Monday April 30

Last day of April and things are growing fast.  The ten day forecast predicts warm temperatures with lows in the 50’s.  I wanted to get the tomatoes and peppers in the beds today but there may be some severe storms with hail later today, so I’ll wait until tomorrow.  The only pickins this week was a pound of lettuce, but I expect more variety next week.

Yesterday I turned compost and blood meal into the tomato and squash beds.  This year the tomatoes/peppers/eggplant go into the bed closest to the now defunct cherry tree, which I cut down in the fall of 2010.  Nothing did well in this bed once the tree’s roots found the bed and started to mooch nutrients.  The roots in the bed have been dead long enough to break up with the shovel for removal.  That's a pretty good mass of roots for the compost bin.

I installed two tomato cages on seven foot fence posts.  The cages are made from four foot rebar mesh rolled into a two foot diameter cage.  They are suspended on the hooks on the posts so the bottom of the cage is two feet above the soil, making a six foot tall cage.  I wanted to get the cage as high as possible.   I used three posts and wired the two cages together where they touched.  It’s plenty sturdy. 

These Kolibri kohlrabi are really striking.  With decent weather this one should be ready later this week. 

I have to wonder if the purple Pac Choi grows as fast as a green-leafed variety since it seems likely it has less chlorophyll in the leaves. The purple pigment is probably anthocyanin.  From wikipedia this pigment does not absorb light in the same range of the spectrum as chlorophyll, and it acts as a sort of sunscreen in many plants.   Sure looks great.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthocyanin

I’m hoping to get some spinach in about a week.