End of March progression

I got 4 basils(2 Genovese and 2 sweet). They seem to be doing well.

4 sweet peppers at 5 or 6 weeks old are already in the permanent box, some others banana peppers and Spaniard peppers are still in foam cups soon to be transplanted.

Beets, lettuces and carrots going strong.

Sugar snap peas vines.

Cucumbers.

Chives.

Green beans.

St Augustine grass brochure.

Mataturf.

First 2011 radish harvest.

Sounds fantastic isn't?... well, sound much better than the results I really got, but although is bad at least it has a positive outcome... Want to know what it is?. The harvest was bigger than the almost non-existent from last year, so something had to be done right  ah!. I believe it's the fertilizer because last year I didn't really pay attention to all that mumbo jumbo; now even before sowing, an adequate amount of bone-meal went directly into the soil... What is it?.. Phosphorus!.

Still not the way or amount you should expect for a harvest like this, but given the circumstances that bone-meal is a slow release fertilizer and the fact that it is the first time the soil had been fed up with adequate ratios of macro nutrients, made me think the soil is slowly integrating those nutrients, the fact is the harvest amount compared to last year. So more fertilizer will keep feeding the soil.

I will try another harvest by autumn and see if the harvest is better, if it is, then my theory should prove correct.

By the way, there are radish varieties ready for harvest in 22 day, 25 days, 30 days. So instead going every single day to see if each variety is ready, just round it and go see them at the 30 day, plain and simple!

Left to right: Cherry Belle, Crimson Giant, Red Emperor, French Breakfast, Crimson Giant

Common Texas Lawn Weeds

Dandelions, Henbit, Dallisgrass, Johnsongrass, Nutgrass, Crabgrass, Grassburs, Clover Weeds, Chickweed.

Reference.
Weed Killers for St Augustine Lawns.

Impatiens

They are not hard to germinate, when they immediately do the seedlings look BIG to be just new born, but sow them only by the 1st of March when the heat is already there. Sow them only on pots or window boxes that you can move inside in case a cold front arrives and plant them in the regular garden soil once the risk of a last spring frost is gone.

They are annuals and do not tolerate colder weather below 35F, so you now by the first frost arrival in autumn they will die. Impatiens love total shade environment, there's where they grow the best.

Big seedling at the bottom is an impatien.

Now here below are the same impatiens 5 or 6 weeks after, in good soil they seem to grow nice, still more time to see when the flowers start to come up.

BIG MISTAKE!. Those are not impatiens, they are cypress vines, somehow I mixed the seeds in that soil before and didn't realize it!.

Peppers

Peppers love hot weather, they simply will not germinate unless day temperatures hits high 70's or more. In Houston it's not too much a problem to raise peppers because summers are really long here, so we don't encounter the misfortune northern states find there. I'm only in the phase of 4 weeks after the germination and the real leaves are starting to grow in the little plants. I know pepper plants before been transplanted must wait around 6 to 8 weeks, especially in northern states to make sure a last sudden frost does not kill them, but even here in Houston is better to wait till the beginning of April to do so, after all from seed to bear fruit is a 75 days long journey!.

Front are banana and bell peppers mix around 4 weeks old after germination. Behind are other peppers less than 2 weeks old after germination.

Habanero pepper almost 4 weeks old.
(I will update latter)...

Go to my peppers continuation post to my newer blog.

Hot weather seeds

The last 2 days we've been in the low 80's and my vine seeds seems to like the weather responding immediately to germination, they were sowed around 2 weeks ago and around 5 days later only two of five germinated at that time, but I think it was because on the germination days we had 2 days of 80 degrees then we had cooler days and nothing, the other seeds didn't showed up, until today!, yes, yesterday and today we touched the low 80's again, so obviously the plants like this temperatures. Same thing happened to my zinnias, hot weather annuals start to grow fast from seed when the weather is right!, it a lesson I just learned.

By mid January I sowed several seeds indoors(marigolds, calendulas and other hot weather annual seeds), from my experience it was not a good choice, the weather was still too cold for them and when is colder than 35 F you cannot let them in the outside because they are not pansies or violas and at those temperatures they could die; so bringing them in and out becomes tedious with the weather fluctuations.

Next time you think in sowing this kind of seeds, wait to last week of february and watch the forecast to see if the next week will be hot. If some weeks later you have the misfortune of a cold front heading your way, then cover your plants to protect them.

White cypress wine and giant white moonflower.

At the corners zinnias envy and candy cane.

pH soil.

pH stands for acidity or alkalinity and it ranges in a scale from 1 to 14, 1 been perfect acid while 14 is perfect alkaline, the balance between the two of them is 7. Although most vegetables live fine in a pH range between 6.5 and 7.5
A balance soil pH should be at 6.5 to 7.5. The next ingredients show their ph level. If you want to make a balance ph soil simply mix the 4 ingredients below in "equal volume parts"(not by weight).

*Manure compost ph 6 to 9.

*Sand ph 7.

*Sphagnum peat moss ph 3 to 4.

*Vermiculite ph 7 to 9.

Green beans germination rates

In my personal experience the next bush beans germination rates are as follow..

The stringless green pod was sowed in July plain summer(high 90's daytime almost 100). Although it had great germination rate, the heat seemed not to help in the development of juice beans, they were basically like jerky beef in appearance and I never used soil inoculant.

