#dill town

[cowonaverse]

[cowonaverse]

Green County Update

So much happening!  The big news is things have moved outside onto the back porch(!) But I’ll get to that in a moment.

GHOST TOWNS: Sadly, and surprisingly, Lentil Town is no more.  They were one of the first two things to respond to this whole effort.  When we tried germinating all the whole seeds in the house, both the lentils and mustard seeds sprouted overnight. They grew quickly, easily, and vigorously for the first month and then slow and steadily stalled and withered one by one.  It could be not enough light, but I don’t think so.  It could have been the soil.  Or who knows really.  I feel badly that they went away, but I am planning another effort with them in a hanging pot now that we are outside (more on that later!)

Also, y’all pray for Brussels Sprout Town.  They too have been some Day 1 homies that boomed and then slowly bust over time.  There is just one left, and it’s looking mightly sad.  It is also Outside and hopefully will perk up, but as the last of it’s kind I am trying to prepare for the worst.

Similarly, Radish Town is down to one healthy looking sprout and two sad attendants.  They were always strange in that they grew quickly and tall but then never developed further.  Again, hopefully being Outside will change things, but I have plans to start them over.

In general, all the Ghost Towns will be tried again in this new summer era of outdoors in sun.  I will be writing more about this, as I have some thoughts.

CHICK PEA TOWN: I’ve been swirling in depression and neglecting the updates, because I meant to announce that there were flowers(!) starting to appear in Chick Pea Town.  And more and more appearing each day.  Today I finally work up the spoons to post about it and I see additionally see that there are TWO(2) ACTUAL FUCKING PEAPODS now hanging off the vines.  From my studies, a typical pod will house 2-3 chick peas, so that means at least 4 beans are on the make.  And right now I’m counting 9 more flowers, which should mean nine more pods.  This is the start of the bell curve for this situation so I’m looking forward to more development.  I heaped more good dirt around the whole chick pea plot to give them more food and means to hold onto water while this is going on.

My understanding is that you don’t harvest the pods individually unless you want fresh green chick peas.  For more traditional beans you let the plant go as far as it can and even die off, harvesting the whole plant at once.  So this will be a long haul that ends in a final reaping of Chick Pea Town sometime later this season.

BASIL TOWN: The basil plant in the kitchen started failing a few weeks ago.  It came in a pot but started looking dour so it was snipped and placed into an empty olive oil bottle.  I don’t know if there was some problem with that, or soap residue from cleaning or what, but all the roots tarnished and it looked awful.  Some of the upper parts still seemed okay.  So I snipped it into three and set each bit into fresh water and fresh bottles.  They are all recovered and now we have three basil plants. Presto.

DILL TOWN: It could seem like Dill Town is struggling, but it’s doing okay.  After all that boom and growth and floppy failing and overcrowding, I’m now down to three rather sturdy looking little plants and a few stragglers that sprouted late to the party.  I tried another less crowded pot of dill that is currently also showing some frail sprouts wobbling upwards.  They are just so fragile and weak. I have no idea if that’s normal or not, but I have to say that I’m not impressed.  Anyway, it all looks precarious for Dill Town, but there are signs of turn around and real growth happening.

CARROT TOWN: Doing well, some got moved to Outside into a planter as a test, but  most are still inside and thriving. Going to harvest a bushel of greens today for more tabouli, yum! Carrot Town is an institution now, along with the chick peas.

LETTUCE TOWN: Calamity. The two towers of lettuce that were once so emblematic of good growth and thriving have been revealed as in trouble all along.  A few days ago, I came in to see the left lettuce had simply tipped over.  I had them placed up high out of the way since they seemed to be doing so well, but what I didn’t know as a result was that the base of the stem on the left was rotting out.  The lowest inch was mush while the rest of the plant still looked great and hardy.  I snipped off the rot and put the rest into water to see if it can be salvaged.  This is day three of that and the leaves are looking slightly sad, but things are still greed, I dunno what can be possible.  The saddest part is that tip of the stalk shows the first openings of a flower.

