Tennessee 2022 Garden

[applestar]

Those Japanese gardening videos I’ve been watching recommend using plastic mulch on fall-planted potatoes. Either ones with holes or — and I thought this was ingenious — without holes. When the potatoes start to grow, use scissors to cut a hole around the shoots. When thick black plastic mulch is used, it helps to keep the soil warmer, and keeps the sun from turning the tubers green. Bury all 4 edges for simplest methods without fuss.

If you want to just experiment, you could use black commercial steel drum liner or jumbo yard waste bag and slit open the sides for a a wide row size long enough for approx 6 feet row.

[Gary350]

Today I went to my yearly medical check up for my bend over inspection. Dr Lady from India has a garden we talk and look at pics after the exam. Dr grew egg plants that look like pink color straight bananas hanging straight down like sausages. The only egg plant I ever grew or saw was black pear shape. Dr. grew, garlic, onions, beans, tomatoes, egg plant, okra, cucumbers, 4" long hot chili peppers. I showed my pictures Dr. was interested in my garlic bed & onion bed. I said, its not a raised bed just boards to hold in water like a levee. Dr. said, oh a containment pond for garlic & onions. I think containment pond is the best description so far. Do egg plants have bug problems like squash? I never liked egg plant as much as fried yellow squash. I don't need to be eating anything fried.

[applestar]

In my garden, the main problem pest on the eggplants has been flea beetles. It’s frustrating that such tiny bugs (literally smaller than a pin head) can create so much damage. Aphids seem mostly interested in the blossoms. Invisible but there are some kind of mites as well. And occasional hornworms.

In the past, Colorado potato beetles have been a problem as well — none this year.

[Gary350]

43° this morning & every thing is wet with heavy dew. Dew is interesting plants are soaked but soil is dry as dust.

I need to stop making work for myself lemon grass is 5 feet tall, we have cooked with it several times there is no lemon flavor just grass flavor. I should be able to mow this down then till up the roots. Water melons are trying to grow back but its too late first frost is 4 weeks away.

Zinnias are looking 80% dead I am almost ready to mow them down but wife wants me to wait. I want to clean up the garden.

Its time to do something with the fennel plant. Online says, cook with fennel root it is good flavor for chicken. We have never cooked with fennel maybe I should watch more YouTube videos.

I have 1 row of volunteer potatoes that are all transplants, every time a plant dies I dig up enough new potatoes for 1 dinner. This is nice not to have a large quantity of potatoes all at once. I need to start throwing potato peals in rows instead of all over the place, potato peals usually grow a few plants each time.

I have a flower pot full of onions that should have been planted 4 months ago. These survive good in winter soil but they might not survive in a pot.

Garlic is doing better about 80% of the plants are growing. 150 winter onions has 1 blank place where nothing is growing. I transplanted about 8 or 9 strawberry plants yesterday evening, new plants are finally growing large enough they might survive being transplanted. I lost another 1 of the main strawberry plants last weeks rain and mud killed it.

Potato row I planted 2 weeks ago is looking good. The other potato row was planted a few days ago. The 2 rows of tomatoes planted from seeds have a lot of very large green tomatoes. South end of tomato row is doing much better than the north end of the row. I never intended for tomatoes to grow in cages, I put cages on the plants to stop dog from running threw them and breaking down plants. I never helped tomato plants grow & stay in cages they did that on there own.

Everything will be dry after lunch, maybe I clean up some of the garden then.

[Gary350]

Potato plants need FULL sun, tomato plants are shading potato plants. This evening I pulled all the tomato cages up high enough to get the legs out of the soil, then I laid tomato cages down like shingles on a house roof. 2 rows of tomato plants are over lapping laying on top of each other. There are a lot of large tomatoes maybe 100, plants must like this cool weather. Next year I need to remember to plant a 2nd crop of tomatoes first week of July. Plants look strange laying on their side, ripe tomatoes will be hard to find. Potato row pictures look like hills are 6" tall but they are only 2" tall.

It is so dry here we have a county burn ban starting today, can't burn anything.

[Gary350]

The trick to keep garlic in the refrigerator so cloves grow quick in 3 to 5 days did not work this year. Some cloves were growing tops in 1 week, a few more grew tops in 2 weeks, the majority started growing tops in 3 weeks. I replaced 16 cloves that have no roots & no tops. 3 more weeks we will see of all 16 of the new cloves are growing, there will be 98 garlic plants.

