summer garden officially started

Saturday was beautiful here.  It was the first nice day I had free to work on tilling up the backyard and do some serious planting. I expanded my existing 4' x 19' garden space to include three more 19' rows (two eggplant and one green bean):

and a tomato grove:



In addition to the row of Garden green beans seeds, I also planted Black Beauty zucchini seeds in two 3' mounds:

 
As per the directions, I planted four seeds on each mound and will thin to the strongest two once they've germinated, which should be in 5-10 days.  The green beans are supposed to germinate in 6-8 days.  I'm leaving town for almost a week, and I'm excited to see what will have germinated by the time I get back! 

It feels great to have so many of the plants I've been growing in the greenhouses outside and in the ground.  Right now I have 23 eggplant (not counting doubles) in the ground, and eight more black eggplant that I'm still hardening.  In tomatoes, I have eight second generation tomato plants (all indeterminates) and nine third generation (all determinate but one):

These plants, combined with the 50+ first generation tomato plants currently producing and ripening fruit should make for a very continuous and bountiful tomato harvest this summer. 

When I get back in town, I'll dig up another row and plant the last eight eggplant.  I'm planning on sequentially planting my green beans this year to extend the harvest, so in two weeks I'll start another row of green bean seeds.  Two weeks and two more rows and my summer garden will be officially planted.

tomatoes ripening at last and pimiento de padrón harvest pending!

The upstairs tomatoes have finally started to ripen!  The Chadwick and Fox cherry tomatoes seem the farthest along, although an Oregon Spring Bush tomato has started to turn now, too. I´m really excited that soon I will have a constant supply of fresh, ripe, homegrown tomatoes!



In downstairs greenhouse news, the pimientos de padrón have gotten enormous!



I´ve really been impressed with how quickly they´ve grown.  These three are now right around 2" long.  The Renee´s Garden website (where I got the seeds) says that pimientos de padrón should be harvested when they are no more than 2" long; "At this small size, they are fragrant and flavorful; larger fruits get very spicy."  While I´m definitely a fan of spicy peppers, I think for this first harvest, I´ll follow the recommendation.  It´d be nice to wait until I had enough for a full tapa, but I think I´ll go ahead and pick these three this week.

Both greenhouses have now required multiple light fixture raisings to accomodate the growing tomato plants.  The upstairs greenhouse still houses primarily indeterminate tomatoes which are supposed to grow to be quite large.  The Maglia Rosa cherry, already measuring over 6´, are currently the tallest.  While their size is impressive, I hope they slow down soon.

One nice thing about this more recent light raising is that it required the removal of the greenhouse plastic sheeting. As a result, the tomatoes are getting direct sunlight several hours a day through the east/west windows. The plants look really pretty in the morning and evening sun, and I´m sure that the lower leaves are appreciative of the light.

I waited too long to raise the light fixture on the downstairs greenhouse, mainly because I really didn´t think that these determinate tomatoes were going to keep growing like this. They grew up into the light until they decapitated themselves with the (minimal) heat.

The light is in a really temporary and nonideal position right now.  It´s not really even providing direct light to half of the greenhouse, but at least it is again several inches above the plant tops.

Hopefully, I didn´t affect their overall plant health too much.  I´m planning on moving them all outside in a few weeks anyway.  We´re technically past our annual average last frost date, but especially given the recent cold spell and the frost warning we´re under for the next few days, I´ve decided to wait until June to move everything outdoors and do my first planting for the summer garden.  If I follow my current plan, it´ll be more than twice as big as last year!

Indoor/outdoor update

So the Sugar Pod Snow Peas that I planted outside have long since germinated.  They are three weeks old today.  Here´s a slideshow of their progress so far:



They have an elaborate leaf structure that I really like.

The Bloomsdale spinach is finally starting to do something.  I planted a row and a half of it, and I don´t know if the full row failed to germinate or was just eaten by slugs, but the half row is all I have now.  They´ve just put out their primary leaves:



Indoors, the Maglia Rosa cherry tomatoes are finally bearing fruit.  The tomatoes are oblong, making them resemble Romas.

It´ll be interesting to see if their taste differs substantially, as well. 

More exciting greenhouse news: the pimientos de padrón have budded and bloomed!



