Why Do Tomatoes Split?

I have one tomato plant that is producing split tomatoes. The tomatoes taste fantastic, but they are not pretty. The other three tomato plants are producing beautiful tomatoes.

I googled "Why do tomatoes split?" and found a web site titled Gardening Know How. The site explained the problem exactly: "Sometimes, if you have a lot of rain after a spell of really dry weather, you will find splitting tomatoes on your tomato plants" (see http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/vegetable/tomato-cracking.htm).

We had a very long stretch of no rain and now it's been raining for the last two days. I think the Gardening Know How web site describes my problem exactly.

However, the other tomato plants are doing just fine. Hmm. Perhaps I've done a better job watering them?

Water at the Base of the Plant, even with the hose

Shannon, you can still use your hose and water at the base of the plant. That's what I do most of the time. I have watered from our rain barrels, but it take considerably more time than watering from the hose. It all depends on my motivation that day!

If you're doing square-foot gardening, water one square at a time. Drench the square and then move on to the next.

Water in the morning. If you forget, then water before dinner. If you water mid-day, you'll lose most of the water to evaporation during the afternoon heat.

You do not want to water regularly after dinner because you could end up with mold. I don't know how often this happens in Georgia, but it's a possibility.

A Lesson in Watering

The boys and I just came inside after watering the garden. It's HOT outside! It's only 10:00 in the morning, and it's already 95 degrees outside!

Last summer and this summer are unusually hot, so the locals tell me. The winters have also been colder than usual the last couple years. As Minnesotans transplanted to Georgia, we are often blamed for the cold winters, but we have yet to be blamed for the hot, hOT, HOT summers!

Anyway, back to the garden. Thermoman and I watered the garden and noticed how things were growing. Thermoman was very excited about all the foods that we get to make. "Maybe we can have a garden dinner some night!" I LOVE his enthusiasm for veggies.

We noticed how tall all the plants are getting. We found peppers, and we noticed that some of the tomatoes are turning red!

I watered the back garden and the peppers, and Thermoman watered the front garden. While I was watering the peppers, I asked Thermoman to notice where I was putting the water. He said, "at the bottom. How come?"

I answered with a question, "What part of the plant takes in the water?"

"The roots."

"That's right. When we water at the base of the plant, we get the water to the roots faster. Also, several plants don't like to get their leaves wet all the time, like tomatoes."

So, remember to water at the base of the plant and leave the leaves alone. You provide the daily (or every other day) water to the roots. Let God provide the occasional water to the leaves!

Crazy Potatoes; Lazy Cabbage... we planted something there, I swear!

O Lord, grant that in some way it may rain everyday, say from about midnight until three o'clock in the morning, but you see, it must be gentle and warm so that it can soak in, grant that at the same time it would not rain on campion, alyssum, helianthemum, lavender and the others, which in your infinite wisdom know are drought-loving plants--I will write their names on a bit of paper if you like--and grant that the sun may shine the whole day long, but not everywhere (not, for instance, on spirea, gentian, plantain lily, or rhododendron) and not too much: that there may be plenty of dew and little wind, enough worms, no plant lice or snails, no mildew, and that once a week thin liquid manure and guano may fall from heaven. Amen.

Our homeschool group has two community gardens. Both gardens have a gardening journal. The journal provides a place to record what the weather has been like, what the plants look like, what the gardener did that day, what they enjoyed and learned, and the journal includes a Bible verse or prayer to remind us that God provides good land and wonderful growth.

But I am quite certain that no one is actually reading the garden journals. How do I know? Because no one--NOT ONE PERSON--has commented on the prayer above!

I have to admit that I'm so thankful to Mrs. Shannon (that's pronounced MizShannon down here in The South) for submitting this prayer for the garden journal. The prayer reminds me of how I want things to be easy. I did plenty of hard work to get the boxes set up, to get the soil mixed, to plant the plants and seeds. Can't I stop there?

NO!

Gardening is work. I must water my plants, prune them when they need pruning, provide support when they want to grow up and up and up, and protect them from pests. By the sweat of our brows, we will eat our food (see Gen 3:19), but oh so good that food will be!

