Posted on 10/25/2013 12:44:35 PM PDT by greeneyes
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Last three nights were 32, 32, and 30, in the Chicagoland area, and where the leaves touched the plastic, I noticed today they were blackened. In the third picture, I counted some 7-8 tomatoes. And on the larger plant on the right in the greenhouse, there are 4-5 good-sized fruits, albeit still green; we're planning on having fried green tomatoes this Sunday for our family meal. Yum!
Not much different than last week here. I did notice the oranges are starting to turn color. We’ve have fresh limes for several weeks now. Garden is growing well with all the rain.
Peanuts will be an expanded crop for me next year. They did well enough in the 3x4 experimental area to deserve it. They don’t give as much biomass though, but that is why I grow winter wheat so often.
LOL.
Those plants are looking good. Did you use light for heat too?
If your nights are in the 40’s, you probably won’t see any progress with the tomatoes. They need 50s at night. You could try covering them with row covers or plastic in the evening.
It also helps if you have surrounded them with stones or bricks on the north, east, and west sides a foot or two high. The sun will heat the rocks and release the warmth after the sun goes down and the row cover/plastic helps keep it in.
A while ago, Prissy started barking so I let her out into the garden and there was a big squirrel under the roof of the lower deck. He had a round yellow something in his mouth. He left there and jumped on the high brick wall, still with that yellow ball in his mouth, then went to the end of the wall and out into one of the trees.
I don’t have any yellow balls on any plants. There is a bag of potting soil mix with something growing in it and I wasn’t sure that wasn’t a wild tomato plant so I had it on the deck – it is split down the middle with this small green runners of a plant. Those yellow mushroom kinds of growths show up sometime in plant soil and I think he got one out of that bag and took off with it. I hope it’s poison.
I see a bloom on one of the spindly tomato plants that I screwed up on when I planted those.
I’m bringing up again the book I bought, Healing Spices, $19.39, Amazon. I’ve been reading in this book and it’s like a medicine bottle that gives the dosage of the medicine you are taking for a certain medical problem. This is the Bible for spices. Some you would not call a spice, such as onions or sun-dried tomatoes.
Listed below are the “spices” and what they do. This book was written by a research doctor at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. You see, scientific tests are reported on each of these spices and the amounts given to bring about the listed results. You will know what to use them for and how much to give. We hear this is good for that but we don’t know if that is true or how much to use. This takes the guess work out of knowing how to use these spices for certain ailments. These are not “old wives tales”, but scientific test results.
Also, beginning on page 293, is a list of medical conditions with a list next to that of which spices to use, and another list next to that one which gives the amounts to take for that medical condition. In almost every case, there is more than one spice to take for that medical condition.
Right now, I have no planted spices. I will make a list from this long list of spices based on what I think will grow here and that will be what I grow. Now, I will know what they do to a body.
If we had a time when regular medical care could not be had, this would be my book to use these spices/medicines for medical care. And, I will use them now for my own conditions, along with my regular prescriptions. Here is a list of “spices” covered:
Ajowan Nature’s Pharmacy
Allspice An All-Around healer
Almond Heart Guard
Amchur Mango with an extra pinch of health
Aniseed The ultimate Digestif
Asafoetida Fabled Flu Fighter
Basil The Garden of Youth
Bay Leaf An Infusion of Antioxidants
Black Cumin Seed the Amazing Cure-All
Black Pepper The King of Spices
Caraway After Dinner Relief
Cardamom The Stomach Sentinel
Celery Seed First Aid for Gout
Chile Red-Hot Healer
Cinnamon Balancing Blood Sugar
Clove Pain Relief’s loyal Servant
Cocoa How Sweet It Is
Coconut The Fat That Burns Calories
Coriander Taming Tummy Troubles
Cumin Keeping Diabetes Under Control
Curry Leaf From Mother Nature’s Branch of Medicine
Fennel Seed Calming Cramps and Colic
Fenugreek Seed Defeating Diabetes
Galangal Better Health, Courtesy of Thailand
Garlic Strong Enough to Battle Heart Disease
Ginger Quieting that Queasy Feeling
