2020 Garden Plans

[William S.]

2020 garden plans:

When I think about it I have the following priorities

1.Commercial Contract Growouts a corn and a tomato.

2.Spec growouts, tomatoes, some things of Josephs that went missing in 2020 catalogues, and some things I'm hoping to pledge to OSSI and sell. Big Hill tomato, Hamsonita tomato, Lofthouse buttercup squash, exserted tiger tomato, orange hill tomato, Montana rainbow fava bean, 

3. Tomato Breeding F2 grow out of Big Hill x Wild and approximately 20 other tomato projects.

4. A packet of EFN seed I promised to grow for buckwheat project.

5. Chia project

6. Rice project

7. Purple wheat project


8. Autumns Choice Squash F2 Plus it crossed freely with Lofthouse and Thai Cross F2

Last year I pretty much just grew tomatoes. So some of these things have been neglected for years.

Someday I want to do a big corn grow out. Haven't grown flint types in a very long time.

Not sure how far down the list I will get.

What are your 2020 garden plans?

[reed]

I'll be growing most all of my regular stuff. Lettuce, radishes, onions, garlic, probably some commercial potatoes, sunflowers, marigolds, brassicas like broccoli and several more. Most all of these while selecting each year for tolerances and production, I don't really consider breeding projects.

As far as breeding but still largely just through selection are:

Corn - I'm making a flint/flour corn with lots of color in the plant and strong resistance to fall ear worms. Later I'll select it to a more flinty type.

Common Beans - I have several that I'm working with, the most heavily controlled one is for a short growing pole type, short as in not more than six feet tall.

Lima beans - also pole type, just looking for some that produce well for me

Tomatoes - just selecting for better ones and I might do a big grow out of the pimpinellifolium crosses that accidentally showed up

Dahlias - these are so easy to grow here and I already found half a dozen that taste pretty good so I'll find a spot for a big row of them

Sweet Potatoes of course - I want to expand a little with them. Unfortunately to the detriment of other things. I'd like to have a minimum of fifty plants for breeding plus another patch dedicated to food production. And I want to do better keeping records and documenting. I'd like to harvest minimum of 5000 seeds and weather permitting is doable from the plants stand point but stooping and crawling around for a couple hours every day for weeks looking for them is a pretty big commitment.

I want to grow my musk and watermelons this year if space allows.

A couple things I want to add this year are cow peas and peanuts. My okra seed is getting old so probably stick some of it in somewhere.

[William S.]

I planted more favas today, brown speckled, fingerprint, andean mix, and 2019 volunteers. Only a couple of fingerprint favas were very fingerprinty. I tried to sort out all the colors and sizes from the big bag leftover from my earlier fava planting but quickly gave up. Then I planted some Kral parsnip, some mammoth salsify and some bitterroot seed. Weeded around the calindrinia and miners lettuce patch. Transplanted corn salad and one siberian kale away from miners lettuce and calindrinia area back into its usual area. Weeded around the double dug bed. Poked lots of favas from the first planting down into the ground better. I had just rototilled them in and those laying on the surface were still perfectly hard and firm.

All the snow is gone out there on the garden land. Little bit of snow in the backyard still where the big food forest hedge shades it.

[Steph S]

You're so lucky to see the snow disappearing.  There seems no end of it here this year - another dump blowing around out there today, and 4 hours of shoveling last week.   Rain had cut back the snow a bit, but now it is back where it was, half way up the basement window where I start my seeds.  Not looking like an early spring.

