Here is a picture of my ‘carrot leaf’ Silvery Fir Tree tomato.
For comparison, here is a picture of a normal tomato branch:
Growing Tomatoes in Containers
Several years ago when I started growing tomatoes in containers on my roof, it was a bit of trial and error to get a system that worked right and there wasn’t a lot of information about it on the Internet.
I’m still surprised at how often there are misunderstandings on the subject.
The year before last I offered some of my extra tomato plants to a neighbor who she said she would be pleased to take four of them. A few months later she told me they weren’t doing well, and asked me what could be the problem. She said the tomatoes were too small, and not getting ripe. After talking about it some more, she took me over to the plants and then the answer was clear. She had put the four plants, all in a row, in a window sill planter with about five liters of dirt.
Okay, first of all tomatoes (and most other vegetables) are different from flowers in that they need enough dirt to grow full sized, and need full sun, or the plants just won’t be healthy. The other thing to keep in mind is that heirloom tomatoes are different from commercial varieties, in that many commercial varieties are bred to be small plants, perhaps even be grown in a hanging basket or whatever.
Nearly all heirloom tomato plants are very large! They often grow over two meters (six feet), and can weigh well in excess of 45kg (100+ pounds). They will also need some support, usually in the form of a bamboo or plastic stake. They will need enough dirt to hold the stake and the container will have to hold a plant this big and still be stable. Keep this in mind when you are thinking about a good container to buy.
I find the most important factor is volume of dirt. I use containers that hold 30 liters (7.3 US Gallons), and I find this is both the minimum but also an amount that usually works okay. More is obviously better, if possible.
For dirt I usually use a mix of homemade compost and peat moss or similar potting soil. Keep in mind most potting soil contains chemical fertilizers, which you don’t want if you are gardening organically and can affect the way your tomatoes grow, and you don’t need any fertilizer if you are using compost. I prefer using plain peat moss instead of potting soil, which is usually cheaper anyway. If you have it, 100% compost is the best, otherwise a mixture of at least 30% compost is probably good enough. Tomatoes don’t like to share their root space with other plants, so put each plant in its own container.
One of the most common pitfalls with tomatoes is over-fertilizing, which results in a bushy green plant with few tomatoes and well as other problems. I usually don’t add any fertilizer, and if you use at least 50% compost in the soil mix it is certainly not necessary. If you must, fertilize with fish emulsion or similar only once or twice, starting in August.
One of the biggest challenges with growing tomatoes in containers is keeping them watered. In the perfect world, tomatoes like to be watered in the evening then dry out during the following day. This wet/dry cycle is important for healthy plants. If the plants are too wet, the tomatoes will crack. If they are too dry (or you don’t have enough dirt) you will get Blossom End Rot (BER). With BER the ends of the tomatoes turn brown and rot. The more dirt you use in your container, the easier it will be to regulate the water.
I use a water timer and a drip water system. I begin by watering only in the evening, but during the hottest part of the summer I water twice per day. During periods of heavy rain, I turn the water off.
The plants will need some support, either in the form of a cage or a stake. I find the easiest is a stake, in which case it’s important not to tie the plant too tightly, because the plant will grow.
What can go wrong?
The most common problem is BER. This problem is caused because something is keeping the plant from absorbing the nutrients it needs. Some people suggest adding calcium to the soil as a way to prevent it, but I find a soil deficiency is rarely the true cause. Usually the problem is too small of a container or not enough water. It can also be caused because when the plant was young you tied it to its stake with a piece of wire that was too tight, and it grew to the point the plant was pinched off with it. Sometimes it can take a little detective work to find the cause of this problem.
The next common problem is splitting, which is caused by irregular or over watering. Sometimes you are just cursed by rain, and there isn’t much to be done about it. The best thing is to try to get as close to the wet/dry cycle I describe above.
