Unhealthy Squashes

Pics from 27 or 28 Apr.

My single pumpkin seedling isn't doing so well.  It's got mysterious white fuzz eating at one of the cotyledons.  I put a little tea tree oil on it on the 27th or so; I'll wait a few days and hope for the best...

Another view:



One of the Butternut seedlings has "burnt"-looking bites in the cotyledons, too.  It might be "rust", but I'm unwilling to cut these cotyledons just yet.  Will check back.

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Composting

Mistakes

I made a mistake.  It's a mistake I'm not proud to admit, but for completeness, I should probably mention it on this blog.

After having a bunch of friends over on Saturday, I got zealous and started planting seeds in my raised beds.  Then I watered the soil.  I then realised the soil consistency was NOT what I wanted!  (I think it's too sandy; when I watered it, everything sank and compacted and when I came out the next day, all the water had evaporated and left cracks in the soil.  Not sure if this means too sandy or too clay-ey).

The next day, I put down a grid on the beds, still pretending everything was hunky-dory.  I became aware that there wasn't enough soil in the beds!

So I've been working since Tuesday trying to repair this.  I bought a few packs of Coco Peat and Perlite to provide better water retention and airflow.  It's been hard work incorporating everything into the raised beds!

While I'm on the topic of soil amendments, I'll mention that I'm using two other ingredients in my raised beds:  blood meal and bone meal.  I'm using bone meal to add calcium to the soil for my broccoli and tomatoes; and I've heard that the smell of blood meal can repel rabbits (we have a family living in our yard somewhere, we suspect it's under the deck or under the trailer).

I will re-grid the beds later.


Composting


So I went to Myro's and helped rake the lawn a few days ago.  In return, I got to keep the dry grass for my compost bin!  THREE BAGS of the good stuff.  Yeah!  And that was just the front lawn!

After some more plant-thinning today, I raked out the materials already in the composter.  The old stuff is mostly wet, and since the new grass is dry, I want the wet stuff on top so the water can soak downwards.

After raking out the old stuff:



Dumped in the THREE BAGS of dry grass:



Put the old stuff back on top and watered the whole pile lightly.  Tada!



Just lookit all that delicious organic material!  I can't wait to have all that compost!!

(Actually, I'll have about half that much compost; most of that pile is air, and it will reduce as the organic matter "cooks".)

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Thinning

Today I decided it was time to "thin" my plants.

When planting from seed, gardeners often oversow, because the germination rate may be too low to guarantee we get as many plants as we want.  One way to oversow is to plant multiple seeds in one container.  In the case of my squashes, I planted two seeds per cell, and for every plant I needed, I made an extra cell.

As it turns out, two healthy zucchini grew out of one cell, and none out of any other cells.  So I picked the weaker-looking one, and took it out of the cell and planted it back in another cell.  (We take the weaker one, just in case it doesn't survive the transplant; the stronger plant will benefit from the weaker plant being removed).


I decided to use coir as the growing medium, because it provides better ventilation, which is more important at this stage than any other stage.  (However, potting soil does provide more nutrients, which seedling will also need!)

Canadian Tire had a sale on Coco Peat, so I bought a bunch for the raised beds and as potting mix.  I've got so much left over, it's so great!

I also decided to thin my Basils and Tomatoes (Stupice).

For those, I picked the weakest-looking plants by the cotyledons or by the stem very close to the roots, and just picked them out of the soil.  With the tomatoes, I would have to dig a little to minimise root damage; but tomatoes have the awesome property of being able to grow roots from any part of the stem, when exposed to the right conditions of course.

Plants thinned/transplanted:

• Zucchini
• Butternut
• Purple Basils from Fibre tray
• Genovese Basils from Fibre tray

New seeds sewn: 

• Snap peas (2 seeds per cell, 2 cells)
• Pumpkin (2 seeds per cell, 1 cell)

Zucchini before separation: 

After separation:


After thinning some basils and tomatoes, I now have this arrangement:


New Growth!  Snow peas are germinating!
 



Cosmos - Candy Stripe


Broccoli:

 


Tomatoes:

  


Butternut:


Pumpkin:  one disfigured (mould??) cotyledon!  Oh noes!



Looky that huge Zucchini true leaf!  Makes me proud *sniffle*



Cosmos - Early Sensation Mix is very lanky, about 10cm or more!


Agastache Cana:



Marigold




That Aster I turned right-side up?  It's still right-side up!



Bee Balm



Chamomile!  The leaves are so distinct!


Tarragon seedlings--also have distinct leaves!

 
Sage




Purple Basil - some of it's going green for some reason!



Basil plants!



Parsley!



Basil - Genovese

 

Oregano!

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Long day...

Lots of hard work today.  I hand-cut a pile of branches into pieces for the compost bin.  

Some more true leaves.  I think these are the Agastache:

Marigolds are starting to develop true leaves; their shape is so identifiable (compared to the generic-looking cotyledons, I mean).

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More True Leaves!

It's getting harder and harder to update every day, especially with yardwork.

So I'll just make a little post about some things I've learned about plant growth.

First, roots are SO COOL.

I'm simultaneously fascinated and terrified with/of potatoes for this reason.  I don't consider myself an expert on roots, but I do like to read about plant growth.

When a seed germinates, the first part to emerge is the radicle.  The radicle's job is to go into the soil and form roots to suck up water.

Depending on the type of plant, the next part that emerges is the hypocotl.  Again, depending on the plant, sometimes the cotyledons stay hidden awhile before springing up; and sometimes the cotyledons stay below and are used as energy for the plant.

Here are some pics of my parsley plants in various stages of germination:









And here are some tomatoes, just to get a feel for how tall they're getting!!

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