Danwigz's Tomatoes

[dustdevil]

Dan, I have never seen wild blackcaps that big.

[danwigz]

Update Monday July 12,

Things are going mostly well in the garden. The small pots for the volunteer cherries are starting to become a disadvantage, I'm noticing the plants are looking a little weak from lack of nutrients. I applied some MG to them so hopefully it will help. I've also noticed a strange shape appear in some of them.

Its been rather rainy the past few days and I really want to apply some copper spray, but I think it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

I think the garlic might be ready to be pulled soon, as well as the beets. As I've never grown/harvested them before I have no idea lol.

My pepper plants aren't doing well again. I've got fruit set, but then the whole stem turns yellow and the (very immature) fruit drops off.

Photos:
My best Brandywine set. I don't think I'll grow these again unless I'm totally floored by the flavor; most of the blossoms have dried and not produced any fruit.
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Wait... wait... wait... turn amber already!
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The Green Zebra/Brandywine bed
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I've affectionately named my JTB (or is it JBT?) plant "Gojira" (or Godzilla if you must) because its just keeps getting bigger. Note to self: suckers must be pinched more frequently. The fruit set is amazing as well.
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My Cherokee Purple has in its heart a mass of fruit I've affectionatlly called "The Face Hugger." When I first noticed it, the knobs of the fruit stems reminded me of the face hugger from the Alien movies. Ironically this grouping is also about the size of my face. I'm hoping they'll start turning color soon. BTW I've guessed there are roughly 13 fruit in this location, some can't be seen in the photo.
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Here's the bed those are in. Chalk one up for inexperience... these are way too crowded.
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My Black Cherry plant, starting to set fruit.
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Those grape cherry voulenteers
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The front tomato plant in the second picture is a snow white cherry.

My Sungold oOPs, has done quite well. There is even a small fruit on it.
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I had purchased a selection of cherries from my local grocer. I tried to save some seed, but ended up causing them to sprout, so in the pots they went. They're doing well, just hoping to get a few fruits before frost so I can save some seed the correct way.
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And the rest:
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Danwigz

[danwigz]

July 22 2010 update

Another rainy day in Sheboygan. I've been putting off spraying my tomatoes for almost a week, since every other day we've gotten rain. I'm getting a little worried that disease will strike soon, so hopefully we're up for a dry spell soon.

My volunteer tomatoes came from a grape cherry of unknown parentage. I can say now it was a hybrid, I've gotten two shapes of cherries from the many plants I've grown out. One is a round cherry, the other is oblate with a distinct line in the middle, with double rounded ends (like the top of a drawn heart). If it tastes like anything decent, I'll be saving the oddly shaped cherry seed, and see what it produces next year.

I pulled two garlic bulbs, one from a scape-removed plant, and the other with the scape intact. The one with the scape removed was MUCH larger. I'm waiting on my third (that has the scape/flower bulb still attached) to be pulled later in the season.

The beet leaves were getting eaten by some bug, and the bulbs were sticking more out of the soil than in, mostly because I had no idea what I was doing. They're decent sized but because they were jammed together in groups of 2-4 they didn't produce like they could have.

Sugar snap peas have started yellowing... and growing new flowers? Go figure, I was ready to cut them out and let my in-ground volunteers have free reign, but out of the top of my yellowing sugar snap pea plants came new growth, and new flowers. So more sugar snap peas I guess.

My lettuce has finally bolted, YAY. I'm mostly interested in trying to save seed from them now. The learning curve was steep, next year I know to plant less lettuce, and stagger plantings so as not to get too much at one time.

The Green Zebra's that started my journey from a tomato last year, have started producing like mad. I'm still waiting for a ripe one, but when they come... I need to make more friends. Sungold was first to color, I'm about to try my first tomato for the season, and my second is a Negro Azteca-still just partially blushing. My Green Doctor has a bunch of fruit, and I'm watching it carefully so I don't miss anything coloring. The Black Cherry, Snow White Cherry, and Matt's Wild Cherry all have fruit but are far from coloring.

