Knucklehead's 2022 Prilep and Veggie Container Grow Blog

[deluxestogie]

The finest of guitar manufacturers (Guild, Martin, etc.) never figured out how to properly support the massive tension of a 12-string guitar. My Martin D12-20 pooched out its belly in the lower bout, at the bridge attachment, so the distance from nut to bridge was a little bit shorter. Fretting of every string was slightly sharp as a result. Boo!

Bob

 

[tullius]

Leo Kottke seemed to make it work. How do the salt and pepper shakers figure in?

 

[Alpine]

It’s a seasoned guitar…

pier

 

[Knucklehead]

Flowering Prilep


Pumpkin beginning to turn orange and a baby coming along.


Tomato beginning to ripen

 

[deluxestogie]

Those pumpkin knuckles are truly disfiguring! It should be fun to see what color they finally choose.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Those pumpkin knuckles are truly disfiguring! It should be fun to see what color they finally choose.

Bob

Me too! The photo on johnnyseeds shows fully orange including the warts.

Knuckle Head - (F1) Pumpkin Seed | Johnny's Selected Seeds

Freaky, orange, and warted. Spectacular warting makes Knuckle Head the star of the show. Moderate vines bear fruit averaging 12–16 lb. and 12" H x ...

www.johnnyseeds.com

 

[Knucklehead]

I thought my squash were done for after the battle with powdery mildew. The production had really slowed down, almost stopped, and the leaves looked terrible. They looked like the plants were dying, but I kept spraying milk on them, cutting off the old leaves, and the new leaves are looking much better. Production seems to have resumed but more slowly than previously.

 

[Knucklehead]

Has anyone seen the old school one piece kiddie pools lately in a 5 ft. size?
I have found a 3 ft. but they are out of stock. I'm thinking ahead to next year.
There are several issues with the grow bags that could be resolved with a cheap kiddie pool like this one. Stability, mitigate blow overs if I pack the bags together and tie the handles together, I can bottom water rather than top water, and I can not only reduce the frequency of watering, but water in a few pools rather than 60+ or more individual bags if I go bigger next year. I can tell my soil is really compacted from top watering. I could drill a hole saw hole 2" above the bottom for drainage.

this 3' is $9 and could still hold several bags. 5 ft. would be similar to deluxestogie's patches in terms of access for work if I can find them and about the size of my current corn and bean patch in bags. The corn and bean patch and tobacco in larger grow bags in a few kiddie pools would be perfect.

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The plastic saucer cups like I'm using under a couple of bags also have issues. $2 each (for the cheap ones) adds up, no stability under a grow bag, and they dry up quickly. These are decent size but appear rather flimsy. The sturdier ones gave me sticker shock and still don't address the blow over problem of tall plants. They would be fine under staked tomato plants in grow bags.

Vigoro 17 in. Plastic Plant Saucer VS17VG - The Home Depot

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Anyway, just some thoughts. Looking for input, advise, etc. for next year.

edit: it also occurred to me that I can tie a rope to the kiddie pool and drag/skid the whole thing plants and all around with the four wheeler if I need to. Not sure why I would need to but you never know. Truck gardening without the truck.

edit edit: I forgot water usage. More water runs out of my grow bags than stays inside. With a pool, I use all the water aside from evaporation. My chlorine filter will last longer and the water bill will go down.

 

[deluxestogie]

Given the ubiquity of those blue plastic pools a few years ago, I would guess they all come from overseas, where production has been halted or delayed. Not even Walmart has them. The pools don't last long, and turn into small shards of broken plastic after a few of years. Much more expensive, but far more durable are the livestock watering basins.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

I have been picking Tobacco Hornworms from my Prilep. Today was the first day I caught one of their cousins, the Tomato Hornworm, munching on my tomatoes. Not just the leaf, he cleaned the tops off a branch and happily eating half of a tomato.


I don't like these cages for indeterminate tomatoes. If I have to stake the cages then what's the point? The vines are bending over the cages. I think next year I will have a single stout stake for each vine, tie the vine to the stake as they grow up, and keep all suckers pulled off. When the plant reach as high as I can reach I will start topping them at that height.


Fourth Priming of Prilep.


It's threatening rain today so I have my primings under the porch.


The snapped off wind blown plant and the lugs are in the bag. Will kiln the crop all at one time.

 

[deluxestogie]

Your hornworm appears well nourished. Nice.

When my tomatoes reach the top of their cages, they then droop over the top, and begin growing downward, like with those upside down, hanging tomato bags. With my four tomato cages this year forming a loose rectangle, I just cross-brace them with a bamboo stick at the top, and they (theoretically) support one another against the wind.

