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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Monday, April 07, 2025
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Little Ketchup
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Grittyville, WA
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Entry 108 of 115 |
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Tomato update. I got the 6.02 la rue's planted. Trying a couple new things... I trenched in a heating cable under them. Secondly, I am trying Dan's seed starting mix. I hope it gives them a slight (or huge) boost. Third, I didnt re-compact the soil as much. With the first batch I repacked the soil in the holes under the plants as tightly as possible. This was mainly to prevent air gaps and to keep the soil from settling down later on, and to encourage the roots to push out into the firmer no-till ground where I didnt dig a planting hole.
Later I realized that the worms could have had the final say in it, and having more oxgen and small air gaps under the plants would have been a nice habitat for the worms. They may still congregate under the plants anyhow, I dont know. Well, whats done is done, no need to second guess myself any further until I can look at the roots when I pull the plants out at the end of the season.
The fourth thing I will do different in this second set of plants is to use straw as a groundcover rather than plastic fabric. The few times that I tripped on an edge of the stinking garden fabric got me wondering "What am I doing here? I'm paying to make my life more hazardous??" I dont mind having to hoe out a few weeds (or leave them in for various reasons) rather than trip and feel like a fool.
Last thoughts: I could easily be transplanting out larger plants with a few leaves the way Dan does it. This would make perfectly good sense. I will probably end up trying both ways. I'll start a 3rd round and try something closer to Dans method. I just like learning and best way to learn is to try things different ways.
Final thought: if I do multiple things differently how will I know which of the new methods caused or didnt cause an improvement? I wont... but I'll have all winter to think about what probably helped and what probably didnt. Its like when you set up your computer to help tackle a big problem while it would otherwise be idle. Like looking for mersenne primes or something...
https://www.mersenne.org/primes/
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