Day 6 Cracked up, lesson learned. Goal reached

[stayingawake20]

Never seen that canning process before... LOL

[skybirdbird]

wow... sorry for the loss... could it be strained through coffee filters? the deck looks great! :-) there are lots of vertical garden options... just search yt... i wonder if foil on top of the tomato dirt would help reflect more light???

[m6996j]

hi cp ,could you hang the plants from the bottom of your banister with coat hangers..hang them from where the banister is anchered to the floor, this is the strongest point.. this may leave rust spots on the banister.. you could use 1/8" chainlink fencing tie wire,, no rust and easy to work into shapes.

[QCprepper]

Pressure expansion. It freezes from the outside inwards, meaning it builds up a lot of pressure against the sides. Im surprised it broke the jar though...

Next time try super cooling them first; i dont know how well itll work, but it will be interesting.

Lastly, why is the suace ruined? Just dont thaw it until you need it, and bust off the frozen part that split off first...

[CanadianPatriot1973]

@QCprepper not worth the risk having my kids guts sliced, lol. :) Thanx for watching!

[Dewdaahman]

hey CP.. bummer about your sause.. I was told that yellow on tomato leae is a lacl of Nitrogin.. I put bat guano (do-do) on the soil and they came right back in 3 days.. take care.. :)

[CanadianPatriot1973]

@Dewdaahman I just watched a video from growing your greens, it said to collect my own urine, and mix it 6 parts to 1 with water. hmm, dont know if I am that much of a greeny that I could get myself to do it, but we put animal feces in so.......lol, this is a tough one! It is to replace the nitrogen naturally, without using chemicals, or animal feeces... would you do it?

[Dewdaahman]

@CanadianPatriot1973 good question.. other animals pee on our plants, bird droppings, etc.. maybe it'd work.. let me know how it works.. ummmm, is the urine suppossed to be clear, a dull yellow or orangy tint..? lol..  jk.. good luck, and let us know what you came up with..

[atticus9799]

Pull the yellowing stems off the tomato plants. They will not serve any purpose for you. Also, I usually pull all the leaves below the bottom third of the trunk off. They will not produce any tomatoes for you and you are just wasting the plant's energy. The fruit will only come at the top. Pull the suckers cause they also "suck" the plant's energy and stunt fruit production. I know it hurts to pull those leaves. But you will be happy if you do. Use Epsom salts on the soil.

[CanadianPatriot1973]

@atticus9799 Pulling the yellow leaves as we speak :) A vid I did a day or two ago, I talk about pulling suckers, i get conflicting theories on it, so 1 is getting suckers pulled, 2 are not, my little uneducated experiment, stay tuned :) Epsom salts in the soil? Really, do i desolve it or??? How much?

[atticus9799]

@CanadianPatriot1973 Just sprinkle about a tablespoon on those potted tomatoes, right on the soil. No need to dissolve the salts. They will leech into the soil on their own as you water. The salts are high in calcium and will make the stem and root structure stronger and will help with blossom set for fruit production. This is a cheap and easy amendment for your plants.

[slobomotion]

We have three exposures. One side is vulnerable to burglars, the North side is nice and cool in Summer, but not useful, and the Southern side is way too sunny and nearly everything I plant gets too much sun and we have no AC here and we have to close up the shutters during the summer on that side. A plus? No lights needed at night. Street lights do plenty. sigh Can you believe it, TOO MUCH SUN? You are witness!

[CanadianPatriot1973]

@slobomotion lol!! I hear ya, I have a hard time deciding where to put anything... it will be a challenge, and I am not over optimistic that I will have success this year, but I will learn! :)

[slobomotion]

@CanadianPatriot1973 Try to remember (I come from a long line of farmers) that it takes 3 to 5 years to get production going. Really. I have an Amish background and one of the reasons they are so community-minded is that people have failures year after year until they get some good stuff going. Then, they have to share!

[slobomotion]

Aw, don't feel too bad. It only happened this once. It shouldn't have happened, as far as I can see. Over 15 years, one stock disaster is just not the end of the world, but the jars look nice and now they are a writeoff! I try to keep my highstrung Parisian spouse calm. The smallest thing drives him nuts when something screws up and it costs money, and I totally, totally understand that. It's my money, too! sigh Think of it as angels? The stock was tainted? xo

[CanadianPatriot1973]

@slobomotion you know, i was thinking the same thing. I wonder if it was bad? Not as in the reason the jars broke, but as a protection... weird I know, but it did cross my mind :)

[slobomotion]

@CanadianPatriot1973 Yeah, think positive. The ice crystals formed slowly in your jars, the freezer is stressed, perhaps going kaput, and maybe overburdened? I am a tad kooky and believe in angels. When bad stuff happens to me, I say, hm, are they trying to tell me something? At the very least, it makes me so grateful when things go okay! I am way too superstitious, however. I have an Amish BG and am Köpruülü, very psychic and all. Hard to keep in check!!!!!!

