2022 Garden Thread

[begreen]

It's never appealed to me. Too much sugar is needed to make it palatable.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

My wife used it in stir fry. I can't remember how it tasted. Its more than a bit bitter without the sugar.

 

[begreen]

Oh oh, these Tiny Tims are no longer tiny. They have put on a lot of height in the past week and are now past the light which has been raised to its maximum height. I don't relish the idea of trimming them because right now it's the flower stalks that are too high, but it won't take long at this rate for the leaves to get there too. They are full of flowers.

What should I do? Cut them down and give up lots of tomatoes? Tty and transplant them to pots with soil and put them under grow lights? The package says they grow to 16" tall, but they are already at 17". How tall should I plan on?

 

[Dan Freeman]

They are probably getting that large because you are growing them hydroponically, and they are reaping all the benefits of that rich nutrient solution you have them in. Don't cut them if you can help it and sacrifice those blooms. Do you have another grow light that you can rig up higher than the built-in light of the aero garden? I would move them to soil as a last resort. I have never tried that, but I wonder how going from nutrient solution to potting soil might affect the plants.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Wow, @begreen, those are big. I agree with @DanFreeman, that they’re exceeding expectations because of the excellent growing conditions. I’ve never grown Tiny Tims, but I do top my Aerogarden tomatoes to keep them under the lights when necessary. It does sacrifice some blossoms, but I figure that they’ll put out more growth to the sides, and there will be blossoms there. I want to maintain the overall health of the plant more than I want to get every single blossom produced to flower.

On the other hand, I have also removed tomatoes from the Aerogarden and potted them up. If I were planning to do that, I would do it in two stages. I would first prune the roots as drastically as I would need to in order to remove the plant from the system. Then I would return it to the system for a couple of days to let it recover from the shock of pruning. Once it had had time to recover, I would then transplant it to potting soil that I keep extra moist for a couple of days. I have done it successfully like this in the past. Do you have an additional light source if you take them out of the Aerogarden?

Here’s an interesting link I read recently on Aerogarden tomatoes that I thought you an @EatenByLimestone might enjoy.

How to Grow Fresh Tomatoes All Winter with an Aerogarden

The holy grail of a good tasting tomato in the dead of winter is possible WITHOUT a greenhouse thanks to the Aerogarden.

www.groundedandgrowing.com

 

[begreen]

Great article DG, thanks.
I do have a set of LED grow lights that I could try, though I am concerned that the Tiny Tim is just too big of a tomato for this system. The plants are 49 days old. I have been watering and feeding by the book and have not overfed them. They have put on a couple of inches of growth in just 3 days so I am not sure when they are going to stop. Thanks for the suggestions on the root prune, and then back to the iDoo for a short wait before the transfer. I may try a transplant with just one of the plants. We'll see. If I do transplant them I would water with the nutrient solution for a week or two until they get established in the pots.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I just let them continue growing over the light. I set up a red and blue grow light over them though. They’re blooming up there so they can’t be unhappy.

This is all new to me. I could be doing everything very wrong, lol. I’m having fun though!

The story seems to mimic what I’m seeing.

 

[clancey]

Why would you want to prune the roots drastically anyway--poor little things--cannot you separate them only when you have to cut the roots--or is it for being more efficient to faster separate them.?Those Tiny Tim tomato"s look good to me...after all I just raised all last summer "Big Boys" that took up the whole 1/4 of my side yard.. lol I like the idea of higher lights and then they would have even more room to grow since they are so so tall. Why maybe put them in soil and put "lights" on them and just let them do their own thing so to speak.. Enjoying all your postings..clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

Sorry for such a long post...

Things have been rather slow the past few days and will most likely slow down even more as the weather continues to grow colder and the snow begins to fall.

The daytime temps have been in the 35-45 range this past week, but little to no sun, breezy and damp, which makes it feel nasty outside. (I've also noticed on these types of days, my ribs hurt more!) We are entering what I refer to as "Pocono Winter Days". Even when sun is predicted, it usually gives way to clouds around 9-10am. It usually returns, but not until 3-4pm. My "theory" is it must have something to do with the air masses flowing over the mountains as the air warms slightly during the day in the winter, but I have never found anything solid to back up my theory. I find it quite depressing considering the weatherman has called for a sunny day, my friends on other forums are mentioning nice sunny days, and it is gray and cloudy here. Oh well, there are worse climates to live in...

