Gardening: (2016– )

[Shelby]

10 minutes ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

Do you have trouble with white fly? I had horrible infestations when I had a greenhouse. I recommend those yellow sticky traps, but they only hold down the bugs rather than totally eliminating them. Which works well enough, I guess.

Not so far but thank you for the tip --I'll tell him!

[dcarch]

There are those who garden in cold weather locations. There are still work outside in the winter.

 

Got an electric heated vest for Xmas.

 

Not bad. Yesterday I was doing garden clean up all day. It was 26F outside,

 

dcarch

 

[weinoo]

On 12/25/2023 at 11:36 AM, dcarch said:

Got an electric heated vest for Xmas.

 

How long is the cord?

[rotuts]

my indoor gardening is hydroponic

 

windowsill green onions 

 

which i use as a garnish.

 

today , I ' ' harvested ' this one 

 

 

note the ' root '

 

hasted the same as the ones w the conventional root.

 

P.S.:   the usual root 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by rotuts (log)

[dcarch]

13 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

How long is the cord?

 

Not sure. Difficult to tell. My garden is very small.

 

dcarch 😜

 

 

[Shelby]

@KennethT and all others who have greenhouse/indoor gardens:

 

Ronnie's tomato plants in the greenhouse are ginormous.  They are starting to touch the top of the ceiling--which are glass windows.  Is it going to hurt the plants if we trim the tops off?

[rotuts]

bend the tops down.

 

over and over.

 

use kitchen twine 

 

tie loosely to the main stalk. 

 

ie a loop for each side 

 

dont tie tightly to either side.

 

 

Edited January 2 by rotuts (log)

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

I would redirect the growth sideways or down as @rotuts suggested if the varietal you're growing is a determinate varietal. If your plants are indeterminate you can trim the tops and let some of the suckers become new vines. 

Always fun growing.

 

[Shelby]

Thanks for your responses @rotuts and @Senior Sea Kayaker.  Both Ronnie and I agree that there is no way to bend--even gently--these plants down.  They would break.

 

 

It's the main stem that's getting so tall, not leafy parts that are more bendable if that makes sense.

 

I don't know if our tomatoes are indeterminate or not????

 

Picked just now:

 

[rotuts]

the bending was meant just for the tips that are flexible.

 

re:types plants  :  are they bush like , or tree like  ie triangular 

 

wide base ,pointy top

 

what ever you do

 

they look healthy and those two tomatoes look tasty.

 

 

[KennethT]

@Shelby First, looking at the most recent photo, I'd say the tomato plant needs more light - the internode space (vertical space between the branches) looks pretty big.  Like others have said, if it's an indeterminant plant (like most heirlooms), topping the plant will NOT help.  Don't ask me how I know... ok, I'll tell you - I did it, and the tomato plant became this GIANT bush that took over my apartment.  Pro tomato greenhouses train the plants to grow up a strong supported by the greenhouse ceiling.  As the plant gets taller, they let out more string which causes the plant to lean.  You can lower the plant a few inches a day to make sure you don't snap the stem.  Over time, all the lower leaves on the main stem will die off leaving only maybe 5 feet of leaves, but tomatoes will actually form on the long main stem.  Rather than leaning the plant straight as is done in the greenhouses (they've got lots of space) you can actually slowly wind it around the pot its planted in in a spiral so it doesn't take any extra space.  Indeterminant tomato plants can get to be 30 feet long and will keep producing for a year, even though they start to slow production after 9-10 months or so.

 

If it's determinant (most hybrids), then you can top it but it probably won't keep growing vegetatively after 5-6 feet or so.

[Shelby]

12 minutes ago, rotuts said:

the bending was meant just for the tips that are flexible.

 

re:types plants  :  are they bush like , or tree like  ie triangular 

 

wide base ,pointy top

 

what ever you do

 

they look healthy and those two tomatoes look tasty.

 

 

I'd definitely say tree-like.

[Shelby]

2 minutes ago, KennethT said:

@Shelby First, looking at the most recent photo, I'd say the tomato plant needs more light - the internode space (vertical space between the branches) looks pretty big.  Like others have said, if it's an indeterminant plant (like most heirlooms), topping the plant will NOT help.  Don't ask me how I know... ok, I'll tell you - I did it, and the tomato plant became this GIANT bush that took over my apartment.  Pro tomato greenhouses train the plants to grow up a strong supported by the greenhouse ceiling.  As the plant gets taller, they let out more string which causes the plant to lean.  You can lower the plant a few inches a day to make sure you don't snap the stem.  Over time, all the lower leaves on the main stem will die off leaving only maybe 5 feet of leaves, but tomatoes will actually form on the long main stem.  Rather than leaning the plant straight as is done in the greenhouses (they've got lots of space) you can actually slowly wind it around the pot its planted in in a spiral so it doesn't take any extra space.  Indeterminant tomato plants can get to be 30 feet long and will keep producing for a year, even though they start to slow production after 9-10 months or so.

