The Sprout 2018
- Thread starter DoctorShavegood
- Start date
shavefan
I’m not a fan
Picked a couple dozen more Serrano’s this evening...
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
- Thread starter
- #423
BT those look perfect. I think the serrano's have better flavor over the it's bigger brother the jalapeno.
- Thread starter
- #424
Ok, here goes round two. They should be ready to go in the ground August 20th to about September 1st. More than likely I'll need my shade cloth for a few weeks. They will all go in grow bags. 6 tomatoes in 15 gallon bags and 5 tomatoes in 7 gallon bags. I'm curious to see how a larger bag compared to a smaller bag will affect the size of the plant and their production. If they are close or no real difference I'll keep to the smaller bags come Spring...no use in buying more potting mix than needed right?
Tomato List:
Boronia Dwarf
Sweet Scarlet Dwarf
Rosella Purple Dwarf
Amish Paste
Russian Red
Hawaiian Yellow Cherry
Carbon Copy Cherry
Sungold F1 Cherry
Cherry Brownie's
Sweet 100 F1 Cherry
JD Special C-Tex (Conroe, Texas)
Tomato List:
Boronia Dwarf
Sweet Scarlet Dwarf
Rosella Purple Dwarf
Amish Paste
Russian Red
Hawaiian Yellow Cherry
Carbon Copy Cherry
Sungold F1 Cherry
Cherry Brownie's
Sweet 100 F1 Cherry
JD Special C-Tex (Conroe, Texas)
Nice pepper haul BT, there's always something that excels in any given year.
Aaron are you planting any one variety in both sizes of bags so you have a direct comparison? Maybe one of the cherry hybrids as those plants are more likely less variable plant to plant under the same growing conditions.
Curious as to how many seeds you plant, i usually pop in two seeds per cell. I was able to divide as many of the sprouted seeds as i wanted and plant them up into bigger pots.
dave
Aaron are you planting any one variety in both sizes of bags so you have a direct comparison? Maybe one of the cherry hybrids as those plants are more likely less variable plant to plant under the same growing conditions.
Curious as to how many seeds you plant, i usually pop in two seeds per cell. I was able to divide as many of the sprouted seeds as i wanted and plant them up into bigger pots.
dave
shavefan
I’m not a fan
Thanks guys. Looking forward to your 2nd round Aaron!
So I thought I'd do sort of a 'mid year' recap of my garden...
We've had some pretty tough weather here in Dallas, first with near freezing overnight temps back in April then a few weeks later daytime temps in the 100's. Crazy. We've had pretty hot weather all summer with this weekend hovering near 110°.
Overall I'm pretty happy, although the tomato production was lack luster and from an input perspective, not really worth it. But one can't quantify the learning experience and satisfaction from gardening in general.
The Peppers (Serrano and Ghost) were a surprise with both plants getting absolutely huge. The Serrano is now nearly 6ft tall and more of a small tree, the Ghost is more bushy but about 42" across and is invading a good part of my raised bed, even with pruning about a third out of both. 24"-36" my foot! (thats what the little markers that came with both indicated as max height/width). Production on the Serrano has been impressive but the Ghost has only flowers at this point, save for one pepper so far.
Early in the year I had a leafhopper and whitefly infestation and later my mint patch got hit with mealy bugs. I was really happy with the way neem oil/soap spray knocked both pests down in pretty short order. Other than that, I haven't had any other pest issues.
I haven't had any disease issues either aside from one Tomato plant getting late blight. It does look like I may be losing the blight battle on the other two however, but the truth is I've gotten a bit lazy with the copper spray the last couple of weeks.
Overall my garden seems healthy and relatively happy (the heat) so we'll see how the rest of the year goes. I'm hoping that once cooler weather sets in the plants will start producing much more fruit. Hopefully I can keep my remaining tomatoes going to see that point.
