You need to share the wealth.:clap:

i've always used year old cow manure for my 'maters. there's nothing better in the world.

on a slight hi-jack note here, I've planted potatoes for the first time this year and the plants are HUGE. anyone have any tips on ensuring that I will have usuable taters later this fall?

Goes for $300 a bag, but i'll cut ya a CP discount of 20% ;)

To the shed! ;)

http://www.usefilm.com/images/5/5/0/...440-medium.jpg

Mine's insulated thank you! :harumph:

On a side note, you need to get busy with crossing a tomatoe plant and some kind of quality weed plant of your choice. You could eat the tomatoe's and sell the weed. I'm telling you, you would make millions.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:e...ant.svg.hi.png + http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:m...nflowering.jpg = http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:6...D300%26h%3D225

$300? How big is the bag?

FAX

heads up late blight on the loose. http://www.rodale.com/tomato-blight?...17-_-Top5-_-NA

FTR you used to be able to buy copper sulfate in 5# pales for algea blooms. If you use this product understand that its extremely hard on invertibrates and the renial systems of quadrupeds so keep it away from pets esp. canines. Its great for chickens though, cleans out the gut.
if you have sick baby chicks run a teaspoon per 5 gallons of water every other day untill you see improvement or cull.
Super hard on Bees!

Anyway if you wanna go the organic route itll save you $ to buy it in the bulk copper sulfate, than it will buying the 16oz spray.
i prefer that oldtime hate but i know you hippys like the organic shit.

Oh and hows everyones crop coming along????

By Goonybird....

10 Organic Garden Aids

Epson Salt Spray: 2 ounces of salt per 2 gallons water.
Benefits: Helps with Black Spot, Mildew, Wilt and Rust

Mineral Oil Spray: 3 parts oil per 100 parts water.
Benefits: Helps with Aphids, Codling Moth, Leaf Roller, Mealybugs, Scaled Insects, White Fly

Beer: Stale or mixed with molasses
Benefits: Helps control Slugs

Tomato Leaves Spray: Crush leaves and soak in water for a couple days. Strain then spray.
Benefits: Grasshopper and White Fly control

Soap Spray: 2 TBS soap flakes dissolved in 1 quart water. *Don’t use detergents.
Benefits: Aphid control

Basil: Plant in pots and place around patio or deck
Benefits: Repels flies and mosquitoes

Rosemary, Mint, Thyme: Plant near cabbage
Benefits: Repels cabbage worms

Nasturtiums: Plant near cucumbers, melons and squashes.
Benefits: Repels squash bugs

Summer Savory: Plant near beans
Benefits: Repels bean beetles

Radishes: Plant near cucumbers
Benefits: Repels cucumber beetles

Finally put mine in the ground on May 31st. I started Celebrity's and Roma's from seed. This is only the second year I've started my own so I'm new to it.

Because I live on the top of a hill in the SD plain I get plenty of wind. I wrap the cages in plastic and it seems to have worked. Plants are getting stronger and are almost ready for the plastic to come off. Large threat of heavy storms through the weekend so I'll wait to remove it next week.

Just got in from my wind-destroyed tomato trellis. I didn't have it secured enough to withstand the storm last night.

Before then it was all my toms going gangbusters, all tied up nice, all trained nice.

The trellis blew on top of my spice garden and took out my dill.

Also just found out that my neighbor accidentally mowed over several of my small blackberry plants.

The curse of man is alive and well.

I assume some tomato plants will survive if you just unfold the stalk and tie it up again?

Tomato plant has a few blooms right now.. no fruit yet.
I've got two snap pea plants in the ground, one pod on one of the plants.
Cucumber plant has huge leaves but isn't crawling up the protective fence.. no idea what to do there.
Bell pepper plant is growing straight up at a pretty good rate, but I have no idea whether there's fruit growing
Lost two tomato plants during the process (not sure why) and something dug up my jalapeno plant. Bet that critter had a nice night in whatever plant he calls a toilet! :)

How do I replant these veggies next year? Save some seeds? When I stated earlier in the thread that I'm a n00b at this gardening business, I mean EXTREME n00b. I grew up in apartments or small backyards. never really done the gardening thing; but, I'm motivated

