Snowdrop and winter aconite mystery, more planting out

I had planted snowdrop bulbs and winter aconite corms in cedar planter #2 last fall in hopes of seeing a nice display this spring, but the thaw has come and gone I saw nothing but weeds emerge from the soil.

Curiousity got the better of me today and I dug up the contents of the planter only to find that the corms were still bare, hard little marbles, and the bulbs were mushy with no signs of shoots or roots.

I’m not sure why neither bulb nor corm got established, although I strongly suspect that the medium was perhaps a little too heavy for their liking and what roots they did send out in the fall rotted off. Or perhaps it was too cold for them to overwinter in a balcony container, despite mulching them amply.

I have way too many veggie starts for the amount of available planters on my back balcony, so I planted out the remainder of the kale, broccoli, and bok choi in cedar planter #2 after digging in 1/3 cup of dried chicken manure.

I don’t recall what I put in the planter as substrate, but when these veggies mature, I’ll probably end up amending the medium with lots of perlite to lighten it up.

Planting out in the back balcony

The vegetable seedlings hardening off on the front balcony have been getting unreasonably large in their solo cups over the past couple of weeks while I’ve procrastinated on planting them out. I finally went to the Home Despot this morning to gather the necessary supplies.

Each container was filled with Berger BM-1 all-purpose mix (suprisingly cheaper per unit volume than Miracle Gro potting mix) and amended with vermiculite (~ 4 litres for the big containers) and dolomitic lime (~2 cups for the big containers). 1/3 cups of dehydrated chicken manure was mixed into the top 6 inches or so of the mix.

The containers seemed huge when I picked them up through Freecycle, but now that they've been planted, they all seem a little crowded. There's four broccolis (two each of Di Cicco and Purple Peacock) in the 16" container on the left; a bok choi, two Red Russian kales, and a Wakefield cabbage in the middle 19" container; and an orach, a collard, and a Dino kale in the 12" container on the right.

Between the fancy new medium that I made, the crowding, the lack of sun on the balcony (it probably gets 3 or 4 hours of morning sun), and the squirrels and neighbour’s rat-dog that live back there, I’m not sure how the veggies will do. I’m hopeful, though.

I was going to plant out the spinach too - I eat lots and it's the primary reason for this veggie patch - but upon closer inspection, it appears that all of my starts have bolted already. I'm not sure why this would be since it's been cool and wet for most of the spring. Could it be because they are a little rootbound?

Coffee holder to most, plant holder to gardeners

From BalconyGardener.ca

Ladybug sighting

Last week, among the chives, I found this little guy hiding. There are also bumblebees everywhere in the neighbourhood, and monarch butterflies are not far behind. I suppose I ought to start planting my seedlings out soon.

Lithops flowering timelapse

I hope my little guys get big enough to flower eventually.

From Flickr.

Moonflower craziness, seedlings + lithops

I don't know why I was so shocked yesterday when I saw that my moonflower seeds had exploded into growth only 4 short days after planting given what happened last time but I was. This time around, I think I got the moisture level right because there's no white mold. Hopefully, they don't turn purple or get eaten by bugs.

Moonflower top growth

Moonflower bottom growth

Speaking of getting eaten by bugs, here's what nice and healthy bug-free bok choy looks like. Beautiful, isn't it?

In fact, all of my second generation (for 2011) seedlings are pretty healthy looking, although some of the older parts of the stems growth on the orachs and brassicas look a little skinny and weak compared to the newer growth (i.e., thinner at the bottom of the stem than at the top). The transition between skinny and fat at the node where the seed leaves grew from. This could probably be corrected by growing them next time at lower temperatures and with the lights a bit closer after germination.

Second gen seedlings 2011

Di Cicco Broccoli

Red orach

Orach

As for my lithops, they all seem to be doing interesting things. There are nice plump lithops and then there are wrinkly-looking guys. Some are changing colours, others are retreating into the ground, and yet others ... are they supposed to look like that?

Is this normal?

Violets in the hood

There are huge patches of these violets flowering in yards, empty lots — everywhere in the 'hood.

Potting up long-taprooted seedlings

I spent this and last weekend potting up most of my seedlings. Some were more difficult than others.

For example, Pulsatilla and strawberry seedlings have extremely long and delicate taproots (in the picture, the roots are almost 4 inches long, while the above-ground portion of the prairie crocus less than 0.5 inches tall). Any side branches of the main taproot are pretty sparse. This makes transplanting them rather difficult. The long taproot tends to anchor the seedlings very solidly in the medium while the unit is in the cell, but once extracted, any medium crumbles away immediately. Damaging the roots or stem is easy if the extraction and repotting process isn’t done with care.

Next year, if I do sow these seeds, I’ll probably start them in-situ rather than in seedling packs.

I was weak

Impulse purchases from a flower stand next to the métro:

With a very few exceptions (well, one, and it's the lemon thyme in the second pic), I promised myself to only grow from seed this year. What makes this worse is that I have already started my own semps from seed :P

Hopefully my from-seed semps are not green or red when they grow up.

In bloom

Crocuses and scilla (?) are up at the neighbours'

Amidst the thickets in the park across the street, guerilla gardened TULIPS. How crazy is that?

Red gem marigold in the germination station couldn't wait to bloom

Violacea pallida from Vesey's described as brilliant white pointed petals with bright blue base ...

... Which is pretty much the opposite of what I got. Boo Veseys!

They were supposed to look like this.