(There are many more lessons to learn from that prayer, and
we have all summer to ponder them...)

My poor plants. I have not been tending to them this past month. I have not been watering them regularly. I have not pruned them since that first time I blogged about pruning. I have not provided support for them (but Ms. Tina built them support this past week!). And I've provided just a little protection from pests, but the peppers feel neglected... Poor things. 

Do you think the plants will forgive me?

Well, some of them have! But some of them have not shown that they were planted at all! Some squares in my square foot garden are very green with lots of growth. Other squares are very dark with lots of soil.

growing. GroWinG... GROWING!

What will we eat from the garden? Well, let's first take a look at which square are very green with lots of growth!

Potatoes

The potatoes are growing like crazy! They have taken over the root vegetable garden. The onions that I planted between the squares of potatoes did not come up at all. The potatoes are hogging all the sunlight! I had no idea that potatoes grew UP so high!

All that tall growth is potatoes!

Lesson learned: Do not try to grow anything in between squares of potatoes because they will be fighting for sunlight.

Tomatoes

The tomatoes are also growing like crazy! The tomato plant in the middle has grown so tall that it has bent over with the weight. So, Ms. Tina built a trellis to support it and the other tomato plants, the cucumber plant, the pumpkin, the melons, the zucchini, the beans, and the cantaloupe.

This photo probably does not make the tomatoes look impressive. The one in the middle is the one that has grown so tall, but we bent it over to the trellis so that itwould grow up rather than on the ground.

I see plenty of dark soil here, so I'm thinking that I can buy some basil plants to put among the tomatoes. Mmm... What could I make with tomatoes and basil?

Corn

The corn is growing, too. I think it's over 2 feet tall.

Corn and Peas

Peas

The peas are growing among the corn. The other day, Ms. Tina and I wound the pea plants around the corn. The idea is to get the corn to act as a natural trellis for the peas. We'll have to see if it works!

Beans

The beans are growing well. They are just starting to get tall enough to need some support, so Ms. Tina and I gave them some string onto which to climb.

Cantaloupe, Pumpkin, Cucumber, and Zucchini

All growing well.

The cucumber was crowded by the tomato, so I moved the tomato over and up the trellis.
The cucumber should get more sunlight now.

Lettuces, Chard, and Kale

Growing well, but I could sow more seeds.

The chard does have little holes in the leaves, so something seems to be eating it.

Peppers

The peppers are over a foot tall, and there have been peppers on the pepper plants for over a month. However, the plant closest to the garage has struggled compared to the others.

The further the peppers are away from the garage, the taller they are. That means the plants on the right are getting more evening (west) sun than the plants on the left.



The struggling pepper plant


This plant has not grown as tall, it was losing its leaves when it was first planted, and now it seems to have something eating the leaves.

Broccoli

We have many broccoli plants! Even the one in Thermoman's pail is doing well--and there are no holes in the bottom to let it drain! I am amazed at how well it's doing.



Thermoman's broccoli


However, we also have many squares of black soil with no broccoli plants. So, some seeds sprouted and some did not.

Eggplant

Two out of the three eggplant are growing!

Black Soil--and No Plants!

What won't we be eating? Let's find out where there's plenty of black soil and no plants.

Carrots

I can't tell you how sad I am about having only two carrot plants. I LOVE carrots, especially organic carrots because they taste so much better.

When I lived in Minnesota, I taste tested conventional carrots, organic carrots, and Minnesota Grown carrots. The organic and Minnesota Grown carrots were so much better than the conventional carrots, but I could never decide between the other two.

I am very curious as to whether my home-grown carrots will taste as good as organic from the grocery store. But with only two available for my test--and probably small ones at that--I probably will not find out this year.

Other than the fact that some of the carrots are competing with the potatoes for sun, I don't know why they didn't sprout. I guess I have some research to do.

