Aw, fuck. I left the basil out too long while hardening off and sunburned the hell out of it all. Should grow out ok eventually but I won't be able to sell the extras.
Looking for some advice from you Idiots, please and thank you. So, I planted my tomato plants in the ground about two weeks ago. I started these from seed. While in the growing pots, some of the plants began to flower. I knew that this wasn't good, but just left it. Last frost date passes, and I plant these plants REALLY deep in the garden. The plants were probably a foot or more tall when I put them in the ground, and I bury them down over halfway. Again, this is about two weeks ago. I'm out at the garden today, and the plants are adjusting, probably a foot tall, a bit "leggy", but otherwise fine. My issue is this. About half of them are forming tomatoes on that first blossom set that came up when they were still in pots. My thought is that they are much too immature to start fruiting. I am tempted to cut this first fruiting stem off and allow the roots and the plant to become a bit more established before it starts producing. Is this a good idea? Help?!
I think the common advice is to remove the first flowers/fruits, probably for the reasons you are stating. Last year I removed the first flowers, had pretty healthy and big plants with good yields. I don't think it would hurt you to do so, and if anything it would be helpful, while keeping them on to mature might pull nutrients away from early stem development. Really depends on how much you are fertilizing, too, I'd imagine.
The garden is coming along. My kale is doing well and I could start picking some leaves. I thinned some radishes for dinner last night and there's plenty left to pluck here or there. I cook and eat the greens too, which are tasty and healthy. I planted brussel sprout starts today my neighbor gave me. Never tried to grow them before, supposedly 1 plant can produce 100 sprouts. ~15 sprouts = 1lb for reference. Peppers are ready to go with lots of baby peppers in place. I think I'm shooting for May 1 to plant peppers and tomatoes. I'm totally out of space and getting creative (crazy) with stuff. Luffas are getting trained up on a fence, cantaloupe and butternut squash are in the front door planters facing south. Containers can work but I have got to work out the irrigation situation in the more creative planting locations. We are also seeding our lawns with clover to cut way down on watering, so the fact that I have my garden hooked into one of my zones might get tricky. My irrigation guy was telling me about some timer or somesuch that could help this problem.
I agree with @bewildered on the tomatoes... kill the fruit, and give them a bit of nitrogen to start off with to help establish the stems and roots. Later on hit them with more calcium for the fruit generation. Garden's looking great so far, @bewildered ! I wish I could say the same... we're getting 4-5cm of snow tonight. The seedlings are doing well... transplanted them to bigger pots... and the peppers are starting to get that "woody" or "stem" like stalk to it now instead of just being green spindly things. I was hoping to even just start working the soil this weekend but the weather is looking like shit. I don't think my plants will hit the outside until May at this rate.
@Nettdata sucks about the snow. With my love for gardening the short season would drive me nuts. At least you got a head start on your peppers. They definitely take the longest to mature and I hate waiting til the season is almost done to enjoy bell peppers. I think I'm going to dig some up and see if I can hibernate them in the garage over winter, if I can remember to do it before the cold kills them later on.
This year I'm bringing a few plants indoors into my "seedling" area and grow them year round. Especially the herbs. I'm redoing my herb rack to no longer be troughs that I transplant into, but rather a holding rack that I can drop pots into. That way I can still get the auto-watering happening year round, and then when the season is near ending, just lift the pots out and bring them inside. We'll see how that goes. I'm pretty optimistic for the peppers, and a lot of the herbs.
That's a really good idea given your climate. I might do something with the LED strip lights for herbs but not more than that. I'd love to have them in the kitchen but can't really figure out a good setup, so the shower might just be it for now. My power bill has been pretty high with the bulb and ballast setup I was using. I've moved most plants outside to take advantage of the daytime warmth and natural light with just a few things sprouting under the LEDs only. I will be using that ballast very sparingly in the future.
I got the encased plastic LED shoplights that don't have a bulb to replace. Is this similar to what you use? Do you know if they decline in quality over time? It seems like my seedlings were straining and a little leggy this go round. Wondering if this is a new problem or if I just noticed it.
I've tried this for the past three years with my hot peppers. My issue is always aphids that I can't ever seem to get under control, so I eventually give up and toss them back outside into the snow. This year I'm considering leaving one of the peppers indoors all year as an experiment. I'm just not sure if my lighting is strong enough to support fruiting. I guess that's why it's an experiment!
move overwintered hot peppers and they are pretty resilient. You water them less and the lack of light gets them into a dormant mode. Unless you have those weed growing lamps you aren’t going to have fruit set.
I use aphid spray, as well as a small indoor bug zapper on a timer. I generally get infested overnight, then spritz and they're gone by the next day. Happened once last year that I can remember, but man, it totally freaked me out when I first saw it. It also didn't help that we had a case of cat food with a busted tin buried in it that we didn't notice... it was a real feast for the bugs.
Yeah, the point of my previous efforts was to try and overwinter them to get a headstart on the next year. I've never kept one inside all year before, though I've seen a few posts on pepper forums from those who've said they used just a windowsill over the summer and gotten at least some fruit? That seems crazy to me. Our patio door faces south, but I would expect too much UV will be filtered out for that to help much. My grow lights SAY they support fruiting, but I'm skeptical. What spray do you use?
@billy_2005 it really comes down to the light wavelengths your setup emits. You need warmer reds and oranges to support flowering and fruiting. HPS lightbulbs are popular for weed because they emit more of the red and orange wavelengths. A lot of your LED lights are too cool. If you have enough natural light in combination with an LED, that might support fruiting. It really depends on your latitude. Our winter days are short and grey here so natural light is nothing I could rely on. If you're in the south you'd probably be just fine with light from your window plus some supplemental overheads. For overwintering, I've read that you should dig up, spray off roots, practically douse in your insecticide of choice, and repot in a clean container. It doesn't take a big population to run your plant over in no time.
Clarification that I grow in pots only, but I didn't consider repotting for overwintering in prior attempts. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm in Canada, so short growing season, but my city is actually one of the sunniest in the whole country. My lights are older fluorescents so I'm not sure what wavelengths they're primarily emitting, but that's a google search away. Could always get some warmer bulbs and switch them out I suppose if they're on the cool side.
On that note, I looked outside to see if I could plan on transplanting stuff any time soon... Spoiler Nope. Fucking SNOW. The inside setup is a little bit less than last year, but stuff is doing well so far:
The setup is also getting a bit worn out and busted, and I didn't get/make time to make the Version 2.0 that I wanted to this year, but I'm thinking I'm really going to have to do it for next year.
Cut off all of the flowering stems from my tomatoes. I planted just a bit too early. Temps are still getting too cool at night, even in my high zone. Need to get the root systems established and these plants to be putting on leaves and not flowers, yet. Thanks Idiots, @bewildered.