4/5/2021 – Disked the garden areas that do not have peppers, okra, or flowers to prepare the portions of the north half for the sowing recorded below. The disking also prepared for the winter Elbon Rye cover crop in the empty south half and MS Purple peas, to reduce the Root-knot Nematodes (RNK), on the east side of the north half where tomatoes and peppers will be next spring. The hope is the regular disking of those areas has also reduced the RKNs by exposing them repeatedly to the hot sun.
This afternoon, after re-disking early this morning, we drew the future rows with the tractor and spread about a quart of 8-8-8 w/zinc in each future row between the tire tracks where the hills will be built. Pulled up the typical hills to sow the squash, corn, and tomatoes. Mary sowed the squash seeds and the corn was sowed with modified plate 6 in the HOSS seeder at about 5-inch spacing (the 4-hole plate) with plans to thin them as needed.
Planted the tomatoes Mary grew in the greenhouse from suckers taken from the Celebrity tomatoes July 10th growing in the spring garden. The nine plants are very healthy with enough roots to hold the potting soil together in 6″ pots in only 4 weeks.
What was sowed today was:
- G90 corn – Four 30-foot long rows with the HOSS Seeder with standard plate 6;
- Primavera Spaghetti Squash in the south end of the row where Tiburon Peppers are still producing; and
- Betternut Squash in the north end of that row.
The hills where we have not planted anything yet, with the fertilizer under them, will have the granules incorporated into the soil over the coming weeks while waiting on the cooler fall days. The plan for those hills is to till them before planting in September and October to knock out the weeds and loosen the seedbed.
NOTE – This is the first year we are trying corn and tomatoes in the fall garden. We also sowed the squash much earlier than last year to beat the first frost. The corn and squash have a maximum germination temperature of 105° and over the past week the highest reading with 102°.
