PlanterTomato Vegetable Gardening

Oats on the Way: An Experiment Growing Grain In Suburbia

In the fall of last year, I planted a small amount of oats as an experiment to see if I could overwinter them.  As the days have gotten longer, the oats are now shooting up.  In this posting, I'll let you know a little bit about timing a grain harvest.

I've never grown grain other than corn until this past year, so I've been watching the progress of my first crop with great enthusiasm.  Because I want to process the grain with a minimum amount of effort, I'm growing a variety of oat called Avena Nuda, which goes by the common name "hulless oats."   Actually, the oat does have a hull but it is much more delicate than traditional oats and can be removed by simply rubbing the oats between your fingers.    This weekend, I checked the oats and determined that they are not yet ready for harvest. Here's how you tell...

 As grain matures, it moves from a "milk" stage to a "dough" stage and then finally to a stage when the grain is hard called "dead ripe."  The milk stage is immature; when you press on the grain, a milky fluid will emerge from the kernel.  At the dough stage, the kernel is soft and can be dented with a fingernail, but there is no milk present.  Finally, at the dead ripe stage, the kernel is hard. 

Oats are harvested when the kernel is at the dough stage.  This is usually when the oats are 2"-5 feet high and the leaves of the plant have begun to turn brown.  Once harvested, the grain is cut, tied in bundles and allowed to cure where it will not be rained upon for several days to several weeks depending on the temperature and humidity.  When the grain reaches the "dead ripe" stage, it is ready for threshing.

Below is a close up photo of one of the kernels.  I could tell from the color it was not ready yet, but for the purpose of illustration, I pressed down on the grain and it did in fact prove to be at the milk stage.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of this first grain harvest and let you know how to thresh and grind grain.  Hopefully, this will inspire you to add grain to your garden as well.

 

Safer Brand $500 Giveaway

Safer Brands, a company that offers organic pest control solutions for gardeners, is running a promotion.  You can win a season's worth ($500) of organic lawn and garden pest control by entering.  The link to the promotion is below:

Safer Brand Promotion

Native Plants For Pollinators By Zip Code

My wife came across the Pollinator Partnership web site and I'd like to pass it forward to PlanterTomato readers.  The Partnership's mission is to promote conservation and to promote the health of pollinators that are critical to food and ecosystems.  The partnership has an on-line tool that uses your zip code to generate a list of native plants are good for pollinators (bees, bats, beetles and other critters)

The tool is very simple to use.  Just enter your zip code in the box.

And then the tool tells you your ecosystem.  In my case, it is "California Coastal Chapparral Forest & Shrub." 

Then download the PDF for your ecosystem and your given a wealth of information including a table which explains which native plants will do well in your ecosystem.

You can access the tool at the Pollinator Partnership web site.

Great Gardening Gifts For Mother's Day 2011

This year, Mother's Day falls on Sunday May 8th.  With the holiday just around the corner, I thought I'd provide a list of gift ideas for your special gardener.  Here are my top ten Mother's Day Gift ideas.  They range in price from $10-$200.

 
Salt & Pepper Shakers -These salt & pepper shakers in the shape of watering cans are a nice table addition for the dedicated cook and gardener.  There are $31.95 from Cooks Garden.

A Garden Hod - I have one of these garden hods and love it.  It's a wood and wire basket used to transport tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, lettuce and other veggies from the garden to the kitchen.  The wire mesh of the basket is a nice feature because any soil clinging to harvested carrots and beets that gets deposited in the hod can removed by simply washing the basket with your garden hose.  It's $41.95 also from Cooks Garden.

Garden Scoot - This garden tractor lets you work in the garden while sitting close to soil level.  In other words, it takes the load off your back when planting, harvesting and weeding.  The tractor also includes two baskets so it makes it easy to transport tools, seed packets and other gardening supplies to the area where you are working.  The scoot costs $99 from Gardener's Supply.

Tea Rose Perfume - Tea Rose is an oldie but goodie.  If you are a rose gardener, you'll love this perfume.  The fragrance is that of a bouquet of roses accented by notes of chamomile, spices and exotic wood.  And as fragrances go, it's really quite inexpensive.  Just $10-$28 from Perfume.com.

Mango Body Gel & Scrub - Rose scented perfume is a bit of a stretch as a gardening gift but with this one I'd admit I'm out on a limb.  Mango smelling body gel and wash is still a very nice mother's day gift.  The set includes shower gel, scrub, soap and other nice stuff.  Just $35 from The Body Shop. 

