Seeds | The Organic Sister

Hand-Pollinating Pumpkins

June 20, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 21 Comments

I learned how to hand-pollinate pumpkins!

The bees have been increasing but we’re not the sort to leave anything to chance, and when you’re looking for a reason to play in the dirt, you take what you can get. Even if it means feeling a bit pervy.

Justin has been reading from Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners about the pollination of pumpkins. It was something he had hoped to do but it seems our pumpkin flowers only open in the morning when he was at work. I’m not sure if this is normal or simply a result of our heat. This left the job to me.

First, Justin showed me the male flowers. Not sure how to tell a male flower from a female flower? If the pumpkin flower is open, its maleness is pretty obvious. That thing sticking out? It’s called a stamen. Or you can pull a Tara and refer to it as its “thingy”.

If the pumpkin flower is closed, look at the stem directly under the flower. A male flower will be only a stem, while a female flower has what will become the pumpkin, its size depending on how soon its flower will open. This is the size of the pumpkin the day it opened, but we first saw it when it was the size of a pea:

When the female flower opens, it’s difference is easy to tell. Instead of a single stamen, it has a multi-segmented stigma. Or what I lovingly refer to as it’s “girly stuff”.

Hand-pollination was simple, albeit embarrassing. After asking permission and apologizing profusely, I rubbed a Qtip around the males stamen, picking up the pollen. (You can also use your finger, but I really felt that was taking it too far.) I felt more than a little dirty inserting that Q-tip into the females stigma. We both blushed, had a moment, moved on.

Within the day, the flower had closed up and began drying and it’s baby bump had already begun growing. Five days later, it’s grown exponentially (proof of my prowess, perhaps?):

This is our Howden pumpkin, BTW, planted for jack ‘o lanterns this Halloween. Who knew they’d also offer so much s*x education? Life learning at its best!

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For more great info on growing from and saving seeds, as well as how to pollinate, harvest and more, I highly recommend the following book. It is jammed packed with information from cover to cover; nothing superfluous or uninteresting. It even covers some of the history of the plant breeds and crosses. It’s one of our favorite and most used gardening books.

Filed Under: Organic Living Tagged With: books, food not lawns, locavore, seeds, veggies

March’s Garden Update

March 30, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 15 Comments

The weather has fluctuated so much over the past few weeks, none of our plants seem to know what to think. We’ve had highs of 85 and lows of 43. The wind has been hellacious several times this month, including yesterday and today, leaving much of our yard a mess and several damaged plants (mostly snapdragon’s and broccoli).

The spinach I planted last month is very healthy and getting bushier every day. We harvested some for sandwiches the other night. The broccoli is rather pathetic and struggles with the fluctuating temperatures. The bottom inch of some of the stems dried out after transplanting, leaving them fairly brittle and susceptible to the high winds (up to 50 mph yesterday!). They are still growing and are about 7-8 inches tall (the tallest ones are the ones with brittle stems…??) but I’m certain I won’t get anything other than their greens before they finally bolt. I’m looking forward to trying these again in the fall and overwintering them. I’ll direct sow them in hopes they won’t become brittle near the soil line again. I don’t know what caused that or why it only caused it in some of them.

Our sunflowers are coming up. It took nearly two weeks for most of them to sprout. Even though the temps were warm enough, the current position of the sun keeps our yard shaded for much of the day, so the soil temps didn’t get as warm as quickly. We also have one bush bean coming up and several of something that could be a weed or could be alyssum. I really need to add photos of each of my plants in various stages to my (newly created) garden book.

This also sprouted recently. I have no idea what it is but since it doesn’t look like a weed, we’re letting it grow for now. Any guesses?

