Just an observation, but my smaller tomato plants do better then the larger tomato plants when I plant them in the garden. I haven't found that starting them any earlier or letting them get bigger helps at all. If anything they just sit there while the smaller ones hit the ground running. Just my experience. Peppers and eggplant thrive in the heat.
RF-what kind of tomatoes are those?
When do you start your tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds?
Lisa, I'm sure you are right. I just happen to do everything wrong when it comes to gardening, and instead of fighting it, I have learned to embrace it.
I have spent more money on my vegetable garden this year than I have spent on buying vegetables from the grocery store for the last 20 years combined. It might seem like an exaggeration, but I will swear to you that it is not. Between the yards of compost, liquid seaweed, 7-dust (mistake now learned), 6,000 aphids, wasp-inaters, spidermite preadators, spidermite assasins, plastic owls, compost bins, 70% sun shade, cuke lattice, timed sprinklers, 3xnormal water bills, neem oil, treated wood, greenlight syrups, pressurized sprayers, sharp-shooters, green lacewigs, the spades, the shovels, the four kinds of mulch, the clippers, and the many many yards of garden twine, I think I have seen it all top to bottom in the last 12 months.
All that being said, I have decided that this is my hobby and i'm sticking by that decision. Instead of studying and learning about my shortcomings, as most folks would do, I have decided instead to throw money and manpower at the problem.. (No, I am not making fun of our government, I am just taking the easy way out.) If 10% of the 1000's of seeds I bought work out then I will call it a success and go learn from there...
When it's all said and done, this new hobby has tought quite a bit of patience to a person who has never had any. At this point, even if I grow a wilted weed I am a better man for it. Thanks to all for all your help and keep your fingers crossed for me.
Oh, BTW, thats a Black Krim Tomato in that picture.
I got those and some others like chocolate cherrys, mortgage lifters, beefsteak, cherokee purples, yellow brandiwines, yellow pear tomatoes, german johnsons, rutgers, pink oxhearts, and a few more I can't pronounce. As long as I can get 1 black krim tomato from one of my many dozens of tomato plants, im considering it a success. (Sorry I sound like the government again).
Also, I have bought hot pepper seeds from everywhere I could find too so I'm seedling those too. I really want to eat a ghost chili pepper so thats what keeps me going on that end.
Cheers
Ratfood-I have heard of people being upside down on their home loans but never on their vegetable garden! You definitely get an A for tenacity. You know what works best for you.
Lisa
Hi RATFOOD - long time no see! Hoping you have a very successful season this gardening year! Hey, at least the toad (what was his name??) was free. Maybe you'll have some more show up this year.
You planted your seeds at just the right time for your zone. Big or small, if you plant it out down to those first sets of leaves, you should do very well before the major heat hits.
Ive never come even close to breaking even with veggie gardening. I keep learning and trying tho. No why I do it, but would be nice.
Ratfood, I salute your attitude. I resemble it, actually! Not in $$ spent, but in my decision that "I am doing this!" come what may. I don't care if I flub it up ten times for every success, I will figure out how to do this!
I have my lettuce to sustain me right now. When nothing else in the garden grows (my kohlrabi is bulb-less, my broccoli is head-less and my beets are just sitting there), it cheers me to at least pick a few leaves of lettuce!
Locakelly,
Thanks for the info on the seed starter mix. I will be sure to sift my compost and watch how well the peat is mixed.
Btw, my compost is a combo of grass, leaves, veggie kitchen scraps and a few shovels of yard dirt. It is nice and crumbly and so is that enough? I think some folks throw manure into their compost but I don't want to burn young seedlings either.
Lisa - your compost ingredients sound just fine as long as they are broken down and crumbly. If you can recognize things in it you will want to let those things break down more. You could add manure if it is aged a bit and if you let the compost break down a while. Just don't want to use it fresh... Unless you have access to bunny poo. Good stuff there, and it's not "hot" like horse/cow/steer or chicken poo. Fresh bunny poo is good.
Ratfood-I looked at my last freeze date calender and I didn't realize you are in Texas zone 5, I'm in texas zone 3. I was wrong, you are right on target for your plant out date. We get our last freeze usually around the end of March the map says you get yours around Feb. 15. You are only a 2 hr drive from here but what a temp. difference.
Good Luck
Lisa
Lisa, laughing over you ''killing'' him on the bike ride. You must have been in exellent shape!
