In this episode I am sharing with you a secret to growing indeterminate tomatoes that an 80 year old farmer made me swear not to tell anyone. So here I am telling you. Check out our new clothing line! http:www.freshpickedapparel.com
When my father passed (Native American), we had him a sacred fire in his garden. The next year I tilled up all the ashes into the soil to spread them around. The center of the fire yielded that absolute biggest tomatoes I'd ever seen - and very prolific!! Best thing was I felt like my father was with me every time I went to work in the garden 💞
That's amazing. I have always said I'd want my family to spread my ashes in my own garden. I didn't know this was a Native American practice, so thank you for sharing. A beautiful sentiment
I'm never telling you a secret. 😂🤣 It's so important to teach people to grow their own food so they can feed their families and to save whatever money they can doing so, especially in this day and age. Thank you for your helpful and very informative videos. Always well done! Oh, and I completely agree that these types of secrets should not die with the people who kept them. 👏👍
If you don't wanna watch 13 minutes of footage: Apply a cup of woodash to the base of your tomato plants. Determinate tomatoes only (might hurt indeterminate). Works by being alkaline and a good source of potash. Confirmed by 2 different & independent universities too
He is science and information based which is why I enjoy watching his videos. Otherwise just read a gardeners horticultural manual. Very specialist and not easy for the amateur/home gardener.
Interesting note on this video....I am 59 and have spent my life teaching science and gardening among others....when I was young, an old farmer also told me to always use wood ash to help grow tomatoes. I have faithfully done this for years until recently. One day, as a high school science teacher I had an epiphany, knowing that ash is extremely alkaline and also that tomatoes love acidity, I questioned this age old practice. Because I trusted my old farmer, I had always connected ash to acid, even though as a science teacher, I knew this was not true. I had to laugh at myself for making this mistake for all these years. Today, this video popped up on my computer and I feel a sense of relief that I was correct for using wood ash but not for the reason I have always thought! Thanks for the clarification!
most of my huge pink tomatoes have rotted we had so much rain in tenn. i use lime, fert 13-13-13-, & epsom salts. any help? it hurts to throw away so many sweet tasting tomatoes!
@@patriciareynolds2729 hi 👋 from what I've learned and experience is heavy and constant rain causes crop to lose oxygen this they die. I used hydrogen peroxide and the plant perked up as it adds oxygen. When planting you want to be sure water can run off rather than hold in soil. Hope it helps ☺️🙏🇹🇹 One more thing I mix all the fertilizers in to the soil at the same time I sow seedlings.
I am 58 and my father had the greenest thumb I have ever seen. And I have ALWAYS had a garden. My largest was 2 acres and I love listening to you. I have picked up many tricks from you.
@@phillippinter7518 Protein comes from plants. I'm not against eating meat, but it drives me nuts when people equate meat & protein. Cows eat grass, not deep fried bacon wrapped chicken.
Wood ashes are actually minerals. Wood ashes have been used for centuries for gardening in almost every culture. My tribe uses them and have for a very long time. My other side of the family being European, have also used them. I used to help my great grandmother and grandfather put the ashes on the whole garden before planting the seeds. Then we would flood the garden with creek water coming from the mountain. We also made a trip every year to acquire volcanic ashes and glacial till, all for the vitamin and mineral content. The vegetables and fruit were always very large and very sweet! It's amazing to me that not every person knows this information. I am a very big advocate for teaching this information in school.....along with home economics. All of the children of this nation should know how to grow their own food as well as process it in as many ways as we can teach! Thanks so much for your channel! It would be a great one for classes in school! My friend is a teacher and I showed her your channel.......needless to say, she is showing her students!!!!❤💛
I loved your story about the old farmer. So precious. It's amazing how gardening has become so complicated and expensive. We need to listen to our elders and learn.
I used to have a “friend “ who was a good baker, and I asked her for a few recipes. She always left out some detail that med the recipe fail for me. I’m sure she did that to everyone who asked her for a recipe. I also gave her several intact recipes, I’m a good baker too, and that is ok. It’s nice the old farmer shared his secret which he really did not want to keep a secret!
Was anyone else surprised to find out he is only 25? His maturity and wealth of knowledge had me guessing mid 30’s . Keep up the great content it’s definitely helped me in my garden already ! 👍
Lol, if you have any Indian friends, they would have told you that a long time back, wood ash is alkaline and rich in calcium, but it, discourages pests and mites, good luck and happy gardening
I have been adding ash to gardens and compost since i could walk. My grand parents and parents have all ways done this. It works amazing. Wood ash, compost, and worm casting is all we use
I believe that when an "old farmer" tells a "secret" to successfully grow food, the farmer WANTS you to think about why it would work. And an 80 year old farmer knows full well that any growing season could be his last at that age, and telling a passionate 15 year old boy a "secret" is passing on knowledge. He knew he'd tell the secret.
