Gardening and record keeping

[Bootstrap]

How do you keep records of what is planted where in your garden, when to plant, etc? How do you plan? What records do you keep?

[RZehr]

I keep a plot plan some years. This year I just kept a list of what varieties I planted where, and noted how they are doing.
However, I fail to keep the record year by year, I just throw it away or delete it after the season.

[QuietlyListening]

We do raised beds now- have quite a few and my husband made a plot of them on paper and copied it and each year I grab one to plot out that years planting. We keep at least 4 or 5 years worth so we remember what was where and when. I put the type of veggie and variety especially if I plant more than one variety like I do with cucumbers. If it doesn't do well I usually don't repeat that when buying new seed. I also store used seed in the freezer and reuse it til gone or 2 years pass.

With tomatoes I usually buy plants these days and no longer raise my own and put what variety I put where. I have a book to hold it all.

[Soloist]

I try to rotate what I plant but I'm fairly poor at tracking it.

[Somebody]

Look at my garden and say, "Here's where the tomatoes were last year, and over there they were the year before, so lets plant them way over there!

[Wayne in Maine]

Some years I keep very detailed records. I have a whole notebook of drawings of my garden layouts. I also track fertilizer and pesticide applications and in some cases yields.

Our favorite tomatoes have been an old open pollinated Amish Paste variety (we got in 1995) and an Orange Oxheart. We've always saved seed from what we thought was the best plant. This year we planted a variety of our older saved tomato seeds (up to 15 years old) to see which ones were still viable and to see how our selection has changed the varieties we plant. Each plant has been tagged and we are keeping a record of each of 25 plants including height, vigor, date of first harvest and even weight of harvest for each plant. We're doing this to select the best of our seed stock. The most interesting observation so far is that our oldest Amish Paste a bigger but more cat-faced and our newest look like they will have the best yield.

[Bootstrap]

Our favorite tomatoes have been an old open pollinated Amish Paste variety (we got in 1995) and an Orange Oxheart. We've always saved seed from what we thought was the best plant. This year we planted a variety of our older saved tomato seeds (up to 15 years old) to see which ones were still viable and to see how our selection has changed the varieties we plant. Each plant has been tagged and we are keeping a record of each of 25 plants including height, vigor, date of first harvest and even weight of harvest for each plant. We're doing this to select the best of our seed stock. The most interesting observation so far is that our oldest Amish Paste a bigger but more cat-faced and our newest look like they will have the best yield.

I know nothing about saving seed, I have almost always bought new seed. Sounds interesting and fun. Are the Amish Paste tomatoes good as table tomatoes too?

This year, I have started sowing a given crop incrementally, sowing new seed every 2 weeks or so to have a more continuous yield. But with my three raised beds, that means I have to keep track of when things were planted and when they are likely to stop yielding so I can put something else there. If my poor brain can handle it, though, it should stretch out the season usefully.

[Wayne in Maine]

Our favorite tomatoes have been an old open pollinated Amish Paste variety (we got in 1995) and an Orange Oxheart. We've always saved seed from what we thought was the best plant. This year we planted a variety of our older saved tomato seeds (up to 15 years old) to see which ones were still viable and to see how our selection has changed the varieties we plant. Each plant has been tagged and we are keeping a record of each of 25 plants including height, vigor, date of first harvest and even weight of harvest for each plant. We're doing this to select the best of our seed stock. The most interesting observation so far is that our oldest Amish Paste a bigger but more cat-faced and our newest look like they will have the best yield.

I know nothing about saving seed, I have almost always bought new seed. Sounds interesting and fun. Are the Amish Paste tomatoes good as table tomatoes too?

This year, I have started sowing a given crop incrementally, sowing new seed every 2 weeks or so to have a more continuous yield. But with my three raised beds, that means I have to keep track of when things were planted and when they are likely to stop yielding so I can put something else there. If my poor brain can handle it, though, it should stretch out the season usefully.

The Amish Paste are good table tomatoes. They are very meaty and large (2+ pounds). The Orange Oxhearts are our favorite for eating and for barbecue sauce. They are meaty and low acid type.

We plant some fresh-eating veggies in increments. This year we planted our beans incrementally so we would not get hit hard on canning 2-3 bushels of beans all at once. So far we've put up 71 pints, and we're about half way through our planting, with the full second plantings coming in this week.