At home, I got my first green tomatoes, already! It will take some time for them to ripen.

We had an unusually hot May which contributed to the earliness. Last year, the first green ones appeared around June 25 for me.

I have had a crazy busy week. Hopefully, I'll have some time to stop by NKU soon!

Mineral Deficiencies in Tomatoes

http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/tomatoes.htm

I've probably linked this helpful page before, but I'll do it again. Despite being "old science" from the 1940's, the information is helpful in diagnosing what's wrong with a plant. I'm presuming how these experiments were done were that the plants were grown in a non-nutritive culture (sand, it says) and were fed fertilizers that omitted one of the required nutrients. Eventually the plant developed the deficiency-- the result is shown (N deficient, P deficient, K deficient, etc).

I'm using Miracle-Gro at home, and let me tell you, the stuff really works well. My tomatoes are lush, green, flowering, and about 3 feet tall-- twice as big as the tomatoes planted in the same soil mix at NKU. We don't use Miracle-Gro at NKU, and that's fine, because it's an Organic Garden. It's important to stress that Miracle -Gro by itself isn't perfect. My dad showed me rudimentary gardening when I was a kid-- basically, put a plant in the ground, and apply Miracle Gro when you remember to do it. The soil was pitiful-- weeds wouldn't even grow in it. Miracle Gro helped a bit to produce some undersized tomatoes on scraggly plants, but not much. They looked like some of the plants in the previous links.

I think the path that I will continue to take as I create my own gardens will be a hybrid of organic and conventional methods. I like growing in "Mel's Mix" medium-- compost/manure, peat, and vermiculite. It's a richly organic mix-- 30-40% organic matter, compared to native soils being less that 5% organic matter. I will continue using this soil mix for the forseeable future.

In addition, I like using Espoma Plant Tone-- it's such a rich, diverse mixture of organics from a dozen different sources. I like adding some extra bone meal too-- because not only is it high in Phosphorous, it's also high in Calcium-- which miracle gro lacks, if you read the label. If I've got some free coffee grounds in bulk quantities (enough to spread about 1/4 cup per square foot) , I'm a fan of that too. And finally epsom salts-- magnesium sulfate-- providing magnesium and sulfur-- i use 2 tablespoons to a gallon of water, once per month.

Ok, so I tinker! I seek optimal growth from the garden.

The comparative observations that I've made about the NKU gardens, compared to mine, is that by harvest, there's signs of acute nutrient deficiency, particularly N. When fruit production happens, this is presumably when plants are consuming the biggest quantities of nutrients .Organics are very slow release. Boosting the nutrition with miracle-gro seems to cure this.

I'm by no means suggesting we abandon the founding organic principles of the NKU gardens. I'm just saying I'm not a purist.

Rose Care

Here's some summarized & synthesized highlights of what I've read from Jackson-Perkins (the largest mail-order rose company) , The American Rose Society, and Ohio State University's horticultural website:

* Only cut out completely the absolutely dead wood.
* For newly planted roses, for the first 18-24 months in the garden, Prune back only 5% to 15% from the top, or simply dead-head, and don't bother pruning.
* With roses older than two years, generally only cut back up to the top 1/3, and rarely more than the top 1/2.
* Seal a pruned cut on the cane with wood glue or white glue. This prevents disease and insect damage.
* Cut at a 45 degree angle, with the slope going toward the center of the plant.
* Clean tools in 10 parts water to 1 part household bleach solution when going from plant to plant.
* Spray plant with insect spray and anti-fungal spray after pruning.
* In southern Ohio/northern Kentucky, prune roses between March 15 to April 15.
* In our area, we live far south enough that winterizing roses isn't necessary (mounding with mulch and soil). However, if February is dry, giving the roses a gallon each of warm water is a good idea.
* Deadhead and fertilize monthly from April to October.

As with most gardening, rumor and contradictory information abounds. Some bad advice that I was given from non-experts includes pruning roses down to the top six inches, and pruning before the last frost. I didn't actually follow it, but it's worth noting.

More replacements

I did a good job killing off our plants with the flood I wrought upon the garden. Whoops!

Here are the replacements, so far (I still need to get a Lemon Boy tomato).

