Svalli gardening 63° N

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svalli
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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#21

Post: # 24561Unread post svalli
Mon Jul 06, 2020 12:09 am

We enjoyed the first ripe Japanese Cherry-Mate (チェリーメイト) tomatoes yesterday. First ones started to change color over a week ago, but I hesitated to pick them and my patience was rewarded with exceptionally sweet flavor. Tomatoes should not be called vegetables, since these fruits are even better than strawberries!

Cherry-Mate.jpg
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svalli
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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#22

Post: # 24605Unread post svalli
Mon Jul 06, 2020 2:10 pm

Six weeks of growth in the greenhouse.
PSX_20200706_220301.jpg
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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#23

Post: # 28537Unread post svalli
Tue Aug 18, 2020 11:57 am

I noticed that I have not posted much about the garden progress. Harvesting and preserving is at full speed. Refrigerator is full of cucumbers and I have canned already two 6 quart pots of tomato salsa.

Tonight I am making roasted tomato sauce from home grown ingredients.
IMG_20200818_192544_104.jpg

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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#24

Post: # 32212Unread post svalli
Sun Oct 11, 2020 12:26 pm

Even this year has not been the best possible, I can not complain about my tomatoes. Well, one complain there is, since I have not saved any seeds. Most of the tomatoes were affected by some kind of mosaic virus. It did not affect on the production, but most plants had leaves misshapen and mottled with light green spots. Next year I am going to replace all soil in the containers.

I emptied the greenhouse week ago, since botrytis was killing the vines there. We have not yet had any killing frost, but the weather is getting rainy and cool, so I cut down the last outdoor tomatoes yesterday. The south facing wall of our house is really great for growing tomatoes. I do not need to prune them at all, like I have to do in the greenhouse for air circulation. The plants had a lot dead lower leaves now, but were still growing. This may be the latest that I have had tomatoes still growing outdoors.
October tomatoes.jpg

ripe ones.jpg

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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#25

Post: # 32243Unread post bower
Sun Oct 11, 2020 8:44 pm

Those are pretty loaded with tomatoes, nice to see them still hanging in there. :)
You know if you need any tomato seeds, or anything else, only say the word. As long as we have post offices, you won't lack for seeds.
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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#26

Post: # 32246Unread post PhilaGardener
Mon Oct 12, 2020 6:11 am

Your greenhouse looks really great, Svalli! (Tomatoes too! :lol: )
Gardening near Philadelphia (USA)

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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#27

Post: # 32295Unread post worth1
Tue Oct 13, 2020 2:02 pm

:) :)
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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#28

Post: # 32296Unread post worth1
Tue Oct 13, 2020 2:02 pm

:) :)
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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#29

Post: # 42752Unread post svalli
Tue Mar 09, 2021 1:43 pm

Here is my last tomato from season 2020. It was green when I picked it at October 10th and it started slowly change color indoors. It has been sitting last 5 months on the kitchen counter next to a fruit basket. I left it there just as curiosity to see how long it would last. Today I finally decided that it is time for it to go and cut it up. Surprisingly it looks OK inside. I tasted a little piece and it tastes like the winter time grocery store tomatoes.

Variety is a jointless potato leaved plum tomato, which was sold by Nikitovka with name Kibits.

image.png

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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#30

Post: # 52091Unread post svalli
Thu Aug 12, 2021 4:35 am

This summer has been quite hot also here in Finland, but luckily we live by the coast, so we got some cooler breezes from the sea. I have had to water my outdoor containers almost every day.

Greenhouse is like a jungle with cucumbers climbing on the roof joist pipe. I found an year old picture from same time of the year and it looks totally different. I believe that it is the combination of varieties, weather and the fertilizers, which make the difference. I purchased total of 100 kg of mixture of professional water soluble greenhouse fertilizers this spring and have been using those whole summer. A friend sent me an excel file, which I can use to calculate how to mix the fertilizers. In beginning of the season I added calcium nitrate to the water for added nitrogen and also calcium to prevent blossom end rot.

