south florida backyard, 2018 winter progress

[maxjohnson]

I don't have ripe ones to show yet, so 1-2 more months. Had a fair amount diseases this season, but I employed aggressive pruning and it seems to be pretty effective keeping them from spreading. Also pre-spraying with bt so didn't have to deal with caterpillars.

The earliest producer, earlier than Sungold, again is Jaune Flamme.

I haven't tasted it, but Zapotec seems to be my new favorite this year as it seems to be a prolific and resistance plant. It has silver leaves.

From last year, I had some Wild Boars tomato seeds either mislabeled or crossed and turned out to be Pork Chop I assume, there were a yellow and a red striped version. The leaves are naturally curly. They are also healthy, but grows very straight and tall, so I force multi-stem them. The fruit texture were very gel-like and flavorful.

My biggest expectation in term of taste are Green Giant and Paul Robeson.

I got a microdwarf from a local nursery with the label "Supersweet". It turns out to be a 1" red, very sweet with green juices, and juicy with a bit of tang. I don't know what the real name of the tomato may be, I doubt the shop owner can tell me since the plants are supplied to them, but this one may be my favorite micro to grow from now on.

This is my second season growing an off type I called "Ambrosia Orange Salad", it retains the characteristic of being a very prolific with large cherry/salad sized. It seems to be about 30 days later than Jaune Flamme though. These two variety are the most productive plants I'm growing so far.

[Hensaplenty]

Lovely pics! Thanks for sharing! Coastal Pride looks especially awesome!

[BigVanVader]

Very beautiful garden Max! After reading about Coastal Pride Orange I see Tania says it is the best flavored dwarf she has grown. This means I am going to have to grow it and compare to Mr. Snow which for me is the perfect tomato. I'm also very interested to hear your taste ratings as the season progresses.

[bower]

Looking really healthy, Max! Funny, Jaune Flammee was an impressive producer up here last season, I guess they can take all kinds of weather.
I hope you're south enough to spare your basils any taste of the snow this week!

[natural]

great looking garden. Terrific list of varieties.

An early spraying of BT proved invaluable for me last year. This was the first time that I sprayed before I saw worms. As a result I had the fewest worms of any year.

Bill

[maxjohnson]

Actually after taking these photos I brought some of the container plants indoor, since it'll be 37*F tonight, that's about as cold as it gets in Miami. This is why I like these grow bags with handles on them.

[maxjohnson]

Looks like the blight is really coming on, spend a lot of time removing leaves today, now I'm not too optimistic. The plants that are resisting are the micros and dwarves.

The flower on Coastal Pride Orange is pretty. I haven't seen this difference in color between the petal and stamen before.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by maxjohnson

Looks like the blight is really coming on, spend a lot of time removing leaves today, now I'm not too optimistic. The plants that are resisting are the micros and dwarves.

The flower on Coastal Pride Orange is pretty. I haven't seen this difference in color between the petal and stamen before.

You can often see the orange anthers on orange tomatoes. Very distinctive. Nice photos, enjoy.
I too had a lot of fungus last week, it was the cold with about 4 days of fog, they were basically in water for hours every day. Copper spray after the pruning worked wonders.

[bower]

Gorgeous pics, thanks from the snowblasted!
RE: flower colors. There are a number of different genes that produce orange fruit. Most common two are Beta and tangerine. In Beta there is a high concentration of beta-carotene, and in tangerine there is a high concentration of pro-lycopene (cis lycopene). Both very healthful. Anyway, you can tell whether an orange fruit is from the 'tangerine' gene just by the flowers, which are a really intense orange color. I can't tell from the photo but when you compare with other flowers in your garden it becomes really obvious, as your comment seems to suggest. Beta orange fruit otoh have flowers pretty much like any red tomato.
Just for comparison, you have Jaune Flammee in your garden too, and that is a Beta orange. So your tomato nutrients are well rounded this season.

[javafxnoob]

Nice looking garden. Especially, I like micro-dwarf. I hope it will go well for you, please keep posting pictures.

[maxjohnson]

I'm going to be saving seeds from these.

[shelleybean]

I'm sitting here surrounded by snow, so that looks fabulous to me!! Thanks for sharing!

[MrsJustice]

So Beautiful and well cared for Garden, Amen!!

Those are lovely, Max Thanks for the pics!

[jmsieglaff]

Great looking garden! Thanks for sharing. Are those micro dwarf plants with about golf ball sized fruits? What variety are they?