The frosts chances have almost passed for us here in Tennessee. In fact we just had one this morning, but in just a few days we'll be able to safely plant outside in our gardens all the summer vegetables we desire! Of course the most planted vegetable of all (really a fruit) has to be the tomato. I'm going to share with you one secret of planting tomatoes that will make your plants much more healthy this year. It's all in the planting. This little technique has been around for a while but its so useful it really needs shared. The secret to planting tomatoes is to plant as much of the stem under the soil as you can when you first plant it!
The tomato plant is excellent at creating roots along the stem. Have you ever noticed that shaded areas of the tomato grow roots along the stems? This ability is what gardener's put to use in developing plants that grow strong, healthy, and that are more water-wise. When planting the tomatoes dig a hole as nearly deep as the tomato plant. Then remove all the leaves from the plant except for the top two leaves. Plant the tomato in the hole and fill in with soil so that the top two leaves remain above the soil's surface. The tomato will grow roots all along the stem which gives it a larger root system much faster than simply planting the already established roots!
Another way to do this is to dig a shallow trench as long as the tomato and lay the tomato plant horizontally in the trench. The top leaves are left above the soil while the rest of the plant is covered. This works great too but if you want to plant companion plants close to the tomato plant you may have to be careful not to cut into the tomato roots and stem. I like the first method better but sometimes the soil isn't as easy to dig as deep as you need to get the tomato plant planted.
This easy tomato trick really is an awesome way to plant tomatoes!
Beneficial insects are one of the greatest things you can attract to your garden. It's really amazing the amount of work these small creatures do for us. Obviously their intent is to help themselves but gardeners have a natural symbiotic relationship with beneficial insects that should be fostered whenever possible.
I'm sure everyone can easily think of one of the major benefits of insects - pollination! Pollination of plants and flowers usually happens with the help of animals, insects, or the wind. Insects aren't intentionally trying to insure that your plum trees cross pollinate, they just want something to eat! When they visit the flowers they bring pollen from other trees which is what the flowers need to create a seed (and the fruit that surrounds it). Attracting bees is very beneficial to your vegetable garden. Vegetables like squash only produce male or female flowers on the plant and not flowers that contain both parts. These plants are called monoecious and require help to pollinate. Bees will be attracted to the flowers but to insure more pollinators, bring more flowers! Planting bees friendly flowers in the garden attracts more pollinators to your plants which aids in pollinating your garden.
Other beneficial insects are great for pest control! Spiders (although not technically an insect) do a wonderful job of policing the garden and reducing pest issues. Lacewing and lady beetles larvae enjoy chowing down on aphids, mites, whiteflies, and other small pests. There are even parasitic wasps that lay their eggs into hornworms. When the eggs hatch the larvae destroy the hornworm caterpillar from the inside! You may have seen this happen and not even realize it. The caterpillar has white protrusions sticking out of its back. I'm sure this isn't pleasant for the hornworm but it's good for the gardener who likes his or her tomato plants!
Here's a very popular predatory insect that is always welcome in my garden, the praying mantis! These large insects love to eat any bugs in the garden. Unfortunately that also includes the beneficials, but that's OK the bad bugs usually outnumber the good bugs which means plenty of food for my mantis friend.
How do you go about attracting these beneficial insects? First off ditch the pesticides. What you use on your garden to kill insects will effect the beneficials too. Then begin planting companion plants that attract the good bugs in and around your garden. Cosmos bipinnatus is extremely useful in attracting bugs like lacewings, hoveflies, bees, and parasitic wasps. Many of the beneficial attractor plants are beautiful plants that gardeners might plant in their gardens anyway. Plants like zinnias or achillea (yarrow) are great for bringing in the beneficials!
Integrating these plants is a great way to go and is a good first step to growing a safer more chemical free garden!
You may already have a preference for your vegetables but have you given any thought to the difference between the hybrids and the heirlooms? What really is the difference? And which is better? It's largely a matter of personal opinion and taste but knowing the differences will help you make an informed decision.
Let's define our subjects. A hybrid is one plant variety that has been pollinated by different variety. The two sets of genes combine to make a new variety that exhibits some of the traits of each of its parents. Pretty simple! Now take the heirloom plants. They are typically plants that have been passed down through the years from gardener to gardener but there more to it than that. They were at one time hybrids too, created by two parent plants. Over the years these hybrids were planted, seeds were saved, then the seeds were planted again. The genetic strain stabilized, which is fancy talk for saying you'll get the same produce each time you plant seeds from the hybrid. Newly created hybrids will not have seeds that are stable. Should you plant a hybrid vegetable or plant from seed you might get what you had before but most likely you'll end up with something else. It could be better, or perhaps not!
Now here is the question: Which is Better?
This is where personal taste comes into play, and not just the taste of the vegetables. Modern hybrids have been bred for other features like disease or insect resistance. A vegetable that is noticeably less appetizing to an insect will get crossed with others to create improved insect resistant varieties of the vegetable. This is done with landscape plants as well and is a good way to help limit the amount of pesticides that are used in our environment.
Hybrids aren't typically bred for taste or appearance but are bred for tougher skins for transport, better disease resistance, and better insect resistance. That doesn't mean they don't taste good although it is true that sometimes other positive attributes like flavor can suffer at the expense of other features.
Heirlooms normally aren't as disease or insect resistant as hybrids. They may need babied more through the growing season. More monitoring and more care may be needed - but there is a payoff - the flavor and unique appearance of many heirlooms makes gardening both fun and delicious! Heirlooms also have a leg up on hybrids in the seed saving area. Hybrids are kind of like the box of chocolates from the movie Forest Gump, you never know what you're going to get!
I personally prefer heirlooms. 'Cherokee Purple' tomatoes and 'Brandywine' tomatoes are two of my favorite heirloom tomatoes but there are hundreds of heirloom plants available through various seed sources. They are tougher to find in stores but if you enjoy growing from seed your options are nearly limitless!
