J&L Gardens

[kayrobbins]

Originally Posted by goodwin

It must be a challenge keeping tomatoes going in the Florida heat! Do you try again in the fall? We had a few days in the upper 90's here, but now the afternoon rains are keeping things cooler. I'm picking for market this afternoon and luckily the Ambrosias and Pinks are some of the few cherries that have not been splitting with all the wet weather.
Anyway, Painted Pink should be streaked with the color and not deep blue all over, so this is a bit of a mystery.
Lee

I sure do have a fall garden. My tomatoes usually do better in the fall except for those rare times we actually get any freezing temperatures. I started my seeds yesterday. I am growing your Danube again and trying the Sugar Drop for the first time.

[Ganado]

They are still really beautiful =)

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

[BigVanVader]

Nice cobb house in the back round of that pic Lee! Your tomatoes are awesome as well

[jirkakuta]

Midnight select

[jirkakuta]

Painted Pink - this plant is very different from another Painted Pink plants

[goodwin]

Wow, jirkakuta, that is some leaf roll on the plants! What do you think happened? It looks like environmental stress - heat or root damage.
Lee

[RobinB]

Lee,
I'm sorry to report that I got a rather unfortunate result with the Blue Ambrosia this year. I only had one plant and it produced the worst tasting tomatoes I have ever had. Acidic, but way beyond that. They had a very strange taste and aftertaste. I kept trying them at different stages, but nothing made them better. They were so intensely bad, I pulled the plant in the middle of the season.

The plant was beyond prolific, I've never seen a cherry with so many fruit. The color is weird in this photo from my cel phone.
blue ambrosia-plant.jpg

The first fruit were shaded and didn't have any blue. As you can see, most were kind of bumby and slightly oblate and most were on the large side, around 1 oz.
blue ambrosia-inhand.jpg

Later, the fruit that got sun did get a bit of blue on their shoulders.
blue ambrosia-onvine.jpg

I had one other plant that I put in my new greenhouse. It had completely different looking fruit, smaller and round and more blue. Unfortunately, the plant didn't make it and died when our power went out during a freak snowstorm. It got too cold in there, so we'll never know what might have happened with that one.

[goodwin]

Hi Robin,

Thanks for the report, though it sounds like a very unfortunate experience. The most likely explanation is a crossed seed from one of the wild species I was working with. The wild ones are often oddly flavored.
The sheer number of fruit might point to that sort of cross because there would be a lot of hybrid vigor.
It would be ironic if after working for years to finally make successful crosses to something like Solanum corneliomulleri, an accidental cross would pop up. In any case, though, it was not what you wanted or expected. My apologies.

Lee

[goodwin]

Hello everyone -

I retired from teaching last year and was able to gather seed from a number of new varieties. My wife claims I left the workplace only to join the vegetable kingdom.
In any case, there is seed available for more than three dozen new tomatoes, most of which are quite rare. I also added more native corns, chile and beans.
If there is anything you would like to sample, I would be happy to send it or exchange for other seed. There are more than 250 varieties now in the catalog, so maybe my wife is right.
In Northern New Mexico the snow has begun piling up in the mountains and it looks and feels like winter. I can take a little break.
I hope you all are able to relax with friends and family over the holidays. Spring will be here soon enough!
Lee

[Desert Jonathan]

"......................Spring will be here soon enough! "

Good attitude Lee, I like it.

[goodwin]

Thanks - it's good to get a break from the field work once the harvest is finished and winter sets in. There is still plenty to be done, but it is nice to slow down a bit, not worry about the weather or the crops, and just enjoy the season.

[goodwin]

Here are photos for some of the new seeds I have. I've been fortunate to find a number with the help of people who have become good friends. I'm very grateful to Dmitry Shlenov from Russia, Jean-Pierre Pillois from Belgium, and Martin Kohutec from Slovakia who sent me seed for some remarkable tomatoes over the past several years.
I'm also fortunate to live in Northern New Mexico where there is a long tradition of agriculture and whose people have kept the old varieties alive. We're all lucky there is such a remarkable diversity of crops available to grow and enjoy.

Lee

[Desert Jonathan]

Nice looking fruit. Bet they'll make a great Sammich.

-Jonathan.

[goodwin]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here is a list of what we added to the catalog for 2016. I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve. We actually managed to stay up until 12:00 and ring in the New Year - so we are off to a good start!
Tomatoes
Albertovske Zlute
Ananas Noire (original from Belgium)
Ancienne Belge
Auria/Zabata
Bandelier (J&L trial)
Bandny
Beauty King
Belle de Toggenburg
Bibi Cherry tomato
Black Pepper tomato
Black Strawberry (J&L experimental)
Buratino
Caspian Pink (Kaspiyskiy Rozovyi)
Cesu Agrais
Chudo Zemli (Wonder of the World)
Coeur de Boeuf Orange
Fater Rein (Vater Rhein)
Getman Mazepa
Giant Italian Paste
Glorie de Malines
Gobstopper
Green Apple
Grushovka
Krainiy Sever
Longhorn (J&L trial)
Lucinda
Marilyn's Best
Markham Magnat
Marvel Striped
Merveille des Serres
Mini Mexico
Moya Noire
Myrium
Novikov's Giant
Orangvoe Serdtse
Pink Champagne Cherry
Pokoritel Serdets (Conqueror of Hearts)
Pum Rim
Reina
Rouge de Namur
Sabelka
Serdtse Ashkhabada (Heart of Ashkhabad)
Shokoladnyi (Chocolate)
Silvoryi (green-when-ripe)
Sladkoezhka (cherry tomato)
Striped Sweetheart
Tonnelet (striped tomato)
Valdo (pear tomato)
Wild Cross (J&L grafting rootstock, improved)
Wessel's Purple Pride
Zlatava
Zolotaya Kanareyka (Golden Canary)


Peppers and Chile
Black Pearl (ornamental, hot)
Dedo de Moca (mild)
Habenero de Arbol (hot)
Jimmy Nardello
Nambe Chile (from Nambe Pueblo)
Pasilla Pepper
Pimenta Biquinho (Little Beak Pepper)
Red Dragon Cayenne (hot)
Shi★★★★o Pepper (mild)


Corn
Glass Gem corn
Hopi Glass corn
Kaleidoscope popcorn (Cherokee)
Mexican Rose (for posole)
Moss Rock dent corn (J&L new)
Rainbow sweet corn (J&L selection)
Zola's (new OP ultrasweet corn, J&L trial)


Beans
Anazazi Beans
Rose's Concho Bean (very rare)
Succotash - unusual bean
Tecuigalpa Slippery Silks


Other
Job's Tears

[Jaymato]

I've ordered from J&L twice this year, Lee was very kind and helpful, and the bonuses they give w/ purchase will likely be as good as anything you order! They have one of the best selections of varieties, and many exclusive offerings. Their website is one of my favorite to visit.