Wheel Hoe Blog

Row by Row Episode 5: The Complete Guide to Growing Okra

June 7, 2018 by hosstools

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On this week’s episode, Greg and Travis discuss all things okra. They talk about their favorite varieties of okra based on several trials that they’ve conducted over the years. Although many people only grow the Clemson Spineless variety because it’s probably the most available, there are many other varieties that provide increased productivity and better texture. Chris Smith, who is with Sow True Seeds out of Asheville, NC, has around 130 varieties of okra that he has collected over the years. He’s currently has a blog and is working on a book called “In Defense of Okra” where he will elaborate on those varieties and everything okra. Okra is a crop that requires very little maintenance in the vegetable garden. It is not a heavy feeder, and so it doesn’t require much water or fertilizer relative to crops like corn or onions. Greg and Travis recommend doing several succession plantings of okra through the growing season. They transplant the okra in spring, then direct seed several other successions starting in May and throughout the summer to have the best harvests.

On the Show & Tell segment this week, Greg has just picked a bowl of fresh blackberries from his thornless blackberry patch. These blackberries are extremely prolific and great to eat raw, in smoothies or to make delicious blackberry cobbler. They also talk about the cucumber varieties they have growing this year. They grow a “pickle” variety and a “slicer” variety each year. The pickle variety they’re growing this year is called Max Pack, which is an F1 hybrid selected for productivity. The slicer variety they’re growing is called Olympian, which they have grown for several years and prefer it for it’s uniformity and excellent production. Because both varieties are hybrids, they can grow them on the same row without having to worry about cross-pollination.

On the Q & A segment, they answer questions about using Sevin Dust, a popular insecticide that can have a negative impact on pollinators and beneficial insects. They also answer a question about storing potatoes and other vegetables, and how washing these vegetables can affect their shelf life.

Tool of the Week

Handy Twine Knife

Row by Row Episode 4: Growing Squash in Your Vegetable Garden

June 7, 2018 by hosstools

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In this week’s episode, Greg and Travis discuss growing squash in the vegetable garden. The most frequently grown varieties are probably the standard yellow crookneck and the black beauty zucchini. The popularity of these varieties if simply a result of availability. But there are many other varieties that have better flavor and higher productivity. They provide examples of prolific and disease-resistant varieties that they have tested and proven over the years. Some of these newer varieties include Tempest, which is yellow and Green Machine, which is a productive, uniform green zucchini.

They differentiate between growing techniques for summer and winter squash. While summer varieties are a repeat-harvest crop, winter varieties are a one-time harvest crop. Winter squash will also need to be planted several weeks later than summer squash. Winter squash do have the benefit of longer storage, as most varieties can be stored for up to six months. Their favorite varieties include Delicata, which is an elongated squash that is very sweet and great for roasting. They also like the powdery-mildew resistant varieties of Acorn, such as TipTop PMR. For a spaghetti-type, they prefer the smaller varieties like Angel Hair that smaller, yet more prolific.

In the Show & Tell segment, they talk about the bumper crop of potatoes that they had this year. Out of the 7 or 8 varieties that they trialed, the ones that performed the best were the Jelly and Blue Belle varieties from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds. Both of these varieties grew very large, uniform potatoes that exhibited excellent disease resistance. They plan on growing both varieties again next year and maybe eliminating the standard red potatoes from the rotation.

In the Q & A segment, they discuss corn pollination from the male flower (tassel) down to the female flower (silk). They also answer a question about controlling ants on the homestead using natural and conventional methods.

Tool of the Week

Garden Fork

Row by Row Episode 3: Fertilizer in Your Vegetable Garden

June 7, 2018 by hosstools

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On this week’s show, Greg and Travis discuss techniques and strategies for using fertilizer in your vegetable garden. They talk about the different terminologies used to quantify amounts of fertilizer, including parts per million (ppm) and pounds per square feet. While much of this terminology can be confusing, thinking about fertilizer in terms of pounds per square feet is the simplest way to calculate fertilizer needs. There are many different forms of conventional and organic fertilizers that can be used in a vegetable garden. As far as conventional fertilizers go, their favorite is the 20-20-20 formulation which has 20% nitrogen, 20% phosphorous and 20% potassium. This is a water soluble fertilizer that works great being injected through a drip irrigation system, as it provides a quick boost to the plants that is noticeable in just a few days.

Organic fertilizers include products like Chilean Nitrate, Fish Emulsion, Blood Meal, Bone Meal and Compost. As far as organic fertilizers go, Chilean Nitrate is probably the fastest-acting and works great for side dressing corn before hilling. For the other organic fertilizers mentioned, the action is much slower because the nitrogen has to be converted into forms that are available to the plant. Compost is a very effective soil amendment to use before planting, adding organic matter and nutrients to the garden soil. Although compost is available in many forms, chicken-manure based compost is the most nutrient rich. Just be sure to add it several weeks before planting, so that you don’t burn the young plants.

In the Show & Tell segment, they talk about the last succession planting of beets that are almost ready for harvest. They also discuss the Top Bunch Collards that are being harvested, and why this variety is probably the best collard variety to grow.

In the Q & A segment, they talk about organic and natural pesticide solutions for controlling bean beetles in a vegetable garden. As with any organic pesticide program, spraying early and frequently are very important. In the second question, they talk about proper crop rotation techniques to maximize the potential of your garden.

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TubTrug Bundle

Row by Row Episode 2: Fruit Trees & Perennials on the Homestead

May 31, 2018 by hosstools

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On this week’s show, Greg and Travis talk about growing fruit trees and perennials on the homestead. They discuss many different types of fruit trees and bushes that they like to grow on their own homestead. These include mulberries, blackberries, blueberries, figs and muscadines. Many of these fruits require very little maintenance once established. In early spring, mulberries are usually the first to produce fruit. These grow on a tree and look much like blackberries, but they don’t have the larger seeds like blackberries and tend to be a little sweeter. Although wild, thorned blackberries are very prevalent in the south, they prefer growing the thornless varieties. The thornless varieties are not quite as sweet as the wild varieties, but they are larger and much easier to harvest. When growing thornless blackberries, you may want to consider some type of trellising system to contain the plants. Fig trees are also a great addition to any homestead. Greg talks about the fig tree program at Louisiana State University and how new varieties are being developed for improved production and better flavor. Most of the older trees you see are the Brown Turkey variety, but some of the new varieties make larger, more attractive fruits.

In the Show & Tell segment, they talk about lettuce that they’ve been harvesting from their gardens. They mention the Salanova varieties that are highly acclaimed, although they do tend to have some issues with the bottom beginning to rot if left in the ground too long. There are also many varieties such as Adriana which provide a great substitute with a more affordable seed price.

In the Q & A segment, they answer questions about cover crops and squash bugs. They talk about their preferred cover crops and what time of year is ideal for growing each. They also discuss controlling squash bugs with all-natural and organic insecticides. These type of controls require spraying the plants when they are young and preventing adults from establishing in the population.

Tool of the Week

Single Tine Cultivator

Row by Row Episode 1: Top Four Reasons for Growing Your Own Food

May 30, 2018 by hosstools

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On the debut episode of the Row by Row Garden Show, Greg and Travis talk about the origin of the show and how they got the name. Before the first airing of the show, they conducted a survey with their customers and newsletter subscribers to get ideas for the show name. After receiving many great ideas, they settled on Row by Row, the Garden Show. It is intended to be a weekly show for gardeners of all ages and all skill levels. Whether you’re a beginner, experienced backyard gardener, or small scale market farmer, this show will have great information that you can implement into your vegetable garden. With the addition of their Row by Row Facebook group, they hope to encourage interaction between listeners who post photos of their garden and harvests. This is a great way for everyone in the group to learn from others’ experiences.

The main segment this week includes a discussion of the top 4 reasons that someone should want to grow their own food. They believe that growing your own food is important because you know what’s in it. By growing it yourself, you know exactly what type of insecticides and what types of fertilizer has been used. Food grown at home also tastes better because it hasn’t been over-fertilized with excess nitrogen. Finally, growing food is a great skill-set to pass along to the younger generation to ensure they’re able to do the same.

In the Show & Tell segment, they provide a snapshot of what’s growing in their gardens currently. They mention the Cubanelle peppers that are already producing many peppers per plant each week. They also talk about the onions that are almost ready for harvest, and how to tell when your onions are ready for harvest. For onions, they prefer the Texas Legend and Red Creole varieties from Dixondale Farms.

Tool of the Week

Heirloom Whole Corn

Vegetable Gardening with the FAD System

June 12, 2017 by hosstools

Here at Hoss Tools, we are firm believers in the FAD System for vegetable gardening. FAD is an acronym that stands for Furrow, Amend and Drip. If you do these three things every time you plant something in your vegetable garden, you’ll be on the fast track to success. Don’t be fooled by the name — this is not a “fad” that will be temporarily popular and short-lived. The FAD system is a proven technique that makes gardening easier and will drastically increase results. Let’s talk about each step in detail and the particular order in which they should be performed.

Details of the FAD System

Furrowing with the Plow Set

Furrow

Creating a furrow lays the groundwork for the remaining two portions of the FAD system for your vegetable garden. The furrow marks the location of your row(s) where your crops will be planted. The furrow doesn’t have to be extremely deep — a furrow that’s about 4-5″ deep will suffice. Our favorite tool for creating a furrow is the Double Wheel Hoe with Plow Set Attachment. If you need assistance pushing a straight line with the Double Wheel Hoe, you can use a string ran between two stakes to help guide you along a straight-line path.

Amend

Once the furrow has been constructed, it’s now time to amend that furrow with some quality compost. Instead of amending the entire garden with compost, we only amend the furrow where the seed/plants will be planted. This conserves compost by only placing it exactly where the plants can utilize it. Quality compost has many benefits in the vegetable garden. It adds organic matter which helps condition and soften the soil over time, it provides a fertile bed for the plants that will be soon growing in it, and it also can provide essential nutrients such as calcium which can help to prevent deficiencies such as blossom end rot. We recommend a compost with an animal-based component such as chicken manure or cow manure.

Drip

Applying Drip Tape

The final step in the FAD system for your vegetable garden is drip irrigation. Drip irrigation is by far the easiest and most efficient way to water your vegetable garden. Drip tape places water exactly where the plants need it — at the roots. We recommend burying drip tape in the furrow with our Drip Tape Layer Attachment, which has many benefits. Burying drip tape virtually eliminates any source of evaporation that could result from laying the drip tape on top of the soil, so that all the water output is available for absorption by plant roots. Burying the tape also makes installation much easier because it is fastened in place by the soil on top and it can’t be twisted by the wind. Finally, burying the tape keeps any rodents from chewing into the tape that might be easily accessible on top of the soil.

The FAD System is your best bet for long-term success in your vegetable garden. The compost will provide benefits to your plants throughout the entire growing season and the drip irrigation will provide efficient and effective delivery of water to your garden plants. If you’d like to see it in action, take a look at the Sweet Potato Planting video below where we implement all three portions of the FAD system for your vegetable garden.

