Posted on 10/04/2013 5:36:16 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch
/johnny
Thanks to you both for the thread.
Best Wishes to Mrs. RD for her continued success. That’s such good news for ya’ll. Looking forward to hearing all about your future gardening efforts too.
It’s a crisp 50 degrees here, and our little green acre is turning to autumn shades. I have 2 sugar baby watermelons that are trying deperately to mature before the really cold weather hits.
I have some peppers that have gotten pretty large while I was away will harvest them this afternoon probably. They also have several olive size new ones coming on. I’ll be diggin up some of these to take indoors before too long.
Peppers are so amazing to grow. They have been the most successful plant for me this year. Peanuts were next on the list. Wish my garlic would get here. I like it to get a good start before the cold sets in. All the other items on the order have been received already.
Have a great day.
I've got a big old feral pig roast on the slow smoker this morning that I'll be eating from for the next few weeks. Mmmmmmm. Pork.
/johnny
...so I might actually be able to chop off a few branches and get some roots going and keep the flowers too for some off season growth in front of the patio door.
***
Please tell me how to do this. I am in Zone 7, and I have quite a few tomato flowers and green tomatoes.
I have a sunroom where I could definitely grow stuff. What about temperature. Don’t tomatoes need a rather narrow temperature range in order to ripen?
Then you and other Freepers can give this stuff a try...as Comic Book Guy would say 'Best. Fertilizer. Ever.'
Are you Texas folks familiar with this? I gave it a test drive this past summer, and I am beyond impressed. I will be using it exclusively next year. (Tomatoes STILL producing in Red Hampshire...even after two frosts.)
It WAS very fortunate! I’m so happy if what I’ve learned has been helpful, because I have such a deep debt of gratitude for all who participate here!
Never used the stuff will have to try it. Bookmarked that page, Thanks.
Mrs. Augie and I picked a couple gallons of peppers and tomatoes yesterday and used a bunch of them to make a big pot of chili. It was rather tasty stuff.
Hi! I don’t recall if I posted this but we fought the good fight against squash bugs all season and got enough zucchini to dehydrate and to use regularly between Earthwoman’s family and mine. Then, one morning late in the season, I went to check on all of our veggie babies and found that, overnight, there were lots of holes in the maturing zucchini. It probably took longer than overnight, but the entire squash patch was decimated by what I assume were borers. Tore everything out. Am still thanking The Creator for a letting us have a really good zucchini season up until that point. Next projects involve learning about nurturing healthy soil and how to make our own sprays for pests. Hope you have a great week!
I love pork. There’s just something about it that makes everything taste great. Love that ham, bacon, and sausage too.LOL
Yes tomatoes are a bit picky, but it’s likely that your sun room will be fine for growing them. I don’t remember the exact night time temp, but I think that anything below 50 degrees is too cool for them to grow. Plants grow at night when it is dark, after they have drunk in the sunshine during the day.
I generally do not take great care with these branches that I take indoors, because I chop off so many that I am bound to loose some and keep others. You can use a rooting compound to help the process, but I have had some success with just sticking them in dirt. I do this for the flowering as well as the ones with green tomatoes.
Tomatoes have the capacity to root at each joint where there are leaves. I just snip off the branches about 2ft long. Strip off the bottom leaves and stick them in a pot of soil about 18” tall and keep them watered, but not so soaked that they rot instead of making roots. Try to get as many joints under the soil as possible. You can even lay them down in a long rectangular planter.
You can put them in a container of water, if you want to be sure that there are roots before you plant in soil. For the cherry tomatoes, I just leave very few leaves and put them in small 6”-10” pots.
The flowers can be pollinated by simply flipping them as you pass by, or using a paint brush. As the days get shorter, I supplement the natural light with a full spectrum grow light till around eight pm-just like our summer time sunlight. Again, the dark is also needed, so don’t leave the lights on all night, thinking that more is better.
Feed them with some liquid nutrient now and then, as well as some slow release granules. They will grow slower than they do in the summer, but I can usually keep enough going to have a couple of cherry tomatoes with my salad or breakfast omelet a few times per week.
Also consider growing peppers. I just dig up the smaller ones and put them in herb-sized pots. After they recover from transplant shock, they will bloom and produce all winter with no worry about pollination.
I have even had success growing lemons on a dwarf tree. I keep it small, so I only allow about 6 lemons to mature, but the blooms are so fragrant that it is a great plant to have for that alone.
I also grow spinach and leaf lettuce and herbs indoors. Give it a try. Whatever you get is better than paying for pesticide laden produce from the store.
We’re all long distant neighbors, friends, family helping each other is the way I like to think of it.
We always get more zukes than we use, when we grow them. Just because it’s not our favorite veggie. Hubby likes the summer squash with his omelets, and zuchinni bread.
I put up more zukes as pickle spears this year than any other way. We haven’t tried them yet though-letting them season.
Thank you so much for your wonderful, helpful response. I will definitely try this.
God bless.
You are welcome.
What a wonderful report! How wonderful that you had a good squash harvest before the Invasion.
Darlin and I just had a conversation about plans for our next gardening effort next spring, and where oh where to put the walking onions!?
I like the way you think!
Thank you johnny, she’s sending me some. I’m going to put them in a syrup pot instead of the fence line.
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