State of the Season - interim report/observations

[nctomatoman]

This is a just a set of general observations on what is turning out to be a somewhat unusual, but pretty good, gardening season thus far. I will go from early to later crops.

Lettuce, Asian (and other greens) - started in my plug flats, transplanted - a bit later than I would have liked, but great harvest (cut short by mother nature, who turned on the climactic blast furnace in early June). Very pleased with the various greens - Kotsume, Savoy, Pak Choi, Mustards, Rabe - delicious, productive, trouble free - and they all transplanted fine from my thick planting method into individual plugs, then to the garden. Chard did fine; Red Russian Kale is easy, but we don't use it in cooking as much, and it attracts moths/worms.

Beets - spectacular, due to using transplants - no need to thin, great harvest of uniform beets - we especially enjoyed the beet greens!

Radishes - we give up! They germinate well, grew great tops, but useful bulbs on only 5 percent or so. We don't like them all that much anyway!

Garlic - easy and wonderful - perfect success, we are good with Garlic for months...we liked the size and growth habit of German white better than Ajo Rojo. Only issue is that it took up our bush bean space until early July.
Potatoes - a bit of a pain to prepare and plant, but, aside from the incredible weed patch out there, the tops grew well - we shall see what's underneath when I start digging (I do need to get in there and get the large weeds out).

Squash - in the middle of a great harvest, used transplants from plug flats I started.

Cukes - Poona Kheera went down early to disease; Diva is thriving and is our favorite, anyway - from plugs.

Bush Beans - we are in the middle of harvesting from the initial planting, with the two follow up rows (where Garlic was) coming along nicely.

Hot and Sweet Peppers - just insane success. Sweet and Hot peppers in 5 gallon pots are out of control with respect to yields - key is good potting mix and plenty of water and regular feeding. Incredible how many peppers are on the bell plants. We could burn the mouths of every person in Raleigh with the number of hot peppers on the plants!

Eggplant - more insane success- if the extreme heat troubled the tomatoes, it tantalized the peppers and eggplant. All plants are loaded up and yielding well. Get out the eggplant recipes!!!

Indeterminate tomatoes, garden - we got these in pretty late, in the back rows where the lettuce and beets lived - mid June. So far, so good - I've replaced six of the 44 plants - death due to disease or just inability to adjust in the extreme heat. Some are starting to thrive - I have realistic expectations - they are not in a great section of the garden, so whatever I get will be a bonus.

Indeterminate tomatoes, driveway pots - These went in late May, so we are now getting some of the cherries, larger fruited ones to come. Interesting - best fruit set by far is with the three Cherokees (purple, chocolate, green) - they are resisting disease and setting well in the heat - they also get a bit more shade. The rest are having issues setting fruit well so far. Of the 26 plants, I've had to replant two due to disease, and a few are really struggling and are touch and go. Two plants flat out died from disease early on - Stick and Silvery Fir Tree.

Dwarf tomatoes - Garden - the dozen in the front row, in cages are looking good - had to replant one due to disease, and two others are touch and go.

Dwarf tomatoes, driveway - once these keep loading up it will be plant flop city, which is typical - they all look so nice at 2 feet tall, but at 3 feet and more, with heavy fruit set, they tend to fall all over each other - I am learning to expect that. Of the 108 plants in the driveway, I've had to replace 7, and 3 or 4 are being watched as they look pretty bad - but that's not bad at all considering the heat this summer. I've had NO tomato spotted wilt.

General observations - the Snowy F2 from the pink hybrid are the most prone to Fusarium wilt. The Tasty and Frosty lines are also quite disease prone, but it looks more like bacterial wilt. The Porky line sets fruit insanely, and are floppy plants (not surprising - they are hearts). The Sneezy line is quite lanky/tall by comparison (right now they are 3 feet tall or a bit over - this is compared with the indeterminates which are 5-6 feet tall, to contrast dwarf vs indeterminate plant habit) - but some - the Sleepy and Snowy family - are only 1-2 feet tall, so are quite compact in comparison. I've got all sorts of fruit set everywhere - if I can keep these plants alive for another month, it will be a good evaluative season for my dwarf grow outs. already noticing some quite large Wild Fred, Sweet Sue, Summertime Green, Rosella Purple, Beauty, Kelly Green, Beryl Beauty fruit on the plants - nice striped Sarandipity fruits.....will be some intense taste testing to come (get ready, Lee!)

