tomato update

On June 30th, the romas and cherokee purples had blossoms, though the brandywine did not. Every single one of the tomato plants seems to be growing well - a nice surprise since there were several I didn't think would survive, but I planted anyway because I had the space. We were starting to get several little tomatoes on the two tomato plants i purchased, which were more mature than the ones I started from seed.

Two weeks later, every single plant has little tomatoes on it! Way more than I can count. And, I've already harvested one early tomato from one of the plants I purchased. It was DELICIOUS! There is nothing like the flavor of the first tomato of the season.


My only two concerns at this point are continuing to stake the plants up as they grow larger and heavier, and canning the tomatoes - I'm worried they will ripen at a pace that will have us continually canning a few quarts rather than doing a big session, as I would prefer to do. Oh, and we will be out of town for 10 days in August and I don't want them to ripen while we are gone!

Hardening off seedlings

If you have started seedlings indoors, like I did, it is relatively easy to control conditions. The baby plants grow up with consistent temperatures and water, sunlight gently filtered by windows, and never have to deal with rough conditions like wind or insects.

This is good for seedlings, particularly plants like tomatoes and peppers that seem to be a little weaker when they are young. But when it is time for them to go out to their permanent spots, putting them out without gradually introducing them to the challenges of the outdoors could shock them (slowing their growth) or, without having had a chance to build-up defenses to these challenges, they might perish.

So, we must gradually introduce them to outdoor conditions. This process is called hardening off. The basic idea is ease the transition. Precisely how this is carried out depends on how much time and energy you are willing to put into it and the outside conditions when you are ready to begin the process.

Some of my resources suggested a simple process of merely putting the seedlings in a cold frame for a few days before planting them. This did not seem like a good solution for me, because by the time my plants were ready to go out, it was already pretty hot. The cold frame protects them from wind, rainstorms, and critters. And, they can stabilize temperatures so that plants don't have to deal with as much shocks in terms of temerature lows. In my situation the heat seemed to be the most difficult element, so putting them in a cold frame would have been detrimental.

The alternative is more time consuming. You gradually introduce them to the elements by putting them outside for short increments. How quickly you increase their challenges depends on how much time you are willing to spend moving flats of seedlings around all day. Pay special attention to water during the hardening off process. Here was my process:

day 1: put plants on covered front porch facing west for an hour in the late morning.
-they had to deal with outside temperature shifts and wind, but the wind was lessened by the walls of the porch. they did not have to deal with sunlight.
day 2: put plants on covered front porch facing west for a few hours in the late morning
-conditions same as day 1, but they have to deal with them longer
day 3: put plants on covered front porch facing west for several hours in the morning, then moving to the uncovered back porch facing east through the evening
-conditions same as day 1, but they have to deal with them longer (moving them to the east porch keeps them from being exposed to direct, unfiltered sunlight)
day 4: put plants on back porch facing east for one hour in the early morning, then move them to the front porch for the rest of the day (including the evening)
-they are getting the first taste of unfiltered sunlight and unfiltered wind. the early morning sun is gentler than the midday sun.
day 5: put plants on back porch facing east for a couple of hours in the early morning, then move them to the front porch for the rest of the day
-same as day 4, but increasing the time
day 6: put plants on back porch facing east for several hours during the day, closely watching them for wilt and sun scald.
-same as previous day, but adding the harsh midday sun.
day 7: put plants on back porch facing east all day and all night.
-adding the challenge of nighttime lows

Anytime the plants wilted or showed signs of sun scald, I immediately transferred them to gentler conditions and gave them extra water [and pulled back a little the next day - either repeating the step or even going back to the previous step. If anything, I wish I had been more careful. My tomatoes almost all survived the hardening off process, and my peppers handled it like champs. But three of my celery plants died, and two of them look like they will not last much longer. My actual process was usually much longer, because of days when the weather was too harsh or we were out of town.


Above, you can see my first hardened-off seedlings. Note the sun scald, particularly on the plant in the middle. I am happy to report that this damage did not deter the growth of this seedlings at all! These tomatoes (the romas) have been out for a couple of weeks and I can't even tell which ones had sun scald damage anymore - the new growth has completely overshadowed those leaves and all of the plants look equally healthy.

