Containers Growing ? - Page 38

SueCT · June 27, 2019

My sister used to live outside Dallas and I have visited Houston, so I have some idea. Hope you find a good deal on a car. Time for 4 of those people to start supporting themselves, I think. Like you already mentioned, you can also reassess how you are using the resources you already have. Good luck. Hope the weather holds out for you.

AlittleSalt · June 28, 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by SueCT

My sister used to live outside Dallas and I have visited Houston, so I have some idea. Hope you find a good deal on a car. Time for 4 of those people to start supporting themselves, I think. Like you already mentioned, you can also reassess how you are using the resources you already have. Good luck. Hope the weather holds out for you.

We did find a car that my wife enjoys driving. A 2011 Chevrolet HHR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_HHR The first picture on that site shows what ours looks like. The color name is arctic ice - it looks silvery white. It's in wonderful shape.

The garden: I walked with my wife through the gardens this morning and we are in agreement on reassigning 6 containers for a fall garden. The other 16 containers have plants producing very well and could oversummer where they are at. That means that I can start some true Medovaya Kaplya seeds this weekend, and some others that I have written about in this thread.

maxjohnson · June 28, 2019

I really want to buy those Behlen Country galvanized trough and make them into a self watering container. But thinking about it, the remaining water might ice up over winter and damage the steel, probably not a good idea. Still want to buy it though. I'm doing galvanized raised beds from now on only.

AlittleSalt · June 29, 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxjohnson

I really want to buy those Behlen Country galvanized trough and make them into a self watering container. But thinking about it, the remaining water might ice up over winter and damage the steel, probably not a good idea. Still want to buy it though. I'm doing galvanized raised beds from now on only.

Max, if you have the money and area - try it. Gardening is a learning process.

IronPete · June 29, 2019

Hi all!

I live on the little island of PEI, Canada and we have a pretty short growing season. Most of my plants went into the ground the day before Father's day as we had frost until then. I also live in a townhouse with a deck and too much shade from the cedar hedge that the landlord has converted into a forest through lack of attention. It is what it is. So hopefully the pictures I am trying to add will show my solutions. I have 4 EarthBoxes and ten Self Watering Containers made from 5 gallon/19 liter buckets. I do have 3 cherry tomato plants in the ground (Black cherry, KARMA Pink and KARMA Purple MF) and I grow runner beans and basil in round, 3-gallon raised beds I bought at Dollarama last year. Finally, I have 3 little tubs slightly bigger than wash basins that I grow green and yellow veans as well as Swiss Chard.

In the 4 Earthboxes I have 6 dwarves and 2 reguar tomato plants. The dwarves are New Big Dwarf, Uluru Ochre, Rosella Purple, Dwarf Wild Fred and 2 that were thrown from a yellow heart dwarf a couple of years ago. I also have Taiga from the KARMA project as well as Altaiskij Urozajnij that Bower was kind enough to send me. In the ten 5 gallon SWCs 2 are tomatoes (Kibit's Ukrainian [a personal favorite for sure] and Sophie's Choice) as well as 8 peppers or 4 pepper varieties with 2 of each. They are a red sweet that I got from the grocery store, Jimmy Nardello Sweet Italian Frying peppers, Tolli's Sweet Italian and a couple of hybrid poblanos.

With my beans and chard in tubs the crows keep pecking the tops off of the new ones so I have had to keep replanting them.

I have not yet put a plastic 'curtain' over the tops of the 5 gallon SWCs but will be doing so as it helps keep water from evaporating when July comes with it's intense heat.

Let me know what you think. Thanks;
Pete
PS: credit to Raybo for info on SWCs; to Marsha for her info on fertilizing containers; to Bower and KarenO for seeds; to Craig and Patrina for Dwarves and to the late, great Caroline for so many encouraging messages! And to the rest of you for being my tomato village!

Tomzhawaii · June 30, 2019

Ironpete,
Aloha
I think you are doing well. Most important is that we explore and enjoy. Good or bad, we try...
I noticed your buckets look familiar. Is that similar to Righand style?
Anyhow, you have great projects to keep you busy.
Aloha,
Tom

IronPete · June 30, 2019

Hi Tom and thanks.