Early Sunglow is a early variety (63 days) of sweet corn that will shade you young plants from wind and sun,this variety is a shorter type that you can plant closer(6in or so).
I put acouple rows of silver queen hybrid about 6-8 ft from my tomatos to shade them in late summer seeing how it gets to 7ft in aug. I also put my rows running east to west cause as the sun tracks across the sky later in the year my yard trees will give more shade than in early spring. to much heat will bring on the blight in late summer.

got 6 to a dozen on each plant except the cherry tomato plant...it's got dozens on it and a couple are starting to turn.
sec

man that sucks. if they arent broken just resecure em. My best one that laid over i saved and its 5ft tall now. If you can find cattle/hog panels and t-post make a all weather trellis. you might spray and prune for early blight after a week or so. I dont like any leaves touching the bare soil. If you had em mulched already youll be better off.

go back acouple pages and there are post on saving seeds, but make sure to read the article i posted on the diffrence between hierloom & hybrids and cross pollination. Its important to get that down 1st if you want them to come true next season.

ya ive got buy loads of em. no ripe ones yet.
harvested leaf lettuce(2),radish(2),sweet peas(1). brussels didnt make it leaflopper took em out. Peppers are soso. got a nice row of carrots,green onions(almost ready) and pole beans coming on and an insane amount of yellow squash and zucchini. Couple rows of early corn. Gonna plant some late hybrid corn and fall taters if i can find the seeds. The thought of peas & new potatoes for thanksgiving turned the light on.

went over and spent the morning pickin a oldtimers brain, he already had ripe ones on the vine & looked to be hundreds of green ones coming on. Pissed me off. He said 'MO dont try to compete with me i have a greenhouse'. Hes known me since i was 5 so i think he said that to strike a nerve. it worked, old fart ill show him.:)

I've never done potatoes. If you find the right seed for planting late, let me know. Or if you need someone to go in to make a better price.

already eating radishes lettuce potatoes and just picked first 4 tomatoes ..

My first year for potatoes, Lowes had a variety pack, growing like weeds. So far my tomato and pepper plants have survived the monsoon of the last week here in KC.

ill let you know. Gonna hit somo up tonight.

Looking like a fool with your tomatoes in the ground!

I've picked loads of blueberries, raspberries, potatoes. Lots of maters, but still green. Beats got taken out by rabbits and cabbage taken out by worms. Carrots look good, sweet onions look good, peppers look good. zuchini and cucumbers are a bit slow this year for me. Plants are good, but just now flowering

dont trip my ground squash is just now blowin flowers. what varaties of blueberries did you plant?

ya know, I'm not sure. I got the plants about 4 years ago at the farmers market here in town for $10 each. they seems to get more berries every year. I do know they are different varieties, cuz the berries are much larger on one and they taste a tad bit different too.

I had a bumper crop of tomatoes, peppers, and beans this year... but most of all carrots. I pulled up about 1 lb. of carrots today and threw them in the crock with a chuck roast and potatoes. Mmmm.... mmmm... good!

Mine did OK. They got beat to hit by hail driven by 60 MPH wind. Then all the friut got eaten by tomato beatles that I couldn't seem to kill. After the beetles moved on, CHRIST they produced a lot.

My cucumbers did really well too. Mrs Buehler445 said they were done after the hail. I told her they have some roots and good fertility, give them some miracle grow and a lot of water and see what happens. They bounced back nicely.

My peppers didn't do shit. I think my soil may be too high in PH. I'll lay down some more composted shit and try again, but I think it may not work.

After it freezes, I'm going to til in the mulch and put on a bunch more composted cow manure. That should get me some good organic matter in the soil for next year.
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Im ready for next season. Finished spreading horsepoop and sawdust used for horse bedding and deep tilled the entire garden with tractor mounted tiller. Next year is gonna be the year of the garden.

Ever had your garden soil tested by your extension office? It's easy to overkill with additives.
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You should spread your draft strategy all over them.

"Ka Ching!!":D

No. But it is alkali soil and the best way to combat that is with phosphorus and organic matter.
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I have so many dang tomatoes I can't eat 'em all. My wife brings bags of 'em to work just to give away. Ate so many BLTs I got sick of bacon. Now I just put giant, fat slices on bread with mayo, salt & pepper. Greek salads with double tomato every night. There's dozens of Black Krims & Pineapples & Brandywines ripe on the vine right now. Gonna plant fewer plants next year....

Buy a bunch of ball jars and bottle em. Diced tomatoes. Tomato sauce. etc...

I'm just a proponent of the lost art of bottling.

