After a bit of preparation, it is time to graft tomato plants. The seedlings are about 20 days old and some are already too big to graft.
In addition to tomato seedlings, grafting clips and a razor, a healing chamber is needed. In this picture you can see my seedlings and lighting. Near the middle of this picture is a cart with seedlings on top and a healing chamber built on the lower shelf. The chamber is wrapped in shrink wrap plastic to make a moisture ‘proof’ enclosure. This healing chamber is where the grafted seedlings are placed while the graft heals (3-7 days).
Healing chamber in center cart on lower shelf.
To get a good graft, you first select plants with similar sized stems that will fit into the grafting clip.Brandywine and German Stripped are the fruit varieties I am grafting with Colosus root stock. I had plenty of good stem size matches. The top picture shows 4 Brandywine tomatoes ready for grafting.
To reduce moitsure loss from leaves and to reduce the weight on the graft several leaves are also removed. The result looks very much like mutilation.
A grafted tomato. Click on the imageto view of the 45 degree cut of the graft.
Once several grafted seedlings are ready they are placed in a healing chamber.
The chamber is kept at 80 degrees F and at 90% humidity. Too much water flowing through the graft is not good. The high humidity keeps leaf respiration low.
Here are about 30 grafted seedlings in the healing chamber. It is kind of hard to see through the shrink wrap plastic, but you can see the plants inside.
This plan will be easier to trellis and to keep weed free. Single rows of potatoes, tomatoes and peas will make cultivation between plants simple and trellising will be reduced by half.
More single plant rows for easier cultivation and trellising.
The plant count will also be reduced by half. Maybe the improved soil cultivation, weeding and more attention to each plant will raise plant yield some. Still expecting the garden to produce 2,000 pounds this year.
A heavy wet snow is falling, reminding me that plenty of time is left before real work begins in the garden. I was all up tight about my things to do in the garden. But now, seeing this snow fall, I am more at ease.
I have about 8 flats of tomatoes, cabbage and lettuce started. Many of the tomatoes are to be grafted with Colosus root stock (which are also well started). The plan is to place about 15 grafted Brandywine tomatoes in one row and regular seedlings in the next row and have an easy comparison of yield.
I have re-potted the cabbage into 6 packs. These will be ready for the ground in a week or two. So will the lettuce I’ve started for my smaller garden.
In a week or two (March 1st) peppers can be started. And tomatoes will need grafting for some and re-potting for most. This is going to stretch my enclosure’s capacity to the max. My florescent lights can support 4 flats and the new metal halide light about 10 flats.
The new 650 watt metal halide light is working well. I did attach a venting line to the light but it is not needed. The line is attached to a 6 inch fan, which is far too loud and far too much volume to just keep the bulb cool. I wanted to use the heat of the bulb as a second heat source.
Heavy wet snow on Feb 20th.
The snow is great news for our area. It is expected to be equal to about 2 inches or rain. We really need the moisture.
The shelving arrived the other day so we could finish a seed starting greenhouse. The seed catalogs are full of great varieties. Starting plants from seed and growing them out to about 6 weeks is a way to garden in mid-winter. If you are like me the itch to garden is strongest in winter and even seeing small plants growing is satisfying.
The spot we picked in the barn is perfect. It was a washing station for horses so it has water and a drain in the middle of the space. Below is a peek through the door at the potting station and water faucet.
A simple potting bench with soil basin made with a blue tub.
We used 4 mil plastic to form a vapor barrier. It will act to keep the humidity in the space and does help insulate too by forming a small air space between the wall and plastic. I also thought the condensation would form on the plastic and roll down the plastic on the walls and drip to the floor. I hope this will save the paneling.
The rest of the space is for plants.
More lighting will be needed for the racks on the left. These shelves, plus a 2′ x 4′ cart will accommodate 12 flats. The single shelf to the right can hold 4 more flats for seed germination of 300 or so individual plants. The rolling cart will be used to take the near ready plants outside to begin hardening them off. Scheduling the seed starting will be the trick, so that plants are ready for the garden when the weather allows and having ample room for all the plants we want to start.
The black trays on the shelf are planting flats. They are perforated so 6 packs of plants can be detached easily from the flat. Each pot is about 2″ x 2″ x 2″.
We all get into thought loops. Over and over the same thoughts. Many times this is our mind examining a problem or evidence and forcing current facts into some previously solved problem or situation. I imagine people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with horribly repetitive mind looping, a circle with no end. Really tight, inescapable loops. Yikes.
