Heinz Tomato - Hydroponics Style

Heinz initiated a deal with Bonnie Plants to exclusively distribute some of their heirloom ketchup tomatoes to Wal-Mart.  I am unsure if this plant is a true heirloom, only time will tell.  But what I do know is this plant looked like a good candidate for a deep-water culture hydroponics setup.

The setup was very simple.  I used hydroton as my growing medium here.

Seed Batch #1

I know this is not the cheapest way to begin growing seeds, but with the lack of free time right now I felt this would be the best alternative.  I purchased a Jiffy growing tray with 72 seed starting pods.  These were all planted on 2/25 indoors.

Cantaloupe - Hale's Best Jumbo

Watermelon - Congo

Tomato - Brandywine

Squash - Dixie Hybrid

Carrot - Danvers #126

With the exception of the squash, the other seeds are heirlooms.  I believe heirloom seeds play an important role in improving self-sufficiency.  Remember, seeds from heirloom varieties can be planted to grow into the parent plant!

The plants will remain in the tray until all chances of frost have disappeared.  Many of these will go into the ground, and the rest will go into a hydroponics project.  Future posts will compare the results.

Starting Avocados From Seed

Have you ever seen a full grown avocado tree?  They are huge and can provide hundreds of avocados ready for the taking.  One of these would be great to have around the house.  The only problem is...  these run about 40$ locally for a small tree  2-3 feet in height.

It is possible to grow avocado trees right from the seeds, but whether or not they will bear fruit is the question.  Some folks online believe that these avocado trees must be grafted in order to produce.  I think the problem is most people try to grow one tree indoors, and never plant it outside.  With no chance of pollination, there will be no chance of fruit.  I'm gonna make multiple attempts at growing avocados from seeds and see how they do.

Wild Blackberries

I have discovered a plethora of wild blackberry bushes on the property.  My parents have one plant near their house and I was able to get several cups of delicious berries during harvest time.

If one wild plant has yields like that, what will several dozen plants yield?  I may try transplanting a few of these plants closer to the house to make harvesting more convenient.  The problem is these wild blackberry varieties should not be located near the ones I planted, because they will cross-pollinate and mess with the yield of my blackberry crops.

To increase the yield of the wild blackberries, I will try several things:
1- Remove weeds around the bushes.
2- Set up mini-trellis systems.
3- Install a small fence/net around the bushes.  To mitigate damage from birds, deer and hogs (I really doubt I can do this~ and I think these pests will be the bushes worst enemy)

Trellis Construction

I have constructed several trellises so far for the bramble bushes.  These have proved to be sturdy (so far) and will hopefully survive several growing seasons.

Materials Needed:

12ftx cedar 4x4 board
4x screw eyes 6x1-15/16"
16x gauge multi-purpose wire (80ft per pair)
16x 3 1/2" exterior nails
Concrete (10 lbs per trellis)



Step 1:
With a saw, cut your cedar 4x4 into a 6ft, 2ft (x2) and 1ft (x2) lengths.

Step 2:
Nail the 2 ft. length boards approximately 6 inches from the top of the 6ft board.

Step 3:
Nail the 1ft. boards approximately 30 inches from the top of the 6ft. board.  This will result in a 20" space between the two arms of the trellis.

Step 4:  Screw in the screw eye bolts onto each arm.  I put mine 3 inches from each end in the middle of the arm.  Make sure these are in tight because they will be holding your wires!

Step 5:  Dig a 16" to 24" hole to install the trellis.  I spaced mine approximately 20ft apart.

Step 6:  Put the trellis in the hole and fill with concrete.  Grab a level and some small boards to prop your trellis up and hold it in place while the concrete dries.

Step 7:  Hook your wire up to the screw eye bolts.  Make sure the wire is tight, as it will hold the weight of your plants.

The Bramble Patch Part 2

 The materials have been acquired to complete the pair of trellises for the blackberry plants on the right side.  The bramble bushes prefer acidic soils, so I added pine needles as a mulch.  This will make the soils more acidic and keep the grass from competing with the plants.  I then ran the wires to tie the trellises together.

After installing the wires I carefully tied branches of the bushes to the trellis wire.  My goal here is to train the bushes to grow up onto the trellis.  This will hopefully make harvesting easier and improve the quality and quantity of yields.

The Bramble Patch

Today we set up the bramble patch!  We have 3 blackberry, 3 raspberry and 3 blueberry bushes in the front yard now.  Additional materials are needed to get the trellises made for the blackberry plants on the right. 

The trellises are spaced 20 ft apart.  There is about 8 ft. spacing between  the rows.

Here are the varieties growing in the bramble patch starting closest to our house:
Raspberries on the left.  Cumberland, Coho, Cumberland.
Blueberries in the center. Biloxi, Palmetto, Sunshine.
Blackberries on the right. Apache, Prime-Jan, Apache.

It would be nice to grow just one variety for consistency but multiple varieties encourage better yields due to cross-pollination.

We used an orbit drip system.  This is very efficient for watering the plants without watering the general vicinity.