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Old January 27, 2022   #1
HastingsMN
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Default Your tips for recording production/journaling?

Hi, I mostly lurk here, and I learn a lot. I became a Master Gardener last year and now in the depths of a Minnesota winter I find I have signed myself up for FOUR horticultural extension seed trials. I was wondering if you all had any practical tips for keeping up with recording data, like production. It seems as if some people are very organized about journals and I would love to hear about the everyday logistics. For instance, I see that some people know how many pounds of tomatoes they got off a certain plant. Do you weigh each tomato you bring in, and jot it on a list somewhere? Do you keep spreadsheets?

I aspire to be a more organized gardener (I can be organized in lots of other things!). I am pretty good about planning, and make a lot of lists and do check things off. I have spreadsheets for some of my OP seeds so I know which ones I have to make sure to refresh and plant and save.

I have attempted a regular garden journal the last three years, but it mostly gets recorded in up to about April/May and then gets lost in the busyness of actual gardening and volunteering and then the whole gainful employment thing. I try to record things like first harvest dates for different varieties, or at least take photos on my phone so I have dates for certain things like when the poppies finally bloomed, etc. And after it snows in the fall I try to write down some things to remember, like if I spaced plants too close or far apart.

How do you keep records for your garden and make it work? (Confessions of failed journalers are great too ha ha.)

Susanne
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Old January 27, 2022   #2
PaulF
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I do keep a journal and have for about twenty years. Mine is actually old school. School notebooks is what I use and list each year's list of crops from long list to actual planted lists. For tomatoes the germination results are the beginning along with planting dates, weather, garden map and a section for harvest results for each variety...both number of fruits and each weight. Yes, I am anal but actually enjoy the process.

I do log important stuff like disease problems, soil conditions, spacing, bloom dates, plant heights and first harvest dates. The entries do slow down the later it gets in the season. Total harvest numbers at the end of the year and averages help with choosing the next year's decisions.

It most likely would be good to work a spreadsheet, but I keep the journal outside during the gardening season and it is easier for me to write it all down. I could transfer it to the computer later but by then I am ready for garden and myself to take a rest and recharge. I am now up to six notebooks full of information. I do a summary every so often to compare and keep track of trends. Beginning about February, all the notebooks come out and decision time for the next year gets finalized. In March it all starts over again.
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Old January 27, 2022   #3
Yak54
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For me the days have gone that I used to weigh every fruit and write it down in the log for each plant. These days I only weigh the 4 or 5 biggest fruits from each variety and write it in my notebook for the season. I also keep track of the total number of fruits for each plant variety. Since I use grow bags, I also keep a moisture log for each plant. I also keep track of first harvest dates for each variety. Since these days I only grow 8 or 9 varieties, it's not such a problem as it was in the days when I was growing 60-100 tomato plants. I start my seeds on the same day (pretty much) every year and put my plants in grow bags out in the garden every year about the same day in May give or take a day or two. So this usually keeps me out of trouble and I try to behave myself. But it's hard for me and the people that know me say I need all the help I can get. What do you suppose they mean by that ?

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Old January 27, 2022   #4
D.J. Wolf
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I started this last year keeping records on a spreadsheet. I only track basic information, such as seeding date, emergence date, transplant date, first blooms, first fruit, first harvest, last harvest, total yield, etc. Then I have a comment space after that for each crop for notes of problems, disease, etc. On a second sheet I keep a rain tracker that shows rainfall by amounts on each day it rains, total for each month, and total for the year/season. I'll have to guess on the snowfall amounts I guess lol.
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Old January 27, 2022   #5
KarenO
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I take photos.
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Old January 27, 2022   #6
VirginiaClay
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I've tried to keep a garden journal for the past two years, and my experience was similar to yours I think. In 2020, I managed to write in it fairly frequently through August 11, at which point I stopped cold and never went back to it. Then in 2021 I did a decent job through mid-May, took two weeks off, started up again in June, and quit on June 22, never to be heard from again. After that, there are just some random cell phone pictures of harvests.

I use small, cheap, spiral-bound memo books. Past two years were 4"x6", small enough to fit in the pocket of my shorts or in the pocket of my bag. This year I'm stepping up to 5.5 x 8 because the smaller ones are awkward to write in. I use cheap ones instead of nice journals so I don't worry about sweating on them or getting them dirty.

I draw ugly freehand diagrams of the garden to record what is planted where, and it looks like a 3-yr-old drew them, but it gets the job done. (My brother creates beautiful, color-coded diagrams of his garden in Excel, multiple ones for spring planting, 2nd planting, etc., all perfectly linear and neat and logical. I don't show him my drawings.) I note planting dates, soil prep & amendment info, fertilizing, first blossoms, first harvest dates, signs of disease, significant rain events, watering days, pests.