Bob

 

[GreenDragon]

I don't like these cages for indeterminate tomatoes. If I have to stake the cages then what's the point? The vines are bending over the cages. I think next year I will have a single stout stake for each vine, tie the vine to the stake as they grow up, and keep all suckers pulled off. When the plant reach as high as I can reach I will start topping them at that height.

That is how I've seen commercial tomato production done. I've seen where they string a wire about 15' tall across all the 'maters in a row, and train the vine up a string to the wire.

Your Prilep looks great too!

 

[Knucklehead]

That is how I've seen commercial tomato production done. I've seen where they string a wire about 15' tall across all the 'maters in a row, and train the vine up a string to the wire.

Your Prilep looks great too!

Thank you. My first veggie and tobacco container grow (aside from some previous pet tobacco plants in the yard) has been a learning experience. There will be from minor tweeks to major changes next year. It's been a blast and I learned alot which was my main objective. It keeps me out of trouble a few minutes out of the day anyway.

 

[Knucklehead]

I check for hornworms everytime I go outside and they still slip past me. I have to track them down by their droppings. Good thing I grew two plants just for hornworms, I'm still a few leaves ahead. BT again for me next year. My eyes aren't what they used to be. Prilep leaf with the Prilep Irritatus subspecies of Tobacco Hornworm.

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm going to take a guess that your truly beautiful, dense clusters of tobacco plants make it more challenging to easily visualize the early hornworm signs (e.g. pinholes). The plants themselves are far lovelier than any cluster of hostas that a landscaper could contrive.

That chewed-up Prilep could cure into a perfect component for the "eye" of birdseye coins.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Plan for next year. Feel free to weigh in as I will be straying from commonly held commercial and hobby farming practices. I purchased five four foot kiddie wading pools from Ace Hardware. (On sale -yay for me) ($12.99 ea.) Each will hold eleven 3 gal. grow bags. They will serve as water reservoirs for the grow bags that dry out daily in this heat. I'm trying to decrease having to water daily. I want a life next year. I can stuff some old bedsheets between the sloped pool side and the outer bags to help the whole "patch" stay stable and avoid individual blow overs. When one of my one gallon bags tipped over it was like a domino effect and it would take out all the others. No more one gallon bags for me.

I plan on 11 Prilep, 33 Reams 158 flue cure, and some tomatoes with a cage encircling the pool. The tomatoes will only be on the inside perimeter of the pool, none in the middle. The Prilep and Reams 158 will be packed together with plant spacing being determined by the size of the grow bags. My reasoning is that root intrusion is not an issue in individual containers, and sun will not be an issue because I'm almost positive I can spin the entire pool around 180 degrees by myself about once a week when the soil is dry and the plants that were getting northern exposure will be getting southern exposure every other week. (Or more, or less, as needed) I can either access all plants by going around the pool, or stay in one place and spin the pool to me. I'll call it turntable farming.

I will no longer need my 26 gal. tank that I was using for Miracle Gro fertilizer and was having to mow around, because I can mix in 5 gal. buckets and just dump the mixture into the pool. I won't need to water or fertilize 55 individual grow bags, I will just need to water 5 individual pool locations. Fingers crossed that will no longer be a daily ritual. I will also save a bunch of water because the vast majority of the water going into the bags was wasted and just ran out of the grow bags. I will be able to bottom water rather than top water. My current soil is extremely compacted.

Another advantage is that I can slide the pools around to find the sunny sweet spot. I had to move individual bags around this year.

Photos of one of the pools with eleven empty bags.



I know. I need to sweep my shop.

 

[deluxestogie]

Sounds like a plan. I will predict that the weight of the pool cum grow bags will deeply imprint the soil beneath, and make the wished-for rotation problematic. Also, the blue plastic is not particularly resistant to sunlight. So they may not last more than a couple of seasons.

So long as you keep mosquito friendly, exposed water puddling in mind, I can't help but expect the project to be far less labor than this year's approach. Best of luck with it.

Bob

 

[furryfreek]

I'm not at all familiar with pools of that sort but I imagine the rims would be the first thing to break if used to pull 'em around loaded. Maybe a lasso or something could get a bit more milage out of 'em?

 

[Knucklehead]

Priming continues. Another thunderstorm with high winds toppled over all the plants again and I broke another stalk trying to untangle the mess. The corn also took a beating.



The new priming and the broken stalk.


Previous primings still curing and coming along nicely.



The knobs on the Knucklehead pumpkin are beginning to turn orange. I have another that size that is still fully green all over.

 

[Knucklehead]

Ran across a roots photo. Great grandfather, five great uncles, one cousin, and the kid was my uncle. The photo is 80+ years old.