Planting out tomatoes and other veggies thread 2017

I was catching up on some threads and noticed you were growing honey Select. I just wanted to tell you that you are in for a real treat if you haven’t grown this before…I think its the best sweet corn there is. I have 2 rows that I put out in early May that are around 4 feet tall now, and I’m about to do a second planting this weekend for some late sweet corn. This is some good stuff!

Anne, have you grown these before? I planted a short row myself this year for the first time ever. Are they good? The information on the seed envelope was sort of interesting because it talked about Dragon’s Tongue as a “snap” bean. I’m not quite sure what that means. Are they similar to snap peas? I’d appreciate any info you can tell me about these. They sure look beautiful.

Another type of bean I have planted this year and am excited about are “long beans”. I planted 2 varieties and both are from SOutheast Asia. For those, like me, who had never seen these things, they look AMAZING and quite odd. They aren’t “long” in the sense of regular “long” green beans like White McCaslin. No, these things are like TWO FEET LONG!!! Very Strange looking. I asked @mamuang if she was familiar with them from her childhood in S.E. Asia and she says they have an “intense” flavor so I’m really looking forward to trying them. Anyone else ever grown them? What did you think?

Thanks to soaking wet soil for days on end, this has been my worst watermelon germination rates in my entire life. I honestly only got like a 25% germination rate if you can believe that. Oh well…I’ll still have enough melons for myself. My Black Beauty Tomatoes are looking good this year.

This year is the first time I grew my own sweet potato slips. I just put a few of last year’s sweet potatoes in some old flower pots and covered them with old, semi-composted mulch. It worked incredibly well. Each potato threw up about a dozen or more little sprouts, which also grew roots of their own even while still attached to potato. When the sprouts got about 4 inches tall, I pulled them from the potato and then replanted them back in the pot with the fairly-well composted mulch. They sort of wilted the first day, but quickly rebounded and within just a few days they had grown incredible root structures. I then transplanted them into my raised rows in the garden. This time they didn’t even wilt…just took off in a few days. For those who have never grown your own sweet potato slips, it is the easiest thing in the world and just one or two potatoes will give you all the slips most people would need. Store bought slips here are $3.99 for 6 slips. You can easily get 12 from one potato and the cost is almost nil (just a few year-old potatoes in my case. A fun project and a huge cost saver- what could be better!

I tried a neat trick with carrots this year that someone told me about and which really worked great. Basically, you just sprinkle the seeds out in a long row as usual. But instead of trying to barely cover them with some soil or leave them uncovered, I placed old 2 x 4’s on top of the seeds. I left them in place about 5 days. When I moved them all the seeds had sprouted and sent roots into the ground. I planted the exact same seeds the traditional way at the exact same time for comparison…it wasn’t even close! The traditionally planted ones had far, far fewer germination rates, And those that did sprout were slower to do so and the little plants were not nearly as well rooted. I guess the 2 x 4 holds moisture and forces the roots to grown downward and root better and faster. This wasn’t my idea but I sure do recommend it!

I love gardening!

3 Likes

Not yet. I’ve pretty much done Contender bush beans but wanted to do something else so I’m trying Calima and Dragon’s Tongue. The reviews on Baker’s site were convincing. I wanted something easier to prepare for Dilly Beans and just plain canning. I grew the Asian long beans and didn’t care too much for the flavor, esp canned they were awful…well, by my tastes. They are easy to process though.

I usually grow my own swt potato slips but I wanted to try a dif variety, Porto Rico, so I ordered slips and they were the sorriest looking things when they arrived, lol. I planted them in a flat until they got some vigor to them then interplanted them between the garlic (which I’ve since harvested) and all is well. :blush:

Neat carrot trick. I’ve used an old sheet to cover them and that has worked well but at certain times of year the slugs just leave me stems. I’m excited to try the board, and I’ll let you know.

1 Like

Do you mix any soil in the straw at all?

Tony

1 Like

I had some compost, so I did thick layer of straw, then covered with thin layer of compost. This year I have half-composted straw I bought in fall, I mixed it with compost, otherwise the straw was too wet and heavy. On another lot I dig the tranche in the soil and first use the soil to close the tranche as potatoes were growing, then started to add straw. With Red Pontiac any method works, as soon as you provide new layers on top. It loves to make new shoots close to the soil level and make tubers there, so as soon as you adding new material on top, it will continue grow for you. I didn’t see any other potato doing it that well.

1 Like

I’ve grown both dragon tongue and long beans. Wasn’t too crazy about dragon tongue. Decided not to plant the left over seeds this year. More space for Calima.
I plant about 20 plants of long beans every year. Enough to eat and freeze a bunch for a family of 4. They do have a nutty flavor. I usually stir fry it. They produce heavily. Keep em mulched and watered well. This year I’m trying “Black seeded Taiwan” from Baker Creek. They need a strong trellis. Looks nice in the garden and productive. You’ll love them!

1 Like

I grew red long beans the last two years. They grow and look really good. However when tasted side by side the regular green beans tasted better for me.

1 Like

I’ve grown a few different types of the long green beens including a white seeded green one, a mosaic version (shorter) and the red been (“red noodle”) and the red was the best. I agree that they aren’t as good to my taste buds or my families as a good green been like Rattlesnake or some of the greasy beans I’ve grown, but they’re still pretty good, super productive and keep producing in the heat when the others stop setting new beans. The ability to work in the heat is pretty important here when other beans will become mostly non-productive for up to a month at a time.

