2009 Garden Vlog 3, Planting Tomatoes

[tinkygarden1878]

I tell you what, I mixed in a few handfulls of that cheap manure from Wal*Mart with the soil around my maters this year, and what a difference it makes! Because it is "Cheap" it contains some burnt wood. That burnt wood supplies the tomatoes with extra potassium, Potash, and other nutrients that are very benificial to tomatoes. The only thing I do not like about that cheap manure is the gravel in it.

Love the vids!

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks tinky! Yeah, I always try to add *something* to the soil directly where I plant stuff. Last year I used some of this same Walmart "Organic Humus and Manure" to make manure tea to put on my veggies. What wound up being left over in the bottom of my bucket when I finished pouring the tea off of it several times was several handfuls of sand. It didn't have any gravel in it. So I guess the gravel is a variable thing.

[tinkygarden1878]

Today at Lowes Hardware, I picked up a couple bags of their cheap, $1.38 a bag composted humus and manure and it is great quality! It is very dark in color with no sand or rocks to mention. It is a really great product at a really great price. You might want to check it out.

Great vids!

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks for the tip. Pretty much every bag of whatever I've bought at Wal-Mart recently has been pure crap.

[tinkygarden1878]

Was the stuff you bought at Wal*Mart grey with a lot of clay? That is how mine was.

[Blinkazoid]

I've bought two different bags of stuff at Wal-Mart this season. "Organic Humus And Maunure" (I can't remember the brand name) and "Hyponex Potting Soil"

The Hyponex Potting soil was not anywhere near fluffy enough to be called potting soil. It had NO peat and NO vermiculite in it as proper potting soil should. It was essentially useless as potting soil but was fairly dark with no clay that I could tell.

The first bunch of bags of "organic humus and manure" I bought seemed to be OK, Cont.

[Blinkazoid]

But then I went back and bought one final bag of it and it did seem to be different. I'd say it does have some clay in it. I'm making some manure tea out of it and it doesn't even seem to have enough manure in it to get the tea to bubbling like it should. (Manure tea is where you put some manure in a bucket of water and stir it every day for a week and then pour it on your plants. This manure tea actually has a red appearance like clay would have although in the bag it does look grey. Cont.

[Blinkazoid]

Anyhow the bottom line is I'm not buying any more bags of garden soil amendments from Wal-Mart except possibly for the bags of "Miracle Grow" brand which I do trust. Avoid the "Hyponex" brand like the plague.

[tinkygarden1878]

Yes, most off brands from WalMart you cannot trust.

Keep the awesome vids coming!

[BirdOfParadise777]

Thank you for answering so quickly:)

BOP

[BirdOfParadise777]

These have been very helpful! I have been looking for information about planting tomatoes. I like the "fence cage." Looking forward to seeing if it works. Is there anything you will be planting under it? Or is it too shady?

Do you have a video that explains what you buried in the ground there and why? Is it different than composting?

Thanks:)

BOP

[Blinkazoid]

No I won't be planting anything under it. I want to maintain as much air circulation as possible to help prevent tomato blight so I'll be leaving it clear.

I buried the peelings there as an alternative to composting. I'm sure it's no better than composting,it's just a different way of doing things. I actually have started a compost pile this season so will be composting from now on instead of using this method. Oddly enough the tomatos I've planted near this fence haven't done nearly Cont.

[Blinkazoid]

as well as some other nearby tomatoes I've planted in cages where I did not bury any peelings. I have no idea why that is. Sometimes gardening defies being able to figure out, LOL.

I actually did post of video late last season showing myself burying some peelings. (just common houshould peelings such as potatoes, okra tips and caps, tomato ends) but I'm not sure which one it is. It's not titled "burying peelings" or anything.

[anniehiggy]

Still waiting on my tomato soup from last year! :)

[Blinkazoid]

Whoops, I seem to keep forgetting about that:) I'll move you to the top of the list:)

I need to put some Miracle Grow on this years crop. They just seem to sit there laughing at me, not growing and turning yellow.

[fehquig]

I'm looking forward to the tomatoes...

[Blinkazoid]

Me too!!! I'm afraid they're going to be late this year though. It's been really cool and wet here this spring and they're a little yellow looking. It got down to 35 degrees last night. I'm lucky it didn't frost.

[fehquig]

We're also having a late Spring. For a day or two it gets warm and then the mercury drops again...

[ralphedds1]

how come so far apart? and we never get tired of watching. it's interesting. nothing like having it right from the garden.

