Blessings Darlings!
I've been looking at my tomato planting options today. I'm not 100% happy with the variety of seeds I bought. Unless otherwise noted, all these tomatoes are open pollinated, tho' not all are considered 'heritage'.
I bought Beef Steak tomatoes - a GREAT large fresh-eating tomato. I will happily use them for that. But they aren't a great variety for canning and drying, as the seeds/goo are spread thru' the tomato and not in a few large, easy-to-emply cavities.
The selection of cheap seeds also had Mortgage Lifter tomatoes. I don't want those - they are way too large to can easily, and are low acid tomatoes so they can't be water-bath canned unless you add vinegar. These were developed in southern West Virginia, which has a pretty significantly different climate/growing season than we do here in northern West Virginia.
Often I grow Roma tomatoes, also known as Italian tomatoes. They are great for canning, drying, and sauces, with thick flesh and easy to remove seeds/goo. They are also a determinant variety, unlike the previously listed tomatoes, which means that all the fruit on the plant ripens at about the same time, rather than continuously producing over the season - this is one of the things that makes them great for canning. OTOH, their flesh is grainy and their taste peaks when cooked, so they aren't great for fresh use. These were developed close to where I used to live - at the Agricultural Research Station in Beltsville, Maryland (same place they developed modern big-breasted turkeys!).
Rutgers is another of my go-to tomatoes. Developed at, yes, Rutgers University in New Jersey, they were one of the first Wide Spread Industrial Farming tomatoes. Meaty without being grainy, thick-skinned for their time (thin skinned for our time!) for less problems when shipping, good flavor, easy to can, nice size for canning at about 8 ounces each, and determinant.
Juliet tomatoes are a variety I'm fond of - but, alas, are a hybid. They are a large grape tomato - I'd call them between grape tomatoes and Roma tomatoes in shape and features. Nice flavor. Great for drying.
Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes - what a great taste! But how easily they split! And another hybrid.
What I'm going to do is use the Beefsteaks, and also see if I can get my existing (but old) Rutgers seeds to sprout. If not, I'll see if I can get more of them or some Roma seeds, even if I have to pay Burpee prices for one packet.
What are your tomato considerations, and favorite types to grow?
Frondly, Fern
Showing posts with label vegetable gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetable gardening. Show all posts
Friday, March 1, 2013
Friday, April 6, 2012
Manure Mondays
Blessings Darlings!
I know what mot of you thought when you saw the title of this post - aren't ALL Mondays "Manure"? But I'm talking literally here, not metaphorically.
I have a manure date next Monday! With the beautiful Suz (and by extension with her beautiful and bountiful manure producing ponies). We'll fill another 9 or 10 buckets with well-aged manure for my garden. There the wonderful if weedy manure will be layered with straw and I'll plant my veggies in it.
Manure makes me happy happy. I'm special that way. The manure makes my veggies even happier than I am. One year I got all the beans we could eat PLUS 8 pounds to freeze from 36 square feet of garden, all due to the combination of horse manure and a Beltane ritual that involved Epona.
Just remember - horse manure is "hot" compared to ruminant manure in that using it without it being aged will damage plants from too much nitrogen too quickly. It is also comparatively very weedy since horse digestion doesn't deal with the seeds they eat the same way ruminant digestion does.
Remember - the buckets are all 3.5 gallon to 5 gallon ones, mostly with lids, that I got for FREE. All food grade, too, not that it matters for manure (when I use them for storing wheat/other food stuff that matters). I get them by checking at the bakery departments of any grocery store I go to, especially when I get to the 'big city' to go to the bank or Costco. They are in hot demand where I am now since this is rural rather than the suburban area I used to live in. Folks here keep farm animals, and buckets and farm animals go hand in hoof/paw. Carrying food, carrying water, collecting waste, collecting eggs, milking - you name it and a bucket is involved in it. You cannot have too many buckets.
Suz and I used to 'package' the manure in big black trash bags. But they tear, are awkward to fill, etc. Buckets are better. OTOH, using the now-rare buckets I can get for manure rather than food storage would be a problem for food storage. I guess it's a good thing I can't afford to store any more food right now, eh?
So I'm having a happy Friday, anticipating Manure Monday!
Frondly, Fern
I know what mot of you thought when you saw the title of this post - aren't ALL Mondays "Manure"? But I'm talking literally here, not metaphorically.
I have a manure date next Monday! With the beautiful Suz (and by extension with her beautiful and bountiful manure producing ponies). We'll fill another 9 or 10 buckets with well-aged manure for my garden. There the wonderful if weedy manure will be layered with straw and I'll plant my veggies in it.
