Late Starts

Technically, all of my posts for the last couple of months should be titled "Late Starts" as I think it was the rare seed that I actually planted on time.  The honour of the title, however, went to lettuce as it was the crop that was the most delayed this year - I sowed it 4 weeks later than I should have.

I looked back at my first Harvest Monday post last year, which was at the end of May, and I had several beautiful bowls of lettuce to show off.  This year, they are still tiny seedlings at this point.  No one to blame but myself on that one as I could have had fairly sturdy starts before my vacation.  I don’t quite know what happened but for some reason, I let these fall through the cracks.

4 of the 6 varieties I am growing this year, I also grew last year:  Sierra MI (Batavian), Pinares (romaine), Ruby Red (leaf) and Simpson Elite (leaf).  I described each of these in my End of Season Review.

Initially, I was going to hold off on growing Simpson Elite again, but decided that I could add two new varieties (Sweetie Baby & Radichetta) and still include this one if I did an even 2 squares per variety in my 3’ x 4’ spot.

Although 12 square feet doesn’t seem like a lot of space for lettuce, based on my experience last year, it was more than enough.  In fact, there were times when we couldn’t keep up with the harvest.

Lettuce, collard & Chinese green bed - June 1, 2014
 

Both of the new varieties I picked were inspired by blogger spotlight posts.

Radichetta (Catalogna) (52 days, loose leaf, Pinetree)

Photo Source:  Pinetree
 

Dave's spotlight prompted me to add this loose leaf variety to my grow list this year.


Sweetie Baby (50-60 days, romaine, Renee's)

Photo Source:  Renee's
 

I wanted to add another romaine to my lineup, and this choice was inspired by one of Michelle's spotlights.

I decided to start off by planting only half of the 2' x 4' space.  This decision was made more out of circumstance rather than an actual plan.  Because I was so backed up with all of my starts, I knew I was going to have a hard time fitting everything under the grow lights, so why not sow half the lettuce now, and the other half in a month?  Basically, it's a succession plan borne out of necessity.  If it works out, I may continue to do this in the future.

I did end up with a few extra plants, however, as I wasn't confident with their germination this year (it's been a bad year for that), so I didn't thin each cell to one plant like I should have.  And then, of course, I couldn't throw out the extras when I had all that empty space for the 2nd sowing staring me in the face.  So I planted them all up.

I planted out the lettuce a couple of days ago and it's looking pretty sorry right now.

Lettuce bed - Planted up and looking rather sad
Quite the contrast from last year, that's for sure!
 

Not the best photo, but the wind was up (what's new?) and I didn't want to take the cover off the bed, so I just stuck the camera under the cover and clicked away.  I'm actually not too worried about the lettuce just yet - most of my seedlings look pretty bad when I first transplant them & it takes them a week or two to perk up and really take off.

We have, however, been experiencing some unusually high temperatures lately.  The lettuce is in a bed that gets some afternoon shade & I'll also be covering it with a bit of Agribon to protect it from the mid-day sun, so I'm hoping that both of these factors help keep it a bit cooler.

Aside from the lettuce, I also wanted to touch on a few additional flowers that I'm growing.  Chamomile (new this year) as well as nasturtiums & sunflowers (same varieties as last year).  I've taken some photos, not so much because there's a lot to see at this stage (because there isn't), but more for my reference in the future.  I find it useful to have photos at different stages of growth so that I can gauge how well (or poorly) a particular plant is doing, how far along it was at a particular point in time, etc.

I was two weeks behind on sowing the nasturtiums and chamomile; I started both from seed in April.

I transplanted a couple of the nasturtium ("Tip Top Alaska Red Shades", William Dam) into a planter in the veg garden and a couple went into my daughters veg bed.

Nasturtium - 4 weeks
 

For the chamomile (William Dam), I thought that I would really like to grow my own & dry it for tea.  I only have a small spot for them in the herb bed, however, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to harvest.  I will have a bit of space in one of the asparagus beds, so I will likely plant the extras there.  I’m thinking of this as more of a trial to see if it’s worthwhile allocating a portion of a bed to it next year.

Chamomile - 4 weeks
 

I also sowed some sunflowers - (Giant Gray Stripe, Pinetree) - which are supposed to produce a huge head with lots of seeds that make for great eating.  Last year, I also grew these, but placed them off to the side of the yard and then promptly forgot all about them.  Even with our fairly cool, wet summer, the neglect was a bit too much and they bit the dust, so to speak.

Sunflower - 4 weeks
 

The sunflowers are supposed to be monsters, reaching a height of up to 12 feet tall, so I will only be growing 2 of them.  These were transplanted into one corner of the pea and cucumber/tromboncino squash bed and will hopefully get lots of bees on those squash & cucumber blossoms.

Till next time…