Knapps Fresh Vegies Seeds

[Wi-sunflower]

I got it last year in a trade.

Frankly I had so many new-to-me varieties that I wasn't able to give them all decent attention. Other than it's a dwarf, I can't tell you much about it.

But here is Tatiania's page on it http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Resista

Carol

[Tania]

Originally Posted by nancyruhl

One of the seeds offered is Resista Dwarf. I googled it and still can't find any information. Do you have any information about this variety?

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Resista

[Wi-sunflower]

Since many of my recent orders have been from TV members, I just wanted to post to say all current orders are in the mail as of Wednesday afternoon. Some of them had been delayed for 2-3 weeks.

I have had an absolutely horrible spring. Besides weather related problems, I had about a month with other greenhouse issues we just couldn't seem to figure out. Most years we "just plant" and everything grows fabulously. While some plants were growing OK, most of my babies were "failing to thrive" if not outright dying. It got so bad right before we figured it out that plants put in pots for plants sales on Friday were dead by Sunday.

We were changing out and trading off just about everything over the month, hoping that something would fix it. I was fussing over everything including thinking I had "heavy handed" workers. But the plants I worked on weren't doing much better than any of the others.

In desperation, I finally took out the Roots concentrate from my water/fertilizer tank. (I use a constant feed week fertilizer mix all the time). Roots is a product I've used for at least 15 years. When it's right, I will often have new growth roots coming out the bottom of my pots in about a week.

But Roots has 2 formulas, a normal and 1 with added iron. I learned the hard way more than 20 years ago (with something else) that small peppers, tomatoes and eggplants seedlings don't do well at all with any iron formula. I ALWAYS check to be sure what I have does NOT have iron added. I bought a new jug this spring and it was about that same time that we started having the issues. I'm convinced that the jug I have is either mislabeled or was filled when they changed formulas without properly flushing the fill lines.

Within 3 days of stopping using the Roots, we saw marked improvement in all our plants but especially hopeful was the fact that we would come back in the morning and the plants from the day before were still ALIVE.

Unfortunately I did lose some of the varieties I was growing for seed production for this fall. MOST of those I do have more seeds, but won't have much if any seed of them for sale next winter. Most of them were not my new-to-me varieties as I held off transplanting those while we were having the problems.

Just a bit of info about what has been happening here at the farm this spring.

It's always something isn't it. Hopefully the rest of the year will go somewhat better.

Carol

[Granite26]

Oh my gosh that is awful! I cant even imagine what you were going thru. All that frustration and you're still sane?
Wow I am glad you got it figured out and are back on track.
Take care over there!
Charles

[Wi-sunflower]

Well for a while it was debatable about the sanity.

It definitely affected my seasonal depression. I'm still a bit "slower" than usual by this time of the year.

Frankly I'm lucky I still have 2 good workers helping me. I nearly fired them both thinking they were careless or just plain had "black thumbs". But then the stuff I was working on was going down too and I had to look for something else as the cause.

Because we are cleaning up the empty flats as we need the space for other plants, I don't know exactly how much we lost, but it was at least 1 flat or more each of between 50 - 75 varieties. At least 3,000 plants. And of course some of our best sellers because we do those first. Last year at this time we had over 140 varieties for sale at the Madison market. This year we are struggling to get it over 100 varieties before the season ends. If it wasn't for our slow start, weather wise, we would have lost the whole market this year.

I need to get a few pics before we clean it all up as I intend to contact the manufacture about their product. I don't expect anything from them other than letting them know that they screwed up and I won't ever use it again.

I will also be reading the threads about Actinovate and other stuff used by members here. Next year something else for my plants.

My experience is also a wake up for others here. No mater how long you have been growing the same way, things CAN go wrong for reasons out of your control. I've been growing for about 30 years and using that product for about 15 of those years. Looking back now on other problem years tho, I wonder how many of those years I may have also gotten that product with a bit of iron or something else that shouldn't have been in there. So just because something was good in the past, with the way things are manufactured these days, (little or no quality control) don't count it out as the source of a problem.

Carol

[mtbigfish]

Carol
Just wanted to let you know I moved in the middle of last season(to Chillicothe Ohio) and didn't plant any of our trades.
How did the Ella's Purple Plum I traded you do?