Many diseases affect tomato plants, some are more serious than others. It’s very unlikely you will go through a season without encountering something. The best way to address most problems is with hygiene. If moldy or brown leaves appear, remove them. Try to keep plants separated with air space between them as much as possible. Don’t put any diseased plant material in your compost!
One of the most catastrophic tomato diseases is blight, a disease shared with potato plants and one that is becoming more common all over the world. This causes large black or grey blemishes to form on the plants and fruit, and the plants normally die within several days. There is nothing you can do once your plants become infected. Infection can usually be prevented by growing the plants in a greenhouse, if this is an option for you. The theory is that a blight infection can only take place if the plant is wet, so if you protect them from rain and are careful not to get the plants wet when you water them, you can prevent the infection in the first place. This is a highly contagious disease, and the spores can survive several years. It is best to destroy infected plants as quickly as possible.
‘Wilt’ diseases are sometimes also encountered. In this case the leaves of the plant will wilt, and the growth of the plant will be severely stunted. Since the wilt diseases are soil borne, you are not likely to have a problem with it spreading to other plants if all of your plants are in their own containers. Infected plants will normally produce some tomatoes. If you have problems with this disease, there are resistant varieties of tomatoes available, unfortunately these varieties don’t usually include heirlooms.
Cannabis Trends
Most of us are already aware changes have taken place in the genetic composition of our foods in recent years. Most of us understand the food we eat today is very different from what our parents and their parents ate, and increasingly we are understanding that it’s probably a lot less healthy. We certainly know the taste of food is declining. There are two main reasons for these changes.
The first reason for these changes in our food has to do with our expectations as consumers. When we shop for produce, we don’t buy according to how good it tastes, we buy according to how good it looks and how cheap it is. However much we might complain about quality and taste, when we are in the store we can’t taste what we buy and even though we know we are buying something of poor quality, we won’t buy anything bug eaten or blemished. For this reason, food producers are under extreme pressure to ensure the food in stores looks perfect, because if any one farmer can grow something better looking they will be the ones who can sell the most. Together with being able to produce cheaply in large quantities, appearance is the most important issue for farmers when they grow fruits and vegetables, and they sometimes have to go to very great lengths to achieve these things.
The second reason for these changes in our food is Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). Many of us don’t realize this, but the vast majority of what we buy to eat is patented. Not just the food itself, but processing techniques, packaging, brand names as well as other aspects of what we buy are controlled by patents or other IPRs. By controlling the IPRs it’s possible to decide what farmers will be allowed to grow what crops, and under what conditions.
For example it’s a fairly recent trend that farmers may not be allowed to sell crops to whoever they want, but rather grow them entirely under contract from the seed companies. The farmers then have to sell them under the terms of this contract or simply have to give the crops to the seed company who them in turn sell them to who they want. This allows seed companies to take a product they have the exclusive rights over, take bids from a large number of competing farmers who themselves will accept all the risks of crop failure, then in turn sell the crops produced to consumers at an inflated price.
It’s not just the farmers who can be controlled with IPRs, but the whole supply chain. Supermarkets can be forced to sign exclusive contracts if they want to sell certain products, prices can be set at the wholesale level and so on. In most places, there are laws or government subsidies that make it difficult or impossible to sell foods that are not patented. In short IPRs make it possible to almost totally control the process of production, distribution and sale of our food.
Older varieties of foods are simply not interesting to food companies. Patents expire or they simply can’t be patented in the first place because of their age. As we are increasingly becoming aware, that often means these older varieties simply become extinct because there is no one who grows them anymore.
An important aspect of IPRs when it comes to food production are F1 hybrids and GMOs. We are all familiar with trends in genetically modified crops, and together with a lot of other people I have made posts about them recently. Less attention is being paid to hybrids. F1 hybrid and GM techniques make it possible to create plants that might not otherwise exist in nature, but perhaps more importantly these techniques can be used to create plants where it is not possible to save seeds from the resulting plants, requiring people who grow the plants to re-purchase their seeds year after year.
