What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[turbo]

I need for this rain to go away. Have to get the carrots out of the garden and into cold storage, spread and till manure, and get my garlic-beds planted.

My neighbor has stopped giving away garlic, and I'm going to follow suit. I have given garlic away to at least a half-dozen people each year in the last couple of years - in quantities sufficient to get them self-sufficient after their first season. It's a lot of work, though, and I'm going to plant much less this year. Al's garlic is already planted and mulched, and apart from what he's keeping aside for personal use until the next harvest, he's offering his largest, best seed garlic (either Russian Red or German White) for $5/lb. I have been putting out the word. Fedco Bulbs sells their seed garlic for about 4 times that price. Our garlic is very nice and it is so productive that I have not had a single clove fail to sprout and form a bulb. I got a couple of stunted ones last year because I was planting in the cold, and in a hurry and accidentally planted a few cloves upside-down.

 

[dlgoff]

Did you leave some blooms alone and shake the plant?

I'm going to make a shaker and do as you say. Thanks Evo.

Evo, You're the woman (with green arms). I made a shaker with an old tooth polisher that simulates the buzzing of bee wings. IT WORKED. I see my first little green tomato.

 

[Astronuc]

End of the season. Four nights of freezing weather terminated my pepper plants.

I collected a bunch of jalapeños and habaneros - mostly green though.

 

[turbo]

End of the season. Four nights of freezing weather terminated my pepper plants.

I collected a bunch of jalapeños and habaneros - mostly green though.

Nice haul, though - even green, they are tasty. Today, I pulled up all the rest of my carrots, and separated the garlic into cloves for planting. Still too wet to till the garden, but hopefully stuff will dry out in another day or two.

 

[turbo]

I am still using up a lot of time helping my neighbors put a large addition (significant expansion, actually) on their house, so there are a lot of things that I need to do pretty soon. Till the garden, top-dress with manure, hill up the garlic beds and plant and mulch those, prune all the fruit trees, get the detached garage cleaned out so that when I take the tiller off the Kubota, the tractor will fit in there. There's lots more. I thought that if I was retired, I would have plenty of time for everything. Not so. When you have extra time, do-able tasks seem to expand to fill it.

 

[lisab]

Eeew eeeew eeeeeeeew...

I was doing some fall garden chores when I found a bucket that I had forgotten about. It had a bunch of weeds in it, and since it had been there a while it was to the brim with water. Rotting and putrid vegetation...anaerobic, no less! There was no getting upwind of it! Eeeeew !

 

[turbo]

Tilled to flatten the rows, spread about 20 years of manure, then tilled.Edit: That's 20 yards. It won't be sufficient for 20 "years"

 

[Proton Soup]

that's a lot of poop, turbo

Proton, what you *did* get look very nice!

Do you have a good bee population? Squash really need a lot of bees.

we have them, although I'm not sure it is a lot of bees. but yes, bumblebees, honeybees, bumblebee moths, those little "sweat" bees, carpenter bees... it's a bug paradise, i think

 

[turbo]

that's a lot of poop, turbo

Sure is! I'm so happy that I bought my tractor and 3-pt hitch tiller. The first 4 years or so, I was beating the crap out of myself, spreading peat, manure, etc and tilling it with an old Troy-Bilt and hand hoeing every raised row. I'm thinking of buying a disk hiller attachment for my tractor, too, so I can make raised rows quickly, instead of taking days and days.

 

[turbo]

Glad I got the dressing and tilling all done Sunday. Monday was a washout, with perhaps 3" of rain, and we've had steady showers all day today. I ordered a Leinbach bedding attachment for my tractor today, and should have it in a week or 10 days. The garlic cloves are all split and ready to plant, to the bedder will make that a quick job.

 

[turbo]

Got my bedding attachment yesterday, and today I assembled it and mounted on the tractor. Basically, it is a 3-point frame of square steel tube-stock with fixtures to hold two harrow disks. I set the disks so that they gather soil from just inboard of my rear tires and channel it to the center as I creep along with the tractor. It took me maybe 5 minutes to make three nice raised beds. I planted one bed of German white garlic and one bed of Russian red garlic, and mulched them with a couple of bales of oat straw. the third bed is unused - I estimated very closely and had very few cloves left over - enough for my wife to roast them and make a batch of garlic butter tomorrow.

 

[Evo]

Based on dlgoff's story about bringing his tomato in for the winter, I decided to do the same a few weeks ago.

Here it is tonight, setting tomatoes like crazy. I'm using the vibrator technique to pollinate, it works great.

[PLAIN]http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/1281/018wpd.jpg

 

[lisab]

Based on dlgoff's story about bringing his tomato in for the winter, I decided to do the same a few weeks ago.

Here it is tonight, setting tomatoes like crazy. I'm using the vibrator technique to pollinate, it works great.

Whoa...

 

[Evo]

Whoa...

 

[dlgoff]

Based on dlgoff's story about bringing his tomato in for the winter, I decided to do the same a few weeks ago.

Here it is tonight, setting tomatoes like crazy. I'm using the vibrator technique to pollinate, it works great.

Very nice. Mine can't get enough sun and heat, I think. It's not making nice large buds now so I only got two tomatoes. But they are getting really big.

