Below are the Golden Sweet Pea seedlings and the Little Snappea Crunch seedlings hardened off and ready to be transplanted into the garden.
The Golden Sweet Pea seedlings were quite tall and leggy so decided, as an experiment, to trim about 1/3 off some of the seedlings before transplanting them into the ground. What effect would the trimming have on the growth and the yield?
Pea Seedlings
The Golden Sweet Pea seedlings are the back row in the above photo. The 2 containers on the left were trimmed. All the seedlings were transplanted into the garden on 4/16/2016.
Trimmed Golden Sweet Pea Seedlings
Each of the trimmed seedling sent out 3 – 4 side shoots at the base of every plant (2 seedlings with side shoots in the above photo).
Untrimmed Golden Sweet Pea Seedlings
The untrimmed seedlings (4 seedlings with side shoots in the above photo). remain a single stem and did not send out any side shoots.
Now I must wait to see what happens next. Will the untrimmed seedlings flower first? Shall keep you posted.
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Continuing my carrot transplanting experiment for another year. The carrot seedlings in the photo below were sown in a 6-inch deep container on 2/23/2016.
Left: 3 untrimmed roots. Right: 3 trimmed roots
Before transplanting into the ground I trimmed off the lower section of each root.
Trimmed seedlings were very easy to transplant and all went in straight as an arrow.
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Below is a section of my potato patch hoping to find time this week to hill the plants.
Potato Patch
This year I am growing All Blue, Adirondack Blue, Adirondack Red and Fingerlings.
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I usually plant the German White Garlic in one bed and the Duganski Garlic in another. This time I decided to plant them in the same bed for size comparison. Below photo is one of the 2 beds I planted. As you can see the plants of the German White are much more robust than the Duganski. Reason: the cloves of the German White are 2 – 3 times larger than the Duganski.
Click here to see the difference and to learn more about both varieties, about green garlic and about garlic scape.
Back rows: German White Garlic. Front rows: Duganski Garlic
Both the German White and the Duganski are hard neck garlic. I am looking forward to harvesting garlic scapes around the end of this month.
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Was invited to lunch and decided to surprise my friend with lettuce from my window boxes.
The heads were not huge can you believe there are 4 heads in the basket.
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First tree peony bloom for the season.
Tree Peony (this flower is described as crepe-textured)
I now have a total of 16 tree peonies, still looking for a white. Click here to view part of my collection.
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I always love seeing your peonies Norma. So beautiful! I wonder if ours at home has bloomed. Everything is looking well. The garlic especially!
Hello Kristy,
The tree peonies are always early the deciduous peonies are just budding. What are the colors of your peonies back home?
Ours are white. They are so pretty. I just wish they lasted longer. 🙂
Hello Kristy,
I am still looking for a white tree peony, saw photo of a black tree peony but did not want to spend the money.
Apical dominance – it’s one of the few new concepts I learned in MG class and still remember. Your pruned and unpruned pea seedlings are a great example.
Hello Mary,
I don’t remember that concept from my MG class, need to Google to learn.
How lovely seeing all your young vegetables – Spring really is with you now. And I love the Peony, Norma
Hello Carina,
We are finally getting some warm weather, hope it is here to stay, the nights are still cool and there is still the danger of frost.
That peony is really beautiful! Those pea seedlings are so strong and healthy!
Hello Angie,
Tree peonies flowers are gorgeous but the blooms do not last very long.
That tree peony is lovely Norma! I found a few garlic scapes just now showing on one of my early garlics (Xian). Like you I am looking forward to them, and it won’t be too much longer.
Hello Dave,
Thanks, it is gorgeous but do not last long.
What a fun experiment with the peas! I”m a bit risk averse for experiments as I’m still just learning the basics.
Your potatoes look fantastic, I’m quite a bit behind you on those and don’t even have all of them in the ground yet.
Hello Susie,
Looking forward to the result of my experiment, will post and update. I believe it is much colder where you are.
Your garlic beds are looking great. And I love that you transplant peas and carrots. The peas have put on a lot of growth in just a couple weeks.
I’m just getting ready to pot up the eggplant and peppers into bigger containers, it’ll be a few weeks before they can get planted since there’s tons of rain forecasted.
Hello Phuong,
You sure are getting lots of rain, hope you can get your eggplant and peppers into the ground soon.
Peony are my favourite, so pretty!
Tis winter here, so will be stalking your garden for the next few months.
Hello Anna,
Some of my tree peonies are early bloomers some are late bloomers and some are in between, thus giving me an extended period of enjoyment. Then it is my deciduous peonies turn to bloom, they too are gorgeous. Do you have severe winters?
I love how fragrant and beautiful your peonies are. You have quite the collection. My mom used to have peonies passes on from her great great grandma. You have such a green thumb!!!
Hello Bam,
Yes, I add to my collection of tree peonies every year, they are not only beautiful but low maintenance also. I still have quite a collection of deciduous peonies they bloom after the tree peonies.
I love peony and do have a plant but they are short lived like tulips.Like you I am also looking for white peony. sometimes its hard to find particular variety. last month I searched every nursery of my city to find Snow June dogwood tree (cornus controversa), couldn’t find anywhere, had to take Cornus Kousa. It does have white flowers, looks beautiful but not what I wanted.
Thank you so much for sharing all this wonderful information about gardening. One question when you transplant carrots in the ground how much do you trim?
Hello Balvinder,
I have a Kousa dogwood, it is so beautiful when in full bloom, I am told the fruits are edible but I a coward and will not try.
If you look closely at the baby carrots in the post you can see where it tapers off quite a bit that is where I trim, you could trim less but then you need to be very sure that the root goes in straight otherwise you will end up with crocked carrots.
Really! when my tree will fruit, I’ll remember to try. So you mean about 2″ depending on the size and length of carrot.
I grew radish in planters but it didn’t grew any larger than a olive and started to flower on top. Any ideas?
Hello Balvinder,
Apologize for the delay in replying to your radish question. I am guessing it could be the weather was too hot. Radish is a cool-season crop. Another reason could be crowding, did you thin your seedlings?
Beautiful!
Hello Austin,
Thanks, a compliment from you means a lot to me.
There is a lot happening in your beloved beautiful garden! I love 3 peony’s too,…we have 1 plant in white! Your carrot seedlings & pea seedlings are doing great, I see! x
Hello Sophie,
We are finally getting warm weather this week (though the night are still quite cold) plants are finally getting some warmth and growing well.
Over here too!
🙂
Love seeing all these vegetables go in the ground! Peas were planted here, carrots will be in the next week. Hoping next week finally starts “no frost worry” weeks!
Hello Pamela,
Looking forward to seeing the progress of your “farm”.
My mad scientist friend…your garden is growing wonderfully. I always enjoy seeing what you are experimenting with lately. 🙂
Hello Karen,
I do enjoy experimenting.
Your Mad scientist friend 🙂
Your garden is an inspiration and that peony is stunning!
Hello Betsy,
Thanks.
What a beautiful peony. I do love how green everything is and how well everything is growing. Garlic and potatoes and sweet peas and lettuce etc – all fabulous xx
Hello Charlie,
Thanks. I think the cold unpredictable weather has finally departed and we are enjoying hot weather.
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