Re: Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2026 1:06 pm
This is another follow-up on the idea that the learning curve regarding local gardening conditions is long. I've been running a number of experiments around here. One was to put some cherry tomatoes in an out of the way place to see how they do in different conditions. This is continued after the previous post reproduced below.
We're expanding into the crops that can take the heat - okra, sweet potatoes.
The photo below shows a patch that survived the 2.5 months of mostly 100 plus degree temperatures without any water. What I noticed as the heat broke was hundreds of blooms. Not much growth of the vines but lots of blooms. Now that the heat has broken for a few weeks those hundreds of blooms have turned into hundreds of tomatoes that will surely ripen before our first freeze.Higgenbotham wrote: Tue Oct 27, 2026 1:30 pm I want to do a follow-up on this as it seems like an appropriate time.
The main idea is the learning curve regarding local gardening conditions is long. This is an example of what may be faced in the coming dark age.
At the bottom I will post 4 photos.
The first is of a typical tomato plant that was planted in local blackland prairie clay soil amended with some organic matter which was mostly cover crops of hard red wheat. These plants survived the hundred plus degree heat wave, all of them except 1 - 14 out of 15.
The second is a picture of the soil.
The third is a picture of a group of tomato plants grown in what might most resemble black forest soil- heavily amended with compost as is often recommended (and rightly so under most conditions in my opinion). In that area only 1 plant in 4 survived the heat wave. The plants struggled mightily, but 3 eventually curled up and died. Those 3 were replanted with backups after the heat broke. The heat wave broke maybe 3 weeks ago and since then these plants have really taken off.
The fourth photo shows this black dirt. The photos don't show the contrast between the plants and the soil to the extent that it appears out in the field.
The main takeaway is that over 2 years after starting this project I still don't know which group of plants will produce better for this fall season harvest. The answer may well be that it depends on the date of our first killing freeze. We didn't do a fall planting last year; thus the "over 2 years" overstates it compared to if I had been more on top of the project.
We're expanding into the crops that can take the heat - okra, sweet potatoes.