F1 hybrids and GM plants are sometimes more productive, usually at the expense of higher inputs of fertilizer and pesticides, and seed companies and food distributors are very adept at profiting from this increased productivity at both the expense of farmers who grow the plants and consumers who end up with a lower quality product. A good example of this can be seen in my post from last year about coffee.
Okay, but this is what this blog is all about. Promotion of older varieties of plants, that are without IPRs. Much of what I’ve said so far will not be news to people who regularly read things I post here.
What about cannabis?
It turns out that nearly all of the same trends in food described here are also taking place with cannabis, and there are some clear indications that cannabis available now is much less healthy than what was available decades ago. While cannabis itself is a controlled substance in most places in the world, the seeds are often not. This is certainly the case here in the Netherlands. Plant breeders here and other places are busy developing new cannabis varieties, applying similar principles that seed companies do to food crops, then patenting them.
Cannabis consumers almost always buy according to one criteria, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content. Most consumers see it as a simple issue of value for money. Many will deny this and talk about the subtle differences between different kinds, but just like people who buy vegetables will almost always choose unblemished products, cannabis buyers will almost always choose for the most THC. If you are a grower or seller, and someone else has a product with more THC, you are simply at a disadvantage.
Plant breeders and growers are going to great lengths to increase the THC in their products, as well as lower the cost of production, and it’s clear these efforts are resulting in a drug that is fundamentally different. Recent studies have focused on two active ingredients in cannabis, THC and cannabidiol (CBD). Of these, the percentage of THC has increased significantly in recent years, often at the expense of CBD. It appears THC is linked more frequently to psychosis and CBD can significantly reduce this problem. This is only one example, and there are likely many other more subtle changes.
Increasingly F1 hybrid varieties of cannabis are displacing older heirloom or open pollinated varieties. This can be seen by searching online for places selling seeds. In addition, many of the older varieties have been lost because no one is growing them anymore, just like with heirloom food crops.
It’s clear the people growing cannabis are no longer the ones profiting the most, but rather it’s large companies that hold the patents. The growers are the ones that take the risks, the consumers are getting a lower quality and possibly more dangerous product and the seed companies make the bulk of the money — legally!
In the meantime the legal grey area that cannabis exists in, almost a taboo subject for many people, makes it difficult to address this problem and raise awareness about it. Certainly if you are a consumer wishing to buy older varieties of cannabis, you are unlikely to find it for sale anywhere. If you are someone who objects to the use of an illegal product like cannabis in the first place, you are not likely to offer much sympathy to those people who do use it. If you are someone who uses cannabis, or has sympathy with those who do, probably like most of us you have heard it all before and see this as one more overreaction to an otherwise relatively safe drug.
It’s becoming increasingly clear with issues like this and opium in Afghanistan, there is a trend away from eradication programs and instead toward using illicit drugs as a way to generate corporate profits.
Pfälzer Dinkel Spelt
This is one of the plants I have growing in my garden at the moment. Spelt is an old variety of wheat, and at least around here is becoming popular again for making breads. In this case, it’s a variety used for making the original German pretzels. I got these seeds from a fellow Seed Savers Exchange member, who lives in Pennsylvania and is of Pennsylvania Dutch/German decent.
Many people don’t think about growing wheat or related grains in their garden, but I think it’s a very under rated plant. Of course it’s probably not for people just starting to garden, and not the only thing you should grow. This is the kind of plant for after you are growing all the usual vegetables, and are looking for something a bit different.
Wheat is not just for making bread! Many nice dishes can be made with the wheat berries right off the plant, in addition wheat can be sprouted for salads. Of course flour mills can be purchased for home use, and you can make your own bread too.
There are many different kinds of wheat available, and since they are nearly completely inbreeding plants many different kinds can be grown next to each other, and saving your own seeds is as simple as collecting the seeds off the plants.
