Tennessee 2022 Garden

[Gary350]

Rain has temporarily stopped I can see both strawberry rows are ok and level with the water level in the garden. A tomato plant has fallen over onto the strawberry plants, it needs to be moved. I had to put tomato cages on the small tomato plants to stop dog from running though the plants and killing plants. Standing water makes it easy to see low places in the garden. Rain gauge shows we got 2" of rain sense yesterday morning. Other towns have gotten more rain that us, some had 7" of rain. I picked 2 more water melons, refrigerator is full of melon I won't cut these melons until tomorrow or next day. There are 5 more big watermelons in the garden, cantaloupes are small. I need to take more water level pictures when rain comes again so I can see where to move soil from high places to low places. Potato hills in 5 different locations has destroyed garden soil from being flat & level. It has been so extremely dry once we get enough rain I think water lever will stop going down so quick after each hard rain. I have 1 strawberry plant runner trying to grow where its not wanted I need to get it started in a small flower pot to make it an easy transplant. The round plastic things are handy to water new small plants and make good markers so I don't accidently step on small plants. Other than that plastic things are worthless. Strawberry plants are on a hill they are hard to water all the water runs away but the plastic things hold in water for the plants. I don't like to water the whole garden to water 1 row of plants that makes weeds & grass grow everywhere. I see a lot of tiny carrot plants, so far so good. It has been so miserable hot I have not been doing anything to the garden that I done have to.

[Gary350]

Rain stopped for a while and sun came out. I checked strawberry plant runners 3 more have rooted. 1 runner has leaves growing out of the bottom I think best thing to do is pull the runner up and over the top of the plant to the opposite so leaves will be up. I found another runner that is rooted only 2" from the mother plant it will need to be transplanted in about 2 weeks. Rain was very helpful making plants grow again. I count a total of 43 plants & runners.

I sat under the shade tree for a while & enjoyed watching butterflies & birds come to the Zinnias. It has been 40 years since I have seen this many butterflies. About 6 pm I decided to pick Zinnia seeds before dark. I learned a month ago if flowers are loosing peddles they have been pollinated. A month ago I picked a bunch of seeds then planted them 10 minutes later they started growing plants in 3 days. 2 days ago those plants started making flowers. I sprinkled seeds around the mail box near the road and seeds other places to see how many Zinnias I can grow before first frost Nov 5. When all the seeds are finally harvested there might be a gallon of seeds. Seeds need to dry inside the house for about a week. It would be run to plant the entire front yard with Zinnias.

[imafan26]

Nice seed heads. The seeds from marigolds, cilantro, tomato, eggplant, and beans were the ones I kept. I only had a few zinnia and and cosmos. I did not get enough flowers so I dropped the seeds in the bed. The nasturtiums and alyssum reseed themselves so I don't have to do anything about that. The Asian cabbages also reseeded themselves. The birds ate all the seeds from the sunflowers so there was nothing to save.

[Gary350]

Nice seed heads. The seeds from marigolds, cilantro, tomato, eggplant, and beans were the ones I kept. I only had a few zinnia and and cosmos. I did not get enough flowers so I dropped the seeds in the bed. The nasturtiums and alyssum reseed themselves so I don't have to do anything about that. The Asian cabbages also reseeded themselves. The birds ate all the seeds from the sunflowers so there was nothing to save.

I bought 1/4 lb of Zinnia seeds from American Meadows online, I think seeds cost $7 plus $4 postage. They arrived in 3 days. I ordered them I think it was Feb. 1/4 lb is suppose to be enough for 1/2 acre of flowers. This little bag will last me 15 years. They have several Zinnia choices, I picked, red, yellow, orange, purple. They sell other flowers beside Zinnias.

[Gary350]

Wife grew a pineapple top it turned into a nice patio plant. I don't think it will grow a pineapple. More rain today.

[applestar]

Looks good! Online general consensus is it takes at least 18 months for container pineapples grown from tops to fruit. I’ve had successful fruiting twice — on plants that I’d grown over 3 growing seasons with 2 winters kept in the house with good supplemental lights. So maybe more accurately 18 months of good growing temperature — 5 months frost free, 7 months winter indoor temps in my house varieties from 50’s to mid-60’s.

There’s a way to tell when a plant us ready to fruit — numbers of leaves or something — and then you can encourage the plant to grow a flower stalk — one method is to put an apple or banana on it.

