By George! - A Blog!

Several gardeners have sown seeds provided by Native Seeds Search who generously gave them to us with the understanding that we would report plant behaviour ( yield taste, pest resistance and so on). The information collected will give them an opportunity to produce better catalogs in the days to come.  Please let them know what you found (either good information or disappointments) and send a copy to the editor of our newsletter.  We all would like to know!

In talking with our gardeners it’s obvious that there have been disappointments and I suspect that some wrong choices were made in the first place. A “native” seed is specific to a certain locality and if you garden out of that locality your “native” becomes an outsider, and it won’t do as well.  The word “native” does not guarantee  success unless it stays in its original surroundings or in an area where the surroundings are duplicated.  For example: you should not expect good results in Tucson for Hopi corn, or Prescott Heirloom tomato.  The growing conditions are too different. Yet you will meet with success when you sow seeds of Tohono O’odam Yellow Meated Watermelon (G3 in their catalog on page 16) and Tohono O’odam Brown Tepary Bean( PT75 on page 6).

The catalog helps you to make a right choice if you study the symbols of a mountain or a Saguaro before you get carried away by the magic of Heirloom or Native.  Don’t get lost by going too far away.

Another aspect of “native” varieities is the unfortunate necessity of eating the very first harvest after a summer of hunger. This is a survival technique of the family and it spoils the potential of developing a variety suited to short growing seasons.  Read the first two chapters of my book “Desert Gardening–Fruits and Vegetables” for a discussion of dealing with the ”short seasons” of desert agriculture.  When I was working with subsistence farmers in Tanzania it was an over-riding consideration to get them to look beyond their immediate hunger to a bountiful yield in the years to come by selecting early-maturing varieties. It was not easy for them to set aside even a handful of that first harvest for next year’s seed.

And we are no different!

We have enjoyed a beautiful spring but now its the official beginning of summer and there are disappointments lying in wait for us.  The heat of the sun kills pollen of our flowering vegetables–not all of them, just those that are on the edge of comfort.  The squashes, okra, melons Chinese pole beans ( a wonderful vigorous provider of summer protein) and black-eyed peas can take the heat and even need it.

The good times for tomatoes, eggplants and peppers is coming to an end.  The plants will not die, but they won’t produce and they become a disappointment. For the next two or three months they need to be protected from direct sunshine by covering the whole plant with an old sheet or “floating row cover” ( which is a light fabric that breathes, and it can be bought at some nurseries).  There is no need to build a framework, it’s so light that it can be draped directly over the foliage but it needs to be anchored with bricks so the wind won’t blow it off.

What is going to happen is that the plants won’t flower or, if they do, the pollen will be killed and no fruit develops.  But don’t be too downhearted because when the weather cools down in September those suffering plants will revive and give you a tremendous flowering followed by an abundant harvest that goes on until the frosts of December kill the plants.  It’s really the best time of their lives.

Meanwhile, a shade covering, good watering and a thick mulch over the soil will give them all the comfort they need.  One saving grace for tomato lovers is that the small fruited pears and cherries are not so affected–they will continue to flower and fruit under the shade cloth.

Our long-term strategy is to plant varieties that have a good foliage cover and whose fruit will be safe under it.  Those varieties that are pictured in seed catalogs as having their fruit displayed above the foliage may be good for milder climates, but are not much good for the desert regions.   The heat tends to give tomatoes a leathery skin and it does not stretch as the fruit increases in size.  They crack, some varieties more than others.  Anther long-term strategy is set out your plants as soon as warm weather starts in the spring giving your plants as long a period as possible to grow before the hot weather comes. And a third item is to plant varieties that grow quickly.  Even so, don’t be in a hurry to pick your fruit if you want a good-tasting tomato.  It’s best to have a fully ripened fruit that easily comes off the plant to get the benefit of super-tasting tomatoes.

