Annual P E T C Meeting

[lakngulf]

Ok, folks, it is time to pony up and come clean at the annual P E T C (plants everything too close) meeting. We have made a lot of progress with some over the years but still, every little bit of bare soil seems to be getting a seed or a small plant. And then what happens? We see the reason so many belong to the PETC club.

In this one spot = six tomato plants, eleven stalks of corn and one egg plant.






But, hey, I am learning. Look at the space I left between these two row of tomatoes at my Mother's house. Of course, I have running vines of sweet potatoes ready for that spot

[Lindsaylew82]

Every single thing in my garden is planted too close. Everything! Yet there's still plantless ground. Must fill. I put out more tomato plants than I have stakes for, so some will be strung laterally between shared stakes...it's gonna get messy!

I *should* thin my okra... But I likely won't. Maybe I could thin and transplant into open spots!!! Beans will not be thinned, and I literally planted the rows 6" apart, so I won't be able to weed them using any tools.. Nice pickins there! I also planted 2 more rows than I normally do because I didn't want to "waste" seed.

My mulch was HEAVILY seeded with wheat... I'm currently growing an unintentional cover crop/lawn AS MULCH!.... One of these years I will learn. In the mean time....

Marlingardener, I'm really glad you give your excess to the food bank! We do that here as well with stuff that doesn't freeze well or can well! Squash and zucchini are always in excess here!

[kayjay]

Hello, my name is KayJay and I plant everything too close together.

I don't have much choice, though... my vegetable gardening space is about the size of a closet. If you look at the pic below, the sun basically goes from right to left all day. Where you see shade, that's shade all day except for the jog in the fence on the right. That gets late-day sun, hence the tomato in a bucket to give it needed height earlier in spring.

I'm getting better at managing it, though. I forgot about my radish seeds last year, and this year, I want to interplant them. I also want to max out my leaf crops like lettuce and spinach, because I can yank them and eat them any time I decide I want/need more space. And this year, I'm going to sacrifice those pretty purple petunias in the baskets with dwarf cherry tomatoes.

[imafan26]

It should be the too close and too many club. I sometimes start too many and run out of room, so even planting closer, I still have too many left over.

[applestar]

I am currently in denial ....

[Lindsaylew82]

Today I planted 3 types of corn. Their spacing ranged from 8" to 16" apart. So I just planted them all 10" apart, and I didn't leave space between blocks. Harvesting should be interesting...

[Gary350]

I did good this year I planted 4 rows of corn, 20 foot long rows, 36" apart, 6" seed spacing, that gives me 160 plants. As we all know a small crop of corn does not pollenate well so I may have stalks with no corn. I am guilty of P E T C for many years of other corn crops.

[Taiji]

Had I known there was such a club I would have joined years ago!

[PinkPetalPolygon]

Teehee! You know? I really really really try to avoid belonging to this club!!!

When I met my MIL (we kinda started gardening together 3-4 years ago. I say kinda because she has been farting with flowers for years, and growing tomatoes for 3 years... but together we go BIG!!! It is kind of like she thinks it up and I execute it because I'm more able to do the physical stuff than she is... actually, she should be on bed rest/not overdosing on gardening because she is having surgery in July. So I will be her gardener then. And her son will help me. Hah.)

Annnywaaay, when I met her she told me that she thought tomatoes liked being next to eachother, like on top of eachother.

I had to try to convince her that wasn't the case. I think she had 15 tomatoes in a place where only 6.5 would actually fit fit one year. Her sister gave her seedlings, and she kept planting them.

I know last year she had 12 plants where 6 would fit. And we didn't know the definition of "bush type" tomato plants then when we bought them from the store??? I actually feel vaguely guilty about the bush goliath and roma tomato that perished beneath the early girl and the I don't remember what. They didn't have a chance!

