I figured I would plant my maters on Memorial Day, come hell or high water. Well, it turned out to be the latter, and my tomatoes are still sleeping indoors. My seedlings are 2+ feet tall, and threating to look like Farmer McGregor's, if I don't get them in the ground soon.
How did your Memorial Day go? Sounds like Dan, Ted, and Greg are in the ground.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
And the victor's name will be...
In anticipation of needing a worthy name for the tomato that bears the winning fruit (you know, for the commemorative plaque), I went ahead and bestowed some aspirational names on my plants:
Unfortunately, the recent heavy rains haven't been good to a few of my plants, but I decided they needed names as well (just names that were, well, you know...more suited to their chances of winning the contest):
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Container gardening (also)
Following up on Big Dog's post, I too am container gardening most my veggies this year. Although they are probably technically more like raised beds since they have no bottom. After several discussions with Big Dog and trolling a common online forum, I am also going with 5:1:1 mix. Due to all the rain, I also pre-mixed mine in the garage. I went with 150 gallons of pine bark fines which yields ~210 gallons of total mix. I know, I know...copycat! Many of my pics look just like Big Dog's so just showing my completed mix awaiting containers. And then my first prototype of what will be 4 similar containers.
I toyed with using watering troughs as containers because they're easy, done, and fairly cheap. But my neighbor showed up with two for his yard and not only did I not want to give him the satisfaction of thinking he influenced my container selection, I also just didn't like the way they looked. So, I turned back to some of my wood container designs that I drew up over the winter. I ended up with the one below. It turns out to be quite inexpensive (less than the same size water trough- this was about $60 to build out of red cedar) and after some necessary tweaks to my first prototype below, my cut-list is solid and the remaining three boxes will go together in less than an hour each. They are 4'x2'x2' which ends up being almost exactly 100 gallons of soil. I'll use my 5:1:1 for the two containers carrying bigger plants that need deep/sprawling roots. The other two will be for herbs, lettuce, and smaller, shallow root plants in a soil/compost mix.
I toyed with using watering troughs as containers because they're easy, done, and fairly cheap. But my neighbor showed up with two for his yard and not only did I not want to give him the satisfaction of thinking he influenced my container selection, I also just didn't like the way they looked. So, I turned back to some of my wood container designs that I drew up over the winter. I ended up with the one below. It turns out to be quite inexpensive (less than the same size water trough- this was about $60 to build out of red cedar) and after some necessary tweaks to my first prototype below, my cut-list is solid and the remaining three boxes will go together in less than an hour each. They are 4'x2'x2' which ends up being almost exactly 100 gallons of soil. I'll use my 5:1:1 for the two containers carrying bigger plants that need deep/sprawling roots. The other two will be for herbs, lettuce, and smaller, shallow root plants in a soil/compost mix.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Container gardening
This is a little off topic, because I don't intend to grow my giant tomatoes in containers, but I'm going all-in on container gardening this year for my eating tomatoes. I've noticed for the past couple of years that my container-grown tomatoes taste better than my in-ground tomatoes, so I'm going to give container gardening a serious go.
For the potting mix, I'm going with the so-called 5-1-1 mix, made popular on the Gardenweb container forum: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2842847/container-soils-water-movement-and-retention-xxii?n=127 This is a long read about how water retention in soils works, and changed the way I think about containers.
The main ingredient for the 5-1-1 mix is pine bark fines, which are < 1/2" bits of pine bark, and they're really hard to find. After 2 years of searching, I finally found the mother lode at Pioneer Sand in Boulder.
I ran about 16 cu ft through a 1/2" screen, and about 99% made it through. If I were to do this again, I'd say you don't need to screen it, but I probably would anyway because I'm that kind of guy.
The finished product.
150 gallons of potting mix, ready to receive peppers and tomatoes, if it ever stops raining!
For the potting mix, I'm going with the so-called 5-1-1 mix, made popular on the Gardenweb container forum: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2842847/container-soils-water-movement-and-retention-xxii?n=127 This is a long read about how water retention in soils works, and changed the way I think about containers.
The main ingredient for the 5-1-1 mix is pine bark fines, which are < 1/2" bits of pine bark, and they're really hard to find. After 2 years of searching, I finally found the mother lode at Pioneer Sand in Boulder.
I ran about 16 cu ft through a 1/2" screen, and about 99% made it through. If I were to do this again, I'd say you don't need to screen it, but I probably would anyway because I'm that kind of guy.
