Feels kind of wierd to be getting back to gardening after Kenny's posts, but... At any rate condolences.
To take stuff in order...
Solar & Wood -
I think especially on these sites that didn’t have soil to begin with, compost is everything. We doubled the size of the garden this year and the new terrace that got preferential treatment did noticeably better. I have the clay broken up down to where the glacial till is like concrete. I can actually feel the sub soiler pick up the 3 pt arms while it rides on top of it. That is between 9 and 12 inches down which is more than twice we had when we started 4 years ago. As the depth and organic material grows, we get better drainage and results.
I think you are right, I know my friend certainly has results to show for it - he's been growing tomatoes for years in a lot of the same ground, and expanded the plot by several rows, built up with a foot or two of compost... The existing garden got about 4" of added compost - When he planted he put row covers over several of the existing area rows, but not over the new ones - but the newer rows WAY outperformed the older rows over the course of the season - bigger, bushier plants, and many more tomatoes.
Do the tomatoes not go more than 5’ high or is that just a manageable harvesting height? What does he do for plant spacing?
My friend has taller pipes - he has gotten his from salvage and accumulation over several generations, his are about 7-8' long, and ends up with about 6' sticking out of the ground. I was purchasing, and I found the best deal was the 10' long pipes sold as top rails for chain link fence, cutting them in half on an angle gave me about 5' lengths, which ended up sticking out of the ground about 4' after I drove them in far enough not to wobble...
When the tomatoes get to the tops of his pipes he breaks off the leader, both for harvesting convenience and because it encourages the plants to put their energy into making 'maters instead of more plant... His spacing is about 30" or so between plants, it works out that he gets three plants between each pair of pipes that are spaced 10' apart. I believe he does 5' between rows.
Tim
Do you start your stuff from seed or purchase plants? We start everything from seed and are strictly organic. The primary fertilizer we use is fish emulsion based.
First off, thanks for the links, I will be checking them out shortly...
I've been purchasing plants, the last few years almost all have come from "Griggs" a local farmer / nursery that has been growing stuff in town for at least a couple generations. I don't really have a good place to do seed starting, and the times I've tried it hasn't worked very well... I haven't been using any fertilizer beyond the compost and wood ash. I have been doing slug control using some stuff called "Escargo" from Gardens Alive, but not all that much. Towards mid season I did get kind of desperate and hit the garden with some Sevin spray as well, but that was considerably before doing any harvesting.
[/quote]First off, don’t get discouraged. This past year was the first year that I successfully grew peppers from seed at our current homestead. Previous couple of years they were leggy and pooped-out after a few weeks in the ground. My advice in peppers if you’re growing them from seed. Start them early and use a heating mat for germination. This really helped us. Don’t set them out too early and when you do consider row tunnels to help keep them warm, especially where you are. Here in NEOhio we are zone 5b - I’m assuming you are probably the same. Lettuce - start early in the season. Will bolt easily once the warmth of summer comes, You can get two crops if you want - Spring and Fall. This coming year, I plan on tyring to continue growing through the summer but will use an angled trellice to shade it - hoping I can get cukes to grow up the angled trellice and shade the lettuce. Also, look for heat tolerant varieties. What variety were you growing? My experience is that most leaf lettuces are not too picky with soil conditions. [/quote]
We are about 20 miles south of the MA / NH border, which is the line between two zones, 4 & 5 if I recall correctly. I have been trying to get the plants in the ground as soon as I think we are past the last frost - which is also about as early as Griggs has them for sale - my theory has been that given our relatively short growing season, the earlier I get them in the ground, the more time they have to grow... I haven't been doing row covers so far, but I've been thinking about it. I was growing a bunch of different lettuce varieties, I remember Romaine, Iceberg, Boston, Red Leaf, I think Michigan, one or two others that I forget offhand. Haven't tried cukes, neither the GF nor I are all that fond of them.
[/quote]As for places to get seed, I like Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange. Check them out and in the very least send off for a catalogue to go through in the winter while sitting by the stove.[/quote]
Will have to look at them, although I'm not sure about doing seeds from scratch as I mentioned... The other thing that makes me less into seeds is that I seem to grow a small number of a lot of different varieties - most seed stuff I've seen seems to be targeted more towards growing a lot of one variety - and I hate the thought of wasting the seeds that I didn't plant...
[/quote]In general, I think success hinges on soil fertility and condition. If it’s fertile and drains well, the plants will do well. This may take a few years to do, but the effort will be worth it. Admittedly it’s hard to be patient - I’m not patient which is why I started this thread searching for ways to accelerate the process of improving the soil in our expanded garden area.[/quote]
This is getting long, so will continue in the next. I am also enclosing a few pix from when I was getting stuff started this spring...