We are now at the middle of summer and most gardens are planted with summertime things but there may be a few spaces open for additional plants. A fully planted plot is an efficent use of your imputs, the water, the soil amendments and fertilizer, your work, and the fertility of the soil itself.

Summer time vegetables are basically fruiting plants, the melons, tomatoes,the yard-long beans, peppers and eggplant, and okra.   Its best to bear in mind that their yields will be reduced  (at the expense of foliage) if the soil is too rich, or if you scatter a lot of fertilizer on the garden.  However, we do water heavily and that washes out the soluble nutrients.  If you think your plants’ foliage is too pale then you could give a light dressing of soluble fertilizer to correct it.  The best fertilizer we have found is Mac’s Magic Mix sold at Nate’s Nursery on Pima street near to Wilmot. It’s good and strong, so go easy. Apply it to moist soil , scratch it in, and water it in, too.  A pepper or a tomato plant  could get a tablespoon every two or three weeks.  If your soil  doesn’t need any more fertility and you use fertilizers of any kind your plants will grow lot of leaves, not flower so much, and you’ll lose production.

What can you sow or plant if your plot is not fully filled? Squashes and melons come to mind.  They will use up a lot of space, but it’s alright to let the vigorus plant wander into the pathways as long as they don’t invade your neighbors garden. Long  shoots can be deflected simply by carefully picking up the ends and laying them back into your plot.  The leaves look out of place at first, but they will turn the right way up by the next morning.  It is said, though I haven’t done it, that pinching off the ends of shoots stimulates side schoots and it’s these that have flowers on them, thus increasing yield. Insects will pollinate those flowers, but it’s not guaranteed and you’ may need to do it yourself.

The large squash flowers are easy to do by hand but the smaller flowers of melons call for careful use of an artists paintbrush. Start with the male flowers (those without an embryo fruit behind the flower) and swipe the center of the flower, picking up yellow pollen dust. Carry this to the center of a female flower (that has a baby fruit behind it) and the job is done. You’ll have a melon!!

Corn also carries male flowers (up on top) and female flowers (down below).  It’s a wonder of nature that a full cob of corn results from little bits of pollen actually growing down each of the  “silks” that protrude from the cob’s opening. It’s not an easy journey and you may need to place a fresh “silk” taken off the top of your plants and placed upside down on the silks down below.  Normally the pollen falls down through the leaves on a still calm morning if the plants are close together.  That’s why we like to sow corn seed in blocks instead of single lines.  However, summer’s heat can kill the pollen and that explains why some cobs are not always fully filled.  Some varieties of corn have the ends of the cobs protected by an abundance of extra leaves hiding the entrance.  This is good for foiling one of corn’s disappointing pests–the corn earworm. A moth lays an egg or two at the mouth of the cob and it hatches into a caterpillar that eats the grains, burrowing its way through much of the cob.  Closed ends means safety from the pest whereas an open end allows easy entry.  However, an open end allows good pollination. Watch for what happens and this will determine a variety you sow next year.  Actually, “next year” will come as an opportunity to sow a fall crop in August–in time for a Thanksgiving crop.

Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants flower all on their own–there’s no need to carry out pollination on them, though it does help to vibrate th stems, shaking the flowers, in the early morning.  Tucson becomes just a little too hot for good pollination of these plants in July and August and we get a poor production at that time.  Don’t worry, there will be  a wonderful resurgence of flowering in September and October.

Some years it’s good to cut back tomatoes ( about half way) during the hottest weeks and the quietest growth, in order to get new growth when the weather cools, on which fresh flowers are borne that give us fruit in November.  Remember that the Cherries and the Pears are not badly affected by summer’s heat.

Other plants that do well in the heat are okra and Chinese Pole beans.  If you’ve not enjoyed okra, try eating the tiny pods just after the flowers fade and fall.  They are not “gummy’ then. The Pole beans will keep you busy picking them.  Don’t let them get like a string of beads, from the seeds inside, but pick them with the dead flowers still on the ends. Eat them raw if you don’t like heating up the kitchen.