This picture shows comparison between 2020 and 2021.

greenhouse in August.jpg

There are also fruits and not just green growth. We have been eating cumbers long time already, but tomatoes have been quite slow ripening. Finally now ripening has started.

Tomatoes ripening.jpg
Cucmbers 2021-07-29_10-14-03.jpg


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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#31

Post: # 52110Unread post Growing Coastal
Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:43 am

Yes, every year is different.
Looks as if you are having an excellent growing season.
Everything looks marvelous!

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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#32

Post: # 52114Unread post svalli
Thu Aug 12, 2021 1:33 pm

Here are some photos how it looks outside in my city garden today.

I have an area with small raised beds made from pallet collars next to the greenhouse where I grow veggies and have also some flowers. This spring I also got a small greenhouse, which fits on top of the pallet collar and I planted peppers and basil in there. I am growing beans, cucumbers, zucchini, kale, leeks and lettuce in the raised beds. Two of them have also perennial raspberries and blackberries.
Garden 20210812.jpg

The slope in front of the raised beds is growing wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca). I was planning to plant some drought tolerant flowers there but the wild strawberries have spread around there and I do not mind, because those are so delicious and fragrant.
vegetable garden 20210812.jpg

I have had some tomatoes every year by the south facing wall and this year I have quite many, because one of the garden center was selling tomato plants away for 1€ each and I had to rescue 10 plants from there. This area is so sunny that I have to water the SWC's almost every day.
South wall tomatoes 20210812.jpg

North corner of the west facing wall is more shady, so here I have determinate tomato plants in regular containers.
West wall tomatoes 20210812.jpg

Dwarf tomatoes are placed by the south corner of the west facing wall. Dwarfs this year are: Brandy Fred, Dwarf Shadow Boxing, New Big Dwarf and Sleeping lady Dwarf.
Dwarf tomatoes 20210812.jpg

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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#33

Post: # 52127Unread post bower
Thu Aug 12, 2021 6:10 pm

I can see you're going to have loads of tomatoes this season! Everything looks healthy and happy - same wishes to all your family! :)
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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#34

Post: # 53148Unread post svalli
Mon Aug 30, 2021 3:36 am

Weather in last weekend of August was gorgeous, so we went to check our apple orchard out in the country. Late fall in 2010 we purchased remaining apple trees from a local nursery for really good discount. We planted them on an old hay field, which we own next to my in-law's house.

Apple orchard 28082021.jpg

Now we have there 42 apple trees, from which the best grown are starting to produce a lot of apples. The earliest ones were ripening and we picked about 60 ten litre buckets of apples.

Apple harvesting 28082021.jpg

Annabelle potato stems have started to die down and I decided to check what has grown there. The summer was very dry and I have not watered my potatoes at all, but the black plastic sheet as mulch worked again and the spuds have grown well. I pulled five Annabelle plants and picked 12 kg of potatoes.

Potato first harvest 28082021.jpg

There were quite many giant potatoes in these plants, so that makes me wonder what kind of will be in the varieties, which had still green top growth. I made twice baked potatoes for our Sunday dinner from couple of one pound potatoes to check, if the big ones were hollow in the middle like some big ones can be. These big ones were fine inside and out, so no worries with hollow potatoes.

Potato Annabelle.jpg

There has now been rains after the long dry period, which has caused mushrooms to pop up in huge numbers. I have not picked many mushrooms earlier and I am very cautious about what to pick. So far chanterelles have been the only ones I can identify as edible mushrooms. Now I noticed a huge mushroom with couple of smaller ones next to it under a spruce. I sent a picture to my friend and he identified those as porcini, which are well known edible mushrooms. The biggest one had already maggots in it, but the smaller ones were fine.
I cut the mushrooms to pieces and fried in butter with a small onion. It tasted so good that I will look for more of them.