On blue-lake I had better result, those were sowed in the very last 2 weeks of summer so at the time they were little plants the heat already resided and produced good healthy bean pods, again no inoculant were used here and the difference between the previous  string-less bean and blue-lake harvest was abysmal.

Burpee's stringless green pod. Excellent 85% to 90%
Blue lake 274. Excellent 90%

This 5 beans were sowed in day time temperatures of 60's to mid-high 70's and rare low 40's to 50's and 60's at nigh time. During this time only a splash of water rained. The sowing date was march 1st, the results here are 10 days later. I used soil inoculant

Royal burgundy. Excellent. 90% to 95%
Golden wax improved. Medium or 50%
Dragon tongue. Excellent 90% to 95%
Kitchen king. Poor 50%
Tenderpick. Worst 10%

The seeds that didn't germinate after 2 weeks on the worsts performance of all above are going to be resowed by new seeds and I'll see if the rates improve. I'll keep updating...

(Update).

Tenderpick definitely useless, the 2nd sowing gave only 2 or 3 germinations from 8 seeds, I'll never sow it again.

Kitchen king is only king in the name because the plants wilt or at least they seem weaker than the other ones, but until the harvest is ready I'll comment about the taste. I'll keep updating.

For the 5 beans above, here are the harvest results.

Planning the new year gardening

Vegetables.

In Houston where extreme cold weather is not an issue and where some people say all year round is really summer(in winter very few days are below freezing point). In this year experience to me the trick for sowing vegetables from seed in the outside was to look at the middle of february, if the weather forecast lows for the 3rd week of february are going to stay above the 40's, then is a good idea to start sowing beets, carrots, lettuce, chard, radish and peas in the outside.

According to Aggie Horticulture the cold tolerance in vegetables goes as follows:

Cold Tolerance in Vegetables

Question. You have often mentioned cold tolerant vegetable crops and those which are very susceptible to frosty injury. Could you list these and temperature lows which they can tolerate?

Answer. This is very difficult to do and be accurate since cold tolerance depends on preconditioning. For instance, if broccoli has been growing in warm conditions and temperatures drop below 22 degrees F., it will probably be killed. If these same broccoli plants had experienced cool weather, they would probably survive the sudden cold.

In general, a frost (31-33 degrees F.) will kill beans, cantaloupe, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, peas, pepper, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes, and watermelon.

Colder temperatures (26-31 degrees F.) may burn foliage but will not kill broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, lettuce, mustard, onion, radish, and turnip.

The real cold weather champs are beets, Brussels sprouts, carrots, collards, kale, parsley, and spinach.

For tomatos and basil start sowing seeds indoors by the 3rd week of January, harden off for 2 weeks indoors after germination and then move them to the outside as long as temperatures do not go below 50 degrees and higher than 80, let them in plain sun. Here are some questions about tomatos.

Yellow pear tomato at around 6 weeks with 6 "real leaves" already.

Super sweet 100 cherry tomato at 6 weeks.

Big boy tomato 6 weeks old only 2 real leaves, apparently they take longer time to develop the leaves than cherry tomato .

For any kind of peppers,  if the 3rd week of February the day temperatures will stay around high 60's or more then is time to sow in vermiculite individual cups and put them in the outside right at the sun, if not wait until you see the next days forecast to see when starts to heat up and then start. Pepper like temperatures above 60 to germinate.

I sowed green beans directly in the soil the 1st of march knowing than the next days will not drop below 40 degrees.


Muskmelons are best to sow in the ground the first week of april because they need lots of heats and anyway here in houston the summer doldrums are just what they need, besides there's almost nothing to grow in the high 90's at this time, so it's the perfect time for muskmelons.

If a drop below 40 degrees occurs cover the plants with plastic or other insulation material.

Annual flowers for hot weather.

Zinnias, celosias, marigolds and sunflowers are my favorite annual flowers to grow in the extreme hot weather of Houston; they bloom all the time, some varieties lush great colors. Sowing them by mid february indoors in pots sounds great and then transfering outside(plain sun) in the pots when temperatures do not go below 35 degrees, you'll have lots of seedlings by the end of march. Then wait to april to transfer them right into the garden soil.

Alyssum, snapdragons, impatiens and other annual flowers that can live on partial sun or full sun can stand temperatures of 35 degrees in fall and winter, but lower that that and their life cycle comes to and end. Basically that's why you grow them very early so they live until the first winter frost kills them, by then you'll have already developed annual cold weather winter flowers that you grew from seeds in june and july

Annual flowers for cold weather.

Verbena, aster, blanket flower(gaillardia) survives at 15 degrees.
Hydrangea survives at 10 degrees.
Ornamental cabagge and Kale, primrose survives at 20 gedrees.
Pansies survive at 5 degrees.

I will sow my cold weather seeds in my square ft garden by late june and months later I'll transfer them to a garden bed.

Flowers for shade(annuals and perennials).

Flowers for sun(annuals and perennials).

"By january make a soil test to the square foot garden boxes to see the levels of N-P-K and if necessary apply bonemeal".


"Everytime you sow seeds remember immediately to fertilize with seaweed-kelp soluble in water to improve germination, promote strong roots and at the same time making the plant more disease resistant."


"After the plant is established if growing leafy vegetables(lettuce, swiss chard) apply 3 weeks latter liquid fish fertilizer for fast nitrogen absortion, so plants are lush green."