Once it blooms, it will set fruit without needing pollination, etc. but it took something like 6 to 7 months to ripen — so late winter flowering and harvest in summer.

Mine were tiny — baseball size at most, but delicious!

[Gary350]

It has been a week since I have been to the garden 1 strawberry plant is dying. Plants are very sensitive to too much mud & water. If the crow gets covered with mud they rot. If center leaves get full of mud from rain splashing up mud they rot. Runners are going in all directions. There is not much I can do maybe a few more days. I think I missed the boat for, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage. Tomato plants have filled up several cages, its too late to remove cages, maybe I can push all the cages over to the east. Several Kennebec potato plants are up & doing good.

[Vanisle_BC]

Gary, are those strips of wood under the strawberry runners? What's your reason or strategy with those?

[Gary350]

Gary, are those strips of wood under the strawberry runners? What's your reason or strategy with those?

The runners start out with tiny leaves, if rain gets mud in the leaves they rot and die, I learned that the hard way after 3 runners died. Wooden boards hold runners up so they don't lay in the mud until leaves grow larger.

Runners will sprout roots if they touch the soil. I don't want new plants closer than 6" from the mother plant. Wood boards hold runners up until they are 6" from mother plant then I remove boards so roots touch the soil and grow new plants.

Drawing shows black DOTs are the mother plants. Xs are runners that have grown new plants. I had a straight line of 12 mother pants then I transplanted 1 new plant so row has 13 plants. After all this rain 1 mother plant died so the row has 12 plants again. The 2 plants next to 1 of the mothers can be transplanted soon as plants are larger. Some of the runners grow roots & new plants in random locations. I'm trying to make runners grow out like spokes of a wheel.

Some mothers grow only 1 runner, some mothers grow 2 runners, some grow 3 runners.

Some runners grow 1 new plant then runner continues on to grow straight 2nd and 3rd plant.

Some runners row 1 new plant then FORK and grow 2 more plants.

Today I see a 8" long runner grew a new plant then 1/2 way between mother & new plant runner forked & is now growing a new runner in a weird direction. Wait & see what happens.

There is no rime or reason what runners do? That makes it hard to direct runners in the direction I want them to go. Maybe when mud is gone and my knee is better I can work on the strawberry plants.

When it was dry from no rain runners were growing short but after all this rain runner grow fast & long.

[Vanisle_BC]

Thanks Gary, that's interesting; the way you handle the strawberry runners. I'm puzzled by the part of your diagram where there's a continuous 'runner' going through all the mother plants. I'm guessing you didn't mean it to look like that - easier to draw one long line than a few short ones with spaces?

[Gary350]

Thanks Gary, that's interesting; the way you handle the strawberry runners. I'm puzzled by the part of your diagram where there's a continuous 'runner' going through all the mother plants. I'm guessing you didn't mean it to look like that - easier to draw one long line than a few short ones with spaces?

I drew a straight line for the strawberry row then forget to erase the line where there are no runners. Lines now show how the mother plant made runners and grew new plants. Once new plants grow roots and leaves the runners die leaving new plants no longer connected to the mother plant. 1 of the mother plants died leaving an empty place between 2 groups of plants. This would be easier if my garden was not a swamp every time it rains. Online information says, new plants need to get established roots 2 months before first frost for plants to survive the cold winter weather, Our first frost is about Nov 5. I am trying to get 1 full row of plants with as many other plants as possible. When it gets hot and dry plant runners stop growing, when rain starts again runners grow again. Some of the runners that grew roots in low areas they will need to be lifted up 1" to 2" higher to keep plants above water lever, we get too much rain in winter, I think we had 47" or rain last winter, that was probably Nov to April. I also learned not to plant strawberry plants, plants need to set on the soil surface then allow roots to grow into the soil. If plants are below soil surface they rot & die. It is 53 degrees this morning.

[Vanisle_BC]

Haha Gary; I guessed that was why there was a continuous line. Didn't mean you had to change it! Thanks for the info, esp about strawberry plantings needing 2 months before frost. That would be right now, for me. For various reasons my 4x4ft strawberry patch was neglected this year and the plants are crammed together like an aggressive, leafy ground cover gone crazy. We didn't harvest a single berry. I can't decide whether to try reviving the bed - maybe relocated, or just give up on strawberries.