Porcini mushroom.jpg


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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#35

Post: # 53149Unread post Whwoz
Mon Aug 30, 2021 4:06 am

Some good yields there Sari. Good that you have a friend who is able to identify the mushrooms too.

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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#36

Post: # 53157Unread post bower
Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:47 am

Fantastic orchard. :)
The Porcini mushrooms really like warm weather after rain to pop up. We don't get a lot of them here, but in my experience, if you find one in the woods it is worth searching along the same contour for more in the area that day. The little ones are always best because it takes no time for bugs to move in on those delicious things.
The boletes are interesting as food, partly because the good ones are absolutely sweet and delicious, and also because they don't contain deadly toxins. The bad ones can make you sick alright but they won't kill you. And they're fairly easy to avoid, because the worst of them have red colors somewhere on them or staining red, or mixtures of red and blue staining.
Some blue staining boletes are good edibles though - we have one here Boletus badius which is more common than B edulis and doesn't get riddled with maggots as quickly or as often. The flesh of these boletes is very yellow and they smell like honey. There are so many kinds of boletes, I have tried quite a few, which can look quite similar. For the ones that grow here, if you see any pink in the flesh when cut, that is not a good sign. More often the yellow flesh is a good sign, as long as there's no pink or red. I collect in paper bags, so if I have doubts this is one way to test later the smell of good vs not so good ones. If they smell like honey, it's a good sign, IME. But of course it may be diffferent in your area. It's good to go on a hike with someone well experienced in your area, I think better than books, just because the mushrooms are so varied from one place to another.
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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#37

Post: # 53246Unread post Growing Coastal
Tue Aug 31, 2021 1:40 pm

Everything looks great Sari. Beautiful potato crop.

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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#38

Post: # 64655Unread post svalli
Fri Mar 04, 2022 7:55 am

Snow is still covering my garden with thick white blanket, but the growing season has already started indoors. I started first tomato, pepper and flower seeds already in end of January. Micro tomatoes have already buds on the tiny plants.

Last Sunday I sowed rest of the tomatoes. I am trying to germinate some older seeds and doing it this early gives me chance to re-sow some other varieties, if the old ones do not germinate.

PSX_20220304_153506.jpg

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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#39

Post: # 65831Unread post svalli
Sun Mar 20, 2022 11:58 am

Sunny March equinox warmed the greenhouse so that the automatic vent opener opened the the roof vent a bit. It looks like it will be still some time before I can work in my kitchen garden. That snow will take long time to melt.
PSX_20220320_181417.jpg

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Re: Svalli gardening 63° N

#40

Post: # 66349Unread post svalli
Sun Mar 27, 2022 6:01 am

My seedling rack indoors is full of plants and getting crowded, so couple of weeks ago I moved too early sown petunias and Purple Bell Vines to garage, where temperature is about 12°C. I hope the cooler temperature will slow the growth, because it will be over a month before I can plant them to balcony boxes. I do also have onions in the garage, since I read that at this stage they should get no more than 12 hours of light and cooler place is best for them.
Garage plants.jpg

Three shelves indoors in my home office are now full and have LED and fluorescent lights set up. I counted that I have 82 tomato plants, 52 hot peppers, 3 Cape gooseberries plus strawberries and all sorts of annual flowers growing. More seeds need to be started during April and hopefully some of them I can sow in the greenhouse.
Seedlings W12.jpg

Strawberries and Mulla Mulla have started to flower. I do not know, if it was because of my early sowing in mid January, the fertilizer I use or the new 14000K grow lights, which are causing it or maybe it is all of them together.
Strawberries and Mulla Mulla W12.jpg

Venus micro tomatoes have fruit already, while Rosy Finch is just forming tiny buds.
Micro tomatoes W12.jpg

We had couple of weeks of sunny weather and now winter is striking back with next week staying below freezing and some flurries. At least we have now more light than dark, so summer is coming and I am ready with a lot of plants.

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