That sucks, hopefully they recover! 
I only recently learned about heating pads for seed starting, they seem like a game changer. I may pick one up soonish to try out with a lid to make a little mini-greenhouse.
This is the ultimate combination. Unfortunately I ran out of space so I hat to take off the dome for some of the plants that were pushing against it, otherwise the little guys would have been spared.
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Have you tried steaming the earth (not sure if it’s the right term) after mixing it? Basically means sterilise the potting mix with heat. Since I started doing it issues with growing fungi have been minimized or plants get old enough to withstand them.
Any special reason for not putting them on the windowsill?
I read about that recently but haven’t tried it yet myself. I may do so in the future to prevent the die off I got this time.
Also I had these on the windowsill for a while but I’ve found that my seedlings tend to get really leggy when I try that. Even though the window is south facing I guess they don’t get enough light there. Hence the grow light to help out.
July 2022
Realized I posted an update in the wrong thread a while ago, oops. Here’s a quick update for July:
Onions
I have started harvesting and curing some of our onions. This was my first year planting them, and I learned a lot. Mainly that they don’t like full sun + I should’ve planted them a tad deeper. But we still got a good crop and there’s more to pull soon.
What they look like in the dirt as their tops fall over:
Curing in the basement:
If anyone has any hot onion curing tips, I’m all ears. My understanding is that they just need to be a dry cool environment for a few weeks to toughen up so they’ll be storage-ready but ???
Wildflowers
Kinda a mixed bag on the sunflowers and wildflowers this year as well. I tilled up the dirt in a few areas but didn’t mix any compost or other amendments when sowing my seeds. I had a very low germination rate, unfortunately (I also think I ended up feeding the birds more than anything lol).
Squash
In better news, I have successfully combated the squash bugs this year by picking them off and drowning them in soapy water. No incursions on the plants to speak of right now! We are starting to get some nice butternut squash forming, and the pumpkins are blooming too.
MegaLettuce
I am letting some of the lettuce I grew in the spring go to seed to replant in the fall. It makes a really neat tower formation. It feels very Dr.Seuss!
Tomatoes
And of course, I have tomatoes growing too. The tomatoes had a brief episode of blossom end rot that I corrected with a mix of crushed up tums + eggshells + garden sulphur. I removed the affected fruit so the plant wouldn’t put any more energy into them, and the problem seems to be corrected on new fruit now!
Corn
The corn is finally starting to create ears on some of the stalks! I am hoping that the wind will pollinate them so I don’t have to hand-pollinate like when I grew them in containers. Fingers crossed.
Harvests
And finally, a look at some of my harvests thus far. Homemade pickles (still refining crunchiness levels), wild blackberries (still lots of those to harvest), first tomatoes and cucumbers. I’m hoping to get potatoes up soonish as well-- though I’ve been fighting some potato beetles on them, so we’ll see how that goes.
Bonus forgotten update: I also tried my hand at pickling my radish harvest a couple weeks ago. These were a lot more crispy than the cucumber pickles, so far I think I like them a bit better:
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I want to get more into wall garden hydroponics. Stuff that’s containable and no flooding mess. Things that improve indoor air quality. Thoughts? Suggestions?
Not sure if it’s something you’ve done before
I usually buy seeds from local greenhouses or hardware stores in the spring; for example, I bought two packets of spinach this spring, but only planted one. Now I have a packet I can use in the fall without having to scramble looking for more. But a lot of times places like Tractor Supply will carry fall crop seeds even if you don’t do this.
I’m still new to seed saving, but my understanding is that a lot of produce from the grocery will actually reproduce just fine; though it might take longer to sprout or be a little less robust. For example, I usually replant green onions I buy, and that works reasonably well for a couple months before I have to rebuy. We also had a volunteer tomato pop up in our yard this year, likely from a tomato that got dropped by one of our nieces at a cookout the year before lol.
But in some cases, you have to be careful about regrowing stuff from the store. Like with potatoes, you want to use true seed potatoes from a greenhouse, and not just sprouted ones from the store; because store potatoes might be carrying something like blight which can affect your soil for a couple seasons if it gets into it.
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I don’t do a lot of indoor gardening, unfortunately, outside of the herb garden and a couple potted trees. My husband wants to get into hydroponics but we haven’t started a setup yet.
