Applestar's 2015 Tomato (and Pepper and Eggplant) Garden

[tommyblaze]

Your garden looks amazing!

[applestar]

Your garden looks fantastic, Applestar! I mostly grow big tomato plants, but I've got one Red Robin planted for fun this year, and it looks like it'll be the earliest producer by a long shot. I had a cage around this plant until I realized how ridiculous that was!

IMG_1226.jpg

Thanks @MichaelC Please let us know what you think of Red Robin. I've never grown that variety.

@tommyblaze, thank you!

[applestar]

Subject: Pallet sided high raised bed hugelkultur experiment

Ha! That's a mouthful!

I thought I'd split this off to a separate thread from my veg and tomato garden progress (although technically this bed belongs in the White Sauce Garden/Tomato Garden) and just post highlights over there since just posting the building process is turning out to be quite cumbersome.

...here is a highlight collage of how I filled the bed

While I was working on the pallet sided raised bed, I noticed that the Green Sausage in the hanging basket is blooming

[applestar]

I planted the rest of the tomatoes for the White Sauce Garden in the pallet sided high raised bed and the SIP this morning

[applestar]

Update on the White Sauce Garden:

Planted the self-blanching celery -- Golden Self Blanching and Golden Pascal. I didn't take a close up of Golden Pascal but they were as white as the Golden Self Blanching in the bottom photo. I dug deep holes and dropped them in all the way to their leaves.

In this part of VGB, I planted Louisiana Velvet okra, Sprite small White Honey F1 honeydew melon (sorry, I planted Sprite in a different bed), and Szentesi Feher (White from Szentes) pepper and Alma Edes sweet pepper, and White Comet eggplant. -- As soon as Oregon Sugarpod II snowpeas are done, I'm going to train the melon vines to climb the trellis.

Here is the rest of the (rather ambitious) revised White Sauce Garden plans and planting map:

[applestar]

I finally managed to plant the F1 crosses of tomatoes I practiced with this winter. The slight discernible differences in the seedlings are interesting, and I hope to see the differences develop more clearly in the plant structures and fruits as they grow.

...I learned that MF - multiflora - trait is also recessive s will not show up in this generation...

[applestar]

Finished planting the cordon style cherry tomato bed along the Empterprise Apple garden rabbit fence -- a.k.a. "Apple Guild Sentinels"

The ones planted earlier in the new outside bed are looking good

[applestar]

I'm hoping to take update photos of individual tomatoes in the Spiral Garden tomorrow. Most are blooming and some have little green fruits

Here's the view from the upstair's window:

-- yes, I planted my Super Dwarf Cavendish Banana in the center of the Spiral.

[Igotworms]

great looking garden! I have a dwarf cavendish plant also but I put mine in a large pot.

[sweetiepie]

Oh, I was wondering how things were going after your storm. Glad to see something still exists.

[applestar]

Thank-you @sweetiepie

[applestar]

Green fruits!

Juicy Saladette, Sailor's Luck, Blakc Seaman x Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye, Wes

Butter Apple, Dark Copia Heart, Not Purple Strawberry x Sergeant Pepper's, Lucky Cross

Hanging baskets too -- they are needing booster feed

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Green Sausage, Tumbling Tom Yellow, Cream Sausage

[pepperhead212]

Lookin' good, apple! I hope you rescued most of your garden after that storm. And now we're getting another, this time with excess rain.

A tip on the self-irrigated containers: they will need water much sooner than our other plants, being covered with plastic. I put my timers on just a one day rain delay, but turned off all of the lines except for the SICs. I'll turn those back on, when I have to.

[applestar]

Thanks @pepperhead212

I lost a couple of tomato plants -- one was crushed by the pea trellis, but otherwise, they seem to be OK. They are actually loving the extra moisture and taking off -- the raised rows and swales really work.

Here are the peppers in the two SIP's aside from that one Donkey Ears (which was in poor shape as a transplant anyway), everybody else seem to have settled in. One of the melons made it out of the hole.... I also sowed some poor germination Dragon Tongue wax beans along the perimeter.... (yes I know PETC )

...and another look at the Pea Eggplant and Hari Eggplant...

[applestar]

Update

[applestar]

Hundreds and Thousands -- a multiflora hanging basket type

First Green Sausage fruit had BER

[applestar]

Green fruits in the spiral garden

Bosque Blue .......... Girl Girl's Weird Thing, Not Liguria

Sailor's Luck .......... Hawaiian Pineapple

Juicy Saladette... lucky Cross... Japanese Black Trifele... Butter Apple

juicy Saladette, Zebra Heart megabloom, Clackamas Blueberry, Samocvet Nifritovy

Carbon Copy... Jersey Giant... Dark Copia Heart... Black Seaman x PBTD F3#1

Wes... Not Purple Strawberry x Sgt. Peppers F1#1... #2...BSxPBTD F3#2

[applestar]

What to show first....

Apple Guild Sentinels as seen from both directions:

...I lost the only Iva's Red Berry plant I had... Is it crazy to want to grow it so much that I'm starting some more seeds NOW?