I´ve been pollinating them just like the tomatoes.  I can´t wait for the peppers!  If they follow the same timeline as the tomatoes, then it´ll probably be another month at least before the fruit appears and starts to ripen, but at least I can pick them while they´re still green.

radishes germinated, eggplant transplanted, tomatoes and herbs in the sun

The Champion radishes first poked up above ground on Friday, right in their three-to-six day window.



I really like their little heart-shaped leaves.  Now they have 21-24 days until they can be harvested, and I´m supposed to plant a new crop of them every two weeks to have a constant supply.

Last Thursday was an absolutely gorgeous spring day, and so I decided to transplant the rest of the eggplant outside.  They will probably stay in these containers until they are planted in the garden.



My current totals are: 16 black, 17 snowy white, and 10 italian white.  Suffice to say, I think we´re going to have a ton of eggplant this year.

Since we´ve had a few warm sunny days in a row now, I´ve started bringing some of the staked tomato plants and herbs outside during the day.

Tomato plants along a south-facing wall:

Bucket of herbs:

These plants have been in the sun room living off whatever direct sun that comes through the south-facing windows.  I think this is probably sufficient on sunny days, but when it´s consistently cloudy, they really start to droop.  They´ve taken to the outside conditions pretty well for the most part.   Only one tomato plant has shown any signs of photo-bleaching:

So this Fox cherry is going to stay inside for today and recover.

I also planted a Crimson Sprinter tomato plant in the ground outside.

This plant has been nothing but unlucky.  During the second tomato transplant, I accidentally placed it too close to a space heater and it wilted.  I didn´t want to give up on it, but it quickly fell behind in growth compared to the other tomato plants, and then it wasn´t getting as much light in the greenhouse since it was so much shorter.  So it´s been living outside the greenhouse in the sunroom.  I went ahead and planted it in the ground even though it´s still really early because it´s short enough that I can easily cover it on cool nights.  True to form, this plant had been in the ground all of five minutes, when the wind blew really hard and snapped off the tallest stem.  I´m still not giving up on it, though.  I want to see if I can get it to produce a tomato after all it´s been through.

tomatoes!

I guess I must´ve been pollinating correctly.  About two weeks after the first tomato flowers opened, the flowers began to shrivel a bit, close, and then fall off.

At first I was worried that perhaps I had been pollinating too forcefully, or overwatering (which is a constant concern), but then I looked inside where the petals had been and saw a tiny green sphere!

Fox cherry tomato was the first to bud and bloom, so it was also first to be pollinated and produce adorable tiny tomatoes.  Since this first tomato, the plants have really taken off.  Here´s a slideshow of the main greenhouse which primarily houses the taller, indeterminate tomato plants:



Even the determinate tomatoes in the smaller greenhouse have begun to bloom and be pollinated.  They were a little behind the cherry tomatoes, but are quickly catching up both in terms of open and pollinated flowers.



They´re really growing so quickly.  The biggest is already larger than a quarter.  I can´t wait until they start to ripen!

buds open, pollination ensues

The tomato buds have opened and I now have many many beautiful yellow flowers in my greenhouses.



Thankfully, most tomato plants have complete flowers and can self-pollinate with a little encouragement.  A few taps with a stick a couple of times a day is supposedly sufficient for self-pollinating plants.

Pollinating:

The Greenhouse Gardener's Companion says that the morning is, for some reason, the best time to pollinate, but I've found that the flowers aren't always fully open yet early in the morning, and have had better luck with afternoon and evening pollination.

It's so exciting to tap on the bright yellow flowers and see the pollen drift out!  I don't know how long it takes for the flowers to be pollinated and the fruit to emerge, or if I'm even doing it right.  I guess I'll find out if the flowers close up and fall off without producing tomatoes.  As more and more flowers open, I'm becoming increasingly appreciative of the constant work of the bees in my summer garden.

tomato plants are budding!

I finally have some flower buds on my tomato plants. Since the plants are all about three months old, I was really starting to worry that I was going to have to induce blooming myself.