"Fatalii
Fiery hot, wrinkled yellow peppers are related to habanero, and are at least as hot if not hotter. The searing heat has an excellent, citrus-like flavor that can be appreciated in the seconds before the heat sets in. Originally from Africa, these plants become 3 to 4 feet tall, maturing abundant crops of fruit earlier than plants of habanero. Peppers are 2 to 3 inches long with a wide top that tapers down to a point, and are shriveled all over. 80 days"

"Mushroom:
Thin-skinned, mushroom shaped red peppers are related to habanero and are extremely hot. Wrinkled peppers have a broad cap and are about 2 inches wide and deep, resembling a patty-pan squash, but colored brilliantly red. Large harvests of these peppers. 75 days. (the tag I have says "sweet-hot" so it might be milder than the description suggests"

Purple Sweet Bell.... It ripens to purple. Not much description needed.

Mountain Spring Tomato
"Beautiful tomatoes are 8 to 10 ounces, bright red throughout, and resistant to cracking and blossom-end rot. Texture is firm, but softens upon ripening and the flavor is mild and pleasant. Very productive. Determinate. 72 days"

Descriptions copied from tomato growers supply

Timer definitely needs to be replaced.

Um...yeah.

So I stopped by this weekend after my St. Louis trip to plant some seeds, and noticed the water was on, so I decided to wait until today to do it. The timer was set for about 90 minutes so I figured Jim must have been there earlier and I just missed him. However, everything looked really saturated so I reset the timer for 15 minutes and went inside for a bit.

When I came back out a while later, the timer still read 15 minutes, so I did a little deductive reasoning. The ground around the garden was pooling water, so it must have been on longer than a couple of hours on such a sunny day. Then I noticed the test pits.

One of our staff, Dave Kime, had been digging test pits with a student over the spring semester, looking for artifacts in the class side of the garden. They would dig until they hit clay, assuming that nothing would be found below that point. One of the pits was one cubic foot, and I noticed that the pit was completely full of water, which meant the garden had gotten over 12 inches (allowing for evaporation and some absorption, it was likely a bit more than that). I realized Jim must have stopped by at least on Saturday, and the timer simply wasn't working anymore -- I cam by Sunday around noon. (Now that Jim's posted on this, I see that it must have been watered non-stop for at least 40 hours, and may have gotten up to 18 inches!)

I'll get some asparagus bean and soybean seeds in the ground today.

dry spring

One of the local TV weathermen said that since March 1, we're about 3 inches of rain short of where we ought to be. The next 10 days, the best chance of rain we have is 10%... looks like watering will be needed.

I stopped by on Friday afternoon. I didn't have time to water by hand, so I turned on the sprinkler and put the timer on for 60 minutes.

The timer is springing leaks. That might need to be replaced.

The tomatoes and peppers looked like they were doing ok.

warm day

It got up to 84, which is rather warm for early May. It hasn't rained much since we've begun our planting.

We planted some Indian (Asia) herbs today-- indian black mustard, fenugreek, cumin, and coriander. Where did we get such exotic seeds? My spice rack. Will they sprout? Who knows!

Some of our tomato seedlings are dying due to damping off. It's a fungal disease that attacks seedlings just at the soil line. The seedling on close examination looks like it has been pinched. It eventually topples over and dies. We're going to need to replace a hillbilly tomato. I suggested lemon boy as a good replacement

Unfortunately, we don't have any back up seedlings. I suggested to Aaron that in future seasons, we might try seed starting using the 36 cell-pack peat pots. This way, we have sufficient back up plants. The 4 inch pots-- though ideal to get maximum size seedlings-- have a drawback in that they take up a lot of room under our single growlight set up.

there's an article about damping off here: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1167.html

seems hard to control. Other sites mentioned, beyond ensuring sterile planting medium, good air circulation, and watering deeply and then allowing the soil to nearly dry out.

we also finished the repair of one of the boxes today.

Aaron and I accomplished a ton on Friday. We planted the tomatoes, the peppers, carrots, radish, spinach and lettuce. We mowed the grass. We transplanted some stray strawberry plants back inside their boxes.

We also amended the soil with 320 lbs. of manure. We fertilized all the little transplants.

Most years, we plant closer to May 10. But this year, the weather was especially cooperative.

The transplants were a little puny this year. We've done this for over 7 years, so we've got the procedures down pretty well. I'm guessing they didn't get as much grow time as they could have (about 5 weeks). They also looked like they were beginning to suffer from some nutritional deficiencies. However, we've always used same seed starting formula (the kind sold in 2 quart bags, usually perlite, vermiculite, and peat thats finely milled). Although that formula doesn't contain nourishment, it's also sterile, which means that the fungi that typically attack seedlings don't get a chance.

