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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Annual Plant Sale

Its time for my annual plant sale.   I will be selling vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, beans, peas etc during the annual wood streets yard sale.  If you are located within the Inland Empire, the historic wood streets yard sale in Riverside will be held this Saturday - 4/26/14.   I live in the historic area and will be selling my plants in my driveway.   Look for my signs off of Magnolia Ave, and Rosewood Pl.
All of my plants are started in peat pots which can be stuck directly in the ground reducing transplant shock.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Basil Seedlings - time to transplant

My basil seedlings are ready to transplant.     The roots have completely filled the plugs, so I am transplanting them to larger peat pot.   They will grow out in those for a couple weeks and will be ready to sell then.   I could smell the basil as I handling the seedlings.  The variety is Genova.



Sunday, April 20, 2014

A New Home!

I found a new place to grow my plants and bulbs.  I searched far and wide for a spot and the spot that I could find close to my house was 16 miles away in Perris CA.  Although there was plenty of room at the current location, I am having theft issues as it a empty lot that's easily accessible.  I have had bulbs and plants taken.  Its turns out there was a place only 1/3 mile from my home.   Unfortunately, I found it after I started planting stuff in Perris.   I have decided to move my stuff to this new place.  Its 2 acres of fruit trees, a large pond stocked with fish, and completely enclosed.   The owner is asking that I keep it secret because she doesn't want anyone to know about the 2 acres behind her house.    Its very secure with access to water and enough room to place my raised beds.      I will be posting pictures of the area and beds over the next few days.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Seedling Update - Warm days = Accelerated growth.

My seedlings are all growing very well and looking very nice.   Here are some pics of the transplanted tomatoes and trays of flower and vegetable seedlings.  I have a lot of transplanting to do over the next week  The weather is supposed to be mild and sunny so it will be perfect to spend outside


DO NOT let seedlings dry out!

We had a couple days of 90+ degrees and I didn't check my seedling for a couple days.  My coleus were very dry and I watered them - but only a few survived.  The older plants survived with minimal losses but a tray of very young petunias and this tray of coleus didn't fare so well.  When seedlings are very young - they can't survive a long period without water.   You need to keep them damp, but not sitting in water which means watering at lease once a day.   The older plants can handle it better and its best to let them dry out some before watering as this forces the roots to grow deep into the bottom of the plant.

Crop Failure - Dutch Iris

My dutch iris aren't looking so good.  They actually look like they are dying.  Not sure what is going on.  I possibly didn't plant them early enough and they didn't get time to sit in the soil this fall before it got warm.  We start seeing warmer weather here in February.   The grow very well in the flower beds at my house, but they aren't raised.  Maybe raised beds cause the soil to be too warm.   I will keep them - but plant German bearded irises in the bed around them.  

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Portulaca or Moss Roses seedling update.

The tray of portulaca or moss roses as they are commonly known are about ready to transplant.   They are 3 weeks old and have 3-4 leaves on each one of them.   Its a 288 plug tray and the germination rate was very good so I will have a lot to transplant.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Petunia Seedling Update

The petunias that I planted first are almost ready to transplant in to larger pot.    They are 3 weeks old and have their 2nd and 3 leaves starting.   I will wait a few more days as when they are this small - its easy to crush the stem when moving them.  If you crush the stem - the plant will wither away and die.   They are planted in 288 plug trays - I will have a lot of them to transplant.     I plan on selling them on the 26th when we have the neighborhood yard sale - but I am not sure if they are big enough.

Basil Seedlings

I planted some basil seeds in a plug tray - and they are about 2 weeks old.  I will transplant as soon as the second leaves a little bigger.    If you transplant too young, you will damage the seedling or roots as they are so small and don't handle the man-handling required to transplant them.  If you wait too long the roots will be too big and there will be transplant shock.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Seedling Update

I have numerous trays of seedling started!.   Some of the tomatoes have been transplanted into 4 inch pots and are growing nicely.  A lot are still in the plug trays - waiting for them to get a bit larger to transplant into larger pots.   Here is a over view of some of the trays.  For those of you that still have snow on the ground - is was 83 degrees when this picture was taken.