Next stage

Okay, so I have had the black plastic in place on some rows for a number of weeks now. This evening, I took one small section off and moved it to another area where weeds have gone insane. Low weeds. Had a battle with them last year but can't recall what their name. 

The section I removed plastic from is all brown and appears dead. However, that could change with light and more air. I'm going to give it at least a week before planting anything there. At first sign of anything green, the plastic goes back down.

The tomato plants have seriously bushed out in just about the last week. I now have dozens of tomatoes forming rapidly and hundreds of flowers where many more fruit will be. I am honestly expecting at least 300-400 lbs of tomatoes this year. This is truly the best the tomatoes have ever looked. 

On the other hand, not much else is growing. I left lettuce out of the picture this year to get the weeds controlled. Looking at the areas which I did not cover, I am really happy with that decision. The carrots I planted in the uncovered areas never came up. I think they would have, if not for the weeds. 

I am still keeping the clear plastic down in the tomato patch. I think that has a lot to do with how well tomatoes are doing. It retains moisture, removes hiding paces for damaging insects and at least limits how much any weeds under the plastic can steal nutrients. If the weeds die off, they will actually compost under the plastic and release nutrients back into the soil. 

I planted the watermelon and pumpkin plants out which I started inside. However, moved them out too quickly because daughter and I were leaving for vacation. Now only one watermelon vine survived.

All my cucumber vines started inside died off. I planted more seeds and have some vines coming up now. I'll probably have cucumbers but not for a while. Just going to have to do some work to keep the weeds under control manually around them. 

I'm actually not pushing for a lot from the garden this year besides tomatoes. I may focus more on the fall garden if things are finally controlled by then. I have been spraying more weed killer this year than ever. Just trying to catch the weeds early, so they have no chance to spread more seeds. I will continue with using that through the whole season and hope to need a lot less next year.

Displacement

Here is something which may seem odd. As I plant things in the garden, I am removing soil, grass and weeds and piling it up in the compost pile. Though I did just realize I need to place some black plastic over it, so the grass and weeds don't sprout. Over time, I will rotate contents into the compost tumbler, which reaches higher temperatures. The combination of composting and heat should deactivate the seeds. 

Got out and set up another sprinkler during lunch for the Cosmos and the Wisteria. Also set up a water line for the dog, so it will automatically fill his bowl, like I do each summer. I think it will be more successful this year because the younger dog is gone, who would chew up the water line, leaving it to drain on the ground and leave the dogs thirsty. This dog is smarter than that. I hope. 

Still no luck on the cannabis plants. they seriously attract white flies. I finally gave in and sprayed the hell out of them with poison. See if that helps.

Change of layout

I have decided to make a change of layout in the garden. Today I set the new seedless grape vine in the ground. In the main garden, instead of along the fence. What I want to do is establish an actual (small) orchard. Laying things out in a straight line in the main garden would make it easier to propagate new vines. I'll trim most of the vine runners up higher but leave one or two at the bottom, let them gain some length, bury them in soil until they form roots, then cut the connection to the "mother". No question it will take several years to establish a whole line of vines that way but that's okay.

Hmm. Okay, I just figured out I did something wrong. I set the vine in the ground at the end of the row. Should have done that in the middle. Then I could form two new vines at once instead of one. I'll have to move it. That way I can start with one vine and by the end of the year I'll have at least three. Next year that would increase to five, the following year seven. etc. Then I can keep them well trimmed and the grapes will grow to a good size. 

That doesn't mean I will ignore the grapes along the fences. I'll still extend them. I have kind of an emotional attachment to them now. 

Have to get the watermelon and pumpkin plants in the ground this week. 

White flies

Still having a problem with white flies on indoor plants. They're a huge problem here every year, both inside and out. I'm keeping the office windows closed and have taken to spraying flying insect poison several times a day in there. Tried insecticidal soap but with limited effect.

Problem is that they kill off seedlings until they are large enough to deal with the damage. Of course, they lay eggs and hatch in the soil, so they do damage at least from soil level up. Even those that survive take much longer to mature.

I've had lots of flowers and several cannabis seedlings die off from this. Cannabis seeds are not cheap, at up to $5 per seed. Just trying to get a few plants to maturity, so I can produce more seeds. 

