Planting Time – Finally!

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Jay White

This year I built a new vegetable garden. I tilled up a 35’ X 20’ area next to my orchard and berry trellis. Because of this, I was extremely excited. I had grand plans for an early planting of mature tomatoes that I had grown from seed. However, as we all know, if you get too excited about something in life, life is bound to throw you a curve. My curve came in the form of bad weather. In the past two weeks I have suffered through a hail storm and a late season freeze. However, in spite of all of these set backs, I finally got to plant most of my garden yesterday

You really have to love Craftsmen tools. My Craftsman rear tine tiller set unused in my garage for the past three years. This year, when I needed it, I added gas, pulled and started tilling. Amazing!

The hail storm that I mentioned literally pounded my etiolated tomatoes into the ground. So, in order to have tomatoes this year I went to K&S Farm and Ranch Pet Center to buy my replacement plants. K&S is a family owned operation in Brenham that I frequent quite often. When I say that K&S is family run, I mean family run. Like Sally and I, Keith and Suzette Evans have a whole bunch of kids. Every member of the Evans family has worked together to create a great little place to do business. Through the years, we have enjoyed dealing with some of the nicest kids in Washington County (and the parents are really nice to deal with too).

Lemon Boy image from Homestead Nursery @ http://www.homesteadnurserywi.com/

Even though Keith and Suzette sell feed and pet supplies at K&S, they are really gardeners at heart. Because of that, they keep a great selection of seeds (and grow them in their home garden) and sell a wide variety of transplants each season. I bought a six pack of Early Girl, another of Lemon Boy and a couple of big Celebrity plants. I also got a six pack of TAM jalapeños, a couple of yellow bells and four poblanos.

Mulching the rows of the “New” garden. If you are going to garden in blackland soil, mulching the walk pathways is an absolute must!

I stayed out in the garden planting until almost 8:00 last night. Thank God for daylight savings time. In addition to the tomatoes and peppers I also planted contender bush beans and lima beans. This weekend, barring bad weather, I will finish planting the “new” garden by adding cucumbers and corn. At least that’s the plan. Who knows what else mother nature has planned for my 2013 spring garden!

Planting Etiolated Tomatoes

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Jay White

This year, I am pretty certain that I have ruined my tomatoes. To say I am disappointed is an understatement. I am not really sure what went wrong. I created a grow center in my mudroom out of a metal shelving system and florescent grow lights. I kept the lights just a couple of inches above the plants. However, in spite of my care, everything went terribly wrong.

My tomato seedlings under the expensive grow lights that apparently weren’t worth what I spent on them

Now don’t get me wrong. Its not like the plants didn’t grow. No, they grew and grew and grew. In all honesty, I knew something was wrong about 30 days into it. They were just too tall. I thought they were growing so fast because of the expensive “grow lights” I bought for the fluorescent fixtures. Boy was I ever wrong. Looks like my expensive grow lights have left me with a whole bunch of etiolated tomatoes.

According to Wikipedia, “etiolation (pronounced /iːtɪəˈleɪʃən/) is a process in flowering plants grown in partial or complete absence of light.^[1] It is characterized by long, weak stems; smaller, sparser leaves due to longer internodes; and a pale yellow color (chlorosis).”

This is what a seriousllt etiolated tomato plant looks like

This is what a seriously etiolated tomato plant looks like

What all this means is my “grow lights” were evidently not producing the right wavelengths required by the tomatoes to grow correctly. We all know that plants need light. However, what a lot of us don’t know is light is really a pretty complex thing. Light comes at you and your plants in waves. Some of these waves are long and some are VERY short. Different plants respond to different wavelengths. So, even though my expensive grow lights provided a lot of light, it wasn’t the right light.

Technically speaking, etiolation causes a lengthening of the internodes of the plant. This makes their branches weak. However, the really bad thing (as far as I am concerned) is that it does not allow the plants to properly develop the chlorophyll need for photosynthesis.

This lack of chlorophyll thing bit me when I set the plants out to “harden off”. Since their chloroplasts weren’t fully formed, they got a pretty bad burn pretty quickly. This “hardening” almost immediately killed about a third of my 58 plants.

I nursed the plants along and continued hardening. However, they were hurting. I was really afraid I was going to lose them all. In order to try and save some of them , I decided to do the only thing I could think of to salvage some of my plants – I planted them sideways!

The long holes I dug to plant my etiolated tomatoes

That’s right, I dug a big old long hole and buried almost all of my etiolated plants. I left about 8” of stem and leaves sticking up. Hopefully, they will quickly develop their weak little chloroplasts and they will start growing normally toward the sun.

Planting the entire plant in the long hole

I was able to bury my plants because tomatoes have the ability to grow roots anywhere along their stem. In fact, even if you plant healthy tomato plants, it is a good idea to bury them deeper than they were in their container. By planting them deep, the buried stem will produce more roots that will in turn help produce a bigger, healthier plant.

One of my poor old etiolated, sunburned tomatoes after transplanting to the garden.

Right now I am hopeful that I will be able to salvage some of my seedlings. However, I have been wrong before. If things don’t go my way over the next week I will be at my local garden center fighting for plants with all of the other last minute tomato gardeners. Wish me luck!

Signs of Spring

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Jay White

Right now, if you are a Zone 9 gardener, you are busy. If you haven’t already gambled and done much of your spring planting, you will soon. If you are not planting, you are weeding, tilling or otherwise preparing your beds and borders for all of the flowers and veggies to come. Yes, it is definately a time of sore backs and aching muscles.

With so much to do, it is easy to overlook all of the amazing things that are happening all around us. That is why I always make a point to walk around and observe all of the beautiful things that are beginning to make their spring show.

I love the things that produce every year with out any help from me. My peach and plum trees are beginning to flower. In my mind, there aren’t many things that are any prettier than the delicate pink blooms of the peach tree.

No Texas spring is complete without bluebonnets. The winter drought is going to mean that there are fewer bluebonnets to enjoy this year. However, one really is enough.

I absolutely love larkspur. These self seeding annuals are as utterly dependable as my poppies and my bluebonnets.

Cherokee rose is an absolutely horrible plant. It is full of thorns, it grows like a weed and it only blooms once. However, this is the first “found rose” that I ever propogated. Plus, I did it with my daughter. So, despite all of the bad things about it, I will love it and keep it forever.

Even though I have several bulbs blooming now, I think the delicate leucojum (Snow Flakes) are my favorites.

A redbud in full bloom is a great reminder that spring really is here again

By far, the biggest and showiest announcer of spring are the native Texas Redbuds. The sight of their bright magenta blooms can bring cheer to the cloudiest day.