Jim Inman's (jinman) Garden - 2007

[txdon]

Small animal feeding frenzies are a thing of the past.
For TXdon, NO weeding
Don

Hmmm, sounds good. The only crop that I have animal frenzies on are the raccoons in the corn. Have you tried to grow corn upside down?

 

[BTDT]

This is my first year planting vertically upside down. Sort of a virtual experiment if you will. All comments and observations are certainly welcome!

Some of the benefits I have heard about upside down planting are:
The plants never touch the ground..... so staking & caging are eliminated.
Problems with bacteria, ground rotting & fungus's are greatly reduced or eliminated.
Small animal feeding frenzies are a thing of the past.

I chose to fab up my own upside down planters. Started with the basic 5 gallon bucket and a very small flower pot. Found the small flower pots locally 3 for $1.00. Cut a large hole in the 5 gallon bucket, dropped the small flower pot in. Melted a hole in the bottom of the small flower pot to feed the small starter plants through. A small circle of foam rubber hugs the stem and holds the plant in place. I would say this is not for high volume tomato plant growers unless you have a unlimited supply of five gallon buckets.

This planting method has the potential to be low maintenence. No cages or staking. For TXdon, NO weeding , simply mow the grass underneath the plants. The planters are infinitely height adjustable. As the plant grows, just adjust the chain for a convenient height to prune or pick veggie's. And if their planted to close together it's easy to move the planters further apart as the plants grow.

....and they are quite the coversation piece.

Don

I had 2 tomato plants last year that were upside down. Had to water them all the time, and they didn't do near as well as ones planted in garden in the dirt. But, like you say, they are a novelty.

 

[TBDonnelly]

Hmmm, sounds good. The only crop that I have animal frenzies on are the raccoons in the corn. Have you tried to grow corn upside down?

Since the plants turn upwards toward the sun...you'd probably need to be careful not to poke your eye by an out and upwardly pointing ear of corn.

Upside down growing tips I found:

• Plants in containers require more frequent watering than plants on the ground.
• When large and loaded with tomatoes, you will need to water your plant at least EVERY OTHER DAY!
• If your environment is over 85°F, provide some shade for your plant or it will not blossom or pollen. No blossoms nor pollen equals no tomatoes.
• Tomatoes that develop a black rotten circle at the bottom are suffering from a lack of calcium sulfite. This is nearly always caused by uneven watering, so water your plants consistently or your tomatoes will suffer!
• Did I mention consistent watering? Tomatoes are 85% water, so water that plant.
• If you like many small tomatoes, let your plant grow without much suckering or trimming.
• If you want fewer bigger tomatoes, wait until your tomatoes are dime-sized and then snip off stems that are not blossoming, pollenating or growing fruit. This concentrates the water and nutrients into the branches holding the tomatoes.

Don

 

[jinman]

I have never grown pinto beans but I grew up on frijoles, my Dad was from El Paso.

RaT, we never grew pintos when I was a kid, as I remember. My mom and dad liked Kentucky Wonders and that's about the only type of bean we planted. Pintos are so cheap to buy dried, that it really doesn't make a lot of sense to plant them. Since my beans burned up last year, my brother suggested pintos because they are a more warm weather bean. He also said you could buy a bag of beans at the grocery store and they would germinate just fine. Well, this time my brother didn't fib. They sure grew and they are still producing.

Pintos are a lot different than snap beans when they mature. Their shells get really thin and rubbery. That makes them very easy to shell. You just snap one end of the pod and string them and they will pop right open. I suspect their ease of shelling is one reason they are such a popular dried bean. The Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake beans have shells that stay thick and meaty even if you let them mature. I think that's why they are preferred for snap beans.

We are about beaned out. It turns out that due to a mild spring, we have had success with everything we planted. Every variety of bean that didn't produce last year has produced in abundance this year. It appears that just as the beans dry up, our peas will follow. No breaks for us.

 

[jinman]

....a few pictures from the "yarden" this evening.

Don

Don, is that styrofoam between the raised beds (bush beans) and your hoophouse base? Is it there to just keep moisture out of the wood?

 

[TBDonnelly]

Don, is that styrofoam between the raised beds (bush beans) and your hoophouse base? Is it there to just keep moisture out of the wood?

To keep some of the cold out during the winter .....and the extra benefit is moisture from the wood.

Don

 

[Bird]

said you could buy a bag of beans at the grocery store and they would germinate just fine

I remember several years ago when my Dad asked the guy where he bought his seeds if he couldn't use beans from the grocery store. They guy told him he thought all those sold in grocery stores for food had been treated in some way and would not germinate. So Dad bought enough seed pintos to play one row of beans and right next to that row, he planted a row of beans from the grocery store. And yep, the ones from the grocery store grew bigger and faster than the seed beans.

 

[Egon]

Bird; that's also my source for bean seeds.

Many times I also save pea and beans from the garden and use them for seeds.

 

[TBDonnelly]

We've only had one light rain day in the past two weeks. Most of the lawns are parched from the dry conditions. I am so fortunate to have a source for water close by. Picked the first red tomato today! More on the way!

I brought hoses out and watered some of the grass these evening. This should guarantee rain and thunderstorms by noon tomorrow.

Don

 

[jinman]

Picked the first red tomato today! More on the way!

Don, that looks like a Porter tomato or a small Roma variety. My Porter's are the most prolific producers, but they are pinkish rather than red and they don't have the flavor of other varieties. So far, we must have picked 4 to 5 bushels of all types.

I'm having to really thin the vines so any sunlight can get to the plants to make them ripen properly. I've been afraid the rains would be so much that we'd have a lot of exploding tomatoes, but so far those have been few. I'm sure some of my Early Girl plants have over 10 lb of tomatoes, while some of the Better Boys probably have closer to 20 lb per plant. I figure BTDT has similar if not greater production on his plants. I just don't remember all the varieties he planted.