Getting ready to start another grow

16 years ago

I was satisfied with last year's grow, for the most part. The plants grew fantastically, but the lack of sunlight deprived me of total success. This grow will take that into account.

As soon as my seedlings get large enough, they will go into their 7-gallon containers but sit in the outside garden for about eight weeks. I'll probably bury the pots, at least halfway. Most of the plants are Celebrity, though I am trying Cabernet and Trust. I'll use Tomato-tone ferts dissolved in rain water, along with compost tea until they move into the GH.

I know all about the preferred mix of this forum... mine's a bit different. This time it will be a mixture of the mix from the last grow, compost and very aged horse manure, along with a bit of used potting soil.

I'm guessing I will need to water more than one every two weeks bu that is fine. Three quarts per container is eaqual to an inch of rain.

Reports will follow once te grow starts!

Mike

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Comments (4)

Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
16 years ago
Are these plants grapevines? If so, they need a lot of sun to produce grapes.
jojosplants
16 years ago
My guess would be tomato's
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greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
16 years ago
Mike,
what were last year's harvest numbers like?

This year, my Hungarian is significantly producing more than last year, same with my Thai's.
My tomatoes, however, are behind schedule. The fruit is large, but green.

Josh
wordwiz
Original Author
16 years ago
Josh,

The numbers vacuumed! They started off great and I had quite a number of blooms in early December. Some of them turned into baby toms and I was thinking all the tomatoes I could give as unseasonal Christmas presents. Then the drought hit - the sun drought, that is. Blossoms dropped massively. I did get a few tomatoes, enough to keep us supplied throughout the winter. At one stretch I counted six hours of sunlight, and part of that was partially sunny, over a two week period. The drought ended in the middle of February. Within two weeks, I had hundreds of blossoms forming and within a month were setting fruit. Things looked great. I was learning how to control temps, since in March and April it can go from 20 to 60 in one day. Unfortunately, one day the temps were in the mid-40s when I had to leave. The forecast was for a high of 49 and mostly cloudy all day. I did not want to open the door, as 45 was too low.

Well, the forecasters were wrong - real wrong. It turned extremely sunny and the temps soared into the low 60s. By the time I got home, it was 119 inside the GH - fried all the blossoms and baby toms.

Nevertheless, the plants recovered and I was still able to keep from having to buy any of those cardboard ones from a store. Once again, lots of blossoms and this time, dozens and dozens of toms, many of them the size of tennis and baseballs. Then the heat hit. I was able to keep it decent for a while, unually no higher than 105 or so at worst. Plus a horrible whitefly infestation set in. As May turned to June, temps kept rising, usually to 115-120 per day. Once, it was 125. That cooked the toms.

That's why I am planning to start some in the next week or so. They can stay outside until the frost (usually late September-early October) then move them inside for the final eight-ten weeks.

I e-mail Jim Faust, the foremost greenhouse lighting expert in the country to see if he thinks I will get enough light in December to finish the ripening process.

Mike