Trying To Get Setup For Some Tomatos

Too early for wintersowing here, Gymgirl. We are expecting our first freeze tonight, but it will only last for a few hours. However, we've been in the 70s most of the week. Had to run out after work to mulch the strawberries tonight!
I WS'd for the first time last year--in this zone, we start perennials in January, and annuals in April. Got my milk jugs all saved. After the holidays, I can start dreaming about spring again and start my WS jugs.

Ok, Moms!

It's so fascinating the way the zones are different. You're starting seeds in January and April.

In January-Feb, I'm about to plant out veggie seedlings I WSed in December. And in April, I'm putting in seedlings for the summer crop!

Hugs!

Linda

Finally! I'm all set now as the weather has been perfect. I'm still useing the same weed cloth for the past two years. I'll probably put down another layer in the middle as it will be the aisle area and therefore will need extra covereing from footware.

This section to the right needs to be repaired with an overlay of fresh cloth as my son chopped it up with the mower. Bottom right ,my cooler filled with water and a protein drink. I also use the crystal lite for re-hydration. I'm not taking any chances this season.

Of course I can not do without my trusty New garden scooter as my old scooter did not have the extended handle and the tires on the old scooter dried out and started to crack and lose air. This was my fault as it was left out and exposed to the broiling summer sun which took their toll and new tires were $25 ea so it paid for me to get the new one . Also the extended handle makes it much easier to move around while walkig to a new area.

I'm still useing my coco coir. All I added this year in addition to the two cups of 10-10-10 fertilizer I added a cup of lime to the coir. In time I'll have to go back to my old standby Jungle Growth container mix but I'll always use my remaining coir by just adding the Jungle Growth to top off the EBs.

The grass area you see was part of my original garden but six EBs are very comfortable for me to work as I work 30 easy minutes and rest at least 15 or more minutes. I know my limitations as I am very weak.It is just wonderful to be out there again and to communicate with all of you. I don't feel alone anymore.

I know most of you will be faceing a long winter so I hope I can brighten up your winter and perhaps answer some questions. I promise to keep you in my garden!
Ted

TPlant: Beautiful setup, will be watching your garden this year. I notice you have the EB staking system with yours; but some look to have a bamboo stick, is that a staking system?
joy

No Joy. The stakes are used for the young plants that can not reach the net. This helps them to grow straight also to protect them against wind.

TPlant, your setup looks great, and those tomato plants look nice and healthy. I know I'll be following your progress, and enjoying your garden through your photos. It's a nice pleasant pass-time while we are waiting for our cold and snow to pass and can finally get out to plant again here.

What varieties are you growing this year?

Thanks for sharing your garden with us.

Hi mom --- This year I had to buy my plants and this makes me feel like I'm cheating! Hope to feel better and have more energy next season. Meanwhile some of the plants that I remember are :
1) Husky Cherry -- This was one of my very first plant that I grew many years ago. Love the way it grows on very sturdy main stem with strong vines and bright red clumps of sweet cherry tomatos.
2) Bradley -- A newcomer for me as I've never grown them before. Supposed to be a nice round red tomato with good taste and production.
3) Pink Brandywine -- I am accustomed to Sudduth Brandywine and noticed the same strong growth as Sudduth. They are climbing and spreading beautifully.
4) Roma -- A paste tomato so my son can make his delicious sauce. Hope I get a plentiful batch.
5) Hillbilly -- One of my favorites as they are a nice sandwich tomato. One slice covers the sandwich for me. Also an attractive color.
6) Copia --- Not as big as Hillbilly but also attractive orange stripes and great in a salad with this sliced Bermuda onion and oil and vinegar.
Probably one more but I can't remember!
One thing that I'd like to share with y'all is the fact that I spray my plants when young and the roots have not yet reached the fertilizer strip on the opposite side of the EB and that is liquid fertilizer, fish oil and a liquid that makes everything stick to the leaves and helps to prevent rain from washing it off. I don't remember the organic supplier but they are on our favorite list of DG. It makes them strong and healthy. It will turn any yellow to bright green leaves. After they are established and bear fruit, I stop spraying as I don't want fish oil on my tomatos.( UGH! Brings back memories of when I had polio at age seven and was forced to swallow a tablespoon of cod liver oil every day for nine months.)

That sounds like a great selection, TPlant. I'm not familiar with the Copia--will need to check that one out for next year.

Thanks for the tip on the fertilizer spray while young. It seems like they grow so quickly at the point, and the fertilizer strip is not yet ready to take over. This is something I'll be sure to try next spring. That fish emulsion does smell bad, though doesn't it? Maybe it will scare the chipmunks away from my garden LOL.

