23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

You ever buy flats where they only have a 2 inch spacing, with a pinch of soil for a foot tall tomato? It's almost insane how commercial growers can pack them in!

They aren't grown in those containers - the six packs. The plants are just transplanted into those for transport and sales. And they aren't a foot tall either. Depending on supplier any taller than 10" go into 6" pots or larger for individual pot sale.

To mass produce seedlings in a limited space and to avoid all the plant stress caused by starting a single seed in a large pot, most all commercially sold plants are transplanted at least once to stimulate feeder root development and most are transplanted 2x prior to sale.

Allie - Better Bush doesn't get all that big or grow that fast so IF you transplanted it deeply into the 4" pot they will probably be fine for another month although they will be rootbound so need careful monitoring for water. It sounds as if you started them a little too early.

However if you shallow planted it into the top of 4" pot then yes, some sort of additional top support will likely be needed.

Dave

Thanks everyone for your responses.
I did plant deeply I guess as I only filled the pots half way with soil. I just topped off the soil and will see how they do for the next month.
Here is a pic.

Please inform your son that each corn plant only produces two or three ears....at the best. The above suggestion is a great one.

Can be done:

Raybo

The best small patio tomato I have grown is the sweet and neat cherry tomato. Awsome tomatos, fairly prolific for a plant that size-but mostly the tomatos just tasted really good.
The plant will grow in a one gallon bucket and never gets more then 2 feet tall.

I have used the planter for different herbs as well as annuals, and both times it looked very pretty and was useful with the herbs. The one time I tried an actual tomato plant in it, it just limped along. Whatever you plant in the top, make sure it likes alot of water!

Any container has to have drain holes of some kind. Are these supposed to be self watering or what?

Dave

They have 8 dime size drilled holes in the bottom

Joe, various species of brassica look similar to lettuces, in your experience? For anyone gardening more than a season the difference is obvious.

Yan, the pot in full view has a mix of mostly some asian green in the mustard/brassica clan, maybe a tatsoi, the reddish ones with deeply indented leaves are as noted the so-called red russian kale - brassica napus, which in my opinion is the most useful cooking green for the sustainable gardener because of it's wide tolerance to conditions and most of all because it does not cross with other brassicas or mustards (including weeds that may be flowering) so it is super-easy to save seed. It's even easier because if one simply allows plants to over-winter then they eventually naturalize.

In cool wet climates such as the PNW lettuce will easily naturalize as well.

This is a duplicate post and the other post of this same question also has several replies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Duplicate post

Fire ants exist in connected colonies and you have apparently built your beds in an established territory. In addition to getting them out of there with a spinosad-based fire ant bait, you will need to push them back further and further, spatially speaking. When you see a new colony anywhere in your yard, hit it with boiling water. Persistence is key. Good luck!

Robyn, Amdro is a very effective fire ant bait and has been used for many years. However, it MUST not be used in your raised beds.....but you sure can apply it outside those areas. The ants will find it.

Mound treatments are very successful....as long as you apply it carefully and do not disturb the mound. The ants will find the granules and quickly take them to the nesting chambers where the active ingredient will be fed to larvae and queens.

If you use the Amdro, please read, understand, and follow the directions.

You can use the Spinosad containing baits in the garden....just make sure that you are using the bait (granulated bait) and not a liquid.!

Leaving plastic on the ground for long periods of time is a bad practice as it starves the ground of moisture and stops the decay process, reduces soil life greatly in the top layer where it is most important.

You should of stated that in this post.. Just to help
People understand.. I would hate to have one detered of this method because of misunderstandings.. Anyways, you are correct about leaving it on for long periods of time(what is considered long periods?) but I would specifiy that it is fine to smother and kill grass/weeds.. it's just not fine to leave it all year long.. It is one of the main methods for no till gardeners..

Thanks,
Joe

Since you are in MA, I suggest you visit a used book store for a copy of Crockett's Victory Garden. This was a companion to a wonderful garden show that used to be on tv, filmed in the Boston area. It gives you month by month instructions of what to do in the garden, when to plant, when to transplant.
I am unclear if you mean "in winter" to be the winter of 2013/2014. If you have time to start working on the beds this summer, you could have them ready for a late planting of spinach and lettuce. The year we moved and renovated, I spent some time building a couple of lasagna beds so in the spring all I did was top with composted manure. If you are able to be around to water daily during the summer, you could have a couple of tomato plants in large containers this summer.

Spinach seeds lose potency after the first year. Always get new seed.

Spinach works best for me if planted on still frozen soil and then dusted with another layer of light soil.
When I tried to start a second batch after the soil had defrosted the results were not as good.

Please read the Homeowners Guide to Pillbugs It will tell you what causes them and how to get rid of them.

Interesting article, thanks for posting.

Just learned pillbugs & sowbugs have gills and thus need moist environments with water to breathe.

Also they live for 4 years.

Concur. Se's should not be a problem but SH2's are more susceptible to soil borne critters. Here we have corn root worms Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi, wireworm (Conoderus vespertinus), Corn leaf aphids (Rhopalosiphum maidis), corn flea beetle (Chaetocnema pulicaria) This one vectors bacterial wilt. European corn borers (Ostrinia nubilalis These coul cause the problems you describe, but I don't which if any are in your area.

If you have trouble with gophers and moles, try castor beans. You can buy them off ebay fairly cheaply.

While the plant that grows from them is very decorative, and the beans are the source of castor oil, fewer people realize that the beans are also very poisonous. One bean is more than enough to kill a mole or gopher.

Get some beans, and drop one down every gopher/mole hole you can find. They'll eat the beans, and you won't have to worry about them eating your corn roots ever again. They'll also die underground, so there's virtually no risk of secondary poisoning of anything else.

And like I said, the large bush that it grows is very ornamental. They grow really big, but die in a freeze so they won't take over anywhere that freezes in the winter. Just be careful to cut the flowers off when you see them if there are kids or other animals/pets around that you want to keep. Poison beans and all that.