Author Topic: Gardening tomatoes, herbs, and some veggies for 2012 (Read 16996 times)

norma427 · « **Reply #60 on:** June 13, 2012, 08:49:49 PM »

Quote from: bfguilford on June 13, 2012, 08:41:14 PM

That's great, Norma. I'll be curious to hear if the cayenne alters the taste of the tomatoes and veggies at all by being absorbed.

Barry

Barry,

I sure don't know if the cayenne will alter the tomatoes and veggies tastes, but guess I will find out. I just applied cayenne again today after a lot of rain yesterday.

Norma

Tscarborough · « **Reply #61 on:** June 13, 2012, 10:12:22 PM »

It won't affect the tomatoes. I am growing habaneros and ghost peppers together, I do expect cross pollination one these, and hope to impart some Habanero flavor into the heat of the evil ghost peppers. I plan on saving for seed at least one pod of each and crossing them again next year. What could be better than a million scoville pepper with the flavor of habanero?

norma427 · « **Reply #62 on:** June 14, 2012, 08:35:49 AM »

Quote from: Tscarborough on June 13, 2012, 10:12:22 PM

It won't affect the tomatoes. I am growing habaneros and ghost peppers together, I do expect cross pollination one these, and hope to impart some Habanero flavor into the heat of the evil ghost peppers. I plan on saving for seed at least one pod of each and crossing them again next year. What could be better than a million scoville pepper with the flavor of habanero?

Tom,

Thanks for posting that the cayenne pepper won’t affect the tomatoes or other veggies.

Good to hear you don’t expect cross pollination with the habaneros and ghost peppers. Your experiment for next year sounds interesting. You must really like hot peppers.

For me I like some heat, but habaneros and ghost peppers are too hot for me.

Norma

bfguilford · « **Reply #63 on:** June 14, 2012, 05:26:49 PM »

Good to know that's it's safe to use cayenne. I'm about to transplant 4 heirlooms into our backyard garden - the chipmunk is already pounding on the door, wanting to know when dinner is being served.

Though I would post a pic of my teeny-tiny Pizza Garden plot at our local community garden. The Big Beef is doing well (3 small green tomatoes and quite a few flowers; the Sungold is starting to perk up, with a few flowers on it as well; the Brandywine is taking its sweet (I hope) time. The 2 Genovese Basil plants are well established, and have donated to the last 2 bakes. I'll plant garlic this fall.

The second shows around 2/3 of the planted area in a 1 acre community garden. My wife and a few other avid gardeners spent over 2 years trying to find a location in our town (I think the word "no" is used more often here than in any other place I've lived). I get to tend a 4x24 plot of tomatoes and basil for our community food bank.

Can't wait to see what we can produce here.

Barry

BrickStoneOven · « **Reply #64 on:** June 14, 2012, 05:50:57 PM »

Wow that looks great. You and John have an awesome garden going on. Just get a pellet rifle for the chipmunks that's what I had to do.

When you do the raised beds do you need to loosen up the soil on the ground or do you just add top soil and transplant on top?

norma427 · « **Reply #65 on:** June 14, 2012, 08:26:31 PM »

Barry,

Wow, I agree that you have a nice garden!

How do you water your plants in the community garden if it doesn’t rain enough? We also have community gardens in our area and I always wondered what would happen if there is too much dry weather. I know my cousin used to garden in a community garden and he had to take 5 gallon of buckets of water along sometimes when it was too dry.

Best of luck with your chipmunk!

Hope to see more pictures of your community garden and your backyard garden though the summer.

Norma

bfguilford · « **Reply #66 on:** June 14, 2012, 09:56:18 PM »

BrickStoneOven: Went down about 8-10 inches and built it up around 8 inches. There are around 25-30 plots in the garden, plus another 5-6 that we plant for the local food bank. I wish my wife and I had more space there. We share a plot with another person.

Norma: Fortunately, the town agreed to run a water line in so we just have a bunch of really long hoses.

We're lucky to have a bunch of like minded people who really care about this garden and put a lot of time and effort into it (my wife being one of them). I just get to enjoy the benefits.

norma427 · « **Reply #67 on:** June 14, 2012, 10:08:10 PM »

Barry,

It is good that you have a water line with hoses. It is also nice that there is food planted for the food bank.

This is one place in Lancaster County that people without space at home can rent garden plots.

http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/parks/cwp/view.asp?a=3&Q=566114&parksNav=%7C9079%7C

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #68 on:** June 17, 2012, 10:56:03 AM »

I purchased a bale of straw from an Amish farmer to put down for bedding to control the weeds and try to keep in moisture. I haven’t finished putting the straw around different places, but the one picture shows where I did put it down on the small garden. I first hoed the small garden before putting the straw down. It can also be seen where the one groundhog hole is right near my garden on the bank. The groundhog still didn’t try to eat any more plants since the cayenne pepper was applied.

