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applestar
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Re: Applestar’s 2019 Garden

Notable tomatoes

- volunteers ...look at the intense antho stems on the one of the left ...and the cute egg-shaped fruits with antho on the calyces on the one on right
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- can never get enough of the variegated ones... they are starting to bloom
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... and notice the multiflora volunteer in the bottom-right

- Prudens Black is being very enthusiastic with the first floral truss
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- a surviving plant from 2015 seeds of Yellow Dwarf x Sungold F3 (which never grew well for me before when I tried to grow them last couple of times I tried) is looking really healthy!
- anticipated Totem F1 (new to me ...gift seeds from SIL) and Dwarf Chocolate Lightning (a family fave)
...funny how the Dwarf Chocolate Lightning DOESN’T look like a dwarf next to these two...

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Subject: Applestar’s 2019 Garden
Thu Jun 06, 2019
applestar wrote:I’m still coddling these stunted or late started peppers and tomatoes in the Garage V8 Nursery... just Uppotted some of them to the larger containers so they can go outside in a day or two.

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FWIW — something nearly killed them and they were like sticks and stumps, but, in desperation, I gave them a feeding of plain gelatin dissolved in warm water (supposed to be extremely high nitrogen) and vermicompost tea. They managed to turn around.
Some of my other intentionally started tomato seedlings (my own crosses and others) may still be salvageable as well... I had nearly given up on these and had put them outside to “live or die” on the picnic table under the mulberry tree. They might have received a similar treatment — massive dose of nitrogen and other nutrients when the mulberries ripened and the birds went on a feeding frenzy in the branches above.

Image

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First sign of a sprout from the seedbomb Image

Image

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Today was a gorgeous day in low-mid 70’s, and although storm systems must have passed near by a couple of times, resulting in threatening skies, our anti-rain, storm system repelling aura was apparently functioning again and it never did rain here.

I went outside with grand ideas about prepping a new bed for some of those tomato seedlings, or digging/contouring the waterfall for the pond project, gathering up the kitty litter buckets to see how many of them I could turn into SIP’s... but all of them seemed like complicated big projects and my attention was scattered and wouldn’t settle down... so I settled on trying to finish cleaning up the Kitchen Garden.

I weeded and pruned the lavender and oregano, removed the finished pea vines, and planted
- a couple of {Prue - TZ -OH6 2010? Wispy juicy sausage/elongated heart} ...and...
- a special chartreuse-foliage Cherokee Tiger cross variety I was allowed to try growing (CTBS,RL Dwf., F3 (deck-8/10/18) — (Cherokee Tiger x {Black Seaman x Pink Berkeley Tie Dye} F3)

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...looks pretty chartreuse (bright yellow-green) so far, though apparently the leaves get somewhat darker, though still lighter/yellower than usual tomato leaf green...
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I also culled, uppotted, and planted some of the peppers and micro-dwarf and patio tomatoes as well as some critically stunted/stressed seedlings

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- Earl’s Faux
- {Prue - TZ -OH6 2010? Wispy juicy sausage/elongated heart}
- Orange Pinocchio
- Orange Hat
- Totem F1
- another micro-dwarf — variety name escapes me atm
- Aji Dulce Amarillo
- DK Snacker
- Anna’s Multiflora

...During this process, I was reminded yet again how valuable earthworms are — when a seedlings appeared healthier and stronger among the other stressed fellow siblings, there was always a biggish earthworm coiled up in its roots.

Image BTW — Prue grew from 2010 seeds! Received in 2011 from TZ -OH6 who sent them tightly folded inside a tiny piece of aluminum foil
Last edited by applestar on Sun Jun 16, 2019 3:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Added closeup of CTBS

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...what’s left...

- seed-started tomatoes and peppers
— on the glass table (need to be planted)
— in the V8 Nursery (need to be hardened off and planted)

Image
- DK Snacker, Snowball, Coyote Rosa Bébé, Manö, Fish (SuperVar), Bloody Butcher
- Yellow Giant Bell, Cherokee Lime
- Doneky Ears, Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn, Domalik Biber
- Applemint cutting

- Aji Dulce Amarillo, DK Snacker, White Wonder (striped), Pinocchio Orange
- Coyote Rosa Bébé, Fish (Goldfish), Aztek, Cherokee Lime
Image
- Snowball, Coyote Rosa Bébé, Manö
- CTBS,RL Dwf., F3 (deck-8/10/18)

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Is it too soon for an update?

