Tomato plant experiment!

Three clay pots marked S for soil, C for added compost and M for Miracle Gro.

I recently got it into my head that since I was already planning to start some Brandywine Pink variety tomato plants from Burpee, that I might as well take a look at how some different starting soil mixes (and populations of microbes) might affect the rate of growth! Note: This is not a very scientific experiment – it's more of a fun project to see what might happen...

For this 'experiment', I started out with three identical clay pots* and then added 3 soil mixes:

100% Miracle Gro potting mix.

A 50-50 mix of Miracle Gro and regular garden soil.

Regular garden soil mixed with compost from my kitchen.

I planted just one seed into each pot ,(yes, I took a bit of a gamble there) and watered each pot with enough distilled water to get the soil damp, but not soaked. A square of plastic wrap was then placed over the top of each pot to help conserve moisture and they were then placed in a room where the average temperature was ~74ºF.

[*Clay pots! I used this type of pot to help insure excellent drainage of the soil mixes – plastic pots tend to stay overly damp and thus promote fungal growth that can inhibit the growth of the young plants! Anyway, that was my call on this experiment.]

[Soil: The soil I used came out of a well established raised bed – it is a clay loam that has a good supply of earthworms in it - a sign that that the soil is fertile with a good supply of organic matter!]

[Water & pH: I used distilled water – 50 ml initially and also tested the soil's pH – it came out to 6.8. This is just about right for the garden soil. I Miracle Gro potting mix was also close to a neutral pH of 7 and it was sterile.]

I'll be sure to add future updates as this experiment progresses! 

Update: April 2nd - All three seeds have germinated with the pot containing the potting mix the clear winner at this point in time!

Have old seed? Will plant them anyway!

That pretty much sums up my philosophy on gardening. I hoard seed packets, even those that have gone well beyond their 'freshness' date. No mind, I've been able to germinate Banana-Rama pepper seed that is two years old, and as you can see they are growing nicely! It took these little beauties about two weeks to get going, but I'll tell you true – the effort will be worth it this august when I'm harvesting the slightly hot tasting fruit for my salads!

My older (seed lot 2012) romaine lettuce seeding starts are also doing very well after just a few weeks of being grown indoors under lights! I hope to start hardening them off starting next week (the first week of April) for planting out front. This variety is called Little Caesar and was purchased from the Burpee Seed Company. These hardy and crisp leaved plants bring a lot more to the nutritional table than does the standard loose leaf varieties! They also seem to do very well down here in southwest Missouri!

Another Onion in a Pot!

Last April 2013, I planted an onion set in a small ceramic pot just for grins. And, I was a little a little surprised when it did rather well! This year, I figured what the heck and repeated the experiment. After all, the onion plant is rather decorative and doesn't take much work to care for, just some water on occasion. It like to be outside and the cold days of early spring don't seem to bother it much, so on March 11th, I repeated the experiment. Now today, it has sprouted and is ready to be placed outside where there is snow still on the ground! I'll update this post from time to time to chronicle its progress!

Update: March 27, 2014

 My onion in a pot has been staying outdoors for the most part and has been getting plenty of southern exposure. It was 3 inches high as of this post. By March 29, it was up to 4 1/4 inches and was placed outside on a permanent basis!

Update: April 16, 2014

I've seen good solid growth over the last half a month. There were six leaves, the longest of which was 13" long!

A leap of gardening faith!

These Little Caesar seedlings don't look like much!

In many ways gardening is very similar to practicing some religions. Lots of faith comes into play! When I start some of my vegetables indoors in late winter, I have to have faith that those efforts will pan out somewhere down the road. Some seeds like romaine lettuce come up pretty quickly and so give me hope of a future harvest. Other seeds like peppers and tomatoes can take a week or more to germinate, thus testing ones metal. And, as I like to use seed from plants I harvested the year before, this effort becomes even a bigger leap of faith!

Sweet bell peppers grown from seed are a particular challenge. Not only do they take a long time to germinate, but the growing cycle is long and stretched out. It can be two months before my pepper starts are ready to be transplanted into a raised bed and even then, it could easily be late August before the first harvest! And tomatoes, even though they may germinate relatively quickly, are very finicky when it comes to producing fruit. At least for me they are. As of late, I've taken to growing my main season tomatoes in pots while sowing cherry tomato plants in the main beds! For whatever reason, the cherry tomatoes have always done well, while the potted tomatoes have to be coddled and cajoled into production.

Chives! A harbinger of spring!

One of the earliest growing herbs in my garden, each spring (actually late winter), are small clumps of chives! Even this past very cold winter failed to kill a pot of these hardy little guys from the family Amaryllidacea! Chives are the smallest of edible onions and work well in many soups, stews and salads!

Over the past few years, I've divided them up and spread them around the grounds in out of the way nooks and crannies, so some are always available and close at hand. Even the flowers are edible and add a neat look to any salad! One of my favorite ways to enjoy them is as an addition to beef

broth! I store them over the winter, chopped up and frozen in an ice cube tray for use whenever I need them!

The six forces of nature!

In my limited world view, there are six forces that are at work to help make all plant life grow. To be aware of them and to help where you can will insure that the flowers and vegetable you grown can flourish each and every season.

Three Forces Above

Temperature – In order to grow plant outdoors, the temperature must stay above freezing each night.

Moisture – for seeds to germinate, water must be present in the soil and then must be supplied on a regular basis, either by nature or man.

Insolence – Sunlight is essential for any plant to grow well.

Three Forces Below

Structure – The soil in a garden must contain humus for water retention, organic matter for food and be porous to allow our plants to breath.

PH – The acid to base scale must be somewhere near neutral to allow for cation exchange.

Microbes – Finally, the soil must be alive with billions upon billions of microbes that work at the root zone to supply each plant with the nutrients they need to grow.

When all these forces are in place and in balance, your plants and vegetables will grow well and thrive! Just a thought!

YS3514 onion set experiment for 2014!

Small onions from 2013

Last year, I experimented with planting a bunch of onion sets with some limited success. And, while I was able to harvest some medium sized onions (average weight was 43 grams), I was still a bit disappointed with the small sizes. The good news was that I had a lot of small onions and they served me well on into the fall months.

This year (2014), I plan to use the same raised bed space, but with the following changes; 1) I plan to incorporate soil from one of my older backyard raised bed areas. This soil has a high clay content and onions planted in this soil last year did well, and 2) I plan to amend the soil with additional compost prior to planting. The designation for this experiment will be YS3514 which is an abbreviation for yellow sets planted on March 5^th in 2014. Stay tuned for more details to be added to this post. Right now I'm waiting for a five inch snowfall to melt... The notes from last years effort can be found here.

March 5, 2014 planting!

April 17 update: Here is a look at the onion sets that are located in a small raised bed.

May 21 update: Onions were looking very good!