Sunflower follies...

Sunfowers

A little update about the sunflowers.  I planted roughly 1100 seeds of 11 different varieties.  I installed a drip irrigation system.  This is the first time I have ever done anything like this and I was so nervous about doing it wrong but it went together just fine.  

I was concerned about getting good germination.  Last year, my germination was completely terrible.  I think I had planted about 1700 seeds but only had a little over 300 plants (for the whole season!).  This year, I tried a little experimentation with planting seeds directly into the ground and starting transplants and then transplanting into the field.  Well, both methods worked pretty much equally well and my germination was up close to 90% so I wiped my brow and breathed a sigh of relief...until...

Pic after Henry mowed down the "lanes" the grass was getting taller than the sunflowers!

The boys and I went to Kansas and I guess I just thought that everything was going great and when I got back, the flowers would have grown so tall BUT they looked kind of sickly (this also me me almost sick to my stomach...all that work and I just felt like they were dying...ugh!).  I ran home and consulted with Henry (my hubby).  They were quite pale so we decided some fertilizer was needed. I found a rate of fertilizer online for cut sunflowers (not easy to do...most rates are for oil seed sunflowers).  Henry did the calculations for me (thank you!) and I headed out to apply the fertilizer.  

The good news is the the flowers greened up immediately and started growing!  But things were still going so S-L-O-W-L-Y...

Gold sunflower at the end of the rainbow

 I think the weather had a little bit to do with the delay in flowering.  We have had some crazy cool weather and then it gets a little hot and then it cools down again.  These are not ideal growing conditions for sunflowers.  Sunflowers like it hot and that is what we finally got this past week (the last week of July) and they finally started to pop!

Sunflowers in the field

Booth at my first week of 2016 at Farmer's Market.  New banner, chalkboard sign, and stand for jams.

So, I have planted 11 different varieties and I can tell you already that the single stem varieties are totally kicking butt (I guess that is why they tell you to plant single stem varieties for cut flowers).  That is mostly what I had picked yesterday (ProCut Gold, ProCut Orange and ProCut Lemon).  The branching varieties are really lagging but coming along.  The double sunflower I had chosen is not going to be great for cut flowers, the stems of the flowers are too short.  Last year I grew a double, single stem and it had a lot of deformed heads.  I guess I will try another variety of that kind next year.  

Another thing I wanted to mention is that I planted the single stem varieties about 6 inches apart.  Johnny's said you could plant them 4-6 inches apart.  I am going to plant them 4 inches apart next year. (I know there are a lot of boring details here but I refer back to these blogs for notes when the next growing season starts so it is part blog part journal for me...)

Overall, it has been a good sunflower year, despite the worries of the fertility matter and the cool weather.  I took 87 flowers to the market yesterday and my goal was to take about 100 each week.  As the other varieties start blooming, I think this goal will be attainable.

Catching a swarm!

Beekeeping

When we were in Kansas, my mom was mowing the lawn and noticed a clump of bees hanging in her grape arbor.  It was a swarm...

My mom called a couple of local people that she knows that have bees.  One lady said she would come and get the swarm...

She sprayed the swarm with sugar water to keep them together.  She brushed them into a cardboard box.  There were still some bees hanging out on the post so we weren't sure if we got the queen.  The post that they were hanging out on was split so we did not know if maybe the queen was inside the post still.  So, we just put the box on the ground and waited about 20 minutes.  

Slowly, the bees made their way down from the post into the box so we knew we had the queen in the box.

The bees seemed to have liked this spot and were starting to make honeycomb here.  It is a little hard to see but it is the white stuff on the lower post here...

This was such a neat experience!  She was going to package them for me to take back to Idaho but I do not have an extra hive.  She is taking the bees to her place.  She has 8 active hives right now and 2 empty hives.  If I ever see a swarm (near my home), I would not hesitate to try and capture it!

Top bar beehive at ReMARKable Farms

I came back from our trip to Kansas and everything looked good in our hive.  I added 3 new "bars" for the girls to continue making honeycomb.  When I inspected everything the next week, things were not right...

