Questions for caring for my new garden?
Posted by pano | Under Herb Garden Saturday Sep 4, 2010Yesterday I planted two beefsteak tomato plants, a cayenne pepper plant and three June-bearing strawberry plants with a nice selection of herbs in between (chamomile, sage, basil, parsley, dill, etc.)
I amended the soil with some decayed cow manure and sprinkled the transplanted plants with warm water. Other than that, I haven’t done anything to them.
I was wondering if anyone knows if there’s anything else I need to do in the meantime. I plan to continue watering them for another week barring any rain. Thanks!
Continue to watch the weather in case of frost advisories (if there is one, the plants need to be covered to prevent from freezing).
Don’t over water, but don’t underwater.
If you plan on using chemical fertilizer, read the packaging to see when the best time for application is.
You may want to steak out your tomato plants now as beefsteak are large tomatoes. You can also pluck the bottom couple of shoots/leaves from the tomato plant to promote upward growth rather than outward.
There’s not really much else you can do. You can put some straw around them. That will help keep down the weeds and help hold in moisture, but I’d wait till the plants get a little bit bigger before doing that. Straw can attract cut worms or slugs which can kill your tomato plants when they are young.
Just don’t overwater the plants, that can cause the roots to rot. It won’t affect the tomatoes so much, but the rest of the plants especially the pepper and basil…watering it too much could drown them out.
If you have not worked the land before you may want to add more manure or a vegi fertilizer next week. Large amounts of water are the key to getting the plants rooted and growing well. Depending on the size of the tomato plants you might want to start training them to a stake or cage now so you do not have to worry about it later when extensive damage can be done easily.
Water is the biggest thing though.
you better find some stakes to hold up the tomatoes because those produces a lot of tomatoes at once and then they start leaning over and breaking. Strawberries requires more water then others and also water close to the soil and not the leaves or they will burn in the light. and irrigate your soil once every 2 to 3 weeks so the water and compost or fertilizer you are using can get to the roots. But don’t water them too often unless you are in that hot heat then you need to water it more frequently. hopes it works for you.
Be carefull for over watering. Damp conditions can affect germinations. Keep the soil moist and warm if possible. Constant heat is very important.
Marc
be prepard for another frost jeff,other than mulching to keep the weeds down ,it sounds like you got er going on.