Lindsaylew's 2016 Garden

[Lindsaylew82]

MC, I ate my 3rd Stupice tonight. Plant is HUGE here. Very healthy, very early, and very VERY TASTY! Even slightly under ripe! I think this tomato has a forever space in my garden. I love it!

THIS tomato is NOT White Queen...
I have no idea what I got. Some piriform fruit though... It's super tall, fairly healthy. Getting a PLR in the heat, but not so bad. It's a late bloomer. Wondering if it's gonna be a black fruit. The curling makes be think maybe. They hate it here.




Had the triple fused Black From Tula last night. Pretty tasty! Mild, sweet, smoky.



Handful of beans tonight. Canning in our near future!


Growing by the minute!


White pink stripe in the front there! All big and bad! Cherokee purples x6 behind. All looking just the perfect picture of healthy tomato! They really are pretty plants! I'd really like to try Fallen's First Snow sometime!


Cukes and squash are filling out! Won't be long! Seeing increased numbers of cucumber beetles. Striped and spotted. I flick them every time I can reach them. They act kind of dumb most of the time. I can usually just hold my cup under them, and they fall right in. Found 2 clusters of squash bug eggs on the zoomchini (Big Kid calls it that! Funny!) and then u found the two jerks in a compromising position. They were soaped. I love a nice cup of soapy water.



Marigolds are recovering and looking beautiful!


I burned some of my already struggling tomato plants with my soapy water paintbrush... I thought they had serious bacterial issues, but then I remembered trying to get the aphids off that way. I pissed myself off! Yellow Brandywine is nearing complete defoliation. I'm considering pulling it.

I have 14 uppotted tomato plants! What the heck am I gonna do with them??? Haven't figure it out yet.

Pretty sure "black Cherry" is actually indigo Rose... Sad...

[applestar]

Looking good! I don't know about you, but I enjoy having unexpected tomatoes growing (despite the indigo rose dud). That poring/pear form one is intriguing! I'm growing Charlie Chaplin which will have that same shape, but there are others.

...where did you get the White Queen? I tried growing them from seeds received in trade one year and ended up with something else -- not nearly as interesting as yours. I'm curious about ...what was it -- white pink striped ? -- as well.

[Lindsaylew82]

I got most of them from Piedmont Farm and Garden. Its really nice greenhouse and nursery here in Spartanburg, SC.

He ships plants, and has hundreds of heirloom varieties of both tomatoes and pepper. He has 2 large greenhouses dedicated just to the two. It immensely overwhelming. I usually get something mislabeled at least once a year though.

I don't work there, and I SHO don't get a discount, so I hope it's ok to post the name.

[Lindsaylew82]

White pink stripe.
Link to the description:
https://www.piedmontfarmandgarden.com/Bi ... ptp190.htm

White Queen:
https://www.piedmontfarmandgarden.com/Wh ... ptp097.htm

[KitchenGardener]

MC, I ate my 3rd Stupice tonight. Plant is HUGE here. Very healthy, very early, and very VERY TASTY! Even slightly under ripe! I think this tomato has a forever space in my garden. I love it!

So jealous about all your tomatoes. No matter what I do, I rarely get tomatoes (except for cherries) earlier than the end of July. Unless we have an early hot spell, the flowers don't set.

Getting a PLR in the heat, but not so bad.

What is PLR?

[Lindsaylew82]

Physiological Leaf Roll!

[MichaelC]

My Stupice has set several fruit now. There's so much leaf roll on that plant, I don't see how it's taking in any sunlight!

[Lindsaylew82]

Wow! Mine is big and lush and (pretty much) perfect!

It's hard to believe we are having such different results from such close residences!

Has your's been like that since planting? What's your watering regimen? There's some articles I've read that a phosphorus deficiency can cause leaf roll. Mostly though it's when the top half grows faster than the root half. So the top half lets out more water (transpires) more quickly than the roots can uptake! So increasing phosphorus makes sense, especially if you're fertilizing with a high nitrogen fert that would increase top growth, but not root growth.

Inconsistent watering is my biggest problem. I have good intentions, but you know..."supposed to rain tomorrow" turns into a whole week!

Good news is that it doesn't really have any impact on anything at all! Bonus? Ya bonus!

They do look sad though.

I'm gonna go look up organic Quick release sources of phosphorus now!

[Lindsaylew82]

Wood ash! Check!!!

[MichaelC]

Theoretically, they should have plenty of phosphorus. But you may be right. Today we got hit form nowhere with a heatwave, and despite them having plenty of water, almost all my tomatoes are wilting today.

[Lindsaylew82]

Ph may be off enough to where it isn't useable, though.

