Lyons' Garden

I'm not an "organic" gardener...I'm a "realistic" gardener

2009-07-02T11:23:00.005-04:00

Here are some products I am trying out, along with their prices from my local Walmart.
Superthrive and Miracle-Gro tomato & plant food.

My "Updates" post explains a little about the Superthrive, and what I'm doing with it.
My "Tomato Plants" post, at the bottom, explains a little about my thoughts on fertilizers including Miracle-Gro, but I decided to give it a try, along with the other plant food (w/ lower nitrogen) I am still using.

I have a veggie plant bug spray that I use to control aphids and beetles too, from Schultz, called "Garden Safe" Fruit & Vegetable Insect Spray. It has rave reviews from users. I think it works great, and it claims it's safe to use up to the day of harvest for most veggies. I think for peppers though it says to wait a couple days before harvest--not sure--maybe that was another I was looking at. Anyway, I'm not "organic" like some people...I consider myself a "realistic" gardener. We breathe chemicals everyday, they're in everything around us, our air, our water our other food; I'm not going to pretend they're not. I just want my veggies to be eaten by me, not bugs.

Updates

2009-06-26T09:22:00.009-04:00

Some new updated pics of the veggies

Here's an example of a big mistake regarding my tomato plant bug-killing experiment. Word of advice: Do not use a home defense bug spray (meant for floors and counters) to kill bugs on your plants. For some reason, it took me about 10 minutes after the fact to realize I should not have done that. Luckily I only tried it on one tomato plant. I rinsed it off, or so I thought, with water about 10-15 minutes after I'd done it, but it was too late.

Kind of has the same effect as Round Up. (Good to know; now I'll do the math and see if it's cheaper than Round Up!)

Ortho Home Defense Indoor bug killer--not for plants!Compare the above picture after being hit w/ the wrong bug killer to a picture of the same plant taken a week earlier:

Moving on...

Here are my new homemade cucumber trellises. I built 3 on June 25 and installed them and transplanted the cukes to the right spot for them.

I'll post some directions as to how to construct these guys if anyone's interested. Quite simple, quite cheap.

Here's an "under construction" picture of the trellis project. Notice only one cucumber has been transplanted so far, the other one's in the lower right of the pic, and the third is behind the trellis.

Also, my zucchini (bottom center) got transplanted afterward to make for better organization.

Let me just say this, cucumbers do NOT like to be transplanted. Give them all the TLC you want, but they are big babies...notice the wilting.

They still haven't recovered 100%, and this was about a week ago. I'm sure they will eventually settle and be fine, but lesson learned anyhow.

Back to the tomatoes...

Here's a picture of an on-going experiment using Superthrive (an overly-hyped vitamin booster plant additive).

These are both Rutgers Tomato plants. As you can see, they're both similar in size, perhaps the one on the right is a pinch smaller. Both plants been given a little tomato/veggie food granules. The one on the left has been given the recommended dose (1/4 tsp/Gallon water) of Superthrive...the one on the right- no Superthrive.

This was taken June 26th. More "later on" pictures of the two will be posted. I will always treat the left one w/ Superthrive, the right one w/o. From my research I've read that Superthrive doesn't really produce astounding plants if they're already healthy, but it does help weak plants to "bounce back". We'll see.......

Here's a side by side comparison of one of my grape tomato plants. The first pic is from an earlier post, a couple weeks after I first planted them. The second is the same plant 8 days later. It's amazing to how much the tomatoes are growing. I definitely have the right soil for them...but not so much for corn as you can see later.

Notice how on the left the plant hasn't made it to the second ring--on the right it's nearly to the third. This is 8 days later!

Sugar snap pea plants. They're growing fine, but having a hard time getting their tendrils around the chain link fence (dog kennel) that surrounds my garden. I planted them right along the inner edge of the "wall" to give them plenty of climbing freedom, yet they want to angle back from it because I planted them on the northern border and they'd rather reach southward toward the sun. All in due time I guess.

Here's a couple overview pictures.

My corn is not fairing well. (lower right)

I've tried fertilizer, food, Superthrive. I guess the soil isn't what it should be, or maybe there's not quite enough direct sun. I had it even worse last year, maybe next year I'll try a different spot for my corn.

From this picture it seems like the corn gets no sun, and while it doens't get as much as the tomatoes, it does get 1/2 to 3/4 sun.

Dry conditions through most of mid-June have led to some relatively weed-free conditions. I do use a little RoundUp here & there to control those little crabgrass-looking weeds that sprout by the thousands.

Tomato plants

2009-06-18T23:27:00.004-04:00

Grape Tomato
-this is one of my 3 grape tomato plants (w/ some petunias in the background for a little color).

The plant was purchased as a plant, and has been planted almost 2 weeks in this photo. It has been fertilized with vegetable fertilizer. It's grown maybe 1/3 or so in just under 2 weeks time. (see fertilizer side-note below)

Big Beef Tomato
Purchased the same day and planted the same day as the rest of my tomatoes, here is one of the 3 big beefs. I have high hopes for these guys.

Here is a zoomed out view of most of my tomatoes. As you can see, I didn't exactly use a tape measure when transplanting them, but the rows are close to 3' apart, and the plants 1.5' - 2' apart.

I have 14 total tomato plants: 3 grape, 3 Big Beef, 4 Rutgers, and for the life of me I can't remember the other 4. I'll update that missing info and get some more individual plant pictures.

Fertilizer Side-note:
-I do not use regular Miracle Grow or similar, I use a specially designed tomato/vegetable fertilizer/food, available wherever you buy Miracle Grow. You do not want high nitrogen content for vegetables, unless you're eating the greens, such as lettuce or herbs like peppermint. High nitrogen content (the first of the 3-number string listed on all fertilizers and plant food) helps with blooming and leafing. Usually this is very desirable and necessary, but in the case of vegetables heavy leafing takes a bit away from the fruit. Use a "vegetable/tomato" fertilizer or food for your vegetables (which Miracle Grow does make-although it is still rather high in nitrogen if you ask me), and leave regular all-purpose Miracle Grow or similar for flowers or leaf veggies.

The second and third numbers in the fertilizer string (called N-P-K ratio) are for Phosphorus and Potash (or Potassium, K) respectfully. So they go: Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potash/Potassium.

As stated, Nitrogen, the first number, will help with blooming and leafing. Phosphorus (2nd number) helps to develop strong roots, and even flowers. 3rd, Potash/Potassium (K), is reported by www.cleanairgardening.com to assist in overall plant health.

So, I highly recommend using a fertilizer/food with a lower first number (somewhere in the 3-5 zone) and higher second and third numbers (5-10). After all, the size of your plants will only be impressive in July & early August. Then come harvest time, the lack of fruit will surely disappoint.

Seedlings in your garden

2009-06-18T22:40:00.001-04:00

Here are a few pictures of emerging seedlings, for recognition purposes. Granted, this is not a vast array of different seedlings, but it shows you some of the ones we happen to have in our garden this year.

To the left are some Morning Glory seedlings. There are a mix of crimson & blue--not sure which is which in the picture. The larger ones are obviously a bit older, they all looked like the smaller ones when first emerging.

This is a corn seedling. My camera seems to have focused more on the dirt behind the seedling, but you get a good idea of what corn looks like, in case you don't already know. This plant is about 1" tall.
June 18th 2009, seeds planted 12 days prior on June 6.