Can you tell me your mom's secret on growing tomatoes
and them beautiful onions. I remember looking at her
tomatoes last year when you posted. I was just dreaming
mine could produce like that. Very nice garden and enjoy
looking at the pictures.

roper2008

Mom sends away to Texas for those onions for herself and
two relatives. She ordered 600 and planted 400 for herself this past year. Those big onions are wala wala. She works in the soil a little chicken manure and 10-10-10 fertilizer. She forms a 3 to 4 inch raised bed about 16 inches wide and plants the onions 8 inches apart, two rows in a bed with each row staggered. She weeds them and hand tool scratches the soil about every two weeks. Mom sprinkles them with fertilizer a week after she plants and once a month there after plus adds horse manure up until they are over half grown. When they are about half grown I start spraying them for blight.

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Tomatoes are Burpee Delicious and SuperBeefsteak. I can usually find seeds at Home Depot or Walmart.

These are delicious and Superbeefsteak
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This pic below is a row of 4 Delicious and 8 Super beefsteak. I plant
two plants in each hole when I plant. I dig a 12'X12' deep hole, mix into the loose dirt some horse manure 1/2 and 1/2, 1/4 cup fertilizer and one to two cups of mircle grow water mixed a little strong as per directions and add in each hole. With two to three inches of the above mixed soil in the bottom of the hole, I set and press the potted plant in and then fill around with the mixed soil. I try to bury at least three inches of the stem. Those hairs on the stem that get buried will grow as roots. After a week I loosen the soil and sprinkle a little fertilizer about a good 12' circle around the plant, place about two inches thick horse manure on top and cover with straw. The far 8 plants (super beefsteak) grew to over 7 feet high. Out of those 12 holes (24plants) as far as I could figure we got well over five bushels of tomatoes from those plants in that row. It wasn't a good year where we are. The beginning of the summer was cool and too wet which caused the tomatoes to come on late and some ended up ugly, but they sure were good. Almost all my plants collapsed from the weight when I failed to tie the stems after 2' up to the stakes with binder twine. I rap tie the plants weekly with yarn I buy at Walmart and I prune after they grow five feet, I used over 600 feet of yarn. One plant even broke the stake and fell over. I use chemical spray, mancozeb direction mix plus I add two tablespoons of baking soda to that mix per one gallon.
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Here's where I buy some of our seeds. The prices are right and prompt service. Last year I bought Honey and Pearl corn.
Best corn we ever ate. Unbelievably sweet and tender. That's the corn in the pics on my site from Twilley seed.

http://www.twilleyseed.com/ Download the catalog.

I ordered seeds from Burpee and Gurney in 2008. They flooded my email with junk weekly and sent catalog and other ads to my address weekly. I had to call to tell them to stop. I won't buy from them again. Besides, it's cheaper to buy seeds at Home depot when you can find what you want.
Always look for seeds early. I found the Delicious and Super Beefsteak at Home Depot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Moms Garden

roper2008

The seeds I buy at Home Depot are Burpee. I just won't order
from their website.

Onion pics...
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Wow, those are nice onions. Maybe I'll try that variety also. Thanks
for the info. I've heard chicken poop is one of the best fertilizers..
Thanks for the info..

Moms helper,

Have you always planted 2 tom plants in 1 hole? Do you prune your tom plants?

I was considering trying that this year to have more variety, but didn't end up doing it. I read somewhere else, that yes you will get less production from each plant, but since your doing 2 plants, it's more fruits combined than just doing 1 in the same space.

Thanks
Melissa

Melissa,

I posted an article from a commercial tomato growing newsletter/magazine about field trials with two plants per hole and they sure did get bigger yields doing that. I've bought transplants that had two or three stems in a cell and planted the whole thing with good results too.

Thanks so much Mojavebob. I'll search for the article.

Melissa1977

Here it is.

roper2008

I ask mom where she gets her onions every year. Here's the link. They come in bunches of 60 to 80 I believe. She has always had nice onions. http://www.dixondalefarms.com/
The neighbor next door has about 100 chickens. He uses the chicken manure on his garden but mom usually gets about 6 five gallon buckets from him for her onions. Yes, chicken manure is the best. Those rows are about fifty feet long so three five gallon buckets/row. You have to becareful with chicken manure because it is strong. The rest of the garden gets horse manure because I know a man that has horses and has about 40 tons on two piles at his farm. We use to use cow manure but it became scarce. Horse manure is just about as good as cow manure anyhow. The trick with horse manure is that it needs to compost for at least a year. Horses don't digest certain plant seeds so a year+ of composting rots the seeds. I also take a large garbage can (35 gal I belive) and put in two five gallon buckets of horse manure. Fill with water, about 30 gallons, and add one cup miracle grow and two cups epsom salts, stir and let it set for two weeks, stiring it every 4 or 5 days, before using it. We use that mix mostly on tomato and pepper plants..one quart/plant/week..but that mix is good for all garden plants IMO.
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disneynut1977

