Hey all,
I am fairly certain I recall that Lowell, Anna and I were the sole contributors to our Leafy Mustards grex this season? Regardless, my bed of mustard greens is doing what mustard greens do: adamantly and indifferently growing robustly and quickly regardless of the weather. These are all primarily in cotyledon stages but, none the less, this will likely be densely packed in a month’s time.
Hi Joseph Did you sow them through the straw? Or was that put on after sowing?
I sowed the seeds.
Lightly covered them.
Then placed the loose straw atop the beds. Those have never been watered by me as of yet -
rains only. And they have been repeatedly
blasted by hard and light frosts.
Though, I do think one ‘could’ do that sowing into straw - I would prefer working with more Mustard seed. It is such a heavy producing seed crop it would be a worthy and interesting trial. There are many ways to go about this - ie one could cut down the seed stalks in place and lay them down atop a bed (strawed or un-strawed). I find mustard greens some of the easiest and most willing leafy greens in the garden. Almost a pseudo-perennial ephemeral with how quickly they do everything and how they always re-sow themselves and return annually whether I involve myself or not.
Thanks, that makes sense.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to make it easier to establish beds of small seeds in my very dry climate, without having to water them a couple of times a day until germination. A light straw mulch would help retain water. . . but would also make weeding more difficult later on. (I have lots of tough perennial weeds in my garden. I’ve experimented with not weeding/just cutting things back, but when that happens the weeds just take over. And unweeded beds seem to need even more water to support all that extra greenery.)
I don’t know if this helps your thinking at all but my experiences with the mustards is they are absurdly resilient and want to grow. I don’t know what your fall/winter cycle is but you could try to get that coveted head start by overwintering the seeds under a loose straw mulch and then let them water in and appear
au natural. OR,
on the other hand just commit to at least one dedicated season of getting established ao you reap the benefits of over-sowing their massive seed offering.
Food for thought?
Yes, I agree about the mustards! I’m more thinking for small seeded plants in general; the various brassicas, carrots, etc.
While mustards do self-seed for me, I’m moving away from self-seeding as an overall garden strategy because it makes weeding and other management so much more difficult. I figure that I should treat self-seeding as an added bonus: if things come up around other things I’m growing, great, I will harvest them. But not depend on it too much, or avoid digging perennial weeds in hopes of preserving all the self-seeding weedy things. Basically what I was getting was an example of ecological succession; the self-seeding annuals giving way to more robust (and less useful) perennials (bindweed, quack grass, dock, Maximillian sunflowers, various mints, etc.)
It has been quite cool overall here this late spring. In my mountain valley world this means occasional light frosts at the bare minimum with mostly hard frosts ranging in the 16F-20F nightly lows. This spring killed at least two more peach trees (likely three) and an Asian pear. “Frost is the plant killer.” Not your zones. Anywho, I say all of this to say: the mustards (like most brassica) continue to not really care all that much. As long as we are above 10F even the direct sown seedlings tend to persevere, grow a little, and await the warmth to really pop. This years GTS mustards continue doing their thing, albeit at a snails pace as they await warmer weather and some actual consecutive evenings above the freezing point.
My Mustard ‘Sea of Greens (and purples and…)’ is slowly moving along. I am beginning to get an occasional night without frost, however, so this ‘should’ (a funny word that one) start creeping along a bit more non-tepidly.
Still very cool. Light frosts. Occasional hard frosts (last two nights 23/24F). Mustards don’t really care and continue to slowly move along.
Marvelous growth. Yum!
