Reblooming Orchids Under LEDs
- Trim bloom stem
- Cool environment (15C)
- 14-16 Hours Light
- About 1 foot between lights an leaves
- Fertilize (water) once per month
- 3-12-6 to promote flowering
- Avoid overwatering
2022 Tomatoes
Again, I’m doing a bunch of tomatoes from the Klee Lab. This year as part of a ‘citizen science’ initiative to evaluate cultivars they’ve developed.
| Variety | Seeded | Germ. Rate | Transplanted | Planted | Growing Environment | First Harvest | Last Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden Ruby (D) | 2022-02-21 | 0/1 | |||||
| Garden Treasure (I) | 2022-02-21 | 0/2 | |||||
| Garden Gem | 2022-02-21 | 0/2 | |||||
| San Marzano | 2022-02-21 | 0/2 | |||||
| Better Boy Hybrid | 2022-02-21 | 0/2 | |||||
| B Hybrid (I) | 2022-02-21 | 0/2 | |||||
| R Hybrid (cherry) | 2022-02-21 | 0/2 |
Mushroom Growing Notes
Grain Spawn
- Two cups malted barley per one litre jar
- Rinse grain in cold water a few times
- Soak 12-24 hours with 1tsp/5gal gypsum
- Bring grain & water to boil, simmer for 15 minutes
- Drain and cool grain
- Fill jars 3/4 full and close with lids
- Cover lids with foil
- Sterilize in pressure cooker at 15PSI for 90 minutes
- Using sterile methods, inject 1-2ml spawn per jar
Grow Bags Recipe
For four bags:
- 5.5 litres of hardwood pellets
- 1.5 litres of wheat/oat bran
- 6.5 litres of water
Nesspresso Evaluation
| Master origin – Nicaragua | Gold | Pleasant for lungo |
| Master origin – India | Green | Ashy dark |
| Ispirazione Ristretto Italiano | Black | |
| Master origin – Columbia | Pink | Pleasant and smooth. Good for lungo |
| Master origin – Ethiopia | Peach | |
| Ispirazione Palermo Kazaar | Dark Navy | Really dark roasty |
2021 Tomatoes
The pandemic has re-ignited my gardening drive.
Along with an indoor seed starting space and a greenhouse that no longer sinks into the garden, the calendar has just turned to 2021 and I already have a number of tomato varieties on the mind.
First, is the Garden Gem. A hybrid variety developed in the Klee Lab at the University of Florida. They sought to identify the compounds that make tomatoes taste great, the heirloom varieties that are high in those compounds, and hybridized them with ‘easy-to-grow’, but otherwise less flavourful varieties. The Garden Gem, by their accounts, “produces massive numbers of delicious oval fruits that average 2-2.5 ounces” and “is an early producer, giving ripe fruits about 60-65 days after transplanting”.
The Klee Lab lists flavourful, [heirlooms and their cultivars] varieties in descending tastiness as: Maglia Rosa Cherry, Garden Gem, Early Red Chief, B hybrid, Tasti-Lee, St. Pierre, and Peron Sprayless, etc. I will be definitely looking for some of the Maglia Rosa Cherry and it looks like West Coast Seed will have some Tasti-Lees.
The second set of tomato seeds comes from an eBay order to a seed collector/producer in Greece. The seeds arrived in small ziplock bags with hand-printed labels. From that group are: Roma VF, Santorinis, and San Marzanos. They also sell St. Pierres, from the list above. (The fig seeds I got from this same, Greek producer have grown into small plants indoors. I plan to move them to large pots in the spring.)
It will be interesting to track how all these seeds will do, so far away from where they were produced.
| Variety | Seeded | Germ. Rate | Transplanted | Planted | Growing Environment | First Harvest | Last Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden Ruby (D) | 2021-03-07 | 2/3 | |||||
| Garden Treasure (I) | 2021-03-07 | 2/3 | |||||
| Garden Gem | 2021-03-07 | 3/3 | |||||
| San Marzano | 2021-03-07 | 5/6 | |||||
| Rio Grande | 2021-03-07 | 5/6 | |||||
| Santorinis | 2021-03-07 | 5/6 | |||||
| Roma | 2021-03-07 | 0/6 | |||||
| Sugary Cherry | 2021-03-14 | 3/3 |
2021-03-10 – Klee Lab seeds arrived last week. Planted them and the Greek-origin seed into rock wool cubes under LED grow lights indoors on Sunday, March 7, 2021.
2021-03-23 – Seed germinated about a week ago. Dipped rock wool cubes in MG Seedling fertilizer solution.
Growing Tips
Planting
Transplant from pot deeply: up to the first true leaves.
Watering
Keep the soil evenly moist and nutrient rich.
Pruning
Indeterminate (Vine): Pinch all suckers from the ground up to the second set of flowers.
Determinate (Bush): Pinch all suckers from the ground up to the first set of flowers.
In July, start to prune away the leaves around ripening fruit to improve air circulation and access to light.
Avoiding Disease
Blossom End Rot is due to a calcium deficiency. Add bone meal, lime or crushed up egg shells to the soil.
Baking Conversions
Ingredients
| °F | °C |
| c Water or Milk | g |
| c Flour | g |
| c Sugar | g |
| tbsp Sugar | g |
| c Butter | g |
| tbsp Butter | g |
| c packed Brown Sugar | g |
| tbsp packed Brown Sugar | g |
| c Honey, Molasses, Syrup | g |
| tbsp Honey, Molasses, Syrup | g |
Pursuing the perfect pilsner
I’ve been trying to brew quality Bohemian Pilsners for years now. I’ve built out a section just to collect all the info I can. It’ll be constantly evolving as I learn more from other brewers and my own experiences.
