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Gary350
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Tennessee 2020 Garden

We want lettuce for tacos but there are warnings on TV again not to eat contaminated lettuce.

I don't usually grow lettuce an don't know much about it. Can I plant lettuce now is there a variety that will germinate now? Weather is turning cold again 26 degrees this weekend an 42 in day. 42 to 54 degrees is a typical winter day. Our spring is short 30 degrees to 98 degrees in 6 weeks.

My tiny 3'x6' green house has garlic & carrots that are now doing well it is time to replace it with lettuce seeds. There are so many different kinds of lettuce I wonder which seed variety will germinate in this weather?

One year I planted, romaine, bibb, Napa, Russian red, seeds do not germinated until late March but I did not have a tiny green house then. Thermometer shows temperature inside green house is 60 degrees and 52 outside at 1:45 pm. Sun is behind the trees and probably will be like that another month.
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TomatoNut95
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Ha, you beat me to a 2020 garden thread, @gary! :D

I know what you mean, store-bought lettuce is getting too risky to buy. :? I don't grow lettuce from seed much anymore, it's easier to buy transplants. However, I do know that loose-leaf types are easier to do unlike heading types like Iceberg. I used to grow Black Seeded Simpson. It was very easy to do, but bad about bolting quickly. Since then I've just bought Bonnie transplants of Romaine. Last fall, however, I did try to plant some green romaine seeds but they did not germinate. I bought a six-pack of red romaine which shortly after planting was injured in the first frost. It re-cooperated and provided me some nice sandwich leaves.

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I didn't have much luck growing lettuce in CA. when I lived there, like you the season gets to hot to quick. Spinach wasn't much better but got a good crop before bolting. I had very good luck with chard, didn't try much else in greens. I look forward to this year and hope to buy a homestead in TN.
Reno's not the greatest for gardening, but onions do great.!

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@Gary350, I think most everything will be slow to germinate in the winter cold — I expect the longer end of the seed germinating like 21 days. In the protected mini greenhouse or coldframe, you might get better germination and you could use those as the seedbed/nursery...or start the seeds in the house under lights. Lettuce should sprout in 3-5 days around 70°F and could be transplanted (after hardening off if necessary) after they grow to transplant size (3-4 true leaves).

Since yours are movable, another option would be you could start the lettuce bed, then move the protection to another area for the next succession, then thin the lettuce and eat the thinnings while letting the rest grow bigger. You do get less damaged/more tender lettuce if you put a low tunnel over them with vented cover of some sort — weather floating cover or vented poly.

There ARE varieties that are recommended for winter growing. Check out better seed nursery websites and search for “winter or cold hardy lettuce”. Marvel de Quatre Saisons (Marvel of Four Seasons) and Rouge d’Hiver (Red of Winter) and Winter Density are some well known cold hardy varieties. I also tried one called North Pole and that one definitely survived the winter here. These cold hardy types tend to bolt quickly as soon as it gets warm (except maybe the four seasons).

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I have the best luck growing lettuce, even the heat resistant lettuces between October- May. Best production is Mar-May. This is when my temperatures are about 75-80 in the daytime and in the 50-68 at night. Mar-May the plants grow the fastest because they get more light but it is not hot. Right now I do have butter head lettuce in the garden which I harvested some outer leaves. I don't have to deal with temperatures lower than 50 degrees. At this time of the year, plants grow and age slower so I can get repeat harvest of lettuce if I only take the outer leaves instead of harvested the whole plant.

As apple said, winter hardy varieties and winter protection in the ground, not pots would be needed.

