Getting through the gray time

Onions and leeks.

As I've said in a previous blog post, there are some good things about winter. But even the optimist in me gets down when the first day of spring brings 30-degree weather, and I hear that northern Wisconsin is getting up to a foot of snow.

That's when I go into my basement.

Peel back the cardboard reflectors.

And gaze upon the greenery.

I like to start seeds. It gives me something to do deep in the winter when the satisfaction of having planted tulips in the fall wanes. 

But mostly, it's to get something green green in my winter life. To add something living. And what offers the hope of spring more than putting a seed in dirt and within a week, something green pushes out of the soil?

My grow table with lights, seed mats, home made reflectors and leftover foam insulation.

In a corner of the basement, I built a table on which I have some 1" foam left over from another project. I put some heavy duty aluminum foil on a large piece of cardboard to keep every photon of light in where the seedlings can use them. Overhead, I have four 2-bulb shop lights with normal fluorescent tubes. I did splurge and three of the eight bulbs are special "grow" lights.

Seeds like tomatoes and peppers like it warm. I use seedling mats under the trays. I think the foam helps maintain the warmth, and enclosing it in the foil/cardboard reflectors can't hurt maintain a microclimate in my otherwise cool basement.

The photo at right is my pepper and tomato collection. Now that they have sprouted, I took the clear plastic dome off so they can get some air. Yes, in the lower right that's some moss growing. This generally isn't a problem.

Trellising tomatoes (string trellis) Part 4

If you just discovered this blog, this is Part 4 in a series on growing tomatoes in the home garden. Check out the earlier parts:

• Part 1 (intro
• Part 2 (pruning)



This year's trellis with netting
along the edge of my garden. Next year
I'll position it down the center with plants
on either side.

• Part 3, (trellising, why bother?)

Well, this series got a bit side-lined by an out-of-town vacation and garden work. I should write something like this in the winter when we're all looking for some reading about summer.

Anyway, pictured at right is a trellis I built from an idea from my friend Diane. I built one of these last year to support beans, but they didn't grow a hill of...

I used this 10-foot long trellis to support a climbing variety of tomatoes that I don't recommend. (Olds Trip-L Climber. It splits at the shoulders and this year for me, it didn't yeild much). The trellis, however, did the job and I have an idea of what to do next year.

In a previous blog post, I lay out how to build this type of trellis, down to the parts and cost for each one at Home Depot. 

In my small garden, positioning the trellis is important, and here are the changes I'm making next year.

You can order these from Territorial Seed Company.

I have 4-foot wide beds. I'm going to position the 10-foot long by 5-foot tall trellis down the middle of one bed. Then, I'll alternately plant indeterminate tomatoes a foot from either long-edge of the bed. Instead of the netting, I'm going to tie a cord to the top of the trellis and drape the cord down either side of the trellis.

As the plants grow, I'll prune viciously and use tomato clips to direct the remaining vines up the cord.

Just in case you're wondering, I do not get anything for mentioning products or stores. I just tell you what I like.

1. Intro to varieties and classifications
2. Pruning
3. Trellising I - why bother?
4. Trellising II - string trellis
5. Trellising III - those crappy tomato cages
6. Pests and diseases
7. Watering

Trellising tomatoes (why bother?) Part 3

If you just discovered this blog, this is Part 3 in a series on growing tomatoes in the home garden. Check out Part 1 (intro) and Part 2 (pruning).

There are several reasons to trellis tomatoes. Determinate tomatoes, also known as "bush type" tomatoes, have a generally upright postion while growing and bearing young fruit, stop getting bigger but tend to flop over as fruit matures and gets bigger. 


Indeterminate tomatoes, on the other hand, never stop growing. Check out good old Wikipedia for more info on tomato classification.

One of the main reasons to trellis either type of tomato is to get the plant, leaves and fruit off the ground. In my five years of growing tomatoes on my own (that is, not with mom's guidance on the farm) I find this protects them from:

• soil splashing on leaves, which can infect the plant with early blight.
• keeps plants tidy, out of paths or from crowding other plants.
• keeps fruit up off the ground away from the soil (potential rot issues) and animals (though chipmunks climb into my plants to steal fruit anyway).

Trellising also helps increase airflow and sun exposure, both of which help decrease the likelihood that a fungus will attack the plant. 

Indeterminate tomatoes, such as these in my community garden
plot, need to be trellised to keep them in line.

Finally, good trellising will keep plants from touching one another so you don't get those back seat arguments that start with "Mommmmmm, he's touching me." Seriously, keeping plants from touching can reduce disease transmission from plant to plant.

Here's a great resources from our own UW-Extension on growing tomatoes in Wisconsin. 

If you're convinced that trellising is a good idea, stay tuned for the next two parts of this series:

• My version of a string trellis and how to build one
• Those crappy tomato cages

If you'd like to learn more about growing veggies in person, check out Madison FarmWorks and their Urban Gardener series of classes. It's one thing to read a blog post, it's another to get into the field, see their best practices in action and most importantly, ask questions.

If you liked this, please subscribe to the blog so you don't miss any of the rest of this tomato series!

Pruning tomatoes (Part 2 in a series)

If you just discovered this blog, this is Part 2 in a series on growing tomatoes in the home garden. Check out Part 1 here.

Pruning tomatoes is key to healthy plants, which in turn increases production, decreases susceptibility to disease and makes  fruit easier to harvest.

Pruning is particularly important for indeterminate tomatoes. (learn more about indeterminate tomatoes).

Pruning for better production

Pruning helps direct energy from growing lots of leaves into fruit production, and helps with producing more, larger and earlier fruit. Sure, every plant needs leaves for photosynthesis, but not that many leaves. Tomatoes can get particularly leafy when presented with lots of nitrogen as well, so careful with the fertilizer.

Pruning for disease management

There are a number of soil- and air-borne diseases that you can minimize with proper pruning. Early blight is a soil-borne fungus that, when splashed up on leaves, will infect the plant. The good news is blight won't usually kill a plant, but will begin to defoliate the plant from the ground up and will compromise the plant's ability to produce lots of fruit.

As my plants mature and get taller, I start pruning them from the bottom up until I have no leaf branches up to about a foot up from the ground. I also trim back branches that sag down towards the ground, so that there is little to no chance of soil splashing up on the leaves. (A good thick layer of mulch will fortify pruning efforts by minimizing soil splash up as well.)

Pruning will also help with other air-borne diseases that require a moist, still environment to take hold on your tomato. Plants with dense foliage crammed into a tomato cage are just asking to harbor diseases such as fungus that like dark places.

When to prune, and tools

Tomato pruning can begin once a plant is established and has several sets of branches with leaves. As plants get larger, you need to be careful about how much you remove (it's also much more psychicly more difficult to do). And, a heavy pruning after fruit has set risks sun scalding the fruit (which would have toughened up with earlier pruning).

You don't need a fancy pruning tool for tomatoes. In fact, the best tool is already right in your hands. I snap branches and suckers off with my fingers. When I need to remove a particularly large branch, I use a simple scissors. 

What to prune

The big picture here is that you want two main stems to have leaves and fruit. The plant in the image above shows a plant that has been pruned to allow the main stem and one sucker to grow, leaf and bear fruit.

You can read more details about how to prune tomatoes on the Home-grown tomatoes for Wisconsin document. See page 3.

If you'd like to learn more about growing veggies in person, check out the classes offered by Madison FarmWorks and their  Urban Gardener series of classes. It's one thing to read a blog post, it's another to get into the field, see their best practices in action and most importantly, ask questions.

If you liked this, please subscribe to the blog so you don't miss any of the rest of this tomato series!