No the fish emulsion is not oderful. Don't know how they do it but it does not have an odor especially when diluted. The dilution rate is one tablespoon per gallon. The same goes for the other two products. You mix them all togeather in one gallon and let stand for fifteen minutes before spraying.

Hi T-Plant: Nice to read about your planting when all of my EBs and containers are "retired" for the season here in the North East. BTW, I was just in Orlando for a week at DisneyWorld--first time--and I could not believe the lovely fall weather. Is this like what you have in your area? I do not know Florida geography.
I also have a question: why are you not going to continue using just coco-coir? Is is a problem of obtaining the material?

The weather down here is much nicer as Orlando has been known to drop in the teens at night.We are just between Ft Lauderdale and Miami but on very rare occasions it will drop to about 30 in the evening for a short peroid of time and then go back up to 68 or so in the morning with the sunrise. So we grow all year. Watermelons, Cranshaw melons, cantaloupes, Honeydews
etc, in the summer when it is to hot for other crops. I grow some beauties in my EBs.
As far as the coir is concerned "Instagarden" operated by Boca Bob is no longer in business so I will have to fill in with Jungle Growth for containers.

I am sad Boca Bob retired--I'm also now without a source for reasonably priced coir. I also miss his gorgeous pictures of his EB gardens.

I have one EB still active--growing brussel sprouts for the first time. Hopefully, we can harvest enough for our Thanksgiving dinner. My husband loves the things, although I don't care for them. Everything else is emptied, drained, and covered for the winter.

That watermelon is making my mouth water, TPlant!!

No, I buy from "Spray-N-Gro" on the internet. I use it on everything including my orange tree, mango, persimmon, Star Fruit and all ornamentals.

I too am sorry that Insta-garden went out of business, but you can find the CoCo- Tek coir on the internet.

Well since I cut back on my EBs from 19 to 6 active although I still have three or four that are inactive I'll be OK for a long while.

Tplant @ all

I got my coir from Boco Bob also but the last time I had to
look on the internet. I got mine from www.acmewormfarm.com
for $64 including shipping for 4 of the big 10-11lb blocks. It is the good kind
and they use it for worm bedding.

Annie

TPlant: Thanks for telling me that, I have seen fish emulsion and fish emulsion with kelp, which I've thought about trying after reading up on it. I have used compost tea and sea magic in the past with good results. A book I'm reading on huge tomatoes says that whenever you see the blooms, add the fish emulsion with kelp for huge tomatoes.

Those melons of yours looks so good I could eat the picture. Until I have used my beneficial nematodes treatment for about 3 years I won't even try melons of any kind, as the bugs eat them from the inside out.

joy

I got back to work as you can see. They are coming along very nicely and the weather is perfect.

Of course my trusty garden scooter for which I can not do without and worth every penny. This is my second scooter. Believe it or not the tire on the original one dried out during the summer heat as I did not cover them. My fault and to repalce the tires would be $129 dollars so I bought a new one for $80.

My helper is back only a couple of years older. He is looking for horned worms which he likes to collect and feed Datura leaves until they spin a cocoon and turn into a butterfly. Only thing he doesn't know is that I spray with Ortho Garden Insect killer so there won't be any this season. LOL

Looking Good : )

I like to trim the lower vines so they don't touch anything on the EB and rot.

The support frames really help later when the plants start to spread out. Most of the vines are braced by the netting making it easier to pick the tomatos and provide great support for them. They can only be used with the new models because the modern EBs have holes in the bottom that has prongs that slip into the holes However I feel if the prongs were cut off the older EBs would sit on top and the weight of the EB would definetly keep them in place. I'll have to order one later and try it!

When planting the tomato plants I use a bulb planter as it makes the perfect hole to drop the plants into. Nice and deep. I also X the the cover and then use duct tape to close the exposed mix as weeds will definrtly find a home in those small accessible areas. You can see how I patch it.

Work completed for today so we are taking a break. Rain is forecast for today so that is all for now.

Hey TP,

Looking good! I can't believe how big your grandson is. Glad to see you're still able to keep the maters going. I replaced all my dead plants and have all the eb's you gave me going again. I have onions in one and tomatos in the rest. One of these days I'll post something in tomato forum. Take care.

Flip

Hi Flip! Happy to hear from you. Why not post hear also? I'll be posting here and on the Tomato Forum as most of our gardeners will be sitting by the fire watching the snowflakes and would probably enjoy our ventures.

