the season downunder

[Wi-sunflower]

Lena,

If you want to try something with your sick plant, --

take a decent length cutting from reasonably high on the plant. Check to see that the inside of the stem looks "clean".

Stick the cutting deep into a good sized pot of clean or potting soil. Set the whole pot in a pan or keeper type box so you can keep about 2 inches of the pot sitting in water. In a couple of days the cutting should perk up if it's going to at all.

In about a week it should have decent enough roots that you can take the pot out of the water. Then do whatever with the new plant. But I wouldn't put it back in the same spot.

This method will give you a jump-start on another plant. I've done this several time with branches that broke off plants for one reason or another. It works surprizingly well.

[LenaBeanNZ]

Patrina. I meant the seedlings wilted off before they were planted out, when they were only a few weeks old, still in my sunny dining room/ seedling nursery. I was using sieved compost and soil from the yummier parts of the garden as potting mix, plus some commercial potting mix thrown in. Then I changed to a "tomato" potting mix (from The Warehouse) and didnt notice much change. Enough seedlings survived to fill my garden though.

Sunflower. Thanks for the idea. I havent tried taking cuttings off tomato plants, because I always seem to have enough seedlings at hand. I have the results of my 4th (and last! for the season) sowing in pots, ready for transplant in a week or two. Always a few spares hanging around to take the place of casualties, or to go to friends once the danger has passed. The perished Oxheart was one of 5 of its kind, so I dont mind planting a Wes or Ashleigh in its place instead.

Im all for big compost piles. And seaweed. I dont have any chooky stuff unfortunately, but I get alot of wonderful horsey stuff instead. I work for a local gardening company, and manage to bring whole whole trailer loads of green waste and horse manure home though the business. Its great, most of us share the same love for compost and manure, so we happily go the extra mile to bring the goods home to feed our own gardens after the days work is done


I pulled the unfortuntate Oxheart out today, and laid her to rest on the rubbish (not compost) pile. May she rest in peace. Sniff.

So no new tomato in the same place then? How about the plants on either side? Hope and pray.

[tessa]

the weather here is the best it's been since i moved downunder 8 years ago.
the result...
heaps of tomatoes coming in fast!

faux earl's starting to blush today:


stump of the world not as big as i was expecting...but big enough and plentiful too


canadian heart so beautiful...it is captivating my own canadian heart

[Grub]

Great growing, Tess.

This is your year. You ARE driving me nuts.

Your produce is mad as.

Send some over asap.

[Mantis]

cherokee purple, with 12 fruit on this one
Then some Toms Yellow Wonder

[tessa]

wow. looking *great*, manto.
and now i know what to use when the tommies are threatening to break the vine.
they like it girlie.
check.

[Grub]

Maaannntoo,
Serious clusters. Impressive.

[Patrina_Pepperina]

Oh, jealous bigtime, one of your CP's is changing colour!!! Each day mine just get fatter, but still green. Will post a pic of the first one to colour up, hopefuly sometime soon

Today is 80 days since plant out and not a single fruit ripe yet!

PP

[tessa]

you gotta be close, patrina. yeah?

i've had kimberleys, canabec supers, and tomorrow...i'll be having my first 'faux earl's'...so named, cuz the earl's faux that grubs sent me was a cross.
regular leaf.
full report tomorrow.

[tessa]

and so it begins...


i reckon the best way to deal with the dreaded zucchini...is with the BBQ. yum!

more onions than my scales could handle.
these won't go to waste....


and a handful of these tonight with dinner:


but now for the stuff that really interests you folks...

the first canabec super of the year...


ended up like this:


so much nicer than last year's. 7/10.

tonight we had our first faux earl's.
this one is going to have to have a tessie name...cuz it's the best tomato we've had here yet. voted 8.5 by the tomato lover here...and 8 by me. sweet and tart. silky texture. the only draw back to this one was a very thick skin.
i wonder.
is it my conditions that cause the thick skin?





we were actually quite surprised by this tomato...so we dashed out to get a kimberley off the vine for immediate comparison...and we rated the kimberley as still quite nice, almost equally nice, but distinctly different in taste from this mysterious cross.

seeds fermenting as we speak.
this one is gonna be in our garden again. and again. and again and again and again.
thanks grubs. seeds were from you.

[LenaBeanNZ]

Lovely produce Tessa, I am quite envious. My tomatoes are still small and green, and I have only just begun pollinating the first zuchinis and cucumbers earlier this week as the first female blossoms opened. I have a huge old plum tree (dark doris) in my garden, some fruits are starting to show a pink blush. But, like the tomatoes, I will have to wait until mid-late Jan for them to ripen.

[Medbury Gardens]

My first outside tomato "Pink Brandy Wine" ....a bit huckery looking but should taste nice.

[Raymondo]

Wow, all these tomatoes and still a while to go till Xmas. Well done folks.
I've got plenty of flowers but, like last year, it's shaping up to be a cool, wet summer so ripe fruit is a ver long way off. Last many of mine ripened just ahead of the frost.

[Medbury Gardens]

Thanks Ray, boy some of you folks over there have had some rain lately,here its been warmer and much much drier than mormal,i`ve recorded 8 days so far in the 30s for the season,there`s no way i would had a ripe outside tomato by now if it hadn`t have been so.

[tessa]

we're just having our 2nd day over 30C today.

soon everything will be dead!