Yesterday, I did manage to clean the chicken coop and run. I added everything to the compost pile, put new pine wood shavings in the coop and about 4" of sawdust from that load my wood guy dropped off a week or so ago. The sawdust (a brown) along with kitchen waste and chicken poop (both greens) should make for some excellent compost.





I am tending to my indoor garden every day.



I seem to have more fungus gnats this year, as the little yellow sticky traps I have hung are loaded with them. (One drawback of planting in potting soil as opposed to growing hydroponically.)



I am very pleased with the tomato plants, parsley and basil, but disappointed with the spinach and the lettuce. I have just about decided that it is almost futile growing spinach inside during the winter. Not sure what it is since the temps in the den are good and the grow lights are superior, but the spinach just grows soooo slooowly.



The lettuce is another story. It grows well and the yields are good, but I just can't seem to grow lettuce indoors without the tips getting brown (called tipburn). This does not ruin the lettuce as the brown tips can be cut off. I just don't like the looks and it is time-consuming (or a waste if it goes too far) trimming each lettuce leaf. (I like to grow leaf lettuces, so I can pick the lettuce as I need it; I understand it is less of a problem with head lettuces.)




An alternative is to harvest the lettuce while it is small.



At first, from what I read, I thought it might be a transpiration problem with the lettuce, and I set up a fan to gently throw a breeze over the plants, but it continued.

Now, I think it is a combination of transpiration and calcium availability. Not that there isn't enough calcium in the potting soil (or nutrient water when I grow hydroponically), but that the lettuce is growing so fast that the plant cannot avail itself of the calcium.

Read more at Gardening Know How: What Causes Tipburn In Lettuce: Treating Lettuce With Tipburn https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/lettuce/treating-lettuce-with-tipburn.htm

In any event, I will keep plugging away trying to grow better lettuce. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

One last picture. Sooooo many tomatoes, but they are all still green! I figure about another week or so and I will begin to see some color change. Here are the first two tomato plants (from seed) that I planted this winter season.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Ugh, fungus gnats aren’t very fun! (Groan!)

For houseplants, I’ve used dusts effectively to get rid of them, but you’re dealing with food. I don’t know if I’d even feel comfortable with an organic dust.

I might take the cool weather plants to a colder room, maybe even outside for the day if it’s above freezing and see if I could get them to fly away, lowering the population inside.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Ugh, fungus gnats aren’t very fun! (Groan!)

For houseplants, I’ve used dusts effectively to get rid of them, but you’re dealing with food. I don’t know if I’d even feel comfortable with an organic dust.

I might take the cool weather plants to a colder room, maybe even outside for the day if it’s above freezing and see if I could get them to fly away, lowering the population inside.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to use a dust on vegetables. The yellow traps actually do a good job. (I was surprised.) I never see more than 2 or 3 gnats flying around now where they were all over the place before I put up the traps. I believe I read they are attracted to the yellow color.

 

[clancey]

Free---your plants look just beautiful even the lettuce with the (tipburn) but that would aggravate me too--those gnats that is but everything looks really really healthy and your chickens look just great and happy too. Make sure they have enough of winter bedding to keep warm inside their box unless you have some kind of a heater going for like you said "more cold weather" coming with moisture according to the weather channel with high wind and tornado weather (possible) for the south so it's beginning to feel like winter now--ugh and your ribs will hurt in the colder weather for now but they will adjust back to normal with time but if you wrap them it will relieve a lot of the hurt and you will feel better..clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

Thanks, Clancey. I don't bother to heat the chickens' coop. Actually, and most folks don't realize this, chickens can handle the cold better than the heat. More chickens die of the heat in the summer than cold in the winter. The only thing I have to watch out for in the winter is frost bite to their combs and wattles., but I close all the vents on the coop, and they are OK with just their body heat during the night...when they sleep in the coop. Many nights they sleep on the roost outside.

Today it sunny and dry. My ribs feel better today. Yes, as an old fart, it will take time.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@Dan Freeman, I don’t know if you ever use Diatomaceous Earth with your chickens and therefore have it on hand, but I like to sprinkle it on top of potting soil and mix a bit of it in when I have plants inside. I do it when the soil is on the dry side. I think it helps keep the fungus gnat population down, but I also use the yellow sticky traps once I do start to see them. (I don’t sprinkle diatomaceous earth inside, by the way. I move the plants outside and let the dust settle before I move them inside. I don’t have so many pots as you do inside, though.)

