Planning the 2011 garden and need some help

[chris09]

Jared77,

On the Tomatoes, are you planting Determinate (bush) varieties or Indeterminate (climbing) varieties?

Determinate varieties like Celebrity VFNT, Bush Beefsteak, Glamour, and Ace 55 VF should be around 12 - 16 inches apart where Indeterminate varieties like Better Boy, Ultrasonic VFT, Beefmaster VFN, Oxheart, Brandywine, Campbell 1327 and Roma should be 16 - 18 inches apart.

Cucumbers should be 2 - 6 feet apart depending on if they are Bush or Vineing type.

Sweet Peppers should be 12 - 18 inches apart.

Chris

 

[Jared77]

I dont have the seed packets and was wondering if that info was posted on here. The garden was expanded much bigger than I first planned on (father in law got a little overzealous with the tractor) so I was trying to find the info online so I could get some ideas before I bought seeds.

I appreciate it Ill get it figured out. I never cramped things before but we didnt plant in multiple rows of the same type before. Usually it was just a single row of tomatoes, or a single row of cucumbers, or peppers, or eggplant. Now its multiple rows and I wanted to be sure I got it right when I laid it out.

Thanks for the help and suggestions Ive got some reading to do.

 

[digitS']

. . . Apparently the key to a big tomato harvest is starting the plants indoor under lights in February . . .

Careful with that thinking, Wife'. Your outdoor season might be just about the same as mine.

I knew better than to start seed in mid-February - did that 1 year. Last year, I wanted to start the tomatoes as early as possible and was fully prepared to pot up to larger sized containers. Tomato and pepper seed was sown about Feb 21st. Winter lingered . . .

I moved them to larger containers and began to run out of room. After they'd grown some roots, flats of tomatoes went into my plastic tunnel. It got too cold in there (38F) -- some of the plants died!! Moved them back into the greenhouse, moved them around some more -- hardening them off. Put them out in the garden, burying them deeply, too early! Had to cover them with buckets - days on end, repeatedly! Lost some more of them! Tuff start to my tomato growing year . . .

Jared, this may or may not help: Do a google search with something like - corn "plants per acre" site:edu.

You will find plant population recommendations from Cooperative Extension such as: "32,000 plants per acre." Divide that by 43,560, to give yourself a square foot answer. Or, Better! Divide by 4,840 to give yourself an answer in square yards.

You will find plant populations of:

corn (32,000 plants/acre) = 6.6 per square yard
bush beans (150,000 plants/acre) = 31 per square yard
determinate tomatoes (5800 plants/acre) = 1 per square yard

etc.

Of course, variety choice and method of cultivation will make a difference but I hope that this is of some help.

Steve

 

[Jared77]

Steve I wouldnt have ever come up with that but thats exactly what I needed!!

Thank you!!!!!

 

[wifezilla]

Steve, I used a post hole digger to get the hole deep enough I also surrounded those tomatoes with 2 liter bottles filled with water for a redneck "wall-o-water" effect. It worked great and I will be doing it again.

The spring snows didn't bother them 1 bit with those bottles around them. One plant got a bit tall and the top got frozen, but I cut off the frozen stuff and it kept right on going.

 

[boggybranch]

Take a look at this link from the University of Minnessota (up your way). Maybe it will help.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1422.html

 

[StupidBird]

Wifezilla, your advice sounds excellent for tomatoes. Last year the new virus wiped out our crop. (Atlanta). To sum up all the tomato advice:
- an empty 3 feet between tomato cages (we used concrete reinforcing wire mesh to make all ours).
- start as early as you have room for
- plant as deep as can be dug with the post hole digger and add a handful or two of oyster shell from the chicken's bag
- poopy compost mulch
- prune like grapes. So around here, I've seen the vineyards prune all the foliage and branches off the bottom 3 feet of the grape vines. And the interior is kept open in a V trellis. Ditto to the tomatoes then, modified a bit.
- don't take out the recycling bins for the next 4 months. use the soda bottles for wall-o-waters and the cans for transplants
- of course, plant far away from previous solanacea crops

Did I hit it all? I'm struggling to balance the desire to grow every thing I think of or start off vs. spacing enough for our humidity and related problems.

 

[detali]

How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons has pages of tables for proper vegetable spacing plus tons of other useful information. I consider it my gardening bible.