#bolting

Flowering fava beans are just so pretty. Wait. Uh-oh.

Grrrr! One of the fava bean plants has developed a black aphid infestation complete with farming ants. Hit it with a neem oil spray because not having that. Will likely have to repeat it daily until the rain stops washing it off.

This was a new one on me since I haven't successfully grown sunflowers in many many years. Looks like they're treehoppers. In these numbers the internet says they shouldn't be an issue that needs addressing, but I'll be keeping a close eye. The plant that these are on is only knee-high right now and has a lot of growing to do.

In good news, the kale that I had accidentally chlorosed (word? it is now) with row cover is recovering and greening up.

The bad news is while the bok choy is also greening up, it is also immediately bolting. So the executive decision is to let it and use these for seed production instead of eating. I have more bok choy in a different earthbox that's ready to start harvesting for that.

Which will go nicely with these first snow peas of the season in a few days.

I really wish I liked radishes because this is the second "thinning" of that row and they look so good. I did try a bite from the last batch just in case my tastebuds had changed and while I could tell that it was an exceptionally good radish (100x better than supermarket), it was still a radish. That's okay, the chickens love them.

This is why I planted a mixed row of radish, cilantro, and dill--the flowers for the beneficials! The radish flowers are varying between white and the pink you see here and are quite pretty. The reason why I'm thinning the radishes is because they're shading out the tomato seedlings planted behind them. Once the tomatoes get tall enough then I'll let the rest be.

Speaking of thinning plant, I have got to harvest some of this dill this week to dry for my spice cabinet. I use a large amount of dillweed in cooking (scrambled eggs, pasta/grain salads, dressings, popcorn seasoning, etc.) and given the contamination/adulteration issues that plagues the spice trade...well you generally know what's going on with what you can make yourself in that regard. Assuming you know what's happening with your soil, that is. I planted peppermint in my alley where a dumpster once stood and it is absolutely not for eating. Just a good smelling plant that tolerates shade reasonably well.

So excited. I did the thing where you don't thin your beet seedlings when they're small. Instead you harvest them as baby beets and the ones left will continue to grow to fill the space. It looks like I'll be having beets with dinner this week! I love beets, they're one of my favorites.

I hope everyone has been well and has been able to work in their garden or towards any of their sustainable, self-sufficient or homestead journey this week :)

We've started getting what might be monsoon weather coming in. (Mostly just wind though. Some dirt. No rain though :'( )

The carrots I left to grow seed did some toppling.

They were about 5+ ft tall (almost as tall as me!). Kind looks like someone sat down in between 'em and pushed em over lol

I've done a bit of doctoring to raise them up a bit. But not everyone was save-able. I knew a few weren't gonna make it, so i Figured I'd take the opportunity to show different stages of carrot flowers real close :)

This is one of the unfortunate carrots I couldn't save. I was working on propping and heard it snap in the soil.

Check out that fat taproot! My soils isn't too deep (pipe concerns.) So I'm pretty sure it woulda been fine if the soil was deeper. I plan on cutting this open to show the different inner parts later :) I will not be eating this carrot, but instead will be giving it to my chickens.

This is the stem, it was about an inch round and at full height was about 4 ft tall.

The circled part I believe is called an intercalary node, the link below has more in depth info if you are curious and want to look up or know more :)

https://www.biologyonline.com/dictionary/intercalary-meristem

This pic has a few different flowering stages.

Some quick info,

A carrot flower is called an umbel and is a type of compound flower.

Each flower on the tip of the umbrella shaped structure has 5 petals and are white in color. (Thes petals fall off when they begin developing seeds)

The kinda scraggly looking umbell in the center is losing its flower petals and seed is starting to come in! 🥳 as seed develops id suggest getting some organza bags or similar to keep them from falling to the ground. I still need to get some myself.

They, to me don't have much scent but are very pretty! And the variety of pollinators in the area love them.

Plenty of bees, unfortunatly I haven't been able to catch pics of the butterflies yet!

And flies! I had to look it up but flies are pollinators species. Guess no fly traps in the garden for now.

And one last pic for today, this one's not a carrot but chard! I've not yet seen chard go to seed so this will be a fun learning experience :)

Definitely bolting action going on.

Bolting is when the weather changes too fast (usually seen when it gets too hot) and the plant panics and tries to seed as fast as it can.

I'll be keeping and eye on it and posting as it changes :)

That's it for now everyone, I hope you all ahve an amazing weekend!

🌱🥕Happy Seed saving! 🥕🌱

When we plant stuff in the garden, the plants don't exactly care about what we want out of them. The plants have one goal: to create seeds and reproduce. Sometimes, this goes in our favour, for example, if the seeds are inside of a fruit that we want to eat (tomatoes, peppers), or it's the seeds themselves we want to eat (beans, peas). But in some cases, plants producing seeds early is against our interest.

Plants like cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, spinach, parsley, basil, herbs in general, if they go to seed production, they're no longer edible for us, at least in the most convenient sense. When cabbage and lettuce go to seed, or as we call it 'bolt', they will start growing up, creating flowers, and will change their flavour and consistency into very bitter, no longer edible taste for us. Carrots will become fiberous and too tough to eat, broccoli will become flowers, herbs will quickly reach their end cycle of life, and will stop producing all the tasty leaves we want to harvest. So, what do we do to deal with this?

First thing we do is watch out when we plant. A lot of plants will go to seed immediately when it's hot enough, so we plant broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce and all these frost-hardy plants when we expect it to be cold for a while. Carrots and celery will also grow when it's cold, however if they survive the winter, they will bolt as soon as it gets warm again. This just means, plant them early enough to reach full size before late spring.

Herbs are generally planted in the warm weather, but that's okay, because we have different ways to stop them going to seed. First thing you can do is to plant them in a very rich soil and fertilize them with nitrogen. When plants get extra nitrogen, they immediately decide to use it for more green growth, and you want them to grow as much greenery as possible. Second thing you can do is to prune them.

Herbs will keep trying to go to seed no matter what, so if you take off their top parts that are trying to flower, or about to try to flower, they will get rebellious and grow 2 tops just to spite you. If you take these off too, they will grow 4. This way you can keep taking their tops until they grow into big, bushy plants, with tons of lush growth on them. This will not only make them bigger but also prolong their life. They'll keep growing more until the weather is no longer good for them to grow, or you stop fertilizing them.

I've seen plants go to seed when they're not liking their living situation; they're in a pot that's too small, or the soil is bad, or there's just not enough nutrients for them to grow big before producing seeds. These plants need to be stopped from growing flowers and transplanted in a better place in order to grow big. You want your plants to feel like they have the luxury to grow big and strong before they start producing seeds – because that way, you get more produce!

Kale is doing a great job of bolting 🙄

I'm going to attempt to harvest the seeds once all the flowers have turned into these pods

July 14