Muggy season is coming — this morning, I sprayed with solution of 1Tbs @ Epsom salts and Potassium bicarbonate in 2 gal of water, then pruned lowest leaves and suckers (trying to limit to single stem this year due to high-density planting), added supports, and tied up all the tomatoes.
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- eggplants have settled in — they don’t mind the wet/soggy soil as much
- I’m back to using rings cut from old athletic socks. I wear high% cotton ones and they last one season then can be composted; DH’s higher% polyester/nylon ones were intact after weathering the winter still attached to stakes and wires, and had to be cut off.

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My corn are being weird this year — they have started to tassle and silk at 3-4 feet ...some are 2 feet. Stress-cold-wet-dry....

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Some of the tassles were shedding pollen, and there were 3 Luther Hill with silk starting to emerge, so I hand-pollinated — see the tiny dust-like pollen caught on on the silk?
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— for this level of pollen and silk, I just used my iPhone screen to catch the pollen. The anti-static surface lets the pollen slide right off — it’s great :D

There was one overachiever Latte Bi-color shedding pollen, too, but no silk. Unfortunately none of the Applestar’s #sweet# Medley was ready with silk either. In hindsight, I might have pollinated one of the Luther Hill’s silk. Oh well.

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Random green (some with antho) baby tomatoes on the volunteers in the VGA and VGC :-()

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Pretty sure top-left corner is one of my crosses, top-center is one of the variegated volunteers, and the center photo looks like a Sergeant Peppers. One is an intriguing piriform (pear shape) — I can think of a couple of ID possibilities — and there are now two possible multi-flora types. The bottom-right mega-bloom with slight antho shoulders is very likely Allonz-y,Dr.X but we shall see.

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Here’s are progress photos of the "Vegetable Garden" area — originally a 10 ft x 10 ft space set up with 2 ft wide and 4ft wide raised beds. Over the years, the original 2 ft wide beds were re-allocated as the sweet cherry espalier bed, and the Vegetable Garden was expanded to add more 4 ft wide beds, re-designated as VGC and VGD. Then, later, Pallet-sided Raised Beds were built, and a DIY Sub-irrigated Planter was added, along the fence bordering the neighbor.

April 5
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June 18
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The original raised beds are pretty much falling apart now, but look, I found their debut post from 2008... not bad, actually (considering) — and the soil is rich with organic matter and soil foodweb after all these years :D

Subject: Vegetable Garden Design
May 27, 2008
applestar wrote:I just finished planting MY new raised veg beds. Mine are strictly utilitarian but here they are:
Image

Image

They are made with 8" metal raised bed corners from Gardener's Supply:
I used cedar 2x4's instead of 2x8's because they're cheaper, and also because they let me adjust for the sloped area without having to make angled cuts. So the lower beds (B), (C)-(D) are 2 2x4's high and the taller bed (A) is 4 2x4's high.
(A) 4'x4' (B) 4'x6' (C) 2'x6' (D) 2'x4'

I found out by accident that putting the 12" raised bed stakes: inside the corners creates a handy place to put cedar 1x1 stakes. I have the short vinyl coated wire fence secured to the stakes with tie wraps (google for an image if you don't know what that is). It's not in these photo's but I planted broccoli with the potatoes and carrots in (A), so I put up more fence around (A).

The veg garden is mostly for my kids' benefit so they're mostly planted with their favorites:
(A) carrots, potatoes, broccoli, soybean (edamame)
(B) sweet corn, pumpkin, scarlet runner bean, nasturtium, parsley, dill. Also Moonflower in a corner by the fence
(C) sweet corn, pickling cucumber, sunflowers, dill. Also Moonflower by the fence and clematis in the corner
(D) peas, tomato, basil, dill
I based the plant spacing on square foot gardening.

I really like the hooped netting. I just bought 2 more for another part of the garden (Sunflower House) It's also from Gardener's Supply:

My main concern is bunnies and neighbor's cats. I was protecting the corn with the Garden Quilt (heavier than floating row cover, only 60% light transmission) until they were big enough. So I've taken that off now. The groundhog may or may not venture all the way to this area.

