Spiral Tomato Garden

[gixxerific]

Are those Ghost pots in the previous pic?

[applestar]

Sorry, I didn't understand the question....

[applestar]

I have an idea for supporting the spiral garden, and I wanted to run it by you all to see what you thought.

I have several -- eight? -- heavy duty 7 ft. T posts
I have several -- not sure how may -- 4 ft U posts

I was thinking of getting those $23 feedlot panels from Tractor supply and fencing the spiral. I haven't worked with them before, but my understanding is that they will bend into a curve fairly readily. Tall T posts at the ends and short U posts to hold the curve?

What do I use to secure? Zip ties? wire?

Does this sound sturdy enough?

I understand they are 16 feet x 50" each. I don't see how I could carry them in/on my SUV. DH's Chevy Sierra 4x4 pickup isn't long enough either, but some people say you can bend the panels into a U-shape (tied) and then load them in the truckbed of a pickup....

[applestar]

Got more planted today -- I've pushed the design to hold 44 tomato plants by interspersing early and/or dwarf determinate varieties.



14 more tomato plants and this bed will be done.
I've also started to "accessorize" -- 4 celery and a celeriac in the back, a couple of marigolds, a toothache plant, a couple of basils, parsley....

[gixxerific]

Looking great Apple.

Like I said at the Depot, zipties to get it in place than wire to finalize. If there was a LOT of pressure I might go with a more solid clamp for safety.

I haven't even planted my own marigolds yet, but they will come back on their own, so why bother. Would like to put some in the garden, with all the rain now is a good time to do that.

[applestar]

Couldn't get them this weekend
Now, it has to get done on or before next weekend or the plants will get too big.

11 more plants from Tray V to plant:

[rainbowgardener]

I love that you have a view of it from the (upstairs?) window. It is looking beautiful!

[gixxerific]

Looking good Apple. Can't wait to see it in the summer.

[applestar]

Thanks! It will be a colorful JUNGLE by then, I hope!



All except gray background squares are planted now. alien indicates dwarf/<3-4ft and clock indicates Determinate. Leaves indicate potato leaf. Two hands that look kind of like earmuffs indicate extra-tall varieties.

(Maybe I should be posting this in the PETC thread.... )

[applestar]

[applestar]

Pictures of fruiting plants in the Spiral Garden

NOT Sinister Minister F4 so probably Jaune Flammeé


Snow White


Pineapple Pig


Gajo de Melon


Jaune Flammeé ??? (looks different from the NOT Sin Min )


Tigrella


Orange Banana:


-- more pics from 6/18 --
Red Barn with catface


Kamatis Tagalog


Wes (first fruit set at eye-height)


Stump of the World (same even fluting as seen on FR plant)


Pineapple Pig update


Tigrella update


Indigo Apple (traces of antho on fruits)

[applestar]

It keeps raining.... NOT that I'm complaining -- this is a great boon compared to last spring/early summer of drought and no rain when I was scrambling to get the garden watered.

I took this picture earlier in the afternoon to show how much it's puddling in the spiral path/swale -- the water is all the way inside the center spiral:


But we just had another heavy shower pass through and now it looks like this:


...good thing we went to the petshop and got more feeder goldfish and minnows. I think we put three goldfish in the center spiral swale and two minnows in the shallower outer spiral swale which you can barely see in the photos -- though the water has come up high enough to see a bit of it at the right.

I can watch the goldfish cavorting from the upstairs window. Two of them have paired up and seem to be chasing each other ...I looked it up and goldfish eggs hatch in 48-72 hrs. The way it's raining and filling up the swales, that should be enough time befor the water dries up. Don't know if we'll be able to see or catch the babies though.

[rainbowgardener]

You are so cool, applestar! So the little feeder fish are to make sure the puddles don't become mosquito breeders? If you can't catch the babies, you will just buy more the next time, if the puddles dry up in between? (I know they are super cheap, like several for a quarter or something, I've bought them myself.)

You designed the drainage that way to be a water reservoir for all the tomato plants? So does it go downhill into the center (like a reverse herb spiral) or is it pretty flat, but with ditches between the spiral arms?

[applestar]

It wasn't entirely intentional -- truth be told -- but when I dug out the path to make the raised spiral row by flipping the path vegetation (used to be my "sunny meadow" so all kinds of non specific tuff, not just grass) onto the row, I went almost down to the clay subsoil in my enthusiasm, and ended up with greater path-to-row difference than I originally planned. But I did also recognize the Emilia Hazelip-esque design factor.

