Well, it looks like shifting things about in the big aquarium greenhouse made a different.
The very first canteen gourd sprouted, yesterday evening!
I really hope these succeed. It takes such a very long time to dry out gourds like this, before they can be used to make things. Our first year trying to grow gourds, they got decimated by frost after transplanting. Last year, we had the drought and the heat waves, and they just didn’t get a chance to mature. Hopefully, we will have a good growing year this summer, and starting these so early indoors will give them the time they need to fully mature. Then they’ll need probably at least a year in a cool, dry place to fully dry out.
While tending the seed trays last night, I spotted a new first sprout. This morning, it was big enough to get a photo of.
Barely!
There in the middle, you can just see our very first Purple Beauty pepper sprouting!
Which means that, at this point, the only thing in the tray that has not had any sprouts at all are the canteen gourds. The luffa still has just the 1 sprout. It looks like all the tomato seeds have germinated by now, and there are more eggplant and onions sprouting, too.
Oh, there are no Wonderberry yet, either. They are the ones planted in the double cups next to, but not on, the heat mat, so that might be why.
I am very happy with what looks to be a very high germination rate, so far!
Yesterday, we only knew a luffa had germinated because I happened to take a photo from above, while tending to the pots.
This morning, it was big enough to be able to see!
I am so thrilled to see any gourds at all, sprouting already.
Checking the onions in the small aquarium greenhouse, it looks like we have some yellow onions starting to sprout. There’s just a couple of small, white worm-like bits starting to show in the soil.
This morning, I opened up the large aquarium greenhouse to refill the water tray over the heat mat, and give everything a spritz. This involves moving mini fan off, setting one light fixture on top of the other and pushing them back, then removing the wire mesh covers to access inside.
Once the covers were off, I took the opportunity to take a picture of the sprouts.
Here, you can see that the Sophie’s Choice tomatoes are now sprouting in all three pots, and the Cup of Moldova growing bigger every day. The eggplant is still slower, but the ones that have sprouted are definitely looking bigger.
But wait… What’s that?
Over on the right, near the back corner.
Is that…???
Yes!!! Yes it is!
A luffa has sprouted!
I went back to look again, and I still could not see it from standing next to the tank. I could only see it in the photo taken from above.
I am so thrilled!!!
Last year, it took ages for the various types of squash and gourds to germinate. The luffa did germinate earlier than others – and some never germinated at all – but I absolutely did NOT expect any gourds to germinated this early.
I am crediting the heat mat for most of this. For the luffa, the scarification and pre-soaking probably helped, too.
Checking our seed starts this morning brought as a cheerful surprise!
The Cup of Moldova tomatoes are enthusiastically sprouting in all three pots. My daughter had tried to plant only 4 or 5 seeds in each pot, but some of them were stuck together. Now that they’re sprouting, a lot more are coming up than she expected!
I didn’t try to take off the cover to get photos, so this is my trying to get pictures through the narrow gap between the cat proof covers, and the top of the tank. :-D
Now, we even have Sophie’s Choice tomatoes coming up! Considering they weren’t there last night, they grew with incredible speed in less than 12 hours!
With one type of tomato already starting, I was kind of expecting the second type to sprout soon, but we had one more surprise waiting for us.
There are now Little Finger eggplants starting to show!
I notice that all the first sprouts are coming up in the middle row of pots in this tray. I have no doubt that the warming mat under the tray is making a big difference in helping seeds to germinate. I suspect that the inner cups are also slightly warmer than the cups that are closer to the glass. Even with the insulation against the back, there is going to be a temperature difference. It may only be a degree or two, but that would be enough to affect which seeds germinate fastest.
From the looks of things so far, we also have a very excellent germination rate.
I am curious to see what the germination rate will be for the luffa and canteen gourds. The luffa are seeds from last year, and each pot got only 2 seeds. They were scarified and pre-soaked, so that should help, but they are much slower and more temperature dependant than the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers.