I originally saw the 5-gallon SWCs on Youtube and I had been wanting to build some of the SWCs that Raybo kindly put plans for on here. But the cost for the totes here in Canada is a lot higher than they are State-side. Having read Raybo's plans and having watched the videos on Youtube of him building ones I stumbled across a video of a kid making the same sort of thing from a couple of pails. The first few I built I used buckets that I found at the roadside and though this works the buckets often aren't a good fit for each other and need to be held together with bolts to keep the top one from slipping down into the bottom one when the weight of soiless mix, water and vegetation gets too high. This year I upped the number I had by a few and used buckets purchased from Home Depot that all fit each othe very snuggly. I used a 2" water spout as well (they had no more 1" in stock) and found I can hit that with a hose from quite far away so it turns out to be a serendipitous imrovement.

I was also going to make Raybo's Earthtainers but apart from the cost here for the totes I think in a place with a tough winter the totes don't hold up if they have to overwinter out of doors and they will have to do that here. By contrast, in warmer climes, they likely last much longer. So I bought 4 Earthboxes from Amazon that were fairly cheap and am trying them out. They cost me about what the 2 totes for making the Earthtainer would have but they are also much smaller and look like they could get tippy when the plants get big. If I were on land instead of on a deck I could drive stakes to support the tippy sides but that isn't possible so I am trying to imagine up somehow doing that with 1" x 2"s held in place with L brackets. We shall see how that turns out.

With the bucket systems when I grew full sized tomatoes and they got big on hot days they would suck up all the water from the resevoir and then from the soil and would then be top heavy so over they would go. That problem can be partially alleviated with a plastic 'cap' over the top to slow evaporation and partially with stakes but it will never be perfect so I decided to only plant the 2 smaller tomato plants in them and to instead use them mostly for my beloved peppers. Marsha has indicated she grows all sizes of tomato plants in her Earthboxes and having seen the pictures I know this to be true. But when I first got my Earthboxes I was shocked by how small they looked so I decided to mostly run Dwarves in them this year to try them out with only 1 of them having normal indeterminates (the Taiga and the Altaiskij Urozajnij). With Marsha's she had them on ground and used a caging method where she had fencing (with bigger holes that a hand or branch could go through) and I believe that was staked into place meaning that it doubles as support. We shall see. If the taller 2 work out then next year's garden will likely be filled with some taller types of tomatoes that Bower sent me which are mostly early and still taste great. I am really keen to try those and appreciate her having sent them to me. I also got the Altaiskij Urozajnij from her.

An idea I had for how to support my 10 5-gallon jobs was to hit the local construction sites for more buckets and then cut them down to half the size of the current buckets, use L brackets to secure them to the deck and then insert the current buckets into them. I would then have to redrill the overflow holes but I could likely manage that. Hard to say. I love the hobby. Keeps one thinking!
Pete

AlittleSalt · July 1, 2019

I just heard the rest of the summer forecast. Above normal rainfall and below average temperatures. That means it's possible to oversummer tomato plants here this year.

AlittleSalt · July 6, 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronPete

Hi Tom and thanks.

I originally saw the 5-gallon SWCs on Youtube and I had been wanting to build some of the SWCs that Raybo kindly put plans for on here. But the cost for the totes here in Canada is a lot higher than they are State-side. Having read Raybo's plans and having watched the videos on Youtube of him building ones I stumbled across a video of a kid making the same sort of thing from a couple of pails. The first few I built I used buckets that I found at the roadside and though this works the buckets often aren't a good fit for each other and need to be held together with bolts to keep the top one from slipping down into the bottom one when the weight of soiless mix, water and vegetation gets too high. This year I upped the number I had by a few and used buckets purchased from Home Depot that all fit each othe very snuggly. I used a 2" water spout as well (they had no more 1" in stock) and found I can hit that with a hose from quite far away so it turns out to be a serendipitous imrovement.

I was also going to make Raybo's Earthtainers but apart from the cost here for the totes I think in a place with a tough winter the totes don't hold up if they have to overwinter out of doors and they will have to do that here. By contrast, in warmer climes, they likely last much longer. So I bought 4 Earthboxes from Amazon that were fairly cheap and am trying them out. They cost me about what the 2 totes for making the Earthtainer would have but they are also much smaller and look like they could get tippy when the plants get big. If I were on land instead of on a deck I could drive stakes to support the tippy sides but that isn't possible so I am trying to imagine up somehow doing that with 1" x 2"s held in place with L brackets. We shall see how that turns out.

