Hats Off to the Mater Master!

... on a job well done, and a prize well won! Me thinks I hear the sounds of a thousand worms cheering in unison. Quite the team effort - and yes, you get to keep the title for at least another year.

I just need to run out and pick something up for ya ...

MM

Batten Down The Hatches!

My mater plants are now over six feet tall and loaded up with lots of maters!

Good thing our new tent arrived. I'm using some of the stakes to help tie things down for the tropical storm winds that are supposed to start up this evening ...

The bad news: Yesterday I found two tomatoes that appear to have the same issue Dad's "Rocky" had. I performed an autopsy on them to see what might be the cause, but so far your guess is as good as mine ...

The good news: So far none of the other maters appear to have it, including my TWO big boys shown below. I managed to measure out 9" on a piece of twine, and wrap it around to check, and both are qualifiers for size. Unfortunately I'm a bit short handed on photography help here, so you'll have to take my word for it until I can have a neighbor take the picture while I measure them. Nate isn't tall enough, and he's still working on his photography skills. No doubt he's a charmer, but I'd be lucky if he got a framed shot of my butt :)

MM

Stakin' Tomatoes

Hard to believe, but the tallest of the plants is as tall as I am - boy these things sure have taken off. Yesterday was a little gusty and one of them decided to flop over - thankfully there was hardly any damage, but it was their way of telling me they'd like to get some extra support. So this morning Nater Gater and I took a trip to Lowes and picked up a 1" by 6" by 8' board and I ripped it into 1 inch by 8 foot stakes. I got out my rubber mallet and stepladder and pounded them into the ground next to my four beauties. I then stringed them up with some nylon twine.

Nate was a big help with the twine, helping me run it through our rigging.

I can't wait until stakin' tomatoes can be steak and tomatoes! Yum, yum!

MM

Gettin' Pretty Big!

I thought I'd show you all how big the plants have gotten - as you can see they're starting to make gains on the swing set in the background ...

Here's a closeup of the first maters. Of course there are lots and lots of buds over the other three plants ...

MM

Nater and the Maters

Yes, we're all looking strong and healthy down this way - we even feel good enough to put a kid in front of the maters to give you a sense of size ...

He looks pretty cocky doesn't he?

Here's a good shot at some blossoms. I haven't counted the total, but all four plants have a few clusters each:

MM

I Give You ... the Tomato-Counting Count!

ONE TOMATO ... AH, AH, AHHH!

TWO TOMATO ... AH AH AHH!



Still All Green

As you can see, the Mater Matic grads are green and thriving, but so far no buds ...

Not much to say, other than to tip my hat to my competitors - we may be falling behind, but we're taking notes and we may still have a surprise or two left for you all!

MM

Down, But Not Out

In case you haven't heard, it's been a little challenging of late for Team Mater-Matic. A week ago everyone on the team was gung-ho for moving outside into the bright sunshine. And that's what we did. The maters had been in their final homes for three days; the weather was sunny and beautiful - it just seemed to make sense that this show get on the road.

So out they went last Tuesday, and given last Wednesday was also beautiful, they went out again. But in checking the maters by the middle of that day, it became apparent something was wrong - all of them had leaves turning white. Yours truly was very sad and worried. What was the cause? Was it the potting soil? Was it the buckets themselves? Was there too much fertilizer in there?

Unfortunately Maters can't talk (although apparently they can sing for some folks). If they could talk they would have told me exactly what the problem was. So I checked the internet and my best guess was a combination of windburn and sunburn. Turns out greenhouse maters need to be gradually exposed to the outdoors. Should have been obvious I guess, but given how they had been growing like gangbusters, I misread growth for strength.

So as a different approach, I let them hang out on the front porch. It's eastern facing, and gets only a couple hours of direct sunlight in the morning, then indirect for the rest of the day. Then every night I'd take Nate's little red wagon and shuttle them back to the protective confines of the garage. And every morning the maters got another wagon ride back out to the front porch. Given each bucket with soil and water is over 50 pounds, I got quite a workout too.

Even Gimpy's lookin' good!