And they want plenty of water? We have had about 2 mm rain, TOTAL in over 2 months. That's less than 0.1 inch. The 10 day forecast doesn't look much better - and this is a raincoast? I have an irrigation system that has a dripper every 12". I've been running it twice a day (8 o'clock) for 20 minutes. At the surface the result looks almost useless but I'm pleased to discover that a few inches down my soil is quite moist. My beds are raised a foot or more. They can get very soggy anytime fall till summer, but I don't have your mud problem.

[Gary350]

I have not been to the garden in about 9 or 10 days. I was finally able to get there this morning, it is easier for me to crawl on hands & knees than walk. I assume rain & cooler temperatures have made strawberry plants go crazy growing runners. Left strawberry plant in picture as 7 runners and made 5 new plants. Right strawberry plant has 6 runners & made 4 new plants. Plant to the far right not in picture made 2 new plants & 2 runners. It is odd that these plants were doing nothing for 2 weeks when first planted, while other plants in the row were growing runners & making new plants, now just the opposite, other end of row is not doing much. I am trying to get runners to grow new plants in 5 flower pots. 1 of the mother plants that looked dead seems to be growing a new green leaf, I hope it lives.

Garden has a mushroom forest where the new mulch was tilled into the soil a month ago.

[Gary350]

Today I picked these tomatoes. I picked a bundle of Thai Basil it sure makes the house smell good.

[Gary350]

Today I have no motivation to do anything in the garden. I broke several garlic bulbs into cloves then I enjoyed the, flowers, butterflies & birds for a while. Oh well maybe tomorrow I will do something besides pet cat & dog & watch butterflies & birds.

[Gary350]

This morning I tilled the garlic bed. Later in the evening I planted 7 rows with 14 cloves in each row, 98 garlic. Spacing is 4" x 4" apart. Garlic has been in refrigerator 2 months this makes them grow quick usually in 4 days they are starting to grow. I will leave this alone for a few days to see how well they grow. Any cloves that don't grow will be replaced. I wonder if direct sun effects how quick they grow. About 6 more weeks until first frost.

[imafan26]

How much time do you spend in your garden everyday?

[Gary350]

How much time do you spend in your garden everyday?

I spent 45 minutes today tilling & planting the garlic bed. I picked 18 tomatoes yesterday that took 5 minutes. Yesterday is the first time I have done anything in the garden for a week. A week ago I was spending about 5 to 15 minutes a day trying to make strawberry runners grow in the correct direction. Before that we had 5 days of hurricane rain then 2 days for mud to dry. Before rain I planted a 35 ft row of potatoes it took about 45 minutes. So far 12 potato plants are coming up, see picture of largest plant. There is not much to do the only thing in the garden now is, tomatoes, Zinnias, 20 carrot plants & a row of potatoes. Melons rotted in the hurricane rain. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, seeds flooded out in the rain.

Last frost is about April 20, things get planted 1, 2, 3, order according to the weather. Even then there is not much time spent in the garden. It takes 45 minutes to till the whole garden then I wait. It takes 15 minutes to plant 6 tomato plants. It takes 10 minutes to plant 1 rows of beans. About 45 min to plant 4 rows of corn. It takes 5 minutes to plant 20 melon seeds. It takes 45 min to plant 350 onion plants. When rain stops and soil gets dry I spend 5 minutes a day watering plants. When weather is hotter 100°F and no rain in 3 weeks I water longer 10 minutes. Once soil is tilled there are no weeds until it rains or I water, water makes weeds & grass grow.

The only thing that takes the most time at once is harvest. I picked 350 ears of corn, pull off the husks, take them in the house that takes about 2 hours. Wife puts corn in freezer 2 hrs work for her. I dug up 61 lbs of potatoes that took about 3 hours. Picking tomatoes about 5 minutes each time. Picking sweet bell peppers 5 min. Picking cucumbers was 5 to 10 minutes each time for 2 weeks. It takes about 3 minutes to walk out look see if a melon is ripe. Beans are easy, I pull up the whole plant then set under the shade tree picking beans from the plants, about 1 hour work.

Next year I will only grow the main food crops, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, melons, strawberries, Zinnias. blackberries.

Tomatoes are the highest maintenance plant in the garden, I spend 15 minutes twice a week tying up limbs then later in the summer 15 min a week cutting off bad limbs, they need fertilizer once a week 5 minutes more.

Onions & garlic need fertilizer once a week 5 min each time and 30 minutes of water once a week. Corn needs fertilizer once a month 5 min each time. Beans need fertilizer once a week 5 min each time. Melons need fertilizer once a week 5 min.

