June 06, 2017
The Walla Walla onion transplants I put in last November have formed 3" bulbs. They were so wilted and wobbly for so long that I didn't have high hopes. This is by far the best onion crop I've raised. The fat bulbs are sitting on the surface waiting to be picked, with no hint yet that the tops are drying out. Water is the reason this crop is so fabulous. Onions would like water every day. They also need oxygen every day. Clay soil without organic material worked into it doesn't allow air to flow in behind the departing water..
Fluffy soil accepts water every day and passes it along so the plant roots don't drown. Radishes also prefer daily sprinkling. They don't form deep roots so I don't water them deeply. Beets either. I've turned 1" diameter beets into one and a half inch in three days by shallow watering every day. Spinach, lettuce and cauliflower also flourish with daily watering. I guess beans, corn, squash, tomatoes, melon, pumpkins and cucumbers fall into the category of watering deep and infrequently, but their roots run deep..
June 07, 2017
It's time to pull your mulch up around the melon mounds, and make their summer nest. A foot wide band of straw will keep the weeds down and the water in. If you don't have enough straw for the whole circumference, put a handful under each melon so they don't rest on the ground. The bottom of my cantaloupes always get millapied, slug, pillbug and earwig damage unless they are resting on straw. Spread that mulch out around the tomatoes and zucchini too..
A two foot band is ideal for them. I'm scraping mulch off the pathways now and encircling everything before the hot weather arrives. I'm cutting the Swiss chard stalks off again, because they grew back, and laying them around the artichoke plants. The Perpetual Spinach bolted and is becoming mulch for the green beans..
June 08, 2017
The ground underneath the cauliflower leaves that I put down for mulch was moist and weed free so I planted some more cabbage starts there. It's a little late for spring cabbage but the six pack I started would not grow. I think sometimes I get seed starting mix that is too dense to encourage rapid root growth and the plants just sit there forever. These plants had very fine, tightly packed roots and the tops would not grow. They got fertilized and watered but I don't think they got enough oxygen at their roots. Fall cabbage will be planted from seed directly in the garden July 1st..
The lettuce in the greenhouse has bolted. It lasted longer than the Perpetual Spinach planted in there. The lettuce leaves I'm using for mulch, but the stems go in the compost pile. After a few days the leaves are so dry, crumbly and thin that it kind of feels like a waste of time using them, but the soil is happy, so who am I to complain..
