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lakngulf
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Re: Applestar's 2014 Tomato Gardens

applestar wrote:Tomatoes we ate today :D
...soooo sleepy I jeep nodding off while trying to type!
Will add comments here and will also post in the tasting/compare thread in the morning.
Beautiful tomatoes. Will look for more comments.

I jeep sleepy too

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applestar
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:oops: :roll:
More photos. Quick captions. More later....
Another Braconid parasitized small (3rd instar?) hornworm <br />on russet mite infested leaf branch.
Another Braconid parasitized small (3rd instar?) hornworm
on russet mite infested leaf branch.
Leaf branch belongs to this McKinley -- I thought <br />the plant died from TRM
Leaf branch belongs to this McKinley -- I thought
the plant died from TRM
VGA - Missouri Rose, Jersey Devil and still green<br />Granny's Heart. DET Brian Boru (front center) is <br />mostly done
VGA - Missouri Rose, Jersey Devil and still green
Granny's Heart. DET Brian Boru (front center) is
mostly done
...but this is another instance of TRM (Tomato Russet Mite) infesting all the way up the plant until one of the last Brian Boru fruits was completely russeted while 1/2 sized and never managed to blush or ripen... Yet you can see a fresh green un-infested new shoot with fruit trusses growing up from near the base (and leaning up agains the TRM infested Jersey Devil).

TRM infestation in this bed started with Rose which is in the far right corner. That one lost to the TRM all the way up before being able to bloom or fruit, but is not completely dead yet. I'm watching it to see if it's going to try to recover with uninfested new shoots, but if this is a late maturing variety, I'm not sure if it has time to bloom/fruit/ripen before the average first frost in mid-October. I would note that *as soon as I ran support strings from the bamboo stakes in each corner*, the mites spread to the other plants along the strings with signs if infestation appearing where the plant touched the string.

Japanese beetles are all over the pole and runner beans, <br />but they do keep the beans from completely shading the <br />tomatoes....
Japanese beetles are all over the pole and runner beans,
but they do keep the beans from completely shading the
tomatoes....
Harvesting plenty of beans despite the Jb damage:
More stalk-dried popcorn. Small volunteer pumpkins.<br />Keeping ahead of catbirds to harvest Elderberries --<br />hoping to make some jelly.
More stalk-dried popcorn. Small volunteer pumpkins.
Keeping ahead of catbirds to harvest Elderberries --
hoping to make some jelly.
Harvested a bunch of peppers to make ABT 8)

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applestar
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image.jpg

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Lindsaylew82
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Look how pretty!

What's ABT?

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applestar
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Not sure if I can use the word here. Use your favorite internet search for "ABT jalapeño" and see what you get. :twisted:

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Lindsaylew82
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BAAAAHAHA. My sweet precious little girl was taught that word by her DADDY! I don't think it's a bad word, just doesn't sound right coming out of my sweet pretty little girl's mouth!

Btw, I'm off dairy right now, and I have ripe jalapeños coming out my ears! I may make an exception and make these! That looks so YUMMY!

Juliuskitty
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applestar wrote:Not sure if I can use the word here. Use your favorite internet search for "ABT jalapeño" and see what you get. :twisted:
Terrible name for something that looks absolutely delicious. :D

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applestar
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Sunflower Row at "best"
Image

Catching up on the tomato harvests as they wind down....
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applestar
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All I have left in the kitchen except for three berry baskets of cherry tomatoes:
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Today's harvest:
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applestar
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...and here's an update window view of the SFH Tomato Garden, etc.
image.jpg
...less tomatoes, mostly beans now -- Good Mother Stallard,
Purple Podded Pole bean, Kentucky Wonder, and Scarlet Runner.

Juliuskitty
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It is a beautiful view. It looks almost pristeen. It is always a sad time for me when the garden winds down for the season. But you have your indoor one, so all is good. :wink:

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applestar
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Thanks! I think as succession of seasons and crops, not focus on a singular crop in the bed, it's all good and working out.

At this point, I had a good tomato harvest through the summer season, and I have more than enough fresh snap beans in the freezer, so I'm letting the rest of the beans all grow into mature pods for fresh and dried shelled beans. And after the pods are harvested, all those bean vines will be used to mulch the bed and/or build a compost pile in the middle of the bed to break down for the fall/winter-spring.

And as you mentioned, my "tomato garden" is moving indoors with a new group of babies already growing. :D

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applestar
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At this point, all the front runners have shut down beyond any hope of recovery, but there were a several that have resurged since the arrival of late summer/early fall cooler weather. Out of those, many went down to septoria that accompanies the fall cool and excess moisture due to heavy condensation.

But there is a last full sized Captain Lucky ripening out there, and a half-sized Wes. We just had the one and only large beefsteak sized Prudens Purple on our hamburgers tonight even though we had completely given up on any more big tomatoes this season, and the volunteer Matt's Wild Cherry in the watermelon patch are pumping them out. And the Coyote on the house wall trellis has completely recovered from the tomato leafminer attack that forced me to drastically prune off any and all affected leaves and are starting to ripen the new fruits.

Then there are these:

This is another volunteer. It's potato leaved and I was hoping for a Yellow Brandywine, but in these latest photos, you can clearly see developing green shoulders and faint striping on the four fruits, and I don't think YBW has those, so it's still a mystery. :D
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This one I'm pretty sure is Cherokee Lime, but it could be Cherokee Lime Stripes. I thought it had been overwhelmed by tomato russet mites, but after the infestation spread and killed the vine all the way to the growing tip, it, like many others, grew fresh new side shoot that somehow was immune to the TRM. I had been keeping an eye on the large fruit on the vine at my eye height, but then I noticed that the vines had reached all the way to the eaves and the rain gutter of the one story roof... And there are more green fruits up there! :shock:
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