Posted on 07/10/2009 3:59:55 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning to all of you gardeners. Toward the end of last weeks Gardening Thread there was a short discussion about saving Heirloom Tomato seeds. Many of you might have missed the information so I thought I would start this weeks thread on that topic.
HI RED!! my cucumbers are still going great. sold 12 of them for $7. still have plenty more. strange thing though, some of the vines are looking funky, all brown around the edges and crispy, no idea what that is about. my tomatos have me worried. lots of green maters but none of them are turning color. they have been there for weeks and some look like they have a bit of dark brown on them. it does not look good. my green beans are doing great and the cabage looks yummy. i’m hearing thunder in the distance and so i need to head out a grab some beans for supper. i will definately check back later.
The treatment you need is called Rot Stop and is available everywhere, this time of year. It is a foliar spray. IMO, it tends to attack indeterminates, mostly.
Last summer, I had some orphan plants and broken off stems early on and so, I potted them. In the heat of early summer, I had to water too much. Then came rain. Then came blossom end rot. I had nothing, just picked off the bad fruit and since the weather co-operated, the rest were just fine.
This year, I am testing out several miniature/dwarf plants. Even with 3” of rain in 2 days, much misting needed prior to that because of sun, low humidity, NONE of my miniatures had rot and are doing well, so far. The presently bearing ones were started inside in March.
One new (to me) cultivar was named Silvery Fern. It was described as very cold tolerant, would set fruit in 58 degrees and was early at 60 days. Supposed to be a Siberian variety.
It needs a LOT of water! It would be drooping every afternoon. It is also rather a strange plant in that it is doing terrific in a smaller pot (10 inches) and is a sprawling mess in a larger (12”) one. The pot-bound one has large fruit. The one in the larger pot has very small fruit. Both were started indoors in April. This morning, after another 2” rain last night, I found end rot on one fruit of the pot-bound plant. I pulled it off and applied Rot Stop. It is cloudy today, so no need to worry about leaf burn. Otherwise, I would have applied it late after sundown. Also, excess nitrogen can facilitate the calcium deficiency, so hold off on the fertilizer or make weaker solutions and apply less at greater intervals.
Best potted plants this year: Patio Princess hybrid (2”-3” tomatoes) and Red Robin, a miniature with cherry tomatoes. Patio has an earthy flavor, while Red Robin is quite tart and bright. Seeds for all these and the Silvery fern are available at ContainerSeed.com. They ship slow, so be prepared to wait.
My garden plants have more foliage than I have ever seen!! However, I only have small greenies, so far and I planted out 40 days ago. I hope I have enough time left (9 weeks, max) for harvest. I am pretty sure I will be digging up my peppers and finishing them inside in 12” pots. It has just been too cool, too cloudy, too many days with high winds and it seems when I finally give up on the forecast and water the garden, it pours the next day. Sweet corn is stunted. I planted early varieties of everything this year, except the Big Mama Romas and it isn’t really helping.
Thanks I’ll do that!
You are welcome. There are weekly gardening threads. I got quite a bit of helpful info here in the past weeks.
Not to worry. I think Petronski was being kind to his dial-up friend, his picture of his "girls" posted twice, once in 96 and again in 97.
BTW Pet, I love your "dome."
Grape Koolaid????????????????
Why and on which sort of berries?
AWESOME!!!! That is so super!
I'm going to be toast if my tomatoes all ripen at the same time, there is SO much fruit but at the moment ALL of it is green.
I'm not exactly sure on the why. I think it was 3 weeks ago there was a discussion about birds getting at blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. One of the better gardeners on the thread (forgive me for not remember the poster's name) suggested spraying them with unsweetened grape koolaid.
Apparently there is something in that particular flavoring that deters the birds from going after the fruit.
I had long given up on my blueberries, blackberries and black raspberries and was suddenly surprised that all of them had come back this year and I now have tons of them.
Red and I will be more than happy to add you to the ping list if you so desire.
I saw your coment about cucumbers and wanted to pass on a little trick I learned, somewhere.... I buy Vlasic pickles and save the juice and add fresh cucumbers - it only takes about 24 hours and they taste “pickled” but fresher - the juice will work for about 4 refills but after that the water from the fresh cucumbers tends to water down the solution. I’ve also added banana peppers to the mix - really a good fresh taste!
What my wife and I are not eating with meals I have been canning. Have you ever pressure canned? I want to cook up a pasta sauce that includes ground beef and pressure can it. How about a tomato zuke mix pressure canned would it be worth while doing?
I’ve never done any pressure canning. To be perfectly honest the idea of using a pressure cooker or canner actually scares the dickens out of me.
When I make sauces including meat I always freeze them. Pickles and jellies/jams are the only things I have ever canned. Everything else I either freeze or dry.
Hey! Thanks for that tip. I’ll try that when mine cukes are ready to pick.
fabulous idea! may have to try that.thanks bunches.
i have never sold produce from my garden before and i was so excited to sell some that i was like a kid who got a quarter for standing still. lol.
I’ve sold some produce from my garden, but not a lot. I totally agree with you about the thrill of actually doing it...........and not just the first time.
I should have added that the Rot Stop is calcium chloride. Plants use salts. So, human calcium pills probably won’t be absorbed by the plant.
In #96 did a complete bonk on my HTML and the admin kindly deleted it for me.
I like wild black raspberries. I think they have a better flavor.
You can’t beat wild black raspberry jelly.
As for tomato and zucchini, the acid in the tomatoes should protect the zucchini. I wouldn't pressure cook that.
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