It’s a seasonal gardening task to protect the soil from the heat of the sun.  Alfalfa hay is the best material but any hay or straw will do. Never use Bermudagrass hay because it can often be  full of seeds.  And, if you do start a patch of Bermudagrass be quick to pull it out of the ground before it gets established and starts creeping through your garden plot.  Pulling it up usually leaves a little bit of roots to grow again. Don’t scatter the straw, but detach a flake of about four inches thick and lay it on the ground between the plants.  Benefits include cooling the soil, hiding the drip lines from thirsty birds and squirrels, providing organic matter and keeping fruit from resting on wet soil.

And all of this is a lot of things to do.  Work a little every early morning (instead of all Saturday afternoon!), wear long sleeves and a hat, drink a lot of water and go gardening with a friend.

Summer is with us now and we need to consider how and when to water.  It’s good to have an understanding of how we do this.

At this time of year always work in moist soil when setting out new plants.  Usually a drip irrigation system provides this but here’s a way that to makes sure there is an abundance of moisture around the roots.  Use your trowel to make the planting hole then fill it with water. Set out the plant in the mud pie you have made’

Also sow seeds in moist soil that has been “roughed up” a little to provide a receptive surface where the seeds naturally fall into the  soil instead of lying on top of it.  Avoid the traditional furrow that some books tell you to make with the edge of a hoe. That furrow forces seeds to fall to the bottom with one seed on top of another and so you get seedling crowding one another.  Sowing on the flat in a roughed up soil enables you to scatter the seed more effectively.  Sprinkle the area gently to wash down the rough soil and bury the seeds where they fell.

Sprinkling gently is best done by pointing the hose up in the air and letting the water fall like rain.  If you squirt downwards with the faucet fully open the soil will be washed away and the seeds moved into a heap.  Seeds will need daily watering, and perhaps twice a day if the weather in sunny and windy.  It’s best to cover the seeds with a box of mesh to prevent birds from going after the seeds and seedlings.  Floating Row Covers also provide enough protection and you can water through the fabric. As the seedlings grow you can stretch the interval of watering but it’s important to not let the germinating seed dry out, even for an afternoon.

When is the best time to water your garden–morning or evening?  A morning sprinkling gets the seedlings or plants ready for the stresses of the afternoon whereas an evening watering merely restores the plant’s condition after a hot day of drying out.  You’ll find that a morning routine gives stronger plants that grow more vigorously.

What are the signs that tell you that watering needs to be done?  Wilting is an extreme condition and plants should be watered before this happens.  Look at the new leaves of a plant that’s recently been set out to discover the effects of water shortage.  They will be somewhat dull in color and darker than leaves that are adequately supplied with water.  When water is provided plants will recover in all but the grossly neglected gardens

The soil can be kept moist longer if you use a mulch over it.  Take a bale of alfalfa hay ( the best of the choices and straw is in the middle of the consideration whereas Bermudagrass is decidedly the worst) and prise out a flake that is about three inches thick.  It looks like a square tile of  green material. Lay these on the soil, around the plants and over the drip tubing  and you’ve kept the fierce summer sun off the soil and the birds off the drip tubing, which they often damage in their search for a better drink.  Flakes like this will not be carried away  by summer’s winds as is a covering of loose straw.

Try not to coil garden hoses after you’ve done your watering.  If you do they become hard to uncoil with out getting the hose kinked.  It’s better to lay out the hose to a distant point and then double back to the faucet. Try not to shut off the flow of water with a valve at the end of the hose.  If you do use this convenience the hose will be under pressure and could burst if it’s a cheap one. Remember that our summer sun really cooks the water in the hose and you should not use this hot water on plants, but spill it out on a tree well.  Remember, too, that our water is often salty and if the leaves of plants are splashed they dry out with a salty residue that is harmful to new tender growth.  Here’s another reason to irrigate in the early morning!

