they get transplanted into their permanent pots or garden plots in early June in Edmonton. 

More seeds planted!

I planted even more seed yesterday, here is what went into the soil:
North Star Peppers, 6
Totem hybrid tomatoes, 4
Lemon boy tomatoes, 2
Golden bison tomatoes, 6
Pendulina orange tomatoes, 12
Latch tomatoes, 7
Flame cayenne peppers, 6

Also all planted in jiffy pellets on heat mat.

A new year, a new house, a new garden

2014 we are looking forward to a full growing season at our (new to us) home.  I am looking forward to documenting the garden as it grows and this means a full yard front and back, small as they are.  In the mean time the snow is still melting in a few spots so tonight I just finished seeding the first round of peppers and tomatoes.

Here is the list of what was planted:

Tomatoes:
Sub Arctic Plenty - William Dam, 12 ea.
Black Prince - Heritage Harvest 12 ea. 
Lemon Boy - William Dam 3 ea. 

Peppers:
Hungarian Hot Wax - Vesey's 12 ea. 
Gusto Purple - Vesey's 12 ea. 
Doe Hill - Heritage Harvest 12 ea.
Black Hungarian - Heritage Harvest 12 ea.

More seeds will likely get seeded this weekend, but that's lots for a Wednesday night!  

July Update! Tomatoes, peppers and cukes!

Its a bit of damp and cool day in Edmonton today which has chased me in to the apartment for a glass of red wine after taking these pictures.

Much of July has been damp too but the tomatoes are soaking it all up, as are the cucumbers and some of the peppers.  I think if it were a bit hotter a few of the peppers would be more developed but all in all things are looking good.  The tomatillos are also starting to produce fruit!  This is a bit of a departure from my past failures.  I chalk it up to having had six plants to pollenate each other.  After the fruit set, I threw out the runty pot to concentrate on allowing the 2 bigger monsters to grow.  On to the pics:

Not sure what tomato this is.

Tomatillo setting fruit!

Tomatillo plants.

Yellow Pear - Organic

Hungarian Hot Wax Pepper

Not 100% sure but I think this is Totem F1 Hybrid Tomato

Purple gusto peppers

Purple gusto peppers and Hungarian Hot Wax peppers

Corentine cuckes with dill

Not 100% sure but I think this is Totem F1 Hybrid Tomato

Not 100% sure but I think this is Totem F1 Hybrid Tomato

Not 100% sure but I think this is Totem F1 Hybrid Tomato

Cucumber! I've never grown this plant before, this is Corentine.  

Corentine cukes are very easy to grow.  

Cucumber is hanging out with some cilantro.

Purple Gusto Peppers and Parsley

Purple Gusto peppers...almost look black!  

The heat is here!

The heat is here!

Finally.  

This being Saturday I had time to head to Canadian Tire for a bag of municipal compost and some drain rocks. Once home I transplanted a few of the bigger saplings today.

Below is the Sub Arctic Maxi in its new pot.  

Below is a view of the the tray of remaining Sub Arctic Maxi tomatoes.  These four and a tomatillo, didn't seem quite big enough to transplant yet.  In the next few days they should be monsters worthy of planting.

Below are the 2 flats of seedlings, I put them out in the sun and breeze to begin to harden them off.  Over the next couple of weeks I expect they will transition into larger pots.

Here are the rest of today's transplants, shown below.  From back to front: 2 tomatillos sharing one large pot, another sub arctic maxi tomato plant in a somewhat smaller pot, a single tomatillo in its own pot, and at the front a tomatillo sharing a pot with a Hungarian Hot Wax Pepper.  This pepper seemed to be the only one large enough to bear a transplant yet...even then I might have been pushing it, but I was excited to get it into a pot with another plant.

That's all for today, but what a landmark day it is, when the seedlings make it into their big-boy pots!  Happy planting.  

Everything is getting a little bit bigger

We have seen continued success in the seedlings department.  I am quite happy with the grow lights this year.  We have continued to experience a cold April this year.  It is currently 0C and it is April 21 today.  We also have not been getting many sunny days.  So the grow lights have been good to have around.