'Slim' (hopefully not Slim Pickings)

Little by little, the maters are turning around. The whiteness on the leaves didn't advance, and all show new growth. Granted as of today I haven't seen any buds, but I hope they're not far behind.  And now that the weather has been above 50 degrees at night, and topping in the lower to mid 80s during the day, the maters get to sleep outside (and my back gets a break - whew!).

MM

Pretty Maids all in a Row

Now here's a lovely site, eh? Happy Maters basking in that warm sun. They seem to have perked up quite a bit just being outdoors. I put them out this morning just as the sun was peeking over the neighbor's house. I suspect I'll easily get 8 to 9 hours of full sun in this spot today. Also, it seems the green buckets trap quite a bit of the warm stuff too. Although I don't have very accurate probe thermometer, it appears I'm getting internal bucket temps in the mid to upper 80's. 

Here's a closeup from the side. Can you see the quarter? Yes, it's quite small in comparison to those maters, isn't it? 

They are now officially off the grow lights!!!

MM

Home Sweet Home

Well, those littluns grow up so fast (sniff, sniff). It just seems like yesterday they were pokin' their heads out of the dirt for the first time. Now they are set to go out into the world as World Class Maters. Just wish I had a little 'Pomp and Circumstance' playing in the background - well, wait a minute ... is that just in my head? LOL

Here they all are in their SIPs. I haven't named them all yet, but the one up front is definitely Gimpy. Unfortunately Gimpy didn't do too well with a rogue gust of wind. I had him out enjoying the sunshine while I was getting his brothers planted. I've got a little crutch in there for him - hopefully he will make it.



As they were bursting to get out of the Mater Matic, I've put together this 'Lean-To-Matic' to keep them in that fake sun for another day or two. Crude? Yes, but functional.

And here's the proud Papa with the maters. Not bad for a smartphone snapshot, eh? I promised them I will have them out in the sun very soon!.

MM

Big Talk from the Worm Guy Today

In response to Dad's attempt to chum the waters with some smack, let me just give a little example of what a mere four days in the Mater-Matic can do for a mater ...

As we can plainly see in this before-and-after example, my maters are a good three inches below the diffuser when I last raised it on Sunday the 24th. Now this evening as the picture on the right shows, the maters are raising the roof - they're not only up to the diffuser, they're trying to go around it. Put it another way, these maters are growing 3/4's of an inch a day!!!

Nothing to be ashamed of here ... NUH UH!!!

MM

Maybe a Week Away from Moving Day?

From what I've been told from folks in these parts, the week after Easter is a great time to get your maters planted. And given how crowded the Mater Matic is getting, that may be the plan. 

Real cozy in there!

We'll have to see how the weather holds up. Granted it's been cold, rainy and wet for a few days, but these maters wouldn't know any different from being warm and sunny. 

Being that it's the weekend I did a little more work in the mad scientist lab. I took care of the usual weekend chores in the Mater Matic. I raised the diffuser a couple inches. I flushed the reservoirs, and checked all the hardware.

I also took the Chik Fil A pickle buckets and made four more SIPs. Unlike the others, these are green. I think I might use these for the maters - seem a little more fitting for the backyard. Granted there's not much you can do to blend a bunch of buckets into the surroundings, as they have a tendency to stand out a bit, but I figured it might be a little more pleasing to the eye if anyone takes a gander. 

I picked up a 1 1/4" hole saw from the hardware store. Cutting with the spade bit was a bit nerve-racking. Nothing gets the heart pumping then have one of those bite into a pickle lid and send it flying across the garage like a industrial strength frisbee. Luckily no damage, but it was enough to make me rethink my approach. The right tool for the right job they always say. The hole saw is much easier to control, and it makes cleaner cuts. As you can see below, my SIP making is getting better. I also thought it best to integrate support for some tomato cages, so I drilled three tiny holes just inside the rim of the bucket lid, and the cages fit fairly snug, even with no potting mix in the buckets. I suspect they'll do fine.

Here are the maters checking out their new homes.