Once a week I walk up & down each row with the hoe looking for grass & weeds 5 to 10 min each time..

[imafan26]

You work very efficiently in your large garden. It takes me 45 minutes to an hour everyday just to water.

[Gary350]

Today my tomato plants are upside down. Plants grew to the top of the 6 ft tall stakes got top heavy then grew down 5 ft. There are so many leaves it looks like there are no tomatoes but after removing the leaves there are about 60 tomatoes in there. I accidently knocked 4 tomatoes off the plants. I hate doing this it is too time consuming, it took 45 minutes to trim 3 ½ plants. I have 2 more plants to trim. This does not hurt the plants they still have a lot of green leaves 1 ft from the soil. My neighbor will not do this he starts new plants from seeds & starts a new row of tomatoes. I started a new row of tomatoes from seeds 6 weeks ago plants have blossoms.

[Gary350]

This morning I picked Jelly Bean Tomatoes. These are very sweet with very good flavor. July neighbor gave me an extra plant he started from seed. I was skeptical at first about such small tomatoes but I planted it anyway. Tomatoes grow in clusters of about 15 like grapes. I will save seeds and grow these next year. My plant was plants late it has only been producing tomatoes for about 3 weeks.

[Gary350]

I have a new idea for next year. Instead of planting tomatoes 18" apart I will plant them 36" apart. When plants get too tall for the tomato stakes they can grow upside down in another stake 18" away.

[imafan26]

Interesting concept. Would you still have to prune the suckers of the vines?
I grow tomatoes in cages 24 inches in diameter some of the stackable cages have a smaller footprint. Ultimately, it means I do very little pruning.

[Gary350]

Interesting concept. Would you still have to prune the suckers of the vines?
I grow tomatoes in cages 24 inches in diameter some of the stackable cages have a smaller footprint. Ultimately, it means I do very little pruning.

This year is the first time I have pruned suckers in 35 years, plants were extremely slow to produce tomatoes, about 2 weeks behind schedule. I wonder if less foliage means less chlorophyll from the sun to produce tomatoes? Plants were slow to come up to full speed, plants never reached 35 lbs of ripe tomatoes per plant this year. I think larger plants grow larger roots to support them self then after plants are pruned plants grow more tomatoes and larger tomatoes.

[imafan26]

I know pruning can make tomatoes larger and more visible. My tomatoes do have large root systems. The determinates less so, but I still have roots coming out of the pots. I do think I get more tomatoes by not pruning them. I certainly get less sun damage with more foliage. I only remove the lower leaves but I don't prune suckers unless they are in the way. I was surprised that the determinates last so long. I was not expecting a second flowering from them. I still prefer the indeterminates, but I can only grow indeterminate tomatoes that are TYLCV resistant and there aren't that many of those. Non resistant ones need to be grown in the tree bag, so I can only grow mainly determinate tomatoes now. They put out a lot of fruit all at one time.

I line trained tomatoes on the farm. It was tedious to have to tie them up all the time. I only need 2-3 tomatoes so it is easier for me to either let them sprawl like the red currant that reseeds itself or cage them so I don't have to prune.

[Gary350]

I know pruning can make tomatoes larger and more visible. My tomatoes do have large root systems. The determinates less so, but I still have roots coming out of the pots. I do think I get more tomatoes by not pruning them. I certainly get less sun damage with more foliage. I only remove the lower leaves but I don't prune suckers unless they are in the way. I was surprised that the determinates last so long. I was not expecting a second flowering from them. I still prefer the indeterminates, but I can only grow indeterminate tomatoes that are TYLCV resistant and there aren't that many of those. Non resistant ones need to be grown in the tree bag, so I can only grow mainly determinate tomatoes now. They put out a lot of fruit all at one time.

I line trained tomatoes on the farm. It was tedious to have to tie them up all the time. I only need 2-3 tomatoes so it is easier for me to either let them sprawl like the red currant that reseeds itself or cage them so I don't have to prune.

