Lessons Learnt Part Two

As some of you know, last spring was my first ‘real’ growing season in my Kitchen Garden, and I learnt some lessons and encountered some interesting problems.

I thought you would like to hear more about some of the trials and tribulations…

Managing My Tomatoes

1) De-lateraling Dilemma
To cut a long story short, I thought I had been mismanaging my tomato plants, but, it seems what I was doing out of instinct was infact helping and not hindering my plants.

All the tomato management information recommends removing all side shoots or laterals as they are called as they feel this improves the fruit quality and yield of the plants.

These shoots/laterals grow at the mid-point between, where a leaf stem meets the main stem. What I had been doing was, removing the leaf with stem that was attached to the main stem and not the side shoots, as it was the side shoots that had set fruit first, and I couldn’t work out why I had to remove them, as I would be losing tomatoes!

But. after a lengthy investigation and some VERY heavy tomato research material, what obviously happened I had left my side shoots too long before beginning the de-lateralling process.

From my reading I have found a long standing, but still very active debate on whether to remove tomato vine leaves of not. I like to see the leaves, but some times a vine can grow too many leaves.

This overloading of foliage, blocks the air flow and sunlight from the middle of the vine and results mainly in fungal and mildew diseases and lots of unripe tomatoes.

Some people I know, remove nearly ALL the leaves, and the vines looks terrible, but, they insist it helps get a bigger yield of tomatoes, helps with easy picking of fruit and reduces the risk of pest and disease attack.

I tried this with my Roma tomatoes, and although they looked terrible. They did have a good amount of good sized tomatoes, but they didn’t ripen that well, the fruits were pale and unhealthy looking.

Then, just when things were looking up, nearly all the tomatoes got eaten by brown caterpillars, which sucked the insides out of them. And I am still trying to find a name for these blighters!!!

So what I have found out is:

Research has shown that removing the leaves ABOVE the level of the ripening fruit actually REDUCES the yield.

However, it was found that there is no harm in removing the lower vine leaves as they turn yellow and, if the foliage does grow to mammoth proportions, as mine did, a gradual reduction is recommended, and to only remove the leaves that grow BELOW the developing tomatoes (as I inadvertently did)

2) Growing Them Upside Down
I have two cultivars which are as close to the original tomatoes as you can get, they are the ‘Currant’ varieties and they grow HUGE and produce tiny ‘currant’ like fruits by the bucket full. so many infact, I couldn’t keep the branches from breaking due to the weight of the tiny tomatoes.

These ‘currant’ tomato vines actually grew like small bushes and they developed such a dense foliage cover it was difficult to penetrate.

I had to ‘attack’ it several times and remove leaves, so that the air and sun could infiltrate right into the center of the vine and prevent mildew and other fungal diseases.

Also, as an heirloom variety, the vines grew very slowly to begin with and then suddenly ‘took off’ and once they started they just went on and on!!

This year, I am going to try and grow this variety in upside down buckets and hang them on the outside shed walls rather like hanging baskets. This should give them the room they require to spread out and make managing the bush habit a bit better.

I will also try and remove the tiny tomatoes just before they are fully ripe, as tomatoes will continue to ripen off the vine. This will give the newer fruits a chance to get some nutrients and sun.

Squash, Cucumbers and Zucchini

1) Growing Room
My squash, cucumbers and zucchini, and everyone else’s went rampant last spring. You couldn’t give them away!!

I learnt that these type of vines with a sprawling growing habit need all the room you can spare to produce to their hearts content.

This year, I am going to grow all three types in and around my orchard. This way, they can have as much room as they need. I will have to ponder on protection from possums and birds, may be I will put up a wire netting fence??

2) Thinning Foliage
As I have mentioned the vines can grow in a carefree manner, and rather like the tomatoes, the leaves can prevent air circulation, which in turn can cause fungal diseases.

What I did was waited until fruit was just beginning to grow, then I traces the largest leaf’s stem back to the main growing stem and cut it off there.

Removing the larger leaves like this helped the air to circulate, and prevented them (the larger leaves) turning yellow and rotting, they seem to have a hollow stem and hold water within the stem. And when they rot, this water makes the whole thing a big soggy mess.

3) A Second Harvest

I also learnt quite by accident how to get a second harvest from established vines. By cutting off all the long stems that have produced fruit, right back to the main stem. the vine will re-generate and produce a small second harvest.

Brassica Lessons

1) Blind Cauliflowers
This was a very valuable lesson and one I just stumbled across. You can actually tell by looking at your cauliflower seedlings if the will develop a ‘curd’ or not. (The ‘curd is what the white head is called) as some grow ‘blind’ and these ones will not produce a curd.

You can tell if you have a ‘good’ seedling by inspecting it before you transplant it, or if you have sown directly into the soil, inspect it when it’s about 8cm in height.

What you are looking for is a tiny central bud, this is the beginnings of the curd. You should find this at the point where the leaves join the main stem, any without this should be discarded. (see drawing)

2) Cauliflower Roots
Don’t leave your seedlings to long in pots before transplanting as this can ‘starve’ them of vital nutrients and prevent the roots developing correctly, the result will be the seedling producing a premature small curd.

3) Brassica Sacrifice
I had thousands of cabbage white butterflies, I know this because every time my dogs ran around the house, a swarm of white would surface over the fence.

It began as a job I was intending to ‘get around to’ but I never did find the time. I was intending to remove all the brassicas which had suffered the attack of the cabbage white caterpillar, they were unsightly and somehow upsetting.

What stopped me was, over the days it took me looking at the rapidly disappearing plants and thinking a silent ‘tomorrow’

I noticed a pattern developing, all the surrounding brassicas were intact, it was only the ones being systematically eaten that were really touched.

I did a lot of caterpillar squishing and garlic spraying on the untouched brassicas, over the weeks, but I noticed when they really attacked a plant, they would ALL attack the same one, literally, until only the bare stalks were remaining.

So, I thought to myself, leave them, if I remove the half eaten brassica, they will just move onto an new one. And it worked! Sacrifice the few to save the many!!

The other thing I noticed, was NOTHING grew underneath or around a flowering brassica, I have further read that the roots of flowering brassicas have a growth inhibiting enzyme, which is only present it seems during flowering. And it will take three weeks or more for it to remove itself from the soil after you remove the brassica, so leave re-planting a month.

Companion Planting with Marigolds and Sunflowers

Well, I can only say DON’T be misguided in to thinking Marigolds will be a good companion for your vegetables. In short, they won’t, and anyone who tells you differently could NOT have possible tries this principle out.

Marigolds secret a substance from their roots, like sunflowers and Jerusalem artichokes, which inhibits, no, definitely, PREVENTS anything growing in the near vicinity, in fact, they do this SO well that NOTHING grows in up to 4 feet of where they are growing..

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