Archive for October, 2009

Vegetable gardens: Grow your own fresh veggies

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

My First Tomatoes

Growing your own vegetables can be a very delicious experience, hobby, or necessity. There are many common types of vegetable gardens to choose from. Some of the more common vegetables are cucumbers, squash, potatoes, corn, green beans, onions, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, and peppers. What you can grow depends on where you live and what you like. Keep in mind though that there are many charities that will gladly take fresh veggie donations so planting an extra row of goodies could help a hungry family.

The most common vegetable of all is the tomato although some people consider it to be a fruit. Tomatoes go well with many dishes, are great fried green, and make a wonderful addition to any vegetable garden. If you don’t know how to grow tomatoes, don’t let that stop you. Tomatoes are actually one of the simplest vegetables to grow and require little upkeep. You just need to follow basic gardening techniques as you would with any other vegetable.

If you are growing your vegetables from seed, read the package and follow the directions. For the novice gardener, a great option is starting a kitchen garden. All you need is a little potting soil and some pots. Plant the seeds deep enough in the soil that the roots can grow firmly. When the seeds have turned into plants you can transform them outdoors.

Before starting the vegetable gardening experience outdoors, think about what you want to grow and where you will grow it. Find a place that will get plenty of sun so that your vegetables will get the needed six hours or more of sunlight a day. Find the most effective way to plant your veggies so that they will grow to their full potential.

There are a few vegetable gardening tips that you should follow. Your dirt is important. Make sure that your soil is well tilled, fertile, and free of rocks, roots or other items that can hinder the growth of your vegetable garden. Once you have tilled your land, let it sit for a while and then you can set off your rows.

Because your garden will need a lot of water for your plants grow, you need to make sure that it drains well. Vegetables can and will drown or rot in soggy soil. Water your vegetables as needed when the sun goes down if rain is not plentiful in your area. Avoid over-watering your vegetables to prevent damage to them.

When planting vegetables it is important to leave extra space between the rows so that you can walk through comfortably and to allow your vegetable plants plenty of room to grow and

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in How to grow tomatoes from seeds | No Comments »

Tips for growing tomato plants from seed – Part 7

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Tomato

Choosing this Seasons Tomato Seed

“I have never met a tomato I didn’t like” I would bet there area probably hundreds of people that would agree with me on that point. In fact there are probably as many people ready to agree as there are different varieties of tomatoes available to grow.

Visit your friendly garden shop and take a quick glance at their newly arrived seed packets. You will be pleasantly surprised to find all the varieties of tomatoes that are available on the market today. These varieties range from the heirloom tomatoes to the genetically engineered varieties. You have miniature tomatoes and you have the large beef eaters. There is a tomato for every persons taste. That fact alone is probably the most difficult decision you will have to make. Which variety do you want to grow this year?

Disease resistance is very important when you finally decide what variety of tomato to grow. Look closely at the information presented for the various varieties and you will notice that it contains the letters V, F, N, or T within the tomatoes description. The letter “V” means the seed is Verticillium Wilt resistant, the “F” means Fusarium Wilt resistant, “N” is the short symbol for Nematodes while “T” is typically used to indicate Tobacco Mosiac. Should you note any of these letters mentioned in the description it merely indicates that the particular variety is resistant to those diseases.

The growth habits of the particular plant is indicated by Indeterminate or determinate. Indeterminate indicates that the tomatoe plant has a tendency to spread while the designation of determinate reveals the plant remains within its limited confines. If the seed is marked as semi-determinate it means although the growing plants do not spread greatly they still require some added space.

To start your tomato seeds indoors sow them in either plug trays or flats. Be sure to read the manufacturers recommendations placed on the rear of the seed packet. They have certain planting depths and recommended spacing for the plants after you thin them.

There are special mixed soil combinations that are created spe4cifically for seed starting. You can readily pick up this seed starting soil at your local garden center. Do not even consider using neither regular potting soil nor the soil obtained from your garden. These soils are not sterilized and can cause what is commonly referred to as damping off in the initial stages of the plants growth.

Upon sowing the tomato seed in trays they should be placed in a 70 to 75 degree location. Should your seed producing area be too cool there are special heating pads that ccan be obtained. Germination should take place within 7 to 14 days of planting the seed.

After the first true leaves begin to develop on the small plants you should transplant them to a larger container. In approximately 6 to 8 weeks your tomato plants should be ready for transplanting within your garden area.