An important consideration when growing wheat is choosing one that is easy to thresh (separate the seeds from the plant), and spelt in particular has a very difficult to remove seed husk. Spelt is also a very perishable grain. I am growing spelt now, because I tried several other kinds of wheat but they all failed to germinate. So far the spelt is doing very well, but I may encounter difficulties when it comes to threshing it, and in the long run I may have to look for other grains to grow.
For some reason there is not a lot of published information about growing wheat like plants in the garden. There are two main pitfalls with these plants. First is the young plants are almost indistinguishable from grass, and grassy weeds can easily choke off your plants. Make sure you don’t plant it in an area where grass is a problem weed. The other pitfall is these plants use a lot of water, and if you plant them too densely they can consume water so fast that they simply use everything available and die.
The first year it’s a good idea to plant it in rows, with a spacing of about 30cm (1ft) and seeds planted about 2.5cm (1″) apart. After the first year, when you have saved enough seeds, you can try broadcasting the seeds into an open area of your garden. Plant the seeds about a month before the first frost in your area. The idea is it should establish itself before winter starts, grow slowly through the winter then grow faster in the spring for an early summer harvest. It can also be spring planted, and some varieties are more suited for fall or spring planting. Really, when it comes down to it, it’s not a lot different from growing grass, and is very easy.
Celeriac Secrets
Many people don’t know what an interesting vegetable celeriac or celery root can be. It’s delicious raw or in soups. It’s easy to save seeds from. It’s rewarding and easy to grow.
There are 3 different kinds of celery plants; normal (sometimes called blanched or bleached) celery, leaf celery (sometimes called zwolsche krul) and celeriac (sometimes called celery root). These are all three related, and will cross pollinate if grown next to each other, so you can only save seeds from one at a time. Of these, normal and leaf celery are much more difficult to grow than celery root.
The two main ‘tricks’ for growing celery root are choosing the right variety and not planting it in the garden too early.
My favorite variety is Giant Prague, but I know several others do well too. The best thing is to ask fellow gardeners and find out what kind does best in your climate. If you are experimenting with different varieties, don’t be discouraged with some failures. There are normal and ‘smooth’ types. I don’t care for the smooth type, and in any case if you do grow it be aware that it is very different from the normal kind. Smooth refers to it’s texture when eaten.
Celeriac is a biennial. This means there are two seasons that make up the growing cycle of this plant. The first season it will grow and form the roots, and the second put it’s energy into reproduction, grow a flowers stalk and go to seed. The problem is celeriac gets easily confused, and if you transplant plants out too early into cold ground, it can think it has passed through it’s first growing season and into it’s second. What usually happens then is either the roots remain very underdeveloped or sometimes they will bolt (send up a flower stalk). In either case it is usually inedible. For some reason this is often not well documented, and it can be hard to understand what is going wrong with your plants if someone doesn’t explain it to you!
Because celeriac has a long growing season, the plants are best started indoors about 7-12 weeks before setting them out into the garden. I usually set them out between 15 May and 1 June, but this will vary according to your climate.
I prefer to start the seeds in a flat (seed tray) and after they have developed their first set of true leaves (after the cotyledons) transplant them into their own containers. The reason for doing it this way is the seed is very small, and it is easier to broadcast over a tray than plant 1 or 2 seeds at a time in pots. This way also allows you to more easily select the strongest seedlings and, if you have old or unreliable seed, you can easily compensate by sowing a little more densely. When transplanting them into their own containers, the soil can be loosened with a table knife or similar instrument, and the seedlings plucked out of the dirt with your fingers. While in the tray, a bottom heat source is not necessary, but can help the seeds germinate faster. Garden centers sell special appliances for this. Make sure you keep the seeds and seedlings moist but not soggy at all times. Make sure you provide the seedlings with enough light, either fluorescent tubes or a growlight.
Once in the garden celeriac appreciates good soil, rich in organic material. It is also very important to give it sufficient water. It can be dug up in the late fall, after the roots have grown to a good size. Celeriac is not very frost hardy, but it may overwinter in mild climates.
