Tomato..round...???

I am on a roll this Spring!!!!  I just keep killing tomatoes!!
The seeds never sprouted.  Not even that batch of Roma seeds that I even fermented first.  Geez!
I went ahead and planted out the Sutherland's transplants, even though I knew it was too early. And I was correct in thinking that when potting up, I planted them much too deep. When I went to plant the poor little guys, their stems were becoming soft and green, hollow and mostly rotten.  The stems simply collapsed, and nutrients were completely unavailable....a very serious, and obvious mistake.  But it is no longer any mystery what happened!
So yesterday, at Lowe's I bought some new transplants.  The larger potted plants that have been at the nursery for the last month looked very sad and wilted from the cold weather we have been having.  There were so many squash and cucumber falling over in devastation from the cold bitter nights, and damp mornings.  (kinda looked like my tomatoes!).  But I chose what looked to me like freshly delivered 9 cell pack tomato and peppers.  Small, but healthy, and undisturbed so far by the weather.  They had been tightly packed onto the shelves and somewhat sheltered by the other, older plants in the surrounding shelves.  Currently they reside inside, under a grow light, I don't dare put them out, and stress them further.  We are only 2 weeks away from outdoor planting.

Friday, I went out to the good old Waste Center, and guess what?  They are out of compost.  Again!  I came out in March, thinking to beat the rush, and they were out until April.  At the time, the taters were freshly planted, no big deal, I can cover them.  So I return in April, as asked, and the sign says nothing until May.  This is crap! I think that something needs to be done in my own backyard, it is obvious that I cannot rely on the county to help!!! He offered mulch! LOL...to quickly kill my potatoes!  NO thanks!  So I need to act quickly to get the earlies covered.  I am not sure how I will be doing that around the freshly planted freedom's, but I have vowed to try, since I knew it was going to be an awkward planting once half the red norlands rotted.  (that was from not sulfuring the chitted taters, and also, from cutting seed pieces too small without enough eyes to begin compensation and producing enough leaf, from what I left of the tuber)

The funny part is that I understand all these concepts, but for some reason that I can never ascertain, i still insist on learning these lessons the hard way!  I mean, honestly...what business do these two varieties of potatoes have growing in the same bin?  None!  Russets and Reds are totally different in growth rate, habit and height.  not to mention the 1 1/2 month gap between plantings.  I set myself up for this frustration.
I assume that the second bed of Yukon gold will pan out nicely.  All planted together and hopefully they will be producing together...unfortunately, that will be my late crop and it will be a long while before I know how that turns out!!!  Hey, I am still better off than last year.  I bought real seed potatoes and have begun hilling them long before I had last year. I have nixed the straw, as far as a covering material, it will be mulch only...not to mention that I will have two crops, not just one, and have doubled, maybe tripled the amount of plants in about the same square footage...(approximately, because there is a path, but also because of the vertical cubic footage....it kinda balances out).

LEARNING A LOT!!!

I have been wondering about the wisdom of planting peas early....and whether or not, in a cold moist spring like this, you could succession sow them at all.  Same for spinach.  The weather is so sporadic, it is hard to saw where the cut off should be.
It is definitely much too early for warm weather stuff that is direct sown.....All of the Beans, and squash, etc.  has to wait 2-4 more weeks, depending on how well the soil warms when the air does!!!
The Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts are knocked around both by the cats and the birds.  Not to mention that the mint seems to do nothing to repel the cabbage moth! I have gone out and smooshed several tiny caterpillars, which I learned last year, you always miss some!!! And I have picked off and smashed little yellow eggs, that I also assume will be evil little blue green meanies, munching down my plants....yet again!
I hate poisons, so I just keep picking and smooshing, and hoping I am wrong about reincarnation!!!
They are getting taller, and from what I saw of the nursery plants yesterday, they are catching up with them quite well.
The thing is, I am really wishing I had hoops set up.  If half of the 1st bed was hooped, I wouldn't have to worry about the cabbage moth at all.  I could keep them covered for most, if not all of their growth, assuming that the covering allowed light and water to penetrate the barrier and if I were to seal it at the soil line.
Eggplants, I read, are much the same way.  They can apparently be grown under cover for the entire season, and it is actually preferable to in the open .... they are bug magnets!  I read that if there is one colorado potato beetle in the garden it will be on an eggplant.  They seem a fragile and vulnerable choice...(I am working out ways to kill now! HA! But I love a challenge, and if I keep one alive until fruiting, that'd be an accomplishment, and maybe make up for all the tomato manslaughter taking place on my premises this season!!)
So I bought seed...Ha! scared to kill some one else's hard earned transplants! I feel confident in growing the latest batch of tomato, and fairly excited about seeding the eggplant.  I am hoping for warmer days soon.

