Posted on 05/09/2020 7:08:22 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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I had heard that peppers quit producing when temps get above 90 but did not know why.
That is useful information. Problem is, you cannot control the outside temperatures.
I didn’t even know Costco sold tomato plants....
Celebrity are determinate IIRC....I really have gone back to the good ol beefsteak tomatoes....celebrity and better boy (?) are good to get early tomatoes....also, I like the larger cherry tomatoes as well...
They get all kinds of flowers vegfies and even fruit trees in the Costco bear my house....but it is just luck if you happen to walk in and they are there.
Well, I did some research. That gets to be an interesting subject.
https://growlightinfo.com/what-color-light-do-plants-grow-best-in/
If flowering is not an issue (need high red output), then it appears a good, wide & smooth spectrum "daylight" bulb should not be bad at all, and even a "white" bulb with a wide smooth spectrum might be ok.
I did already know that decent "daylight" LED's have a lot smoother spectrum than fluorescents (and I suspect those FL grow bulbs are really "spikey".)
I cannot accurately graph out the spectrum of that LED light I used to overwinter some plants this last winter: It's a Rural King special, so good luck on getting mfgr. info. on that! In any event, it did BETTER than the old 40 watt grow bulb in the same spot, possibly because it is so much brighter that there was enough of all colors the plants wanted to at least get by and stay fairly green. (The mature tomato plant was not quite as dark as it'd be in June sunlight, but a younger volunteer (about 6" tall when moved indoors) that happened to sprout in one of my wife's Malunggay tree pots is a bit further from the light and is paler. The Malunggay looks pretty good - all 3 of them do, but then they only leaf out in the spring, after having been severely pruned to bring them in. My wife's Calamansi plant looks great and even flowered rather profusely, though it produced little fruit -- I suspect it needs real tropical or at least summer conditions for that.
The upstairs room these plants overwinter in is not directly heated: It can get up to 80+ deg. F on a "warm" winter afternoon, but it can also get down to ~45 deg. F on extremely cold nights, so it's not exactly a summerlike environment. By the time I'm trying to start veggie seedlings, tho', it stays above 55 deg. F even on cool nights.
I suspect that younger tomato plant was the clue, and seedlings need more light to thrive than mature plants (generally) do to overwinter. So, I'll move my light in closer, go with bigger starter containers (modified cups), and see how that works. That (much brighter bulb and 1/3 the distance) should give nearly 10x the intensity I tried last year.
BTW, true "Grow Bulbs" based on LED's exist, but are pricey.
https://www.amazon.com/GE-Lighting-93097589-Balanced-Spectrum/dp/B07NP34CLV
To go back to Fluorescents at this point I'd need to buy fixtures and bulbs. Funds are tight, so I'd rather avoid that, too. (Cheap fixtures carp out faster than the bulbs, in my experience!)
In the meantime I have one now 5' "long" overwintered tomato plant, ready to unpot & transplant, a 1-1/2' overwintered plant ready to dig away from the Malunggay tree, 9 small purchased plants, and probably that many volunteers in the garden (likely good enough for salads and such) to start with. As soon as it quits raining!!
This should be interesting!
Now if I can get my wife to get some seeds for those Asian squash she uses in about 5 different recipes...
You just need a dam with proper spillways — regular and overflow (emergency). A common tactic for the emergency spillway is to provide a wide grassy area for the overflow. To prevent fish from going downstream, screen off the spillways. I’ll bet well installed chain link fence would hold up for a while.
Crappie to me have an odd flavor compared to bluegill or catfish or trout. Bass can be very good too: A lot (esp. with bass and catfish) depends on the water. I’ve not yet tried marinating crappie in 7-Up or (more lemony) Squirt. That works well for many fish that may otherwise taste slightly like the pond. ;-)
Mine get pretty huge & I get tomatoes until frost (often end up bringing in green tomatoes so they don’t freeze). I think “semi-determinate” is a good description:
Celebrities are almost entirely maintenance-free. No trimming, pruning, or grooming is necessary and the plants will grow up to five feet high (depending on your soil depth and conditions). They are often called semi-determinate, which means that the tomato plant and bush grows to a certain size and doesn’t get any bigger like a bush / determinate tomato plant. But it keeps giving you new tomatoes all the way until the first frost, like a vine / indeterminate tomato. That’s why they don’t need pruning.
Guide to Growing Celebrity Tomatoes
https://www.gardeningchannel.com/guide-to-growing-celebrity-tomatoes/
I’ll chime in on the ‘Celebrity’ tomato, too.
It was the ONLY tomato my FIL grew for market and sold to local restaurants. Excellent production, no cracking, good keeper, in just about any type of soil or growing conditions.
The Trump coat-tail effect has already started. Two special elections...in Commie-california and Wisconsin had
two Republicans winning BIG in heavily (gag) Democrat states. In the 56/57% plus range over their leftist rivals.
And dont forget Trump slaughtered Biden in a third race---a prez primary race.......that's three for three.
Not only do they grow well for me, but they are “gorgeous”, too! Prettiest tomatoes I’ve ever grown. Of course, “pretty is as pretty does” & I’m happy with everything else about them as well.