How do you know you’ve watered by hand long enough?    Poke into the soil as far as the root zone. For seedlings, a short rod, such as a screwdriver, will do.  For trees you’ll get a better indication by using a three foot long piece of smooth re-bar.  Push it into the soil until it stops–and that’s where the water stopped!

Here we are at the beginning of May and the night temperatures read in the sixties and the day temperatures are in the nineties.  One result of these wide figures is that our soil temperatures hang around 65 degrees which is decidedly cool for this time of year.  Most reference books stress the importance of watching soil temperatures for planting and sowing success. There’s a table of appropriate temperatures matched against the main crops in my book “Desert Gardening–Fruits and Vegetables”.  It’s worth looking at this table.

Surprisingly, gardeners who set out tomatoes some weeks ago are happy about their growth, which even includes flowering and fruit set.  Peppers and eggplant are not doing as well nor are the seeds of watermelon and cantaloupe.  Some seeds of corn are growing well, but not all. And it’s all related to soil temperatures.

Good gardeners know that the soil in June, July and August is going to be too hot for comfortable growth and they plan to use a vegetable mulch such as hay or straw to keep the hot sun from making the soil too hot.  They also plan to use some kind of shade cloth to protect the foliage and the flowers and fruit of eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes.  Other summertime crops such as melons, cantaloupe and squash can take all the sun that’s going and no special treatments are called for.

But meanwhile we need to care for the soil if we are to stay on schedule for summer crops.  The melons and squash need a warmer soil and it would detrimental to cool the soil down with a mulch at this time.

Keep the soil bare for a few more weeks in order to get good germination and growth of melons and squash and other summertime plants that enjoy hot weather.  After they have germinated and grown a little it will be time to put down the mulch.

The best mulch is alfalfa hay because it is usually free of weed seeds.  On the other hand, Bermudagrass hay usually carries lots of seeds–and no gardener likes to have Bermudagrass growing in their plot during the summer months.  It loves the heat!  Alfalfa hay adds nitrogen to the soil as it decays, so here’s another good reason to use it.  Other materials are wheat, oats and barley straws

This time of year we change the cooler pads in preparation for summer’s heat and the pads look quite suitable for the job because they are covered with mesh to hold them in a nice flat shape–but they are not to be used because they have accumulated salt from last summer’s operation, and salt presents a major threat to good plant growth.

The best way to use these straws is to break open the bale into flakes that are about four inches thick and lay them down like tiles on the soil around your plants  They will keep the sun off your soil, protect your drip irrigation tubing from thirsty birds, rabbits and squirrels, and smother weed seedlings when they germinate. At the end of the season, when you need to rejuvenate the soil in readiness for a fall planting, a mulch should be sufficiently decayed to enable you to easily rototill everything into the soil.

But don’t hurry to put down a  mulch until you measure the soil temperature with a thermometer and you know that summer is finally here.

Spring has sprung—judging by the crowds of shoppers at our nurseries and by the gorgeous colors of bedding plants on the benches.  Stay calm and take your time to buy your plants.

Take a look at the roots, as well as judging the vigor of your purchase by the size and color of the green tops or the number of flowers.  It’s the roots that do the work of quickly establishing a transplant.  With a small bedding plant or a vegetable plant you can quickly discover how healthy your purchase is and how long it has been in its container.  Turn the plant upside down and tap it out by banging on the bottom.  Be careful not to make a mess and dont pull the plant out by its stem because this will invariably tear the roots.  Put it back with just as much care and inspect another.  You want roots that fill the container.  They should be spreading  all through the soil and they should be white and plump.  Brown roots that are flattened tell you that the plant has been there too long and probably has been over-watered, killing those roots that are now brown or black. 

