The EarthTainer 'Farm' - June 1 (pics) - - Topping Plants Already

13 years ago

After a pretty dismal April and early May here in Northern California, we've warmed up a bit this past 2 weeks. Bloody Butcher looks like it will be my first plant to blush in a few weeks (we are perhaps 3 weeks behind last year due to the 2-times amount of rainfall we have had in 2010):

My Paul Robesons are over 78 inches tall, and I will be topping them back to about 65 inches to encourage filling out in the middle of the plants:

The German Red Strawberry likewise is over 72 inches and will be topped back to 65 inches tomorrow:

Japanese Black Trifele is loaded with fruit:

First time growing it this Season, so I am anxious to see the fruit shape and taste:

The fertilizer trials are going well with Fertilizer "A" left, Fertilizer "B" center, and Fertilizer "C" on the right. All are identical Goose Creek plants:

The over-wintered Bell Peppers are prolific, significantly ahead of the seed started ones from January (in the 'Tainer to the left):

And the NuMex Heritage 6-4 Peppers are now flowering:

Sweetcorn is kicking it with tassels now appearing:

I am glad I stayed with 3 rows of 5 plants each as the stalks are quite robust:

If I had crowded in more, they would have been less productive, I believe.

So as we are now into June when it starts to really warm up here, I am looking for about an inch a day of plant growth:

I'll file another report in about 2 weeks, and by that time, I will possibly be "lost" in the jungle:

Raybo

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Comments (14)

az_pamperedchef
13 years ago
Raybo-

That's impressive! Those plants look great.

Here I am in AZ and am growing 'maters and yet never once grew them in NorCal whenI lived there. What was I thinking?!?

AZ PC
johnny_tomato_seed
13 years ago
Thanks for posting Raybo. At least I can live through you for a while. I ended up pulling half my plants due to cold and neighbor watering his lawn every day to freeze and drown my plants.

Keep them coming. I am growing Black Trifele for first time as well and curious how they taste.
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RJ, The EarthTainer holds 3.3 cubic feet of potting mix. This season, I spaced the stalks at 6" distance from each other. Regarding last season, the plants exceeded 6 ft.: Production was satisfactory, but I spaced them too closely, something like 24 stalks per 'Tainer, and several of them never fully matured. The ears that did fully mature were about 6" to 7" long: This year already, the 15 stalks per 'Tainer really look healthy, so we shall see what kind of yield I get. kandhi, I use Miracle-Gro Potting Mix WITHOUT Moisture Control. The version with MC wicked up too much moisture in my early trials, and the one without MC works fine. It is also 25% cheaper on a cubic foot basis. Next year, I would like to experiment with some of Al's mix formulations to see if they improve on yield and longevity of use. I do agree with his view of bark fines, and as you can see in the above photos, I use bark fines during the growing season to screen the black moisture barrier from the sun, but when I pull out the root ball, I will let the bark fines fall into the hole, and mix them in with new potting mix for next season. Raybo
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I'm only now getting small tomatoes on everything. Last year, I planted mostly hybrids because I wasn't sure I'd like the taste of heirlooms, since all the ones I'd tasted prior had been watery and not very good. I'm slapping my forehead about that now, of course. This year, I thought I'd try one of most everything that I heard good things about last year or paid a premium for at the market and enjoyed eating. One of those was Stupice, which I picked up only for its earliness and high production, since as I understand it, it's not all that tasty. I only have a few small tomatoes on it so far, but the amount of blossoms is staggering. One of my determinate hybrids (Shady Lady - also not supposed to be very good, but my uncle bought me 3 hybrids, and I couldn't turn down his very kind gesture) has a good sized tomato on it, and I keep thinking it's going to blush any day now. I have a feeling I'll probably never be as early as I want to be, but at least I can live vicariously through you while I'm waiting for my maters to hurry the heck up.
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Love your corntainers! This year, I am attempting to grow corn in a non SW container. Looking at my stalks, I do not have high hopes. They are only about three feet tall and do not have any sign of ears developing. I planted Silver Queen and judging from the the corn fields in the area, I am far behind in growth. Not that I was expecting ears in early July, but I thought they'd be taller by now.... I have serious corntainer envy..... :)
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An EarthTainer holds 3.3 cubic feet of grow media. My Combo Mix is made up of 3 parts Potting Mix, 2 parts Decorative Groundcover Bark, and 1 part Perlite. I use Lowes Sta-Green Potting Mix which costs $3.50 per cu. ft. Bark is $2.25 per cu. ft. and Perlite runs about $4.50 per cu. ft. So, if my Math is correct, that works out to be about $9.75 per EarthTainer for the total Combo Mix. As the EarthTainers warm up much earlier in the Spring than my in-ground bed, I get tomatoes and other vegetables 4 to 6 weeks earlier. This alone is well worth the extra cost of the Combo Mix. I add about 1 cu. ft. of new Combo Mix at the start of each new Season, and expect to get 4 years of useful life before I start again with 100% new Mix. Raybo
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ubergoober
13 years ago
awesome pics Raybo!!!
raisemybeds
13 years ago
What a beautiful job you have done - congratulations on a primo garden!
rnewste
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks folks. I dug out a picture from several years ago taken of my former raised bed at this time of year:

{{gwi:39849}}

I was blown away contrasting the maturity of the plants in the EarthTainers today vs. what I experienced back then.

Raybo
catman529
13 years ago
As always, your 'farm' looks amazing. So Paul Robeson is a big one for you too? It's one of my tallest plants and this is my first year growing it. How do you rate the flavor and production? I hope they're as big as the plant.
rnewste
Original Author
13 years ago
Catman,

From last year's growing, I would put Paul Robeson within my Top 5 category. Better (to me) than Cherokee Purple, but not quite as satisfying as Goose Creek.

Raybo
catman529
13 years ago
Thanks, sounds good to me (I grow Indian Stripe which is very good and supposed to taste exactly like CP). How do you compare it to Black Krim (another of my favorites?)
rnewste
Original Author
13 years ago
catman,

Indian Stripe and Neves Azorean Red X Brandywine (NARX) are also in my Top 5. Only grew Black Krim once a while ago. Need to add it into my 2011 grow list.

Raybo
star_stuff
13 years ago
Looking at those pictures, you would never be able to tell that you had a dismal sprint, lol! It's a jungle already... amazing compared to the raised bed picture!

I'm anxious to get some fruit on my Japanese Black Trifele, as well. It's supposed to be a heavy producer, and not so big of a plant. But yours look huge, lol!
rnewste
Original Author
13 years ago
star,

My concern is that it is ALREADY on its way to "jungle" foliage. Today I gave all of the "offending" plants a haircut down to 65 inches. I want to encourage more robust plant development in the lower and middle sections:

BTW, the sweetcon has started to tassel in a big way:

So I may get corn by July 4 for the dinner table.

Someone was asking about the over-wintered Peppers. Here is a full photo comparison between the two:

Guess I will be over-wintering many more Peppers this Season.

Raybo
bigdaddyj
13 years ago
Great pics! Awesome tomato plants! I am interested how your corn matures planted so closely together like that though...
rnewste
Original Author
13 years ago
bigdaddyj,

Actually, I space my corn stalks considerably further apart than most of the EarthBox users do. Their instruction is 2 rows of 8 stalks per row. The EarthTainer is twice as large from a volume standpoint, and I am happy with 3 rows of 5 stalks each. Could I squeeze in more - probably - - but Quality is better than Quantity of ears produced.

Raybo
bigdaddyj
13 years ago
Very interesting to me. I'm trying to get maximum corn production in minimum raised bed space and I too prefer quality. Thanx for the pics. Can you take another pic just before first harvest?

The EarthTainer 'Farm' - June 1 (pics) - - Topping Plants Already

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