2 Types of Pine Tree Seedlings

I dig up pine tree seedlings that sprout in unfortunate places where they won’t survive long.  I have seen 2 basic types of seedlings.  I don’t know how to tell what variety of pines these seedlings are.  I have a few of the type in the round pot.  It grows slower and has shorter needles.  The tree in the square pot is the predominant type of tree seedling that I find.  It has longer needles and grows much faster.

They both seem happy once they adjusted to their new surroundings.  I may have to pot them up a time or 2 before they are ready to go into the ground in the woods – about 18 inches tall.

Planted 2 Of My Third Year Figs Into The Ground

This is one of the 2 – 3rd year figs that I planted in the ground.  It is a big step for the little fig babies.  They can no longer stay in a warmish store room during the winter.  Hopefully it will grow a strong root base to allow it to survive the winter.  It might possibly freeze to the ground this winter, hopefully not.  It is planted in red clay, under a couple of 60′ pines, at the woods edge.  The other fig is planted about 15′ further back, to the left and a bit further into the woods entrance.  I dug a larger hole and filled the space with a half bag of cheapie manure around each fig.  I have developed the tendency to use bone meal on all of my plant’s roots.  I put a handful of bone meal around the root ball for this tree. I mulched around the fig with regular old shredded wood and bark, as you can see.

These figs came from cuttings from 2 enormous 20 year old figs.  It will probably be many years before these trees are large enough to provide enough branches for cuttings.

Lavender Seedlings

I love to start plants from both seeds and cuttings.  While I have a large lavender plant to take cuttings from when I try to root them, I also have started many lavender seeds.  (Most of them died because at the time I couldn’t keep the seedlings moist).  This nifty, roomy 6 place tray is from the recycle shelf at a big box store – I have gotten quite a few nice trays and pots from the recycle center – recycled them right into my green house!!.  Note that this potting container is sitting in a tray to hold water so that the plants don’t dry out.

These are shelves on a little junior green house shelf, waiting for my real green house to get moved over here.  Note 2 of my brand new seedling trays sitting in a no-hole bottom tray to hold water and keep the seeding trays moist.  On the second shelf, to the left of my lavender is a recycled tray with a few coleus in it.  I am so pleased that a few coleus survived.  They are easier to propagate from cuttings, but I also like to start seeds.  Unfortunately, most of this batch of coleus dried out.  So, with new propagation/seeding trays, I am starting another batch of coleus.

Yellowing Squash Leaves – Chlorosis?

I have about 2 summer squash plants in one bed that have leaves that are yellowing and decaying.  This is one summer squash, planted among other squash.  Only this one plant has this issue.  The older leaves turned yellow between the veins, then dried to whitish.  The edges curl up and the leaf finally dries up.  The new inner leaves are fine for a while.  I decided to cut these bad leaves off, leaving the hollow stems, just in case it is a virus.  You can see the plant to the right, it is just fine.

This other plant, thru the raised cattle panel, about 2 feet further along the bed, also has some of these leaves.  I decided to cut them off also.

I have done a search as to what could be causing this problem.  The most likely culprit seems to maybe be chlorosis.  Chlorosis is a nutrient deficiency although I don’t know what nutrient it could be.  I found this: “Iron, sulfur and manganese deficiencies cause yellowing in the younger leaves first, while nitrogen, magnesium and molybdenum deficiencies first afflict the older leaves”.  I have what I need to rectify nitrogen and Mg deficiency:  blood meal and epsom salt.  It won’t hurt to spread a little bit of both around.  However, I still don’t understand how just 2 of a dozen plants have this problem.  I also have some organic fertilizer with lots of trace elements in it.  I think I will spread a bit of these 3 substances around these plants tomorrow.

Overview Time

Time for another overview of my garden:

This shot shows all 6 long beds – 3 are straight in front.  To the left is my new garden shed.  The area around the shed in in the process of being developed.  I plan to plant about 4 more blueberry plants and many wild black berry bushes in the area this side of the white shed.

This front bed has hot peppers on the left side of the raised cattle panel and summer squash on the right side.  Directly under the panel, winter squash is growing.  This bed has Waltham Butternut.  You can see onions hanging over the edges.  Earlier this year I planted onions around the edges of most of the beds.  I have bark and shredded wood chips as ground cover between my raised beds to discourage weeds.

I plant marigolds all over the place – in the edges of the raised beds and in small pots placed all over.  If I didn’t have so many seedlings drying out and dying this spring, I would have many more pots of marigolds all over.  This bed has summer squash (yellow and zucchini) on both sides of the cattle panel.  Early Winter Butternut squash is growing under the panel and will grow up the panel.  I grow my winter squash vines up the cattle panels.  I planted a couple of peppers at the ends of these beds.  This bed has Dwarf Kale going to seed.  I didn’t particularly like this smaller leafed kale, but I so enjoy Brassicaceae plants going to seed.  I am using bamboo poles to hold the kale plants out of the way so that the squash planted around them have plenty of sun and space to grow.

The bed at the top left has summer squash this year.  Last year it was my pepper bed.  I try my best – with my limited space – to rotate crops each year.  The bed at the top right – the one with my winter tent hoops still up, has a batch of Autum King carrots at the front corner.  I need to pick most of them soon.  A few of them are already going to seed.  I am also letting a couple of these Slo Bolt leaf lettuce plants go to seed.  I have the time because this is going to be my Basil bed this year (love that pesto) – but my basil seedlings are not all ready.  Some are already in, as are some peppers.  The swiss chard at the back of this bed will all be harvested and dried when my latest batch of basil seedlings are ready to go into this bed.  At the top left are some large pots with tomatoes, mentioned in another post.  Between the beds are bark and wood mulch, in the beds is leaf mulch.  I mulch all bare dirt.