Planting Tomatoes

Interests Gardening
#1

Just so I’ll remember… the back row from the left…

  1. Belgium Giant
  2. Belgium Giant
  3. Brandywine
  4. Cherokee Purple
  5. Black Plum
  6. Black Plum
  7. Brandywine

Front row from the left:

  1. Amish Paste
  2. Amish Paste
  3. Amish Paste
  4. Cherokee Purple
  5. Belgium Giant
  6. Brandywine
  7. Amish Paste
  8. Amish Paste
  9. Amish Paste

3rd row

  1. Brandywine
  2. Cherokee Purple
  3. Black Cherry

So my soil in my yard is pretty shitty, when they built these suburbs it was pretty much like strip mining and then they bring a bunch of low quality clay fill dirt in, after 50 years there’s a little bit of top soil and stuff does ok in it. I just couldn’t put my tomato starts in that shit though.

I dug up 5 gallon sized holes for each plant, added a couple shovels of almost composted leaf, grass and banana peel compost, a small scoop of coffee grounds, a teaspoon each of bone and blood meal and also added some peat and a little perlite mixed in with all that and the regular soil and it seems like a great loose mix.

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#2

Sounds like a recipe for excellent tomatoes.

#3

and about a cup of wood ash in each hole.

#4

I have some early girl plants, stupice and sweet 100 and a black prince.

the first crop of the stupice should be ripe in about two weeks

#5

Mine are just starts about a foot tall most of them and a little lanky, started from seed. I’ve got those, some Black Cherry tomatoes, Amish paste, Super Sweet 100 and another type or two that I’m forgetting. The traditional planting date for tomatoes around here is May 15th, I’m running 2-3 weeks later than I did last year.

#6

Man it’s a sauna out there today, planting these tomatoes kicked my ass yesterday and probably will today too… 6 down, 11 more to do still in this back patch.

I have a few huge stacks of 3 gallon black nursery containers out in the garage (no drainage holes) that I get for free, I’m cutting the bottoms off and putting them around the plants hoping that will keep the rabbits off of them. So far so good. These containers come in handy for all sorts of things for gardening and around the house…

How to get them is if you know someone that works at a grocery store, they deliver the cut flowers in them and then usually toss the buckets.

#7

I’ve lost so much weight already doing this stuff that my pants are literally falling off of me… I can slide them off without unbuttoning them, by the end of last winter I could barely fit into them I was getting so fat.

#8

LOL, been there, I lost a shit-ton of weight last year (I was about 50 lbs overweight, and dropped 40). If you don’t want to buy a whole new wardrobe yet (or think maybe you’ll beef up next winter also), just get a smaller belt.

#9

My belt still works and I found it and started wearing it again. I wasn’t that overweight, whenever I get to where my clothes aren’t fitting I know it’s time to do something different. There’s no way I’ll go out and buy new fat clothes for myself, that’s against my policy.

#10

So anyways man, if you don’t mind my asking, how did you shed all the weight? Congrats btw.

#11

Thanks. My dr told me I had high BP, so I went to the gym I was at and told a trainer I need to lose this weight. He had me journaling everything I ate (I used myfitnesspal.com) and put me on high protein, low calorie and worked my glutes like nobody’s business. The glutes are your biggest muscle, and therefore the hungriest. I was afraid I would build massive quads but he said in a calorie deficit I wouldn’t, and in fact I didn’t. I still have 10 or 15 too much around the middle, but I am more energetic and look and feel a lot better.

ON this site (or app) you enter you weight and your goals, and it tells you what calorie intake you need, typically with a 60% carb, 20% fat and protein dietl. It put me at about 1950 calories, and my trainer said let’s do 1800, with a 40/30/30 where the 40% is protein. Also when you exercise the app gives you credit and lets you eat more that day, the trainer said don’t do that, stick to 1800. I drank a lot of protein shakes and didn’t feel like I was suffering. If I felt like I was suffering I wouldn’t have kept with it.

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#12

I still have probably 15 too much around the middle but it’s going away fast. If you have a yard you should try the backyard farming… it can be a good workout and then you start eating all the veggies etc. you grow and it becomes super healthy. Really the whole garden thing is my spring-summer weight loss program to knock off the pounds I put on during the winter. Otherwise I’d just be on the computer full time like I am all winter becoming a fat blob and fucking dying sitting here…

#13

Current research shows that for those sitting most of the day, that light movement for two minutes of every hour for 16 hours of the day counteracts a sedentary lifestyle.

Interestingly, working out for 30+ minutes a day, all at once, doesn’t make up for it.

At work, we’re getting sit and stand up equipment for our keyboard and monitors…that way we don’t sit the entire day.

#14

I get up at least once an hour and walk around my office space, for my head, but I guess my body gets the benefit as well.

#15

I don’t do the 30 minutes a day deal, I’ve been going 75% of the day most days. Here’s my tomato patch coming along… After I get it planted, I’ll mow it and then lay down cardboard and mulch to kill the grass back there. Patch of Arugula in front of them.

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Here’s the two pepper plants I overwintered and separated into their own containers and my huge oregano plant behind them. They were looking pretty sad over the winter but seem to be coming out of it.

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#16

That looks gorgeous. I was going to plant some this year but my arm is still too fucked up. It’s a bummer. I can’t use a shovel or lean on my arm at all. The hub used to love to do tomatoes and strawberries, but lately he hasn’t bothered.

I also want to get a lemon tree.

#17

I’ve seen some people online growing some awesome lemon trees in containers, here though I’d definitely need a very sunny place inside for one during the winter which I don’t have.

Some Oak Leaf and baby Romaine lettuce…

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#18

I remember the first time I saw a real Lemon Tree at my grandpas(step grandpa) place in the bay area, I think he was near Richmond but I’m not sure, he had this neat little house with a little back yard and he had two little lemon trees, I had a lemon right off of the tree, man it was awesome, lot sweeter than most of yer store bought lemons.

#19

I’d love to have one but don’t have anywhere to put one all winter and give it even decent conditions…

#20

It would be nice to have one, you can squeeze a little lemon into almost anything your cooking or making and give it a little zest and sweetness.