Winter Onions and stuff

I started the winter onions today in three flats. They are Walla Walla, Redwing, and Burgermaster. They grow ever so slowly in the greenhouse until February when I transplant them into the garden for May onions. While theey grow slowly over the winter, they do germinate well in September. My experience with starting them later in the year is that I get really poor germination but they do catch up with the September ones by February.

I also started a hill of chard in the greenhouse.

And... two days ago I planted a short row of Diacon radish directly in the garden. Kind of early be let's see what happens. I'm starting to get the fall planting bug and have to hold myself back. We potentially still have a lot of hot days ahead of us.

I will start another six pack of cauliflower this weekend. The first plants are now in gallon buckets and about three inches high. They should be ready for transplanting by the first of October. Rutabagas and kohlrabi are up in the flats. Spinich germinated poorly but the plants that I have are growing nicely in the sixpack in the greenhouse.

The pole beans are awesome right now as the birds have left (not biting the tops off the plants now). Winter squash is trying to recover from damping off fungus. And the next batch of corn will be ready in two weeks.

We have almost used up the onions from last spring. Leeks will take over from them. My leek is ok this year with some white root rot. But some are almost ready for use.

Planting for this week

It is time to start Cauliflower bedding plants in the greenhouse. I have a dozen plants started three weeks ago in gallon pots in the greenhouse. Another sixpack of 10 plants have just come up. I will start some more next weekend and continue doing so bi-weekly until late next spring. The first plants will go into the ground at the end of the month.

Just started som spinach and will plant a sixpack of Kohlrabi and Rutabaga this evening.

I discovered rutabaga three years ago at a farmers market and decided to try growing some. And much to my surprise, I found it easy to grow, stores nicely in the ground, and can be grown here almost year round. A happy Rutabaga can get huge - about the size of a cantalope.

I will start another hill of chard this week too.

Note that I make my own planting mix - 1/3 screened compost, a bit of supersoil, and the rest garden soil.

Current Status

My freezer is now almost full of sweetcorn. I have harvested the first four batches. Harvest has been good in terms of yield. I am a bit disappointed in the taste. Not quite sweet enough for me. But the corn is over eight ft. tall. I plant thick - one plant every six inches - and get one good ear per plant. The Silverqueen white corn often produces a smaller second ear. The Kandycorn yellow corn only does so on the edges. Carrots have taken over the first two patches which were harvested about a month ago.

Winter squash is making a comback in the third and forth corn patches after being beaten down by spotted mildew (normal happening) and me stepping all over it taking out the corn stocks. The pole beans produced good when the corn was there but are having somewhat of a hard time coming back for a fall celebration. It's still too early to tell how they will do. But... the Musica flat pole beans are the best ever along the north fence where they have grown out the top of the poles and into my apple and orange trees. I will post pictures when I get some.

There are loads of potatoes still in the ground. Just dug some for our use this week.

The broccoli contines to produce at new record levels. Usually heads are about the size of quarters this time of years. But most of mine are larger than silver dollars with some almost full sized. I don't know why the fantastic yields but I hope it is because of the higher quality and quantity of compost distribution that I have been doing this year. Next year will tell me if I can repeat.

But white root rot is hard on the leek this year. I knew it would be because the rot seriously damaged the onions earlier in the year. The wet and late rainy season was at least partially responsible. I'm fighting back with the poring on of compost. This is the season for rot in leek. Those plants that survive, and most usually do, grow into giants in the late fall. Sure is discouraging now though

Eggplant and peppers are setting new standards too. Almost all of my dusky eggplant is over six inches long. There is so much fruit on the plants that they are breaking over unless staked which I have been doing. The blight did its annual damage in July. I fought back with compost mulching around the plants, and the eggplant exploded in growth and production in August. Now, to give the stuff away because I can only use a few.

And my last batch of corn is just coming up. This is a small plot which I planted to push the limits. If we get a warm fall and late winter, then I will have the sweetest fresh corn on the planet around Christmas. I planted 87 day Kandycorn. If we get early rains and a cool cloudy fall, then there won't be any corn from this patch. But I still will get good green material for composting so all won't be lost. I do this just for fun. Since my freezer will be completely full after the June and July plantings are picked, we won't suffer at all if this corn doesn't yield.

Just like a good engineer knows that understanding about machines and physics comes in the extremes, vegetable plants teach one a lot about themselves when they are grown slightly out of season. Don't plan on a big harvest from these plants but instead listen to them by close observation. You will gain insight which is invaluable to the growing of these plants during their prime season. For example, I have some very early fava beans growing among the sunflowers. Black aphids have showed up along with the ants which cultivate them. I have never seen aphids on fava beans. I will watch closely to see what happens. I'll help by hosing them down with water once in awhile.

I'm also tinkering with different kinds of flowers for the flower gardens. And.. soon it will be time to spread wildflower seed.