After ripping out their unfortunate corpses from beneath the canopy of tomatoes last year... (okay it wasn't that tragic, to be honest I forgot about them both one day until I happened to be digging under the branches of leaves when the plants were like 7 feet tall, and happened to look over to see 2 deceased tomato plants beneath the other I didn't even remember existed )

I asked Sue (my garden partner) if she remembered other tomato plants having been under or between such and such tomato plants, and by golly, she remembered there had been a bush roma and a bush goliath, but had also forgotten about those plants in our sea of tomatoes too until I mentioned them. So not quite upsetting but definitely a waste.

This year it was up to me to plant and space everything! Ooh I actually picked out most of the tomatoes. the first time. No comment, haha. (Okay so the second time/when we had to buy some replacement plants we didn't research enough and ended up with some forecasted to be 5 feet tall plants/compact type plants in places I wouldn't of minded having a giant plant?) But I'm hoping that won't matter and everyone will bush out and not stick out like "what happened there"

Yeah huh, wouldn't idealism be nice.

I'll be darned if I didn't like, uhm, bring some plants over (a lavender and chamomile) and not have a place to put them where I wasn't crowding things. I put the lavender in a pot, and I haven't decided where to stick the chamomile. After that I know I'm DONE putting stuff in the ground until fall.

I looooooooove the part where I spaced the tomato patch that had 15 tomato plants all crazy with 7 plants this year, specifically the part where now they are finally big enough to use all their space!!! (MIL was a little worried that they looked sparse or wouldn't fill out, but omg...

In the other part of her yard I'm actually doubting some placements of tomatoes!!! And I thought there would be more than enough room. I stand corrected!! It isn't "bad" exactly but the dimensions impressed me. (Hehe that's a pleasant mistake to have though, I must admit! Your tomato plants being much huger than you ever imagined. to a certain point)

And I definitely found that certain point in my own garden at home.

Omggg, I planted a baby barbeque rosemary next to my black beauty zucchini? I had no idea in the world zucchini plants grew so big?

I gave it the sunniest spot in my garden, and last year it had one of the least sunny spots?

I planned that part of my garden based on what the zucchini plant did in the shade without ever being fertilized the year before.

I might hafta eventually remove a few leaves of the zucchini plant so it doesn't put the lil' rosemary directly UNDER it for all of time.

I actually didn't even BELIEVE in having flowers in the same pot until I saw a big book teaching you how? Like uhm, planting them together?

I looked at my MIL like she was crazy when she talked about wanting to put stuff together in pots to make it look fuller. I would always suggest my line of thinking that if you plant two plants together and just leave them there (unless they literally compliment eachother and are "meant" to be grown together) - I always felt like two plants in the same pot just fight each other for nutrients? And eventually you'd have to repot them.

I guess eventually you have to repot everything but I don't like the idea of having to repot things because one thing is killing the other.

It does kind of feel like rooster fighting or dog fighting but with plants!!! Slow motion but still a fight. (I am against humans putting creatures against each other obviously, or I hope that's obvious!)

I think in the book I read, you planted everything together, then let it grow, and everything would work great for a while, and then of course, they're flowers so they burst and bloom and in this case with the arrangements, after a few months you'd make yourself another one. So it wouldn't really matter if they were "fighting", it would just be a pretty fight you set up to get fought out, then you switch it out anyway.

Actually it sounds kind of fun. But I am kind of into... planting a plant, seed, or cutting, then giving it enough space so it doesn't have to fight anything else... then repotting it eventually. And trying to keep it. Rather than just watching it go brown quickly and then I "lose" it. (Hah sentiments!)

I guess the types of plants I put in pots are ones I am trying to keep for as long as possible as opposed to the ones you'd replace after a few months.

I like herbs! & I digress.

But I liked your OP.

I read a lot before I do anything, and I actually kind of force myself to measure and then give it like 5 more inches than I "have" to? And know that it'll still probably need 1 foot more than "they say" if you're lucky/rewarded for your efforts and you have a bumper crop?