Ideally, you would not let the plants wilt or get sun scald. But it can be difficult to know how they will do. Had I started earlier in the season, this process on this exact timeline would probably be fine. By the time I started, even the first hour outside on the shaded porch made some of the plants wilt so it ended up much slower forme. It's easy to grow impatient (especially with the relatively time-consuming process of moving the trays of seedlings around) and difficult to guess what the plants are ready for. But although the peppers and celery only just recently went outside, I am proud to report that the tomatoes have really taken off since they were planted out!

And just as a note, it was fun to watch the plants get stronger - I could really tell that they were growing sturdier as the days went along!

Overall I was happy with the hardening off process. I will do the same thing next year, except I will be ready to start earlier and I will take it a little bit slower.

Results from lasagna gardening

Here are the beds as we left them for the winter. It does not show in this photo, but each was piled approximately 6" high with aged cow manure from a local farm and chipped leaves. We spent many hours on many weekends working on converting this area from grass to garden and though the goal was to get every bed 2 feet high, we had to settle for this. I figured it would be a good experiment since according to all of the forums I've read, there is no way to go wrong with lasagna gardening.


Here are the beds after we started working them in the spring. As you can tell, some of the beds are littered with weeds. It seems a little random, some of the beds looked good and others were a mess. Anyway, at first I thought that there must have been weed seeds in the cow manure or the leaves, but when I started to work on getting the beds weed-free again, I am pretty sure most of them came from below the newspaper. Additionally, in some place I can tell we didn't do a good enough job making sure the newspaper and cardboard was overlapping - a line of grass would be poking through.

My understanding was that below the newspaper, the earthworms would eat the dying sod and aerate the soil, making the beds soft and easy to work for several inches below the newspaper. That did not happen at all. As you can see from the second photo, we ended up buying a small electric tiller to make the ground plantable. We did our best to keep the earthworms safe but I know we had some casualties.

A week after the first tilling when the ground warmed enough to do some seed planting, there was a plethora of earthworms. Either we did a sufficient job protecting them (I would follow my spouse and grab all of the wriggly earthworms I saw, placing them in a bed that he had already tilled) or tilling doesn't do damage to the soil the way I was warned.


We ended up taking all of the leaves-and-manure mixture and piling it on two beds (see photo above). Not only were they the smallest beds, but they were the beds for carrots, onions, and spinach, three crops that are especially grateful for raised beds prepared lasagna gardening style.

All-in-all, I was disappointed with the results. It seemed to take an enormous amount of effort collecting and spreading the materials, especially trying to keep costs down. Even in hindsight I can't believe how much time and energy it took. Plus, the results were far below my expectations. (Especially now, as the carrots and onions are barely growing - more on that later.)

I don't think I would try it again or recommend it. If I did, I would just choose a couple of beds (so that material gathering was more manageable) and try to do them perfectly - thicker pads of newspaper (4-5 sheets), substantial overlapping, materials piled two feet high. I estimate that this spring, we've spent a comparable amount of time and energy preparing these beds as I did in my previous garden (which I hadn't touched prior to that spring). Considering how much effort we had already put into this garden, this was a fail.

know your farmer!

While at the market Saturday chatting with our farmer, who knows of our plan to have a large garden and preserve lots of vegetables for the winter, he had a great offer: he said that if I wanted to come out to the farm for a day or two in the spring and help with tomatoes, he would give me some seedlings. I am planning on at least half of my tomato plants being heirlooms and I don't know what he will be planting, but I figure this is a good opportunity either way.

I've looked into farm apprenticeship programs, which many of the local of farms offer. You apply and most of them offer housing as part of the payment, plus a small stipend, and it lasts through the growing season for one year. It would be a great opportunity for learning from an expert - it seems that farming is the type of thing that is much better passed on by working hands-on with someone experienced rather than learning out of a book, as I am doing. But in the end, the drawbacks outweigh the pros for me. I don't want to live away from my spouse and my dog. And I don't want to have to pause my dissertation work for a whole six months (or however long it would end up being). Of course I suppose I could try it out, do it for awhile until it gets too hard and then quit - but I think the experience would be best if you make it through the whole season. I also think if you make a commitment to something, you should see it through. Anyway, I will probably take any short-term offer like this I get, just for the learning experience.

For those with some time to spare who are looking to save a little money, this is a great way to get good quality seedlings and learning experience.