With the bucket systems when I grew full sized tomatoes and they got big on hot days they would suck up all the water from the resevoir and then from the soil and would then be top heavy so over they would go. That problem can be partially alleviated with a plastic 'cap' over the top to slow evaporation and partially with stakes but it will never be perfect so I decided to only plant the 2 smaller tomato plants in them and to instead use them mostly for my beloved peppers. Marsha has indicated she grows all sizes of tomato plants in her Earthboxes and having seen the pictures I know this to be true. But when I first got my Earthboxes I was shocked by how small they looked so I decided to mostly run Dwarves in them this year to try them out with only 1 of them having normal indeterminates (the Taiga and the Altaiskij Urozajnij). With Marsha's she had them on ground and used a caging method where she had fencing (with bigger holes that a hand or branch could go through) and I believe that was staked into place meaning that it doubles as support. We shall see. If the taller 2 work out then next year's garden will likely be filled with some taller types of tomatoes that Bower sent me which are mostly early and still taste great. I am really keen to try those and appreciate her having sent them to me. I also got the Altaiskij Urozajnij from her.

An idea I had for how to support my 10 5-gallon jobs was to hit the local construction sites for more buckets and then cut them down to half the size of the current buckets, use L brackets to secure them to the deck and then insert the current buckets into them. I would then have to redrill the overflow holes but I could likely manage that. Hard to say. I love the hobby. Keeps one thinking!
Pete

I agree, this hobby keeps us thinking - it's what I love about it too.

Shrinkrap · July 6, 2019

Hello @Ironpete!

Your set up looks like mine! We must have some of the same mentors. I got the pea cage and clamp ideas from the EB forum. Or maybe it was Gardenweb-now-Houzz. That's where I ran into Carolyn as well, and I followed her here.

I have peppers (Aji, poblano, and chinenses) in the 5 gallon buckets, and the dwarves are Awesome, Adelaide Festival, Dwarf Beauty King, Brandy Fred, Blazing Beauty, Boronia, Golden Gypsy, Loxton Lad, Rosella Purple and Crimson, Sweet Sue, New Big Dwarf, and Sneaky Sauce and Male Rose.

In years past I've had them on twice a day drip and they still dried out between the two waterings in the peak of the season, when it was often over 95.
This year I've been using the Earth box Automatic Watering System, and a "fertigator" for liqhid fertilizer (thanks all who contributed to my knowledge of feeding in containers).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and added some of these to my collection
GroBucket Garden Kit (10PK) Self Watering sub-irrigated planter insert. Turn any bucket into a Self Watering Container Garden

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They have blown over, and I have had to put cases between them to stabilize them.

AlittleSalt · July 8, 2019

There are so many things to container growing. You really cannot generalize how much each tomato plant needs in the form of water/feeding. Each variety is different, and I knew this from years of gardening out in the soil. However, I chose to grow varieties this year that I have never grown. (Maybe a mistake, but I'm adventurous.)

Cherry tomatoes are more forgiving as long as you don't way overwater them. I am growing a few finicky varieties that cannot take overwatering. It turns out that maybe one of the oldest varieties of cherry sized tomatoes is one of those - Red Pear. It dates back to the US colonial days and maybe even before. As many tomatoes are with overwatering - they become mealy and lose their taste. It's not a bad tomato to grow - I just didn't give it the right attention, and I'm phasing it out. I need the bucket and mix.

I'm learning - it just takes some time. I thought about fall garden tomatoes for almost two months. I finally started seeds yesterday for two varieties that I am very familiar growing. Porter and Medovaya Kaplya. These two come from Texas (Porter) and Russia (Medovaya Kaplya). They have some things in common and some that are not. They are extremely picky about overwatering - don't do it.

Differences:
1. Shape.
2. Leaf type.
3. Color.
4. Taste.
5. Uses.

I need to grow one more variety. A larger one. I've always grown cherry tomatoes and the larger ones took a backseat. Long DTMs scared me away especially after finding out about the RKN and FW3 in the main garden, but that is now 2 years ago. I need to let that go as experience learned.

This year, we planted an heirloom tomato called Rainbow Mix. It's a 90 DTM, and I expected to cull it from past experience, but it is producing and it looks and tastes great. It is on the soft side because I did overwater/feed it. While explaining taste is difficult at best - it is acidic and sweet. Everyone who has tasted it in my family would give it a 10 on the 0-10 scale.

I'm thinking the larger tomato I could start for the fall garden is Big Beef F1. My wife likes tomatoes that are hard as a rock. I can't think of a good one that's hard, but Big Beef F1 has a reputation older than me of tasting wonderful.