In our busy lives we are called on for new thinking to create new things to solve today’s problems. I find that creativity comes best when my mind is quiet. Real change in thinking is possible when looping thought stops. For me, creativity comes from this silence (comes out from the silence), from the place where those looping thoughts were. As a professional, I stuck to certain loops, and solved old problems without creating anything new. Many professions will have a mantra for repetitive thought. In marketing the mantra was “test, measure, refine, test, measure, refine, …
That mantra served me very well on old problems. Pulling weeds helped me solve new problems.
Getting my mind to shut off is pretty easy. I weed in the garden. Pull up weeds and set them in a pile. It is mechanical, a physical loop: hand to weed, grasp root, pull, shake, pile (repeated). I lose hearing first and some looping thoughts stop. Tunnel vision begins and my field of view narrows: I see only the top of one weed. My sense of awareness shrinks to the bed being cleared. Taste and smell are dull and more loopy thoughts stop.
It is in this very unfocused state that often would bring the: “Oh”. The ah-ha moment of clarity.
So if you need to solve a new problem or new situation, take up gardening and weed your garden often.
This is one of my favorite garden chores. Starting seeds in a coldframe or enclosure is the true beginning of a gardening year. This year we have built a nice 10′ x 10′ enclosure and just now getting shelving installed. We will be starting lots of tomatoes, peppers and melons.
Spring seed starting schedule. Not shown are fall crop replanting.
Have planted (Jan 21) a few tomatoes for a grafting test. The diameter of grafted tomatoes must match well for the graft to take. So I have planted Colosus root stock and along with Brandywine and Striped German. If any grow more quickly then they will be planted later than the rest of the grafting stock. After 21 days, grafting can begin, so vigorous growth varieties will be slightly younger (18 days maybe). This will help keep all stems nearly the same diameter. Here is a link to Johnny Seed describing the process of tomato grafting.
I am planning on a small test for tomato grafting. Will focus on heirloom varieties (Brandywine – 25 plants and 2 German Striped for easy comparison ). They usually have the least yield compared to hybrids. I am expecting a 50% mortality rate on the grafts too, so I will plant extra heirloom fruit stock than shown above.
If I have any secrets about gardening, it is chickens. Specifically how to use chicken litter compost to improve soil in a raised bed. In raised bed gardening you will use the same soil year after year so it is important to amend the soil. Once the beds are ready they are filled with the best soil available. Chicken compost can be added to increase nitrogen and organic material. The picture above is a yummy recipe for success.
Fresh eggs, heirloom tomatoes and crookneck summer squash all come together in July. I look at composting like a cycle of life. The long days of summer are the best place to start. It takes time to take shape. Egg production is stimulated by long days. Hens are hungry and they love to eat from the garden. Their appetites produce lots-o-littler in the coup. All this poop must be cleaned up. I use a method that reduces the work and yields good quantities of litter ready for the compost pile.
Chicken manure needs lots of carbon to compost well and reduce its ‘heat’ before adding to the garden. So I use wood shavings to cover the floor of the coup. After I make a layer of shavings, I add diatominous earth (DE) a powder of finely ground sea shells. DE is a powder that is abrasive to pests, helps dry the litter and really knocks down the stink. Once the DE finds its way into a raised bed it adds calcium to the soil. Once the chickens have made a mess of this I make another layer of wood shavings and DE. Three layers produce two or three large wheelbarrows of chicken litter for the compost pile.
Two new compost piles just starting in Elm Tree Garden.
We use wire mesh hoops made from old fences to form the piles. The chicken litter is concentrated so we add it in with layers with grass clippings, ground up leaves and residue from weeding around our place. If we have any compost that is done, I like to add a small scattering of it to each layer of the pile to inoculate the pile. My hens help make about 5 piles a year. They are great producers! They also lay from 1 to 3 dozen eggs a day. I think that everyone that gets these eggs really enjoy them too.
Turning a compost pile speeds the decomposition. If a pile is left untouched it still makes great compost but will take about a year to finish. A well turned pile will finish in half that time or less. If you turn your pile you will need several piles to work with. Probably the easiest way to turn a pile is to use a garden fork to shovel one pile into another pile. We lift our wire hoops off the pile and set it next to the pile. Then shovel the pile back into the hoop. Two turnings and four months in summer and the pile will be about done. Add water when you turn if it is dry. To really cook, a pile needs moisture.
