Garden Update - April 26, 2015

It's a rainy Sunday today, which is something of a rarity around here.  I was hoping to finish preparing the 3 sisters (corn, beans, squash) bed, which will be receiving corn seed next weekend, but that will have to wait for another day.  It does however give me a chance to provide an update on how things are progressing... 

Two weeks ago I had a couple hundred onion seedlings staring me in the face, hardened off and ready to meet their new home.  Flashback a few weeks, I tried something new this year.  Instead of potting up the seedling cups to 3 or 4 inch pots, I simply lined the boxes they were in with plastic wrap and filled them with a couple inches of starter mix.  I opened the bottom of each cup to allow the roots easier exit and nestled them into mix.  Flash-forward to planting day and as I removed the seedlings, I could see the entire contents of each box had basically become one entangled mass of the tiny threadlike roots.  Pretty much what I figured would happen.  My concern is that this method may be a bit more disruptive than individual pots, what with all the root ripping and shredding that had to take place.  So far, they seem no worse for wear and are still standing tall.

That's them in the back, so small as to be barely visible behind the well established garlic.  Only ended up with room for about 150 of them.  If Takoda doesn't trample too many (he's already stomped on a few) and they live up to their touted good storage quality, I should be in onions through the winter this year.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for gardening and I had the less daunting task of getting the the Kale, Collards, Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts transplants in the ground.  I tried the same experiment with these guys, except I put some in pots to allow for the side by side comparison.  The seedlings tucked into the dirt bed obviously did much better than those potted up to 3 inch cups.  If they're happy, I'm happy - and it saves buying peat pots.

I'll take note of how they progress and determine if all the root disruption that occurred upon removal from the community box had any detrimental effects.

I had some broccoli started from seed in this bed, but it was much smaller than the transplants.  I replaced most of it, the lone survivor being the runt in the middle.  Brussels Sprouts in the back row.

This is the bed that I let the girls plant with whatever they choose.  This year they picked Corn and Kale.  We started the Corn inside and it hasn't done much since moving it out a couple weeks ago, but I think it's starting to take - saw signs of some new green growth down the middle of the shoots yesterday.  I threw some Rainbow Chard seed down the middle as a bit of a surprise for them.

Inside for another 2-3 weeks are the hot and bell peppers, some Chinese and standard Cabbage that I forgot about and started a tad late, Eggplant that is taking it's sweet time and the tomatoes, which are looking mighty fine.

Mighty fine indeed.