Also Planting Tomato Plants that are overgrown

[Green Mantis]

Well in our Climate, I have no idea if they will grow enough to produce tomatoes. They are BeefSteak

I saw them in a nursery not long ago. They were so long and overgrown out of the pots. So finally today,

I decided to plant them. Took some leaves off the bottoms and layed them down to plant. So they are in.

Not much of the top sticking out.

But since I have some other stuff, it's going in, whether it will make it long enough to produce anything or not.

I have planted one Swiss Chard plant

One Cabbage plant

5 lbs of Yukon Gold Potatoes

I also have Shallots, and little white onions to plant, this week.

Also have a "lot" of Garlic to Plant. I know everyone says wait till fall, but I think by the time I get them in,

it will be fall. Lol. Discovered I am very out of shape and now feel "very" old.

Can't believe how much easier it was to garden years ago.

Took a long time to make the garden, nobody would sell topsoil. Finally found some.

Putting in a new garden is "not" easy, especially as you get older.

I still have raspberry and strawberry plants to plant. But not in this garden, the birds would eat them all there.

But Can any of you please tell me if any of the food type things might actually grow enough to produce


anything this late in the year, Please?????

[applestar]

So sorry to hear you are having difficulties. I know what you mean though as I have had health issues myself. It turns out better if things work out earlier in the growing season and you can get things done and planted, then have the problems... Though I suppose that is debatable since you are then unable to keep up the maintenance side of gardening, and are forced to watch your earlier efforts wasted... But you still get "some" harvest.

I think you'll have Swiss chard and cabbage to harvest. Cabbage may or may not head up but that doesn't really matter for eating.

Yukon potatoes take 90 days I think, and the foliage dies with frost. Tomatoes too. If there re flowers on it NOW and were to set fruit, it still takes about 50 days to ripe fruit, 30-40 days to full sized green fruit, if I remember correctly.

Onions could be harvested as green onions.

Garlic -- where it freezes in winter, my understanding is that you want to plant garlic early enough for a month to month and a half of root growth before the ground freezes, but you don't want to plant too early and allow the tops to grow out because they will be winterkilled. Garlic would grow maybe 6-8" which should be covered well with mulch during the winter.

How hot does it get now (highs and lows please) and when is your first frost? There may be other things you could start for fall harvest like spinach and turnips, lettuce, kohlrabi, carrots, daikon radish, kale, radicchio, winter mustard.... Will you put up a plastic tunnel to extend the season? Fastest peas take about 60 days I think.

[digitS']

I think AS has given you good advice, Green Mantis. You live so far to the north, I'm sure that you have only a small window of summer for the growing season. Still, you have all those daylight hours!

When you think turnips, don't forget that a number of Asian greens are in that family. I am beginning to plant those seeds right about now. I can't get carrots started during the dry days of mid-summer and run out of time later. Lettuce has to be specially cared for so it doesn't burn up in its first weeks. I set out little starts but think "afternoon shade."

I don't know about potatoes, I've never tried them as a late crop. Your beefsteaks . . . next year. Next year! Find an early-maturing type. I used to grow Sub-artics when I gardened under a growing season that was close to 90 days. That was nearly 40 years ago and there are lots more choices now.

Best of Luck!

Steve

[rainbowgardener]

For next year, check out applestar's winter tomato thread:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... 63&start=0

it's all about fast maturing tomato varieties. Also start some seeds indoor under lights to give them a head start.

As for what to plant now, think about the cool weather stuff, broccoli, cabbage, chinese cabbage, endive, garlic in Sept, kale, lettuce, spinach. Even if it is still hot where you are right now, your seeds will germinate if not allowed to dry out, and by the time they are getting well going, it will be starting to cool off.

[Green Mantis]

Well I guess I'll just have to hope something grows. Never thought of the little green onions. But will use

them that way. Thanks. The Beefsteak, I only bought, because they looked so awful at the nursery and I

felt sorry for them,

If I plant the garlic now, or at least get the garden ready for them ( me too, ) then putting them in,

in august shouldn't be too early here. We can get frost almost anytime in Alberta.

But it's the hail that bothers me. I wouldn't want to get everything in, then have it destroyed in one storm.

We've had nothing but thunderstorms, high winds and hail throughout our whole spring? Supposed to be

summer, but still the same weather. Really glad I only put the one big garden where I did. Yesterday a

resident pair of Ravens were looking over the garden to see what we planted. Only things sticking up are the

3 tomato plants. So the Strawberry and raspberries will go where we can see them.

I Planted 5 Walking Onion bulbs too, will they be any good by Sept. or Oct.? I am going to cover a bunch of

this stuff with plastic row covers.

Unfortunately I doubt very much if I could overwinter "anything" here. The snow really piles up, it gets down

to minus 30-40. So "very" cold. Personally I don't think people were meant to live in cold places like this Brrr.

I think greenhouses are the only way to go around here. I do have a really nice Patio Tomato a friend gave

me, don't know the variety. If I plant it in a real big pot, will it be OK for awhile? It's got little tomatoes

on it and doing well, but needs a bigger pot. What kind of soil should I use? Fertilizer?

I was so darn upset yesterday as I was planting potatoes with hubby. I said I could grow such a beautiful

garden years ago, what's wrong??? What he said unfortunately is true, we were "both" a lot younger!!!!!

I don't like getting old

[rainbowgardener]

Greenhouse would be nice. But it would cost you a fortune to heat. If unheated, there's only a few weeks in spring and a few weeks in fall where it would do you any good.

[Green Mantis]

I think next year, all I am going to plant in this garden, is either garlic, or potatoes. Make a smaller garden

closer to the house, for the raspberries and strawberries. Then put things like peas and beans lettuce etc. in

various spots throughout the yard. Yes a Greenhouse would be expensive to heat, unless I heated it with

wood. We have a bunch of big poplar trees around the yard that have to be cut way back.

They are a safety hazard around the house. They are really tall and all leaning over the way the wind blows

here. We have taken some down, and have so much wood, it's ridiculous for a smaller lot. Once the rest

come down, we'll have a yard full of it. So splitting and drying, and burning it would be cheap heat

Definitely rent a splitter. We used to have one, my husband made when we heated the house with wood,

years ago. But of course sold it when we didn't need it anymore. Worked great!!!!

[Green Mantis]

Just a quick question about 2 things.

"One"--- is the WALKING ONIONS---Will they grow enough to be useable?


Or should I dig them up in the fall and save to re-plant in the spring?



Two----The PATIO TOMATO plant. It really needs transplanting.

Can I transplant it into a really big pot I have?

What type of soil and fertilizer do I use?

[applestar]

Walking onions are harvested for green onions, though you can also eat the top sets. This year, some of mine are growing top sets that are around 1" in diameter which really surprised me. These are on the "mother plants" that I haven't harvested the greens from and have left in place since two? years ago.

They actually DO "walk" and spread so I'm trying to be more diligent about pulling up all the others. (I found one growing in the grass where I apparently dropped a toolset last year.)

They are REALLY hardy, but if they don't survive the winter there as plants or even the top sets left in the ground and mulched well, I guess you'll have to save the top sets in the fridge or dry like onion and garlic and plant in spring. Top sets I dried alongside bulb onions seem to last practically forever.

Tomato -- have you seen gixxerific's pictures of container dwarfs? I think he said he has them in 5-7 gal nursery pots.

[Green Mantis]

Thanks Applestar, I think I will bring maybe all but one in. See if it can live over the winter here.

No I didn't see gixxerifics potted dwarf tomato plants? What thread are they under? Thanks so much.

That's really interesting that those onions really do walk around.