A post about posts

Today I put in all the metal posts.  I'm using 6 ft. metal T-posts .  They are VERY substantial - 8 lbs each.  Easy to put in with my hand post driver.  I got about 24 put in in about an hour.  These posts are pretty good.   The only slight thing I would improve on them would be to add small upturned hooks like other fence posts usually have, which would assist with twining.   As they are, I have to physically wrap the twine around the post, so I can't affix the twine box to my belt which would have speeded up things.   I also went ahead and put up just a bit of twine in some rows where some plants already needed some help.

One thing went wrong with the tarp - we didn't put in enough fasteners, so some of them blew up partly.  This resulted in the squashing of about 6 F2 plants.  Bummer.  Still got N=58 left.  One of the broken ones even already had a tiny fruit!

Oh yeah, I hoed a buncha weeds too - so these are still under control for now....MUST get hay mulched down this next weekend!!!

Several plants have flowers already.

The F2s are doing mostly OK, not exploding yet but it's still early.  The ones planted 2 weeks ago are well established.  The F2s and heirlooms planted last weekend are about the same but at least all alive except the ones noted above..  A few looked pretty thirsty but the water was shut off since they were putting in irrigation lines, soI could not help them out. They will have to struggle by today.

Some of the F2s have really strikingly dark purple leaves.  Pics show these and a GZ non-purple heirloom for comparison.