picture update 2 of 2

This is "Martina's Roma". It was a volunteer in my cold compost pile from late last season, which looked so healthy growing in my compost, I dug them up and gave them their own row. I would consider them top performers this year, because they are a rich dark green and all four plants are LOADED DOWN with these pint sized beauties. I couldn't get a great pic of the whole "future crop" but, they look very determined to set some serious fruit this year.

I didn't seed them myself because I decided I wanted all indeterminate, Larger beefsteaks...and the Roma's really got crowded out last year, they just didn't put on the show that they are now...but these sure changed my mind!

They set fruit earlier, and ripen faster and will give me an early start on harvest. I will be planting them again, next year, thanks to these volunteers!

This is "Italian heirloom". As you can see it is a MONSTER tomato. I also grew these last year and they have some of the best flavor in a tomato I have EVER tasted, not to mention they are gargantuan! I have several "pounders" last year and that was what I had hoped for this year. But the Curled leafed tomato I mentioned in previous posts was the other half of the pair, and I pulled it and put it in the burn pile. The leaves stayed curled all day and all night, regardless of heat or water conditions, and once I noticed the neighboring plants were trying to curl, I ripped it out. So this is the lone "chumba wumba" tomato this year. :(

This is the Amish Paste.....longtime favorite of pretty much anyone. You can trust the Amish when it comes to heirloom veggies. They know what they are doing! This guy tastes about as good as the "Italian Heirloom" but is much smaller and has very little waste as far as seeds and juice. They make a great sauce, if not a bit pale. I have a tendency to pick pink tomatoes! But they just always taste so good!!!! Next year, taller trellis', for sure!

These are the melons.......I know, I can't believe it either! One week ago these were babies, barely bigger than transplant size, and now they are garden monsters! They have been relatively well behaved up until now, but I noticed that it is trying to grab on to my Roma's! That is a no-no...bad melon! As you can also see in this pic, a little leaf curl on that tomato....it was near to the one I had to pull that was so stunted. Uh-Oh! :(

And last but not least, my very big, very happy squash with absolutely NO Flowers, and NO fruit.......but I have confidence that I will harvest something, someday! and this is just the plant to deliver. Usually people that grow more than one squash have to leave baskets full of them on a neighbors step, ring the bell and run!!! They just put off so much in a short time. I haven't grown any for several years, so I am pleased, at least, with the size of the plant, and my perfect placement for optimal growth! ;)- There is just enough room, now if only the other one had sprouted!!! Ha ha, but that is what I get for using OLD SEEDS!

Well, that is it for now....I wish there was more, but there is always next year. I admit, it is mid-July and I am already planning for next year. Plus I am hoping for a bumper crop of cucumber and leafy greens that are sprouting in the flats as I write......more on that soon!

It grows a little every day!!!

It really seems like the broccoli grows everyday. It just keeps getting more and more Huge!

The tomato plants seem very healthy, all except one plant, that is curling it's leaves all the time, whether there is moisture or not. I am thinking about pulling it out, but I only have 8 plants and that will leave me with 7. It has a few fruits on it,but they seem to have stopped growing, they have been there a week and still are the same size. I have to admit, this plant has looked funny from the beginning. I am going to keep an eye on it a while longer, and then I may decide to pull it. We'll see.

Last night we pulled a tiny potato plant that had turned mostly brown. I think Mick was disappointed in the low volume of harvest, and the toughness of the potato. we pulled 4 decently sized spuds from one rather small plant. It gave me dreams about digging out huge potatoes and harvesting ripe tomato, but unfortunately that was just a dream!

I Know that I am supposed to allow the spuds to cure and let the skins harden for storage. I have my store bought bag of spuds on another shelf, and the home grown ones are lying on a paper towel. I have already tasted one spud from a previous plant I pulled out. It was about the size of the bottom tater above.......but I fried it and that really prevented me from tasting it's actual flavor. With these I would like to maybe just bake them, so we get the full flavor.

I am still wondering (very much) if I have made some critical mistake with fertilization if all my veggies (minus tomato) taste a bit off. Then again, I planted store-bought sprouted spuds, and that is a BIG NO-NO!