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Gary350
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I ordered 2 kinds of lettuce seeds to plant in the little 3'x6' green house. I will sprinkle seeds & hope they grow when temperatures get right. I will sprout some lettuce in the house then plant them in the little green house. I am getting soil ready to plant potatoes about March 30 the day after our camping trip. Yesterday I made 2 gallons of vegetable soup using garden, corn, tomatoes, green beans, from the pantry. I put 1 gallon & 1 quart of blackberries in the freezer in July, today we used 1 qt of black berries to make a blackberry cobbler. After the blackberry cobbler cooled 30 minutes we decided to eat blackberry cobbler & french vanilla ice cream instead of dinner. I will eat vegetable soup later.
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Today I put down several 4'x8' Styrofoam sheets for ground cover I want all plant life dead from lack of sun light by April 1 so I can plant potatoes it will be too wet to till soil. I have a problem with permanent beds in the garden they are always in the way when it comes time to plant other things. I need one more 4x8 sheet wind was blowing I have no more cement blocks to hold Styrofoam down. Maybe I can get several old car tires from my son they are heavy enough to hold Styrofoam down. This is not the ideal place for potatoes it only gets about 5 hours of full sun. Maybe I rethink this in a few days and move Styrofoam west 10 feet then potatoes will get about 7 hours of full sun. Tomorrow I need to put out markers for sun location do math to figure out where sun will be April 1st.

We are loving the garden green beans in the pantry. Wife cooked a 2 lb pork roast in crock pot all day with potatoes & 1 pint jar of green beans.
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My seeds arrived today. I planted them in saved plant trays. I have about 6 or 7 seeds in each of the 6 spots. Online said, germinate seeds inside they won't germinate outside in cold weather. Transplant outside when plants are 6" tall about 6 weeks from now. 6 weeks will be about Feb 20. Lettuce can stand temperatures down to 28 to 25 degrees and romaine 22 degrees. I think I plant too early, oh well I might plant again in 2 months. I know nothing about lettuce this is a learning experience. Broccoli & Napa are good down to 28 & 25 degrees, I think I will wait 2 more months to plant those. Seed trays are in zip lock bags in the house.

I looked under the fish aquarium 7 potato plants are coming up. 3 plants have leaves the other 4 are just buds.
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Black Seeded Simpson should do quite well in the cold. It is a nice, easy to do variety, but beware that it bolts quickly in warmer weather which is why I gave up on it. Let me know if you want some seeds for iceberg lettuce. I've got some that I bought at my local Dollar Store's 'garden-stuff-bargain-extravaganza'. I bought a ton of pots that evening for only 10 cents each.

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Gary350
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TomatoNut95 wrote:Black Seeded Simpson should do quite well in the cold. It is a nice, easy to do variety, but beware that it bolts quickly in warmer weather which is why I gave up on it. Let me know if you want some seeds for iceberg lettuce. I've got some that I bought at my local Dollar Store's 'garden-stuff-bargain-extravaganza'. I bought a ton of pots that evening for only 10 cents each.
Our spring goes from 30 degrees to 95 degrees in 6 weeks no time to grow iceberg lettuce here. No time to grow, romaine & bibb lettuce either. Online info says leaf lettuce grows fast.

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Hmmm... I think your information is incomplete. The lowest survival temps you are quoting are for mature plants, I think. They are more vulnerable when they are heading up.

When they are younger, they can survive much lower temps — this doesn’t mean they will grow in those temps, but they will hunger down and grow as soon as temps become favorable. This winter has been unusually warm here.


Precisely because of the short spring window you mentioned, you want to get the seedlings started and ready to plant out earlier, even get them planted under protection when borderline.

Do you remember this thread/post? —

:arrow: Subject: Late Fall to Winter Gardening with protection

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Gary350
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applestar wrote:Hmmm... I think your information is incomplete. The lowest survival temps you are quoting are for mature plants, I think. They are more vulnerable when they are heading up.

When they are younger, they can survive much lower temps — this doesn’t mean they will grow in those temps, but they will hunger down and grow as soon as temps become favorable. This winter has been unusually warm here.

Precisely because of the short spring window you mentioned, you want to get the seedlings started and ready to plant out earlier, even get them planted under protection when borderline.

