I planted a row of mixed lettuces and a row of kale/collards, and re-potted my peppers and tomatoes. It's still too early to set those out.
Brought home a dozen chicks and got them set up in the brooder house.
Posted on 04/06/2012 7:46:05 AM PDT by dennisw
Open for business...ready for your recent gardening adventures
There are really 2 different schools of thought on the pinching of suckers; one that insists it must be done and those that don't. lol
It used to be that the oldtimers swore you HAD to pinch suckers to get the best fruit and with some open pollinated varieties, that may still be true. I have grown tomatoes both ways, and have some to the conclusion that it isn't necessary.
The size of the fruit may be slightly larger on pruned tomato plants, that depends more on the fertility of your soil than the pruning. There is no doubt that you will grow more fruit if you do not prune heavily.
The website for Bonnie Plants, probably the largest plant supplier in the South at least, indicates that the plants they sell do not require pinching. It is really a matter of personal preference. Do what works for you.
Thanks for the ping Red, and the thread dennisw.
None of my 140 varieties of tomatoes will have their suckers pinched this year...I get enough tomatoes as it is.
My wife pinches suckers when I'm not looking, but she has a mean streak. G-d forbid if you're a hornworm and she finds you before me...
You need to seriously acidify your soil for blueberries. IIRC, they grow best in a soil pH of 4.0-6.0.
I'm experimenting with hydroponics this year. I have 2- 10ft long troughs circulating through a 600gal stock tank where I'm trying to grow more tomato's and peppers. The tomato are doing well (so far), but the peppers seemingly failed to germinate.
I know I am late to the thread, but I thought I would tell you how a friend who owned a nursery told me to plant blueberries.
She said dig a really big hole, and put a big bag of sphagnum moss next to it; Cut an x in the bag and stick a hose in it and let it soak all night. Next day, plant the blueberry in the hole with the wet moss. Don’t use any dirt, just the moss. That makes it acid enough.
I planted a row of mixed lettuces and a row of kale/collards, and re-potted my peppers and tomatoes. It's still too early to set those out.
Brought home a dozen chicks and got them set up in the brooder house.
I’m planning to do some work with greenhouses and hydroponics in years to come when I have my own home. Would you be able to post some pictures of your setup?
We had salad from the winter garden for Easter. Only have one head left. Perennial bed is almost finished. I have stevia, french tarragon, lavender, and rosemary to put in so far. Hope to get that done this week.
We made flower pots out of newspaper and started a bunch more of tomatoes. All heirlooms. Hubby likes the big tomatoes so that one slice covers the bread on a sandwich. I also like smaller tomatoes for salads so that I don't have to put them in the fridge which ruins the texture. So we have several sizes. LOL.
Have a good week. God bless.
At first glance I thought that was a picture of baby rabbits attacking your lettuces! LOL
You can find several different plans for the expanded dome greenhouse that I had built at WorldFlower Garden Domes They are easy to build and very strong. Mine is 20ft wide x 32ft long, and 13ft high. Here is a picture at night: 
and a shot of the interior before it was fully covered: 
The main problem I found with this greenhouse is the heat in the summer. When outside temps get in the 80's, the inside is easily pushing the mid-90's and the plants go dormant or grow long and leggy and won't produce.I run a large fan inside and had a misting system, but it's a losing battle, even after I added ventilation. Since you are up north, you shouldn't encounter those issues. On the flip side, it is an excellent place to protect many plants in the winter. The total price for this setup was in the neighborhood of $7000.
Another option you can look at are hoophouses. I set this one up last summer as an option for my raised beds: 
It's main purpose is to protect the raised beds from the marauding deer we have in the area. It is built from 1 3/8inch toprail, available at Lowes or Home Depot. They are easily bent with a Quick Hoops™ High Tunnel Bender and they also have a downloadable .pdf instruction file. The materials for my hoophouse came to approximately $400, but I used materials I had laying around the house for the raised beds and the manure I filled them with was free. I believe that it can be done for $700 if all materials are new. As you see, I built large square beds to avoid a lot of cutting. A better option is to build slimmer beds that extend along each side of the hoophouse. That will give easy access down the center. If you have good soil, you won't even need to construct raised beds.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have just built several hoophouses. I grew cold weather plants (cabbage, radish, brocolli, peas, and lettuce) in them by simply protecting the plants with plastic drop cloth when there was a freeze warning. You'll note that I used green 70% shadecloth on the top, which was inexpensive. If shading is needed, a 30% shadecloth is more suitable.
I'll have to wait until morning to take photo's of the hydroponic experiment. If I forget, ping me and I'll get on it. In the meantime, you can browse the Farmtek website. I used the GT80 series channel, lids, and end caps.
Thanks so much! I was leaning heavily towards the hoop house route. I will need end caps and sheeting that can stay in place over winter though...:)
As I promised, here is a picture of the "experiment:
It's a real simple setup. The channels are 10ft each. The stock tank has fish in it. Water is cycled through 12hrs on/12hrs off with a 285gph pond pump using a timer. The water returns to the pond by gravity feed and provides aeration for the fish.
I'm not sure how the plants will do in the heat in the greenhouse. I previously used a misting loop and a fan for evaporative cooling, but that left a lot of calcium residue on the leaves of the plants I'm hoping that the plants will prosper by simply keeping the roots well watered and cool.
It's real difficult to see, but the channel in the foreground has tomato plants that were started from seed. The back channel was seeded with peppers, but I haven't seen any growth so far.
this looks like a sensible step 2 after I have gotten the hoop house part of things figured out...I also have a friend nearby from grade school who has been designing and building his own hydroponic systems...(for vegetables)
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