I have trouble with sun damage tomatoes too that is why I have plants 18" apart under a shade tree, over crowding makes plants shade each other. My plants start producing ripe tomatoes about July 4th and 3 weeks later are producing several lbs. of tomatoes every day. Once my plants are 7 feet tall they get upside down I start having too much foliage and no enough time to prune it off with so many other crops being ready to harvest at the same time. In the past I have bought plants that are probably already 6 weeks old and planted them about April 15. Then about June 1st I planted another row of tomato seeds. When the first plants are over grown about Aug the second crop is just starting to make ripe tomatoes. It is a lot less work to cut down the first tomato crop then harvest from the second crop but I did not do that this year. When the children were still at home we needed lots of tomatoes but now we don't. Wife talked me into growing only 6 tomato plants this year that was a mistake we had a tomato shortage all summer. It is nice to have too many tomatoes, at the moment I am waiting for tomatoes to make, salsa & pizza sauce. I used a dozen tomatoes yesterday to make chili. There are several tomatoes in the garden now to pick but they need to set inside the house 3 days so acid flavor turns to sweeter. A few weeks ago we had no good tomatoes because of BER, then hurricane rain garden was under water for 5 days, now tomatoes have new problems, tops are split & tomatoes are not hidden from birds, now tomatoes have bird damage but 70% of the tomatoes are good if I use them today. Several of these tomatoes will be bad tomorrow if I don't use them today. The good sweet flavor will be 3 days from now. It is better to have too many tomatoes plants than not enough.

[Gary350]

Todays harvest, 1 Kennebec potato and 13 tomatoes. There are volunteer potatoes all over the garden 1 plant died so I dugs up 1 new potatoes. Perfect size for breakfast.

I picked 13 tomatoes before they are completely ripe so they don't split or get bird damage.

The Kennebec potato row is looking good, 17 nice plants, 13 plants barely poking up through the soil, 4 plants no show yet.

Strawberry plants are hard to keep up with. Several plants have 7 & 8 runners growing in all directions and crisscross over each other. Runners sometimes grow 3 plants 1 after the other in a row. Other runners grow 1 plant then fork Y then grow 2 more plants. I have not yet figured out how to move 3 plants to finish the 34 ft long row. Soon 1 of the new plants will release itself from the mother plant then it can be transplanted.

It was 100° today I stayed in the house until 1 hour before dark.

[Gary350]

More tomatoes, More chili or something else soon. We had tacos last night.

[imafan26]

6 plants would still be a lot for me. I pretty much use all my produce fresh. I don't preserve any and I can only freeze a few since I don't have room in the freezer either. I usually buy tomato sauce and marinara. I have never needed a lot of it. I usually use the tomatoes to cook with, I only use a few of them raw. Actually, I don't like salads much either because I don't like oil and vinegar based salad dressing and I prefer my vegetables cooked. Pizza sounds good. We don't get good pizzas here, or good Mexican food. I am not used to the cuisine. I don't eat a lot of bread, so I rarely have pizzas and I usually only get a personal pizza or I get one of the single serve or medium frozen pizzas and add more things to it. I have made French bread pizza and I like that, but I don't like it enough to make it often and I have to plan something like that. I don't always have bread in the house, so I have a hard time finishing a loaf of bread, half a loaf, or a package of rolls before they get stale. The bread in my refrigerator is going on its second week. I still have half of a half loaf. I am making French toast every other day to use them up.

A typical plate lunch here is starch heavy. Rice, macaroni salad and an entree, usually meat, and very few vegetables unless you order a stir fry or stew. Only in Hawaii is mac salad considered a vegetable.
Unless, I am out all day, it is the only time I go to McDonalds or somewhere else for a sandwich. Otherwise, I rarely make sandwiches for lunch. Salads, yes, when I have the ingredients on hand.

[Gary350]

I usually use the tomatoes to cook with, I only use a few of them raw. Pizza sounds good. I don't eat a lot of bread, A typical plate lunch here is starch heavy. Rice, macaroni salad and an entree, usually meat, and very few vegetables unless you order a stir fry or stew. Only in Hawaii is mac salad considered a vegetable. Unless, I am out all day, it is the only time I go to McDonalds or somewhere else for a sandwich. Otherwise, I rarely make sandwiches for lunch. Salads, yes, when I have the ingredients on hand.

