Posted on 03/20/2015 12:49:03 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.
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I actually have 20 different kinds. Almost entirely heirloom or artisan.
Some paste tomatoes, especially Amish Paste. I like the darker colored ones like Black Krim and Black Russian, as well as Cherokee purple. A few beefsteaks, I’m trying an indigo apple for the first time this year. I have a few striped hollows, great for stuffing!
And last I did a few of the bumble bee and tiger tomatoes. Small, fancy tomatoes, not great producers, but they taste just too good. Pink Berkeley tie dye - hippy name, but those were so good. And a few yellow pear and cherry tomatoes.
I just love growing tomatoes. At least 1/4 of my total growing space is tomatoes. Wish I had a few acres, not just my back yard.
I also have 2 types of tomatillas and ground cherries started as well as six kinds of eggplant.
I don’t have many of any one type of anything, just a large variety with a few plants of each. And I do love to try new and odd things.
Hi Everyone!
Checking in with a report.
The notebook given to us is MASSIVE. I’ve just finished reading the first chapter and some of the 2nd chapter.
The first chapter covered the origins and uses of the Master Gardener title.
The 2nd chapter goes into plant structures and general botany. VERY detailed!
We were given two handouts which I thought I would dip into which would probably be of most interest to our thread participants: The first is called “Growing Tomatoes” and the second is called “Beans: Planting, Growing and Harvesting Bean Plants”
So here goes!....excerpts from:
GROWING TOMATOES:
This information was generated by Darrell Berry, a Master Gardener who moved to Oklahoma from Indiana 3 years ago, and notes that there may be some differences in soil and climate.
Tips to help gardeners from now til frost:
1. A PLACE IN THE SUN. Tomatoes Need Sun Light
If a tomato plant gets 8-12 hours a day of full sun, expect plenty of fruit. Choose a bright airy spot, and leave room between plants for air to circulate.
Rotate even a little - Alternate your tomato bed between even just two spots and you can diminish risk of soilborne diseases such as bacterial spot and early blight.
2. PASS UP OVERGROWN TRANSPLANTS
When buying tomato seedlings, beware of lush green starts with poor root systems. They will languish for weeks before growing
3. BURY THE STEMS
Plant your tomato seedlings up to the first true leaves. New roots will quickly sprout on the stems. More roots mean more fruits.
4. WATER DEEPLY BUT INFREQUENTLY
Soak your tomato bed once a week or every five days at the height of summer. Water directly on the soil, not on the leaves.
5. PINCH THE SUCKERS
Prune off these non-fruiting branches. This directs the tomato plant’s energy into growing bigger, better fruit.
6. STAKE THEM HIGH
Use 6-foot stakes for indeterminate varieties like the “Brandywine” tomato. Put the stakes in when transplanting to avoid damaging roots.
Add Compost and Trim.
While the 1st fruit is ripening, encourage new growth and continued fruit set by scratching compost around the stem, and trim some of the upper leaves.
Build a Home for roots.
The soil must be rich in organic matter. Before buying a single tomato plant, consider adding about a two inch layer of compost or organic humus. Work this into the soil along with a bit of agricultural lime. The lime adds calcium and brings the pH up close to 6.5 to 6.8, a range that is ideal for tomatoes. (Many soils in Tulsa are highly acidic and need liming) Tomatoes need some nitrogen, but plenty of phosphorus and potassium. Try mixing a slow-release all purpose vegetable fertilizer into the soil to keep fertility levels even for several months. If plants slow down in growth in mid-summer and foliage is pale, then add a bit of nitrogen.
To get the amount of fertilizer just right, consider bringing a soil sample to your county extension agent’s office for testing. They will mail back a personally prescribed fertilization plan for your garden. [texokie note: check with your own county agent; their policies may be different in your state and county. Here, there is a very nominal fee for the testing]
7. PLANT AGAIN
three weeks after you plant tomatoes in your garden, put in another set so all of your harvest doesn’t come at once.
8. VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
Buy several varieties. 6-10 plants are plenty for a family of 4 for fresh eating. Plant more if you want to save your harvest.
There are two major varieties: Determinate and Indeterminate
a) Determinate - Will ripen all at once and are great if we are making salsa, canning, freezing or drying. “Roma” and “Celebrity” are determinate.
b) Indeterminate - will continue to bear fruit until frost if we can keep the foliage healthy. “Sun Gold” a yellow cherry tomato, will bear all season. Most of the popular medium to large tomatoes, such as “Jet Star,” “Better Boy,” “Beefsteak,” and “Super Fantastic” are indeterminate.
If a variety is called “compact” or “stakeless” then it is usually determinate.
9.HEIRLOOMS
Many heirloom varieties are not disease resistant, but have unique flavors. They bear fewer tomatoes, and are later to bear fruit, but many gardeners feel it is worth the wait to have a few bites of these tasty tomatoes.