Garden plans 2020:
(1) Garlic growout - 22 varieties in the ground at various ages and stages.   I will need more garlic beds in the fall, so will be working to get growing space ready.   Maybe a green manure crop for the area that was vegetable garden many years ago. Lots of rocks, clay, and looking very acid there with moss taking over the weeds.  I need more compost.
(2) Rotations for the existing garlic beds - these will have to be harvested by September to prep for planting, so late things won't work.  Mainly carrots and peas will work well for these beds which also have best access to regular watering.  Big trial of peas!!  :)Thanks to Triffid for 16 vars in addition to several more I have ordered.   After some thought, I think all edible pod vars will be in one bed, which is a good distance from the other bed for shelly peas, in case of crosses.   Besides the joy of fresh peas, we are looking to try out some soup/dry pea varieties to see if that is a staple we can produce for winter instead of beans.  (Trend here is shorter and colder summers due to ice/cold water effects flowing down from Greenland.  Beans are not a realistic crop, very iffy).  I have two kinds of condiment mustard to try out as well, which is supposed to make a good rotation for garlic.  Not a lot of seeds so these will mainly be a seed crop for next year.
(3) Shallot project:   This would be year 3 in the same bed, so I would like to move the existing plants to permanent locations.  I want to compare several methods of producing bulbs (1) from shoots taken from perennial clumps  (2) from seed.   Seed not started yet, it's getting late.  I may do some in the greenhouse;  also will try growing sets for the following year.  My biggest problem is not having beds already prepped for alliums.    Maybe some will go to garden space at my mother's place - much better soil there so prep is feasible.  The present  shallot bed is pretty shallow, but I think I could build up a bit and do some chantenays there and sundry greens.
(4) Potatoes.   I ordered 8 varieties to try from Eagle Creek.  And we will pick up some more locally.  Nowhere to put them here so will do them all at my mother's garden.   Plan is to grow enough for the winter, and keep seed potatoes from any that we like.   No TPS this year but probably next year, if not too much competition from tomatoes re: seed starting space.
(5) Tomatoes.    I will have to decide how intensive I'm willing to go - more than last year probably.  Will start seed around the equinox so I'll know by then.  I have a few things at F6 which it would be nice to get stable, but then again I have a load of other projects I didn't do last year...  and I like to have more than one color to eat.   Food aesthetics vs ambition.   Needs obviously, must be satisfied first. 
(6) Random grains.  Amaranth, oats, barley, buckwheat.   Barley and oats are early enough, I could grow up a little seed if the rats don't steal it.  Amaranth may be late, but it's possible it could seed itself too and just become a feature of the landscape.  Dreamin?  Also ordered some seed of  perennial wheat, to put somewhere permanent  and hope on. 

Hoping to do '4 per mille' (minimum) everywhere I plant this year. (compost in/carbon capture). 

[William S.]

Planted the rest of my favas. Found the soil tilth good so rototilled the fenced garden. Mowed on a couple spots where I plan to till and put in tomato isolation patches.

[William S.]

I have spring break much less encumbered because of cancellation of travel plans and then cancellation of all backup traveling plans. So I have rototilled an area as large as my 2017 garden. My tomato plans have evolved. Decided not to grow one domestic for seed this year (red variety Joseph bred forget it's name). Unfortunately I seem to have 7 groups that need isolation still. So I think the ten Big Hill plants might get planted right in the greenhouse in the back yard underneath the shelves. That should work out even if I get the rice planted in containers and keep them in the greenhouse because they will be on the shelves. I still need to start rototilling two more tomato isolation gardens including the big one for the contract. However I got the first rototilling done for two of them.

There is a bit of a push people are doing towards victory gardens and it sounds like some of the seed places are getting lots of orders. The seasonal workers who grow our vegetables may not be able to come in sufficient numbers. Native Seed Search said in an email they are shutting down new orders for example.

Currently there is no sign that seasonal summer jobs with agencies won't happen, but I do wonder if they will. If my summer job did dissapear, I suspect I will want a very large garden. If not I may let weeds reclaim some space. Spring quarter will be online at least the first part which means I won't have to go to class for a bit. Not sure if that means more gardening time though. Hate online classes. Quality inevitably goes down without the human interaction.

