Tuesday 19 March 2013

How To Sow & Grow Tomatoes

How To Sow & Grow Tomatoes:

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Tomato. Classification.


Tomato Outdoor Girl | Out of my shed:
Classification #1: Heirloom or Hybrid

Classification #2: Determinate or indeterminate
Determinate varieties of tomatoes, also called "bush" tomatoes. (cordon or bush)
Indeterminate varieties of tomatoes are also called "vining" tomatoes.
Classification #3: Shape
Globe tomatoes: the most heavily commercially-cultivated fruit
Beefsteak tomatoes: the biggest fruit
Paste tomatoes: thick-walled fruit, used to make sauces
Cherry tomatoes: smallest fruit
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Here's a quick reference:

• If you need disease-resistance, use hybrids, since most disease-resistant varieties have been developed since 1945 as hybrids.
• If you want to use seedlings from your local supermarket or nursery, you'll probably have hybrids.
• If you want standard round, red tomatoes or cherry-tomatoes, hybrids are fine.
BUT,
• If you want to be able to plant seeds from the tomatoes you grow and get a plant just like the one you started with, use heirlooms.
• If you want tomatoes like the ones Grandma grew, use heirlooms.
• If you want weird, wonderful, really different tomatoes -- purple or pink tomatoes for instance -- you'll only find this kind of variety amongst the heirlooms.
• If you want the very best in flavor, many gardeners swear by heirlooms.
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Types of Tomatoes:

Select one or two things that can function as a "bottom line," and base your choice of varieties on these.

- Do you need all your tomatoes to ripen in mid-August, when you have a week off work to can them? (Then you need a determinate variety and, if you live in a climate with a short summer, you'll need an early starter which was planted sometime in February or March.)

- Do you have only a couple of barrels or baskets to grow them? Then the key is a variety that can grow in a confined space.

- Does your patio only get sun in the afternoon? You'll need a variety that will tolerate shade.

- Do you have a long but cool growing season? Try one of the varieties listed on this site under Cooler Climates.

Take these key points to a sympathetic, knowledgeable nurseryman, and leave with the plants he hands you.
- On determinate plants, let suckers grow. On indeterminates, decide how many "main" stems you want, and pinch off all suckers after you've got that number on each plant. For larger (but fewer) fruit, limit the number of stems.
- Prevent blossom end rot by keeping the soil evenly moist and by adding a tablespoon of Epsom salts to the hole at planting time. Calcium will also help prevent this problem.
- Plant tomatoes on their side (horizontally in a trench) .

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Теплица.

Look for Seeds. Where to buy.

Other Places to Look for Seeds | Bifurcated Carrots: "Look for Seeds"
Bloggers Seed Network | Bifurcated Carrots: "The Seed Network"
- Thomas Etty Heritage Seeds
"A carefully selected range of our recommended heritage vegetable seeds for use in the garden or allotment. These seeds will produce unusual, but tasty vegetables, from a time when veg was grown for flavour instead of shelf life.

Many of our seeds have been grown in the Lost Garden of Heligan for years. Great if you want to grow something a bit unusual and give to friends or sell via Crop for the Shop" Here!

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Сеем. Новый сезон 2013.


1. ТОМАТЫ
Бычье сердце, созревает через 125-132 дня после появления всходов.
Black cherry - Days to Maturity 64-70. Growing Habit Indeterminate. Early. Containers? Yes, but will need a large one, like a half wine barrel.
Beautiful black cherries look like large, dusky purple-brown grapes; they have that rich flavor that makes black tomatoes famous. Large vines yield very well; very unique and delicious. Best Tomatoes for Wet, Cool Regions.
OP (open-pollinated), indeterminate, 65 days, black/purple, cherry (1 inch)
Classic black tomato taste.
Black Russian -  Mid-season Indeterminate. Glasshouse. Medium slicer with dark-maroon to (almost) black flesh with distinctive green shoulders. Very tender.
Outdoor Girl’- the bush variety. Outdoor Girl - Cordon varieties, one of the first tomatoes to ripen and one of the best outdoor ones. Early ripening and popular hybrid Beefsteak Tomato.
Red Alert - Bush varieties. The Amateur 40cm high, bears a heavy crop of medium sized tomatoes.
Red Alert is one of the more difficult cherry varieties to grow. A superb flavoured, outdoor bush tomato which is very early to mature and heavy yielding. The size of the fruit depends partly on the amount of root space.
San Marzano - plum tomatoes, Native to Peru, this heirloom tomato. San Marzano tomatoes are recognised around the world as one of the best sauce and paste tomatoes. Tomatoes will be available for harvest in 78 to 85 days
Alicante - A super-reliable tomato in a greenhouse and outdoors. It's a tall cordon so needs training to a cane and has medium-sized fruit. Best sliced, salted and scattered on a salad. In a good year it'll fruit into September.
Ailsa Craig - 75 days, excellent flavour, This is an indeterminate variety and best grown as a cordon (vine).
For best yields stop at 5th truss if growing under protection (3rd outside).
Whilst the best crops will be grown under protection, this variety can also be grown outside.

