Southeast Alaska Garden Recap 2024

2022 Garden overview 2023 Garden recap

After spending my adult years gardening in Wyoming and Southeast Alaska, I was very excited to get a greenhouse this year because that meant I could try to grow slicing tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers!

The outside garden beds were a bit neglected due to the excitement of growing in the greenhouse, and because my energy was split with growing a tiny human who was born September 18th. The garlic, potatoes and peas did quite well with minimal effort, while lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and even beans were hit pretty hard by the slugs.

The greenhouse

I purchased a Planta Sigma 20 greenhouse and assembled it last fall. The greenhouse is 10’x20’ and I built two beds inside that are roughly 4’x20’ and 4’x16’.

Tomatoes

I started tomatoes (Sungold, Stupice, Cosmonaut Volkov, Oregon Star) inside on March 3.

Half were transplanted to the greenhouse on April 2 when the soil temperature was 52 degrees Fahrenheit. The starts were getting leggy inside, but I was nervous it was too cold, so the other half was transplanted April 24, when the soil temperature was 62 degrees. I did not notice a significant difference in growth between the two transplant times; if anything the earlier transplanted plants ripened tomatoes and peppers earlier, so in the future I’ll transplant them all out early.

The first tomato flowered on May 16 and the first green tomatoes appeared around June 1.I got my first ripe tomatoes – sungold and stupice on July 3. The first Oregon Spring tomatoes ripened on July 27 and first Cosmonaut Volkov on August 19.

The sungold tomatoes I’ll grow again; they’re quite tasty, quick and prolific. However, I’ll also try some other varieties next year because they were very prone to crack. If I had to guess, about half of them cracked, which was disappointing. I also tried these outside in a covered bed and the majority of them cracked, which was probably to be expected given the erratic and extreme rain we get in Southeast AK.

The other varieties I wont grow again. The Stupice were very bland. Store bought tomatoes would have been better. Oregon Spring produced several tomatoes in a flurry in late July and then was completely spent by early August. The Cosmonaut took forever to ripen beautiful large red tomatoes but they were just ok flavor-wise. The big beautiful fruits impressed my friends but they took up a lot of space in the greenhouse for a small return.

Peppers

I started peppers (Cal Wonder, Padron, Dragonfly, Aji rico) inside on February 17, and transplanted them out with the tomatoes on April 2 and 24. I also planted marigolds around the peppers to deter aphids. This seemed to work well as the only pest problem I had was slugs.

Dragonfly was the first to produce on July 10. Padron began producing prolifically (for a pepper) on July 17. Cal Wonder never did much of anything – I picked two peppers off a plant mid July and that was the total harvest from 4 plants. Aji rice began producing in late July.

All of the peppers were just ok. Cal Wonder probably tasted the best but produced hardly any peppers. Padron produced a ton of peppers; we enjoyed these in salsa, eggs, and tacos but the heat level was all over the place. There were a few times we were quite surprised by the heat. I’d prefer something more consistent. Dragonfly was mediocre on all fronts – flavor was ok, production was ok. Aji rico was supposed to be a hot pepper but it had less heat than the padron; we enjoyed it in salsas and tacos and it is the only one I’m considering growing again.

However, with limited greenhouse space, I’m starting to wonder if there are any peppers that are worth growing in SE Alaska.

Cucumbers

I started cucumbers (Manny, Bushy, Lemon) inside on March 28 and transplanted them out on April 24. We harvested the first manny and bushy cucumbers July 10. Lemon was slower to produce, beginning July 20, but when it did it was more prolific.

I’ll grow Manny and Lemon again; both relatively productive tasty cucumbers. Manny is nice because it’s parthenocarpic and pollination in the greenhouse isn’t as good as it would be outside. Bushy was productive but extremely bitter if left on the vine a second too long.

Beans

I direct seeded beans (royal burgundy, capitano) on April 2. These were prolific in the greenhouse producing from July 3 through the end of September. Will grow again for sure.

Greens

I also started lettuce (red sails, buttercrunch) and kale (Russian red) on February 17 to try to get in an early crop in the greenhouse before the peppers and tomatoes got too big. These were transplanted out to the greenhouse on March 16. In addition, I direct seeded pak choi (bopak) and arugula in the greenhouse. We were eating garden salads starting May 4 through the summer, switching to outdoor grown greens in July. The greenhouse greens were slowly removed from June 1 to July 7 to make room for the cucumbers.

Melons and Squash

I tried growing melons (minnesota midget, blacktail mountain) and squash (bush delicata, goldilocks acorn, sunburst summer squash) in the greenhouse as well, but they produced basically nothing (1 delicata and a golf ball sized minnesota midget). I think the melons are just too finnicky to grow here — they were never realyl vigorous and succombed to mildew and mold quickly. The summer squash didn’t get pollinated well and/or the slugs eat the flowers. I might try these outside surrounded by flowers next year. I’ll also probably move the winter squash outside under cover next year — they just take up too much space. Additionally, I read that the Curcurbita pepo varietes are sensitive to day length and do not reliably produce flowers in Alaska, while the Curcurbita maxima varieties are not day length sensitive and grow better here. So I’ll be trying some different varieties next year.

Outside beds

Garlic

Garlic grows with very little work here. I planted music hardneck bulbs and polish softneck on October 7. The plants were harvested on July 18, which I think was actually a bit late since some of the bulbs had begun to split.

Potatoes

Potatoes are another easy and fun crop here. I planted 4 new varieties of purple/red potatoes (All blue, Magic Molly, Adirondack Blue, Adirondack Red) and some Tlingit potatoes that I grew last year. Planted April 14 and harvested August 23, which was probably a bit early but wanted to get them in before the baby arrived. None of the purple potatoes were particularly productive, but All blue and Magic Molly were the best producing about 4lbs each from 1lb of seed potatoes.

Peas

The peas (Sugar Anne) were prolific, planted April 24 and ready to pick starting July 7 through August.

Carrots

Carrots are also a reliable and easy crop. I plant the Northern Lights mix from Territorial to get orange, yellow, purple and white carrots. Seeded April 23, first harvested late July.

Onions, shallots, leeks

I started onions (Redwing, Crème brule shallot, Comanche leek) indoors on February 4 and transplanted them out June 1. The biggest bulb I got was around the size of a golf ball. I think the starts didn’t get enough light. I was hoping to transplant them out when they were around the thickness of a pencil, but they seemed to just stagnate inside during May and were quite small when I transplanted them. I should probably get some grow lights, or just plant sets.

Cabbage and Broccoli

These were quite dissappointing. The slugs just love to mow down little seedlings. I think to get a good crop I need to let them get bigger before transplanting so that a bit of slug damage doesn’t do the whole plant in. I’ll try again next year.

Apples

Two of our three apple trees produced this year! Three years ago we planted a Yellow Transparent, Williams Pride and a Early Pink Lady Cross. The Pink Lady doesn’t produce because it flowers later than the other two. Got loads of Yellow Transparent and Williams Pride. They’re not great for fresh eating but we do eat some fresh, make applesauce, or dice and freeze them for baking later in the year.