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| Week 7 - Garden 06/05 |
Here's a quick review of this week:
1. We bought two new plants from Walmart:
Yellow Bell Pepper: $2.84, Bonnie Plants. We got this because both Alex and I love yellow/orange peppers for the sweet taste, however they could be really pricy in the grocery stores. We saw this really healthy looking yellow bell pepper (and kind of mature too) for only $2.84, and it actually has 3 plants in it (even though all the other pots have only 1 plant per pot), so we are very happy to take it. 3 plants might be too crowded though~
Better Boy Tomato: $0.50 *2, walmart plants. They are not good looking at all, neither do we need any more tomatoes, but they are on sale. Alex really wanted some cheap transplant to experiment upside down tomato planter, so we got two of them, one is actually pretty healthy and stocky, the other is really sad, but it has 1 flower on it, so we bought it in the hope of having a tomato soon (actually i wanted it... really need some motivation while I am waitin for all my baby plants to grow...). They both came in 3-4" pot, not good for a big plant at all...
2. Transplanted Cucumbers into a 5 Gallon container, transplanted Cherry Tomatoes into individual cup, transplanted newly bought yellow bell and tomatoes into 5 gallon container. We sanitized the 5 gallon nursery containers with 1:10 bleach solutions (clorox, $1.67 from walmart). Transplanted Oregano to the thyme pot.
3. Sowed 4 Yellow Beans (Cherokee Wax) and 2 Green Beans
4. The Parsleys that I thought would never show up germinated! But now their pots are over crowded...
5. Green Beans have bean pods!
Ok, those being said, let's talk about trouble first.
Aphids - on 06/03, 2 days after transplanting the yellow bell pepper, I found a dozen of aphids under the leaves. They are all fat round light green suckers. No babies found (unlike my first basil plants). I crushed all the ones I've found, and haven't found any since. Since my mobile garden is in the middle of a concrete drive one, I think they either got carried on my plants by wind, or those bastard ants farmed them on my plants. Anyways, now my plants are getting bigger and bigger, I figured I'll start seeing insects more and more.
Some kind of Larva - I found this thing in my water resevoir (3oz dixie cup) the other day (I think on 06/02 or so). It's already dead in the water. It's about 1/2 inch long, and resembles root maggot. But I didn't really figure out~ neither do I know how it got in there. But I did see couple of flies hanging around my plants all the time and trying to do their thing (reproducing, I guess). Also, during the night my mobile garden stays in the garage, which has plenty of different bugs (mosquitos, e.g.). I am really worried that this dead larva might be a sign of a way bigger infection. but so far my plants are doing great, so I don't know what I should do. It is also bigger than a root maggot (which is said to be 1/3 - 1/4 inch). Anyways, here's the pic, it'll be great if somebody can help me figure it what it is:
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| 06/05 - unknow dead warm at the bottom of a 3oz dixie cup |
Basil
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| 06/05 Basil, supermarket bought- who would've know these almost dead basil actually came back to life and grow even prettier than garden center basils! They are getting really bushy with big leaves. And all those stress made them smell extra delicious. |
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| 06/05 (Day 49) these basils that I grow from seeds are doing great. The couple of cilantros and/or parsley underneath are also doing ok |
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| 06/05 (Day 26) My 2nd Generation of Basils. True leaves are growing. |
Parsley
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| 05/31 (Day 21) Parsley - Surprise! They actually started emerging 20 days after being sown... |
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| 06/02 (Day 23) More parsleys are showing up every day |
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| 06/02 (Day 23) and more.... |
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| 06/02 (Day 23) the problem is that the container (a 12" windowsill box) is getting really crowded. Also, because I gave up on the parsleys, I kind of tilled the soil around some, so now they are not growing according to my original design at all. As you can see in this pic, two parsley literally grow out of the basil root, and three others grow out of the same spots as well~ |
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| 06/05 (Day 26) landscape of the windowsill box |
Oregano
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| 05/29 I finally transplanted the Oregano... but i didn't want to waste another pot and soil, so just dug a whole in the thyme pot and inserted it in (half of the thyme died anyways~). If later they become over crowded, I'll just move the Oregano and Thyme together into a bigger pot. But at least for now they look very pretty together. Besides, since they have the same habit, they should be really good roommates:). |
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| 06/05 one week after the transplant, new branches and leaves can be seen from the oregano (the light green parts on to and the three baby branches at the very bottom) So I guess the transplant is a success so far, even though I didn't even give it any harden-off period:) BTW, the biggest branch in the middle has been pinched 2 weeks ago (used it in cooking), and now it has three little tip growing out instead of 1:) so i guess pruning is important for every herb |
Thyme
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| 06/05 the thymes are just growing steadily, didn't seem to be bothered by the oregano's intrusion at all. the very tall branch on the very right is trying to carry on it's family's mission after almost the entire branches from the same root died. |
Veggies
Green Beans
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| 05/29 (Day 36) the flower buds and half way done flowers:) |
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| 05/29 (Day 36) there's something wrong with this bottom leaf. on it's right edge, it looks water soaked and shrinked. Don't know what's the problem though. The rest of the leaves are fine. |
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| 05/31 (Day 38) the beautiful bean flowers:) I expected them to be white, but they turn out to be pinkish purple. I think this might be the only tie I'd like this kind of flower - coz I worked so hard cultivating it:) |
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| 05/31 (Day 36) little bean pod and pretty flower |
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| 06/01 (Day 37) they started looking like beans:) |