10.DON’T PUSH THE SEASON
After buying or raising tomato seedlings, don’t push the season. Take the soil’s temperature before planting. Better yet, check local weather station web sites. They usually provide the soil temperature. SOIL NEEDS TO BE ABOVE 60 DEGREES FARENHEIT before planting tomatoes. Air temperatures may be balmy, but it’s the soil that drives the system. If roots are cold, transplants will just sit there and not grow.
Soil CAN be prewarmed before planting by covering soil with clear plastic for a few days before planting, or by loosening soil and hilling it up a bit. Another tip is to plant early tomatoes on a south-facing slope. We can gain two weeks of growth by growing on soil that tilts a bit toward the sun. “Wall of Water” plant protectores are a garden invention worth trying. They are cylinders of plastic chambers that we fill with water and place over the plant to form a tipi shape. The water collects heat evergy from the sun during the day, radiating it back slowly to the plant at night. They provide great frost protection for early season plantings.
After planting tomatoes, MULCH with straw, hay, or a thin layer of dry grass clippings to prevent mud from splashing on leaves. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Our soil contains millions of microbes. Some are helpful to plants, others cause disease. Many disease-causing tomato funal sportes diseases reside in our soil. When it rains and mud splashes onto the leaves, the fungus can start growing and invading the tissue. Septoria leaf spot and alternaria (also known as early blight) are two common tomato leaf spot diseases in the Tulsa area. Some tomato varieties have a letter “A” after the variety name. This means it is RESISTANT TO ALTERNARIA.
12. MULCH! Keep plants mulched, evenly watered and they’ll be happy. a good mulch is wheat straw. It is slightly reflective, will keep soil cooler and can be piled thickly to insulate the roots without cutting off the air supply.
Or plant 'indeterminate' varieties of tomatoes (produces season long)
or do sequential plantings of 'determinates' (crops all come in at once , ideal for canning season).
Most heirlooms are 'determinates', and are known for flavor.
Well , I told you it was going to be like a college course - so much to learn .
It sounds like you aren't disappointed !
Get reinforcements for those hand-outs, so they will last a long time , especially if its a three-ring binder.
Don't feel overwhelmed , just lay back and 'let it happen' and you will recall later whatever information you need, or will know of a resource where you can get that information.
At least you have 'Darlin' to drill you on the esentials, and to catch whatever goes over your head.
Now that's a partnership !!
You made me envious. You are very lucky to have that class/notebook.
/johnny
Thank you for the suggestion.
I will start with 4-H.
Weather’s nice enough, for few days, that I sat our new (bought last Fall) 5-6’ Winesap apple tree outside yesterday to get some sun.
SURPRISE! It has open blossoms on it. It will soon go into the ground; shooting for Monday.
You are a total gem! Thank you.
The Egyptian Walking Onions I brought here did their usual thing this winter - looked like hell. I did cover them during the worst freezes. Now, they are growing like crazy, tall and totally green. I have got to get a 4x4 above the ground planting box to put them in. That is the only onion I will ever have as they grow on their own through hot weather and freezing weather. Being wild to start with made them hardy I suppose - either grow on their own or they died and they chose not to die.
Other than that, hope to get some good tomato plants at a nursery (can you say Lowes?) so we can have bacon and tomato sandwiches. When we made the trip up north, I bought REAL thick bacon and froze it. That is one thing the north does better than we do, have REAL thick bacon. I got this bacon at a meat market where Lehman's is in Ohio. That's the land of the Amish. They believe in real meat. I laid out the bacon individually so we could take as many as we wanted out of the package without tearing up the rest.
I got a hand coffee bean grinder at Lehman's. Bob only has coffee BEANS of different kinds and blends the beans in the electric grinder every morning - no blend is the same every day. If power is out, NO COFFEE as there was no way to grind the beans - hence, the manual grinder. Being the prepper I am, I also have jars of instant coffee as backup. ANY coffee is better than none.
I'm happy with the walking onions. I checked them today when I checked the asparagus. Lots of walking onions, and not much asparagus. Everything was clogged with detritus from the fall, so I moved leaves and cleaned that little area out.
/johnny
I'll check out what is still growing in his garden after this hard winter that doesn't want to stop. We are getting much needed rain now. I am so used to rain down south where I lived, this dearth of rain is new to me.
I'll report what I find at his house including how well he is handling the radiation. Only five days left of his radiation. Maybe I'll turn off the lights and see if he (((glows))) in the dark. :o)
The new medicine is great for the side effects of radiation. I still haven't lost my hair or beard yet. Drat the luck.
I'm gonna have to start getting hair cuts..
/johnny
Hi Everyone! I’m back! I had to go run some errands.
The information on TOMATOES from the handout compiled by Darrell Berry continues:
13. SWEET AND SOUR
Some people prefer a low-acid tomato. Researchers at Mississippi Stat U have found that most tomato fruits have a pH of between 4.3 and 4.6. The yellow or pink “Low Acid” tomatoes are not any lower in acid, but they ARE higher in sugar. As with fine wine grapes, it’s the ratio of sugar to acid that determines the flavor characteristics. For sweeter tomatoes, leave them on the vine as long as possible to ripen. Just watch out for birds, squirrels, and other creatures that are fond of the fruit.
