gardening questions....please help me if you can!

[ProudGrandma]

I have tried to plant a veggie garden every year for years....and if I get much produce from it, I am lucky.  The biggest problem I have had was trying to focus on many different types of veggies and not doing well with any of them. 

 

I have made rasied beds....put a sprinkler hose across the boxes and put it on a daily timer...so watering isn't an issue...

 

This is my question:

 

I plan on doing only tomatoes and cucumbers.   So....what do I need to know to grow these 2 plants as successfully as possible.  I want to can both...so growing a lot will be helpful.

 

Has anybody ever used those "red" planters or sheets that supposedly help tomatoes grow?  Do they work?

 

Oh, I also have strawberry plants (june bearing) but I never seem to get many berries...this is our second year with most of our plants...and our third year with a few of our plants.

 

I want to be as organic as possible so I don't know what I can use to help my plants along.  So if you know, PLEASE share.

 

We live in zone 5 if that is important.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[athomeinMT]

Have you tested your soil? 

 

Getting my soil in proper shape to do what I was asking of it took care of my garden woes.

 

Test kits are rather inexpensive at garden or hardware stores and come with complete instructions for fixing any deficiencies.  The kits have charts to tell you the range of each nutrient for the type of crop so you can adjust each area for what you want to grow there. If you need all organic methods I've found that the local garden shop can always tell you what natural product to use in place of the chemicals the kit may recommend.

[icollectkids]

Have you tested your soil? 

 

 

yeah.. that. Figuring out your soil type and deficiencies in your soil will help big time.

[ProudGrandma]

I will do that....thanks.

[shanvan]

How much sun does the garden area get?  Have you really measured the hours of full sun your plants are receiving?  We did and found ours were getting far less than we thought.  Neighbors trees, our trees and shrubs grew and they now block sun that once helped the garden.  

[IdahoHomeschooler]

In zone 5 you likely be more successful with a really early tomato variety. You might have just enough time if you planted seeds now, otherwise look for mature plants next month. For cukes, try a bush variety, as they typically need less grow time before fruiting.

 

Honestly, though, both of these veggies can be difficult if you don't have enough sun, and enough nights above 50 degrees. You could very well do better buying the veggies from a co-op, in bulk.

 

I don't  know about the red plastic, as I suspect most of your difficulty would come from lack of heat, so maybe try black plastic. Since this is a home school forum, maybe have it be about science, and do some experimenting.

 

In your situation, which I actually am, as a fellow zone 5er, I would consider building cold frames over the raised beds. This would help "fake" more warm nights for them. Tomatoes and other sun lovers just don't take off here until late June/early July. If it cools off early, we often don't get very much of a tomato harvest. A cold frame would really help extend harvest time.

[Happy]

Yep both tomatoes and cukes love heat and sun, plus water. They also pollinate by the wind. If you aren't having much wind, give the plants a good shake every few days to move the pollen around.

 

Happy gardening! We are supposed to have a frost tomorrow night down here in zone 7b. Arrrrggghhh! I'll be tucking some sheets around my 'maters for sure.

[ProudGrandma]

sun, heat, water and wind....here in Nebraska we have ALL of those things...sometimes more than what we want (the wind part especially)...I am going to test my soil and see where that leads me.