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.

GIN TRASH- "THE ANGEL IN ANGEL HAIR PASTA"

2011 Gin Trash

Several years ago my sister-in-law, who is a "surenuff' hot-shot lawyer in Houston, Texas, questioned me about the use of gin trash in my tomato garden. Marley is partial to Mississippi Delta tomatoes and I have, in the past, shipped vine ripe fruit to her for her parties. She is very particular about what she serves and likes to demonstrate to the Texas folks the superiority of homegrown Mississippi Delta Tomatoes.

The following exchange of emails adequately explains my feelings about Gin Trash:

Me to Marley:

I have just inspected my crop and I think I can supply you enough ripe tomatoes for your party. I will have about eight by tomorrow. They are 1/4 to 1/2 lb each, and would make good slicers. I need shipping instructions. I can FedEx Thursday for delivery to your office on Friday. Let me know and I will make the arrangements.

You will be receiving good varieties: Goliath, Big Beef, Belgum Giant, Dona and Kastalia, I can ship with a cool pak and I think they will be alright. These tomatoes have been enhanced over the years with gin trash as a soil additive. Therefore these babies represent some of the finest cotton plantations in the Mississippi Delta-- Egypt, RackRent, Archerletta, Holly Grove, 4/5's, Equen, etc, etc.- Webb

Marley's reply: 

People are asking me what gin trash is.  I told them it is a euphemistic term for disgusting cotton hull sludge dredged up from the bottom of the Yazoo river!  Marley

My explanatory reply to Marley:

No, No , No!  Gin trash is the angel in angel hair pasta. It is the creme de la creme of soil additives. Certainly your friends have seen a cotton gin! They all have a long tall pipe that extends out of the gin to the backside of the gin lot. This pipe sucks up all of the trash in the gin after the cotton has been processed. It sucks up all that is left on the gin floor- cottonseed hulls, wasted fiber, and mainly the dirt from the plantations which produced the cotton. This trash is blown out of the long pipe and makes a huge mound, or pile, of gin trash on the back of every gin site. Evidently there is no other commercial use for this stuff except for eccentric tomato growers. The big pile of this stuff, which accumulates from year to year, makes huge mounds which are left out side in the open to rot, or compost. I am very particular in the "gin trash" I use as a soil additive to my crop. It must be at least three years old and relatively weed free. It must be well composted and crumbly to the touch, and it must be cost free to me. I have been very fortunate over the years to have befriended most of the managers of gins in and around Greenwood and they have allowed me to selectively choose the trash I take. My trusty friend, Boone, and I travel in my old pickup truck (inherited from my cousin. Earnest, Jr. from Inverness) with a shovel and a pitchfork to harvest this most essential additive to my garden. We have been doing this for many years. Therefore I consider my tomatoes to have a part of the whole Mississippi Delta in them. Gin trash is a specifically definable commodity, which does not come from the bottom of the Yazoo River. –Webb

BUILDING A RAISED TOMATO BED

My hat's off to John Doty Porter, his son, Doty and three of his excellent farm workers. They have furnished me with all the materials for my new tomato bed. The new bed is 20' x 8' and is constructed with old railroad ties from the Illinois Central Railroad. A huge flatbed truck arrived in my back yard fully loaded with the railroad ties and pulling a dump trailer fully loaded with totally composted Gin Trash pilfered from the old Morgan City Gin.

With the expertise of the Porters' and their crew the bed was completed in less than an hour. The following photos are self explanatory and demonstrate how competent this crew was in this endeavor:

Now, all I have to do is add the oak wood ashes from our fire place and till the new bed to incorporate the Gin Trash into the soil. When finished this new raised bed will be the envy of every tomato gardener on planet earth! I think I made a pretty good deal with John Doty by supplying him a few tomato plants in exchange for the work done on this new bed. Don't you?

More on Gin Trash later.

SEEDS HAVE SPROUTED!!!

Week 1 after planting.

Exactly one week after planting the tomato seed have begun to sprout. It looks as if we will have a very good germination rate. Most of the seed are poking through the potting mix now and I'm  hoping that we have 100%. germination this year. If so I'll have to pot up over 200 plants.

Cherry Tomatoes- How 16 Became 20

If you are keeping up with my progress you will note that I have actually seeded 20 different varieties. In a previous post I described in detail the 16 indeterminate varieties. I have also seeded four different cherry tomatoes. I am sort of new to Cherries. I personally like them and keep a hidden salt shaker in the garden to eat them right off the vine. My old friend, Bobby Olmsted, likes them a lot and I try and get him a bunch or two each year.

This year I will try Black Cherry, Sun Gold, Supersweet 100 and Riesentraube. Black Cherry is a large dark fruit and is really tasty. Sun Gold, like its name is golden when ripe and very sweet. These two are repeats for me and boy, are they prolific. I am trying to find a real good red cherry to go with these two must grow varieties and have been unsuccessful in the past. This year the reds will be Supersweet 100 and Riesentraube. What I am shooting for is a colorful medely of black, gold and red.

I am partial to a recipe using ripe red cherry tomatoes which we served at my daughter's wedding:

Lansdale's Wedding Tomatoes

Fresh red cherry tomatoes
Kosher salt
Vodka
Toothpicks

Harvest fresh red cherry tomatoes. Stick several holes in each tomato with a tooth pick and soak overnight in a copious amount of good vodka. Chill in ice box. Drain vodka and save for Bloody Mary's. Serve soaked tomatoes with toothpicks and Kosher salt. These appetizers will have your guests in interesting and exciting conversation in no time. For more great recipes...see my daughter's food blog: Sweet Salty and Southern.