The first thing I noticed is that they were making comb on the divider board.  This should not be happening....

Then, at the other end of the hive, they had made a comb that was curved and doubled (for lack of a better term).  Also, the bees are starting to now put their resources into making honey for the winter and a "honey flow" had occurred.  So, in one week, there was all the sudden a lot of honey in these deformed honeycombs.  I had to clean it all out.  I was almost sick to my stomach to take all that out badly formed comb.  I tried to "give" it to the bees by placing it on the ground in front of the hive, but, after one day, I could tell they were not eating it.  

I picked up the honeycomb and pressed the honey out of it...

Then, I rendered the beeswax from the honeycomb.  Here is a pic of the honey we got and beeswax...

This honey was not "matured" so it will not keep and we will need to eat it soon.  I am watching the hive more closely to make sure that the next combs are more straight.

One day I went out and could not see any eggs.  I just about freaked out because I thought something had happened to the Queen!  I took a new bar and put it in among the brood nest.  I waited a couple of days and then they made new honeycomb and I could see eggs in the new honeycomb.  The day I had checked before, it was cloudy and I think that I was just having a hard time seeing the eggs (because they are REALLY small) and I did not have any sunshine to put the honeycomb up to to see through clearly.

Things seem to be humming along with the bees for now.  I will try to get an update on the sunflowers next week.  They are starting to bloom but it is going very SLOWLY...

Catching a swarm!

Beekeeping

When we were in Kansas, my mom was mowing the lawn and noticed a clump of bees hanging in her grape arbor.  It was a swarm...

My mom called a couple of local people that she knows that have bees.  One lady said she would come and get the swarm...

She sprayed the swarm with sugar water to keep them together.  She brushed them into a cardboard box.  There were still some bees hanging out on the post so we weren't sure if we got the queen.  The post that they were hanging out on was split so we did not know if maybe the queen was inside the post still.  So, we just put the box on the ground and waited about 20 minutes.  

Slowly, the bees made their way down from the post into the box so we knew we had the queen in the box.

The bees seemed to have liked this spot and were starting to make honeycomb here.  It is a little hard to see but it is the white stuff on the lower post here...

This was such a neat experience!  She was going to package them for me to take back to Idaho but I do not have an extra hive.  She is taking the bees to her place.  She has 8 active hives right now and 2 empty hives.  If I ever see a swarm (near my home), I would not hesitate to try and capture it!

Top bar beehive at ReMARKable Farms

I came back from our trip to Kansas and everything looked good in our hive.  I added 3 new "bars" for the girls to continue making honeycomb.  When I inspected everything the next week, things were not right...

The first thing I noticed is that they were making comb on the divider board.  This should not be happening....

Then, at the other end of the hive, they had made a comb that was curved and doubled (for lack of a better term).  Also, the bees are starting to now put their resources into making honey for the winter and a "honey flow" had occurred.  So, in one week, there was all the sudden a lot of honey in these deformed honeycombs.  I had to clean it all out.  I was almost sick to my stomach to take all that out badly formed comb.  I tried to "give" it to the bees by placing it on the ground in front of the hive, but, after one day, I could tell they were not eating it.  

I picked up the honeycomb and pressed the honey out of it...

Then, I rendered the beeswax from the honeycomb.  Here is a pic of the honey we got and beeswax...

This honey was not "matured" so it will not keep and we will need to eat it soon.  I am watching the hive more closely to make sure that the next combs are more straight.

One day I went out and could not see any eggs.  I just about freaked out because I thought something had happened to the Queen!  I took a new bar and put it in among the brood nest.  I waited a couple of days and then they made new honeycomb and I could see eggs in the new honeycomb.  The day I had checked before, it was cloudy and I think that I was just having a hard time seeing the eggs (because they are REALLY small) and I did not have any sunshine to put the honeycomb up to to see through clearly.

Things seem to be humming along with the bees for now.  I will try to get an update on the sunflowers next week.  They are starting to bloom but it is going very SLOWLY...