I think we all learn to cook from our parents & grandparents. We grow up eating certain foods then we are on our own and cook what we know how to cook. I grew up in a tiny farming town in southern Illinois population 5000 it had 1 Café and 1 Drive In fast food place. I never knew about Mexicans food until we moved to Arizona I was in grade school 1958 then we learned how to cook Mexican food. I never learned about oriental food until I moved to TN after college 1977. I never knew about India food & Greek food until a new restaurant came to town about 2000 and 2010, I wish I was good at cooking other foods, India, Oriental, Greek, but I'm not. I seldom eat pasta. I love salads but seldom eat them at home. I love buffet salad bar at restaurants. We like to eat lots of vegetables with small amount of meat, chicken or pork for dinner. I seldom eat beef unless it has spices or sauce to hide beef flavor. I never eat steak. Growing up every one in town & family said, Breakfast, Dinner, Supper. In college people said, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, so I learned to say, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. I don't know anyone anymore that says, Breakfast, Dinner, Supper. I think, Breakfast, Dinner, Supper is a geographical area thing just like southern talk is, south eastern part of the USA. When I had a travel job for several years people in certain geographical areas have things they say that no one else in USA says. I was in NJ many times everyone there says, please, please, please, I had to ask what does please mean, it means, pardon me, that was 1974 I wonder if people still say that?

Today I picked more tomatoes and diced tomatoes from 3 days ago to make 1 quart of tomatoes. Wife has plans to cook something with tomatoes for dinner this evening.

[Gary350]

Potato plants are looking good. Today I count 34 plants. Several potatoes must have 2 eyes. Last year potato plants did good with frost and 28°F temperatures. Wait and see what happens this year. Our first frost is about Nov 4.

[Gary350]

I have learned It is best to direct strawberry plant runners in the direction I want them to go then wait for runners to grow roots then grow a new plant. I have been trying to set runners up so they can grow in a certain location but most of the time the plant decided to not grow there and grow a runner 3" longer. Watch and wait if a runner grows roots and attaches itself to the soil then it is easy to move to a new location.

Runners grow new plants in 1, 2, 3, 4, order. I assume the runner will continue on 5, 6, 7, 8, plants if its allowed to do that. I have several mother plants with 7 runners, each runner has 3 new plants, that is 21 new plants on each of 3 mother plants that are growing side by side. Wow what a tangles mess of runners and 63 new plants. I think there is about 110 new plants so far.

I am putting small flower pots under the runners to grow plants in pots so they can be transplanted in the locations. 1 mother plant tops died & grown back 2 times from rain splashing on the plant leaves.

We had an amazing extremely hard rain last might about 9 pm. It rained so hard for 20 minutes it sounded like hail. We went out to the screen porch to listed & look it was so loud we could not hear ourself YELL. I could not see any hail with my spot light. This morning I had to wash mud off strawberry plants with a water squirt bottle. Soil has been so dry is soaked up that rain and there was no mud.

I ran out of small pots so I am now using plastic drink cups for pots. I put 6 holes in bottom of each cup then 2" of grass clippings then soil. I learned soil needs to be a mound up above the pot so pot can not hold water.

Runners continue to grow longer as long as I don't cut off any of the new plants to transplant. Once a runner is cut off it dies so I loose the option of having a runner with a whole row of new plants on it.

I picked more tomatoes today. There are about 60 tomatoes in the kitchen getting riper. After being in kitchen 3 days they get eaten or used to cook with or put in quart jars to eat later. Oh wait, I used a few tomatoes to make enchilada sauce for dinner.

[Gary350]

Strawberry plants are interesting. Yesterday this runner had very tiny roots starting to grow and very tiny leaves, it was setting on dry soil on this pot. I decided not to move the pot over so plant will be located in exact center of pot. I squirted water on the runner & soil so roots are setting ON wet soil. Roots set ON soil not IN soil. Over night the runner grew roots, it grew 3/4" longer leaves, and it grew 1/2" longer runner. Now runner if on its way to grow 6" longer to grow another plant. With plenty of water runner will be about 6" longer in 6 days. Now that roots are attached I can remove the 2 spoons.

I wish some of the runners would disconnect themself from the mother plant so I can transplant new plants to a new location before weather turns cold.

[applestar]

You are doing a great job with the strawberries. (I need to rescue my little beds of strawberries — one of them is surrounded and overhung with weeds even though I used plastic mulch so not as much weeds within the bed … but I see some weeds poking out of the holes for the strawberry plants)

If you don’t need all the extra runners, you might want to cull and limit to maybe 4 babies per mother plant, so as not to tire out the plants for fruit production next season.

I think once the babies have established actively growing roots and are leafing out well, it should be OK to cut them off and nurture them with fertilizer.

