What did you do in the garden today?

[Nym]

I let a volunteer tomato plant do its thing in my garden this year and it set fruit that look like Roma tomatoes. Very large Roma tomatoes. I didn't fertilize it at all, just watered it a few times. I didn't stake it up either, just letting it vine on the ground.

The plants I grew from commercial Roma VF seeds grew well but produce loads of very small fruits, no big ones. I fertilized these a couple times with chicken compost and staked them up off of the ground.

I don't know if the volunteer plant produced better fruit because of the soil it grew in or if it was the result of cross pollination. Whatever the reason I'll be saving seeds from the volunteer plant for next year's garden.

Roma VF on left - Volunteer tomato on the right.

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I always leave volunteer tomatoes to grow where they choose - they always grow better. Yours look beautiful!

 

[akroberts1085]

@TJAnonymous , I would so give that a shot. It seems as though they were about to start fighting just to get inside.

 

[Smokerbill]

I always leave volunteer tomatoes to grow where they choose - they always grow better. Yours look beautiful!

Thanks! This fall I might put seed-filled sections of whole tomatoes in each of next year's tomato planting locations, lightly covering them with soil. That way they might grow as well as volunteers.

Maybe part of the reason volunteer plants do well is that the seeds are naturally cold stratified by being outdoors all winter.

 

[Acre4Me]

Very dry here. But SE Ohio is worse - the drought is creeping this way however.

Sad about the carrots @CatInTheHenHouse . We don’t generally have problems with them. There is a book on companion planting called “Carrots love tomatoes”, so we always plant carrots around the tomatoes! I do trim the bottom branches of the tomato plants, but the carrots do ok with some shade. They also hate getting dried out. So, I’ll water 2x a day until the true carrot leaves show up. @Smokerbill and I did a carrot experiment in our respective gardens. Soak the carrot seeds for 2-3 days. Then put carrot seeds in a corn starch gel (cornstarch in water, cook, cool the add soaked seeds), add to a plastic bag, clip corner and pipe the now evenly distributed carrot seeds in gel along a shallow trench, cover with dirt, keep watered. If I plant in my raised beds, I get good results planting something else along the sides (like green beans), bc then the carrots are not drying out along the edge.

 

[Smokerbill]

@Smokerbill and I did a carrot experiment in our respective gardens. Soak the carrot seeds for 2-3 days. Then put carrot seeds in a corn starch gel (cornstarch in water, cook, cool the add soaked seeds), add to a plastic bag, clip corner and pipe the now evenly distributed carrot seeds in gel along a shallow trench, cover with dirt, keep watered. If I plant in my raised beds, I get good results planting something else along the sides (like green beans), bc then the carrots are not drying out along the edge.

We must've watched the same video because I did the exact same thing. It didn't work well for me. Poor germination, bad spacing.

ETA: @Acre4Me , I misread your post. Yes, we did the cornstarch carrots experiment together. LOL

I went back to my old reliable method of planting carrots. Carefully hand-plant the seeds in shallow furrows and cover them with fine texured, bagged seed starting soil mix. Water them in and cover with thin boards to hold in the moisture.

I lift a board to check every day or two, water if necessary, and when I see a couple of sprouts I remove all the boards and make sure to keep the soil moist.

The last carrots I planted this way were sprouting in just 6 or 7 days. And they're doing very well.

 

[Jenbirdee]

We organized a bunch of seeds for next year.
I also start new kale plants ever year.
I always have volunteer kale.

I just found some volunteer kale a couple days ago. so I picked some for my geese.

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

After a whole season of growing I admit I’m disappointed:
View attachment 3943671
Note that they’re supposed to reach ‘up to 8” in length.’ I was half-expecting the insect damage, since the bugs were already perfectly happy to munch above ground. (There’s even munch marks on some of the cayenne! So of course the carrots wouldn’t be spared.)

I left about a third of the box in to hopefully go to seed next year, but I’m questioning if it’s worth it. I’m inclined to blame not enough sun but if that’s the case it won’t do any good to try again.

Either way I’m seeing a crockpot of soup in my future since I don’t think these will be good for anything else.

Don't give up, some years I have horrible carrots. I only grow mine in the green stalk now. No bugs and the soil stays soft in the downside you have to water them basically everyday for carrots I find or at least every other especially in the hot part of summer.

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

Was pulling up a tomato today and saw a mouse right there in broad daylight. My garden is next to my coop and run so I know mice are inevitable. We keep our chicken food stored in the garage in a tub but the food they kick out of their feeder I'm sure is attracting them plus the veggies. I have had mice chew marks on some of the veggies and or voles. I have traps out but if I use the stand by peanut butter the ants are completely covering it and eat all the peanut butter. Any tried and true bait you guys use that isn't toxic because we have owls that come at night. Of course we do because we have a mouse problem! Haha. Thanks for any help

 

[fuzzi]

Added compost to top off two of my raised beds, then the mail came, and so did my seed order from Seed Savers!

So I planted peas and purple top turnips.

And added a trellis (left-hand bed)

Collards are doing well despite cabbage and army worms. I pick them off and my flock gets treats!

Seeds!

 

[cj2024]

I know it's silly, but I started to get into can sardines packed in tomato/chili sauce. I never acquired the taste for them until recently. I put a little squid brand anchovy salted fish sauce on the sardines and poured the tiny sardine can on my rice and a light bulb came on. I shared my experience with a grocery cashier, and she said the same wow thing happen to her when she put salt on it.