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applestar wrote:Until I get the blackberry canes sorted out, I can’t get any closer, but I saw — through the jumbled blackberries and already massive Purple Passion asparagus fronds —that my yellow Asiatic lilies had started blooming ...in HUGE FLORAL CLUSTERS!

These had been planted in a mixed color group of I believe 5 or 6 bulbs, but they rapidly shrunk and disappeared over several years ...and I realized when they started re-appearing as tiny non-blooming plants that something was eating the bulbs and scattering the bulb scales. Only the yellow eventually came back — two feet from where they were originally planted — but this is the biggest floral clusters I have seen yet.

COINCIDENTALLY, I have NOT seen a single chipmunk this season (maybe the snake, maybe the stray cats that my neighbor feeds)

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- The bottom photo is the native American Turk’s Cap Lily (Lilium Superbum) — so dainty and beautiful
I think I’ve mentioned before how my garden is particularly sensitive to implied or perceived criticism/insult I post on-line, and responds by exerting outbursts of growths and superior performances —

...remember I said there used to be different colors of Asiatic Lilies, but only the yellow came back? :lol:

Image

...I think they are telling me to get in there and straighten out their bed! :>

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Another look at some of the best/most intensely variegated tomatoes. If you are not new to growing variegated varieties, you probably already know this, but it’s critical to frequently (at least once a week) take lots of photos of the earlier foliage that developed while temperatures were still coolish to moderate, since most of the time, the intensity of variegation fades to more green later in the season — whether due to heat or maybe need for more sun energy catching chlorophyll / green surfaces to support the fruit production. Plus as the fungal disease season sets in you’ll be forced to tearfully clip off the fungal infected, tattered, once beautiful leaves.... (Unless of course, you are preserving them for ornamental purposes and spraying them.)

Image

...top-center one with the lovely pink/purple in the stem and leaf veins looks Determinate, I think?

— I was wondering if you keep them well~over-fed, they might maintain variegation longer/better? Does anyone know? I should go fertilize them — maybe more Bio-tone....

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TomatoNut95
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Oh, @Applestar; where did you get those awesome variegated tomato plants? I just got some from the Seed Savers Exchange because I fell madly in love with them! The newborn seedlings are already up! Cannot wait! I just love variegated stuff!
This spring when I was planting my tomato seeds to sell, I noticed my yellow pear tomato plants were variegated. Why, I don't know. Baker Creek told me it was a genetic mutation. These were seeds I had saved myself from a non-variegated plant. Weird, right?

By the way, AWESOME and BEAUTIFUL garden, @Applestar! :D

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Thanks for the kind words @TomatoNut95 :D


First variegated tomato I ever grew was Faelan’s First Snow — from the original seeds saved by gardener called Lochlainn who first reported finding a variegated seedling among a flat of Cherokee Purple seedlings, grew it out, saved seeds and grew them to discover that the 2nd year seedlings also developed variegated plants. He offered seeds from that year’s fruits. I’m thinking that was around 2013, but would have to check my notes.

I have saved seeds from the Faelan’s First Snow I grew, but others have launched intensive grow out to select for best variegation, and I am currently growing from seeds from one of the best variegated plants received from another gardener.

Also, when I was bitten by the tomato cross-breeding bug, I tried crossing a hanging basket type determinate cherry tomato with mixture of pollen including a Faelan’s First Snow due to limited flowers available. This was with one of my own saved, LESSER variegated specimen. There were 2 other attempts, but only one cross resulted in variegation in the F3 (variegation is recessive) and from that segregate, I have selected Shimofuri F6 line which I am growing this year.

Other, more serious hobby and amateur/semi-pro breeders have been already developing crosses with a previously known variety called Variegated PL (potato leaf), and I have had the opportunities to grow some of the segregates in progress — those were almost all selected for potato leaf foliage.

Most of the significantly variegated plants you see in the collages above are unknown mystery plants — volunteers that grew ...most likely unkilled/surviving seeds... from spoiled fruits that had been put in my compost pile. I only grew my own segregates last year — Shimofuri and Jack Frost’s Early Love — and received seeds from the extremely variegated Faelan’s First Snow. So assuming these surviving seeds-volunteers are from LAST YEAR’S compost I should be able to limit to those three based on their characteristics as they grow. For example, Shimofuri and Jack Frost’s Early Love are determinate and semi-determinate, while Faelan’s First Snow is an indeterminate.

