Tennessee 2019 Garden

[Gary350]

Love the Big Bertha! I put in a few Big Bertha peppers this year after having read about them on this forum. Mine are way behind yours of course, but can't wait to get something like you have there!

I'm always envious when people in the south get tomatoes so soon! Took a chance and planted out some peppers and tomatoes a couple of weeks ago. Had to go out 2 times and cover with buckets to protect. I think I'm safe now at last.

Taiji, what elevation are you? What AZ town are you near? I have always thought 7000 ft would be a good elevation for a summer garden in Arizona mountains. When I lived in Phoenix area only things that grew well in 114 degree summers was, melons, okra, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, grapes, garlic, onions. My best garden was planted Nov 1st everything grew excellent in 70 degree winter weather short days made no difference, tomatoes & greens did good. Napa cabbage was about 20 lbs each. Broccoli, chard, tomatoes, beans, squash, greens, potatoes, all grew good in winter. 3rd week of Feb sometimes it got below freezing and killed the garden. If no freeze that was good everything grew until heat killed it in May. If frost killed plants I planted new garden March 1. Corn grew tall an looked good but it would never pollinate humidity is too low tassels were not sticky. Shake corn tassels in 5 gallon bucket add some water & few drops of dish soap stir corn pollen into water stray water on corn silks to pollinate corn.

I have been picking blackberries every morning and every evening, I get 1/2 cup to 1 cup each time. I have a yellow squash that was growing larger and larger very fast then suddenly stopped growing. I though we would have squash for dinner this evening but no we have to wait maybe a few more days. Squash usually grows very fast not sure what happened it just stopped growing.

My camera takes good pictures on over cast days so I took several pics of the garden today. It is raining again today, it has rained for 4 days the garden loves it.

Potatoes are looking good, plants were tall now they have fallen over.

Onions looking good too. I hope we can CAN onions in 1/2 pint jars and freeze some in bags we don't eat as many onions in summer as winter. 300 onion is a bunch my 2 sons will need some.

Tomatoes are loaded with green tomatoes there will be a ripe tomato explosion soon.

Peppers are doing better now that we are having cooler wet weather. Plants will not blossom in hot weather.

Corn is doing much better most of the plants have survived the low nitrogen problem.

Squash plants have small squash. I planted more squash seeds in other places to keep a corp going.

Cucumbers are loaded with blossoms there might be a lot of pickle size squash sooner than I think.

Melon plants are starting to grow longer vines in all this rain, 4 days of rain, my rain gauge shows, 2, 3, 2, 1/2 inches of rain.

Bean plants are loaded with baby beans soon there will be beans to pick.

Okra has suddenly started to grow they were tiny things for several weeks.

[Gary350]

This is our first 2019 garden dinner. Wife made meat loaf and ask me, what do you want with it. I went to the garden and returned with a hand full of green beans, she said, go get some more. I said, I can probably dig up a few nice size potatoes so I did. We were not planning to eat this squash until tomorrow after it grow a bit larger but what the heck lets eat it now plants are loaded with more. Only thing that would made this better would be ripe tomatoes. I see 7 tomatoes that are mostly red they will be ready to eat soon.

[Gary350]

Has anyone ever thought of making a small meat loaf so you don't have to eat it very day for a week. When the kids lived at home meat loaf was gone fast if it was cooked in hamburger shapes or spaghetti meat ball shapes. We had meat loaf again tonight, I dug up 5 more potatoes 3 were 2 times larger than the ones I dug up yesterday. I picked several Roma flat pod beans to cook for dinner too. We had, bakes potatoes, meat load, beans for dinner. I see 8 very red tomatoes in the garden that will probably be ripe enough to eat for dinner tomorrow. I have 1 cucumber large enough to be sliced pickles but only 1 is not enough for a whole pint jar of pickles. We had a very hard 15 minute rain about 5 pm maybe the 6 smaller cucumbers will be much larger tomorrow. I have 5 pickle jars of blackberries, 4 are in the freezer. I am putting them all in a 1 gallon freezer bag. For some reason frozen berries turn red color. You can tell from looking which ones were picked a few minutes ago. Scales show 3 lbs 6 oz of blackberries that means I really have less than 1/2 gallon by weight. I need 8 lbs of juice to make 1 gallon of blackberry wine.

[Gary350]

We picked our first ripe tomatoes today, 1 brandwine, 1 Amish paste, the others are Big Beef.

I picked enough small green beans to eat like snow peas in stir fly.

