Posted on 07/15/2011 5:13:42 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. It has been another week of hot humid weather. My little garden got its small share of a 60% chance of rain yesterday afternoon. A nice pop up T-storm spent about half an hour dropping a nice steady rain on my garden. There is a 70% chance of rain today. If the percentage for rain is not above 50 the pop up T-storms seem to pass me by. I did get to harvest about a dozen ripe tomatoes this past week but they are on the small side. My replacement paste tomato plants are coming along just fine so far. I will leave them to develop in their 5 inch peat pots for a couple of more weeks before setting them out in the garden.
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I hope all your gardens are flourishing.
I find tomato plants to be truly amazing. LOL. The ones in my pots now are the ones I hacked from the garden last year, and stuck in a pot to bring inside.
They provided maters during the winter, and then this spring I hacked them again, stuck them in new pots, and so far they are beating the ones Hubby started from seed, and the ones planted direct this spring.
I tried that a couple times, hoping to root suckers, but they didn't take. Do you have any pointers for better results?
Regarding your Earth boxes-Do you have to order new batch of nutrients each year? If so, how much does that cost approximately for each refill?
I had the same trouble with zucchini and pumpkins. I didn’t even bother to plant them this year.
Very nice! I will have to give that a try.
I have read these bugs can 'smell' pumpkins half a mile away. I don't mess with pumpkins, but when I first moved here I had zucchinis to feed a crowd. After about 6+ years I cannot keep these bugs off my plants. I have fought these wicked squash bugs every year, no matter what I do. I have planted them in big planters next to the house with new soil, planters in the garden with new soil and no matter where or what I do these plant killers always find my zucchinis. It is beyond exasperating.
Saving it at this point, bought the seed a couple of years ago and want to have relatively fresh seed at all times if I can.
I score the skin rather than peel it because I find it more flavorful, plus they say it's more nutritious that way.
I had about 7 branches, and only one shriveled up. Some of them I kinda laid down and curled around the outer edge of the pot so there would be plenty of joints under the soil.
I was just experimenting last year and didn't really think I would have much success, but was happily surprised.
Same here...I like to experiment every year, but when something doesn't work that well; I don't waste any further time on it.
“want to have relatively fresh seed at all times if I can.”
I know what you mean. I planted just 4 Country Gentleman heirloom corn seeds last year, just so I could have a bunch of seed handy in case I needed it. Saved a couple of ears and ate the rest. LOL.
Im in zone 8. I just started some new tomatoes because the sun got ours. I had two tomato plants that I covered with 60 shade cloth and they are doing fine but the others just burned up. I planted the second batch of sweet corn last week and its up. Then Im planting some cucumbers, beans and spinach. Im going to wait a little and plant more sugar peas and lettuce. Were not much into greens so wont plant any of those.
You have to replace the fertilizer strip every year with 2 fresh cups of fertilizer (I use a 10-10-10) and some fresh dolomite, but 50 pound bags of either are cheap...you can 'refresh' a LOT of Earth Boxes for about ten bucks. Replacing the mix is pricier, but you only do that every five years.
I have 46 different varieties of tomatoes in EB's right now, and they are ALL cranking. My wife's english cucumbers and bush beans are also going nuts in 'her' EB's.
I couldnt get my oregano started for the life of me this year. I planted seeds in trays 4 different times and they would come up and die.
I imagine your relative humidity is way up there as well.
I have 24 in a 3 x 9 raised bed. Chaos, it is.
I'll be cutting that probably in half for next year.
Ground cherries make excellent jam. My grandmother got me started about 50 years ago. When I was a kid she used to give us some and I convinced her to teach me how to make it. Its really easy. Add some sugar, cook them down with a little pectin and put em in jars. She used to just use wax to seal them but I put lids on.
Thanks. If we have some extra cash at the end of the year, I may just order some. I would like to use them indoors during the winter, and I think my daughters would like to use them, since they don’t have much space to garden.
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