2016 Tomato and Garden Pictures

[jmsieglaff]

Originally Posted by WilburMartin

nice looking brew

Thanks!! Speaking of which I reckon I'll pour one now.

[jmsieglaff]

I'm growing Green Doctors Frosted for the first time. It is an excellent tomato! I'm really enjoying it. I'll snap some pictures soon. If only it was a tad more productive, they rarely make it into the house.

[jmsieglaff]

Tonight's cherry tomato haul. You can imagine what my lunches look like!

[jmsieglaff]

First ever Green Giant! Should be enjoying this one in a couple days! 14.5 oz.

[Worth1]

It would go good on a hamburger.

Worth

[AlittleSalt]

Wow, it looks really good.

[jmsieglaff]

Not any pictures to share lately as I've been quite busy with the garden and other things. Just wanted to share a few thoughts.

We've had a very warm and wet September, which has been excellent weather for gray mold. My dwarf project plants seemed much more susceptible to the gray mold, except for Rosella Purple. I removed my first plants of the year tonight--all the dwarf tomatoes except Rosella Purple.

KBX gave a few (4) very large tomato early and they were so delicious. It put on a lot of late more tomatoes and we've gotten many in September--probably 8-10 more tomatoes.

Big Beef F1 is pumping out tons of tasty 8-14oz tomatoes--we even had one turn into a 20z monster.

Growing peppers in 5 gallon buckets (2 plants per bucket) was a great move. I never had such a prolific pepper harvest.

Thorburn's Terra-Cotta produced good tasting tomatoes, with good early production, then a pause and decent later production. The plant was healthy but when foliage disease did strike, it spread very quickly.

Blush and Sunrise Bumblebee tomatoes were both beautiful and tasty--I think I like Blush a touch better. Both varieties stayed healthy, but when foliage disease it, it spread very quickly compared to others.

Indigo Cherry Drop tomatoes were quite productive and good, not great flavor. The appearance awesome. They did suffer from splitting more than any other variety grown this year.

Green Giant was my latest tomato, but delicious with initial production of about 6 ripe fruit. The plant is healthy still and loaded with green tomatoes, I'm surprised by the number on the plant right now.

I had my first hornworms in a few year and I enjoyed repeatably stabbing them with mulch pieces.

Mexico Midget (the real one) is a very tasty tint tomato. The fruits really like to shatter.

Zluta Kytice is still going strong. I'd say we've easily picked over 2,000 tomatoes off the plant. The earlier fruits were larger, by later in the year the fruits are a rather small cherry.

The production wasn't great, but I really liked the Green Doctors Frosted.

LOVE cinnamon basil and will only grow that variety next year.

Cube of Butter zucchini was OK--a little bland.

We've got 4.5' tall stalks of kale/brussel sprout cross that we'll be eating this fall, excited to try those.

The newly planted raspberries did very well this year, should have more berries next year than I would have guessed.

I'll share more at the end of the season.

edit: I had to share a pic of the kitchen counter, tons of production still in late September. But the end is nearing, the days are getting short!

[jmsieglaff]

I don't have much to add to what I wrote in September regarding the 2016 garden.

In 2017 I'll be growing my 2 grow every year varieties: Black Krim and Sungold. (Excited to be growing Noire De Crimee in 2017 next Black Krim and see what differences there are.)

Returning from the 2016 garden will be KBX (growing Orange Jazz for comparison), Big Beef F1 (I had picked a ton of green Big Beef tomatoes before frost and had my first ever garden tomato on Thanksgiving--a basement ripened Big Beef), and Blush (the flavor edged out Sunrise Bumblebee).

I've got some F2 micro dwarves going in the basement, so I'll start a 2017 thread with those.

[Gardenboy]

Glad to see your cherry tomato pictures. Have you tried Waltinger's Fleisch aus Indien? Or Roskoff? Garnet? Those are my 3 new small varieties this season. I've posted pics of Garnet on picture forum. The Waltinger's is larger than grape size maybe quarter size with huge earthy flavors..it's a dark/black variety..maybe 4 ft plant loaded with fruit. Also Roskoff is another winner...can see pics on Tanianas website..4 ft. plants with red / high acid tomatoes. I've all ready got 34 tomatoes from this plant and it's still full of green ones. Very huge tomato taste for a small tomato.

[jmsieglaff]

Thanks for those names. I have not heard of two and will have to look them up. I'm always looking to try highly recommended to new me cherries. I have Garnet seeds and they will be one of my new cherry varieties in 2017. Have you grown Ron's Carbon Copy--if so, how does Waltinger's compare?

[Gardenboy]

Have not grown Ron's Carbon Copy. Waltinger's is definitely a stronger/more earthy tasting tomato than any red or pink variety. Little tougher skin as well but great tomato taste..at least for me it was. U can view them on Tatiana's website.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

I made the decision to grow all my peppers in 5 gallon pails this year. I made this decision after growing a couple in them last year and they were the most prolific peppers I've grown or seen. I very happy with my decision! I've even harvested a couple Aji Amarillo for sandwiches already. Two plants per bucket.

Your plants look great!! Did you top water / feed them? What did you feed them?

Did you have any problems with the buckets falling over once the plants got large. It looks like you just have a single bamboo pole for staking them.

[jmsieglaff]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Your plants look great!! Did you top water / feed them? What did you feed them?

Did you have any problems with the buckets falling over once the plants got large. It looks like you just have a single bamboo pole for staking them.

Hi Barb,

Sorry for the delay in answering your post.

I top water, as needed initially and as summer sets in/plants get larger I'm top watering every 1-2 days depending on the bucket. I feed them, initially every 2 weeks or so, then by mid-summer I feed weekly. I alternate with a granular manure-based fertilizer and Miracle Grow. This year I think I'll also try some Epsom salt later in the summer as plants tend to show Mg deficiency by late in the summer/early fall.

I did not have any problems with the buckets falling over. I did have some branch damage with heavily fruited branches during high thunderstorm winds, but in general the two plants branches growing into each other seems to kinda support each other.

Hope my post helps you out!

Justin

[tryno12]

Great looking plants and fruit! Was wondering what type of soil and drainage system you use for the 5 gallon bucket? I have had a lot of trouble growing peppers here in central In.......

[jmsieglaff]

Originally Posted by tryno12

Great looking plants and fruit! Was wondering what type of soil and drainage system you use for the 5 gallon bucket? I have had a lot of trouble growing peppers here in central In.......

I use ProMix, it is the compressed 2 cu ft bundles that expand 4 cu ft. I get them at Menards. I throw a couple trowels of composted manure into the planting hole when planting the seedlings. My 5 gallon buckets have 2 1/2" diameter holes drilled into the side of the bucket about 1.5" above the bottom. That's it!