Do you remember this thread/post? —

:arrow: Subject: Late Fall to Winter Gardening with protection
A lot of information online is incomplete. I never grew lettuce before so I have no clue how. My mother use to plant lettuce early spring the very first 60 degree sunny day she would scrape a line 1/4" deep in the garden soil then sprinkle lettuce seeds in that tiny ditch & cover it with 1/4" of soil. When weather was right lettuce grew for about 1 month then got milky & bitter when hot weather camp. That is all I know about lettuce. Online freeze numbers say nothing about plant size. Several YouTube videos say, seeds will not germinate in cold weather, germinate seeds in the house when plants get large transplant to the garden but not much detail about what weather conditions are like for transplanting. I have plenty of seeds to experiment with I just need to learn what really works. We are having a mild winter but that is not strange for TN our weather runs in 8 to 10 year cycles I have seen warm winters before then have the very worse weather come last week of March with 8" of snow.

I planted turnip green seeds none came up. I plants late too cold to germinate they should have been planted in Sept not Dec. Turnip greens are not good to eat like lettuce but they are very good to eat like cooked spinach. Russian red won't die or grow in cold weather it just sets there waiting for warmer weather it might be good on tacos but I did not buy seeds I keep going back & forth can't decide if I want to grow it or not. I gave up on beets I had a good crop 40 years ago and planted again many times but never had another good crop of beets. I am so forgetful these days & can't remember what I did yesterday.

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Today I scratched the soil surface enough to plant 3 kinds of lettuce seeds & radish seeds. The silly cats think soft soil is the poop box. I chased cats away several times they finally got the idea and left.

I planted 2 kinds of lettuce seed in the little TP green house.

Winter potatoes are getting bigger. I wish I had 20 fish aquariums.
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Are the cats yours? Is there something you can sprinkle or spray around the garden to keep them from using it as a litter box such as chili powder? If you can catch the cats in action, you could try spritzing them with a water bottle.

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TomatoNut95 wrote:Are the cats yours? Is there something you can sprinkle or spray around the garden to keep them from using it as a litter box such as chili powder? If you can catch the cats in action, you could try spritzing them with a water bottle.
Cats are ours. We had 9 cats but 1 by 1 several disappeared. 2 cats turned into road pizza. A mountain Lion has been seen several times after dark and other people have lost pets in this area. I don't care if cats fertilize my garden they don't hurt anything and don't eat vegetables. We use to have lots of coyotes but now the fields have been bulldozed to build 760 brand new houses I don't hear coyotes a night anymore. Cats are my garden friend they keep the squirrels away. We have lots of squirrels I counted 11 today. 2 squirrel families had 8 babies in May. Squirrels come and go sometimes I see no squirrels for several weeks. People on the other side of town are having trouble with a black bear getting into trash cans after dark next day the trash is everywhere. I'm glad we don't have a bear problem too. Bear in the garden might be a problem I'm not sure what they eat. I"m pretty sure big cats don't eat vegetables.

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Lions and squirrels and bears, oh my! I'm very glad to not have lions and bears around here or I would've packed my bags years ago. It's scary enough when I meet a hog or snake near my berry patch.

I have seeds for Catgrass, @Gary if you would like to grow it for your kitties. Maybe it would keep them off the road? I bought the seeds to grow and give to my ex-coworker 'cause she had a cat. But she quit and I never see her now, and never planted the seeds.

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TomatoNut95 wrote:Lions and squirrels and bears, oh my! I'm very glad to not have lions and bears around here or I would've packed my bags years ago. It's scary enough when I meet a hog or snake near my berry patch.

I have seeds for Catgrass, @Gary if you would like to grow it for your kitties. Maybe it would keep them off the road? I bought the seeds to grow and give to my ex-coworker 'cause she had a cat. But she quit and I never see her now, and never planted the seeds.
I planted catnip for my 14 year old cat every year she loved it, she would sleep in it all day. She had a stroke and died 2 years ago. We got a white mother cat she had 26 babies in 12 months. We made sure the first 2 groups of cats got good homes. I planted catnip for them they ignored it. I kept the last group that made 9 cats. I looked up TN big cats & black bear hear are the pictures. I have seen bears & bobcats out camping & hiking but never saw a cougar. Woman across the street said she saw a cougar & someone up the street a few houses away have cougar pictures on their security camera. It makes me afraid to go out side after dark.
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This even I opened 16 jars of homemade Bread & Butter pickles and ate 1 pickle from each jar they all taste the same. After grinding each quart jar into relish I poured it into my 7 gallon wine bucket. Then I refilled all the quart jar. We already made 2 jars into relish and ate them. Too much trouble to turn pickles into relist 1 jar each time. I still have 2 jars 1 gallon each of pickles these are for camping picnics with 70 to 80 people.
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Awww, what adorable kittens! But true, I would not want to go out at night there either. Those lions and bears need to either be eliminated or relocated before they get worse and start coming closer to peoples homes. If I had a child I certainly would not want him to play outside!

