What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

Wow, impressive. I usually just try to figure in my head and try to make that work. I'm gonna have to up my game.

That’s what I do too and this year it’s not working out well.

 

[ackie]

Where's the eye bulging emoji??? WOW!!
This year is my strictest year ever in terms of choosing varieties. I used to have rainbow carrots beets, tomatoes, you name it! If it comes in multiple colors, I'd have one of each haha. But now I am focus on diverse color in my garden as a whole because I want to start saving seeds. The only items I allowed myself variety on were tomatoes, two varieties (because I have a green house and can keep two "parent" plants in there for seed saving, and peppers. I'll never get to the point I can save pepper seeds, let's be real. I grow multiple sweet and hot varieties. I narrowed down my carrots to atomic red, beets are golden boy, corn is martian jewel (beautiful variety), and glass gem (I stagger planting for seed saving for corn).

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1grf6NkgJwgLAP3RgoBA8N8mbBSGHe7bto2nhaRHWPPo/edit There's my ever-evolving master seed list.

this list is beautiful omg

 

[humblehillsfarm]

If you are willing to do the work you can tie a paper bag or pollinator proof mesh over the flowers before they open and then hand pollinate or just give it shake depending on what kind of plant it is. That’s what I plan on doing with mine.

I wanted to last year, but my work schedule was too much and my canning schedule was out of control. It was all just too much. I have a better job with better hours now and chose determinate tomato variety so I hope my life in general will feel in more control. I know it’s easy to hand pollinate, I just couldn’t bring myself to try. If this year goes well I may work on saving seeds.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I mean... 75 varieties of tomato is too many, right?

RIGHT?!

I think tomato math is harder than chicken math.

I can’t say much here but my trick is to either pick 1 or 2 from each category paste, cherry, slicing.... I did this the past 2 years. Or grow my old reliables in the others and test out a lot of similar varieties this year I have 9 varieties of disease resistant red tomatoes the one or two that do the best will be keepers. And I’ll do a different category next year.

 

[ackie]

I can’t say much here but my trick is to either pick 1 or 2 from each category paste, cherry, slicing.... I did this the past 2 years. Or grow my old reliables in the others and test out a lot of similar varieties this year I have 9 varieties of disease resistant red tomatoes the one or two that do the best will be keepers. And I’ll do a different category next year.

I accidentally might not even be growing red tomatoes haha. my garden-mate is growing several paste tomatoes.
I'm partial to cherry myself- so I'm doing one each of
sunrise bumblebee
black cherry
red torch
for snacking and

one each of gold medal and black beauty for slicing

 

[ackie]

Where's the eye bulging emoji??? WOW!!
This year is my strictest year ever in terms of choosing varieties. I used to have rainbow carrots beets, tomatoes, you name it! If it comes in multiple colors, I'd have one of each haha. But now I am focus on diverse color in my garden as a whole because I want to start saving seeds. The only items I allowed myself variety on were tomatoes, two varieties (because I have a green house and can keep two "parent" plants in there for seed saving, and peppers. I'll never get to the point I can save pepper seeds, let's be real. I grow multiple sweet and hot varieties. I narrowed down my carrots to atomic red, beets are golden boy, corn is martian jewel (beautiful variety), and glass gem (I stagger planting for seed saving for corn).

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1grf6NkgJwgLAP3RgoBA8N8mbBSGHe7bto2nhaRHWPPo/edit There's my ever-evolving master seed list.

I pulled up the crop calculator and I'm perplexed by it - hoping maybe you can help, if you dont mind

I put in 1 for me. SO doesnt eat veg really. Anyway, i find it hard to believe that one person needs 12 watermelon plants. am I missing something?

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I pulled up the crop calculator and I'm perplexed by it - hoping maybe you can help, if you dont mind

View attachment 2485347
I put in 1 for me. SO doesnt eat veg really. Anyway, i find it hard to believe that one person needs 12 watermelon plants. am I missing something?

I honestly have no earthly idea. Maybe it’s glitching???
Ive never had much luck with garden calculators myself. The crop ones have either had glitches like this or haven’t had options for fresh eating vs. storing. I’ve only found one spacing one that worked for me and I’ve lost the link to it.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Here's a very informative article on tomato care. It discusses pruning, trellising, determinate vs. indeterminate, spacing, etc.

https://www.finegardening.com/article/pruning-tomatoes

This is actually a GREAT article.... I bookmarked it to review again in the coming months right before I plant my tomatoes.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Would love to know what apps you guys are using.... I looked for a decent app last spring that, at a minimum, would allow me to document when I watered certain plants as well as add oop-up reminders to my phone when I needed to water, fertilize, etc... Wasn't able to find anything like that. Honestly considered writing my own app altogether but I simply didn't have time.

Sooo.....sounds like some of you have done a lot more digging than what I did. Anyone got a good one to share?

 

[ackie]

I honestly have no earthly idea. Maybe it’s glitching???
Ive never had much luck with garden calculators myself. The crop ones have either had glitches like this or haven’t had options for fresh eating vs. storing. I’ve only found one spacing one that worked for me and I’ve lost the link to it.

I dont think I want 12 watermelon let alone 12 watermelon PLANTS haha

this year will be my first foray into storage. *fingers crossed* I have a vacuum sealer and a good amount of freezer space but its primarily used for meat. & frozen convenient meals. but frozen tastes SO MUCH better than canned. we will see.