Backyard Market Garden: Year 3

BigVanVader · February 26, 2018

I decided to start a new thread instead of continuing the old one here. http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=34745

After a couple of years at our farmers market I've learned a lot. Mainly that customers are never as excited about heirloom tomatoes as me. Most just want a decent red tomato. I've also realized that growing heirlooms well on a large scale is very hard. I'm not one to shy away from work and like a good challenge, but heirlooms have whipped my butt. I will always grow some, but in my situation the effort is to great for the return.

This led me to looking at ways to reduce labor, time, and losses. One of those ways is commercial determinate varieties. The other is incorporating "wild" or Landrace varieties this year. Creating landrace crops just makes sense. I don't want to have to baby my garden plants. I want them to do what they do with as little help as possible from me. No more irrigating, no more ferts, no more sprays. Just grow!

I will be documenting the progress of this years garden and market. I am crossing Bowers Rodney F5 with ISPL, and other undecided varieties, giving reports on Karma Pink, Rainbow Jazz (det), and Dwarf Metallica and giving reports on the effectiveness of bacillus amyloliquefaciens. I am eliminating all other sprays to coincide with transitioning to all Landrace so as to not create spray dependent plants. Hopefully this will be my best year yet.

The madness has started

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5 days between photos. They grow up so fast!
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February 26, 2018	#1
BigVanVader Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Greenville, South Carolina Posts: 3,099	Backyard Market Garden: Year 3 I decided to start a new thread instead of continuing the old one here. http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=34745 After a couple of years at our farmers market I've learned a lot. Mainly that customers are never as excited about heirloom tomatoes as me. Most just want a decent red tomato. I've also realized that growing heirlooms well on a large scale is very hard. I'm not one to shy away from work and like a good challenge, but heirlooms have whipped my butt. I will always grow some, but in my situation the effort is to great for the return. This led me to looking at ways to reduce labor, time, and losses. One of those ways is commercial determinate varieties. The other is incorporating "wild" or Landrace varieties this year. Creating landrace crops just makes sense. I don't want to have to baby my garden plants. I want them to do what they do with as little help as possible from me. No more irrigating, no more ferts, no more sprays. Just grow! I will be documenting the progress of this years garden and market. I am crossing Bowers Rodney F5 with ISPL, and other undecided varieties, giving reports on Karma Pink, Rainbow Jazz (det), and Dwarf Metallica and giving reports on the effectiveness of bacillus amyloliquefaciens. I am eliminating all other sprays to coincide with transitioning to all Landrace so as to not create spray dependent plants. Hopefully this will be my best year yet. The madness has started inCollage_20180226_104907351.jpg 5 days between photos. They grow up so fast! 20180219_103521-800x400.jpg 20180221_172140-800x400.jpg