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Unlike regular potatoes where you plant the actual potato to grow more potatoes, sweet potatoes grow best from sweet potato slips.
Slips are sprouts that grow out of an eye of a sweet potato. Most people recommend putting a sweet potato in a jar with water. After a few weeks eyes will show and the sweet potato will start sprouting.
Instead of using a jar to sprout the sweet potato, use a bowl and lay the sweet potato on its side. This way more surface area will be touching water and more slips will grow. Score for you!
Note that you should use organic sweet potatoes. Most store bought conventional sweet potatoes are sprayed with a chemical that stops slips from growing.
Once the slips are 6 or more inches, you can plant them to grow your own sweet potatoes.
If you are planning to make jam, you will need a lot of plants. However, if you are only looking to sprinkle a few strawberries on your morning cereal, 4 to 5 strawberry plants will do the trick.
When to plant strawberries?
The best time to plant strawberries, especially young plants is late summer, September is ideal. If you plant it at that time, you will get a crop the following year.
You can also plant them in the spring, but keep in mind that you will not a get a large yield the first year because the plants need time to mature.
What type of soil to use to plant strawberries?
Plant them in a sunny well drained soil with lots of organic compost. You can also use peat-free compost.
How to plant the strawberry plants?
If you are planting them directly in regular bed of soil, you will need more space.
Place them 18 inches apart in rows that are 3 feet apart.
If you are planting your strawberries in a raised bed, you can plant them a little bit closer. Plant them 12 inches aprt in rows that are 2 feet apart.
In containers and baskets, you can place the plants even closer to each other, about 10 inches apart.
When you plant them, make a hole about the size of the plant root and place it in the soil.
How to care for your strawberry plants?
As the plants begin to flower around April of May, Place straw underneath the plant. This helps the fruit from rotting on wet soil. It also discourages weed growth and it stops rain splash whcih makes the fruit go moldy.
If you cannot get your hands on straw, you can also use landscape fabric. Place the landscape fabric over your soil and make incesions for your strawberry plants.
In May, the strawberry plants will send out runners. You will want to cut off as many of the runners as possible, since the plant will send all its energy into growing the runners and not into producing fruit.
You can actually propegate new plants from these runners. So a good plan is to have multiple plants for growing fruit and keep one for growing runners, from which you can propegate from.
If you are growing strawberries in baskets and containers, you don't need to remove all the runners, but it is suggested that you remove at least half of them. Otherwise, you will end up with a small crop.
Strawberry plants are hardy, however you should water them regularly and feed them every 2 weeks with a good plant feed.
Slug and snail problems
If you have slug or snail problems, first check to make sure that your straw is nice and tight. If the problem persists, you can use coffee grounds, crushed shells or copper slag rings. Place these around the plants.
You can use slug pellets, but if you do, use ones that are approved for organic use, since they are much safer.
How to protect your strawberry crop from birds?
Use a frame mamde from bamboo sticks and netting. Make sure the netting does not touch the plants, otherwise, the birds will just peck through.
When to replant strawberry plants?
In the first year, you will not get a lot of fruit. In years 2 and 3, the crop will be excellent. After the 3rd year, your plants will susseptible to pests and diseases. At this point you will need to replace your plants and plant new young plants.
It is suggested that you plant strawberries every year and therefore as your old plants need to replaced you will always have young ones to take their place.
When to pick strawberries?
Strawberries need to be picked as soon as they are ripe and be gentle when you pick them since they bruise easily.
Upside down tomato planters are getting very popular. You can go out and buy a commercially made upside down planter like a Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter or you can make your own. Making your own planter is always more satisfying.
Before we continue, here are some of the benefits of growing tomatoes upside down.
No need worry about weeding and various ground insects. Your fruit can get heavy and you don't need to worry about your tomato vines breaking. Finally, the biggest benefit is not having to cage or tie up your tomato plant.
Here are the materials needed:
3.5 gallon bucket. DO NOT use a bucket that had chemicals in it.Try to fine a food grade bucket.
A drill to drill a hole in the bucket
Soil and fertilizer
Thin foam to keep the plant in place
Instructions on how to build your own upside down tomato planter
1. Drill a hole at the bottom of the bucket
2. Cut a hole into the foam
3. Place the foam at the base of the plant
4. Place the plant inside the bucket through the hole.
5. Fill the bucket with good soil and fertilizer
6. Hang your new upside down planter
Let us know if you had any luck with the planter in the comments.
The trench method of planting tomatoes encourages the growth of strong tomato plants. Strong tomato plants equals lots of fruit production.
The trench method is taking a leggy tomato plant and planting it in a narrow ditch or trench on the tomato plant's side. A lot of times when you plant this way you end up breaking the stem as you encourage the top of the plant to face upwards. Also, the leaves end up laying on the top of the dirt.
An amazing solution to the usual trench method problem is prior to planting it, lay the tomato plant on its side on top the the dirt for a few days. The tip of the plant will turn up. Once it has turned up, you can go ahead and put the plant in the trench. Very easy execution!