The Best Ways to Trellis Tomatoes

May 24, 2017 by hosstools

Square Tomato Cages

Because the fruits can get so large and heavy, tomatoes are one of those plants in your vegetable garden that require some form of trellising or support. Trellising keeps the plant upright and prevents the stems from breaking during any high periods of wind. It’s also important to trellis tomatoes so that you keep the plant leaves off the ground, which helps to reduce any possible plant diseases that may develop from excess ground moisture. From our experience, the two most effective tomato trellising techniques are using sturdy, square cages and using twine weaved between plants. We use both techniques in our garden, but for different situations.

Using cages to trellis tomatoes is a great technique for several different situations. If you grow 10 or less tomato plants, cages are probably the most feasible option for you. High-quality, square tomato cages provide support around the entire plant. They are easy to install by simply pushing them into the ground over the top of young tomato plants, and these sturdy cages are galvanized and made to last for many years and gardens to come. Cages also work particularly well for large, indeterminate varieties such as Roma or Yellow Pear. For these varieties, the plant will grow continuously throughout the warm season until it is removed or killed by cold temperatures. Because of the increased plant size, taller cages work best to support these massive plants with such a large bounty of fruit.

Florida Weave Tomato Trellis

The other proven option for tomato trellising is called the “Florida Weave”. This technique consists of using stakes along the row and weaving twine between the plants and each stake. The Florida Weave is a great way to trellis tomatoes if you grow many tomatoes along a row. In this case, the number of cages required to support each plant might not be feasible, so the twine trellis makes more sense. We use metal t-posts and wooden stakes along the row, then weave twine around the plants and posts to support the plants. You can use cotton twine or commercial-grade, polymer twine to trellis tomatoes using the “Florida Weave”. In addition to being a great option for large growers, this option works great for determinate tomato varieties that have a limited lifespan.

Check out the video below where we show you how to do the Florida Weave technique.

Double-Row Planting on Drip Irrigation

May 19, 2017 by hosstools

Double-row Planting of Bush Beans

Most of us have a limited amount of garden space. In order to maximize that space, it’s important that we grow as intensively as possible to get the most from our garden plots. There are several techniques that can be used to grow more intensively while allowing room for walkways and harvesting. The Wheel Hoe is a great tool for growing intensively because it requires minimal space to work between rows. As opposed to a gas-powered tiller or a tractor, the Wheel Hoe requires much less space to operate. Another great technique for intensive planting is double-row planting.

Double-row planting, as the name suggests, involves planting two rows about 8″ apart. The double-row technique allows you to grow two rows in almost the same amount of space as one row would require. You can harvest either row from either side of the double-row, thus conserving space in your garden. As the plants grow and a foliage canopy develops between the double rows, you also get the benefit of reduced weed pressure. We like to use drip irrigation in conjunction with the double-row planting for maximal success. We bury the drip tape in our desired location and use the Hoss Garden Seeder to plant on both sides of the drip tape.

We’ve experimented with double-row planting on many crops in our vegetable garden. It works well for onions, carrots, radishes, beets, okra, beans, peas and zinnias. It doesn’t work well for crops that require significant amount of space such as potatoes, squash, tomatoes, or for crops that require room for pollination such as corn. But for all of the other crops mentioned above, it is a proven method for maximizing the growing potential of your garden space. Here’s a great video showing how we perform double-row planting on bush beans in our vegetable garden.

Watering Your Vegetable Garden with Drip Tape

May 18, 2017 by hosstools

Drip Tape Irrigation System

Overhead watering can be a pain. You have to move the sprinkler around the garden every few hours and you always end up watering areas outside the garden that don’t need watering. If the wind is blowing, you can forget a consistent watering pattern. Stop wasting water. Water your garden more effectively, consistently and conservatively with drip tape irrigation.

Drip tape functions similar to a soaker hose, but much more reliably. Unlike a soaker hose that inconsistently emits water along the length of the hose, drip tape has emitters with specific spacing along the length of the tape. Our drip tape has emitters with a 12″ interval spacing, which works great for both transplants and direct-seeded crops. For transplanted crops like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, you can use the emitter spacing to help determine where to place your transplants. For example, if you plant your tomatoes on 2′ spacing, you would just plant a tomato transplant on top of every other emitter. Drip tape is also more durable and doesn’t clog over time like a soaker hose tends to do.

15 mil Drip Tape Irrigation Kit

We recommend burying drip irrigation tape under the soil and planting directly on top of it. Burying the tape makes it easier to lay because the soil provides a downward weight on the tape, preventing it from twisting or moving as it would if it were on top of the soil. Burying also prevents rodents from chewing into the tape and creating leaks. And finally, burying the tape makes it easier to weed around your plants when they emerge because the tape is located directly under your plants. Our drip irrigation tape can be buried up to 6″ deep under the soil.

Our drip tape is available in two different thicknesses, 8 mil and 15 mil. The 8 mil tape has a lifespan of one year or two growing seasons (spring and fall). This is ideal for annual plants in a vegetable garden where the crop rotation and plant spacing will change from one season to the next. The 15 mil tape has a lifespan of 5 years, which works great for perennials such as asparagus, blueberries, blackberries, etc. Both our 8 mil and 15 mil drip tape are available in convenient kits which include all the necessary components to establish a drip irrigation system. These kits include the necessary filter, pressure regulator, mainline tubing and enough fittings for 20 rows.

Corn Pollination – Growing the Biggest Ears

June 9, 2016 by hosstools

Silver Queen Sweet Corn

Growing corn has always been a staple here in the south. We look forward to the time of year when tassels and silks form on the corn plants, because we know this means corn pollination is occurring and it won’t be long until we have fresh corn on the table. Corn is a heavy-feeding crop that requires quite a bit of water and nutrients to feed those tall plants and produce large, full ears of deliciousness. Adequate water in conjunction with proper corn pollination are the two essentials to producing beautiful ears of corn for summertime enjoyment.

Corn is a self-pollinating plant. It produces a male flower, which is commonly referred to as a tassel, and a female flower, which is commonly referred to as the silks. In order for kernels of corn to be produced by the plant, the male flowers must pollinate the female flowers. The male flower is located at the very top of the plant whereas the female flower is formed along the stalk of the plant. The male flower contains the pollen, which is primarily spread by wind, that will be used to pollinate the female plant. When planting corn, it is important to plant at least three rows side by side to ensure adequate wind pollination.

Tassels (Male Flower)

The female flower, or silks, are threadlike projections from the actual ear or cob of the corn. Each thread or silk represents an individual kernel on that particular ear of corn. Therefore, if the corn pollination goes as planned and each silk is pollinated, you will have a full ear of corn. If you have ears of corn that are not completely full of kernels, it is likely that you didn’t receive adequate pollination. While some might think that inadequate corn pollination is due to lack of wind or pollen distribution, it is more often a result of water-starved plants and the timing of female flower development.

The silks contain the most water of any part of the corn plant. So if your corn plants are water-starved, the female flower will be slow to develop. As a result, the male flower will develop much sooner than the female flower, and the pollen will have fallen to the ground by the time the female flower develops. Providing enough water to your corn plants is very important because it helps maintain the rhythm of the development of the male and female flowers. Without any silks to be pollinated, the pollen on the male flower is wasted.

Use Drip Irrigation for Best Corn Pollination

Silks (Female Flower)

Once corn plants become 4 to 5 feet tall, it can be difficult to provide enough water via an overhead source. Most of the water applied overhead will not reach the soil and will be lost to evaporation. Using drip irrigation for corn is a must here in the south. The drip tape irrigation allows us to put water directly where the plants need it. With the drip tape, we don’t lose hardly any water to evaporation and almost all the water we deliver is received by the plant. Consider using drip irrigation next season to ensure you get plenty of water to your corn plants so that the timing of flower development will be correct and you’ll have great, big ears of corn to eat in the summer.

Garden Fertilizer Injector – Feed While You Water!

May 4, 2016 by hosstools

It’s no secret that the plants in your vegetable garden need some combination of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK) to thrive and produce to their full potential. Adding compost as a soil amendment before planting can definitely provide most of these required nutrients, but some crops will need additional fertilization throughout their growing cycle. Vegetable garden crops that can be enhanced by additional fertilization include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and corn just to name a few. While there are many ways to administer fertilize to the plants in your vegetable garden, we have found that a garden fertilizer injector is by far the easiest and most effective.

A garden fertilizer injector allows you to inject soluble fertilizer into your water supply so that you provide nutrients to your plants while watering them, saving you time and energy in your vegetable garden. The dissolved fertilizer is injected through the water source at a controlled rate, so that you’re able to administer it accurately and effectively. When used in combination with a drip irrigation system, you can administer fertilizer directly to the plant roots. This conserves fertilizer by only applying the fertilizer to areas of your garden where the plants can absorb it.

EZ-FLO Garden Fertilizer Injector

Our EZ-FLO Garden Fertilizer Injector is the best way we’ve found to fertilize our vegetable gardens! It has a heavy-duty, polyethylene tank that won’t cave in high pressure conditions. It can be easily attached to any standard water hose either at the faucet or between two connecting hoses. Simply add your water soluble fertilizer to the tank, select the application ratio setting on the tank lid, and you’re ready to fertilize while you water! It works great with the conventional 20-20-20 fertilizer blend used by many, but it also effectively administers fish emulsion for the organic farmer. Maximize the potential of your vegetable garden by providing all the right nutrients in all the right places!

Garden Weeding – Wheel Hoe Sweeps vs. Oscillating Hoes

April 13, 2016 by hosstools

Garden Weeding Sweeps

In his 1989 book, The New Organic Grower, Eliot Coleman says this about garden weeding: “Don’t weed, cultivate… Large weeds are competition for both the crops and the grower.” While continuous light cultivation to prevent weeds is very ideal, we don’t always stay on top of things in the never-ending weed game. Inevitably you’re going to get weeds sprouting between the rows in your vegetable garden. And when you do, you’re going to need an efficient means for eliminating them.

We have two different garden weeding attachments for the Hoss Wheel Hoe – Sweeps and Oscillating Hoes. Our Sweeps are sold as a pair (left and right) and our Oscillating Hoes are available in three different blade sizes — 6″, 8″ and 12″. Although these Wheel Hoe Attachments have the same garden weeding function, they each have unique features that might make one or the other perfect for you.

Garden Weeding with Sweeps

Our Sweeps attachment for the Hoss Wheel Hoes include a left and right weeding blade. These blades made of high carbon steel and are extremely sharp out of the box. The left and right blade have a slightly different angle, so that they can be overlapped without interfering with the other. This allows you to alter the weeding path when using the Sweeps. With the versatility afforded by the many attachment holes on Hoss Wheel Hoe tool bar, you can arrange the Sweeps for a solid garden weeding path as narrow as 6″ all the way up to 12″. The Sweeps can also be configured for “straddle-weeding” with the Hoss Double Wheel Hoe. Because of the space between the wheels, you can configure the Sweeps blades to extend outward towards the wheels, leaving a space in the middle to straddle your vegetable plants.

Garden Weeding with Oscillating Hoes

Garden Weeding Oscillating Hoe

Our Oscillating Hoes (or stirrup hoes) are made with a powder coated steel frame and a sharpened, spring steel blade. Unlike the Sweeps, the Oscillating Hoe blades are sharp on both sides. This allows you to cut weeds while pushing the Wheel Hoe in a forward and backward motion down the row. As mentioned earlier, our Oscillating Hoes are a fixed width (6″, 8″ or 12″). The width that’s right for you will depend on your row spacing. With some crops like corn or beans with wider row spacing, you might choose the 12″ Oscillating Hoe. However, with crops like lettuce and greens that typically have narrower row spacing, the 6″ might be perfect. By selecting our Spreader Bar Bonus option, you can also perform “straddle-weeding” with the 6″ Oscillating Hoes attached to the Hoss Double Wheel Hoe.

