Pruning and Repotting...

[MissS]

OK great, don't feed them anything else until we see how they are responding....

[murihikukid]

Patti...I have just had a friend looking at my plants and he thinks he can sell a number of them,,I put $5 on them to cover the pot and earth cost and he says they are a bargain....I note how the stems of the DEc 6th propagated plants have really thickened up and i am thinking that this surely must be due to the change of soil??? I transplanted them into...Last nights sole leftover in the propagator .....I put in a pottle and used the Super Soil (minus the big pieces of wood etc) to plant them in not Yates premium Potting Mix ...so Its going to be interesting how it goes ...I suspect that this plantling may be quite different to anything else I have grown....Its 7pm and I am finished for the day..I need the sun to give them a boost tomorrow....
Have you ever grown a Juanne Flamme .....Mine are like Sweet 100's ??? maybe they are Sweet 100's ....and my Stupice are not good....They are the only variety from last years seeds that I have retryed and I had failures propagating and now that I have successfully propagated 3 of them I would swear they are already diseased....I am still sure the seeds sold to me in 2015 are no good...I will keep inspecting them as they grow....
I have changed...I have no problem picking off lower branches that show any sign of disease ...They have to be removed...I am planning to remove the bottom leaves on my young ones when I transplant them and plant them deep with a higher soil level in the pot...plus my super TT Laterals ?? well the roots they have on them is amazing ...Whether this will give them a start when potted in soil I do not know but with Myco applied it will be very interesting watching them grow..Regards Ron-

[MissS]

Ron, I suspect that you are having such good luck with your Super Soil because it does not have the wetting agent in it. Your soil is more porous and allows the roots to breath better. The moisture control crystals are really not very good for growing tomatoes who like it moist but can not tolerate wet feet.

I have grown Juane Flammee. It is a very good 2 oz orange fruit. It can not be mistaken for Sweet 100 because it is orange and Sweet 100 is red. Juane Flammee is also larger than Sweet 100 which is a cherry.

Not all tomato varieties do well in all areas of the country. Let's just say that Stupice does not like your growing conditions and take it off your 'grow list' and put it on the 'not for me list'.

I am quite glad to hear that you are just picking any suspicious looking leaves off right away. It is as it should be to prevent any huge out-breaks of disease and it will not harm your lovely plants.

Your TT laterals should do well. They would have done better if you had started them in soil. When you switch from water to soil the roots are facing all new conditions and they struggle for awhile until they can strengthen up. If started in soil, the roots already deal with the challenge of making their way through the soil, so they start out much stronger that those that have no resistance in the water. All meaning, cuttings started in water have weaker roots because they have not experienced any resistance.

[murihikukid]

Patti..Just been out for the morning checkup and see no problems...Even my self watering WM drum appears to be working ...although only 1/4 full of soil I can feel dampness round the wicks so I think it is drawing up water from the tray... actually 4 wicks may be too many ....now to decide what to plant in it for a real test but surely it has to be a Tasty Tom??

Re the Juane Flammee...Yes I know its orange ...what I was referring too was the rambling nature of the stems to me was very similar to the Sweet 100 plus both have got Powdery Mildew which I should be able to keep under control...I am wondering if these types of plants need special pruning as stems appear from everywhere........Re Stupice ..what I have read it should be ideal for our climate ...
Its a reasonable day so far so I hope to exchange the glass doors on the roof.... then I can see about fitting a sliding door across my entrance...

No sign of my Myco yet ...do not know if its been dispatched?? I do not like holding back on the transplanting of my plantlings as they will surely get rootball if they are not done soon and I was hoping to be able to apply Myco during Transplanting...I have some important plants in the last 25.....

I must also find my "Kiev" seeds and grow 2 or 3 after a bleach wash ....and see what they produce ...I really liked the sweet current sized fruit they produced last season which of course told me they were not Kiev plants...Last season was a complete disaster and I wonder if I should retry about 3 or 4 varieties and see what happens...Box Car Willie ,Admiral Lincoln,Arcansas Traveller were three but the fruit were taseless ..however as I understand this could have been due to the problems in the greenhouse and not the variety itself...Anything I do try .....the seeds will be washed in a weak bleach solution...

I feel its best to find these things out now ...not next season....It would be a beautiful day if it was not for the wind which still persists.....
Regards Ron

[MissS]

Hi Ron, yes your rambling plants need you to take a firm hand with them or they will soon be overgrown and come down with a case of powdery mildew. You not only need to keep the suckers in check but also thin out the foliage from time to time too.

I was wondering if 4 wicks was too many. I have never heard of anyone using four of them before this.