I can safely say, however, that if any of these develop Striped fruits (or are PotatoLeaf), then they are very likely not any of those three, and might possibly have grown from seeds of other cross-breeding projects that somehow survived several years in the compost pile, and I can name the ones I have grown in the past, so it may be possible to further pursue possible ID candidates based on traits and characteristics.

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I never knew there was such thing as a variegated tomato plant- then my Yellow Pear tomatoes showed slight variegation. I send pictures and asked Baker Creek about it. At first they said it was a disease, but later after further examining the photos, he said genetic mutation. Since I don't have the room to play with experiments like that, I sent the seeds the seeds to Baker. They have all the room in the world....because they have good dirt. :cry:

Later this year, I was at work and in a bad mood so I got on the Seed Savers Exchange website and searched through the tomatoes. When I saw the variegated tomato, my eyes practically popped out my head! I HAD to have it, no matter what! So now I own it! Wheee! :-() The babies are coming up, and I'm so excited! It, and the Red Velvet and Silvery Fir Tree tomato I bought with it. I also got some blossom bags for when I start crossbreeding someday! I don't know what breed this variegated is, it's just called 'Variegated tomato'. I'm also visioning people going crazy over it when I hope to sell the plants next year! People around here like those stupid hybrids- Big Boy and that nasty Celebrity. However, this year I had a sell-out on tomato plants! Even my Blue Beauty. One of my family members has thrown out little remarks to people that I grow 'weird black tomatoes'. But no one has ever come back to me with a complaint-not even on my Blue Beauty. I never push a variety on someone they don't want. I explain the variety to them, and it's up them if they want to purchase it or not. Some people are picky and can turn their nose up; some take interest and are willing to try something new. This year it was like they didn't care. They just wanted tomatoes. :>

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I believe “Variegated” is the name — some say that one is the same variety as variety introduced as “Splash of Cream” which sounds more whimsical/catchy.

“Variegated PL” indicates the plant they used in the cross had potato-leaf foliage — but I can’t remember if the variety is normally PL or someone found an off-type PL and pursued the segregate.

Potato-leaf is a recessive trait that is a useful marker/indicator for making sure that the cross “took”.

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For comparison, these were some of the most notable expressions of Shimofuri F5 variegation last year:

Subject: Learning • Practicing to Cross Breed Tomato Varieties
Sun Jun 10, 2018
applestar wrote:This is Shimofuri#1-2 F5 — I’m in love! Image

A close-up —
Image

Variegated/striped calyces, too —
Image

Gorgeous colors!
Image
(Bottom-right — Shimofuri#1-1 F5 is also showing some of the wild colors.)

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'Splash of Cream'! I saw that name when I Googled for extra photos of the variegated plant. So yeah I might just call it Splash of Cream. It does sound fancier. So what about the fruits? I don't think they're bi-colored are they? Aren't they just small and red?

Boy, I gotta tell you. This has been the saddest birthday I've ever had. (Before my birthday got here I've been telling my mom I didn't want anything special done; because I like to be left alone on my birthday to do what I want, but my mother doesn't do what I tell her and wanted me there for cake and gifts at my grandmother's.)This morning at church I heard that our beloved piano player passed away. She was a very well loved and huggable person and liked her coleus I'd give her. I miss her something terrible. Cried all the way home. Told my mother that I was in NO party mood; too sorrowful to celebrate and wanted to postpone it; so we did. We're supposed to get a bad storm tonight(what else is new???) but it kinda suits my mood anyway.

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Condolences for your loss... understandable to be saddened and not feel celebratory mood, but I’m glad that it’s your birthday.

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Thank-you. Maybe I can have a happier birthday later.....if I survive this next storm that is. Why they always seem to come in the night, I don't know. I'd better make sure everything's tied down.

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Last of the pea vines were harvested and removed from VGC and from the KG, and the tomato cages used for peas were re-allocated to eggplants in VGB and compact-determinate tomatoes in the Kitchen Garden and Patio containers.

