I turned off my Grow Light this week. It was on for 52 days.I was able to germinate 15 Winter Melon Seedlings, 1 Kabocha Seedling and 15 Cherry Tomato Seedlings.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Cherry Tomato Seedlings in the Ground!
Today, I planted my first set of Cherry Tomato Seedlings. This is about a week ahead of my original plan of March 1.
The seedlings are about a foot tall. I have one each of Sun Gold, Sun Sugar, Sun Cherry Extra Sweet and Sugar Snack.
This set of Cherry Tomato Seedlings is from the group that germinated the week of January 17, so they are about 40 days old. They spent the first 2 weeks under Grow Lights and the rest of the time out in the Sun.
The picture to the right shows the bottom of the seedling after I had popped it out of the container. See the roots starting to circle around underneath and around the bottom. This tells me that it is the right time to plant the seedling in the ground.
If I wait much longer, the plant will start to get root bound and nutrients will not be able to pass through to nourish the plant.
Whenever I plant Cherry Tomato seedlings, I always put a cup of Fish Bone Meal into the hole that the seedling is going into.
This is similar to the old story of how the Native American Indians taught the Pilgrims to bury a dead fish when planting corn.
Fish Bone Meal is very high in phosphorus. Phosphorus is essential for Tomato plants to bloom and produce fruit.
However, Phosphrorus moves less than one-eighth of an inch in soil. So, by putting Fish Bone Meal directly into the planting hole, I do not have to worry about the roots finding enough Phosphorus in the soil.
Below is a picture of the seedlings in the Raised Beds.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Texas Tomato Cages
I bought a new set of Tomato Cages from Texas Tomato Cages.
In the past, I have used 54" Tomato Cages that I bought at my local Home Depot.
Unfortunately, my Cherry Tomatos plants grow very tall and easily outgrow the Cages in a few months.
Since I have a retaining wall behind my raised bed and my neighboor has tall trees behind the wall, the Cherry Tomato plants only get light from one direction. This causes the plants to grow in one direction (toward the sun).
Last Year, I had to jury-rig supports to keep the plants from toppling over. You can see the plants tilting toward the sun in the picture above.
Eventually, the whole thing can tumbling down in August and I had to prematurely end my tomato growing season.
I looked around at various places and settled on the Texas Tomato Cages.
There were 3 primary reasons for choosing these Tomato Cages.
First, the Tomato Cages were sturdy, made from 1/4 inch steel. This way they would be strong enough to avoid being toppled over.
Second, the Cages came in a diameter of 24", big enough to allow my Cherry Tomato plants to grow without excessive pruning.
Finally, and most importantly, I could buy extensions that would make the Tomato Cages 8 feet tall. My Home Depot cages topped off at 54".
The Texas Tomato Cages came in 2 large boxes. One box contained 6 tomato cages (each 6' tall) and the other box contained 6 extensions (each 2' tall). One next thing about the these Tomato Cages is that they fold flat for easy storage (and shipping).
The picture to the right shows the Texas Tomato Cage compared to my old Home Depot Tomato Cage. It is a little hard too see, but the Home Depot is about halfway down the Texas Tomato Cage and coned shaped. You can see that the top of the Home Depot Tomato Cage is bent. This was a result of the damage down when the Cherry Tomato plants toppled over.
The picture below shows the Texas Tomato Cages in the Raised Bed.
Links to my blog entries showing how the Texas Tomato Cages in action:
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