King Sized Hammock -  After a day gardening Mom deserves a bit of a break. Here's a really nice way to relax.  All you need now is a big cold glass of iced tea.  This jumbo sized hammock measures 82" x 65" and is $199 from Sharper Image.

 
Felco Prunners -  These pruners are the gold standard.  They are made in Switzerland and are of extremely high quality.  You can take them apart to clean them and the blades are replaceable if they are too old or worn to be sharpened.  Buy them once and own them for life.  Felco Pruners are $54.95 from Gardener's Supply

Self-Watering Tomato Planters - I'm really a big fan of these self-watering planters.  They are great for new gardeners and those without much space.  However, they are also a nice for seasoned gardeners who want to squeeze in a few more tomatoes into the garden plan and don't have any space remaining in a traditional or raised bed.  These planters can be placed on a sunny patio or deck.  This Tomato Success Kit comes from Gardener's Supply and is $64.95

Chef's Knife - This 10" knife from Fibrox is made in Switzerland by Victorinox, the same folks who manufacture swiss army knives.  Fibrox gets rave reviews form cooks for their sharp, stainless steel blades and comfortable handles.  Below is a video of a Chef using a Fibrox to cut an onion.  As they used to say in the TV infomercial, "The only tears you'll cry will be ones of joy."  Well, you get the idea. $34.99 from Swiss Outpost.

   

 

 

Pen Knife - This is a nice item for Mom's key chain.  It the classic pen knife made by Swiss Army in Switzerland.  Just $14 from Swiss Outpost.

Happy Mother's Day to All from PlanterTomato.

Ten Steps To Installing Bees In Your Beehive

In my last posting, I described what you get when you purchase a "package" of bees.  In this posting, I'll tell you had to get your new hive up and running.

Prior to receiving your bees, you should have your hive equipment prepared and ready to go.  For more information on this subject, check out my posting on Equipment You Need To Keep Bees.  When your package arrives, the queen will be in a queen cage located within the larger cage or package.  The exit hole from which you will extract the worker bees  from this larger package will be on the top.  It will be blocked by the can of sugar syrup which is used to feed the bees during transit and also a barrier so that the bees can't escape.  The queen will be located within the package in a separate queen cage.  Generally, the queen cage will be hanging from the top of the package with a wire or plastic tab. Now the fun begins.

Installing Bees In Your Hive

1. The bees will be clinging to the top of the package near the can of sugar water.  If you remove the can, the bees will immediately begin to fly out.  To slow them down, bump the package firmly on the ground.  The bees will fall to the bottom of the package.
2. Remove the sugar syrup can which is blocking the exit door to the package.
3. Remove the queen cage from the inside of the package and cover the package exit hole with whatever is handy to keep the rest of the bees inside.  I use a ceramic tile.
4. Now remove the cork that covers the candy plug on the queen cage.  In some cases, your queen cage may arrive with a cork plug but no candy.  If this is the case, remove the cork and plug the hole with a marshmallow.  Be careful not to let the queen escape.
5. Suspend the cage between two frames in the center of the hive with the candy end facing upward.  If you have a screen and wood cage, the screen should be oriented so that it is not facing the comb surface.  This allows worker bees to attend to the queen through the screen until she is released.
6. Bump the package down again to knock the bees to the bottom of the cage.  Now remove the cover and spill the bees into the hive.  You should also spill some onto the queen cage.  (To make this process easier, remove a few frames from the hive and then replace these once the bees are in the hive.)
   
7. Cover the hive.  In my case, I use a top hive feeder.  This is a device that feeds the bees sugar syrup for the first few weeks while they build up their own food supply.  I then put the outer cover to the hive on top of the feeder.
8. Since some bees will still be clinging to the inside of the package, leave it near the entrance to the hive.  Overnight, the remaining bees should find their way into the hive.
   
9. After a week, check the hive to make sure the queen has been released.
   
10. Leave the bees undisturbed for the next 2 weeks, with the exception of adding additional sugar syrup.

Below is a video on how to install a bee package created by Penn State University.  They use a different style of feeder than I do, but the basic procedure for installing the bees is the same.

 

How To Install Bees In A Beehive Part I

Once the almond crop is pollinated in Northern California, commercial bee suppliers break up the hives and sell bees in "packages" to anyone interested in starting a new colony.  This generally happens in early to mid-April.  Last week, I picked up two bee packages and created two new hives.  In this first in a series of two postings, I'll explain what you get when you order a package of bees.