Now and April is the time to sow the seeds, so that the young plants can be hardened off during May and planted out in late May or early June when the danger of frost is passed. Under average conditions the first tomatoes will be ready for picking in mid August.
With a cordon variety you will need to tie the stem loosely to a stake. As side shoots appear they should be pinched out and after 4-5 trusses of fruit pinch the tops out. Bush varieties are just left alone. With all varieties water regularly in dry weather which will be more often in a gro-bag. Also after a few weeks the nutrients in the gro-bag get used up so you need to feed regularly with a liquid fertiliser that has a high potassium content such as Tomorite.
Indeterminate or Upright or Cordon - these require staking and pinching out (pruning).
Determinate or Bush - require little or no staking and pruning is minimal
Beefsteak Tomatoes - the largest tomatoes of all, great if you need to slice them.
Cherry Tomatoes - the smallest tomatoes. Great for salads or just eating on their own because of their sweetness.
Plum Tomatoes - high in juice, low in pulp, they cook exceptionally well
Hybrid F1 - seeds whose known immediate parents have been selected for specific qualities.
Determinate varieties of tomatoes, also called "bush" tomatoes.
Indeterminate varieties of tomatoes are also called "vining" tomatoes.
Another consideration is whether the variety is open-pollinated or a hybrid. (Heirloom- Heritage tomato/ Hybrid.)
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- душистый горошек different variety.
- земляника - sowing alpine strawberry seed- a variety called 'Regna' - My alpine strawberries will be used as edging on my lettuce beds - They should be planted 12 inches (30 cms) apart - germination 10-30 days - crop 18-24 weeks.
Adding bucket-loads of well-rotted compost to the soil every year will please them no end, scatter seaweed solution or bone meal around them a couple of times a year.
'Alexandria' is the clear winner. It has the strongest, sweetest flavour and a good long cropping season from May right into the autumn. Its fruit are nearly twice the size of the others and juicier.
- chillis
- Cucumber Cristal Lemon - Said to have originated in China. Noted in 1894. Pale creamy white fruits 3ins. long, with a circumference of 2ins. Messrs Hobbies of Dereham, brought Lemon Cucumbers, the fruit being small & roundish-oval, with a pale lemon-coloured skin, but exactly similar in flavour to the ordinary Cucumber.
Watch for germination in three to six days. Maintain light but constant moisture in the bed by watering to a depth of 2 inches every three or four days after sprouting.
Feed the lemon cucumber plants once a month with organic 20-20-20 ratio fertilizer. Follow the label directions when applying the fertilizer to ensure good results.
Harvest the fruit once they turn a pale to medium-yellow shade and no longer have a greenish tinge near the stem. Scrub off the small prickles and eat them raw.
Leave a few lemon cucumbers on the vine to mature until they are dark-yellow in color, then harvest the seeds for planting next year.
- celeriac Giant Prague
There are 3 different kinds of celery plants;
normal (sometimes called blanched or bleached) celery,
leaf celery (sometimes called zwolsche krul) and
celeriac (sometimes called celery root).
The two main ‘tricks’ for growing celery root are choosing the right variety and not planting it in the garden too early.
Celeriac is a biennial. This means there are two seasons that make up the growing cycle of this plant. The first season it will grow and form the roots, and the second put it’s energy into reproduction, grow a flowers stalk and go to seed. The problem is celeriac gets easily confused, and if you transplant plants out too early into cold ground, it can think it has passed through it’s first growing season and into it’s second.
Best started indoors about 7-12 weeks before setting them out into the garden. (7 week start -28 march)
I usually set them out between 15 May and 1 June, but this will vary according to your climate.
Celeriac is not very frost hardy, but it may overwinter in mild climates.

Огород в городе. Выгонка зелени из корнеплодов.

Огород в городе - Зелень на подоконнике, спустя 3 недели

"Если света мало, то тоже есть выход — выгонка зелени из корнеплодов.
Выгонять можно
-свеклу,
-сельдерей,
-корневую петрушку,
-цикорий,
-репчатый лук,
-чеснок и еще много чего.
Для выгонки свет почти не нужен, так как зелень растет не за счет фотосинтеза, а за счет запаса питательных веществ в корнеплодах и луковицах.
Помимо экономии на освещении, при выгонке экономится и земля, ведь ее тоже можно почти не использовать."