The 16 garlic that I dug up appears to be ok to cook with.

Weather report this morning said, frost warning next week. Early winter this year. I will not cover up plants to try to save them.

[Gary350]

I will never plant lemon grass again. I tried to dig it up but it is like trying to dig up a tree. I tried to chip it down but ended up cutting it down with a chain saw. Chain saw was not easy bamboo shapes kept stalling out the chain saw. Stump in the ground will not come up it is hard as a tree stump. I might need to use Weed B Gone or Round up to make the stump die. I drove lawn mower over it many times but the lawn mower will not suck up the bamboo shape pieces. Information online says, lemon grass will grow back like bamboo.

[imafan26]

Lemon grass can be hard to get out. Not so much because of the stump but because ants love to nest in it. I grow my lemon grass in pots. They still will split a pot or try to go into the ground unless you pick it up once in a while.

After cutting down the top with a sickle. The stems are hard to cut with a weed whacker or saw. I usually cover it with a bucket and a tarp to block the light. It makes it start to rot. It takes some time, I leave it covered for months. Then the roots will rot and they are easier to dig out with a pick.

[Gary350]

Lemon grass can be hard to get out. Not so much because of the stump but because ants love to nest in it. I grow my lemon grass in pots. They still will split a pot or try to go into the ground unless you pick it up once in a while.

After cutting down the top with a sickle. The stems are hard to cut with a weed whacker or saw. I usually cover it with a bucket and a tarp to block the light. It makes it start to rot. It takes some time, I leave it covered for months. Then the roots will rot and they are easier to dig out with a pick.

I tilled around the root ball, around & around & around and deeper & deeper & deeper. Remove loose soil then till some more over and over. After digging down 1 foot deep root ball is solid as solid wood. Then I used my razor sharp shovel to chop away parts of the roots deeper & deeper into the root ball all the way around. It took almost 2 hours to finally cut this much of the roots off. There are still roots going straight down. I filled in the hole & covered it up maybe it will do like you say and the remaining roots will rot & die.

[Gary350]

About 2 weeks ago I pulled up the Thai basil plant and hung it upside down in the shed so all the resins in the plant runs down into the leaves. Today I opened the shed door and the basil smell was very strong. I stripped all the leaves off the plants and have about 2 gallons of Thai basil.. Wow this smells good. The green plant had almost no smell at all. I can hardly wait to cook with this.

[Gary350]

Has anyone noticed plastic drink cups are really flower pots with no drain holes.

I replanted about 15 garlic plants, they should be growing tops in about 3 weeks. All 150 onions are finally coming up.

I have learned strawberries are much less work to let the runner grow anywhere they want. I use plastic spoons as stakes to hold runners in place until they grow roots. I count 108 strawberry plants and a dozen runners trying to find a place to grow roots. TV says, 40 mph wind and rain about 8:30 pm tonight.

Onions in pots are doing good. Left pot looks better than right pot it was planted a week or 2 sooner. I think I will leave them in pots for a while then transplant them before soil freezes. I think we are going to have an early winter, frost already and more frost in a few more days.

Jelly bean tomatoes grow in clusters like grapes sometimes a dozen tomatoes in a cluster. Interesting thing tomatoes are very sweet when picked but leave them in the kitchen 3 days they taste like Roma tomatoes. I will grow these next year for spaghetti sauce & pizza sauce all summer. Determinate Roma plants make about 20 tomatoes per plant then die.

Big Beef tomatoes planted from seeds are getting sun burned with plants laying on their side, no shade from leaves. I tried to pour mud on the tomatoes for sun blocker but mud runs off. Maybe tomorrow I cover tomatoes with rages. I did not know Oct sun is hot enough to sun burn tomatoes.

Tomorrow I am a prisoner with sun glass all day inside the house. I might be about to go outside about 4 pm.

[imafan26]

Plastic are dinasaurs here now. There is a new law banning non compostable take out containers. It is good for the environment but it means there aren't any cups that will hold up as a container for long. The paper plates are not very good. It does not keep food warm and it gets soggy from gravy and steam. The straws don't last as long as the drink does before it comes apart. Now, you do have to remember to ask for utensils, water, or napkins or you won't get any. I am bringing my own cups and straws to transfer liquids and sometimes if I remember, I bring my own plate so I can transfer the food before the takeout plate disintegrates. I need to keep more chopsticks in the car. I keep forgetting the utensils.