Norma

bfguilford · « **Reply #69 on:** June 18, 2012, 10:42:27 AM »

Quote from: norma427 on June 17, 2012, 10:56:03 AM

The groundhog still didn’t try to eat any more plants since the cayenne pepper was applied.

Norma

That's great news, Norma. I finally transplanted my last 4 heirloom tomatoes into the garden at home yesterday. I'll start sprinkling the cayenne pepper!

Barry

norma427 · « **Reply #70 on:** June 18, 2012, 12:06:18 PM »

Quote from: bfguilford on June 18, 2012, 10:42:27 AM

That's great news, Norma. I finally transplanted my last 4 heirloom tomatoes into the garden at home yesterday. I'll start sprinkling the cayenne pepper!

Barry

Barry,

I hope you have as good as luck as I have had so far with the cayenne pepper with your chipmunk. Hope your 4 heirloom tomatoes do well.

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #71 on:** June 23, 2012, 05:58:59 PM »

The tomatoes are growing in my garden and even the one small San Marzano tomato plant, (that seeds were dropped from last year) now has some flowers on it. There are also a few other Italian tomato plants that have small tomatoes on the stalks. A few tomatoes may soon be ripe, but not many. The cayenne pepper still seems to be doing the trick with the groundhogs. I found a few beetles on my basil plants in the last few days and just late this afternoon also put some cayenne pepper on the basil plants to see if it discourages the beetles.

How are other members gardens doing?

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #72 on:** June 23, 2012, 05:59:42 PM »

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #73 on:** June 23, 2012, 06:00:15 PM »

Norma

bfguilford · « **Reply #74 on:** June 23, 2012, 08:29:58 PM »

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I just saw that late tomato blight has now been spotted in a number of areas (including my own)... arghhhhh

Check out http://www.usablight.org/?q=map

San Francisco County, CA

New Haven County, CT

Collier County, FL
Flagler County, Florida
Hendry County, FL
Hillsborough County, FL
Leon County, FL
Madison County, FL
Manatee County, FL
Palm Beach County, FL
Putnam, FL
St Johns County, FL

Beaufort County, NC
Camden County, NC
Pasquotank County, NC

Suffolk County, NY
Burlington County, NJ

Blair County, PA
Centre County, PA
Chester County, PA
Franklin County, PA
Lancaster County, PA
Mifflin County, PA
Schuylkill County, PA
Snyder County, PA

Chesterfield County, VA
Accomack County, VA

Precautions to take (according to one of the honchos at our community garden):

1. Stake your tomatoes, prune, and make sure to have maximum air flow around all your plants.
2. DO NOT water from overhead! Keep your hose low and water at the base of your plants only. Water in the early part of the day and avoid watering late afternoon/evenings.
3. If you spot diseased plants, pull them immediately, bag them and remove them. - it spreads very quickly.

Barry

norma427 · « **Reply #75 on:** June 23, 2012, 09:17:28 PM »

Barry,

Sorry that tomato blight is in your area and thanks for posting what to do to try and preserve the tomato plants.

The tomato blight is my area too.

Best of luck with your tomato plants!

Norma

bfguilford · « **Reply #76 on:** June 23, 2012, 09:33:00 PM »

When I saw the list of all the counties in PA, I figured that you were probably at risk, Norma. Let's keep our fingers crossed, and hope that all our clean living will pay off.

Barry

norma427 · « **Reply #77 on:** June 23, 2012, 10:37:40 PM »

Quote from: bfguilford on June 23, 2012, 09:33:00 PM

When I saw the list of all the counties in PA, I figured that you were probably at risk, Norma. Let's keep our fingers crossed, and hope that all our clean living will pay off.

Barry

Barry,

I am in Lancaster County, so I am at risk. At least you made me aware to watch out for the tomato blight and what to do and not do with the tomatoes.

I will also keep my fingers crossed and hopefully the clean living will pay off. I really like to be outside and play around with the garden, but it something happens to all of my tomato plants, I am not going to be a “happy camper”!

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #78 on:** June 28, 2012, 08:36:58 PM »

There are a few tomatoes that are ripe now. The cayenne pepper seems to be working for the groundhogs and beetles to keep them away from the tomatoes, veggies, and also the basil plants.

These are a few pictures of the little tomatoes on the tomato plants and also a few more pictures.

Norma

norma427 · « **Reply #79 on:** June 28, 2012, 08:38:03 PM »

Norma