In the front yard and hopefully working on coming up is: nasturtiums, marigold, Scarlet Emperor runner beans, Yard Long pole beans, Tendergreen bush beans, German Chamomile, Japenese Hullless Popcorn, Straight Eight and Snow’s Fancy Pickling cucumbers, California black-eyed peas, sunflowers (Mammoth, Big Head, Funky, Ornamental Mix), and Rouge Vif D’Etampes and Howden pumpkins. We have a bunch more to plant but I’m waiting until I see things come up and fill in before confusing myself further. Note to self: Use plant markers.

Our fruit trees are mostly covered in small leaves at this point. We’ve wrapped their trunks in cardboard for the time being while I debate the merits and risks of painting them white to protect from sunscald. These are the buds on the Fuji apple tree.

Of my indoor summer seedlings, the following germinated: 3 of 4 Pineapple tomatoes, 4 of 4 Jellybean tomatoes, 7 of 8 Amish Paste, 5 of 8 Brandywines,3 of 8 Mortgage Lifters, 3 of 8 Romas, 4 of 4 Jalapenos, 3 of 4 bell peppers, 1 of 4 Eggplant. ZERO of my strawberries germinated making me dislike this indoor seed starting mess even more.

Our irrigation hoses kept popping off their adaptors and wasting unmentionable amounts of water, so we used zip ties to hold them on. We’re still trying to adjust the watering times to the front yard. We either end up too dry too quickly or with water runoff on the sidewalk. The back yard (trees and raised beds) seem to be doing well, although the surface is drying too quickly to hope to start seeds outdoors in them. But I’m still determined to figure out a way to not start any more seeds indoors.

I’m soaking up garden updates where I can despite the fact that most other bloggers aren’t quite near planting yet (have one for me to read?). I can’t wait until I have some really exciting photos to share – like a front yard that shows more than dirt, or a Boston Ivy creeping up my column. Or lots and lots of food.

Will this wind ever stop?

Filed Under: Organic Living Tagged With: Backyard Orchard, food not lawns, garden update, locavore, Raised Beds, seeds

A Tortoise, Flowers and Soil Testing

March 21, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 1 Comment

There is still only one tortoise out of hibernation. Without comparing his markings to the other guy, it’s hard to say but I’m fairly certain based on his measurements that this is the one we thought might not make it out. He was hardly out last year and hardly ate but seems to be growing and doing well now.

Since his last measurements in July of last year he has gained a half inch in shell length and a quarter inch in width, as well as 1.5 ounces in weight (a total of 4 inches long and 2.75 inches wide (shell measurements only) and 6.5 ounces in weight). And I’m feeling pretty certain he’s a male based on the increased size of his gular horn. Let’s just hope the second tortoise is also a male or we’ll have to find a home for one of them to prevent babies.

We went to the nursery yesterday for our garden work this weekend. I picked up a soil test (more on that below), some praying mantis because I can’t resist and some flowers to bring in pollinators. For the tortoise habitat we purchased two desert evening primrose plants, one verbana, one dichondra and four…er, pansies? Posies? I can’t ever remember their names and they aren’t labeled. But the tortoises eat them and they’re pretty.

For the front yard, we purchased four Snapdragons, one Spring Yellow Flash (dimorphoteca), one Paris Daisy, two Rich Orange Lantanas, one Boston Ivy, one mystery plant (do you know it’s name?),and one Artichoke! We’re very excited for the artichoke.

I have the following seeds soaking and ready to be planted: nasturtiums, runner beans, pole beans, bush beans, popcorn, and black-eyed peas. I’m not sure that all of these needed to be soaked but what the heck.

I’m really wishing I had remember to test the soil last fall. My pH is a bit higher than I wish it was but I’m told that it’s nearly impossible to get it much lower for any significant amount of time because of our alkaline water. In all 4 places I tested, the Potash (K) is sufficient to surplus. The Phosphorus (P) is “adequate to sufficient” which means I’ll need to amend it some. The Nitrogen (N) is totally depleted! How the heck did that happen with all the sheet mulching we did?