I´m not surprised to see the Oregon Spring Bush and Santiam tomato plants budding since they are supposedly the fastest to mature at around 55-65 days.  I am surprised though, at the Fox cherry buds, since they supposed take 90 days to mature.  Regardless, I´m very pleased that the tomato plants are healthy and happy enough to be budding.  I wonder how long between first buds until ripe fruit?

more transplanting and a(nother) new greenhouse

After only two weeks, the tomato and pepper plants are already growing out of their peat pots:

The second batch of Maglia Rosa cherry and Dukat dill had also outgrown their containers:

So I decided to do some more transplanting.  Since the tomatoes had outgrown their new pots so quickly, I  chose a much larger upgrade, and bought 50 round, plastic "Classic 200" containers.  They are tapered, measuring ~5.75" deep and in diameter.  So far I've only transplanted 10 of the tomato plants, and of those, most are Santiam and Red House Free Standing.

In order to be able to transplant the tomatoes, I needed to have a space for the plants in their larger containers.  I bought from Lowe's a "Garden Treasures" greenhouse for $40.  It's 64" x 35.5" x 19" and has a really nice heavy-duty clear plastic cover with two zippers running up the front to make for convenient access to the plants. 

 

I've installed this new greenhouse in the south-facing sun room on the first floor.  This room is heated through vents in the floor, and I've positioned the greenhouse so that it is on top of half of one of the vents.  This seems to be providing sufficient heat and airflow to the structure.  

It still isn't consistently sunny here, so I've installed a 2' single T5 bulb fixture as supplementary lighting.  So far, I've transplanted and moved one each of Crimson Sprinter and Oregon Spring Bush tomato, and four each Santiam and Red House Free Standing tomato.  The Santiam and RHFS are both determinates that are supposed to reach maximum heights of ~30", so I'm not too worried about them outgrowing the structure any time soon.  I moved the Crimson Sprinter and OSB as more of an experiment to see how they'd do in a cooler and darker environment as compared to the growing shelf of the main greenhouse structure.  Even if this noticeably slows down the growth of these tomato plants, it will only help to space out the eventual tomato harvest.  

The newly-transplanted Maglia Rosa cherry tomatoes have joined the larger transplanted tomatoes in the new greenhouse.

  

I think they look dwarfed there by the other tomato plants, and even the basil.  Again, it will be interesting to compare their growth in this environment with the other Maglia Rosa plants growing in the warmer and brighter greenhouse.

All of the Garden sage, (second batch) Dukat dill, and Slow Bolt cilantro have now been transplanted into more permanent containers and placed by a window.

Close-ups, Dukat dill:

Garden sage and Purple Opal basil:

 

Purple Opal basil hanging by a west-facing window in the sun room:

 

I need more containers before I can transplant the rest of the Purple Opal basil.  Then I can use all of the shelf space in the new greenhouse for transplanted tomatoes.

first transplant slideshow

Here's a slideshow of all the plants after their first transplant.



I really can't believe how quickly the tomato plants are recovering.  The Maglia Rosa cherry tomato plants all had roots growing ~5" past their plastic slots, so I guess I waited too long.  Thankfully, all the tomato plants seem to be doing fantastically now.

Today, I had to raise the 2' 2-bulb fixture on the germinating shelf since the second batch of Maglia Rosa cherry tomato and Dukat dill have both gotten so tall.

Germinating shelf, Dukat dill and Maglia Rosa cherry tomato:

Dukat dill, second batch:

 

Maglia Rosa cherry tomatoes, second batch:

 

I can't believe how many tomato plants (and hopefully, therefore, tomatoes) I'm going to have.

I installed another velcro flap this morning.  So there are now two providing access to the front of the germinating shelf, and one each on the front and back of the growing shelf.  It's nice to be able to get in and out of the greenhouse so easily, but the greenhouse temperature seems to be decreasing as the number of flaps increases, which suggests that there's air is leaking out through the velcro seals.  As it gets warmer out, this won't be as much of an issue.  For now, I'm covering the velcro with packing tape to make a tighter seal.

more light isn't always better

When I returned from winter break, the plants were all healthy and green.  I took some really nice pictures of all the first primary leaves of the tomato plants and everything was really looking great.  I had been concerned over break, about the insufficient lighting for the two trays.  One, 2' T5 bulb per tray didn't really seem sufficient, and the phototropism in the plants along the edge of the tray clearly indicated a more uniform light source would be an improvement.