Hope you get all your problems straigtened out.

Dennis

[tuk50]

I purchased a tomato seed you had labeled (SUSY f3) ... it has performed extremely well here on the Ariz desert ... it tastes very good, has no cracks, no BER, very productive and no sign of any disease... I can't find any thing about its parentage and would like to know if you have any more info on it. .. I planted a row and half of the plants are about 4ft tall and 4ft wide.. the other half is 6ft tall and 4ft wide and the latter group seems to have larger tomatoes/average on them. Both groups are excellent tasting and without blemish. I hope to keep the disease resistance and taste in the seeds saved from this year.
Thanks for any info you have on it!

[Wi-sunflower]

Dennis,

I believe Ella's did OK to good as I have a reasonable amount of seed saved from them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuk,

The Susie is from a tomato a commercial vendor at a flea market we sometimes sell at was selling. They are a commercial produce vendor and were selling most stuff rather cheap except these tomatoes. The seeds came from a couple they pitched. I named it for the label on the box they came in - a 1 layer nested box with the name Susie greenhouse tomatoes.

So its a commercial greenhouse type tomato but what I don't have a clue. I'm glad it's doing well for you.

Carol

[Timbotide]

Carol,

Out of all the Tomato varieties you have seed for which ones, maybe a top 5 list,
consistently produce the largest tomatoes for you?
Thanks for the help.

Tim

[tuk50]

Thanks Carol! It is one of my main croppers from now on. I sliced a few for lunch today and my wife tasted it for the first time and she said WoW! If it passes her taste buds its good enough for me... LOL!

[Wi-sunflower]

Tim,

While I do have seed for and grow out many of the large varieties, I have to admit that consistency has been very lacking the last few years so it would be difficult for me to make such a list.

Partly due to the fact that many of my varieties are new-to-me over the last 3 years, I don't really have a good track record for many of them. Also the weather the last 3 years has been completely different all three years. To complicate matters, this spring I had a contamination problem and killed a whole lot of my best varieties.

Hopefully in the next couple of years I will be able to compile a list if we get some better results.

One variety that has done well for me every year is the BW Sudduth.

Carol

[Timbotide]

Hi Carol,

Thanks for letting me know about the BW Sudduth. I have seed for this variety but for some reason did not grow it but wish I would have.

[raindrops27]

Carol,

Thank you very much for the extra 3 packages of seed. This, is very generous, and kind of you. I am so looking forward to planting season.

Question, as for the ground cherries. I have never grown, or seen them before. So far my research shows, to grow them with a weed blocker, to assist with harvesting.

However, can you tell me, around how tall, and wide, each plant gets. I am finding conflicting info. How many days, to harvest, and how many plants, I should start, if my intended use will be chutney, and or pies?

I've read, to eat them only when ripe. And raw consumption, should be kept to a minimum??Do you find this true?

Thanks again.

[Wi-sunflower]

Sorry for taking so long to answer your questions. It's been crazy around here.

I love the Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries. They can be a bit long to ripen in my area but usually we have them ripe by the middle to end of Aug from planting out the beginning of June. You can eat them less than ripe but the flavor isn't as good. The flavor seems to change from something citrusy to a cherry/pineapple when ripe. They are closely related to tomatillos so there shouldn't be any problem eating them less than fully ripe.

They grow rather low and spread about 2 x 2. I have grown them in a 1 gal pot too tho yield is quite limited then. I usually start them in small cells by putting 2 or 3 seeds in a cell and letting all grow together as they can be rather fussy and brittle when small. But after established outside they will be almost weedy. For enough to have more than just a nibble at a time, I would plant out at least 6 - 10 plants. They can each produce a lot, eventually, but not at first. Wait til they fall off the plant for the best flavor. We don't do the weed blocker but that could help if you can do that.

Carol

[dice]

I grew an Aunt Mollie's Ground Cherry last year in a small, bottomless
container that had fairly rich container media (half compost, plus
a handful of 5-10-10 fertilizer mixed into it, and watered in with fish
emulsion). The plant was a foot tall from top of container to top of
plant, and about 3-4' across: low, flat, wide, with stems strong enough
that they did not trail on the ground.

Tasty (I have four growing this year).