This is why I don't plant tomatoes...
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For those of you w/some space ready for next year...plant a few dozen spinach seeds and some kale. They'll get a running start this fall, and while they'll look like crap this winter they usually 'winter over' and start growing again a lot earlier than you might expect - say late Feb/early March. You can have the first salad in town. At one time Lenexa and Olathe had a ton of Belgian farmers who mostly grew spinach for the Spinach cannery over in Lenexa. While it doesn't always work in fimbulwinter conditions, I remember being shocked at how well spinach wintered over.
Bok Choy and other oriental greens also grow well now - some of the mustard-family plants will go from seed to table still. If your garden center has them available, you can plant pre-started cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, onion plants, etc...most of the brassica will keep growing til hard freeze. Google 'fall garden' and read up on some of these, it's a good time to save a little extra money...and I always liked putting fresh home grown veggies out at Thanksgiving.

Where did you get your seeds from?

After a cold, wet June (we had snowfall in the valley in the beginning of June), my tomatoes regressed in July, where we had four weeks of 90-95 degree days and no moisture. Absolutely minimal bud sites. Out of all the tomatoes I planted, I got approximately 60 full sized tomatoes. Horrible year for the garden this year. Everyone I talked to out here in SLC suffered pretty much the same fate.

Oh well, not much you can do when Mother Nature throws you a curve, and you've just got to look forward to the next season.

I call shenanigans!

Seriously, squeeze the guts of a few of them black krim in a cup for a few days, then dry em on a newspaper and send those seeds to me. You can fit a lot of seeds in a #10 envelope, eh?

This is my first year growing tomatoes.... do they stop ripening when the nights get cool? Mine are just sitting there on the vine green as can be. Wutsup wit dat?

When does it ever freeze in OAKtown, UD?

Not sure if it ever gets frosty in Oaktown. I'm in the North Bay & we'll get a few nights of frost in deep winter... nothing near that yet this year. It did snow one night a couple of years ago. So... should expect my tomatoes to perk up, or do they just quit ripening in winter?

Grow them indoors and impress me.

Sun is most factor for red tomatoes.

If the day lengths are too short, they'll stop fruiting. At that point you can pull the green fruits and place them on a window sill that receives lots of sun.
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Days got too short. Mine had a metric ****load when it finally froze.

I've heard you can pull them, individually wrap them in newspaper and it will do a better job, but I don't know. I've never done it.

Thanks, folks. I'll just pick 'em & see what happens...

OK... the frost last month killed all my plants dead. Now I have to start all over. We're having an early Spring in the North Bay, temps in the 80's, the roses are blooming & the new crop of ticks have hatched. I'm ready to get some seedlings & stickem in the ground, but there's nothing to stick! There's no dang seedlings in the shops yet. I do have some seeds, but I haven't attempted to germinate any yet. Dunno if I should try that or wait till some seedlings show up. Anybody know when the shops on the Left Coast start to stock tomato plants?

New nebraska indoor tomatoes not bad from the grocery store.

bump

when should I start planting tomatoes outside?

anywhere from 4/20 - 5/15 for missouri north,mid, & south. zones5b, 6a & b , 7a.

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hzm-sm1.html

Dude, are you some sort of Horticulture Extraordinaire? :)

I'd recommend several different varieties that appeal to you from a decent seed catalog and start them indoors. Doesn't take much space or effort. Once you figure out which varieties you prefer, start harvesting the seeds from your strongest plants and then just do seed starts from those from there on out. Baker Creek (www.rareseeds.com) has a very nice variety of heirloom seeds, and there is usually people in your area who produce seeds for purchase from varieties that tend to do better in your specific environment.

I just started my seeds yesterday. I use the little HydroFarm Hot House for the seed starts.

http://www.hydrofarm.com/pb_detail.php?itemid=1899


First year using it?

OK... got some seedlings in the ground (Mar 22). Last year I only planted heirlooms, this time I planted some Better Boys & Big Beefs. Not because I know anything about them, but because their seedlings were only a buck & I was impatient to plant something. What can I expect out of them in a Mediterranean climate with only 6-7 hrs of sun?

(Also sticking a Pink Brandywine & a Margold in the dirt today).

I'm gonna let it get just a lil warmer, but i cant wait to get'em going. I've been pouring all of the water from my turtle & fish tank water changes in the same spot all winter long.

That ground is gonna be sooo fertile, its bound to be a huge & productive plant.