Manure makes me happy happy. I'm special that way. The manure makes my veggies even happier than I am. One year I got all the beans we could eat PLUS 8 pounds to freeze from 36 square feet of garden, all due to the combination of horse manure and a Beltane ritual that involved Epona.
Just remember - horse manure is "hot" compared to ruminant manure in that using it without it being aged will damage plants from too much nitrogen too quickly. It is also comparatively very weedy since horse digestion doesn't deal with the seeds they eat the same way ruminant digestion does.
Remember - the buckets are all 3.5 gallon to 5 gallon ones, mostly with lids, that I got for FREE. All food grade, too, not that it matters for manure (when I use them for storing wheat/other food stuff that matters). I get them by checking at the bakery departments of any grocery store I go to, especially when I get to the 'big city' to go to the bank or Costco. They are in hot demand where I am now since this is rural rather than the suburban area I used to live in. Folks here keep farm animals, and buckets and farm animals go hand in hoof/paw. Carrying food, carrying water, collecting waste, collecting eggs, milking - you name it and a bucket is involved in it. You cannot have too many buckets.
Suz and I used to 'package' the manure in big black trash bags. But they tear, are awkward to fill, etc. Buckets are better. OTOH, using the now-rare buckets I can get for manure rather than food storage would be a problem for food storage. I guess it's a good thing I can't afford to store any more food right now, eh?
So I'm having a happy Friday, anticipating Manure Monday!
Frondly, Fern
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Planting Taters
Blessings Darlings!
I have a LONG list of things to blog about, but have been too busy to blog. But since I threw out my back yesterday just getting READY to plant potatoes .... I'm taking a few minutes to write a bit while the pain killers kick in today.
I didn't muck up my back this time as badly as I did last year. This year I was just carrying too much weight in manure to the garden and my back said no. So I stopped. But did get back to it today, carrying lighter loads.
PLUS I changed how I was going to plant the potatoes. No hills this year. No working with the clay soil with them at all. Nor am I doing anything like 'official' raised beds. No, this year I'm using garbage bags.
I still have some big black 45 gallon trash bags that we used when moving - for transporting clothes that were in closets on hangers (bunch about 10 - 15 items on hangers together in closet. Take a big garbage bag, bag the clothes from the bottom to the top-by-the-hanger. Tape bag shut around narrow part of hanger). They were kind of beaten up by the move, had tape on 'em, some have holes.
So I took them to the garden. Put in a layer of straw 4 - 6 inches deep. Dumped a 3.5 - 4 gallon bucket of well-aged horse manure on top of that. Add two seed potatoes, there will be plenty of room for two plants. Top with 4 inches of loose straw - more will be added when the vines start. I had enough manure to get 6 bags, 12 plants, started.
Lazy? Yes. More manure than they needed? Probably. Will the bags last the season? Yes, I think so. Will they last more than one summer? Heck no. Could I get something done without making my back worse? YES! And that was REALLY important today. Almost magical. Totally Kitchen Witchy.
Potatoes are a planting priority for me this year, since I'm planting both calories and nutrition. A bushel of lettuce is great to eat, but in hard times it won't keep you alive as long as a bushel of potatoes. It's just part of my survival / prepper / preparedness approach.
Frondly, Fern
I have a LONG list of things to blog about, but have been too busy to blog. But since I threw out my back yesterday just getting READY to plant potatoes .... I'm taking a few minutes to write a bit while the pain killers kick in today.
I didn't muck up my back this time as badly as I did last year. This year I was just carrying too much weight in manure to the garden and my back said no. So I stopped. But did get back to it today, carrying lighter loads.
PLUS I changed how I was going to plant the potatoes. No hills this year. No working with the clay soil with them at all. Nor am I doing anything like 'official' raised beds. No, this year I'm using garbage bags.
I still have some big black 45 gallon trash bags that we used when moving - for transporting clothes that were in closets on hangers (bunch about 10 - 15 items on hangers together in closet. Take a big garbage bag, bag the clothes from the bottom to the top-by-the-hanger. Tape bag shut around narrow part of hanger). They were kind of beaten up by the move, had tape on 'em, some have holes.
So I took them to the garden. Put in a layer of straw 4 - 6 inches deep. Dumped a 3.5 - 4 gallon bucket of well-aged horse manure on top of that. Add two seed potatoes, there will be plenty of room for two plants. Top with 4 inches of loose straw - more will be added when the vines start. I had enough manure to get 6 bags, 12 plants, started.
Lazy? Yes. More manure than they needed? Probably. Will the bags last the season? Yes, I think so. Will they last more than one summer? Heck no. Could I get something done without making my back worse? YES! And that was REALLY important today. Almost magical. Totally Kitchen Witchy.