Cucumbers that were sowed in VGC next to Emerald Archer peas are starting to wave tendrils around (another reason for removing those tomato cages) — I have to build them a vertical trellis — bamboo pole frame and strings or flat wire panel.

Tomatoes are growing in leaps and bounds, needing constant sucker removal and tying up.

10-day forecast of high 80’s ~ mid 90’s — summer is definitely here.

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Done! — 5 bamboo poles, three 1/2” tees and one 1” pvc tee plus 1/2” and 3/4” pvc stabilizing extenders.

Image

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Wow. That's gorgeous!! :-() You should put pictures of your garden in Better Homes and Gardens! :wink: That's beautiful. I envy people who can grow better stuff than me....and doesn't have concrete clay. :cry:

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By the way, @Applestar, I saved some seeds out of my 'mystery tomato'. I wasn't too pleased with the way the variety did,(plant split, fruit split and a couple of fruits had blossom end rot) but OH...WOOOWWWW was that fruit good!!! I mean it just burst with strong flavor! It was great! :-() I'm hoping whatever this is isn't a hybrid and the seeds come true to type. However I'm wondering if this type just isn't suited for this area. @Applestar, if you would like some of these seeds to see how it does for you I'm happy to share! :)

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Thanks for the offer @TomatoNut, but I’m going to decline. I don’t know if you noticed, but I keep getting myself in way over my head, spreading too thin, and all that. nutz:

So I’m actually trying NOT to plant so many (yeah and failing) — I have way too many different varieties as it is — never counted but probably over 300... maybe more. -helpsos-

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This morning, rocks I had tentatively arranged along the pond edge had been disturbed, some has been pushed into the pond, lilypads were turned over, shredded, arrowleaf stems snapped, and when I went outside, I realized pale colored things floating everywhere were lily flower petals and there were two flowers that had bloomed yesterday and closed for the night, that had been decimated, and a new white flowerbud had been snapped off.

I knew from past experience that these were likely signs of raccoon mischief ...and sure enough — ‘coon tracks around the rice/corn paddy and half of the corn that had been struggling in there have disappeared:

Image

...there had been 10 feeder goldfish and minnows in the paddy that DD and I have been trying unsuccessfully to rescue/retrieve since the water level has been going down and we’re looking at possible drought + 90’s temp for the next 10 days.... Well, it looks like the raccoon(s) did their own version of fish-rescue. I did see and managed to scoop up one gold fish out of the muddy remaining puddles and returned it to the wire rack-covered (foresight thus proven to be correct) tub with the other backup fish, but I can’t tell if there are any others left. :|


...this does not bode well for my meager patch of corn..... :x

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Oh wow. 300 tomato varieties! I'm impressed! That might be because you have some of own cross bred stuff in there right?

Aww, sorry about your corn.

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applestar wrote:Done! — 5 bamboo poles, three 1/2” tees and one 1” pvc tee plus 1/2” and 3/4” pvc stabilizing extenders.

Image
I wish your pictures would get larger I would like to see details. I see you have Ts on the end of bamboo and bamboo running through all the Ts but what do they do I don't see plants on them. How do you get so many pictures on 1 photo? I am camera shopping my camera is about 10 years old. About 8 yrs ago I planted 15' and 30' bamboo at the other house I kept it in a very small spot but new owner has done nothing it has taken over the whole black yard. If he cuts more down and throws it on the street again this year for city to haul away I am getting some. Not sure yet what I will do with bamboo but I am looking for ideas.

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I’m using an iPad — When I tap on the picture, it pops up a larger view. I can also pinch-zoom the picture both on the forum screen or the popped up window — can you do that on your computer? I think usually a keyboard shortcut like Ctrl-<+> (plus key) and Ctrl-<-> (minus key) or something like that if I remember correctly....

But details won’t be sharp beyond 1 MP which is the (reduced) size of the file link I post. If it’s would be better to post a higher resolution, I could go to 2MP or even larger?

Here’s a 2 MP version:
Image


Description of the trellis as pictured —

- I have butchers twine tied between bamboo poles 1-2 and 3-4 at 4 to 5 inch intervals.

- The twine ladders are wrapped around the bamboo on both sides

- Narrow Poles 1-2 currently has 5 string ladders — Supporting 2 bigger tomato plants between each of the 4 string ladders, hooking the leaf stems over them, and there are also 2 small cucumber plants that barely reach the first ladder, just above the top of the pallet wood ...probably hard to see.