Pea Eggplant and Hari Eggplant in 2nd Hand DIY SIP. I never knew THIS is how eggplants are *supposed* to look like

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Even the two basil plants (one Thai basil the other ??) pepperhead212 gave me last fall and struggled all winter are growing back beautifully. Thai basil is in the back:

Pepper SIP's

Pallet-sided High Raised Beds and Tomato SIP:

[applestar]

Top Row: Not Liguria with leaf growing from fruit truss...Mohamed micro-dwarf
.
.
Middle Row: ...I thought Not Liguria was growing weird -- look at Carbon Copy's fruit truss!!!

Bottom Row: Cream Sausage (1st fruit with BER starting ) ...antho stripes... 1st truss of Rose Quartz MultiFlora

[applestar]

Here's the Hundreds and Thousands hanging basket viewed from ground level

I posted this picture of the Spiral Garden Annex on June 21



I love seeing them all settled in and establishing themselves

[applestar]

Montage Of the Spiral Garden as seen from ground level (standing on a bench )

[MichaelC]

Hi Applestar -

I love seeing the updates. You might have already written this some pages back in this long thread, please forgive me if so - what's the idea with the spiral garden? I can see how it might be very practical for irrigation, for one thing.

[applestar]

...mmm... I thought it looked interesting? No I think I had more reasons, but we have to go back a couple of years. Let me find the thread and I will post the link.

...

TRM (tomato russet mite) infestation is taking down or nearly taking down random plants among perfectly unaffected plants -- some with russetting all the way up the stem and wilted, some with russeted and curling leaf branches, some are very slow to grow and others are growing on despite the infestation. Based on last two year's experience, if successfully protected by the Garden Patrol, they *should* grow fresh unaffected new shoots and growths and be OK -- semi indeterminates and indeterminates will have a better chance of recovery since they are not on a clock.

With all the spotty, yellowed, and other diseased foliage everywhere (TWO plastic grocery bags full) due to more rain than usual and high humidity as well, I decided the garden needed an immune system boost -- Sunday, I sprayed some of the solanaceas and cucurbits with milk, whey, and rainwater. Monday I sprayed again -- some of the same and some that I didn't spray yesterday -- with milk, yogurt whey, and overnight steeped willow leaf/twig tea. It's supposed to rain after mid-morning today, which should help rather than hinder since the garden could have been watered yesterday but I didn't, and the willow compounds should have been absorbed and microbes should have had time to establish in the phyllo and rhizosphere.

[applestar]

Hmm... I did NOT mention in the first two pages of the thread why. I know I needed to plant lots more tomatoes than I ver did before..... Well enjoy. It's after 2am and
I'm going to sleep.

Subject: Spiral Tomato Garden

Waaah! My tomato seedlings NEED to get planted! (last night's low was 36°F )
I fertilized them today because they are starting to lose color from lack of nutrients and maybe not liking the accommodations.

But the forced delay HAS given me time to ponder and prep the main tomato garden for this year... I decided to make it a Tomato Spiral. Still have lotS to do but here is basicaly the "before" picture



It's roughly a 16-18 ft circle and the spiral/continuous row will be 3 feet apart. I still have to dig the good soil out of the path spiral and mound up the planting bed spiral and amend it, mulch it, etc.

I also made a narrow 2ft wide raised row along the new 20ft x 4ft high fence line which hopefull will be enough to catch any overflow.

[sweetiepie]

Did you plant the Iva Red Berry plant? Just wondering how it is doing. Can't wait to see if it catches up so late in the game.
It keeps raining here too and is humid. Not to much disease issues, except that little bit of mildew on the pumpkins a while a go. The wind has taken care of that for now. But at least the smoke haze is disappearing and we actually get to see the sun between the rain showers. Love all your pictures.

[applestar]

They germinated, but I accidentally "cooked" them by leaving in direct sun ...I guess it just wasn't meant to be this year.

[applestar]

...I have LOTS of other stuff growing though...

Cream Sausage in hanging basket:

[applestar]

Hari and Pea eggplants in the SIP. Thai Peche eggplant in a cement block hole.

Thai Peche is doing surprisingly well. This spot is close to a small roof downspout and by placing the cement block here, I am probably damming the rainwater as it flows away from the house.

The cement block may be sequestering heat for the heat-loving eggplant, but the roots would have spread below the cement blocks to where the earthworms are enjoying the cool shade provided by the block and the weeds and grass underneath that are dying from being smothered -- I haven't really given this area much extra fertilizer. THIS might be something I should experiment more with next year.

[applestar]

First ripe tomato of the season (started from seeds this year, not counting the mature Winter Indoor) was Tumbling Tom Yellow in a hanging basket. I almost missed it because I thought it was the first *blushed* tomato -- it was only as I was saying to myself "Tumbling Tom YELLOW" is blushing, I guess I'll take a picture..." -- that I realized -- "... Wait YELLOW! This is a yellow tomato!!"

-- as you can see, it is badly infested by TRM (tomato russet mites) -- I'm not hopeful of the flavor of this fruit so I may just save seeds from it (first fruits are said to be less likely to be accidentally crossed by pollinators) This plant is at a disadvantage since I'm not sure that Garden Patrol mite predators can rescue and protect it up here in the hanging basket.

