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applestar
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Re: Spiral Tomato Garden

Well, I started out with good intentions... Even had the idea that I'll try pruning to single vine, no suckers, or at least no more than 2-3 vines per plant. But somewhere along the middle, I lost to the vigorous growths and the sheer numbers -- it was all I could do to harvest every two days, take photos, and write up progresss reports. :roll: :lol:

I have mixed feelings about what is happening. I honestly have harvested plenty of tomatoes. My kitchen and garage freezers are full and I still have three web trays and two large (salad spinner size) colanders of fruits. One of the web trays have 8 pint baskets full of cherry and saladette size tomatoes, not just single layer.

Even though the largest beefsteak/slicers are dwindling now, it was plenty fun while they were coming in by bucket loads. Actually, yesterday, I noticed that Red Barn which I thought was done for has sprouted three new shoots midway up the vines despite the mostly dead tips. If they manage to fend off the fungi attack (or if I were to help out with appropriate spray regimen) I would guess that this is how the fall-winter season tomatoes can be grown in the longer season areas in the south.

I kind of liked that some of the tomatoes were done by early August and would have allowed me to plant a full fall season crop in their place. In fact, I had planned on cutting the Red Barn at the base and planting something else there. With 60 days left until first average frost, I doubt that the Red Barn has time to produce ripe fruits for me here, but it was an interesting observation.

Also, in some cases, plants that perhaps had been suppressed by their more vigorous neighbors are on the upswing, diseased or not. There are good many plants sporting green fruits and I will probably still end up harvesting tomatoes until frost. For me, it's a question of making up my mind to pull/execute the strugglers and get the fall/winter harvest planting done at this point.
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Don't get me wrong -- I think pruning diligently is an essential technique and if you can do it, you should... Especially if you are working with limited number of plants or particularly valuable varieties. Having ID'd my family's "favorites" to grow again next year, I could see myself trying to keep them producing as long as possible. This year, I just have too many :lol:

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applestar
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Sweet potatoes (and marigolds) trying to take over the inner swale/path of the spiral garden .... :wink:
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rainbowgardener
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Don't get me wrong -- I think pruning diligently is an essential technique and if you can do it, you should... Especially if you are working with limited number of plants

I certainly agree with that and I have very limited number of plants. I have 3 in the sunny front lawn bed that are doing great. I have 2 in the back yard shade bed that are lanky/leggy and not very productive and 2 in the community garden bed that I only make it to look at once a month or so ( :( bad me!) that are hanging in there, but not very productive. Next year better on all the non front lawn spaces!

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applestar
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Update photo of the Spiral Garden -- you can sort of see some larger green fruits in the upper right 2 o'clock ... Possibly Stump of the World or Grandma Viney's. Snow White is still producing a couple of fruits every couple of days. A few more green fruits at left maybe 9 to 10 o'clock, and last of the Tasmanian Chocolate and Not White Queen in the center.

Near half of the spiral garden is matted with sweet potatoes and you can sort of see their mauve flowers to the left. The Yellow, Orange, and Red blobs are marigolds, and peanut plants are in there somewhere nearby... and there are also some basil, bush beans as well as a toothache plant and a couple of Mexican Mint Marigold in the outer spiral.

In the far half of the garden, I cleared some spots under failing tomato plants and sowed cucumber a while ago (they are starting to vine), as well as peas, spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard, red orach, and radish recently (they are starting to sprout).:D Spring planted Celery and Celeriac are growing back there too.

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DoubleDogFarm
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Way Cool, Way to much work and do a potato one next. :) :>

I'd like to hear about the peanuts, sweet potato and toothache plant.


Eric

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applestar
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What do you want to know?

Peanuts are pretty much buried -- I only see two out of I think 8 that I planted still standing, and I can't tell if they blooming or if they are managing to touch down and burrow to mature peanuts.

Toothache plant is loving this location and struggling in the shadier other locations ( I had three)

GroundHOG got in and trimmed the sweet potatoes a little but I've fortified and am hoping no more damage. It's getting into my other garden areas and beds -- I lost my tiny bean patch in the last week :evil:
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DoubleDogFarm
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What do you want to know?
The usuals. Can I grow it here reasonably. Space to yeild. Etc.

The older I get, 50 in March, I'm leaning toward no-nosense gardening. I need / want to just grow food. I'm weeding out and hopefully adding varieties that thrive here.

Eric

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gixxerific
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DoubleDogFarm wrote:
What do you want to know?
The usuals. Can I grow it here reasonably. Space to yeild. Etc.

The older I get, 50 in March, I'm leaning toward no-nosense gardening. I need / want to just grow food. I'm weeding out and hopefully adding varieties that thrive here.

Eric
Good to know Eric as you probably already know you are automatically on the seed list. I will pack accordingly.

Dono :D

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applestar
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Etkeze Paprika hot pepper
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Big tomatoes are winding down, but still a few left
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GroundHOG got one of the biggest apples :evil:
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gixxerific
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Awesome Apple, I can't believe you are still doing something. I only have a handful of plants left and they should have been taken down weeks ago, the last of my fresh fruit (until the winter dwarfs produce that is) are on the counter and they are pushing the limit.

Keep it up Apple, only thing going for me are peppers and lettuce and a few other things. Been a crazy year, 85 degrees on OCT 2????

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applestar
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Yeah, us too. One more hot Sunday, then lots of rain, then back to fall weather.
... It might be time to dig the sweet potatoes, but test dig only yielded skinny 5-6" tubers :?
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A salad spinner full of stuff harvested:
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applestar
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Harvested some more sweet potatoes today as well as the two grey striped sunflower heads and a nice zucchini :D
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applestar
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Harvested the rest of the sweet potatoes :()
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Nothing huge, but this is about all I get every year, so I would say sharing the bed with tomatoes made no significant difference, and I'm satisfied with the result.

I would probably get better results with earlier maturing varieties, but I don't like the kind that has moist flesh and prefer the Japanese/Asian dry nutty sweet fleshed kinds, and they all seem to require full 120 days or more of the HOT weather which we don't really get. I wish there was an alternative to using black plastic mulch. For reference, I came across a Japanese blogsite where the sweet potato farmer experimented and had great success after combining --INSIDE A HIGH TUNNEL-- a soaker hose managed manured hot bed AND a low tunnel for earlier accelerated initial slip development, then planting them in slits cut in black plastic mulch out in the fields.

...in my garden, just one more late planted tiny patch left, but the vines are entangled with a Rocky Ford melon vine that is trying to ripen a single small fruit ahead of the chilly weather.... :bouncey: so I'll won't dig them up until frost threatens.

gardeningwithe
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Tomato spiral = complete awesomeness! My son thought it was one of the coolest things he's ever seen. :) So see it's even kid approved- haha! Seriously, your whole garden area was so beautiful to look at- inspiring. Maybe one day mine will look half as great!

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applestar
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Thank you both! (Kids give honest opinions -- I appreciate that) :()

I really liked the way it turned out, too. 8)
I plan to rotate (crops) and plant something else here this year, but it should look interesting again. :wink:

Have fun with your garden! :D

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gixxerific
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A spiral is natures greatest from. They happen to be everywhere if you look.



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