Ron, I disagree. I do not think that starting your Kiev is for the best this season. In fact I think that it is a ridiculous idea. You are now heading into your fall season. Your growing season there is more than half over. Your daylight hours are getting shorter. You are starting plants like you think that the summer will never end. Your growing season will be ending in about two months. Two months is not nearly enough time for you to grow a plant from seed to fruit. I truly think that you ought to put this off until next year. What would be the difference anyway. Every year I put plants on the list that never make it into a pot. That is what keeps us going each year. Every year we still have new things to try and new varieties to grow.

Cheers ~ Patti

[murihikukid]

Patti..What a day ...I had everything written out and somehow it was all deleted ....So I am so tired and sore from falling over heres whats happened...You may recall a Soil company picked up a small sample of soil from me...That came from a seedling pottle...(Yates Premium Potting Mix ) Well today they returned with 1/2 a bag of a specially prepared soil mix containing Myco ,Trace Elements etc and told me it was free .....Now I do not know what the soil has in it but I was warned that I have to be careful as its very powerful...The man looked at my plants and said do not use over a tablespoon per plant and I presume tablespoon was for the WM drum and the plastic containers being smaller I would reduce it accordingly...
He said try it on 3-4 plants and see how it goes???
Thats about all I recall....

Just after this I received the invoice for the MYco etc from the other place $150.01 so I have just paid it...Apparantly it will not be down for a few days??
******Our 10/25 is drying at the moment, as soon as it is dry enough (next day or two) we will get your order off to you.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

Regards
********
Also from their email on the 14th....
*********
Hi Ron

What soil are you growing your tomatoes in ? Are they in the garden in that original soil which assumingly has been modified ? Why I ask, for all our recommendations are based on building up the mineral structure of the base soils. This is always the skeletal framework to any growing at any scale. Once the mineral structure has a good balance all else is easy.

Beyond that, if you have all that already in place and you are happy with it feeding and microbes can be added. Microbes will do well in compost covered with mulch. Best mulch is very old 3-4 yr old straw, oat, barley, lucern etc

********
I sent a makeup of the soil as given to me by the supplier....


I am still no further ahead and my seedlings are growing so fast in their small pottles....

After promises of help I ended up removing the glass door by myself then fell over and could not get up so had to set my emergency alarm off for an ambulance....Thankfully and finally a neighbour came over and got me up on my feet ...So i carried on and then belatedly the ambulance arrived...


So later I will have to get the new glass door completely into the roof...But I would not have a clue what to do now with my plants ...and having two different Myco's will only confuse the situation...


Regards Ron

[MissS]

Ron, I have replied to your PM. What I did forget to say was that you do need to concentrate on reducing the number of plants that you have or you will be having a huge disaster on your hands in the very near future that I just will not be able to help you with. There are too many plants in your greenhouse and they are only getting bigger by the day. If you can not find homes for many of these by Monday, then you need to dispose of them. You can save the pots and the soil for next year.

Regards ~ Patti

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by MissS

Hi Ron,

I was wondering if 4 wicks was too many. I have never heard of anyone using four of them before this.

Cheers ~ Patti

Patti ...What would you suggest ? Do you think 2 would be enough ...I cannot do a thing here until i get a couple of minutes of help?? or go ahead and sprinkle a tablespoon of the mix given to me on the top of the soil and water it in..These are not seedlings but 3 feet tall plants.....I wish the myco was here so as I could do what I want to do...I still do not know what the 10/25 is for ...its all so confusing now....BTW I did get a reply from Jobes ...they do not sell their products in NZ....Ebay sells Jobes products which could be another method but would any seller send to NZ and would it even get to me......Ron

[MissS]

Well I have only heard of people using one wick in the center of the pot, so given the way that you have arranged the holes, I would go with using the two or the far side of the pot may not get any moisture.

As I said in the PM, I would not start out using 1 tablespoon of this on each plant. I suggest starting out using 1 tablespoon to 1 gallon of water, mix well and then water your plants. Do not use the whole gallon of mix for 1 plant either. Just give it enough to moisten the soil. The fungi spores are microscopic and will make their way down to the roots with the watering. Take things slow and easy until we figure things out. These are all new products to you. They have not said that it does or does not contain a fertilizer. They have only implied that it does. Give it a week to 10 days and see if you can see any white threads forming in the soil. If you can, then things worked out just fine. If not, you can add more. Keep what you do not use in your refrigerator. Do not feed these plants anything for another week and consult me before you do...

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by MissS

Keep what you do not use in your refrigerator. Do not feed these plants anything for another week and consult me before you do...

