2026 Gardens!

[DJ54]

Amazing how much these plants will grow in 14 hours.

 

[Torvy]

Out here, I think Greenbrier grows 2 ft every night it rains.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

My plants grow much more compact and thick stemmed. Those tomatoes look leggy

 

[MossRoad]

Stretching for light?

 

[DJ54]

Yep, a bit leggy but they will mostly come out of it in a week to 10 days. Here's a pic of last year's transplants, still a little stemmy but actually like them that way, I just set them a little deeper and all of that stem will form roots and pull in more nutrients.

Here's a couple packs of tomato seeds I picked up at Southern States in Maysville KY. at Christmas time. They had 2 small cattle feeders full of last year's seeds for $1 each. That's quite a deal if you look at the price stamped on them. Can't hardly but much of anything anymore for a penny apiece. I looked them up and it appears they are a decent tomato for slicing and canning. We shall see, as I started a couple dozen of each yesterday. I'll plant a dozen here and split the other dozen between a couple buddies and see how they like them.

 

[jyoutz]

Today we plowed then tilled the garden. Then planted potatoes. It froze the last two nights, but it’s time for potato’s to go in the ground. No cold fronts are forecast for the next week.

 

[MossRoad]

Hard freeze last night. Should be the last one of the year. Fingers crossed.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I mowed my rye... Going to have to turn it under soon

 

[Engineer42]

Got my first Romaine lettuce out of the garden last night!

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Well my tomatoes, look a helluva lot better after being potted up to gallon pots. These things are growing insanely fast

 

[Torvy]

We have blossoms on tomatoes and jalapeños.

The tomatoes really took off in the last week or so. About half way up the cages.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Too wet here to get into the garden. Maybe in a week? Going to be a late planting season

 

[MossRoad]

Picked my first strawberry yesterday. Tasty!

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

My indoor Red Ember pepper plants have peppers on them.

My peppers are are about 12-18" tall, still potted. Hopefully next week I can get them outside.

 

[jyoutz]

It froze last night. Fortunately I only planted my cold weather plants so far. And the tomatoes are in protective walls of water.

 

[MossRoad]

We had a pretty good frost last night. Fortunately, wife and I put the 6 flats of flowers we bought two days ago in the greenhouse for safe keeping. Putting in a new fence this week, then planting inpatients in flower boxes along one side of the fence and zinnias on the other.

 

[Torvy]

2 varieties of Romas

 

[DJ54]

View attachment 5711966

2 varieties of Romas

If either one of those are like the smaller variety I planted 6-8 years ago it might be an idea to drive a T-post alongside the cages. They were so prolific they literally broke down HD cages like that. The idea behind me planting them was to thicken up juice, mixing in with what else I had.

While they were heavy producers, they were small and at least to me a real PIA to wash up when processing, to wash each individual one. While they did thicken the juice nicely, I didn't realize they would be so sweet, I don't care for a sweet tomato, but everyone is different.

If you've raised them before, then you know what you're getting into.

 

[Torvy]

I prefer Romas for eating and for sauces. They are technically best for paste, but the sweetness is a good offset for the heat of peppers on salsa. I don't like thin sauces or juice, so these work perfect for me.

And yes, the t posts will go in as needed.

 

[jyoutz]

I prefer Romas for eating and for sauces. They are technically best for paste, but the sweetness is a good offset for the heat of peppers on salsa. I don't like thin sauces or juice, so these work perfect for me.

And yes, the t posts will go in as needed.

I use 5’ high round cages made from concrete reinforcement mesh supported by t posts for tomatoes. They get huge by late summer.