Garden update - week 4

[bearfan454]

The garden is starting to take shape. The plants have been in the ground for one month now.



A couple of the Sweet 100 plants





One of the Early Girls



A Big Boy which says it will yield 1 to 2 pound fruits. This I have to see to believe. 2 pound tomatoes ? Come on. That's hard to believe.



Another view



A hot banana pepper plant



My pepper plant row



I stopped pinching off the yellow flowers now because the plants are getting to be a good size. I started using Miracle Grow for Tomatoes instead of the Sam's tomato food. It does seem to work a lot better. It has 18 percent nitrogen, 18 percent phosphate, and 21 percent soluable potash which makes the plants bloom. This plus pinching off the yellow flowers until the plants are good size end up making a nice yield. This will be the first year that I try and can tomatoes. Any tips on canning ?

[NJCher]

1. Healthy, stunning plants, bearfan

You Texans are way ahead of us northerners. My tomatoes, which are heirlooms that I started from seed, are only about 8" tall now.

Re canning, I can't offer any advice on that because of the requirements for acidity exceed what my canning repertoire has to offer. What we do, however, is slow roast the tomatoes with alive oil, basil, and garlic. Then we package them up in freezer bags.




Cher

[politicat]

2. Lucky, lucky texan...

I've just put the starts outside, and we still lost a couple to a sudden cold. The rest came though, though, so I replaced some of the 40s varieties with yellow pears and sugar snack cherry tomatoes.

My lilacs, jostaberries and apple tree seem to have taken root pretty well and are putting out new leaves. I'll take pictures around sunset tonight. The tomatillos and peppers are doing far better than the tomatoes, surprisingly. I lost one cilantro, but the others are doing well, as are the parsleys and the basils.

My peas and beans died in the first frost, so I have had to replant them. The potatoes, lettuce, radishes, spinach and carrots are all coming back up. I've got two Charentais melons coming up, and my squish and zucchini plants are doing well. I've just added a couple more bags of compost over the top and around the taller plants, and of course, we're watering a couple times a day (sprinkler in the morning, soaker hose buried in the bed at sundown.)

The wildflower patch is starting to come up, the roses are starting to put out calyx, and we'll see what's next. Lilac season is over, so I'm hoping my sweetpeas will come up and take over.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. The tomato plants are coming along nicely!

As for the Big Boy claim: I grow an heirloom variety called Striped German and it produces 1.5 lb fruit regularly with the largest one I've ever harvested topping 2.25 lbs. I could probably get larger ones if I pinched back the growth.

[Nicole]

4. Your garden looks great

My best tip for canning is get a copy of the Ball Blue Book® of Preserving. It's considered the bible of canning.

Until you get that, here's a link with some useful FAQ's from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/questions/FAQ_canning.html

[bearfan454]

5. Thank you for the link.

I'm a novice at canning.