I picked a Marconi pepper, New Mexico pepper & Big Bertha pepper to put in India Stir Fry. Wife cooked chicken, sliced onion, 3 garlic cloves then added, Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage, green beans, peppers. After it cooked a few minutes she added a jar of Takki Masala sauce. We cooked no rice, we ate this over 1 of the garden baked potatoes.

We ate the Brandywine, Amish paste, and 1 Big Beef tomato.

It was so good I wanted more but I am too full to eat more.

[Gary350]

After the big storm we decided to eat blackberry cobbler & French Vanilla Ice cream. Garden is loving all this rain every day for a week. BIG storm last night 2 pm, lightning, thunder, every 5 seconds, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, I loved it but it scared wife to death. LOL. Cucumbers are growing larger fast. Black berry cobbler is so good, recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of berries that needs to be changed to 3 1/2 cups. Oh well so much for home made blackberry wine. LOL

[Gary350]

Today I made Old Fashion Bread & Butter Pickles. I did lots of online research on pickle recipes but the best information came from my Grandmothers 1930s cook book, my mothers 1950 cook book, and my 81 year old Aunt that made pickles with my grandmother & mother 60 years ago. Grandmother won 1st place Blue Ribbon winner at the country fair pickle contest 6 years in a row. That is why she was so picky about cucumbers size judges measure the diameter & thickness of every pickle slice in your jar.

This morning I picked several cucumbers it looked like enough to do my first batch of pickles but it turned out to be about 2 cucumber short of 2 full quart jars. I washed the cucumbers then carefully sliced them 1/4" thick. I pulled 2 garden onions to slice for the pickles. I mixed cucumbers and onions in a bowl with 1/4 cup of pickling salt then mixed in 1/2 gallon of ice. Pickles went into the refrigerator for 4 hours. After 2 hrs pickles got mixed around then put back onto the refrigerator.

While pickles are in the refrigerator I mixed up 1/2 gallon of pickle brine.

When 4 hours was up pickles got rinsed 5 times in a clean gallon of water each time.

Bring brine to a boil it will boil at 185 degrees F because that is the temperature vinegar boils at. Dump in cucumber slices stir for a few minutes until brine comes to a boil again. Remove from the heat at once. Fill jars with hot cucumbers & onions but do not pack tight. Cucumbers slices need to come in contact with brine so all the slices soak up an even amount of flavor.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of pickle crisp to each quart jar then fill jars 1/2" from top with brine. Screw on the seals & rings then shake jars to remove air bubbles that are among the pickle slices. Refill jars with more brine 1/2" from top. Screw lid on tight. Stand jars upside down to cool. Let jars set in pantry about 30 days for best flavor but you can eat pickles in 2 days if you want.

Soon as my plants make 15 ripe cucumbers I will make 2 more quarts of pickles. I can already see this would be best to make pickles in a larger quantity about 15 quart jars every time. It only took 45 minutes to slice cucumbers & onions and get them in the refrigerator. 10 minutes to make 1/2 gallon of brine. 30 minutes to boil brine & put cucumbers in 2 jars. Most of the day was spent waiting 4 hrs while cucumbers were in the refrigerator.

I learned Pickle Crisp is Lime, I paid more for this tiny 5 oz bottle than a 50 lb bag of garden white hydrid Lime costs at Farm supply store.

[Gary350]

2 Updates.

#1. I check cucumber 7 am & 7 pm every day. If a cucumber is not quit large enough to pick at 7 am it will be perfect size to harvest at 7 pm. If a cucumber is not quit ready to pick at 7 pm it will be too large at 7 am. Cucumbers are growing much faster in the dark than in sunlight. The 3 cucumber in the picture were small at 7 pm but too large at 7am they have more than doubled in size. Oh well this is ok I need to test a few cucumber this size just to learn how finished pickles turn out.

#2. Salt dehydrated cucumbers an left them shriveled up like raisins. This morning I learned it was good jars were only 90% full cucumber re hydrated over night pickles have gotten larger and filled up the jars. When I shake the jars pickles do not move around much they are compacted tighter than they were yesterday.

[applestar]

This is an excerpt from an article out of Penn State extension, dated Oct. 2015
I bold-faced the part about Ball Pickle Crisp

Let's Preserve: Ingredients Used in Home Food Preservation
https://extension.psu.edu/lets-preserve ... eservation

Texture Enhancers and Thickening Agents

Pickling lime is a safe product that, if used correctly, can be used to improve the texture of pickles. But it is not necessary if good quality ingredients are used. Food-grade lime is used as a lime-water solution for soaking fresh cucumbers 12 to 24 hours before pickling. Excess lime absorbed by the cucumbers must be removed to make safe pickles. After soaking, drain the lime-water solution, rinse, and then resoak the cucumbers in fresh water for 1 hour. Repeat the rinsing and soaking steps two more times before processing.

