Lindsaylew's 2016 Garden

[MichaelC]

AND! I GOT SOME POTS TO TRY!!! 5 gallon, square, plastic cheep pots from the dollar store.

Why didn't I think of that?!?!

[applestar]

MY "Black" Cherry tomatoes have NIPPLES. Black cherry tomatoes do not have nipples. Not any that *I've* ever grown!

I've also noticed that this plant is growing a little more compact than usual. It's a pretty aggressive rambler here and has grown all over the place in years past. It is definitely still showing signs of antho in the stems,very dark in the stems of flowers, and more mildly in the leaves. The plant is overall darker than the rest I have planted out!

I really don't know what I'm growing at this point, but I'm pretty sure it ain't black cherry!

This is going to be interesting. Post pictures. It might not even be cherry. haha

[MichaelC]

Lindsaylew, it sounds like you are perhaps better at picking good plants to propagate than to continue precise lineage; it's not worth regretting your talents in my opinion! And I can't believe how close you are to harvesting tomatoes!

[Lindsaylew82]

Hahaha! It's a race between Stupice and Green Zebra!

Stupice turned glossy and started looking like a ripe green when ripe color. This is the first time I've grown Stupice, so I'm not sure what to expect. Looks t be a large saladette type.

Here's the pics of "Black Cherry". That's a regular leaf underneath it.



Think I might even see a little antho on that first tomato. Might be imagination...



The points may be a product of weather? Possible?

Here is Valencia with points as well!

I'm not sure if that is characteristic of them or not. Don't have time research, and I'm sneaking in this post while I'm supposed to be doing something else!

[Lindsaylew82]

AND! I GOT SOME POTS TO TRY!!! 5 gallon, square, plastic cheep pots from the dollar store.

It was a total accidental purchase. I had been looking everywhere. Went to 3 stores! Couldn't find anything that wasn't $30! I went there to get a bottle of laundry detergent, and came home with great stuff! Under $30! Yesssssssssss!

Why didn't I think of that?!?!

[Lindsaylew82]

Definitely Antho on the "Black Cherry" fruits! And these are really immature!



It looks like Stupice is gonna be the weeeeeeeeeener!!!!

[Lindsaylew82]

Stupice wins!!!


Not Black Cherry


Double Stupice


Triple fused Black From Tula. (I think it has a little brown blush!)


Sungold



The BIG players are finally starting to bloom and set fruit. All the Russians, the Germans, and the Cherokee have BIG blooms!



I'm staring to think Cherokee Purple was just meant to be grown here. It's a beautiful plant, not even a hint of disease. Even though it's leaves are sitting on the mulch, and I've been lazy busy. Tasty tomato as well!

[MOFishin]

That's good to hear about the Cherokee Purple. I have one plant, not quite as advanced as yours, but going strong. I'm looking forward to being able to try one for the first time.

[MichaelC]

I've got Stupice and Green Zebra going this year, too! I've popped pictures of mine in my progress thread for you to see.

Looking good!

[Lindsaylew82]

Potato Aphids....and potato aphids and potato aphids..... Ugh!



Does anyone see what I see?





it's the GARDEN PATROL!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!!!


And they're dealing their death and destruction to theeeee....... Dang potato aphids!





Running out of room! Yellow Brandywine at the top of the stakes.



Big storm rolling in!

[applestar]

Don't you just love them --- looks like you've already got the grown ups as well as the Junior Garden Patrol on the job.

[applestar]

Not Black Cherry

Look at the "tan" on that fruit! (The fruit antho expression is in response to sun exposure)

[Lindsaylew82]

It's almost completely black now. Matte Black. It's not even in full sun. It's fairly shaded in the foliage.

Maybe that should be its new name!!! Matte Black!

I'm really curious what color it will be! I'm trying to stay positive about the flavor too, but as dark as they are already, I doubt that I will care for them. I wasn't really a fan of the flavor profile of Indigo Rose. I REEEEEEALLY wanted to like them, too. They were just so pretty!

What do you think about this plant? You think it's just a mislabeled plant, or do you think it's just a variant of the Black cherry? It's not really showing any characteristics of Black Cherry. :/

[applestar]

I'm hunting for good tasting antho variety. There was one last year that had an unusually good flavor in the ANTHO skin -- sweetness that developed as you chewed.

I'm curious about the origin of this plant, too. Without any distinguishing foliage characteristics, no way to speculate until we see what the final fruit characteristics are.

