The Season in Silicon Valley has been off to a cool start. Lots of rain and below normal temperatures in March, April, and May. 10 days of gloomy weather have now cleared - but temps only in the low 70s all this week.

Spent much of the Spring retrofitting 24 EarthTainer IIs to the new EarthTainer III removable cage system. Also replaced the Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, with Sunshine Mix #4 as the "base" for the 3:2:1 Combo Mix in all of them.

After 3 years of trying, I'm happy for the first time, to be able to germinate and grow out Cuostralee:

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Black & Brown Boar and Pink Boar in the foreground are my tallest plants at the moment:

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In fact, the Pink Boar is already blushing:

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And about a dozen fruitset as of now:

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My pair of Brandywine from Croatia are extremely lush:

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On the right is a PL plant that was also labeled as Brandywine from Croatia, but it was probably mis-labeled. Will be interesting to see how its fruit develops. On the left is Damon's Brandywine cross with Japanese Black Trifele.

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Another "new to me" variety are a pair of Soren's MarNar (F1) on the right, growing next to a pair of N.A.R.X on the left. I'm very interested in a taste comparison between the two varieties derived from Neves Azorean Red crosses.

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This Season, I am planting just 4 Pepper plants per 'Tainer as 6 was just too crowded last year. I am hoping the extra legroom will allow the 4 plants to develop even larger fruit this year.

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Cukes were late to be planted this year, as my time was spent with all of the retrofitting. Sweet Success on the left and Diva on the right:

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And to round it out, I've got 8 CornTainers planted with Northern Xtra-sweet corn:

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So, a lot of hard work to get ready for the 2011 Season, and if I can keep the pests at bay this year, I should be able to finally join my Yellow Rubber Ducks in the Hot Tub shortly.

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Raybo