This was going to be a year off for me to give me and the soil a break but somehow I found a way to grow one pumpkin along with Phil and Jane Hunt. This was the only way I could be involved in this since I injured my left shoulder back in December and I am limited in my abilities to do things that I would normally have no problem with.
Saturday was the best day so far this year and I was able to take advantage of It. I added all the soil amendments to the growing site including compost, peat moss, bio-char, K-mag, sulfur, kelp, humic, 46-0-0 and some 19-19-19.
After that was done Phil tilled up entire patch and I installed the heater cable and got a 8' x 9' hoop house built. I really hope that this was the hardest day for me this season.
There will be two plants started in hoop house which is large enough to walk into. Aiming for a planting date of May 9th. Would be sooner but the pumpkins won't be ready until then.
The fodder beets and kohlrabi plants have to go into the ground sooner. I started them in January which was too early but I was off work for two months and I had lots of time on my hands. The ones that I transplanted into large pots are all larger and more robust than the plants in the 6" pots.
Getting them out of here will give me room to start some tomato plants soon.
I finally got the fodder beets and kohlrabi plants in the ground. Four beets and 2 kohlrabi should keep me occupied this season. No idea at this time if there will be a venue to weigh them at this fall but I like to grow them for the sake of gardening and the challenge of setting a personal best.
Now that there is lots of room on the germination table I am starting some tomato plants. Being on two tomato growing teams will be interesting. On one team I am growing as a team mate with Phil and Jane and I will be competing against them on the GVGO team.
Two AG plants should be going in the ground next weekend despite the not so great weather forecast. The three AG's I have started are the 1959 Hunt, 1984 Barron and a 2005 Haist.
Polar vortex and gardening do not go together. Despite this I have had to push on and try to keep the garden on schedule since the plants don't like to wait.
I finally decided to start a second site and get the heater cables in and get the hoops up before the snow flew.
Not sure what was worse, the cold or the wind or the snow. I decided to tear down the first hoop house and replace it with a smaller one that is much sturdier. The old one was being beat up by the frequent high winds.
Thankfully Phil was around today to help me out on such a tough day.
The fodder beets and kohlrabi are for the most part alive but the -6C nights are really doing a number on them. Only one more night forecasted to be that cold this week. Will be keeping my fingers crossed that they make it.
Pumpkins are in. This is the 2005 Haist.
This is the 1984 Barron in the new hoop-house. Nice and cozy inside. Hopefully the heaters keep running for at least the next four days. There is another plant being kept in a safe location in case of a catastrophic failure.
Watering young plants can be a challenge now. After breaking through the ice the water jugs are filled and left inside the hoop house so the plants are not getting ice water on the roots
It appears that the weather has finally broke and Spring conditions are here at last. Now I can concentrate on growing plants, not trying to keep them alive in the cold.
The pumpkins are still alive and are growing as well. This is the 1984 Barron which is looking very good after the past week's cold weather. It along with the 2005 Haist has it's growing tip stuck up in the air but I should be able to slowly coax it down and get it vining.
The fodder beets look a little rough from the repeated freezing weather with one that did not survive. The Kohlrabi plants look a little better and with the warmer weather I would think that they should start to grow now.
The tomatoes are up and looking good. They were planted directly in the soil with one seed per pot and the germination rate was 100% for a change.
It appears that spring was quickly replaced by summer even though I don't remember much of a spring season. Working at the patch was just like a hot day in July with the temperature around 30 C.
I decided to take advantage of the heat and extreme UV readings to till the entire patch and hopefully keep the weeds down for a while. I'm only using half of the patch this season and I want to clean up the soil in the unused half.
The old Honda tiller still amazes me at how well it works but I am really glad that is over with as it is a tough job to operate it with one arm.
The 2005 Haist plant is this season's problem child. It was growing up and back and required some lower leaves to be removed and some coaching to start directing it to grow forward. Two years ago I broke off the main vine under the same circumstance so a lot of caution is needed while doing this.
On the other hand the 1984 Barron plant despite also growing upwards last week dropped and began vining on it's own. The vine is about 3' now and I did my first vine burying and I would think that it will be out the back of the hoop house by next weekend.
Every plant I grow is kept in partial shade until they are fully acclimatized and with the hot weather hanging on for the week it helps keep the hoop house temperature from becoming excessive during the day.
The water pump is hooked up but we need more rain to help get the big tank filled. Only got 5-600 gals in it so far. If adequate rain does not come soon I will have to buy a load of water.
The tomatoes are growing very well and will be ready to go in the ground by next weekend. Go GVGO team 5. and go team "We the North"
This Spring has been a bit of a challenge and I would like to see the challenge part of it go away now. After high heat and humidity we had another cold snap with two nights of frost advisories over the weekend.
The 1984 Barron plant is out the end of the hoop house with a main vine of about 7' now. Unfortunately due to cold and windy weather it has to remain inside the hoop house for another day. The side vines had to be pushed back so it can stay inside a little longer. It will be out next weekend.
The 2005 Haist plant is smaller with a main vine of about 4' but the main vine is down and running and it looks like it is ready to really kick in and get going.
I only planted two of my tomato plants this past weekend so I could keep them protected from potential frost. The fodder beets and kohlrabi plants are looking a lot better now. The tomato plants will be grown at least 2 meters apart to allow for social distancing and prevent the spread of tomato blight.
wow
It's finally all out and go time. That being the protective covers are all off the plants and it's time to spread out and grow in the great outdoors.
Unfortunately it also brought the dreaded cucumber beetles which came back in the form of an infestation this past week. This was kind of expected after they took last season off.
The fodder beets and kohlrabi are growing well now and the tomatoes are all in now. The tomatoes should all be out of the shade structures by next week.
Despite the newly installed wind break the plants took a bit of a beating from very strong and gusty winds on Saturday. There were several near miss thunderstorms that kept passing by but the wind gusts from them caused some leaf damage. In other words I opened up the hoops a day too early.
The 1984 Barron plant is out to about 10' now. The 2005 Haist plant is at about 7.5 feet now as well. The growing tips of both plants are kept out of direct sunlight with the shade screens so they don't get damaged from the high UV levels and high temps forecast for this week. Unfortunately no pumpkins spotted on the plants yet. Hope that changes soon.
The wild and wacky weather swings are keeping things interesting but everything in the garden is moving forward. With a pollination date coming soon I can only hope for some stable conditions in the coming weeks. Presently the Kawartha Lakes area is under a frost advisory for two more nights and then followed by daytime temps reaching the low 30's.
The 1984 Barron plant is really looking good and both plants were relatively undamaged by the high winds this past week.
This is the growing tip pumpkin on the 1984 plant. It should be ready to go in about 8 days or so and will be at about the 13 -14' mark.
The 2005 Haist plant is trying hard to catch up with the 1984 plant. There is a tiny pumpkin hiding in the growing tip and should be ready later in the month.
Phil and I put in their drip lines around both pumpkin plants. A little more time consuming than setting up a sprinkler but they will do a better job at putting water down in the soil than the sprinklers do. With a possible hot and dry summer coming it should help keep the watering more efficient.
The tomato plants appear to have survived the transplant phase and are growing without any issues. This is a plant off the 9.65 Marley.