Pulsegleaner's Garden 2019; The Uphill Battle

[Pulsegleaner]

Update 5/3
The watermelon plan fell though, as none of the seeds germinated and they all went moldy.

Looks like I was wrong about them all being dead. It turns out that the sprout I thought was one of the Shafallah berries (a kind of middle eastern caper) is actually a watermelon (I must have planted the shafallah seed over the same peat pots to recycle them). Now that it has it's permanent leaf, it is unmistakable as a watermelon.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Oh and one of my unknown legumes has sprouted.

 

[Trish Stretton]

Gotta love nature!...hoping your watermelons do well for you.

 

[flowerbug]

Oh and one of my unknown legumes has sprouted.

well i'm glad a few of those seeds worked for you! i hope you can keep them going long enough to get some harvest!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Updates

Unknown pot. WHATEVER the stuff is it's now podding out. Now they look even MORE like radishes (except I don't think radishes have pink flowers)

Solanum acuale. Considering how badly potatoes usually do for me these are going great (of course the TRUE test comes in the fall when I pull them up and see if I got any tubers.

Peppers. Getting quite large. Nothing from the tomatoes yet.

Unknown legume. Now has first permanent leaves (pinnately compound). Something from the Sesbania family still the most likely identity. No action in other three pots (could the critters have eaten all the seed?)

Watermelon. Now has two permanent leaves. Still very short, so no urgency in getting it over to the railing.

Fava bean. There but really short again, and with the weather now getting hot, not sure if it will do anything.

 

[Clarity1210]

Yes radishes can have pink, purple, or white flowers, depending on the variety. I got all three colors this spring. We enjoyed adding the radish flowers to salads.

 

[valley ranch]

Well, you're going to make a cage: If your plants are on a concrete pad a 2"X4" base and corners ~ 2X2 upper horizontal will do ~ depending on the size ~ and chicken wire skin ~ the size of the wire can be as small as you think needed ~ on cage for you pots or several ~ I don't know where you live but: maybe a BB gun is in order ~ and possible trap or traps ~ it's you against them ~ On to Victory ```

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Update
the things in the pot ARE rat tail radishes, no question. They are also harvested.

Cant put anything else in the pot though. Since that was the pot of random things ANYTHING that comes up there could be a plant I want to save, and there are some other sprouts.

With the tomatoes a complete washout (except for the ones we bought as plants) I have filled the empty pot with some herbs, as well as all of the rest of the empty pots (we even got some cat thyme, so when we do get a new cat, it will be one happy kitty.)

 

[digitS']

Cat Thyme:

"The leaves and younger branches when fresh, on being rubbed emit a volatile, pungent, aromatic smell, which excites sneezing, but in taste they are somewhat bitter, accompanied with a sensation of heat."

Some, but not all cats prefer it to catnip and will corkscrew themselves into the plant in ecstasy.
~ Wikipedia

Steve

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well, I can only go with the reactions of my last cat, who when I tossed out a sprig of the last plant in the trash when it broke off in transit, tried to chew through a metal wastebasket to get at it.

I've sometimes thought of trying to get Japanese Drunken Cat vine (At least, that's the name I was told, but it doesn't show up on web searches, so that could be wrong) as well. However, I'm a little scared at how extreme the results of that can be (it supposedly will leave a cat so loopy they will miss mice and hit their heads on the wall because they can't find the mouse hole.) It's basically kitty PCP (which makes sense as PCP was originally synthesized as a tranquilizer for large cats, and both its source and cat vine are in the kiwi family.)

I also have Egyptian mint (my favorite for drinks) Pine rosemary and conehead thyme (a sort of battle plant for me, as it is so hard to keep going and healthy)