Outdoor tomato plants keep looking better. Most of the varieties I'm growing right now don't tend to grow that tall, maybe 4 ft maximum but they bush out a lot, which they are doing. They have not yet gained enough size that I need to trim them back. I do have a few small tomatoes forming. They'll take a while because all these varieties are large tomatoes. No cherry or grape tomatoes this year. I only grew those for daughter and she has more liking for large tomatoes now and not small ones. That's good because it concurs with my own preference. That is, good if she doesn't eat all of them! Lol! 

Watermelon vines are coming up. I'll get them in the ground as soon as they form some true leaves. I have them outside already, in partial shade so they will adjust more quickly to sunlight. 

Not seeing any carrots in the garden which I planted. Though they can remain hidden for a while. Still a chance for the, since weather has been warm but lots of cloudy days. If seeds had a chance to germinate, they will come up.

Strange thing. The potatoes in the solarium had stopped growing while the cilantro was growing. Now that the cilantro went dormant, the potatoes started growing again! Any way, I removed the cilantro and planted more red potatoes in containers a few minutes ago.

I had been holding off on tying the tomato plants too much but checked closer this evening and wound up having to tie some of them quite a bit.

I do have to do some more revisions of the irrigation and put down more black plastic. The weeds are going wild under the translucent plastic. So, translucent plastic is a definite failure.It has kept the weeds contained so they don't spread but not much else. 

Computer updates

Today so far I am kind of stuck doing computer updates. For a long time the video card channel in my motherboard wasn't working. Computer was function on the native Windows driver, so it was okay for most things. Could not send video to the TV or play computer games. Would overheat the processor with some videos, then I learned even that was only on one browser, so I switched browsers. 

Ordered and installed a new motherboard. Not only did the motherboard not work but it fried my 8 core processor.

So I ordered another motherboard and 6 core processor from a different vendor. Installed that last night but had to install drivers and updates this morning, along with tweaking the system so it works how I want. 

Once I get that done, going to get outside and get some things done. Kind of tired because I woke up sick at 4:30 AM. Mostly passed but slept late and not so energetic today thus far.

Tomato plants are taking off like rockets now! Hundreds of flowers and I saw the first baby tomato of the season yesterday. 

Been testing the soil and it became very alkaline again. Started doing frequent acid treatments at much higher levels than ever before. It's doing some good. 

Cucumbers are still suffering. This is second attempt and several have died off. Maybe I need to get them in the ground instead of containers. Do that today and see how they do. 

This year I am growing cannabis. Mostly in containers but may move some out to the garden once they reach a large enough size to transplant. Then compare how they do. Down side to planting outdoors is that there will be no harvest until fall. Yes, I am licensed on the medical program here. Trying to grow my own because it has the potential to save me thousands of dollars. I'm a really light user and if I get one plant to harvest it would last me several years. 

The blueberry bushes are looking decent. No berries, though. Either need larger containers or get them in the ground. Before I can do that I have to intensely treat and acidify the soil where I'm going to plant them. 

Finally got a living pomegranate bush and a wisteria bush and both are looking good so far. Need to harden them off and get them moved outside, also. 

Finished the garden fence two weekends ago to keep the dog out and provide a trellis for some plants. It looks rather decent! Yay! The footers are each set in concrete, so it should be stable. 

My plan is to build an arbor down at least part of the center of the garden and have grapes and wisteria growing on it. 

All my Gladiolus bulbs seem to be doing well, even after transplanting them out to the garden. 

I now have four red grape vines. Seems when the neighbors installed their privacy fence they buried part of the vine, which formed roots and then turned into new vines. That's funny because these are the same neighbors who killed a green seedless vine while building that fence. Now the four vines are growing across and through the fence! I'm keeping the vine cut back a lot more this year, trying to increase the size of the grapes. But what they did also taught me a method of propagating the vines, since every attempt at growing from cuttings was not working for me. Not sure what I was doing wrong. Doesn't matter. That method will work for a lot of vines and bushes, maybe even trees in some cases. Going to give it a try. Already started an attempt with the green seedless grape vine. 

I have been successfully propagating tomato plants by cuttings. I added 4-5 plants by that method and took four more cuttings this week. They seem to be doing okay so far. Give it a bit more time. 

Got watermelon seeds started this week and they're coming up. Need to get more potting soil and get pumpkin seeds started. I just waited this year. Maybe between starting later plus the plastic on the mounds I can avoid most of the squash bugs this year.