Teeny tiny tomato seedling growing second set of true leaves.
I have a Rutgers tomato seedling that came up a week (or two) after the other seeds in it’s cup had already sprouted. Oddly, this tomato plant has decided to be the world’s smallest tomato.
It is three-quarters of an inch wide and one-quarter of an inch tall, and is currently sending out it’s 2nd set of true leaves. I’m fairly tempted to grow it and see if I’ve really got something here.
Probably it’s just being outcompeted by the 4 inch seedling it shares a little pot with. I’ve just never had a tomato seedling be this short and stocky before. It’s currently at least two weeks old.
Here is a wide shot for scale
Last night I planted two dwarf Northstar cherry trees. Northstar is a pie cherry and I can’t wait until the trees start producing. Supposedly they will get about 10 feet wide and 10 feet tall. The literature promises us “1/2 to 1 bushel of fruit per tree at maturity” but that seems like an awful lot from trees of the size these will grow. Maybe?
Thursday and Friday rain postponed the dirt delivery. The dirt pile was too wet to scoop from. That was a bummer. However, 2 of the 8 beds were left alone, so I planted them!
I divided the 6×8 foot beds into three sections of 2×8. The middle section of each was planted with Small Miracle broccoli. Small Miracle broccoli claims that it only needs 8 square inches of space. I gave it more room. I planted 14 plants in each 2×8 foot space, giving them a 12 x 14 inch rectangle.
The two outside 2×8 sections of one bed were planted with Early Dividend broccoli, which I gave lots of room to. They got staggered 2 sq. ft. spacing.
I also got 7 cabbage plants put in and direct-seeded 4 squares of beets (36) and two square of radishes (32).
All of the broccoli plants were showing 4 or 6 true leaves and were getting big. They were started under lights indoors on 2/23. The cabbage plants were smaller than the broccoli. They were seeded in the greenhouse near the beginning of February. I could have easily started them in January and they wouldn’t have been too big for their pots.
Cast iron triple burner
Last summer I learned to can my garden produce in glass jars. This involves boiling big pots of food and water for as long as a couple hours at a time, usually on the hottest evenings of July and August. The resulting humidity in the house was very uncomfortable, so we would run the air conditioning all night. That made canning very energy expensive in a way we didn’t anticipate.
This summer I’ll be doing much of my canning on this old bar surface. This is set up in my attached garage immediately next to the 2-car garage door opening. It’s also just a few steps from my actual kitchen.
The bar has been reused many times. We inherited it with the house we bought 10 years ago and it held laundry for about 5 years. It held an aquarium for about 3 years after that and when it was moving day we almost left it behind for the next buyer. Instead, my wife talked me into taking it apart and cutting it down to it’s current short height. She used it this way in her elementary classroom for a year or two before bringing it home again. Now it has been repurposed again as a kitchen counter!
Canning here won’t be quite as convenient as inside the house, but it should work fine! It will also be interesting to be able to measure EXACTLY how much we have to spend on the energy for canning (at $19 per tank refill).