I'm ordering some grow bags this week and plan on setting a couple more tomato plants out in mid Aug. I'm getting 10ga bags for the tomatoes, and maybe some 5ga for plants like basil, etc... Also, I learned that 'trade gallons' used in nursery lingo is not the same as regular gallons. For instance, a 5ga nursery pot equates to about 3.5 'regular/normal' gallons. Learn something new all the time!
Cheers!
So I thought I'd do sort of a 'mid year' recap of my garden...
We've had some pretty tough weather here in Dallas, first with near freezing overnight temps back in April then a few weeks later daytime temps in the 100's. Crazy. We've had pretty hot weather all summer with this weekend hovering near 110°.
Overall I'm pretty happy, although the tomato production was lack luster and from an input perspective, not really worth it. But one can't quantify the learning experience and satisfaction from gardening in general.
The Peppers (Serrano and Ghost) were a surprise with both plants getting absolutely huge. The Serrano is now nearly 6ft tall and more of a small tree, the Ghost is more bushy but about 42" across and is invading a good part of my raised bed, even with pruning about a third out of both. 24"-36" my foot! (thats what the little markers that came with both indicated as max height/width). Production on the Serrano has been impressive but the Ghost has only flowers at this point, save for one pepper so far.
Early in the year I had a leafhopper and whitefly infestation and later my mint patch got hit with mealy bugs. I was really happy with the way neem oil/soap spray knocked both pests down in pretty short order. Other than that, I haven't had any other pest issues.
I haven't had any disease issues either aside from one Tomato plant getting late blight. It does look like I may be losing the blight battle on the other two however, but the truth is I've gotten a bit lazy with the copper spray the last couple of weeks.
Overall my garden seems healthy and relatively happy (the heat) so we'll see how the rest of the year goes. I'm hoping that once cooler weather sets in the plants will start producing much more fruit. Hopefully I can keep my remaining tomatoes going to see that point.
I'm ordering some grow bags this week and plan on setting a couple more tomato plants out in mid Aug. I'm getting 10ga bags for the tomatoes, and maybe some 5ga for plants like basil, etc... Also, I learned that 'trade gallons' used in nursery lingo is not the same as regular gallons. For instance, a 5ga nursery pot equates to about 3.5 'regular/normal' gallons. Learn something new all the time!
Cheers!
- Thread starter
- #427
@davent
I'm only growing one plant from each variety, but each square container has 3 seeds. As they grow I'll see who comes out on top to be transplanted. I do have two hybrids that I could split between the two sized bags for a comparison as well as maybe the dwarfs.
I'm only growing one plant from each variety, but each square container has 3 seeds. As they grow I'll see who comes out on top to be transplanted. I do have two hybrids that I could split between the two sized bags for a comparison as well as maybe the dwarfs.
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- Thread starter
- #428
@shavefan
BT, you've come a long way this year. It's been nice to have another member posting regularly with pictures so we can see how you're doing.
I think you'll like those grow bags, hopefully you can find them in white.
BT, you've come a long way this year. It's been nice to have another member posting regularly with pictures so we can see how you're doing.
I think you'll like those grow bags, hopefully you can find them in white.
I need a bit of advice. I've never had tomatoes grow as high as they are already this year. I'm 6' and the tops are at eye level. I've never done support from above but use spiral metal supports which, after pressing them down into the ground for support are probably 5' and a few inches. Flowers on at about 5'5". Do I trim the tops off to stop them going up further?
shavefan
I’m not a fan
Yep. You can cut off the growing tip if you want. I've done it, no problem. Nice to have plants that healthy and growing!
- Thread starter
- #431
Yep, topping the tomatoes is perfectly fine. I'll pinch off the flowers on the main stem and leave the leaves.
I'm going to disagree. I think if you top off the plants you eliminate the chance for new flowers to form, so what you've got is what you're going to get. If you have suckers growing from lower in the plant chances are they'll flower but if you've been eliminating suckers and you're going with one stem, stop it from growing longer and you're done. In the fall people top off plants to stop new growth and allow plant energy go into the fruit that have set. Basing this on growing indeterminate tomatoes.
