Planting warm weather veggies and fruit in !#%&*! crazy weather - welcome to northern Nevada

Time 5:48am
Temperature - Sparks 54.1, CC&R Farm 51.6
Soil temp 60

Most of these were started from seed in April, potted-up in May.  Only a few were ever-so-slightly root bound so I'd call all of these successful.

Here's what we planted:
2 purple tomatillo
6 Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry
13 bush beans that already have teeny beans
6 Crystal Apple cucumber for eating fresh
4 Double yield cucumber for pickles
1 Delice de Table melon
3 Noir de Carmes melon
3 Golden Midget watermelon
2 Charentais melons
1 Valenciano pumpkin (white)
2 Sugar Pumpkins
1 Delicata winter squash
2 Butternut winter squash
2 Marina di Chioggia winter squash
2 Red Turi winter squash
2 Trombetta di Albenga summer squash (an heirloom Italian climbing squash)
1 Benning Green Tint summer squash - I put a couple more seeds in with the plant because it was scrawny -- I don't have much hope for its survival.
2 Ronde de Nice zucchini
2 Cocozelle Bush zucchini

We'll wait a week or 10 days then cull each variety down to one plant, two if we planned an extra one to produce enough to donate. 

It took two years to get my hands on the Trombetta de Albenga squash seeds so I'm really excited to see what happens.  I first discovered these at the farmers market a few years ago.  They were grown by a Nevada farmer who no longer grows vegetables on her farm due to a family dispute that effectively drove them out of farming on their property.  They wanted to farm but the sibling wanted to make big bucks...totally sucks!

It's northern Nevada, not to mention my day off, so the weather was crazy yesterday. The cloudy weather was perfect for planting but the alternating lashing wind and fairly intense heat when the sun broke the clouds was everything tender transplants hate.  To protect them we covered the entire planting space with agricultural fabric.  We'll leave it on for a while to protect everything and hopefully deny the squash bugs a place to lay their eggs. 

Just the other day I purchase one of the best gardening gizmos ever -- Tufbell Clips.  They hold agricultural fabric in place and are a great alternative to the concrete stepping stones we've been using for years. I am so happy!

Pepper and eggplant -- unseasonal clouds be damned, in they go!

Temperature: Sparks 61, CC&R Farm 59,
Soil temp 62

Yesterday I put the peppers and eggplants into the raised beds. This crop was seeded into paper pots on April 14th, and potted-up (transferred to 4" pots) on May 5th.  Every year spring fever gets me and it's a struggle to refrain from starting too early but this year it's looking good; the plants are just about perfect. I'll start about one week later next year. 

Pepper varieties - 3 Early Jalapeno, 6 Sunshine (sweet), 6 Szegedi (sweet), 3 Nu Mexico Joe E. Parker (anaheim-like)

Eggplant varieties - 3 Asian Baby, 3 Rossa Bianca

This might seem like a lot for 2 people but we're hoping to grow enough to donate this year.

The plants were placed closer together than the seed packet instructions say because space is limited and my experience has been that planting closer works under our conditions.

The raised beds are also hoop houses and are covered with both bird netting and plastic sheeting that is removed or adjusted depending on need.  We'll keep the netting on until the plants are established and big enough to withstand the finches and quail, and then it will be removed so that pollinators can reach the blossoms.  The sheeting is positioned to cover the western side only and will protect the plants from wind. 

First I positioned each pot in the bed to get a feel for space and aesthetics. Each planting hole received a 1/2 trowel full of worm castings from our very own worm farm.  All year we've been supplying our little worm-herd with kitchen scraps and shredded paper, and now we have a nice bit of nutrition for the root systems. I'll say it again...now all we need is sunshine.                     

Yard - June

June to-do

Fruit trees:

Thin fruit when less than 1/2 inch diameter
Continue/finish pesticide program for coddling moth
Check and adjust watering system

Potatoes

PRESPROUT for harvest a month earlier (start in late February or March) five weeks before planting spread seeds in a single layer in warm, well-let room, and wait for them to sprout from the eyes. Fragile! Large sprouts that break off of the parent potato will often grown anyway when planted in moist soil

PLANTING:
In climates with short springs and hot summers, plant early and midseason varieties three to four weeks before your last spring frost date - plant late April or early May

In climates with long springs and hot summers, plant early and mid season varieties three to four weeks before your last spring frost date; plant late-maturing varieties in early summer so they will mature in cooler fall.

Potatoes like acidic soils (below 6.0) at least 10 inches deep

Prepare beds early April – compost or rotted leaves, along with a half-ration of alfalfa meal, soybean meal or other high nitrogen organic material – do not use manure because it is correlated with an increase in rough patches on the spud skins

Prepare the seeds two days before planting

Cover plants with blankets if a late frost is forecast – they will recover

Mulch heavily

HARVEST:
Begin digging when the foliage starts to yellow and wither; allow the tubers to dry indoors covered with dry towels for a day or two; take care to protect them from sunlight which causes them to turn green and bitter; store most perfect potatoes in a cool 50-60 degree place to be used as seed next year.

Or:

Blooming flowers are a cue that potatoes have reached "new potatoe" size. If you want to harvest new potatoes, dig out a full plant and its tubers, leaving neighboring plants undisturbed. Vines may die back on their own as the potato crop matures, but if they don't show signs of doing so, cugt them off at soil level 2 weeks before you want to dig your crop. This will trigger the potatoes to harden, which helps them LAST LONGER IN STORAGE.

COVER CROP:
After harvest replant space with buckwheat.

SEED SAVING:
Save the most perfect potatoes for seed; need about six pounds of potatoes to plant a 50 foot row – yield will vary from 75-125 pounds