Heirloom Newbe

Hello, my name is Jim and this is my first year of gardening. I started the year off with germinating three types of heirloom tomatoes, Brandy-wine, Cherokee and Black Tula. I have learned many tricks from this site as well as found many things I will do differently next year. One difference will be to limit the amount of seeds I germinate and only germinate one seed per pot. I purchased seeds on line and ended up planting them all thinking that most would fail to germinate. I also germinated three to five seeds in each small pot. Little did I realize I was booming with more plants than I could deal with. I ended up giving a bunch to friends. One technique that I learned from someone is that from one plant it is possible to create multiple plants. I tested his recommendation by cutting one of the branches off one of the plants at a 45 degree angle. He recommended that I use hydroponics but I instead planted the stems straight into soil. To my astonishment and pleasure, the stems became plants...WOW. Next year I will greatly limit what I germinate and then use this technique to expand my plant numbers to what I want.

Because of my schedule, my main garden has been planted late and I will probably not get a great harvest. I did however plant one of each type in separate pots and they are producing well, at least well enough to get me excited about next year. This year was a bit expensive with building a large fenced raised garden just for the tomato plants but next year things will be ready and I can get the plants into the ground early. This fall I plan on building a very large garden and plant vegetables that are seasonal and take this new hobby to a different level. This site has been very valuable to me and I would love to thank the host of this site for all of the great information.