walked the garden - its wet and steamy out there already. Heavy dew this morning.
Yesterday we planted one more patch of carrots - a red type we grew last year. We have a different red type we purchased this year, but wanted to try this one once more. The patch is only about 1.5' x 4' - and depending on germination, we might get a decent few from this patch. Decent germination overall for all varieties at this point - some better than others.
I took these two pics a few weeks ago - but it shows how different environments impact carrots (here in Ohio, anyway).
Bed 1 in full sun. soil prepped and direct seeded. A little hay to keep in moisture. Watered 2-3x prepay to keep them moist. The bed drains well, so it was not too much water.
Bed 11: My tomato bed, and I always plant carrots in with the tomatoes. These carrot seeds were planted 1 whole week later than the above ones!
Overall, the carrots seem to like moisture and some shade. In the top pic, it is easy to see there was better growth closer to the plants behind bc they got some shade.
So, this year we have planted 12 varieties of carrots! Here are the varieties (no color mentioned indicates it is an orange carrot).
1. Amarillo (yellow)
2. Black Nebula (purple/black)
3. Kyoto Red (red)
4. Nutri-Red (red)
5. Yaya
6. Naval
7. Nantes Supreme
8. Nantes half-long
9. New Kuroda
10. Danvers 126
11. St. Valery (free seed from Baker Creek)
12. Imperator 58 (free seed from Ohio Victory Garden Program)
Certainly I am hopeful of having a variety of carrots!
I hate the stupid squash bugs and cucumber beetles. We are still finding a few Japanese beetles, but I took two of the traps down, and the third will come down today or tomorrow (whenever I remember). One squash (not under cover) looks like it might have been hit by SVB. I'm waiting to see the frass as I'm not completely sure.
And here is an interesting comparison. Sauce tomatoes. I have 6 plants planted. Three are San Marzano and three are "Super Sauce" from Burpee. Both started from seed on same date and transplanted in garden on same date. The Super Sauce seem to be a little like the meat chicken of the sauce tomato world. It is definitely focusing its energy on tomato production, rather than wild growth. It is a Roma type according to the packaging, so that may also be contributing, and it might be a determinate, but the website doesn't specify. All three SS plants are smaller than the San Marz. They are all producing large tomatoes. Time will tell how they ripen and taste - Never grown them before.
Here is a closeup of the Super Sauce. The San Marz are only just beginning to produce, so not much to photograph.
. At least the veggies got a good bit of watering and weeds will be easy to pull. Does anyone know a good treatment for dusty mildew? After this it's probably going to attack my cucumbers
However, he needs that truck bed empty for work. Yesterday we had also received a new narrow twin mattress (we each need different surfaces to sleep on and this one is mine now) and it came in a heavy duty plastic bag. We stuffed as much hay in the bag as we could fit and tied it shut nice and tight, shoved hay in the nesting boxes, and I still had enough at that point to cover one of the two big beds and one of the smaller boxes.