To conclude, the Sweeps offer a little more versatility as far as different weeding width configurations. And while the Oscillating Hoes are a fixed width, they are sharp on both sides which allows you to cut forwards and backwards. The choice for you will depend on your growing situation. You can’t go wrong with either option for garden weeding!

Hoss Wheel Hoe – The Most Versatile Push Cultivator

April 5, 2016 by hosstools

Double Wheel Hoe Push Cultivator

The Hoss Wheel Hoe is a push cultivator that provides remarkable versatility for preparing and maintaining your vegetable garden. Because the tool bar on our Wheel Hoe has multiple attachment holes and slots, there are endless possibilities for configurations of our Wheel Hoe attachments. Regardless of your garden design and row spacing, you can configure a setup on the Wheel Hoe that will work for you. And because all attachments are easily interchangeable with only a 9/16″ wrench required, changing setups with our push cultivator is a breeze!

The Hoss Single Wheel Hoe and Double Wheel Hoe include a set of 3 cultivator teeth and 4 cultivator teeth, respectively. These push cultivator teeth can be arranged in many different locations on the Wheel Hoe tool bar. You can use the standard configurations seen in our product photos, or you can customize a configuration to work for your specific crop spacing. Recently we planted several rows of Asian greens in our high-tunnel growing house. And while the greens were growing well, so were the weeds. We needed a way to weed these Asian greens that were planted on a very close row spacing.

Single Wheel Hoe Push Cultivator

Push Cultivator Improvising

Using the Double Wheel Hoe, we were able to determine a setup that would work perfect for weeding these greens. We used two push cultivator teeth and placed one behind each wheel, so that the path of each wheel would also determine our weeding path. This would allow us to straddle a row of these closely planted greens and cultivate each side of the plants in one pass down the row. It worked perfectly. The point and curvature of the cultivator teeth allow them to easily move through the garden soil while uprooting all weeds in the way. See how easily it was done in this video:

Our Spreader Bar Extension opens the door for even more possibilities for Wheel Hoe weeding and cultivating configurations. The Spreader Bar Extension allows you to extend the length of the Wheel Hoe tool bar on either side for more attachment locations for our push cultivator implements. And while the options are endless, some great ideas include adding more cultivator teeth for a wider cultivating/weeding path, extending the bedding width of the Plow Set attachment, or offsetting the weeding path of attachments such as our Oscillating Hoes or Sweeps.

Garden Planting – Stop Planting By Hand!

March 31, 2016 by hosstools

When we were kids, I can remember doing our vegetable garden planting by hand. It was a group effort. My dad would use the handle of a hoe to punch a hole in the dirt and the kids would come behind him and drop seed in the hole.

Garden Planting Silver Queen Corn

Mom would then come behind us with her hoe and she would cover and pack the dirt over the seeds. And while we grew many great gardens this way, it’s definitely not the most efficient way to plant a vegetable garden. Although dad was pretty good at punching holes in the dirt with his hoe, there was no true way of getting all of those seeds planted at the same depth. And although mom was also pretty good at covering up the seeds, there was no way to ensure all were equally covered.

To obtain a well-germinated, quality stand of any particular crop, it’s important to plant all seeds equidistant from one another and to plant all seeds at the same depth. This is why a mechanical Garden Seeder is the essential garden planting tool for even the smallest vegetable gardens. Not only will it save you a great amount of time, it will also save a ton of energy and your back! A Garden Seeder allows you to plant all seeds in a row equidistant (for whatever seed spacing you choose) from one another and it allows you to plant all those seeds at the same depth with the same amount of compaction and soil coverage. This consistency in your garden planting can be the difference between a mediocre stand and a remarkable stand of vegetables in your garden.

Garden Planting Made Easy!

For garden planting staples like corn and beans, the versatility of the Hoss Garden Seeder makes it a “must-have” tool! The ability to customize seed spacing and hole size is most important for crops like corn and beans. Corn and beans have by far the most variance in seed size between different varieties than any other crops. Because the seed sizes are different among each variety, you’re going to need a different seed plate with a customized seed hole size for each variety. Also, everyone has a different preferred seed spacing for corn and beans. Because we use drip irrigation, we’re able to plant our corn much closer together on about 3 1/8″ spacing. However, most people plant on 4″ – 6″ spacing. So there needs to be a simple solution to accommodate all of these requests.

Our innovative Seed Plate design makes this really easy. With a simple drill and a step-drill bit, you can easily customize the size of the holes in the seed plates. It’s important to drill the holes large enough so that the seed lays comfortably flat in the hole without touching any of the sides of the hole. This will ensure that seeds will feed through the holes easily during garden planting. Seed spacing is also really easy. Simply divide 19″ by the number of holes in the seed plate to calculate seed spacing. To plant seeds closer together, drill more holes in the plate. To plant seeds farther apart, cover up the bottom of existing holes with tape. It doesn’t get any easier than that!

Drip Irrigation in Your Vegetable Garden

March 24, 2016 by hosstools

Drip Irrigation Filter and Shut-off Valves

We jumped on the drip irrigation bandwagon about five years ago and we haven’t turned back since. Here in Zone 8b, it can get quite warm later in the growing season. During these periods of high temperatures, it becomes very difficult to provide water to our vegetables plants in the garden. This is amplified when plants such as corn develop a foliage canopy, which makes it even more difficult to deliver water to the roots from an overhead source. This dilemma was the primary impetus for us beginning to use drip irrigation. Once we began using it, however, we discovered so many more benefits!

Benefits of Drip Irrigation

1. Water conservation. Because you’re only delivering water to the roots where the plant can absorb it, you won’t need to use near as much water. You won’t be watering leaves and paths between plants anymore, so you’ll save on your water and electric bill by watering less and more efficiently.

2. Fewer Weeds. Just like our vegetable plants, weeds need water to grow. When you water your garden from overhead, it delivers water between plant rows and allows weeds in those areas to thrive. Using drip tape eliminates watering those areas of your garden, which reduces weed germination and growth.

Drip Irrigation Supplies

3. Less Disease. Many common plant diseases and fungal infections are caused by excessive moisture on the plant foliage. By reducing the moisture in these areas, you’ll have fewer issues with disease and fungi in your vegetable garden. This is especially the case with crops like squash and pumpkin.

4. Fertilize Easier. Fertilizer Injectors are a wonderful tool that allow you to provide important nutrients to your plants while you water. A drip irrigation system amplifies the benefits of a fertilizer injector because it delivers those plant nutrients exactly where they need it. You’ll conserve fertilizer and have healthier looking plants as a result.

5. Increased Yields. Watering and providing nutrients more efficiently will always result in increased yields in your vegetable garden. Due to the ease of watering with drip irrigation, you won’t ever have to worry about your plants becoming stressed during the growing season. This will allow your vegetable plants to devote all their energy to producing large, flavorful fruits for you to enjoy.

While using drip irrigation does require a small bit of pre-planning with your garden design, it is well worth it once your vegetable garden is planted. Take the time and devote the resources now so you can reap the rewards in the future.

Wheel Hoe Handles – Style and Height Adjustment

March 17, 2016 by hosstools

Here are two of the most frequent questions we get from new customers: “Should I get the steam bent wheel hoe handles or the pistol grip wheel hoe handles?” and “Should I get the standard wheel hoe handles or the junior wheel hoe handles?” So, there’s two separate issues to cover here — handle styles and the height adjustment of the handles. We’ll start with the handle styles.

Styles of Wheel Hoe Handles

We have two different styles of hardwood, ash handles for our Wheel Hoes — steam bent and pistol grip. The pistol grip handles have a wide block at the end that fits in the palm of your hand with your fingers wrapping around like the block like you are gripping a “pistol.” This type of handle was the preferred design in the late 1800s and early 1900s when Wheel Hoes were the preferred tool for all farmers — not just market farmers and backyard gardeners.

The steam bent handles have a curved end that’s not as thick as the pistol grip handles. The ends of the steam bent handles are bent and formed by an Amish group in Ohio who uses a very detailed and unique heating and bending process. In the early 1900s when pistol grips were most popular, the steam bent handles were actually an up-charge option on the Planet Jr. Wheel Hoes.

So which is best? Nowadays most people prefer the steam bent handles because it’s easier to wrap your hands around them. They’re also easier to grip when performing a forward and backward shuffling motion of weeding or cultivating, such as is done with our Oscillating Hoes. The pistol grip handles work great when the Wheel Hoe is being continuously pushed forward down the row, such as is done when using the Plow attachments. It’s really about personal preference. If you’re just using it to make furrows and hill with the Plows, the pistol grips might be best for you. If you’re going to shuffle the hoe down the row like has traditionally been done, then the steam bent handles are probably best.

Heights of Wheel Hoe Handles

We also have two different lengths of handles — a standard handle (Single and Double Wheel Hoe) and a Junior Wheel Hoe handle. The Junior Wheel Hoe handles are the same steam bent handles included with the Single and Double Wheel Hoe, except they have 10″ cut off the end. In the location on the Wheel Hoe frame where the handles attach, you will notice that the top bolt hole is slotted. This slotted hole allows you to adjust the handles up or down depending on your height. Simply loosen that nut on each side, move the handles to the desired height and tighten the nut.

For the standard wheel hoe handles included with the Single Wheel Hoe and Double Wheel Hoe, the range of height adjustment is 38″ to 45″ from the ground to the tallest point on the handles. For the Junior Wheel Hoe handles, the range of height adjustment is 33″ to 39″ from the ground to the tallest point on the handles. As with handle style, handle height is also a matter of personal preference. Some people push the Wheel Hoe using more leg strength than arm strength, and so they prefer the handles lower on the hip. However, some people push the Wheel Hoe using their upper body more than their legs, and so they prefer the handles higher above the hip.

Wheel Hoe Handles – Low Range of Adjustment

Wheel Hoe Handles – High Range of Adjustment

Planet Jr Wheel Hoe – Not Much Has Changed

March 10, 2016 by hosstools

1934 Planet Jr Catalog

Over the years we’ve got our hands on a couple old Planet Jr catalogs that are quite a joy to peruse. This particular Planet Junior catalog was published in 1934 and includes a wide range of farm and garden tools. These catalogs are a great read because they’re written like a book with descriptions and guidelines for how to use every implement to help the user grow their own food. Although in black and white, the photos provide great detail for how the tools are intended to be used.

It’s incredible how a tool like the Wheel Hoe has stood the test of time and it is equally as useful today as it was 100 years ago. As the this catalog states, “Few gardens are too small to require a wheel hoe as it will save more than enough time and labor to pay for itself in the first year.” This couldn’t be more true. There’s just not another tool that you will find that allows you to do so much in your vegetable garden with little effort. This is also probably why the design has hardly changed at all in over 100 years of it’s existence.

The Planet Jr Single Wheel Hoe

Planet Jr Single Wheel Hoe

When we started Hoss Tools, we sought to design a Wheel Hoe that was very similar to the time-tested design of the Planet Jr Wheel Hoe. The only significant improvement we made was including oil impregnated bronze bushings into the wheels to improve durability. Our steel parts are also powder coated, but of course powder-coating wasn’t available in the early 1900s either.

