This and That

Heading on over to Home Depot sometime today. Going to pick up a garden meter for checking moisture level and what not. Use it to check on whether I have the right mixture on perlite and vermiculite for proper drainage in top and bottom portion.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hydro-Crunch-Soil-Moisture-Light-pH-Meter-3-in-1-Soil-Tester-Kit-for-Garden-D940010500/302974472?cm_mmc=ola|criteo|28O-28-9-7|22037|D28O&dclid=CLuNwdWB39kCFZQNgQodHP0HLA

Also going to pick up the bolt cutters to cut the concrete wire mesh to make the plant chimneys [cages]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/TEKTON-8-in-Bolt-Cutter-3386/205585550

Needed to order both items online for delivery to the store as they were not in stock at the store.

Not much has changed since last post on container garden. Still cold and most of the seeds planted have not sprouted.

Went out today and watered the plants and watered the boxes with seed planted in them.
Have a tomato plant sprouted in one of the three inch pots with the test starting mix [ 1/3 garden sand, 1/3 mushroom compost, 1/3 vermiculite ].
Planted about 12 or 13 seeds in one pail with radishes and one pail with bunching onions. Two of the pails that had dead flower plants in them. Might as well get something to eat out of the pail containers.
My radishes I planted earlier have radish bulbs forming. Have maybe twelve radish plants that came up on that side of the 3 x 6 elevated bin. I tore the other side out for the six red leaf lettuce.

Finished another good book last night. Oregon Country by T J Hanson, the story of the 1843 Oregon trail migration. Mostly all factual with maybe four fictional characters to give an accounting of actual facts. Quite an interesting book.

Just went out and checked the container mix soil temp and it is at 60 degrees. Scratched up the Bush Crop cuke seeds yesterday that is in the wooden deck container and found one seed that had not germinated yet but did not look like it was starting to rot. Probably when the soil temp gets up to germination temp they may sprout. The seeds in my ground boxes behind the fence could also germinate when they get the signal from mother nature. Probably seeds in their natural environment that has dropped from the previous year stay dormant without damage to the seeds until the next year when the soil temp sends the signal to germinate for the next growing season. That sounds reasonable as we see new growth every spring in the natural environment from previous years seed drop.

The plants my daughter gave me, lettuce, kale and spinach I transplanted are doing fine. My radishes I planted are doing fine. Tore up half of my radishes in the 3x4 elevated bin to make room for the six lettuce plants. Figured I can buy radishes at the market for something like $0.90 cents a bunch. Get more value wise by having the six lettuce plants. Figure my growing space according to dollar value of what can be produced with my vegetable selection and preference.

Thinking of putting a ground box next to the deck to plant some Japanese eggplant. We like eggplant parm once in awhile. Japanese eggplant is touted to have nice flavor and stands up to hot weather.

When I was at the store I picked up a 4 pound package of boneless chicken thighs on special. Saved $4.00 and change on that deal. Also got two large containers of unsalted chicken broth plus one large white onion. Had some veggies at home, carrots and celery.

Got home and dumped the chicken broth in a big pot, added spices of various varieties, couple tbsp of minced garlic, big splash of lemon juice. Some salt as the broth was unsalted variety. Chopped up the chicken into bite size chunks along with the onion and veggies. Added about four cups water and  Simmered for about an hour. Taste tested and it was delicious.

Have about twelve two cup servings.

Low carb lunch.

I also switched from apple juice to Old Orchard pineapple orange drink. Apple juice has 28 grams of carbs in eight ounces compared to 5 grams of carbs in eight ounces of pineapple orange drink.

Pineapple orange drink and a splash of vinegar tops it off. Delicious

Still get some carbs and added salt in the stirabout when I add six or eight Ritz cracker to the bowl. That is why I buy unsalted broth. I like to control my salt intake.

Must have froze pretty hard last night. Lost all the vegetable transplants and most all the new flower transplants I done recently.

Even froze through the buckets [hot caps] on the vegetable plants.

Wait awhile now before I do any more.

Cold snap came in. Been down in the low thirties with frost some nights. been covering my tomatoes and peppers with buckets [hot caps] to keep the frost off of them. The night time cold from the extended forecast will be here for a bit yet.

Lost some flowers due to the cold snap. The more tender plants like inpatients and some of the young tender flowers I just recently purchased. Will wait for warmer weather before I replace them with flowers or herbs.

Have one soya cuke plant come up in a ground box a day or two ago. May re seed when warm weather is here to stay. See what comes up in next couple weeks.

Re potted the two viola plants I mentioned that were not doing well. When I removed them from  the flower pail they looked like they were still root bound to the original purchase container size with very little root expansion growth. Took them down to the bare roots like I did the other ones and replanted them. See how they do. More flower plants at the garden center.