"Pickle Crisp™" is a commercially available food-grade calcium chloride product from Ball Canning Company™. It provides the calcium necessary to help firm pectin but does not have the hydroxide component that can lower the acidity of pickled foods. Follow the manufacturer's directions. Do not use calcium chloride products that are not specifically labeled as food grade since they may contain other chemicals that are not safe to eat.

Alum, sold as a pickling ingredient, may be used safely to make fermented cucumbers crispier. But it is unnecessary if good quality cucumbers are used and tested recipes are followed. Alum does not improve the firmness of quick-process pickles.

[applestar]

I bought a big container of pickling lime, then got scared about using it — I HAVE been known to use small amounts of this food grade lime to adjust pH in my potting mix....

Of course...this was in the dead of winter one year when I had accidentally stored the garden Dolomitic lime in the shed in the far corner of the garden (instead of the garage where it would remain available), and the shed doors were buried and frozen shut behind wind-drifted 24 inches of snow....

[Gary350]

I bought a big container of pickling lime, then got scared about using it — I HAVE been known to use small amounts of this food grade lime to adjust pH in my potting mix....

Of course...this was in the dead of winter one year when I had accidentally stored the garden Dolomitic lime in the shed in the far corner of the garden (instead of the garage where it would remain available), and the shed doors were buried and frozen shut behind wind-drifted 24 inches of snow....

I learned Alum is used to make Dill pickles crispy. I started to use Alum in sweet pickles then changed my mind. I also learned pickles will be naturally crisp if cucumbers are dehydrated in ice and do not boil cucumbers hotter than 185 degrees F. Next batch of pickles will have no Lime to compare how crispy they are compared to pickles with Lime. I found information that says, after adding cucumber to hot brine use a thermometer to heat brine & pickle mix no hotter than 180 degree F. Next time I need to try this also. Only way to know for sure what really works is try it yourself and keep notes. I don't think Lime is needed at all but I wanted to test it. I wish now I had put Lime in only 1 of the 2 pickle jars.

[Gary350]

Yesterday this was a broccoli plant. Today it is just twigs. Something made fast work eating it. I hope it got filled up. A big fat worm was probably bird dinner. LOL.

I found 2 more cucumbers, 2 more ripe tomatoes & another yellow squash.

Today I dug deeper into the beans and found these. Beans are loaded but I only picked the very largest beans. Maybe tomorrow we cook these an have them with dinner.

Corn is growing tassels it seems too early 4 more weeks will be 72 days.

[Gary350]

Blackberries are getting ripe faster. I have been getting a pint every morning and a pint every evening. There is a 1 gallon bag of blackberries in the freezer. This morning I picked about 3 cups of berries I need to start filling another 1 gallon freezer bag or this could be another cobbler.

[applestar]

I’m not familiar with that broccoli damage — most animals I know of would eat leaf stalks and stems, ...this looks like caterpillar but there would have to be a lot of them all at once ... so that leaves ... armyworms?

...the blackberries look yum! I’m sure the wine will be superb.

[Vanisle_BC]

...the blackberries look yum! I’m sure the wine will be superb.

They do make great wine. Even better can be Blackberry liqueur - vodka, sugar & berries left to meld for as long as your patience will allow. You can also use other berries - rasps etc. We strain out the fortified berries for later use in trifle and other desserts; store them in the freezer labelled "adult berries."

[Gary350]

Today I made 1 jar of Bread & Butter pickles. Having done this already it was quick and easier than before. I used larger cucumbers this time to compare to small cucumbers I used last time. It took 15 minutes to slice the cucumber, go to garden pull up 1 onion 2 1/2" diameter slice & dice, add 1/4 cup pickling salt, mix well then add 1 quart of ice. I sliced about 20% more cucumber than will fit into the jar hoping after dehydration they will all fit in the empty quart jar. After 2 hrs in refrigerator I stirred well then return to refrigerator for 2 more hrs. Next I poured cucumbers, onion, bean, mix into strainer to remove salt water. I filled container with clean water, rinsed cucumber mix, strain and rinse 3 more times. I had the brine boiling on the stove so in goes the cucumber mix. It took about 5 minutes for brine to come to a boil again. Turn off heat move pan to counter to spoon cucumber mix into a quart jar. To my surprise I guessed about perfect dehydrated cucumbers all fit in the jar including sliced onion and 1 green bean cut into 5 pieces with room to spare for expansion. Seal was waiting in boiling water, jar top was cleaned, the seal & ring screwed on jar. No pickle crisp lime added this time. Jar will stand upside down until tomorrow.

