Saturday, May 30, 2009

updates

It is May 30 and the thermometer reads 95 degrees. The sun is fully out and here's the status of my plants.

The Amateur's Dream tomato has 10 medium sizes tomatoes. It is by far the best tomato plant in my operation.

The Urbikany tomato has 4 medium sized tomatoes.

The Galina plants all have cherry tomatoes.

The strawberry plants all have strawberries.

Every tomato sucker I planted has rooted and all are doing quite well.

The weakest and smallest of my Black Russian tomatoes has been attacked (viciously) by spider mites and other nasties. I sprayed a hot wax pepper spray on it and that killed 99% of the attackers.

The flowers on one of my potato tubs died about 1.5 week ago.

And, by far, the best watering technique is the cloth wick system. In terms of simplicity, this technique beats all others. Today, the wick is still moist in spite of 80+ temps all week with full sun. The soil is moist but not soggy. The original wick pot dried out but that one has a very narrow cloth wick.

Of the self-watering containers, the 18 gallon totes are doing the best, followed by the 5 gallon buckets. The 4 gallon buckets are requiring water every day. In their defense, the 4 gallon buckets have the largest plants, loaded with fruit.

My onions and garlic seemed to have stopped growing.

My beans and peas are in desperate need of some kind watering solution. I am working on the D.R.I.P. system (Diminished Rate Irrigation Process).
Ok the name is supposed to be a joke but the method is as serious as a heart attack.

The peppers on the ground have refused to grow but the ones in the containers are doing ok.

Corn, squash, zuchini, melons, carrots, lettuce, sunflowers are all doing as expected.

Over and out.

P.S. It's HOT!!!!

2 comments:

  1. I'm curious about your planting tomato "suckers" -- what do you mean? I transplanted my potted up tomatoes a few days ago, and one leggy one broke off, but I stuck it in the ground anyway on the theory that the stem might root. It's looking pretty sad right now, but I haven't given up all hope. (I also tucked a few seeds in the ground nearby, just in case.)

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  2. Sabrina,
    A tomato plant has stems and leaves. A leaf is composed of leaflets, which is what we think of when we talk about leaves in a tomato plants. At the juncture of the stem and a leaf, you may notice new "leaves" growing at a 45 degree angle. These are the suckers and they will grow to be a new stem not a leaf. I try to pinch these off to keep the tomato plant growing upright as a single stem. Sometimes I miss one or two and they grow into small tomato plants with their own leaf system. At this point, when I cut them from the main plant I can plant them and they will root and grow and produce fruit.
    It takes about a week before the suckers produce new growth which means that they have roots already.
    Give your plant a few days and it may surprise you!

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