BocaBob's repotting tomato plant experiment

I'm back to continue the experiment I started. Just to refresh you to what the experiment is, I'm testing to see if you don't have to re pot your tomato plants a few times before they get planted in their final home. I started seeds in 2 inch net pots with coconut coir. After two weeks and under fluorescent lights, I placed the seedling in a 5 gallon grow bag that was filled only 1/2 way with coconut coir and folded down the sides of the bag. I started to take pictures every two days and post them. The plan is every two inches of growth add more coconut coir up to the leaves covering the stem to promote root growth along the stem simulating the re potting process without doing it. So here we are with the 2nd 2 inch growth spurt. Looking good !!!! Tomorrow I'll add coconut coir.

bocaBob

Bob, do you snip off the side leaves as you add the coir? I am going to experiment with this too, using coir for 1 Ebucket and MG for another.

Yepper, that's my plans

Now that is fascinating...

Boca Bob, How old are these plants now?

5 weeks old I think

Nice! I hope mine look that good 3 weeks from now. You got teenagers already.

Devota: I'm going to use the 5 gallon grow bags!!!! That way I can also fold up the handle to defray any winds. My seeds aren't but under a week old; so, it will be a bit. Of course, I have the portable greenhouse also.
joy112854

Y'all are way ahed of me. I'm still making my plans, gathering my stuff and so it there is anything positive or negative to report I'll be all over it.

Bob: The insta garden set that comes with the complete watering system that you hook up to water the 5 gallon grow bags, it says it hooks right up to the facet outside? I am wondering what I'm going to do now to use the hose if I wanna? Also, I have 40 containers right now, is there some way I can hook one up to water 32 HEBs and EBs and HE Buckets and 2 topsy turvys and 2 of the garden type baskets? And could and should I have it set to a timer and still allow me access to my water hose?
joy112854

Joy you can buy a y adapter that allows you to hook up 2 hose's Or a 4 way hookup is also avalible (sp)
~Tubby

Thanks Tubby, and the y adapters are cheap. You just need more 1/2 inch pipe, more micro tubing, more drippers. And if you don't want to manually turn it on and off, buy a timer and let it do it for you. I have a timer hooked up to one side of a y adapter (like Tubby said) and a hose to the other. No problem.

BocaBob

bob: Will I still be able to use my water hose though? I still need it. My daughter says there are faucets out there that are double fauceted. I got a phone number for a good plumber too now, so maybe I can make it work. My garden sure is growing in size.
Here is what I'm thinking will be planted:
48 corn plants
54 pepper plants
15 tomato plants
36 cukes plants
6 eggplants
8 pumpkin plants
4 cantaloupe plants
4 watermelon plants
16 bean plants
16 pea plants
32 okra plants
40 onion plants
4 artichoke plants
I will be really busy I can see that already. LOL
joy112854

Farmer Joy, what are you doing up so late? Yes on your water hose

You two really orta get some sleep. You dont have to stare at them 'maters to make them grow.

Joy, go to Home Depot and ask one of the girls working there for a FAWCET MANIFOLD. She wont have any idea what you are talking about of course......... but between the two of you, with facial expressions and hand movements and making splashing or squirting sounds, you can probably figger it out. Tell her it is a four to one jobado, converts a single fawcet to four faucets. Wait a minute........., better call that a one to four faucet gizmo, you dont wont to confuse her by getting into higher mathmatics. A good solid one made of brass will run you about $13 bucks and each of the manifolded faucets will have its own little lever operated open/close thingy. Geezzzz , this is getting painful trying to draw word pictures in the middle of the night. Tell you what........I will post a picture of one tomorrow. I cant do it now because, unlike Bob, I dont stumble around in the dark talking to my plants and stumbling over water faucets. My bones are too old and brittle for that kind of stuff. See ya'll in a couple of hours........when there is enough sunshine for taking pitchurs.........hint.....hint!!

I went back to sleep, but I have a Jaywhacker alarm on my computer that woke me back up. I might as well stay up now, go outside and talk to my plants

Boca Bob

Ok, here's that tomato plant you saw yesterday, now the stem covered with another layer of coconut coir. The next pic was that other tomato plant I'm playing with. Nice growth.

Here's the other tomato plant I'm playing with. I'm going to let this one grow as is to compare stem strength and diameter to the experimental one.

Next pics in two days

BocaBob

Jaywhacker: my mind works better at night for some reason, I get all my bright ideas then. LOL I have decided that Monday is the day I get my outside socket changed out, then I'm on the prowl to find a portable heater for my dreamhouse greenhouse. I also have a plumber around the neighborhood (smiles), wonder how much he will charge me after I cook up a nice steak dinner, with baked potato, lots of butter and sour cream and chives and a tossed salad, maybe even some peach cobbler if he wishes to do my plumbing job. I'm getting there, the slow poke guy making my HEBs and HE Buckets still ain't done, told him there was a girl who'd make him look sick, as she put the first one of hers together herself with a razor knife and drill in an hour and then the rest 20 mins each. He's been at it all week now and he has a shop. So; guess that is so much for girls not knowing how to do something right? Or maybe the men in the south just work a little............. slower?
joy112854

Joy, Your HEB guy may be holding out for a bigger share or something. (smile)

Look here for faucet manifold:

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&pwst=1&resnum=1&q=faucet+manifold&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

You get the idea. They also come in twosies and threesies.

