Transplanting Peppers

 Yesterday I started transplanting Peppers.  I am using PRO-MIX Organic Vegetable & Herb Mix which I have used for several years.  I prefer the compressed bales because they are dry to start with.  Last year I bought the smaller bags and the soil was wet right out of the bag.  This year I am finding that the mix is again holding quite a bit of moisture.  When I transplanted the Tomatoes the other day I added both Perlite (to improve drainage) and Espoma Bio-Tone Fertilizer.  I did the same for the Peppers.  I need the soil to dry out at least in 48 hours with a fan.  The added Perlite seems to be helping with the Tomatoes.  When I bump up from the cells I go to 3.5" pots.  I have a lot of 4" pots and only a few 3.5" accumulated from buying plants over the years.  The 4" take up too much space and too much soil so I purchased 3.5" to round out what I already had. With that size you can fit 18 plants instead of only 15 in a 1020 tray 

I planted six different varieties of Ornamental peppers and some Hot Peppers that I use for pickling.  I may as well buy Bell Peppers, because they are easy to find and ornamentals are impossible.  I got two to four specimens of each variety plus some spares.

These are the spares.

I potted them up too and kicked them out in the cold frame to fend for themselves.

The Durango Marigolds shot right up.  I planted Red (a "red" Marigold is really deep, burnt Orange), Yellow and Bolero which is Yellow tipped with Red.  I get really tired of plain Orange Marigolds.  It seems like every seed mix gets more than it's share of Orange so I mix my own.

The Cole Crops are thriving in the cool, wet weather.

And so are the Peas

1st and 2nd planted rows

Direct Sown Lettuce

3rd and 4th plantings of Peas

My Strawberry bed is amazing this year!  They are apparently loving the cooler weather and blooming their heads off!  This end of the bed is my favorite, dependable June bearing plants called Honeoye in their second full year (planted fall of 2023) and the far end is Day Neutral variety called Seascape which should produce all summer.  I ordered and planted the Seascape last spring.  Technically this is their second year but the bare root plants were actually pretty pitiful when they arrived and didn't really root in and begin growing until last fall.  

Now all I have to do is protect the berries from the slugs and the Chipmunks.

The Waiting Place

 I have started moving trays out to the cold frame.  The Waiting Place.  In a cooler, less lighted environment, their growth will slow and they will have to hang out there until better weather comes.

Marigolds

I am so proud of my tray of white Marigolds and my Profusion Zinnias.  A commercial grower couldn't do any better.  I also have my Dahlias grown from seed in the cold frame.  This frees up space under the grow light.

Zinnias

We have a 10 day forecast of cool, gloomy weather. The lower graph is cloud cover.  I wouldn't mind the rain if it would clear up after and give us a little ray of sunshine.

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Moving three trays out into the cold frame frees up space under the new grow lights for some of the second string plants.  A few days after their rotten FedEx ordeal, the Romence annuals are putting out some blooms.  But the first thing I see when I walk through the door is the baby tomato on the Orange Hat micro tomatoes.

The new Dahlia tubers that are being "woken up" in a tray of soil are doing well.  I even tried pinching one back and rooting the sprout.  I have a plastic bag over the pot as a make-shift humidity dome.

The past few years I have direct sown Durango Marigolds at the feet of the pole beans.  I may as well start them indoors on a heat mat.  When I transplant them into cells they can go out into the cold frame.

My Ornamental Peppers could stand some leg room.  I need to transplant them into 3.5" pots.  This will require some culling as I have 36 cells and the tray will only hold 18 pots.  Okay, I seeded some extra just in case and at this point it is time to let some go.  What I will probably do is plant into two trays and one will stay under grow lights and one tray will go out to the cold frame to continue their role as spares.

Peppers

The Indeterminate Tomatoes are doing well.  Probably no need to bump them up to larger pots.  If they start to get root bound that will just slow their growth until they can go outside,

And outside, the Strawberry plants are blooming their heads off.

As far as I can tell, there is still at least a week until the Dahlia tubers can go out into the bed and two weeks until the Tomatoes and Peppers can go out to the Cold Frame to begin the hardening off process.

Annual Planters

 Every year I treat myself to one Proven Winners combo that has to be mail ordered because I can’t find the exact plants locally. I always use Romence Gardens for this.

This year I chose the Proven Winners recipe Pixie Powder.

First, here is the good news. Baby plants safe and sound.

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This is what a Romence Gardens shipment usually looks like when it arrives. Cleverly designed and beautifully packed.

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And this is what I got today. FedEx apparently dropped it upside down. HARD.

