Author Topic: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter  (Read 11210 times)

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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #20 on: January 27, 2016, 10:31:51 pm »
Very true and for the macroorganims too.  My son put some night crawlers in my wife's planters last summer so we now have a place to get "fresh bait" in North Dakota in winter!  Tomatoes grew LOTS the 2 weeks we were in California tending our bees.  We now have LOTS of flowers and a few small tomatoes are hanging on the vines!!
Chip

Offline apisbees

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #21 on: January 28, 2016, 09:27:05 am »
I want to see pictures of you playing the bee and pollinating the flowers with a fine brush, feather, or what ever you use?
Honey Judge, Beekeeping Display Coordinator, Armstrong Fair and Rodeo.

Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #22 on: January 28, 2016, 08:13:06 pm »
I want to see pictures of you playing the bee and pollinating the flowers with a fine brush, feather, or what ever you use?

I keep kidding my wife that she needs to dress up like a bumblebee and pollinate the tomatoes but she looks at me kind of funny ??? and the conversation changes.  I was thinking we'd need to pollinate with a q-tip or something but the plants are setting fruit.  The plants are also getting very large but she planted an undeterminant variety; may have to try determinant plants next time.  Tomatoes are about as big around as my little finger now.  May not make Valentines Day but not too much later.
Chip

Offline rcannon

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #23 on: January 28, 2016, 09:00:06 pm »
What's a parsnip?

Offline brooksbeefarm

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #24 on: January 28, 2016, 11:04:52 pm »
A parsnip looks like a carrot but is white in color. Chip, i rarely find a bee on Tomato plants, they along with corn are wind pollinated. A good determinate tomato is Mountain Fresh, the only problem with determinate tomato plants is they only bare once not all season. Our favorite indeterminate tomato is the Pink Girl. i have ordered 200 of them this year of that variety, sells very good. Jack
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #25 on: January 29, 2016, 02:39:53 pm »
Thanks Jack.  You're tight, tomatoes are self pollinating so wind does play a major role in them setting fruit.  Problem (or nice thing, depending on your view) is that the basement has no wind so we didn't know we'd get them to fruit very easily in our basement experiment.  Wife was thinking of putting a fan which would help lots; I'd guess the fruit set we've seen so far may be the result of us moving the plants around by hand since they've grown so long (I'll try to post a pic later today) just to keep them in the planter (and especially the light).  I've heard that greenhouse growers of tomatoes like to use bumblebees to pollinate because they "buzz-pollinate" flowers.  Somehow, and I think they are the only bee that can do this, bumblebees can detach the muscles from their wings and then use those muscles to vibrate their entire body at about the resonance of the musical C note.  That may allow them to exploit pollen from small flowers that would otherwise be unavailable to them.  Like you, we don't see much for pollinators on our tomatoes outside but we do see a few bumblebees now and then.  Wind is probably the largest influence.
Chip

Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #26 on: January 29, 2016, 08:14:17 pm »
Here are the pics from today.  As you can see, the planter is overflowing with vines.  I need to get a staking system asap!





Chip

Offline apisbees

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #27 on: January 29, 2016, 10:22:33 pm »
Hang twang down from the ceiling to the pot they will grab and hang on it. and they wont fall over because they are to top heavy.
Honey Judge, Beekeeping Display Coordinator, Armstrong Fair and Rodeo.

Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #28 on: January 29, 2016, 10:34:55 pm »
Good idea Apis.  It's starting to look like a jungle downstairs!!
Chip

Offline efmesch

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #29 on: January 30, 2016, 01:32:01 pm »
You mentioned that you use "special lights".  What kind are they and are they special enough?  Usually, long stringy growth (etiolation) is an indication of inadequate light.
To keep the plants from turning into a jungle, commercial growers train the tomato vines to a single central strand and snap off the side (growth) branches that start to develop from the axils of most leaves.  The plant continues to grow longer at its' apex and produces tomatoes on the flowers that develop from the central branch.

Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #30 on: January 30, 2016, 08:38:09 pm »
Efmesch, they are high pressure sodium lights and she has a couple of different bulbs.  One is for leafy growth and the other is to stimulate flowering.  She switched from the growth to the flowering bulb when the plants were only a foot or so high.  They were switched right before we left for 2 weeks to feed our bees in California.  I think that you're onto something though because she has the other planter that has cabbage, chard, etc right beside it and that one is on a bulb for leafy growth; We've had to raise the lights so high that both planters are getting a dose of both types of light.  May need to separate them but not much room down there right now.  We're remodeling the house and much of what we had upstairs is now downstairs--we hired someone to do most of the work but we're doing the demo and also getting the floors ready for tile, etc.  We're on schedule but time will be tight because once the bees get home, we're busy with them so the remodel will get less priority.  It's fun most days..........
Chip

Gypsi

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #31 on: January 30, 2016, 10:33:55 pm »
I got my in aquarium house pepper to fruit by using a feather to pollinate it

Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #32 on: March 08, 2016, 07:59:03 am »
Tomatoes are starting to get ripe and people are still driving on the lakes here to fish through the ice 8)



Chip

Offline Zweefer

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #33 on: March 08, 2016, 09:49:33 am »
Nice work chip!
Keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
Henry David Thoreau
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Offline efmesch

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #34 on: March 08, 2016, 09:54:24 am »
Impressive !!   :yes:

I wonder, could sliced fresh tomato be used as bait to improve the catch of fish under the ice?   :D :laugh:
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Growing vegetables in North Dakota in winter
« Reply #35 on: March 08, 2016, 02:01:12 pm »
Impressive !!   :yes:

I wonder, could sliced fresh tomato be used as bait to improve the catch of fish under the ice?   :D :laugh:

Don't know about that ef but having a BLT with a local grown tomato while ice fishing would likely be a first, around here at least!! ;D
Chip