Here are my tomato babies that I think are coming along fine. I have transplanted these up from the starter kit, planted in coconut coir and replanted the whole thing into a solo cup of which I've been burying the stem as it grows. Now here is my questions, notice if you will the space between the two bottom leaves and the 4 top leaves, can I bury the stem up to the top 4 leaves?
Here is another:
And another one:
Go ahead.
Gymgirl: You think it will be okay to bury the stem up to the bottom of the top leaves covering up the bottom two? By the way anyone transplanting their coconut coir weaved pots into solo cups, here is what I did, I only put a small handful of coir in the bottom of the cup before putting in the transplant, that way it gives it plenty of room to grow at the top where you continue to put coir on and cover the stem as time goes by, thickening up the stem like as you go. Don't transplant by filling the bottom of the solo cup with coir and then putting the transplant where the stem comes up out of the cup, no room for burying the stem technique. Or that is what I figure anyways.
joy
Here is the latest of my tomatoes progress. I have about 30 left now out of 43, I accidentally dropped one, and one of the biggest ones' stem got bent, I'm still gonna try and save it though. I'm giving a friend my two biggest ones tomorrow. I have torn off the lower leaves and buried the stem on these up to the highest I can get them and here are pics:
Here is another one:
And yet another one:
Will post more a little later on too.
joy
Here are some:
Another one:
Another one:
Another one:
joy112854 You have me itching and skirming (sp) to get started..Tooooooooo early here 18*
Cool pics
Tubby: I live in the coldest city in Florida and am afraid I was in a hurry with these, hope not, I will now try and find some bigger pots to transplant them to and hope that will do til it warms up enough to transfer to the 7 grow bags I have and HEBuckets.
joy
Joy -- You can remove or bury the cotyledon leaves and go up to the permanent leaves. Also plant five seedlings in Bobs gro bags for now as you can seperate them later as they are tremendously resilient to transplant and then, again, plant them deeper on final transplant if possible. Patience is a virtue! Remember that as it comes in very handy when gardening....Don't rush your season as it will not cooperate
with you!
TPlant: That's a great idea, I didn't realize I could plant more than one tomato in Bob's bag; but, I could to start with them right, oops, what about the water? They are in the house remember?
joy
Those tomato's are looking good, Joy. Sorry to hear about the demise of some of them. Maybe you could use a pop sickle stick to splint the one with the broken stem.:-) If not, just stob the the top half back in some coir and it will probably grow into a huge tomato plant. Maybe the bottom half too if it has a leaf on it.
My spell checker keeps trying to tell me there ain't no such word as stob. It offered me the words sob, slob, snob, stab and stub. Gezz! the ignorance of some educated people. And now it is saying there ain't no such word as Gezz and is offering me geezer, mezzo, guzzle and Gomez. I need help here folks, how do you turn this dang thing off. I been speekin and ritin perfect English all my life and I ain't taking any more of these insults. I am about to stob my foot right through this monitor.:-(
jaywhacker: I'd plant them in Bob's grow bags now; but, where could I put them? I know, in the spare bathroom in the bathtub right? (My daughter will like that one). Then if it leaks water, no problem. Now, what about the lighting?
joy
This calls for drastic measures, Joy. Go to the dollar store and buy a clear vinyl shower curtain as shown in the attached picture. They cost either 2 bucks or 4 bucks, I cant remember which. Dont try to weasel them for a discount. I tried that and it didnt work. Them is really some cheap people at the dollar store.
Now proceed on to the next post.
jaywhacker: There is no next post, you forgot it? ???? Am I supposed to A. Put that on my carpet? B. Hang it in the shower and kick my daughter out of the guest bathroom, as I'm prepared to do that if necessary. LOL or C. TPlant came up with the idea of planting 5 of the huge seedlings in one of Bob's grow bags, which I have 7 of, and my daughter has an old tin tub, you know the type you used to see at apple bobbing events? Anyways, I could put 2 of Bob's grow bags in one of those tin tubs and put the whole thing up under one of the hanging flourescent lights that has two flourescent bulbs in them, I could fold the bags under of course and unfold and raise them as the tomatoes got bigger, and of course the hanging lights have 6 ft chains on them, so starting at the lowest level would be all the way to floor almost, which would be too low I know; but, I could raise it a link or so as the plant grew and I had to unfold the grow bag??? What do you think? Of course the shower curtain under the tub probably wouldn't hurt either. LOL
joy
Now go to your living room and spread out your vinyl shower curtain right next to the doggy bone. Pretend that the little stackapot is one of boca bobs five gallon grow bags full of coir and set it right in the center of the shower curtain. Transplant at least five, maybe more, tomato's into the grow bag. Now gently fold the shower curtain up around and over the grow bag forming a sort of tote bag and tie the top together loosely with a string, ribbon or rope, which ever is handy. You can grab the top of your vinyl shower curtain tote bag and carry that sucker anywhere you wont to. It wont leak. Forget the grow lites, they are not babies any more. Carry them outside on mild days for some air and some real lite, not that artificial stuff. Dont set them in direct sunlight. They will get plenty of light in the shade of that table on your patio. In fact, kind of starving them of light will slow their growth untill the weather breaks and you can transplant them. Give them air as necessary, maybe even cutting some slits in the top of your vinyl shower curtain tote bag. You can repair it later with clear plastic vinyl tape in case you need it next year or to build miniature greenhouse structures later on. That is what I buy them for, to cover my miniature green house's. They are much tougher than that 6 mil plastic stuff we normally have to buy in long rolls. I know this is taking drastic measures but when the going gets tough, tough people get going!
