May Archives - The Gardening Adventure

Tomatoes in pots with homemade compost

My compost bin was getting full and I was looking into ways of using it. I had two more tomato seedlings to plant and I decided to plant them in pots with homemade compost. Hopefully the compost is not too strong to burn the plants.

I took the potting mix from the previous plants and mixed it with compost. Probably it was about 60% potting mix and 40% compost.

Tomatoes in pots with homemade compost

These were my last two tomato seedlings and I decided to experiment with them and test my homemade compost in pots. This is the first time when I use my compost in pots, as I always use it for my in-ground beds.

First step was to get the old potting soil and mix it with a 5 gallon bucket of compost. Afterwards I put a thin layer at the bottom of the pots and and a layer of compost. For the compost layer I split one 5 gallon bucket between the two pots. Afterwards I filled up the pots with the remaining potting mix.

Next I follow my usual process of transplanting seedlings. For more detailed instructions and updates you can check How to transplant tomatoes in pots .

May 2020 harvest

This month I harvested the last artichoke flower. Hopefully I will get another harvest in the fall. I never got two harvests in the same year, but I have hopes for this year since the first one was so early in the season. After I harvested the last flower, I cut the stems and leaves to only about 1-2 inches above the soil level.

Finally at the end of the month the figs started to ripe, after a looong wait. I’m trying to identify the varieties since I have 4 different types that are starting to ripe.

The strawberries didn’t produce too many fruits and that helped the plants get healthier and stronger, as the extra energy was used to grow the plants.

First harvest of bush beans.

Last harvest of radishes. Not as good as the ones during the winter season. Once the weather starts to get hot, they become hard and don’t grow as well.

First harvest of garlic.

How to transplant tomatoes in pots

In today’s post I will show you how to transplant tomatoes in pots. These seedlings are part of an experiment as they are planted much later into the season, you can read more about it in the “Split tomato seedlings” section at the end of this post. My plan to extend my harvest season by staggering the plants and also move the pots to a different area of the backyard, in order to hopefully avoid getting spider mites.

How to transplant tomatoes in pots

Below are the tomato seedlings that I will transplant today. There are two varieties: glacier and golden jubilee and I started them from seeds about 1 month ago.

Next, I will show you how I transplant my tomato seedlings into pots step by step with pictures.

Cleaning and preparing the pots

At first, I start by cleaning and washing my pots to lower the chance of transmitting the pests and diseases from the previous plants. I used my newly addition to my garden tools: Dramm 14804 One Touch Rain Wand, and I love it! The debit is high, but it’s not breaking the plants when I water them. It is much better than the old one that I had, which had a very strong jet. I show the difference between them in this post.

While the pots are drying in the sun, I prepare the potting mix. I use a combination of last season’s potting mix and some left over from a few weeks ago when I transplanted the cucumbers and I improved it with steer manure.

Before I started transplanting the seedlings, I noticed that one of the pots had only one hole for the drainage. I used a drill bit of 3/4″ to make the holes, as you can see in the pictures below.

Planting seedlings

I started by filling up the pots with the potting mix. Afterwards I made a hole and added my regular ingredients: half measuring scoop of starter fertilizer, half scoop of grounded eggshells and a quarter scoop of epsom salt.

Next I removed the lower leaves from the tomato seedlings leaving only the top 2 or 3 leaves in order to be able to plant the seedlings very deep into the soil.

Afterwards I removed the seedling from the original pot and gently split the roots to help them grow and spread in the new pot. Then I placed the plant into the hole and covered it until there was only 1 inch from the soil level. The next step was to add the earthwork castings and covered it with a thin layer of potting mix. The last step is to water the newly transplanted seedlings.

I like to plant the tomato seedlings very deep because the tomatoes develop roots from the stem if they are covered with soil. A good root system makes the plant stronger and will produce more fruits.

I transplanted a total of 4 plants: one Glacier tomato and three Golden jubilee tomatoes.

transplanted tomatoes — Transplanted tomatoes

Updates

In this section I will post updates with the tomato plants during the growing season and throughout their life cycle. Hopefully I will be able to keep them safe from spider mites and extend my tomato harvest season.

May 29 – 7 days after transplant, the tomatoes are doing great and growing fast.

June 6 -the 2 tomatoes on the right are the ones transplanted with homemade compost and a few squash plants are sprouting from the compost.

June 13 – I left one squash plant in each pot and removed the extra squash plants.