I try to keep track of amounts harvested but it ends up being something like "picked two trays of big tomatoes and one tray of romas & cherries." I can't figure out how people are able to track specific numbers and weights of the tomatoes they pick, when they grow multiple varieties. Do you carry a scale into the garden and record weights/names/numbers as you pick? Do you mark a variety code and a plant number on each tomato with a Sharpie and weigh them later? Do you have a paid assistant? I tried the Sharpie method and it took three times as long to pick the tomatoes that way, not what I want in mid-summer when it's a billion degrees out there.

Still, third time's a charm, and I know this will be my year of journaling success.
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Old January 28, 2022   #7
HastingsMN
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Originally Posted by VirginiaClay View Post
I try to keep track of amounts harvested but it ends up being something like "picked two trays of big tomatoes and one tray of romas & cherries." I can't figure out how people are able to track specific numbers and weights of the tomatoes they pick, when they grow multiple varieties. Do you carry a scale into the garden and record weights/names/numbers as you pick? Do you mark a variety code and a plant number on each tomato with a Sharpie and weigh them later? Do you have a paid assistant? I tried the Sharpie method and it took three times as long to pick the tomatoes that way, not what I want in mid-summer when it's a billion degrees out there.

Still, third time's a charm, and I know this will be my year of journaling success.
Yes, it's this bit that I have trouble figuring how I will do it. I have about 20-25 plants (and I do the ugly freehand drawing too which is handy when the labels get lost under the mulch!). The first few to fruit get more attention paid to them, but by the beginning of September -- and some of my favorites aren't ready till then -- it's a rush before or after work, and it's 87 degrees and humid, and all the buckets are already full on the deck, so I have to find some boxes to take produce to share at work or the food shelf.

I do like the Sharpie idea, I mark the ones I'm going to use for seed. I don't do it for all of them because I give away so many, and I think people might not like ones with marker on them. Maybe I could go to the dollar store and do a color=coded bucket arrangement.
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Old January 28, 2022   #8
HastingsMN
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Thank you all for the good ideas. I use a cheap school notebook too, with a calendar which helps keep my seed starting section on track. Cheap because it tends to get dirt smeared into it. I will start now and make some columns/sections in this year's for the things you all keep track of, maybe that will help me remember to fill things in when I'm out in the garden. I have not tracked the weather up till now because it used to be that we had a fairly regular pattern of about one summer storm per week, which averaged to about an inch of rain per week. Most of my garden rarely had to be watered. But the last two summers it's been much more dry, and last summer we had a severe drought, which started with a week of temperatures above 90 degrees in May which is very abnormal. So I bought a cheap rain gauge and will try to keep track this year.

I used the word "spreadsheet" because that's what someone at the MG meeting called it, and it sounds more professional ha ha, but they're really just tables in Microsoft Word because it's easy to insert additional lines/columns, and there isn't really any math that makes excel necessary. I mostly have lists for what tomato, pepper, corn, cabbage, squash seed I have on hand. I keep track of who the seed came from and when, and when I last saved/planted it, and any notes of performance or problems I remember about it or did actually manage to write down. I also keep track of whether people especially liked them or were more meh, because I want to bring stuff to the food shelf that people will want. Not everybody, including one of my neighbors, likes the "weird" heirloom tomatoes I do for instance, so I've started getting a few more "normal" round red ones for giving away, and the cherries that everyone especially liked. I first made the MS document a few winters ago and now update it in fall and in the winter when I'm ordering seeds, it helps me keep track without having to bring up the seed file box from the basement (and I'm into some historical field corns so I keep them in the freezer).

Last edited by HastingsMN; January 28, 2022 at 07:49 PM.
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Old January 29, 2022   #9
TomNJ
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I've kept garden spreadsheets for over 20 years. I harvest each variety of tomatoes in a separate basket and then count and weigh each variety immediately after picking. The figures are filled into weekly columns by variety on the spreadsheet, and tallied to give a running total of the number and weight. Since the spreadsheet also lists the number of plants by variety, I am able to record the number & weight per plant as well. The totals of the weekly columns also let me see when each variety starts to ripen and the peak.

In 2021 my 30 plants yielded 1,968 tomatoes weighing 724 lbs with an average yield of 24.1 lbs per plant. Heidi and Kosovo led the pack with 28 and 27 lbs per plant respectively. My record was Rio Grande which totaled 32 lbs per plant is one year, but it is susceptible to diseases and so varies widely year by year.