Like they say in gardening have a garbage can handy.

Not much going on this week. Been down near freezing at night this week so I have been covering my tomato and pepper plants every night with pails I have on hand.

I have two viola plants in flower pails from last year that appeared to be taking a downhill turn. Other viola plants are doing fine but those two. They were bushed out quite a bit and looked droopy and wilted. Gave them spring ferlizer a short while ago when I done transplanting. I also keep them watered.

Soooo, I figured I would kill or cure the problem with what I did to them. Took my big metal snips and trimmed them back to just a couple inches in length. Thought that would put the plants energy back to the primary source of growth. I did not unbind the roots very well last year when I transplanted them from their purchase container. Thinking about doing the same to those two plants I did with the other viola plant I re potted. Remove the plant from the container by tipping the pail and removing the potting mix down to the root system unbinding the roots from the original purchase container mix and then re potting.

The other viola plant I took down to the bare roots I mentioned in a previous post appears to be doing just fine. Has not died yet.

I think I was a little early putting the seeds in for the melons, cukes and squashes. Nothing shows in another week or so when it warms up I will re seed again.  Soil temp was fine when I first seeded but spring temps are up and down. No big loss if the original seeding does not show. Long growing season down here.

I will let off some steam. I am

We purchase bottled water in 16.9 oz plastic bottles by the case. You grab the plastic bottle to open it squeezing it enough to get the sealed cap off and when the cap breaks free stinkin water comes out the top.

s me off every time.

I sure do miss glass bottles.

Yesterday I went out and put protection over all the ground boxes to see if I can prevent the critters from digging in the dirt. The ground boxes are about 16 x 16 inches square. I took the window screening I had on hand and cut it about 20 x 20 inches square. Then I took some poultry netting I had on hand and made a dome about five inches square and about two to three inches high leaving a lip extender around the bottom for the window screening to hold it in place. I then took the window screening and cut out a square about five inches square. Set the poultry netting dome over top where the seeds are planted, placed the window screening over that laying flat on top of the ground box. Took push pins and pinned the screening down onto the ground box in each corner. The flap that was hanging over the ground box edges I took my fingers and made a downward fold. The window screening holds the dome down.

From there I made up the soil mix for the last ground box and set the plastic container where I wanted it and filled it with the mix. Put in my seed starting mix in a center cavity and planted the zucchini seed. Prepared my dome and screening the same as the ground boxes and held it in place with clothespins around the edge.

When the seeds come up and the plants get tall enough I will remove the poultry wire dome. I can also remove the push pins and raise it up to work in the ferlizer.

Went out this morning for a look see and seen no dirt dug up.

Containers all prepared, plants are in, seeds in the ground, flowers all planted.  Still need to make my plant chimneys and was thinking about making a shepherds hook to hold more hanging pails.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-1-in-x-2-ft-x-10-ft-Poultry-Netting-308400EB/205960867

A few days ago I took a watering can out behind the fence to water the ground boxes. One box had a hole dug in it with dirt piled on top of the seeded are. smoothed it out and watered it. That particular box is behind a board fence as I only have half the page fence with a board fence.

I just went out again to water and the same box was dug into. Found some cat scat on top of the dirt in the box.

May need to think of something to keep the critters out. Next thing you know if anything grows back there some critter will come along and eat it.

Wellll, I ventured out today and done the transplanting. Mixed up enough potting mix containing 20% vermiculite ratio for 10 flower pails. Transplanted rest of flowers I had and the spinach and kale my daughter gave me. Plus I put the 6 pack of lettuce she gave me into my 3x4 foot bin. Then I topped off my six remaining container boxes with container mix with vermiculite and then added ferlizer {ironite 12-10-10] watering it in real good afterward. Let that set for awhile and then transplanted my two tomato plants and four pepper plants.

Only thing I have left is to do is the one ground box for the zucchini in back of the fence. Plus I need to do something about the four pails with no place to put them except on the deck. Hang them or build a rack for them.

I will water the container boxes a couple more times where my tomato and peppers are to give the ferlizer time to soak around in the container mix before I do another fertility test.

