Ok, it is not December nor is it 2021 but last week was the day after Christmas and nobody is going to read what I post on the day after Christmas. You are either actively dealing with your festive shindig or recovering from it. I decided to hold off the Garden Update until this week since we are only just barely into the new year and everyone should be recovered from their hangovers. So with all that posting lawyering out of the way, let dig into the Garden Update for December 2021.

Experiment 1: Summer Potatoes

This concluded at the beginning of December. It was the most minor of minor successes and far from a rousing success my dreams were dreaming when I turned over the bucket. I got about 2/3 of a pound of potatoes from my seed potato stash. That sounds all good except that I used 1/3 a pound of seed potatoes. It was a 100% return though probably not enough to really justify the inputs. My extension office warned me but I wouldn’t listen.

Experiment 2: Chinese Peppers

These guys are still going. I pull them in every time the temps fall below 45F. They are starting to look a bit raggedy but they are still giving me fajita fixings. Once all the fruit comes off, I will be running them through the overwintering protocol. If we continue having a warm winter, these guys might avoid that entirely. These peppers have had nearly 0 pest pressures so I have not had issues with creepy crawlies coming into my house so I might not need to go to the extremes when I overwinter them. I should do a post on it sometime.

Experiment 3: My Mulberry Tree

Sometimes you win and sometimes you get a mulberry tree that is acting up. After so many months of having a happy tree, it has become less happy.

I have given it fertilizer, I gave it a larger pot. I keep it well watered and the leaves are getting crispy. Then I realized something. It is a deciduous bush. The days have gotten a bunch shorter. It is possible that it is trying to go dormant. I doubt disease in part because it is an indoor plant. There should not be much for it to catch, disease wise, from all the other indoor plants. Not much comes in or out of the room.

It is possible that since there are multiple plants, we are seeing the fight to the death at which one plant will take over the pot and the rest will lay on the dustbin of compost. A kind of botanical Thunderdome, if you catch my meaning.

If it is disease then I have probably lost the tree. If it is a reaction to the short days, I’ll put it in front of some grow lights. I figure if it recovers than it is probably dormancy. Otherwise, I am not sure.

Experiment 4: Dragon Fruit Attempt 4

While my Mulberry is breaking my heart, my Dragon Fruit has quit spurning me. I did a water sprouting of the seeds and spread them out over the soil. I have been reward with a billion little baby plants. I’m not sure the water sprouting method is not the best method. I might do a post on it in the future.

Experiment 5: The Indoor Potato

Last month, I had cute little potato sprouts. It was an adorable potato experiment. Oh my how a month can change things.

It is so dense that it is cause chlorosis in the lower leaves. When I started this, I thought I would get potatoes filling out the second shelf. Everything would be small and compact with everything getting light. I’ll used the second shelf to provide them support. I’ll give them a nice pot with plenty of drainage and water protection. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. A nice bushy potato shelf.

They have been so unbelievable aggressive that they are peaking out in the gaps in my top level where the herbs, dragon fruit and mulberry are living.

These things have become invasive. I am really wondering what this is doing to the yields. I mean this vine is nearly 3 feet long. A minor success was the dream, a complete failure was a possibility but a freaking jungle? I never thought I would be worried about Shere Khan hunting me in my vegetable shelf. It hadn’t crossed my mind until now.

Otherwise my garden is just not going. I realize that is not much of an update on the main garden. Especially for the Garden Update for December 2021. It is all official sounding and everything. Let me tell you what is happening.

I have had a crazy round of heat 80F(~27C) that caused all my Tango Lettuce to bolt. A week later we are hitting lows of 16F(~-9C). This has stunted my Swiss Chard and Red Romaine lettuces. Even as I type this we are down to 10F, with snow on ground, one week since we were near 80F for Christmas and had the air conditioner turned on in the house. Oh well, this is what I signed up for when I decided to live here.

Hopefully everything survives the cold and ice.