Patti I have already given 4 drums each a table spoon sprinkled on the top ...I hand ruffled the top of the soil and then gave them each 2 litres of TAP water...??? So one can actually see this when it grows..is it like a spider web growing in the roots??

I am going to water my plants later...with water...

Now do you mean put the bag in my food refrigerator when I do not know whats in it???
Cheers Ron..

[murihikukid]

Originally Posted by MissS

Well I have only heard of people using one wick in the center of the pot, so given the way that you have arranged the holes, I would go with using the two or the far side of the pot may not get any moisture.

As I said in the PM, I would not start out using 1 tablespoon of this on each plant. I suggest starting out using 1 tablespoon to 1 gallon of water, mix well and then water your plants. Do not use the whole gallon of mix for 1 plant either. Just give it enough to moisten the soil. The fungi spores are microscopic and will make their way down to the roots with the watering. Take things slow and easy until we figure things out. These are all new products to you. They have not said that it does or does not contain a fertilizer. They have only implied that it does. Give it a week to 10 days and see if you can see any white threads forming in the soil. If you can, then things worked out just fine. If not, you can add more. Keep what you do not use in your refrigerator. Do not feed these plants anything for another week and consult me before you do...

Patti ..To be honest I cannot recall what he said ...He arrived at a bad time and did he actually know himself ...I recall him mentioning one tablespoon and burning...Perhaps I should ring them up ...It was really good of them to give it to me and deliver it...I will keep an eye on the 4 plants I sprinkled it on........I was relying on the other stuff to arrive with days so I am not happy cause my seedlings are growing far too fast in their small pottles.....
Cheers Ron

[MissS]

Most people wait to get the answer to their questions before going ahead and just doing something. That way they they have a better idea of what they are doing and what might happen as a result of it.

Yes, seal up the bag tightly and put it in your fridge. While you did not pay for this one, you paid an awful lot for the next batch coming. I think that you ordered enough for an acre of plants and this does not have the longest shelf life.

Cheers ~ Patti

[murihikukid]

Patti... The bag is 20k...As he said it will last me for years (which it will)...I got the impression it was put together as an experimental mix ??
The problem is now that at long last we have tomato weather (indicated by Marley being outside all night) so I will not know if its the Myco mix or the weather....I used my original Campari and Black cherry for two of the 4 drums I sprinkled and they are looking really good this morning but surely its too soon to tell what if anything is happening...

My focus is now on my seedlings and getting the house de tomatoed?.....I think I am going to just run out of my super soil...for their repotting....I wonder if I can compliment with what I have with other mixes that are taking up space like Seed raising Mixes...Tui's Tomato mix etc ..the super soil would of course be the major part...

I wonder if you ever have this problem...I grow my seeds and carefully follow their progress marking every pot so I know what they are and I end up with at least 4 standout plants that really do not look as though they are marked correctly ....EG I have two Sweet Scarlets that I think look like sweet scarlets and I have another sweet scarlet that is completely different to the other two...
And powdery mildew ?? well I have it on my seedlings.inside...But having sprayed plants with milk I am amazed at how healthy the plants look the following day in the leaves....Yes I realise unless one continues the milk treatment I think the Pmildew returns but it certainly brings to my mind should I spray the milk mix on other plants as well or am i just getting carried away...

As for my drum...Experiment..Yes the soil has dampened up nicely ...now its not too late to change this...I could put three wicks in a triangle pattern or 2 wicks...Three wicks would certainly give an equal amount of water round the drum....The reason (right or wrong) on not having a wick in the middle was to make the roots spread out to get at the water????

The crucial question for me is can I mix up a soluable fertilizer like Wuxel or Phostrogen and just put it in the reservoir Tray....Would certainly save me work and concern ...Of course the WM drums I am now using are ideal for self watering...simply because they can sit in a water tray and the soil level has a 4 inch margin IE the water level would have to be over 4 inches in the tray before the soil would make contact with it ....

Regards Ron

[murihikukid]

Patti..I require more soil???Never mind will bring home on bike in the morning all bagged up???....Now going back a few posts you mentioned about contacting a soil supplier ...I have one down here ..I bought some perlite from them....If you have a recipe I could make some enquiries with them although I cannot afford to buy soil every year...
I am transplanting my young ones....and finally I think I am potting them correctly.....I have found a number with Powdery Mildew on the growing leaves and the first set of true leaves and have cut them off....
As well as spending money I now know what I suspected for some time that a neighbours boy is stealing from my house.....

Cheers Ron

[murihikukid]

Patti....My Reistintraube??? My last plants are all of this size ....I wonder what to feed them with...CalMag?? I never realised they were a grape tomato??Cheers Ron