 

If it's determinant (most hybrids), then you can top it but it probably won't keep growing vegetatively after 5-6 feet or so.

Thank you!  Ronnie will be inside shortly so I'll show this to him and see what his thoughts are.  

 

We have a grow light that we turn on over nights....but it's been cloudy a lot.  Maybe we should keep it on during the day, too.

 

I appreciate everyone's help very much!

[TicTac]

Gardening is one big experiment.  I would suggest if you have 10, then top 3-4 of them and see what happens, try LST'ing (tying down) some of the taller stalks, you can gently bend them (not at a 90 degree angle, just downward) and tie them off.  See what works best.

 

As Ken eluded to, there seems to be a lack of light (don't get me wrong, your growing maters in Jan - so consider me green with envy!) - no surprise this time of year.  Not sure the size of your space, but you can get some good LED grow lights these days....

 

 

[Shelby]

Well, we might try gently bending down...it won't be a lot down, but maybe enough.  Also going to leave the grow light on more.  We only have two plants that are tall like that--the other is a bush type plant--so we're too scared to try cutting them off.  It's definitely just for fun--I mean good tasting tomatoes in January...might as well try lol.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Good advice from all.

I will add, after looking at the photo, that plant is an indeterminate that's gotten leggy from lack of sufficient light. You can see where there is a large sucker growing between the main vine and the side shoot.

I have to respectfully disagree with @KennethT with regards to pruning the main vine. If you've removed most of the suckers that sucker will become the new main vine. I learned this when a deer decided to taste my tomato plants, neatly snipped off the growing ends of two of my plants, spit them out (they were left on the ground by the plants) after deciding they weren't to its taste. I was able to recover the plants by having a sucker take over.

Have fun.

 

[chromedome]

Hmmm. We've all dealt with seeds of uncertain age/provenance from time to time, but this is an extreme example.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/120221-oldest-seeds-regenerated-plants-science

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

You can also cut off a sucker--6 inches or so--and root it in water. This creates a new plant, basically a clone of the original, that will produce fruit once it matures. It's a way to reinvigorate a leggy plant if you have the time and weather to do so. Once the sucker has a good root system, plant it in a pot with good soil and put it in a shady space to harden off as usual.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I also wouldn't top a determinate variety, even if it gets leggy. These set a limited number of flowers in order to ripen more or less all at once, and if you cut off a portion of the plant you will have less fruit as a consequence. But I wouldn't hesitate to prune an indeterminate plant if it gets too tall. 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

First seed purchase of the season. The new thing to attempt this year is the red shiso so we'll see how it goes. I was happy to get chervil seeds as it's easy to grow, which I plan to continue indoors, and unavailable locally. The Roma bush beans I've grown in the past and will be happy to do so this season.

It's unlikely I'll be buying any more seeds, excepting the freebies from the library, as I saved a lot of seed from last season including tomato, bean, snow and sugar snap pea, purslane and various herbs. None of my lettuces bolted, due to the wet and cool summer, so I had to order seeds for those.

The indoor herb garden is keeping up with consumption however my tomato plant, which was a 60 day determinate, is on it's decline and I'll trash it once the three tomatoes on it ripen. It was a bit of fun to see how it turned out.

 

 

 

Edited January 8 by Senior Sea Kayaker (log)

[dcarch]

To help window plants grow better, I used those so called "space blanket" and hang them with Velcro (so you can remove and hang easily) behind the plants. Those blankets are very very cheap.

 

I don't have to do that anymore. I now have 5,000 watts of home-built solar powered LED system.

 

dcarch

 

 

 

[Darienne]

2 minutes ago, dcarch said:

To help window plants grow better, I used those so called "space blanket" and hang them with Velcro (so you can remove and hang easily) behind the plants. Those blankets are very very cheap.

 

I don't have to do that anymore. I now have 5,000 watts of home-built solar powered LED system.

 

dcarch

 

 

 

Would you by any chance have a photo of what you are talking about?

[chromedome]

14 hours ago, Darienne said:

Would you by any chance have a photo of what you are talking about?

Space blankets are just thin sheets of aluminized plastic, which reflects energy (your body heat in the "survival blanket" usage, or sunlight if you put it behind a plant). They were originally developed by NASA for use in space, hence the name. Looks like this:


 

They sell 'em at Dollarama, Canadian Tire, and places like that. I keep one in the console of my van (they're very small when folded) just in case I should ever run into a road closure or other issue while traveling to NS in wintertime.

Backstory is here, if you're interested.

https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2006/ch_9.html

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Out of my first aid kit.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

One of my window gardens: from the top cilantro, half cilantro half green onions, half green onions half Thai basil.

Along with freezer red and green Thai chilis these have been going into a lot of breakfasts recently.