Tomatoes in the Ground

Well my last blog was about a tiller repair that has been partly successful. I will continue there at a latter time. It seems I still have an oil leak which will require another tear down and reassembly with a new seal.

Children of the Corn (garden in this case)

As for the garden proper.... The leaves have been tilled in with the help of friends and the two tillers that I have. I took two soil samples to ULM and had them analyzed. I then talked to an old friend and TP Outdoors inquiring about success with tomatoes. He showed me pictures of his more than 600 lbs of tomatoes from 75 plants last year. I offered to pay for the secret and received it at no charge. I was instructed to go to the local LSU Ag Center and take my soil sample. I said surely it is not that easy but I was assured it is. At the Ag Center I was given a recipe of 1.5 lbs of  8-8-8 per 50 foot row. This was to be pre-dressing for each row.(sprinkled along the top then mixed in to the first 4 inches.) After sprinkling this amount out I realized that I did not use anywhere the amount of fertilizer I needed to last year.







So with rain predicted for Saturday night and some Sunday I made a mad dash to get some rows made and the tomatoes and zucchini I already had started into the ground. It only took 3 different trips to the garden, one with Dixon and two without. After the last trip I had 28 tomatoes (4 beef steaks, 4 Marion Heirloom (HL), 8 Early Girls, 6 Arkansas Travelers (HL), 6 Cherokee Purple (HL)) in the ground and 4 zucchinis.''

I was happy with the way the rows ended up working. After digging holes with the newly replace handled post hole diggers the tomatoes each ended up in their own 10 inch diameter hole which held water nicely and seemed to direct this water down to the plant. I plan on filling theses in and mulching the plants with a layer of news paper and leaf mulch. Havent yet decided if each plant will get a drip irrigation spout.

Zucchini

After having lots of mold on squash flowers last year I decided to make the squash row extra wide to allow for more air circulation.

At the house I have another 20 tomatoes started at the house. Some yellow squash, more zucchinis, peppers and water melons. I'll have to keep everyone posted on when those go in the ground.