With larger plants, such as roses or young trees you’ll have a tougher job and it’s a good idea to ask the salesperson to do the inspection for you.  There should be cooperation; after all, how can you be a good customer without looking at the merchandise ?  Sometimes a citrus tree or a rose bush in a five-gallon container  has been re-potted recently and hasn’t had time to fill the soil ball with roots. Your inspection should discourage you from buying half a plant when the roots are only in the middle of the container and theres’ a pile of loose soil on the ground.

There should be a balance of size and vigor between the roots and the foliage. Too heavy a foliage could mean that the plant has lived in the nursery too long, getting good attention in a sheltered place, whereas a small amount of leaves (especially if there’s a thick stem )suggests a similar history without good care.

If you’re buying bedding plants, or geraniums, buy buds rather than flowers.  Flowers, gorgeous as they may be, are on the way out and are perhaps already fading, whereas buds are the future.

I prefer to buy a fruit tree that is dormant instead of one that is in flower and has a lot of new growth because the good care and attention given in the nursery will most likely not be present in its new situation, where winds can be drying and damaging.  And speaking of winds, drive home carefully and slowly. Forty miles an hour maybe alright for traffic safety but to a tree such speed provides  a gale, even if the sun is shining.  So, lay the tree down on its side rather than standing it up, and wedge the container so it doesn’t roll around when you turn corners.

It is, or nearly is, a good time to set out tomatoes because they can tolerate soil that is a little cool, but it’s too soon to set out peppers  and much too soon to set out eggplant.  There’s a trick to use the warmer surface soil for tomatoes because you take advantage of their tendency to  grow new roots along the stem.  Those bumps that you sometimes see on older plants that are laying down in the nursery are not diseases or pests, but potential power. If you lay the plant in a shallow trench in your garden it  will have its nursery roots in cooler deeper soil and a mass of new roots will develop in the warmer surface soil.  Presto! a more powerful more productive plant.

The big question right now (and it is a recurring one every month, actually) is “What can I plant or sow right now?”  The answer is to be found in the part of the newsletter that is called the Planting Guide.  You’ll find it helpful. Although we are finishing the winter vegetable season and there are opportunities to sow  quick-maturing carrots, lettuce, bush beans, we haven’t really started the summer season which means we are not ready to plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplant.  We are at a fork in the road and it would be a pity to take the wrong path.

Because the temperatures are rising; because rain is falling;because the days are getting longer we tell ourselves that spring is with us, or is not too far off.  The bees know this and, to their benefit, a consequence of these natural happenings is another—flowers appear.  Sometimes the flowers are what we call weeds, sometimes they are simply a sign that  our vegetable plants have matured. and sometimes they are part of the natural cycle of tree development.  Looking around our plots of the community gardens we see flowering radishes, broccoli,cabbage and cauliflower and also bees flitting from one plant to another–a true sign of spring.

It’s amazing that the bees that live in the commercial hives are living in the dark, yet they know what’s going on outside.Tucson does not have a hard winter that requires us to keep the hive warm by giving them a blanket to retain their own body heat so the hive responds by not going completely dormant, yet the bees don’t come out until the day has warmed up.  Some flowers open early in the morning so it’s surprising to see adventurous bees busily leaving the hive while the morning is still cold.  They are coming back with their pollen sac on their hind legs full of colored pollen.  Those bees that gathered nectar don’t tell us quite so plainly that they have finished the first shift of their work day.

Why are they doing this instead of staying indoors until the day has warmed up?  It’s a  mystery because, as much as we know about bees, the queen lays eggs when life is favorable and the workers build new cells to accommodate her activity. Part of the motivation is forecasting the massive flowering of citrus trees and desert acacias, mesquites and palo verde.  The bees live in the dark, so how do they know how get ready for a vigorous pollen and nectar collectiing campaign?

As a beekeeper I try to manage their instinctive urges and this is what I’m doing right now.  I’m feeding the hive with sugar water in an effort to fool them to think there’s lots of food to be collected.  They are responding by  taking up the offering a little more quickly as the days go by.  The sugar water disappears more rapidly as new baby bees are produced, first by the queen laying more eggs (somebody told her about the abundance of food) and secondly by workers tending to the increasing number of developing grubs.  My rough assessment of the situation could be inadequate as I anticipate the citrus trees to flower.  I think they should be in flower right now, but they aren’t.