The Planet Junior Single Wheel Hoe was available in several different packages which included the No. 16, No. 17, No. 17 1/2, and No. 18. According to the catalog, “The No. 16 is the most completely equipped Planet Jr. Single Wheel Hoe. ” When this catalog was published, you could purchase a No. 16 Single Wheel Hoe for a whopping $8.50! And although the value of the dollar has changed quite a bit since 1934, the quality of this Wheel Hoe hasn’t.

Garden Seeder Seed Plates – Our Innovative Design

March 2, 2016 by hosstools

Garden Seeder Seed Plates

Our Garden Seeder Seed Plates are just one of the many features on the innovative design of our Hoss Garden Seeder. Our Seed Plates were designed with the customer in mind — with ease of use and affordability being very important. This design makes our Seed Plates the easiest to customize and the most affordable as compared to all other mechanical garden seeders on the market.

So why is Seed Plate customization for a garden seeder so important? Can’t you just have a corn plate that will plant all varieties of corn?

Not really. For certain crops like corn, beans, and peas, there are thousands of varieties available to consumers. Each of these varieties will have its own set of unique characteristics which might include yield, disease-resistance, heat-tolerance and most importantly for mechanical planters — seed size. For instance, we plant a variety of corn called “Silver Queen” which has a relatively large kernel as compared to most sweet corn. We also plant a variety of field corn called “Hickory King” which has a really large kernel compared to most field corn. There lies the problem. With so much variance in seed size, how do we develop a system that can account for that variance and accurately plant each variety?

Our Garden Seeder Seed Plates are made of a machinable plastic that can be easily modified to meet your needs. All you need is a drill. We like to use a “step drill bit“, but a regular drill bit will work as well. The stock plates included with each Garden Seeder have pre-drilled holes which are on the small size spectrum as far as seed size goes. This is because you can always make a hole larger, but you can’t make it smaller! A general rule of thumb is to have the diameter of the hole 1.25 – 1.5 times the diameter of the seed you are planting. This will ensure that all seeds can pass through the seed plate holes, but two seeds cannot get stuck and jam a single hole.

Test Your Garden Seeder Seed Plates!

Yes, this means that you will have to do a little bit of pre-planning before you plant. It doesn’t take very long and will always beat the heck out of planting by hand! Once you have the Garden Seeder Seed Plates correctly modified for a particular variety, the plate should be true to that variety year after year. If you plant multiple varieties of corn, beans or peas, we suggest having a plate for each variety. You can modify one of our pre-drilled seed plates or customize one of our blank seed plates. The great thing is that our Seed Plates are only $5.99 each, unlike some of our competitors whose extra plates are $20 – $40!

So always test your Seed Plates with your seed before planting. Modify if necessary, and always keep plenty of extra plates on hand!

GMO – What does it really mean?

February 25, 2016 by hosstools

I recently saw this photo posted on a friend’s Facebook page and it prompted my response. These types of GMO posts are all over the web and are generally of this variety — extremely misleading and confusing. Allow me to explain.

What is a GMO?

The term “GMO”, which stands for genetically-modified organism, was originally coined to describe transgenic crop varieties. Transgenic varieties are genetically engineered by inserting a gene from an unrelated organism (usually bacteria) into the DNA of a plant species. The added gene gives the plant a certain characteristic that it would not otherwise have. Usually the characteristic is a resistance to a particular herbicide or disease. In the case of GMO-cotton, the plant is resistant to glyphosate (Roundup). This allows the grower to eliminate all weeds without damaging the cotton in the growing fields.

In the post above, corn is the only crop in which a true-GMO or transgenic variety has been developed. The other crops (banana, carrot, eggplant, watermelon) in the photo have changed over time through selective breeding and hybridization. This process involves taking two individuals of the same species and breeding them so that the offspring has desirable traits of both parent plants. So yes, they all have been “genetically modified” to some extent — but the processes are completely different. Inserting an unrelated gene into a plant is quite different than breeding two plants of the same species.

This photo is a perfect example of the plethora of misinformation you can find all over the internet regarding GMO and non-GMO food. We’re not here to promote or condemn GMO or non-GMO. But it is important that people are appropriately informed so they can make an educated decision for themselves and their family.

We believe that the only way to truly know what’s in your food is to grow it yourself!

Garden Plan for Spring 2016 Hoss Jr. Garden

February 16, 2016 by hosstools

Every year we like to draw a scaled, rough-sketch garden plan for our spring gardens. It’s not exact, but it does help us decide what to grow, where we will grow it and how much of it we will grow. Below are several reasons why you should do this too!

Why Make a Garden Plan?

It will give you an idea how much seed you will need. You will then know how much of each seed to purchase so you don’t waste money by buying extra seed that you won’t use.
It will help you decide which irrigation supplies you will need for watering your garden. Since we use drip irrigation, the garden plan provides information as to how much drip tape we will need for the spring season.
It will give you an idea of how much food you are going to get from your garden. This allows you to prepare and make room in your freezer(s) and pantries for the food you will preserve.

So what things should you consider when planning your vegetable garden?

Think about how much food you need for you and your family, and of course a little extra to give to friends.
Think about how much food you need in the freezer or pantry to feed your family during the winter when the garden isn’t producing warm season crops.
Think about which crops need to be harvested nearly every day (squash, tomatoes, cucumbers), which crops are harvested several times a season (peas, beans), and which crops will be a one-time harvest (corn, potatoes).

Below is the garden plan for our smaller, appropriately named Hoss Jr. Garden. For this particular garden, there are several crops we are not going to grow this spring because we have plenty in the freezer from last year. These crops include bush beans, butterbeans and okra. We are, however, growing quite a bit of field corn in an attempt to save money on our deer feeding costs throughout the year. Do what works for you!

Pelleted Carrot Seed

February 12, 2016 by hosstools

We had an exceptional carrot harvest this year using pelleted carrot seed! Carrots can be difficult to grow here in the south because of the prolonged warm seasons. These were planted in late fall and we started harvesting them early in January. Although carrots typically store well, we keep them stored in the ground until we’re ready to eat them. It’s so nice to be able to go pull a few carrots for a snack or as part of a meal. We also blanched quite a few and put them in the freezer so we’ll have plenty of carrots to eat until next fall.

Pelleted Carrot Seed in the Seeder Attachment for the Wheel Hoe

Whether you’re growing just a few rows of carrots or planting an entire hoop house, our precision Garden Seeders do a great job of planting pelleted carrot seed. Pelleted seeds are becoming increasingly more popular and more seed companies are developing pelleted versions of carrot, lettuce, beet and chard seed. Mechanical planters are not able to plant the raw versions of these seed types because the seeds are not uniform in shape. So the seed companies coat the seeds with an inert clay to make the seed round and uniform. Seed companies are now developing organic and hybrid versions of pelleted seeds. Once the seeds are made round, they will now accurately feed through a mechanical planter system.

Pelleted Carrot Seed for Everyone!

Early Carrot Harvest

Pelleted seeds are great for everyone because they allow gardeners and farmers to plant more efficiently, precisely and accurately using a Garden Seeder as opposed to planting by hand. Every year more pelleted varieties are being developed, so you’re sure to find a pelleted variety you’ll like. If you haven’t tried pelleted carrot seed, we encourage you to give it a try!

Check out these links for pelleted seed resources:

Johnny’s Seeds

High Mowing Seeds

NEW and Improved Hoss Wheel Hoe Sweeps

June 22, 2015 by hosstools

We’ve recently updated and improved one of our most popular Wheel Hoe Attachments, the Hoss Wheel Hoe Sweeps, to help you keep weeds under control in your vegetable garden. Weeding in a vegetable garden is a preventative practice. The easiest way to control weeds is to perform a light cultivation before weeds appear.

The previous version of Wheel Hoe Sweeps were made with a casting and were not already sharpened when shipped. With our customers in mind, the Hoss Wheel Hoe Sweeps have been redesigned with the following improvements to help you ‘Make Gardening Easy!’:

A higher quality, zinc-plated steel that’s easier to sharpen.
An extremely sharp blade that slices through the soil with ease, cutting out the weeds along the way.
A steeper blade angle for increased displacement of weeds that are cut.
More attachment holes so that a variety of configurations can be used.

Hoss Wheel Hoe Sweeps are packaged as a pair with a left and right Sweep. The left and right Sweep have slightly different angles so that the blades may overlap without touching each other. This allows you to adjust your weeding path width depending on your row spacing. You can overlap the Sweeps for a narrow row spacing or you can extend them completely for a wide weeding path.

Hoss Wheel Hoe Sweeps Configurations:

Turn the blades inward (see top photo) and slightly overlap the sweeps to weed paths between rows.
Turn the blades outward (see photo below) to straddle small plants and weed both sides of the plant with the sweeps in one pass.
Attach one Sweep facing outward to cut weeds underneath the outreached foliage of plants.
Use the Spreader Bar extension to further the distance between Sweeps or to extend the blade(s) beyond the tool bar of the Wheel Hoe.

Garden Seeders – Which Is Best for You?

April 17, 2015 by hosstools

Since we’ve introduced the NEW Hoss Garden Seeder in 2015, we’ve had many people contact us to ask which of our Garden Seeders, the NEW Hoss Garden Seeder or the Wheel Hoe Seeder Attachment,will best work in their vegetable garden situation. Both Garden Seeders have the same innovative Seed Plate design, hopper and brush assembly. This Seed Plate design makes our Seeders the most versatile on the market because of the ability to customize the Seed Plates to match your seed size and your desired seed spacing.

Although they have the above similarities, there are also distinct differences between the Hoss Garden Seeder and the Wheel Hoe Seeder Attachment. The Wheel Hoe Seeder Attachment is designed to attach to our Wheel Hoes, while the Hoss Garden Seeder is a stand-alone unit that is strictly for garden planting.

Another primary difference between the two Garden Seeders is the furrow openers that open a space in the soil for the dropped seed. The Seeder Attachment has a furrow opener that consists of a solid plate of metal called a “shoe.” This shoe-style furrow opener works great for planting in a firm, clean seed bed. It doesn’t perform well in situations where there are high levels of undecomposed organic matter in the soil. On the contrast, the Hoss Garden Seeder has a rolling coulter or double disk furrow opener that rolls along the soil, opening a furrow for dropping seed. The rolling coulter furrow opener on the Hoss Garden Seeder is more forgiving in a wide variety of planting situations, including high levels of organic residue.

The final difference is that the Wheel Hoe Seeder Attachment has a short, wide rear packing wheel while the Hoss Garden Seeder has our 15″ steel wheel. The wide rear packing wheel on the Wheel Hoe Seeder Attachment performs well on a firm seed bed. If you have really fluffy soil or you till your garden before you plant, we recommend using the Hoss Garden Seeder.

While the Seeder Attachment has been one of our most popular products for several years now, we designed the Garden Seeder to be more versatile in certain growing situations. Click on the graphic below to see a flow chart that will guide you to decide which Seeder will work best in your garden.

The NEW Hoss Garden Seeder

April 7, 2015 by hosstools

The Hoss Garden Seeder is the newest product to be added to our line of high quality, American made gardening tools. We’ve taken our innovative Seed Plate design used with our Seeder Attachment and implemented it on a stand-alone Garden Seeder unit. As with our other products, the handles are Amish-crafted hardwood and the frame is made of powder coated steel.

