ducks4you
Garden Master
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2009
- Messages
- 11,257
- Reaction score
- 14,090
- Points
- 417
I potted up 3 sweet potato slips and I will let them get good roots on the porch before putting them into the ground. I have their spots scoped out. I planted Indian corn in a mini greenhouse. Lost the lid somewhere, so I watered and then bagged with a clear, plastic garbage bag. One is up, and I'll give the rest a good week. If not, I'll buy new seeds. I don't plan to harvest until the Fall, and just for ornamentation. They will fill in a weed prone area and I will heavily "Preen" around them.
I got 10 more Mortgage Lifter tomatoes in the second tomato bed. I used my post hole auger and went down about 12-14 inches. I put some dried horse manure at the bottom of each of the 10 holes, then took each of the leggy--some of them 24 inches tall!--baby tomatoes out of their porch pots. Most were going on pot bound, but a few had less than optimal roots, long and a little spindly, deSPITE the soil and daily watering. Still, ALL look great this morning. I plan to backfill where the soil has sunk. I understand that you WANT this to happen, so that roots make contact with soil and bacteria and then the plants can exchange nitrogen. The bed borders are about 8 inches tall, and I will fill in with compost to the top for maximum root growth.
I have thought a great deal about the recent advice to dig a trench and then plan your tomatoes, the idea of which is to root the stem. I say that this results in a larger water bill! Everybody plants their vegetables like the pictures in magazines where there is an 18 inch desert between tomato plants. This area between them dries out first and the first few inches of your bed have to be constantly watered. I haven't watered the tomatoes that I put in 2 weeks ago, after their initial soaking. They, too had deep holes. Just MHO.
I got 10 more Mortgage Lifter tomatoes in the second tomato bed. I used my post hole auger and went down about 12-14 inches. I put some dried horse manure at the bottom of each of the 10 holes, then took each of the leggy--some of them 24 inches tall!--baby tomatoes out of their porch pots. Most were going on pot bound, but a few had less than optimal roots, long and a little spindly, deSPITE the soil and daily watering. Still, ALL look great this morning. I plan to backfill where the soil has sunk. I understand that you WANT this to happen, so that roots make contact with soil and bacteria and then the plants can exchange nitrogen. The bed borders are about 8 inches tall, and I will fill in with compost to the top for maximum root growth.
I have thought a great deal about the recent advice to dig a trench and then plan your tomatoes, the idea of which is to root the stem. I say that this results in a larger water bill! Everybody plants their vegetables like the pictures in magazines where there is an 18 inch desert between tomato plants. This area between them dries out first and the first few inches of your bed have to be constantly watered. I haven't watered the tomatoes that I put in 2 weeks ago, after their initial soaking. They, too had deep holes. Just MHO.