June 25 – the plants have tomatoes on them. It’s hard to see in the pictures, but the leaves on the tomatoes that were planted in homemade compost are dark green while the others are light green.

June 30 – more seedlings are sprouting from the compost, they look like peppers and beets seedlings.

Homemade eggplant stakes

In this posts I will talk about my homemade eggplant stakes and other small projects that I did in the second half of May 2020.

Homemade eggplant stakes
Removed all eggplants from last year
Fertilized the papaya trees and the dragon fruits
Replaced the watering wand

Homemade eggplant stakes

Because this years eggplants were doing so well, it was time to install a support system for them.

A few years ago I made some stakes from wood and inserted them in the ground. By the end of the season I noticed that most of them started to rot because they were getting wet when I was watering the plants. So next season I came up with an idea and purchased 3/4″ PVC pipe and cut it at an angle in about 1.5 foot long pieces. Then I inserted my wood stakes into the PVC pipe so that only the PVC is touching the ground.

Below are a few pictures with the installed stakes. I use twine to tie the plants to the stakes.

Removed all the eggplants from last year

The second year eggplants experiment din go very well. I had 8 plants left from last year and they produced only 2 very small fruits on them. In the meantime, the plants from this year have at least 2 fruits each and much bigger.

The plan was to keep the plants from last year since they were bigger and can support much bigger fruits, some fruits can get to almost 2 feet long. But the old plants were attacked by spider mites and their growth was affected. Because the spider mites started to spread to other plants, I decided to remove all the plants from last year.

Fertilize papaya trees

I try to fertilize my papaya trees once a month. I think 2 months have passed since the last fertilization and I used about a half bag of chicken manure. They have a lot of papaya fruits. The first 2 fruits are starting to get yellow/orange, and in a few weeks I will harvest them.

Replaced the watering wand

My old watering wand started to have more and more problems. In the end I was not able to stop the water from the wand handle and it was getting very inconvenient to water the plants and the trees. I didn’t plan on spending a lot of money on a new one, but I saw many people recommending rain wands. It wasn’t cheap, actually it was almost 3 times more expensive than my old one, which had 9 different watering modes.

With my old wand I had to be very careful not to brake the plants when I was watering. The head didn’t have too many holes, which created high water pressure and the multiple settings made things even worse.

The new Dramm 14804 One Touch Rain Wand with One Touch Valve, 30-Inch, Green handle is a little bit shorter than my old one, but it doesn’t seem to affect my watering in any way. In conclusion, I’m very happy with the new addition to my gardening tools.

How to transplant blueberry

In today’s post I will explain how to transplant blueberry plants. I luckily found plants on sale, so I purchased two varieties since it is recommended to have at least two different kinds to help with pollination.

How to transplant blueberry

Blueberries area little more different because they like an acidic soil. In order to increase de acidity in the soil you can add peat moss to the existing soil.

These are the blueberry plants that I will transplant today. The varieties that I have are Sharpe Blue and Sunshine Blue.

Sharpe Blue and Sunshine Blue blueberry plants

Below I will describe how I transplanted my blueberry plants step by step with pictures.

Firstly I took the potting soil that I made a few weeks ago and added more peat moss to it. You can see how I prepared the soil in the post how to transplant cucumbers in pots. I used a ratio of 2/3 potting soil and 1/3 peat moss and mixed them together.

Afterwards I filled the 5 gallon pots up to about 1/3 from the top. I placed the plant on top to make sure that it won’t be too tall before I moved to the next step. Next I add the starter fertilizer in the pot. This time I didn’t use the eggshells and epsom salt as I usually do for all the other plants.

After that, I removed the plant from its original pot and gently split some of the roots to help the plant spread its root system in the new pot. Then I filled up the 5 gallon pot with potting soil, being careful not to cover the original soil of the plant. The blueberry doesn’t like to be planted deeper than the original pot. When it’s planted in the ground, it’s recommended to leave it out of the soil a little bit, since they drown easily.

The last step is to water the new transplanted blueberry plants.

Updates

In this section I will post periodic updates with the blueberry plants.

How to transplant eggplants and use fish as fertilizer

In this post I will explain step by step how to transplant eggplants and use fish as fertilizer. I have been freezing fish bones and skins for a while now for this purpose. It works well as a later in the season fertilizer as it’s dug deeper in ground and it releases nutrients as the plant grows bigger and its roots reach the fish.

Today I transplanted the last 3 eggplant seedlings into the garden and now my in ground garden is officially full!

