OmahaJB's 2009 Garden Journal

[OmahaJB]

Edited my list of tomato seedlings in my last post to correct spelling of Nicky Crain. If any other's are mispelled or have incomplete names please let me know.
About to transplant at least a few today, and whatever else I'm going to plant will be done so tomorrow. If anything's left I'll try finding homes for them.

I googled every variety Patty gave to me, and the ones that seem to stand out are:

Kosovo
Nicky Crain
Slankard's
Teton de Venus
Ukranian Heart

And Kardinal I had received seeds for a year or so ago and remember that came with good recommendation also.

A couple I could not find good info on this morning:

Burstyn
Emma Pink
Japan Tomato Tree
Sulia's Heart (Pink Heart I believe)

Will try again later to research these. I know I received seeds for Burstyn in trade so should have that info in my seed bag.

[newatthiskat]

This is what I got from Grunt and Grungy

BURSZTYN Det 2 - 4 oz amber 60 - 70 days RL Blemish free fruit. Very good tomato taste, more sweet than acid. A must regrow here. 9# 4 oz 2006

[OmahaJB]

Thanks Kat. I hadn't gone through my seed bags to find the description yet, so you made that one easy for me. Ironically, it's one of the few I wasn't able to transplant yesterday. I planted 17 different varieties in 18 different holes (had 2 seedlings per variety - Kosovo was the one that is planted in two spots), which took several hours. Had to dig up grass and roots of different things, chop up the soil pretty good while adding Mirace Gro flower and vegetable soil. Labor intensive for sure. But if most of them grow it'll have been worth it. They were rootbound and I had to loosen them up and also separate seedlings, so they were in shock after transplanting.

The varieties I did not get to plant will be given to my sister.

Forgot to mention Patty also provided me with a nice Dahlia flower plant. My mother was pretty happy when I gave it to her. She said Dahlia's have nice flowers.

Will find out soon enough if all the transplants will survive. A couple of them were drooping quite a bit.

My other plants are still growing slowly. Exceptions are a couple of the cucumbers. One of the White Stallion cucumbers showed good growth. And the Boston Pickler is doing well. Also saw flowers on a couple of the eggplants, but since the plants are still so small I don't expect anything from them.

Picked a German Giant radish to check growth and they are starting to size up well. Good flavor with bite. Love it.

[patty_b]

Jeff, you are most welcome and I am happy that my extras have found a good home. Had a chance to go to WV to plant a small garden for my parents and several more tomato plants found a home this weekend!
Bursztyn is usually one of the contender for "first ripe" so I grow it for the early tomato.
If you haven't tried Tatiana's Tomatobase for info, be sure to check it out. I have found almost every tomato that I have been looking up and an excellent source of information. Here is the link for Emma Pink. http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Emma_Pink
Patty

[OmahaJB]

Thanks Patty. I'll check out the link and the full database when time permits. I was disappointed to not have room for Burstyn when all was said and done, but my sister should be able to use it. I did get Emma Pink planted and it's in a great spot in the yard. Gets full sun. The 3 in the worst area that I'm worried about are Teton de Venus (which sounds like a good one), Lyuda, & Mazarini.

If all these grow and do well I'll be overloaded BIG TIME. We'll see how this plays out.

[montanamato]

Jeff....

Sulia's Heart is red, not pink. It was listed as red in SSE yearbook and when I grew it two years ago, it was red...Pretty good variety.
Thanks for the seeds (again)...I only planted the Poona Kheera this year, but they all germinated, and two seeds from the first mailing that weren't pulverized grew too...

Jeanne

[OmahaJB]

Jeanne, I stand corrected. I had googled the variety to find the description, and obviously it was off. Glad to know the true color.

No problem about the seeds. I felt bad when the first ones were destroyed while en route, knowing I should have packaged them better. Since I had the extras and a bubble envelope handy, it really was no trouble at all. Was happy to share.

As for the garden I watered everything today. Temps somewhere around 80 degrees, and most of them were drooping. One was knocked down either by 'Sammy', my mother's Lab that I had given to her when my dogs had puppies in late '98, or it was run over by a squirrel. Hoping it recovers as that was the only Slankard I transplanted.

The extra seedlings were being taken to my sister's house today, so she'll plant those.

[Penny]

Great list......sounds like you'll be busy come Saturday.
Happy Planting!

[OmahaJB]

Penny,

It was LOTS of work last Saturday planting all that I did. Still will need to keep an eye out for weeds and also want to buy a bag or two of quality mulch. The stuff I bought a couple of weeks ago was absolutely terrible. Guess I deserved that for buying the cheap mulch. Saved a whole $1.50/bag. Bad choice.

Hopefully wont have any problems after all that work. If I planted as many as some here do I'd need to buy or rent a rototiller. Had back and knee injuries in the past and they come back to haunt me from time to time. Not to mention severe allergies and allergy induced asthma. Just a picture of health here!

[OmahaJB]

Stopped to water the plants today, and to see how many survived the rains, which were sometimes heavy. Since many of them were severely drooping after I transplanted them, I figured I'd lose many of them. To my surprise they all survived, including the Slankard's I thought was a goner from the dog trampling it. It's showing signs of life.