Except in winter our pile really heats up. Dig a hole down into the pile and place a thermometer. Our pile ‘cooks’ at about 140 degrees F. Grass clippings are really hot. This heat of decomposition is a good measure of how quick your pile is cooking down to the rich black earthy elixir that is compost. It will have a rich earthy smell and is fluffy (almost like potting soil).
One good pile is enough for about 3 inches of compost in two of my 4′ x 16′ beds. I add crushed limestone to reduce acidity and help tomatoes absorb the calcium. This also prevents blossom rot on tomatoes, a calcium deficiency in the plant sometimes caused by the combination of rich chicken litter and highly acid soil.
The soil in each of my beds is rich and loamy. It yields heavy production. I am very happy to give any of this back to my chickens. They only get the C grade fruit but they are delighted with all offerings when it is fresh from the garden. I keep them happy and they me.
Over the past 15 years I have moved several times. At each home I built gardens. While I hated to abandon a garden to a new owner, I have enjoyed improving the last design. With each new garden, improvements were made.
My first, well designed garden is shown below. This first raised bed garden was at our home on Lake Eufaula. We had very little area that was full sun so I put the garden in the front yard.
A simple two bed raised bed garden.
The raised beds are surrounded by pea gravel. This really helps with weed control and allows working in the garden even after a heavy rain (no muddy shoes). Each bed is built with 4″ x 4″ treated timbers and has popup sprinklers for irrigation which are controlled with a timer. A coldframe was used to start seeds and very early veggies like lettuce and cabbage. Notice the electrical outlet. It provided heat to the coldframe on very cold nights.
The dimensions were chosen for maximum yield from the timbers and so that I could, while sitting on the edge of the bed, reach the other side of the bed for weeding. Each timber is secured to the one below with wood screws. This helps prevent warping of the timbers over time (treated wood is prone to warping).
My second raised bed garden took this concept to a new level. The top picture shows this garden in season. I built this garden is two stages. The front part built the first year. Gazebos and the back portion with a small orchard was built later. The entire garden has a stone raised bed surround with a fence to keep out the deer.
Fruit trees, folly, gazebo, and almost 20 raised beds in my second garden.
This garden was very pretty. I began growing flowers and fruit and had nice places to sit and enjoy the outdoors. My favorite spot was under the wood portico which in summer was covered by a wisteria. In the blue-green ‘folly’ we would sit and have drinks with friends. We even added curtains in the folly for shade. The pea gravel infield had flagstone walkways adding a finished look. Risers were added to the sprinkler system to water pots and fill the fountain.
One problem with raised beds built this way is that water can become trapped in the bottom of the bed. Many times while turning a bed a sour smell came from the soaked soil. Under each bed was a small pit was dug to make each bed a little deeper. But this pit retained water and would sour over time. I solved this problem in the back portion (built later) by placing french drains under each bed. The drains were connected and diverted under the stone wall and outside the garden. This solved the pooling water problem.
I really hated leaving this garden.
Finally, my last garden, much smaller and less elaborate, is made with large cedar timbers. It used timbers to mark the perimeter and to contain the pea gravel. French drains are under each bed. Each bed is irrigated with drip tubing. A riser in each bed has a valve to shut off water when fallow. The width of the timbers is easy to sit upon and the lap joint construction allows large lag bolts to secure each timber to the one below and help prevent warping.
The little brick area is used to wash vegetables. The drain is connected to the french drains and keeps standing water away from the area. There is a riser for watering pots. The entire garden is watered with a single automatic timer zone.
The drip lines are the best way to water that I have found. They distribute the water evenly without waste and can be fitted with misters to help seeds germinate by keeping the soil surface damp. Misters can be shut off once seedlings have emerged and have developed sufficient roots.
I just hope that Elm Tree Garden can be as productive as any of these past gardens.
Substantial trellis support is needed for several crops in the garden. This includes tomatoes, peas, pole beans, cucumbers, tomatillo and pepper. There are 200 feet of 8 double row beds for tomatoes. (more…)
When the web was younger Insurance advertising was much easier for advertisers. Around 2000 or 1999 the pay per click model for search traffic was just evolving and advertisers could buy clicks for a fixed price. We could buy a set of keywords for $0.65 per click. The search engine would then place our ad at the top of search results. When a user clicked on our ad it cost us 65 cents. We bought a contract for 1 year at a time! This was a sweet deal. (more…)
