What will you be doing differently next year?

[arnorrian]

Start the seedlings later (started on 10 Feb this year), more larger varieties, decrease the spacing, better anti-dog barrier.

[MissS]

Dog barrier? A new use for tomato plants.

[MissS]

I have applied for and am now on the waiting list for a plot at the Community Garden. I am hoping that I get a plot or two and if I do, I will plant very few if any new to me tomatoes and instead grow out all of my old time favorites. This would be a year of indulging myself instead of creating seeds for the MMMM.

YAY that should solve my deer problem.

[greenthumbomaha]

Originally Posted by MissS

I have applied for and am now on the waiting list for a plot at the Community Garden. I am hoping that I get a plot or two and if I do, I will plant very few if any new to me tomatoes and instead grow out all of my old time favorites. This would be a year of indulging myself instead of creating seeds for the MMMM.

YAY that should solve my deer problem.

Fingers crossed for an available plot next season. How large are the plots, Miss S.? How many tomatoes would that be if all works out?


- Lisa

[arnorrian]

Originally Posted by MissS

Dog barrier? A new use for tomato plants.

No, to protect the tomatoes. My Lab started picking unripe fruits this summer, all of the sudden.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by Nan_PA_6b

Never try to grow anything in the cabbage family. I had the plants enclosed in netting completely, & still had tiny green worms.

Good to know. I was all set to dump about 2 dozen varieties your way. There are others in the SS Swap where they'll find a good home.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by MissS

I learned that I now have a major deer problem. I will have to find a way to fence in my garden even though it's against my HOMA rules if I want to eat a single tomato.

Garlic, hot pepper, and cinnamon mix sometimes works, but it washes away in the rain. Crushed Carolina Reaper seeds mixed with peanut butter (wear a HAZMAT suit), spread on a few sticks stuck in the ground around the garden might work, if you can get the deer to lick.

[HudsonValley]

I'm going back to tilling my raised beds, and adding composted shredded leaves. I hope this alleviates the soil compaction issues I had this year.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Nan_PA_6b

Never try to grow anything in the cabbage family. I had the plants enclosed in netting completely, & still had tiny green worms.

Nan that is a very easy problem to overcome by applying Dipel dust after every rain or heavy watering. It will keep the worms under control and it is organic and safe.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Goodloe

I'm going to let most of my tomato patch lie fallow next year and try out some nematode mitigation methods. I'll only plant a few resistant hybrids in-ground...the rest I will plant in containers.

I had to Google "hypertufa" Looks pretty cool!

Try grafting instead of doing without for a whole season. I have a terrible nematode problem in my garden but since I started grafting even in the most drought affected years the nematodes don't make too much impact until late in the season and by then the spider mites are affecting many of the older plants. I also stagger my plantings so that I always have some fairly young plants starting through June and by the time the first plants start looking bad or getting some fusarium or nematode damage the newer plantings are producing.

Bill

[b54red]

I am going to plant more English peas. They did great last year and froze wonderfully and have been a treat this year. I grew a frost proof variety called Willet Wonder and planted them in December last year.

Bill

I'll probably be growing a lot more seeds from trades, SASE offers, gifts, my own saved seeds, etc. and a lot less seeds from the store. Probably even more so in 2021+. I've bought loads of seeds from loads of stores in the past, though.

I also intend to freeze my (dry) seeds before growing them. This is an experiment.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Thanks for the tip, B54!

[Tormato]

What I'll be doing differently is not cutting corners. This years tomatoes were a disaster because of that. And, I cut so many corners, it'll take some time for me to write them all down. Maybe I''l post about it next week.