Calling Tucson/Southern Arizona Gardeners

[flyingbrass]

Maybe sometime I'll grow extra plants to sell. I've never dealt with that many. I'd need a different setup -- more lights and some carts. There is no way I'm hauling hundreds of plants in and out every day by hand.

The tomatoes and peppers I started on 12/28 are doing better than my previous years. I used Miracle Gro seed starting mix this time, which seems to be working a lot better than Jiffy. Plants are much bigger this far along. I picked up some bigger pots today in case I need to pot up a second time before planting out.

For potting I used Miracle Gro moisture control potting mix. Yeah, probably not the best, but it was available and didn't cost an arm and a leg. I added some extra perlite and didn't fill the Solo cups up all the way yet.

Since TYLCV got all my tomato plants last year, I'm being careful about whiteflies. I bought a few yards of tulle material (wedding veil stuff) at Walmart for a buck or so a yard. I'll keep my plants covered when outside as long as is practical. I'm really hoping our freezing weather put a hurt on the flies this season.

I'm also going to spray regularly with neem oil as soon as the netting comes off. I'm not sure how far through the season I can continue to use neem oil. I've read it can hurt plants in warm weather. How warm is too warm?

For those in my part of the valley, the Stock Shop at 67th Ave. and Thunderbird has Mountain Sunrise brand alfalfa pellets. The ingredient list is simply "alfalfa meal." The label says max sodium is .12%. A 50 lb. bag is $13 or $14. I bought some today. I've added aged horse manure before, but fresh alfalfa will be a first for me.

I'm trying some new to me peppers this year: Beaver Dam and Stavros. I plan to save seeds using that tulle cloth to make blossom bags. Tomato-wise, I've started Sophie's Choice, Cherokee Purple, Eckert Polish, San Marzano 2 (from Remy), Rutgers, and as an experiment Yellow Brandywine.

[ginger2778]

http://parkseed.com/small-yellow-sti...of-15/p/06400/

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&key...l_6gsc4urbir_b
These are 2 links. I bought the type on amazon, 15 for about $14 Not one plant this year has succumbed to TYLCV, or spotted wilt virus, and very many less leafminers.I LOVE them, they are my new favorite thing. The baddies are attracted to the yellow color, and I see them literally by the hundreds, stuck to the traps.
I won't ever be gardening without them again. Using much less neem.
-Marsha

[AZGardener]

Thank you guys/gals. I will be checking in quite often Starting two more flats soon, as soon as I can get these maters outside...

[flyingbrass]

My plants are much farther ahead this year than previously.

I started seeds on 12-28 and potted on 1-12 (3 weeks ago).

Pics are potting day and a few days ago.

[flyingbrass]

Since our 4 days or so of really cold weather I haven't seen any flying insects apart from a few bees and houseflies. No whiteflies, aphids or other nasties. Yet. But I'm sure they will be coming.

I'll try the yellow paper trap again. Last year I only had lime green colored paper handy, and it didn't do all that much. I'll get some yellow paper. Wrap in plastic, smear on some vaseline, and there you go.

How is everyone else doing?

[tuk50]

I haven't tried the yellow sticky cards ..... and ordered a pack from amazon.. my question is .. are the homemade ones made with vaseline on yellow paper work as well as the commercial ones?
Whiteflies ravaged my grape vines last year ... this may be a blessing since they seem to leave my tomatoes alone. There are many humming birds here and at night you have to wear helments to keep the bats from whacking you... LOL. This was the first year we covered the grape vines in bird netting to get a good crop of grapes and it may have kept the predators from getting at the whiteflies, so no netting this year and will try the yellow sticky cards.
flyingbrass.. I'm jealous of your healthy looking plants... just potted mine up yesterday and they are only babies now. You have beautiful looking stock there, great job.

[desertlzbn]

I am jealous of your plants too. I did not plane any tomatoes at all, I am going to order the green lace wing eggs on a two week schedule to combat the world white flies this year.

[flyingbrass]

If I had known everything would grow so quickly this time I would have started seeds later. Now I'm stuck with plants that are about ready to go in the ground, but still weeks away from planting.

I think part of the reason they've grown so much is they didn't get as much cold treatment. The weather was too rainy and/or cold for them to be outside every day when they needed it.