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It has not rained in 3 whole days "WOW" that is amazing & windy weather has dried up 1 brush pile enough to burn. Not windy yesterday so I took my folding chair out to the brush pile and made a fire. Not much biochar but lots good fertilizer with calcium for BER & potash = potassium for lots of blossoms = lots of fruit. This morning before it rains again I scooped up the ash & charcoal into 2 metal buckets that do not burn or melt. Charcoal is still red hot but it will go out covered up with ash inside the buckets. Tomorrow charcoal will be totally out and cooled off then I can add this to my charcoal & ash pile I already have in a 30 gallon trash can. Looks like I have close to 10 gallons of ash & charcoal in these 2 metal buckets. I have a sifter to removing charcoal if I want but I usually put this on plants as fertilizer as is. This makes the best fertilizer for tomatoes & peppers. After tilling the soil I dig a 10" diameter hole for each plant then put 1 pint of ash in each hole. Tomatoes need a small about of nitrogen fertilizer about 1/4 cup of Urea is enough and 1/2 cup Urea for peppers. Melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, squash all suffer from BER. I have 2 more brush piles I can burn if weather gets right other wise I burn them this summer if I need more wood ash. Dead Corn stalks, pepper plants, tomato plants all got burned up too. These 2 buckets of ash look like they are about 90% ash & 10% charcoal.

Farming with wood ash link. https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/2279e/

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Yes sir! I used to dump all my grill ash into the compost pile and let it help do it's thing. I never had a problem when I was in CA. Now I have major soil issues but that's to be expected in the high desert/Great basin area.

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greenstubbs wrote:Yes sir! I used to dump all my grill ash into the compost pile and let it help do it's thing. I never had a problem when I was in CA. Now I have major soil issues but that's to be expected in the high desert/Great basin area.
That is how I got started using wood ash many years ago. I was dumping all my wood ash in the compost pile then I notice it speeds up the compost. The more wood ash I add to compost pile the faster it makes compost. City requires everyone to put grass clippings & tree leaves in bags then set them on the street to be picked up. On my way home from work I picked up a truck load of bag many times. We burned semi truck loads or old wooden pallets in piles at work behind the building I brought wood ask & charcoal home 20 buckets each time. A very huge compost pile was ready to put on the garden in 2 months. Fresh wood ash contains lye and lime they tend to eat up the organic material very quick. Oxygen in the air soon causes lye to neutralize and be gone. I was young with lots of energy in those days my garden soil looked like 8" of potting soil . Now days everyone sprays there yard with Roundup I am afraid to put other peoples grass clippings & leaves on my garden.

Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRAaAkfirRU

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After lunch I decided to play with bird houses. The 3 bluebird houses have never had birds and probably never will with all this construction noise going on behind the house. I took all 3 bird houses apart then re cut 3 boards to make 3 Airbnb for Wrens. I put bird houses back together. Entrance hole is too big for Wrens so I put a limb from a bush over the hole to make hole smaller. Building those houses was fun but putting them up in trees was work.

I made pizza sauce with a quart mason jar of garden tomatoes, it was good but still not as good a Ragu Pizza sauce. Some day maybe we learn how to make exceptionally good pizza sauce like Ragu.
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Today I planted seeds in pots. Cilantro, Fennel, Dill, Napa, Broccoli, Kale, Peppers, Tomatoes. There R about 50 to 80 seeds per pot. I hope when weather gets right seeds will grow. Cilantro & Dill the whole pot will be transplanted to the herb row in the garden. Other items will have to be transplanted 1 plant at a time in rows. I hope tomatoes & peppers do not grow too soon or they will die last frost is about April 20. Lettuce is starting to grow in the lettuce bed. Freezing weather killed potato plant tops for the 3rd time. If I had 250 of those 4" square pots I would plant potato eyes in them then plant them in the garden in May. April 1st I will plant melons in the 4" pots to get a 1 month head start.
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Gary350 wrote:Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRAaAkfirRU
Interesting? In the text, he says. "Pee in the bucket about 10 times every day for a week."
That just sounds nasty!

