The Great Cucurbita Experiment

Man, I just typed this post, and Blogger lost it, so now I've got to type it again.

Anyway. What a difference a day and about 20 degrees makes. I brought the tomatoes inside yesterday morning, and as of today at 4:30 pm, every single one of them has sprouted. Sorry, you poor little guys, I didn't know!

The seeds have shifted themselves around a bit. I tried to put them in the cups uniformly spaced, but several of them have seemed to cozy up to one another and sprouted cheek-to-cheek.

My 14-month-old son has been helping me out in the backyard soon-to-be garden paradise. He runs around with sticks and stones and does all sorts of things that nana probably wouldn't approve of. This afternoon he found one of last year's rotten tomatoes, and had it in his mouth before I could tackle him and wrestle it away from him. He's great company when I'm out there.

Stopped off at Borders on my way home from work today, and bought even more gardening books. These were in the remainder bins though, so I got three books for less than $10. Plus another cool book that I'll talk about in a couple of days.

I don't know what to do with myself until (hopefully) frost-free late May. There's a lot of un-fun stuff left to do, like cleaning up the back yard. Or maybe washing and sterilizing last year's containers. And making a couple of trips to the dump. Ack.

I plan to weed-eat in the next couple of days, if nothing else. I want to nip that shit in the bud this year, so to speak. The weeds were so high in the back last year that you couldn't even open the gate and had to squeeze through.

I don't know why I didn't do it sooner: This morning I took all my tomato cups and put them in the spare bedroom near Bernice's (my iguana) cage, which is heated with a radiant heater hung from the ceiling. Super-warm there, but far enough away that they don't get scorched. One of the Green Zebras is poking out just a wee bit, but that's the only tomato so far. So tiny!

I've really got to quit blogging about this at work. It's just hard to think about anything else right now. I'll be here until midnight!

Every one of the seedling cups has something poking through as of this morning... except for the tomatoes. Thass fine, I know they just need a bit more time. I got kinda creeped out yesterday when I looked at one of the squash cups. Nothing poking out the top yet, but a little white root had already pushed through to the bottom of the cup and was curling around the bottom. I don't know why that's creepy, it just is. Magical, but creepy.

It's like old-time alchemy of a sort. You take these inanimate, dried-up little pods out of a paper envelope, add soil, moisture and light, and they come to life. The zucchini seedlings are already at least five times bigger than the seeds that I planted. Where's all this extra matter coming from?

Can you tell I'm new at this?

Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I just read somewhere that tomato seeds should sprout in just a few days, and here it is 12 days later and they haven't done anything. I'm going to bring them inside and set them somewhere warm, just until they sprout. Then I'll take them back out to the garage under the lights. Like I mentioned in a post below (but did not make the connection until today...), apparently they need warmth to germinate (70-80 degrees) but not so much warmth once they're up (55 degrees or so). That's do-able.

Just took a look this morning, and now I've got Golden Sweet melon, Black Futsu squash and yellow scallop squash coming up.

Just between leaving for work yesterday, and coming home, the Costata Romanesco grew twice its size.

This is so exciting!

Found this link this morning. Want to keep it handy for when I finally do have tomatoes:
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/comm/staff/zakour/faq/faq_search.cgi/post

According to the above link, perfect germination temps for tomatoes are between 70 and 90 degrees. Whoa. Once the seeds are up, though, it says 55 degrees is fine. Hmmmm.

Rob banged on the door this morning while I was taking a shower to tell me that the Costata Romanesco sprouted this morning under the lights. Both party cups each have a seedling peeking through, despite the biting cold out in the garage.

I tried to put a heating pad under the cups yesterday, but -- haha, joke's on me -- found out that my heating pad has an auto shut-off and turns itself off after 20 minutes. Useless, totally useless.

This morning I took a lamp from the bedroom with a 60-watt bulb and set it next to them. Not very warm, but maybe will keep things from freezing in the general vicinity of the lights.