While at the hardware store, I picked up a hose and some parts to complete the watering manifold. This is what I'll use to distribute water from the automatic timer to each bucket. I had thought on a couple different ways to approach this, but I figured the least expensive, most flexible way would be to repurpose a brass bib manifold for the job. Along it it and the connectors, I pulled out an old piece of EMT conduit and fashioned a support stake. I'll drive this into the ground behind the plants, connect the garden hose on one end, then run flex tubing from the others to each of the bucket snorkels. Here's what it looks like without the hoses and tubing:

The last thing I worked on was with the other greenery in the Mater Matic. My sweet peppers haven't grown much over the last few weeks, so I suspect they're past due for coming out of the flats.

I fabricated a smaller 'mini-SIP' from a water bottle and transferred one of them to it. I want to test this out to see how well keeping the plant indoors on the sill will do. I'll move these over gradually, just to make sure everything goes well.

MM

Still Going Strong

Well, the Mater-Matic may have to give out a few Mea Culpas for having been missing in action  over the past few days. Been very busy with a new website update at work, so getting in front of a computer at home just hasn't been that much fun lately.

But my babies are making me proud so let me show them off a bit ...

They seem to be still going strong. Mind you, each one is nestled in a 2 liter bottle, so that should give you a good sense of how big they are. They took right to these 'mini-SIPs' without any fuss.

This afternoon I had to reorient the grow light so it's now horizontal, and bring up the diffuser about an inch. I still have several inches of space to work with, but I don't think I'll need all of it. I suspect I'll soon have the first graduating class of the Mater-Matic moving out into the world.

Speaking of which, I'm happy to report some very excited co-workers. All are saying their adopted maters are doing well - in fact they haven't taken out of their mini-SIPs yet. They have remarked how easy it's been to maintain them. One fellow is using his fishtank water to keep them going - apparently that's as good as worm tea!. 

I also hit the mother lode of pickle buckets, thanks to my local Chik-Fil-A, which means I'll have enough SIPs to meet my needs and have a few more to give out at work. 

MM

WOW! - That's Quite A Mater!

You got that right little buddy!

Homage to the Worm Tea Brewer

In deference to dear 'ol Dad, and his Discovery Channel-worthy episodes on his Tea, I thought I'd do a little 'research', and put together a who's-who list of famous folks who share Dad's enthusiasm for the rich dark stuff ...

Perhaps the recipe was passed down from the 13 Lamas that came before him. Who knows? In spending a good chunk of your life in meditation, I'm sure you can come up with some very interesting stuff. A stout cup certainly is enough to get the robes flowing in the morning.

She has no doubt found a place in many a man's heart (and stomach) as she brought forth yummy 30 minute meals with the speed and demeanor of a chipper chipmunk, but perhaps the secret to her gravitas lies in something a little more off the trail. You know those Food Network types - always trying something off the wall, or maybe in the ground?

Some folks just like to have it on the go

Perhaps The World is not Enough for this strapping chap. Here we see him grinning as he gulps it down by the Goblet-ful. I'm sure with all the worldly travel he's done On His Majesty's Secret Service, he's sure to have picked up the love of a delicacy or two. After all when you have A License to Kill, you can Live and Let Die all those nay-sayers. And what's with the Lion on the forehead, ole boy? 



Speaking of Her Majesty, might I suggest a spot a lemon with that?



Ehh - just goes to show you have to know when to say when. When you start looking like a worm, you know you've had to much.

And it truly would not be a Tea Party without this guy showing up. 

Uh, yeah - soooo appetizing. Might have been brewed for a bit too long (like four years too long).

Bigger than Yesterday?

No trick photography ... just a quarter ...

I'm pretty sure they're a half inch taller than yesterday.

MM

SIPs a Plenty

Here are a half dozen SIPs I made this weekend. These are going to work with me tomorrow, along with all my extra maters - to be adopted by some mater enthusiasts ...

Oh, and incidentally, Sherrie thought she was very funny when she suggested an improvement on my design. Well, guess what Sis - not only can I take your Port A Potty poke, I can actually improve upon it ...

Won't all your neighbors be jealous! HAHAHAHA!

Busy Day for the Mater Matic

I had quite a list of things to accomplish, so today I hit the ground running. I needed to transplant the maters from the flats to larger digs, and that also meant that some of my maters would part ways. Given this was my first time trying to grow anything from a seed, I planted all thirty seeds expecting that most wouldn't make it. To my surprise, from 30 seeds I ended up with 24 seedlings - much better results than I expected.

