Anyone else getting ready to start this years veggie plants?

[kantuckid]

In your climate I kind of figured a forester knew what grew where, etc.. :D 
In our garden zone 5 you just sow and thin a radish like a carrot.
 Cukes grow like crazy here =we only grow National Pickling variety and the produce until near frost. Back in KS one of my aunts in Osage Co, KS-her family were immigrants who farmed a large place and grew cukes and more as a cash crop all with horses. I really liked being at their farm as all bread was homemade and life was very interesting. Her maiden last name was Suchi which I always thought was Italian but in looking it up, it's Hungarian unless I spell it wrongly? 

[SwampDonkey]

Be picking radishes next weekend. 8)

[mike_belben]

Last years overwintered turnip greens have begun to regenerate.  Ill put in cabbage early i guess but not really feeling too eager about garden this year.  Lots of other work needs to get done.

[SwampDonkey]

Grow my pretties. ;D 10 days since seeding.

[thecfarm]

Looking good!!!

[kantuckid]

Our seeds are starting life in egg cartons then upon emergence they get "spooned" into larger plastic greenhouse pots. So far we are seeing great germination using this method compared to previous years using peat potting as seen above. Peppers are a harder seed to get going than maters. The only mater we are growing from my last years trial of a bunch of Ukraine & Russian maters(that were supposedly early & late blight resistant) is the Russian Appletree.
 It's a very earl early mater thats extremely hardy and grows in bunches similar to grapes but much larger size than a grape tomato. Our trial tomato this year is the Black Brandywine. Our frost date is ~ April 15th so lots of time to get things going. 
Okra, I'm doing 1/2 row of Clemson and other 1/2 of Emerald cause I cannot remember which one I liked best? 
Gardening is not only healthy eating it's a great way to keep some good senior activity going.  

[Don P]

Randy Gardner of NCSU's "mountain" series of maters have pretty good blight resistance. We like mountain magic. Damsel is also a good flavored resistant variety. When I've tracked blight y'all seem to get hit ahead of us though. The cherry varieties do seem to fare better.

Aura peppers, we get the seed from Johnny's, is an awesome sweet cooking pepper that is also early. They have a good website as well.

[kantuckid]

I'm aware of the mountain series of maters and we tried some several years back. Our favorite mater, hands down, is an heirloom- Arkansas Traveler! 
Our main garden soil got the blight via a load of manure given to me by a local dairy farmer some years back. Once ya got it, yer stuck with it. It also included several nasty weeds that weren't there before that nasty pile of what I thought was something special. 
 EVERY tomato I've tried in that garden will begin to look great then wilt and die off about the time fruit begins to set on a large, seemingly healthy plant. 
Last year we did grow a row of various grape tomatoes down there and they handle both early & late blights OK but of course they are limited to salads or eating out of hand, not much for canning. All of our tomatoes are now grown in what used to be the upper part of our front yard in a large raised bed.
I discussed blight resistance in tomatoes with some serious growers and not much good that I've gained overall. Spraying copper fungicide helps until a string of rain comes along and copper is limited in repeated use over a season too. Peppers are susceptible to blights but seem to handle it better than maters. Crows, coons, groundhogs, coyotes, rabbits, chipmunks and squirrels are our other enemies and seem to really enjoy our efforts.    

[21incher]

Finally got started today. stuck some tomato seeds in to start.


 

 
And my kale and onions have germinated in the grow tent


 

 

[kantuckid]

I couldn't read them all above post but saw Amish Paste which we have found to be a great tomato. This years maters: Amish Paste, Burpee Supersteak(our only F1 mater each year), Granny Cantrell(local lady-well known brandywine selection she groomed for many years in Morgan Co, KY near us) Box Car Willie, Arkansas Traveler, Russian Appletree, Black Brandywine(cross of brandywine & Black Krim-we tried the krim two years and it cracked badly both years), Pink Brandywine, German Johnson(potato leaf tomato that's one of the most popular near me in a big gardening area), Dester(we call it "clester dester" cause our neighbor Clester gave us the 1st seeds. 
If you'd like a start of any of these maters PM me.  

[SwampDonkey]

Red bells, they are slower germinating then tomatoes for sure. But starting to kick in, starting to get first leaves now. One didn't germinate, so stuck in a seed. Lots of time. In my other tray they all came. I got way more than I can eat right there. Planning on slicing and freezing for meat dishes in winter. Probably throw some in fall pickles to. ;) My jalapenos are just germinating, only been a week since them seeds came. I think it was last Friday. I've got 7 up already in those, a dozen yet to germ.



Have had great luck with Jiffies to start plants. I do replant to bigger dishes.

[SwampDonkey]

Dill and basal, the grass looking stuff is the dill. ;D Just enough to get a head start. I plant the rest from seed direct in garden.

