re: 2022 Spring Garden Thread

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2ea Tomato plants in one 20gal pot is probably going to be the best option but I am going to try doing 3ea tomatoes in a couple of the 25gal pots to see how it affects the yields.

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My biggest concern with them growing that closely would be disease and mildew issues due to not enough air circulation between plants---especially if in S. La.

Also, do you plan on staking them in some way so the plants don't just fall over and spread out on the ground?

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being my first year trying this system I will take the successes and failures and try to dial it in better next year.

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Hey, you don't try, you don't learn-----good or bad.

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My strained relationship with Brad’s Atomic Grape continues. Both of my seedlings got to about 7” then damped off. Gotta be a bad batch of seeds.

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Man, that is disheartening. All of my eggplant seedling have done this. They weren’t 7” tall, though. But it looks like I’m going to have to try to find some transplants this year.

All of my tomato plants had to be transplanted into 6” pots. They were root bound in the 4” pots and starting to struggle. This should buy me enough time until I plant out. Had to bring them all in since the low tonight is 32. But it’s supposed to warm up the rest of the week and I’ll be able to put them back outside shortly. Also, I think it’ll be time to start bringing the peppers outside as well.

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Good to know. Thanks!

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How many eyes you putting per seed? I usually do two or three eyes per seed, but I planted double the seeds this year, with one eye per seed. Want to see if that yields a decent crop of bigger potatoes or a smaller crop of the same size potatoes. Guess we shall see.

What kind of starting mix are yall using?

Do you leave water in the trays to water from the bottom for seeds/seedlings too, or only the bigger plants? I did that last year, which was my first time really trying to grow a lot from seed, but had a lot of damping off. Was doing more watering/misting daily this year because I was worried about it and didn't want thing to be too wet. But it seems like it would be good for bigger plants, I guess.

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Do you leave water in the trays to water from the bottom for seeds/seedlings too, or only the bigger plants?

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I always water my seedlings from the bottom and allow them to wick up into the pot up until I transplant them. Even as they get bigger. I don’t add more water until the soil is mostly dry. Never had a problem with damping off doing it this way. I try to never wet the leaves cause it could invite disease. I usually get some algae and fungus on the soil no matter how long I let them dry. But it never seems to be detrimental to the plants.

I’m not sure what’s going on with my eggplant seedlings. They’re not really damping off. They just shriveled up after a few days under the light. It was a batch of seeds from a couple of years ago, so they may have gone bad.

What’s the consensus on topping peppers? Do y’all do it?