The tomatoes look really nice. I have a few tomatoes left, but the tomato plants are on their last legs, so it is time to plant new ones.

[Gary350]

Garden clean up today. One of the hardest things I every had to do is mow down Zinnia flowers. Wow we sure got a lot of enjoyment from these flowers. Lawn mower front wheel bearings went bad again after only cutting grass 2 times. This time I ordered 4 good industrial bearings $36 instead of $18 for 2 new worthless bearings. I picked all the green tomatoes and pulled up all the tomato plants. Melon plants are gone and 1 ripe watermelon in the kitchen. We have a lot of green tomatoes that will slowly get ripe we sometimes have ripe tomatoes Christmas day. Left to right, 98 garlic, 150 winter onions, 108 strawberry plants, 2 rows of potatoes about 80 plants total. I had too clean up storm damage too. Harbor Freight $49 electric chain saw is 1 of the best tools I ever bought. I cut up all the fallen tree limbs in 1 hour, I had a young man come haul away 4 truck loads of tree limbs for $100. We still have 1 row of Zinnia flowers left that I can't cut down until lawn mower is repaired.

[Gary350]

This is the last watermelon of the year. We ate both of the round ends. It is interesting how some melons are sweet and have good flavor too all they down to the green part of the rind. We have 2 savers full of melon. We enjoyed melons so much this year we want melons again next year.

[Gary350]

This morning we have so much dew everything is wet like it rained. There is a volunteer Tabasco pepper plant next to the bird bath, I wonder how seeds got over here. I wonder if these yellow mushrooms are good to eat growing on dead oak tree roots & bark. I dug up the Fennel plant we cooked chicken like YouTube video says but no Fennel flavor. 6 Big Beef tomatoes plants waiting to die in the Wed freeze. TV weather claims 27°F Wed morning the coldest temperature on record this early. Last year potato plants survived 28° wait and see if plants survive 27°. I am not going to try and save anything by covering it up.

[imafan26]

Your garden changes so much in such a short time from flooded to dry and now you are getting ready for frost. You still are getting a lot out of the garden at this late date.

[Gary350]

I bottled Black Raspberry wine today. 23 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon finished at .992 SG. Wow this is good 2nd best to Blackberry I made 15 years ago. Now I need to print labels and glue them on the bottles over old labels.

[Gary350]

Wife said, why are you not covering up potato plants to protect them from frost? I said, plastic tarps are too much trouble a tiny 2 mph wind they catch air like a parachute and blow away. Wife size, what about the paint clothes? I said, OH...I forget about paint tarps.

It took me 10 minutes to cover 40 potato plants with, flower pots, 5 gallon buckets, coffee containers, etc., then put paint tarps over the pots. It took 5 minutes to uncover the plants this morning.

Damage is already done I did not cover up potato plants the first night we had 29° temperatures. Damage is not too bad its mostly on the south end of the potato row.

Cotton paint tarps are all 6' wide and 14' to 30' long. They are made to fit the length of house walls to keep paint off of the floors. Paint tarps are soft and flexible and don't blow away in a small wind. Paint tarps are much easier to fold up than plastic tarps. These long narrow tarps are excellent to cover long plant rows. Very reasonable price at Harbor Freight.

I covered 1 group of potato plants with a 5 gallon fish aquarium the leaves that touched the glass froze and died but the rest of the plants are good.

[Gary350]

Industrial wheel bearings that I ordered for the lawn mower came today. After repairing the lawn mower I cut down the Zinnia plants. I mowed over the Zinnia plants several times with mower deck door closed to chop plants into tiny pieces. Then I tilled the soil several times to mix all the organic material into the soil. A million Zinnia seeds in the garden soil will probably be worse that weeds in April. Soil is dry powder.

The 6 tomato plants in the corner of the garden under a shade tree shows no signs of frost or freeze from that past 3 days. TV says it will be in the 80s next week. I think potatoes need to be covered up tonight but not next week.

[Gary350]

The garlic tray in the refrigerator had 1/8" of water in it. I wonder if water came from the garlic? I moved wet garlic to a cardboard box to dry. Soon as garlic is dry for a week I will put it in the pantry again. The reason garlic was moved from pantry to refrigerator it was drying like pieces of rubber & pieces of wood. Maybe we need to alternate, 2 weeks in the refrigerator then 1 week in the panty.

