MissS wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2020 10:42 am Your plants look great. I bet that you have an amazing garden this year.

What kind of lights do you use?

Thank you!

The lights are LED shop lights from Walmart (~$20). I still have to put the third row up. I found this shelf setup in the garage, previous owner left it. It was not assembled, but had all the pieces. It's 4 feet across, so I have 2 4ft shop lights to each shelf. Seems to work pretty good!

Ginger2778 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2020 10:51 am Dawn, the plants look so gorgeous. I hope the sale happens because people will be so lucky to get those healthy and uncommon plants.

Thank you, and me too. Last time I planted about 70 extra, just to see if people would be interested, and sold them in 2 hours.

I'll find a way . More people are gardening this year, so they'll be in high demand, I think.

Dawn wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2020 11:04 am

Ginger2778 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2020 10:51 am Dawn, the plants look so gorgeous. I hope the sale happens because people will be so lucky to get those healthy and uncommon plants.

Thank you, and me too. Last time I planted about 70 extra, just to see if people would be interested, and sold them in 2 hours.

I'll find a way . More people are gardening this year, so they'll be in high demand, I think.

I have taken to recording their names and email or phone #, and giving them mine, because I have a following every year. Pretty much they get in touch with me around a month before the plants are ready. I don't even need a market to sell them, they just come to wherever I am. Even the local Rare Fruit Council buys about 250 plants every year, at a discount so they can resell them. I don't mind giving them a discount when they are buying 250 plants.☺
This will be how it is for you too, because your tomatoes are that good, and so unusual.

I'm gonna need a greenhouse .

Everything looks great, Dawn. I just know it will work out somehow. Do you think the grocery would give you a little space outside to sell from?

I hope you are still able to have your plant sale. Your seedlings look amazing!

Amazing.
Plants look great, love your setup too!

Ok, everything that's going to be potted up has been, the last went in clear totes because there wasn't any more room under the lights. These work like mini greenhouses, put them outside during the day, bring them in at night. Easy and cheap. Just don't leave the lid on when it gets warm and cook them

Daytime temps are around 60, it's hovering just at or below freezing at night. When it gets over 40, I can start leaving them out at night.
Fencing wire for the tomato garden is here, I'll start on that tomorrow.

The weather is beautiful today! 66 degrees and sunny, but not windy. It's always windy in the spring here, so it's really nice when it's not.

Yesterday, I made a tomato fence, not a super pretty or long lasting one, but it keeps the dogs out. It's 14' x 30'. I used a dog exercise pen for part of it, so it has a gate, I was struggling to figure out how to make a gate without running all over town. The x-pen solved that problem. 4 month old puppies are not a lot of help, when making tomato fences, by the way. She ended to muddy and tired though, so it's all good.
Today, I planted fruit trees! 2 cherry (bing and black tartarian), and 2 apple (fuji and honey crisp). Turns out the fuji is an "ultra dwarf", I didn't notice that when buying it, it's just written on a piece of weathered tape on the side of the pot.
They've all got chicken wire fences now because Sam (the puppy), chews everything. And my sister has a giant German Shorthair mix that is just big and doofy, he'd probably run them over.

It almost looks like I could plant tomatoes on Monday! If the weather forecast doesn't change much, I should be planting. I have 3+ plants of each type just set aside for me, so if they die, I'll plant again. I know people say don't rush it, wait until it's warmer, they'll catch up, but I have great success planting as soon as I can. Once they get into the dirt, even if it's a little cool, they take off. Then in mid-May, when everyone else plants, my tomatoes are 2 feet tall and some have fruit. So I'll continue. I can't wait! Peas, lettuces, broccoli and kale went into the ground today, too. The kale is planted right by the rabbit pen, so they'll be able to snag some as it grows into their pen. It's for them anyway, I don't like kale. I think I can plant corn now, but I haven't decided if I want to. I'll plant sunflowers everywhere, I love them. The yard was so bare for so many years, I thought the bees might need help finding us .

Is a sickness, I swear.

I managed to kill most of my tomatoes that I started just for me, it's been a rough month. Partly weather, partly neglect, I think there was some depression on my part. My plant sale plants became my backups. I was rather happy to find out that I'd stashed a couple Margaret Curtain seedlings in there, I thought I'd have to make do with Cherokee Purple. One each of the KARMAs made it, except peach. I grew it last year though, and I have seeds, so it's ok. One super scrappy Anna's Multiflora survived my neglect and 2 or 3 frosts, and is growing happily, I'll save seeds from that one. 2.5 juliet plants made it, and even though I still have romas and rio grande, I was looking forward to the Juliets, they're my favorite for sauce and they're just a nice trouble free plant packed with tons of perfect mini-romas that never have BER. So when I saw them at Walmart, they came home with me.