I planted 6 plants last year in three holes to try it. I got good results and besides I have to dig half the holes and planting this way takes up half the space. Think about it, there's no downside to planting two in a hole.
When planting seeds we use 12oz cups. We buy clear cups at Walmart. I take a stack of 6 or 8, turn them upside down and poke five holes in them with an ice pick. We fill them with potting soil about 2/3rds full and plant two tomatoe seeds about 3/4" apart about 1/4" deep ..no more. As the plants grow keep filling the cup up with potting soil to cover the exposed stem. The hairs on the stems will grow roots. The more roots the better. I built mom two grow lights. She also has a wood/coal burner in the basement utility room where the plants are. That room is generally 80*. The perfect temp for growing new plants. Plants love the good light and warmth to grow. Another thing..never feed new plants plant food..just plain water and not to much..just keep the soil lightly moist. The clear cups will aid in looking at the moisture and you can also watch the root growth. We let the plants grow to 9 to 12" before we pot them. I go to restaurants and ask them for or to save their plastic mozzarella containers. These are great for potting. These pots are I believe 1.5 quart containers 6"X6". I have about 150 of them I keep on hand. Store them away from sunlight when not in use and they will last several years. I stack them about 5 deep upside down and poke about 6 holes in them with a ice pick. To prepare the pots, I take a 12oz cup and fill hit hard packed with real damp dirt. I enclose the top with duct tape. I take the large pots and fill the bottom with a good one inch of dirt. I place the 12oz enclosed cup and place it in the middle and fill and pack dirt around the cup..pull out the cup. When we are ready to repot we just take the plants out of the 12oz cups and drop them into the large pots..compress them in, fill to top and lightly water then we put them into the greenhouse I built. I buy shish kabob sticks at Walmart for supports..98C for 100..tie them with knitting yarn. Remember ther are two plants in each pot. When planting to the garden we try to bury at least three inches of the stem for good roots and we prune off any branches touching or near the ground. As the plants grow I prune off the bottom of the plant up about 12". I start pruning off bottom sucker, not all, as the plant grows and towards the top after they start reaching five feet. If you prune alot you get fewer but larger tomatoes..limited pruning gives you more but smaller tomatoes. I take a middle ground. We had plants this year that I punned off the tops at near seven feet. If I wouldn't have they would have easily been eight feet or more. Two years ago we had a cherry tomato plant that reached 9'4" and was just loaded with tomatoes all summer. Hope this helps.

Grow lights. Almost all the plants were in the greenhouse by now.
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End of the year. The plants colasped from the weight and my failure to tie them up properly to the stakes. The blight had taken over too. It's an ugly seen but we still
harvested well over five bushel from those 12 holes, 24 plants even with the too wet and cool summer. Years ago Mom used to just give all the extra away. Two years ago I told her no more of that..too much work especially for someone going on 89 now. At least she gets someting for her efforts and mine now even if it comes out to 25 cents an hour. You just gotta love it. One thing is for sure, there is NOTHING like fresh food from a home grown garden!

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Here is a link that might be useful: Mom's Garden

Mojavebob, thank so much for posting the link. I saved it.

Moms helper, thank you so much for explaining it all. I may just finally try to do this next year. How far apart do you space you double plants from each other and how far apart are your rows?

"One thing is for sure, there is NOTHING like fresh food from a home grown garden!"
Perfectly said:)

Thanks so much
Melissa1977

disneynut1977

We never planted the plants closer than 2.5ft apart. If you have the room, 4ft is good for working around them. I lay out all the rows 3 to 3.5ft apart, 5ft for onions, so I can till in between them. We have two larger sections to the garden. The back section had a strawberry patch that I tilled under the end of 2008. That gave us room for 9 50ft rows of corn and plenty of room at the top for that row of tomatoes and peppers. It's so much easier to till, tie, spray and pick if you have a good amount of room. Anyone that works around tomatoes knows that brushing up against the plants will turn a pair of blue jeans green.

Lots of room
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I just have to tell you, I think you and your mom are wonderful. The garden is one of the prettiest one's I have ever seen. I am so envious of the room and the way you have planted it out. Thank you and your mom for the wonderful pictures. What great memories you are making. Thanks for letting us share in her garden. Cbad