couple of gardening questions

[jmb]

The rabbits chewed off the tops of my green beans, leaving only stems. They won't grow back, will they?

I planted two different types of tomatoes at the same time. One type bloomed and has tomatoes growing. The other had blooms when the other did and now has blooms on it but no tomatoes have formed yet. Any ideas why not?

[Bluesman]

probably a slower developing variety and the tomatoes will develop later...

as far as the beans go... I would replant and get a rabbit stew recipe from Hawkeye...:-D

[jmb]

#1. I didn't actually see the rabbits eat them, but we have so many around, I can walk within 5 feet of them before they hop away.
#2. Yes, I did plant late because it didn't warm up until later than normal this year, and then we were gone on vacation so I wouldn't be here to take care of them. The Mr. Stripeys are growing good. They started setting blooms at the same time as the Better Boys but the Better Boys haven't produced any maters yet, just blooms. The two varieties are side by side, get the same amount of sunlight.

Gardening in Yankee land isn't normally so rough, but this has been a weird year temperature-wise. It didn't even hit 80° today.

[jmb]

This (http://www.lilesnet.com/gardening/heritagetomatoes/defaul22_small.jpg) is a Mr. Stripey.

Plenty of honey bees. De-sucker? No. Not even sure what you mean by that. When I planted them, I used 20-20-20 half-strength, haven't used anything since then. Until recently, we haven't had a lot of rain, has been mostly sunny, but have had few 90+ degree days. Instead of mulch, I put down a layer of newspaper, but it's not damp.

[daisy]

I never heard of Mr. Stripeys, unless you're talkin' 'bout Noway's boxers.

The BB mater is a 90-100 day thang down here. Did you de=sucker the BB's? Do you have Honney Bees (Don't thing they are needed with hybrid BB's but deu don hurt. Have you had a lot of cloudy days and rain, like us? Maters must have lots of sunshine and hot wheather to ripen on time.

You can give them a kick in the ass by adding a water soluable fertilizer that is high in P2O5. Same thing some people use, called bloom booster.

Miracle Grow Tomato Food is 15-30-15 (high middle number is the Phosphate). You may have given them too much (N) Nitrogen when planting. Makes nice vines but not fruit. Go find you some 0-15-0 and dope them up but not too much. They may need micronutrients-find you a fertilizer called "Dynamite".

Main thing is, toward maturity time, they need little to no water and mo sun. If your soil is mulched and damp, remove the mulch. If I could see them, I could prolly fix them.

JMB, can yousend pictures so Hawk can see 'em.??

Good Luck!!!

[jmb]

JMB, can yousend pictures so Hawk can see 'em.??

Good Luck!!!

Daisy, my garden is so half-a$$Ed this year, I'd be embarrassed to show it! lol My plan was to have a big garden (big for me anyway), but I had to wait until we got some trees taken out to do anything. Then I had to wait for them to grind the stumps out. Well, I got tired of waiting, it was getting late in the season, so I just dug a few holes beside the garage and threw them in there. It's really a poor excuse for a garden! lol

[jmb]

JMB, how many days have de BB's been in de ground and how much sunlight per day do they get? All day? 3/4 day? 1/2 day?

De Stripeys are purdey. Do dey taste guut? I was thinking I planted them after vacation but I didn't. I had the boys water them for me while we were gone, so it would have been right near the end of May or very first of June that I planted them. They get sun pretty much all day, at least 3/4.

I'll let you know about the stripeys when I taste them. They're still green.

The only fresh homegrowns I've had so far are the cherry tomatoes. I'm dying for a fresh mater sammich!

I did have my first bell pepper tonight. Very tasty. :)

[Maggie-Doodle]

jmb, look very closely at your tomato plants...when you see a new leaf stem coming from between a large leaf and the main stalk THAT is a sucker. You need to pinch it off the plant. DON'T throw it away though...you can plant it to get a new mater plant.

My granny would pinch the sucker off the plant then take the sucker, dig a nice deep hole and put the sucker in almost up to the two little leaves at the top of the stem, then cover it up, leaving just a couple of three small leaves showing. The stem is covered in little "hairs" which will then turn into roots. Something else my granny would do is plant her tomatoes in trenches. Just dig a long trench, several inches deep...lay the tomato plant on it's side with just a few leaves above the soil..after a few days the plant will straighten up and will grow beautifully...granny always told me when you plant deep like that the plant does better because it develops more and better roots all along the stem that was planted. I always had good luck by doing that. Oh yea, if you leave the sucker on the plant, it depletes the plant of nutrients and your tomatoes usually arn't as big.

[jmb]

Thanks for all the help and advice. Maggie, I didn't trench them but I did plant them on their sides. Hawk, remind me of this post in the fall and I'll get it ready for next year.

Homegrown is hard to beat. :)

[dasmybaby]

Homegrown is hard to beat. :)


i second that! however, there is a really nice field down in lucedale, i think i've mentioned it before: Eubanks' Farms.... they're really really good. he had a lot of different kinds of tomatoes..
he's got a lovely bunch of maters...there they are a standin' in some rows...big ones small ones some as big as my head....

[dasmybaby]

Eubanks Produce Farm, Inc. 331 Produce Road. Lucedale, Mississippi

[dasmybaby]

here's the number:

601-947-9661

[dasmybaby]

about the 5th...i thought it went to sometime in august...did last year...me tinks....