Saving and Germinating Parsley Seeds

I have been collecting parsley seeds for the last few weeks.  I grew both flat leaf and curly parsley from seed in 2009.  They grew all summer/fall last year and overwintered in the garden.  This year, the same plants grew for a bit in the spring and then bolted quickly.  The flowers were pretty and attracted lots of beneficial insects (see the last picture in this post) and now they are giving me seeds.  I even made a parsley seed bouquet, inspired by the Ottawa Gardener.

I sowed some seeds two weekends ago to test their germination rates.  After 9 days, over 90 percent of the parsley seeds had already germinated.  Not bad, eh?  Here are a couple of pictures.

Since both flat leaf and curly parsley grew and flowered so close to each other, I could not distinguish between the two varieties when I collected the seeds.  I also don't know if they cross-pollinated.  It will be interesting to see what kind of parsley grows from these seeds.

If you're thinking of growing some parsley next year (or even this year indoors) and need some seeds, I have plenty to share, as long as you're not picky between flat leaf or curly parsley!

When to Harvest Cantaloupe

It's been about three weeks since Lupe the Cantaloupe first appeared on the melon vine.  If all goes well, this melon should be ready in another two weeks or so.

If Lupe looks a bit less than perfectly round (or spherical, if you're three-dimensionally inclined) to you, then you're not alone.  I noticed the same thing last weekend when this picture was taken.  I don't know if our bandana support is not good enough or what, but Lupe has been looking a bit squished lately.  But as long as she continues to develop and ends up being tasty, I'm willing to let the aesthetics slide.

I also mentioned Lupe's little brother Tardo a couple of weeks ago.  Well, I'm sorry to report that he didn't make it. I know several of you were rooting for the underdog, but he just could not pull through.  This is what he looked like before I bid him goodbye.

Since then, Lupe has had more siblings.  Twins, in fact.  Unfortunately, one of them met the same fate as Tardo.  The other remaining twin, however, has gotten big enough to earn his own pink bandana (thanks to Sienna the dog).

At some point last week, the melon plant was supporting three melons: Lupe and the Twins.  I was in a bit of dilemma because I knew that Lupe would need less water as she neared ripeness, yet the Twins would continue to need lots of water for another few weeks.  I consulted by email with EG from Our Engineered Garden, who provided a lot of friendly and informative advice about melon support, sun requirements and watering needs.  He told me that it's difficult to cater to melons of different sizes on one plant and that the largest one usually fared the best.  He also advised me to abort the smaller of the Twins, which I ended up not having to do because it basically self-aborted.  I guess sometimes plants just know these things.

So, here's all the information I know about when to harvest a cantaloupe (muskmelon), based on my internet research and EG's helpful advice:

• Muskmelons generally reach maturity about 5 weeks after the initial fruit set.
• Water them "like crazy" (technical quote from EG) for the first 3 weeks
• Reduce watering during the last two weeks to ensure sweeter melons.  This is true for all melons, not just muskmelons.
• For muskmelons with netted/webbed skin (like Lupe), watch the webbing change color to indicate ripeness.  The melon itself will also usually change color from green to more beige as it ripens.
• Smell it.  Hopefully it starts to smell sweet and melony when it's nearing ripeness.
• Wait for the melon to "slip" (aka. separate, without completely falling off) from the vine natually.  Ripe muskmelon should pull off easily from the vine.

Oh, one last bit of melon information.  The term "muskmelon" refers to many cultivars of melons that include honeydew, casaba, crenshaw and yes, cantaloupe.  Apparently the true cantaloupes originated from Europe, and none are grown commercially in the U.S.  However, the term "cantaloupe" is commonly used to refer to any netted-skinned and orange-fleshed muskmelons in the U.S.

Since Lupe was grown from seed from a supermarket melon, she is technically a muskmelon.  But in the spirit of  "when in Rome..." I will continue to refer to her as a cantaloupe.

Basil Propagation from Cuttings

At some point, I read about basil propagation from cuttings.  I admit, the last thing we need in our garden right now is more basil plants.  But in the interest of science and garden experiments, I had to try this out for myself.

Last week, I cut off different sizes of tops from a basil plant, and stuck them in small glasses of water.  I didn't take a picture then, but this is how they looked a week later.

After one week (Sunday, 9/5/10) I could see the beginnings of roots forming on the largest of the three cuttings.

