PNW tomato season

[squibT]

Wow Tania,

What a collection...very nice pics. Are there any problems getting seeds into Canada from a US source? I wanted to order seeds from TGS but am a little unsure of the Customs Regs...if I pay by money order and they get stopped at the boarder Im out my seeds (and cash).
Are there any Canadian suppliers with a wide variety of H tomatoes that you have ordered from?

BTW my container cukes are doing fine...just little cukes coming now. Sorry to hear about yours.

squibT

[velikipop]

Tania,

Nice picks, thanks. My Vidoje's are very weak looking and no fruit set yet. Yours looks promising. I have a very healthy Severyuga which I can give you seed from or a few tomatoes when they ripen.

My melons are doing poorly as are the peppers. Both are victims of the cold weather and huge slug attacks. Next year I will wait until my melons are a lot bigger before I plant and will use real slug bait instead of some of the more organic products I have used. Cukes in pots are nice but in ground not so good, same with the beans.

Lots of lettuce, kale, collards and of course the onions look great. I just harvested some early Purple Viking potatoes a bit small but nice nonetheless.

Squib, You should have no problems with US suppliers or with traders. I have not had any problems yet. My favorites are Sandhill, Seed Savers and Territorial. The latter specializes in varities for the PNW. As for Canadian companies there is West Coast Seed here in the lower mainland. You also have Two Wings on the island and Saltspring Seeds on Saltspring. Lastly, check out Solana seed from Quebec, they have a huge selection and good quality seed as do Dams from Dundas Ontario.

Alex

[Tania]

Originally Posted by squibT

Wow Tania,

What a collection...very nice pics. Are there any problems getting seeds into Canada from a US source? I wanted to order seeds from TGS but am a little unsure of the Customs Regs...if I pay by money order and they get stopped at the boarder Im out my seeds (and cash).
Are there any Canadian suppliers with a wide variety of H tomatoes that you have ordered from?

BTW my container cukes are doing fine...just little cukes coming now. Sorry to hear about yours.

squibT

squibT,

there shouldn't be any problems ordering seeds from US vendors - I have been doing it for 3+ years, and never had my order lost. I like Baker Creek, Sandhill, Victory Seeds and Heirloom Tomatoes. It is a bit painful to order from Sandhill since they don't accept credit card and you have to send them a US check, but their collection is well worth the trouble.

As to my tomato seed collection - I got seeds from other tomato growers/seed collectors all over the world (Russia, Belarus, US, Germany, France, Belgium), as well as from SSE Yearbooks; some came from commercial vendors I mentioned above. I am hoping to grow and maintain 500+ tomato varieties eventually and offer them in SSE Yearbook (ambitious, I know, but it is also fun to grow new varieties every year and discover all these very different tomatoes

There is not a lot of Canadian suppliers that carry lots of tomato varieties, although I order other veggies from Lindenberg Seeds almost every year. You can check out SOlana Seeds (although I never ordered from them, so cannot speak from my own experience).

[squibT]

Thanx Tania,

You are going to have a lot of work on your hands with all those plants...but it is fun.
I will check these sites out...(already planning for next year LOL)

squibT

[flying mater]

Warm weather sure has made the difference. I was out checking the garden and my BW Sudeth plants have set fruit, and so has White Queen. And now my CPs, Tiger toms, bloody butcher, sweet 100s and yellow pear all have blossoms. I'll be in tomato heaven soon boys and girls.

[cukes]

Went fishing for 6 days over in Eastern WA.
Wow the maters really took off while I was gone.
I have 2 Sungolds that will be ready to pick in a couple of days.
Matina is setting fruit like crazy.
ML, Omar's, Box Car and Anna Russian are all starting to pump out fruit.
Have 1 mystery plant. It was suppose to be an Anna but it's not. It's starting to set fruit, so I guess we will see what happens. I will post some pics as they start to ripen and see if anyone can figure out what kind it is.
Bill

[dice]

"Have 1 mystery plant."