[CitySurvivalist]

I put my stock in ziplock bags then in the freezer, after it cools of course :) 

[CanadianPatriot1973]

@CitySurvivalist Sigh, I do that as well. But I only had small ones, and with a family of 7 small zips dont really cut it. I have done this for OVER 15 years...but it was bound to get me one day, lol Thanx for watching :)

[CredoVeritas]

I used to use cans but now use vacuum seal bags. Saves lots of space in freezer and shape them to fit before they set and freeze. I can also make bigger batches than we can with jars.

That's a shame that you learned that lesson the hard way. Good luck on the next go-around!

[CanadianPatriot1973]

@CredoVeritas yes, I will be going back to bags, I used the jars, because that is what I had available, and now... sigh... I guess I am not to terribly sad, because it was garbage soup, lol. But... oh well, live and learn eh? Thanx for watching!

[MrsNewAmericaNow]

remove the yellow or dying leaves, its takes energy away from plant. they also sell planter bags that hang on the walls and a kit that contains a pole with stacking pots to grow vertical. you could install another self standing hand rail the correct size for the other planter boxes to have a second level.growingyourgreensdotcom had a video that showed great ideas for growing vertical....it was one of his flower expo trips in chicago i think.

[CanadianPatriot1973]

Ok, I am going to remove those dying ones right away. I did see growing your greens vids so I have been putting some thought into that. Thank you so much!

[MrsNewAmericaNow]

@CanadianPatriot1973 don't forget you can use coffee grounds too and you can replant the suckers for more plants. 

[CanadianPatriot1973]

@MrsNewAmericaNow replant the suckers?? OH Please tell me how to cut em off, and do it proper :) Please? :)

[MrsNewAmericaNow]

@CanadianPatriot1973 tomato suckers are new tomato plants, if I recall you just stick them in water until they root, you can do the same to pineapple tops too.

[ctawbasmk]

FOR MORE PLANTS, THINK VERTICAL. WAS THE SUN COMING UP WHEN YOU DID VID? IF SO THE WALL WHERE GRILL IS LOOKS LIKE GOOD SPOT FOR SHELVING. YOU ARE GOING TO NEED TO HANG THOSE STRAWBERRIES OR YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO WALK FOR THE RUNNERS. YOU CAN ALSO UTILIZE WALL AROUND GARDEN DOWNSTAIRS TOO. YOU CAN USE BRACKETS AND HANG FROM THERE TOO. MAYBE CUKES AND SQUASH. YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB, HANG IN THERE.

[CanadianPatriot1973]

@ctawbasmk The sun was actually going down when I filmed. Maybe I will move the strawberries into the main garden, or as you say, a hanging pot. Thank you. And the walls of the garden will have plastic chicken wire put up. I am putting in peas and beans :) along the left and back wall, the right doesnt get much sun. I can hand cukes and squash? Hmm, ok, research to be done, this sounds like a great idea! Thank you for watching!

[spinalfluidontap]

Okay...it is all about the cooling. Now...are the mouths of these jars a little smaller? It is just that water expands as it cools of coarse you know this...physics broke your jars, not bad luck or magick. (Gasses produced in the cooking process...like fermentation so to speak) Vertical on the balcany. Uhmmm you know those floor to ceiling pole lamps? Maybe three lights? Think '70's. Well like that. But pots, not lights. Gardens in pots and planters....

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[CanadianPatriot1973]

@spinalfluidontap SPOT ON!! Geesh! I ALWAYS, put it in wide mouth jars, I had run out, so I put it in these jars with the smaller mouth! ACK! Thanx Paddy, LESSON LEARNED FOR LIFE! I will put an annotation on the vid so others will learn, thanx! As for the 70's vertical lamps, I knew exactly what you were talking about when you said that, lol! I am getting old :P Thanx my friend! And thanx for watching!

[onlywhenprovoked]

perhaps (whatever that stuff is) was thicker this time than usual... and retained more heat than usual, and wasn't cooled down enough before putting it in.

[CanadianPatriot1973]

@onlywhenprovoked I had chilled it in the fridge 24 hours, so it was cool enough, look above, paddy got it spot on i'll explain on his comment. . Thanx for watching!!

[slobomotion]

@onlywhenprovoked I think this is correct. She had big ice crystals there. Flash freezing avoids big ice crystals but most home freezers don't do this. For whatever reason, her stuff took too long to freeze and ice crystals expanded. Bummer. I used to pay a home food prime meats delivery service in NY extra to bring me flash frozen meat. It was more tender cuz there were no big ice crystals in it. Ah, the good ol' days of convenience and livin' largish.