Anne's 2015 Nor-Cal plant-out

[aclum]

Hi,

A quick update with a few photos....

First is a photo of my "rear" tomato beds that just have a few transplants with a later plant-out date than the others plus some larger plants that I put in as back-ups to the 3 plants in the main beds that had some bug damage earlier on. The damaged (grafted) plants in the main bed have since recovered so these back-ups can serve as un-grafted controls to the main bed plants. The soil in the rear beds seems to be not as good as in the main beds, so it's taking a while for these plants to get established and really start growing well. In the background, you can see the beds that I normally plant with other types of veggies left unplanted due to the drought.

I started pruning and trellising the oldest plants in rows 1-3 today. I've attached a photo of the mostly un-pruned plants taken 10 days ago followed by another from about the same viewpoint of the now-pruned plants taken today.

I just checked the photos in a preview and I apologize for the poor quality - but it's the best I can do at the moment . It's not readily apparent, but the tomatoes have grown quite a but in the past 10 days - really


I don't want to jinx things, but I've never had plants this uniformly healthy (at least in the main beds ) at this stage of the game. Since, with the help of TV, taking care of my bug/slug problems early on, there are no signs of any bug damage at all OR actual insects that I can see on any of the plants. Also no leaf discoloration, etc. This is quite unusual for me!

I'm not quite sure why I've been so lucky (so far ), but a few things are different this year:

1) We've had perfect tomato weather

2) The neighbors to our rear cut down a huge tree that had been shading parts of the garden in the morning

3) I started or potted up my seeds/seedlings in Wonder Soil

4) I began using dilute Texas Tomato Food a couple of times at the seedling stage and have used it a few times at full strength (1TB/gal) after transplant

5) I've been more conscious about watering - waiting for some signs of beginning wilt before watering, and then not watering as long as I'd been in the past.

6) I've got the black landscape fabric on the paths which is maybe discouraging bugs (particularly spider mites) or moderates temps beneficially in some way???

Unfortunately it looks like the hot weather is on the way and it remains to be seen how long things will hold up, but for now I'm happy with how things are going .


Anne

[JamesL]

Anne - Simply gorgeous!

[Delerium]

Very Very Nice Anne! Your killing it with all the varieties this year. Looking forward to your reviews.

[aclum]

Hi,

I just finished up some pruning and trellising (but obviously haven't done my clean-up yet ) in the main beds and thought it would be a good time for a progress report.

Things are still looking healthy and growing fast with lots of blossoms and fruit on about half the plants. I've tried to prune most of the plants down to 2 or 3 stems, but I haven't been entirely successful with this. I'll have to prune more stems as the plants grow and I start harvesting fruit. The plants are all clipped to drop lines extending up from the edge of the beds to the crossbar above the plants, so the plants themselves are sort of leaning out a bit towards the path rather than going straight up. Tallest plants at the moment are a tad under 4 feet tall. I'm really going through the trellis clips at rapid pace and need to order more already!

Anyway, here are reposts of a couple of earlier photos plus a photo from the same viewpoint that I took today so you can see how things are progressing. Plants in the 3 back rows were set out March 17 and the plants in the front row about a week or 10 days later.

First photo - taken on April 18 or 19 - so about a month from first plant-out
Second photo - taken on April 26 (mistakenly said the 29th in a prior post)
Third photo - taken today, May 5

Anne

[rnewste]

Wow Anne,

They are all looking outstanding!!!

Have you seen any evidence of White Flies yet?

I had a few on my plants last week. Hit them with a spray of Spinosad on Saturday and so far, no more seem to be in the plants. Will be doing a repeat treatment next weekend.

Raybo

[Heritage]

Looking great Anne!

I hope the pests continue to be strangers

Thanks for the update.

Steve

[aclum]

Hi Raybo and Steve,

Thanks for the comments .

So far so good in the bug department. I've just found one thrips-like thing that flew away when I touched it and maybe an aphid or two, but nothing else. No sign of whiteflies yet. I've got both yellow and blue sticky traps to put up if I start seeing thrips or whiteflies in any number. I have seen quite a few ladybugs on one of my big artichoke plants and, for some unknown reason, I don't seem to have to severe ant problems that I've had in the past.

In my rear tomato beds (not the ones in the photos), I did lose a couple of very small seedlings to earwigs or caterpillars (I think). That damage happened soon after plant out several weeks ago and no damage since. I just planted some eggplants in that bed today, so I'm about to go out and give them all a spritz of Safer Caterpillar Killer as well as a fresh application of snail and slug bait.

Anne

[Gardeneer]

Anne
Your garden looks very well organized and your plants look super healthy.

Continue having a great season.

Gardeneer

[aclum]

Hi,

Belated Thanks for the good wishes Gardeneer!

Well, here it is, May 17 already - exactly 2 months since plant out. Everything's still looking good although I'm beginning to see a bit of leaf discoloration on the lower leaves and some brownish marks on a few of the fruit, but nothing out of the ordinary. Still no real insect or bug problems that I've noticed. Actually, I've hardly seen any insects in the garden - good or bad - since my early season, short-lived caterpillar or earwig problem.

We had a bit of a rainstorm and some fairly strong wind come through the other day and when I was out pruning yesterday, I discovered that one end of an 8' long trellis crossbar had fallen out of its socket. Unfortunately, it was a section of plants with the heaviest fruit loads and everything had come crashing down on the ground. It took me a while but I managed to secure the loose end back in position with a new vertical post and get things restrung. Since I tend to prune heavily anyway, no real damage to the plants. The branches that were damaged I would have cut off anyway. But not a fun thing to have happen.