Vanisle BC I will try that Blackberry liqueur it sounds good. I have no vodka but I have E&J Brandy or Moonshine.

[Gary350]

This evening 7 pm when it was not so hot I picked a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of beans.

[applestar]

Super! Your garden sure is switching into high production mode!

[Gary350]

Cucumber plants were loaded with finger size cucumbers. No rain in the forecast and not wanting to wait I watered the plants. Next thing I know we have 2 bowls of cucumbers. I went to the garden and pulled up several onions. I sliced cucumbers and onions, rubbers them with salt, packed them in ice then put them in the refrigerator for 4 hours. Mean while I made a gallon of brine it took 10 minutes. After rinsing off the salt everything went onto the boiling brine for about 4 minutes then into quart mason jars. Jars were filled with brine then stood upside down until they cool. Soon as I mark the lids they go into the pantry.

[Taiji]

Love the Big Bertha! I put in a few Big Bertha peppers this year after having read about them on this forum. Mine are way behind yours of course, but can't wait to get something like you have there!

I'm always envious when people in the south get tomatoes so soon! Took a chance and planted out some peppers and tomatoes a couple of weeks ago. Had to go out 2 times and cover with buckets to protect. I think I'm safe now at last.

Taiji, what elevation are you? What AZ town are you near? I have always thought 7000 ft would be a good elevation for a summer garden in Arizona mountains. When I lived in Phoenix area only things that grew well in 114 degree summers was, melons, okra, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, grapes, garlic, onions.



Sorry for the confusion Gary! I recently updated my profile to show that I'm gardening in Michigan's Upper Peninsula now. We stay here for 5 months, then go back to AZ. 7000 ft. is a bit high for lots of gardening in AZ. Good for the cool weather stuff but tough on corn, squash etc. Late spring frosts and early fall ones. 7000 ft. is Flagstaff's elevation. Mile high elevation in Central AZ where I live is a bit better!

[Gary350]

6 gallons of blackberry wine. Everything in the garden is growing too fast I can barely keep up. Dinner tonight is, beans & potatoes, tomatoes, chicken. I still need to pick more, tomatoes, blackberries, squash, cucumbers, beans, before dark.

[Gary350]

These blackberry plants are freaking me out they never did this well in 42 years at all the other houses we lived but they were never in full sun all day until now. I have been getting more than a quart of berries every morning and another quart+ every evening, about 3/4 gallon every day. Every day there seems to still be 1000 red color berries that are not ripe yet. There is also a lot of green berries that have not yet turned red. This is the 3rd year for this plant at this house. This plant is native to TN it is a wild Cumberland Black Raspberry same family at Blackberry. This plants are not very big but they are a tangle web of canes. It has new growth coming up all around and the new plant that I transplanted on the other side of the yard last summer has new plants every where too. Next year look out we really going to have lots of blackberries.

I made another blackberry cobbler, every time I make this recipe wife says, it needs more blackberries next time. Original recipe called for 1 cup, then we tried 2 cups, then 3 cups, now this what a difference this is perfect. French Vanilla ice cream & whip cream with cobbler is perfect.

I have been saying all day, we need a 15 minute flash flood corn needs rain, we got BIG rain about 7:20 pm. Blackberry plant is out by the street, end of driveway. I have taken close up pics of the plant & berries but none of the pics do justice to the plant loaded with all the blackberries.

[Gary350]

Dinner tonight was very good, chicken with onions & big Bertha bell peppers, potatoes, green beans, fried yellow squash, tomatoes. Squash are coming too quick we have a back log of 4 squash. Tomatoes are a bit slow but enough for the kitchen table every day. We are swamped with green beans I gave most of them to my son for now, we will put several jars of beans in pantry later. Yesterday potato plants were all laying flat on the ground like it was time to harvest a month early but after that 15 minute flash flood today potato plants have come to life and are standing straight up again. Tomatoes are 6 ft tall I am being lazy this year not tying plants up to the steaks. Soon tomato plant tops will get heavy and fall over an grow down to the ground. Corn is 7 ft tall making tassels and silks. These 72 day corn should not be ready to harvest until about July 26 but it may be sooner than that. I don't remember how long it takes ears to grow kernels and be ready to harvest they have 3 more weeks. We had more blackberry cobbler and ice cream this evening and I picked more blackberries for the freezer. If we get tired of eating cobbler I might make Blackberry preserves to put in jelly jars. I have not made jelly in 35 years, I started making jam it is better but now I want to make preserves it is better than jam. Next year I am going to start planting 92 day corn again instead of 72 or 65 day corn it takes up less garden space, 3 rows of 8' tall corn with big ears will make as much corn as 5 rows of small 5' tall corn with small ears.

