The Maple Hill Hop 92

Welcome to 

The Maple Hill Hop.

This is a hop for folks who love the outdoors.

Feel free to post about anything that's going on

OUTSIDE

in your neck of the woods,
no matter the season.

(Please share only outdoor posts.)

*Grab the button above to link back to Maple Hill 101.* 

First things first!
Happy Birthday Big K!
 
This HOP is dedicated to you!






If you've been reading for a while,
you know that on weekends, I volunteer at a local
 farm that grows pesticide-free produce.
It all started here.
One of our tasks last weekend was to get these tomatoes planted.
They were getting very leggy and in dire need of a new home.





Coring to the rescue!
We've featured this technique before.
My garden coach, Lynn, has his own way of doing
just about everything.
He uses these exhaust pipes to make transplanting these maters,
 a piece of cake.





We place the pipe in the center of each pot
and push it down about halfway.
Then the excess dirt is pounded out of the pipe,
into an empty bucket,
and we push the pipe down to the desired depth.

Neat and tidy!

Lynn uses these pot covers he's made 
for almost everything he grows.
His 7,000 square-foot garden 
is grown entirely in containers,
so that's a lot of covers!
They not only help to center the plant,
they keep weeds down to a minimum.
They get weighed down with pieces of brick,
until the crop is either big enough to keep them in place
or in the case of tomatoes, caged.




The tomatoes are stripped of most leaves,
until just the top few remain.
This allows for more root production.
Then the seedling gets lowered into the cored hole.
The depth of the hole depends on the length of the stem.



This time, we added turkey poop (our chosen fertilizer),
halfway down the hole,
then placed the plant and filled in with soil.
The seedling is tucked in snugly and a small well is formed
to allow for proper irrigation.
We water in as we go,
so they feel less stressed.
 

As you can see,
these Sweet Millions (a cherry variety) 
are ready to give their all.
The plants were misted for about a week after transplanting,
as we are still experiencing daily temperatures in the 90's.
That should give them a great start!
(This past weekend was rainy, so that helped too!)

Coring is a great method to use for so many crops.
It's especially useful if you have a lot of transplanting to do,
 making quick work of it.





After a few weeks, 
we should have us a bucketful
of these sweet, juicy morsels!


What's happening where you are?
HOP to it!

   

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