Ratfood, that is a gorgeous picture of tomatoes! It would keep me going too! I think you'll succeed. A lot of seed, stored well, will be keep for a few years, so it's money well spent. How long have you gardened and how much room do you have to plant? It's 30 years for me and it's never been a perfect year.
Lisa, I threw a feed bag full of horse manure in the compost bed in the summer. I'll be using it this year. Manure is the best fertilizer there is!
Iowa gets the last freeze/frost in lateApril. We're all just a month away from each other LOL!
Nantes carrots. I think it's the color that keeps us going.
Hey Krazy Kelly: You have quite the memory~, that old frog was Sam The Toad! Maybe he had some offspring that will work their way back to the garden this spring. I don't know why but I have a good feeling about the garden this year, for all of us.
LiseP : "my kohlrabi is bulb-less, my broccoli is head-less and my beets are just sitting there" I think I got ahold of the same seeds you have! I have been planting broccoli every 60 days for the last 18 months and I have yet to get one to produce anything. Don't get me started on the carrots, beets, or radishes.
Lisac: Where is Liberty Hill? Is that it by Houston? Also, those peat pellets, are they the same as jiffy pellets I am using? I got them from Novosel and they are really doing great so far..
Billyporter: I have been gardening for about 18 months now so I am still very new to it. I keep the extra seed ziplocked pretty well and keep it cool. When you have too much seed even a 20% germination rate will suffice right? As far as my vegetable growing space I have about 170 sq ft in raised beds, 20 sq ft in good ground soil, and about 15 hay bales that I am going to try out this year. I had several containers last season but I will probably not try them again because the heat just obliterates them in the summer. There is a guy I met out here who runs a horse stable and will give me all the horse poop I could ever want at no charge. However I don't know how long I will have to let it cook-off. You all think I should give it a shot?
RF-Liberty Hill is in far west Williamson County, I'm almost in Burnet County. I'm in the Hill Country.
Yes, the peat pellets are the jiffy ones. I bought 1000 of them and put 2 seeds in each then I seperate the 2 seedlings before I pot them up.
Lisa
OK Lisac, I am doing it just like you but I only bought 200 pellets so far. Mostly the 42mm ones. I was going to make sure they worked out before I bought them in bulk. I was doing the 2 seeds per pellet then cutting off the one that was smaller. Are you saying that you grow 2 plants per pellet than break the pellet in half and grow both of them??
Yes, I break them in two, I'm cheap. If one looks worse then the other I cull it. Last fall I put 2-3 cole crop seeds in each one and gently seperated them. They did fine, the reason I bought them in bulk is because they work so well. At wal-mart the replacement pellets are the same price as the whole seed starting kit. I figured I didn't need anymore of those so I just got the pellets.
RFHave you started all your seeds yet?
Lisa
Lisac, I have thousands of seeds right now, theres no way I can start them all. I have several trays on the way from Novosel to help me out though, and many 1 and 2 gallon jugs to help the plants if they get to big before last freeze.
Not cheap, Lisa - smart! I direct seed most things and have been known to pluck an extra out and plop it in some random spot instead of culling it...
Ratfood - I have high hopes for oyur garden this year. Last year was fun and you had the best attitude about it if I remember correctly. That's half the battle! Hope Sam has some peeps show up to help you out this year!
Beware of snakes...
I don't use manure in my garden - my soil is already borderline high in salt. Some types of manure are higher in salt that others (dairy is the worst), but I don't want to take the risk. You can bring in a lot of grass seed with horse manure, too.
In the past, I've used the wall-o-waters to direct seed straight into the garden - no transplant shock, and no imported diseases. I was running late two years ago and bought plants - sure enough, one tomato got sick and it seemed to be spreading . I yanked the sick one, and the nearest one semi-recovered.
The problem is that Pueblo can get both late freezes and too hot - no fruit set above 90F, as mentioned above.
So, for this year I've set up a light table with 4 shelves and 4 shop-lights in front of a basement window. I'm going to try to compare direct seeding under cover, versus pre-sprouted small seedlings, versus larger plants repotted into larger pots set out around my frost date. Eggplant will probably be the one I move to larger pots - it is supposed to do well in straw bales, too.
I suspect that small seedlings with 3-4 weeks under cover are going to get the best balance of warm soil versus transplant shock - I need those blossoms before it gets hot!
I haven't started anything yet - but I hope to have some flowers started by the end of the month. I won't start veggies before March - my last frost is usually in the first half of May.
