I’m getting a bit ahead of myself but I couldn’t help it. I planted some tomatoes this morning. I wasn’t going to start until January but I decided getting a cherry tomato (Chadwick’s Cherry) going to have for early tomatoes would be good. I also started a couple of the Giant Italian Tree Tomato seeds just because I want to see how well they do. The cherry tomato seeds are from Bountiful Gardens and the Giant Italian Tree Tomato seeds I bought from e-bay. The seller sent some Italian Heirloom and Roma seeds as well and a page of great tomato growing tips. This is the first time putting any of them in soil so I am anxious to see how well they germinate. I have been keeping the seeds in the fridge as called for in the sellers instructions. I was feeling experimental so I planted 2 tomato seeds and one sugar snap pea seed in each pot. Once those have all come up and get moved to a bigger pot I want to plant marigolds and basil as additional companion plants for the tomatoes. I plan on keeping the cherry tomato in a container but will likely put the tree tomato in the ground at some point before it takes over the world.
The “tree tomatoes” are basically indeterminate tomatoes. This means that there is no predetermined size for the plant. It will keep growing and growing as long as it is allowed to and can be trellised to look like a tree if you like. They can also be allowed to vine along the ground if you prefer. If you don’t have much space for gardening look for a determinate variety of tomato which will stop growing at some point, usually 3-5 feet tall/wide. Indeterminate varieties can vine for 20 feet or more so if not on a trellis they take up a ton of space. They will keep producing as long as the weather permits though so if you have a long growing season or a green house they are worth an effort.
I peeled some grapefruit seeds that I have been drying for a while and started them in some soil this morning. Peeling them is supposed to help speed germination since the outer coating is waterproof and would have to break down before it would allow water into the seed to start the process. From what I have read it can take months for this process to happen. With peeled seeds I should see germination within a couple weeks. This is a first try so wish me luck 🙂
The garlic from the great garlic experiment is starting to poke through the surface in both pots. I have them sitting outside and both pots seem to be doing about the same so far. I am really curious to see how things progress. I also took one bulb and planted its sections into a hugelkulture mound by what will be the driveway of the correct property. Those ones were all peeking out a week ago. I think the mound is keeping them warmer than the ones in pots.
I saved a sweet potato on Thanksgiving and have it in water to (hopefully) make sweet potato slips. I forgot to start it in water right away so it sat on the windowsill in the kitchen for a week or two before I actually put it in a cup of water. I’m not seeing any little sprouts or roots yet but time will tell. I want to get a couple more to try starting as well. Sweet potatoes can make many new plants from one sweet potato but just buying one at the store and putting it in water doesn’t always work for some reason. I’m not sure why but this seems to be true of organic ones as well as non-organic. The one I have now is not organic but I want to pick a couple up from Earth Fare to try starting as well. To be honest I don’t worry about organic nearly as much as I worry about non-GMO and as far as I know they haven’t gotten to the sweet potatoes yet…
Revival 