Phototropism of the Chadwick cherry tomatoes (tray 1):

My response to this phototropism was to add an extra 2' T5 bulb to each shelf, which was probably fine.  My mistake was in increasing the ontime of the fixtures at the same time.  The extra light combined with the extra exposure time seems to have primarily affected the tomato seedlings.  It's also possible that this was responsible in part for the yellowing of the cilantro leaves, but I think that the brown tips really indicated that they were being overwatered as well.  The tomatoes on the second tier slowly started to get yellow, dried out leaves.

Santiam tomatoes with signs of photobleaching (tray 2):

Somehow it didn't occur to me that this yellowing was due to the increased lighting and exposure time.  I was distracted by other potential weaknesses of the greenhouse, and thought that they could be the cause.  First, I thought that it was the lack of ventilation, and so I cut vents into the plastic sheeting on both shelves and made sure that the plastic sheeting behind the electric heater on the bottom shelf was open a little so that the fan would suck in fresh air when the heater turned on.  Then I thought that the tomato seedlings were getting too warm.  They still had the seedling heat mat under them heating the soil both day and night, and the lights kept the air and plants quite warm during the day.  So, I took another series of temperature measurements over the course of two and a half days (data forthcoming).  This confirmed my suspicion that, during the day at least, the air was getting quite warm (in the upper 80s F), and since the heat mat is supposed to raise the soil temperature by 10-20F above the ambient air, this seemed quite warm.  Just like with the addition of the vents, however, turning off the heat mat and raising the light fixtures, did not solve the problem of the yellowing leaves. 

Around the same time, the leaves on the tomato seedlings on the top tier also started to lose their green color, but instead of just yellowing, they started to look really dry and almost crumbly.

Crumbly, dry leaves on Fox cherry tomatoes (tray 1):

When I finally figured out that it could be photobleaching (which really should've occurred to me much sooner), I switched the light timer back to 15 hours per day and pulled the trays off to the side of the shelves so that they weren't receiving as much direct light.  I tried to let them recover in partial shade for a few days before I put them back fully under the lights.  This seems to have helped.  The green pigment is starting to return to the tomato plants on the second shelf, and most of the tomatoes on the first shelf no longer have crumbly leaves.

Improvement (tray 2):

My current thought is that at best I've just lost a month or so in plant growth, and that they'll eventually recover.  I probably need to thin them pretty soon, anyway, and that the stronger plants should hopefully survive.  It does seem strange to me that only the tomatoes and the cilantro seem to have been affected.  None of the other plants seem to be showing signs of photobleaching.

The worst case is that the plants never really recover and continue to have stagnant growth, never really putting out any more leaves until I finally give up on them.  I'm clearly hoping that this isn't the case.  I have started a few new Maglia Rosa cherry tomato seeds in the empty slots adjacent to the dill and tarragon in the second shelf tray as a sort of backup plan and to make use of the space that I'm heating and lighting 15 hours a day.  These have already started to sprout (quick, even without the heat mat).

Maglia Rosa cherry tomatoes (take two):

The cilantro by the window has also sprouted, though less vigorously than when in the greenhouse.

future greenhouse plans, determinate vs indeterminate tomatoes

We've now had two consecutive sunny days here and it's been fantastic.  I don't know how much of the natural light is actually hitting the plants with the lighting fixtures in the way, but it's still nice to see the greenhouse lit up by the window.  The sunlight also helps heat the sunporch, which is always appreciated. 

I've been trying to plan out the next stage for the tomato and pepper plants.  In probably another month or so, they are going to be too tall for the current greenhouse structure.  There is only 15" of vertical space per shelf and the lighting fixtures themselves are ~2" tall.  This morning I raised the two fluorescent lights on the second shelf by around 2" to keep them from overheating the tomato seedlings that had grown up to meet them.  I could probably raise those lights another 4" and the top shelf fixture by ~5" before I'm out of room.  My current plan is to build a secondary structure that is actually more like a real greenhouse, and keep the current structure for germination and seedlings.  The new greenhouse will have only one shelf so that the plants will have less of a height restriction.  It needs to be at least 4.5' long and 2.5' deep in order to be able accommodate all of the tomato and pepper plants.  When the seedlings outgrow the germination trays, I'm planning on transplanting them into individual 3.5" (diameter) pots.  This new greenhouse should be able to hold over 130 such pots.  I only planted 96 total slots of tomato and pepper plant, which means that I should have plenty of space for the tomatoes, peppers, and some herbs.  I'm planning on switching to a 4' T-5 lighting fixture for this new space, but haven't yet decided how many bulbs I'll need.