I mean, I giggle, at humans trying to force plants into spaces, and I hope all the space runs out and they don't know what to do with all their produce*.

*unless the lack of space becomes seriously detrimental!

P.S. crop rotation is of serious importance, as is gentle!! & timely fertilization but that's another subject.

[lakngulf]

Teehee! You know? I really really really try to avoid belonging to this club!!!


It does kind of feel like rooster fighting or dog fighting but with plants!!! Slow motion but still a fight. (I am against humans putting creatures against each other obviously, or I hope that's obvious!)

Ahhhh Hmmmmmm With that being said....I think we will adjourn for tonight!

[Lindsaylew82]

Teehee! You know? I really really really try to avoid belonging to this club!!!


It does kind of feel like rooster fighting or dog fighting but with plants!!! Slow motion but still a fight. (I am against humans putting creatures against each other obviously, or I hope that's obvious!)

Ahhhh Hmmmmmm With that being said....I think we will adjourn for tonight!

HaaaaaaAAAAAAAA!

[applestar]

I always felt like the big vining winter squash/pumpkin are like army/ground forces on the move, branching left and right to be aimed, directed and moved but zucchini and squash are like tanks rolling over everything in their path, nearly impossible to change directions, though I sometimes will execute the extreme roll -- flop the vine from one side to another to very "slightly" alter course.

[lakngulf]

I always felt like the big vining winter squash/pumpkin are like army/ground forces on the move, branching left and right to be aimed, directed and moved but zucchini and squash are like tanks rolling over everything in their path, nearly impossible to change directions, though I sometimes will execute the extreme roll -- flop the vine from one side to another to very "slightly" alter course.

Very good description. I seem to always have squash near okra and this time of the year the okra is trying to decide if it is safe and warm enough to take off and the squash just sends big leafs everywhere. Just the other day I broke off a few zucchini leaves so some okra could get some sun.

[Lindsaylew82]

It's time to thin some seedlings I just started.....

And by thin I mean tuck the extras into every nook and cranny I can think of, which will DEFINITELY crowd things even MORE!

[lakngulf]

Here's what one section of my garden looks like today.






That one area has Okra, Squash, Corn, and Tomatoes in the containers. When a tomato plant dies (as it is apt to do in older soil) corn is immediately planted. Oh and one sweet potato in a pot.

[applestar]

Looks LUSH and fabulous!

...do you water with lake water? Hm - did I ask this before? Vaguely remember you saying water level goes way down and unreacheable, but can't remember if that was in summer or winter.

[lakngulf]

Looks LUSH and fabulous!

...do you water with lake water? Hm - did I ask this before? Vaguely remember you saying water level goes way down and unreacheable, but can't remember if that was in summer or winter.

I use both lake water and I have a faucet from my well. My irrigation system has a zone for the garden and hits it every few days. On the pier I have a sprinkler attached to an irrigation line so that those containers get water more often, as they will dry out in a hurry.

The water goes down in the winter time.

[imafan26]

Ever do the balancing act in the garden when you have to reach something but you didn't leave enough space to walk without crushing stems or leaves and lost a few cucumbers that you did not see buried under the kale leaves. My gourd vines like to climp on the fence and the trees. Every week I have to turn the ends of the vne inward to keep them in their section. Eventually I know they will still end up on the fence. My gate is in the middle of the fence. after about a week, I have to tear some of the vines off the fence just so I can open the gate. ( I actually only have one gourd vine it just has a lot of side branches.

My tomato trellis is just outside the main garden but behind the trelli are aloe (temporarily permant) and an escaped Mexican oregano shrub so I can not get behind it easily. The tomatoes end up going over the top of the trellis and starts going over the aloe and trying to climb onto the kaffir lime tree.

[KitchenGardener]

lakngulf: everything about what you are growing looks so healthy. I definitely want to live on a lake, grow my veggies on a pier and at least partially water them with lake water. Well done - I can see how much work you've put into your garden and your deserve every pound of produce you get!

