Yeah, me too and . . . Yay!
The Big Early bells were new-to-me in 2011 and they've done it again this year - big & early. Giant Marconi are there too but you can't stand them up in a casserole
. Not that I would really care to since it is 90°+ again outside. Wish it had just been a little warmer during the 1st few weeks after I set the peppers out. Baby pepper plants sure don't like cool weather!
The Giant Marconi Sweet Italians surprise me with their willingness to ripen in my garden. There are never too many on a plant but I'm happy with them (and they are delicious green).
The tomatoes ripened the way they are supposed to - first the cherries, then the plums & mid-size, and then the beefsteaks. I can only say that the beefsteaks are ripening since some of the plants haven't yet produced 1 ripe tomato. The Casey's Pure Yellow plant has ripened 3!
Since the 20+ varieties are all indeterminates, I am very much hoping for a long season. I remember a light frost in the garden in late August one year. The cold weather was enough to shut down growing for the warm-season plants. I sure felt cheated that year. It has been such a warm summer, I can't imagine that happening this time or, for the next several weeks. If we can get thru September without a frost - life in my tomato patch (& elsewhere), should be good!
Steve
The Big Early bells were new-to-me in 2011 and they've done it again this year - big & early. Giant Marconi are there too but you can't stand them up in a casserole
. Not that I would really care to since it is 90°+ again outside. Wish it had just been a little warmer during the 1st few weeks after I set the peppers out. Baby pepper plants sure don't like cool weather!The Giant Marconi Sweet Italians surprise me with their willingness to ripen in my garden. There are never too many on a plant but I'm happy with them (and they are delicious green).
The tomatoes ripened the way they are supposed to - first the cherries, then the plums & mid-size, and then the beefsteaks. I can only say that the beefsteaks are ripening since some of the plants haven't yet produced 1 ripe tomato. The Casey's Pure Yellow plant has ripened 3!
Since the 20+ varieties are all indeterminates, I am very much hoping for a long season. I remember a light frost in the garden in late August one year. The cold weather was enough to shut down growing for the warm-season plants. I sure felt cheated that year. It has been such a warm summer, I can't imagine that happening this time or, for the next several weeks. If we can get thru September without a frost - life in my tomato patch (& elsewhere), should be good!
Steve
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barrelslime
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gixxerific
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jal_ut
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We had a light frost 2 weeks ago, but it didn't hurt the tomatoes much. It did put down the cucumbers and squash. We are supposed to get a cold front about Wednesday this week. I will have to pick what is left, or maybe I will cover them if there is much left and I still want them to ripen. I will have to decide before Wednesday. We have sure been enjoying the vine ripened tomatoes. It is for such a short time each year that we get them. My garden is about done. Just have to dig taters and pick up the watermelons. The cantaloupes are all gone. Then I will till it all in and plant the garlic.
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jal_ut
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Oh, just for information, I planted Early Girl and Celebrity. Also one cherry tomato that turned out to be indeterminate and it went all over and was loaded with little bite-sized tomatoes. I was fortunate this year and didn't have any insect pests on them and no diseases. I guess with a relative humidity of 15% most of the season, many of the pesky diseases didn't have a chance?
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rainbowgardener
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Not everyone has the same interests in every vegetable. I mean, some folks are not interested in vegetable gardening, at all 
! Show me a rutabaga and my blood pressure probably will go down rather than up . . . unless, I start thinking about how I could feed it to the chickens 
.
Watching Gixx's gardening videos, I could tell that he has "tomato interest" just by the lift in his voice when he talks about them. Well, me too! On the other hand, my son says, "a tomato is a tomato" . . .
Interest is one thing, opportunity is another and there's great differences in the opportunity to grow any crop depending on location. James (especially) and I are challenged by a climate with low humidity. That means that temperatures vary a good deal from a warm, sunny afternoon to a clear dawn the next morning. Luckily, my gardens are only at 2,000 feet elevation. Any higher and I'd be back to growing Sub-Arctic tomatoes.
Next year, I think I'll try Fireworks in the tomato patch ! Yep. I'm always looking for heirloom alternatives. After I'd given my neighbor a couple of pink beefsteak plants this spring, he handed back one of the fruits just last week - with a laugh 
! Fireworks is an early maturing variety:
https://www.tomatogrowers.com/images/6002.jpg
If those things do well, that'll fix his little red wagon!
Steve
! Show me a rutabaga and my blood pressure probably will go down rather than up . . . unless, I start thinking about how I could feed it to the chickens .Watching Gixx's gardening videos, I could tell that he has "tomato interest" just by the lift in his voice when he talks about them. Well, me too! On the other hand, my son says, "a tomato is a tomato" . . .
