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greenstormOpen oak party is starting to tassel, though not to drop pollen. So is Early Riser, though it's a little behind.
I noticed with the gaspe that a couple weeks difference in planting time led to less time difference between maturities (I think, need to pull out all the relative dates and crunch them). I wonder if I'd got open oak and early riser into the ground three to four weeks earlier if it would have made a difference? Four weeks and there would still be the ghost of frost some nights, but probably gone by the time the seeds got above ground. With corn the growing tip stays underground in the seed for awhile anyhow, so frost is unlikely to kill the plant, but since they're so heat-activated they may not do much until it warms up.
Cascade ruby gold is dropping pollen happily but I don't see much silk. Saskatoon white looks like proper corn, full tassels, full silks, just kinda miniature (maybe 4' tall). Gaspe never quite looks like corn because it doesn't get tall enough to have that rows-of-stalks effect.
Harvested what I'm almost sure is a minsk early tomato from beside the corn and squash beds, and the spotted promiscuous tomato from beside the first promiscuous tomato.
I'm still intrigued by the super multiflora tomato volunteers. They don't seem to be setting fruit still but they sure do have huge clusters.
I need to get my fall grain and favas in soon.
My spring favas do have some pods, but it's really only some that do. Super interesting. I wonder if they needed frost to trigger pod formation and I planted them too late and missed it, if it's a water issue, or if it's something else. Hopefully the pollen from the podless ones got into circulation though.
I guess it's time to take the ducks out of the greenhouse area and clear both it and the south slope for those winter crops. I ended up with a bit of an issue since the corn and tomatoes and squash won't finish until a little later than the grain needs to be planted, so I don't think I can put things above in the big garden for winter. I could probably do a barley or fava and gaspe or saskatchewan rainbow rotation if my grain will overwinter, but I can't do full-season corn or tomatoes. And there's not time to run the pigs in for long in between, that's for sure.
The greenhouse is a cloth pop-up greenhouse, the first I ever bought, and the cover is worn out so I need to take it off for the winter. This will leave me without any greenhouses again and no money to replace the cover. I might be able to sort out a roof on it from odds and ends anyhow. I thought I'd have a big greenhouse by now, a 10-20' x 40-50' or something, in my 5 year plan.
That's life I guess. I have more garden space than expected anyhow, and keeping grain etc around my perennial plantings while they establish isn't the worst thing.
Tomatoes are almost all up from the micro plantings. My own F1s all have at least one plant, which is exciting. I'm interested to see how the cross between the dwarf sweet baby jade and the micros go, both Hardin's mini which has unusual foliage (I think it's reduced by different genes) and the aerogarden seeds which have standard mini growth.
Waiting to see which corns actually produced seed before frost, and which crossbred, is so difficult. There's nothing to be done about it though. I wanna see!
I noticed with the gaspe that a couple weeks difference in planting time led to less time difference between maturities (I think, need to pull out all the relative dates and crunch them). I wonder if I'd got open oak and early riser into the ground three to four weeks earlier if it would have made a difference? Four weeks and there would still be the ghost of frost some nights, but probably gone by the time the seeds got above ground. With corn the growing tip stays underground in the seed for awhile anyhow, so frost is unlikely to kill the plant, but since they're so heat-activated they may not do much until it warms up.
Cascade ruby gold is dropping pollen happily but I don't see much silk. Saskatoon white looks like proper corn, full tassels, full silks, just kinda miniature (maybe 4' tall). Gaspe never quite looks like corn because it doesn't get tall enough to have that rows-of-stalks effect.
Harvested what I'm almost sure is a minsk early tomato from beside the corn and squash beds, and the spotted promiscuous tomato from beside the first promiscuous tomato.
I'm still intrigued by the super multiflora tomato volunteers. They don't seem to be setting fruit still but they sure do have huge clusters.
I need to get my fall grain and favas in soon.
My spring favas do have some pods, but it's really only some that do. Super interesting. I wonder if they needed frost to trigger pod formation and I planted them too late and missed it, if it's a water issue, or if it's something else. Hopefully the pollen from the podless ones got into circulation though.
I guess it's time to take the ducks out of the greenhouse area and clear both it and the south slope for those winter crops. I ended up with a bit of an issue since the corn and tomatoes and squash won't finish until a little later than the grain needs to be planted, so I don't think I can put things above in the big garden for winter. I could probably do a barley or fava and gaspe or saskatchewan rainbow rotation if my grain will overwinter, but I can't do full-season corn or tomatoes. And there's not time to run the pigs in for long in between, that's for sure.
The greenhouse is a cloth pop-up greenhouse, the first I ever bought, and the cover is worn out so I need to take it off for the winter. This will leave me without any greenhouses again and no money to replace the cover. I might be able to sort out a roof on it from odds and ends anyhow. I thought I'd have a big greenhouse by now, a 10-20' x 40-50' or something, in my 5 year plan.
That's life I guess. I have more garden space than expected anyhow, and keeping grain etc around my perennial plantings while they establish isn't the worst thing.
Tomatoes are almost all up from the micro plantings. My own F1s all have at least one plant, which is exciting. I'm interested to see how the cross between the dwarf sweet baby jade and the micros go, both Hardin's mini which has unusual foliage (I think it's reduced by different genes) and the aerogarden seeds which have standard mini growth.
Waiting to see which corns actually produced seed before frost, and which crossbred, is so difficult. There's nothing to be done about it though. I wanna see!
no subject
Date: 2022-08-19 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-19 03:48 am (UTC)The best way might be to transplant open oak party next year, starting it indoors... or to have gaspe in pots. I'm not sure it's actively recieving pollen anymore, and open oak isn't dropping it yet.
I need to work with someone in a warmer climate who wants a 2-crops-per-year short-season fall and spring corn and can do my crosses.
no subject
Date: 2022-08-19 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-19 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-19 09:46 pm (UTC)I didn't realize you hadn't done the weekly gaspe thing! But I can well imagine that the crows threw a wrench into everything. :-/
I guess you'll at least end up with data on whether open oak can even *produce pollen* within your growing season.