[Lindsaylew82]

Potato Aphids are happily suckling away at the undersides of just about all the plants in the garden. Weathering out all the rain. Thought about taking a small, soft paintbrush out there with a cup of soapy water to gather up what I could of them. Collect. Swish. Collect. Swish.... But I didn't. Wee Kid is cutting molars and we are all currently just victims of 13 month old, molar cutting rage. Bless. Our. Hearts.... We never knew when Big Kid was cutting teeth, but Wee Kid makes sure everyone knows. I want my sweet thing back! And my sleep filled, scream free nights! And my energy to go out in the rain and paintbrush collect potato aphids!...... I should prolly go on to bed now in P reparation for the fireworks show at both midnight and 4 am.

Sigh.....

So much rain! 3 days and it's still lower 60's high 50's. I try not to complain. In another month we will be begging for it, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut...
The fungus is among us! Brandywines are showing some yellowing. They are such bratty plants! Stupice WAS ripening another little gem, but it is prone to cracking. There's lots of cracking right now...

The Russian and German varieties are LOVING this cold rainy junk! They've opened their rolled up leaves and have started putting out flowers! These guys don't like my climate! This is the first time I've seen Pink Caspian without physiologic leaf roll.

Seedlings are (reluctantly) being thinned. Lots of Potato Leaf varieties in this last batch! At lease one of the coyote seedlings had traits of wild leaf, so I kept it! It was the biggest seedling as well. Terhune is twice as big as the other 6 varieties. Miss. Rose a close second.

Went out this afternoon to grab some cilantro for Blackeyed Pea Stew, and accidentally cut some type of cocoon in half. Big Kid was pissed! We are currently growin Painted Lady Butterflies in the house!

Pretty eventful, uneventful day. Garden has been slow. Pardon the rambling!

Happy Weekend!

Say a quick prayer for our sanity in the teething trials!

[applestar]

Been there... Hope you get some rest Lindsay and your WeeKid feels better soon.

[Lindsaylew82]

I think the worst of it is over! We switched to a homeopathic pain reliever, and it's really done a much better job! I started reading a little about growing some of the ingredients! Neat stuff! Cheddars got her to give a tiny smile!


Got a few minutes of sun today! A lot of this past weeks blooms are dropping off... likely due to a the constant rain. Things are just too damp to pollinate. Too cold as well. Yellow Brandywine is definitely struggling with fungus. Will have to trim it up tomorrow, weather permitting!

Corn is up!!! Big Kid is excited!!!

A few pics from the sunny spot:




Red strawberry looking VERY UGLY!

[MichaelC]

What are those tomatoes that look like green striped San Marzanos?

[Lindsaylew82]

They're called Green sausage. They look like this when ripe!



They're a cute little rambling, ruffled, wispy plant. Pretty prolific! Gets a little prone to BER if it doesn't get regular watering.

If you pm me, I will send you some seeds.

[applestar]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who takes pictures of earthworm sightings.

[Lindsaylew82]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who takes pictures of earthworm sightings.

Hahahaha! I couldn't resist!

[Lindsaylew82]

Flowering in FULL!!!

These are all LARGE variety tomatoes with 6-8 blossoms per truss! I've never seen this happen before. It's almost like the plants are playing catch up!









Saw this, but not predatory insects. I was really curious what was eating or killing the aphids! You can see that there are LOTS of potato aphis, and some peach aphids, too. But you can ALSO see that there are LOTS of MUMMIES! Yaaaaaaaaaas!



I haven't seen a WHOLE lot of predatory insects, but then I noticed this! You can barely see it! I was trying to be quick, too! That's a tiny wasp on the underside of that leaf, stinging aphids! Over and over, she stung them! Their sap suckin days are limited!

[MichaelC]

I was out with the electric toothbrush and counted nine blossoms on my Stupice's first truss this morning!

Edit - quick correction. There are two trusses coming from the same node. One has ten blossoms and the other a few more than ten. They're hard to count because they've not all opened yet. If they all set fruit, I'm worried they'll topple the plant!

[Lindsaylew82]

What is going on?!?

[MichaelC]

You'll likely have to view full size.

[Lindsaylew82]

I worry about the trusses breaking off! My large trusses were off Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, White Queen (I think), and German Pink Giant. That is WAY too heavy! I may try to devise some type of sling work, IF they produce. That many fruits will likely produce smaller. I kind of want to cut some of them off...... But, my inner tomato hoarder says no. I haven't decided yet.

Stupice is like a saladette. Larger than a cherry. Here they have been like.... 50 cent pieces. Still that's a lot of fruit for 1 truss!

ETA:
I've noticed that sometimes, the plant will abort growth on the distal fruits in a full truss, even if they're already beginning to form fruits. Especially the larger varieties. Maybe I'll just let nature play out and see what I get!

[applestar]

Tie the truss up to the tomato support before they bend/kink or rip off. Trust me they will do this the day you think of doing it but forget or leave for the next day.