Between the less crispy texture and different taste I can imagine that they wouldn’t be great for most canning, but I gave some to my neighbor to make some dilly beans and they were great. Maybe not as crisp as green beans, but still crisp and with the pickling being more of the flavor I didn’t really notice much difference with other pickled beans. They also kept their color when pickled, so it might be neat to try pickling yellow wax beans, green beans and some of the red noodles to make a nice colorful display. They do leach out some of their color into the pickling liquid, so maybe the yellows would have to be pickled separately.

1 Like

While I was out in the tomato patch putting down mulch today, I’ve already noticed some black spots on some leaves on a few plants. Some of them haven’t even been in the ground two weeks, and now they’re getting diseases. The varieties showing the spots are Red Calabash, and Siberian Pink’s.

I shouldn’t be surprised, considering the wet, warm and humid weather. Just hope we can get something from them before it’s too late. I’ve decided to let some of them of them fruit, because of the disease pressure. Most of them are two feet tall already, so they should be close to being mature enough.

It almost seems a waste to try to grow them around here, considering the climate. If we didn’t have freezes in May, they could’ve been put in the ground then, to maybe get ahead of the hot, humid weather. Oh well, it’s still early, we might get a good crop. The peppers are looking good after getting some mulch around them.

1 Like

Bob there is always a way to grow tomatoes. Come on, snap out of it, :blush:. In the dreary months of Jan/Feb put seeds in a few quart pots (I just do 4 of an early variety) They will cheer you up through late winter, early spring. Quart pots are also easy to bring in and out according to the weather. Pinch them back if they get leggy and pull off any blooms. WAIT until the soil is warm (>60 deg) to put them in even if it is late May (they’ll grow fine in the pots). Put a cage on them straightaway.
We had pizza tonight and the base was sliced salted garden tomatoes grown just this way. :relaxed:

3 Likes

Bob, I do not want to criticize your growing methods, everyone is doing their own ways, but this is what I learned to do over several years.
I plant only 10 tomato plants. I used to plant 15 but this is too much for me. I sow them early and plant out them early in the garden. They receive a lot of TLC, a row cover protection during the freeze, a sturdy cage, drip irrigation, mulch and regular fungicides every week. But it is a lot easier to take care of only 10 plants. I often plant new heirloom varieties so 2-3 of them do not produce well, the remaining plants grow huge and produce a lot of tomatoes. I do can, juice, dry and preserve them and usually have too many and get tied of them. So my idea that less tomatoes with more intensive care produce better results. Here is the picture of my tomato patch made a week ago. They grow very fast and they are larger now. They outgrew their large tomato cages and I have to put extra cages on top. I will make new pictures today.

8 Likes

An old timer once told me the most important thing that was needed when growing tomatoes is to keep a stiff upper lip. I think he was right.

3 Likes

Here are the pictures this morning. I am trying to find a better way to support tomatoes they grow too fast and too tall.

Some tomatoes that are doing better so far. Polish linguisa.

Romeo

Chocolate stripes it has the most flowers and tomatoes set.

Grafted Yablochniy Lipetskiy. It also set a lot of fruits.

I also started to see disease spots on the leaves. It is about the time. Sigh.

6 Likes

Thanks for the advice. Yes, I’m growing 43 tomato plants this year, but it’s less the 70 from last year, and the year before when I did about 50. So, I’ve “cut back” some this year, but I made it up by putting 41 pepper plants in the ground. We’ll probably plant less next year. All the fruit bush/tree plantings earlier this spring has prob burned me out right when veggie season is starting up.

Was it you that said you let yer tom’s fruit as soon as they can? That is, you don’t pinch off any blossoms? I’m thinking of doing that this year, just so I can get some fruit before disease takes over.

1 Like

I’ll be OK, it’s just been a trying week for us. We had to replant seed taters a couple weeks ago because the first batch rotted in the ground from all the water. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of tomatoes this season.

I was out last night looking at the plots and the 'mater patch actually did pretty well. When we tilled the patch Thu night, that helped divert all the water around the plants last night. So, all that mulch I put down the last couple days is still pretty much there.

1 Like

I do not pinch their blossoms. They have the first flowers early and they usually do not set fruits on them, probably because of the temperature swings in the spring. If I figure out how to make them to set tomatoes early, then I can have the early tomatoes about this time. I think if they are growing in the ground it is fine to let them to set tomatoes whenever they want it.

2 Likes

My early tomato variety will flower and set fruit because it is warm under the lights where they are growing (warmer than the rest of the house). I don’t pull all of the fruit off. A few won’t stunt the growth but many will actually stall the growth of the small plants. When they get put outside they won’t set for a while then resume with warm weather. That’s why it is good to leave them in the pots as long as practical - shuttling them in and out.

1 Like

My luck with tom’s and containers have been mostly a failing proposition. So, I just put them all in the ground, it’s just been late the last couple years. They went out the first of June both years, because of May freezes. I think the last one was planted on June 6th.

1 Like

Dum Dum me decided to forego a fence around my 60 tomato plants and several hundred bean plants. Everything was going well until this week - lots and lots of green tomatoes, pole beans 6 foot high with lots of blooms. Now the tomato fruits are gone and most of the bean plants have been destroyed. I think I’ve learned my lesson the hard way. 8 ft t posts and bailing twine are going up in a couple of days. There’s not too many things that put me in a mood of malicious rage but wrecking my plants is one of them. My fault though. :rage:

1 Like

Who’s your suspect?

1 Like

Based on the damage, I would guess Mr and/or Miss Deer is the suspect.

I totally understand your rage, I’ve come across missing tomatoes or parts of plants and hope no one heard my subsequent vocal tirade… One of my typical responses is- “you have hundreds of acres of green forest, grass, etc, and you have to raid my #%$& garden!!!”

The solution that’s worked well last year and so far this one is a fishing line fence. But, deer are devilish, so I feel it’s just a matter of time…

1 Like