Interest is one thing, opportunity is another and there's great differences in the opportunity to grow any crop depending on location. James (especially) and I are challenged by a climate with low humidity. That means that temperatures vary a good deal from a warm, sunny afternoon to a clear dawn the next morning. Luckily, my gardens are only at 2,000 feet elevation. Any higher and I'd be back to growing Sub-Arctic tomatoes.
Next year, I think I'll try Fireworks in the tomato patch
! Yep. I'm always looking for heirloom alternatives. After I'd given my neighbor a couple of pink beefsteak plants this spring, he handed back one of the fruits just last week - with a laugh ! Fireworks is an early maturing variety:https://www.tomatogrowers.com/images/6002.jpg
If those things do well, that'll fix his little red wagon!
Steve
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rainbowgardener
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But I think James is right that the very low humidity you two share, while it may create other problems, does reduce the issues with fungal diseases. I noticed that this summer here. We had big drought summer, to the point that not only were we not having rain, our humidity was considerably lower than usual - we actually had blue skies!! And my tomato plants never got any diseases. In ordinary years, I always struggle with septoria and maybe other diseases. This year by the time I pulled the plants this weekend to do fall planting, they were still looking gorgeous, bushy and green and leafy and vigorous and no sign of any disease....
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Betsy Muse
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I started all of my tomatoes indoors this year. I've never had much success, but was especially careful. Granted...I'm in zone 7b, so had some early warm days to help out once I was hardening them off. My Brandywine were the first to grow, bloom and set fruit. I didn't think they would ever ripen! They were huge, though and withstood everything our weird weather threw at them until the late day rains finally brought a fungus invasion!
I know they are very common heirlooms and I have no clue if they are right for your zone, but they were early for me and were great in salsas, on sandwiches and plain in jars. :)
I know they are very common heirlooms and I have no clue if they are right for your zone, but they were early for me and were great in salsas, on sandwiches and plain in jars. :)
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jal_ut
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In those buckets you can see the difference in size between the Celebrity and Early Girl. All the fruits seemed small to me this year, but I am not going to complain.
I usually buy my starts from the local nursery and they plant what has been known to work well in this area. They do have several more varieties available and maybe I will try some others. I have had excellent luck with the Celebrity over the years. Early Girl is more susceptible to disease, but it did well on that score this year. Every season is different and planting is a gamble as we all know, but worth the effort and the trial most years.
I have grown Burpee's Big Boy Hybrid and that is a good main crop tomato, if it gets ready. This year it would have made it. Some years it doesn't. They get huge, up to a pound each.
I usually buy my starts from the local nursery and they plant what has been known to work well in this area. They do have several more varieties available and maybe I will try some others. I have had excellent luck with the Celebrity over the years. Early Girl is more susceptible to disease, but it did well on that score this year. Every season is different and planting is a gamble as we all know, but worth the effort and the trial most years.
I have grown Burpee's Big Boy Hybrid and that is a good main crop tomato, if it gets ready. This year it would have made it. Some years it doesn't. They get huge, up to a pound each.
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jal_ut
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I picked another bucketful of tomatoes today and it looks like it will be worth covering them for the upcoming storm and cold weather. Still quite a few on the vines.
I got the taters dug. Found a few more squash, cucumbers and melons. Picked a few raspberries. The end of garden scrounging is always interesting. You never know what you will find. We ran out of irrigation water a month ago. I think the strawberries would still be producing if they had gotten watered.
I got the taters dug. Found a few more squash, cucumbers and melons. Picked a few raspberries. The end of garden scrounging is always interesting. You never know what you will find. We ran out of irrigation water a month ago. I think the strawberries would still be producing if they had gotten watered.
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DoubleDogFarm
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gixxerific
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jal_ut
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The irrigation water I have is storage water in the reservoir. The water collects through winter and early spring. Most from snow melt. It comes to me through a canal, then into a pipeline, so I have gravity feed pressure. No pump. When the water is gone, its gone. Some years we have water a little later in the fall, but this year it was gone too soon. We didn't have a good snow fall last winter. If we get a good snow fall, the snow melt continues well into the irrigation season since we have some really high mountains in the drainage system.
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DoubleDogFarm
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jal_ut
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Oh heavens no. It is a shared project. Lots of acres are under irrigation from this reservoir. I am a minor shareholder. Here is a pic:
[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/porcupine_5.jpg[/img]
You asked about a water meter. No. We use the water as needed. There are guidelines on how we should operate our sprinkler lines. I have all the water I want until its gone.
[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/porcupine_5.jpg[/img]
You asked about a water meter. No. We use the water as needed. There are guidelines on how we should operate our sprinkler lines. I have all the water I want until its gone.