Sorry this reply went on for so long. It's only a fragment of my thoughts.

IronPete · July 8, 2019

Hi Salt!
Great reply and great garden! I take it you have given up on tennis? Looks better for tomatoes and peppers anyway.

I really like the pea-cage idea. That may be the solution to a few problems from stability of the pot through support for plants as they get bigger. I will be sourcing some of that shortly!

Your growing season is so very different feom mine. Our recommended day to plant is June 11 but we have had killing frosts as late as June 15th so one needs to be sure. The frost starts it's return in October so a very short season.

Last year everything about my garden was more or less a fail as I transitioned from a nice 30' x 30' patch to containers on a small deck with less than ideal sun. This year I started everything indoors under lights in the first week of April. The peppers really should have been the first week of March so next year I will get that right. I also bought a little portable greenhouse (4' x 4' x 6') and started the plants outside in it in the 2nd last week of May. Onfrosty nights I put a candle in there (the kind that comes in a glass so it can't spill and I sat that on a large tray for safety). Next year I will put them out in the beginning of May).

Planting larger plant-starts into Earthboxes can be a trick. I had to cut larger holes then they show (I made large 'Xs') and I used gorilla tape to close them up when I was done. So far so good.

With the SWCs in the 5 gallon buckets I haven't gotten them covered in plastic yet. In the past I used black garbage bags but black bags aren't sold here on the island and they are no longer allowed to give your groceries in plastic single-use bags. Instead I bought clear garbage bags and some ground cover material that I will cut to shape when I get a day and then install with my trusty gorilla tape!

I am not growing a lot other than peppers and tomatoes but am growing various kinds of beans. I will be starting my bush beans and chard indoors next year as a mouse and various crows keep making short works of the things I plant and replant. I have some yellow bush beans and Fordhook Swiss Chard starting in the dining room window now as I gave up replanting outdoors (aka feeding the critters). All good. It is a great hobby and keeps one thinking. I am always trying to invent a new mousetrap as far as the garden goes. I don't need huge results or anything and even enjoyed last year's not great garden. That said, when you start the process in March and keep at it until October, and when you dump an awful pile of money into it, a handful of beans isn't that satisfying! Unless of course they are magic beans which mine aren't. This year should be much better...

Here's wishing you lots of sun and just the right amount of rain!

Pete

AlittleSalt · July 9, 2019

Again, it's late, but that's when it is finally quiet in my house when I no longer have to answer a zillion young children questions. I don't have to take care of everyone - even though I still am. It's my responsibility - who I am.

Continuing post #566 - I went on about overwatering. I did that with three plants. The Red Pear got some BER. The Rainbow Mix is soft but it's not mealy, and the Indigo Sun splits like Sungold. The rest are doing fine. Fine = growing way too many tomatoes for an extended family of 10+.

I am actually growing too many tomatoes. 9 plants are too many - imagine that.

I started a thread http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...812#post740812 That's a daily pic with exception of the peppers. People actually get tired of tomatoes. I don't remember the last meal we cooked without peppers in it. It's pretty cool

I don't have a gauge or drip whatever - I can't afford it. I use what AKmark told me about and do the best I can with what I have. It's producing a lot of tomatoes and peppers.

I do miss Marsha telling me how I'm doing everything wrong. I wish she wouldn't have given up.

AlittleSalt · July 9, 2019

There was a local charily food place back in the 1990s. I wonder if I could donate peppers and tomatoes there?

Worth1 · July 9, 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

There was a local charily food place back in the 1990s. I wonder if I could donate peppers and tomatoes there?

That many people, 'you should be able to eat them all.

