What are you growing in 2012

[removed message...posted on wrong thread]

This message was edited Feb 7, 2012 1:46 PM

I don't have anything that fancy. :(

just plain yellow pear, grape, cherry, and ping pong.

I need to order my seeds like - today if i want to have some bigger tomatoes into the late spring/early summer.

What a fun thread! As for the topic, my peppers list is short: Poblano L, Tobasco, Ancho San Luis and Pepperoncini. I'm almost over the hump getting my tomato seedlings going (waiting for the last tray to germinate), so I hope to start on these soon.

Do I dare say? I use Jiffy seed starting mix for planting seeds. I used RO for potting up this year - "only" because I was in a rush and there is no big box store in town but there is a hydroponics store where RO is sold. I like Jiffy much more for seedlings because it's more refined. The RO had sticks and other large pieces, some over 2" long. RO worked ok for potting up, but I will probably stick with the simple seed starting mixes for germination. While off topic, I thought a balance of opinion might be nice.

Just a pictorial update:

The Black Krims, Purple Perfect and Momotaro (#1, #2, and #3, left to right) you see are 35 days from sowing, in the same community tray, only given water up until two weeks ago when I started using a very weak solution of MG Plant Food for Veggies (about 3 applications to date). As you can see, they are paler, more spindly (not exactly "leggy"), have fewer leaves, and have yellowing cotyledons. Overall, they are lacking...

The Russian Rose and the Virginia Sweets, however, (#4 and #5, left to right) are 23 days from sowing in the Roots Organics steroid mix. As you can see, they are growing like they are on steroids. They have been given nothing except water -- so it's gotta be in the soil...

Conclusion. If you want to super-charge your seedlings out of the shoot, sow them into the Roots Organic. They are more vibrant, greener (absolutely emerald green), have stockier stems, and shoot up in no time at all. They don't even appear to be utilizing nourishment from their cotyledons, which are virtually in tact and not shriveling up. Which does mean your timing better be spot on, because once they're up, they KEEP growing up.

Linda

P.S. Sorry I didn't match the pictures variety to variety, but it doesn't much matter. You get the story here.

This message was edited Feb 9, 2012 1:10 PM

This message was edited Feb 9, 2012 1:14 PM

good job Gymgirl

Thank you, Drthor!

It was an eye-opening experiment, and I learned a lot!

Great photos- It will sure be good when Admin can fix the multiple photos to just do a slideshow instead of needing to keep going back to the original post !!

Great job, Linda! I'll be anxious to see how mine do too in RO.

OutsidePlaying,
I only watered the RO trays when the the soil turned a light brown. I tried gauging the water needs by how light the trays got, but the RO is a very HEAVY medium, so I just watched the soil turn lighter. I watered an average of once per week.

Linda

I can hardly wait to try the Roots Organic potting soil. I hope that I can find some locally. I will also, in the meantime add some mychorriza (sp?) and greensand to my existing mix and see if there is an improvement.

Great experiment Linda. Thanks for posting.

Thanks, ya'll for the kind comments on the experiment.

Thanks to Drthor for sharing the RO in the first place! Kuddos to drthor!

Hugs!

Linda I thought you started fertilizing the ones in the Sunshine mix just last weekend? That doesn't give them much time to catch up to the ones that have been fertilized from the beginning.

1Lisac,
I think you are right. The ones I just started fertilizing are looking better since the fertilization. One thing I'm confused about is there's what looks like sun scald on some of the leaves. Maybe from touching the fluorescent lights? I KNOW I'm not over-fertilizing these babies! I learned that lesson the VERY hard way last January!

y'all welcome

I have had that too I think it's either from touching the lights or having droplets on the leaves under the lights. According to what you told me it was just last weekend (don't know what day) that you started with the fertilizer so either way it's been less then a week, glad they are looking better.

Thanks, 1Lisac!

Setting up the second light stand came in handy. Now that everything's moved into the cool room, I can start the other 9 flats of mid- to early-season tomatoes, and get the bell peppers going. Although, I may wait another week or two on the bells. We're dipping down to 38 tonight, and 31 tomorrow night.

I'll be starting these new flats with a 50-50 mix of the RO and Sunshine Mix, just to stretch the RO. It takes almost a half bag of the RO to adequately fill one flat halfway high. Too $$$ for my blood!

I just get tired reading about all this ambition and work !!! You all must be on some good energy drinks!

Jo your time will come.

GG-just a suggestion but may be you could start one flat in just the Sunshine mix but start fertilizing them earlier. How old were these that you started using fertilizer on last weekend? I would be interested to see the comparison. You mentioned that the latest ones look better already after being fertilized.