[Gary350]

Yesterday morning I picked 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket of beans. We snacked and washed the beans then cooked them over night in 3 crock pots. Soft cooked beans pack into jars tighter. This morning I hot packed beans into clean pint mason jars. We ended up with 4 1/2 jars of Roma Flat pod green beans the other jars are Blue Lake green beans. 1 jar is 1/2 & 1/2 with both types of beans. Hot pack makes pressure caning heat up quicker. I cooked pints 30 minutes at 15 psi.

[applestar]

Time to fill the pantry! Looking good!

[Gary350]

Cucumbers are tricky to find among 15 plant vines and all those leaves. I did not want to make pickles today because it is Sunday and cucumbers are piling up. 1 cucumber is about 1 day late getting picked. Another cucumber is very large about 2 or 3 days late getting picked but I decided to make pickles with it any I need to see how it turns out. I use a french fry cutter to cut cucumber this time plus I cut slices extra thick as a test to see how they turn out. I got 9 onions from garden, 5 for me, 4 for wife. I also got a dozen potatoes, 6 tomatoes, another yellow squash, beans need to be picked again. I think this makes 14 quarts of pickles in the pantry that will be enough. Not sure what to do with more cucumbers, I hate to pull up plants because we don't need them anymore.

[Gary350]

I almost did not pick blackberries today, I am tired of picking berries. Berries are slowing down only 3 cups today. I have another 1 gallon zip lock bag of berries in the freezer. We had 2 cobblers and I made wine, I was going to make Jam or Preserves but changed my mind so we wait. We might want a blackberry cobbler for Christmas dinner. Blackberry pancake syrup is always good.

I think it is time to harvest potatoes some leaves are dying. Online says, Kinnebec is a short season hybrid but it does not say how many months most potatoes are 3 or 4 months. It has been 3 months and we have been eating a lot of them early. I am going to start canning tomatoes there are several ripe in the kitchen and several more ripe in the garden. More beans to pick tomorrow.

[Gary350]

We have too many yellow squash, we are experimenting with different ways to cook them. I made Pico de Gallo for dinner to eat like tomato salad. I picked another 1/2 bucket of beans, more onions, more potatoes, more tomatoes. Thin slicked squash coated in fish beer batter baked 450 F in oven 15 min turned out very good. We are loving these Kennebec baked potatoes every night for dinner. This pick is almost as many beans as I picked a few days ago. Roma Flat Pod beans do not reproduce as quick as Blue Lake Bush beans after first harvest. Blue Lake first harvest is about 65% of total summer crop, Roma is about 90% on first harvest. So far Blue Lake has produce 2 times more beans than Roma & I have 50% more Roma bean plants. If this years crop is like last years crop it will be better to pull up all the Roma plants then plant new ones its not worth waiting for another 10% harvest, but we will see.

[applestar]

Do you have a dehydrator? I’ve made dehydrated sliced vegetable chips with summer squash that tasted good. Experiment with simply salted, allowed to sweat, then pat dry and dehydrate, or then coated with some kind of dressing and dehydrate.

[Gary350]

I finally tied up the tomato plants today and found several ripe tomatoes hiding in there. I canned 8 pints of green beans that cooked all night in 2 crock pots. 19 pints of beans will be enough. 9 pint canner had 1 empty space so I canned 1 pint of tomatoes. I picked another pint of blackberries.

[Gary350]

Corn is looking good especially after all the trouble I had 2 months ago with the soil ph being too high. Water melon plants have 2 melons largest one is soccer ball size. Tomato plants are loaded with tomatoes. Onions are ready to harvest I pulled up several to use today. Potato plants keep giving me mixed signals water shortage seems to be the problem maybe they will look better after tomorrows big storm. Bean plants are loaded with tiny beans after tomorrows rain beans will be larger and time to harvest. I have lots of cucumbers, don't need anymore pickles but will make more anyway next summer I won't need to plant cucumbers if we have 30 or 40 quarts of pickles in pantry this summer. Pickles will all be relish for, potato salad, hot dogs, chicken salad, etc.