I appreciated your update today. Thanks for the photos. Your tomatoes are looking great.

 

[Dan Freeman]

DG...come to think of it, I do have a bag of Diatomaceous Earth out in the shed. Only problem with it is it has to be reapplied after watering, and with growing the tomatoes in the house, they have to be watered almost every day. I guess I could water from the bottom, though.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

DG...come to think of it, I do have a bag of Diatomaceous Earth out in the shed. Only problem with it is it has to be reapplied after watering, and with growing the tomatoes in the house, they have to be watered almost every day. I guess I could water from the bottom, though.

Yes, you do have to avoid watering it from the surface when you’ve put it on. I used my upsidedown bottles with watering stakes to get water down below, but again I only keep a few things inside long-term.

My outside garden still has plants growing in it, albeit pretty slowly. Here’s a photo of what I’ve harvested today and yesterday, I think: cherry tomatoes, shishito peppers, green beans, snow peas, zucchini, and a little immature Seminole Pumpkin. Since there isn’t enough of anything to make a dish on its own, I may just sauté the vegetables together for a dish.


Here are some other shots I took in the garden this morning.

I have a couple of broccoli heads starting to form. I’ve been having to hunt down cabbage worms because it’s been warm enough here for the moths still to fly. I also added a bunch of compost to this pot of leeks, though I did it right after I took the picture, so the picture still shows my basil leaf mulch.


I have young Beaver Dam Peppers on both of the plants that I cut back so drastically a while back. We do have some cold weather moving in next week. It shouldn’t kill the plants, but it won’t help them mature any fruit, I’m sure. Here is a shot of the Taiga tomato plants I’ve been trialing this year. They have been loving our warm (but not hot) and more humid weather this December. (It’s really weird December weather even for this far south, by the way, but the plants seem to like it.)


Finally, here’s a shot of a planter where I transplanted an artichoke and a Victoria Rhubarb plant somewhat recently. @begreen, we do use sugar on our rhubarb but far less than called for in standard recipes. We love tang in our foods, though, and the sourness doesn’t bother us. I’m surprised you don’t enjoy it since you do enjoy sauerkraut and fermented foods. It is a different acid, but you seem to like sour. I wonder if you would like it better with less sugar rather than more.

 

[Dan Freeman]

So nice to see you are still harvesting. I just took a walk around our FF. I hadn't been down there in about a week. Everything is dead...except for the fish at the bottom of the pond. It's sunny and 40 today. I would love to be out there moving some soil and topping off some of the raised beds, but I am afraid of straining my ribs, so I am here instead watching YouTube gardening videos and checking my forums!

 

[Dan Freeman]

The food forest is officially asleep for the season.

 

[clancey]

Very pretty picture and you accomplished a whole lot----with my kind of energy --too much...lol..Now enjoy inside work and get your ribs well again..The Forest Garden is very beautiful and have some Happy Holidays..Thanks for sharing...clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

I like the picture, too. That is why I posted it. Took it with my phone shortly after waking up this morning. Ribs are doing so much better. Still some aching, but it diminishes week by week. Tomorrow will be 9 weeks since the accident. Merry Christmas to you, Clancey!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

You should be getting close to healed!

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@Dan Freeman, beautiful picture. Thanks for posting it. I think you’re wise not to overdo things this winter so that you’ll be all healed up in time for spring (and the run up thereunto).

We don’t have any snow in the forecast, but I did see one prediction for temperatures below freezing by the end of the month. If we get closer to the time, and it looks pretty certain, I’ll pick what green fruit I can. Last year I took out all my tomatoes in November and regretted not leaving some plants when we had a warm December. This year seems to be following the same pattern so far. We did have a hard freeze just at the New Year last year.

 

[Dan Freeman]

First of the indoor Tiny Tim's to begin ripening.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I’m jealous! You might have Christmas tomatoes! When did you plant them?

 

[Dan Freeman]

I’m jealous! You might have Christmas tomatoes! When did you plant them?

Don't worry, these were as green as the others 2 days ago. Once they begin to turn, they turn fast.

These seeds were planted right at the beginning of October, so it has been about 75 days which is actually late.