Ponderpaul, You might get a quicker answer from the GW Admin if you go to the very bottom of the page, and click on the phrase 'contact us' to ask your question.

My personal feeling, after posting here since 2005, is that you wouldn't get into any sort of trouble if you mention the experiments y'all are doing, etc.

I've never seen anyone get in trouble for discussing a business in which they have no personal financial interest or from which they expect no financial gain. We all discuss books we're reading, nurseries we like (or those we avoid), seed companies we trust (or don't), soil/compost suppliers in various parts of the state, etc.

Even the members who post here who are involved in the horticulture or agriculture business sometimes mention their businesses in passing...not as an advertisement but more as an informational 'this is what we are working on now' type scenario. Sometimes it is a fine line they walk, and I think all of them do a really good job of letting us know what is going on without turning it into an ad for their business. They have to be careful how they word things so they don't get themselves in trouble with Admin.

You'll see a lot of us mention Oklahoma businesses, especially small growers and nurseries, that we like and hold in high regard because we want for other Oklahomans to know that such local growers exist, particularly as they often have regionally-oriented varieties that you cannot find elsewhere. If someone asks where they can find heirloom tomato plants in the Tulsa area, for example, several of us generally will mention The Tomato Man's Daughter, Duck Creek Farms, which sells at the Cherry Street Farmer's, etc. If they ask about similar sources in the central OK area, we might generically mention one of the farmer's markets, the OK Food Co-op or a local retailer like Sunshine Acres. If they ask about a local source for cannas, we might mention Horn's Canna Farm. It would seem to me like you wouldn't be doing anything different in discussing the the nursery business at which you are doing interesting things that others here might like to learn about.

I have seen blatant ads on some forums and spam as well, and haven't even seen Admin come back and remove those sometimes. I think maybe they are just too busy.

Dawn

Thanks, I think that answers my question. We have several different watering set-ups we're experimenting with and are looking at setting up a quail, fish, veggie combo that should be very interesting. Would love to be free to tell folks to come by and see. The nursery also does quite a bit of business with the Noble Foundation in Ardmore which to my understanding is strictly an experimental/research organization.organizaton.

You're welcome.

The Samuel Roberts Noble foundation is mostly agriculture, but they also engage in a lot of philanthropy and do award numerous grants to the local community for various things. I think people that know them only for their agricultural research might be surprised by how many grants they award each year. They awarded us a sizable grant that helped build our volunteer fire station about 9 years ago, and every now and then I see stories in the local newspaper of other local organizations receiving grants. I am not sure of how far their grant program reaches, but organizations all over southern OK often are on the receiving end of their grant program. I am not sure how many grants they award in any given year, but they are an incredible community organization that supports non-profit groups here as well as doing their agricultural research, classes, tours, etc. I think they do wonderful work and they are very dedicated to the local communities near them.

You can see their grant programs, including the history of previous grants awarded, on their website.

Their agricultural research also is internationally acclaimed and yet for most of Oklahoma's population, they fly under the radar. I think most people here have no idea how much the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation does in terms of research nor do most people know how widely respected they are worldwide. I feel like this foundation is one of Oklahoma's best-kept secrets.

Here is a link that might be useful: Noble Foundation Website

I was slightly introduced to them through this tomato project. They planted about 240 plants of 2 varieties in May of last year and had harvested over 3,700 pounds of tomatoes by late August.

Cool!

Do you know if the different colors of shade cloth gave them differing results?

I grew about 300 tomato plants last year and had an overwhelmingly good harvest, but once I had canned, frozen and dehydrated a huge number of fruit, I yanked out most of the plants and replaced them with something new for fall, leaving just a handful of plants to give us fruit for fresh eating. Had I not taken out a lot of the plants at midsummer, trying to keep up with the harvest would have killed me. : )

This year I'm growing a lot fewer tomato plants because I preserved so many last year. Maybe 60 plants total this year for actual production, and another 10-20 paste tomato plants as part of a trial to see how they produce and how well we like them for canning, freezing and dehydrating.

I grow too many tomatoes every year, but last year took the cake. This year I need to be more disciplined and give less space to tomatoes and more space to virtually everything else.

If you like growing strawberries, the Noble Foundation's research into strawberry plasticulture is very impressive.

If memory is correct, they had 12 plots; 3 black, 3 red, 3 silver and 3 with no shade cloth. Each plot had 20 plants. I visited a few times and shade cloth color or no shade cloth didn�t appear to make a lot of difference. It looked like the drip irrigation system might have been the biggest factor in the success of the project. I am sure they would have the color information available. I believe that was the purpose of the project.

Is it totally ridiculous that the view of that project produced a mixture of saliva and extreme sensory overload?????

Thanks for sharing!!!

Paula

Does anyone really believe Dawn will really grow fewer tomatoes this year? Raise your hand. :)

Paula, I am drooling with you.

Yes, Dawn will grow fewer tomatoes....but not fewer vegetables. LOL Of course she will miss growing 300 tomato plants so badly, that in 2014 she will plant 350.

