What did you do in the garden today?

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. I watered the upper garden today for a little while, just because of the new plants and seeds. Everything looks good so far. I think my sunflowers are breaking through the dirt. I suspect the cool overnight temperatures are inhibiting the lima beans from germinating. It's been in the 40's overnight for the past two nights at least. It appears my fig tree is coming back to life. Surprise. I did do a little clearing up in my soon to be 3 sisters garden. It shouldn't take much to get that ready for planting. I have lavender and chive plants arriving today. More to plant on the slope. I'm thinking I'll be able to kick back and take it a little easier in a couple of weeks. I need to squeeze in mowing the front yard today. At least I can sit down for that. LOL! OK, time to get moving.

 

[LifeSimpleAndSweet]

One year I tried filling 2-liter bottles with water and upending them into the soil.
That sure didn't work.
The combination of vacuum pressure and the hard ground kept some of them not transmitting any water at all. Then some of them emptied very quickly if the soil was soft.
I gave up the pursuit of it before perfecting it.

 

[CountryCuratesWife]

My mint plants are super happy these days, so I'm drying a bunch of leaves for my friend.

 

[Paz]

I planted a patch of 35 tomato plants yesterday. I'm trying to set up a watering system for them. I want it to be suitable for filling once a week so should hold as close to an inch over the root spread as possible. And to deliver the water as slowly as possible.

I'm thinking of putting a pin hole in the bottom of milk jugs half buried in the ground ( to minimize evaporation loss and so they don't blow away when they are empty). Tomato roots spread about two or three feet; each way, I think, so up to nine square feet. One inch of rain over a square foot of ground is about 0.62 gallons. So, 5 1/2 gallons per plant. That would be more milk jugs than I want to fill.

I have 15 gallon barrels. I don't really want to drill holes in them and one would water at least three plants. I think I might be able to set up a siphon system. Fix sections of tubing that reach the bottom of the barrel, go over the rim of the barrel then down to below ground level inside the milk jugs.

Maybe fill the milk jug a few inches with coarse sand or pebbles to stabilize the tubing and the jug. The volume in the jug would be less important than if it were not being filled from the barrel.

It is not ideal to deliver all the water to the one point but it might be good enough to be worth the time setting it up. Multiple jugs per tomato plant would help. Or a channeling system under the jugs. Maybe another year if this much works.

Does anyone see improvements?

Do you have these in the USA?

Basically you can attach in to any water system or resovoir (reservoir has to be above the ground) and it drips a certain amount of water through a certain amount of time (depends of the equipment).

 

[CNJ]

I’d love to figure out other varieties that will thrive here.

If the Heat Master Hybrid Tomato does well in your yard, you could try planting some seeds from your harvest and save the seeds from the ones that thrive for root stock and try grafting other varieties onto it.

The only tomato plant that has not been affected by the stunting Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus in my yard is the Princess Yum Yum cherry tomato. It produces super high quality sweet fruit that never split.

https://tomatogrowers.com/products/princess-yum-yum-hybrid?_pos=1&_sid=fc008b592&_ss=r

 

[CNJ]

One year I tried filling 2-liter bottles with water and upending them into the soil.
That sure didn't work.
The combination of vacuum pressure and the hard ground kept some of them not transmitting any water at all. Then some of them emptied very quickly if the soil was soft.
I gave up the pursuit of it before perfecting it.

They have already made pressure regulated drip caps on amazon. This new design solved that issue. Lol, I just ordered some for my neglected pineapple crowns.
https://www.amazon.com/Watering-Adjustable-Automatic-Irrigation-Plants（Blue/dp/B0BX35JJ1H/ref=sr_1_27_sspa?crid=3DBYB1TQAK0L4&keywords=plant+bottle+dripper&qid=1685461976&sprefix=plant+bottle+dr,aps,1808&sr=8-27-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyNUczM05LS0VPMkxLJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjAyOTk5MTMyVVkwQUIwRFFMNSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzQxNjIzM1ZGUzVQUktRTkpPWCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX210ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

If the Heat Master Hybrid Tomato does well in your yard, you could try planting some seeds from your harvest and save the seeds from the ones that thrive for root stock and try grafting other varieties onto it.

The only tomato plant that has not been affected by the stunting Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus in my yard is the Princess Yum Yum cherry tomato. It produces super high quality sweet fruit that never split.

https://tomatogrowers.com/products/princess-yum-yum-hybrid?_pos=1&_sid=fc008b592&_ss=r

View attachment 3523096

The one heirloom slicer I found that thrives in my area I didn’t save seeds from the first year I tried them (I got several 5 gallon buckets full of tomatoes from just a few plants, but I thought I’d have a separate fall crop so I didn’t save any spring seeds). Since then, my local feed store has only carried them one other season and I didn’t protect that second effort from my chickens so I got no usable tomatoes that season.

My wild tomatoes are “Everglades” tomatoes, which are Florida-adapted Solanum pimpinellifolium. I don’t have to save their seeds. Their seeds overwinter on the ground and come back late winter through summer.

I was hoping to cross breed the Everglades with the Cherokee this season. So far it isn’t working out with the Cherokee, but I may attempt again in pots instead of a planted bed.

 

[CNJ]

My wild tomatoes are “Everglades” tomatoes, which are Florida-adapted Solanum pimpinellifolium.

I grafted a Pine Apple Heirloom tomato plant onto a spoon tomato (Pimpinellifolium) recently and just planted it in the ground. I am not sure how it will work out, because the Pine Apple tomato stem has grown twice as fat as the spoon tomato root stock. The stems were the same size when I first grafted them together.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I grafted a Pine Apple Heirloom tomato plant onto a spoon tomato (Pimpinellifolium) recently and just planted it in a 10 gallon fabric pot. I am not sure how it will work out, because the Pine Apple tomato stem has grown twice as fat as the spoon tomato root stock. The stems were the same size when I first grafted them together.

I did not know tomatoes can be grafted. Very cool. That may be the way I need to try the Cherokee again. I can graft it onto existing Everglades roots which will last all summer.

 

[CNJ]

I did not know tomatoes can be grafted. Very cool. That may be the way I need to try the Cherokee again. I can graft it onto existing Everglades roots which will last all summer.

It can be done, there are a lot of good tomato grafting videos on Youtube and Johnny seeds sell complete grafting kits. This is a picture of my Pineapple tomato plant grafted onto a spoon tomato root stock. I hope the spoon tomato stem catches up to the Pineapple tomato stem.

The (Pimpinellifolium) wild tomato strain has the TYLCV resistance and has been recommended for this virus in the end conclusion of a TYLCV scientific experiment.

I will try grafting onto your Everglades cherry tomato next.