Tunias

When I was a youth, my Dad would get me jobs watering flowers at local motels in Rapid City, SD. Usually the flowers were petunias, so petunias and I go way back. I have lots of things to try in my first full season in the greenhouse, but I may be most eager to see what can be done with humble petunias.

But petunias are not so humble any more. Supertunias, supercharged mutants developed by Proven Winners in Michigan, are the most amazing petunias ever. (They prefer "hybrid" to "mutant.") I want to do six 16-inch baskets next year. They will spend the first six weeks or so in the greenhouse getting fat, then will be released into the wild sometime in June. I'll probably hang two on the outside west wall of the greenhouse, and four at our house. Three different colors in a 16-inch basket could be spectacular. But the list price is $10.99 per plant. I may buy three or four plants and do some mix-and-match cuttings.

The past few years I've attempted hanging flower baskets in our back yard, but really had no method. In retrospect, the baskets were too small (12") and the petunias were just the cheapest ones I could find.

When the greenhouse arrived in late July, the petunias and marigolds in the baskets looked sick, but they were still alive. I put the deer-resistant marigolds in the outside flower boxes, where the deer eventually killed them. The petunias went into a large pot inside the greenhouse and were neglected for the next few months. In my subsequent research, it said to fertilize petunias heavily, so eventually I did. Now, with my self-imposed greenhouse heating shutoff date of Nov. 18, they look great and I don't want to abandon them to the cold. I plan on trimming them about halfway and putting them in my seed room under a grow light which is on order and supposed to arrive Nov. 10.

There are lots of Supertunia videos on YouTube, including this one by "Up North Garden w/Corey."

Geraniums

The weather has been surprisingly mild this autumn in the foothills of southern Montana. But inevitably, temperatures are dropping and now we're at highs of about 50 and lows a few degrees either side of freezing. The geranium baskets got a haircut today before heading to their winter quarters in my brother's nearby tunnel greenhouse. This isn't exactly what the interweb says to do to overwinter geraniums, but the local experts say they will be fine.

Ever the optimist, I fertilized the pot of petunias today. They look great. But I have to decide what to do with them and with the pot (non-basket) of geraniums. I have taken cuttings from both, but I also plan to overwinter both pots in the windowless garage closet that I call the seed room. The garage is currently heated to 55 and it might be 60 in the seed room. I'll give both pots a haircut, but not as severe as what I gave the baskets. Currently there is one grow light hanging from the ceiling, shining on a crowded seeding area. I will put the two pots, plus maybe a few houseplants that can't find a for home elsewhere, on the floor, in a spot that currently doesn't get much light. I have ordered a stand which has two grow lights. Nov. 10, Amazon says. I know Bezos doesn't run Amazon any more, but sometimes I feel like my wife and I have paid for his wedding, her with her craft stuff and me with my newfound greenhouse obsession.

I was finally able to sprout mint in the seed room by using a seed starter tray and a heat mat. I hope to get at least six mint plants, which I figure is what I will need next summer, and so far there are six sprouts in the 12 cells.

The current grow light intensity is adjustable, but I wasn't sure what to set it at. I was afraid of zapping the delicate seedlings with too much light, and with the light fairly close to the plants I only had it at about 25%. Using one of my new gadgets, the 7-in-1 testing meter, today I compared the light in the seed room to what the natural light was in the greenhouse today. The natural light was not intense today because it was cloudy, but it was still much brighter than the light in the seed room. So I cranked the light up to 60%. We'll see if that helps, or if the seedlings will be charred husks tomorrow.

One final discouraging note. The tomatillo looks like it is getting ready to die, and is caving in on itself. I really don't care if we get a single tomatillo. The real problem is it has aphids, and some of them seem to have found the brocolli. We will see how the soap works. I've been reading up on lacewings for next year.