Components of the Bee Package

When you buy bees from a commercial supplier, they arrive in a small crate made of wood and wire mesh.  The package contains 3 pounds of bees (10,000-12,000 bees), a queen held in a separate queen cage, and a can of sugar syrup that has been punctured with a finishing nail and hung upside down inside the crate.  The sugar syrup supplies the bees with food and water during their journey to your home.  It escapes through the holes and clings to the lid of the can due to surface tension; the bees then lap up the sugar syrup as needed. 

  Photo Below Shows Can & Queen Cage In Place

As mentioned earlier, bee packages are created by breaking up a large colony of bees into many small packages which are then sold to bee keepers.  Large bee colonies can contain 60,000 bees, so hives can be broken up into many such packages.  However, bee keepers need both worker bees and a queen to establish a new hive and hives only have 1 queen.  So to get the additional queens necessary to create packages, commercial bee suppliers breed queens separately and then add one queen to each package. 

When your package of bees arrive, the queen is isolated in a smaller cage that is within the larger cage containing the rest of the bees.  Queens are kept in this separate cage because it takes time for the worker bees to get accustomed to the new queen.  During the transition period, which generally is about 1 week, the workers get used to the smell of the new queen (her pheremones) and learn to accept her. If the queen were introduced into the colony without this transition period, the workers would view her as an invader of the colony and kill her. 

There are several different styles of queen cages but all about 3 inches x 1 inch in size.  Some are made of wood and wire, others are made of plastic mesh.  Whatever the material, these queen cages have a whole in the top that will eventually allow the queen to escape.  The entrance is plugged with either a piece of hard candy or a marshmallow.  The bees eat through the candy over the course of several days.  By then, they have gotten accustomed to the queen and she joins the rest of the colony and begins to lay eggs.

In my next posting, I'll describe how to install a bee package into a hive.

New Grafted Tomatoes Promise Increased Harvests

Last weekend I attended the San Francisco Garden Show and saw a vendor selling grafted tomatoes.  In this posting, I'll describe this new type of tomato and its proposed benefits.

Grafting is the process by which two different plant varieties are fused together.  One variety is chosen for the "root stock" and the other for its fruit, flowers or leaves.  By combining two varieties in this way, it's possible to garner the desired benefits of both varieties in one plant; more specifically, the benefits of a strong root stock (disease and pest resistance, hardiness, growth habit etc.) with the benefits of offered by the second variety (usually type of fruit). 

Grafting is used extensively by fruit growers.  Most dwarf varieties of apples, plums and other fruit are created by grafting the fruiting variety on to a root stock that encourages compact growth.  If you've seen "fruit salad" trees that grow several types of fruit on one tree, these are also created by grafting. 

Below is an illustration of a grafting technique called cleft grafting.  This type of graft is accomplished by cutting off the top of the root stock plant and then creating a vertical slit in the stem. (steps 1-2)  Then the grafted top is cut from the fruiting variety and trimmed so that it is shaped like a wedge.  The wedge is inserted into the vertical slit in the root stock and the two plants are held together with a clip until they have fused together. (Steps 3-4)

Grafted Tomatoes

While at the San Francisco Garden show a few weeks ago, I found a vendor selling the Mighty 'Mato, a grafted tomato.  The root stock is a variety used by commercial growers of hydroponic varieties and is reputed to offer increased vigor, higher yields and resistance to early and late blight and blossom end rot.  Onto this root stock is grafted an indeterminate tomato variety.  Mighty 'Mato grafts include: Green Zebra, Costoluto Genovese, Jetsetter, Sunsugar, Yellow Mortgage Lifter, Momotaro, Big Beef, Brandywine and Pineapple.  Mighty 'Mato can also be double grafted so that two varieties exist on the same root stock. Mighty 'Mato plants can be purchased from Garden Life.com.

Another source for grafted tomatoes is Territorial Seed Company.  They offer grafted Brandywine, Big Beef, San Marzano, Japanese Trifele, and double grafted Sungold/Sweet Million, Koralik/Legend, San Marzano/Viva Italia, and Brandywine Super Marzano.

Neither of these suppliers specifically states which root stocks are being used for their plants.  However, there are a number of common root stocks that are being used commercially for hydroponic tomatoes and it is likely that the root stocks for home gardeners are the same.  Below is a table of common root stocks and their disease resistance properties.

I grow tomatoes in containers and hydroponically.  I will do a non-scientific test of these grafts to determine if they produce better results than non-grafted plants.

If you have grown grafted tomatoes, please leave a comment so we can all learn from your experience.