FarmCity Food Garden Construction

Specialty Care for Tomato Seedlings

If you're among the avid gardeners who start their tomatoes indoors, you probably have some tall thin seedlings about now that look as if they'd fall over if nothing more than a fruit fly flew by too fast!

But - and I know it's counter intuitive - if you pinch off your seedlings, they'll slow top growth long enough to focus on broadening and strengthening the stem, and on setting really solid roots.  What you do is wait until the seedlings are sprouting their fourth REAL leaf (so, not counting the very first two mini-leafs they put out just after sprouting).  Pinch off this fourth leaf to just above the stem of the third.

(In the above photo, these seedlings are growing their third leaf, but not the fourth quite yet).

You'll think you've ruined your plants - nothing happens for a solid week - but then you'll find that your plants resume growing, much strengthened by their mini-sabbatical!

Once they resume growth after the hiatus, they will probably need repotting in 4-inch pots.  Plant them deep into the soil - right up to just below the first leaf.  They'll grow roots off the buried stem - a unique talent of theirs - and again, they'll grow to be much sturdier above ground, and incredibly well-supplied with nutrients from the roots below ground.

FYI: We've published other posts on sprouting tomatoes.

 

 

 

The Miracle of a Sunny Day

The crocuses are up and you can smell spring on the air.  Next up: the cherry blossoms!  

And for us at FarmCity, the season is marked by our first raised beds for the new gardening year!

These display a more decorative style on the caps around the top edges - though actually, the changes were particularly designed so the caps will weather the seasons more effectively, the joints staying nice and tight over the years.  Getting to make the wooden elements ahead of time in our new woodshop allows us to offer this kind of top quality outdoor woodwork. 

And that we got to install them on a miraculously spring-like sunny day only added to the pleasure!

Tomatoes - Already!

Most of us who grow tomatoes probably use nursery-grown seedlings, which we plant out in mid-May or so.  But really, the tomato-growing season has already begun!  In the Lower Mainland climate, tomatoes actually have to be started indoors several months before we can safely plant these heat-loving beasties outdoors!  If you can't wait to get out in the garden, you can start indoors now!

We choose to start them indoors ourselves because, while many nurseries are stocking more varieties of tomato seedlings than ever before, we still prefer the wider range of choice (and the economy) that we can get out of the seed catalogue.  From West Coast Seeds (http://www.westcoastseeds.com), we ordered seeds - many of them organic - for romas (great for sauces), several heirloom tomato varieties, and a couple different kinds of cherry tomatoes - as well as a few of the standard kinds (beefsteak tomatoes, for instance).  One of our favourites is the Green Zebra, which we grew last year: a gorgeous striped green when ripe, it is slightly tart but also sweet, and really juicy and firm - and it ripens early, so it works fine in places that don't quite get full sun.

These are our tomato sprouts after ten days (above) and after about 3-1/2 weeks (below).

The system we use to sprout the seeds involves these plastic trays and covers.  We cut holes in the covers to insert fluorescent tube lights.  (We have only very small south-facing window sills, so unfortunately, we can't use natural light - also a fine way to go).  Art Knapp's in downtown Vancouver - carries the trays and lights (http://www.artknapps.ca).  But beware!  The trays have holes in the bottom, so unless you put the tray in a tray - or water the tray over the sink - it will leak!  (We learned the hard way!)

We also started some artichokes at the same time (below).

Planting Time! No, Really!

The rule of thumb is that the May long weekend is the time to plant your veggies and flowers in Vancouver. And that's true for heat-loving plants like tomatoes, peppers or basil.  But plenty of plants prefer cooler temperatures. 

      Our fancy sign, to keep the kids from stepping on our newly planted peas.

Take peas, for instance: for the best possible pea crop, you should plant your first seeds mid-February to early March!  You can start harvesting peas in May (give or take, depending on the variety).  Try successive plantings every few weeks, to keep a steady supply - though peas generally don't do well once it gets summer-warm.  We usually stop sowing peas in mid-May, through to early July, when we start planting successively in to August, for a fall harvest.

On the West coast, peas, like tomatoes, are subject to a fungal infection, so it's a good idea to rotate the crop each year to another part of the garden - on a four-year cycle.  Since peas are legumes, though, you'll be glad you spread them around: with the help of a particular soil bacteria (which you can also buy and deliberately innoculate your pea seeds with), legumes capture nitrogen in the soil, providing nutrition for the next plant that's lucky to grow there!