One other thing I did was redone a flower pail from last year where I had put burlap on the bottom and sides and then added the potting mix with no vermiculite. I wanted to see how the root system was on the flower plant so I carefully tipped the pail into my mixing tray removing the contents without damaging the flower plant. I then removed the burlap and carefully removed the potting mix. The plant root system was not developing very well beyond the original potting mix. No wonder the plant was not doing well as it appeared it was still root bound from the original purchase container size. I did not break the original container mix up and loosen the roots like I did this year on my transplanting from original container to new container. I took the plant when I removed it and loosened up the root bound system tearing away some of the root bound roots and the original container mix. Then I took a hose and washed out most of the old container mix and then loosened the roots some more. Took it down to the bare roots you might say. Then I opened up a deep hole in the new container mix with the vermiculite letting the root system hang down and then filled around it with more fresh mix. Put ferlizer around it [ironite 12-10-10] and then set it where I wanted it and watered it in real good. See if the plant survives this episode.

That ironite 12-10-10 seems to work real well for my flowers as they seem to be doing quite nicely.

49 degrees and wind blowing with a chilly nip in the air. Do I want to go out and do some transplanting! Extended forecast for the coming days will be pretty much the same as today with temps in low to mid sixties.

Maybe I will put on warmer clothes and give it a go. Get that potting mix and vermiculite mixing done with the transplanting before it gets beastly hot. The transplants may do better with the cooler temps. Cut down on the shock trauma for the plants.

Looks like I will not need to worry about the tomatoes and peppers.
The squash and cukes are a different story for me as I see no bees around.

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Gardening: How To Hand-Pollinate Fruits and Vegetables

https://www.thekitchn.com/summer-gardening-handpollinati-57513

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Mother Nature may need help to pollinate squash and cucumbers

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/mother-nature-may-need-help-pollinate-squash-and-cucumbers

Just checking on different things to encourage a better harvest from just a few plants. I only have the soya cukes which are a climber which I have planted next to the back page fence to climb on plus the cuke I have in the container box which will have a chimney for climbing.

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How to Trim Cucumber Vines

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/trim-cucumber-vines-24091.html

Did not do any transplanting today.

I did go to the garden center and purchased a soil testing meter. Followed instructions and found the following results.

Container boxes on deck. PH 7.0, Fertility level @ low mark ideal. Will do the ferlizin when I do the transplanting.

Ground boxes PH 7.0, Fertility level @  high mark too little. Will do the ferlizin  when the seeds come up.

http://www.tomatodirt.com/blossom-drop.html

More decisions

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https://www.reference.com/business-finance/ideal-ratio-tomato-fertilizer-25d6e27ef02b7545?aq=tomato+fertilizer+ratio&qo=cdpArticles

Looks like a decision between higher nitrogen at the start of the pepper plant development or a balanced formula.

Has a recipe in this article on how to make a magnesium spray. I had the blossoms drop on my pepper plants last fall. They budded out and dropped off. Probably need to check the ferlizer I am using for magnesium content. 

More knowledge gained with this article.

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"Pepper plants that lose their blossoms before the fruit grows lack
magnesium".

https://www.reference.com/home-garden/fertilizer-peppers-bd89b8ea886a03e1#

Today I went to Lowes and purchased three tomato plants and three pepper plants about three or four inches tall. Different varieties but forgot what they are. Fill you in on that tomorrow.

Stopped at the DollarTree and picked up eleven more ten quart pails. My daughter came in last night with some plants she had purchased for me. Will put some of them in ten quart pails. Would need to buy quite a few more pails than I purchased today. I have about thirty five gallons of container mix left over from my redo job with the perlite and vermiculite.

Stopped at the Dollar store yesterday and purchased one eighteen quart dish basin about 13 inches x 15 inches x about eight inches deep.

When I got back from shopping today I drilled one half inch holes in the pails. Five on the bottom and three around the outside about one third of the way down. Then I took the dish basin and drilled a hole in each corner of the bottom about one and one half inch from each edge to leave a lip on the ground so when I fill it the ground box mix will hold it down. Then I took my drywall razor knife and cut to each corner on all four sides to remove the bottom making my ground box for the other zucchini to plant.

That was it for today as I was doing other things during the day.

Tomorrow I will be doing mixing up pail potting mix with the vermiculite and doing a bunch of transplanting. Flowers I have left, plants my daughter gave me and my tomato and pepper plants in the six remaining wooden containers I have ready. If I have time I may do the ground box for the zucchini. If I have time to even do all of that. Might get distracted with something else. Of course the next days sun after tomorrow will come up again.  I hope, Might rain too or I could break a leg before then.

Will brush up on the ferlizer requirements before I transplant the tomato and pepper plants. Want to get it right this year.

Worth a good read.

Great section with photos on how to identify the plants needs.

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Peppers

http://www.haifa-group.com/files/Guides/Pepper/Pepper.pdf

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Pepper crop guide: Main functions of plant nutrients

http://www.haifa-group.com/knowledge_center/crop_guides/pepper/nutritional_requirements/main_functions_of_plant_nutrients/