Experiment akin to 3 sisters; tomato, sunflower and cucumber
randompete
14 years ago
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novice_2009
14 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (21)Hi everyone... I am late checking in today...busy day in the garden, (again). Tis the season! I've been reading through the posts here, absorbing as much info as I can, and in one sitting, that's a lot to take in. Sooo much good advice, and I must say, it's really helpful. Dawn, backing up a bit, I had to laugh about that neighbor of yours, she reminded me of that British woman who played the part of the overbearing wife with the hen pecked husband in the comedy show on OETA, "Keeping up Appearances". I'll bet anything when that lady's husband told her what Dawn said about the tomatoes, she went and ripped them out either in embarressment or anger/or both. Well, I did check out the tomatoe forum, and found a few good tips. One of the problems with that forum, you already gave me a head's up on. For a less experienced gardener, (as self here)one would have to discern what was good advice, and what was not. Still, it was interesting browsing and looking at some of the pics. One of the ideas you gave me was that I have double windows on the front of my house, which faces west. I have just made a rustic trellis and lashed it together. I think it looks pretty cool. This is replacing the one that just wore out after several years. Anyways, I usually grow Purple Hyacinth vines on that trellis, to block that sun and shade those windows,.... and I have some started this year as well. I thought since the Black Cherry tomatoes grow so "viney" and tall, I might plant one or two right in the middle, bordered on each side by the Hyacinth vines. I would never have the space to winter store a bunch of tomatoe cages for as many tomatoes as I'm growing this year, so I generally use fence trellis's for good or bad, they seem to work okay for me. And yes, I like the idea of letting the vines "flop" over. It used to bother me when they'd start doing that, but now I'll just let em do their thing and not worry about it. About cutworm protection. My dad used to put a 16 penny nail just at the edge of each newly planted tomatoe. It must have worked for him. I don't know if other folks do that or not. Jay, your gardening techniques seem really well adapted to your climate out there. It must get pretty challenging at times. There are times when I wish for "few trees", since as I've said before on this forum, my neighbors humongous tree's have roots that sneak over in my garden area because they know there is water and food over here. If I didn't have good sandy loam I'd be done for. I ran into some of those feeder roots today when I was out there digging holes for the fall tomatoes I'll soon be planting. I put extra homemade compost in each hole to at least make sure they get a good start. No "sprawling" for my tomatoes. For several reasons, space, rot,.......and snakes. Ill be growing Old Time Tennesse and Evan's Sweet muskmelons and Blacktail Mountain watermelons on some cattle panels that I have. I have to grow vertically wherever I can, to save space, and I think it looks neater, and keeps you from having to bend over so much. It might discourage pests, I don't know. I have found that snakes like to hang out, (literally) on any kind of vines tho. Weather or not, your still pretty blessed up and over there. I grew some beautiful tomatoes in Wyoming, but we only had three months time to do it in. There is no such thing as spring and fall gardening in Wyoming. I've known it to have an 8 ft snowfall in May, and early snow in August. Sure feels good to be back in Okie again :) All in all, what we are able to grow without being spoon fed genetically modified stuff on the market, makes all the labor intensive work and challenges well worth the effort we put into our gardens. It really does have to be a labor of love, and one has to love doing it. And we do. Shekanahh...See MoreSunflower house
Comments (47)Heidi - they are fun, aren't they? And as you can see if you follow the link below, you can add even more to it in the way of plantings. I think I will go for a 3rd year in the same location. But I have another project in the works - a Sunflower Path that will wind through my vegetable garden area. I saw something like this at a Big Boy restaurant this past fall. It was so unexpected and enchanting, I just have to try it! Here is a link that might be useful: Sunflower House #2...See MoreControls for Stink Bugs & Cucumber Beetles
Comments (3)I believe this could work... My cukes were destroyed by wilt and I have noticed an abnormal amount of striped Cuke beetles this year. I would go out each morning and pick them off the vines/blossoms, often killing 50-60/day. I happened to find a couple pumpkin seedlings growing at our local compost/yard waste site, pulled them up and planted them at home. Ever since they started blooming, they are an easy target for the cuke beetles and much easier for me to find, trap and pick out of those huge blossoms. And, I seem to be finding fewer and fewer. I'm not sure why they are so bad this year but hopefully, my killing them off by the hundreds will make next year better, although I WILL be planting pumpkins again. They also like the big zucchini blossoms too but the stink/squash bugs are slowly killing them off. I have seen squash/stink bugs nymphs on my corn (as well as sunflowers and beans) so I suspect they would go for millet, which seems to resemble a corn plant somewhat. One interesting thing though: I have 2 pear trees: a European and Asian... the stink bugs (BMSB) only bother the Asian pear tree......See Moreryan rowinski urban garden...amazing tomato ideas!!..video 1
Comments (2)For those interested in the tomato garden he starts that part of the tour right at the 4 minute mark of the first link. The string trellis, tomato pruning set up is almost identical to mine, so his methods interested me. He recommends snipping off suckers until "there's a good bloom". As far as I understand indeterminate tomato growth, each vine is going to set one flower cluster every third leaf branch. So there won't be a "good bloom" (imo) until he lets several suckers flower at once. There's a little contradiction there. He says prune until it happens; I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen until pruning stops. In the market or greenhouse forum here there was a few professional growers saying they prune their tomatoes to one stem until they're three and a half or four feet then leave them alone. That's probably/hopefully what Ryan meant to suggest, and that's how I want to try the string trellis next year (with a half dozen plants). One problem is it gets hard to support with just vertical strings as he suggested. Once all the suckers are vigorous and producing suckers of their own, you either spend a ridiculous amount of time dropping multiple strings vertically to each and every sucker that then need to be clipped or wrapped a couple times a week; or, as I figured out late this year, tie off some horizontal strings (connecting everything) between six and eight feet. Three horizontal strings across the whole shebang 8 inches apart in height did the job better than a dozen or more vertical strings. Think of it like an elevated weave where needed. Also interesting how he used strings for peppers and eggplant. Thanks for the links....See Moretakadi
14 years agogmom2-6boys
14 years agogunnersm8
12 years agobriergardener_gw
12 years agotxangoddess
12 years agoDiana M Joice
9 months agolast modified: 9 months ago
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