Planted out tomatoes and peppers

Why not bust your post out to start a watermelon thread. Just repost what is here and I’ll respond with some input and pictures. Maybe I could do this myself but don’t know how.

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Great idea. There used to be- and probably still is- an option by which you could “reply with new thread” or something. But I’m not smart enough to figure out how to do that, so I’ll just cut and paste my original post when I first hi-jacked this thread (sorry about that).

Check your PM’s, Kevin.

THanks, Muddy! TO others, I just moved the watermelon discussion the old fashioned way…control C and Control P . ha

Here it is for those who are interested in watermelon chat.:

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No worries, thewatermelonman. This happens on threads all the time. I asked a question about WM’s and you gave me an answer, and I appreciate the details. Plus, this is a public forum, so this info can benefit others who might be interested in WM’s. I may be presumptuous, but I bet you might this site’s resident WM expert.

I didn’t even know there were so many varieties, but I shouldn’t be surprised, plants of the same species come in all types.
A year ago I didn’t know hardly anything about apples, much less about many of the different varieties. Now I know a little bit about them, but not as much as other folks on this site. But that’s why we’re here, to learn and share.

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Well, as if on cue, I went out this morning to inspect the 'mater patch and, low and behold, 3 of them had the tops bitten off. Can’t say for sure what did it, but if I would hazard a guess, here’s a clue: starts with a D and ends with an EER!

I had a rudimentary tape fence put up to try to keep them out until I could put a barbed wire fence on T-posts, but I guess it wasn’t good enough. So, again, I have to spend time and $$ on material completely unrelated to growing plants/trees. I know I’m not the only person to have to put up with such nonsense, but it is just frustrating.

We have 100’s of wooded, green acreage around us, and you would think the deer could find something else to eat besides my one foot tall plants. It may be because it’s been pretty hot and dry the last few weeks, and the deer want a green succulent treat. Or it may be that they’re just punking me. I thought tomato leaves were poisonous, but not to deer apparently.

/Rant off

I guess we are lucky that we don’t seem to have a problem with rabbits or squirrels that I know of.

Don’t jinx yourself! :smile:

You beat me to the punch…!!

Hah! Yes that be true, but we’ve been here over 3 growing seasons and just about all the damage has been from D’s or birds, but you never know what could happen in the future.

My neighbors have said 20 or so years ago, that you would very rarely see deer in these parts. But, some of their natural predators, specifically coyotes, have been hunted without restrictions. So maybe the deer population is out of balance because of that. I don’t know. But, what can you do. Hunting season only lasts at most 2 months a year, and we can get 4 in a season, but maybe there are just less people hunting also.

Deer are ravenous critters.

I found that a dog, even if he isn’t out all night, will keep the deer away from a fenced garden. When our golden was young, even a 4’ fence around the garden was enough. The deer would not chance being in an enclosed area where a known predator (our dog) was. Even though the fence would have protected them from the dog (thankfully they did not figure that out).

Now I use a 6’ fence topped with a couple of strands of electric and that isn’t enough sometimes. What seems to help is spraying with things the deer don’t like. Dilute fish emulsion seems to work well (it will make your garden smell like anchovies for a while), but needs to be redone after rains.

6 foot tall electric fence still doesn’t work all the time? Wow. Yes, I’ve read about those deer repellents from people on here to protect their fruit trees, but don’t know what they use. Can you or anyone else recommend any such repellents?

Don’t you live in the Colorado foothills? Are there other varmits you have to deal with? I imagine the deer can be pretty big there in the Rockies.

When I lived and worked in Dallas, I would drive up to Colorado in the summers just to camp out and hike the hills. I especially liked the San Juan’s and the mountains around Aspen.

Funny you mention a dog. We have a 10 year old “watch” dog, in the sense that he usually watches deer saunter thru our gardens or yard and does nothing. Unless, you open the door and yell at the deer, which somehow awakens the dog’s primal chase instincts and he runs after and scatters them.

Plus, if we have 2 legged visitors he will trot down to their vehicle and escort them up the driveway to our house without as much as a woof.

But, that doesn’t stop him from going on middle of the night bark patrols woofing at stuff I can never see. Maybe he just is establishing his territory at night, idk.

The 6’ fence is not 100%. It is now in the spring and early summer when there is plenty of other food around. But later in the summer, when my gardens/orchard have the only green plants around the deer will come in or try. Interestingly they do not jump over. Rather they squeeze thru the 5’ wire horse fencing and the first electric wire above it. Since the horse fence is grounded they should be getting a shock??? I will probably be lowering that bottom el wire and adding a couple more up top. I suspect even that won’t keep them all out if/when food is scarce.

We did some training with our dog when he was a pup. He was trained to chase deer out of the yard and stop at the property line (more or less). Worked great for many years but at around 8 yo the deer started to realize that this big dog wasn’t really a threat. Didn’t help that his hearing and eyesight were starting to fade too, so he often would not notice the deer. In his prime though, he would bark at night to go out and chase the deer when he sensed them. But a young dog that is outside a bunch works wonders on deer. I think it was Bill M of St Lawrence Nurseries who used to say in his catalogs that a collie in the orchard was the best deer protection.

