December 06, 2018
I found an onion set laying on top of the ground. Must have been a cat digging that caused it. It had a full beard of one inch roots spreading out from the bottom and no stem tip showing. It took a lot of energy to grow such a number of long roots with no input from the sun. It seems unwarranted considering the onion tip doesn't grow much when it first pokes up..
It sits there lollygagging for months while the roots form a mass of support. Even when it starts growing it's slow as molasses. The extensive root system is already sending is gleanings to the formation of a new onion right below the ground. The little onion stem gets a small amount of sunlight, and it's apparently enough to power the onion making engine..
December 07, 2018
I guess I'll have to pull up the cauliflower plants. The leaves are getting moldy. I direct seeded them on August 1st so they should have had enough time to mature. The seed packed says 65 days from transplanting. I am disappoint. I mollycoddled them..
I babied them along with constant watering, fish emulsion, soapy water spray, touching them, smiles and kind words. They seemed to stop growing during our heat wave, and then the freezing nights made them curl up and huddle. The broccoli, on the other hand, acclimated to the freezes, and finished out it's cycle. The cabbage doesn't even know it freezes at night..
December 08, 2018
When I went to pull up the cauliflower I noticed that all the center leaves on all the plants were fresh, crisp and curled up exactly the same way. This made me think that they were in synchronization and acting in response to factors uniformly. None had heads forming, which is extremely unusual. Having them all behave the same way gave me cause to ponder. Are they right and I'm wrong? I went back to my seed packet, that I save even when empty in case I have questions later on. It turns out I've planted a different variety this fall called Snowball Cauliflower that purports to be a "Hardy biennial"..
I usually plant Early Snowball Cauliflower and didn't look closely at the package. I think I'll leave them in the ground and see what happens. I don't believe they are biennial, but so far they haven't been annual either. My Google search indicates they can overwinter which is news to me..