[applestar]

@lindsay, sorry hon, not seeing mummies among the potato aphids -- white stuff are molted skins as they grew BIGGER. But no doubt you will be seeing the dried up tan pellets with legs -sometimes empty with a hole- soon since you actually saw the wasp laying eggs on them.

This morning, I was standing under the plum tree in the slanting morning sunlight, and saw "snowflakes" ... Or pollen or maybe seed puffs ... I caught one on my hand to examine and realized it ...THEY ... were molted aphids skins close mouth, stop breathing

Something was rustling around overhead -- house wrens and kinglets -- making short hops and scooping up the aphids, and flaking down on me with the skins in the process.

[Lindsaylew82]

Well...shi*....

I've never HAD an aphid problem quite like this year. They're numerous! I'm so disappointed!!!

Now I'm kind of torn... Soapy brush them, or don't soapy brush them?!?!

[Lindsaylew82]

You know I do think I may have seem a mummy or two now that I've googled them. Just thought they were tiny tan spiders that I'd never seen before.

Not many though!

[applestar]

Hm... Those might already be the "Living dead"

...but I know what you mean about being torn. It's harder to judge compared to hornworms that helpfully carry the "No vacancy" signs around on their backs.

[Lindsaylew82]

Yes, you're right! You can easily see which worms are infected! You can't tell with these!

[Gary350]

Where do you get all that straw?

Straw is $30 a bail here.

[Lindsaylew82]

WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!

That's ridiculous! I paid $6.00 per bail. 2 bails per row. That IS the most I've ever paid for it, but still very reasonable! (Not like the 125 page paperback Spanish book I just purchased from the USC campus bookstore for $249! Can you believe that S??? That's a ripoff!!!)

2 years ago we couldn't get wheat straw ANYWHERE! Heavy rains rotted the crops. We used pine straw at $4 per bale. But smaller! Took 3-4 bales per row, and it came with 2 free baby copperheads!!!! Bonus! (Side note: that's the reason I didn't shove 10 bales of pine straw in the back of my SUV with my 2 kids tonight...baby copperheads in the pine straw! But I am getting that tomorrow for 2 new tomato/ melon/ asparagus beds!)

Our wheat straw was really poor quality this year in spite of the increase in price. I am literally growing several hundred thousand wheat plants in my garden. I'm slowly covering in with grass clippings....

[Lindsaylew82]

Also, there are some mummies out there!!!!

[Lindsaylew82]

I think I'm running at I nice low 2% aphis mummies. And another 2% in lady beetle larva. Soooooooooo many aphids.

Yellow Brandywine has blight. Clip, clip, clip, trash, wash repeat. It's a huge plant already. Neighboring Orange Amana is showing some signs as well.

Everything needs tied. Suckers are emerging and growing like CRAZY! I don't normally clip them, but I need to clip some this year. They have grown in very healthy. And blight free for now. We had rain most of the day today. Time is something I wish I had more of!

Cucumber beetle are on the rise.

Found and killed 4 Squash bugs. Early for us!

Found my first teeny tiny HORNWORM!

Picked the triple fused, slightly blushed Black From Tula today. Already a little cracked, and we are forecasted for more rain. I also picked a peach blushed Orange Amana, and a Sungold cherry. I think this is the earliest we have ever had tomato harvests.

We are quickly running out of vertical space. Thinking of asking the neighbor for some bamboo cuttings!

The post planting "lull" is over!!! Time to go get green hands and start "glowing" like the proper southern lady I am!

[Lindsaylew82]

Resident Man weed whacked all the new herbs against the back of the house. New Rosemary, thyme, parsley, spearmint, and chocolate mint......

Butt head.

I have a lengthy post coming, but I'm too irritable for it just now!

[applestar]

Oh NO!!! He should have realized at first whack with that kind of lineup! Didn't he smell them at least even if he didn't recognize them? Arrrgggghh!

[MichaelC]

Wow, that is some rough news. "Honey, you had ALL THESE WEEDS growing near your garden, but I took care of them!"

I look forward to your update. You'll be happy to know that my Stupice, few-leaved as it may be, is the second in my garden to set fruit. These potato leaf tomatoes sure do seem a lot different from what I'm used to!

[Lindsaylew82]

I DID ASK HIM THAT! "Excuse me sir, but didn't you SMELL THEM AS YOU CHOPPED THEM DOWN???!" I know his routine. And I know he hit the Rosemary first. That's kind of an unmistakable aroma! I know it wasn't exactly tender either! I'm sure he really had to work it to get those stems cut down as far as he did.

Ugh. Silly man. I took him out and clearly showed him where NOT to weedeat, and then for good measure, I put every spare rock or brick I could find I front of, or around them.

Is there an emoji where the top of the head blows off?