After seeing the latest weather report of cold and rainy I'm delivering 240 seedlings to their new home tomorrow. To make room to start the whole process all over again. Im going to try and get pictures I think they look great. They were started on Jan 3rd and were supposed to be small but I think I over shoot the mark on that. I was looking at them today and panicked because one flat had something wrong with the leaves. I realized they were the ones with Varigated foliage, I knew then that I needed a break. LOL

It always surprises me that they have such different growth patterns but they sure smell good.

Congratulations Lisa!

I registered again so I could check up on you all. Reading this thread has been inspiring.

I starting the first seeds 12-17-2011. I started hardening them off shortly after 1st true leaves. They go outdoors everyday it's above 50 degrees and come in most nights. Sixteen have made it to the garden in Kozy coats, 8 on Jan 16 and 8 on Jan 23.

Here is my 2012 list:

Black Krim
Black Zebra
Brandy Sweet Plum
Chappy X/L Red
Eva Purple Ball
Indian Stripe
JD's Special C-Tex
Last years Volunteer Cherry
Mountain Glory
Muriel F1
Principle Borghese
Purple Russian
Rambling Red Stripe F1
San Marzano Gigante 3
Tasti-Lee F1

The tray of 60 new seedlings pictured will be ready around mid March. I think I will be selling my extras this year rather than giving them away.

You can see some more recent pictures of my garden on my facebook page. Go to Wall photos https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.304656056220809.75137.100000292518947&type=3#!/media/set/?set=a.353049641381450.83551.100000292518947&type=3

This message was edited Feb 11, 2012 1:55 PM

This message was edited Feb 11, 2012 4:19 PM

My, my!
You HAVE been a busy boy!

texasrockgarden you are a hero.
Could you also post your adventure in this thread, please:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1233680/

I am monitoring Zone 8 for growing tomatoes this year.

Are the tomatoes on the Kozy coats outside all day long?

I have started to harden off myomatoes last week.
From shade to full sun and wind.
They are doing great.

I will keep hardening them for next week. Planting out date Friday 17th!
Today is so cold. Right now 35 F !!

But it will be going up to mid 60s next week.

Hi y'all ...
Finally checking in with the final list of seeds I've done.
Money Maker, Box Car Willie, Early Black, No Name (one we lost the tag on a couple of years on and keep saving the seeds on), Tennessee Britches, Eva Purple Ball, Black From Tula, Lady Lucy, Daniels, Floridade, Kelloggs Breakfast, Aussie, Spudakee Purple, Delicious, Brandywine Red, Aunt Ginnies Purple, Super Choice and Beauty King.

Here's a picture of the Money Maker. Remember I started an experiment ... I started all my seeds in 8 oz water bottles so I could put my labels right on them. This one was started on Jan 9th. I had to pot up to a 16 oz on the 28th of Jan. It got so tall, I repotted it in a 2 lt soda bottle on the 9th of Feb. I'll keep it here until I put it out. Now for the pic. ☺

texasrockgarden, I always so enjoy looking at your photos.

That Last Year's Volunteer Cherry--I've grown that one many times and will probably grow it again this year! =D It always makes it into my garden somewhere ;~).

Terri...I almost always as a rule pull up all volunteers. This particular cherry has some toms shaped like a pear and some like tiny eggs. It came up in a good spot where nothing was planted so I decided to let it grow. It did well thru the hot summer with minimal water and made it to the first killing freeze when I picked the final few red and some green toms. The red ones are what I used for seeds. The flavor is not too bad either. I intend to plant 3 to 5 this year and keep seeds from one I like best.

The only tomato that comes close to this one in shape is the Juliet (F1) I grew two years ago. It was flavorful and bore heavily but it had a tough skin that I didn't care for so I didn't plant it last year.

For some reason I always have good luck with Sun Gold volunteers. So I always try to just let a few grow if the start up in the compost pile or next to the cattle panels I'm using as support for anything else.

hi from manitoba canada ! i too have been going over all the catalouges....for my annuals, grasses, perennials, peppers, and i start about 30 varieties of tomatos each year. last years fav's had to be:
petunia: picobella, celebrity white,and superbissima alba
marigold: durango yellow
zinnia: whirligig
echinacea: powwow wildberry
columbine: songbird
tomatos: hybrids applause, first lady, heirloom san marzano, barnes mountain yellow
this year i'm trying gaillardia arizona apricot and night phlox midnight candy.
i have had good germination, growth and flowering from these plants.
my interests are also fragrant flowers and white flowers for my patio at night.
good luck with your plants!!