Luke, I LOVE your videos and refer back to them often. You are smart and energetic! My father was one of those "old" people. Your description of the ol' guy sounds just like him. He grew tomatoes like you do without having the full scientific understanding that you do. He tied up the plants to the eve of the house. "Old" people like to "tease" kids...and asking them to "swear" doesn't mean to curse. It's to emphasize how special YOU are for him to share the information with you. And by asking you to "swear", he was hoping you would share the knowledge. And you did!
Haha. Anyone who has ever heated with wood has known this for centuries. Youngsters and city dwellers may not be privy. A lot of old ways are rooted in science and performance. We used to raise food as a necessity ,not an edible hobby. Take the time to learn from your elders about ways of old. Because before you know it,you will be that old person.
This past winter I put my fireplace ashes in my two 4x4 beds. I mixed it in this year with more bagged compost a little of Trifecta and 2 Tums by each indeterminate tomato. I think I have a pretty good harvest (also planted late) and the best tasting tomatoes yet! Thank you for all your knowledge, I'm definitely a spong🌞
I haven't planted tomatoes in years but I get a bushel plus each year. An old Beefsteak Heirloom grows wild because I cold composted years ago and the seeds got transferred to all my beds. Now when I see a volunteer tomatoes in the spring, I just let it go. The seeds make it through the winter and still thrive in the srping.
Knowledge that's passed on by old-timers always carries a story with it, giving context to it. Successfully using this knowledge, or finding it doesn't work for us, still lets us have a conversation with history and gives us a sense of communion with growers over time. I'm amazed by the wisdom of people all over the world who have learned the peculiarities and preferences of what they grow for food. Thanks for sharing your experience. I imagine that, if the old guy is still alive and hears this, he would be blushing with pride.
We lived in southern Alberta when Mt.St.Helens blew. Yes, everything grew better afterwards, and we were shocked because all the news and just general information we had said the ash would kill everything.
My Grandma used to tell me about the amazing tomatoes my parents grew after Mt. St. Helen's erupted. My Dad could have cared less about the tomatoes, he was angry about the fence he painted white just before the eruption. I feel my Dad's pain but I would have loved to have been old enough to appreciate those tomatoes!
This is my first year ever doing a garden and I've been following your videos! I started with tomato seeds in my basement and I have to say, you said your tomatoes got 6-8 feet tall, and I used the Trifecta fertilizer...mine got to 8 feet and showed no signs of slowing down! I ended up with 25 tomato trees!! Lol.
@@Ms.Byrd68 Right, I live in the desert where I have to add oak leaf mold from the nearby mountains to get the soil acid enough to get the tomato to have flavor.
Good to know, thanks. Suggestion on an upcoming video: how you take down/tear down your garden. What plants you pull up and which ones you leave in the ground, for next year. example artichoke, peppermint..... Thanks for all you do! You've taught me a lot.
Pamela Sierzan Peppermint comes back, leave in. A lot of herbs come back. Asperagus once established keeps giving for about 10 years I have heard. Strawberries about 3 years. Need to be replanted. Berry bushes stay many years, many kinds. Rubarb lasts years and years. Sage will last too. Don't forget fruit trees. Some can be purchased as mini dwarfs, meaning their are grafted to a compatible rootstock not to exceed a small size. Great for small spaces. Then there are the columnar varieties of apple trees. Tall and streight up. Like a column, hence the name. Need to be ordered at a nursery.
I appreciate you sharing one thing I learned from An old gardener is because I worked at a paper mill from the age of 19 after several burns and infections at a cast iron pipe foundary
We use that method here in the UK........everyone at our allotment site uses the ash from any wood fire on their soil a month before they plant their tomatoes.
Funny timing for me on this same discovery about wood ash just this year and then seeing your video right after. I have been growing tomatoes for 25 years in my small raised bed and a few large grow bags. Never have I grown any as LOADED with tomatoes as the few volunteer plants that came up in my burn pit this year. The plants are pretty short compared to any others I've grown, but they are gorgeous! These few have by far out produced my other 8 giant plants in the raised bed. I know it has to be the ash because I had heard of the benefits it can bring to a garden. This "secret" is a definite keeper for my future gardening!
I have known this since I was a little girl. My grandfather would burn his tree trimmings on his garden bed and then dig it in before he planted his garden every year. That was 40 years ago. After I started a garden, I always saved my wood stove ash to use in my garden.