[Gary350]

You are doing a great job with the strawberries. (I need to rescue my little beds of strawberries — one of them is surrounded and overhung with weeds even though I used plastic mulch so not as much weeds within the bed … but I see some weeds poking out of the holes for the strawberry plants)

If you don’t need all the extra runners, you might want to cull and limit to maybe 4 babies per mother plant, so as not to tire out the plants for fruit production next season.

I think once the babies have established actively growing roots and are leafing out well, it should be OK to cut them off and nurture them with fertilizer.

I still need 2 plants to finish the 34 foot strawberry plant row with 16 plants. I want a full row of 48 trans plants before winter. We typically have 70° days in Nov & 65° days in Dec, until Jan 1st, last year we had 65° days until Jan 15, and freezing weather after dark.

If some of the new runner plants would disconnect themself from the mother plant then I can transplant strawberry plants in groups, so far I have several groups of 3 plants connected by runners. Once I get a full row of 48 plants then I will use the extra new plants to fill in around east side of the row. My neighbor has his plants 6" apart so I am copying what he does.

I inspect tomato plants every morning for 2 or 3 minutes then check them again 1 hour before dark. If a runner needs to be in a pot it takes me 2 minutes to dig a hole for a pot then place runner on top of pot. Runners that go in all direction over each other are a nightmare to deal with it sometimes takes 20 to 30 minutes to figure out what to do.

It is 42°F this morning, I am freezing to death. Cold weather usually does not bother me but I'm not getting adjusted to this weather yet, its better than Florida at the moment.

We are swamped with tomatoes. I have 1 quart diced to cook with. My son won't take anymore tomatoes, LOL. Each plate of tomatoes is a different day, after aging 3 days they are sweeter ready to eat or cook with. We might try freezing whole tomatoes in zip lock bags like the India people do.

[Gary350]

Google says they are lawn grubs. Found in wet soil that has a lot of organic material. It says nothing about being good or bad?

[imafan26]

Gary, since you are into old gardening tools. Tell me what you think of this one. I am considering buying it. It is this or the garden claw. The claw is locally available but it looks like it leaves a big hole. I want something that might be more surgical but still easy to use without having to do a lot of bending.
https://grampasweeder.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Weasel-91 ... B000WOMYMG

[Gary350]

Gary, since you are into old gardening tools. Tell me what you think of this one. I am considering buying it. It is this or the garden claw. The claw is locally available but it looks like it leaves a big hole. I want something that might be more surgical but still easy to use without having to do a lot of bending.
https://grampasweeder.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Weasel-91 ... B000WOMYMG

I have never seen that tool. Video shows tool pulling up large weeds. Step on tool to push it into the plant and soil then pull handle and up comes the weed. I don't see any barbs on the tool that will grip a plant so it can be pulled up. If it has grips then how do you remove weed from the tool. $40 is a lot to spend for something I have never seen and don't know if it works.

My 3 main garden tools are, shovel, hoe, rake. Use a rock or piece of cement to rub away dirt and rust. I use a disk sander to keep cutting edge razor sharp. My shovel is so old the pointed end is gone but it works better with no point. Very often shovel removes weeds easier than the hoe. Disk sander is $20 at Harbor Freight, they also have a $15 disc sander I don't like the ON Off switch on it.

[Gary350]

Today I found 55 small potatoes in the pantry that have eyes that are growing. I don't like to work on Sunday but planting potatoes seem more like fun than work. 55 seed potatoes 6" apart then covered with 2" of soil. 4 months from now will be Feb 2 soil will probably be frozen. The other potato row has several nice plants harvest will be Jan 15. I wish seed potatoes had eyes Sept 1st but they didn't. weather might get too cold for potatoes to finish growing in 4 months. New experiment seed potatoes are laying so eye is on the side so roots can grow down at the same time a plant grows up. If weather gets too cold 4 month crop might become a 6 or 7 month crop. I think potatoes will grow good here in a winter green house.

[applestar]

Google says they are lawn grubs. Found in wet soil that has a lot of organic material. It says nothing about being good or bad?

They are beetle grubs — some of them are likely Japanese beetles and maybe the big one is a June bug? (I once looked up how to tell them apart — apparently they can be differentiated by the shape of their anus … at that point, I lost interest and curiosity, and I never bothered to learn the difference )

ALL of them eat white fibrous roots and can devastate your garden crop. Peppers, eggplants, cabbage, broccoli…. If you see any that are not growing as well as its fellows, one way to check is to see if the plant is well anchored — sometimes they pull right out.

Another way is to dig around the plant and sift the soil.