Planting season continues!
Sunday I went out to my land and planted roughly 100 tomatoes and peppers. I also laid out the rebar for one trellis, although I did not have the stamina to finish it.
I had originally planned to grow around 30 tomatoes. Namely Bill Bean, Black Crimson, Black Vernissage, Cherokee Purple, Farthest North, Morovsky Div, Polish Linguisa, and Punta Banda.
When I read about garden centers selling out of starter plants, I planted a whole flat of things to share with my neighbors, but it turned out that flat wasn’t needed, so I planted it myself. The tomatoes in that flat were Jellybean, Sweet Million, Early Bird Red, Climbing Triple-Crop, Italian Paste, Striped Roman, Peron, Moneymaker, and more Punta Banda.
Some of those are varieties I wanted to try, but not as much as other varieties, so they’d gotten bumped down the priority list until the lockdowns and shortages started. Others are varieties that came free or were given to me over the years. The Triple-Crop and Punta Banda are the only two from that tray that I grow routinely. Punta Banda is one of my favorites, because it combines the compact bushiness of a determinate, with the ongoing harvest of an indeterminate.
The peppers I grew are Purple Beauty, Sweet Cherry Yellow, Sweet Cherry Red, and Ghost. That last one I originally bought for pest control, as squirrels take one bite and leave the whole garden alone! The Purple Beauty I bought for making pickle relish for my Mom. The rest were free gifts that came with other orders. I’m mildly allergic to peppers, so I tend not to bother with them.
All together, there were about 130 cells planted, but some were from older seed and didn’t germinate, so I dumped the empty cells in the same hole as a live one from the same variety. I don’t have an accurate count, but I’m estimating it was around 100 total. I put them near my squash on one end of the field, with a trellis full of lima beans separating the two.
Speaking of squash, they are doing great! The ones that were transplanted look like they could have used more hardening off, but they’re getting there. The ones that were direct seeded are green and strong! I’m looking forward to harvest season already :)
Then, yesterday I planted maybe 30 melons. Mostly Kaho watermelons, but also a few each of Kirkman muskmelons, a non-bitter bitter melon, some cucumbers, and a “snake bean”. I also replanted some of my luffa gourds, as they didn’t handle the transplant very well.
Definitely need a recovery day today!!!!
*APPLAUSE*