There’s a danger in making wrong judgements.  Having stimulated the bees to “wake up” for an event and the event has not taken place, there’ll be a crowded hive and that is something we humans don’t understand.  The bees simply follow  instructions and relieve the crowding by swarming– half the hive leaves with the old queen and half stays with a new queen that was produced and nourished in optimism that I created by feeding sugar water.

What can I, as a manager, do about this?  First, I can provide more room by adding another box of  waxed foundation and the bees will overflow into it.  Secondly, I can open up the hive on a sunny afternoon to see whether new queen cells have been created in anticipation of a swarm.  Those baby queens will have to be destroyed to relieve the pressure of preparing to split off.  Probably both measures should be taken. I shouldn’t have to lose half of my bees because I fed them too early! and too liberally.

And I’ll hope that the current rains will stimulate my citrus trees (and all of my neighbors) to flower, thus giving the bees something to do.  I must remember that they’ll collect nectar and pollen for themselves, and not for me, though I shall be happy to take some.  I mustn’t be greedy and take all they gather, just a little for me without robbing the store for their own future well-being.  And if I make a poor judgement call we both will suffer.

Beekeeping shouldn’t be a stressful activity for me, or for them.  Hopefully we’ll understand causes and effects and do the right thing for us both.

Our desert trees have gone through a year of inadequate rainfall, which is something we cannot do anything about. That’s bad enough a handicap to good health. What we can see, now that the leaves have fallen off is a widespread scourge that we can do something about.  Those lumps of green that infest the branches are a parasite, stealing the juices of water and of nutrients in the tree itself.  They are very visible while the tree is leafless but when warm weather returns and the tree puts out fresh leaves we won’t see the mistletoe and we might forget them.  That would be unfortunate for the host, mesquite.

Where do mistletoes come from?   Birds bring them and the story goes like this.  Mistletoe is a dieacious plant, meaning that there are male plants and female plants, just as in dates and hollies.  The female plants bear berries and though they are small and insignificant, they carry a small seed nesting in a sticky juice. Birds know this, or they quickly find that the berries are difficult to eat so they wipe their beaks on branches of trees. This “cleansing of the beaks” often pushes the seed into crevices between the rough bark where it is safe and secure.  A little gentle rain or morning dew is all that the seed needs to start germinating.  The young root burrows into the bark and begins extracting moisture and nutrients from the tree and it stays there until it is quite a vigorous parasite.

You’d think that a parasite would be foolhardy to actually kill its host because that would mean the end of life for the parasite, but that is what happens.  In years when we get good rains the tree might not suffer very much but two years of inadequate rain puts a load of stress on the tree, and that’s where we are now.

The point is that we can easily see the mistletoe whereas when the leaves come out we won’t.  So, if we want to keep our desert vegetation, now is the time to take action.  Mistletoes can easily be pulled off, though the roots left in the tree will sprout again–and the green stuff will have to be pulled off again. Keep this up for a year or two and the pest will be defeated. Some landscapers wrap black plastic over the branch where the pest was and any sprouts rejoin this world in the dark and they die more quickly.  There are situations where the pest has lived off its host for several years and is thoroughly entrenched in the wood of the tree.  Then the remedy is to prune out a branch that is so heavily infested.  Hopefully this severe action will not you with a mutilated tree.  I have two large shade trees that were so badly infested that new mistletoe shoots burst through the bark lower down on the trunk and it became necessary to cut the trees almost to the ground in order to get rid of the pest.  The landscaper who did this work said that the trees would sprout again, clear of the pest–and indeed they did.  Both trees were serving a very useful shading of the house and the driveway.