The main theme, though, has been watering, watering, and more watering......with staking/tying now coming into play.

[nctomatoman]

Here is a brief video update on the indeterminate tomatoes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAf2GdrptQk

[TomatoDon]

Nice report and video Craig, thanks. I know you do a lot of container plants. Are you using containers for 100% of your gardening? Also, are they all on pavement or concrete? How do you handle the heat before they are bushy enough to provide shade for each other? And do the deer come right to your carport to nibble your plants? I didn't know if you have moved any around.

Nice looking operation!

Don

[nctomatoman]

Hi, Don - thanks! I am using containers for all peppers and eggplant, 90% of the dwarfs, and 50% of my indeterminates - basil, beans, squash, cukes, potatoes are in my main dirt garden. I went this way years ago to get the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant into the best sun exposure I've got, as well as avoid my fusarium and bacterial wilt infected soil, which was making my dirt grown (main garden) tomatoes worse and worse each year.

All pots are directly on concrete - they handle the heat fine (I do water near every day) - and I think that heat is what pushes the peppers and eggplant to yield so quickly and heavily.

The deer drove me crazy last few years - this year I have two water scarecrow sprinklers set up that so far is keeping the deer away. I've got an electric fence and water scarecrow on my main garden.

[TomatoDon]

Thanks for the details Craig. Do you change the soil in all your containers each year?

DS

[BigdaddyJ]

My Mid Season Report: 7/24/10 All the following have ripened at least one tomato so far except the F4 Brandy/NAR cross and all grown organically without sprays:

OSU Blue...tall plants, average taste, huge production, earlier fruits were more purple than current ones which sux because I only grew them because they were supposed to be BLUE! LOL. Very Good disease resistance.

Sun Gold (54)...tall plant, great production excellent tasting cherries as usual. Above average disease resistance.

Hege German Pink(69)...tall plants, GREAT taste, very good production and early for a full size tomato. Good disease resistance.

Gary O Sena(72) tall plants, GREAT taste, very good production and early for a full size tomato. Very Good disease resistance.

German Johnson(76) very tall plant, Very good taste, Great production. Average disease resistance.

Spudakee (76) tall plant, good production, average disease resistance. Good taste.

BrandyBoy (76) tall plant, above average disease resistance, Very Good taste. Average Production.

Cowlicks Brandywine (76) tall plant, average disease resistance, Very Good taste. Average production.

Sudduth Brandywine (78) tall plant, Average disease resistance. Very Good taste. Average production.

Orange Minsk (80) Short but full plants that don't want to grow up the Texas cage. Very Good taste. Average disease resistance. Great production of beefstakes AND hearts.

Big Cheef (83) tall plant with very good taste and very good production. Above average disease resistance.

Dana's Dusky Rose (84) tall plant with GREAT taste and average disease resistance. Good production.

Porterhouse (86) Average size plant with good production and good taste. Looks like a couple 2 plus pounders on him! Above average disease resistance.

Vorlon (86) Average size plant with good production and very good taste. Below average disease resistance.

KBX (89) Huge plant with very good production and very good disease resistance. Very good taste.


Granny Cantrell German PL (90)...Average size plant with average production, very good taste, some HUGE fruit and above average disease resistance.

Brandywine/NAR F4 cross...Average size plant with below average production this year and below average disease resistance. This one hasn't given a ripe fruit yet and only 5 green fruit on diseasy plant.

Goose Creek (90)...tall plant with good production, very good taste and good disease resistance but LATE to ripen for such a small variety!

Claude Brown's Yellow Giant (90)...Very tall plant (tallest in garden)with Above average production, very good taste with some HUGE fruit on them! Very good disease resistance. Problem is, it's crossed. It's NOT yellow. It's a huge pink! But it makes me happy...;-)

Marianna's Conflict (90)...Average size plant with poor production on a very diseased plant. VERY unlike previous years. Previous years this was a winner...