I will update, once I have tasted these little guys. I am promising myself I won't dig any more out until they are completely died back ...... and adding that soil late in the season, did nothing. Too little, too late! And I really don't quite get the whole mulch thing, spuds did not continue to grow all the way up the plant and they were always covered with straw, (if not the soil I added later). It helped to harbor slugs, and I had a hell of a time with flea beetles......hmmmmmm!!??!!

So, If I don't end up with a lot of food, I will know why.....but if I didn't have "food for thought" we would know that something went VERY, VERY wrong!

Until Next time! :)

Garden Tasks Ahead

Well, there is so much to do in the garden that is just waiting on me to get out there....I thought I should make a list so nothing is left undone. I figured what is better than a rainy day to figure out what you want to do?

1. Till and amend soil for strawberry patch. Build bed, plant and mulch. Layer.
2. Clear, and build beds for Blueberry Bushes. Amend soil and acidify. Plant, and mulch.
3. Weed tilled area for cherry to be replanted (if it lives), plant and mulch.
4. Turn compost and begin disassembling and reassembling compost bins.
5. Weed, prune, train and mulch black raspberries. Remove and give away suckers.
6. weed, and contain blackberries. Layer.
7. clear, till and amend soil for red raspberries. Layer.
8. MULCH, MULCH, MULCH, MULCH, MULCH!!!

Those are the major projects......

Here's the scoop on the veggies.

So far it seems the broccoli grows everyday, and the tomatoes are not far behind....

No carrot sprouts yet, but they are notoriously slow germinators, and I used the $.10 seeds, so I am just crossing my fingers.

We have been picking peas everyday, to keep the plants growing...but I have decided that I really do like garden peas, so next year I will plan better. The peas that I am growing were actually meant to be a cover crop, and they germinated so slow that I ended up just letting them stay in place with the potatoes.

We planted some bean vines to fill in the chainlink fence next to the hops and they have spouted and appear to be growing pretty well. But they could also use some compost and straw mulch.

The Potatoes are mostly flowering, and I actually picked a few of the above ground fruits off, because I didn't really know if I should allow the plants to waste energy maturing them. I have never grown potatoes successfully and I am trying each and everything once, just so I will have the expirience under my belt and to give me something to contemplate; successes and failures.

So far, these potates have flea beetles. But they don't seem to be doing too much damage.

I am trying to "hill" the potatoes with straw, because it seemed like a really clever trick, (or so I have read), but that seems to encourage slugs. The smallest of the plants are the ones that seem to be sprouting spuds (yes, I check them.....) But the larger ones do not. I have considered pulling back some of the straw and adding more soil, but I don't really have soil just laying around!

Again, I think next year we will do things a bit more organized. I am very excited about the prospect of homegrown potatoes, as that is a tuber we all love and can use a lot of. Although they are relatively cheap, I still find it really cool to grow my own....well, when I really learn how!!!

There are tons of methods for planting potatoes. I used the straw method. There is also the hill method and a oft overlooked tire method. Whatever works for you.....I am still waiting to see if this is going to "work" for me!!! I hear potatoes grown in straw hills have fewer and smaller tubers, but since I have no comparison, I won't know they are smaller! Besides, they were sprouted store-bought russets anyways!!!

Today I fertilized the Asparagus bed and the tomato/pepper bed. But the rain stopped me from getting much else done......more later!

The Garden Lately

These are my Ever sweet Strawberries, as you can see I am trying to root the runners before planting. And the next pic is the Blueberries; two each of three varieties: Elliot, O'Neal, and Chippewa. They currently reside in a thick mulch of chopped oak leaves until planting. This is also where I found my Giant Worm, if I ever get a chance to post a pick of him, I will.

These are the two "rotational" beds the one with the bird bath is Potato and Peas. The other bed has Tomato in the cages, peppers in between a few of them and broccoli down the front and side. I also seeded carrots in front of that, and cantelopes behind the tomatoes against a fence, but alas, no sprouts! :(

And finally, this is the Asparagus bed. I have been waiting YEARS to plant this. As it takes 3 years minimum to reach harvestable maturity, waiting is the last thing you want do. These are "Jersey Knight" hybrid, male crowns I purchased from Burgess (in Bloomington, IL) I believe it was something like $5 for 10....so I jumped on it. I water it, mulch, feed and weed it like the rest of the garden, and sometime in 2011, I can eat some! :)