[applestar]

You really have a big garden! Are the unplanted areas waiting for succession planting something else, or are you letting the space lay fallow for this season so you can rotate crops over next year?

[Gary350]

You really have a big garden! Are the unplanted areas waiting for succession planting something else, or are you letting the space lay fallow for this season so you can rotate crops over next year?

The unplanted area in first picture gets no direct sunlight because of 50 ft tall trees on the south border of the yard. About Sept 1st the row closest to the unplanted area will be in full shade too. By Dec 21 about 90% of the garden will be in full shade. I hope these trees don't grow much faster than they have been or they could become a shade problem for the garden. So far so good some plants can use afternoon shade in the hot summer weather. Plants all seem to do good with 7 hours of cool morning sun. About 2 more weeks okra should be ready to pick.

[applestar]

Maybe you could use the shady area for growing covercrops like clover or maybe something you can mow and then use for mulching or tilling into the growing area — “green manure” is the term I’m looking for.

I have the same problem — most of my garden beds are in full shade during the shorter days from fall to spring. Garlic won’t grow well where it’s in full shade too long.... and DH won’t let me expand out to the front yard where it gets full sun....

[Gary350]

We started canning tomatoes this morning. Wife wants to make stewed tomatoes so I pulled up a bunch of onions for her to slice and dice with celery while I cut up tomatoes and start cooking. Then I decided I better slice a squash for dinner. Tomatoes came to a boil quick I used potato masker to crush them when strained out the juice and pulp. Wife pureed skins & seeds then mixed them back into the tomato juice to make it thicker. We added a large bowl of chopped onions & celery. Stir well then filled 4 quart jars almost full. The canner holds 7 quart jars so we have to wait for 3 more quarts to cook them.

[TomatoNut95]

Awesome garden and gorgeous produce, @Gary350!

[Gary350]

6 am before it got hot I removed lower dead leaves on tomato plants so they get more sun, I hope this helps tomatoes get ripe quicker.

I notice onions need to be harvested. I was hoping to leave onions in soil all summer and eat them as we need them but onions are no longer attached to the soil by roots.

I had barely enough Amish Paste tomatoes to make 1 pint jar of tomato sauce. This turned out good.

I had a lot of cucumbers piling up in the kitchen so I decided to make more Bread & Butter pickles plus 1 quart jar of mixed vegetables, onions, yellow squash, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, green beans.

Wife made Taco Salad for dinner. Ripe tomatoes & garden onions sure make it good.

TomatoNut95, removed leaves won't be a problem that is the north side of the plants no direct sun on that side. The south side is shaded by 5 ft tall pepper plants and 8 ft tall corn. About 3 more weeks corn will be gone.

[TomatoNut95]

Love those tomatoes....and that Taco Salad!!! Thanks for making me drool!
I hope by removing those leaves your fruits won't get sunscald.

[lakngulf]

Great looking tomatoes, Gary. Loaded plants!! What varieties have you planted?

[TomatoNut95]

Five foot pepper plants?????!!! Oh. Wow!!! Mine NEVER get that big! My garden stinks.

Yeah, what kind of tomatoes are those? Beautiful!

[Gary350]

Great looking tomatoes, Gary. Loaded plants!! What varieties have you planted?

I planted 12 Big Beef these grow very well, tomatoes are large and plants produce lots of very good flavor tomatoes. They usually do good all summer, they slow down a bit in 99 degree weather and do better in fall when day temperatures are in the 70s again. Frost will kill them about Nov 7 I pick all the green tomatoes to ripen in the kitchen we sometimes still have 2 tomatoes left for Christmas dinner.

There are 4 Big Boy tomatoes it is hard to tell these from Big Beef they are good.

I have 4 Brandywine tomatoes flavor is about the same as Big Beef but these are very slow produces about 75% less than Big Beef.

There are 4 Beef Master that are having a deformity problem plus all the tomatoes rot before they get ripe. This is why I plant varieties if 1 or 2 variety of tomatoes do bad I can pull up the plants and still have a good crop of tomatoes and put 60 pints and 20 quarts in the pantry.

There are 3 cherry tomatoes 1" diameter these do very well in 99 degree weather and taste good too.

4 Amish Paste is something we have never tried so far flavor is good but they only get rip on the bottom 50% in the garden then bugs eating them up. I have been picking them earlier so they can ripen in the kitchen. Maybe we get lucky and get enough of these to Can 20 pints of tomato sauce & pizza sauce for the pantry.