Wow! I was just checking something in my WordPress dashboard, and realized that this post is number 3,500 for this blog! What a chatterbox I am. ;-)
This morning, I opened up the large aquarium greenhouse, to spray the pots and add more water to the tray on the heat mat.
There were more sprrrooots!
It is still only the Cup of Moldova tomatoes that are showing, and they are growing remarkably fast!
The aquarium greenhouse set up is working quite well. Even the little one is working out. The cats had repeatedly knocked the screen window being used as a cover off the top, by jumping on the overhang. A couple of days ago, I discovered where the cats had been getting into the space in the basement that was supposed to be a dry bar, but never got finished. We’ve got all kinds of breakable things stored in there. Somehow, a cat managed to create an opening in the blocked off rafters above. While picking things back up again, I noticed a smaller screen window. It turned out to be exactly as long as the small tank, though a bit wider, so there it still an overhang. Just not much of one. It hasn’t been knocked off since.
The larger tank has my daughter’s remaining orchids in it, and they are really liking the space!
One of them is blooming with the strongest looking flowers I’ve ever seen on it!
Since I was spritzing the seed starting trays, I sprayed the orchids, too.
The second orchid is a lot smaller, and my daughter is not quite sure how it’s doing. It was an unexpected surprise to find that hanging them in front of the living room window, while safe from the cats, turned out to be too cold for them once winter hit. If I remember correctly, she lost one while it was still at the window, and another died shortly after they were transferred into the tank. These are the only two left.
I think I might get her another orchid for her birthday this spring. :-)
While on the subject of seedlings and growing things, I made an unplanned order last night. It was through someone on a hardy fruit and nut tree group that I’m on.
I got tree seeds.
The person I got them from is in Ontario. Most of his seeds are zone 4 and above, and he was sharing about his paw paw seeds, which are a zone 4 tree, though some places rate it as a zone 6. I talked to him for a bit about growing them in zone 3. Previously, I did find one tree nursery that advertised having zone 3 paw paws, but when I asked people on the group about the company, I got an overwhelmingly negative response. One of those negative responses is that they get their zones all wrong (and also had a habit of shipping dead trees!). So while it would be time saving to buy saplings from a nursery, we were going to wait on that. However, we might have better luck growing them from seed, ourselves.
The other seeds I got were tulip trees. They are another zone 4 tree, but that might just mean they grow more slowly in our zone 3, like with black walnut. I looked them up, and tulip trees can get quite huge.
The seeds we get will already be cold stratified, so when they arrive, we can go straight to germinating them. Both will be grown in containers for the first year or two, and we can overwinter them in the sun room or the old kitchen, until they are ready to be transplanted permanently.
Because of their large size at maturity – potentially 70-130 ft/21-40m tall (for comparison, the spruces in the grove near our house are about 65ft/20m tall), with 30-60 ft/9-18m wide canopy – if we get any surviving tulip trees, they can be planted either along the north property line, or well to the south of the outer yard, to be part of our shelter belt. These would be a tree for the pollinators and wildlife and, potentially, for a valuable wood.
The paw paws are a much smaller tree, and I can see these being planted in the old garden area, further from the house, where we are planning to plant berry bushes, fruit and nut trees already. They can reach 15-25 ft/4-7m in height, and 15ft/4m wide. Growing from seed, we’re looking at about 6 years, before we can expect any fruit.
Buying trees as saplings may shorten the time, but buying the seeds are a lot cheaper. We’ll be getting a dozen paw paw seeds and twenty tulip tree seeds, all for less than $20 – and that includes shipping. Even if we have an only 50% germination rate, that’s potentially 16 trees. The only thing I’d want to buy special is extra deep pots to start them in, to have room for their tap root. I already have the instructions for how to get them started, care for them in their containers, and transplant them.
As for growing in our zone, the person I’m buying them from can only guarantee them to zone 4. He’s never had anyone try the tulip tree in zone 3, however he’s had someone successfully grow their paw paws in zone 2b, getting hit with temperatures as low as -40C/-40F without extra protection, and surviving. Even in the group, when I’d asked in the comments about zone 3 for the paw paws, I had someone share that they’re growing them successfully in zone 3, though their seedlings are still too young to be producing fruit, yet.