The ground is graded in a slope away from the house and the house corner downspout to the right of the blue spruce where the rain barrel overflow used to just drain right past this area to the upper left corner where the fence meets in a corner and I have the former Carolina Gold rice paddy, now designated Native Bog Garden.

The water drains out from the outlet there to a shallow swale that wraps around my Front Yard Fence Row, and then on down the front lawn to the side walk. Thanks to the new Spiral Garden catchment, there are less water that makes it all the way to the sidewalk to puddle uselessly. Just need a few more plantings in the front yard to capture them all and not let them go on down to the street.

Now the spirals catch and sequester the water and appears to fill the lower/far half of the outer and inner spiral including the center which had a fairly deep topsoil (I think it's because there used to be a path through here that I always mulched heavily) that got piled up in the middle.

As for the goldfish and the minnows -- yep, they usualy run around 12¢ each now, though I got these for 10¢. I tell the kids not to get attached... That these are "sacrificial" (though we'll do our best to catch and rescue them when the water level goes down since they help us with the mosquito larvae) So they choose the plainest, most average fish out of the bunch. They hold back the black tail tip and white/red bicolor ones to keep in a 5 gal bucket as well as the main holding tub with air pump -- which of the fish are happier, I wonder?

[applestar]

As of 6/18,
B: plants with blossoms
F: plants with green fruits (and blossoms)
n: no blossoms or fruits
*: photo

Red Barn - F*
Orange Minsk - B
Kamatis Tagalog - F*
Amos Coli - B
Wes - F*
Amos Coli - F
Native Sun - F
Opalka - n
Not SinMin >> Jaune Flamee - F*
Stump of the World - F*
Grandma Viney's Pink and Yellow - B
Snow White - F*
Pineapple Pig - F*
Gajo de Melon - F*
Jaune Flamme - F*
KBX (Kellogg's Breakfast PL) - F
Tigrella - F*
Nature's Riddle (Zagadka Prirdy) - B
Lead Beatter's Lunker - B
Not Purple Strawberry - n
Casey's Pure Yellow - B
Vorlon - B
Marachite Box (Malkhitovaya Schkatulka) - n
Rebel Yell - F
Orange Strawberry - n
Liz Birt - n
Turhune - F
X Orange Icicle X
Anna Banana - n
Jersey Devil - n
Big Cheef - F
Orange Banana - F*
Red House Freestanding - n
Grub's Mystery Green - B
Cherokee Green - B
Dwarf Emerald Giant - n
Polish Dwarf - B
Indigo Apple - F*
White Zebra - n
White Queen - F
White Tomesol - F
Tasmanian Chcolate - F

[gixxerific]

You have way too much time on your hands Apple. Do you have time to come do a thorough inventory on my garden some time soon.

My list goes like this:

Pretty much everything has fruit on it.

The end.

I see your P Pig had a weird fluted fruit amongst all the others. I just noticed Sgt Peppers from Hawk has one oblate fruit where it should be a clear heart as all the others are. Strange how that goes sometimes.

By the way how many of them are from me if you don't mind?

[applestar]

How long have you been a member here? You know I obsess.

Looks like 7 in the Spiral Garden. More in other locations ...you did get me started with a lot.
I'm also growing out seeds TZ and DV sent me a while back, then I got even more from Trudy and finally, the you-know-what (that put me over the edge ) I have Indigo Apple and Amos Coli from THG giveaway here, too..

As of 6/18,
B: plants with blossoms
F: plants with green fruits (and blossoms)
n: no blossoms or fruits
*: photo

Red Barn - F*
Orange Minsk - B
Kamatis Tagalog - F*
Amos Coli - B
Wes - F*
Amos Coli - F
Native Sun - F
Opalka - n
Not SinMin >> Jaune Flamee - F*
Stump of the World - F*
Grandma Viney's Pink and Yellow - B
Snow White - F*
Pineapple Pig - F*
Gajo de Melon - F*
Jaune Flamme - F*
KBX (Kellogg's Breakfast PL) - F
Tigrella - F*
Nature's Riddle (Zagadka Prirody) - B
Lead Beatter's Lunker - B
Not Purple Strawberry - n
Casey's Pure Yellow - B
Vorlon - B
Marachite Box (Malkhitovaya Schkatulka) - n
Rebel Yell - F
Orange Strawberry - n
Liz Birt - n
Turhune - F
X Orange Icicle X
Anna Banana - n
Jersey Devil - n
Big Cheef - F
Orange Banana - F*
Red House Freestanding - n
Grub's Mystery Green - B
Cherokee Green - B
Dwarf Emerald Giant - n
Polish Dwarf - B
Indigo Apple - F*
White Zebra - n
White Queen - F
White Tomesol - F
Tasmanian Chcolate - F

[gixxerific]

Awesome!