- Poles 2-3 is a narrow walkway gap.

- the larger space between Poles 3-4 currently has 2 cucumber plants that have been coaxed between the first ladder strings and tendrils that are touching/grabbing the 2nd ladder strings as well as a small tomato plant that is just barely reaching the 2nd ladder strings.

- There are also 3 or 4 melon seedlings that just recently sprouted along the base of the pallet wood here that are not visible (well you can see the seedleaves in the 2MP version if you are looking for them.) They may or may not be trained up the vertical trellis. There will be strings tied to the overhead cross beam pole and secured below, either to the pallet wood, ground stakes, or just looped to the plants themselves (their weight will make the strings taught)

- I may secure wire ladders or a fence panel to the bamboo uprights at a later date if the strings seem inadequate

- I’m debating about adding more along one or more borders of this bed, to which these will be secured/braced against. If not, I will probably add some kind of diagonal bracing to keep the flat vertical from falling/blowing over.

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I’m using a photo collage app. I take and want to show many pictures, so this seems to work out better.

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Gary350 wrote:... How do you get so many pictures on 1 photo? ...
That might not have been what you really wanted but here was my discovery in apps: HG Hoo-ha and Foo It's called Photo Collage.

Now, why don't I ever use it? I guess, I think it's too much work and I'm lazy ...

Steve

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I use my smartphone to take my pics. It takes much better close-ups than my Sony Cybershot. However, my camera does better at distance shots.

@Applestar you said you use your ipad to collect the pollen because of the screen... that means the pollen particles will stick to it like static? I'm kinda stupid when it comes to electronics and technology. I was raised in the woods. :|

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Normally I should be using much larger surface for corn — paper bag, manila folder, sheet of paper, etc. But I always have my iPhone (it’s the + size) with me, so it’s convenient for just a little pollen here and there. And the screen surface is ANTI-static and the pollen WON’T stick.

You don’t want to use plastic, etc. that creates static and hold onto the pollen for corn since you need to pour the pollen onto/into the silk.

...I use the iPhone screen for collecting tomato pollen, too, sometimes, but tomato pollen can be collected in a plastic spoon. A sunglasses lens popped out of the frame is sometimes recommended in "how to" instructions.

With tomato pollination, since you need to make a small pile of pollen to dip into, I have also found it convenient to use defunct iPod and iPhone screen to collect the pollen, and the edge of an exact-o knife to scrape the pollen together into little pile, because let’s face it, it DOES work.... but always felt a bit “odd” about the similarity to a different kind of activity.... :roll:

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applestar
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Later in the PM yesterday, looking out from the Family Room window, I saw 4 minnows and a goldfish huddled in deepest shaded part of the Paddy — DD1 agreed to brave the 91°F in the shade, and go rescue them.

She found more — 2 dead/nearly ...one with scratches, another in the shallows gasping — but retrieved 5 swimming fish and transferred them to the wire shelf-protected large tub on the picnic bench under the mulberry tree, and added some more oxygenated bubble column water from the pond to the tub so they should be comfortable. She said they didn’t put up much of a fight.

That was brave of her because she doesn’t like the black and yellow mud dauber wasps that mine the mud from the paddy edge:
Image
...sometimes there are 1/2 dozen or more wasps swarming those holes where they have somehow agreed very best mud can be gathered from...

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Gary350
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TomatoNut95 wrote:I use my smartphone to take my pics. It takes much better close-ups than my Sony Cybershot. However, my camera does better at distance shots.

@Applestar you said you use your ipad to collect the pollen because of the screen... that means the pollen particles will stick to it like static? I'm kinda stupid when it comes to electronics and technology. I was raised in the woods. :|
My phone takes good photos too but they are stupid shaped 2 times longer than wide. Ebay & CL will not allow those goofy shape photos they are hard to view. Buyers need to see good photos. I have several things on CL and Market Place for sale, sofa, chair, loveseat, 4 bicycles, bicycle trailer, Camper trailer stove, truck bed liner, new in box 1970s desk top paper tape calculator, new in box paper shredder, 1000 stainless bolts, 1000 #8 screws, TV antenna amplifier, lots of things that need to be gone, we don't use them anymore.