In the photo above the largest plants are the tomatillos.  The grow lights really helped prevent them from getting too leggy.  Last year all but one died as a result of being too leggy.  In the foreground the peat seed pellet is a Gusto Purple Pepper.  The tomato in the middle ground is a Lemon Boy.

Above is the latest seedlings to crop up.  This tray is a real mixed bag of everything from Yellow Pear tomatoes, Totem F1 tomatoes, Hot Wax peppers and Purple Gusto peppers.  The seeds with the worst germination rate this year are the Organic Yellow Pear.  I think I have about 3 of them out of all I planted.

The Sub Arctic tomatoes are the hands-down off to the races winners this year.  They are doing very well.  I had to stake them up to keep them from bending over into the sun, but otherwise seem to be very well suited to the cooler climate and obviously are vigorous growers.

Above is an overhead shot to show you what the growing set up looks like right now.  We are about to go out of town for a week and have a house sitter, so I have the lights on timers, and the only thing the house sitter needs to do is water the trays. I will not be expecting any seedlings that sprout while we are away to survive, or be transplanted into pots, so this is the extent of the tomato and pepper crop this year.  I might have a peek into the seed incubator when I get back and see if there is anything to salvage, but I am not going to get my hopes up.

Seed Count:

Sub Arctic - 5
Hot Wax - 7
Gusto Purple - 5
Toma Verde - 5
Lemon Boy - 5
Totem - 2
Yellow Pear - 2
Unknown - 2 (Ran out of plant i.d. tags)

All in all it seems like an interesting, diverse crop is shaping up this year.

One round of sprouts, one more round of sowing

Another snowy weekend in Edmonton.  Sigh.  I'm not letting it hold the garden back yet.

This week on Friday the Toma Verde's were the first to sprout!  This year I am determined to see them live, so I had made an advance purchase of 2 cantilever desk lamps and some grow bulbs.  I want to make sure the seedlings get the light they need to live rather than straining them selves to death as they did last year.  This year every sign so far seems to indicate the lighting is making an impact.

The second seeds to burst forth from the earth was the Sub Arctic Plenty's.  All seeds sown have germinated.

The third seeds to make it above ground are a couple (so far) of Lemon Boy tomatoes.  We had a little scare this afternoon where they seemed to droop a bit, but I think it was a reflection of taking them out of their domes and the shock of dealing with the dry air.

With all 3 of these seedlings moving out of the incubators and into 3 inch pots I decided to sow 3 more varieties of seeds.  Today I planted the following into the Jiffy Peat Pellets, and placed the incubators on the heat pad and radiator:

8x Totem F1 Hybrid tomato from William Dam Seeds
8x Yellow Pear Organic tomato from William Dam Seeds
8x Gusto Purple pepper from Vesey's

Pictures of the set up:

 Here (above) you can see the still-inculbating Hot Wax peppers and where some of the Lemon Boys were living until they were potted this morning. The freshly planted Yellow Pear seeds can be seen in the incubator on the radiator in the background.

 Above are visible the new sprouts, a mix of Toma Verde tomatillos and Sub Arctic Pleanty tomatoes.  The stainless steel desk lamps make easily adjustable grow lamps.  The lamp on the left has a Ottlite Gro Bulb CFL and the lamp on the right has a Philips Daylight CFL.

 What at this time appears to be a happy and healthy Sub Arctic Plenty sprout.

The entire first tray of sprouts can be seen in this lengthwise photo.   In this view is the new Lemon Boy, Sub Arctic Plenty, and the Toma Verdes.

New this year is the timer to control the CFL grow lights. I have it set so that no matter the weather there is an ample supply of light for 16 hours a day.

That's it for this week's instalment of Just Leafy!

2013 First Planting

Well it was a nice sunny Easter Sunday and all the shops were closed, so I poked into my storage closet to see what gardening supplied I had on-hand.  Lo and behold I had enough potting soil and seeds to get the first planting of 2013 into the soil and sun!