The yield per variety changes each year depending on weather and diseases, but Kosovo is consistently number 1 or 2 in production, and also usually the earliest as well. It's size ranged from 10 to 15 ounces over the past six years at this site.

Since 90% of my tomatoes are used in canning, this yield data is useful in helping me narrow down the varieties that perform best in my soil and climate, and ranking new varieties against my favorites.
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Old January 29, 2022   #10
DK2021
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HastingsMN View Post
Thank you all for the good ideas. I use a cheap school notebook too, with a calendar which helps keep my seed starting section on track. Cheap because it tends to get dirt smeared into it. I will start now and make some columns/sections in this year's for the things you all keep track of, maybe that will help me remember to fill things in when I'm out in the garden. I have not tracked the weather up till now because it used to be that we had a fairly regular pattern of about one summer storm per week, which averaged to about an inch of rain per week. Most of my garden rarely had to be watered. But the last two summers it's been much more dry, and last summer we had a severe drought, which started with a week of temperatures above 90 degrees in May which is very abnormal. So I bought a cheap rain gauge and will try to keep track this year.

I used the word "spreadsheet" because that's what someone at the MG meeting called it, and it sounds more professional ha ha, but they're really just tables in Microsoft Word because it's easy to insert additional lines/columns, and there isn't really any math that makes excel necessary. I mostly have lists for what tomato, pepper, corn, cabbage, squash seed I have on hand. I keep track of who the seed came from and when, and when I last saved/planted it, and any notes of performance or problems I remember about it or did actually manage to write down. I also keep track of whether people especially liked them or were more meh, because I want to bring stuff to the food shelf that people will want. Not everybody, including one of my neighbors, likes the "weird" heirloom tomatoes I do for instance, so I've started getting a few more "normal" round red ones for giving away, and the cherries that everyone especially liked. I first made the MS document a few winters ago and now update it in fall and in the winter when I'm ordering seeds, it helps me keep track without having to bring up the seed file box from the basement (and I'm into some historical field corns so I keep them in the freezer).
I don't keep a spreadsheet (yet) though this is the year I am thinking that I really should start one. I would use Excel, not Word, because you can sort through entries much more easily that way. Just my 2 cents.
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Old January 30, 2022   #11
eyolf
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I don't think it's worth my time to keep THAT detailed of a record.

I try to track "growing degree days" as opposed to the older DTM. Here in N Central MN, an 80-day variety is a long-season sort, taking 95 days. Unfortunately, not many use that data

"Fantastic" averages about 1700 GDD for me. In my garden that occurs in early- to mid-August. Fantastic used to be an extremely popular variety, less so now, but one can still get seeds easily.

Past that, I have chosen a few categories and a representative I compare to: for example every red, full-sized slicer-canner is compared to Fantastic. Earlier, later, bigger, smaller, more or fewer tomatoes.

I use a few others representative of a type.





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Old January 31, 2022   #12
jmsieglaff
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My record keeping is all digital, backed up on the cloud.

Each year I have:
Garden beds layout Powerpoint
Excel sheet for seed starting info and DTM from seed and plant-out (tomatoes only for that)
A Word document with general thoughts

I have a cumulative tomato tasting log, including variety, year(s) grown, taste score (out of 10) and comment section, sorted by taste score high to low. This is primarily for stable OPs or hybrids, not experimental crosses.

I have separate Excel sheets for dwarf project family crosses and grow-outs.

I also post pictures with useful captions on Instagram--which serves as a photo log of varieties as well.
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Old February 2, 2022   #13
HastingsMN
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Originally Posted by eyolf View Post
I don't think it's worth my time to keep THAT detailed of a record.

I try to track "growing degree days" as opposed to the older DTM. Here in N Central MN, an 80-day variety is a long-season sort, taking 95 days. Unfortunately, not many use that data

"Fantastic" averages about 1700 GDD for me. In my garden that occurs in early- to mid-August. Fantastic used to be an extremely popular variety, less so now, but one can still get seeds easily.
That is very smart, I could do that with my tomatoes too! One more column for the spreadsheet.

I will cheat though on the GDD, I found a web page that will calculate your local GDD if you put in your zip code. I found it last year when I was trying to note GDD for some new corn varieties, I thought maybe the MN Dept of Agriculture might do it like the soil temperature network but then found it here: https://www.greencastonline.com/grow...gree-days/home.

My tomato variety selection process is not very sophisticated, I like to have lots of different colors and sizes, and I have lots of room as long as I am willing to prep a bed of the size required. And I have noticed that some perform better if it's very hot/dry, and some with more moisture, and given the unpredictability of our summers lately that's kind of handy, because you end up having something that produces well. The Master Gardener program is trialing Brandywine types this year, so that will be interesting.
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