Potatoes are a planting priority for me this year, since I'm planting both calories and nutrition. A bushel of lettuce is great to eat, but in hard times it won't keep you alive as long as a bushel of potatoes. It's just part of my survival / prepper / preparedness approach.
Frondly, Fern
Friday, February 24, 2012
Squash Plant Pests
Blessings Darlings!
Lately lots of folks have been blogging about their plans for their upcoming gardens, and sighing about he bug-based problems they encountered last year. I know that my neighbors and I had LOTS of problems with our squash from bugs, both from them simply sucking the life out of the leaves and from them turning the vines to mush.
Now, unlike my neighbors, I DID get a really good crop before the bugs toasted the squash plants. But my squash season ended earlier than it had to. I don't want a repeat of that.
This year I plan on dealing with the insect problems better than I did last year. Which is why I've been researching the problems and solutions NOW.
VINES TURNED TO MUSH
The biggest problem, which killed the plants totally, was that the vine turned mushy not far from the roots. So mushy that the vine literally detached from the roots!
Cause:
I knew that this was a result of squash vine borers in the stem mucking about first, and now know that the mucking about allowed the vine to get infected and turn to goo.
This year's approach:
First, I'm going to plant the vines farther apart - I had them too close last year so I had a hard time finding and treating ANY problems, as well as a hard time harvesting!
The vine borers like the first foot or so of the vine, I will check it often for signs of rot. If there IS rot I'm going to cut into the vine and squish the borers, then work on re-rooting the vine farther along it's length. Like about a foot farther down it's length. To do this I'll anoint the vine with rooting hormone and mound earth over that part of the vine, topped with some compost or plastic to help keep it moist. Once new roots form I'll cut off the vine on the 'old root' side of the new roots, to try to keep the rot away.
University of Illinois - where I was an agriculture major - says that the ONLY pesticide that squash borers are not immune to is carbaryl (I have NO clue what that is), and to try applying it once a week. I'm not trying that myself.
SUCKING BUGS ATTACKING LEAVES
We had a really nasty infestation of these, but while they reduced harvest they didn't kill the entire plant.
Cause:
We had two different insects at work here in the Mid Atlantic: regular old squash bugs as well as stink bugs. They act the same, they are treated the same, they even look pretty much the same - both 'shield bugs' type. They have different colored eggs, but they are the same size, both lay 'em under leaves, and both lay them in the same pattern.
This year's approach:
First, since I've already determined to have the plants farther apart, I'll be able to check the leaves for egg masses better. Once found, I'll squish those egg masses! I may put boards down for the bugs to gather under and squish them there, too. Yes, both types of insects CAN smell bad when squished.
I might also try diatomaceous earth on these buggers and see if that helps. Pyrethrins are my back-up plan, if needed.
BACTERIAL WILT
This wilt can kill a plant in 6 weeks, sometimes even before it fruits at all. It's not a problem I've had ... yet. But I'm preparing.
Cause:
A bacteria - but it's carried/spread by cucumber beetles. Smalllish, striped beetles. If you don't have the beetles you won't have the problem.
This year's approach:
Keeping alert for the beetles will be the first thing. If I see them I'll probably do the diatomaceous earth, or if needed go for rotenone.
These are the main threats to your garden's squash supply. With out them, two hills of zucchini will feed a small army. With them, you may not get any zucs, let alone any more nutritious hard squashes.
Frondly, Fern.
Lately lots of folks have been blogging about their plans for their upcoming gardens, and sighing about he bug-based problems they encountered last year. I know that my neighbors and I had LOTS of problems with our squash from bugs, both from them simply sucking the life out of the leaves and from them turning the vines to mush.
Now, unlike my neighbors, I DID get a really good crop before the bugs toasted the squash plants. But my squash season ended earlier than it had to. I don't want a repeat of that.
This year I plan on dealing with the insect problems better than I did last year. Which is why I've been researching the problems and solutions NOW.
VINES TURNED TO MUSH
The biggest problem, which killed the plants totally, was that the vine turned mushy not far from the roots. So mushy that the vine literally detached from the roots!
Cause:
I knew that this was a result of squash vine borers in the stem mucking about first, and now know that the mucking about allowed the vine to get infected and turn to goo.
This year's approach:
First, I'm going to plant the vines farther apart - I had them too close last year so I had a hard time finding and treating ANY problems, as well as a hard time harvesting!
The vine borers like the first foot or so of the vine, I will check it often for signs of rot. If there IS rot I'm going to cut into the vine and squish the borers, then work on re-rooting the vine farther along it's length. Like about a foot farther down it's length. To do this I'll anoint the vine with rooting hormone and mound earth over that part of the vine, topped with some compost or plastic to help keep it moist. Once new roots form I'll cut off the vine on the 'old root' side of the new roots, to try to keep the rot away.