Rebel Yell and Big Cheef, you will be thanking me about later. These are some dang good mators. Not that the others are bad but.....you know.

[applestar]

Update:

Harvested first nearly mature fruit today -- a Tigerella. Several others are at color break stage or starting to blush.

(Note: Bright orange-red blobs in the picture are not tomato fruits but are actually marigold flowers from seeds from Gixx's garden. -- they keep pumping out blooms. I belive you can only see ONE plant clearly in this photo. I think they really like the soil here that was specifically formulated for tomato production

[applestar]

Yesterday's Harvest:

1st Indigo Apple

In no particular order -- 1st Terhune, 1st Red Barn, 1st Jackss Yellow, 1st Melon Ball, 1st Rebel Yell (2), 1st Big Cheef, 1st Canadian Dwarf, 1st? Polish Dwarf (accidentally picked green), 1st Donomater F3#4; also Pineapple Pig (2), Tasmanian Chocolate (2), Kamatis Tagalog (6), Monomakh's hat (2), Russo's Sicilian Togetta (3), (not) Native Sun (3)

[gixxerific]

Heck yeah Apple that looks awesome. I am in the same boat no matter how many you pick today there will be some tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

Who said Summer wasn't colorful?

[imafan26]

Looks great. I guess there will be a lot of tomato recipes and preserving to do.

[applestar]

You weren't kidding, Gixx! Here's today's harvest

[applestar]

Yesterday's (had to pick fully blushed and nearly fully blushed due to heavy rain in forecast)

1st Wes, 1st Grandma Viney's Pink and Yellow, 1st Grubb's Mystery Green... Etc.

Another nice Pineapple Pig.
All semi blushed Tigrella had to be picked because they split after near 1" rain.
Unexpectedly large Zarnitsa -- cue ball size.
Not pictured but an Amos Coli fruit is almost ready to pick.

We ate the Terhune. Posted about it here
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... 70#p308770

[applestar]

...and more today

1st Opalka and 1st Victorian Dwarf...etc.

- a nice Stump of the World
- 2 better sized Big Cheef
- another Grandma Viney's Pink and Yellow
- 3 good sized (not) Native Sun with a small Native Sun from SF&H
- an Orange Banana in front of Opalka....
- 1 first fruit from another (not) Earl's Green Cherry from a third plant in the Kitchen Garden -- will compare with the other one, but it turned out I only have one real Earl's Green Cherry

[applestar]

Here's yesterday's harvest:
1st Casey's Pure Yellow -- I've been watching the fruits get bigger and bigger with amazement and this first one's no slouch, 1st Vorlon (2), 1st KBX, 1st Orange Misk, 1st White Tomesol....

1st Casey's Pure Yellow, 1st Vorlon, 1st Orange Minsk, 1st KBX, 1st White Tomesol, etc.

The skies suddenly got dark and it looks like it was going to rain. (It was SUPPOSED to rain all day ... NOT)
I looked out over the Spiral Garden and it looked like there was another Grandma Viney's ready to pick -- There was anther plant in the foreground blocking it but I could see bright yellow and flash of orange. So I said to myself, I'll just rescue that and two or three others that look ready....

Well, I almost overflowed the 2 gal collection bucket

Today's surprise was a HUGE Wes tomato. It is a triple fused fruit and 1-1/4 Lbs.

-- oh yeah, no Grandma Viney's. I can't figure out what those two large yellow ones are -- I'm losing track of where one plant ends and another one begins. But there was a big double fused Pineapple Pig. A couple of large Indigo Apple, etc.

[applestar]

Here's the Wes on a scale:

1-1/4 Lbs

I have two other big ones waiting their turns --

Casey's Pure Yellow which is larger than the 1st Casey's Pure Yellow that was harvested above (that one is weighing in at just shy of 15 oz):

Casey's Pure Yellow

...and Leadbeatter's Lunker which is even larger:

Leadbeatter's Lunker

[pfong001]

Wow that's a lot of tomatoes. How are you going to manage to eat them all?!

[Green Mantis]

Oh this is so frustrating. You are all talking about the Spiral garden, and I can't view the pictures.