I don't know who dug the big hole in the garlic bed was it dog or cat. I replanted new garlic in several places then added soil and water. I might need to put the wire fence around the garlic like I do in spring for onions.

[Gary350]

Drama channel 2 TV weather got us excited telling us how bad storms will be Tuesday evening. I finished cleaning up the garden, tilled the soil, and put things away. I pulled all the bent nails from the 1 year old pile of lumber I collected from construction site trash dumpsters. Good wood goes into the garage, bad wood goes in a pile, pressure treated wood goes in a different pile. Storm came and went only .2" of slow rain, not much wind, NO hail, No lightning. Today no burn ban everything is wet so I burned trash wood. I ran unwanted wood though the table saw & wood planner to make saw dust for the garden. I have 2 thirty gallon trash cans full of saw dust and 3 empty 30 gallon trash cans to fill. Maybe Fri I till saw dust & wood ash into garden soil.

Today I see a basket of jelly bean tomatoes that has been setting in Kitchen for a week and several green tomatoes have gotten ripe so I make Enchilada Sause with frozen chili peppers. There are still about 40 small tomatoes on a table in the yard that did not frost or freeze. 6 tomato plants did not frost or freeze. We might have ripe tomatoes for Thanksgiving. Tomato plants are still growing tomatoes.

[Gary350]

Time has come to try a new way of growing potatoes the traditional way in rows is not working. There is a 100 different people on YouTube growing 15 lbs of potatoes per plant in pots. Next spring I try pots & a soaker hose. 40 years ago Mother Earth News grew plants in 5 gallon bucket the cool trick was to drill hole in the side of the bucket 4" up from the bottom. The bucket holds water in the bottom 4" and soil and does not dry out very quick. I found 100s of 5 gallon buckets on Market place $3 each. I have not decided yet if I will grow in 5 gallon buckets or 10 gallon pots, maybe I some of each. Nursery supply has black plastic pots at a reasonable price $5 each of 7 gallon pots and $7 each for 10 gallon pots plus shipping cost. Maybe I grow 4 different type potatoes 4 different ways when soil warms up to 65° about May 1st. Everyone growing in pots say, lots of water, very soft potting soil, good fertilizer very high P&K with low N.

[Gary350]

This is Jeff he does the PBS TV show called, Volunteer Gardener. He lives in Red Boiling Springs TN. I did not know until today he has a Facebook page. He was on TV tonight at 7 pm, he mentioned his FB page so I looked and found it. Here is 1 of his many videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvqEwIp_W2E

[Gary350]

Pine needles have been falling on the driveway for 3 days. Today I decided to rake them up before rain & storms wash pine needles away like last year. Then I drove 3 miles to recycle center to get 2 truck loads of ground up tree leaves. Ground up tree leaves are like potting soil but not composted yet. Leaves are smoking hot down inside they will be compose by April 20. I might rent the dump trailer again next week to get 12,000. lbs of leaves for the garden. If it rains too much Sunday I might not be able to drive across the yard and not get stuck with a dump trailer full of leaves. Ground up leaves might be perfect for growing potatoes in 10 gallon pots. Now I wish I had not gone to so much trouble raking all these pine needles. Tags on truck expired in June and today is first time I drove the truck sense April.

[Gary350]

Today I planted carrot seeds the way someone else does it that works, to see if it works for me. My 2 pots are 19.5" diameter on the top largest end and 13" tall. Pots are filled with 50% potting soil and 50% ground up tree leaves. Fertilizer is 6-12-12 and a large hand full of garden soil for trace elements. I bought 750 Danvers 1/2 long carrot seeds. Sprinkle 375 seeds on each pot. Sprinkle 1/2" of potting soil over carrot seeds. Thermometer says it is 71° outside at 3 pm and 86° under the glass. Now we wait and see what happens. If this works and carrot tops grow tall I need some type of green house top, maybe a white color plastic bag will work. At the moment I am using 1 sheet of glass to cover each pot. When temperatures get much colder I have double thermopane glass to cover pots with. This only cost me the price of seeds, I have the other stuff already. Glass is only for keeping seeds & plants warm enough to grow when sun is up. This may turn out to be more work than I want, glass has to be removed every day for plants to get water from rain or from the hose. OH well it only cost me $2.50 to see if it works. Pots have no protection from freezing, maybe I should dig a hole to set pots in so pots can't freeze. We seldom have bad winter weather until 3rd week of Jan.