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greenstubbs wrote:
Gary350 wrote:Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRAaAkfirRU
Interesting? In the text, he says. "Pee in the bucket about 10 times every day for a week."
That just sounds nasty!
That is not any different than a farmers barn where all the animals pee & poop on the floor. Floor is usually covered with, hay, stray, or saw dust to soak it up. After animals walk in that for months it looks perfect for making adobe bricks and it smells terrible. When I was much younger I use to clean out barns for the free fertilizer. Manure in a bag at the garden store came from a barn for cattle stock yard you never see how nasty gross it once was. It makes no difference if it is animal urine or people urine it still makes good nitrogen fertilizer. If you had your own animals you could make your own nitrogen fertilizer. Wood ash turns urine to nitrogen fertilizer, ammonia and KNO3. During the civil war solders were required to save, urine, charcoal & wood ash from their fires to make gun powder for their rifles & cannons. I don't care about nitrogen in the garden calcium and potassium are better. Corn and beans are the only plants in my garden that benefit from huge amounts of nitrogen other plants need only a small amount of nitrogen.

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Today I bought Red Pontiac seed potatoes & Kennebic seed potatoes & 150 yellow onion sets. Potatoes need to stay in the house for a month in the dark at room temperature which is 74 degrees. A month from now potato eyes will start growing sprouts & soon after that they will start growing roots. Then about 2 weeks later eyes will be 2" long. Potato eyes do not all sprout at the same time on every potato & grow at the same speed I will take advantage of that. Soon as a few potatoes have 2" long sprouts I cut potatoes into 1" pieces then let the cutting dry for about 1 week before planting. Then a week later there may be more eyes 2" long sprouts to make more 1" cuttings. I will plant a few cuttings every week until potatoes are all cut & planted.

I found an online research study that did several experiments they learned 25lbs of 15-15-15 fertilizer in a 40 ft row is perfect for potatoes so I am going to try this. Also plant cuttings 5" deep in very sandy fertile soil. Cover cuttings with 6" of soil. It will take eyes 3 to 4 weeks sprouts to reach the surface this research shows the highest potato yield. Potatoes are a 4 month crop when plants start turning yellow time to harvest.

Information says, do not till fertilizer into the soil. Till soil first then make rows 7" deep, pour 25 lbs 15-15-15 fertilizer into each 40 ft row then cover fertilizer with 2" of soil place cutting on the soil 4" apart then cover eyes with 6" of soil. Potato cutting roots will grow down into the fertilizer & sprouts should reach the surface in about 1 month. Planting deep provides potato plants with more moisture to produce larger new potatoes. Harvest will be a small crop of potatoes every week 1 week apart.

Every year I try new things for a bigger better crop. It would be smarter to try several different experiments at the same time but I always like to try for the largest crop I can get.

I also bought 150 yellow onion sets. I need to watch these very close stir them around every week so none rot. If sets try to grow in box they need to go outside where it is cold until closer to planting time May 15.

We had beef vegetable soup for dinner with garden, green beans, corn, tomatoes. All the food in the pantry needs to be gone by July 1st.

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Today I bought Red Pontiac seed potatoes & Kennebic seed potatoes & 150 yellow onion sets.

NO pictures allowed?????????????????????????????

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What do you mean no pictures allowed?

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TomatoNut95 wrote:What do you mean no pictures allowed?
I keep getting a message in red letters that says I am not allowed to upload anymore pictures quota has been met.

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Uh-oh, maybe the webmaster can help?