Here are some of the new features on the Hoss Garden Seeder:

1) “Rolling Coulter” Furrow Opener – This design was used because we have many customers who cover crop year round, and thus have a lot of organic residue in their soils. The double disk design in front of the seed drop tube rolls through any organic debris, making it easy to plant in clean or heavy-cover soils. The rolling coulter furrow opener also allows you to plant in freshly tilled soils. While the Seeder Attachment prefers a firm seed bed, the Hoss Garden Seeder can be used in those fluffier soils. This is a great benefit for those “weekend warrior” types who like to till and plant on the same day.

2) Kickstand – The kickstand allows the Hoss Garden Seeder to stand on its own when not in use. When in use, the kickstand simply follows behind the rear wheel of the Garden Seeder. It only touches the soil on the outside of the wheel, so it does not disrupt any planted seed.

3) Depth Adjustment Knob – Planting depth can be easily adjusted by turning the knob on the front of the Garden Seeder Frame. Each side of the frame has a depth gauge that has tick marks for changing planting depth in 1/4″ increments.

The Hoss Garden Seeder is simple, versatile and tough! The rolling coulter design allows you to plant in a wide variety of soil and cover crop situations, and our innovative Seed Plate design allows you to customize planting to meet your exact needs.

Planting Potatoes with a Wheel Hoe

March 19, 2015 by hosstools

Are you planting potatoes in your vegetable garden? Potatoes are a great crop that are easy to grow and can be stored for many months. Around here the temperatures are warming and the dogwood trees are blooming. We have pepper and tomato plants galore in the greenhouse that are being stepped up to larger containers. Just recently, we planted English Peas and Red Irish Potatoes.

The last weekend in February is typically the ideal time for planting potatoes here in south Georgia. We were a few days late because we had to wait on soil conditions to dry, but we got them planted soon enough.

The Hoss Double Wheel Hoe with Plow Attachments makes planting potatoes a breeze. It’s by far the easiest way to plant potatoes in a backyard vegetable garden. With the Plow Attachments, you can make a perfect furrow for planting your potatoes. Once you lay your potatoes in the furrow, you can then turn switch the direction of the plows and easily hill your potatoes. Because the Double Wheel Hoe has a space between the wheels, you can straddle the planted potatoes and easily mound them for maximal growing.

The video below shows you how we do it from start to finish.

The Double Wheel Hoe with Plow Set attachment makes it really easy to dig a furrow and cover up the potatoes. They make quick work of the process and ensure you get a nice, deep furrow and consistent cover for your seed potatoes.

Onion Planting

February 5, 2015 by hosstools

For this year’s onion planting, we ordered a couple of onion sets from Dixondale Onions late last year. We received the onions in the mail a couple of weeks ago and were ready to plant! We ordered one bunch of the Southern Belle Red variety and a Short-Day Sampler bunch that included Texas White, Yellow Granex, and Southern Belle Red varieties. Based on our geographical location here in south Georgia, we must plant the “short-day” onion varieties. Because of our warm climate, we typically like to plant onions in November and harvest in early spring before we plant our warm-season crops. We are running a little behind this year, but it should be fine.

We went to the nearby dairy and picked up a load of manure to spread in the bed for our onion planting. We always like to amend our soils with compost at least once a growing season. Good compost or manure can alleviate many common garden problems such as diseases and fertilization issues in the future. We added the manure and worked it in with the Hoss Double Wheel Hoe. We then used the Row Maker to make four rows for planting our onion transplants. We will keep these watered and fertilize in a few weeks once they become well-established. Below is a video of the entire process. Enjoy!

Beast in the High Tunnel

December 8, 2014 by hosstools

We recently used our multi-row Hoss Seeder setup know as “The Beast” to plant three different crops simultaneously in our high tunnel greenhouse. We hadn’t done anything in the high tunnel since our Spring crop, so we first had to get the soil ready by amending it with some of our compost. We applied a thin layer of compost on the top of the soil and mixed it in by doing a shallow cultivation with the Hoss Double Wheel Hoe. See how we did it in this video:

We then grabbed our Hoss Single Wheel Hoe and attached three Hoss Seeders, assembling what we call “The Beast.” This setup requires using four of our Spreader Bar Extensions to extend the tool bar of the Wheel Hoe so that more Seeders may be attached. The Spreader Bar Extensions can also be used in the same way to set up only two Hoss Seeders as well. This video shows how to assemble it:

Assembling the Beast

We wanted to plant chard, mustard and kale all simultaneously in the high tunnel using “The Beast.” We checked our seed plates for accurate metering with the seed we were using and we headed out to the high tunnel to see it work. See it in action here:

Pepper Jelly Fresh from the Garden

December 4, 2014 by hosstools

If you’ve never tried pepper jelly, you’ve got to read this.

We always grow more than enough in our gardens. We love to grow so many different crops and varieties that we often end up with way too much produce. We freeze or can as much as we can eat and give a lot to family and friends. Because of the surplus, we are always trying to come up with new ways to preserve our harvests so that we have it through the entire year..

We ALWAYS have a surplus of peppers because we usually plant every variety we can find. We like to make lots of salsa and pepper jelly, so the peppers almost always get used. We like to make pepper jelly with different pepper variety combinations to achieve different levels of sweet and spicy, and to play with the beautiful colors the peppers provide.

Our basic green pepper jelly recipe uses only bell pepper and jalapenos. This recipe is extremely easy and tasty! This year alone, we have made over 40 jars of jelly — some green, some red and some yellow.

Watch our video to see exactly how we do it:

New Vegetable Garden Plan

November 6, 2014 by hosstools

While the Hoss Jr. Fall Vegetable Garden on the other side of the county is in full swing, the larger garden area here at the Hoss Homestead has not been planted since spring. We were so busy planting and maintaining our new exhibit at the 2014 Sunbelt Ag Expo, we did not have time to plant our usual Fall Vegetable Garden on the Hoss Farm. The only thing we did to this plot recently was harrow the area with a tractor to work the soil and incorporate those dead and remaining spring plants into the dirt. Then we got to thinking …

Because our vegetable garden design at the Sunbelt Ag Expo worked so well, we decided to design our home vegetable garden in a similar fashion. For years and years we’ve gardened this plot in long rows stretching the length of the plot. While this worked well for some crops, it didn’t work as well for others. And while we had good yields, it made the area hard to rotate from season to season because there were no defined boundaries between different crops. So now we are planning our garden to have individual plots that we can rotate crops amongst, making the garden itself more manageable and less susceptible to pests and disease.

Check out this video for all the details:

New Vegetable Garden Plan

Fall Garden Update

October 28, 2014 by hosstools

Our fall garden is now in full swing with a variety of crops which include some that were direct seeded and others that were transplanted from greenhouse start-ups. One of the first plots we started several weeks ago was our carrot, radish and beet area. We used the Hoss Double Wheel Hoe with Plow Attachment to make hills and we planted 4 varieties of carrots, 4 varieties of beets, and 3 varieties of radishes.

The carrot varieties we planted included two orange types, (Nelson and Sugarsnax 54), a white one (White Satin), and a purple variety (Purple Haze). The White Satin variety is performing the best while the Purple Haze variety has been the lesser of the four, with lower germination and very slow growth.

We planted three varieties of radish which included a red (Shunkyo Semi-Long), a black (Nero Tondo) and a purple (KN-Bravo) variety. All of these are performing well and had excellent germination. The beets we planted were two red varieties (Cylindra and Red Ace), a white (Blankoma) and a yellow (Boldor). Of these beets the Red Ace and Blankoma varieties have performed best, while the Boldor variety had sub-par germination and the Cylindra variety did not germinate at all.

We have several rows of lettuce that we transplanted from greenhouse start-ups. These are all heat tolerant varieties that are able to withstand the south Georgia heat that tends to persist late into the year. We have Romaine, Cherokee (red), Salanova (green and red), Bibb and Butterhead (green and red) varieties transplanted. Much of the Romaine is ready to cut and we have been enjoying it regularly in nightly meals. We plant these rows fairly close and use the Hoss Cultivator Teeth or Oscillating Hoe attachments to keep the weeds under control.

We also transplanted some China Gold Cabbage and Bok Choy to the right of the lettuce in the picture above. Next to those we planted Spinach, two rows of Mustard microgreens (Red Giant and Scarlet Frills) and Red Russian Kale using the Hoss Seeder. All four of these came up very well and will not need thinning due to the accurate singulation of the Hoss Seeder. We also have a few other microgreens (Tatsoi and Mizuna) started in the greenhouse that we will transplant later.

This past weekend we transplanted Toscano Kale and Red Cabbage to the right of the microgreens and yesterday we transplanted this beautiful Rainbow Chard. The Chard required a bit of a delicate touch while stepping up greenhouse plants from smaller to larger containers, but we ended up with more than enough for transplanting.

We have a variety of broccoli named Green Magic that is particularly heat resistant. This was transplanted from greenhouse start-ups as well and is growing fast in this well-drained soil.

We love fall gardening as the crops are easy to maintain and the bountiful harvest seems endless. We encourage everyone to find varieties that are suitable for your climate and grow your own food throughout the fall. Stay tuned for future updates as we will be planting onions and garlic soon in addition to harvesting all of the crops above.

Happy Gardening!

Fall Garden Planting

August 25, 2014 by hosstools

As the weather is quite warm here in south Georgia, most of the crops we planted in the spring are now finished. We’ve spent the last couple of weeks pulling up all of the finished spring crops, keeping the ground weed-free, and planning what to plant for our fall crops. While we must wait until the temperature cools off to plant most of our fall crops, we can do a little fall garden planting. We started some Okra and Tomato in the greenhouse about a month ago and we grew them in there until they were large enough to transplant. To prepare the soil for transplanting our Okra and Tomatoes, we first used the Hoss Double Wheel Hoe with Cultivator Teeth attachments to cultivate and aerate the soil.

Once the soil was adequately cultivated, we used a single Plow attachment with the Double Wheel Hoe to make a furrow for our transplants. This attachment makes it easy to create a furrow with constant depth across the row, ensuring all transplants are planted at the same soil depth.

We planted our Okra and Tomato plants in the furrow and compacted the soil around the plants. Now we just have to water and wait. In a couple of weeks, we will side dress these with some organic manure fertilizer and hill them using the Plow attachment for the Hoss Double Wheel Hoe. Stay tuned for more Fall garden updates!

Blackeye Pea Bed Preparation

August 4, 2014 by hosstools

As the spring/summer growing season is coming to an end, we are preparing and planning for our fall garden. Specifically we’re doing Blackeye Pea bed preparation for the fall. Our goal is always to grow food throughout the year in all seasons when possible. For this to be accomplished, one must plan ahead of time and keep the garden in workable shape at all times. We are currently in the process of pulling up spring/summer crops and preparing areas for fall planting, and I wanted to share with you how we use the Hoss Wheel Hoe to do this.

In this garden, I had Yellow Crookneck Squash planted in between our Fordhook Lima Beans (left) and Rainbow Chard (right). Over the course of the warm growing season, I was able to keep the weeds in check reasonably well. However, due to quite a bit of rain in the last few weeks, the weeds became quite thick among the squash plants. Once I pulled up the squash, there was a wide expanse of weeds that needed to be removed.

