Gardening

[Chaos-Shaman]

Winter has not started and I have planted some seeds early for next year as an experiment.

I decided to start an indoor garden early for amusement.

So far my tomatoes sprouted quickly, planted some sun sugar from seeds I capture myself that I bought from a nice Amish lady. They taste so sweet it's hard to tell it is a tomato.
The hot peppers are popping up. Have the reaper, ghost, bonnets, jalapeno, scorpion and a few others. Love hot stuff.
My castor beans are huge, it's the red variety so it is not the giant ones but starting them early I expect them to grow very large. Don't eat them.
Herbs, growing well, disappointed that rosemary and oregano did not sprout, these were suppose to be organic from Alberta Canada, but no luck. Rosemary is one of my favorite spices for roasts, I'll have to buy it from the nursery.

These are all growing under my new T5 lights, much brighter than those old 40w fluorescent tubes. Also have a 1000w digital ballast to take care of them when they get bigger. Decided that this spring I'll buy a greenhouse using PCs instead of glass, to fit over my existing garden so to extend the season, and have early planting. Always wanted a greenhouse. The rabbit ate ALL of my beans last year, still got some but it literally ate every leaf. I do not have the heart to hurt the rabbit, he became so tame he wouldn't even hop away, the grandchildren loved it so it has become an wild pet along with the two crows who have become a part of my family. I have a squirrel that knocks on the glass backdoor for a treat, literally uses its claws and you can hear the knock, crazy

Are there other gardeners out there who have projects? It sure can ease the mind, helps to pass time when the heart feels heavy.

[mancini]

Gardening Amazing and always fill our hearts with happiness. But, such tragedies always ruin our hopes. I always forget the relevant intervals to watering my flowering plants and it causes rotten plants due to over-over watering or weak plants due to less-watering. Since this is a tragedy, I downloaded "Waterbot" app from Google play store to track watering intervals Its simple app doesn't require any technical modification such as root permission. I hope this will be useful for gardeners like me who keep forgetting watering intervals.

[Ameena]

Hmm, can't tell if spam or not...

[Prince of Elves]

My thoughts exactly with all of mancini's posts: language barrier or just spam?

[MasterWuuf]

I've had a few real gardens in the past, but that's a distant past.

I just bought a couple of Beefsteak Tomato plants. I'm hoping to plant them in 5-gallon buckets, as a shared experience with my young granddaughter. Work has caused much travel the last few years, so I had to figure a way to keep from planting a garden that would be destined for failure. Ha.

[MasterWuuf]

For all of you I know are 'dying' to know how things are going with my gardening adventure:

The ACE hardware guy told me how to set up the tomato plants.
Oops. He told me there was no need to put some rocks in the bottom of the buckets to allow the air holes to actually breathe.

I planted the first of two, which died within two or three days. I guess it suffocated. Poor thing.

I added some rocks to the bottom of the second attempt. Probably three-weeks have gone by and the plant is flourishing.
Budding and looking like I had hoped.

I tapped a piece of PVC pipe into the dirt, so I can tie the plant to it. We'll see if I can get some tomatoes.

[MasterWuuf]

Some of the blossoms have become small tomatoes. The plant actually looks strong enough to possibly support a tomato.

It remains fairly hot until late in the season here, so I'm still hoping there's enough time for the tomatoes to get ripe.

[MasterWuuf]

Getting some tomatoes growing (hard to believe, since it's so late in the season, but this is southern Louisiana).
I'm hoping to see them grow a whole lot larger, but if it gets too late...I may be willing to settle for some Fried Green Tomatoes. Ha.

[Chaos-Shaman]

Hey Master. You're growing tomatoes, awesome. There is a lot to know about the things. many many species, determinate, indeterminate, semi, dwarf, pea size, all kinds. Not all tomato plants grow tomatoes, sometimes they are duds. I had one this year that grew no flowers. Sometimes tomato plants tomatoes can taste awful too. You can pickle them if they are green enough with thick flesh. Try growing black tomatoes, they look weird but taste really good. Russian blacks are excellent producers, also I think pink tomatoes are nice and sweet. I bought 120 varieties and I am nowhere near growing them all. I used to plant around 80 a year, now it is just several. Post a pic
I am into hot peppers now, ghost, reapers, scotch bonnet and many others. Make great powders with them, sauces that are so yummy if you can take the heat.

[MasterWuuf]

I now have 12 or 13 tomatoes growing. Still a few blossoms that might change.

Chaos-Shaman: Thanks for the personal note. You must have massive vegetables in your garden.

I may post a picture or two, but only after I think the tomatoes aren't grape-size.

[MasterWuuf]

I've noticed a number of my 'runt' beefsteak tomatoes are turning red. I'll have to take a 'close up' picture, if I intend to impress anyone with the size of them.

[Chaos-Shaman]

The tomatoes I grew this year were smaller vine type, indeterminate. So I have red 1 1/2" ones, 2" zebra ones and 3" zebra beefsteaks which are all almost done. I live in S Ontario. I give most of my tomatoes away to friends neighbors and family when the first flush hits.

[MasterWuuf]

I finally decided to go ahead and pick a number of my 'cherry-sized' beefsteak tomatoes. Ha.

They surely don't taste like any cherry tomatoes I've ever eaten. Decent flavor.
I put, I think, eight slices on a piece of bread. Massive, right?
Anyway, they are tasty but confusing.

Perhaps my granddaughter will want to play dolls with me???
Then we can celebrate 'huge' tomato slices while comparing them to the size of the dollhouse people.

[MasterWuuf]

Weird tomato situation. While some of the tomatoes turned red while being about thumb-sized,
a number of them are still growing, some already larger than a silver dollar (if anyone remembers silver dollars).

[MasterWuuf]

The tomatoes I grew this year were smaller vine type, indeterminate. So I have red 1 1/2" ones, 2" zebra ones and 3" zebra beefsteaks which are all almost done. I live in S Ontario. I give most of my tomatoes away to friends neighbors and family when the first flush hits.

Zebra Beefsteak. Had to look that one up. Odd looking tomato. Give it some legs, arms and a sword. Use it in a DM module.
"Oh no, the evil Zebra Tomato!"