Now I need the plants to go on a growth spurt as they are not very tall, including the ones I transplanted in April. Some have flowers already. My project Wishful plant has many flowers in clusters so I'm guessing it'll be a cherry type. Kellogg's Breakfast has quite a few flowers as well. My mouth is watering for a taste of those. Pruden's Purple is perplexing. The first flowers did not pollinate, then the back of the flowers (the green part) turned yellow, along with part of the stem leading to the flower. No idea what that is. Haven't seen it before.

Cucumbers have several flowers open - one per plant. Everything's looking good overall. The garlic looks like it might be ready earlier this year than last for some reason. Already have some of the lower 'leaves' turning brown. Just need the plants to grow taller, especially the eggplant.

Picked a few radishes today. Not very big but they are tasty. Some are going to seed.

So far I can't be disappointed with the garden. It's still early of course....

[OmahaJB]

Have my first eggplant growing. It wont be very big because all of the plants are small, but it was still pretty cool to see I had a little purple thumbsize eggplant.

Fertilized everything, with the exception of the garlic, which by the way is really doing well. A couple of the garlic stalks/scapes have to be close to 5' tall. I dug a couple of the smaller ones out today because the stalks were knocked over by someone or something. They were of decent size surprisingly, considering it's close to a month away from when the rest will be harvested.

Dug up many weeds today. Still have many more that need pulled.

Cucumbers are loaded with flowers. Guessing I'll see cukes growing very very soon.

[OmahaJB]

May as well update this now. It's supposed to rain much of the week so I wont have to visit the garden to water. However, I finally purchased seeds from Whatcom Seeds (seedrack.com) that I've been wanting for quite awhile. Pelleted Virginia tobacco seeds, & Dawn Redwood tree seeds. I plan on using the tree seeds for bonsai. I've never had luck with tobacco seeds, but will give it one more shot. I planted the seeds yesterday.

And I have NO idea how they pellet those tiny tobacco seeds. Obviously they need some type of specialized device to do so. Amazing they can do it at all.

I've been wanting Dawn Redwood seeds for along time. The pic they have on seedrack.com is really beautiful.
My trees wont get that big in my lifetime, but at least I can start them out. Eventually want to buy Japanese White Pine seeds. Those are very attractive as well.

[OmahaJB]

Finally starting to see tomatoes and cucumbers growing. Wishful & Kellogg's Breakfast have tomatoes starting out. And loads of cucumbers are growing. My first year growing cukes so I'm enjoying seeing how many tiny little ones are on the vine.

I'm feeling pretty bad right now. Cleaned out 9 trash bags of leaves out of the tarp that covers the built-in pool. There is up to 3' of standing water on the tarp, so I had to scoop the leaves out, most of them were on the bottom. My sister and her family were going to take care of it a couple of months ago so they could get the pool ready for summer. Hah! Never happened. It was an eyesore and prime breeding ground for mosquitos. Was also going to drain the water off the top but my mother asked that I wait until after the holiday weekend because the water ends up in the street on it's way to the drains. Anyways, it took hours to get all the leaves out and now...not only are my bad legs killing me, but the old ticker is feeling a bit stressed. But I'll be fine, probably.

Enjoy the 4th of July holiday weekend fellow TV'ers!

Jeff

[OmahaJB]

Debated whether or not to post an update, since there is little to report, but there are a couple of things happening.

The largest cucumber is growing fast. It's probably about 3" long, about twice the size from just a couple of days ago. That is the White Stallion I've mentioned in previous posts. So far for the cucumbers that variety is looking like it will be the most productive.

Speaking of cukes, I've been reading other threads and have learned it is important to keep them well watered and also use mulch if possible. The cukes can become bitter tasting if not taken care of. I'm sure most of you read that thread, but some may not have.

The rest of the softneck garlic was ready to be dug up today. The hardnecks still need probably another week. Had a total of around 14 softnecks out of I think 38 total. I planted more hardnecks because they get quite a bit larger for me.

My project Wishful F2 plant has the most tomatoes so far - 5. They are small oblate fruit. Kardinal leads the way in size. It's not a huge tomato just the largest at this point. The plant for Kellogg's Breakfast is not very big comparatively to most of the other plants, but it does have a couple of tomatoes growing. Several other plants have flowers so I expect to see more tomatoes soon.

The lone bell pepper plant has peppers starting out. Happy to see that since I had trouble last year with my only pepper plant as it did not produce. The plant itself is not much taller than 12".

Disappointed with the eggplant plants. They are all probably 8" or less, with maybe one exception. One plant has 2 eggplant growing, the others a combined whopping zero - that's right 0. The two that are growing will most likely be undersized.

Obviously I have a problem with my soil. It needs amending. I'm fertilizing, but not going overboard with it. I've read less is more in that regard. Don't want to kill the plants.

The Dahlia is growing really well. Will be interested in finding out what color the flowers are when we get some.

Pretty much it for today. Only other observation is, a couple of the garlic scapes reach up to a height of about 70" - my height. Last year the ones I had did not approach that height, and most were curved. These stick straight up. The stalks seem to be thicker this year also. Doesn't mean the garlic will be large so we'll see in about a week's time.

[OmahaJB]

Correction to make: The largest tomato I have so far is on Ida Gold, not Kardinal. It is oval shaped. I googled it and see it is an early variety, listed at 59 days and about 2 ounces.