What I learned this year

So here is my running list!

1.  I plant way too much lettuce.  But I love it.  

2.  Spinach still eludes me....

3.  My labeling method is really unreliable.  No tomatoes or peppers ended up labeled...need to work on this 

4.  Wow!  Pickling type of cukes are SUPER prolific!  

5.  I love zucchini!  First year, can you believe it? 

6.  Need to rotate the south annex; SVBs are in that soil (mix) and did impact production, although not hugely

7.  Still love my Yukon Gold taters!

8. Strawberry bed was a joy!

And I am sure more to come!  Every year is different.  Such a wet spring...

Scorpio Rising wrote:So here is my running list!

3.  My labeling method is really unreliable.  No tomatoes or peppers ended up labeled...need to work on this

Labeling is surprisingly problematic. It takes time to make good, informative labels and then they can get washed out by the rain or faded out by the sun or lost under foliage. And if your plants don't come up, you have to start all over. My best approach so far for physical labels is to use plastic yogurt containers cut up into 1.5" strips and sharpened on the end.. Rough up the top part with sand paper. Then write with a black grease pencil or an actual pencil (A blackwing pencil is great for this). What I learned was not to use red pen or sharpies -- they'll fade to nothing over summer.

One of the features I like about the SFG is the way it solves the labeling problem. You create a 4x4 grid on a piece of paper and there's room for most everything you want to track. I've got the seed brand, name, quantity (though I ignored this, actually), plant dates, germ times, harvest times, est harvest, and some info about attempts to reseed. I guess I could use post-its if squares need to be replanted.

I've done similar things in the past, but always lost patience because the plants never grew! By the 3rd re-planting, I had give up tracking what I was doing!

Found magic fine point permanent markers were no quite so permanent  in strong sunshine. 

So This year I resorted to using a 5 B soft led pencil for this years labels ...it works .

It also wipes off with a bit of WD4 on a soft cloth ..   I washed all five hundred or so labels in dish drops first ,  left them to dry on a towel then got to work with a wd 40 cloth for an hour or more . Found acetone thinners is even better but needs to be done outside because of the brain killing fumes . 

 Was it worth it for less than $ 5 worth of labels is the question that came to mind ?

I have the most issues with things I start inside; I am lazy and label the “block” of same plants....well, this is an issue if something doesn’t come up or you move things around for light, etc.  

Glad I’m not the only one!

I also have started using thick lead pencils purchased as contractor pencils from Home Depot.  I can then use a thick eraser to get lead writing off at end of year and/or use a S.O.S. pad to help get pencil markings off and clean the dirt off.

Good idea...the struggle is real, lol

plantoid wrote: . . .  Was it worth it for less than $ 5 worth of labels is the question that came to mind ?

I clean mine, also!

I learned that tomato plants sweat. DUH! I never noticed that before. At first I thought it was just the Brandywine, but then I checked the plants on the balcony and discovered that they sweat, too. Velly intellesting!

I learned to be more selective about the materials I use for plant ID stakes/tags. This year's seedlings were tagged and planted, but the "plastic" material was only laminated paper. Once I started watering the seedlings, the tags sort of dissolved, making it impossible to differentiate between similar types of veggies started in the trays.

Yardslave wrote:I learned to be more selective about the materials I use for plant ID stakes/tags. This year's seedlings were tagged and planted, but the "plastic" material was only laminated paper. Once I started watering the seedlings, the tags sort of dissolved, making it impossible to differentiate between similar types of veggies started in the trays.

Same here!

I got mad at myself for not keeping a more detailed journal. I was wondering what the weather had been on Nov. 1, 2016-2018. Well, DUH, Weather-Underground has a history feature. I'll bet the other weather sites do, too. I can go back as far as I want to, and see how things were for this day, week, or month.

Suz,

Although even Wunderground's data can be well-localized, I think that your own yard's data is key.

A late spring, one month late here, can affect the total out put for the season. For example, the tomatoes barely started producing green fruit when we were slammed with the hot summer, when they quit setting.