June 30, 2019	#562
IronPete Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Charlottetown, PEI, Canada Posts: 302	Hi Tom and thanks. I originally saw the 5-gallon SWCs on Youtube and I had been wanting to build some of the SWCs that Raybo kindly put plans for on here. But the cost for the totes here in Canada is a lot higher than they are State-side. Having read Raybo's plans and having watched the videos on Youtube of him building ones I stumbled across a video of a kid making the same sort of thing from a couple of pails. The first few I built I used buckets that I found at the roadside and though this works the buckets often aren't a good fit for each other and need to be held together with bolts to keep the top one from slipping down into the bottom one when the weight of soiless mix, water and vegetation gets too high. This year I upped the number I had by a few and used buckets purchased from Home Depot that all fit each othe very snuggly. I used a 2" water spout as well (they had no more 1" in stock) and found I can hit that with a hose from quite far away so it turns out to be a serendipitous imrovement. I was also going to make Raybo's Earthtainers but apart from the cost here for the totes I think in a place with a tough winter the totes don't hold up if they have to overwinter out of doors and they will have to do that here. By contrast, in warmer climes, they likely last much longer. So I bought 4 Earthboxes from Amazon that were fairly cheap and am trying them out. They cost me about what the 2 totes for making the Earthtainer would have but they are also much smaller and look like they could get tippy when the plants get big. If I were on land instead of on a deck I could drive stakes to support the tippy sides but that isn't possible so I am trying to imagine up somehow doing that with 1" x 2"s held in place with L brackets. We shall see how that turns out. With the bucket systems when I grew full sized tomatoes and they got big on hot days they would suck up all the water from the resevoir and then from the soil and would then be top heavy so over they would go. That problem can be partially alleviated with a plastic 'cap' over the top to slow evaporation and partially with stakes but it will never be perfect so I decided to only plant the 2 smaller tomato plants in them and to instead use them mostly for my beloved peppers. Marsha has indicated she grows all sizes of tomato plants in her Earthboxes and having seen the pictures I know this to be true. But when I first got my Earthboxes I was shocked by how small they looked so I decided to mostly run Dwarves in them this year to try them out with only 1 of them having normal indeterminates (the Taiga and the Altaiskij Urozajnij). With Marsha's she had them on ground and used a caging method where she had fencing (with bigger holes that a hand or branch could go through) and I believe that was staked into place meaning that it doubles as support. We shall see. If the taller 2 work out then next year's garden will likely be filled with some taller types of tomatoes that Bower sent me which are mostly early and still taste great. I am really keen to try those and appreciate her having sent them to me. I also got the Altaiskij Urozajnij from her. An idea I had for how to support my 10 5-gallon jobs was to hit the local construction sites for more buckets and then cut them down to half the size of the current buckets, use L brackets to secure them to the deck and then insert the current buckets into them. I would then have to redrill the overflow holes but I could likely manage that. Hard to say. I love the hobby. Keeps one thinking! Pete __________________ Thanks; Iron Pete "We can agree to disagree."

July 8, 2019	#567
IronPete Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Charlottetown, PEI, Canada Posts: 302	Hi Salt! Great reply and great garden! I take it you have given up on tennis? Looks better for tomatoes and peppers anyway. I really like the pea-cage idea. That may be the solution to a few problems from stability of the pot through support for plants as they get bigger. I will be sourcing some of that shortly! Your growing season is so very different feom mine. Our recommended day to plant is June 11 but we have had killing frosts as late as June 15th so one needs to be sure. The frost starts it's return in October so a very short season. Last year everything about my garden was more or less a fail as I transitioned from a nice 30' x 30' patch to containers on a small deck with less than ideal sun. This year I started everything indoors under lights in the first week of April. The peppers really should have been the first week of March so next year I will get that right. I also bought a little portable greenhouse (4' x 4' x 6') and started the plants outside in it in the 2nd last week of May. Onfrosty nights I put a candle in there (the kind that comes in a glass so it can't spill and I sat that on a large tray for safety). Next year I will put them out in the beginning of May). Planting larger plant-starts into Earthboxes can be a trick. I had to cut larger holes then they show (I made large 'Xs') and I used gorilla tape to close them up when I was done. So far so good. With the SWCs in the 5 gallon buckets I haven't gotten them covered in plastic yet. In the past I used black garbage bags but black bags aren't sold here on the island and they are no longer allowed to give your groceries in plastic single-use bags. Instead I bought clear garbage bags and some ground cover material that I will cut to shape when I get a day and then install with my trusty gorilla tape! I am not growing a lot other than peppers and tomatoes but am growing various kinds of beans. I will be starting my bush beans and chard indoors next year as a mouse and various crows keep making short works of the things I plant and replant. I have some yellow bush beans and Fordhook Swiss Chard starting in the dining room window now as I gave up replanting outdoors (aka feeding the critters). All good. It is a great hobby and keeps one thinking. I am always trying to invent a new mousetrap as far as the garden goes. I don't need huge results or anything and even enjoyed last year's not great garden. That said, when you start the process in March and keep at it until October, and when you dump an awful pile of money into it, a handful of beans isn't that satisfying! Unless of course they are magic beans which mine aren't. This year should be much better... Here's wishing you lots of sun and just the right amount of rain! Pete __________________ Thanks; Iron Pete "We can agree to disagree."