Per your request TP, here's what I posted today in the tomato forum.

I've been AWOL too long but here we go...

Started off great in August growing 200 seedlings/40 varieities. Planted out in late Sept and everything was great - new varieties from Carolyn, Suze and Gleckler's, including many new ones I'd never grown before. In early Oct my yard guy killed 33 of 45 plants, all of them flowering and about 2' tall.
I was going to bag the season but I tried (and did save) about 10 of the plants - then I found a few op replacements and some HD specials. So, I'm pretty behind but I do have fruit on 15 of my 34 current plants. Here's what's in the gardens: ( * = fruit on the vine)

GARDEN 1 (Earthboxes) Red Barn*, Casey's Yellow, Red Penna, Green Doctors*, Medovaya Kaplya (sp?) *, Purple Cherokee, Green Zebra (ugh), several Homestead and a few Early Girl and Celebrity (triple ugh's).
GARDEN 2 (large containers) Big Sungold*, Kazachka*, Lincoln Adams, Red Beefsteak, Brandywine OTV*, Couilles de Tourneau (sp?)*, Pink Brandywine (Sudduth)*, Red Brandywine reg leaf*, Casey's Yellow*, Husky Red Cherry* (ugh), German Johnson, Black Brandywine and Yellow Brandywine (Platfoot).
GARDEN 3 (In the dirt) Ozark's F2 German Red Strawberry/Dr Wyche, Chapman, Hege, Peron, another Yellow Bwine, Top Sirloin*, Sandul Moldovan*, Neves Azorean Red and another Couilles de Tourneau *.

So, there you have it. I'm attaching a pic of part of garden 1

most of garden 2

What a great set-up, Flip--it's nice to see palm trees and a thriving garden (we got our first snow today).

Do you notice any difference between the plants grown in EBs vs. large containers vs. ground?

So sorry to hear of your rough start to your growing season...that had to be difficult.

Hey there mom - Thanks. We have cold front moving thru tonite; should get all the way down to 60. :-)

I've always been a plant-it-in-the-ground guy but I've got to admit that the eb's are great. The plants grow much more quickly and the eb's sure are a lot easier to use than chopping coral rock to dig a hole. Large containers also work very well but I believe the eb's are better due to their ease of watering/fertilizer, etc.

Have a nice niyr,
Flip

I use EBs due to my lack of "plantable" ground...(tree roots, heavy clay soil, etc.) I also use their watering system just to save time, and it really performed well this past summer when we were in severe drought.

Noticed some "ugh" comments after some of your tomato varieties. Care to comment further on what you didn't like?

Love seeing your pictures....it give us "northern gardeners" hope that we will survive our winter and survive until our spring planting season. Hope you'll continue to share your progress.

WELCOME FLIP! As usual you have a terriffic batch of tomatos. Happy to hear the EBs are doing well for you as I knew they would because of your coral rock soil. I had to buy my plants this year. UGH! Two plants, Husky Cherry Red, already have fusarium wilt and will most likely be destroyed. Next August I will plant my own seeds no matter what! Sorry to hear about your gardener's bobo but you are wise to always have extra seedlings. Shucks, I never thought of asking you for help instead of buying pot luck deseased plants. Oh Well.....

It is a lot easier for me working eight EBs as I tire quickly and must rest every fifteen minutes but I sit out there and admire my limited work. By all means please share this thread with me and perhaps someone can continue this thread as it is getting long? I don't have the computer expertise.LOL Between the two of us we can warm up our northern gardeners and make their winter pass quickly and also give them ideas to plan their upcoming season.

Hi TP - thanks for the nice words. I can keep posting here occasionally and I'll continue this thread in a day or two.

Just so everyone knows, TP - a long time eb'er - has always wanted me to try them. I'd always done well in the ground over the years and thought it more natural but he finally converted me to at least do both. He gave me my first one about 5 years ago when I gave him a bunch of plants after a hurricane blew his all down. Last year he gave me the ten ebs you see in pic 1 above.

mom - any plants I buy at Home Depot come with an 'ugh' as I'm neither a fan of Bonnie Farms nor do I like the varieties very much (except the German Johnson).

Flip

Yeah me too Flip. I had to buy Bonnie Farms this season and thus the problem with my Husky Red Cherries. However I was happy to see the heirloom varieties and I bought German Johnson, Pink Brandywine(not sure if they are heirloom) and Bradley which I've never grown before but all are doing well except my huskies. Time for a cup of decaf coffee as I can no longer enjoy my Costa Rican Gold that I used to buy....Decaf only -- Doctors orders.