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Today I checked seed potatoes some of the Red Pontiac have 2" sprouts. This is a bit of a problem today is March 8 I probably can not plant anything until April 1st. It is still to cold an wet more rain in for forecast in 2 days. Next weekend I might pick out potatoes with long sprouts then put them outside in the shed where cooler temperatures should stop sprouts from growing so fast. I have about 30 plastic cups if I have to I can plant cutting in plastic cups keep them inside the house or shed until weather is right for planting. If plants grow to fast in cups they need to be in the shed where it is colder. I hope I can till the garden April 1st weather is usually good to till then. I don't want to plant potatoes until about April 15 or 20. It appears potatoes will be row #1 in this years garden but I would rather have potatoes in row #6 corn gets tall it will shade potatoes. I have 2 other places where I could plant potatoes just wait and see what weather does. Kennebec potato sprouts are still small they are growing at the correct speed. Red potatoes have always out grown white potatoes 4 to 1. Red potatoes are hot weather potatoes.

Kennebec on left. Red Pontiac on right.

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Today I am studying my garden trying to decide where to plant everything.

April 15, I can plant, tomatoes, peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, herbs, carrots, strawberry, plants.

May 1, I can plant, corn seeds.

May 15, I can plant, beans, okra, squash, melons, from seeds.

When 65 day crops and 72 day crops are gone this empty garden space can be best used to allow melons room to spread out.

Beans, first harvest is always 65% of total summer crop, 2nd harvest in 2 to 3 weeks is 20% of the total crop, 3rd harvest is 10% of the total summer crop. If I allow 3nd harvest to make seeds fall rain causes dry beans in pods to grow roots. I need to allow 2nd harvest to make seeds this year. If I want more beans I need to plant 2 rows May 15.

I need to grow 100 tomato plants from seeds. I plan to do as commercial growers do plant tomato plants 1 ft apart in rows 1 ft apart, 100 plants in a 10'x10' square, no cages. I am curious if this experiment will grow 1000 lbs of tomatoes in 70 days each plant has to produce 10 lbs of tomatoes each.

Garden map is hard to draw on paper without doing exact measurements in the garden an staking each row to see where the sun is. Last year row 14 only had full sun 4 weeks about June 7 to July 5. If these 53 tall 50 ft pine trees around the yard were gone this would be easy. Last year melons were not good with 8 hrs of sun they need 12 hrs of 100 degree hot blister sun for 4 months to get the 1st ripe melon. Corn needs 12 hrs of full sun too but not 100 degree hot sun. I am doing 32" row spacing this year I don't remember what I did last year.

2 places in town have strawberry plants $3.99 per plant. If someone does not sell strawberries in 6 packs at a reasonable price I won't be growing strawberries.

If I plant melons in pots April 15 in the house I can get a 1 month head start growing melons. I don't like extra work.

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Gary350
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1 week later Pontiac potato sprouts are getting too large, too soon to make cutting, too soon to plant. Pontiac's need to spend a week or 2 in the garage at 40 degrees every night. Maybe in 2 weeks Kennebic potatoes will have larger sprouts inside house at 74 degrees. It is 5 more weeks until last frost. Crazy weather is too warm 70 degrees during the day for another week then 3" of rain forecast for Thursday. Too wet to plant potatoes. Wow weather forecast is 80 degrees this weekend this is crazy unpredictable weather we don't usually have 80 deg weather until May. Warm weather too early makes Tornadoes. I have seen 8" of snow 3rd week of March 24 years ago our weather can not be trusted to plant anything early..
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Gary350
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We had a crazy warm winter & it is still too warm it has been in the 70s for 2 weeks. I can't remember the name of the volunteer ground cover plant that has grown in the garden it has grown 12" tall in this warm weather I will need to mow the garden before I can till the soil. We ate some of this plant on tacos a few weeks ago instead of lettuce. We are suppose to have freezing temperatures Saturday night then warm up again. Maybe if rain stops for 7 days an stays warm I can till the garden. Seeds I planted in 9 pots a month ago are growing. The 40 ft row of potatoes I planted in August finally started to grow so far I only see 5 plants. My garden map on paper has changed so may times I lost count. I am having trouble trying to figure out how to grow 10 rows of corn where I only have room for 5 row in the garden and still grow, tomatoes, red potatoes, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, squash, melons, okra, onions, herbs, beans, carrots. There is no way to plant 5 rows of corn again July 25 after first corn corp is harvested seeds will never germinate in 98 degree weather with no rain for another 2 months plants will require irrigation to grow. I planted another 44 tomato seeds in plant trays outside. 106 tomato seeds I planted in the house are doing nothing I think seeds need hot days & cold nights to know it is time to germinate.
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TomatoNut95
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My tomato seeds germinated slowly to. But I think the warmer, the quicker they'll come up.