I’ve put it around my tomatoes twice this year. They have flowered more and put on more tomatoes than ever. I’d say it works! Watch your videos all the time. Thanks for everything
Back in the day I remember the farmers use to burn all plant waste and spread it around their fields ...such as dried out tomato vines,tree and grape vine pruning waste..ect good disease control as well...nothing was wasted☺
Hi there so delighted to hear you say that about ash, I keep shaking my head when I hear people saying do not put a lot of ash around your plants because of the alkaline and yet that is one of my major ingredient in my compost and I grow fantastic plants thanks for the video
My secret to growing tomatoes is learning, persistence, and willing to experiment. I started gardening in South Florida which is arguably the worst place to grow tomatoes because of climate, root knot nematodes, pests, diseases and whiteflies carrying TYLCV. I don't think there is any one magic ingredient, you just do it a lot and you get good at it, and you have to adapt the methods to your situation. I tried many things and ended up with organic matters, compost and mulching which makes the biggest difference. Grow bags is also amazing. Having big durable trellis and planting at the right time of the year are vital. And then experiment which variety is more productive for your climate. Eventually I got pretty good. Now I live in the north and not trying to be arrogant, but it's a walk in the park gardening up here compared to Florida.
Max Johnson Plant chives, green onions and lots of marigolds too, as a lot of pests don't like them. Solves many problems. Safe all your clean eggshells and crush them really small with the potato mashing device. Sprinkle all around your tomato plants, and goodbye snails and slugs. It cuts their little bodies, so they go elsewhere.
joanapot VLOGS hi I’m in makati and miss my gardens very much! It’s very important that your soil has fiber in it! Most people don’t know that! Leaves shredded or wood chips without the bark or best might be rice husk! Fiber retains the water and ph for hot days!
My parents grew up in South Dakota. They grew up with and went to school with the Sioux indians that lived near by. My Dad's mother did this all the time when she could not get the two ingredients for her fertilizer .
Virginia Reid Ashes are a way better fertilizer anyway, provided they come from natural untreated woods. Contain minerals and trace minerals said trees pull up with their deep roots. Farmers used them yesteryear and collecting the house wifes leftover ashes from towns used to be an actual occupation before electricity came along.
Thank you Luke! Does it work to bury a fish under a plant? I am gathering info to start my first container vegetable garden. I have no clue about even what to plant and when to sow the seeds, but I am going to plant spinach first! Yay! I am so excited and I love your energy. Thank you for sharing your wealth of information. God bless you for teaching us! 💕
The old scarcity versus abundance approach to life. Obviously you're in the abundance camp or you wouldn't be sharing this great information on RU-vid. People ask me why I share so much information on RU-vid when I run a company that does exactly what I talk about on RU-vid. The answer for me is that there is plenty of room people who want to learn and do it for themselves. There are other people who need our help or want us to do the whole job. Most of our customers are a mixture of the last two, they learn why we do the work.😎😎😎😎
Home Grown Veg, I discovered your channel a few weeks ago and you have fast become one of my favourite channels to watch! You got me inspired to grow in pots this year. Thanks mate and keep up the great work.
I've been putting wood ashes in my garden for years as well as vegetable scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds and bat guano from the barn every winter. In the spring, I simply rototill all of that into the dirt and get some of the best vegetables every year.
He says it's his grandpa and then later he says it is an old farmer and he doesn't know if he's still alive. GEEZ. (I WAS INCORRECT WITH THIS STATEMENT!)
@@occamsrazor5376 Please go back to the beginning of the video and listen carefully, he did NOT say he got the information from his grandpa, he spoke of his grandpa.
I grew indeterminate tomatoes (a variety called "German Queen") where we dumped the fire pits last year, and that plant was VERY VERY productive and the tomatoes were huge (the biggest was almost as big as my head!!).
My grandmother used her woodash as mulch around everything for cutworms. She also buried her squash and pumpkin stems to stop borers....well the moth from laying the eggs. I do this now, burning all my paper trash, bills etc. I also add it to my compost pile. Great vlog!
My cousins tomato plants had blossom end rot. I told him to pour some buttermilk around the base. I was at his house a couple of weeks later and the blossom end rot was gone.
I had the same issue and I dissolved 2 Tums antacids in 1cup if water poured around the tomato plant and it totally recovered. I found it was a lack of calcium causing this.
Blossom end rot is VERY common in the first fruit set. Your buttermilk and Tums doesn't have plant available calcium until it breaks down by 2021. They recovered on their own.
I have always looked up to my neighbor she always has such a beautiful garden. So when I started gardening I would ask her for advice when I had issues. She would just say “oh I don’t know “. After a while I realized she was withholding information. I was so hurt that she deliberately didn’t want or care to see my garden flourish. It discouraged me to some degree I just don’t understand that mind set. I thought gardeners were a band of brother in a way ready to help each other out. Boy was I wrong.
