Tricks to Try Again

In previous posts I talked about a method planting potatoes in straw, planting carrots on toilet paper, and adding epsom salt when planting tomatoes. All planting tricks that I will be trying this coming year. Here's why:



Potatoes in Straw




First of all it worked I got a decent potato crop from the small section. The best part about it was harvesting. All I had to do, to harvest the potatoes was sift through the straw and pull them out. The potatoes were also in a nice uniform size. This year I plan to plant a whole row to see the difference between other rows.




Carrots on Toilet Paper

I will never plant carrots differently. I had doubts that white glue would work it did but this year I will be using a flour paste. The only other change I will make is gluing the carrot seeds closer since they had far more space than they needed.

Tomatoes and Epsom Salt

Best tomatoes I have ever planted. I had very little disease is any unlike years past. The fruit was very high quality as well nice and firm. Definitely an improvement on bottom end rot.

Planting Tomatoes

So I have planted tomatoes every year I have a garden and almost every year I have had black end rot. Basically the tomatoes get all black on the end and are rotten. It is very frustrating. So last year I was listening to the Gardenerd podcast and they mentioned that Black End Rot is due to a calcium deficiency in the plants or the plants are unable to take up calcium from soil. However this is supposedly easily fixed by adding Epsom salt which is mostly Magnesium Sulfate, and according to the podcast and some other things I read or heard this helps to prevent Black End Rot and makes for healthier plants all around. We shall see...

Anyway on to planting tomatoes. I started these plants indoors around St. Patrick's Day and was a little worried they would outgrow their cups so I planted them earlier than planned but they should be fine., but I digress. I normally try to keep my plants a good 2-3 feet apart if I can it makes it easier to navigate between them. I normally dig a hole with a standard trowel. This year I dropped a handful of epsom salt in the hole. Then I put the plant into the hole covering it with dirt.

Once the plant is in the ground I take a black 3-5" flower pot with the bottom cut out and I put it around the plant and in the dirt. This is mainly to give the plant support and to keep the plant warm since the black attracts heat. After putting the pot around the plant I cut a circular trench about 12-16" in diameter around the plant to keep the water near the plant. Once all that has been done water the plant thoroughly and move onto the next. After the plants have been in the ground a bit I set up my cages more on that later.