When you pull off the pest, don’t leave it lying on the ground if it has little white berries.  Birds will find them and they’ll re-infest your vulnerable trees.  Put the stuff in the garbage to get it off your property

Community Gardeners realize that  gardening is a full time activity that calls for a lot of planning.  Just now, in early February, winter leafy plants and roots are doing well and are probably using all the space that’s available.  Further, that space will be needed for summertime crops.  Already a lot of onions have been planted and although the cool season crops are doing well we are getting close to opening our summer programs.  This means it’s really not worth sowing seed of radishes, carrots and beets because the cool season will be finishing by the  end of this month.  On the other hand, setting out plants of lettuce, chard, broccoli and cabbage (but not the slower-growing cauliflower) is a possibility until the end of February but after that it will be our summer season.

So, it’s planning time for summer vegetables and the universal favorite summer vegetable is tomatoes,( if it isn’t zuchinni squash! ).  This month, the soil is too cold for successful tomato planting.  We need to wait until the soil temperature stays above 65 degrees. and that may not happen until the middle of March  Go and buy a soil thermometer!  It will be a most useful garden “gadget” all year round because every plant has its own optimum soil temperature that determines success.There is a list of vegetables and their soil temperature preferences on page 171 of my book “Desert Gardening” and it should determine your planting plans.

There are two ways to go for tomatoes; first, raise your own plants from seed, (but this should have been started at the beginning of January) and second, buy your plants from a good nursery.  Bear in mind that it’s too early to set out tomato plants in spite of the fact that some nurseries already are displaying beautiful plants that were grown in a greenhouse.  Avoid such plants in spite of being tempted and, at any time, don’t buy tomato plants that are showing flowers or little fruits.  A good size for a plant ready to be put in the ground is about twelve inches tall.

If, after early March the soil is still too cold you can warm it up by laying clear plastic sheet on the prepared soil and putting the plants through a slit in that plastic.  This is just as a starter, because the same soil will be too hot in June and it will be advisable to keep the sun off the soil by  laying down a three inch layer of alfalfa hay.  This mulch can be laid over the plastic, though it’s better to pick it up carefully so that your plant is not damaged.  Another trick is to put a “Wall of Water” ( purchased at your nursery) round the plant.  It acts as a small greenhouse, capturing the sun’s rays and encouraging growth.  Even after the soil temperature has reached a suitable warmth there’s a trick that you can use to advantage.  It is well known that tomato plants grow roots from their stems if they are covered with damp soil and some magazines encourage gardeners to plant deep to enable this to happen.  It’s better to use the upper soil layers where the spring sunshine has warmed if.  Lay the plant on it’s side in a shallow trench after a few leaves are removed.  This “trick” will let the plant grow an extra set of roots and give more power to the plant later.

It’s important to know the difference between Determinate and Indeterminate because these words are used to describe plant performance.  Commercial growers like determinate plants because they produce at one time, enabling fields to be cleared and replanted. Home gardeners want a continued production over the lifetime of the plant. Most tomatoes for the home garden are indeterminate, and good examples are the cherries and the pears. Patio is a determinate tomato that produces for a short time only.

There are numerous varieties and each year many more are added to the catalogs.  A general rule for selection is to avoid those kinds that display their fruit above the foliage but select those that produce their fruit under a canopy of leaves where the sun does not blister the skin or creates leathery skin that cracks.  Under the foliage there is humidity and this gives us fruit with thin skin that stretches as the fruit gets bigger.

Ask seasoned gardeners which varieties they like.  Try two plants of three varieties and keep a journal so you’ll know what to plant next year. Tomatoes need a lot of room because in the desert we don’t prune them like gardeners in New Jersey do: we prefer an uncontrolled bush to get the shade that protects the fruit during the hottest, sunniest months of July and August.

There’s more to growing tomatoes in the desert than this blog can tell you.  In my book “Desert Gardening” there’s a chapter on growing tomatoes with pictures.  Look it up!!