Pumpkin Patch

Another Pyrolga dilemma. These are two whole other guys. Guy on the right seems like an obvious choice to keep, since he's bigger, right?

But, some of the size is due to legginess. This is in no way a fatal amount of legginess, but when you have two seedlings otherwise equal, you generally wanna keep the less leggy one. I would not call these otherwise equal though; the guy on the right is further developed, working on his second leaf already.

However.... that second leaf is deformed. Got almost a double-leaf situation going on here.

Our monsoon season has finally kicked on! Less than 24 hours after flood irrigation, we get nearly an inch of rain, and there's plenty more storm chances in the forecast. It's nice that my plants are little enough right now that I don't really have to worry about them getting damaged.

Ah Pyrolga, would it even be you without some kind of deformity? This little guy has 3 seed leaves instead of 2, which is called tricotyledony.

Now, I will need to cull one or the other. The worst Pyrolga deformity I've ever had resulted in the growing tip just vanishing, which meant that vine never made it to maturity. If this one has a tendency towards that, it's a potential waste of this garden space. Google also warns that cotyledonary abnormalities can lead to reduced vigor or difficulty producing true leaves, but most likely, it will grow normally. Small chance of it growing early leaf sets in threes instead of twos, but this trait doesn't really offer any advantage, and would not be passed on in seeds.

Buuuuuut.... I kinda wanna see what happens. I have two other Pyrolga vines in the patch, so it's not like this is my only chance.

I'm going to let these both stay long enough to see if this little freak (affectionate) can put out true leaves. Assuming they both still seem viable:

Winter Luxurys are up! And just one mini (could be a Hooligan, Gooligan, or Bumpkin). My germination rates on the minis haven't been very good so I had to start a backup batch. They should be joining us in a few days, if the seeds are good.

At 3pm on a clear day with an official high of 110:

The air temp difference in direct sun vs under my shades (white kitchen trash bags) right now is 128 vs 120 degrees. Considering how much they've helped my plants over the years, I'm surprised to find they create so little of an air temp reduction.

Surface temps were more entertaining: bare dry soil in full sun clocked 165+; shaded and mildly mulched soil about 100.

Here's the part that surprised me: sunny vs shaded leaf surface readings gave me 101 and 92, a much smaller difference compared to the sunny vs shaded soil. Leaves are really good at regulating temperature! I'm interested to see the readings on mature leaves, especially well hydrated vs droopy heat stressed ones.

My initial takeaway is that the more worthwhile impact my shades have been having is on soil temperature, not leaf temperature.

There have been times when the growing tips of my vines have gotten crispy and died off in direct sun, but applying shades helped prevent this. I assumed that this worked by reducing leaf temps. However, these readings are making me understand that reducing the temperature of the ground underneath the growing tips is probably what really makes the difference.

My soaker hose was all crunchy because some moron (me) left it outside all year and it got brittle and broke as I tried to install it, so now most of the mulching has to wait til the new ones get delivered. But, that's a wrap on ~200 cubic feet of digging and amending. Pipsqueaks, Renegades, and Kakais are up. Next up, transplanting and assembling my sun shades!

Speaking of the sun, I bought myself some fancy thermometers so I can keep track of the actual conditions in my pumpkin patch and not just the city temp. Mainly what I wanted to know is what the low temp cutoff really is for successful pollination.

Apparently it got up to 134 in the sun this afternoon and this isn't even a crazy hot day. 🫠