I had to run to the store for my folks earlier & had enough time to take a 15-20 minute trip to a little country produce market that, according to my SIL, had some plants. I “lucked out” and found one 4-pack of Celebrities .... the only reason it was still left, I’m sure, is because one of the tomatoes was broken off, leaving 3. Well, I have one of my original tomatoes hanging on for dear life, so I only really need 3 ... at $1.00 per 4-pack, only having 3 wasn’t a problem! No pepper plants, daggone it.
So I still had some time .... ran by the nursery that is 5 minutes from home to see what they have. The answer to that was “almost nothing”. Only a few tomatoes & not varieties I’m interested in. No peppers other than a couple of habanero & hot banana pepper 4-packs ... maybe 4 of each. Herbs - no 4 packs. They had cukes & maybe some squash. Poor to no selection. I am SO glad I went to the farm stand & snagged those 3 little Celbrities. They are currently in a semi-shady spot, acclimating. I know to do that, but got lazy with the first 4 and the sun scald with the cold on top of it, was deadly.
The weather is going from cold to warm/hot this week - I knew that was going to happen!!
Yes, doing research is needed.
The upstairs room these plants overwinter in is not directly heated: It can get up to 80+ deg. F on a "warm" winter afternoon, but it can also get down to ~45 deg. F on extremely cold nights,...I cannot accurately graph out the spectrum of that LED light I used to overwinter some plants this last winter:...The mature tomato plant was not quite as dark as it'd be in June sunlight, but a younger volunteer (about 6" tall when moved indoors) that happened to sprout in one of my wife's Malunggay tree pots is a bit further from the light and is paler. ..I suspect that younger tomato plant was the clue, and seedlings need more light to thrive than mature plants (generally) do to overwinter....In the meantime I have one now 5' "long" overwintered tomato plant,
Are you saying you overwinter tomato plants? And try to grow them from seed using LED light in a room where it gets down to ~45 deg? If so, it is no wonder some of them keel over! Seedlings should be kept at at least 60's and with good light. However, I never heard of overwintering tomato plants. I thought my toms seedlings were getting old at 2 months!
These are some when they were up to about 6 weeks old: 
BTW, true "Grow Bulbs" based on LED's exist, but are pricey. https://www.amazon.com/GE-Lighting-93097589-Balanced-Spectrum/dp/B07NP34CLV
That is way way too much. I bought some from Walmart I think , a 3-head one for under 25. One was a group of 3, plus a 38 watt one like this (better I think, at $9.00). Thanks be to God we can even discuss buying such. May it all be to His glory.
thx for the info....celebrity it is...
On, Wisconsin! :)
'Touchdown Teak' Sedum
'Hot Rod' Switchgrass
'Cuthbert Grant' Rose
That upper row of planting space next to the greenhouse is the 'problem' area.
For those of you following along at home, it might not make a whole lot of sense right now, but when it's all put together I promise that it will be beautiful!
Very windy day, today. Warm, but blowing in rain by 10pm, which we still need. I tried to get some veggie planting done, but it's so windy, I was afraid that whatever I planted would get bent or broken. I still have plenty of time to get things into the garden. Looks like we are past the freezing nighttime temps now, so that will help a LOT! We're having salads tonight with ALL ingredients from the garden; first of the season. Yay!
I’m in central MA at 1,110 feet above sea level. April was very cold. Then we had snow last week and a killer frost.
My lettuce and kale plants are doing well, as are my brussel sprout plants and my onions came up. My potates are starting to pop up now as well, although slowly. Those are all in self-wicking buckets made with beer cans, a PVC pipe and holes 1 inch below the height of the cans. This warmer weather will hopefully kick the potatoes into gear so I can fill up the rest of the soil. I planted two containers of indeterminate potatoes so I can keep burying them and one of determinate (yukon gold).
Starting tomorrow Spring actually arrives and temps will be over 40 consistently at night. I have raised beds and containers for everything except the brussel sprouts so my soil temp is higher than average.
I’ll be putting in my peppers and tomatoes tomorrow, some more lettuce plants, and eggplant. Bean seeds haven’t come up yet. If they don’t by this Sunday I’m going to replant. I’m afraid the frosts may have killed the seeds.
-SB
Thanks for the report, Snowybear!
Everyone seems to be ahead of me a bit, but we’re just getting over freezing conditions again. Rain last night and more tonight; overcast today, but a beautiful day in store tomorrow so I can get more veggie plants in.
I’ve been concentrating on maintenance and landscaping installations so far this season. We had our first salad from the garden last night, which was nice. :)
She calls it “opa” (sp?), but I can’t find a darn thing about it online. I’ll ask her for more info...
It’s “fruit” is a big light green vegetable. The closest pic I could find online is a “Zephyr Squash”, but I’m thinking these my wife gets are more of an even light green all around, not light green on the bottom and yellow on top.
To put the light issue concisely, it appears that light sufficient for overwintering various plants (including successfully a potted tomato plant, this last winter) may not be sufficient for tomato seedlings.
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