I agree we should be happy someone thinks were doing a good job and share all we can. Just because i know a lot of things foesnt mean they always work but if you help someone out they are growing and learning and when they find out the missing link so to speak, they have things they can share. It shouldnt be a competition but a race to see how much we can get ahead so we can help others. We all need all the info we can get and a lot of experience to test why these things work or dont. The longer i grpw the more simple i get with techniques and find its consistent watering and fertlizing and planting the right time for what kind of plant. Its tricky when you grow so many kinds of plants. Its consistency and application and learning how to grow healthy living spoil and let the beneficials do the work. Considering natures ways are so enlightening.
I reckon he was probably told this, by somebody else! I know he said this was his own deduction, but in my experience, some of the older farming generation (was esp those who are secretive about their growing secrets,) like to pass knowledge off as their own! Fair enough l, he worked hard and he earned that title. I am blessed to be part of a growing community where everybody loves to freely share and doesn’t really take any credit for the what they pass down to others. The joy of seeing somebody benefitting from this info is just as much!
When planting a garden, my grandparents always put in 1 cup of sugar & 1 cup of Epsom salt in every hole before placing the tiny tomato plant in it. A week later, they added an organic fertilizer. Then every other week they alternated more Epsom salt or more fertilizer. Many times their plants were as tall as my grandpa, loaded with tomatoes. They fed many families.
Wood ash is fantastic for cucumbers too. I mix it into my soil before I start my seeds and the plants get massive and I end up with way more cucumbers than I know what to do with.
Thank you for being honest, and helping us novis Gardner’s to be better gardeners. My question to you is mid June to late to plant tomatoe plants. I am in Arkansas and it is getting hot! But l would love to try this method. Mainly because my tomatoes are not producing a lot of fruit. I pulled up all my squash plants to because all they are doing is flowering! I don’t want to give up. Please help.
Karen Lincoln Try using an electric tooth brush to vibrate your plants. That too does it. Just a little while... and polination will have taken place. Do it often.
My dad tills wood ash from his fireplace into the garden every year. He's not a big tomato guy, but his potatoes are amazing! He regularly gets 1-1.5 pound red potatoes.
That man was giving you a great honor to share his secret. He is not "odd" or strange. Dont assume he just came to it by trial and error. He is very wise.
You are amazing. I wish I knew what you know. In Australia we have bush fires, more often than I like. It’s abnormal for them to come where I live. Anyway, one did recently and took my fruit and nut trees with it. Can I use that ash? There is a lot of it.
I learned all my gardening lessons and information from my grandparents and my mom, plus a few friends when I was older. I have passed on the information to others who wanted or needed it.
I wonder of he used it for indeterminate tomatoes? Something I did this year was put saved tea leaves under each tomato plant and in my cucumber bed. My tomato plants grew huge and my cucumbers produced more than they ever have. I may combine wood ash with tea leaves for the maters next year.
Chelsey Hartmann hello there I planted tomatoes for the first time ever this summer in my garden and Out of 5 indeterminate plants, I had 4 successes, the one variety that didn’t succeed is called “ cœur de bœuf” in French it translates to “ beef heart” in English and it was attacked by mildew. I would like to know how you used tea leaves please for me to improve my results for next year. Thanks.
@@fatou1975 I just saved used tea bags and buried one or two under each plant. They add nitrogen to the soil and supposedly raise the acidity a bit as well. They probably won't help with flower/fruit production though. But the plants should get some size to them. I've never had problems with mildew so can't help you there.
It’s definitely not a secret lol My mom has been growing with ash with her tomatoes, beets & radishes for years.. In fact I remember my grandma doing the same. She swore it kept the pests off root veggies and would keep her tomatoes alive longer. Yes old Timer mini series!!🤭👍🏻farmers always have the best tricks and tips.
I read that trees collect Dioxins and some folks were concerned about wood ash having concentrated levels of Dioxins. I am so paranoid i sware, but i still use wood ash when needed. Thank you for the very informative video, for sure he would be okay knowing many people can benefit from this knowledge. Thank you God Bless
I''m really surprised that you think that about older gardeners. All the older gardeners I've talked to have been very generous with sharing their gardening wisdom. Maybe try another way of asking? Just a couple of days ago I talked to a woman in our community garden who is probably in her mid-seventies. After sharing info, we're now working together on planting more pollinator plants in the garden. Older people are precious gems in our communities!
I come here to listen and learn, and even in reading responses you may pick up something else which I'm appreciative of. Not to be abusive to the teacher. Rudeness seems to be running rampant on many levels within these community forums. I guess you and others are not aware you can move on if you don't enjoy or need the info. Negativity gets old.
Besides this being entertaining and educational as always, I especially appreciate that you talked about the different nutritional needs indeterminate and determinate tomatoes have.