Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!!

(Cherry Tomatoes, 11 Weeks from plant to Harvest)

     Everyone asks me when it comes to planting and caring for tomatoes, what are the best kind to do well in the desert. I always tell them, any variety you want can do well the trick is taking care of them and pruning the plant properly. I always prune the extra foliage, which was the technique passed down to me by my forefathers, in order to put the tomato plant into a form of stress. This stress will push the plant into producing more seed to ensure a future generation of crop will be available. When you do prune the plant, that specific site will be a future node for flowers to form. DO NOT throw away your foliage that is viable as a transplant. Simply shave a bit of the stem off and drop the plant in a bit of water so it can create fresh roots.

(Julietta and Caprese Tomatoes, 10 Weeks from plant to Harvest)

     Every single time I prune my vines that way I end up with an extremely healthy bountiful harvest, like in these photos. To ensure the plant continues its flowering and growth cycle I use another technique called "trench composting". What I do is find the main root mass in the earth and bury composting crops about 1-2 feet into the ground and bury it. This will ensure that the eggshells or rotting veggies with breakdown properly without any smell and that the plant will access these beneficial bacteria through their roots without having to stretch too far to find nutrients.

(Caprese Tomatoes, 10 weeks harvest from planting)

    I always say it is better to experiment with quantities of trench composting rather than not trying it at all. We all learn from mistakes and won't exceed our boundaries without a little experimentation and R&D. I hope this helped you with some information regarding how to care for tomatoes. Be on the lookout for plant care videos in the future. I promise I won't blast you with music this time :).

Happy Gardening!!

Farmer Jeff


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Indoor Garden Solo Cup Update: End of Week 3

Indoor Organically Grown Herbs, Tomatoes and Peppers

    Yet another week has passed us by and my indoor organic garden is looking greener by the day. All this growth is just making me excited to start getting on the ball with my outdoor organic spring garden. I will soon be thinning out and transplanting my peppers and tomatoes so they can all have enough space to grow correctly instead of being crammed together in one cup.

Organically Grown Garlic Chives, Christmas Basil, Italian Oregano, German Thyme, Common Sage, and Giant Italian Parsley

    You wouldn't believe how pungent these herbs are, it is quite ridiculous to say the least. My Garlic Chives aren't propagating as quickly as I would like them to, but patience is what gardening is all about. Considering how fast all of these herbs are growing, I would say that maybe in about three to four weeks from now these plants will have an amazing root system developed in these Solo Cups. I am going to be planting these on the outskirts of my raised garden beds to promote bees to come to my wonderful garden.

Organically Grown Carnival, Italian Pepperoncini, Giant Yellow Monster, and Early Jalapeno Peppers 

    These peppers are going to be quite the treat once I am able to harvest from them. I chose a diversity of colors and heat so that I have a variety of uses for them. Each pepper will mature at different times, which makes harvesting at different intervals key. Sometimes I let my peppers sun-dry on fishing line and crush them for later as a spice or use them for organic garden bug spray. (Only if it is a hot pepper)

Organically Grown Blue Beauty, Roman, Bloody Butcher, Super Italian Paste Tomatoes

     You barely see any vegetable gardens without tomato plants, they are a key staple. We use tomatoes to a variety of culinary uses with recipes from all around the world. Some of these tomatoes are different colors and sizes. I love growing "paste" size and cherry sized tomatoes, they make an ideal snack. These guys will be transplanted outside once they reach about two feet in height. Once spring comes, be on the look out! You'll see my tomato plants grow four times their original size!

    Well that is it for this update friends! Thank you for staying with me through my grow-log and my plants wonderful maturing journey. Hope it has been as much fun for you as it is fun for me. Until next time friends....

Keep it Green and Keep it Growing!

HyperSmash

Fall Mini Garden Update

Wow! My garden has been looking beautiful! Everything producing looks so vibrant and amazingly delicious! Look at my Santa Fe Pepper turn red, and more hot compared to the green variety. This would be a nice choice to use in guacamole, it has the right heat without overpowering the avocado and just enough to not make you tear or grab for your closest drink.

As I said, these are the milder version of the Santa Fe Pepper. I use these in my Ramen constantly, or I caramelize them with onions and eat that with sausage. These peppers are extremely easy to grow, all you need is; porous soil, manure, compost, and some care. It is probably the easiest plant I deal with.

The Thai Chili Pepper is a beautiful plant, but is extremely hot! I use gloves when I harvest off the plant or maintain it. I touched my eyes once after dealing with it, and I ended up pouring milk on my eyes and complaining constantly for about an hour straight. I use one chili pepper for salsa, if I used two I'd be screaming.

 My Thyme; completely common, it's found in woods up north of Nevada and other woodland areas. This thyme smells so great and can be used on anything pretty much. It's currently being populated in a new area of the garden so that's why it's not as clustered as before!

My French Pumpkins! These I planted hopefully in time for Christmas! I love pumpkin cookies, cakes, pies, shakes, teas, and bread! All of those things can be made from a fresh pumpkin as well. I get a nice crop and a beautiful plant to stare at until the crop comes. It's a complete win-win scenario. I'll keep you all updated about this specific plant until it's bountiful.

The Bloody Butcher Tomato, which is so-called because once you slice into one the juices flow out more than usual. This tomato is extremely flavourful and awesome in a grilled cheese, I promise you that! It takes about 80 days from flowering to get the full flavour and nutrient value from the fruit, but it's totally worth it. The plants kind of purple due to the fact of a colder climate.

Mexican Sage, how beautiful is that?! Just take a second and gaze at this picture, that's nature friends. Those buds slowly mature and dry into the sage we all use in our recipes. That process takes about 55 days to get really decent sized petals and you can dry them out in your oven on the lowest setting, just keep an eye on it time varies with altitude. Or you can let it dry by itself on the plant, then harvest when needed. So friends, that was fun going through my garden yet again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Until next time, Keep it Green and Keep it Growing! Ciao!!






HyperSmash

Man oh man! It's looking good!!

Hey guys! It's been quite a buy past week! I had my nine year anniversary with the love of my life and had a freak bit of thunderstorms hitting the Las Vegas valley. My anniversary was wonderful, but my garden didn't like the wind that came with the storms we had. I'm going to share with you guys a few photos of how far certain plants are progressing through this weird weather. Enjoy :) !!

Here's my straight-neck yellow zucchini squash that just formed the morning after another weird Las Vegas storm. 

 I picked this guy off the plant because it turned just the right shade of pink. I learned how to tell when it's ready for harvest through trial an error, lots of error. That's how we learn and improve :). 

These spicy boys are a real treat. They're called Santa Fe Peppers and get a real kick to them once they change to a red like you see here. If you are a fan of spicy peppers. I'd say give this one a go! 

Some beautiful Italian heirloom Roma tomatoes. What can I say? These are super flavourful and provide just the right amount of acidity to sauces, soups, and salads. 

This Cubanelle Pepper is one extreme eye-candy. I mean wow! Not only is it a mild sweet pepper. It's an awesome pepper for gourmet plating. Does quite well in the desert dry climate!  

Pimentos' are my top Five Spicy Peppers to grow. They are gorgeous and dreadful at the same time. Why did I say dreadful? Well, it's a super spicy pepper when matured, and with the ribs left in it. Watch out!

 It's an amazing thing to grow your own food. It has more flavour than the average market and more nutrients in them! Thanks for reading and enjoying these beautiful bountiful plants. Until next, keep it green and keep it growing. 

HyperSmash