Good grief I wish I had room for 106 plants! :)

But speaking of tomatoes, I was reading the ingredients to Nacho Cheese Doritos and one was 'tomato powder'. I was like......can you MAKE tomato powder somehow?? Do em like the peppers and dry em and crush em? Made me curious....

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Gary350
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TomatoNut95 wrote:My tomato seeds germinated slowly to. But I think the warmer, the quicker they'll come up.

Good grief I wish I had room for 106 plants! :)

But speaking of tomatoes, I was reading the ingredients to Nacho Cheese Doritos and one was 'tomato powder'. I was like......can you MAKE tomato powder somehow?? Do em like the peppers and dry em and crush em? Made me curious....
I am doing a commercial tomato field experiment where tomato plants are 1 foot apart and rows are 1 foot apart that will be 100 plants in a 10 ft square. That is not much space just about anyone can do that. If each plant produce 10 lbs of tomatoes that will be 1000 lbs of tomatoes in 1 week. If plants do better or continue to produce maybe 1500 to 2000 lbs of tomatoes in 3 week. Can you imagine a 100 acre field planted like that. Do the math that is 4,410,000. lbs in a 1 day tomato harvest for determinate tomato plants. No wonder factories plant determinate tomatoes. I am planting indeterminate tomatoes I often get 20 lbs per plant in 3 or 4 weeks. Many years ago I learned tomato plants not staked produce fewer & smaller tomatoes so 1000 lbs may be all I can hope for from a 10x10 square ft crop of tomato plants.

Tomato powder is an interesting I idea I want to try that.

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TomatoNut95
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I wonder if ketchup companies still grow their own tomatoes or they buy them now. The Heinz Classic Ketchup tomato (which is determinate) I grow was supposed to have been used by Heinz to make their ketchup with. But they probably don't use the same kind anymore they probably use some new crazy hybrid.

So this morning I Googled how to make tomato powder and it sounds VERY intetesting!! Tomatoes do need to dried first by blanching, peeling off the skin, removing pulp and seeds then laying in a rack in the sun. Then dried pieces are run through a food processor. Said paste tomatoes like Roma's are the best for drying but don't see why any meaty tomato could work. Thankfully though I've got a teenage Roma plant and a San Marzano seed planted. Think I'll plant some more Romas! The tomato powder can be used to season anything you want and even add tomatoey flavor to blah store-bought tomatoes!

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Gary350
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Wife made taco salad for dinner so I picked garden lettuce for the taco salad. Lettuce & carrots are inside my TP type green house made with 4 house windows plants are doing good. Carrots tops are so tall they fill up the inside on the west side, I don't know yet what carrots look like. Soon as rain stops and it gets dry enough green house and plants need to be gone they are right in the middle of garden row #1. Maybe 3 more weeks. Carrots have not done much growing until the past few weeks of 75 degree weather it will be interesting to see how large carrots are. I finally found good information for growing carrots in TN, plant early spring in sandy soil with lots of potassium fertilizer, harvest in Nov. after first hard freeze. Wait an see if that works.

There is a nice looking volunteer strawberry plant growing in the garden it could be from strawberry scraps that were thrown into the garden last summer.

There is a volunteer plant I don't recognize it could be from unwanted seeds tossed in the garden months ago. I did toss out an 8 year old bag of turnip green seeds and several never used radish seeds. Wait an see it could be a weed.
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Last edited by Gary350 on Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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TomatoNut95
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Looks like a radish, turnip or mustard green? :?:



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