June 27, 2019	#556
SueCT Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Connecticut Posts: 1,460	My sister used to live outside Dallas and I have visited Houston, so I have some idea. Hope you find a good deal on a car. Time for 4 of those people to start supporting themselves, I think. Like you already mentioned, you can also reassess how you are using the resources you already have. Good luck. Hope the weather holds out for you.

June 28, 2019	#558
maxjohnson Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: OH 6a Posts: 592	I really want to buy those Behlen Country galvanized trough and make them into a self watering container. But thinking about it, the remaining water might ice up over winter and damage the steel, probably not a good idea. Still want to buy it though. I'm doing galvanized raised beds from now on only.

June 30, 2019	#561
Tomzhawaii Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2017 Location: Honolulu ,Hawaii Posts: 262	Ironpete, Aloha I think you are doing well. Most important is that we explore and enjoy. Good or bad, we try... I noticed your buckets look familiar. Is that similar to Righand style? Anyhow, you have great projects to keep you busy. Aloha, Tom

July 1, 2019	#563
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	I just heard the rest of the summer forecast. Above normal rainfall and below average temperatures. That means it's possible to oversummer tomato plants here this year.

July 8, 2019	#566
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	There are so many things to container growing. You really cannot generalize how much each tomato plant needs in the form of water/feeding. Each variety is different, and I knew this from years of gardening out in the soil. However, I chose to grow varieties this year that I have never grown. (Maybe a mistake, but I'm adventurous.) Cherry tomatoes are more forgiving as long as you don't way overwater them. I am growing a few finicky varieties that cannot take overwatering. It turns out that maybe one of the oldest varieties of cherry sized tomatoes is one of those - Red Pear. It dates back to the US colonial days and maybe even before. As many tomatoes are with overwatering - they become mealy and lose their taste. It's not a bad tomato to grow - I just didn't give it the right attention, and I'm phasing it out. I need the bucket and mix. I'm learning - it just takes some time. I thought about fall garden tomatoes for almost two months. I finally started seeds yesterday for two varieties that I am very familiar growing. Porter and Medovaya Kaplya. These two come from Texas (Porter) and Russia (Medovaya Kaplya). They have some things in common and some that are not. They are extremely picky about overwatering - don't do it. Differences: 1. Shape. 2. Leaf type. 3. Color. 4. Taste. 5. Uses. I need to grow one more variety. A larger one. I've always grown cherry tomatoes and the larger ones took a backseat. Long DTMs scared me away especially after finding out about the RKN and FW3 in the main garden, but that is now 2 years ago. I need to let that go as experience learned. This year, we planted an heirloom tomato called Rainbow Mix. It's a 90 DTM, and I expected to cull it from past experience, but it is producing and it looks and tastes great. It is on the soft side because I did overwater/feed it. While explaining taste is difficult at best - it is acidic and sweet. Everyone who has tasted it in my family would give it a 10 on the 0-10 scale. I'm thinking the larger tomato I could start for the fall garden is Big Beef F1. My wife likes tomatoes that are hard as a rock. I can't think of a good one that's hard, but Big Beef F1 has a reputation older than me of tasting wonderful. Sorry this reply went on for so long. It's only a fragment of my thoughts.

July 9, 2019	#568
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	Again, it's late, but that's when it is finally quiet in my house when I no longer have to answer a zillion young children questions. I don't have to take care of everyone - even though I still am. It's my responsibility - who I am. Continuing post #566 - I went on about overwatering. I did that with three plants. The Red Pear got some BER. The Rainbow Mix is soft but it's not mealy, and the Indigo Sun splits like Sungold. The rest are doing fine. Fine = growing way too many tomatoes for an extended family of 10+. I am actually growing too many tomatoes. 9 plants are too many - imagine that. I started a thread http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...812#post740812 That's a daily pic with exception of the peppers. People actually get tired of tomatoes. I don't remember the last meal we cooked without peppers in it. It's pretty cool I don't have a gauge or drip whatever - I can't afford it. I use what AKmark told me about and do the best I can with what I have. It's producing a lot of tomatoes and peppers. I do miss Marsha telling me how I'm doing everything wrong. I wish she wouldn't have given up.

July 9, 2019	#569
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	There was a local charily food place back in the 1990s. I wonder if I could donate peppers and tomatoes there?