What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Forgot to add in.
Last year I planted two varieties of HYBRID cross SanMarz. can only remember Marriage variety off the top of my head.
The hybrids all got BER despite my annual and weekly treatments, the straight SanMarz did not.
Going with straight this year.

 

[DParker75089]

I think the big companies are killing off the heritage varieties of thing-like Dole and the bananas

I'm curious as to what it is that you're referring to here.

 

[BReeder!]

I've been ordering elsewhere simply for the fact that I think the big companies are killing off the heritage varieties of thing-like Dole and the bananas.

Very admirable of you. It's truly a shame to see varieties disappear or hear about a variety that used to be available to and then realize I cannot find it anywhere. I find I am leaning towards all heirloom varieties more and more and looking for old fashioned taste.
So I decided this year for tomatoes we are going with Cherokee (a favorite of DW's) for slicing and Amish Paste for sauce. I'm still up in the air about a cherry variety. I haven't grown cherry tomatoes in years actually so I am doing my research. I'm leaning towards either Yellow Pear or Sweetie.

 

[WthrLady]

Dole/Chaquita are in the business of growing high yield, pick unripe to ripen later, thick skinned for shipping produce. The bananas you buy at the market are all the bred to travel Cavendish variety. But there are dozens of varieties of bananas. Those are now being grown and kept in the world gene pool by small farmers and private citizens, and the prices are higher than the massed produced produce. The old world foods, and variety disappearing.

The same goes for the seed companies. Although many are starting to stock heirloom varieties as a niche market, while there are also companies whose sole purpose is to perpetuate the odd, the hard to find, the heirloom varieties so that they are not lost forever.

 

[BReeder!]

I'm curious as to what it is that you're referring to here.

Read this: https://time.com/5730790/banana-panama-disease/

We primarily only eat (and grow) 1 variety of banana, Cavendish, throughout the modern world. The popularity of this 1 variety leads to a lack of diversity as farmers are discouraged from propagating other varieties. Now we face a crisis due to a single disease, panama disease, that is wiping out bananas globally. Oddly enough, there are other wild strains of banana that are resistant to the disease but we haven't adopted a desire for them and marketability is limited. A hybrid of Cavendish with other naturally occurring varieties is the likely future, but it takes time and money to produce a hybrid that appeals to the market and is disease resistant. Also, we are then stuck with a hybrid and will likely see the extinction of the Cavendish variety if it's left to nature as humans have accidentally spread the panama disease throughout the world already.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning gardeners. Nothing happening in the garden today. We're getting a little bit of an ice storm. Hopefully it won't last and the temps get above freezing this afternoon. I grew San Marzano tomatoes last year and they did pretty well. It was a difficult gardening season here but those SM's did not get blight or blossom end rot. I add oyster shell to the garden beds that will be used for tomatoes in the fall and let it work over the winter and it worked well the first year. I did the same a few months ago and hope that will work again. I would never use raw eggs in the garden. I'm sure that would be like posting a "free meal" sign for all the woodland critters around here. That and the smell might annoy me and the neighbors. I'm getting more seed catalogs in the mail. The one I got yesterday is Johnny's Seed out of Maine. Ferry-Morse did not send a catalog but I did get an email that they were available online. I'll look at them when I get a chance. I like Burpee but have not had good luck with their seeds and live plants. As for their CS, sadly that seems to be more the norm these days for many businesses. I'm going to try leeks again this year. I plan on starting them early and see how that goes. I'm also considering buying some cold caps and direct sowing most of the other vegetables. I do have the hoops and plastic to cover one of the beds. That may likely be used for the kale and lettuce bed. I could also invest in some more hoops for one or two more covered beds. We'll see.

Oyster shell in the garden is a great idea Sarah thanks. I’m going to try that where I plan to put tomatoes.

 

[BReeder!]

This talk of oyster shell... I've considered it because I can find it cheap sometimes. Does it add salt to the soil though? I put egg shells in the compost and they then make their way to the garden to provide calcium. Directly adding oyster shell with tomatoes would be easy and a great way to ensure I'm boosting calcium in the area of each plant, but I don't want to salt my soil in the process.

 

[BReeder!]

And I'm still talking tomatoes... Here's an old world variety of cherry/grape tomato grown in Italy for use into winter by hanging them on the vine from the rafters indoors. It's said to resemble the Roma, but much smaller in size.

A GRAPPOLI D'INVERNO​

https://heritageseedmarket.com/index.php/product/grappoli-dinverno/

 

[Acre4Me]

Gypsum and garden Lime are both used to add calcium. The gypsum will not change the soil pH, whereas Lime can change the pH (it raises the pH). Adding oyster shells or egg shells also can add calcium, but not until they get broken down and dissolved -so it is a long term strategy. And, of course, bone meal will add calcium and is already in powder form.

 

[BReeder!]

Gypsum and garden Lime are both used to add calcium. The gypsum will not change the soil pH, whereas Lime can change the pH (it raises the pH). Adding oyster shells or egg shells also can add calcium, but not until they get broken down and dissolved -so it is a long term strategy. And, of course, bone meal will add calcium and is already in powder form.

Bone meal... now I'm getting ideas.
Thoughts on make DIY bone meal slurry with a blender (I have an insane Ninja) and well boiled bones (after use for making stock)? The boiled bones would be free of meat. I throw bones away all the time after making stock, but this would be a great way to repurpose them.