Notes:
Very hot sunny season has ripened the same varieties 10 to 16 days earlier than last year's cool and cloudy season. Big Zac seeds failed germination. Gave Big Beef a rest this year. Best taste award going to Dana's Dusky Rose. Tied for second are Hege German Pink and Gary O Sena just a tad behind. All 3 even beating the Brandys! A very, very good season so far...;-)

[BigdaddyJ]

Craig, I just watched your vid...nice! Now I know where to find your vids...;-)

[nctomatoman]

Yeah, Craig - they are all posted against my name (nctomatoman) in YouTube.

[remy]

Craig,
I enjoyed the tour.
Remy

[coloken]

Just for what its worth here Only the very early ones are starting to ripen.
In the main plot; with regular tomatoes, the one hybrid, big beef, is by far the best. Suprise here is a delicious from a 16 year old seed packet is coming in second. A millet's Dakota got pulled with disease.
Over in the brandy wine section; landis is the best. Cowlick maybe a little better than spudakee and OTV and a PL red BW. The sudith and home grown brandy wine, are not near as great. I got to say that OTV, landis, spudakee, red BW-PL, and cowlick are some of the best tomato plants I have ever raised.
Yes, I know spudakee is not brandywine..it just got planted in that section.
These thing may change, but thats the way they look right now. Temps have been from 56 at night to 104 in the day.
KennyP

[rsg2001]

Craig - awesome, I really enjoyed your video. I'm very impressed with what you've been able to do, and to be able to take care of so, so many plants. I have maybe 40 tomatoes in all, approx half in containers and half in the ground. Also, after seeing what you've described as fusarium, I know now that my Rouge D'amagu (in container) has fusarium too. It has three beautiful tomatoes and I'm doing all I can to keep that one going.

It has been both a good and challenged season, what with the unusual heat in the NYC area this year. It seems that bacterial wilt hit the Costoluto Genovese, however, I removed all the diseased stuff -- 60-70% of the plant -- and the remainder of the plant is still growing; most of the tomatoes are about ripe now.

Cherokee Purple, in the same 3 foot by 3 foot self watering container as the Costoluto, has at least a dozen medium to large tomatoes, but it's gotten a disease I haven't been able to identify. Randomly branches are crisping up brown, generally moving upward. I'm going to get a good harvest from this plant and it's still getting new flowers, so I'm crossing my fingers it will continue to produce over the next several weeks.

Sungold (separate container) is doing well as usual, although not quite as prolific as last year. Super Sungold Select (two in the ground) are both doing fairly well -- these cherries are humongous. They were very good tasting but not anything like Sungold F1.

My two tomatoes in the Earthbox that I decided to try this year are both the most prolific of everything I've planted so far. These are Pozhar - just loaded, and we've been eating them for a couple of weeks - and Marizol Purple, also loaded for a large tomato. Just picked the first one (haven't tasted it yet) - an 8-ounce beauty. The plants are lush and tall and healthy so far.

Cherokee Chocolate and Mystery Black (which I think is Black Plum) whose seeds were mixed with Cherokee Purple in a packet I bought two years ago from TGS. Mystery Black saved seeds are growing true to what came from them last year, so I'm certain two varieties of seeds came in that packet.

And Brandywine (not sure which one because I bought the plant in Dutchess County and it was labeled as Brandywine and described as pink) has four tomatoes on it so far -- two pretty large -- better performance than I usually see from a Brandywine at this stage of the season. This one is in the ground.

These are just highlights... looking forward to more as the season unfolds.

[KLorentz]

Sounds like you will have plenty tomatoes this year. Btw you have Buckeye State but I have Michigan State



Kevin

[Fusion_power]

Klorentz, the least you could do is hang your head and scuff your toe a bit when you say that.

Wonderful report Craig. Hope you have some ripe ones for tomatopalooza.

DarJones

[KLorentz]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Klorentz, the least you could do is hang your head and scuff your toe a bit when you say that.



DarJones

Now why on earth would I do that?


Kevin