14. INSECT CONTROL
Insects and mites can ruin a tomato crop before we know it. Perhaps the worst pest is the red spider mite. It is a tiny, eight legged creature that multiplies rapidly, spinning tiny silken webs while sucking vital fluids from the plant. Heavily damaged leaves are pale or bronze in appearance. The best controls are to use either insecticidal soap or horticultural oil to control the mites. This is not the same as dormant oil. It is highly refined and ideal for summertime pest control of sucking pests. Good control has been achieved by spraying for mites beginning in late June. Mite season ends when temperatures cool down.
Two other pests are caterpillars that drill holes in the fruit. The tomato pinworm is a tiny larva that tunnels right down the core. The tomato fruitworm, same critter as the corn earworm, will bore into the sides of fruit, leaving a mess. Both can be controlled with products containing BT, known as Bacillus thuringiensis. This biological control will not harm other insects and is very low in toxicity.
15. HARVESTING THE CROP
Tomatoes are ready for harvest anytime after they turn a light pink. However, flavor increases as they ripen on the vine. Dead ripe tomatoes, however, will be more vulnerable to birds, turtles and other creatures. Consider a rubber snake coiled near the plants, moving it every few days. Or, try the new bird scare tape. It flaps in the breeze, spooking birds.
16. STORING
Store tomatoes in a cool dark place that is above 55 degrees Farhrenheit. Refrigerators will ruin the flavor. Also, they will not ripen any faster on a windowsill as light has nothing to do with ripening. Store them in a dark location and they’ll ripen just fine. We can speed ripening a bit by placing them in a paper sack with an apple, which emits ethylene gas.
DETERMINATE AND INDETERMINATE
Determinate:
including the bush varieties, reach a certain plant height and then stop growing. The majority of their fruit matures within a month or two and appears at the ends of the branches. These are popular with gardeners who like to can, make sauce, or have another reason for wanting most of their tomatoes at once. It might even be that you’d prefer to harvest early and leave late summer for a long vacation.
Most determinate varieties need a cage, but there are some very stocky varieties, such as Better Bush, that have a very sturdy main stem; they don’t need much support, just a stake to keep them from toppling in wind and rain. Varieties especially suited to growing in pots, such as Patio and Better Bush, are determinate. Little or no pruning is needed.
Indeterminate:
varieties continue to grow and produce tomatoes all along the stems throughout the growing season. Indeterminate plants need extra-tall supports of at least 5 feet. Because indeterminate varieties throw out so many shoots, gardeners often prune them for optimum-sized fruit or train them on a very tall trellis. However, if you don’t prune, no harm done! You may have seen photos of 10 or 15 foot tomato vines. These are definitely indeterminate types.
Most gardeners grow both types, determinate for large harvests for canning and freezing and indeterminates for salads and sandwiches throughout growing season.
SYMBOLS FOR DISEASE RESISTANCE
Tomato names are often followed by capital letters that stand for resistance to certain diseases. This is very important because these diseases can wipe out a tomato crop. Bonnie Plan Farm offers varieties that have proven to be most productive with disease resistance a major consideration in our selection. Resistance to disease is indicated by the following letters:
V- Verticillium Wilt
F- Fusarium Wilt (Two F’s indicate resistance to both races 1 and 2)
N- Nematodes
ASC- Alternaria Stem Canker
TMV- Tobacco Mosaic Virus
St- Stemphylium (gray leaf spot)
SWV- Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus
LB- Late Blight
OTHER TERMS
Heirloom tomato - Any tomato that is at least 50 years old and is not a hybrid
Hybrid tomato - A tomato bred by crossing varieties. Hybrids offer better disease resistance, higher yield, and other improved traits. Our* hybrids are not genetically engineered. [texokie note: I’m not sure who the “Our” refers to]
Early variety - A tomato that matures in 50-60 days. These are prized for early harvests and late summer planting for a fall crop. Sometimes we refer to tomatoes that mature in more than 60 days as ‘early’ but only in comparison to their peers. For example, the earliest beefsteak type compared to other beefsteaks. Beefsteaks are typically longer maturing because they are so big!
So ends the handout written by Darrell Berry one of our Oklahoma Master gardeners!
As time allows I hope to also share info on the legumes handout soon.
THanks, TIK! So far we’re doing ok! But 12 weeks is a long time! We’ll see how we do!
You NEED to do this, Johnny!
We here are all holding the thought and vision that it WILL work out for you to do the Master Gardener thing! :-D
You are welcome, but right now, I think that Oklahoma Master Gardener Darrell Berry is the gem! ;-D
Thanks so much for the info. I know we have some people on the thread that will find the info useful.
Thanks, Marcella. Looking forward to the update.
LOL! Now that’s just weird!... but interesting enough to print out!
I agree - any coffee is better than no coffee, but that instant stuff is really pretty poor. I actually have various teas that make a pretty good tasting hot beverage. Still nothing beats coffee.
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