I spend the bulk of today transplanting the very first tomatoes I grew from seeds this year into the ground. Here’s the step by step process of what I did to give them a little boost and ensure they’ll have a happy, productive life. I hope?

1. I took a soil test. Soil tests are important. I know this because everyone says so, so in my struggle to please everyone, I always make sure to do this. Rarely do the results cause me to do anything other than what I was planning to do anyway, but sometimes it will point out a glaring deficiency that can be easily corrected. They are easy to collect and inexpensive. Contact your Extension service for info on where to send your test. Most tests come with recommendations, so be sure to tell them you’re growing organically (you are, right?)

2. I mixed in manure. We live nearby a race horse stable so this is easy. There’s a literal mountain of old horse manure that I can take as much as I want from. It isn’t pure manure (oxymoron?), rather stable bedding, so the majority of the mix is wood shavings from the stable floor. I would usually lime at this point, but my soil test showed my soil ph to be optimum

3. I used Symbex, a liquid ground-applied  product that claims to increase microbial activity. I think it’s sugar water. I bought some a few years ago, while planting blueberries, from a persistent salesman who thought it was awesome. I disagree, but am a sucker for confident salespeople. Why don’t you skip this step?

4. Make sure your plants are hardened off properly. Introduce them slowly to the outdoors, a few hours a day, increasing the time each day until they get a handle on things. I…heh…had some problems with this recently.

5. I planned for a cloudy day. Keep an eye on weather forecasts and shoot for an overcast day to transplant. Ideally a few overcast days in a row. When you transplant something from a container into garden soil, the root system will become damaged no matter how gentle you are, and the plant will have trouble taking up water till the adapt to their new environment.  Cloudy skies will ensure less water loss by transpiration. Yes, transpiration. Google it.

Also, you want to avoid any hard rain shortly after setting them out….DUHZ!!!

6. Mulch, Mulch, Mulch…I used red plastic, you use whatever you want to use. Wood chips, hay or grass clippings, newspaper, plastic mulch, corncobs, bagasse, whatever agricultural or yard wastes you can get you hands on. I can’t stress mulching tomato plants enough. Even moisture is essential and mulch helps you not have to water every five minutes.

7. I gave them a little pick-me-up in the planting hole. We have a can-o-worms, which is exactly what it sounds like, and although our worms are particularlly lazy in the excrement department, I was able to scrape together almost a five gallon bucket of worm castings (weirdest euphemism ever). I put a handful in each hole.

8. I dug the tansplants deep. Tomatoes have the abiliy to grow roots along their stem when it comes in contact with the ground. I clipped all the leaves of the plant except the top two (or four, due to my whimsicality on pruning decisions) and planting each plant all the way so that only the top leaves were showing. This ensures a good root system.

9. I mixed a few gallons on water with concentrated fish emulsion, which can be acquired at most garden centers, and poured about 3 and a half ounces on each plant, letting it hit the leaves and soak into the soil for a shot of nitrogen.

10. I gave them each a collar for cutworms. Cutworms are a big problem here (albiet not this time of year, still old habits die hard, and I know the minute my back is turned…) and I hate the stupid buggers. Without a collar of some kind around the base of the plant (cut up toilet paper rolls work best) they hew your price plants down like a freaking beaver. I lost a third of my tomatoes in one night due to these uncivilized and disrespectful caterpillars.

Yup, Yup, that’s what I did. Now to keep an eye on the weather. Both eyes. A cold snap could be my undoing, even in the high tunnel. I have plenty of row cover on hand, so hopefully…….

We recently got finished pruning our blueberries. We have a little over an acre planting; about 800 plants, so it can be quite a chore pruning by hand, especially since I had a lot of bad work to undo from neglecting to prune last year. All the same, it’s not an unpleasant task, and it’s really important for good quality fruit that’s easier to pick. Properly pruned bushes yield greater quantities of larger berries,

As bushes get older, and tall, berry yeild will decrease significantly because of the lack of new wood to produce buds. They also will get t and bushy, and light won’t be able to reach the inside of the bush. So the fruit will set on the outside, which means much of the area of the plant will be unproductive.
Be just to prune shortly after harvest is finished, otherwise you’ll be cutting off new growth, which is next year’s fruiting wood. <!–more–>

On rabbiteyes, it’s good to prune the bushes down to about 5-6 feet in height to make it easier to pick. These cuts are called heading cuts, and should be even across the bush. If your bush has more than 5 or 6 canes, prune back the smallest and weakest looking. Finally, all branches growing inward should be cut. Think of a teacup. You want all the branches growing outward from the base.

Now keep in mind all I grow is rabbiteye blueberries. If you don’t live in the South, then you’d be growing highbush or lowbush berries. I don’t know to much about those, but Mike at diy-guides.com has a good article on them here. Pruning should be similar, especially for highbush berries.

Here’s a few pictures, again taken by camera phone so excuse the quality, to illustrate what I mean:

From Pruned Blueberry bush

A young, recently pruned bush. Notice the lack of inward growing branches. I actually pruned this bush down to 4 feet, all those new shoots, about a third of the height of the bush, are only a month old.

From Pruned Blueberry bush

Base of another young plant. Not ideal, I’d rather the canes not be all clumped together like that, but I wanted to show a picture demonstrating the lack of branches near the base of the plant. I prefer a high canopy, as it makes harvesting easier. Also,  those low branches are twiggy and produce poor quality fruit. Best to keep fruit bearing wood up off the ground.

Hope this helps. Happy pruning!