Ante'd up

[decherdt]

OK, I'm in, with 1/3 of my stake in starts and seed corn. Purt near guarantees a local cold snap. Do have some row cover as needed. Have the rest of the rows prepped for another go Fri-Sat. weather permitting Funny how they look great big on the shelf, then nearly disappear in the garden.

[Cole_Robbie]

Your plants look very nice.

[ginger2778]

Looks like a nice set up.

[Nan_PA_6b]

You've committed 1/3 of everything? Well, that's the gamble! Good luck; I hope the weather is good for you.

Nan

[decherdt]

A little risky but I can cover this 1/3 in short order if needed. Soil temp is 65F and today is our 50% LFD. Plus they were saying 50% rain Sat, though they dialed that down to 10% since.

[Goodloe]

Those look great! I'm jealous...I'm a good 3 weeks behind you.

Good luck,
Jon

[bower]

Yeah, lovely sturdy plants... they look ready for the gamble! Good luck..

[decherdt]

I did go ahead and cover them last week, but now the covers are put away and I'm all in, except for that partial 72 cell flat of backups. The corn hasn't sprouted yet, looks like dry seed poked in 2 inches and watered every other day didn't work.
Figure to give it a few more days then sow another block, with pre soaked seeds this time and just about 1 inch deep.

[SueCT]

How do you grow tomatoes and get good production when they are surrounded by grass? Have you been growing tomatoes this way for long? Doesn't the grass complete with the tomatoes for water and nutrients? When you fertilize how do you know how much the tomatoes are getting and what is being sucked up by the grass?

[decherdt]

I'm not sure that what I get is called good production, but I don't blame the grass. Started doing this in the Fall of 2014 after finding tomato plants with RKN roots. That particular grass is Fall sown as RKN trapping Winter cover crop, mostly cereal rye which survives the Winter, then takes off in Spring and burns up in Summer. I usually have a bunch of crimson clover in there, some alfalfa and some vetch in there too, but I went with far less legumes this Winter, just a little clover and alfalfa. Wound up with volunteer vetch going anyway. By the time we have to irrigate in June they are all finished, so water is not a big issue. I give the tomatoes a spoon of ferts in the hole at plant out and pour some water soluble fertilizer water at the base of each plant every couple of weeks or so. Trying to stay ahead of the EB and GM and get plenty fruit set before June when our tomato season winds down. Then its Sunnhemp with Sudex and Sesame for Summer cover July through Oct. followed by another Winter cover cycle. There are some records and pics in these albums. http://www.tomatoville.com/album.php?u=6756
This is the first time I Spring tilled the middle, trying to get some corn going there, surrounded by tomatoes in cereal rye live mulch
This time last year http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?p=627433#post627433 had no till broccoli in the middle.
The live mulch may be as important to me as the crop in my situation. From what I see I suspect that the live rye roots protect the tomato roots, plus you can't hardly kill rye this early anyway http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=35455

[decherdt]

Ok, our 1st greenie of 2018 is a Cherokee Carbon F1, with maybe a Heshpole a close 2nd. That corn did sprout, they just took 11-14 days. Planted another block of the Bodacious, but plant to switch to the shorter Sugar Buns in the last blocks.

[Goodloe]

Hmmm, interesting setup.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Dech, do you mow the grass between your plants?

Nan

[decherdt]

Gave up on mowing, I nicked a soaker hose one time I tried it.

Spring of ’14, tilled it under and mulched with wheat straw
Spring of ’15, hand trimmed between plants all I could stand
Spring of ’16, abundance of crimson clover, just left it untrimmed
Spring of ’17, pepper plants between tomatoes, left untrimmed
Spring of ’18, Could string trimmer trim if necessary

[Nan_PA_6b]

String trimmer sounds like a good way to lose a plant... The clover sounds like a good thing.

Nan