My neighbors on the other side of our duplex are moving out. I'm hoping that there's some lag time between them leaving and new tenants moving in, 'cuz I'm planning on chucking my tumbleweed pile onto their side of the fence. No really, it's a perfect solution. Their yard is already full of tumblers, and I reeaaallly don't want to try and haul these things to the dump, so -- one of these nights -- oopsie, over they go!

Am I bad?

I bought a shit-load of seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (link at right). Good folks, fast and cheap shipping. No matter how many seeds you buy, shipping is only $2.95.

Anyway, here's what I'm going to attempt to grow this season (descriptions from Baker Creek catalog):

WINTER SQUASHES:

• Black Futsu
  (cucurbita moschata) Rare, black Japanese squash, the fruit is flattened, round and has heavy ribbing. Very unique and beautiful. The black fruit will turn a rich chestnut color in storage. Flesh is golden color and has the rich taste of hazelnuts. Fruits are 3-8 lbs. each and vines give huge yields.


• Cushaw White (Jonathan Pumpkin)
  100 days (cucurbita mixta) A rare Cushaw type, white skin and sweet pale orange flesh. Easy to grow, huge yields, and good resistance to squash bugs. A popular heirloom from the south. (1891)


• Red Kuri (Hokkaido)
  92 days. (cucurbita maxima) A red-orange Japanese winter squash, fruit are 5-10 lbs. each and teardrop-shaped. The golden flesh is smooth, dry, sweet and rich, a great yielding and keeping variety.


• Sweet Dumpling
  (cucurbita pepo) One of the sweetest of all! The small flattened ribbed 1 lb. fruit has a white skin with green stripes. The sweet, tender orange flesh makes this variety the favorite of many.


• Table Bush Queen
  (cucurbita pepo) Here is an exciting true bush version of "Table Queen Acorn", 36" plants stay compact and produce heavy yields of these delicious squash, with dry orange flesh. A great variety for small gardens almost anywhere in the USA.


• Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin
  (cucurbita pepo) This beautiful pumpkin was introduced by Johnson & Stokes in 1893. Lovely 6-lb golden fruit have white netting and are perfect for pies. In fact, this is one of the best tasting pie pumpkins you can grow, with very sweet and smooth flesh, a favorite of all who grow it.

SUMMER SQUASHES:

• Costata Romanesco
  52 days. Famous, ribbed zucchini from Rome, Italy. The distinctive, long fruit are flutted with medium, green-striped skin. The cut slices are scalloped. When small, they are popular fried whole with the flower still on. Rich and very flavorful. A perfect, gourmet variety for the market grower.


• Yellow Scallop
  (Golden Custard) Beautiful bright yellow fruit with a rich, mellow flavor. Likely predates Columbian times, a rare native American squash. Bush plants with good yields.

TOMATOES:

• Green Zebra
  Beautiful chartreuse with deep lime-green stripes, very attractive. Flesh is bright green and very rich tasting, sweet with a sharp bite to it. A favorite tomato of many high-class chefs, specialty markets and home gardeners. Yield is excellent. Around 3 ounces each.


• Black Cherry
  Beautiful black cherries, look like large, dusky purple grapes; they have that rich flavor that makes black tomatoes famous. Market growers report that this variety is an incredible seller, large vines yield very well. Very unique and delicious.


• Riesentraube
  This old German heirloom was offered in Philadelphia by the mid-1800's. The sweet red 1 oz fruit grow in large clusters and the name means "Giant Bunch of Grapes" in German. It is probably the most popular small tomato with seed collectors as many enjoy the rich, full tomato flavor that is missing in today's cherry types. Large plants produce massive yields.


• Plum Lemon
  70 days. The bright canary-yellow 3" fruit, looks just like a fresh lemon. This variety was collected by Kent Whealy of Seed Savers Exchange, from a elderly seedsman at the Bird Market in Moscow. Delicious, sweet taste.

MELONS:

• Tigger
  The fruit are vibrant yellow with brilliant fire-red, zigzag stripes, (a few fruit may be solid yellow), simply beautiful! They are also the most fragrant melons, with a rich, sweet intoxicating aroma that will fill a room. The white flesh gets sweeter in dry climates. Small in size the fruits weigh up to 1 lb. - perfect for a single serving. The vigorous plants yield heavily, even in dry conditions. This heirloom came from an Armenian market located in a mountain valley.


