Still Growing . . .

The hardest part is the waiting.

Everything is growing and doing splendidly. Nearly all of my seeds have sprouted. I am still waiting to see signs of life from the Wonderberries, the Ground Cherry, the Pink Banana, and Thai Red Papaya. One of the surprising growers of the last couple of days was the cucumbers. I decided to plant a couple of the cucumbers in the seed trays (though they are supposed to be planted directly) just to get them started at the same time as the rest of the veggies. They sprouted almost immediately and are already one of the biggest sprouts.

This one is the Horace Boyette Burpless Cucumber:

And this is the Parisian Cucumber sprouting:

The tomatoes are also doing really well. Both the Carbon and Black Cherry varieties are starting to show progress.

One of the best growers from the first greenhouse tray that I seeded were the flowers. The Jewel Peach Melba Nasturtiums have become downright gangly, and the Camellias are also beginning to get so long that I think I will soon be transplanting them to pots.



The seed trays are beginning to look full of vegetation, so I decided to start working on getting my balcony organized so that it will be ready for when I begin transplanting. I cleaned up all the plant debris and detritus that was laying around, and I pruned the existing plants to get them ready for Spring.

My Ichiban Eggplant already thinks it is Spring. It began flowering like crazy a couple of weeks ago and now I have a plant that is covered with tiny purple eggplants. I finally got a trellis for it. Last year I just let it sprawl everywhere, but this year, as space will be at a premium, I decided it needed to start growing more vertically. Hopefully the upward mobility will help it produce more eggplants as well.





And Marcus Aurelius, my polydamus swallowtail caterpillar is still in his cocoon. I am amazed by how closely his chrysalis resembles a green leaf. I have no idea how long he will remain in the cocoon. That is something I should probably research. So far, he's been ensconced for a week.

Soon I will purchase large quantities of potting soil and begin transplanting the cucumbers, flowers, and herbs and direct plant the beans, onions, and radicchio.

Best Wishes for Pink Bananas

Last night I soaked four Pink Banana seeds in hot water for 24hrs. (I started out with hot water anyway; it grew colder with the passage of time.)

When I got home from work today I re-hydrated four soil pods for my Jiffy seed starter tray and sowed the banana seeds the prescribed 1/2 inch deep into the soil.

The package says to keep the sown seeds at a temperature between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, so I place the second seed tray in front of a window in the condo to try to keep the temp regular. The packaging says that germination can occur in as quickly as one week or as long as six months! I will be so disappointed if it takes months to germinate the seeds. I am hoping that the long soak I gave the seeds will help speed up the germination process at bit.

The first tray I seeded is sprouting very well. I have sprouts coming up of almost everything now except the tomatoes. As everything else is sprouting so well, I have faith that the tomatoes will get with the program soon.

Last year I bought a seedling Ichiban Eggplant from Lowe's. It grew some lovely leaves and spread out all over the place and produced exactly two tiny eggplants. I thought it was going to die over this winter. It got pretty sickly looking, and I wrote it off as a learning experience. However, it almost seems like the cold snap we had here in South Florida spurred it back into action. Shortlay after the freezing temps lifted, it began blooming like crazy. I just harvested two sizeable eggplants from it, and I have about five more that are growing on the plant, and there are still more blossoms! So it looks as if the eggplant will be a part of my balcony garden after all!

I have been carrying a canning and preserving book around with me nearly everywhere. I've found a great little recipe for papaya preserves and I am hoping that I will get the opportunity to try it out. Baker Creek says that the Thai Red Papaya that I am attempting to grow is a heavy producer, so hopefully I have plenty of fruit in my future.

My next projects will be to continue to read up on canning and preserving, plant the rest of my herbs in pots, and clean up the balcony and prepare it for planting my trellising plants.  Updates will be forthcoming . . .