[MichaelC]

I made a bad garden plan this year. Most of my peppers are overly shaded and will probably not do very well. One big disappointment is my Purple Jalapeño, which has set a bunch of fruit that won't do much of anything as it is almost always shaded.

The problem this year was not so much PETC as where I planted things. I had forgotten how massive Yellow Pear tomato plants get, it's like a small tree. And then there is the cursed miniature pear tree on the other side of the peppers. I'm on a campaign to just yank that tree out, but my wife says it'll be too depressing to kill a tree during the summer. :/

[applestar]

I would just prune the heck out of the Yellow Pear -- i mean do you REALLY need all those little tomatoes?

[applestar]

Example of my PETC -- corn is taking over from the peas now -- not all that easy to see and really lousy photo quality but here is a before and after -- this morning, I took down the string trellis and yanked the yellowing pea vines to lay between the rows of corn as mulch after spreading some organic fertilizer.

[lakngulf]

Example of my PETC -- corn is taking over from the peas now -- not all that easy to see and really lousy photo quality but here is a before and after -- this morning, I took down the string trellis and yanked the yellowing pea vines to lay between the rows of corn as mulch after spreading some organic fertilizer.

It is amazing how everything takes over. I guess that is one good way to avoid the weeds!!

[lakngulf]

lakngulf: everything about what you are growing looks so healthy. I definitely want to live on a lake, grow my veggies on a pier and at least partially water them with lake water. Well done - I can see how much work you've put into your garden and your deserve every pound of produce you get!

Thanks, KitchenGardener. For the most part I enjoy it. Have had some wonderful tomato sandwiches this year already, and just now getting started. Tomorrow will begin my favorite part. Put several tomatoes in several grocery bags, load them on the Sea Doo, and then leave with neighbors or on their pier if I do not find them home.

[Taiji]

I can't really say I planned on this...perhaps therein lies my trouble...

Obviously, mistakes were made. I intend to launch a full scale investigation.
The plants snarling round the Silver Queen are Blue Hubbard, (as if you didn't know) Butternut, Buttercup and cukes of some kind. Believe it or not, somewhere in there are 4 foot wide "aisles" for "walking". Hah.

[kayjay]

Haha, know the feeling. My unfortunate "solution" to this problem is powdery mildew - I've had to hack away the outer leaves of my zucchini.

[Taiji]

Yes, I usually get that too later in the season. Hasn't shown up yet. Thx. for reminding me that somewhere in that tangled mess are some zucchini too!

[lakngulf]

I can't really say I planned on this...perhaps therein lies my trouble... Obviously, mistakes were made. I intend to launch a full scale investigation.
The plants snarling round the Silver Queen are Blue Hubbard, (as if you didn't know) Butternut, Buttercup and cukes of some kind. Believe it or not, somewhere in there are 4 foot wide "aisles" for "walking". Hah.

Well, on a positive note, there should be little room under there for any weeds to grow!!

[Taiji]

Yes, I can testify that there aren't any weeds under there. Actually, to be honest, in some ways I kinda like the jungle growth I have going on there. Here in AZ any little oasis of greenery is always a beautiful sight to behold!

[imafan26]

I don't know if this belongs here but I planted 3 upo gourds in a 18'x15' space. In the beginning I tried to contain the vines by turning them in upon itself but as usual.... there were too many ends and they started climbing up the calamondin tree and on the fence. I now have to break the vines just to get the gate open and the squash is setting fruit but most of the fruit is hanging outside my fence. So far, I have been lucky. No one has gotten to the gourds before me so I haven't lost any yet.

This has happened before. Tell me now should I plant my gourds on the other side of the fence to get the fruit to hang on the inside of the garden instead?

[applestar]

[lakngulf]

This has happened before. Tell me now should I plant my gourds on the other side of the fence to get the fruit to hang on the inside of the garden instead?

You just may be on to something there.