Jerry

This message was edited Jan 31, 2009 12:05 PM

Tex: Thanks, I added it to my favorites on the computer, now when the plumber comes I can show him that and he can decide which one he wants to hook up my hose to and my new watering system from bob's site and another one for everything else or perhaps two more for everything else right? He ain't getting a bigger share, he's been paid well enough to do the job. The materials involved were close to $400, the labor was a $100, should have had garden girl make em for me, I'd of had em by now.
joy112854

Joy,,,,,,here are some ideas for you using a faucet manifold. The faucet on the left goes to my 'dogpen' gardens and the little lever has the water turned off there. The one on the right is connected to a 100 ft hose running to my new privacy fence gardening area and it is turned on and left on all the time. On freezing nights, I can disconnect the hoses and stand a 5 gallon bucket over the faucet and manifold to protect them.

Ya'll think we should tell Joy that the manifolds simply screw on to the existing faucet? (No plumber needed, Joy...save your money for garden supplies.) If you can hook a hose to a faucet you can hook up a Y outlet (or "manifold").

Shoe

.........and here is the end of the 100 ft hose coming up from the ground under my new privacy fence and connecting to a series of 15 ft long hoses with Y connections. There are 5 of those 15 feet hoses and Y connections whitch gives me a hose connection every 15 feet around the perimeter of of my fence. If you use a quick disconnect on the Y connectors and your watering hose, you can quickly walk around plugging in a shorter, easier to use hose to water plants located over a wide area. And it is all up high on the privacy fence.........you dont even have to bend over to hook up a hose. At my age, bending over or kneeling down becomes quite an adventure.........I never know if I will be able to stand up again. I love that new privacy fence........that is my kingdom back there. The neighbors can only guess what is going on back there. It went in in July of last summer. My son accidently planted sunflowers in the top pot of one of my 6 ft high grow poles and that resulted in one good sized sunflower waving in the breeze about 4 foot higher than the fence. All people from the road could see was that sunflower up there waving in the breeze..........untill a typical hill country breeze came along and blew it down.

...........and here is a Y connector. Notice the on/off control at each outlet. And here also is an in-line shut off valve you can put on the end of your watering hose so you can easily shut off the water and change to a different kind of watering devise on the end of your watering hose. At alll the mostly permanent hose connections in a system like mine, you may have some small amount of leakage. There is a thin teflon tape you can buy to wrap the connecting threads with that will prevent those small leaks but I just squirt a little toothpaste on the threads, tighten the connection good........and presto....no leaks. I personally recommend Colgate toothpaste but your brand will probably work too.

Yeh, Jay, and the minty flavored is more in line with the gardening world, too, eh?

Those pics will spell it out for Joy, good going! And wait til she finds out how little amount of moola those parts cost, she'll be happy!

Shoe

So Bob on the seedling you're burying you're snipping off all the side leaves and only leaving the main stem, right?

Right on Gymgirl. So for, it's looking real promising.

BocaBob

Joy........here is a picture of one of the Y's on my fence. As you can see......one of the two connections is used to continue the hose line on down and around the top of my fence while the other one is available for a watering hose every fifteen feet if you are using those little 15 foot el cheapo hose's like I do. And like Horseshoe pointed out, you dont need no steeennnken plumber to connect that stuff.........just a couple of mexican speed wrenches and a tube of toothpaste.:-)

Jaywhacker: Thanks for the picture demonstrations you are very good at that.

bob: I have an idea about the planting the tomato and then burying the stem project; but, mine's a little different. Here's my idea. I got these revolutionary planters and topsy turvys where it calls for a sturdy tomato plant, as you need to hang it upside down right? Well, how about I use the plant the tomato in the grow bag covering up the stem every 5 days until I have one nice tomato plant/tree, then uprooting it and transplanting it into the topsys and revolutionary planters and starting new ones in the grow bags and doing the process over again, that way all my tomatoes will be healthy and strong rooted? I know it's a stretch of imagination there; but, can it be done?
joy

The fun of this whole gardening thing , I think, is experimentation. Go for it.

Bob: I think it will work great, as when the tomato plant gets healthy and large I can replant it into the 4 revolutionary planters and the topsy turvys of which will be filled with coconut coir, that way the plant won't suffer tranplant shock. Then start another one in the bag again. Once it is healthy and thick, then it should grow much better in the topsy and the revolutionaries and also it will do fine in the bags when I run out of revolutionaries and topsys, or that is the plan anyways. It is frozen outside right now, brrrrr. My tomato plants are getting bigger and they are going straight up, no sagging at all, same with my peppers and cukes. No dampening off disease this time. They are beautiful, not like yours; but they are beautiful.
joy

Success !!! Good for you. It is 35 degrees right now. Real close to a freeze but all my veggies are OK.

BocaBob

Bob: I'm glad my tomatoes and peppers and cukes are doing well as I got an emergency planting; but, it went ok.
joy

Guess who's working from home tomorrow? And guess who's delivery from Bocabob should arrive tomorrow?

^_^

Me and mine! Fertilizer and Stylet oil. Not as exciting as a coir delivery, but I'll still be standing out in the driveway waiting for the drop. :)

Have fun with your goodies, Gymgirl.

We have had very cold weather, 30's at night and 60's during the day this week, so my tomato plants have taken a break from growing. A nice warming trend starts today, so I'll take the next pics this weekend to show the new growth.

BocaBob

Just read some newsletters from Fine Gardening and they mentioned that brushing your hand gently over the tops of the seedlings will help them to develop stronger stems. This might help with the leggy tomato plant problem.

katiebear

Pugzley: You just know I gotta ask what is stylet oil are you doing your hair? LOL
joy

LOL Well, I DO need to do my hair, but the stylet oil is an organic miticide, fungicide etc. that is mineral oil based. I had such a terrible problem with spider mites last year, my plan is to start a once a week regimen of spraying all my plants before they get a foothold. Stylet oil is supposed to be very efficient at killing spider mites (and other pests). From the research I have done, it is supposed to have negligible effect on the beneficials. So I am hoping this is what will do the trick.