So the first task was to make new homes for my maters. Given the success of my 'soil wicking' approach, I enlisted the help of Team Mater Matic (which now extends to several of my co-workers) to collect some 2 liter plastic bottles. Steve and Ryan came through big time ...

These went from recycle bin refugees to 'mini-SIPs' as follows:

1. Drill a half inch hole in each of the plastic caps
2. Strip off the labels
3. Drill 8 small holes around the crown of the bottle to allow for soil weeping
4. Measure 6" from the mouth and cut around the bottle, and set the top part aside
5. Trim about 2" from the original cut line off the bottom part
6. Cut a 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" piece of landscape fabric, and place over the mouth of the bottle
7. Screw the cap down over the landscape fabric
8. Turn the top part upside down and sit it into the bottom part ...Voila!

So the idea behind these is that the bottom acts as the reservoir, holding about a cup of water, and as the potting mix and plant use up the moisture in the top part, the water 'wicks' up through the hole in the cap and replenishes the top part. And given they are portable, I can bring my extras to work and my colleagues can sit these out on a sunny window ledge indoors until it warms up enough to transfer them outside.

After building the mini-SIPs, I had to do some surgery on the Mater-Matic. The mid-shelf supports had been used to hang the reflector, but now the plants had outgrown the space and the supports had to go. So using my angle grinder I removed the four bars of the shelf support, and rebuilt a fresh diffuser that hung down from the top shelf supports. The refab works nicely, and should now have enough room for the plants until it's time to move them outside.

Nate and I then took a drive out to Tractor Supply and picked up some spagham moss, perlite, dolomite and some organic fertilizer. I mixed up the moss and perlite with water, and added a little bit of the composted manure I had left over from planting the flats. SIPs require this type of mix due to the need to wick moisture. In packing the mix in the mini-SIPs, I added a little of the dolomite in the bottom, then added more mix. I used a couple of shims to extract the seedlings from the flats. Then I added a teaspoon of the fertilizer around the perimeter of the container, and gave each one a good watering to ensure enough moisture to keep the wicking going.

Here are all the seedlings that are destined for backyards of Team Mater Matic. The picture is a bit dark given the sun had gone down and this was all my garage lights could muster.

And here are my final five - the five largest and healthiest of the bunch, all tucked in their modified mini-SIPs - modified in the sense that the bottoms have 1/2 holes drilled in them. These are going back in the Mater-Matic, so I needed to come up with a way to use the existing reservoirs to feed the water to them. The holes allow the water into each bottom to draw up into the wick.

Tomorrow I'll be up to my knees in pickle buckets - wait to you see all the SIPs! I'll post some pics when I'm done!

MM

The Makings of a Bucket Brigade

Well, I thought I'd start things off with a couple snapshots of how things are growing in the Mater-Matic ...

Looks like a stand of trees next to that old dime, now doesn't it? I'll have to make change for a quarter soon, I think. More than a couple are approaching the three inch mark.  And lots of leaves on all of them! I had to raise the diffuser another half inch too. The next time I'll be going up a peg hole or two on the light, as well as moving the reflector above the mid-shelf.

Hey Dad, I agree it's been a while since we've got a peek of what your littlun's are doing. You got that fancy camera of yours in the shop or what?

The sweet peppers and onions seem to be faring well. I believe I'm making good headway on my ingredients list for salsa!

The compliments on my 'high-tech sippy cup' - as Dad put it - are very much appreciated, if not inspiring. I brought my planters to work, as there are a few mater admirers there. It seems the notion of sippy cups for maters is catching on. As of today, I have several requests for making more of them, thus beginning the formation a 'bucket brigade' of sorts. And thanks to some very resourceful colleagues, I should be getting several more 5 gallon buckets in the very near future. Yes, indeed this little endeavor may very well have started an unofficial Hagemeyer tomato competition, too! The fruits (pun intended) of my labor will certainly go forth and conquer more than just my backyard.

Looks like it's back to the mad scientist laboratory for me this weekend! 

MM