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TomatoNut95
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applestar wrote:Later in the PM yesterday, looking out from the Family Room window, I saw 4 minnows and a goldfish huddled in deepest shaded part of the Paddy — DD1 agreed to brave the 91°F in the shade, and go rescue them.

She found more — 2 dead/nearly ...one with scratches, another in the shallows gasping — but retrieved 5 swimming fish and transferred them to the wire shelf-protected large tub on the picnic bench under the mulberry tree, and added some more oxygenated bubble column water from the pond to the tub so they should be comfortable. She said they didn’t put up much of a fight.

That was brave of her because she doesn’t like the black and yellow mud dauber wasps that mine the mud from the paddy edge:
Image
...sometimes there are 1/2 dozen or more wasps swarming those holes where they have somehow agreed very best mud can be gathered from...
Mud daubers aren't agrresive, so need to fear them. It is the red wasp that fear and hate with a passion.

That's awesome how you can have a rice paddy! I like to joke to family that I should try to grow rice during the rainy season because my yard will form a little river and puddles here and there. My yard slopes and is unlevel. Therefore water rushes across it from the pasture uphill.

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TomatoNut95
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applestar wrote:Normally I should be using much larger surface for corn — paper bag, manila folder, sheet of paper, etc. But I always have my iPhone (it’s the + size) with me, so it’s convenient for just a little pollen here and there. And the screen surface is ANTI-static and the pollen WON’T stick.

You don’t want to use plastic, etc. that creates static and hold onto the pollen for corn since you need to pour the pollen onto/into the silk.

...I use the iPhone screen for collecting tomato pollen, too, sometimes, but tomato pollen can be collected in a plastic spoon. A sunglasses lens popped out of the frame is sometimes recommended in "how to" instructions.

With tomato pollination, since you need to make a small pile of pollen to dip into, I have also found it convenient to use defunct iPod and iPhone screen to collect the pollen, and the edge of an exact-o knife to scrape the pollen together into little pile, because let’s face it, it DOES work.... but always felt a bit “odd” about the similarity to a different kind of activity.... :roll:
The trouble is, I don't know exactly when to collect the pollen from the blossom. Right before the blossom opens? The first day it opens? And how many blossoms of the pollen doner should I collect from? I've decided I'll try to breed a Yellow Brandywine with my Black Beauty.

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applestar
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@TomatoNut — I probably described the process in more detail than you wanted in this thread
:arrow: Subject: Learning • Practicing to Cross Breed Tomato Varieties :wink:


...As mentioned elsewhere, I’ve been sick in bed for the past 3 days. All week long, 80°F - 90+°F day’s with air quality warnings didn’t help. But I did go out 3 days ago, very early in the morning and watered my container plants and new carrot seedlings and raised beds. Yesterday, no way, but it did rain just a teeny bit to tide them over, and today, we had overcast day, a passing shower, and now it’s raining buckets with thunder and lightning, so the garden will survive.

BUT!!! I detected musky scent yesterday when I opened the windows after it cooled down from the teeny rain in the dusk, and sure ‘nuf, this morning I could see (from the window with my birdwatching binocs) that some of the corn (Luther Hill White) are down on the ground and few leaning ones, too.

No, too dizzy with fever to actually go outside and see, but ugh and double UGH!!! Image


~~~ Not to worry though, I’m feeling very hungry today, so I AM getting better. :()

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TomatoNut95
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Oh, no! So sorry to hear you've been sick!! :cry: Hope you feel better soon! Thanks for the thread link! I hope to be as smart as you on tomato breeding someday! :-()

Sorry about your corn. Some people around here have had trouble with their corn as well. Peaches to. Stinking weather. :x

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applestar
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Tassels on this Applestar’s #sweet# Medley shriveled kernel selection are VERY PRETTY :D
Image

...although this plant is currently intact, I’m not pinning hopes on being able to collect seeds from this year’s corn due to the on-going raccoon predation...

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TomatoNut95
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Can you get your hands on some ammonia? That stuff was supposed to keep raccoons away. Or get yourself some pepper spray. Crush a very hot pepper and mix with a little water in a mister bottle. Spritz around places where the pests sniff or lick. One taste of that would send them packing I would think.



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