To correct the deficiencies, beside surrounding them with manure, we also fed them blood meal, martha stewart's organic fertilizer (a pretty good balanced mix-- the espoma is at aarons), and then fed them fish emulsion as well.

We do see nutritional deficiencies show in the plants grown in the seed started, but its typically not until week 7 or 8-- and usually when we grew the plants in the 72-cell packs (we've since switched to peat pots, because they hold moisture better & longer. The cell packs tend to be tough getting the plants out of. The only plus of the cell pack is more plants.

I'm wondering if the honors house was a little cooler this year than usual, and if that might have stunted the growth. I don't know. I was absent, so I can't diagnose it. Obviously, with so many years of experience, Aaron knows what he's doing. Seed starting is a lot of tinkering.

I wish the varieties of tomatoes that we like (from seedsavers) were available as seedlings from the nursery-- so much more convenient. The seedling I bought for home were six inches high.

on the to do list:

• buy a 2x4x8 to fix the busted box
• buy a bag of peat moss
• plant grass seeds in the bare spots
• buy a weed-eater
• fix the wheelbarrow
• plant the remaining squares (some peppers, some indian spices, the melons and cucumbers and such).

Gearing Up

Aaron and I will be getting the garden ready, perhaps even planted on Friday. He calculated about 8 bags of manure for the garden, which sounded about right to me. We'll also have some home-made compost to spread as well.

I found myself thinking about really, really big tomatoes. I found out the record comes from a variety called "Delicious" (also called Burpee's Delicious) which grew a 7 lb 6 oz tomato in the 1980s. Giant Belgium is also reputed to grow consistently large tomatoes. Our biggest usually come from our Brandywines, though they are more known for their consistently outstanding flavor. We've grown Mortgage Lifter and Omar's Lebanese-- both reputed to grow huge tomatoes-- but neither fulfilled the role of big.... So maybe next year, Delicious or Giant Belgium. I'll be interested to see which tomatoes fulfill each of the categories of earliest, biggest, and best tasting. I've read the challenger to Brandywine on taste will be Cherokee Purple, so I'm looking forward to finding out if Cherokee Purple becomes a regular.

At home, I'm growing:

German Queen (heirloom) [first time growing this variety]
"Luscious, sweet pink beefsteak fruit have an incredible flavor and are large and meaty, making them perfect for slicing. Tomatoes average 1 lb. and grow on tall, vigorous, potato-leaved plants. Heirloom variety renowned for its fine flavor. Indeterminate. Matures 80 days."

Early Girl (hybrid)
"Comes in first as an early slicing tomato. Dependable large harvests of flavorful, solid 4 to 6 oz. fruit. Disease resistance is good, contributing to its excellent performance in almost any climate. A proven variety for delicious, early tomatoes. Matures 52 Days"

Big Boy (hybrid)
"A long time favorite because of its very large, smooth scarlet fruit with meaty flesh and great flavor. Heavy crops peak in midseason but continue until frost. Indeterminate. Matures 78 days"

Roma (Hybrid)
"Prized for making tomato paste and sauces since its introduction in 1955, Roma produces large harvest of thick walled, meaty, pear shaped tomatoes about 3 inches long and with few seeds. Matures: Matures 80 days"

(descriptions copied from Tomato Grower's Supply and Bonnie's Plants).

bulbs

I was disappointed by the lackluster performance of the daffodils I planted with my fiance at my soon-to-be father-in-law's home. I guessed I planted too shallowly. It seems that suspicion was correct. I think I only planted at two to three inches deep-- most of them probably froze out.... Oh well, easily correctable in the autumn.

For future reference, consult this image:

Peas

We planted 9 more peas today. The others germinated last week, due to the record-setting warm spell (about 12 days of highs in the 70s and low 80s). Now we're have a record-setting cold spell! (lows in the low 20s).

Spring 2007

Spring has begun!
Aaron and I drew up this year's garden map/plan. We planted peas. Aaron started our peppers and tomatoes a few days ago. We sowed more grass seed in the bare spots. We cut the grass.
The crocuses and daffodils are blooming. The (invasive) honeysuckle is beginning to bud.