I'm very excited about this year, IF (BIG IF) the weather holds and we don't get rain daily I really think my plants will do well. I had great germination and very few contracted the mysterious funk that kills several seedlings a year ir died while being hardened off so I'm optimistic. I was able to purchase 6 more EB's (original version) a few days ago so I'll wash and sanitize them today. My main concern will be the sun, we have NO shade and since we've only had one season in this house it's hard to tell if that was the major problem last year or if the plants themselves weren't healthy enough to withstand the horrible weather we had last spring/summer.

These will bring my total up to 24 large and one Jr.We've tried to grow beans in the past with little luck getting a large enough harvest so I'm hoping that three boxes will allow us enough production for our purpose (dog's food). I'm also going to try a hybrid zuke, and keep my fingers crossed it doesn't get mildew, grow so large I can't water it as we've had in the past. The other two boxes will be used more like planters and I'll have my day to day herbs in them up close to the kitchen. The raised bed will contain watermelon and cantaloupe. After seeing Tplant's wonderful melons for years I finally decided to take the leap.

This will be our largest task to date in the garden with 26 tomatoes, 6 peppers, 8 okra, 25 bush beans, 2 zuke, 12 cucumber and 9 melons. lol and Serg has told me that this is it...no more EB's.

This message was edited Mar 6, 2012 8:00 AM

No shade is a blessing. It's the best IMO.

How many tomato plants per EB? Do you use the EB ground cover? I would think the cover would help in retaining moisture in the soil, i.e., slow evaporation.

lol well for most places no shade would be great but in Houston it fries the plants. I plant two plants per EB and use a cover on each box. No sure what ground cover EB sells as I've never seen it but we put the boxes on black landscape cloth covered with black mulch. I'll try to take a picture this afternoon.

I can also say that the garden by my house, which has dappled shade, does much better then my garden that sits out in in the direct sun. I've lost so many plants that said full sun. They didn't mean Texas sun.

I know, we've looked into making a "roof" of sun cloth for our plants, it was just brutal last year..you could see the plants cooking.

I watched the Victory Garden Sunday afternoon, and was totally floored at all the GAZILLION herb and veggie plants that were growing in flats in a greenhouse. Granted, I know they control the heat and humidity in there. But, what floored me was the filtered light through the greenhouse glass. I kept hearing "6-8 hours of FULL sunshine..." in my head. But my eyes were seeing all this gorgeous greenery growing in what looked like regular old room lighting. Certainly not our blazing Texas sunshine.

BTW, I'm growing this in 2012. They're just now cranking up, thanks to Countrygardens!

GG, are those from seeds?

No, Jo,
These are the same Seascapes that Countrygardens is growing in her strawberry tables. Ordered bare root plants from the Berry Farm?, at the link she posted on her thread.

These berries are just about the easiest veggie I've ever grown!

Your grow bucket set up is very interesting! My strawberries are going in ground. I didn't have time to winter sow this year (not much winter here anyway) but I understand that strawberry seeds are good candidates for winter sowing.

Hey, Terri!
I researched, and also asked Countrygardens about taking suckers from these plants to start my next crop. The replies totally jived!

Countrygardens told me to let the runners continue growing over the sides, and, when they hit the dirt, they'll take root and form new plants. I cut them away after they're well-anchored. Since the bucket is elevated, the suckers are slowly floating downward, and growing beautiful greenery in the air. I'm going to sit the bucket in a shallow tub filled with soil, so the suckers will have a medium. I examined a sucker yesterday, and the roots look like a row of teeth at the bottom of the plant. All they need is to touch some dirt, and we're off!

The only issue I'll have is keeping them alive through our summer Texas Hel....er...Heat... Since I planted them later than November (our recommended timeframe), they're coming ripe just on the cusp of springtime. if I had planted in mid-October, I'd have had strawberries on the Christmas table.

CG said it would only take about 1 month for the new plants to be ready, once they root. I they don't make it thru the heat, I may have to find some heat-resistant berries, if such exists, for next season.

Linda

Mine came from Berries Unlimited (AR). I picked the varieties they said do well in Florida or Texas/Arkansas. I'll be putting shade cloth up over my patch this summer. I've been told this will help. I think it will be fun to see how they do. Eventually I want enough to eat fresh and made preserves. All grown in my own garden! =D

Uh, lemme know when preserve season starts at your house. I'm good for a drive-by!

Now, if you say FIG preserves, I'M MOVIN' IN!

lol!