Thursday, March 19, 2015

Time to Evaluate

Today was a day of evaluation, that is, to examine the status of my indoor seedlings.  In two weeks I'll be very busy starting the majority of my warm weather crops.  I must check if any of the cool weather vegetables, herbs and flowers should be started again.  I need to evaluate if some seedlings look weak or perhaps were started too early, or maybe I forgot to plant some seeds. In any case, now is the time to "fill in" where need be because these seedlings will take a back seat to the needs of warm weather crops beginning March 31.

My evaluation is as follows:
  • Intend to plant another small container of green onions to use in and amongst the vegetables, i.e., tomatoes. 
  • Will plant annual alyssums, purple and white.  The seeds of the perennial alyssums, Basket of Gold, may not be viable. 
  • Check if there are more coreopsis seeds in my stash.  The ones planted may not be viable. 
  • Still want to plant collards, chard, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and cabbage as cool weather crops. Maybe another round of broccoli and kale.  I will dedicate two raised beds to these brassicas with the intention of covering them with Agribon 19 as soon as they are transplanted. 
  • Look through the inventory of Livingston seeds for additional flowers to be sowed eight weeks before last frost. 
  • Need to research asparagus seedlings.  Becoming tall and lanky. Should they be cut back, potted up, split into separate pots, buried?  
I need to decide which pepper varieties to grow this year:
  • I have plenty of dried and crushed pepper flakes so will probably not grow thai and cayenne peppers. 
  • Although I have two gallon bags remaining of jalapeno peppers, I will still grow a dozen plants for fresh harvest.  
  • I am still amazed at how fresh my diced red, orange and yellow frozen sweet peppers are coming out of the freezer.  I intend to grow at least six plants of each color.  
  • The mini sweet red, orange and yellow peppers were excellent last year.  I've saved seed from last year's harvest; the seeds were originally taken from organic peppers purchased at Wegman's. It will be interesting to see what the peppers look like this year. 
Postscript #1 - Lemongrass (sowed March 13, 6 days) germinated.
Postscript #2 - The onions, shallots and leeks received their second "haircut."

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