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So I was just curious and I look forward to your guys’s venture into hydroponics as well. In any case, I know it’s not really related to your garden, but I found this podcast very interesting and it’s about space plants and whether or not we can adapt plants to the space, environments and space soils that we are going to be dealing with. And I think for anybody interested in gardening, this is fairly interesting
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Late July 2022, Harvests + Preservation
Some quick updates, we’re really getting into harvest season now:
I am swamped with tomatoes, so this weekend I pulled out the dehydrator. Three full trays worth yielded an alright amount of tomato powder, I will probably continue dehydrating any straggler tomatoes we get throughout the season.
I also canned some salsa for the first time. The tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, and onions all came from our garden-- only had to buy the garlic!
In progress.
All done! No worries about the one on the front left having incorrect headspace, that’s the leftover jar. We’re eating it now and not storing it!
And finally-- some fresh corn!
I’ve come a long way…
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I don’t have a garden to speak of, but I can imagine it’s quite the milestone to be able to eat your own homegrown, homemade meal. Enjoy!
We do get sweet corn from the farmer’s market and it is really getting good lately.
You have come a long way indeed!! Your pictures inspired me to make a cup of coffee!
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Corn has been good this year around here too.
“Tomato powder” thats awesome. Almost dehydrated water.
The garden tour video on Floatplane reminded me of these plants. Dog for scale.
The one on the left is probably 20ish years old and was rescued from a friend’s basement that got very little light. It’s only marginally better in our living room, but I’m hoping to rehabilitate it.
The middle one and one on the the right that creeps to the left are essentially rescue plants. My mom gave me some trimmings that fit in a gallon freezer bag about 8 years ago. They were very crooked and difficult to grow straight.
The close up is from the pot on the right- the sprouts reminded me of the tree in your video. The plan is to trim it above the shoots and hope that it grows more normally.
These are normally indoor plants, but I’m giving them some summer sun to help get them healthy enough to trim.
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Awesome! The tree has a ton of dead old growth on it near the top, but we weren’t sure if it would help or hurt to trim it back. The very top and bottom are starting to get new growth now that we’ve moved it outside (and away from Cricket’s claws). I’ll have to see about trimming it some.
Tore out all the old stumps out of my yard this weekend should put me where I want to be for next season for starting some permaculture.
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That is pretty much it. Once you do that, they will last for months. Mine lasted about 7 months.
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I’m mostly in harvest season right now so not a lot of updates on the plant side of things, and it’s still a bit too warm to plant anything for Fall. But I did buy some cute mushroom lights for the garden…
Also got a little patio fountain which I’m low key obsessed with.
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Mid August Updates!
Tomato and Pepper Soup
Harvest season is upon us. My husband turned this:
into tomato and pepper soup:
10/10 very delicious. Still eating on it this week. We also made some tomato sauce but it’s already almost gone lol.
Sad Squashes
With all the heavy rain the last few weeks, we’ve been struggling with powdery mildew on the pumpkins. I’m not sure they’ll pull through, but I think we will get at least one harvest:
My lone pumpkin and the bane of my existence, frickin’ crab grass.
Baby butternut squash. This has actually produced really well against all odds, we have a lot of these stocked up in our pantry right now.
Removing Cucumbers, Sowing Fall Greens
My cucumbers were on their last legs, so I removed them and made room for some cooler weather crops: lettuce, spinach, and brussel spouts:
I also noticed some new seedlings where the old lettuce was. If you watched the patreon/floatplane garden tour, you’ll know I let my spring lettuce go to seed-- and it’s paying off!
Pollinator Garden
And finally, I have started some work on a pollinator garden space on the side of the food garden. I had sunflowers planted here for most of the summer, but as they’ve been dying back, I wanted to do something a little more permanent. The flowers selected for this new bed are perennial, which means they should come back year after year; I currently have coreopsis and veronica growing in here (along with a bird bath!). I need to get some proper mulch but the hay works fine for now.
Also, as an aside, if you are in Zone 6/Kentucky, you might check out this resource for ideas on how to plan pollinator gardens. It’s a great guide! Plant by numbers | City of Lexington
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Happy September! The state of KY is having a tree sale if you are into that kind of scene: https://secure.kentucky.gov/InventoryServices/Forestry/Seedlings
(Mainly putting this link here so I don’t forget next year)
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