this year we hung 'em high. 4 varieties in 2 turvies they tried to grow 'up' for a while, till they got heavy and a storm cam through. offshoots still try to go up. dumb tomatoes.



last years yield sucked, but i don't really do it for the produce, my wife is handicapped and it makes for a nice balcony garden for her... a few good tomatoes would be nice though. i re-planted 3 baskets from last year myself with R,W&B cascading petunias and a Geranium in the middle, way better than the available offerings if i do say so. then we have a Mum from Mothers day a few years ago, and a Poinsettia we grew from a pup.



"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm" ~ James Madison

I spotted on little tomato on one plant.. Lol! Last year I put grass clippings around them and bonanza! Lots of tomaters!

was it because of fertilizer spray on the clippings? i guess maters like a low nitrogen fertilizer for fruit production, high nitrogen just grows vines and leaves.

i had to spray some calcium chloride for blossom end rot, that's what killed the yield last year. they say when a mater plant goes dry it stops calcium uptake and then the BER starts in.

"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm" ~ James Madison

where it's light for 6 months a year you can grow a head of cabbage 40lbs or bigger !

I don't know how long the growing season is up in Northern Canada or Alaska it's too short here just in Fargo.

Our last frost was late May... like the 21st or 23rd have had a heavy frost in June.
I've seen early frosts too, like a couple of years ago I am thinking the 2 week of Sept.

the averages for Fargo are May 25 and Sept 12

Neighbor lady raises 'maters and is kind enough to share some with us.
She knows who blows that show for her during the other 6 months.
-blizz

ps Everytime I see that add on TV for the growing tomatoes upside down from the hanging pots I think of this thread.

Well, I guess to sum it up, you could say, there's three reasons why there's so little crime in Mayberry. There's Andy, and there's me, and [patting gun] baby makes three.

the topsy-turvys are hard to keep watered, you need to dribble the water in real slow so it doesn't just flow out the bottom before the soil can soak it up or the plant goes dry. my wife keeps buying these damn globes and insists that i use them, this is the best use for them so far but they're a pain to keep filled too. they either clog or empty quickly, and i'm still dribble watering from the watering can too. PITA the whole thing is i tell ya!

"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm" ~ James Madison

'mater season coming to a close, how was the crop?
-blizz

Well, I guess to sum it up, you could say, there's three reasons why there's so little crime in Mayberry. There's Andy, and there's me, and [patting gun] baby makes three.

If they weren't covered - "its over~all over now"
-blizz

Well, I guess to sum it up, you could say, there's three reasons why there's so little crime in Mayberry. There's Andy, and there's me, and [patting gun] baby makes three.

Ma was smart this year and yanked all the tomaters in on friday.

I think we are getting one of them this week, 30+ mph winds from the NW (Imagine that?) Garbage cans knocked over and all and all sunny but crappy weather.

It could be worse, I'm scanning some old family photo alblums for the wifes parents, check out this 1903 picture from back home, South Western ND



blizz

Well, I guess to sum it up, you could say, there's three reasons why there's so little crime in Mayberry. There's Andy, and there's me, and [patting gun] baby makes three.

That last one was cold, windy and rainy, Burrrr!

I have been composting. This year I got one of those vermicast tray systems where you have a tray filled with a substrate (it comes with coconut fibers but you can use soil or manure). The bottom is grilled and moisture drains into a bottom drain. You put in earthworms and feed them kitchen veggie waste. The worms eat the waste creating compost and the moisture collects in the bottom tray. The moisture is rich in notrogen and you can draw it off, dilute it and use it as fertilizer.

Damaged or funky tomatoes from our plants go in whole. In a couple of weeks all you can find is the skin. But in a couple more weeks you have a bunch of mater sprouts. Works with other fresh produce scraps as well. Our watermelon seeds in the scraps sprout like mad.

So, next spring, I'm not gonna use the fancy tray sprouting system. I'm gonna sprout my seeds oin the worm-o-mat.

"That wasn't any farewell slap." -Dick Powell

I have had good tomatos sprout from the compost pile, usually around winter, and as they are growing in the warmth of the heap, the frost doesn't seem to get them either.