About 3 weeks away from seed starting for me. I was going through my seed stash today and taking stock of what I have and what I need to buy. I saved quite a few seeds from last year and have leftover seeds still in the packages as well. Typically I don't let my seeds get past the 2 year mark due to viability concerns. I know certain kinds keep longer than others, and how you store them plays into it too. Anyway, I'm starting to get back into the planting mindset. Besides seeds, fertilizer is on my mind. Last year I tried something different that worked out very well for me. I ended up buying a product called Fishnure which is made from all the organic waste that's produced from catfish farming. The tomatoes and peppers really thrived on it. Add to that a little wood ash sparingly and composted chicken waste, and I think I have it covered. What's everyone's go-to fertilizer(s)?
We added composted manure (from home depot) to the new garden boxes last year. The boxes were filled with a shredded top soil that had compost mixed in. Some of the beds get topped with tree service mulch and grass clippings. (Do not mulch peppers! but everything else was good.)
I like your wood ash. Best tomatoes I ever grew last year in wood ash from wood stove and composted wood chips. Plus amended each hole with a tablespoon of 12 12 12, manure, blood meal, and epsom salt. Did not get any blight until very late in season.
I ordered from Totally Tomatoes this morning. First catalog order I've made in years. In fact, last year was my first vegetable garden in about 5 years, and for that I bought plants from local stores for container gardening. At my previous place I had a good size garden, where I started everything from seed in a greenhouse, and I miss that. But since once I became single, with a house that has a much smaller kitchen that isn't suitable for canning, I'm just going with small gardens. Here is what I ordered: Amish Paste Tomato - Garden Vegetable Plants Celebrity Hybrid Tomato - Garden Vegetable Plants Early Sunsation Hybrid Pepper - Garden Vegetable Plants Fooled You Hybrid Jalapeno Pepper - Garden Vegetable Plants Margarets Pepper - Garden Vegetable Plants Mountain Merit Hybrid Tomato - Garden Vegetable Plants Tanja Cucumber - 30 seeds Sticking with plants for my tomatoes and peppers. However, these are varieties that I want, not whatever is available at local garden centers. Never had good luck with cukes, but maybe this year will be my year
I keep all fish remains from winter fishing out in my shed/deep freeze until it warms up. They usually amount to about 50-60 gallons. Yesterday I placed them on the ground in my compost area on top of all our winter kitchen scraps and coffee grounds, covered it all with a deep layer of leaves, and shoveled a few feet of snow on top to cap it off. By the time all the snow melts off of it, the fall compost pile will thawed enough to burry them deep and create a hot pile. I do a planting of squash on top of this pile, and by fall this is all ready to spread around to needy areas.
My green giants look great. I got 2 out of 12 on my Hughs. I just replanted. It must be the strain, they just don’t like to germinate.
Those plants look good Brandon Scott. I was able to walk on top of our frozen snowpack this morning to prune my apple trees. You will be planting more things outside soon I would imagine.
Notice the yellow on the leaves? The first leaves on the maters struggle with the high intensity light from the LED lamp. After that they are almost purple.
The ground firmed up enough to get things going this year. Bush hogged the asparagus patch off today and hope to get some weed preventer down preemergence. Mowed down my oats cover crop where the first patches of sweet corn will go.
FYI The Mountain Merit is a very tall plant even though it is considered a determinate type. A good tasting tomato.
Thanks for that info. I'll be growing it next to a 6' tall chain link fence and be using cages during the earlier growth. The determinate I grew last year (I don't remember the kind, just whatever I picked up locally) went over the 6' fence. This year I'll start nipping the ends before they get to the point of waving to the tree tops.
Hi y'all, saw something today, I have never come across before. Found a Red Breasted Nuthatch trapped inside the bird feeder. I had to open the top and tip it sideways to release the scared little guy.
I had a bird get trapped in a tube feeder a couple of years ago. When I first looked, I assumed it was a chipmunk, and then I looked closer and saw it was feathered. The funny part was, that the feeder was empty so he had climbed in one of the holes enlarged by a squirrel to scrounge seeds below the lowest port. But it couldn't turn around to go back out that same port. I had to do the same as you did to let it out.
Bought three tomato sets yesterday and planted them in a left over cattle mineral bucket with 75% compost and 25% top soil mix. A "Brady Wine" , a "Goliath Bush" and a "Better Bush". I have planted "Brandy Wine" in my main garden for many years with very good results, this will be my first time with the two bush tomato's . Also tilled and leveled the main garden for planting on Good Friday if the weather cooperates.
In your climate, do tomatoes (determinate/indeterminate) keep growing and producing right up until a hard frost?
Hey Eric Schamell in my climate zone which is 9A the average growing season lasts 300 days. We would be able to grow tomatoes up to the first frost (determinate/indeterminate) if we did not have to battle the 100+ degree days in August and September. During those two months I have tried to water more frequent and cut all fertilizer but nothing seems to help. The tomato plants are the first ones to die back due to the extreme heat. Hot peppers, bell peppers and jalapenos have no problems with the hot, dry days of summer but the one plant that is extremely tolerant to those conditions is okra. Most growers in my area plant a fall garden in late September for vegetables up through the first frost usually around the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday time frame.
Must be nice having all that growing season! I'll bet you can get several flushes of peppers from your plants that way. I'm lucky to get 2 per season.