I really only see it here with plants that just don't like the heat...and I don't water appropriately...

[Lindsaylew82]

Pretty sure whatever this Antho tomato is, it's determinate. Fruits are really large cherry. Small saladette. Very round. Very black shoulders. Lots of fruit.



I made a mistake. The piriform shaped fruits are not White Queen, they're supposed to be German Red Strawberry. The shape is still incorrect, lol. They're getting that light orangish color that purple tomatoes get before they turn. They're really very stunning in shape. Slightly ruffled, fat bottomed, about a pound right now. There's a double that is just beautiful! I can't wait for these! I'm still thinking Japanese Black Trifele.


The White Queen is putting out heart shaped fruits, like red strawberry is supposed to be putting out. They should be nice round fruits.


Beans, beans, beans. Planted contender, and we've not been disappointed.




Squash is ON!

[rainbowgardener]

Love all the jars of canned beans! Did you pressure can them?

[Lindsaylew82]

I did. 25 minutes for quarts at 10 pounds pressure.

[Lindsaylew82]

Definitely NOT German Red Strawberry! Resident man said something obscene about them and it's tarnished the beauty of the thing(s).



Happy first day of Summer!

[applestar]

This is a pleated pear/piriform or "pouch" form fruit -- looks like a double. Try googling for Liguria tomato and also try Charlie Chaplin tomato. I could post links of the best match photos, but I'd like you to see the variations and compare.

I'm hoping for one like that if my last remaining Charlie Chaplin plant survives and grows to fruit.

PS (Please save seeds if this turns out fabulous )

PPS (Cut it up in front of him and Make him eat it. ) <-- just had my first cup of very strong coffee....

[Lindsaylew82]

One of the ugly tomatoes in the ugly tomato post I made came from this plant. It was red and VERY tasty. I will definitely save seeds from them!

PPS- I'm coming off a hellish weekend of OR call, and I need a caffeine IV drip line straight to my heart. I plan on making a production of its dissection. I never peel them, but I might this one!!!

[Lindsaylew82]

One of the piriforms is blushing!!!

[Lindsaylew82]

Dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUN!
Found this guy today on Green Zebra. He looks like he's been stung. There was lots of puke, and he wasn't actively eating. His skin looked a little puffy as well. I think he's been parasitized! Green Zebra is wilting. Either from disease or from the excessive heat. It's definitely NOT hear tolerant...at least not here IME. I have trouble with green when ripe varieties anyway. It has been excessively hot for the last 2 weeks. Anyway.... I left him be. He can't hurt this plant anymore that the heat is.



I stomped 3 other hornworms. Big Kid is growing one in her mesh butterfly thingy. It's huge and looking for more food. They click! Which I think is creepy. I don't like it in my house, but she thinks it's neat, so it stays. She knows there will be no release. I squished several newborns with my fingers! I really dislike these things!

The ruffled piriform fruits are getting bigger, and putting out more fruit! It's fairly healthy, and clearly heat and drought tolerant. I have an ever increasing crush on this tomato! They're taking FOREVER to ripen!







Well, I'm not convinced my little indigo tomato is Indigo Rose. It's ripening up rather red/brown... It looks rather orangish at the moment. Maybe burnt umber. Definitely not pink. Pics tomorrow.

I picked a blushing White Pink Stripe. There's foliage missing, and I can't find the wee booger causing the damage. Taking no chances. There isn't a lot of fruit in the plant. The cheap watering I'm doing paired with the heavy downpours once every 2 weeks is causing some BER. I'm eager to try it!

Stupice is keeping us in tomatoes right now. That one plant gives me 4-6 saladettes every day. I love this plant! It's pretty too!

Corn is pretty parched. I'm having a hard time keepin the Cukes, melons, squash, and pepper adequately watered. Especially the squash and Cukes. I'm seeing signs of SVB..... The squash bugs are manageable at the moment.

Stink bugs are here. I hate them as well! Bigger pictures coming this weekend! Garden is massive!

[applestar]

Wowza. Big hornworms already? It does look kinda grey splotchy which I equate with wasps close to doing their "Alien" impression.

Maybe time to bring out the black light? Did you say that worked?
(I would let my kids raise the hornworm, too. You are a good mom. )

Those fruits look like they are turning white-like? I have a variety that does that just before blushing, so maybe sign that they WILL ripen soon. Does it seem like they are all at once? Are they showing determinate growths or indeterminate? Can't wait to see them ready to EAT!

Antho one -- sooo curious how that ones going to turn out. Haven't heard about a lot of non-red or pink antho varieties. Some people say pink (clear epi/skin) anthos taste better.