How to transplant eggplants and use fish as fertilizer

In the picture below are the eggplants that will be transplanted. They are Millionaire and Shikou varieties and I started them from seeds which I saved last year. You can see how I grew them from seeds in the 2020 Seedlings update post.

I start the transplanting process by making a hole about 1 foot deep in the ground. Then I place the fish at the bottom and completely cover it with soil. The next step is to add my usual ingredients: half measuring scoop of starter fertilizer, half scoop of grounded eggshells and quarter scoop of epsom salt.

Afterwards I remove the plant from the pot, gently split the roots a little bit and place it in the hole. Then I cover the eggplant with soil up to about 1 inch from the ground level. Next I add the earthworm castings and cover it with a very thin layer of soil, leaving a small hole for the water to accumulate when I water the plants.

The last step is to water the plants 3-4 times to make sure the water gets all the way down to the roots.

I will monitor them over the growing season to see what difference the fish fertilizer will have on the plants and I will post updates.

Updates

May 28 – 12 days after the eggplants were transplanted, they have a lot more leaves and are growing nicely.

Garden update – May 9

From now on I will try to post the pictures in the same order for all Garden updates, which will make it easier to compare the plants. I have 2 papaya trees: the one below with lots of fruit and the second one is finally starting to grow its first fruits. The papayas are growing much faster during this period, but I am still waiting for the first fruit to ripe.

The cherry tomato is doing very well also, it’s at least twice as big as the tomato plants transplanted in the same period.

Poppy flowers are in bloom and are shading the celery and zucchini plants. I won’t be collecting the seeds this year because I never used the ones from previous years.

The zucchini plant that was transplanted last, is the nicest looking one and it has a few baby zucchinis.

Below is one of the peppers and eggplants garden beds. The peppers next to the onions are growing very slowly, because the onions are taking all the nutrients from the soil. This year I will let my onion plants mature for the first time (before I was harvesting them as green onions). Hopefully after I harvest the onions, the pepper plants will do better.

The next 2 pictures are with the tomato beds

The garden bed in the picture below is the only one that I was able to amend entirely with my own compost, as it can be seen in this post from January 11. Probably the roots reached the compost layer, since the peppers and eggplants are doing very well.

Last year’s parsley is bolting, but I recently planted more seeds and the new plants are starting to grow.

Below are the peppers and eggplants from last year. I decided to keep them for a second year hoping that they will have fruits sooner than this year’s plants. It seems that’s not going to be the case though, since the new plants are looking much better than the old ones.

Some peas are ready to be harvested. My kids love them so much, that they eat them directly in the garden. No pea has ever made it to our kitchen 🙂

I started harvesting yellow bush beans this month.

Last year’s tomato plant is doing very well. I am looking forward to harvesting some tomatoes soon.

I harvested all the artichoke flowers and cut back the stem. Hopefully I will have another harvest this year.

I have new growth from the blackberry plants and they are growing very fast.

My first sequoia strawberry is ripe. The chandler strawberry plants are starting to look better than the previous months. They had too many flowers and fruits and it almost killed the plants because they put all their energy into fruits. Some plants didn’t make it, as it can be seen in the second picture.

The mandarin tree has a few ripe mandarins left and the new babies are starting to grow.

I’ve been waiting for the figs from 3 trees to ripe for a few months now. Fig tree #4 already dropped the first harvest (figs dried and fell off) and is growing new fruit on this year’s growth. And fig tree #5 is also getting fruits.

The apple tree is the last one to flower this year.

The Asian pear tree has fruits and it started blooming for the second time.

How to transplant cucumbers

One of the major projects or today was to transplant cucumbers seedlings in the garden.

I had a few other smaller projects:

Harvest beets
Trim tomato plants
Add planting mix to the garden beds
Remove poppy plants
Treat eggplants against pests

How to transplant cucumbers

The cucumber seeds planted on April 4 are now seedlings ready to be transplanted. I had seedlings in 5 of the 6 squares and I planted 2 of them in the ground and 3 in pots.

Next I will explain step by step how I transplant cucumbers seedlings in the ground. I’m using one extra ingredient that I don’t use for any other plants. It’s an organic granulated slow release fertilizer that I purchased a few years ago and I noticed that the cucumbers love it.

Firstly I make a deep hole, place the granulated fertilizer at the bottom and then I cover it with soil. The fertilizer will help the plant later in the season, when the roots will grow deeper and reach it.