[Blinkazoid]

If they do well they'll totally cover the fence even when planted this far apart. This is the first year I've planted any tomatoes without using a large tomato cage. I'm hoping these will have enough air circulation to prevent late season blight which is a BIG problem in this area.

[dorotwhy]

"And of course, the deeper you can go the better off you are" ;O)

[Blinkazoid]

Deeper is always better. All it takes is a bigger shovel, LOL.

[dorotwhy]

There is something that happens when that shovel penetrates the fertile soil for the first time... in the season... it's rejuvenating mmmmm

[dorotwhy]

I planted grass seed today, whew gardening is TIRING... I think I need a drink... hmm... an ice cold diet Dr. Pepper sounds good right about now. I wonder why that is? I've NEVER even had a diet Dr. Pepper... what is happening.

[Blinkazoid]

Gardening can be very exhausting for sure! I'm on a health kick at the moment and haven't drank soda of any kind in a couple of months. I've even been drinking water at restaurants. I'm sure I'll get over it, LOL. But if I *were* drinking soda, it'd be straight back to the Dr. Peppers. (But not the diet ones. I've finally been convinced that Aspartame is pretty bad for you. Or I might go for a YooHoo. Those things are delicious. Although you can't plant tomatoes in them, LOL.

[NaturalTwentyFilms]

The greatest effort I ever put into getting a tomato was standing on a line at the supermarket. I am in awe and impressed with you efforts in this regard.

Now, I might go through all of that hard work if I knew the plants might produce a Porsche 911 GT2.

[Blinkazoid]

Hehehe, yes it certainly is a cruel reality that Porsche's do not grow in the veggie garden.... or on trees either for that matter. If they did I'd probably even go so far as to invest in a greenhouse!

[sprichbeeke]

These will be so delicious...later in the Summer. Nothing compares with Toatoes from your own Garden!

[Blinkazoid]

That's for sure! If I didn't plant another thing I'd still plant tomatoes!

[thizizliz]

How about if we tell you if we ever get tired of them?? By the time you were done with it, that soil looked terrific and all the worm castings will be terrific. I have a compost bucket in my back yard and get good soil from it, but garden rarely. Silly not to, but for some reason I don't anymore.

[Blinkazoid]

OK then, be sure and let me know:) I don't blame anyone for not planting a garden. Gardening is a LOT of work!!! Actually next year I'll probably be moving my entire garden down where I planted the okra last year. The soil is MUCH better there. I should have moved it all this year.

[askmisscris]

I just learned this in my water pollution biology course - tilling the ground actually removes carbon from the soil which isn't optimal (I had no idea!) and lots of farmers are going no-till. I thought it was interesting. Of course, they like tilling generaly to soften the ground and kill weeds (death by destruction) but... yea - thought I'd pass it on :)

[Blinkazoid]

I've heard about no-till for many years. I hadn't heard about the carbon. No till simply won't work in all cases. The ground where I plant my garden is sometimes like concrete before it's tilled. Tilling also of course chops up the earthworms which isn't good. They come back pretty fast though. The worst thing for earthworms is fertilizer. I'm guessing too that many people who do no-till use an herbacide for the weeds. I don't use herbacide. At any rate I pretty much have to do a certain amount.

[askmisscris]

Actually, the people using no till are trying to be more environmentally friendly and are not using herbicides/pesticides either.

I tell ya - I've learned a LOT the last semester in the water pollution course .... I had no idea some of this stuff is out there and how profitable it can be to not use chemicals but how the education is pretty intense to learn how to do it.

I'm scared to start my organic garden LOL

[dicom]

Blink, do you ever have trouble with the cats wanting to scratch in the garden?

[Blinkazoid]

They scratch in the garden quite a bit actually. Really it's not much of a problem for me since I've got such a large garden. They only damage a minor amount of it so I don't worry about it. They're nowhere near as ambitious as dogs when it comes to destroying stuff.

[randomwritings]

digging deep reminds me I have a (w)hole video to use yet - must get that nearer to the top of our videos to do list

[Blinkazoid]

My videos to do list has enough dust on top of it that I could probably plant another garden on it!

[debbiez112]

I enjoy your garden videos so much. Please make more and don't worry about how long they are we all really enjoy them. I think Suzy like to garden with you. She seem to always be near by.

