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Post by willowgirl on Jul 7, 2015 15:45:15 GMT
The "volunteer" tomato plants are twice the size of the ones I started indoors from seed. D'oh!  |
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Post by Melissa on Jul 7, 2015 15:45:53 GMT
That happens to me too.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2015 16:48:11 GMT
My dad's best tomatoes used to grow down at the end of the line where the sewer from the mobile home exited. I don't know how I feel about that but they were some awesome tomatoes.
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Post by paquebot on Jul 7, 2015 17:51:32 GMT
Volunteers never have to go through root shock. Their root system is developing non-stop from day one and they don't have to stop and start over. When you consider that a mature plant's roots may go down 4 or 5 feet, that's a lot to recover. A study almost 100 years ago found that non-transplanted produced the most while those transplanted twice produced the least.
Martin
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Post by claytonpiano on Jul 10, 2015 2:25:08 GMT
So I am wondering if I would just wait and plant seeds directly in the garden. Would they do better?  ?? My tomatoes this year are pitiful....but June was above 90 most days and we had several 100 degree days here in NC. We got 1 inch of rain for the month. I have irrigated, but my tomatoes and peppers look pitiful. |
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Post by Melissa on Jul 10, 2015 11:51:46 GMT
I have planted seeds directly into the garden for tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and cabbage and they always outperform anything that is transplanted.
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Post by melco on Jul 10, 2015 16:49:56 GMT
Very interesting. I should try a bed of direct sow things that I usually start inside.
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Post by Melissa on Jul 10, 2015 17:47:54 GMT
I just can't grow anything inside. It never works for me. Throw them in the raised bed and everything grows like crazy!
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Post by paquebot on Jul 10, 2015 18:08:37 GMT
I had one good example last year. I wanted to grow Emerald Apple tomato. Something happened to the one seedling that I set out and I'd given away any extras. Filled a 7-gallon pot with composted horse manure and planted one seed towards the end of May. Ended up with a monster plant ripening fruit not much later than if I'd have started it two months earlier.
Martin
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Post by willowgirl on Jul 12, 2015 2:38:28 GMT
Volunteers never have to go through root shock. Their root system is developing non-stop from day one and they don't have to stop and start over. When you consider that a mature plant's roots may go down 4 or 5 feet, that's a lot to recover. A study almost 100 years ago found that non-transplanted produced the most while those transplanted twice produced the least. Martin WOW! That is really interesting to read because I almost always start my tomatoes indoors, in communal pots, then break out the seedlings into individual pots before finally setting them in the garden. D'oh!  I started my indoor seedlings late this year, and for some reason, they never grew much. I didn't give them any supplemental fertilizer (in addition to what was already in the Miracle Gro potting soil they were started in), which may have been the problem. They've made up for some lost time since transplanting, but they're not setting fruit yet, like the 4' volunteer in last year's bed! Grrr. |
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Post by paquebot on Jul 12, 2015 3:08:16 GMT
As you've seen in another thread, I had to transplant tomatoes which were up to 3' tall and forming fruit. What roots we salvaged could fit in a quart jar. After lots of pruning and water, most look about where they were a month before. Not nearly as big as those which were planted in mid-May but will give fruit albeit later than usual and not as many.
Martin
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Post by Skandi on Jul 12, 2015 12:16:57 GMT
I got impatient this year and put mine into the greenhouse border when some didn't even have their first true leaves.. they seem to be doing wonderfully. to wonderfully for my spacing I fear. But I've never had a greenhouse to use before!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2015 13:48:18 GMT
I wonder if you were to make some mini-cold frames, if you could start plants early in their permanent spot in the garden. As opposed to potting up seeds in trays in the house for a few weeks before weather breaks.
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Post by paquebot on Jul 13, 2015 15:50:11 GMT
I wonder if you were to make some mini-cold frames, if you could start plants early in their permanent spot in the garden. As opposed to potting up seeds in trays in the house for a few weeks before weather breaks. An old European way was to give vegetables an early start using a glass bell called a cloche. It never has caught on over here but possibility exists. Just use milk jugs or any other large plastic things. Hot Kaps used to be very popular but not often seen. Now it's all row covers and hoop tunnels designed more to get a gardener's money than anything when so much free stuff is available. Martin |
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Post by here to stay on Jul 13, 2015 16:14:42 GMT
Ah, remembrance of Wall O'Waters. I grew Wall O'Algea.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2015 16:58:35 GMT
I wonder if you were to make some mini-cold frames, if you could start plants early in their permanent spot in the garden. As opposed to potting up seeds in trays in the house for a few weeks before weather breaks. An old European way was to give vegetables an early start using a glass bell called a cloche. It never has caught on over here but possibility exists. Just use milk jugs or any other large plastic things. Hot Kaps used to be very popular but not often seen. Now it's all row covers and hoop tunnels designed more to get a gardener's money than anything when so much free stuff is available. Martin I remember wax paper hotcaps! Daddy called them "Wax Hats" because that's what they looked like. So, I've always called them that. No wonder they looked at me like I was insane when I asked in the local feed and seed store for wax hats. Seems like uncovering and recovering every morning and afternoon would be time consuming. But, if there was only a few rows involved, maybe some system of pulleys to open and close them all in synch with a timer. |
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Post by oxankle on Jul 13, 2015 18:53:27 GMT
I've used plain newspaper hats. It is a pain to make up thirty or forty of them, and rain ruins them, but if you need to protect small plants for a few cold nights in spring, they work just fine. I make them with a "brim" and put dirt on the brim to hold them in place and seal them to the ground.
Ox
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Post by willowgirl on Jul 16, 2015 11:52:25 GMT
Before I had a greenhouse, when my tomatoes went from under their indoor grow lights straight to the garden, I'd put a plastic milk jug cloche over each plant for the first week or two. I saved the jugs from year to year -- I grow a lot of tomatoes, so I had 50 or 60 of them strung up and hanging from the rafters in the pole barn in the off season!
Nowadays it's easier to harden off the plants in the greenhouse, then move the flats outdoors for a couple of days before planting.
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?? My tomatoes this year are pitiful....but June was above 90 most days and we had several 100 degree days here in NC. We got 1 inch of rain for the month. I have irrigated, but my tomatoes and peppers look pitiful.
