Thursday, April 16, 2009

Sunburn, hungry toddlers and ????


This is a Sunburned Tomato Plant

yes, mine.

not Helga; it is one of the few Bloesser Pinks that germinated.

Apparently I am "hardening" them off too quickly and sunburned a few things.

The plant above should recover, some others will not.

I also noticed that one of the earthboxes with the cherry tomatoes,
seems to not be getting any water to the plants, they are all wilty. sigh.

I will try to remedy that...


Like this poor mater plant; he's not gonna make it;

... my hungry toddler (aka small boy) got ahold of it

He was walking around chewing the leaves he pulled off the top.

I tried to put it outside, thinking a little sun would help...

not this time

luckily, it is only a cherry tomato plant... of those I have a few back ups.




Also, I have wilty Eggplants.
Each one of my three beautiful eggplants has a majorly wilted leaf
drooping from a stem. It too, should recover shortly.

Apparently, it was very windy out on our deck today.



Not that the Doux de Espagne noticed one bit...

see how lovely and huge and happy it is.

Bigger than the Eggplant and Green and Strong.


Nice to know that I still have somewhat of a green thumb.



Maybe just not for large amounts of tomatoes from seed this year.


Really.

Most of the Helgas are biting the bullet;
losing all their little leaves and really not thriving.

I have 11 surviving Helgas. They are sad looking.

I believe there must be a problem with the seed;
only because the other tomatoes were germinated at the same time,
in the same soil, light and water conditions,
and they are all twice the size of any Helgas.



The Strawberries on the other hand... I ordered bareroot from Gurney's

they look to be doing well...

There are 3 of these baskets. I am excited about them.

We will be covering them soon in bird netting to protect any fruit.

I also planted 11 strawberry seeds
half of which I lost when I dropped them one day while watering
the little tray of peat pots. sigh

They are very small because I started them late
and the basket from the dollar store is well,
kind of messy with all that spagum peat moss:
dripping everywhere...

yet, 6 of the strawberries are growing well

I also, just ever so slightly, sunburned the blueberry bushes.
In spite of me, they will still do very nicely.

The Brandywines have decreased in number to 6

some falling victim to small boy's cute little grabby hands

and some getting too beat up in the violent? wind on our porch

and I think I actually kicked one out on the deck trying to use the hose to fill an earthbox
sigh

but this is what they look like...

These are the whole reason I wanted to grow from seed

Black Brandywine tomatoes; mmm


and this is what one looks like next to an average Helga


That's a Helga on the right. Pretty sad.
Not that I am sad really.

I think I am doing pretty well for my first year growing from seed and I have no proper set up for it (lights etc). I only have a two little spotlight type lights with grow bulbs in them. And a sunny spot by the window.

That explains the leggy Nasturiums!

Anyway... this is a fun experiment in growing our own food organically
without hurting my back.

Fun to try the Earthboxes, containers and seed starts.

Next Year, I will have gotten some proper grow lights and shelves for the seed starting.

This year, I still have yet to finish even germinating (outside in containers!):

2 Earthboxes of Beans

1 Rubbermaid container of Beans

1 Earthbox of Dwarf Blue Corn

3 containers of Lettuce (4 types)

1 container of Spinach

1 container of Chioggia Beets

I still have raised beds to plant up too! Yes, I am doing well.
Posted by Picasa

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh! You have my compassion. But I'm learning so very much from your site. We've been trying to our first edible garden and I've been very discouraged lately. And, I'm sorry to say, I'm feeling a bit encouraged that even seasoned gardeners like yourself have set backs - so I shouldn't give up and just buy mystery veggies from the store forever. So, please keep updating. Your revelations are becoming my revelations.

Paige said...

Bizzy... I am hardly a "seasoned" gardener! :) chuckle. I am having a hard time with my seed starts though. I guess I started them too early and they got a bit "leggy". Now it is hard to get them used to sun and wind outside. The stems are just weak and wispy! I am starting new tomato seeds though... the good thing is, we have a long growing season here... so my container and raised bed gardens will be forgiving! I planned to can a bunch of the tomatoes anyway. I will put the seedlings right outside as soon as they poke through the soil, that should help them be acclimated to outside weather quickly!