University of Illinois - where I was an agriculture major - says that the ONLY pesticide that squash borers are not immune to is carbaryl (I have NO clue what that is), and to try applying it once a week. I'm not trying that myself.
SUCKING BUGS ATTACKING LEAVES
We had a really nasty infestation of these, but while they reduced harvest they didn't kill the entire plant.
Cause:
We had two different insects at work here in the Mid Atlantic: regular old squash bugs as well as stink bugs. They act the same, they are treated the same, they even look pretty much the same - both 'shield bugs' type. They have different colored eggs, but they are the same size, both lay 'em under leaves, and both lay them in the same pattern.
This year's approach:
First, since I've already determined to have the plants farther apart, I'll be able to check the leaves for egg masses better. Once found, I'll squish those egg masses! I may put boards down for the bugs to gather under and squish them there, too. Yes, both types of insects CAN smell bad when squished.
I might also try diatomaceous earth on these buggers and see if that helps. Pyrethrins are my back-up plan, if needed.
BACTERIAL WILT
This wilt can kill a plant in 6 weeks, sometimes even before it fruits at all. It's not a problem I've had ... yet. But I'm preparing.
Cause:
A bacteria - but it's carried/spread by cucumber beetles. Smalllish, striped beetles. If you don't have the beetles you won't have the problem.
This year's approach:
Keeping alert for the beetles will be the first thing. If I see them I'll probably do the diatomaceous earth, or if needed go for rotenone.
These are the main threats to your garden's squash supply. With out them, two hills of zucchini will feed a small army. With them, you may not get any zucs, let alone any more nutritious hard squashes.
Frondly, Fern.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Garden Time!
Blessings Darlings!
Now that it's February it's time to start your garden.
Yes really.
Time to map out what you want to plant, and where, in your garden. And in what order: if you plan on planting some spreading vine type plants (squash, sweet potatoes) you can put early harvested crops (spinach, lettuce, radishes, turnips) in the path of those vines. You'll have eaten and/or stored the food by the time the vines reach that part of the garden.
Order a few seed catalogs to look over vegetable varieties and get an idea of what area they take up by the time they're harvested.
It's also time to start seeds. I've started herbs and onions so far - not that they are starting well. Being low on money I'm using OLD seeds, and only the thyme is doing really well, Still, one parsley seed is up, a bit of oregano, one red onion. There's still time for them .... and it's not like my house is kept at 70 degrees as they'd like!
I'll be starting more seeds today, Gods willing and if the creek don't rise.
I don't use grow lights or any fancy set up. I'm using a sunny room, south and west exposures. I'm starting the seeds in potting soil and using egg cartons instead of pots. They are set in old baking pans. I'm REALLY low tech here (oh, the irony!).
In a month or so they'll be day tripping on the deck on warm days to start hardening off.
Considering all the challenges my gardening faced last year (clearing sod, wet spring, drought in summer) I had GREAT crops. I'm hoping to do as well this year .... AND have better deer protection!
The garden is a fundamental part of everything in both the preparedness / prepper / survival / survivalist line AND in the broke / cheap / cheap eats / broke line as well. Start now. You won't regret it.
Frondly, Fern
Now that it's February it's time to start your garden.
Yes really.
Time to map out what you want to plant, and where, in your garden. And in what order: if you plan on planting some spreading vine type plants (squash, sweet potatoes) you can put early harvested crops (spinach, lettuce, radishes, turnips) in the path of those vines. You'll have eaten and/or stored the food by the time the vines reach that part of the garden.
Order a few seed catalogs to look over vegetable varieties and get an idea of what area they take up by the time they're harvested.
It's also time to start seeds. I've started herbs and onions so far - not that they are starting well. Being low on money I'm using OLD seeds, and only the thyme is doing really well, Still, one parsley seed is up, a bit of oregano, one red onion. There's still time for them .... and it's not like my house is kept at 70 degrees as they'd like!
I'll be starting more seeds today, Gods willing and if the creek don't rise.
I don't use grow lights or any fancy set up. I'm using a sunny room, south and west exposures. I'm starting the seeds in potting soil and using egg cartons instead of pots. They are set in old baking pans. I'm REALLY low tech here (oh, the irony!).
In a month or so they'll be day tripping on the deck on warm days to start hardening off.
Considering all the challenges my gardening faced last year (clearing sod, wet spring, drought in summer) I had GREAT crops. I'm hoping to do as well this year .... AND have better deer protection!
The garden is a fundamental part of everything in both the preparedness / prepper / survival / survivalist line AND in the broke / cheap / cheap eats / broke line as well. Start now. You won't regret it.
Frondly, Fern
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