[KitchenGardener]

Love your descriptions, Lindsaylew. Its a lot of work that you clearly enjoy. There's something so factual and honest in your journal entries. Anyway, can't wait for more pics, and to find out the outcome of your mystery tomatoes.

And once again, you have me wanting to take off my skin and shake it out to make sure there's not any large worm-like beings any where in my vicinity. And He-- no, no large creepy thing that oozes green guts would be living in my house. They could live just fine in their little cage outside, thank you very much! Okay, sorry for that outburst, carry on...

[Lindsaylew82]

THANK YOU!!!

Apple, there are new tomatoes setting, even in this heat from the piriform plant. Most of the larger ones are ripening semi-uniformly. I think the plant it's definitely acting like an indeterminate. It's really large. Over 6 feet right now, and growing horizontally all the way over to the next plant, and happily snuggling there, trying to go upright again.

I will add pictures of the indigo tomato later. Its color is reminiscent of Brown Berry. Idk...I though Eva purple ball would be purple like Cherokee purple, but it ripened orange to dark pink so.....it could be the same and ripen pink. This anticipation is KILLING me!!!

[Lindsaylew82]

Antho tomato:





Idk.... Maybe it is looking a little more pink... We really didn't like Indigo Rose. Maybe it will be better this year, though!

[applestar]

Thanks Lindsay

When you cut them open, be sure to scrape the skin of the antho (lay flat on flat cutting board or counter surface and scrape off all flesh with back of knife), and hold it up to white light to see if it has yellow or clear epi.

[Lindsaylew82]

Clear would indicate a pink variety, where yellow indicates red?

I'm not knowledgeable about skin color.

Please elaborate importance. I think you may have already in another post! Lead the way!

[Lindsaylew82]

It's................ Yellow! Just like that Coldplay song! Best pic I could get...






The first Mexican mini bells:

[applestar]

Clear would indicate a pink variety, where yellow indicates red?

I'm not knowledgeable about skin color.

Please elaborate importance. I think you may have already in another post! Lead the way!

It's................ Yellow! Just like that Coldplay song! Best pic I could get...

You have it correct -- clear epi with red or pink flesh would be called "pink" and yellow epi with red or pink flesh would be "red". "Purple" is clear, "Black" is yellow. Technically, yellow flesh with clear epi is considered "white".

One genetic significance is that yellow epi is dominant and clear is recessive. So yellow epi on what is supposed to be clear epi fruit would indicate a mix up of some sort. Accidental cross, etc. It's always good to check the epi color. When trying to pinpoint a variety, clear epi significantly narrows the field.

Some tomato affictionados have been proposing that clear epi fruits tend to taste better, especially where antho varieties are concerned. But it's still up in the air.

[Lindsaylew82]

Hmmmmmmm..... So you think this may be Black Cherry/ Antho cross? It was labeled Black cherry. The middle is pink with green gel, but it may have been slightly under ripe. It tasted generically "tomato"... hahaha!

[Lindsaylew82]

Not much going on lately to post about! Tomatoes, squash, cucumbers are really rolling in. We mowed the beans down, to make way for okra attept #2. Having trouble finding available seeds. Everyone is sold out of okra. I may have some really old stuff hanging around somewhere. I know I need okra, dang it!

Tomatoes:



White Pink Stripe:







Mystery Ruffle Red/ Not German Red Strawberry:

[Lindsaylew82]

The rest!

Squash, zucchini, pattypan, nasturtium, cucumber:








(And Apple Melon)














If we get one ear of corn, I'll be surprised! So far this is the only ear of corn in the whole bed! Another ear is starting! This plant is only 3' tall!






New beds!!! These have Golden Midget watermelon, Petit Gris De Renne melon, several heirloom tomatoes, ground cherries, asparagus, and dwarf figs, all the way around our ancient shed.




This one of the last 2 Coyote seedlings! I broke it off at planting time pulling off the lower branches to plant it deeper! I was so mad at myself! It growing back from its puny little stalk! Yay!



Also coyote:

[Lindsaylew82]

And these, there are still tons of these! Really, it's all that I can complain about at the moment!


...except for the serious lack of rain. Still hasn't rained since June 4.

A whole month with ZERO rain!

Happy 4th of July Everyone! May the locals keep the firework litter out of your garden!

[Lindsaylew82]

Tomatoes are really starting to come on! My Green Zebra went down with wilt. New growth from the bottom is looking healthy, so I'm hoping to save seed from those (if they produce again!) to grow next year, maybe some will start to show resistance and also heat resistance. I pulled the wilted vines and that's what the bright green tiny balls are.