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| 06/05 (Day 41) I am getting couple of beans here and there, they're getting fatter everyday. The bad news is that I lost half of the flowers for no reason. They simply dropped. Some of the buds dropped the same way:( I don't know why, maybe the excessive heat (it has been 90+ degree for a whole week) Right now I have a totally of 10 beans on the 2 plants. But there're new buds coming up. |
Tomatoes
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| 05/29 (Day 42) my best looking tomato at that time, it's better looking in person though~ |
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| 05/29 (Day 42) brutally seperated these five which used to live together in one cup. We used high presure water to wash off the potting mix, then I tried very carefully to seperate the tangled roots, but still broke some. Hopefully they can survive the shock. |
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| 06/05 (Day 49) The three good looking tomatoes. They were among the first transplanted tomatoes, in Miracle-Gro Moisture Control potting mix. |
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| 06/05 (Day 49) The five newly seperated tomatoes all survived. Apparently tomatoes are very hardy, just like what people said. |
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| 06/05 (Day 49) these four tomatoes, which hasn't been growing for a long time, finally took off this week, after I fertilized them with Miracle-Gro Tomato Plant Food. If you compare this pic with last week's, you can clearly see the difference. I am very happy with the fertilizer:) |
Bell Peppers
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| 06/05 (Day 43) the bell peppers really looks like plants now. the steams are getting thick and hardy. The only thing was that larva thing I found in one of the reservoir. |
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| 06/05 (Day 43) a closer look of the bell pepper seedling |
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| 05/31 (Day 21) Growing good together. The 3-seed-leaf baby is still enjoying its advantage. It developed the fastest. |
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| 06/01 (Day 22) Seperated all four of them. Dusted with cinnemon. Some of the cups were not sanitized. (Other plants died in it, and I was too lazy to clean it....) |
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| 06/05 (Day 26) Still alive:) |
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| 06/01(Day 22) - transplanted as a group into a 5 gallon container. I heard that cucumbers don't transplant well, their especially hate being disturbed. So I didn't bother to seperate them at all. When I dumped them out of the cup, the roots are super white and healthy and held on to the soil very well, so I just put the whole thing in a hole, and made a small "hill" in the container:) |
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| 06/05 (Day 26) I didn't give them any harden off time. They are growing happlily anyways:) |
Jalapeno
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| 06/05 Still same old, no growth:( |
Lettuce Mix
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| 06/05 Everybody's getting their true leaves out. There're also new volunteers emerging out. I am kind of worried it's gonna be over crowded later. But on the other hand, that can also give us a continuous harvest:) |
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| 06/05 (Day 26) Lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson - I thought it would've been damped off last week, but it's still alive, though kind of slow growing. |
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| 06/05 My first red leaf lettuce, which comes from a white lettuce seed |
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| 06/05 Radicchio. Looks nothing like what they will turn out to be (purple white ball), ha. |
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| 06/05 Endive's true leaf:) |
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| 06/05 Cress |
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| 06/05 All different lettuce, not sure what are they though. there's also a volunteer coming out next to the one next to the toothpick. |
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| 06/05 (Day 5) Sowed these on 05/31, two yellow beans (cherokee wax, the black seeded ones) and two green beans (orange/brown seeded ones). The yellow bean's steam is purple, and the green bean's green:) I really hate the way bean sprouts emerge, like a gigantic warm coming out of the soil:( Especially the black one, looks like a larva. scared the *** out of me every time I look at it >_< |
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| 06/05 (Day 6) These two were sown on May 30th (one day ahead of the other four). The soil and pots are all dirty - something died in them (Rosemary, maybe). If these two yellow beans survive, we'll have more yellow beans, otherwise we still have the other four:) |
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| 05/29 this is how it looks when we just bought it. 2 big plants and 1 small one in a 4" peat pot. Don't know the specific variety, coz it simply says "yellow bell" |
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| 05/31 Transplanted into a 5 gallon container, kind of droopy after transplant:P But the roots were surprisingly healthy, even though it's completely root bounded in the tiny peat pot. |
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| 06/05 The two big yellow bell peppers started budding like two days ago:) but it's moving on slowly. |
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| 05/29 There are two of them. As I said, the one on the right is healthy looking, but still young. The one on the left is really skinny and leggy, super long but has only a few branches (3-4, i think), and it's in a tiny little nursery pack (not even 4" pot), so it'll be amazing if it's not sick~ it has a little flower though, you can see it next to the corner of our mobile garden. |
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| 06/01 Transplanted these two. Alex gave up his upside-down planter idea (as usual) But he is still in charge of these two tomatoes (I figured he should take some responsibilities if he wants to share the harvest~ ^_^ after all he's the reason we adopted these two babies). Well, but I should've known better. In order to transplant these two tomatoes, Alex used three extra clean containers (that we have cleaned with bleach, rinsed, and sun-dried for a day), then he decided to use mostly compost - which made the mix very compact, then, he got mad in the middle of the transplant because it's way messier and harder than he expected, then he left with anger #$%#$^@&* Anyways, here they are, still surviving:) Don't know how good they'll be doing though. |
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| 06/05 Tiny tomato forming:) this is the whole reason I wanted this plant! If it could just give me one single tomato, I'll be really really happy:) |
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