A bountiful garden begins with good soil and healthy transplants. If you are looking at plants on our website, chances are you are looking for certified organically grown, which we offer. Our plants are raised with the best available organic soil mixes and are given a great deal of TLC. The varieties chosen are the best flavored, most nutritious and productive that I’ve found for our challenging climate. Organically grown transplants work with the natural microbes in the soil to absorb nutrients rather than being artificially fed.
The plants offered here for sale are in 2.5 inch pots. They are still in their vegetative growth stage at that point and will be poised to take off and grow in your garden and container. This size offers several advantages – they are easier to transport, easier to plant and easier to protect in inclement weather. While the large, fruiting plants are tempting – they never do nearly as well as the smaller vegetative plants. It’s kind of like the turtle and hare thing.
Growing tomatoes in our climate is somewhat challenging. It’s important to remember that peppers and tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and basil are warm season plants. In these parts of Colorado, sometimes the day-time temperatures are favorable, even in March. But, it’s the night temperatures that are important. The warm season vegetables want night temperatures above 55 degrees. That often isn’t happening until mid-June here. Only a night or two of chilly temps can stunt your plants for the season. On the farm we plan to plant warm season crops after June 1st. If you garden in the city and have an area that is protected from wind and isn’t in a low lying spot, you might be able to plant up to a week earlier. I recommend using row cover (white fabric for frost protection) over your warm season plants early on. This helps not only with keeping them warmer at night but with protection from insects, wind damage and hail. You can buy row cover online or at garden centers. We use PVC-C pipe over rebar to create hoops and string twine to support the row cover. Use bricks, rocks or soil to hold down the edges of the row cover.
Watering is a huge challenge here – the intense sun, dry climate and wind increase the need for water but most of us have heavy soil that holds more water than we realize. Using raised beds, adding compost and mulching all help keep soil moisture even, which is what the plants need.
Watering the plant at the base is much better than watering overhead ie with a sprinkler. Consider a drip system or soaker hose. Water quality is also important. Consider a rain barrel for holding water to off-gas the chlorine from city and capture rain water. Well water is usually high in salts in these parts, also creating issues for plants.
The best compost that we’ve found is the Ecoplus from A-1 organics. It is locally available, certified organic and low in salts, which is critical. Many organic soil amendments are high in salts that tie up nutrients and raise the pH of your soil. If you’ve had issues, get a soil test from CSU through your County Extension office.
Growing plants in containers is a great way to garden when space is small but plant selection and container size as well as soil mix is critical for best success. Use the largest size container possible for tomatoes – ideally a whiskey barrel. Roma and San Marzano tomatoes are most prone to blossom end rot (the blackened bottoms of tomatoes). It is a calcium deficiency but adding calcium or egg shells won’t help. It occurs from uneven soil moisture – too wet or too dry and during high temperatures. The plants simply aren’t able to move enough water and thus transport calcium to the developing fruit fast enough. Container tomatoes are more susceptible but so are peppers, zucchini and cucumbers. Consider trellising cucumbers for saving space and straight fruit.
Most peppers due well in a large pot and prefer a little afternoon shade. While they need to be moist, don’t overwater peppers initially but make sure they have good, even moisture as fruiting begins.
We have relatively few plant pests and diseases here. Plants that are stressed by weather or fertility issues are more susceptible to pests like aphids and whiteflies. Allowing parsley, dill, alyssum, cilantro and yarrow to bloom in your garden will feed the beneficial insects that help control these pests. For gardeners, the only likely tomato disease here is powdery mildew – it typically begins sometime mid-August following a cool snap. The lower leaves get yellow and brown splotches and eventually dry up, exposing fruit to sunburn. The appearance is the same as early blight on imaging. There are many organic anti-fungal treatments available, all best used early or as a preventative.
I am happy to help with your gardening questions as time allows. My commitment is to grow the healthiest plants possible to offer you the yummiest harvests possible.
Enjoy!
Claudia
