3 Projects for the Winter

[Taiji]

I see, sounds good! How about pinching off the suckers?

[applestar]

Not really, but typically/roughly, I think I end up with not much more than 3 sucker branches/vines growing to the right and left, so 6 to 7 growing points per indeterminate plant at most? -- this is a total guesstimate on my part triggered by your question ...I don't really think about it.

If I'm trying to experiment with a large-fruited variety seeds from a "champion" line, I might restrict to 2-4 growing points at most.

[imafan26]

I have an odd shaped space so long rows or row growing in general uses up too much space. I use 7 ft. CRW trellis around the threey 18 gallon tomato pots. The ends of the trellis wind around the outer pots like cages and the center pot is between. The trellis is 10 ft long for the three tomatoes. That gives them enough room so they don't need much pruning and they still get air space. The pots are on the paver patio next to the main veggie garden so they don't actually take up space in the garden. Sometimes, I will rotate beans or peas in one of the three tomato pots for a break. There is some real estate that is lost between the pots but I can plant short and shallow crops like lettuce and green onions around the young tomato plants that makes better use of the space around the tomatoes until they grow up. I have sometimes put smaller pots between the tomatoes but they have to be pots that can handle the shade from the tomatoes. or need bird protection like some of the peppers. I use the white side of the potting soil bags to mulch around the tomato pots. It conserves moisture and keeps the weeds down. I cut open the bags and put them under the pots to try to control weeds from popping up under the pots. I have had limited success with that since the bags cannot stop weeds coming in from the sides.

[The garlic man]

I see, sounds good! How about pinching off the suckers?

I usually pinch off the suckers...However, if I miss a couple no big deal.

That said, I don't really like harvesting too many off the ground if that can be avoided.

[gumbo2176]

We've only had 2 nights of what would pass for real winter weather so far this year and it was earlier this week when it got down to the upper 20's two nights in a row. The wife and I pulled in all the potted plants and they are back outside and fine, but it did damage several plants in the flower beds and some of the more delicate vegetable garden plants like peppers and leaf lettuces.

I spent much of the day yesterday cutting down milkweed, picking off frost damaged leaves from my rows of leaf lettuce and other salad greenery, cutting flowering aloe stalks that looked more like question marks than straight upright blooms and trimmed back the big poinsettia that is in the ground in the front yard. What didn't go into the compost pile went into a big garbage bag for the street. The milkweed plant had far too many seed pods to put in the compost pile and the weeds from the garden don't get anywhere near it either.

Then I turned over the empty rows where the cauliflower and cabbage grew and has since been harvested to get them ready for new plants to go in later this week for a spring harvest of the same.

[digitS']

Fun imagining myself in a New Orleans garden. Especially so when I have so much snow in the yard that I hardly know what to do with it!

The guy throwing the newspaper ads in the plastic bag tossed it out in the middle of the snow. If he thinks I'm gonna wade out there to get it, he's got another think coming! ... oh well, I guess I could ...

Hey, here's a winter project for someone: build a picket fence in their front yard. Yes, they work fairly well as cribbing for snow storage!

Steve

[gumbo2176]

Digit, the biggest issue with gardening in the deep south is our mild winters when it comes to the spring/summer gardens. The nasty little critters that do damage to the garden in the warmer months overwinter almost as well as many of my plants and by May or June, they are out with a vengeance and destroying crops.

The only way I can get some tomatoes is to get them in the ground as soon as any frost danger is over and hope for the best. Usually by early July they start wilting badly between pests and diseases due to our oppressive humidity.

[jal_ut]

asica: " think, I will steal your idea for tomatoes. This may help me with the rats eating tomatoes too."

Rats? Sounds like some D-Con is in order.