Monday

Plan for Monday:

• Purchase 300 pounds of corn at the elevator
• Plant sunflower seeds
• Plant Bachelor Button seeds
• Transplant beets, fill to end-of-row with lettuce seeds
• Transplant onions
• Start cucumbers (4) and Diplomat melon (6) seeds inside. Use heat mat.
• Start Deadon cabbage seeds.
• Purchase 8 more asparagus crowns.
• Mark feedlot panels identifying where pole beans, cucumbers, Sweet Baby Girl cherry tomato will be planted. SBG and cukes just west of path from yard. Color code (yarn?).
• Graft?
• Protect small fruit trees with 10" diameter X 4' fences.
• Mow
• Weed

A double-row of beets. The plants are staggered and approximately 4" apart in each direction.

There are inefficiencies with planting rows that are 37" apart. While efficient in terms of allowing the rototiller to pass between the rows, a lot of sunlight falls on bare dirt. One strategy to dilute that inefficiency is to plant double rows. One row will lean to the left and the other to the right, sprawling out over the bare dirt.

The academic research on table beets is a little bit weird. They typically plant 30 seeds to the foot and then thin them out to 12 plants per foot. They consider any beet larger than 3/4" diameter (the size of a marble) to be saleable. Most people I know like them larger, in the 1-3/4"-to-2-1/2" range or even larger.

If you want a larger beet, then you have to either plant them farther apart or thin them as they size up so the last to mature are farther apart.

As a frame-of-reference, the academic folks figure that if you are getting one pound per foot-of-row of beets than you are doing OK. I might be getting less than that because I am planting them farther apart but I will make most of that back with the double-row method. I planted 20' of row to transplants and expect to be harvesting July 1-through-July 15ish. My plan is to plant another row in the July 1 time-frame.

Sea Beets

Two other quirky thing about beets is that along with asparagus, they are considered relatively insensitive to salt (NaCl). The second quirk is that they are sensitive to a lack of boron in the soil. Boron is not an issue in drier parts of the country but because it is so soluble it can be an issue in the better-watered parts. Both of these quirks may be due to the fact that beet's (and Swiss Chard's) wild ancestors grew on ocean beaches.

Lemons ==> Lemonade

Sashimi cucumber seeds top, Diplomat "tropical" melon bottom

I could not find my potting soil this morning. So I called an audible. I put the seeds on damp paper towel and put it atop my heating mat.

Diplomat melon has been a reliable producer for us but it produces a single flush of fruit that ripens all within a week. My plan is to launch flights of seeds every 10 days to smooth out the flow of melons. 

Incidentally, Mrs ERJ knew EXACTLY where I had left the potting soil. Actually, this method should germinate the seeds more quickly as the seed will be warmer.

Excuses, excuses, excuses...

I didn't get much knocked off the list today.

Handsome Hombre decided this was a good day to work on some inside projects.

I have a lot of inside projects started. The material is purchased. It just needs time.

HH thought it was a shame to have gotten 1/4 the way around the race-track but to have not enjoyed the benefits of the checkered flag.

"Hello Mr ERJ: Do you mind if I finish some of these projects?" HH asked with great politeness.

"HH, I think that is an AWESOME idea. I will watch Quicksilver if you want to get started." I replied.

Six hours later, HH had installed a ceiling fan (first project) and trouble-shot a project I had botched (second project). He straightened out the problem, re-did the drywall and reinstalled the finish trim. He swept up the drywall dust and moved the rug and furniture back into place. Everything all righty-tighty.

So even though I wasn't very productive, it was a productive day.