Potting Up the Tomato Seedlings and Other Sprouting News

I start most of my seedlings in a non-nutritive seed starting medium like coconut coir or peat moss. So once the seeds have germinated, I pot them up in a growing medium that can actually support life.

Every single tomato variety had sprouted. It made me so happy. Some people are able to grow huge amounts of zucchini, summer squash, or cucumbers every year. But for me, tomatoes are the one thing I can count on to fruit in large amounts.

All the tomatoes were potted up into individual six pack cells (modules). But in so doing, I went and killed the one and only Pruden's Purple tomato seedling, which is supposed to be a potato-leaved pink tomato. So now there are 23 varieties of tomatoes and a total of 61 tomato plants.

6 of 9 pepper varieties have sprouted: Shishito, Antigua, Syrian Three Sided, Yellow Monster, Corno di Toro, and Poblano have all sprouted. These are all sweet peppers except Poblano which is considered a mild to medium heat. The Poblanos are going to be used as a stuffing pepper. I'm hoping to freeze lots of different peppers for the winter. The 3 that haven't germinated are from old seed from 2008/2009. I dug around the tray with a toothpick and some of those old pepper seeds are looking plump, so there is still hope.

Normally I grow lots of hot peppers for salsa, but we still have salsa canned from previous years. Sweet peppers grown in close proximity to hot peppers can actually become spicy due to cross pollination because a lot of the heat in peppers are contained in the interior seeds and the membranes the seeds are attached to.

7 of 10 eggplant varieties have sprouted: Aswad, Bangladeshi Long, Ma-Zu, Ping Tung, Malaysian Dark Red, Thai Long Green and Thai Long Purple. Eggplants always seem to be the last to poke their little heads out of the soil.

2015 Tomato, Pepper, and Eggplant Varieties

Well the 72 cell seed tray that was planted on March 21st got knocked over on the 28th. After 7 days the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants had yet to germinate. Usually a few tomato seeds would have germinated by then, so more than likely the seeds were accidently cooked under they're clear lid on a very sunny day that the forecasters had predicted to be much cooler than the 80 degrees (27 degrees Celsius) it turned out to be. Either way, so disappointing.

I had already typed up all the seed varieties I had planted... but went ahead and added more tomato varieties. Everything was replanted March 31st.

24 Tomato varieties:
Cherokee Purple
Jubilee
Big Rainbow
Brandywine
Black Krim
Paul Robeson
King of Siberia
Costoluto Genovese
Black from Tula
Pink Berkley Tie Dye
Jersey Giant
Pilcer Vesy
Prudens Purple
Hillbilly Flame
Ananas Noire
Big Zebra
Purple Calabash
Pantano Romanesco
Granny Cantrell
Djena Lee's Golden Girl
Aunt Ruby German Green
Kelloggs Breakfast
Ingegnoli Gigante
Red Grape F1

9 Pepper varieties, these are all sweet peppers except for Poblano:
Shishito
Antigua
Syrian Three Sided
Yellow Monster (the last of the seeds)
Corno di Toro
Sweet Banana
Chinese Giant
California Wonder
Poblano

10 Eggplant varieties:
Thai Long Purple
Thai Long Green
Bangladeshi Long
Aswad
Ping Tung
Ma Zu Purple
Malaysian Dark Red
Melanzana
Early Long Purple
Applegreen (seedlings will go to a friend)

We have decided to plant a big stand of corn. I have only tried to grow corn once and it was in desert country versus humid Kentucky. And also it was an abysmal failure. Ha ha. Soil was too sandy and corn was planted in 2 long rows, so there was hardly any pollination.

Asparagus and artichoke seeds have been started. So. Exciting.

Sprouting Onions, Shallots, and Bunching Onions

It's a beautifully sunny 75 degree day (24 degree Celsius). The snow has melted in the yard and the onions are soaking it all up on the back step.

There is an assortment of Australian Brown onion, Bronze D'Amposta onion, Zebrune shallot onion, Chinese leek chive, Four Seasons bunching onion, Red Beard bunching onion, and Evergreen Long White bunchinq onion all started on February 28th. The only no show was the American Flag leek, which was replanted on the March 14th.

Western Kentucky Changing from Zone 6B to 7A

Well the USDA has gone and done it again. We are now officially zone 7A and our last frost date has been moved up to April 10th versus April 21st. Wow. Almost a 2 weeks difference, in a life of garden that is a big deal.

I usually plant my tomatoes out the last week of April, and the peppers and eggplants a week later. So this could potentially move up the tomato plantings to the first week of April. I usually seed the summer squash and zucchini about the same time the tomatoes are planted outside. That's a lot of moving up of the planting dates, which means the indoor seed starting will need to be done a month ahead.

And the onions have yet to be started. Ugh. So the planting schedule is already a month behind. That is not such a big deal because we have such a long growing season and I would rather have the onions ripen later in the season to lengthen winter keeping. But the peppers and tomatoes really need to be started soon.

Thinking Towards a 2015 Garden

This past year in 2014 I had to forgo a garden. Too many things going on. But next year I have plans within plans.

The main focus of the 2015 garden will be growing vegetables for making baby food.

I've decided to grow vegetables that are unavailable or expensive in this area. Popular squashes like butternut and acorn are available at $0.99 a piece in the fall, and winter greens like mustard, kale, cabbages, and bok choy are inexpensive. Even semi-popular root vegetables like carrot, turnip, and rutabaga are fairly inexpensive.

Surprisingly, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and garlic are expensive in this area of Kentucky. It gets hot here, so potatoes need to be planted early in February or March. But if a heat wave hits of 95 degrees Fahrenheit or more before potatoes have formed, then the potatoes may fail to produce or only produce minimal amounts.

Sweet potatoes on the other hand, love the long hot humid summers Kentucky is famous for. If you let your sweet potato vines ramble they may produce potatoes in odd spots depending on where they take root. I like to put a shovel full of soil here and there along the vines to encourage extra root formation, which makes the plants stronger even if they don't  produce sweet potatoes in those spots. They also make a nice living mulch under pepper and tomato plants, although I wouldn't grow them in the same beds because that could reduce yields as they compete for nutrients, but instead I sometimes let the vines ramble into neighboring beds.

So for the coming 2015 year the plan is potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, lima beans, Pink Eye Purple Hull peas, zucchini, summer squash, cucumber, winter melon, bitter melon, angled and smooth loofa, bunching green onion, Chinese chive, leek, kohlrabi, sprouting broccoli or gai lan, bulb fennel, and spinach. There will be just a few tomatoes and peppers for fresh eating, nothing like previous years since I won't be canning salsa. And a few eggplants since they did so well in 2013, after I figured out how to get rid of flea beetles with the use of diatomaceous earth.

I found seeds for bitter melon that are supposedly barely bitter which will hopefully be a good way to introduce it to uninitiated family members. Mmmm, bitter melon stuffed with ground pork, mushrooms, and cellophane noodles.

I have to tell you. I found a vegetable that is utterly delicious. Angled loofa simply prepared by stir frying with garlic and then seasoned with just salt and pepper, it is just so flavorful it's indescribably delectable. The juiciness with a beautiful dense texture that is also tender, just everything about it is perfect. Most people prepare the angled luffa by peeling just the ridged edges off which leaves thin ribbons of skin and supposedly gives it a bit of a crunch, but the first time I prepared it from fruits my father brought with him from Virginia I had peeled all the skin. It was still scrumptious.