 

[rhody]

Very nice. Mine can't get enough sun and heat, I think. It's not making nice large buds now so I only got two tomatoes. But they are getting really big.

dlgoff,

Heat is an issue with me as well, I am wondering if a heat mat under the plants would help a bit, the home greenhouse thing is a bust, too many bugs, etc... My hot pepper plants are leggy but hanging in there. I would love a greenhouse. As of right now that is not possible.

Rhody...

 

[OmCheeto]

Based on dlgoff's story about bringing his tomato in for the winter, I decided to do the same a few weeks ago.

Here it is tonight, setting tomatoes like crazy. I'm using the vibrator technique to pollinate, it works great.

I also brought in 12 of my 100 Thai plants about a month ago, as not a single plant had produced a single ripe pepper. But they are back where they were in April.

They all survived the transplant from garden to pots, and each is setting their fruit nicely.

Fortunately, none are still blossoming, so I don't see the necessity in running out and buying a vibrator.

 

[Evo]

I also brought in 12 of my 100 Thai plants about a month ago, as not a single plant had produced a single ripe pepper. But they are back where they were in April.

They all survived the transplant from garden to pots, and each is setting their fruit nicely.

That's great!

Fortunately, none are still blossoming, so I don't see the necessity in running out and buying a vibrator.

Maybe just lay a few magazines out, give them some incentive.

 

[OmCheeto]

That's great!

Maybe just lay a few magazines out, give them some incentive.

Hmmm... I'm not sure plants subscribe to Freud's "Pleasure Principle".

I'm sure they are much more Darwinistic/Catholic in this area.

 

[dlgoff]

When I was tilling my garden for next year, I noticed this volunteer tomato plant growing in my mulch pile. It actually looked better than the plants I planted this spring that didn't do to well.

We had one little frost and it survived, so I dug it up, potted it, brought in inside and put it in my bedroom that has lots of southern windows.

It's doing so good that I had to cage it. It blooming too.

Yea. Tomatoes this winter I hope.

It's not winter yet but close enough.

I just finished a bacon and tomato sandwich from my baby. The tomato was big enough for one sandwich and a couple extra slices.

I was surprised how well it ripened indoors. It was firm but still juicy with a really thin skin. It had a "strong tomato" taste; sort of wild I guess.

 

[turbo]

It's not winter yet but close enough.

I just finished a bacon and tomato sandwich from my baby. The tomato was big enough for one sandwich and a couple extra slices.

I was surprised how well it ripened indoors. It was firm but still juicy with a really thin skin. It had a "strong tomato" taste; sort of wild I guess.

Jealous. It's very cold and dark here. We probably topped out at 20 deg.

 

[Evo]

It's not winter yet but close enough.

I just finished a bacon and tomato sandwich from my baby. The tomato was big enough for one sandwich and a couple extra slices.

I was surprised how well it ripened indoors. It was firm but still juicy with a really thin skin. It had a "strong tomato" taste; sort of wild I guess.

oooh, I am amazed that my indoor tomato is putting out blooms and setting fruit like it was spring. I'm not even supplementing the light, which I should probably do.

 

[dlgoff]

oooh, I am amazed that my indoor tomato is putting out blooms and setting fruit like it was spring. I'm not even supplementing the light, which I should probably do.

Does your plant drink water like crazy? I have to give mine about 1/2 gallon per day.

My plant is too tall to get outside sunlight where the blooms (well, buds) are. The plant light doesn't really help. If it were 5 kwatt maybe it would.

 

[Evo]

Does your plant drink water like crazy? I have to give mine about 1/2 gallon per day.

My plant is too tall to get outside sunlight where the blooms (well, buds) are. The plant light doesn't really help. If it were 5 kwatt maybe it would.

Can you prune it?

I had a tomato plant that wasn't producing until it fell and broke in half. Then it went crazy!

 

[dlgoff]

Can you prune it?

I had a tomato plant that wasn't producing until it fell and broke in half. Then it went crazy!

I'll give it a try.

 

[Proton Soup]

Does your plant drink water like crazy? I have to give mine about 1/2 gallon per day.

My plant is too tall to get outside sunlight where the blooms (well, buds) are. The plant light doesn't really help. If it were 5 kwatt maybe it would.

outside they certainly drink like crazy. i tried some upside-down bucket tomatoes this year, and never will again because it's just too much work to give them each a gallon of water every day, and even then they wilt between waterings.

but yeah, light, water, heat, fertilizer, they like all these things.

 

[Zryn]

Passion fruit, Parsley, Basil, Chives, Coriander, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Zucchini, Potatoes, Corn, Orange, Mango, Strawberry. Can't quite see the Sage, Kumara or Lychee (unless you have very good eyes and knowledge)

The recent 95F+ weather has seen everything grow like crazy.

 

[Astronuc]

Passion fruit, Parsley, Basil, Chives, Coriander, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Zucchini, Potatoes, Corn, Orange, Mango, Strawberry. Can't quite see the Sage, Kumara or Lychee (unless you have very good eyes and knowledge)

The recent 95F+ weather has seen everything grow like crazy.

You must be near the equator or in the S. Hemisphere.

 

[Evo]

Passion fruit, Parsley, Basil, Chives, Coriander, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Zucchini, Potatoes, Corn, Orange, Mango, Strawberry. Can't quite see the Sage, Kumara or Lychee (unless you have very good eyes and knowledge)

The recent 95F+ weather has seen everything grow like crazy.

Nice garden!

 

[Evo]

My tomato plant now has more blooms and set fruit than it's had all summer! The new stems are a but leggy though, perhaps I should put a light in there for it.