Onions

There are just a few onions growing. Considering that we planted 12 in each of three squares, that's not saying much. Some of the onions are competing with the potatoes but not all of them. Why they didn't sprout is as curious as why the carrots didn't sprout.

Red Cabbage

I am very sad that the cabbage did not sprout! We only want the cabbage for science experiments, but how fun it would have been to go get the red cabbage from our very own back yard rather than making a run to the grocery store.

What's Cooking?

Right now, we could make Fried Green Tomatoes. (We are in Georgia, afterall... Actually, we're in the town where the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" was filmed!) But I am looking forward to making our own spaghetti sauce or, better yet, our own salsa!

I look forward to taste-testing the corn to see if it's as good as Minnesota Grown (sorry, but the Florida corn that I've bought at the grocery store pales in comparison to Minnesota corn).

And I can't wait to go to my garden for lettuce and chard for my lunchtime salads!

Soaking Seeds for Faster Germination?

Mel says that I can give my seeds a jump-start by presoaking them. I mentioned this idea at the end of my post "Do Overs (or More on Watering)." The idea is that if seeds have water before they have to suck it out of the soil, then they will sprout faster.

I have to admit that I was a little chicken to try soaking the seeds.

Get it through your hard head--I mean hard shell...

I decided to get brave and give soaking a try, so I found some Web sites that told me more about soaking seeds than the one paragraph that Mel writes in his book and then tried it myself.

Here are the Web sites that I read: 

• Pre-Soaking Your Seeds by Elizabeth and Crow Miller
• How to Soak Seeds Prior to Planting by GardenGuides.com

The boys and I soaked some seeds and observed how they changed... They really didn't change as much as we expected.

We soaked three types of large seeds and took pictures each hour--they didn't change at all. Well, one of the seeds did turn brown. I would guess that it was rotting? I really don't know.

We soaked 9 types of small seeds, and they didn't change at all, either, but I really didn't expect them to. I'm not sure that I could tell that they changed because they were so small to even look at. (Okay, so I don't have the greatest eyesight, but I challenge you to observe changes in tiny oregano seeds!)

I guess I thought the large seeds would fall apart. Mel did say that some seeds can be soaked overnight and some fall apart after only an hour. Well, I guess the ones that I chose were the hardy ones.

After soaking the seeds for an afternoon and seeing nothing change, we decided to leave them soaking overnight. We still didn't see any changes.

So, with that homeschool assignment done, I moved on to soaking seeds and then planting them. I still had some 180 Plant Dip, so I soaked some seeds in the Plant Dip and some in water. I did this almost a month ago at the end of April--remember my posting about how stinky the Plant Dip gets when you leave it in the sun for several weeks!?! [See "180 Plant Dip (Another Do-Over!)."] I thought it might be interesting to see if soaking the seeds in the Plant Dip worked better, worse, or the same as soaking them in water.

In the following picture, you see how I labeled the jars so that I wouldn't forget which seeds were which. Obviously, these seeds were soaked in water, not the Plant Dip. The Plant Dip had a brownish color to it.

Below are pictures of the pots in which I planted the cilantro and oregano seeds:
  

 

Well, I don't know that I have an answer to my "scientific" questions. Sorry! My presoaking didn't produce any results. The seeds didn't produce at all. The pots look the same today as the pictures above.

And I'm quite certain that it's all my fault. I got lax in my watering routine. I think the seeds did not produce because I did not water them every day or even every other day.

Mel does point out in his book that when seeds don't produce, it's usually because the new gardener gave up when they didn't see immediate results and stopped watering. At this point in his book, he's teaching us that seeds sprout down and make roots before they sprout up to make a stem. Recall the picture of the morning glory seeds that my Spiderman planted:

Well, I didn't give up because of lack of results. I just got lazy--or busy with other things. Yeah, that's it! (No, not really. If something is important to you, you'll make the time. I didn't make the time to water my garden regularly. My attention turned to things other than my garden.)

And the weather has been warmer than usual (at least that's what the locals tell me). For the most part, this past month has felt like a Minnesota July. My mom is still visiting from Minnesota, and that's how she describes the weather. We've had upper 80s and low 90s for most of the month. From what I understand from those who have lived here in Georgia far longer than me, this is about 10 degrees warmer than usual.