Just 24 hours later (Monday, 9/6/10), the roots have already grown longer.  I'll probably wait another week or two and plant this one in a pot of soil to see how well it grows.

If this works out, it might be a good way to have "new" basil plants for the winter.  I'll just have to find some nice sunny spot indoors (easier said than done!) for my winter basil.

Have any of you propagated your basil or any other herbs from cuttings?  Did it work out well for you?

This post is linked to Tuesday Garden Party.

9/6/10 Harvest - HOT Pepper

We harvested our first hot cayenne pepper this weekend, just to test its hotness.  Keith took a quarter inch nibble off the tip, thinking "it's still green and unripe, so it can't be that hot, right?"  Then he almost died.  His exact quote afterward was: "It tasted like firey death."

I just took the cut side of the pepper (after Keith took his nibble) and touched the tip of my tongue to it.

WHOA.

This was one hot pepper!  It tasted hotter than any other peppers I've tasted in recent memory.  I have read that hot peppers get a bit milder when they are ripe and red.  We'll have to do another taste test when the peppers are bigger and riper.  A question for any of you pepper growers out there: do you ever harvest cayenne peppers when they are still green, or do you always wait until they have turned color, either partially or completely?

The rest of our harvest was pretty wimpy this week.  We finally got the last of the cucumbers and pulled the vines.  The cucumbers were small, distorted and damaged by bugs; but they were still edible.  I also harvested two green onions I grew from seed.  These things really take forever to grow to a decent size from seed.  There are more in the garden, but we only needed two for cooking, so that's we took.

Since I didn't have much of a harvest this week, I wanted to share a few colorful pictures from our Labor Day barbeque.  The produce was unfortunately not from our garden, but Keith and I have high hopes that we will be able to supply our own vegetables for next year's Labor Day weekend barbeque.
 

We also grilled some chicken breasts and pork chops, but I don't have any pictures of those because I was already too busy eating my burger.  Priorities, you know!

Please visit Harvest Monday for other gardeners' harvests.

Parsley Seed Bouquet

Inspired by the Ottawa Gardener, I arranged a bouquet of parsley seeds.

Freshly arranged bouquet

Close-up of parsley seed heads

Seed bouquet on our dining room table

Jelly Bean Tomatoes Growing Indoors

The one Jelly Bean tomato plant left in our indoor grow box is now growing laterally, as it has already reached the maximum height from the top shelf of the grow box.  It is also flowering and starting to set tomatoes.  Would these tomatoes be considered hot house tomatoes, even though they've never seen the light of day aside from the artificial lights inside the grow box?

Jelly Bean tomato plant in the grow box, with some basil in the background and cilantro in the foreground.

First Grow Box Tomato

More Tomato Flowers

Overwintering Peppers

It is still sweltering hot outside and I haven't harvested a single pepper yet this year, but I'm already thinking about possibly overwintering peppers.  Yeah, I admit it, patience is definitely not one of my strong suits.  Planning ahead, however, is! 

Eight weeks ago, I started some Long Thin Cayenne pepper seeds to see how well they would grow in our new indoor grow box.  I knew it was late in the season to start peppers, but it was an experiment and I wasn't counting on being able to actually harvest any peppers this year (I sure was hoping, though!).  But the pepper seedlings did really well in the grow box, so we transplanted three of them outside.  And now we have peppers!  I don't know how long it will take for these to ripen red, but I'm excited for even green peppers.

Cayenne peppers, still green.

There are actually two cayenne pepper plants in this five-gallon bucket.  I was worried that they would be crowded, but they seem to be doing okay so far.

This is the cayenne pepper plant growing in the square foot gardening box.  This plant is smaller than the ones growing in the five-gallon bucket, but some peppers have already formed on this plant, hopefully with more to come.

I've been wondering if I could bring the pepper plants inside to overwinter them.  Wondering always leads to questions, many questions.  How much sunlight do pepper plants require to overwinter?  Could they survive indoors near a south-facing window?  Or would east-facing windows be better during the winter?  If I could successfully overwinter pepper plants, would they produce peppers all winter long, or hunker down and just go into some sort of survivor dormant mode?

If I could figure out a place to keep them over winter, I sure would like to try to keep them alive, as peppers are technically perennials in warmer zones.  I read somewhere that second year pepper plants are often more productive than first year plants.  Isn't that just fascinating?