What did you do in your garden today?

[Dreamz]

Thinking that I cloud get some of the chickens manure from last year into the garden with egg shells but the snow has e erything covered. And it will start again by tomorrow night. Patience my dear, I need patience! They had none at Walgreens pharmacy, so gonna have to wait dry,lol
I am a but confused and if someone can guide me, I will appreciate. The Clyde planting tells me that my last frost date is May 10th while Urban planning says its May 21st. Now, I am supposed to count back 8 to 10 wks to begin planting the seeds inside. So according to my zone 6a (49452) most are to begin mid March and corn in June. I don't want to miss on the sweet corn this year. Since I have 2 different dates, should I just pick one and go with it and see what happens? Also, I have some Caribbean pumpkin seeds and they say to germinate 7-10 days and harvest in about 100-120 days. I don't think I have 120 days. Should i start inside and let it be for a few weeks before putting them out in the soil? Any advise?

 

[CrealCritter]

Thinking that I cloud get some of the chickens manure from last year into the garden with egg shells but the snow has e erything covered. And it will start again by tomorrow night. Patience my dear, I need patience! They had none at Walgreens pharmacy, so gonna have to wait dry,lol
I am a but confused and if someone can guide me, I will appreciate. The Clyde planting tells me that my last frost date is May 10th while Urban planning says its May 21st. Now, I am supposed to count back 8 to 10 wks to begin planting the seeds inside. So according to my zone 6a (49452) most are to begin mid March and corn in June. I don't want to miss on the sweet corn this year. Since I have 2 different dates, should I just pick one and go with it and see what happens? Also, I have some Caribbean pumpkin seeds and they say to germinate 7-10 days and harvest in about 100-120 days. I don't think I have 120 days. Should i start inside and let it be for a few weeks before putting them out in the soil? Any advise?

Here is your last frost dates for both spring and fall. You can see on the chart that living in the land of ice and snow you have 122 growing days 😳. The pumpkins need upto 120 days to mature. Plus 7 to 10 days to germinate. I would sow them inside about 4 weeks before your last frost date. This will give them a week to germinate, 2 weeks growing inside and a week to harden off outside before setting them out in the garden. Pumpkins can get wild since the are a vine. I wouldn't start them to early and have them grow crazy. Once set out they can grow as crazy as they want.

Please read all the info in this link, it contains weather station location info, probably & estimate language that is important to consider. Be prepared to maybe keep the seedlings inside a extra week or two before starting to harden them off or maybe not. I usually have to bring mine in a couple of nights when hardening off because of unexpected cold or excessive winds.

Corn might also be a bit of a challenge the soil has to be above a certain temperature for it to germinate. Check your seed pack and see if it tells you what the minimum soil temp is for germination. Else study the corn variety on line for more info. I've made this mistake a few times. Sowed to early and had skip in the rows where seeds didn't germinate, it happens... Now I resist the temptation and sow a week or two later than I think I should and it's worked well.

Frost Dates for Rothbury, MI

www.almanac.com

We have 178 grow days in southern Illinois. Your growing window is tight with 122 days.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[Dreamz]

Thank you CC. That is more than I have read in other places. And yes 122 days is a very close window for these tuof pumpkins. I am only thinking of trying to germ 4 seeds. The are like an infestation,lol I had some back at home and they showed my tomatoes and peppers.
On peppers, I am adding cubanillo peppers and maybe banana peppers but not sure on the last.
I read on almanac but did not find that info. Thank you so much.

 

[CrealCritter]

Thank you CC. That is more than I have read in other places. And yes 122 days is a very close window for these tuof pumpkins. I am only thinking of trying to germ 4 seeds. The are like an infestation,lol I had some back at home and they showed my tomatoes and peppers.
On peppers, I am adding cubanillo peppers and maybe banana peppers but not sure on the last.
I read on almanac but did not find that info. Thank you so much.

4 seeds? Maybe sow them in small paper cups, if you can find a few or form newspaper cups. Harden them off and set out the cup and all in the garden. Less chance of transplant shock and the paper will decompose in the ground, so the roots could grown on.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[Dreamz]

4 seeds? Maybe sow them in small paper cups, if you can find a few or form newspaper cups. Harden them off and set out the cup and all in the garden. Less chance of transplant shock and the paper will decompose in the ground, so the roots could grown on.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

Yes, it is an invasive plant and it can cover my whole garden,lol or the acre to be exact,lol Will do that. Thank you so much.

 

[Dreamz]

@flowerbug I will be bring you some cubanelle peppers as well as caribbean pumpkin to the seed swap and some culantro seed. Culantro is different from cilantro.

 

[flowerbug]

i probably won't be growing peppers from seeds and the other plant is way outside my season here if it goes beyond Sept 15th i consider it late and at risk of not finishing. the culantro would be given a chance. so those would be handy to try. thank you!

 

[Dreamz]

i probably won't be growing peppers from seeds and the other plant is way outside my season here if it goes beyond Sept 15th i consider it late and at risk of not finishing. the culantro would be given a chance. so those would be handy to try. thank you!

The banana peppers are 69-80 days maturity. The Caribbean pumpkin I am gonna give it a try. I tried butternut squash and I can live without it.


Culantro ( native of Vietnam not mexico) https://bonnieplants.com/blogs/how-to-grow/growing-culantro


The cubanelle is planted after last frost and reaches maturity in 62-65 days.
I will do the caribbean pumpkin and see how it goes. Window is pretty tight.
I will stop by GR on Thursday to see if I can find gandules ( pigeon peas) and see how it goes too. This is like beans but a small tree and not a vine and I will take some in case you want to try it.

 

[CrealCritter]

Peppers are mostly up besides for big red bells. I see green in a lot of the cells and a few popped up but most in the flat are taking their time. Big red's have always been slow to pop up but they out grow most others once the do. We didn't buy pepper seeds this year, we saved some seeds from last year's peppers. Same with tomatoes.

Peppers, big red's still under the humidity dome.

Onions flag leaf starting to dry from the tip, first true leafs starting to appear at the bulb.

Flat of peppers and flat each of broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. This is how close I like to run the lights

If it weren't supposed to rain tomorrow it might be dry enough by Saturday to get in the garden and direct sow spinach, carrots and lettuce. But it's supposed to rain tomorrow and Saturday. I may need to put on my hip waders and play in the mud? 🤷‍♂️ Some seasons I've had to lay sawmill slabs in-between the rows to stand on in order to sow seeds. Maybe that's just crazy?

I want to sow tomatoes but I'm resisting the temptation until next week. I sowed tomatoes way too early last year and had to trench plant them. 2 foot long stems with a few leaves on the end. Yep that was pretty crazy,

I'm trying to be more sane this year 🤣
Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[Dreamz]

@CC All looking very nice. So you wait until they are taller to take the dome out?