LFI presents the "Grow your own Salsa" Workshop with Revelstoke's own Track Street Growers. 

Get some gardening tips for growing garlic, tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos. And while you are at the home of the upcoming Garlic Festival, get garden inspired by the Track Street Grower's amazing garden!!

Email gardenguru@revelstokelocalfood.com for more info.

Workshop Notes:

Grow Your Own Salsa Workshop with Track Street Growers

Garlic

-plant garlic last week of Oct (before ground freezes, after trees lose leaves)

-Middle of April for spring planting of garlic (when ground is thawed)

-for planting, don’t peel skin of clove, keep foot in tact

-bury 2-3” down and space about 6” apart

-shredded leaves are a good blanket for the winter

-softneck garlic doesn’t produce scape

-get local garlic for planting (coopers is from china)

-make sure it looks really clean for planting (don’t want to introduce fungus or pest)

-white rot is biggest nemesis

-rotate every year, wait 2-3 years to bring back to a plot

-cutting scape focuses energy on growth

cut right after it pigtails (otherwise it will taste woody)

Onion

-have to start early (end feb-mid march) under fluorescent (growth spectrum) tray lights

-6pack tray with about 10 seeds in each will work

-slurry them in water to take out

-dig trench and then place them in (space based on how big you want them to grow, you

thin by eating too!)

-big feeders, love compost and manure

-allium family deters deer and other fungus and pests

-after picking, let them sit in the sun for a day or two

-stu uses onion hammock for 3 weeks (don’t cut tops off before this stage)

-then cut tops and brush off dirt

-stores in burlap sacks...check for moisture

Tomatoes

-start middle of march to end of march

-couple per cell and pick out strongest one to leave

-big feeders, compost rich soil, good drainage

-water heavy and deep with soaker hose and then let dry out (only water a few times a

week-they like a bit of stress)

-avoid water on leaves (increases chance of blight)

-plant deep, pluck off bottom leaves

-NO SMOKING near tomato plants or touching with tobacco hands (virus)

-determinate = determined size...don’t prune, grow best in cages

-indeterminate = vine could be any size...prune (cut suckers) and tie (put stake in when

you put in plant so you don’t disturb roots)

-cut tops of plants at end of season so all energy goes to fruit

-Stu adds Gaia Green organic slow release fertilizer mixed in soil before planting

-like pH of 6.5-7

Peppers

-start end of February

-don’t plant stem like tomato

-cut tops at end of season to put energy into ripening

-end of season and peppers aren’t done, clip at root, cut leaves off, and hang upside

down somewhere warm in house

Tomatillos

-plant deep

-water heavy and deep (soaker hose) then let dry out (less than tomatoes)

-need 2 plants to cross pollinate