I attached the 12″ Oscillating Hoe Attachment to my Hoss Double Wheel Hoe and started working through the weed patch for the Blackeye Pea bed preparation. This attachment works like a dream for this type of task as the sharpened spring steel blade cuts through the thickest of weeds. The 12″ Oscillating Hoe Attachment also provides a thorough shallow cultivation on the soil,
preparing it for the next planting.

After making one pass through the plot with the Double Wheel Hoe and 12″ Oscillating Hoe, I used a fan rake to pull all of the cut weeds to the ends of the garden. The plot looked considerably better after the initial run through it. However, due to the density of weeds, especially the grassy ones, I needed to make a final quick run to get all of the weeds out of this area.

After the second weed-cutting run through the plot, I used the fan rake again to rake the weeds out of the area. The plot was now free of weeds, cultivated and in great condition for planting soon. The 12″ Oscillating Hoe did a great job of cutting underneath the thick weeds, while also cultivating the area at the same time. Below is a link to the video of the Blackeye Pea bed preparation process from start to finish.

Wheel Hoe Review – Old Book, Timeless Wisdom

July 28, 2014 by hosstools

While on an online gardening forum recently, I was reading an exchange between two people who were posting their personal wheel hoe review and commenting on the utility of the Wheel Hoe. One of them was criticizing the Wheel Hoe as an outdated piece of equipment that was “too much work,” while the other was explaining the benefits of using a Wheel Hoe in their garden. While using personal experience for support, the Wheel Hoe proponent also posted a wheel hoe review which included couple of paragraphs directly quoted from a book published in 1917 titled “Around the Year in the Garden” by Frederick Frye Rockwell. When I read these quotes, I knew I had to find this book!

I did some rigorous online searching and found only two original copies of the book, and purchased both. The photo above is one of the copies and the other has a blue cover with the same cover artwork. The book is written in a diary format and details the author’s year around his garden and farm. He describes every process from preparation, planting, harvesting, and what to do during those dreary winter months.

The photo above from the book shows a Double Wheel Hoe being used with Plow attachments to create a furrow for planting potatoes. Once potatoes are planted, the Plow attachments can be turned outward and the Double Wheel Hoe will cover and hill the planted potatoes. When speaking about what tools a gardener should have, he says:

“Even the smallest gardens should have a wheel hoe in its tool outfit … As it is a machine that you will probably use in the garden more than all your other tools put together, be sure to get one capable of doing all the work you may have to give it.”

We couldn’t agree more with this wheel hoe review more! The Wheel Hoe is just as useful today as it was 100 years ago. And with all the Attachments that we have available, you can be sure that it will cover all of your gardening needs from cultivating, furrowing, planting, hilling and weeding. Rockwell goes on to talk about using a Double Wheel Hoe versus a Single Wheel Hoe. This is a frequent question we receive from people wondering which Wheel Hoe suits them best. Rockwell explains it perfectly:

“The double-wheel hoe has a distinct advantage over the single-wheel in that the rows can be straddled, permitting very close work while the plants are small and accordingly cutting down the laborious task of hand weeding. If your garden is at all large the amount of time you will save in weeding it the first time with a double-wheel hoe instead of with a single wheel hoe will make you satisfied with the slight additional investment.”

He then talks about maybe the most important attachment of all, the Seeder or “seed drill” (pictured above) as he calls it. In a complete paragraph, he insists:

“By all means get a wheel hoe with a seed-drill combination. Life is too short, garden space is too valuable, the work of thinning plants and cultivating uneven rows is too costly, to justify anyone’s planting a garden by hand. When you can mark the row, open the furrow, drop the seed, cover it, roll it, and get it straight, in one operation, as fast as you can walk, the laborious task of hand-sowing seeds like onions, carrots, beets or turnips is out of the question. In addition to doing the job better and infinitely faster, covering all the seeds with fresh earth and dropping them at uniform depth, the seed drill leaves the row neatly rolled on top, so that you can see where to cultivate before the plants are up.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. The Seeder attachment for the Wheel Hoe will perhaps save you more time than any other attachment because it is able to perform so many operations in one pass of walking down the row. As evidenced by the wheel hoe review in this book and our continued use, the Wheel Hoe is a time tested piece of equipment that is a must-have item for everybody from the small backyard gardener to the market farmer. With the Seeder and other attachments you can prepare, plant, weed and maintain your garden with the Hoss Wheel Hoe. Our Wheel Hoe is MADE IN THE USA and built to last. Here’s to 100 more years of Wheel Hoe gardening!

What’s New in the Hoss Test Gardens?

May 5, 2014 by hosstools

We are always trying new things in the Hoss Test Gardens. We love to grow our own vegetables and we are eager to try new ones. If we like a new one and are successful with it, we will usually add it to the yearly rotation. However, in some cases growing new things may not work out as planned. This could be due to incorrect climate, disease susceptibility, or simply that we just didn’t like the taste or texture of it. Below are the new things we are trying this year and that hopefully we will be successful in growing for years to come!

– Giant Pumpkins:
We got these seeds from Bill’s Big Pumpkins and we are hoping to grow some giant pumpkins ourselves! These are labeled with a marker according to the parent name. Be on the lookout for some awesome pictures if these grow as big as advertised.

– Elephant Garlic:
We grew this in our high tunnel greenhouse this year and it has done really well. It is not a “true garlic,” but is actually a variety of leek. We planted it quite a while ago and we are still waiting for the leaves to brown before harvesting, so it’s fair to say that this one requires plenty of patience.

– Chinese Noodle Beans:
We planted these long, running beans from seed directly in the garden and had a good germination rate. We have a panel trellis set up for them to climb. These beans are supposed to get about a foot long and are said to be great for stir-fry.

www.rareseeds.com

– Chia:
Chia seed is a great “superfood” that we are going to try and harvest ourselves to save money at the local natural foods store. We started these from seed in the greenhouse and transplanted the plants into the garden. They have put on a ton of leaves and developed thick stems, but we have yet to see any of these beautiful violet blooms.

www.healthinessbox.com

– Table Dainty Squash:
This is our first attempt at growing winter squash. This is a climbing variety that we planted late spring and had a good germination rate. We also have a panel trellis set up for these to climb. Winter squash have a longer shelf life and we hope to be storing and eating these for a while.

www.rareseeds.com

– Rainbow Chard:
We love all kinds of greens and we are excited about adding this one to the lineup. We planted these from seed directly into the soil, but in hindsight probably should have started them earlier in the greenhouse. The germination rate has been good and the range of stem colors are now starting to show.

www.sweetwater-organic.org

We encourage everyone to try at least one new crop in their garden every year. Growing things for the first time can be fun but challenging, and a mystery all at the same time. And if you’re lucky, what started as a trial might become your new favorite vegetable to grow!

The Most Versatile Seeder

April 22, 2014 by hosstools

The Hoss Seeder is the best solution to all your planting needs. The versatility and simplicity of the Hoss Seeder makes it superior to the competition. Our Seeder uses a fixed gear ratio-seed plate design, which means you don’t have to worry with changing gear ratios to change planting patterns. Additionally, our seed plates lay horizontally instead of vertically which improves the ability of the seed plate to pick up a single seed at a time. Finally, our seeder is more durable as it is made of powder coated steel and not aluminum. The Hoss Seeder works as an attachment to our Hoss Wheel Hoes and can be used with either the Single or Double Wheel Hoe.

The Hoss Seeder features an easily adjustable planting depth control on the front where planting depth may be adjusted every 1/4 inch. Once a seed is delivered via the seed plate through the seed tube into the ground, the drag chain covers up the seed and the back wheel of the seeder serves to compact the ground behind the covered seed. The width of the back wheel makes our seeder much more stable than the competition, and much easier to push in a straight line.

The hopper (pictured below) of the Hoss Seeder holds the seed plate and the brushes with a wing nut. This simple design makes it easy to change out seed plates, simply by removing the wing nut and brush. As the back wheel of the seeder turns, the seed plate turns while the brush ensures that only one seed is placed in each hole. Then as the seed plate moves over the hole in the hopper, the seed drops through the seed plate and into the seed tube for planting.

We carry 10 pre-drilled Seed Plates for use in the Hoss Seeder, designed to plant the smallest to the largest seeds. These 10 pre-drilled Seed Plates are designed to plant the following seeds:

#1 – Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Turnips, Mustard, Rutabaga, and other fine seeds

#2 – Carrots and Lettuce

#3 – Okra, Beets and Chard

#4 – Sweet Corn and Popcorn

#5 – Small Peas and Beans

#6 – Field Corn and Medium Beans and Peas

#7 – Radish, Leek, Asparagus, Spinach and other medium seeds

#8 – Cucumber and Watermelon

#9 – Butterbeans, Lima Beans, and other large beans

#10 – Squash and Pumpkin

Seed Plates #1-6 are included with every Hoss Seeder purchase, and Seed Plates #7-10 are available for individual purchase, or as a package deal.

In some cases, you may wish to use a different seed spacing than what the Hoss Tools pre-drilled Seed Plates are designed to plant. For every full rotation of the back wheel, the seed plate in the hopper will turn a full rotation as well, and the seeder will have traveled 19″ in this time. Therefore, if you divide 19″ by the number of holes in a given seed plate, this will provide you with the seed spacing distance. For instance, Seed Plate #6 for field corn has four holes, which means that this particular seed plate will plant a seed every 4 3/4 inches.

A simple solution to increasing spacing between plants is to place tape over some of the holes on a seed plate. Simply place a piece of Scotch tape on the bottom side of the seed plate over the holes you wish to cover. Make sure that you cover an even number of holes and that the holes covered are opposite one another on the seed plate. Using the above example with Seed Plate #6, if two of the four holes were covered, the seed plate would now plant field corn with 9 1/2″ spacing between seeds.

Another solution to seed plate customization is our Customizable Seed Plates and Metal Drill Template (above). We offer blank seed plates in three different thicknesses, 3/32″, 3/16″, and 1/4″, for customizing seed plates for a variety of seed shapes and sizes. The Metal Drill Template is very useful in marking holes for drilling into the Customizable Seed Plates, ensuring that hole spacing is equal between all holes.

The simple, yet effective design along with the seed plate customization make the Hoss Seeder the most versatile and BEST garden seeder on the market!

Tomato Trellising

April 7, 2014 by hosstools

We absolutely love tomatoes and we love to grow an abundance of them every year. We eat them fresh off the vine on a tomato sandwich and we preserve them in many different ways including salsa, spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, and homemade ketchup. While growing, tomatoes, plants must be trellised in some way to keep the plants and that delicious fruit off the ground, away from pests and fungus. Depending on how many tomatoes you plan on growing, the time you have, and the money you are willing to spend, there are many different ways that tomato trellising can be done to keep plants off the ground.

Florida Weave

The Florida Weave is an old staking and stringing technique that works well if you are growing a whole row or rows of tomatoes. This is the technique we prefer as we typically grow at least one long, 100+ ft. row. We use metal stakes on the end and throughout the row and use Cotton Butchers String or Gro-Tie Twine to do the stringing. Weave the string in a figure 8 on both sides of the plants from row end to row end, wrapping around each stake in the row. As the plants grow, simply weave another line of string higher on the stakes to support the plants. This technique is relatively inexpensive assuming everyone has some metal stakes or old fence posts laying around and all you have to purchase is the twine or string. However, this technique can be more time consuming than others as string must be added as plants grow.