[Ferdzy]

Yeah, I'm another with spring opening up for gardening. We were going to go to Great Britain for 3 weeks and leave my mom to water the seedlings; not happening. Instead I have been working on our master planting list (time to start peppers and eggplants was, um, 5 days ago) and getting excited again for various projects. Not a lot of leeks in the garden this spring but most of the ones that are there are looking good. I've been trying to "sell" my pepo-agryrosperma cross squash to people without success, unless you count me. I've sold it to myself (and more to the point to Mr. Ferdzy) so we will be growing a couple of that. Just came back a week ago from 2 weeks in Cuba where I spent a certain amount of time listing all the things I am or want to do breeding work with; amounted to 5 handwritten pages. I'm planning to put pea and bean crosses in differently, so that it will be easier to see them. Hoping to make a great leap forward on the watermelon front. This was a mild winter so there may be some overwintered brassicas going to seed; we'll see.

We are trying a whole whack of new beans, and naked barley for the first time this year.

It is -10°C this morning with a dusting of snow, after having been 15°C and rainy yesterday. Spring is plainly on the way, though, and I'm hoping to get peas in fairly early - maybe even in about a week.

[Kim K.]

So yeah, my state has basically gone on lockdown except for essential industries. It's given me a lot more time for garden work! This is the year I'm finally going to eradicate the invasive bittersweet vine from the western hedgerow (lots of intensive work with a machete and my fingers, trying to extract the bittersweet without damaging the forsythia, lilacs, peonies it's nearly smothered, nor get got by the Carolina roses.)

I'm also excited about:
A) Six seeds I received in the mail today: Bristol Butternut, a butternut squash bred and maintained by a family farm in Bristol, CT, selected for taste and insect resistance right in my bioregion! A coalition of home and market gardeners is doing a big grow out, since the family of the folks who bred it no longer want to be in the squash business. It does add an element of complication; I now have to bag and hand pollinate a couple of flowers to fulfill my obligation. But the rest of it is mixing into the butternut landrace.

B) Finally growing out the F1s from my multi-year muskmelon selections! A twin pregnancy and a couple of ridiculously wet Augusts meant it's taken me five years to grow enough germplasm under decent enough conditions to select for good taste. I am so psyched to taste what comes out of the F1s.

C) Celeriac. Having it survive and grow big green tops isn't the issue, I have such lovely sandy loam I could probably grow commercial celery if I wanted. But growing large, lovely swollen roots? Trickier. I read some old market gardening manuals and they gave detailed instructions for transplanting and fertilizing celeriac. Hopefully it'll work; celeriac is heinously pricey in the supermarkets around here.

D) Plums. I planted four plum trees last spring and one of them, 'Cocheco' grew aggressively and has a bunch of fruiting spurs about to bloom. I'm curious to see if it has good tasting fruit; it's very decorative (reddish leaves, reddish bark) and grows so vigorously, it seems like we can't possibly have our plums and eat them too. The other three trees ('Hanska', 'Toka', and a native P. americana for pollination purposes) look good and will definitely bloom but seem too small to bear yet.

It's hovering just around freezing, with sleet and snow alternating falling and blowing hard, but the rest of the week is supposed to have daytime highs in the 50s and lows in the high 30s. Pretty typical March.

[Ferdzy]

Kim, I hear you on the celeriac. I love the stuff, but $8 for a root? Yikes.

I have quite a lot of seed which is from a Turkish variety we grew a few years back. It didn't do wonderfully well, but I think the subsequent grow outs did better. We haven't grown iany for a few years because it has been hit and miss for us, whether this variety or any other. However, we are planning to grow a good patch of it this year. Wouldn't mind hearing the advice on growing it. Do you want any of this seed?

The squash sounds interesting. What a fun project to be part of.

[triffid]

Cripes, $8? Is it not very popular in the States? Costs around £1 over here... for the time-being.
I'm growing some Giant Prague this year and would be very grateful to know your culture tips Kim!