I do hope this works out. If not, however, we’ll only be about a few bucks for a total of 32 tree seeds. Unlike the mulberry tree we got, which cost over $60 for the one sapling, got killed by an unusual, out of season, cold night, then even the remaining stem got eaten by deer.
I figure it’s worth taking the chance.
And if we’re going to be growing food trees, with how long they take before they mature enough to produce, we need to be starting as soon as we can.
With the cold and snow outside, it is so exciting to see green things growing in our aquarium greenhouse.
The one pot with the Cup of Moldova seedlings had more popping up by morning, but by evening…
Yes!! There is now a seedling in another pot!
It is still only the Cup of Moldova tomatoes that are sprouting. I find it interesting that they are germinating so much faster. Especially compared to the other tomatoes, Sophia’s Choice, which have a much shorter “days to maturity”.
What’s great is that, at this stage, you can almost see them growing. Talk about a psychological boost!
The Re-Farmer
Update: about 2 hours after I took the above photo, I looked again. The one sprout in the front is now standing tall, and another has popped up next to it – and the third pot now has a sprout showing, too!
Looking back and how long it took for tomatoes to sprout, in this same aquarium greenhouse, last year, I’d say having that heat mat may have made the difference!
As I sit here, I can see more snow coming down in the security camera life feed. Seeing just this one little sprout makes the end of winter feel so much closer, despite the new snow on the ground!
As I write this, in the early afternoon, we have reached 30C/86F, with a humidex of 35C/95F. Our high of the day is expected to reach 35C/95F with the humidex at 40C/104F. Thankfully, this is supposed to be the hottest day for the next while, but it means that we’re back at watering the garden at least once a day.
At least this time, I had a full rain barrel to use in the garden beds by the house, while the sprinkler was running in the furthest beds.
With the upstairs so hot during the day, the girls are still staying up all night, so my old daughter can work on her commissions. They still have to put ice packs around their electronics – and themselves – to keep things from overheating.
Since they were still up during the cool of the morning, they did a bit of harvesting, and this was waiting for me when I got up.
We actually have summer squash to pick! The cayenne pepper seems to be working and keeping the grogs (groundhogs) away. This is the most we’ve been able to gather all summer.
They also picked a single red crab apple for me. <3
It was delicious.
The summer squash bed now has one of the sprinkler hoses I found by the grog den a while back, so they can be watered from below more easily. I set the other one up through two bean beds, but half of the hose seems to have clogged holes. I think they will clear as the hose is used more often.
I’m rather encouraged by these tomatoes. The wilted one is the branch that broke off in the wind, and that I just stuck into the ground. The leaves may be wilted, but the stem is still strong, and the tomatoes that are on it are ripening.
I found a surprise while watering the tomatoes.
This cluster of seedlings has emerged from the new garden soil we recently added!
My initial thought was more sunflowers from the bird feeder, but these actually look a bit like squash seedlings.
We’ll leave them to see what they turn out to be.
Unless the grogs eat them, first.
The sweet corn may be small, but they are maturing. The middle block is maturing the fastest, while the northernmost block the slowest. The southern block has one half maturing faster than the other. This area gets shade in the morning, but at least 8 hours of sunlight per day. The Eastern side, however, would still have shade longer than the rest, and that is likely why the plants are shorter on that side.
It does not seem to matter as much for the sunflowers.
The earliest Mongolian Giant flower heads are progressing nicely.
Even the ones that got chomped by deer are recovering. These are the Hopi Black Dye sunflowers, transplanted next to the Dorinny corn, where the entire row had lots their heads.
You can see the cayenne pepper on the sunflower leaves. Since we are using the sprinklers to water things, we’ll need to reapply it at the end of the day.
On the garden cam, I spotted a big raccoon headed towards the summer squash. It reached a plant, touched it with its nose, and pulled back its head like it got bitten, then ambled around the squash bed, avoiding the plants.