[Gary350]

We are having heavy dew every morning it looks like it rained. 60° temperatures & no hot sun heavy dew every morning is = to about 1/4" of rain. Our patio table umbrella catches dew like fog catcher nets catch fog to make water. This time of the year dew & rain will soon make the yard & garden a swamp with no water evaporation. The 2nd row of seed potatoes came up over the weekend there are 32 plants in this row so far. I had forgotten the garden will soon become a swamp for 6 months if potato plants grow new potatoes they will rot in the mud. Wait and see what the weather does if we have weather like last year warm until Jan 15 maybe I can dig up some new potatoes. Soon it will be too muddy to cover potato plants with paint clothes. Nov 5 is often our first frost but we had a freeze already 2 weeks ago. 6 tomato plants are still growing good.

[applestar]

In theory, if you dig trenches/moats on either side of the row, the potato row itself should stay drier….

The fog catcher (atmospheric moisture condenser) reminds me of Frank Herbert’s _Dune_ series. They haven’t made good cinematic adaptations that represent Arakis and the Fremen so far although the newest one has potential. Also Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausica of the Valley of the Wind (his Studio Ghibli’s theatrical anime did a great summarized lighter version, though full story in the manga series was much more thought provoking)

…If you had one of these, you might be able to collect your umbrella water

[Gary350]

Today I built a carrot bed 27" wide to match the 27" wide glass that I have. I filled it with ground up tree leaves and saw dust into the soil 2 times. Then I made hills along both sides to hold the wooden bed frames up 3" high and dug the center 3" deep. Today I filled the carrot bed with leaves & some low nitrogen high P&K fertilizer. The soft potting soil type mixture is 10" deep. I bought 2750 carrot seeds 3 different kinds. Now I learn Danvers are best growing and best cooking because they don't become mush if carrots are over cooked. Oh well wait and see. I planted Danvers in the 8 gallon pots. I planted scarlet nantes in 1/2 of the 10" bed and tender sweets in the other 1/2 of the bed. I still have seeds to plant. This bed gets 160°F under the glass in full sun on a 70° day. Glass needs to come off every day then on after dark to hold moisture for seeds. I hope I get good seed germination on this I planted about 300 Danvers seeds in there. I am going to build 1 more of these tiny green houses to grow carrots.

Monday I built the 24" x 24" square green house for Danvers carrots. I dug out the soil to make a 6" deep hole for the green house. I filled it with ground up tree leaves and fertilizer. I covered all the carrots with saw dust YouTube video says this works great to germinate seed. Saw bust soaked up water and stays wet like a baby diaper.

The green house get 190°F in full sun on a 70° day with double thermo pain glass. It gets 165°F with single glass on a 70° day. For not glass has to be removed all day then on all night to hold moisture for seeds to germinate. Soon as I get time I have a thermostat & fan to install in the little green house to keep temperature at 70°F all day. I have a heater to keep it 50° after dark.

The 8 gallon pots, 5 gallon bucket & 10' long bed has been heating up to 160° in full sun it was 72° today. Glass needs to be off all day.

Carrots I planted a month ago are starting to look like carrots but there is not many carrots maybe 30.

Winter is coming forecast is 26° 2 nights in a row Sunday. 50° during the day.

[Gary350]

I don't think potato plants will survive 2 nights of 26°F weather and a week of 30° weather. Plants above the soil will die but new potatoes should continue to grow. We had 4 hours of hard rain yesterday morning mud is not as bag today as yesterday. A frame tunnels I built work good to hold up paint tarps. Tarps stay on for a week or until we have warmer weather.

[Gary350]

I forgot we still have tomato plants in the garden so I looked and picked them. This is enough for a pot of chili. Plants still have about 20 small ping pong ball size tomatoes on the plants.

[Gary350]

Sunday we have full sun and 38°F at 2 pm. TV weather was wrong it only got down to 32° last night and no frost. I looked under the tarps potato plants look good. Temperature inside the 8 gallon carrots pots is 90°. Temperature inside the 24" green house is 90°. Potatoes under the 5 gallon fish aquarium look good. I grew 5 lbs of potatoes under this aquarium one year. Tonight forecast is 26°.