The big tomatoes are doing well. Brandywines are still suffering a lot of dead blossoms, but there are a few more fruit. CP's have so much fruit the plant is starting to bend easily in odd places, I'm trying to top off as much as I dare (its so hard to do!) and tying more. The Japanese Black Trifle continues to produce fruit, and is bending my cage to one side to show that it means business; I've added an additional two stakes to hold it up. KBX, my final large variety was a slow starter but has set a decent amount of fruit; I love the way this tomato looks with its light color, hope the taste matches!

I harvested a bunch of hot peppers from my plant, I have a large bag each of frozen Jalapeno and Garden Salsa peppers. Now I just have to wait for the tomatoes to ripen for lots of salsa.

Finally, my basil production is really bad this year. I think last year was better for my basil than this year, but, oh well.

Danwigz

[kath]

Nice to see you enjoying your garden and seeing things you want to change to improve your harvest for next year. A garden notebook has always been very helpful for me in this regard, as I can't leave all that much to the memory anymore- your on-line garden diary is a more high-tech version!
I'm having a bad basil year here, as well. Not sure if it was the seed or the weather. Just got some of the peppers I use for salsa, too, so now I just have to stay out of the garden long enough to make it! I can never get the amount of lettuce right, but it sure is easy to overplant! Had a lot of problems with aphids early this year, too, but they seem to have found something they like better elsewhere!
Growing Sungold, too, always do, and comparing other cherries to it this year. Have had ripe Snow Whites- they were good, but not good enough and ripen a lot more slowly than Sungold. Matt's Wild Cherry were from a trade, and turned out to be a 2" red with a nipple end which were thick-skinned and nasty tasting, so that plant was pulled. Trying KBX for the first time, but none ripe yet- it wasn't planted until June. The Cherokee Purple is GREAT! Producing well, but nothing like your Face Hugger! Tried Japanese Black Trifele last year but it wasn't a hit with us.
Just a lot of rambling, I guess, but I wanted to let you know that I think it's great that you started and are keeping up with your blog. Thanks for sharing it.

[danwigz]

Thanks for the comments Kath.

I'm keeping a journal (on notebook... paper *gasp* lol) as well. My blogish thing here is mostly for photos, but generally I think the combo of both of them is working well for me, we'll see next year if I remember anything I learned this year lol.

Just had the Sungold as a pre-meal snack. Was tasty, but have nothing to compare it too yet. It wasn't a total orange yet, more of a yellowish orange so it could be it hadn't ripened totally yet.

Hmm, Matt's Wild might not be my cup of tea either, many of what I planted this year was for experimental purposes anyway, so it'll be good to see how I feel about it.

Mostly I'm growing these cherries because my spouse loves cherries, and I want to make a tomato salad that was a hit last year with all different colors.

I'm hoping the JBT will make a good sauce/catchup/salsa(?), but I'll definitely be eating some in the raw.

Happy Gardening,

Danwigz

[kath]

I use "composition books"- don't know if you're old enough to remember those but they still sell them! I use notebook paper, too, and it's not as easy to find as it once was, but everyone seems to carry the 3 and 5 subject notebooks.
Sungold's are better the darker you can get them without splitting, IMO. Matt's WC is supposed to be a very small red cherry, super productive on rampant vines, having a sweet but tomatoey taste- splits readily, though. The combo will make a pretty salad, I'm sure; lots of different colors, just different sizes.
From what I remember about JBT, they were meaty enough to do the trick for either use.
Enjoy your garden and the fruits of your labor.
kath

[danwigz]

July 28, 2010

Ate my first ripe beefsteak tomato today, a Cherokee Purple from the "Face Hugger." Put it on a Tuscan Herb bagel with a little cream cheese. Weight at picking 8.9 oz, weight before cutting 8.8 oz. It was very very juicy; I could see water collecting on the cut pieces making it glisten in the light. The texture was very smooth and enjoyable. Flavor was good, but not sure how I feel about it until I try some other varieties to compare.

Beyond that the onslaught is coming. Many of the volunteer cherries are starting to blush. It also appears that the other cherries are starting to have more blushing fruit. JBT has one picked fruit that I'm waiting to get just right (should be finished before the weekend) and an additional fruit on the plant that is near ripe.

Still no blushing on my Zebras... maybe I should check again, hopefully the mosquitoes have disappeared.

Danwigz

[Timmah!]

With all that lush growth, you're gonna have to have to employ a kid to send on expedition into the mini jungle soon to be formed. =)