[SwampDonkey]

Weekly update on the big beef maters. I have 23 this size and 6 newer ones up. Plus I have 21 Scotians and 16 sweet mountain (cherry tomatoes). The big beef and Scotian are a regional favorite up here, been growing them all my life. Never had sweet mountain, always grew tiny Tim. Used to get Siberian which can set fruit in cooler weather, down to 38F.

[SwampDonkey]

Butter crunch (right) and iceberg head lettuces, 4 each. These were a germination test more than anything, old seed. ;D I have other lettuce I will start as well, some Tango, a curly leaf lettuce. ;D The butter crunch is probably less shaded. I'll soon pluck those radishes. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Learnt years ago that manure has to be well composted to kill anything in it. I don't use nothing fresh off the manure pile that hasn't been composted. That will be full of weeds, stuff you never heard of. I don't have the time to spend working on compost, so I just get it by the bag. If I had nothing else to do with my time, I would certainly compost my own. Right now I have enough work, thanks. ;D

Pheasants are bad pests up here. I have a fat old ground hog here 'Pudgy Joe', he never touches the garden, except he may walk across. But I get neighbors' cats and dogs walking in the garden, they apparently don't like their own garden. :D Before I had the garden in last spring, Tippy (a red fox) dug up an old chicken she hid down there. Hahaha, reminded me of an Aussie I follow on Youtube, he buries all kinds of bodies under his raised beds. He's a hoot, an army dude. You'd get a smile watch'n him. :D :D Real jolly positive fellow.

On Youtube, Mark is 'Self Sufficient Me'.

[kantuckid]

The manure (The load from hell?) I wished I'd never gotten- was actually saved by the dairy farmer for someone else who never came back from a previous year. He'd run it into a pile in an unused space for someone else and tossed it in the pile over time with skid loader. It looked and was supposed to be well composted.    

[SwampDonkey]

No way of really knowing if it got heat enough to kill everything, unless you do it yourself. That pile could get seeds on top blowing from all over. Guys I see doing it have it contained. The bagged stuff I've never had weeds. What I buy is put up about 100 miles from here. No sense in trucking it 1200 miles, no one going to pay more than $3 a bag. I get it for $2.50.

[SwampDonkey]

Fresh radishes my friends. 8)

[SwampDonkey]

These babies will need an upgrade in rooting realestate by the weekend. 8) Going into 1/2 gallon pots.

[SwampDonkey]

I had to pot the lettuce over into 1/2 gallon pots. This is buttercrunch (Boston Lettuce). Be pick'n next weekend. 8)  I have 4, plus 4 iceberg, iceberg is slower.





Good stuff. ;)

[DDW_OR]

the green areas are for plants in the ground or in raised beds
the center area for tomatoes in the ground and their vines suspended on string from the rafter.
like commercial growers do

the squares are walk areas that the Pex pipe will be 2 ft under.

the walk area is 12x12 concrete squares
pex maybe just 6 inches under. two loops 12 inches apart, each loop centered under the square.

[SwampDonkey]

 
But on peppers plants, bigger ones are better, even if they have blossoms on them.
I wet down the ground first, don't make it real muddy, but wet, than a sheet of black poly. I weight it down with rocks. You will need rocks in between the plants too to keep the poly from blowing up and covering the plants. Than where ever you want a plant, cut an X into the poly and put your plant in.

That's what I am trying, this allows water through, but black to catch the sun's heat. I have that and more floating fabric coming.

[21incher]

I have a craving for fresh radishes now ;D. Finally  started peppers and used the heat mats.  Germinated in 3 days. Tomatoes took 5 days with no heat. Eggplant haven't  germinated yet so I may replant. Spinach and peas went in today. The garlic is about  4 inches tall now also. Great  weather  the last couple  days.

[thecfarm]

I plan on using more crop cover this year. I just bend ½ inch metal conduit pipe for my loops. I cut it at 5 feet, which is in half, it come in 10 foot lengths. Yes, plastic can be used, but I've had these loops for 10 years, metal don't break from the sun rays.  ;)
I want to try it on my cukes, keep them warmer and "maybe" help out on the bugs.
I use the crop cover on the basil and that works on keeping the bugs from eating the plants.

[SwampDonkey]

I don't even use anything to hold up the fabric, she just floats. I anchor down with rocks. ;) Dad would use it on strawberries and have berries two weeks ahead of time.

The bug I deter on the squash is cuke beetles. In my upper garden they don't touch my cukes. I think they also eat beans, seen them around the beans last year. But I had fabric on beans and squash until they  got up good and strong and took off the fabric. The flea beetle hits the basal here, but way late in the season, September. These are bigger than leaf hoppers. They eat grape leaves to.