I do live in the CO foothills (technically the montane area, which is a bit higher than the foothills; about Aspen’s elevation but entirely different weather patterns). Our deer are mule deer, not the cute white tailed Bambi-like ones you have back east. Not sure if they are bigger than white tails, but there are way more than can be supported by the environment, so the tend to eat anything in sight; especially in drought years. In addition to mule deer, we have elk, moose, bears and pocket gophers. Hard to say which is the most damaging to gardens/orchards. The elk can jump a bit higher than deer, but there are not as many around here. Just had a couple of moose here this winter, which was a first, fortunately the fence does keep them out. Pocket gophers may be the most destructive, they eat everything and breed faster than rabbits. They must have a 70% die off every winter due to lack of food, even without my intervention. Now if I could get the weasels to concentrate on the gophers instead of my chickens…

Oh yes, there are also rabbits, voles, coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions. While I do like living more on the edge of the wild, sometimes a few less critters (especially the one that eat my garden/orchard) would be nice.

Yeah, I figured you’d have mule deer instead of whitetails, which is what we have. They are not that big here, but you do hear about hunters getting 160# bucks sometimes, but that is prob the largest for KY.

We actually have elk territory down in the SE coalfields. I think they used to be native here many years ago, but were overhunted. They reintroduced them and they did so well they actually have a lottery season for them. We’re allowed 4 whitetail a season up in our part of the state, one buck max.

And they also have bear in our parts, but they are rarely seen. Used to hear coyotes at night the last couple of years, but not so much recently. And, there have been sightings of cougars, but the only cats I’ve seen have been some bobcats.

Wow, your fences must be pretty stout to withstand elk or moose. Sounds like you have all kinds of critters to deal with. I’ve never heard of a pocket gopher, is that another name for a marmot? I remember seeing a lot of those while hiking.

Well, I don’t feel so bad about just having to deal with just deer. It must be hard work to protect your property, and then you have the extreme weather to deal with. Plus, your growing season must be pretty short in the mountains.

What is the deer repellant that you said you used? I know there are others, I just wondered what worked for you.

Pocket gophers are a subterranean gophers who eat plants and roots, smaller than a marmot maybe 6-10" long. They rarely venture above ground. Disney did a cartoon of them years ago vs Elmer Fudd I think; the gophers would pull vegies down below ground and eat them, and poor Elmer went crazy trying to stop them. They actually do that, I occasionally see an onion or garlic slowly sinking into the ground as they munch on them. One year they took a bite out of every potato, just to see if there were any they liked. Weasels are about their only predator. I poison and trap them as best I can. If I don’t they will take out a fruit tree or two over the winter.

Bears can be hard on an orchard too. Their idea of picking apples is to break the tree off and then pick the top apples at ground level.

The deer repellent I have found works is fish emulsion. It is basically fermented fish guts/waste. It is sold as an organic fertilizer (which it is) but works as a repellent because it smells like fish. Literally your garden will smell like anchovies after you spray it. I use about 1T per gallon. I use it for its fertilizer value too, but it seem to keep most critters from eating whatever is sprayed (deer, rabbits, gophers).

Oh my, those pocket gophers sound downright evil. Sounds like you have plenty to contend with, above and below ground. But, like you said, that’s the cost of living on the fringe of wilderness. We are on the edge of a National Forest, but don’t have nearly the varmits to worry about like you do.

If it’s so cold there for so long, how are you able to have any kind of fruit tree production? Maybe you grow fruit that are suited to Canadian weather, since that would be similar to your growing zone?

Thanks for the repellent rec, I’ve been doing some research on some others, like Plantskydd and Liquid Fence. I do remember folks on here say that Plantskydd does a pretty good job, but I’ve found that it’s not cheap. I responded to the recent deer attack by putting another of tape fence up, which gives me 3 layers now. Guess they could still jump over it, but this may help keep them from stepping thru it. We’ll see.

Our growing season is short. For some things like tomatoes and peppers I’ve moved them to a greenhouse. Outside I can still grow apples and I think pears (haven’t had crop yet), sour cherries, and sometimes European plums. Japanese plums, peaches and nut trees unfortunately just don’t survive here for long. Technically I am a zone 5A, but our windy dry winters make it hard for many plants to survive here even if they might in other 5A locations.

It’s sometimes hard for me to recall what it was like gardening someplace peaches and tomatoes could be grown outside. On the other hand, we have far fewer insects and disease problems in our climate.

OK, just a quick update on the mater/pepper plot. It’s been about 3 weeks since we put all the plants in the ground, and they are looking quite a bit better. Seems like the mulching and fertilizer has helped quite a bit. The plants have put on lots of branches and the leaves have a nice deep green hue. Plus, the weather has been very warm and dry the last couple weeks. Seems like the plants are enjoying the hot, bright sunshine.

