Odds and ends

By Rennie Phillips

I get asked a lot of questions regarding garden stuff, especially in the summer. Just yesterday my sister in Nebraska called and asked me about some tomatoes she had bought at a farmers market. It was a good question, and it made me think about writing an article answering some of your questions. So this article is about questions I've been asked, and hopefully I can answer them.

My sister went to a farmers market in Nebraska and bought some beautiful tomatoes and was told they were homegrown. I believe my sister asked the seller if they were grown in a greenhouse and she was told they were, but that it didn't make a difference. Upon getting home, she cut one of the tomatoes, with plans on it being a big, juicy delight to eat. Big-time disappointment! It was full of membrane and tasteless. She ended up throwing all the tomatoes away. Why weren't they good tomatoes?

In my opinion, they weren't good-tasting tomatoes because they were the wrong variety. Some tomato varieties are bred and grown to be solid so they make it through the shipping process. Even when fully ripe and red, they will be quite firm. We were watching RFD-TV the other morning and they had a special on planting, growing and picking tomatoes. The picking was done by a machine and on conveyor belts. Tomatoes were being tossed around like tennis balls. Those tomatoes weren't destined for a BLT. Get to know your vendor. Ask them questions. The best advice I have is to buy a tomato and try it.

I had another guy come by the market the other day and ask why his tomatoes and cucumbers were blooming, but no fruit was setting on. He said this is the first year it's happened, that in the past they had bunches of tomatoes and cucumbers. The guy was stumped as to why there was no fruit. He knows how to raise tomatoes and cucumbers, so that's not the problem.

Several things come to mind. It could be a mineral problem, like too much or too little nitrogen. Maybe there was a shortage of trace minerals. I'd get the soil tested, for sure.

Most likely it's the weather. If one got their garden out two or three weeks late, the plants would have been trying to blossom and put on fruit right when it was hot and dry. We have had highs close to 100 and lows around 80. Humidity has been unreal. There are days when humidity is mid-90s and dew point is mid- to upper 70s. It's hot! No fruit also happens in the spring, when days may be 70 degrees or so and nights down in the upper 40s and low 50s. The plants may blossom, but they won't set on fruit. Temps need to get into the upper 50s, and preferably in the 60s, both day and night.

I had another gal ask me a question on Facebook about using a pressure canner for canning. Marge and I can quite a few jars of jelly, green beans, tomato juice, whole tomatoes and juice and jellies. We even can a few small potatoes. One doesn't need to pressure things like jellies or pickles. All you need to do is water bath the pickles. But one needs to pressure veggies like green beans or potatoes.

The best advice I can give is to get a canning book and follow the instructions. One is the "Ball Book of Canning and Preserving." Usually this book comes with a new canner. We like the book "Putting Food By." This book used to cost about $16, so it's probably more by now.

If you are going to buy a pressure canner to can vegetables, buy at least a 21-quart or larger canner. These bigger canners will allow you to pressure seven quarts or four half-gallon jars at a time. I'd question buying a used canner. Don't take what you read on the internet or someone's advice as the gospel. Get a book like "Putting Food By" and read it. My wife and I simply won't buy home-canned goodies because we are leery of how they were canned. Be careful!

I don't know how many have asked my advice on how to keep squirrels out of their garden, and especially away from their tomato plants. I have no cure-all for this problem. If I had this problem, I know what I'd try. My first course would be to get some garden cats. I'd build a cat house right out by the garden and I'd feed and water them right there. I don't think I'd try to tame them, and I wouldn't over-feed them. Our cats love to chase squirrels. We don't have a problem at all with the squirrels, and we have a ton of squirrels around us. But then, we have a whole slew of cats. We also don't have mice or snakes thanks to the cats.

If you can't have cats, I'd put up an electric fence. Buy some electric fence posts from Tractor Supply Co. or another farm store. Buy some insulators and wire and a small electric fencer. A traditional electric fence uses a real small wire. I'd put the wires close to the ground and then up a few inches and on up the post. I even thought of buying chicken wire and surrounding a garden with it. Hang the chicken wire on insulators and make it a chicken wire electric fence. Either would work. I think the chicken wire fence would work best. Make a place to step over the wires. You can unplug the fence when you go into the garden. It may take a while to educate the squirrels. A friend of mine built cages out of chicken wire to go around his tomatoes. Last year he didn't get a single tomato. He has picked a few this year.

Happy gardening and canning.