January | 2017 |

Have you ever stopped to buy plants on the way to a funeral? Well, I can now say that I have. A couple of days ago we were in Waco for a funeral. On the way to the burial we passed Brazos Feed and I could see that they had a new shipment of transplants out front. Now I am not sure of the protocol for such an opportunity so I asked my wife if it would be disrespectful to swing in and pick up a few things that my Brenham sources did not yet have. She told me stopping would not be disrespectful but being late would. So, with her blessing (and a strict admonishment to make it quick) I pulled in and grabbed 18 broccoli plants, 6 cabbage, 6 cauliflower and a bunch of Yellow Granex (Vidalia) onion sets.

If you can find brassica transplants there is still time to plant them and get a crop done in time to replant the row in beans or Southern peas.

January is a busy time for those of us in Zones 7 through 9. Right now is the perfect time to replant all of the brassicas you love (Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, collard greens and mustards). If you put out your brassica transplants now they will be ready for harvest just in time for you to plant your beans and Southern Peas in late March or early April. Plant your transplants about a foot a part and make sure they receive nice, even moisture. Dry soil will stunt their development. Since brassicas are almost all “greens” they love nitrogen. Feed monthly with the highest nitrogen organic you can find. I like Sweet Green (11% N) but have been unable to find it. I am using MicroLife Ultimate (8-4-6). Not as high in nitrogen as I like but it is a very good balanced product.

MicroLife Ultimate is a very nice pelleted organic fertilizer that is high in nitrogen (8-4-6)

January is also about as late as I like to wait before planting my onion sets. I usually plant my onions in November or December but I forgot to order them from Dixondale this year. Because of this, I had to wait until now for the feed stores to get in their sets. It is not too late to grow big, sweet onions though. Just make sure to keep the rows weed free and side dress with an organic fertilizer once a month. Onions have a very small root mass so they need lots of fertilizer and regular water.

If you haven’t planted your onions do it now! The longer you wait to plant the smaller your harvested bulbs will be.

Asparagus is my favorite thing to eat from my garden. If you have never planted any now is the time (check out my article on planting here). If you already have an established asparagus bed side dress it now with a high nitrogen fertilizer to ensure lots of shoots in the spring. I love having fresh asparagus for Easter dinner and since Easter is late this year we should have plenty.

Now is also a great time to plant potatoes. My favorites are Red LaSoda and Kennebec. However, there are over 800 varieties of potatoes so they are great plants to experiment with.

And don’t forget the potatoes! January is a great time to plant them in our part of Texas. Right now I have my red LaSodas and my Kennebecs cut up and curing on the dining room table. Some people like to dust their cut seed potatoes with sulfur to prevent rot. I don’t do this and I have not had a problem. However, it is a good idea if your soil does not drain well. Potatoes are the only thing that don’t need a lot of nitrogen right now. High nitrogen encourage the potatoes to grow stems and leaves. Dig a deep furrow (a foot or so) place your potato pieces in the bottom of the row and then back fill with compost. If you plant deep enough you will not need to “hill” the plants as they grow and the compost will provide enough nutrients to ensure a great harvest.

We are getting some spectacular sunsets right now. My wife Sally captured this one the other evening.

I share my posts on The Simple Homestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by and check out all the amazing things these gardeners and homesteaders are doing!

If your tomato tastes yearn for something different than the standard hybrids or heirlooms that are available at the nurseries and box stores in March, then you need to grow your own plants. Growing your own tomatoes from seed is fun, pretty easy and the only way to ensure that you have the varieties you love when planting time comes. For those of us in Zones 8 and 9 planting time is generally thought of as March 15. Since it takes about three months to turn a tiny little tomato seed into a healthy transplant the time to plant those seeds is now.

This year I am growing tomato transplants in egg shells. The tomatoes I am trying this year are “Old German”, “Black Vernissage”, “Black”, “Barry’s Crazy Cherry” and a pass-a-long tomato we call “Brenda’s Delight”.

This year, I am going to try something new. My friend and plant mentor Cynthia Mueller of College Station told me that country people used to start their tomato plants in egg shells. According to Cynthia, these frugal, and practical, old timers would poke a drainage hole in the bottom of an opened egg shell, fill it with a little potting media and seeds and then place them in a sunny window. Once the plants were ready to up pot they would gently crush the shell and plant both the shell and the seedling in a bigger pot. I love the simplicity and frugality of this tip so much that I have decided to try it and compare “egg shell transplants” to the ones I grow in my high tech grow center.

If you are going to do a tomato growing experiment that requires egg shells it is a good thing to have your own chickens!

For this test we are going to grow “Old German” tomatoes that I purchased from the Territorial Seed Company. Since I live in an area that is full of people of German descent I thought this would be the perfect tomato to use in my egg shell experiment. Old German is a large (fruits over a pound) open pollenated, non-determinate tomato plant that produces sweet “orange-y” tomatoes.

After the egg shells are cleaned, fill with a high quality potting medium

To prepare our egg shells my wife went out to the coop and picked up a dozen eggs. She used a serrated knife to take the tops off of the eggs and an ice pick to make the drainage holes. After that she washed them very gently with warm soapy water. Once the shells were clean she used a kitchen spoon to fill the egg shells with a commercial potting media. Finally, she watered the media thoroughly and added the seeds.

Sally and I used tweezers to place three tomato seeds in each egg shell.

Through the years I have seen gardeners that have grown great transplants with very simple set ups and others that produce their plants with incredibly elaborate systems. While this experiment is just for fun, it is a great illustration of just how easy it is to grow your own tomatoes from seed. If you have never tried growing tomato transplants I highly recommend that you order some seeds and give it a try. It is a fun and inexpensive way to explore the incredible amount of variety that exists the tomato genus.

BTW, now is also the perfect time to plant peppers, eggplants and tomatillos. Be sure to check back in March and see how my “egg shell” experiment works out.

I share these posts on Our SimpleHomestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by. The “hop” has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Monthly Archives: January 2017

Late January in the Texas Garden

Grow Tomatoes in Egg Shells – Part 1