Tomato Cages

Tomato cages are ideal for those people who grow just a few tomato plants and have less time on their hands. This is also a good solution for people who have limited gardening space. Quality tomato cages are more expensive than a box of string, but they are also durable, re-usable, and fold up for easy storage in the off-season. Our Tomato Cages are made of heavy, 9 gauge wire, have large 8″ square openings for harvesting, and are available in 40″ or 58″ tall versions. These cages are much more durable than the flimsy, cone-shaped supports that can be found at your local big box store.

Panel Trellis

A panel trellis is a good solution for those people who have more than a few plants, but do not necessarily plant a whole row of tomatoes. As with the tomato cages, the panel trellis technique can be more expensive than simply buying a roll of string, but it requires less time and panels are re-usable one growing season to the next. There are a variety of different panels one could use for this technique, from a galvanized livestock fence panel to a cut piece of fencing. Our Pea Trellis provides a heavy duty solution as it is made of heavy, 9 gauge wire, has large openings for harvesting, and folds up nicely for compact storage in the off-season.

Depending on the amount of tomatoes you plan on growing, the time you have to take care of them, and the amount of money you are willing to spend, we are confident that one of these solutions will help keep your tomatoes off the ground and your produce abundant. Here’s to a great tomato crop for everyone this spring/summer growing season!

Bee Friendly!

March 26, 2014 by hosstools

I started keeping honey bees at our garden a few years ago. Bee pollination is necessary for crops such as squash, cucumbers, melons and a multitude of other vegetables and fruits. If you have ever had trouble with poor pollination, you may want to start keeping bees at your garden. Here are a few tips to make sure you are “Bee Friendly:”

Plant cut flowers with your spring/summer garden. Cut flowers such as sunflowers and zinnias are easy to grow from seed. Plant them in rows in your spring/summer garden and they will attract pollinators for your crops and provide beauty to your garden all growing season long.
Use organic pesticides. If you use pesticides in your garden, make sure it is organically sourced. Pesticides containing neonicotinoids and other harmful chemicals can have detrimental effects on bee behavior and fertility. One known harmful effect of non-organic pesticides on bees is Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) which results in the death of adult bees and eventual demise of the colony.
Have a clean water source nearby. Bees use water for cooling the hive through evaporation and for thinning honey to feed to larva. We use a bucket with clean water with a little pine straw in it. The pine straw provides the bees a solid footing during water consumption.
Plant a flowering cover crop. Crimson clover is a short-lived perennial that can be planted in late summer or early spring. It works great for attracting bees and fixing nitrogen in the soil, improving soil fertility.

Wheel Hoe Potatoes

February 21, 2014 by hosstools

The old timers here in south Georgia always would say to plant potatoes on Valentine’s Day, and that’s what I did when I started gardening years ago. One year I happened to be running a little behind and got them planted at the end of February. I have found this works best for me. If we have a warm February, the 14th would work fine, but generally my potatoes perform best when planted at the end of the month.

I plant the Red Pontiac (also known as Dakota Chief) variety which is the old standby favorite. They are affordable and they grow well and store well in our southern climate. Last year I experimented with fingerling potatoes. There has been a lot of hype over them the last few years and the seed potatoes can be quite expensive. I found some that had started sprouting in SAMs that were intended to be sold as fresh eating potatoes and they were marked down 1/2 price. It was a variety pack with different colored fingerling potatoes, so I planted them. They turned out to be outstanding and one of my new favorites! The texture was different and they cook faster (being smaller). If the seed potatoes were more readily available and less expensive, I would plant more. If you get a chance to grow them, you won’t regret it.

The Hoss Wheel Hoe makes planting potatoes easy. Using the left and right plow attachments, the wheel hoe can be set up as a furrower and a hiller. To create a furrow, simply attach the plows to the tool bar of the wheel hoe facing outward. Once planted, the potatoes can be covered by turning the plows on the tool bar inward so they serve as a hiller. Seed spacing recommendations for potatoes range from 10″ to 24″. However, in my garden I plant on 8″ spacing as I have found my potatoes to be most productive on closer spacing. I cut them up a few days before I intend to plant them (to give them time to heal) and always plant the sprout facing upwards. Always plant your potatoes in a different spot in the garden every year as the rotation helps with disease control.

Why Can’t We Grow Heirloom Tomatoes !?!

February 6, 2014 by hosstools

Although we love the taste, texture and beauty of heirloom tomatoes, we unfortunately are lucky if 1 out of every 10 plants makes any tomatoes each year. Therefore we have settled to the point where we are happy if we simply get enough heirlooms for a couple of tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches. Our ultimate enemy in the heirloom tomato battle is the tomato spotted wilt virus (tospovirus), which is spread by thrips.

Ever since the late 80s we cannot grow the old tomato varieties. The tomato spotted wilt virus is a very aggravating one. After carefully tending to the tomatoes day after day, I would walk out to the garden one day and they would all be wilted. They looked like they just needed water, but it was all over at that point. There is no cure for the virus and once a plant is infected, you might as well pull it up. Much research was done when the problem first arose, but the initial virus resistant varieties were lacking in flavor. As a result, many gardeners were still attempting to grow the heirlooms.

After giving up on tomatoes for a while, we started experimenting with the virus resistant ones a couple of years ago. We tried Amelia, Fletcher, Bella Rosa, Mountain Glory and Talladega varieties. Amelia was very virus resistant, but the flavor was not up to par in my opinion. The other four all performed well and had great taste. This year we will grow Bella Rosa (see photo) and a new variety called Tasti-Lee (www.tasti-lee.com). The Tasti-Lee variety was naturally developed by the University of Florida, and it is a vine-ripened variety that is supposed to bring significant improvements to flavor and health (50% more lycopene). We are excited about trying this new tomato variety and will share our results this summer. So if you’re having trouble growing tomatoes, try one of the virus resistant varieties. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Grow Food Year Round

November 19, 2013 by Dave

You no longer have to count on one warm season to produce all your vegetables. You can grow food year round with some of the new advances in agricultural technology. Now you can enjoy a fresh salad and other fresh veggies during the coldest winter months.

We have just installed a new 28’ x 48’ High tunnel here at Hoss Farms. We are located in Zone 8b (2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map) and therefore are able to grow most cole crops (Brussels sprout, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, broccoli, and turnips) throughout the winter. With the addition of the High tunnel, we are now able to grow these crops faster while alleviating the risk of tip burn as a result of low temperature anomalies.

Grow Food Year Round with a High Tunnel

We tested the new Salanova® lettuce last year in our smaller greenhouse and was pleased with this new edition to our winter crops. We will start most seeds in our smaller, heated greenhouse using our heated germination mats and then transplant to the High tunnel. We have used a large amount of compost to build our soils in the High tunnel and the Hoss Wheel Hoe will keep the weeds down. We hope to enjoy fresh food all winter long.

The Hoss Garden is in full swing!

June 27, 2013 by hosstools

The Hoss Garden is in full swing and the tomatoes are coming in strong. A couple of years ago, we installed a small greenhouse to grow our own plants. I wanted to try new varieties of tomatoes and other peppers. I had only planted Amelia’s the last few years, because that’s all I could get. Last year, I trialed the following varieties: Mt. Glory, Talladega, Bella Rosa, Fletcher and a few heirloom (just for the fun of it). I can only grow Spotted Wilt Virus Resistant Tomatoes for the most part. I always try to grow a few heirlooms and a couple generally make it. While all the F1 Hybrids did fairly well, Bella Rosa was my favorite, and that’s the only Round Hybrid I grew this year. It’s a nice large uniform fruit with very little cracking. It has large yields and it tastes great! Next year, I want to try Tasti-Lee, a new one developed by the University of Florida.

Drip Irrigation in the Hoss Garden

I use no commercial fertilizer. I apply a large amount of cow manure compost a month before planting. I plant all of my garden on Drip Tape, no plastic mulch, just drip tape. We use the Hoss Double Wheel Hoe with the furrow attachments to install the tape about 4″ to 6″ deep. I plant right next to the tape. In the past, I had a lot of blossom end rot, but haven’t had that problem in the last two years. We have all heard that calcium deficiency and improper watering causes this. My soil samples have always showed a high calcium level. However I believe the calcium was unavailable. The combination of large amount of good compost and drip irrigation works for us the Hoss Garden. Very little insect and disease pressure makes growing tomatoes one of my favorite things to grow.

To see pictures of the Hoss Garden, like us on Facebook and check out our YouTube channel. We’d love to see your pictures too!

Happy Gardening,
Greg

The Hoss Seeder: Love at First Spin

March 26, 2013 by Dave

The Hoss Seeder is just one of those handy implements that makes life easier for gardeners of all types. From the first time you attach it to your Hoss Wheel Hoe and take off down the row, you’ll be in love.

The seeder plates spin smoothly and come in a variety of sizes to accommodate just about any seed you can find to plant. And, if there a seed size one of our pre-drilled plates won’t handle, we offer a plate you can drill yourself. The sturdy construction of the seeder uses a chain instead of a belt and maintains the Made in America standards of all of our Hoss products.

Removable Hopper with Easily Planting depth 1/4″ – 1 1/2″
Optional Row Marker and Optional extra seed Plates
Plant small and large seed with the Hoss Seeder
Easily attaches to the Hoss or Planet Jr. wheel hoes
Interchangeable seed plates for different seeds

Included:

Seed Plate #1 (HS4-1001) – broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, turnips, mustard, rutabaga, and other fine seeds
Seed Plate #2 (HS4-1002) – onion, small coated seeds
Seed Plate #3 (HS4-1003) – okra; pelleted carrots, lettuce, beets and chard
Seed Plate #4 (HS4-1004) – sweet corn and popcorn
Seed Plate #5 (HS4-1005) – small peas & beans
Seed Plate #6 (HS4-1006) – medium beans & peas, field corn

Additional seed plates are available in our store, but the starter kit included with the seeder will most definitely get you going. The Hoss Seeder fits Hoss and Planet Jr wheel hoes, but you should know it does not fit the Glaser.

Fairytale Pumpkin

January 9, 2013 by hosstools

While you may already be familiar with the variety, here’s how we became familiar with the fairytale pumpkin:

On a recent trip to Germany, we stumbled on a outdoor produce market in downtown Mannheim. I have always been interested in how people in different cultures raise, sell, cook and eat their food. I thought, “This is great because this is where the locals shop.” We wandered around, unable to communicate with anyone with the language barrier. I was amazed at the presentation and cleanliness of the way they marketed their produce. It wasn’t a dusty, dirty kind of open-air market!

I spotted something I had never seen before. It was a variety of pumpkin called Musquee De Provence. A little research when we got home revealed that in the US this variety is sometimes called Fairytale Pumpkin. A deep ribbed and sort of flat pumpkin with a dull red outside caught my eye.

But it was the inside that blew me away. A thick, deep-red flesh inside tempted you to just pick it up and eat it like an apple. They cut it in quarters and sell it that way. It’s a Southern France mainstay and great for cooking. They average 8-15lbs. and store well. Seeds are available from www.rareseeds.com and www.johnnyseeds.com.

I have ordered mine and they will have a home in the Hoss Garden this year.