The peppers have been kept warm. I learned they do not tolerate a cold treatment like tomatoes. Cold will stunt them for a long time.

I haven't tried the commercial yellow strips, only homemade ones. Today I put a yellow 3x5 card in a sandwich bag, smeared with vaseline, and taped it to a tree near some potted plants. After several hours it had caught 5 aphids. So, I guess we do have a few lurking about.

Since my plants are bigger than planned, I don't have enough net cloth to keep them covered. How stinky is neem oil? If I spray while potted will the odor drive me crazy when I bring the plants inside?

I'm hoping that the yellow traps, spraying with neem oil, and leaving maybe a pepper or two untreated to serve as a "trap" will keep the bugs in check this season. I'll be terribly disappointed if TYLCV hits again. If it does I'll probably throw in the towel on growing indeterminate tomatoes and stick with little ones that I can keep covered all the time.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by tuk50

I haven't tried the yellow sticky cards ..... and ordered a pack from amazon.. my question is .. are the homemade ones made with vaseline on yellow paper work as well as the commercial ones?

I bought solo cups year before last and spray painted them primary color yellow, then smeared with Vaseline and put them out every 2 feet at the perimeter of my garden area. After a while the Vaseline dried up so had to re-smear, but still had very much less whitefly problems where they were than I had in a back area with no sticky traps.
I do like the cards because they are so easy, just open and invert, and stick a twist tie into the pre punched hole and tie 'em to your cage, or trellis. So far the sticky is extremely sticky 3 months later.
Last year I did nothing and had a very bad time with TYLCV, this year, not one plant after 3 months!!!!You can see hundreds of flies of all types stuck to them.
Marsha

[flyingbrass]

I planted 4 Sophie's Choice plants on the 15th. I've been covering them at night, and lately using a tarp for that with a 40 watt light underneath. So far, the plants are just sitting there looking pretty much the same as the day they went in, but hopefully the roots are growing.

I think I'll plant the rest of my tomatoes on Tuesday. The forecast indicates the weather should be warming up for a while from there.

I'll probably wait a little longer to plant my peppers. I just dug and amended their bed today. Yes, it should have been done weeks ago. I found the lettuce in that spot was loaded with aphids, which only happened recently. I pulled and bagged the lettuce. After cooking for a while to kill the bugs I'll add it to my compost pile.

This year I dug all my beds and added soil sulfur, alfalfa pellets (at between 50-75 lbs. per 1000 square feet), a little compost (wish it could have been a lot more), and a very light sprinkling of gypsum. Turned all that in again, then watered deeply. Oh, also watered in a little molasses.

I stocked up leaves to use as mulch -- far more than I have had before, but still not as many as I would like. I'll wait to apply them until after the soil has warmed up.

When are you planning to plant this year, if you haven't already?

[desertlzbn]

So far I have planted swiss chard beets peas lettuce potatoes and radishes. I plan to Plant in March for my summer stuff, squash summer and winter, pumpkins, corn, cucumbers, sweet potatoes and maybe peppers, I have some serious plant issues with tomatoes right now, so I am not going to plant any this year as much as that breaks my heart I just am tired of investing time and energy into tomatoes just to not get any fruit. Oh yeah beans too, all kinds.

[tuk50]

Thanks Marsha, I have never tried them before and have a pack from Amazon.. I think I will also try to make some like you describe. If nothing else the grandkids will get to see all the tiny insects that are in the garden.. they are homeschooled and spend a couple of hours each week in the garden helping me and learning a bit about botany. We are going to try and get some root knot nematodes under the microscope this year and check them out since they are my biggest problem. We planted a lot of winter rye, thats doing good for a greenmanure and just seeded the tomato rows with marigolds this past week both are supposed to help control the rkn's.
desertlzbn, we got the beets, carrots and turnips in the ground this week also.... we had a great winter garden this year with cabbage, brusselsprouts, turnips, radishes, kale and collards. The only thing that didn't work was the broccoli.. vermin didn't leave us one head to eat... but still getting small side shoots. I think its prarie dogs that have a colony a hundred yards from my garden. We will probably harvest the last of the savoy cabbage and a few daikon radishes and make kimchee this coming week, one of my favorite's even if Grandma doesn't like the smell of it fermenting... LOL! If you would like to try a bullet proof tomato, I think there will be a few left around the first week in april (God willing) its my main cropper called susy.. I got it a few years ago and it has been the only one that has produced every year since for me. PM me the last week in march if you would like some and I can get you a few.