[applestar]

I was surprised to find ripe a Coyote on volunteer plants among the corn in the Haybale Row:

Here is the big Wes fruit I mentioned elsewhere.

(Still green but starting to color break)

[applestar]

I'm getting "coached" by a gardening friend in Europe on how to properly prune cherry tomatoes into columnar (cordon) style:

Looking over these photos, I have to self-critique that I could have/might need to trim a bit more leaves... But here they are-- before and after:

Black Cherry... Anna's Multiflora... Stormin Norman... Idyll


Ildi... WOW Fedco Cherry... Rose Quartz Multiflora... Amethyst Cream


Sweetie... Sun Gold (not?)... Isis Candy... Jewels of Ordiorne


... I'm bummed that I lost both seedlings of Iva's Red Berry I must try to grow it again with EXTRA care next year.

[applestar]

Update photo of the Spiral Garden -- I love it when the tomatoes start to mature and I can see colorful fruits from the window

-- do you see the really big Wes fruit?

[applestar]

Harvested first three red cherry-sized fruits of micro-dwarf variety tomato called Mohamed. As you can see, the plant is same size as strawberry plants

The green-when-ripe fruit is a Samocvet Nefritovy from the Spiral Garden, dark yellow fruit is a Tumbling Tom Yellow cherry from the hanging basket in the White Sauce Garden, and little light yellow/ivory colored cherries are volunteer Coyote from the Haybale Row.

...also in the bowl are small wild blackberries and some White Soul Alpine strawberries.

[applestar]

Green striped yellow Butter Apple was ready to harvest today -- a couple more days inside before tasting

Also harvested another Tumbling Tom Yellow and more Coyote. White Soul Alpine strawberries, blueberries, big Triple Crown thornless blackberries along with the wild (super thorny ) blackberries....

[applestar]

These will be ready soon....

Juicy Saladette --

Antho varieties --

Cream Sausage in White Sauce Garden hanging basket --

[applestar]

Harvested first Dark Copia Heart*

...and more Sailor's Luck, Butter Apple, Not Liguria, Juicy Saladette, and some cherries ...

...Dark Copa Heart* (bottom) and other biggest fruits (Wes, Lucky Cross and Japanese Black Trifele, new cross {Not Purple Strawberry x Sergeant Pepper's F4} F1), relative to standard pair of garden pruners:

Another view of Lucky Cross (Top Left), etc.

* it turns out this is not true to type Dark Copia Heart -- the conclusion is that it us an F1 accidental cross with Dark Copia Heart as the mother.

I cut it open today and it's definitely a beefsteak-type fruit:

-- I saved seeds. It will be interesting to see what will grow from the saved seeds. Someone else got a gorgeous striped bi-color from same batch of seeds as mine.

[pepperhead212]

Applestar,

Have you had splitting problems with the larger tomatoes, given all this rain in our area? I've only had a couple varieties that didn't split, other than the cherries, which I am being overrun with! And I just got another 1 1/2" today with that storm.

[applestar]

My larger varieties are just reaching near ripe stage. I generally pick them 2-3 days before, as soon as there is an ever so slight softness to the blossom end but the equator to shoulders are still hard. Then keep them in paper/tea towel lined daisy trays, baskets and colanders atop cookie cooling racks for full airflow to finish ripening indoors.

So far, only one variety had a mild surface fissure in the skin. -- but there is anti-rain device in my town that causes storm clouds to split or dissipate before reaching us, and we tend to not get the lovely rain that falls everywhere else but here. The storm systems that have split or fizzled out typically re-group AFTER they have safely past our airspace.

Among the cherries, there is one new-to-me variety that has been splitting every time I think to check if any is ripe. Fortunately so far finding on the morning when it split so no loss to bugs, etc. Another splitter is the familiar-to-me Coyote. I usually pick Coyote and Matt's Wild Cherry when they are fully ripe on the vine (fall off if you touch them) for max flavor, and they tend to split if pulled off the calyx or if they are dunked in too cold water for washing.

Good luck with your harvest! Hope you get lots of good ones.

[applestar]

I picked some BIG'UNS today --
(2gal bucket)

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Wes


Lucky Cross

Not Purple Strawberry x (Sergeant Pepper's F4) F1 Plant #1

[applestar]

These determinate hanging basket tomatoes seem to be finishing up. They already lost most of their leaves -- I thought to foliage disease but maybe also because of senescence:

Tumbling Tom Yellow with Cream Sausage still going strong in the background
... Hundreds and Thousands

I think I should have been more generous with fertilizer for these tomatoes planted in hanging baskets (a new experiment this year). I'm worried that they would dry out so I water daily and soak them. With H&T, I smartened up and put a bucket underneath at the base of the shepherds hook to drip the nutrient dense leachate into, then I water from the bucket. I water the others from reservoir buckets with resident goldfish mosquito control, and they have been dripping over planted garden beds -- and I think the plants below have been benefitting.... So I suppose THAT is a good thing.