When setting up the sprinkler on the purple corn, I noticed a cob with husks that looked quite dried up. I took a chance and harveted it.
It’s ripe!! Small, not completely pollinated, but still pretty full, and the deep, dark purple it’s supposed to be. I found one other little one with dried husks and picked that, too.
With only two of them, I went to the Dorinny corn and picked what I could there, too.
It isn’t a lot for four people, but enough for part of a meal!
I’m thinking of moving the BBQ my brother gave us to the canopy, so we can grill in the shade. Corn on the grill would be awesome! We’ve got some sirloin steaks from the meat pack we got thawing out, and the summer squash are prepped for grilling. I don’t know if we’ll be up to grilling in this heat, but if not, the vegetables can be roasted.
Either way, I’m looking forward to an excellent Sunday dinner!
Today, with repeated warnings for thunderstorms, and even the sound of thunder in the distance, we got only a smattering of rain this afternoon. Barely enough to get the ground a bit wet. :-( At least we’re a couple of degrees cooler than forecast. With the conditions we’ve had this year, our Rural Municipality officially declared an agricultural emergency. We had one last year, and I seem to remember there was an attempt by the province to declare one the year before, but it was rejected by the federal government. When I was growing up here, there were no such declarations. Whatever federal funding programs that are now available were brought in while we were living elsewhere, in cities.
It was during one of those times our skies were spitting a bit of moisture that I headed outside for a bit and made a point of checking the newly planted beds. Happily, we now have more seedlings appearing!
Swiss Chard “Bright lights”
Kohlrabi “Early Purple”
Kale “Russian Red”
Yes, these pictures were all taken after there was some rain. :-/
Both types of chard are showing seedlings, though I only took a photo of the one type.
It would be awesome if we FINALLY got some kohlrabi! We will be taken extra steps to try to protect these beds, since what’s growing in them are favoured by all kinds of critters. The red flakes you see on the ground around the seedlings are hot pepper flakes, which we hope will deter critters better than the sprays and granules we’ve bought.
Which leads me to why I headed outside.
I saw the woodchuck out by the old compost pile again.
Yes, I sprinkled the new mystery squash seedlings growing in there with hot pepper flakes, too.
As I came out, the woodchuck watched me for a while before finally running off and into…
*sigh*
…the old burrow we thought had finally been abandoned. We’re still running water into it, and collapsing the entrance little by little. The entrance is not being cleared, but they’re still squeezing in.
After seeing the woodchuck go in, I went and raided my kitchen cupboards again and dragged out a package of whole, dehydrated hot peppers. After giving them a rough chop, I scattered them in and around the opening.
At some point, we will be sure enough of it being empty, that we can finally fill it in. :-/
While heading back inside, I did get a chance to play with some more pleasant critters. Butterscotch’s junk pile babies!
Three of them like to come out to play with the stick, though they still won’t come close enough to touch. There’s that one tabby, hidden in the background, that just will not come closer.
I saw Rozencrantz’s babies – the other junk pile babies! – today, too, though I couldn’t get any pictures. The one that looks like Nicky the Nose is a bit braver and doesn’t run off until it’s sure if I’m coming closer. They like to play in the soil the cucamelons and gourds are planted. Which wouldn’t be a problem, except that I’ve caught them actively digging into the edge of the bed! At least they’re not digging near the plants, themselves. :-/
While we are still getting thunderstorm warnings, when I look at the hourly forecast, the warnings disappear. Instead, we will have sun and clouds for a few hours, and then it switches to “smoke”, all night. There are quite a few wildfires in the province right now, including about 5 that are listed as out of control, but none are near our area. Fire risk, of course, remains high so we are still under a total burn ban. It looks like we won’t get to test out the firepit grill my brother and his wife got for us this year at all, nor the big BBQ that they passed on to us after getting a smaller one for themselves.
Maybe we’ll get a chance to use them in the winter!
The Re-Farmer 