And Joy, when the neighbors start whispering and telling tales about some old woman in the neighborhood toting baby tomato's around in a vinyl shower curtain tote bag, pay them no mind.........they just don't understand the trials and tribulations we gardeners have to go thru to put tomato's on our neighbors tables.
jaywhacker: The neighbors have seen stranger behavior from me, believe me, LOL I will do that, it sounds like a great idea. Hope it works. It might be a little cold out though, should I put slits in the shower bag and set it under my table on the deck and leave it like that when it's cold?
joy
Joy........I hope you don't mind my out of control sense of humor and playing around with the idea of a shower curtain tote bag and having a little fun.
The tote bag idea will work, although I must admit I have never done anything exactly like that. But lots of other makeshift ways of protecting plants I have tried, similiar to that. Plants are pretty tough. They have been growing by themselves for a long time without very much interference from us.
Trying to get ahead of the weather cycle with early tomato's and other plants is something we all do. I am kind of fatalistic though and dont baby plants too much. If I lose them, I just lose them. Im just now about ready to start planting some tomato's though in my little miniature greenhouse structures and I dont loose many. In our climate here, it doesnt take too much protection to be successful, just cover them to protect them on the few frosty nights. If you try something similiar to the tote bag idea, its just a judgement thing as to when to leave them outside or bring them in where you are positive they will be safe.
Those vinyl shower curtains have proven useful to me but if that vinyl or any kind of plastic covering is touching the plants on a frosty night, it will "burn" or harm the plant. It may be providing some frost protection but wherever it touches the plant, it will harm that particular part of the foliage. That gausy spun cloth stuff wont do that. It can lay right on top of the plants and should protect them down to about 28 degrees. At least that has been my experience here.
jay: what is that "gausy spun cloth stuff" you are talking about? In otherwords, on days when I think it will be nice take them outside and put them under the table protected by the shower curtain plastic until it warms up?
joy
Joy -- Now I found it! Don't know anything about this sort of planting.
Joy, just take them outside on days when you think it is safe.Keep them inside when it is not safe. Something like Jerry is doing with his plants. He is sitting them up on those hey bales on days when it is not too cool or windy and at night he sits them down between the bales and covers them in case of frost.
That white gauzy stuff is called row covers. Comes in all diffenent sizes. It allows sunshine, water, and air through but on frosty nights will provide protection just a little bit below freezing. It is also used to cover young tender plants from insects. I will try to find you a reference and source that better explains it. Once you get your patio loaded with flowers that might be frost sensitive, you can buy that stuff in 12X16 square feet sheets and that would allow you to cover them in in short order.
Jay: Thanks, my daugher's friend a gardener showed up and I of course, drug him into my inhouse greenhouse (my spare room fixed up with lights), and he said they looked really good. He listened to the idea you gave me and said that was a great idea. He told me that would enable me to get to planting my greens as they needed to be started now! So; my daughter says she has an old sheet and a shower curtain I can use and I will transplant them into the 5 gallon grow bags tonight using the shower curtain on the inside with the sheet as a liner. I planted red and green cabbages and lettuce and spinach in one of the seed starter kits and put the dome on. Sat it right next to my romas, vilmas and chocolate cherries. It's 60 degrees out right now and what do you consider frosty or freezing? I don't mind taking them out in the morns and bringing them back in in the evening. My daughter's friend says they look strong enough to withstand it.
joy
Joy I sure don't know about Florida weather, but where I live most everything is safe down to 40 degrees, tomatoes included. My tender greenhouse tropicals are out sunning this week and I don't bother a whit to move them unless it will be under 40 that night.
My experience has been like Karens's. Tomato's are a little more tender to cold weather than the flowers I mostly grow. It sounds like an easy rule to follow........in the house below 40 degrees or severe wind, rain, etc, and otherwise out they go. And here is all the information you would ever wont to know...and more......about that floating row cover stuff..............http://www.google.com/search?q=row+covers&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a..........You can find this stuff in all the big box stores and nursery centers cut and prepackaged in various sizes. I bought one size 12x16 ft that is big enough to cover about 4 of my grow poles at the same time.
jaywhacker: Here is what is on the deck for my babies to go under:
This view is better:
Here is what I can put some toms in:
And notice the gray in the corner there? That's for hurricane winds after planting in my EBs. LOL
joy
Got a roll of plastic too, and a white sheet, (who uses white sheets on their beds these days right? LOL) And an old fashioned apple bobbin bucket. Those will come in real handy lined with trash bags and filled with Bob's 5 gallon grow bags.
I have to go outta town though next week, so the plants will have to suffer another week up under the lights til I get back, then I'm kicking them to the curb. LOL
joy
Joy dear, your deck is just gorgeous. You are well on your way to having the most beautiful deck and garden in Crestview ☺
darkmoondreamer: Thanks, I love my deck. As luck would have it, the romas, chocolate cherries and vilma tomatoes went under the lights this morning. And...... when my terminex guy came out yesterday to spray for bugs in the yard, he told me he'd have someone call me that wouldn't mess me over on the electric outlet in the backyard and the guy called, he'll be coming out Sunday to fix it for me. TaDa. Now I can use the portable dreamhouse greenhouse, it's 6 x 6x 8 so that is a fairly good size and I have the heated lights for in there if necessary. Things are working out so good. That big table will be back in the back yard where I intend on putting Bobs' grow bags this Spring, will make it easy to take care of and 7 should fit on there no problem, it will put the bags up waist high and much easier to fertilize and water. I had a huge daffodil big yellow one bloom today and a bitty one. Spring is in the air!!!!!
joy
Love all you so much, just can't afford to send you all flowers, wait a minute, yes I can, for you gals:
And for you guys:
That deck looks great, Joy, and oh so handy. You are turning it into a real play house.