I jumped the gun a wee bit. Planted 4 Better Boys in the front of my house last week. Then my neighbor told me that Better Boys tend to get ginormous around here - Better Boy holds the production record of 342 lbs of tomatoes on one plant. Way too much bush for the front of my house. So I just dug 'm up & put some Black Krim in their place. Been raining so much around here the wet adobe is like digging in black peanut butter that sticks to the shovel. Gonna be a long, muddy day....

It didn't get above freezing here all day today. It was 9 above last night at the house (by a lake). We've had snow twice this week. I plant tomatoes the end of May. The very end. Growing season ends about a week after Labor Day.

You in Alaska?

hummmmm what strain of ...*tomatoes* am I gonna plant this year :hmmm:

Northwestern Mass. About as far north and west in this state to still be in this state. About an hour east of Albany NY. It did get above freezing late today. Its 33 now, but the sun is going down.

Special Tea plants for you huh!

Snowed here most of the day. Guess I'm not working in the garden today.

Salad fixens ;)

Done planting just in time for the weather change. It finally stopped raining & we have a string of days in the 70s coming up. Cost me almost $40 for these seedlings, but at least we don't need potting soil or fertilizer round here. I'll make the $40 back in tomatoes that I won't have to buy from the store....

Heirlooms
Pink Brandywine
Brandywine (2)
Red Beefsteak (2)
Belgium Giant
Mortgage Lifter
Marglobe
Mr. Stripey
Black Krim (2)
Black Prince

Hybrids
Husky Cherry Red
Big Beef (3)
Better Boy (4)

Duck you coulda just cut the runners on your hybrids.

You sayin I don't know what I'm doin? Well... you're right. Never grew a hybrid before (this is my second season doin maters). Don't know what to expect from a hybrid. Actually just finished digging up 3 of those Better Boys (doh!). Replaced 'em with 2 Brandywines, a Mortgage Lifter & a Belgium Giant. The Heirlooms did just fine last season & I'm afraid that the Better Boys will get too big & unruly. Gonna try pinching & pruning to keep the plant size down & the mater size up. http://www.tomatocasual.com/wp-conte...est-tomato.jpg (record 7 lbs 12 oz from Oklahoma)

Alot of people who grow indeterminate tomato plants will "pinch the runners".



I tie my runners up cause i have room & that's the way i learned it.

got mine in yesterday. 17 plants. several varieties. Mountain spring, cherry, sweet 100, better bush, Rutgers, roma, and a few Brandywines. I also got eggplant and all my pepper types in.

None here yet. But my 2.5 year old son planted his first Tomatoe Plant last weekend. He waters it twice a day and asks me why there aren't any tomatoes yet. :-)

My tomatoes, peppers, etc., are going crazy. With the recent rains they're very happy. My weather station rain gauge shows 17.65" of rain so far this year. It needs to dry out for a while and let the plants get a good sun-soaking.

I was wondering if others were feeling the same... its going to be a good year! Planted on Feb 24 & things were growing slowly, but now are going wild like your plants. So far there are 250+ tomatoes hanging plus a buncha cherry tomatoes, some of which are already getting ripe. We probably feel it here first in California cuz of the early planting season, but it looks like it'll be a good year in the garden this time around!

Brandywine
Giant Belgium
Big Rainbow
Cherokee Purple
Caspian Pink
Costluto Genovese
Amish Paste
Big Beef
Supersteak
Early Girl
Jetsetter

I've saved a monster amount of bacon over the fall/winter. 70-80 pounds worth.
Couple hundred heirloom tomatoe plants and a nice bed of romaine.

Getting a good rain on my tomato plants that are about a foot tall now. Started them from seed this year so I'm kind of excited to see how they turn out. So far so good. I've got Better Boy, Beefsteak, Delicious and Large Red Cherry plants agoing

Not a thing planted in garden due to wet/rain. Blueberry crop will be record. Asparagus awesome.

Amish market will be our garden. Never before have we had no garden.

Damn that's too bad. I live on the Missouri River bottom and about half of the row crops aren't even put in yet. Lots of corn growing though

It's ugly just about everywhere. I just rolled through the second 15 hour day with a good 3 more to go before we're done. Most of the corn here looks horrible and some guys have still not started on beans yet. I HATE springs like these!:cuss:

I'd have to go a long way before I was too wet. I wish I had those problems.