📌 Quick Diary Summary: Mid-Summer Check-In
- 🧅 Seeds vs. Sets: If you can’t get out to your garden early in the spring, starting onions from seed might be a waste of time. Planting onion sets (small bulbs) is much more reliable for weekend gardeners.
- 🐦 Mischievous Birds: Wagtails and other small birds often pull up tiny onion seedlings not to eat them, but just for fun!
- 🫐 The Black Currant Mystery: Red currants and black currants have different soil preferences. If your property is surrounded by pine trees (acidic soil) and sits on a sandy base, acid-loving plants like hydrangeas and wild blueberries will thrive, but black currants will often refuse to fruit.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I just shouldn’t bother growing onions from seed. I get out to the dacha way too late in the season. My indoor onion seedlings looked great, I didn’t mess with them, just eventually moved them outside. Well, I finally planted them, and they just sat there doing nothing. Then the wagtails (birds) came and pulled most of them out of the ground. Apparently, pulling up onions is a fun game for them. It’s just a waste of seeds. The leeks are doing okay, but the regular onions are a sad sight.
On a brighter note, I am loving a determinate tomato variety from a seed swap called Malinka. It’s a real beauty, so happy with it! I planted a mix of commercial hybrids and my old saved seeds this year. So far, I like the results, at least I know what to expect.
Although, the main growing tip on my Tulip (Tyulpan) tomato split and forked into two. Maybe it’s because I shocked the seeds by dipping them in boiling water and then cold water before planting? I did that to all my seeds, but only the Tulip split its top.
I tried growing leeks from seed this year and planted them out in the beds. Total failure. However, my standard onion sets are growing beautifully!
I’ve also noticed over the years that black currants absolutely refuse to fruit for me. I’ve tested this for years. Meanwhile, my red currants are magnificent and completely loaded with berries.
gala7496 wrote:
…black currants absolutely refuse to fruit for me.
Galya, you probably just need to find “your” variety. Black currants don’t do great for me either. I’ve tried planting various varieties, but ended up having to rip the bushes out because they just stood there with no berries.
This is the second year I’m growing Selechenskaya from a seed co-op order. It looks like it might actually give me some berries. The bush is still young, but the berries it does have are huge. I’ll see how it does next year.
Ulyasha wrote:
Galya, you probably just need to find “your” variety.
I’ve decided it’s actually the soil that is the problem. My property has a lot of pine trees. I planted the currants out in the open, sunny spots, and I’ve tried multiple different black currant varieties. Nothing. (My golden currants do have a few berries, though).
gala7496 wrote:
I’ve decided it’s actually the soil that is the problem. My property has a lot of pine trees.
That might be exactly it. What if you planted them the way we plant blueberries? Dig a hole, line the sides to isolate it, and fill it with normal, pH-neutral soil? Under pines, your soil is almost certainly highly acidic.
My cultivated blueberries are doing amazing this year (knock on wood!). They live in isolated, lined planting holes. They are cheerful, healthy, and loaded with a crop. If someone had told me years ago that I would be successfully growing and harvesting blueberries, I never would have believed them. Life is full of surprises! 😄
Ulyasha wrote:
What if you planted them the way we plant blueberries?
I already have wild blueberries, lingonberries, wild strawberries, and wild raspberries growing naturally on my property. Part of my lot is literally just a forest.
The soil is definitely acidic – my hydrangeas grow beautifully and are nearly 6.5 feet (2 meters) tall. I planted a rhododendron this spring, and I think it will be very happy here too. Cultivated blueberries would probably grow great, but since the forest is already full of wild blueberries, I can just walk out into the woods to pick them!
gala7496 wrote:
Cultivated blueberries would probably grow great…
I think Ludmila meant you should try planting your black currants in isolated soil separate from the rest of the acidic ground!
Galiy wrote:
I think Ludmila meant you should try planting your black currants in isolated soil…
I do plant them separately! The native soil on my lot is basically pure sand after just one spade depth, so all my garden beds use imported topsoil.
In these conditions (using imported soil), absolutely everything else grows wonderfully—gooseberries, red currants, all the vegetables in the raised beds. The only thing that fails is the black currant, even though they are planted separately and in different locations around the yard.
👨🔬 Editor’s Botanical Note: Black Currants vs. Red Currants in Sandy/Acidic Soil
Why would red currants thrive in Gala’s yard while black currants completely refuse to fruit? It comes down to a combination of pH tolerance and soil structure.
1. The pH Difference: Red currants and gooseberries are quite tolerant of acidic soils (pH 5.5 – 6.5). Black currants, however, are heavy feeders that strongly prefer neutral, rich soil (pH 6.5 – 7.0). Because Gala’s property is surrounded by pine trees and naturally grows acid-loving plants like hydrangeas and wild blueberries, the ambient soil pH is likely too low for black currants to properly uptake nutrients, causing them to drop their blossoms.
2. The Sand Trap (Leaching): Gala noted her native soil is pure sand just one spade deep, so she uses imported topsoil. Even if you fill a hole with rich topsoil, if the subsoil is pure sand, nutrients (especially Nitrogen and Potassium, which black currants desperately need to set fruit) will rapidly leach out of the root zone every time it rains. Black currants have shallow root systems and will starve in sandy environments much faster than red currants.