Next I add to the hole my regular ingredients: half measuring scoop of starter fertilizer, half scoop of grounded eggshells and quarter scoop of epsom salt. Then I carefully remove the cucumber seedling from the container and place it into the hole. I cover the seedling with soil and when I’m about 1″ from the ground level, I add the earthworm castings which I cover with a very thin layer of soil. The last step is to water it thoroughly to make sure the water gets all the way down to the roots.

Cucumber seedlings — Cucumbers ready to be transplanted

Hole for cucumbers — Hole after I covered the granulated fertilizer with soil

Below are the seedlings transplanted into 5 gallon pots. I explained my method to transplant cucumbers in pots in this post.

Tomato care

During this time, the tomato plants are growing very fast. I have to check them almost every day because they get fruits and if they don’t have adequate support, they will fall – like the one in the picture below.

I secured the fallen branches to the trellises using plastic rings. In the next pictures I will show the entire tomato plant before and after. Circled in red are the branches which needed saving.

Another project was to trim all the tomato leaves that were touching the ground. in order to stop the spread of the diseases and pests.

Beets

Last year I left one of my beets plant go to seeds and this year beet plants spouted everywhere. The one in the picture below grew between 2 concrete blocks. There was almost no space between, but somehow it managed to push the vertical ones and grew one of the biggest beet roots of this season. It did much better than the ones I carefully planted in the prepared soil and watered and fertilized 🙂

At the end of one of my garden beds, I had planted beets which I wanted to use in salads. Since I had a lot of lettuce growing in the same period, I barely used the beet leaves. The tomato plants which were growing next the them were showing signs of distress, so I decided to pull out all the beets.

After I removed the beets, I added some planting mix to the soil and transplanted 2 basil plants in their place.

Other projects

Some of the garden beds needed extra planting soil. Usually you can add the planting soil between seasons, when the beds are empty and you can mix it with the soil as per instructions, but my garden beds are almost always full. Sometimes I might have half a bed empty and I do it in the recommended way. That was not the case today, so I just sprinkled the planting mix between the plants.

Every year I get tall and beautiful poppy flowers. I saved the seeds for the last 2 years, but I didn’t use them because I’m not 100% sure they are edible. This year I decided to remove them before harvest time because they are shading the zucchini and celery plants and slowing their growth.

The last project of the day was to take care of the pests that were eating the leaves of my eggplants. I like to use organic Bonide bug and slug killer to protect my plants.

Aloe Vera fertilizer & other projects

Today I made my first Aloe Vera fertilizer. I inherited a lot of Aloe Vera plants and I didn’t know what I can use it for in the garden.

I had a few more projects today in the garden:

Dried mint leaves
Removed bolted celery
Split tomato seedlings

Aloe Vera fertilizer

A few weeks ago I read an interesting article explaining how to make fertilizer from Aloe Vera. It’s a natural and easy to make fertilizer, which benefits the plants and helps them grow better root systems.

First I took a few Aloe Vera leaves and blended them together. Afterwards I took the blended liquid and mixed it with rain water. I poured 2 cups of mix and filled the watering can all the way up with water.

Mint

Every year I have a lot of mint and I don’t use most of it. This year I decided to dry a lot leaves and use it for tea. I cut the mint and after I washed it, I placed it on a tray to dry in the sun. The mint was dried in a few hours, but I found out later that I have to dry it in the shade for the mint not to loose a lot of it’s nutrients and flavor. Next time I’ll do it correctly and I’ll update the post.

Remove bolted celery

The last project of the day was to remove bolted celery that was keeping too much shade to the other plants and also slowing their growth.

Below are a few before and after pictures with the trimmed celery. The tomato plants are only visible in the after pics, before it was just a celery bush.

Split tomato seedlings

Every year around the end of August or beginning of September, I loose the battle with spider mites that kill all my tomato plants. This year I planted a few tomato seeds later in the season. My plan is to plant them in containers far away from the other tomato plants in order to hopefully avoid getting spider mites on them.

I planted seeds in 4 pots and a few of them had more seedlings per pot. Instead of removing the extra seedlings, I moved each one in its own pot. This was a good opportunity to plant the seedlings deeper in the new pots, which will help them develop a better root system. If you would like to see more detailed instructions for potting up seedlings, you can see a step by step guide in this post.

Before and after tomato seedlings – May 5

Tomato updates

In the next section I will post periodical updates with the above tomato plants – Glacier and Golden jubilee.

May 14 Update – the seedlings doubled or tripled in size