As I've gotten older and my disabilities have worsened a bit, I'm finding it more difficult to manage the taller vines that require standing for any length of time, so I've decided that I'm going to take a new approach to things this year. I'm planning to top the plants at around 5' - about the highest I can reach from a seated position in the wheelchair. (This will also lessen the overall weight of the plants on the trellis system). I've got quite a bit of extra room in the raised beds this year that is already on the irrigation lines for my tomatoes and I'll use that space to grow out cuttings from some of the plants I've topped and then yanked out. Right now I've got way more fruit than I can use ripening below my 5' topping level.

I've currently got about 56 plants in the ground, nearly all with blossoms and/or green fruit. There are about 40 green fruit (some just beginning to show a wee bit of a color change) plus lots of blossoms still on my Santa Clara Canner alone! With about 55 other plants in the ground, I expect to be swimming in ripe tomatoes before too long. (This, of course, barring any currently unforeseen, but not entirely unexpected if it does occur , calamity).

And, I still have some canned tomato sauce and frozen tomatoes from last year in the freezer!

Frankly, I've been a little envious of people on the list who have smaller gardens who don't have ginormous harvests to deal with. The glut of tomatoes from the 50 or so plants I usually have during the peak of the season can be a little daunting. I's so hard to pare down the number of plants to grow when where are so many tempting varieties out there to try! Hopefully, with the early topping of the plants I can have the variety without all the quantity and it will make things easier all around .

Anyway.... photos to follow!

Anne

[rnewste]

Anne,

I've had good success in the past with several of the Dwarf Project varieties, especially Tastywine and Iditarod Red. These are more managable as they typically stop at about 4 feet tall.

Raybo

[aclum]

Hi Raybo,

Thanks for the suggestions. I've tried a few dwarfs but lost them all to spider mites or something last year and year before wasn't impressed by the one or two I did grow. Will have to try again next year. I really do have plenty of fruit below the 5' height - at least for this year - and as I harvest and pull some of the topped plants (possibly having already taken cuttings for new starts), I can grow out more side shoots of the remaining plants and/or sort of do a horizontal espalier type thing.

As long as you're "around" - can you tell me how I can insert photos in the text of my message so I can caption each photo individually rather than just making a list of what's shown in each of the photos with all the photos posted uncaptioned at the end of a post when I upload a bunch of photos all at once? Thanks!

Anne

[rnewste]

Anne,

I save my photos at 600x800 to a Picasa export folder on my desktop. Then open Photobucket to upload to their site. Then copy the IMG files to insert in the TV post I create. You can then add text in the body of your TV posting above or below each photo.

Raybo

[aclum]

Hi Raybo,

Thanks for the tip, but I'm uploading directly from my computer rather than an image hosting site, so I think for now, I'll just upload the photos in batches.

OK, everyone - here's the first batch coming up:

First photo is the same overview photo from about the same location as before.

The next photos are of row 1:

First photo is a close up of some of the fruit on the Santa Clara Canner at the east end of the row

Second photo is of the Sana Clara Canner on Estamino rootstock at the end of the row with the Crnkovic Yugoslavian on Estamino next to it, followed by BKX on RST-04-105-T.

Third photo shows, from left to right, a tiny bit of a supposed Goose Creek that turned out not to be, then Margaret Curtain on Estamino and African Queen on Estamino.

For some reason I couldn't get the last two photos of row 1 uploaded on this post so will get those next time around.

Anne

[aclum]

Hi Again,

More photos.....

First is the east part of row 2 starting at the end with Purple Dog Creek, then Wes, followed by German Red Strawberry, and maybe a bit of Russian 117.

Second photo is the east end of row 3 starting with Bradley on Estamino at the corner, then Carbon on Estamino, KBX on Estamino, Red Barn on Estamino, and a tiny bit of Sweet Linda on Estamino.

Final photo is the west end of row 3 starting with Eva Purple Ball on Yorkbec at the corner, then Eva Purple Ball on Estamino, ungrafted Eva Purple Ball, and Virginia Sweets. I knocked off the growing tip of the EPB on Estamino with a hose during the whole planting process and let two leaders or stems grow out from the remainder of the plant. Even though it had a broken top, it's caught up with the other two EPBs.

Anne

[aclum]

Here are some photos of my "rear beds" - rows 6, 7, and 8

First photo is a view of the 3 rows from the north. The beds are only partially planted with tomatoes and also include ggplant seedlings in the rows next to the chain link.

Second photo would be row 6 -
left to right are Anna Russian, Captain Lucky on Estamino, Donskoi, Aunt Ginny's Purple on Estamino, Fish Lake Oxheart on Estamino, and LA1777.

Final photo is of most of rows 7 and 8. In the row closest to the camera and starting at the corner are a Mule Team (replacement for one I lost early on), Virginia Sweets on Estamino, Absinthe on Estamino, Dona F1, Brandywine Sudduth. In that row but out of view are also Bear Creek, and Big Rainbow on Estamino. The row in front from the corner are BKX, Daniels, and Jd's Special-C Tex (backups for the same grafted that were damaged early on - but recovered).

Just one of two more photo posts to go ......

Anne