Turning the corner?

The 857, 964, and 1185 are officially "down", as in the vine is on the ground. The 1092 is coming soon, and the other two might take some time. I'm anxious to get the plastic down... I just don't know, I think this plastic is limiting the light intensity that my plants see. Well, every year it's this way, I start searching for reasons that the plants haven't hit high gear yet. I actually do have a good reason......... the last 10 days have been very cool for this time of year.

All we need is a stretch of warm weather and the plants should take off.

Yesterday I cleaned up the weeds and did some very minor pruning. Pruning, just so the plants will become accustomed to the idea.

964 Wolf

The 964 Wolf. Has some large leaves and some smaller, just growing pains...

1185 Bortner

The 1185 Bortner, looking perfect.

604 Warren

The 604, I have just recently put a tire around this one. We'll see how that works out.

857 Christensen

The 857, running to the left instead of straight at me...

1092 Martin

The 1092 Martin. Looking fine, but has taken a long time to actually lay down and run.

I'd like to see the sun...

OK, well, we've been in thick clouds, cool and rainy for much of the last week. The plants are fine, but going nowhere fast.

I've made the culls down to the final six: 1092 Martin, 857 Christensen, 1085 Bortner, 604 Warren, 964 Wolf, and 1186 Bowles. Elise's plant is the 1016 Christensen, and it is way behind because it hasn't been in a hoophouse.

No genetic problems, except for one of the 604 plants developed a ribbon vine. This was the same seedling that had 3 seed leaves. Since it was double-planted next to another 604, the decision to cull was easy. The only other problem I have, other than being slow, is that the 857 is wanting to go east instead of north. I'll have to turn it slowly.

Remembering Howard Dill

The past two days have been gray, cold, and rainy. Not much is happening, just staying alive.

This week it is quite appropriate that I stop and recognize Howard Dill, breeder of the Dill's Atlantic Giant seed, who passed away May 20, 2008. I never met him, but wish I had. His contribution to the hobby, pastime, sport, whatever you want to call it, is immeasurable.

Things are going OK...

So far, everything is looking pretty good. Not too much different than other years... usually at this stage of the game I start looking at the plants and wishing they would finally lay down and start to run. Anyway, all of the plants are looking good. The largest three are the 1092 Martin, the 857 Christensen, and the 1185 Bortner. Each of these is developing a main that is heading straight up, but leaning the right direction. I'm anxious to see them touch down and start to crawl.

Right now it's difficult to find even 10 minutes a day to spend with the plants. Just keeping them watered. But one-by-one life is calming down to a summer pace. For the kids, track season, soccer season, choir season, piano season... etc., have come to an end or will shortly come to an end. These things are nice, but in May they take every single night. I'll still miss it when it's gone.

857 Christensen

Here is the 857, looking great!

1092 Martin

The 1092 Martin in the background, and a 1354 Vogler closer to the camera. The 1354 is one week younger. I'm not concerned about the strange leaf on the Martin. These plants tend to do strange things when they are young.

My Patch

Here is the patch. Three on one side, and three on the other. It looks a little ragged. I still have time to run the tractor right down the middle and between the plants one final time. Only one of my protection structures is a "no-hoop" house. They are very time consuming and fairly expensive to build.

Another close one...

Last night, everything was alive. I think they're all still alive, but we had one of those times where I didn't get home until around 10pm, then the weather said 32 for the low. It turned out to be 26. Elise's 1016 is still in a WoW, so it's fine. Same for the 1186 Bowles and 1290 Poirier. They are in the triangular "no-hoop" house, and one nice thing about that is it's easy to get into and place a WoW around the plant. But these two plants share a site.

The other plants look good. In each of the huts I have WoW in there but not around the plant. The plants are too big. I also have milk jugs full of water in them. This really helps, I believe. I say, the plants look good considering they just went through a very cold night. I might have some leaf damage on some of them. I just hope the parts that form new leaves and vines are OK.

Hopefully I can post some pictures later today.

So far, so good...

Things are going fairly well. Right now everything is still alive (imagine that!). If I were to list the early plants that are looking good, they would be the 1092 Martin, followed quickly by the 857 Christensen, the 1185 Bortner, and the 964 Wolf. The 1092 has me excited.

Snow Plant

My daughter's 1016 Christensen plant isn't in a hoop house. It's just in a wall-o-water. Well, this morning when we got 6 inches of snow, the top of the WoW was a bit "open", not pushed together like a teepee. When I went out to look at it the 1016 had a good two inches of snow on top of it. Right on the plant!

This afternoon I went to check again. The temp is up to around 50 and everything is melting. The plant is fine! Although the temp on the surface of the plant was likely very close to 32 degrees, it wasn't below that and now the plant really looks healthy.

6 inches of snow

Sigh. Welcome to May. Actually we do need the moisture.