Here is the list of seedlings sown:
5x Lemon Boy tomatoes
10x Toma Verde tomatillos (2 per pot, 5 pots)
5x Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes
13x Hungarian Hot Wax peppers

Here is a photo of the sown seeds soaking up the sun and warmth.

Future plantings will be made in the coming week once seeds on order arrive.

On order from Vesey's is:
Gusto Purple Hot Pepper
3x20 inch window sill heat mat

On order from William Dam Seeds:
Corentine cucumbers
Mesclun mix
Totem F1 hybrid tomatoes
Yellow Pear Organic tomatoes
Fern Leaf Dwarf Dill
Greenhouse growers plant clips

Stay tuned to the Just Leafy blog for updates on germination, transplanting, vegetable production, recipes and year-end canning and salsa making.  Happy gardening!

Summer heat brings peppers to life!

It is 31C in Edmonton today.  

Yesterday this heat trigged 2 of the cayenne peppers to flip from green to red.  Check it out:

And below the tomatoes are looking bushy!

Close up of the 'patio tomoato' from Arches Greenhouse; its bearing fruit all over!

Here is the lone surviving tomatillo in bloom:

Early June Update

Time for another update! It's early june and all the plants have been hardened off and moved outside.  I could be a bit paranoid but I feel the tomatoes are rather skinny, and slow growing this year.  I did re-use the soil so there could be some nutrient loss, but I mixed in compost and fertilizers to try and compensate for that.  Last year the soils were new, but unfortified (i.e. not compost) so I'm a bit skeptical that this is the sole cause.  It is early going still so there could be a warm week that gets them growing thicker and more robust.

Here are the seedlings inside for the night after being outside to harden off.

 A closer look at the pepper seedlings after transplanting into 4' pots.

 Hollyhock from Archs Greenhouses, first bloom of the year on June 6

 A view of the tomatoes and peppers - note the skinny tomatoes. 

A little burst of colour.

True Leaves Begin to Emerge

Just a quick update to say that I had to replant several seeds this weekend. Overall everything germinated, but for example the 4 tomatillos that germinated then rotted before they could get going. I had about one-third of my seedlings fail to germinate, or emerge and then die off.  I attribute this to the poor weather last weekend, it snowed and was cold an overcast so the seedlings did not get much heat or sun.  Also several of the peat pots experienced forms of mould.  This is because I did not use sterile potting soil or seed starting mix.  This is an error I won't repeat.  

So the photo above shows the remaining two-thirds of the seedlings that are off to a good start and have begun to grow their first sets of true leaves.  In the meantime I purchased a bunch of sterile peat pucks that I have used to sow a follow up batch of plants, a little bit of everything, to make sure I have a full crop this year.  Today I watered these little guys with a Miracle-Gro Quick Start starting solution plant food 4-12-4.  Hopefully they enjoy the good weather expected over the next few days.

The seeds grow despite the snow!

April 14, 2012: The seeds are a growin and the weather it is a snowin! Don't tell the seeds that on just the other side of the patio door there's a couple of centimetres of snow out there. This is just spring in Edmonton.

About April 12th the first of the tomato seeds sprouted, so right on time. The action continues today and probably through the weekend. The fist to sprout look

Here's a closer look at the hot wax peppers, a lonely pair of first-born in the lower right and upper left pots!

The tomatilos were the fist to sprout, they burst forth on Wednesday April 11. That is just under a week since they were sown. They sure are leggy though. I will need to go easy on them and help them along to ensure they strengthen up. I'll just try to keep them propped up with a small skewer or two.

I am also impressed that as of today the first few hot wax peppers are just emerging. By Monday I'll likely have them all pushing through the surface. They tend to take a while longer to break their seed pods off of their fist set of leaves.
All in all not bad considering today's snow fall. These seeds just love living on the radiator, keeps them nice an cozy no matter what's going on outside.