2008 Spring Garden Diary

[feldon30]

We have a cooling trend for the next week. Crossing fingers.

[BVGardener]

Many plants now approaching 4' tall. We received some rain last night which will help reinforce the growth surge. Short term weather could be a bit stressful. Early tomorrow morning, strong storms are suppose to come through the area ahead of a cold front.

I'll have to perform a major weeding session tomorrow. So hopefully the rain we get in the morning will make that go easier.

Fruit production has probably doubled since the last count. A couple of examples are Pouce de Picardie has now set 20 fruit and Schellenberg's Favorite now has 18. Fruit producion is kicking in with the dwarf project varieties as well and I have several plants now with fruit.

I may start a different thread on my German Red Strawberry / Cherokee Purple cross. This growout is getting interesting and good news, heart shaped fruit are developing on the vine. Plus, I counted 19 fruit on that plant today.

[feldon30]

My plants also look really good after the rainfall. Really crossing my fingers for some good fruitset this weekend. The plants are loaded with blossoms.

In other news, got my first flowers on Dragon Tongue. The potatoes are declining and ready to harvest the rest of them I think. I will probably sow more dragon tongue beans in that spot, plus I am planting some squash.

[duajones]

Looking good there Jay. We got an inch of rain yesterday and another half or so this afternoon so far. I hope I dont end up with cracked fruit because of it. After a rough count, I have around 230 fruit on my 15 plants. Jet Star and Monomakh's Hat are blushing now. I did pull a fruit with BER on a JS plant this morning and Robeson that was decent color but small and damaged by a worm or something. Hope to post a few pics in the photo thread today. Good luck to all.

[MikeInCypress]

Harvested a couple of Kimberly and a Silvery Fir Tree. Had a Chello and a handfull of Sungold for breakfast. Have a lot of fruit set including 4 on Ananas Noir and 3 on Brandywine OTV. Lemon Boy has a dozen set. Waiting for Grub's Mystery Green and Red Barn. Golden Dwarf Championis loaded - 18 fruit. JS's C Tex has about 5

Now almost all are in containers and I spent about an hour tying up the plants today. Then hit them with a dose of daconil. Have had some BER but I expect that with the container plants at the beginning of the season. On Tuesdays watering I will be adding some SuperThrive and some blue stuff.

Just a little EB some of the dwarfs, but my brother's BIL had SWV on an Arkansas Traveller. It got pulled and sent off premises.

Everything looks good. Even the Black Cherry that got broken off by the wind has resprouted from its stem and looks to be healthy.

[BVGardener]

Hey guys. We got more rain Sunday morning and fortunately it was a nice rain shower and not a downpour as forecasted.

Orange Heirloom may be developing some Early Blight...I'll have to keep a close eye on that one.

If there is any sign of a possible great season, then Brandywine (Sudduth) has to be it. Probably the largest plant with 18 fruit. I had Brandywine set a high number of fruit a few years ago. Usually I get about 10 fruit off of a single plant.

Below is another photo of the garden and a photo of the GRS x CP cross.

Jay

[duajones]

Your plants look fantastic Jay. I ended up with about an inch and a half of rain this weekend. While we need the rain badly, I was happy to see a nice light rain versus what was forecast as well.

[BVGardener]

Here are a few more photos from left to right: Amish Potato Leaf, Big Zac, Marianna's Peace, Pink Berkely Tie Dye, Porterhouse. And the second row is Red Brandywine and WES.

Jay

[feldon30]

I posted my detailed report in the "First Fruitset" thread, but the summary is:

I now have 249 non-cherry tomatoes on 34 non-cherry tomato plants. That's 7 tomatoes per plant. I have nearly 60 Gregori's Altai on 3 plants, 37 JD's Special C-tex on 3 plants, and 29 Paul Robeson on 3 plants.

Big improvement!