One of the more interesting questions that I've been working on is which of the plants really need to go into the new greenhouse and for how long.  Realistically, I won't be able to plant anything outside until probably early June, but that doesn't mean that all of the plants have to live in a greenhouse until then, especially the herbs.  Once they've adapted to their larger pot, I'm expecting to be able to move them into the house and grow them like house plants near a south-facing window. 

The two issues that most affect this decision in terms of the tomatoes, though, is their sensitivity to cold and their expected height.  When I was picking out seeds, I intentionally ordered ones that do well in colder areas with a shorter growing season.  In particular, the Red House Free Standing, Santiam, Oregon Spring Bush, and Crimson Sprinter all are supposed to more or less mature early and tolerate cooler conditions.  These are tomatoes that I feel like ultimately could be transplanted to containers and placed by south-facing windows, and that with possibly the addition of some supplementary light (probably the red "bloom" light), they'd do fine.  The Crimson Sprinter tomato apparently doesn't even need full sun.  The cherry tomatoes (Maglia Rosa, Fox, and Chadwick) and specifically the Pimientos de Padrón, I think are going to need the warmer temperatures and the regular intense lighting of a greenhouse.  The Pimientos de Padrón in particular supposedly require at least six hours of full sun daily, and I really don't think that they would consistently get that even by a south-facing window. 

In terms of height constraints, though, it's useful to know if the tomatoes are determinate or indeterminate.  The determinate tomatoes are the bush tomato plants that typically reach a specific height and stop growing, and also mature all their fruit at once.  These are supposed to be better for container gardening.  In contrast, the indeterminate tomatoes are the vines that never stop growing and continue producing and maturing fruit until they're killed by frost.  Of the tomato plants that I'm growing, four are indeterminate (the cherry tomatoes and the Oregon Spring Bush), two are determinate (the Red House Free Standing and the Santiam), and the Crimson Sprinter is semi-determinate, meaning that it probably won't get too tall, but may produce and ripen fruit over a longer period or produce two crops over a season.  Here's a nice list characterizing some commonly grown tomato plants.

The Seeds of Change description of the seeds I purchased predicts that the determinate Red House Free Standing and the Santiam tomato plants will both reach a maximum height of around 30", which is pretty short compared to the 6' vines predicted for the indeterminate Chadwick and Fox cherry tomato plants.  I think this is another reason to try to keep them in a greenhouse where I can ensure that the longer vines are still being illuminated uniformly.  Ultimately, I should be able to transplant them in the garden once it's warm enough and they should continue producing fruit until frost.

tomato slideshow and supplies complete

My greenhouse supplies are now complete. The second fluorescent bulb arrived yesterday and none too soon, as the tomato seeds on the second tray were already in need of light. I installed it in the same way as the top tier, with double white polycoated chain (number 3) from Lowe's.

I'm still waiting for the Pimientos de Padrón and the rest of the herb seeds to arrive, but in the mean time, the tomato seeds on tray two are taking off. Here´s a slideshow of their progress so far. They´ve really germinated so much faster than last year (when they had minimal heat and light...).

Click for full screen slideshow at Picasa. (temporarily disabled due to technical difficulties with Picasa, see Santiam tomato slideshow in 13/12 post instead)

tomatoes and tarragon sprouting!

Right on schedule, the tarragon, Crimson Sprinter tomato, and Santiam tomato have sprouted! It seems like the heat mat is doing its job on tray 2. I'm hoping that the seeds in tray 1 will be able to germinate without the extra heat of the grow bulbs. I would think that the cooler temperature would at worst slow down the germination process, and hopefully not prevent it from happening at all.

Tarragon sprout:Crimson Sprinter (left and top right) and Santiam tomato (bottom right) sprouts:

In bulb related news, I called ACF Greenhouse this morning about the missing T5 bulb and fixture. They apologized and said that the second box would be shipped out today, which is good, since with tray 2 sprouting, it looks like I'm going to need the second light sooner than I thought.