This year’s tomato varieties
- San Marzano
- A great paste tomato with a bright red color and heavy walls…great for sauce and catsup. Originally from Italy, this plant is compact and great for small gardens. Determinate, 75 days Red
- Ventura (Chico III)
- Determinate. Produces excellent sauce tomatoes that are about 3-4 oz. plum-shaped fruits.
- Pompei
- Plant produces heavy yields of flavorful red tomatoes. Tomatoes are very flavorful and grow in heavy clusters. Excellent for making Italian sauce and paste. A variety from Italy. Indeterminate.
- Costoluto Genovese
- The fluted, old Italian favorite that has been around since the early 19th century. Fruit are rather flattened and quite attractive with their deep ribbing. This variety is a standard in Italy for both fresh eating and preserving; known for its intensely flavorful, deep red flesh. This variety has also became very popular with chefs in this country. Indeterminate.
- Napoli
- A small red tomato slightly larger than a big cherry. Vines are loaded with bright red fruit that have a tangy acidic flavor. Indeterminate.
- Grape
- The large, indeterminate plants have good leaf cover and produce big yields of grape-size fruit on multiple clusters. Red Grape’s shiny red fruit is consistent for size and shape, and has the firm texture and good sweetness.
- Black Krim
- Fruits are a super dark red with greenish tops. This has been one of our top sellers every year! Sweet and tasty flavor. Indeterminate., 76 days Purple-Black
Reminders about growing tomatoes:
What’s the difference between “indeterminate” and “determinate” tomatoes?
Determinate tomatoes, or “bush” tomatoes, are varieties that grow to a compact height (generally 3 – 4′). Determinates stop growing when fruit sets on the top bud. All the tomatoes from the plant ripen at approximately the same time (usually over period of 1- 2 weeks). They require a limited amount of staking for support and are perfectly suited for container planting.
Indeterminate tomatoes will grow and produce fruit until killed by frost. They can reach heights of up to 12 feet although 6 feet is normal. Indeterminates will bloom, set new fruit and ripen fruit all at the same time throughout the season. They require substantial staking for support.
Should I prune or not prune tomato suckers?
Never prune a ‘determinate’ type tomato. You want all the fruit you can get from these shorter plants. Indeterminate varieties vary in their response to pruning, some reportedly have increased yields when the young plant is pruned back to three or four vines. I prefer to let the plant produce stems for better fruit production and better leaf canopy to protect the fruit from sunscald. However, for indeterminate varieties, I like to remove most of the suckers at the bottom 10″ of the plant to invite greater air flow at the base of the plants and reduce the risk that fruit will touch the ground where they insects and disease might be encouraged. Know that removing new flowers near the end of the growing season can help speed up the ripening of mature fruit.
Pizza dough recipe
Bread Baker’s Apprentice Pizza Recipe
Enter Number of Pies:
Ingredients
- g Water
- g Dry yeast
- g Bread flour (for dough)
- g Olive oil
- g Salt
Jeff Varasano’s Pizza Recipe
Enter Number of Pies:
Ingredients
| g | Water |
| g | Bread flour (for dough) |
| g | Salt |
| g | Sourdough poolish |
| g | Dry yeast (optional) |
| g | Bread flour (after wet knead) |
Process
Mixing Initial Dough
- Pour all the ingredients into the mixer, except use only 75% of the total flour for now. Everything should be room temperature or a bit cooler. If you’re looking for some free sourdough starter, ask me for some or check out Carl Griffith’s 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter.
- Mix with the dough hook on lowest speed for 2-4 minutes or until completely blended. At this stage you should have a mix that is drier than a batter, but wetter than a dough – closer to batter.
- Cover and Let it rest for 20 minutes.
Wet Kneading (the key to the chewy texture)
- Start mixing dough on low speed.
- If you are using a Kitchen Aid, and you lift the hook, the dough should fall off by itself. The hook should look like it’s going through the dough, not pushing the dough around.
- Five minutes into the wet knead, start adding remaining flour gradually.
- Increase the speed of the mixer slightly.
- One of the best ways to see how your dough is doing is to sprinkle a little flour on in and just feel it. It should feel baby bottom soft.
- Allow to rest/rise for a few hours
Portioning
- Pour dough onto floured surface.
- Knead for a few seconds
- With a dough scraper, cut into single pie portions and knead into ball
- The proportions above will provide 12” very thin pizzas. For thicker (1/2”) crust, increase by portion size by 50% (e.g., make the three pizza recipe for two pizzas)
- Put dough balls into lightly olive-oiled, one-litre plastic (e.g., Ziplock) containers
- With the lid on, put into the fridge for up to five days. Leave out on the counter if making today.
- Allow to warm/rise one hour at room temperature
Prepping the oven
- Put the pizza stone into the oven
- Turn the oven to bake at the hottest temperature possible
- Allow to heat for at least 20 minutes
Forming the pies
- Pour dough (it should be soft/slack enough to literally pour out of the plastic container) onto well-floured surface
- With your fingers, delicately press and stretch out the dough to desired diameter/thickness, turning and dusting with flour occasionally
- The dough will be very soft and you will need flour to keep it from sticking to the surface and your fingers
- Sprinkle peel with flour and/or corn meal
- Fold the stretched pie into half and half again (so it looks like a quarter-pie slice)
- Lift onto peel and unfold
- At this point, it’s good to (over the sink) do just a little shaking of the dough on the peel, to make sure that the flour/corn meal is working and it’s not stuck
- Add toppings
Cooking
- Slide the dressed pizza from the peel onto the stone
- Allow to cook until you think it looks done… then give it at least one minute more (until you start to feel some anxiety) – the little bit extra browning on the crust and cheese makes it better
Credits
This recipe and methods described herein, have been adapted from the Jeff Varasano’s New York Pizza page.