I made a garden in my front yard, too. I've planted it with seeds. I have sweet corn, watermelon (sugar baby and orangeglo), rattlesnake pole beans, sunflowers, delicata and buttercup squash, and some greens for the rabbits. It's next to the street, and there's a fairly busy market and restaurant across the street, so I expect a little theft, that's why my tomatoes are in the back yard. But I'm OK with it unless it becomes excessive. I might throw a cherry tomato plant in there next to the side walk, so people will take those instead of walking further in to get the corn. That one should look pretty awesome when it gets going.

Multiflora I bought a new DSLR, testing it out. I'm one of those weirdos who likes dandelions.

Baker Creek has white and pink dandelions.

One of the varieties that I was excited about, and lost. This is the original seed starting pot. I potted up the seedings and apparently just left this pot in the tray. It's been outside for a couple weeks, and apparently, still had 2 viable seeds in it. No other seeds could have been planted in it, and I remembered that it didn't seem to have great germination. So we'll see how they do, if they have time to fruit and ripen.

Look after them Dawn, they are fabulous. Maybe a bit later in the season than some but definitely worth the effort of growing them

Dawn wrote: ↑Sun May 24, 2020 3:11 pm
20200524_130347.jpg

One of the varieties that I was excited about, and lost. This is the original seed starting pot. I potted up the seedings and apparently just left this pot in the tray. It's been outside for a couple weeks, and apparently, still had 2 viable seeds in it. No other seeds could have been planted in it, and I remembered that it didn't seem to have great germination. So we'll see how they do, if they have time to fruit and ripen.

I just hope it's not too late. My season is long enough, but I like to get them producing tomatoes before the 100 degree weather hits in about July, because then the blossoms drop, and the larger tomatoes sometimes don't produce again until the end of August and I'm done in October.

Dawn wrote: ↑Sun May 24, 2020 3:11 pm
20200524_130347.jpg

One of the varieties that I was excited about, and lost. This is the original seed starting pot. I potted up the seedings and apparently just left this pot in the tray. It's been outside for a couple weeks, and apparently, still had 2 viable seeds in it. No other seeds could have been planted in it, and I remembered that it didn't seem to have great germination. So we'll see how they do, if they have time to fruit and ripen.

Dawn, MS is pretty early so you should get fruit . Glad there were more seeds germinated. The leaves are very droopy curly potato leaves, so don't worry, that part is normal for Midnight Sun. Hope you get it to that point.

Ginger2778 wrote: ↑Sun May 24, 2020 5:31 pm
Dawn, MS is pretty early so you should get fruit . Glad there were more seeds germinated. The leaves are very droopy curly potato leaves, so don't worry, that part is normal for Midnight Sun. Hope you get it to that point.

I thought I remembered that this line was early, so I'm hopeful. I have 2 tundra plants as well. Everything is doing great now, and all my seeds are coming up in the front garden. I planted 3 cherry tomato plants along the sidewalk for people to pick as they walk by. One large red cherry, one sunrise bumblebee, and 1 Barry's crazy cherry. I don't particularly like BCC, but it's a fun one to grow because it produces so many tomatoes. My dog likes them, and they help fill out the farmers market baskets. Hoping to replace them with sunrise bumblebee, this is my first year with those. I wish I could put up a sign telling people they could pick some tomatoes, but around here, people are greedy and would walk into the rest of the garden and take everything else.

I was just at my parents house and saw something kinda awesome. A whole bunch of tiny tomato plants growing in one spot. Obviously from a dropped tomato from last year. I looked closer and they have potato leaves. I planted KARMA Peach and Purple Multiflora there last year. I think this is probably from the KARMA Purple Multiflora, simply because there are a lot of little tomatoes and the purple was seedier than the peach.

Ok, it's not uncommon for me to put 2 or 3 seeds in a hole when direct sowing, but this is a little rediculous I don't know what happened.

Delicata squash, they say it's not a long keeper, but I bought that squash in October (maybe November) and it was still fine in April when I took the seeds out. One of my favorite varieties. My other favorite is buttercup (not butternut), it's growing too.

Dawn wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 2:58 pm 20200525_131420.jpg

Ok, it's not uncommon for me to put 2 or 3 seeds in a hole when direct sowing, but this is a little rediculous I don't know what happened.

Delicata squash, they say it's not a long keeper, but I bought that squash in October (maybe November) and it was still fine in April when I took the seeds out. One of my favorite varieties. My other favorite is buttercup (not butternut), it's growing too.

I just love seeing the sprouts. Best part of gardening besides eating!