• Golden Sweet
  Totally groovy looking, with their gorgeous, lemon-colored rinds and small size. The flesh is white, crisp and good. The skin is so thin that many people do not peel them prior to eating, but enjoy them straight out of the garden. This Oriental variety is also very early, and the compact vines produce like crazy! Pick fruit when they turn golden color. Easy to grow; these are popular in Taiwan.

ASSORTED WILDFLOWERS:

• Black-Eyed Susan
  A popular native variety from the Great Plains of North America. Large yellow daisies with dark brown centers. Good in heat and drought.


• Mexican Sunflower - Torch
  (Tithonia rotundifolia) (GOLDEN FLOWER OF THE AZTECS) Brilliant red-orange 2"- 3" flowers; an excellent butterfly plant. These bloom over a very long season, and the plants produce masses of blooms. The large 5' plants are very beautiful. Common along roadsides in the high mountains of central Mexico.


• Wild Sunflower
  The small yellow sunflower that grows wild over so much of the USA. They do very well in dry or poor soil--great for birds.

Wildly ambitious? Yes! Foolhardy in the extreme? Yes! Setting myself up for disappointment? We'll see!

Here's how I've started my seeds (March 16):

I bought a shop light ($17.95), two 40-watt flourescent bulbs ($5.95) and a timer ($4.95) at Lowe's. I've got the lamp housing set directly on two cement blocks on the shop bench in the garage, about 3-4" above the tops of the seedling cups.

The seedling cups are 30 sets of two clear plastic party cups, set one on top of the other, and taped together with masking tape. Each bottom cup has three holes drilled in the bottom, the top cups are labeled with a label-maker.

I've filled each with a 50/50 mix of moist sphagnum moss and vemiculite. Each cup has three seeds and about 10 spritzes of water from a spray bottle. I forgot to spray the Black Futsu before I taped them up, so I'll have to keep an eye on those and see how fast they dry out.

My only concern at this point is the temperature in the garage. It's snowing like a mofo right now, so it's pretty cold out there. I don't have anything at this point to regulate the temp near the seedlings, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they're not too terribly cold out there.

Looked online today and found out that the average date of last frost in Northern Nevada is the middle of May, so I'm pretty much on schedule for starting the tomatoes, but kind of early for starting the squashes. I'll have transplant to bigger containers at least once before they go in the ground.

Haven't started the wildflowers yet. Probably next week. I'm in the process of finally buying a digital camera, so look for more pictures, less yapping, very soon.

Like I said, its snowing today. Probably the last big one for the season, but you never know. It's nice to be pro-active inside, though. I'm drawing garden diagrams, whispering to my seedlings, dreaming of a bountiful harvest. Last night before the storm hit, I cut back a bunch of last year's growth and added to the compost pile (if you can call a 6-foot high pyramid of dry, crunchy tumbleweeds a compost pile). I also emptied out some of last year's containers. I need to scrub them out and add fresh soil for this year. Not sure yet what I want to put in containers.

So that's what's going on for now. I'll probably just be tidying up the back lot and checking on seedling for awhile now. I'll post later with any breaking news!

...or not. I actually have about a quarter acre of rocks and desert hard-pan. My previous gardening attempts here in the high desert of Northern Nevada have not been runaway successes, to say the least. I have coaxed a few things from the soil, mostly weeds, but also a few herbs, some wildflowers and sedges, miscellaneous flats of pretty things from Home Depot.

Year before last, I had a pretty good start on a few hills of pumpkins/squashes (Luminas, Jack-Be-Littles, Connecticut Fields and Sugar Pies), but I started too late in the season, and in late September, everything was killed off with one mighty frost. Heartbreak.

So this year, I'm doin' it up right. I've actually bought some books, ordered some interesting heirloom species online, and started seedlings indoors for a targeted plant date in early May.

So this is where I'm going to record everything: times, dates, processes, etc. Then I can look back on this when everything dies in a freak snowstorm in August, and see just how much time and effort and money I've wasted.

Wish me luck!