Do you have any other tomato growing tips or have any suggested improvements to the trench method of growing tomatoes? Let us know in the comments.
Tomatoes are one of the few plants that you can plant deeper than the original soil level. Where-ever the main stock touches dirt it will grow new roots. The deep planting allows your tomato plant to become stronger and produce more fruit.
We recommended that you use the square foot gardening method. The square foot method calls for one tomato plant per square foot.
You will need soil enhancement products for maximum growth of your tomato plants. Dig a nice hole that is twice the diameter of the plant base and add the following.
1. A handful of general purpose organic fertilizer
2. A handful of rock phosphate – place the rock phosphate in the bottom of the hole. The secret is that it has to go in the bottom of the hole where the roots are going to touch it. Do not just mix it in the soil, since you will not get the full advantage of using it. The rock phosphate will double your tomato fruit production.
3. A handful of Epsom salt - this will prevent blossom end rot and a bonus is that the plants also love it.
4. Two table spoons of Xtreme Gardening Mykos – Mykos is a mycorrhizae and it forms a bond with the plant's roots, feeding the plants
5. Two table spoons of Xtreme Gardening Azos
– Asos is a natural occurring bacteria. It also bonds with the roots and supplies the plants with nitrogen.
Once all your soil improvement products have been added be sure to agitate the soil. We can now focus on the tomato plant. Pinch off leaves that are going to be below the soil line. It will look drastic, but it will recover. Rough the roots up but don't stress it too much. Place the plant in the soil and cover it with dirt. Don't push the dirt down too much. Not more than you would push on your eyeball.
Let us know about the success of your tomato plants in the comments. Happy growing!
Growing your tomatoes upside down is not only fun but also allows you to grow your tomatoes in small spaces. This gardening video breaks down creating an upside down tomato planter in 7 easy steps.
Here are the steps to building your upside down tomato planter. You can of course buy one but it is all about DIY.
1. Get a 5 gallon bucket with handle. Also get a hanger for it.
2. Raid your husband's tools. If no husband or no significant other with tools, you may have to ask a friend.
3. Cut a 2 inch hole in the bottom of the bucket that your tomato plant will go.
Also drill 4 large drainage holes. You want to make sure your tomato plant has plenty of drainage. You don't want it to sit in water.
4. Cut a hole in a coffee filter. You can also use a cardboard. This will ensure that your tomato plant does not fall out while it is growing roots strong enough to hold it in the place.
Place your tomato plant through the hole.
5. Gently work your plant through the bucket hole.
6. Once the tomato plant is in the bucket, add soil.
7. Hang your bucket and water well.
Optional step 8 - if the temperature still gets low at night, wrap your plant in plastic to protect your plant from cold and keep it warm.
Let us know how you did with your own upside down tomato planter in the comments.
Planting tomatoes from seeds is an economical and fun way to get tomato plants into your garden. Of course you can buy ready plants but it is much more satisfying to get tomato plants from seeds and be part of the process from day one. This is especially satisfying if you are using seeds that you saved yourself.
Another fun part is that you can start gardening much sooner since you can plant the seeds indoors months before you can actually put them in your garden.
Materials Needed
Soda cups
Tomato seeds
A nail and hammer (optional)
Water bottle
Soil
Marker (optional)
Saran wrap
Directions for Planting Tomato Seeds
1. Make a whole at the bottom of each cup that you will be using for planting. This is so the water can drain. You never want your plants to be sitting in water.
2. Fill your cup with soil about 3 quarters of the way. This is a great trick to strengthen the plant once it starts growing. Tomato plants put down roots when they soil. As the plant starts growing you can fill up your cup with more soil to encourage the tomato plant to put down more roots and strengthen the plant for when it is replanted in the soil.
3. Make 4 wholes in the soil with your nail.
4. Pour some tomato seeds from the seed packets into your hand. If you got more than four, put the rest back in the packet. Put one seed in each whole you made. The reason we use 4 seeds in each cup is to increase our odds that we will get seeds that germinate. We only need one good plant for each planter. If more than one germinates, we will be able to select the best plant and thin out the rest.
5.Cover the seeds lightly with soil.
6. Using your nail and hammer, make 3-4 holes in the cap of the water bottle. Fill it up with water and recap the bottle. Use the water bottle to water the seeds. The holes in the cap will allow you water the seeds gently. Tip: Leave the water in your bottle for 24 hours before you water your seeds. This will allow the chlorine to evaporate. You don't want chlorine on your plants or seeds.
7. Label the cup with the tomato variety you planted. You can also mark the date you planted the seeds.
8. Put all your cups on a tray and cover them up with saran wrap. This will create a DIY greenhouse. A good place to put them while waiting for the seeds to germinate is on top of your refrigerator.
Enjoy and let us know in the comments how you did.
or you can make your own. Making your own planter is always more satisfying.
– Mykos is a mycorrhizae and it forms a bond with the plant's roots, feeding the plants
– Asos is a natural occurring bacteria. It also bonds with the roots and supplies the plants with nitrogen.
