TELL ME WHEN THE PECAN TREES BUD!



12 days after potting up

 After about two weeks in the greenhouse the plants are looking really good. The young seedlings have matured and now look like tomato plants.

My grandmother always told me to "plant tomatoes on Good Friday or when the Pecan trees bud, whichever occurs first." Since Easter is late this year and an early spring is expected I believe the Pecan trees will bud before Good Friday.

If you live in the Mississippi Delta, please keep a close eye on the Pecan trees and let me know as soon as you see them budding. Then these babies will go in the ground!

I've got to get busy and get the new bed ready for planting time.

239 PLANTS ALL IN POTS

ALL DONE!

CAREFULLY REMOVE SEEDLINGS

This weekend was potting-up time at River Road. We had both children and their children home for the first time in a while. Thanks to Penny, Webster, Lansdale and Burch for all their efforts in the potting-up process. We did not get much help from young Hardy as he had 2 buddies from Tunica with him.

DO NOT DISTURB ROOTS

I tried to be prepared by filling all the individual pots with MiricleGro potting soil before everyone arrived. It rained Saturday so we had to move the potting table and equipment to the side porch. Then the slow and tedious process began. On Saturday my job was to remove each individual seedling from the baking tins without damaging the roots. Webster was responsible for poking the planting hole in the new pots and planting. Penny and Burch were in charge of placing the labels which Lansdale had designed on each individual plant. The group was successful in potting eight seedlings of each of the 20 varieties in their new homes. (162 plants all together)

On Sunday Lansdale took over and helped me do it all with the rest of the seedlings. We filled pots, removed and planted seedlings and labeled the remaining 67 plants. All 239 plants are now all in their trays and in the greenhouse.



Sunday night was very cold getting down to 34 degrees. I had to appropriate Edna's electric bathroom heater to the greenhouse to warm it up a little. Thank goodness all the plants made it through the first night successfully.



PLANT SEEDLING DEEP IN POT

239 PLANTS IN GREENHOUSE















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JUST ABOUT TIME TO "POT-UP"

March 1 Seedlings are thriving.

The seedlings are healthy and are developing their first set of true leaves. It is just about time to to transfer the seedlings from the baking tins to individual pots where they will remain until planted. This is a time consuming process and is tedious. Thank goodness my daughter, the designer for this blog, will be home for the week-end to help. I mix sand, peat moss and a little root tone to MiracleGro potting soil to fill the 4" pots. Then, each seedling is carefully extracted so as not to disturb the tender roots and planted in its individual pot. I try to get the roots all the way to the bottom of the pot so that only the leaves will be above the soil. This insures the development of a good root system for the transplanted tomato. All that portion of the stem of the plant beneath the soil will form lateral roots.

I feel it important for the plants to develop a strong root system in the pots for obvious reasons. I keep the plants in the pots longer than most tomato growers. I like the plants to be at least a foot tall when they go in the ground. In the Delta we normally have very hot weather early in the season. I try to get the plants in the garden as soon as possible so that they will bloom early and set tomatoes before it gets too hot. I have found that it is difficult for the plants to set fruit in extremely hot weather. The taller the plant when put in the garden allows it to planted deeper in the ground. The deeper it is planted, the more roots it will form to sustain the plant through our hot and humid growing season. Also, unusually cold weather at planting time may require holding the plants in the pots longer than anticipated. A good root system in the pots will sustain them until they can be safely planted outside.

I will try and post pictures of the "potting-up" process later.