Have you ever canned tomatoes? I wish I was able to grow a big garden and can and freeze lots of veggies from the garden. That is how I was raised and I tell you there is no better taste than some home grown food all year long. :)

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks Debbie! Nope, I've never canned or frozen tomatoes. I'm anticipating a bumper crop this year so I might try freezing some of them though.

[1DRock37167]

Help! I have a crow that has decided to attack my tomato plants. I sprinkled some crushed red chilis on the plants tonight, anything else I could do to get rid of them and remain organic?

Free mulch is good mulch, even with the grass. I am never tired of learning a new way to make food, please continue:-)

[Blinkazoid]

Sometimes a scarecrow will dissuade crows. They're aggrevating to build though. It's pretty rare for crows to bother tomatoes. Usually they mainly bother corn.

[1DRock37167]

I had hoped to not have to deal with a scarecrow, but if this keeps up I will have too!

[Dlorezzz]

I loved this video. I enjoyed your garden last summer and watching you cook squash..

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks Dlorezzz! I've not done a cooking vid in a while. Sometime this summer I hope to do a stir fry video.

[thisblender]

not tired of the plant videos, this is the reason i subscribed :)

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks thisblender! Lots more garden vids to come this summer!

[BasicModelling]

Looking good!! Apart from those that didn't.. :)

Hoping to get my seedlings transfered into individual pots during the week.. :)

[Blinkazoid]

I seem to always have a problem with a bit of leaf yellowing early in the season. I think it's a combination of overwatering and crappy potting soil. I *tried* to shorten this some so you missed out on my crappy potting soil rant, LOL. Oh well, they always wind up straightening out and greening up later on.

[BasicModelling]

Can't you make your own compost?? That's not complicated at all, but then I don't know how the rules are where you live. I mean, if you're allowed to put food scraps and such in it, as well as garden prunings and the odd bit of cardboard and grass cuttings? The bigger the mix, the better the compost! My father used to make his own soil for as long as I can remember, and he always had excellent tomatoes & flowers & veg. The last compost went last year, nobody could maintain it after he took ill..

[Blinkazoid]

Nah, there's no restrictions on that sort of thing here. Normally I bury my peelings out in the garden but I'm seriously thinking about starting to compost them instead. Either way of course is good for the garden. The compost would be more useful for seedlings though. Mainly I should have simply purchased a better grade of potting soil. This Hyponex brand was pure crap.

[BasicModelling]

I bought cheap soil too, but the seedlings seem to get on in it and with it..

I still think back to the compost my father had where I first grew up.. it was a piece of art, and not only did you get excellent soil, but I need not look far for worms when going fishing, or when it came to feed my pet fish.. I had this big male 'Jack Dempsey' who loved earth worms.. the bigger, the better.. He was almost 'hand tame', like a dog in a fish tank.. :) Beautiful fish, he was..

[Blinkazoid]

My mom used to have a Jack Dempsey fish. Yep, great looking fish. If I remember correctly they're so agressive you have to keep them in a tank all by themselves.

[BasicModelling]

Yes, that is corrrect.. and I had a breeding pair.. then I did the mistake of introducing another female. She killed the old female within the next day.. but didn't get on at all with the male, even though they tolerated each other.. :(

(Big mistake that was)

[petuniabelle650]

I think you should have your own gardening show on HGTV, Blink. I'd much rather watch you garden than do it myself. :)

[Blinkazoid]

Heck *I'd* much rather watch me do it than do it too. Wait a minute I'm not sure if that quite makes sense or not, LOL.

[Athenaslife]

I enjoyed your video...Keep them coming! My Tomatos are getting nice looking!

[Blinkazoid]

I just now went and watched your video. My Early Girls are still tiny and in seed trays. I've eventually set them out and put a cage on top of them. I'll be happy if they do half as well as it looks like yours is going to do!

[Praxxus55712]

Suzi seems like she can't be bothered to look back at the camera. I guess that's how stars are? lol

You are gonna have 500 tons of maters! holy cow!

[Blinkazoid]

Ya, I'm sure I'll have tons of them this year. I might try freezing some of them. When the plants get bigger I might try putting dirt on some of the low hanging branches like you showed in one of your videos. I've never done that before.

[moomay11649]

We're going to have a lot of tomatoes this year.

Cut them and freeze them and use them in sauce too.

Is all that behind you, your property too?

Mooz

[Blinkazoid]

I may try freezing a few tomatoes this year myself since I imagine I'll have lots of them. I've never done it before. The property where I'm planting the garden and the property in the background belongs to my dad.