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Out of six plants, that was the only one still in its pot. I already had planned to put them under a grow light for a few weeks, and I have been transplanting today so I had soil all ready to go. I put the gloves on because I already scrubbed my fingernails for dinner once today…

The Euphorbia was pretty much unfazed. The Begonias were filthy, but appear to be recent transplants so the little plugs apparently popped out of their pots and hid in a corner and so were unscathed. The Impatiens had large root balls and were totally smooshed, but only one side stem was actually broken. I fully expected them to be broken at the base,

And here I was really only worried about the super early ship date and the cold snap we’ve been having.

What's Going On Inside

My indoor seedlings are looking good.  In fact, they are all pretty much outgrowing their lights at this point.  I am having to rearrange things and give each tray a little airspace.  I do have one more flourescent light that I could set up if I have to.

Peppers

Coleus Cuttings

You can see from the light distribution on these Marigolds that they are getting too close to the light and the light is not reaching the outer plants as well.  But they don't seem to be suffering at all.

Marigolds

Zinnias (and two White Sage plants)

The Zinnias are even beginning to bloom.

Tomato Plants

Not everything is happy.  Below is a tray of Tomato plants that were growing slowly and got crowded out by more vigorous plants.  Totally my fault.  They still have four weeks to get it in gear.

The Dahlia Tubers that I am waking up early looks nice.  I may try to take some cuttings from them as an experiment.  The taller tray in the background are the Single Dahlias from seed.  They have totally outgrown my lights.  In fact, I booted them out to the cold frame today but we are going to have some cold nights this coming week so I will just bring them indoors each night and put them under the old 10w LEDs for the evening.

Now I have to wait for both the day and the night time temps to go up a bit so I can begin transitioning some things into the cold frame.  The happens every year... waiting for nice weather.  And the next two weeks are forecast to be below average temperatures.  These are the times that try men's souls.

It's Apple Blossom Time

 The Northern Spy Apple trees are just covered with blossoms ready to burst open.

The leaves are developing behind the blossoms and it will be about a week before the buds really start to open up and they will linger for a couple of weeks after that.

Now the Gala Apple Tree, that we planted back in 2022 and relocated in 2023 is at the same stage of leaf development but I really don't see any buds.  It should be blooming at the same time, which is why I chose it as a pollinator for the Spies.  It never has as many blooms as the more mature trees, but it should be putting out something.  Since the leaves have started popping out, it's shape has started to bother me and I decided it needs some header cuts.

It looks good from some angles, but the North side is starting to get thicker.

I've circled the branch that is bothering me.  Because this branch has gotten taller than the others, it will start to become more dominant, not to mention heavy.  You can see on the branch tips to the left that the leaves are more developed than the buds further down.  This is what I mean when I say that a tree will send more growth hormone to the terminal buds.  I don't want those sending out a whole lot of tip growth either.  I want to encourage branching further down on the side buds.  I want to be able to reach the apples!

This tree grows naturally in an open centered, vase shaped form.  I don't want one leader becoming dominant.  I need to head off the branches at an equal height.

Here we go.

Because of the terminal bud dominance, I want to cut just above a bud that is heading in the direction I want to direct the branch

We'll see how these cuts shape up this year.  This has not been a particularly vigorous grower or producer, but the Northern Spy trees did not begin to produce until the fourth year after they were planted and this is now the fourth year for this little tree.  Relocating it after one year probably set it back too.  The past two years it has set and held half a dozen small apples so I expect it will bloom soon.

A Late Start

This time last year we were already done with edging and mulching.  This year we are just getting started.  The weeding and clean up is already done but we just started edging and refreshing the mulch.

We edged the front fence line and tomorrow we will lay down some mulch.  162 feet of edging is no small task for two older folks, one of which recently had his "good" knee scoped.  Actually, this slower approach to spring cleanup and mulching has allowed me to get other things done at my own pace which has been very relaxing.

Today I planted my fourth and final row of peas.  The first two are up, and the third is starting to show some little green sprouts.

The Cole Crops spent the day under insect netting only and they look like it agreed with them.

Cold Snap

 We have a high today of only 35F.   The wind is pretty bitter, This morning, the temperature in the garden was 32F and there was a dusting of snow on the roof tops.  In preparation for two cold days, I had replaced the shade cloth with a heavy frost cover on top of the insect netting yesterday. This Supreme Frost Cover is supposed to give you 6 to 8 degrees of warmth which is plenty for Cole Crops.  I had already begun lifting the sides of the shade cloth and this frost cover blocks 50% of light, so it handles all of the crucial elements of the hardening off process.

I will have to remove this cover tomorrow afternoon or the next day because we are expecting warmer weather again and this cover does create a greenhouse effect that could cook the transplants.  I may throw the shade cloth back on for a few hours during the afternoons as necessary.  It will depend on how the plants look.