Agricultural research has introduced dozens of new tomato varieties each season several varieties that are hardy and very disease resistant include the several hybrids such as Big Beef or possibly Hybrid Celebrity. Don’t hesitate to try a new variety as you may be pleasantly surprised at both the results of growing the tomato as well as the taste.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in How to grow tomatoes from seeds | No Comments »

Gardening: Growing productive tomato plants – Part 5

Friday, October 16th, 2009
Volunteers

So far in my gardening career I’ve never had a Tomato plant that hasn’t produced a bounty of Tomatoes. Some I grew from seed and some I bought at a local garden center. This is the first clue to a productive Tomato plant, i.e. so long as it is living, healthy and young it can generally be made to produce. What I do for my Tomatoes is illustrated as follows:

- Sunlight: Tomato plants love sun, the more the better. When my Squash plants were struggling in the July heat the Tomato plants were cruising along at full speed along with the Kale.

- Soil: Tomato plants like rich soil. My soil is a clay base and I added 3 40 lb 1:9 manure and compost mix to two 25 square feet clay based plots previously held by Bell Peppers and Kale. In other words, Tomatoes like rich soil with lots of nutrients. If you have a sand based soil it might need some rich supplementation like manure and/or compost. Early spring is when I cultivated the soil but adding fertilizer mid-season may help. Be careful with manure, it needs time to degrade and it could damage the plants if added directly. Usually manure is added in fall or spring before planting. Also, when you plant your seeds or Tomato’s have the soil well worked and weed free to eliminate root complications and competition from other plants.

- Crop Rotation: Maybe you already know this but rotating crops every year reduces plant diseases and returns nutrients to the soil as different plants have different issues and use different nutrients. For example, Beans return nitrogen to the soil while Tomato’s use it. Planting Tomato’s in a patch used for beans the previous year will improve the health and productivity of the plants. Also because Tomato plants get big it’s a good idea to keep them well spaced i.e. about 18+ inches.

- Water: Tomatoes need water, when they’re thirsty they will Wilt. When they wilt it is often a good idea to water them as soon as the Sun sets and/or early in the morning. If their desperate water them immediately at the base of the plant only to prevent leaf burn. Depending on where you live, Mother nature may or may not help you with this task.

- Staking: Tomato plants get big and Tomato’s can be heavy so by supporting the branches it not only maximizes space but allows the plants to grow more.

- Wait for second harvest. Tomatoes have two major harvests. That is at least mine have so far; one in the summer and one in the fall. I had a huge bag of Tomatoes in October that I picked just before

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in How to grow tomatoes from seeds | No Comments »

Vegetable seed selection and soil preparation

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
REAL tomatoes on the vine

We are all keenly aware of the health benefits of vegetables. In the peak of the season, there is nothing that tastes as delicious as a freshly picked tomato, or a perfect pepper, or a magnificent head of broccoli, or something as simple as a salad made from freshly picked lettuce. It’s hard to envision any of this until you have tasted something so fresh that the extent of the distance it has to travel is from the garden to your table.

Long before the economic situation in this country went from bad to worse, and things became ever more precarious by the day, I had already experienced the wonders of growing my own vegetables. There were times when I questioned whether I was really being rewarded for all of my efforts.

Once again, I have to admit that even though there is a tremendous amount of work involved in “growing my own vegetabless , the rewards of my labor are consistently evident in every bite I take of something I have grown myself.

There are huge advantages to growing your own vegetables from seed. First of all, when you grow any or all of your vegetables from seed, you have an enormous selection of different varieties of vegetables from which to choose. You are freer to tailor your planting or choose your seeds to fit the length of your gardening season.

“Heirloom seedsn offer gardeners the opportunity to grow vegetables that have been grown by other gardeners for 50 or more years. These seeds are as pure as they can be. They don’t undergo any of the genetic engineering that is characteristic of disease resistant hybrids.

Additionally, when you grow vegetables from seed, you have the ability to find unusual varieties that may not ever be available in smaller local garden centers or bigger retailers. You may be able to find seeds for vegetables that can be grown in containers. These choices are never available anywhere.

For anyone wishing to grow tomatoes, deciding to grow your tomatoes from seed can mean the difference between being able to grow tomatoes that are suitable for growing in containers, or finding a variety that is adaptable to “extreme heat, but it can also mean deciding whether to grow determinate varieties (those that yield a lot of tomatoes all at once,) or growing

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in How to grow tomatoes from seeds | No Comments »