Wanted: one garden
Jun. 26th, 2007 18:33![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillThe perfect storm that was this spring has eliminated my garden for this year. I've already given up on it.
I was moderately busy with school. When I wasn't busy with school, I was sick. A lot. When I wasn't either focused on school or sick, I was trying in vain to catch up on all the other crap I had been unable to do because (all together now) I was busy with school or sick.
The result: I have three plots of popcorn and a couple of beds of tomatoes, and a prepped bed for the sweet potatoes. The sweet potato slips have finally gone into a glass of water to root; I don't think I have enough season left for them, but I'll try anyway, so long as they don't fry when I put them out. Four of my six tomatoes did fry, leaving me with a Vorlon and (I think) a Wisconsin 55 Gold. As for the corn....
When the first plot started to tassel, I went out and hit it with insecticidal soap to kill the resident earwigs, since they love to clip the silks so short the ears won't pollinate. The soap was apparently too old, and damaged the plants, an effect which I had never heard of before. Now they're silking, but 1) the damage affected the tassel stems, so there aren't many viable tassels to speak of, and 2) after the damage occurred I stopped spraying, so the damn things are so infested with earwigs that there aren't any silks left. I may get a handful of kernels out of the whole batch, though I'm not sure it's worth shucking all the dud ears to find them.
The other plot was young enough that all but two of the plants look like they have normal tassels, or near enough. The damaged two may not make it at all. I can live with that, though I'll have to (cautiously) spray with (new) soap soon to allow the silks to have a chance. The first plot was another first-gen selection set, so I don't lose a lot there, just random variants... the second plot is a second-gen selection, but nothing really special or rare, just what I'm hoping will be a general-purpose variant. I have lots of seed to try again next year.
The third plot is a few inches high and has enough plants to keep going with. That's the important one, the burgundy-tassel alpha and beta selections, neither of which is what I'm looking for by itself but which together may yield something worth breeding into the general line. I really want that burgundy tassel, and if I can combine it with the kernel color and shape of the general line, I'll be very happy.
Again, it's nothing that I can't re-do next year -- and if I get much further along in the season before planting summer squash I may have to wait a year for the seed increase on the zukes too -- but I can't tell you how really fucking discouraging it is to look out there right now. I'm putting a little of my energy into the Market Garden until August, since at least that's something green and growing... but I'm never quite right without a garden of my own, and I just don't have one this year.
Maybe if the heat holds off, and if I get a little bit of energy... but it's too painful to look at.
I was moderately busy with school. When I wasn't busy with school, I was sick. A lot. When I wasn't either focused on school or sick, I was trying in vain to catch up on all the other crap I had been unable to do because (all together now) I was busy with school or sick.
The result: I have three plots of popcorn and a couple of beds of tomatoes, and a prepped bed for the sweet potatoes. The sweet potato slips have finally gone into a glass of water to root; I don't think I have enough season left for them, but I'll try anyway, so long as they don't fry when I put them out. Four of my six tomatoes did fry, leaving me with a Vorlon and (I think) a Wisconsin 55 Gold. As for the corn....
When the first plot started to tassel, I went out and hit it with insecticidal soap to kill the resident earwigs, since they love to clip the silks so short the ears won't pollinate. The soap was apparently too old, and damaged the plants, an effect which I had never heard of before. Now they're silking, but 1) the damage affected the tassel stems, so there aren't many viable tassels to speak of, and 2) after the damage occurred I stopped spraying, so the damn things are so infested with earwigs that there aren't any silks left. I may get a handful of kernels out of the whole batch, though I'm not sure it's worth shucking all the dud ears to find them.
The other plot was young enough that all but two of the plants look like they have normal tassels, or near enough. The damaged two may not make it at all. I can live with that, though I'll have to (cautiously) spray with (new) soap soon to allow the silks to have a chance. The first plot was another first-gen selection set, so I don't lose a lot there, just random variants... the second plot is a second-gen selection, but nothing really special or rare, just what I'm hoping will be a general-purpose variant. I have lots of seed to try again next year.
The third plot is a few inches high and has enough plants to keep going with. That's the important one, the burgundy-tassel alpha and beta selections, neither of which is what I'm looking for by itself but which together may yield something worth breeding into the general line. I really want that burgundy tassel, and if I can combine it with the kernel color and shape of the general line, I'll be very happy.
Again, it's nothing that I can't re-do next year -- and if I get much further along in the season before planting summer squash I may have to wait a year for the seed increase on the zukes too -- but I can't tell you how really fucking discouraging it is to look out there right now. I'm putting a little of my energy into the Market Garden until August, since at least that's something green and growing... but I'm never quite right without a garden of my own, and I just don't have one this year.
Maybe if the heat holds off, and if I get a little bit of energy... but it's too painful to look at.