[tuk50]

flyingbrass, I've been putting 50lbs of alfalfa pellets per 2000sq ft and a 2 or 3 inch layer of horse and straw compost. This year I made the leap and didn't turn in my garden, I am going to try no till for a few years and see how it goes. This year I dug holes for tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and squash and refilled with 50/50 compost and garden soil and a hand full of soft rock phosphate and alfalfa pellets in each hole to put the sets in, about a month ago.
I live in such a cold valley that I don't get any advantage in planting early, my last frost has been around the first of april and even then I have to cover with straw every once in a while. My rows are 30ft long and I usually plant 3rows of tomatoes, 1row of peppers each year and it just takes too much work to protect all from hard frosts to make it worthwhile for me. At least that is the excuse I use the older I get... LOL. So far this year I've got the healthiest looking seedlings I've had in a few years. I started the seeds in DE under florescent lights in my loft (which is the warmest place in the house) and repotted into pro-mix HP with mycorrhizae. I started feeding them with a weak solution of kelp after repotting when they had grown one or two pairs of true leaves. Its still too cold to put in my greenhouse, but will probably get them in there in a week or two and start using weak solutions of liquid fish emulsion.

[flyingbrass]

desertlzbn, I have some new lettuce growing too. Now that you mentioned it, I should plant some new chard somewhere that won't get hit so hard during summer heat to see how long it will last. I've been meaning to try that.

tuk50, I'm still dealing with fairly clayish soil in my garden, though I haven't been able to amend it as much as much as you have. Last fall, as an experiment, and being lazy, I planted seeds for fall/winter things by simply scratching a shallow trench and planting seeds. No digging.

What I discovered is that plants growing where I had dug up my sweet potatoes (and therefore had "worked" the soil) did far better than those growing in the other, non-worked, no-till areas.

In other words, for me, as my soil is now, digging and turning it over definitely helps, even if nothing is added.

[tuk50]

Yeah, I know what you mean.. this is the third year garden in this location.. it was desert and an old gravel dirveway.. we tried a perc test for lateral lines and there was no drainage.. sand and clay mix and NO organic matter.. its taken me three years turning horse manure, christmas tree mulch, gypsum and straw hay deep into the soil so that it is just now holding worms and not breaking my shovels when I dig into it. It is probably too early to start no till, but I am curious to see how the worms will work it this year and I hope that within a couple more years that it will work this way. I'm still going to keep putting layers of horse and straw compost on it every fall and will continue to dig my garlic, onion and sweetpotato beds every year till it seems loose enough to even stop doing that. Another thing that seems to help the worm population is that the coffee shop at Oro Valley Hospital gives me all the coffee grounds they have. He provides me with two 5 gallon buckets each week. I worked out this arrangement a couple of months ago and already have a coating over the entire garden. Its about 2 percent nitrogen and the worms really seem to love it. I think I will keep adding it directly to the garden for a couple more months then just add it to the compost pile for use this next winter. Fortunately we have two horses and get the hay locally and the guy said that he uses no herbicides on his fields so I'm able to trust the compost we make. I keep two piles going. One from last year that I used a couple of months ago and just started the second in January. Its hard to guess, but I estimate there is about 4 or 5 cubic yards after it composts down and ready to use. With the addition of alfalfa, cottonseed meal, fish bone meal, and a gallon of kelp and a gallon of fish each year the vegetables are almost up to par this past year... I'm still noticing a bit of iron deficiency on my onions and garlic, so I occasionally use a top dressing of greensand on them during the growing season and it seems to green the leaves right back up. I use geenmanure crops a little .. cotton one year .. hairy vetch another year.. and annual rye this winter.. I got some alfalfa seed recently and am going to try it next between the rows and am thinking about trying white clover as a permanent cover, but am almost afraid to use as it might become a weed. So far the rye made the densest stand and I've been keeping it cut before it makes seed ..