Spin Farming

December 20, 2012 by hosstools

A few days ago, a lady from Alabama called. She was just getting started in Spin Farming. Having met Lee Mcbride, a Spin Representative, at the Georgia Organic Conference, I’d heard of it before, but wanted to know a little more.

I went to their web site to check it out. They teach you how to garden, or even market farm, on a small plot of land – less than an acre. The biggest barrier to farming is acquiring land, but Spin Farming shows people how to generate a farming income using their lawns. They teach people how to plan and what the economics of small farming are.

The two biggest barriers facing aspiring farmers are access to sizeable acreage and coming up with substantial start up capital. The methods of Spin Farming effectively eliminate both of those obstacles. There is little real-world help for gardeners who would like to earn an income by doing what we love to do. Spin Farming provides that assistance.

After meeting Lee, talking to the lady from Alabama, and taking a closer look at the Spin Farming site, I wanted to know more, so I emailed Roxanne Christensen who operates Somerton Tanks Farm using the Spin Farming method. Roxanne has managed to gross as much as $68,000 on just 20,000 square feet of land.

Operations like Roxanne’s show that there is an amazing opportunity out there for small farmers. As interest in locally grown food continues to rise, the time is ripe for aspiring farmers to take action and learn how to farm on whatever land is available.

Community Gardening – Help a Sister (and a Brother) Out!

August 24, 2012 by hosstools

We love the idea of community gardening! A few months ago, Hoss had the opportunity to donate one of our Wheel Hoes to the Community of Jesus – an ecumenical Christian community made up of monastic Brothers & Sisters, along with married couples, families and single adults located in Orleans, Massachusetts. This community of 230 members, strong in their commitment to their faith and way of life, are also master gardeners!

Brother Andrew Smith is, as we have come to know, the chief gardener of the community gardening. He oversees three main gardens plus two potato patches – in all, the Community has about 2/3 of an acre under cultivation. We felt the members of this Community would greatly benefit from one of our Wheel Hoes – not only to take the strain out of gardening but to help the members really enjoy planting and harvesting their vegetables and fruits and get the most out of their crops.

At Hoss Tools, we are huge fans of sustainable gardening, and the Community of Jesus does an incredible job. Oh, and we have to mention the fact that the Community also has cows, chickens and goats! A true working farm with both plants and animals – coming together to provide for community members.

We decided to check back in with Brother Andrew to find out how things with the Hoss Wheel Hoe have been going and to hear how their day-to-day gardening duties have changed. As a side note, the Community grows all of their fruits and vegetables for their own consumption – so the proof is definitely in the pudding when mealtime comes around!

“We grow enough vegetables for 65 Sisters and 25 Brothers, so we are self sufficient in vegetables during the summer months, plus hopefully enough to freeze some for the wintertime,” said Brother Andrew. Vegetables that the members grow include: green beans, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, strawberries, leeks, onions, carrots and potatoes.

Community Gardening with Hoss

So how has the Hoss Wheel Hoe performed? “The Hoss Wheel Hoe has been extremely helpful, ” says Brother Andrew. “We find that when we use it about every other day between all the rows of vegetables, it kept our weed count down to almost zero. We estimate it saved us hours and hours of wedding plus it made the garden look clean and cultivated.”

He added, “We place a high regard on beauty in the Community so the Hoss (wheel hoe) helped not only keep the weeds down but gave the gardens a very clean appearance.”

We feel very fortunate to have helped out such a hardworking, earnest group – the Community is a great model for sustainability and success in gardening for consumption. Grown on, Brother Andrew! The fruits of your labor are evident to us!

A Garden Surprise: Vine Okra!

August 10, 2012 by hosstools

If you’ve never heard of vine okra, you need to hear this story.

Back in August of last year a friend and I were on our way to Holmes County, Ohio, to visit with some Amish customers. We decided to stop in Jamestown, Tennessee, to spend the night with my friend’s Grandmother. I had heard about this region from my friend and was anxious to see the lay of the land and meet the mountain people I had heard about. Jamestown, the county seat of Fentress County, is located on the Cumberland Plateau, and sits in the eastern-most section of Middle Tennessee. Mrs. Lu, as we called her, lived in the county, a few miles from town on a small winding road in an old farmhouse.

We arrived late in the afternoon, and I immediately noticed the garden growing next to the house. Being a garden nut, I wandered over to take a gander at it. The first thing I noticed was that this was not a fad or something these people were trying for the first time. This garden was there for one reason — to produce food!

There were no raised beds, fancy fences or China-made gazing balls. You could tell the object here was to have the maximum amount of output with the least amount of cost. Rows of pole beans were growing on tripod trellises. The trellises consisted of whatever wood could be found in the nearby hardwood bottoms.

The pole beans were an old, large flat variety that I had not seen in years. I remembered them from when I was a boy and people grew them for the fresh market. I noticed tomatoes and other vegetables growing in the back of the garden. I could not enjoy the rest of it, for admiring the pole beans. Being about eight feet tall, they had to have a ladder to harvest them. You could tell it was a main staple of their diet. They canned them outside under a large tree and depended on them for the winter.

Mrs. Lu, knowing we were coming, had prepared a large dinner for us. As we walked into the kitchen I was reminded of my grandmother’s kitchen. It was small, and there weren’t many cabinets. Only the essentials had a place here. We sat down at the small table and passed the bowls back and forth to fill our plates.

After I got a generous portion of pole beans, I noticed a plate of fried okra. I do love fried okra and probably got more than my share. When I tasted the okra I thought it was good, but different than I what I was used to. When Mrs. Lu came back in to refill our glasses with sweet tea, I commented on how great the food was and questioned her as to the variety of okra. She said that was vine okra. I had always grown Clemson Spineless and was familiar with a few other heirloom varieties, but I had never heard of vine okra. Being something of a self-pronounced expert on vegetable gardening, I figured she had gotten confused or misunderstood the correct variety. I did, however, know that it was good and different and I had to know what it was. I asked if, after dinner, she would show me the plants growing in the garden. She showed me a few plants growing on a tripod trellis similar to the pole beans. It was full of yellow flowers and, yes, it was a vine. I had grown some Loofah sponge before and knew this plant resembled it.

Where to Find Vine Okra?

After returning home I Googled “vine okra” and found it to actually be an edible gourd: Luffa acutangula. Common name: Vine Okra. Mrs. Lu was right after all. I found seeds at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and I grew vine okra in my garden this year. I think it will have a place for years to come.

Glaser Wheel Hoe vs Hoss Wheel Hoe

April 24, 2012 by Dave

Glaser Wheel Hoe

Glaser Wheel Hoe is made overseas and has costly parts not included.
Glaser has rubber tire that will dry rot and go flat. Replacement tube for tire sells for $12.95.
Glaser requires an oscillating hoe mounting block for $38.00.
Glaser 8″ Oscillating Hoe sells for $81.00.
Glaser Wheel Hoe retails for $349.00.

Hoss Wheel Hoe

Hoss Wheel Hoe is MADE IN THE USA.
Hoss has a 15″ steel wheel that will last a lifetime.
Hoss has more attachments for the wheel hoe.
Hoss 8″ Oscillating Hoe sells for $26.99.
Hoss Wheel Hoe retails for $169.00.
Hoss has a Double Wheel Hoe option that provides added stability and allows for the opportunity to straddle the row when plants are small.
Hoss Wheel Hoe has oil impregnated bronze bushings in wheel that make it easier to push. Tool bar is 1/4″ steel and slotted on back for more implement versatility.

Hoss Wheel Hoe Attachments

Hoss Oscillating Hoe has a 7000 lbs. shear capacity
Tool bar is slotted on back for more versatility
Handles adjust for different height of operator
Oscillating Hoe blade is 1095 high carbon steel
Plows can be used as a middle buster (furrower) or turned and used as a hiller (bedder)
Oscillating hoes have two mounting bolts
Cultivator teeth for working clay soils
Sweeps are adjustable and used for close shallow cultivation

To learn more about the Hoss Wheel Hoe and other gardening tools visit HossTools.com

High Wheel Cultivator Review

April 24, 2012 by Dave

High Wheel Cultivator

The high wheel cultivator is tall and awkward (feels top heavy and will waver from side to side)
The handles mount to the wheel (all the operators force is directed at the wheel, resulting in lost force and operator fatigue. The implement is just dragged along behind scratching at best)
Limited implement selection and versatility
Retails for around $139
Does fair for laying off crop rows in freshly prepared soil, but that’s about it

Conclusion – The high wheeled cultivators are awkward to use and they achieve minimal results while burdening the operator. It is a tool that most often is purchased by novice gardeners.

Hoss Wheel Hoe

The Wheel Hoe has a low center of gravity (is not awkward side to side)
The handles mount to the toolbar (where the implement doing the work is located)
With Hoss Wheel Hoes, all the operators force is directed at the implement doing the work (not the wheel)
The toolbar offers more versatility (implements may be mounted in different positions for the task at hand)
Hoss Wheel Hoes include a better selection of quality implements (cultivator tines, sweeps, hilling plows, furrowing plows, and oscillating stirrup hoes)
Includes the added stability and versatility with the double-wheeled model, the Hoss Double Wheel Hoe
Retails for $169

Conclusion – The Hoss Wheel Hoe is a joy to use. It is a premium tool that produces maximum results with minimal effort. (preferred by Master, Market and Professional gardeners that demand results)

To learn more about the Hoss Wheel Hoes and other gardening tools visit HossTools.com.

Planet Jr Cultivator – How It All Began

April 12, 2012 by Dave

The Planet Jr Cultivator Line is a Philadelphia maker of one-horse farming tools who has undeniably gone beyond the almost insatiable marketplace for small-range farming implements in 1980. S.L. Allen Company continually developed its niche in American Agricultural built-up whose success demonstrated the innate brilliance of Jonathan Robinson and other mid-century creators of tools helpful to farmers. Beginning in the late 1870s, the firm has focused on the recreational gardeners as well as one-horse farmers, thriving as suburbanization gathered force, but ensued later by serving a large group of farmers. During that time, they somehow failed at getting the attention of government researchers to allow themselves to introduce their tools in a wide realm of agriculture.

For the better part of its history, the Planet Jr Cultivator firm highlighted its push wheel hoes and automatic seed drills, devices set with all sort of gadgets and practically hard to describe at that time. During then, wheel hoes turn up with one wheel or two: single wheel gear normally ran between rows of foliage and cut off or ripped up weeds on either side.

In 1930, the firm has finally completed its project resolving the horseless one-horse farmers. They made the garden tractor which has significantly reduced all needs for horse-powered tools used for land cultivation and also abolished the need for pushed tools as well. The garden tractor, powered by gasoline, had two metal wheels and snapped iron add-ons when it crashed into buried rocks on the ground. It was not until the 1930’s when they felt the need to compete and developed farming tools for the three groups of users: large-scale cultivators, pleasure gardeners, and small-scale farmers. Government researchers have backed the developing firm and gave emphasis on the advantages of wheel hoes on land cultivation. They broke out into an agricultural sphere not just of one-horse cultivators but also of no-horse farmers, half-horse farmers and wheel hoe farmers. They studied the works of the inventors beyond the notice of trade name agricultural science and technology.

To learn more about the Hoss Wheel Hoe and other gardening tools visit HossTools.com.

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