16 cu ft cost me $35. That's cheap, if you've ever priced potting mix.
Screening a bag of peat.
All ingredients are ready to assemble the mix. Pine bark fines, peat, perlite, garden lime, and controlled release fertilizer.
150 gallons of potting mix, ready to receive peppers and tomatoes, if it ever stops raining!
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Hardening off time
It's that time of the year where the seedlings meet the soil. A few brave souls have already put their plants out! As for me, I'm going to be planting this weekend.
Seedlings started indoors live a very sheltered life for the first few weeks. There's no wind to contend with, minimal UVs, and temperatures are a consistent 70 degrees. In order to adjust to outdoor growing conditions, tender seedlings need to gradually adapt over a period of days. Skip this all-important step and it's welcome to Scorchville, population your plants.
Many "experts" say you need to harden off tomatoes over 1-2 weeks, gradually building the time each day until they can stay out all day. One guy wrote that he does 2-4-6-plant (measured in hours per day). It would be a catchier phrase if "plant" rhymed with "8". I've been doing something similar to that for the past few years, and it seems to get the job done. I usually try to plant the plants in the afternoon also, so they have the cool of the evening to recover from transplanting shock.
What do you do?
Seedlings started indoors live a very sheltered life for the first few weeks. There's no wind to contend with, minimal UVs, and temperatures are a consistent 70 degrees. In order to adjust to outdoor growing conditions, tender seedlings need to gradually adapt over a period of days. Skip this all-important step and it's welcome to Scorchville, population your plants.
Feeling the burn
Many "experts" say you need to harden off tomatoes over 1-2 weeks, gradually building the time each day until they can stay out all day. One guy wrote that he does 2-4-6-plant (measured in hours per day). It would be a catchier phrase if "plant" rhymed with "8". I've been doing something similar to that for the past few years, and it seems to get the job done. I usually try to plant the plants in the afternoon also, so they have the cool of the evening to recover from transplanting shock.
What do you do?
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Biggest Tomato Plant
Looks like I'm doing this all wrong... I'm certainly in the running for biggest tomato plant (by height) as this is now 6'8". I can't even trench bury it since that would take 3.5' depth and about 5.5' and I just don't have that kind of space. Anyone got a really big pot (2'+ high) I could borrow for the summer. Ugh!
Guess the Weight
Just a friendly reminder to get your guesses in on the weight of the winning tomato. So far, Farmer McGregor and yours truly are the only ones who have entered. You don't need to grow a tomato to enter! You can have some skin in the game without any plants in the ground! So dust off your crystal ball, read your tea leaves, google giant tomato winning weights, but get your entries in!
Sunday, May 3, 2015
To Pot Up or Not to Pot Up?
Every year, I wonder whether it's worth the hassle of repotting my tomatoes and peppers. And every year, I do as I did the previous year, which is to pot them all up. Does it really buy you much in terms of earliness or late season productivity? My guess is that any advantage is minimal, especially for tomatoes.
Here is my fleet after repotting most of them last week. The tall plants on the right are all peppers, some of which are starting to bud.
For those of you who like to geek out on gardening science, the chapter on tomatoes in this book explains why you should always start tomato seeds in a pot, rather than direct sow them. Not just because it extends the season, but because you want the tap root to be damaged, causing numerous laterals to form. http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137ch26.html
Here is my fleet after repotting most of them last week. The tall plants on the right are all peppers, some of which are starting to bud.
For those of you who like to geek out on gardening science, the chapter on tomatoes in this book explains why you should always start tomato seeds in a pot, rather than direct sow them. Not just because it extends the season, but because you want the tap root to be damaged, causing numerous laterals to form. http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137ch26.html
Friday, May 1, 2015
Newbie (both blogging and "power" gardening)
Okay, I am admittedly a bit of an amateur, but can never miss an opportunity to beat Fred in something. Here were my little guys at 2 weeks then again at 4 weeks after first up-pot. Note the lesser known secret techniques of the garage trouble-light lighting system and red-solo-cup planters. Those two are freebies, you'll have to pay for any more secrets. I was told to expect about 50% germination rate with these but got 10 of 14 so claiming that as victory #1. I did have a hiccup while on vacation when the dog/plant caretaker took much better care of the dogs than the plants. But never fear, I will revive them and one of these little beauties just might produce a contender!
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