[applestar]

Yeah, that exceeded bandwidth block again.
The blocked pictures should become viewable again on 27th or 28th of the Month.

[applestar]

Yesterday's Harvest including several 1st Cherokee Green:

1st Cherokee Green and more Grubb's Mystery green, another Casey's Pure Yellow, (not?) Jaune Flammeé -- yellow beefsteak shape....

The not Sinister Minister is turning out to be not strictly Jaune Flammeé either -- it is clear yellow beefsteak shape -- it started off being more round, then the color of subsequent fruits faded to butter yellow, and now this, so it is very confusing

Not Sinister Minister and Not Jaune Flammeé either

The two round yellow fruits below the small Howling Mob corn from the Front Yard Fence Row and above the Indigo Apple tomatoes are Pristine summer apples from the Espalier Orchard.

The earlier flooding in the swales benefitted the tomatoes with plenty of water (except where the slope of the land drained down and left the soil constantly soggy) but the humidity took its toll as disease. I'm not treating them at all this year to see how well they resist, so there is quite a bit of yellowing going on now:

71199b83898e0dda43a363049a855655.jpg (60.37 KiB) Viewed 2944 times

-- but maybe you can see the huge Leadbeatter's Lunker in the front blushing and 2nd largest Casey's Pure Yellow to the left, also ready to pick and keep safe in the house until they ripen. You can sort of see a Pineapple Pig to the right, too. Too bad the Wes and two Red Barn fruits which are also probably close to one pound size each are too far in the back to show up.

[applestar]

Leadbeatter's Lunker

[jemsister]

I love your tomato spiral!

[applestar]

Thanks! It's crazy productive.
I must say, this is the *second* time a brand new bed, dug in this way turned out to be great first tomato bed

Here is today's harvest:

1 lb 5 oz Casey's Pure Yellow, 1st Nature's Riddle, 1st Soldacki from VGC, etc....

...other big ones are Wes, Stump Of the World, 1st (VGC), 2 Vorlon fruits that I think split skin when I dunked them in the bucket of water to wash, 1st Nature's Riddle, and a double Jackss Yellow.

These tomatoes filled a 2 gal bucket.

[rainbowgardener]

So what ARE you doing with the mad influx of tomatoes?

[applestar]

So far I haven't had time to do any more than give away and freeze ripe ones that can't be immediately eaten fresh, and that seemed sufficient until about 5 days ago.... Now though?

I did look into getting a table space at a local Farmer's Market but, again, it didn't seem like I had enough to sell last week.

It's (hopefully) supposed to rain today. I'll be processing tomatoes.

[ReptileAddiction]

If it does look like you are going to have enough fruit to do a farmers market you definitely should. I think it would be a good way to pay for some of the garden. And I think it would be fun to talk to people and stuff. Next year you could even think about planting a few extra and plan on going to the farmers market.

[applestar]

The allergies are hitting me pretty hard right now and I'm dragging. I REALLY didn't want to go outside today, but looking out the window, I saw that the biggest Casey's Pure Yellow was ready to pick. Even though I sawit in the dawn light, it took me until nearly noon to pull on my boots and step out the back door.

What drove me was the incessant cicadas announcing how hot it was and knowing that hot days often draws the groundHOG to the garden when I'm not out there. I would have been devastated if something had happened to the anticipated fruit.

So, I went out wi the intention of picking that one and maybe a couple of others I could see out the window... But by the time I finished....

...and, as I told my DD, it was worth every mosquito bite!

1 Lb. 13 oz Casey's Pure Yellow

[applestar]

8/2 harvest

1st Beauty King, etc.

Today's harvest

1 Lb. 7 oz mystery tomato mis-labeled Dwarf Emerald Giant -- Grandma Viney's Yellow and Pink?

dc666cbf304526e0819342d4c2ed3513.jpg (53.36 KiB) Viewed 2933 times

[applestar]

I've been harvesting every couple of days but I got tired of posting

My garden's getting tired. too. My tomatoes were early sprinters but are getting overtaken by septoria, and late maturing varieties and plants that were started later and/or were planted out late are either struggling to eke out a handful of fruits or never really got the chance.

I hope you can see the last effort they are putting on. I think under the circumstances the sweet potatoes I planted between them are working out as succession crop. I'll have to figure out what to plant to replace the tomatoes in the far half of the spiral which is shaded all morning so I thought was unsuited for the sweet potatoes... Maybe I can plant peas or fall spinach.