Bummer season, but the flavor is great!

vegomatic · August 27, 2011

Hi all,

Been awhile since I posted on any gardening sites, but I still manage to get something in the ground every year.

This season is the oddest. A warm, wet sping got squashed flat by a long cold stretch which immediately switched to hot and dry. Setting out a little later didn't help. As it happened, I planted out right before the extended cold spell hit.

I have small but relatively healthy plants despite the flea beetles. Fruit set is phenomally low. Getting anything close to ping pong ball size is proving difficult, but a few scrawny plants in pots have made some larger fruits. We're getting maybe one to three fruits per plant, ripening maybe one or three per week from various plants.

My sister lives just a few miles away and is probably a better grower than I. She has also had a similar lousy season. My other gardening buddy who normally has a great garden has only picked a dozen tomatoes, so I can't totally blame my own methods this time, LOL.

We're laying our plans for many changes next year, but at least the few ripe ones are full of flavor and appreciated much more because they are so few! It's hard to slice a tiny mater exactly in half to share with my wife, but we make a special event out of it and it's amazing the flavor packed in a pea-sized Sungold.

Meanwhile, I just let the deer eat my bean plants as I only picked one pod from the patch. Same for the squash and 'maters in the same bed. Nothing worth saving. But I picked a Zuchinni so huge, it had to go diagonally into the 'fridge or the door wouldn't shut!

I guess I just had to get back on the forums and see if anyone else has had such a wierd season as we did.

-Ed "Just wait till next year"

raindrops27 · August 27, 2011

I like your name, and yes. Worst season for my whole garden. Lost all of my corn, squash, melons. Puny, small tomatoes, wrinkly peppers. But, yes they tasted good. I have 6 tomato plants left.(I pulled a lot already) with a few large maters. That I will pick, and pull later on this morning. Maybe 8 tomatoes left to pick. This growing season, harvest was a 1/8th of my usual yield. But, I am still grateful I got something, to taste at least. Especially the 1 Black Krim tomato, I tasted for the first time.

I cannot wait until next growing season.

vegomatic · August 28, 2011

Wow, your season sounds worse than my own! Hopefully I have about a month to bring something around once the current heat wave breaks. I have a lot of toms in pots and will be moving a select few indoors for a last ditch effort once frost hits.

At the worst, I've overwintered toms and peppers before and planted them back outdoors the following spring. They were way ahead of anything else, being already in flower/fruit stage for many months, so once they got rooted and took off, they easily became the biggest plants in the garden in their second year. I once grew a Hungarian Yellow four years that way; potted in winter, in the ground come spring.

-Ed (ever hopeful!)

August 27, 2011	#1
vegomatic Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Black Hills SD Z4 Posts: 89	Bummer season, but the flavor is great! Hi all, Been awhile since I posted on any gardening sites, but I still manage to get something in the ground every year. This season is the oddest. A warm, wet sping got squashed flat by a long cold stretch which immediately switched to hot and dry. Setting out a little later didn't help. As it happened, I planted out right before the extended cold spell hit. I have small but relatively healthy plants despite the flea beetles. Fruit set is phenomally low. Getting anything close to ping pong ball size is proving difficult, but a few scrawny plants in pots have made some larger fruits. We're getting maybe one to three fruits per plant, ripening maybe one or three per week from various plants. My sister lives just a few miles away and is probably a better grower than I. She has also had a similar lousy season. My other gardening buddy who normally has a great garden has only picked a dozen tomatoes, so I can't totally blame my own methods this time, LOL. We're laying our plans for many changes next year, but at least the few ripe ones are full of flavor and appreciated much more because they are so few! It's hard to slice a tiny mater exactly in half to share with my wife, but we make a special event out of it and it's amazing the flavor packed in a pea-sized Sungold. Meanwhile, I just let the deer eat my bean plants as I only picked one pod from the patch. Same for the squash and 'maters in the same bed. Nothing worth saving. But I picked a Zuchinni so huge, it had to go diagonally into the 'fridge or the door wouldn't shut! I guess I just had to get back on the forums and see if anyone else has had such a wierd season as we did. -Ed "Just wait till next year" Last edited by vegomatic; August 27, 2011 at 02:28 AM.

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August 27, 2011	#2
raindrops27 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: long island Posts: 327	I like your name, and yes. Worst season for my whole garden. Lost all of my corn, squash, melons. Puny, small tomatoes, wrinkly peppers. But, yes they tasted good. I have 6 tomato plants left.(I pulled a lot already) with a few large maters. That I will pick, and pull later on this morning. Maybe 8 tomatoes left to pick. This growing season, harvest was a 1/8th of my usual yield. But, I am still grateful I got something, to taste at least. Especially the 1 Black Krim tomato, I tasted for the first time. I cannot wait until next growing season.

August 28, 2011	#3
vegomatic Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Black Hills SD Z4 Posts: 89	Wow, your season sounds worse than my own! Hopefully I have about a month to bring something around once the current heat wave breaks. I have a lot of toms in pots and will be moving a select few indoors for a last ditch effort once frost hits. At the worst, I've overwintered toms and peppers before and planted them back outdoors the following spring. They were way ahead of anything else, being already in flower/fruit stage for many months, so once they got rooted and took off, they easily became the biggest plants in the garden in their second year. I once grew a Hungarian Yellow four years that way; potted in winter, in the ground come spring. -Ed (ever hopeful!)