Google 'topping indeterminate tomato plants'
How close are your various spirals, can you run horizontals between them so the plants can grow supported on a horizontal support.. Can you gently arc a plant over to a neighbouring spiral and train it down that spiral so it grows on?
dave
Google 'topping indeterminate tomato plants'
How close are your various spirals, can you run horizontals between them so the plants can grow supported on a horizontal support.. Can you gently arc a plant over to a neighbouring spiral and train it down that spiral so it grows on?
dave
Aaron / Shavefan / Dave I hear you. If I can figure out support I can let them keep growing . . . If I cannot . . . I can safely pinch off the tops and make due with the fruit that has set. Just now at the height they have already reached things are precarious. Time for this bean counter to do some uncivil engine-nerd-ing. I've got some extendable poles I used to use to cover campsites in the rain. . . lots of paracord. Steel fence posts and some 2 x 4s.
Suppose to be a 90 day variety but this one just couldn't wait. One of the potted, smallish terra cotta pot at that, Dwarf tomatoes, 'Scarlet Heart'. Tipped the scale at 394g/just shy of 14 oz., sweet, mild flavour, burger sized for our first burger venture of the year.
dave
dave
- Thread starter
- #435
SuperDave.
Thanks BT, it did finally start to rain late last night and drizzle on a good part of the day. Weather has been reasonably cooperative so far this summer...
Last couple weeks been pulling garlic bulbs to see if it was time, today was the day. Last year i blew it and waite too long, still didn't need to buy any for cooking but by the time i started pulling this years, i composted the last of 2017's.
Planted around sixty cloves in November, looking good.
Good article here on the garlic process for the northeast at least.
https://www.finegardening.com/article/garlic-begets-garlic#
dave
Last couple weeks been pulling garlic bulbs to see if it was time, today was the day. Last year i blew it and waite too long, still didn't need to buy any for cooking but by the time i started pulling this years, i composted the last of 2017's.
Planted around sixty cloves in November, looking good.
Good article here on the garlic process for the northeast at least.
https://www.finegardening.com/article/garlic-begets-garlic#
dave
Nice, Dave.
The wife asked me to see if I could find some mint. Just a little bit there but enough.
She's making lamb koftas........but with beef. Who am I to say argue.
To my surprise there was a thing just growing itself in the garden.
The wife asked me to see if I could find some mint. Just a little bit there but enough.
She's making lamb koftas........but with beef. Who am I to say argue.
To my surprise there was a thing just growing itself in the garden.
Received a seed catalogue in the post today and a free packet of seeds.
A nice reminder that it's time to start planning what we should plant for the up and coming season.
A nice reminder that it's time to start planning what we should plant for the up and coming season.
Gardening jobs for 12 months of the year!
New issue to deal with today that's never occurred on me before. On two Amish plants so far and looks to be potentially more, branches of set and ripening tomatoes have broken almost completely free of the main stem heavy weight fruit set. Going around setting up support for other big sets, need to get more of the tomato clips.
A couple more of the Dwarf project varieties offered up ripe fruit today, Rosella Purple, that ones very tasty and the Sweet Scarlet Dwarf which hasn't been sampled yet. The Sweet Sarlet was listed as a 90 day but again we are weeks ahead which is just fine.
dave
New issue to deal with today that's never occurred on me before. On two Amish plants so far and looks to be potentially more, branches of set and ripening tomatoes have broken almost completely free of the main stem heavy weight fruit set. Going around setting up support for other big sets, need to get more of the tomato clips.
A couple more of the Dwarf project varieties offered up ripe fruit today, Rosella Purple, that ones very tasty and the Sweet Scarlet Dwarf which hasn't been sampled yet. The Sweet Sarlet was listed as a 90 day but again we are weeks ahead which is just fine.
dave
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