Horseradish Potent Infection Fighter
Juniper Berry The Natural Diuretic
Kokum India’s Exotic Weight-Loss Wonder
Lemongrass The Calming Spice
Marjoram The Mediterranean Miracle
Mint The Essence of Freshness
Mustard Seed Faithful to good health
Nutmeg A Sprinkle of Healing
Onion Too Strong for Cancer
Oregano Infection Protection
Parsley Antioxidant Enhancer
Pumpkin Seed Shielding the Prostate
Rosemary Cancer Guard for the Grill
Saffron Lifting Your Spirit
Sage Improving Memory and Mood
Sesame Seed Oiling Your Circulation
Star Anise Beautiful and Healthful
Sun Dried Tomato Guardian of Men’s Health
Tamarind A Beloved Folk Remedy
Thyme Anti-Microbial, Pro-health
Turmeric Leading Crusader against Disease
Vanilla Health in Your Dessert
Wasabi Hot Ally against Cancer
I put a pan over the one floodlight we have out there (as you suggested); I believe it’s 60w. Not sure how much more to do. Can’t imagine getting too many more fruits, but there are a number of blooms. I might put a little more straw around the back of the enclosure and maybe a little more at the sides. I’m sort of surprised [but very happy, cuz they are so pretty] at how well they are doing; all exposed tomatoes in our area have now succumbed to the frosts.
You snip off suckers to root. Where the stalk meets a limb, in that spot where they come together, is where the sucker will start growing. Snip it off with your hand, put it in a jar of water in the house and it will root. When the roots are substantial enough to hold it in the soil, plant it.
He had examples of rooting in water and planting and just putting the sucker in the soil when you snip it off, and those rooted in water were excellent and the ones planted in the ground before rooting, were pitiful, some dead, but a few still alive.
As much garlic and onion that we use, we should be immune to heart disease and cancer.
My rationale on most stuff is “If a little bit is good, then way too much is just about right”
I hope it’s poison.-lol-
We took cutting from some mater plants a while back and it worked great. We skipped the water part by using rooting hormone powder and planting in pots directly
Then what do you do [in the winter] with these tomato plants that you’ve rooted?
I guess I will have to answer that next spring. lol
Seriously, we put 8- 4ft grow lights on our back porch along with some mega thick plastic sheeting and put our plants of all description there for the winter, which is short and mild here in SE Texas. We may use a heater there this year. We keep tropicals and succulents there without major problems. We should put them outside during warm sunny periods during cold weather, but it is a major effort to move them; we have a half dozen 20”- 24” containers and too many to count 12”-20” containers and my wife and I cannot handle them easily.
The maters, being food crop, may warrant in-house overwintering, along with my hot peppers.
“Then what do you do [in the winter] with these tomato plants that you’ve rooted?”
Well, I have never rooted one so the test is can I get one to root? I’d rather try now than next spring or summer so I can be sure I can do it by then. I’m in more south eastern Texas and we have a longer growing season than those even in central Texas but a tomato plant started now surely won’t make it through a winter here even though it doesn’t get very cold here. We usually have below freezing temps about twice a year lasting a couple of days and that’s it.
Dang squirrels.LOL
Sounds like a great book. Several years back my daughter gave me a book for Christmas that you might also be interested in. It has over 100 herbs.
The title is Herbal Medicine - the expanded Commission E monographs.
It is also scientific. For each herb, there is:
1. General Overview
2. Description
3. Chemistry and Pharmacology
4. Uses
5. Contraindications
6. Side effects
7. Use during pregnancy and lactation
8. Interactions with other drugs
9. Dosage and Administration
10. References and resources list
There is a handy cross section by type of disease or condition. Followed by Appendices of interesting info.
These are often perscribed by physicians in Europe rather than expensive pills by big pharma.
Is your soil sandy?
Nice!
You can chop off the limbs that have flowers, and stick them in water or dirt, and roots will form at each of the nubs that are covered. Pick off excess leaves, keep at least 4 or 5 maybe more.
Then you can put them in a pot, and hand fertilize. I have grown tomatoes indoors this way several times.
The new area, which will be for tobacco next year, hasn't had all of the treatment yet.
/johnny
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