Vegetable and fruit gardening tips passed down through the generations

[heidih]

As I carted home the splendid tomatoes I posted about here, someone asked me why I was bothering to grow my own.

Perhaps in an almost unconscious way I know that my dad will be 87 this month and I will not be enjoying his tomatoes at some point. I need to learn his tips and tricks that I have taken for granted. This year we have been sharing tomato lore.

I also have fruit trees that need major pruning in the fall/winter and the seminar I took was interesting but nothing like hands on teaching. I want to preserve his knowledge which yielded the fruit against which I judge all fruit. And the man knows how to graft....want 3 different apples on your only tree- no problem. I can not let this hands on wisdom be lost.

Are any of you in similar situations? How are you dealing with preserving the knowledge?

[pedie]

Heidi,

My father and my grandmother were the ones who passed on their knowledge to me. My grandmother could not take a walk down a street without reaching out to deadhead someone's flowers or rose bush...telling me the plant needs the energy to make new flowers. Every house I moved to was not a house until my father brought me my tomato plants and made sure I knew how to plant it deep so it established good roots and not to be afraid to pick off the hornworms should they arrive. Sadly both of them have left this earth so it is my job to be the one passing on the wisdom. My own sons have not discovered the joys of raising their own food, but I have a 9 year old grandson who knows when he is at my home, we are picking the vegetables ready for harvest. He recognizes a growing fava bean and know how to remove the pod. He waters the vegetables underneath the leaves slowly so they don't get powdery mildew. He runs out to pick the corn when the water is boiling. Our garden is small...in the backyard in Southern California but hopefully I can share with him the joy of gardening.

Patricia

[Toliver]

My father, who passed away a couple decades ago, grew tomato plants that always grew as tall as the eaves on our single story home. They were huge. To this day, none of us knew how he did it. I have an older brother who seems to have inherited my father's green thumb but his tomato plants don't reach the heights that my father's plants did.

Pass that info along!

[andiesenji]

I have a few "old-timer" tricks for getting tomato plants to grow tall and sturdy and produce lots of fruit.

In addition to vegetable/fruit specific fertilizers I use the old remedy epson salts.

This magnesium sulfate supplement should be stirred into the soil or watered in at the rate of 1 tablespoon of epson salts per gallon of water every ten days, every week if you have a lot of rain because it washes out of the soil rapidly.

You can use this solution as a foliar spray early in the morning, as well as watering it in around the roots.

It will cure yellow leaf and help reduce blossom end rot - I also add calcium to the soil - since I have a drip watering system I buy the big jars of calcium tablets and poke one into the soil under the dripper and reapply every two weeks.

I buy it in the large carton at WalMart.

Edited August 6, 2010 by andiesenji (log)

[Darienne]

No parent on either side passed down any such information. In fact, we once fooled my Mother by putting plastic lily of the valley flowers in her garden. No, she was not amused. And we know very little and have passed on nothing of the sort.

However, we have a married son who knows about fruit trees and how to prune and care for them, and has planted peach other fruit trees on his property. I was so stunned the first time that I learned he had so much gardening knowledge. And I am so proud of him.

[heidih]

Since my dad was always the king of making a movie of every family outing or event, I thought it might be interesting to also video his pruning demonstrations. He would get a kick out of it, and it would preserve some of the nuances that might not get recorded on paper.

[Lior]

What an adorable boy-love the look on his face!!!!!

My father, who is also no longer on this earth, had a beautiful garden. He planted certain herbs or flowers to keep insects away. We always had tomatoes, cucumbers,cabbage,brocolli,asparagus,garlic,carrots,eggplant etc. As younger children my kids had to prove they were strong enough to work in his garden by doing such feats in front of the master gardener such as sit ups,push ups, run around the block,jump and then negotiate pay (pay in vegetables). It is an extremely amusing memory for themand us. We all decided to make a grampa garden in spring but alas, not a successful one. I should have proven my strength as a worthy gardener and am sorry I didn't. Being away most of the summer didn't help. The older kids are around only on the weekends.

We have strong sun,hot weather 5 months straight and everything gets burned. Tips are very welcome but some learning must be in my things to do list.

Great topic.

Edited August 25, 2010 by Lior (log)