Clockwise from the left:
Brandywine (Red)
Giant Pink Belgian
Pink Caspian
Cherokee Purple
Black From Tula
Valencia
Orange Amana
Green Sausage
Green Zebra


Big Kid picked and ate, on scene, all the Snow White, and Sungold she could find.

We have another big White Pink Stripe, and a large White Queen in the house for comparison tasting later this week!

Black Krim are sucky this year! I'm not convinced that I have the same plant as I did last time. It's puny...

[applestar]

In a word: AH-MAZING!

take-away impressions --

_ GORGEOUS PICKLES! (I HAD to put that first )
_ It's a JUNGLE out there
_ sucks that you are getting so many slugs when you're not getting any rain
_ "Big Kid picked and ate, on scene, all the Snow White, and Sungold she could find."
_ Wah! *I* want tomatoes, too!

[Lindsaylew82]

I water them daily.

2 days in a row I turned on the hoses, and fell asleep. I worked too much this past week, it's catching up to me, and I'm becoming a zombie. I watered one side for 3 hours, and the other side for 5!

Man said something about the water bill, to which I responded with a look that turned him around and shut him up... He could have turned it off, too....

Anyway... Most of them cracked fairly significantly! Hopefully they stay from rotting until they're ripe enough for sauce.

There were definitely more out there for picking, but I got called back to work.

Y'all be safe! I'm tired of working this weekend!!!

[applestar]

I've done that in the past ...Fall asleep, forgot, ( also failed repaired hoses ) -- I have complained to the family : "Can't you HEAR the water running? if not outside, then in the pipes?" Apparently only *I* can hear those sounds.

Anyway, last couple of times, (1) my NEIGHBOR rapid-knocked on the door to say there is a SWAMP on their side of the fence and the water is POURING out to the sidewalk (2) DH came home and told me the same thing -- water pouring out to the side walk and down the street! I HATE wasting water -- I've since modified my garden design to at least sequester excess water within the garden.

Betcha all that extra only got SUCKED UP by the surrounding dry Earth and your garden needed it. Too bad the sacrificial watering didn't cause it to rain cats-and-dogs -- that's the way it usually works here.

...your last comment -- you work in surgery or something like, right? I had to double-check the time and then wondered what you were doing up in the middle of the night until I saw that. (what me? I fell asleep early -9pm or thereabouts- woke up with a backache ...I sound so lazy in comparison )

[Lindsaylew82]

THANK YOU! for the compliments!

(Yes, surgery, and I'm currently hating my job right now after a seriously long string of nasty call backs that have been happening since Thursday night. Oh man! What I think I could do with 24 other human free hours! So. Glorious. I'm running on 3 hours of sleep right now! Getting out of the bed a few minutes ago....misery!and have to work 10 hours today! Man I'm grouchy! But I'm off call now!!! So I'll get off my soap box! For now!)

OMG! I CAN HEAR IT TOO!!! Moreso in the back of my house near the meter! I can hear rhythmic clicking!

Resident Ma tilled up my used up bean spot yesterday, and said its on the verge of mud, and that I should likely knock off the frequent watering. Can't! Corn will die! (But I think that it's a loss anyway...) we won't get any squash or zucchini. Miss my every other day watering schedule, and they stop producing.. Especially since they are no heavily infested in SVB. They need the extra.
We started seeing BER when I started cutting back.

Temps have cooled slightly. Enough that the tomatoes have started making more fruits higher in the canopies! Now is the time for Brandywine! They will start putting out now, despite they Blighty attitudes!

I really hate wasting water, too!

[Lindsaylew82]

It's ready!

Not German Red Strawberry:






It's close to a pound. It looks like a super meaty beefsteak type tomato on the inside. My phone died, or I would've taken some pictures. It's beautiful on the inside. Slippery meaty flesh without any hint of mealiness. Resident Man said it's the best we've tasted this season. I thought it was sweet and rich, but it lacked that lingering acidity that I appreciate from a perfect tomato. I did find it to be very, VERY good.

We also compared White Queen with White Pink Stripe, and Orange Amana (Apple, you need to try these) to Valencia. I have required reading to do tonight, so I'll post those later.

I'll be saving seeds. There's at least 8, maybe 10 more on the vine, 3 are ripening now. It's productive, and fairly disease resistant, heat and drought tolerant once it's established.

It's been a long time since I've been this impressed with all parts of a tomato plant. It's a real winner IMVHO.

[lakngulf]

That is one beautiful tomato. Definitely save seeds.

[Lindsaylew82]

This one is only mildly ruffled. The others are much more interesting!

I think I love this one!

[applestar]

Sounds great!

...Amana Orange -- yes! I have got to try it ...it's hard to find good ones in the yellow-orange colors.