So because I didn’t test this last fall I don’t have the time to plant a cover crop to fix the nitrogen, which means before we can plant this weekend I’m heading to get some alfalfa meal (for nitrogen) and a bit of bone meal (for phosphorus) to amend my soils. I’ll be sure to do my soil tests far in advance next time.

ETA: Check this out! Vegetables taking place of grass on the White House lawn!! Don’t forget to click the layout. And someone needs to get Michelle some proper gardening attire, no?

Filed Under: Organic Living Tagged With: food not lawns, locavore, pets, seeds, Soil

Fungus and Bees

March 19, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 2 Comments

I found plenty of these little mushrooms this morning. They popped up overnight, mostly around emitters in my irrigation lines. Only on the far right and a few on the middle row of my E-shaped raised bed (ironically the sides that get the most sun and dry the quickest). I’m still trying to find out what they are and what I should do about them…anyone know?

And this little guy was seen at my grandma’s house. I took it for my mom who is collecting photos of beneficials to frame. Those are my grandma’s Grape Hyacinths. Being at GG’s made me realize how many more flowers and “pretties” I need in my yard – for pollination and just cuz! I really like this photo:

It has been pretty warm here – in the 70′s last week and into the low 80′s this week. Last Friday we planted some seeds in the ground – a couple varieties of sunflowers (one of them a funky kind received from another blogger), alyssum and chamomile. This weekend we’ll direct sow the following: corn, bush beans, cucumbers, black-eyed peas, onions, oregano, thyme, white clover, pumpkins, and squash (zucchini and crookneck). We’re going to hold off on our melons for a bit longer until nighttime temps are a little warmer (no later than April though) and I’ll plant our pole beans when our corn has had time to get a head start.

The aphids have mostly been devoured from our bush in the front yard, thus most of our ladybugs have traveled on. I’m squishing aphids on my broccoli almost every day but usually very few – none on my spinach. My broccoli is about 6-7 inches but with temps so high I may not get anything but greens from them. Some of my spinach is close to the size I’ll begin to harvest but not all. I’m looking forward to restarting these in the fall and overwintering them.

Oh and we have one tortoise out of hibernation! I’ll try to get photos once I get his weight/length and compare it to our chart from last year. He looks bigger!

Filed Under: Organic Living Tagged With: food not lawns, Irrigation, locavore, Raised Beds, seeds

Mulch It Like It’s Hot

March 10, 2009 By TheOrganicSister 4 Comments

We went out to the Master Gardener’s Orchard for the first time today. (For Vegas folks, it’s about as far north as you can go on Decatur.) They have more than just fruit trees out there and it was very cool to see their setup. They used raised beds as well, although it’s mounded instead of framed.

I noticed their irrigation lines are much closer than in our raised beds. I’ve been experimenting with bamboo BBQ skewers to test the moisture in our beds and I think we’ll be adding more line to it soon. The coil lines in the front yard are working great though.

We scoped out their huge variety of fruit trees (how are they growing bing cherries in this climate??) and large array of grape vines. They also keep several hives of bees, something I’ve only just began to pay attention to – it’s not something I can see us doing in this house, but maybe once we move? I was very excited to see they have high-density fruit trees planted! Their trees are actually planted closer than ours so I feel pretty good about our arrangement now.

But the real reason we went was the free mulch they offer. Because of our harsh sun, mulch is a serious must to prevent excessive water usage/evaporation. Anyone in need can pull up outside the gate at any time and load up. Can you believe we’ve actually paid for mulch before we knew of this? With one truckload we mulched all eight of our fruit trees, as well as the paths through the front yard. We will probably go back soon in order to mulch the ash tree in the backyard.

In this picture you can see where we laid down mulch, as well as the cardboard we’re wrapping around the trunks to prevent sunscald. I’m not sure if I’ll stick with the cardboard or if I’ll paint the trunks white like they do at the orchard – would using non-VOC paint still work or would it still be pretty toxic?