(With a warmer-than-normal "spring," I can only imagine how awfully hot it is going to be in July, August, and September when the Georgia humidity rears its ugly head! Yikes!)

I guess I can only say that presoaking is probably a good idea--I mean, Mel says it's a good thing to do, and many other experienced gardeners pre-soak their seeds. I'll just have to try it again. Next time, I will only soak the large seeds because the small seeds are too difficult to pinch and plant.

If you have any success with or tips for soaking seeds before planting, please post a comment!

180 Plant Dip (Another Do-Over!)

Word to the wise: Never, EVER leave the 180 Plant Dip out in the sun. Ooh, that's ripe!

I had to tie a bandana over my nose and exhale while leaning over the pail. I decided that I didn't want any of the dip left after today, so all the plants (except the peppers) got watered with the plant dip. Now my back yard smells and the flies are busy hanging around the plants.

But I'm sure the smell will be gone by tomorrow... or Monday.

Next time I buy the 180 Plant Dip, I think I'll use it all up that same day!

Do Overs (or More on Watering)

Wetting the Soil

I'm wondering what I did wrong or at least what I could have done better.

One thing I keep thinking about is water. Did I get the soil wet enough before I planted?

When I first mixed the soil (that is, made Mel's Mix), I watered just enough to keep the peat moss and vermiculite from blowing away. I did not want to water too much because then the whole mix gets so heavy that it's hard to move into the boxes.

However, when I had the soil ingredients mixed and in the boxes, I should have completely drenched the soil. Mel says that I can't over-water because the soil drains so well. Remember the analogy of the sponge?

When you take a dry sponge and slowly add water to it, it just keeps soaking up water until it's finally saturated. At that point, any extra water just drains out the bottom. Well, it turns out that two of our ingredients--peat moss and vermiculite--do exactly the same thing. It takes a while to wet them and keep them moist so you have to keep adding water, but finally, when they become saturated, any excess water just drains right out the bottom.

I wonder if the peppers were mad because the soil was not wet enough?

I noticed that the leaves on the peppers were turning yellow, so I pruned them off the plants. No leaves have been lost in the last week, so I'm hoping that they are done being mad at me.

I do have a few squares of soil that do not yet have seeds in them. I'll be planting lettuces in them over the next several weeks (so that I have lettuce ready to harvest over weeks rather than all at once). When I water, I water these empty squares as well so that the soil is ready for the seeds when I am ready to plant.

Soaking Roots

Mel says to soak the roots of transplants before putting them into the soil. Seems that I should have read that before I taught my students how to plant! I had two students who planted plants rather than seeds. One of them planted cherry tomatoes and the other planted peppers.

I should have taught them to soak the root ball in water before putting the plant into the soil.

As for the community garden, I did soak the roots! I soaked the roots in the 180 Plant Dip, remember? (See the post titled "A Vitamin Boost for the Plants.")

The tomatoes seem very happy, so I'm glad I soaked their roots in the 180 Plant Dip.

The peppers had been losing leaves. I'm not sure if they were upset with the plant dip, with being planted earlier than Mel says they should be, or with not having wet enough soil. I guess I'll just have to re-read this blog entry before planting next spring and then watch to see if I have different results.

Soaking Seeds

Mel says to soak the seeds before planting them. I didn't do that. :-(

I did not understand from Mel's book how long I should soak the seeds or exactly how to do it, so I chickened out and didn't soak them at all.

That means that I did not teach my students how to soak seeds, either. Ugh!

Many of the seeds were so small that I could hardly pinch just a couple to get them into the soil, so I can only imagine that I would have lost the seeds in the water if I had soaked them first.

But perhaps I could have put them on paper towel and then got the towel wet?

Mel says that soaking the seeds will result in faster sprouting. He also says to be careful because some seeds will fall apart. Perhaps the boys and I could experiment with the extra seeds... I'll let you know what we learn from our experiments.