🍅 Tomato & Peppers are in the ground! - WizStead Post #14

I must be a positive thinker, as are all gardeners.

• I spent some time and money planting garden this evening.
  • In hopes of reaping a harvest down the road...

Finally made it by the Amish greenhouse to pick up a few things.
A flat of 4-packs was $15.

• I picked up 16 tomatoes, 12 peppers and some flowers.
  • Later I picked up 2 Sunsugar cherry tomatoes at Orscheln (our local farm store).
    • I got all the veggies in. Flowers tomorrow.

You might be interested in a couple of unique techniques with the tomatoes.

• I trench planted them.
  • I used cow panels instead of cages on the indeterminate ones. (These keep growing vines and tomatoes until the weather takes them out.)

Tomatoes

A 4-pack of each of these varieties

• Holy Land, Pineapple, Goliath, Carolina Gold
  • Only the Carolina Gold variety is determinate. I put them in homemade cages. Made out of fencing.

Trench planting
Did you know tomatoes will grow roots anywhere the stem is below dirt?

• Here's a good article explaining that technique
  • The reason I chose this method, is that it's kind of hit and miss how much topsoil I have. Some spots only 3". Most areas about 6". This is where the bulldozer went through after bulldozing down the old homestead house.

Loosen the dirt and lay the plant on it's side.

Mound dirt up over the root ball and stem. Leaving a few leaves pointed up.

Here's another pic of a trench mounted cherry tomato.

Don't forget to water them in...

Cattle panel trellis
I used 3 t-posts to hold the cattle panel about a foot off the ground.

• These are 15 foot panels and I spaced 6 tomatoes on each panel.
  • I spaced them about 4 foot apart.

I put the 2 cherry tomatoes in one cage. since I built pretty big cages.

Peppers

A 4-pack of each: Jalapeno, King Arthur and Hungarian Yellow Wax.
The King Arthurs got put in a standard spaced about 2 foot.

• The others I used an offset 2 row pattern.

Is this weed food?

If they happen to be food, then I could say my garden is off to a GREAT start. These things are popping up everywhere. And growing like... guess what... yup, growing like weeds!

Finished project

Brutus just hasn't been the same since that alien abduction.
I'm guessing maybe that's whatsup with his eyes... haha

This is looking south, away from the house.

• First is the cage with the 2 cherry tomatoes.
• Then the cattle panels with a dozen tomato plants.
• Then the 4 tomato cages
• To the right of those are the bell peppers.
• On past them are the jalapenos and hungarian wax peppers.

Variety links

If you don't recognize some of the varieties I picked, here some links to info...

• Holy Land
  • Not much info about this one on the web. The Amish gal said a friend of hers from out east, brought back seeds from Israel. ??? Supposed to be a heavy producer of large tomatoes with excellent flavor. My first time with this one. I will let you know if it lives up to its hype.
• Pineapple
  • 1-2 pounders! woohoo
• Goliath
  • Should be the first to ripen.
• Carolina Gold
  • I really like the flavor of yellow tomatoes...
• Sunsugar

  • The ultimate in cherry tomatoes...

• King Arthur
  • Bigger than some, but not the biggest. 4x4" These are very good.

My other gardening posts...

Check out

• Clematis
• my April Gardening Journal
• Strawberries in a raised bed and hanging basket
• 200+ onions
• Cool season crops in a new raised bed
• Asparagus in a new raised bed

Pull up a chair
Let's chat a bit
I'll get us a glass of sweet tea

Have you ever trench planted tomatoes?
What varieties are your favorites?
How's your dog?
Have you ever used a cow panel for tomatoes?
Give me a link to your latest garden post...
Did you know @knowledge-seeker runs a #homesteadphotography contest?
Did you know @simplymike is running a monthly Gardening Journal contest?

Who I am @WizarDave	The KEY to Life!