Might be a bee-made cross, in which case no one
would have seen it before. (Although I haven't
seen a single bee around the tomato plants
this year. In fact, I've seen very few bees at
all around anything. Usually I can hear them buzzing
in the raspberries when I'm out in the garden,
but so far not this year.)

[velikipop]

Many of mine are starting to set fruit. The earliest seems to be Khurma followed by Southern Night and Rose de Berne.

See pics. From left they are: Southern Night, Black Krim, Kosovo, Rose de Berne and Amish Old Red.

[PNW_D]

I too am now getting good fruit set - some of my smaller ones - pics taken this a.m.

42 Days
Golden Delight
Mano
Persey
Sophie's Choice

Fabulous weather (finally!!) has really helped these along. Plants were looking rather yellow, purple, etc. and unhappy, but seemed to have perked up somewhat

p.s.: Tania - 42 Days is loaded

[Tania]

D., it certainly looks like '42 Days'; hopefully you will like the taste too.

Alex and D. - your tomato plants look so healthy! Beautiful pictures.

wonderful weather, and lots of berries ripening in the garden - and unfortunately I have to travel. Again. Sign. Will be back on July 15, hopefully my men will not forget to water the garden and the container-grown tomatoes.

[AlexH]

Hot enough for everyone? My plants seem to be doing just fine, but I'm melting!

[keithaxis]

I thought ,last night the heat was wilting some of my plants as it was 100 when I got home..think they said the 4th hottest day ever...when I looked closer at what I thought was wilt was just so much brand new growth that the leafs had not yet fully opened. Nice 75 today, that is about right and it is supposed to be 75 each day for the next week. I have about 1/4th of my 49 plants with set fruit. I seem to be on exact pace with last year of gettign ripe maters starting mid august with the major amount coming in september.
Keith in the foothills looking at mt rainier...

[maryinoregon]

It's been raining or overcast for days down here. I can't believe it. Very strange. Since when does it rain this late into July? What happened to that 101F. on July 4? None of my plants is very big this year. I did plant late, but honestly, I don't get it. I will have lots of cherries and I have lots of blossoms on not very big plants. What the heck???

[dice]

A little rainier than usual for this time of year.
3 weeks in June, and now this week to ten
days in the middle of July.

My plants are big enough and healthy, but fruit
development is slow, and when it is raining, they
are setting few fruit. Saw the first bit of orange
today on a Stupice.

One only pink oxheart, a few Persimmon set,
nothing yet on Mule Team or Box Car Willie.
(I guess those really are late in our climate.)

Red Siberian is a winner here (the indeterminate
or semi-determinate, not the little rugose leafed
determinate). The rain and cloudy weather did not
slow it down much. One set a bunch of fruit just
a few days behind Stupice and ahead of Sasha's
and some other very early cultivars, and they all
look exceptionally good. (Pruning these would be
a daily rather than weekly exercise if you want to
keep up. Let it go for a week, and you'll have 2-foot
long side branches with flower clusters where none
were before.)

No significant blight yet, though (fingers crossed).

[Tania]

Picked a few tomatoes today, among which was the second beefsteak of the season, 'Medvezhya Lapa' - nice red fruit, 10+ oz, 60 days from transplant. I will post a picture tomorrow once I have a chance to upload all pictures to my web server. I picked the first beesteak about a week ago, and it was... Grub's Mystery Green! (actually 2 fruits ripened the same time) 8)

other picks today:

- few Sungolds
- few Promyk
- few Madara (yellow cherry)
- 2 Dr. Carolyn's Pink
- 4 Carrot-Like
- few Barbaniaka (tiny red cherry)
- 6 Mini Rose
- 2 Orlovskie Rysaki
- 6 Reine Claude Rouge
- 1 Orlinyi Kluv
- 2 Spiridonovskie

That should make a nice tomato salad (or two )

Unfortunately the plants are showing signs of blight (both early and late blight), after all the rainy and cool weather we had a week ago. The disease does not spread as the foliage stays dry, and I am doing my best to remove the affected leaves, so the battle is not lost (not yet )

I am so hoping the weather stays warm and dry in the next few weeks...

How is everybody else doing?