[Gary350]

I could not resist looking at the potato plants to see if there is freeze damage. The plant at the end of the row looks like frost bite of freeze damage but the rest of the plants in the row look good, soil was warm. This weeks forecast high is 45° all week and 25 degrees 4 nights in a row Wed to Sun. Soil will get colder plants probably won't survive 2 much more 25° nights.

Tomato plants are dead. There was about 20 large green tomatoes hiding among the plants leaves now they feel soft like water balloons.

[Gary350]

5 strange looking tomatoes? We have a lot of green tomatoes slowly getting ripe in the kitchen. About 10 ripe tomatoes ready to eat. 5 tomatoes started out green 2 weeks ago when spots started to form, spots spread and got larger. I not sure these will get ripe? I'm not sure these are good? Maybe I should cut them open to see what's inside.

[applestar]

For me, white/light subcutaneous spots on coloring up have meant stinkbugs had been sucking from them while still green.

These are substantial, but it might be due to their tendency to swarm as temps get colder and they look for nesting place as well as last good meal before hibernation?

If stinkbugs, if you peel the skin with paring knife, the wall flesh underneath would be spot-dehydrated and pithy. They should still be usable in sauce, etc. but not good fresh.

[imafan26]

Wow! I would not have thought about stink bugs. It is better than my thought which was that it could be a virus.

[Gary350]

10 am it has warmed up to 34° and it is 100° inside the tiny green house. I swapped double glass for single glass now its 80° in the tiny green house. Potatoes plants inside the 5 gallon fish aquarium are dead. I had to shovel soil in the painter tarps to keep wind from blowing the edges open. I am not removing tarps until next week when it is warmer. I wish I had a way to keep the carrot bed that is already growing warmer so carrots will grow faster I see several 1/2" diameter carrots. I forgot about the volunteer tabasco pepper plant next to patio it froze now peppers feel very soft. I cut 8 eyes from Yukon Gold potatoes we had in the kitchen, I need to find a way to grow them. I wonder if I can grow potatoes in a large pot in the front seat of the truck parked in the sun, truck should warm up like a green house. Strawberry plants are doing good cold is not hurting them.

Will lettuce grow in winter or will it freeze? I can start it in a pot inside the house then move it outside. There was no lettuce of any kind at grocery store yesterday.

[applestar]

There are lettuce varieties that are more winter freeze tolerant than others— “North Pole”, Rouge d’Hiver, Marveille de Quatre Saisons (Four Seasons Marvel)” — sometimes winter varieties bolt quicker when temps warm up or if there is sudden warm days during winter in areas with mild winter.

First two are romaine type I believe, and 4 seasons is a …bib? type I think — I’m growing it in front corner in this picture


…north pole wasn’t popular with my family — it had a sort of strong “green/grassy” flavor and was thicker/tougher than they liked.

[applestar]

…Ah ha! I just remembered —BIL sent me this pic of last of HIS tomatoes that had strange marks-. looks similar?

His didn’t have the subcutaneous signs of stinkbugs I mentioned earlier.

He sent the photo to Rutgers University agricultural extension and was told these show signs of potassium deficiency. He said they were still “edible/good”

[Gary350]

…Ah ha! I just remembered —BIL sent me this pic of last of HIS tomatoes that had strange marks-. looks similar?

His didn’t have the subcutaneous signs of stinkbugs I mentioned earlier.

He sent the photo to Rutgers University agricultural extension and was told these show signs of potassium deficiency. He said they were still “edible/good”

Potassium deficiency is interesting. I found a TN agricultural extension video that says, TN gets a lot of rain it leaches calcium and other nutrients from the soil. If your having problems with BER add calcium every other week. I bought a new 50 lb bag of 6-12-12 fertilizer Jan 2022 but forgot to use much of it this year I still have about 45 lbs. Tomato plants had BER twice I only remembered to add calcium after it was too late. Maybe garden soil has a potassium deficiency too. Thanks for the information.

I cut spotted tomatoes open, look how nice they look, taste good too. applestar your right, nothing wrong with these tomatoes.

[imafan26]

The Sun King tomatoes I grew had those pithy white cores too. I looked it up and it said it can be because of stressful environmental conditions or too much fertillizer. The tomatoes tasted o.k. the white cores are a little tougher. I had not really encountered this as much,before, but now I have to have TYLCV resistance and most of those are determinate and not heat resistant.

I would not have guessed potassium deficiency considering how much wood ashes you use.