Ratfood, I get worried when I don't see toads. Luckily mine have made a comeback. I'm just real careful about using a shovel or fork in the compost till they dig their way out. I hate to hurt one.
At 11/2 years, the best you can do is keep things watered. At least that was my newbie mistake. I put horse manure on in the fall and dig it in. What I had, was exposed to the elements and had a bit of their sandy dirt mixed in. The really fresh, I put in the compost pile last fall. I hope it has worked itself out by this spring. I could kick myself for not getting a load last fall. We took my Dad out and just never got back out for me. I also put a ring of it around each rhubarb plant, careful not to get too close. The hollyhocks benifited and were huge! (They were in the above picture.) You're lucky to have an endless supply! (I'm not an expert, since I've only been using it for a couple of years now, so I'm learning too.) I've heard a lot of people talking about the ''bale'' beds.
Pollengarden, I was suprised to find no new kinds of weeds in my manure. Maybe because I buried it. The rhubarb wasn't weedy either, maybe because it shaded itself.
I have horses, goats, donkeys, a cow, pigs, 1 rabbit and 3 pet rats and an endless supply of manure. My chickens go through it and pick out most of the seeds. Then I scoop it out of the stall and put it in my garden, a bucket here and there all year round, I also add leaves, hay and other organic material all year round. Cow poop is higher in salt then horse poop. I also make a poop soup to water my plants with my greens really benefit from all the N.
On 1-14 I started: Eggplant-Florida Market, Listada De Gandia, Rosa Bianca, Thai Yellow Egg and Thai Ribbed White (Baker Creek Seeds)
On 1-15 I started: Hot Peppers- Chiltepin (seeds given to me), Tabasco, White Habanero and Choc. Habanero (Baker Creek seeds)
I'm waiting for my order from Totally Tomatoes so I can start an order I got but right now there is no room on my heat mat.
Lisac, Im going to start more peppers this evening too and compare them to the ones that are already growing up. I wish I had bought one of those chocolate habanero seed packs because now I want to try to container-grow a pepper plant that I can keep alive for several years. You know bringing it inside in the winter and all. Maybe i'll try it with a bhut jolokia too. Let me start reading up on that ok. Keep me posted!
RF-Pepper plants do great in pots. Had a Jal. that I moved in and out then one night before Christmas it got below freezing, it wasn't supposed to get that cold. Anyway the plant froze maybe it will come back in the spring I'll have to wait and see. It didn't produce as well inside but other then that it was fine in a small pot.
Lisa
I am doing an experiment this year - direct seeded Cold Set, Stupice and Sheyenne into the raised beds on January 3rd...
I made cloches out of 2 liter bottles and milk jugs to try and keep the soil temp and humidity up. I was mostly curious to see how long it would take the seeds to germinate.
As of today, we have germination!! Both Stupice and Sheyenne have germinated in 13 days! And I thought for sure Cold Set would have won this race...
Kelly-Congratulations We have germination. And to think only a week ago it was 13* here and you get to direct seed (pout). Please keep use posted I have never direct seeded tomatos even when I lived in L.A. I'm looking foreward to seeing your results.
Lisa
Congrats Kelly. I know you'll be eating before I will.
There was a time that I was convinced I needed to get hold of Cold Set but last year convinced me that many tomatoes will set with nights in the 40s and sunny days with cold March winds blowing a gale. All the ones I put out very early were short determinates. 6 varieties had ripened fruit by the first week of May and 2 just sat there looking pretty.
The big indeterminates didn't take cold as well so I'm not going to rush them this year. It seemed to shock them or otherwise hold them back. I'm thinking to put them out at least 2 or 3 weeks after the dets.
I used to grow short season determinate tomatos like Cold Set or Mountain Spring when I lived in North Dakota. I think I might try them again to get early tomatos before the Hot weather sets in here. Maybe trial them against indeterminate that are supposed to do well in heat? I can direct seed or set out transplants UNDER COVER any time in April.
Peppers go in a little later that tomatos. I like sweet peppers that color up early, and I like "mild" hot peppers like "Tam" jalapeno and mild Anaheim. They really were very mild in North Dakota - here they start out mild and get hotter as the season progresses. By late summer I am wearing rubber gloves, safety glasses, and running a ventilation fan to process them. I sorry to offend you hot pepper lovers out there, but that is ridiculous.