Taken this past December 4th. Forgive an old guy for postings such stuff :-)

Cute girl. Nice to have a greenhouse isn't it?

Paula, lol lol lol. I think I was drooling just looking at that photo and reading about the harvest.

Lisa, I have to grow fewer. Another summer like last summer will flat out kill me.

Carol, You're right about me growing more veggies of all kinds to fill the space left available by growing fewer tomatoes. I hope to have the willpower to spend more time focused on establishing new fruit plantings in 2014 and to still keep the total number of tomato plants less than 100. I wanted to do a lot of new fruit plantings this year, but with a neutral ENSO year looming, continued drought seems likely so I won't put too many new fruit trees or berries in the ground this year. I don't want to plant more than I can water.

I will tell y'all what will deter me from planting a lot of tomato plants....the memories of spending multiple days in 2012 harvesting tomatoes from 6:30 a.m. until 8 or 8:30 p.m., only stopping long enough to carry a bucket, bowl, tubtrug or box of tomatoes to the house. Sometimes I spent three whole days a week just harvesting tomatoes, although of course when other things were ready to be harvested, I'd bring them up to the house along with the tomatoes. Chris would just show up with food and make me come inside long enough to eat, or he'd come to check on me and make sure I was drinking water, teas and Gatorade. (And I was! After getting sick at wildfires in 2011, I knew I couldn't let that happen to me in the garden in 2012. I also ate cherry tomatoes throughout the day as a sort of natural form of Gatorade.) Also, even though we are using tomatoes in cooking, and we gave away dozens and dozens of jars of salsa as gifts, we still have tons and tons of tomato products in the pantry and the freezer. I don't think I'll have to make tomato sauce, ketchup, pizza sauce or pasta sauce until 2015. I have enough salsa left to get my family through 2013 and even part of 2014 if I don't give any away, but I'll need to can enough salsa this year that I can give away about 100 jars for Christmas.

Ponderpaul, I love the photo. She is so precious and the plants look great too.

Dawn

If you are looking at berries, be sure to check out the thornless varieties. With a little care they do well in southern OK and are painless to pick.

Who wants to start a tomato pot? By the time we actually know how many tomatos Dawn will plant in 2014, we may have enough contributions for a fairly hefty pot. Winner take all, or donate to charity of winner's choice?

I'm in......

Susan

P.S. Winner will be whomever is closest to actual number of plants without going over.

I have grown both thornless and thorned ones and prefer the thorned ones. We like their flavor better. My original blackberry patch was too far from the house to water and it has been too dry in recent years for them to even survive. The new patch will be in better soil closer to the house and will have a drip irrigation system. It also will be fenced to keep out the wildlife. It is hard to get any ripe berries because the wildlife get them when they are half-ripe. My yard is like a wildlife refuge, though I didn't plan it that way. Anything at all that I want to harvest for us has to be well-fenced and, in terms of fruit, covered well with bird netting too.

Susan, lol lol lol

Y'all are going to be so surprised at how well I stick to my 'less tomatoes' planting scheme. I still have a big chest freezer 3/4 full of frozen and dehydrated tomatoes and at least 200-250 jars of tomato products in the big pantry.

You should be betting on how many jalapeno pepper plants I will grow so I can make lots of canned jalapeno rings, hot pepper relish and candied jalapenos. Last year, I was so busy canning tomatoes that, except for the peppers I used in salsa, I just cut them all in half, de-seeded, roasted and then froze all the jalapenos we didn't eat fresh. Thus, I have about 50 bags (roughly two dozen peppers per bag) of jalapeno halves ready to use in cooking, but only 1 jar of candied jalapenos left in the pantry. Guesss which one I need more of?

Last year was the big tomato year. This will be the big pepper year. Also, hopefully a big onion, potato, sugar snap pea and sweet corn year.

I also gave away a lot of really big jalapenos last year to friends who like to stuff them and grill them. If I am going to continue doing that, I need to plant another dozen or two dozen jalapeno plants more than last year just so I can give away as many as I did this year and still have plenty to can.

I plan my garden plantings based on what is not in the root cellar, freezer or pantry which means the plan for less tomatoes is a very firm one. I know y'all find that hard to believe, but it is true.

See Susan and Lisa! How did I know that? Like Dawn always says, "We are sisters, separated at birth". We were even born in the same Texas town. Even if we aren't sisters, we still think alike. LOL

Of course, it was a not just a guess, since I have been around long enough to remember not only the year of the tomato, but the year of the onion, and who can forget the year of the pepper. Remember when Tim went to visit his sisters for the week and Dawn had 1800 peppers in her kitchen? Although I laughed till I was crying, I could feel her pain, because I also cough the entire time I do peppers. I eat them, but I still cough when I prepare very many.

This was not the year of the tomato at my house. My tomato plants started out good, but they just didn't last long. I canned 48 jars of salsa, and we ate all we wanted fresh, but it was not a big tomato year.

Dawn; tell me about freezing tomatoes. We have a bunch that are going to waste if we don't do something in the next few days. Just not enough energry to can that much anymore though we did make some great veggie juice last week.