some interesting things in the garden this week...first up, the elephant garlic finally bloomed...i didn't know what to expect, but it looks like a big bud full of smaller buds to me...so i will be going back to campus tomorrow to see if there are further blooms or if that is it...an inexplicable surprise ( at least the second surprise of the season ) is the appearance of onions so late...but that IS an onion in the second photo and i cannot explain why they (i saw three) waited so long to germinate...i have no answers yet, but i am looking...i hilled the potatoes again today...they were falling over and needed the support...they should be ready by the end of next month and i am anxious to try them out...the bottom photo is the intermediate wheat grass which is about four inches high and filling in nicely...the yams are continuing to vine up the trellis and the herusalem artichokes have reached four feet in height...we're doing alright beyond the stubborness of the teosinte...i germinated more Zea diploperennis and northern tepehuan ( perennial and annul respectively) and put the ones that are ready directly into peat pots and out into the environment...i'm thinking that perhaps keeping them on the heating mat and under thr growlight last time is what led them to grow taller than their stems could support and keel over...aiming for some slower and mors sustained growth this time around...the Zea perennis is germinating but does not look like it will be ready to pot for at least another week...more on that and another garlic photo ( if it does something photographable) later.
did I see some of the yams trailing along the ground? what happens then? and what is the tall, whispy (almost dill like) plant? What are your conclusions about native growing of zea? it seems almost too fussy to be have survived without all the modern conveniences of heat pads etc
ReplyDeletethe yams were ( and are) trailing along the ground in the direction they were traveling ( mostly due to wind i believe) until they found somethig to begin vining up on, which was some row stakes i had in the ground. i just put in a makeshift trellis nextto the stakes to give them more height to play with. the tall plants are arugula floweing and going to seed ( which i'm saving) their season, along with the spinach, is just about done. i'm thinking potatoes in that spot next year. my use of the heat mat and grow light may be exactly the cause of the demise of the first batch of teosinte. as th esecond batch comes out of the germinating baggies it is going straight into a mixture of spaghnam moss and compost and into a natural cycle of dark and daylight along with the ambient, natural temperature. the new starts are growing more slowly, but they are far sturdier. i may have killed them with kindness first time around. i posted some photos of the new batch on facebook in the second garden album along with the forest of chinese yams that are going to make me the yam baron of northwest indiana.
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