Under The Quinoa Rainbow

Throughout the season quinoa has proven to be a top performer, a plant I intend on growing wherever/whenever I have the chance to garden. The plants I grew this summer exceeded my expectations, growing twice as tall (about 8' instead of 4') as the seed package stated. The bushy seed clusters at the top of each plant exhibit a wide array of variability, at least as far as colors are concerned. A quick glance down the row reveals an unexpected explosion of color, from red, orange, yellow and beige (typically sold in stores). With the advent of fall the seed clusters are nearing harvest time, after the first frost.

Thinning

On Wednesday I helped Christian with the thinning of some of the seedlings from his winter garden. All plants require different spacing, so it's best to follow the directions stated on the seed packet. The plants we thinned were kale, collards, and arugula. When thinning it's best to grab firmly at the base, near the soil, so that you have the best chance of pulling up the entire thing, roots and all, in one tug.

A view of the rows prior to thinning

Thinning should be undertaken once the seedlings are 2-3 inches tall, once they are fairly well established but before they begin to compete with their neighbors for water and nutrients from the surrounding soil. When possible, cull the weakest performing plants and leave the ones that seem to be growing the strongest.

Christian thins the collards

The thinned row

The importance of thinning cannot be overstated. If plants are left in overcrowded rows, the individual plants will never reach their full potential, and rather than having fewer, stronger, full grown specimens you will be left with too many scraggly, etiolated plants fiercely competing for the same resources.

In the case of greens such as the ones we thinned, the thinned plants can even be put to good use in a salad or perhaps on a sandwich. We chose the former, and was it ever delicious.

Powdery Mildew

A delightful little fungus called powdery mildew has graciously decided to descend upon my garden in these final days of the growing season. The plants affected, members of the cucurbit family, include my zucchini, yellow squash, and the pumpkins.

The infection tends to occur when conditions involve a combination of high humidity around the plant and water that collects on the leaves and is not dried off in a timely manner. Warm days and cool nights (typical Pacific Northwest conditions) encourage its growth. For an idea of what the infection looks like, imagine someone coated the leaves of your plant with a fine dusting of flour, or the first glimmering frost of winter to come has settled upon their normally green surface. Here's a glimpse of the affected yellow squash:
Not a pretty sight

Had I arrived at this plant sooner, I would probably have had a good shot of containing the fungus. By this point the plant is almost entirely covered in the dusty, white spores. The best treatment is of course prevention; growing in as sunny a spot as possible, not crowding the plants to allow adequate ventilation, and, even when the disease arises in spite of following these guidelines (as it did for me) eliminate the infected regions as soon as they are noticed.

With the exception of a few new leaves still green with new growth, this plant looks pretty sickly. Though it's late in the season, it may have a chance to produce a few more fruits, so I decided to perform a drastic surgery to try to eradicate the powdery mildew. My tool of choice: a sharp pair of scissors.

As I said, a pretty drastic procedure, but the infected leaves seem to be dealt with. As the season goes on, I will continue to monitor the plant to check for the return of the mildew, but for now it should be safe.

Christian's Garden: Revisited

In the past week Christian has seen the germination of his final row of seeds, the carrots. All of his other crops have made some fairly decent strides in their rate of growth, despite the shortening of the photoperiod. With the advent of autumn comes a shortening of the day's length. It also means the sun's position in the sky will be progressively lower until the winter solstice on December 21. For his plants this means that less available light will slow their growth to a barely distinguishable crawl, however they will keep growing. In the meantime, crops hoping to overwinter successfully will need to grow to an appreciable size before the weather turns too cold. Christian's garden should fare well considering we still have a decent month (fingers crossed) of relatively pleasant weather ahead of us. His garden's proximity to the Puget Sound should also soften some of winter's more brutal effects.

From left to right: beets, spinach, leeks, carrots

Kale in the foreground, followed by arugula and endive

Holy Tomato!

Just a quick post to show off a tomato grown by my parents. A massive heirloom variety that weighed in at just over two pounds. As it grew it pulled the branch it had grown on to the ground despite my parents efforts to tie the branch up with a bamboo stake for support.



Mom with the tomato for scale

Just for fun (and to live vicariously) here's the first fruit on an eggplant I gave them to plant in their garden:

Lookin' good!

September bounty

Did a bit of harvesting from the garden yesterday. Production has reached a seasonal high and until the first frost it will only be a matter of keeping up with eating it all or finding a home for the extra produce. Tomatoes have yielded the best so far, and surprisingly, the beans keep on going. I was forced to cut down the sunflower head after I noticed that something had begun to nibble at the edges of the seeds. I later discovered a squirrel running down the stalk, dismayed probably at having his easy source of seeds taken away.

Also, to my delight, I realized all was not lost on the eggplant front. A separate plant I had hidden in the empty cold frame had survived the raccoons plundering and had reached a rather respectable size, now ripe for the picking. All in all a good day to be a gardener.