Not only that, but the remaining right lettuce, which is equally visibly thriving, upon closer inspection seems to have suffered some sort of blight or issue along the way.  There are tiny weeping lesions along the stalk, leaking amber fluid that have since hardened.  It’s frankly disgusting and I wouldn’t eat any part of the plant now.  However, it was on the sunny side of the plant facing away to the window, so I didn’t notice it until up close inspecting the fallen left stalk.  The lesions occur halfway up the stalk, above and below it is fresh green again, so I dunno if that means this was an issue from a while ago and moving them up into more light cleared this up or if it is an ongoing problem.  I would be more concerned if they were still wet and active, but they seem like old news that slipped notice. 

My research suggests this may be a mosaic virus, as it looks consistent with the description. If so, there is nothing to be done about it.  More issues out of my control.

[cowonaverse]

Dill Town News

Meanwhile, the initial tangled mass of dill sprouted need some attention.  Some were already dying off, while others are now showing actual mature leaves peeking that look like dill(!)

So I sat down with some tweezers and carefully groomed out the matted mess. I plucked the failed sprouts and thinned the group down to about half size.  Those that came out tangled with the failed sprouts but still looked viable I sorted into their own little pot for a second chance.  Sooooo many popped out of the ground and I really don’t need them all to finalize into a plant, so will see how it goes. I may need to thin out the ranks again in a week or so to keep the hardiest going.

[cowonaverse]

From left to right:

Dill grown from seeds that Saul bought when he realized I was serious about this and saw some initial results after the first week.  He is a practical person and needs a foundation for optimism.  After I managed to sprout and grow some mustard seeds from our pantry and had some other initial successes he went all in on the project and ordered some seeds and dirt and such.  I didn’t want to squander fancy bought seeds before I had more experience, so I asked him to pick from the purchased collection and I would try to grow those first.  If successful we could commit to using the rest.  He picked dill because he likes it quite a bit.  I looked up information on how to grow it and followed the directions.  It looks like this(!) and not like dill.  That will come later, this is how it looks right out of the seed for a few weeks.  It’s happy and low maintenance, just water and full sun.  When they look more stable and I see mature development, I’ll consider them a success and move on to other bought seeds.

The small stem in the window was a random cutting from a flower in our front yard from last November.  I was anticipating going into winter and the usual seasonal affect disorder and depression and all that bullshit.  Plus the anxiety of what was going on generally and politically.  Winter was going to come snatch up everything and kill it so I clipped this little green stem, one of the last still visible in the yard and stuck it into water.  It didn’t grow, but it didn’t die either.  No roots or visible development - but it looks exactly the same now six months later.  I keep it watered and in the window.  I don’t know what to do with it, it doesn’t seem to know either.  It looks a little ragged, but that’s how it looked in the front yard too.  I have no idea if it will bloom or grow roots, at this point it doesn’t seem inclined to do anything but persist.  With every other experience I’ve learned that you are either growing or dying.  It is strange and I’m still waiting for it to do something.

The lanky black bean plant on the right is a survivor from Freddie’s first attack.  It was the tallest happiest healthiest talk out of the beans that sprouted and the first real proof that we could possibly grow our own food.  It was completely severed at the base of the stalk from the roots and I didn’t know what to do.  I put it into dirt and water immediately but expected it to die.  It hasn’t, and now seems fully recovered though it was very slow to do so.  I’m keeping it as is for now and am reluctant to adjust it in any way.  Freddie seems to target the black beans specifically and has always mangled them each time he’s managed to get in the room.  I keep them now as a decoy plant because they take the hit from his incursions and give me time to catch him and toss him out before he wrecks the other plants.  So they aren’t exactly doing well, but still living.  I have low expectations from them now aside from this value.  However this survivor seems to be doing well.  To add it back with the rest seems cruel now, knowing this might doom it.  I am negotiating a specific relationship with it as a protected entity.  It’s not just a crop now, but something I chose to help and save after my own failing to protect it from harm.