Most of them are about a foot tall with some about two feet. I’m going to have to stake them soon because they’re getting tall and they need some support from the winds. There’s still some that are kind of puny, but they’re still hanging in there. I’ll take 5 or 6 bad out of 70 plants for sure. The peppers are still struggling, but are greening up a bit.

For your perusal here are some pics I took today:

Aunt Ruby’s German Green

Watermelon Beefsteak

Cherokee Purple, I think

Yellow Brandywine

Unknown

Not sure, but maybe a Russian Queen, one of the taller plants

And a big bloom on a Paul Robeson

I’m pinching the blooms off most of the plants as I want them to get some size on them before they start producing fruit. As you can see in the pics, we need to do some weeding and maybe till up some of the areas between the mulched plants as it’s turning into hardpan. But other than that, things are looking good, for now, knock on wood. If I can just keep them mulched and keep the deer out of the patch I think we’ll be OK.

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Just a quick update. Yesterday we had a storm blow thru with heavy rain and wind. I didn’t think it was that bad until I got out to the 'mater patch. We had about a third of our tomato plants either laying almost on the ground or leaning to some degree. Thankfully, none of them seemed to be broken off, so I righted them, gave them some dirt to shore them up and staked them. The night before I staked about 25 plants, so they were OK. We were also fortunate that I had put mulch down around all of them as the ones laying over would’ve been a muddy mess.

They’re still looking good, the taller plants are about 2’ now. I’ll try to pass along some new pix maybe next week. They’re calling for some storms tonight so hope it’s not too bad. Watching weather channel right now and it looks like N Illinois is getting hit with some twisters. That system is supposed to be moving in our direction overnight. Hopefully, it will lose some of its power during the night time.

I should get my first tomato in a day or two. I have a few Sungold almost ripe. Not bad for my zone! Last year it was earlier. like by about 2 weeks. I start early and have a cold frame if needed. I started later this year. Think it was perfect.
I’m growing a dwarf this year. So far it is an impressive plant. Not that dwarf, just enough to make it easy to manage. Tennessee Suited is the name. I have seeds to a few others I will for sure try next year, these plants are cool! Developed by the Dwarf Tomato Project (as are the others I have).
I harvested my first pepper about a week ago. I like to use the early ones green to stimulate more production. I don’t let the first ones ripen to red or orange.
All that rain is missing me, we are so dry! Well good luck with the storms! Keep us updated. One of these days I’ll post photos of my plants in their own thread. I’m not growing as many, but have some interesting varieties of both peppers and tomatoes. I’m still experimenting. I’m starting to develop a group of regular tomatoes and peppers based on my needs. And of course I also grow many to see how they do here!

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Hey Drew,

Wow you’re already getting little 'maters. That’s pretty good for Michigan, but I guess it helps to have a cold frame. I have heard Sungold’s are very good, I would maybe like to try them next year. Are they like sweet yellow cherry tom’s?

I started my plants from seed in the middle of March, grew them under lights for about a month in Jiffy pods, then transferred them to cups. I would have liked to got them in the ground sooner, but May was really cool and rainy, and the soil was too wet to till. We even had a freeze on May 16th, so glad we waited. But, because of that, they’ve only been in the ground for 3 weeks. I am also growing a tomatillo plant. It’s not growing as big as the other tomato’s, and it kind of looks like a pepper plant with similar leaves and blossoms. Am curious to see how that turns out.

I have never heard of a dwarf tomato, where is this dwarf project project based and how much for their seeds? Do they produce “regular” type ‘maters, or are they smaller? And what rootstock do they grow on, M26 or G11? Kidding… Last year some of my plants got to about 6’ in about 6 weeks after transplant. They were beasts, and I didn’t know how to train them because my stakes were only 4’ tall. I wonder how big they would’ve got if they wouldn’t have succumbed to some kind of early blight after lots of rain in July.

Have you got to try any of your own fruit yet, or is it still too early? I picked up fresh peaches from Georgia straight off the truck today at our local produce stand. Don’t know what kind they are, but had to try some. Are you able to grow peaches there, and if so, which ones do well for you?

Yeah, that line of storms is moving in our general direction. I just got in from outside, putting up stuff, closing the barn door, etc. Hope it’s nothing but some rain and not much else. Don’t need the heavy wind. I’ve spent the last couple of days staking up all the tomato plants, hope they can get through this. Some of our 2-3 foot corn got blown over Tuesday, so I had to prop that back up, hope I won’t have to do that again. I don’t know if I could stand growing food for a living on a large scale, you’d have to worry about the weather all the time, plus have to deal with animals getting after your crops.
I’d be a nervous wreck by harvest time.

Well, good luck with your veggies and fruits. I would like to see a pic of some of those dwarf tomato plants when you’re able.