[Ferdzy]

Cripes, $8? Is it not very popular in the States? Costs around £1 over here... for the time-being.
I'm growing some Giant Prague this year and would be very grateful to know your culture tips Kim!

I'm actually in Canada, and no, I don't think it is very popular here or in the US. Well it wouldn't be, at that price! It's a bit of a vicious circle, I guess - not popular, so price is high, doesn't get tried by newbies, because price is high. Here it is also locally grown meaning not by the next thing to slave labour, which also keeps the price up.

I used to be able to get it at a large farmers market for about $2 per root, directly from the farmers. However that market is now a 2 hour drive away (and that price is 15 years in the past) so it's the supermarket for me. Prices there are high. Rutabagas, which people used to practically live on along with potatoes and onions, are now in the range of $4 each, which boggles my mind. But I don't think even the old, conservative, ex-Scottish/Irish folks who make up most of the population here are even eating them much anymore. Strange! I love 'em. Will be growing a bunch out this year, hoping to select a strain for greens because they make the best "turnip" greens too.

[Diane Whitehead]

There has been a run on seeds here, too.  The bins of pea seeds at the farm supply stores are empty, and the lines of waiting customers are out the door.

So, one of my first 2020 projects is setting up family members with seeds from my 1600 vegetable packets. (I continue buying packets but I only grow a couple of plants of each type, or just one plant for tomatoes, so the stash piles up.)

Setting up people with advice, too.  Fun!  I hope they all have success.

[Steph S]

Count me in for celeriac this year.  I am waiting on the seeds, which have shipped but not arrived - and our postal service is currently down for several days.   The var I ordered is Brilliant.  No idea what they're like.  I've grown celery before - and I tasted the gnarly roots after growing for seed, which is why I definitely want celeriac on the menu, great stuff.   Also have ordered root parsely from another supplier, but that order has not even shipped yet afaik, although it's been several weeks.

I also expect to be more focused on growing this year, on account of other work being a bust.   But we are a way off spring yet, just getting yet another dump of 35 cm snow tonight.  We had a couple of days that the great mound had finally melted off the (attached) greenhouse and it was 80F in there yesterday.  Really not happy to see it blocked again.  It's tomato starting time though, so I'd better get with it anyway. 

[Kim K.]

Wow! I'm surprised that so many people are into celeriac. Thought perhaps I shouldn't be. Here are the tips:

1.Sow on stations 2" apart in a flat or can (the seeds are tiny, so as many as 10 seeds per station. Stations can be just a shallow thumbprint in the soil.)
2. Set the flat in water so that it absorbs it up through the holes in the bottom (i.e. don't top-water; that'll disturb the seeds.)When the soil is thoroughly saturated, set it in good light. Germination is best with daytime temperatures in the 70sF and nighttime temps 10 degrees cooler. To keep the soil moist, cover with a wet burlap sack, or wet newspaper, or glass on top. Remove cover as soon as the first seedlings emerge.
3. When plants are 2 inches tall, thin to a single plant per station.
4. When you're ready to plant them out (8 to 10 weeks after sowing; my sources say 6" tall, but I've never had celeriac get that big in a shallow flat), block them: with a sharp knife, cut between the rows one way. A week later cut the rows perpendicular to your first cut. During the blocking week, you can also harden them off outdoors.
5. After blocking, transplant them out 6 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart. They like compost and potassium. Make sure nights stay reliably above 45F before transplanting them out, or they'll bolt. (Which also means; if you're growing the seedlings in a greenhouse or cold frame, make sure to take them inside at night if nights get cold, or you'll trick them into thinking they've been through winter and they'll bolt when weather warms up.)

I believe that blocking the plants is the secret to not damaging their root systems when transplanting them; and I'm hoping that's the secret to growing good sized roots. Let me know how your celeriac grows this year!

[William S.]

Today and yesterday I planted some early spring things. Wheat, radish, lentils, arugula, spinach, and peas.