Status Updates, everyone...

[Dr_Redwine]

I am curious as to what everyone's growing status is as of now. Here in central Alabama we have had beautiful weather until last weekend when highs have hit the low 90's everyday since.

Taking the advice I have gleaned here about planting early, my March 11 transplants have done well and several are about ready to ripen. I have two Sudduth's that are about 48 inches tall with 10-12 tomatoes each that set in late April. I believe my Cherokee Purple will be the first to ripen for me and they, as we say here, are 'absolutely loaded'. 8)

I have a couple of problem children: one Red Brandywine and one BW Sudduth. They do not look good at all due to early blight (I think) although the RB may have more than one ailment. The Sudduth may can be Daconil-ed back to health, but the RB is surely a goner. The crazy part is that I have identical types adjacent to these that are the best looking of all my plants. Nature, go figure. I have also noticed some yellowing of leaves on the lower portions of some of my others, but not bad yet.

Aphids have been a problem this year. Usually they don't show up this early for me and really wet periods seem to bring them on. Not this year; they are everywhere even though we had a dry spring. I had them in check for a while with Pyrethrin, but I need to get back on that regimen.

Anyhoo, enough ramblin'. I hope ya'll are percolatin' right along in your tomato patch. I'm having a blast...

DrR

[jenn_sc]

DrR,

Your experiences sound EXACTLY like mine. I am in northeastern SC. Our weather has been identical, down to the recent higher temps and rain.

Also, I just discovered aphids on several of my tomatoes. I checked my garden journal from last year and confirmed that it was much later in the summer when they made their '05 appearance I HATE dealing with pests. I went and bought some sort of insecticidal soap spray....and doused them. Unfortunately, the plants I sprayed had dark spots the next day on some of the leaves. I waited until sunset to do it, but perhaps I overdid things a little and gave them soap burn.

Anyway, a good year so far, overall. My Galinas cherry, Green Zebra, Geman Head, and Aunt Ruby's GG are just now setting fruit, and all my other varieties are full of flowers. Plants are all about knee high or a little more and looking good...if I can just keep those aphids at bay!

Good gardening!

Jenn

[nctomatoman]

The good:

All plants are in the ground - 75 tomatoes in my main garden (in the soil), 25 in pots in my driveway...plus 16 eggplant and 50 or so peppers, and basil. Everything looks good; we've managed to escape a few nearby hail storms.

Work left to do:

Lime, fertilize, mulch the garden plants.
Dig the holes and bang in the stakes for both driveway and garden plants - then make the intial tie for those tall enough.
Put up a deer screen around the perimeter of my driveway on two sides to fend off the inevitable deer attack (the electric fence is in place for the main garden).

I suspect another week of work will get me there....then it is record keeping, photographing, etc. time. It is going to be an interesting season - many, many mysteries out there!

First tomato set is on Silvery Fir Tree. Other earlies are blooming - Mexico Midget, Taxi, Kimberly.

The season is underway! Link to my garden spreadsheet is here.

http://nctomatoman.topcities.com/200...6GardenLog.htm

[Tomstrees]

here in NJ I "risked" it and planted on May 4th -
So far ? Thick stems, and healthy new growth -
The days have been pretty good with some raion, cool nights though ... I do have buds that are about to break on my SFT ~ pepper transplants have been in for a week ~ all in all a good spring ~ thats about it so far ~ Tom

[JerryL]

Well, here in SW Ohio I have all my seedlings in, caged and mulched. They have been in for about 2 weeks now. I use CRW cages with a stake tied next to each one for additional support. I have 63 tomato plants this year. Down a little from previous years. I decided to give them more room and see if they were easier to maintain.

I’ve switched from using grass clippings to straw for mulch this year. We’ll see how that works out.

In addition to the tomatoes I have 35 pepper and 10 eggplants. Also some cucumbers, zucchini, snow peas and the usual assortment of herbs. And of course garlic.

The weather is finally starting to get a little warmer and less wet, except for last nights storm, so things should start taking off anytime now.

I’m really looking forward to trying all the new varieties I planted this year.

[Delora]

I only managed to find the time to plant out 3 days ago (almost a month later than I normally plant). Seedlings had nice strong stems and were very vigerous, but were a bit root-bound since they'd been potted up at the beginning of April.

I'll be out of the country for the months of June and July, so I'm hoping hubby doesn't kill anything off while I'm gone I'm only growing 8 tomato and 4 pepper plants this year. 2 each of Druzba, Noir De Crimmee, Sprite and Lime Green Salad.


-Delora

[gardenmama]

Since we only just decided to stay put in the SE VA area for a few years more I hurriedly planted a few weeks ago. 44 different plants of 41 varieties plus a mystery PL volunteer in a pot of overwintered Greek Columnar Basil (I transplanted it into a nice big pot along with the basil) . Kimberly, Sophie's Choice, Lucky Leprechaun, and SunGold all have set fruit. The biggest surprise was that 2 "mid-late season" varieties have also set fruit: Aunt Gertie's Gold and Goliath. Most everything else has beds or open flowers with the exception of those that were planted late (the wispy kids and bi-color bunch).

Here's what's going on: (Don't laugh at the "group names" it actually helps me remember what's planted where.)

Pot Heads:
Bulgarian #7 - planted 5/17, just 8" tall
Sophie's Choice - 1 marble fruit, loads of buds and blooms
Kimberly - 4 large "shooter" size (3-4cm) fruits loads of blooms
Lime Green Salad - Loads of buds, several blooms
Cossack Pineapple - planted 5/17
Lucky Leprechaun - 2 marbles, lots of blooms
New Big Dwarf - just starting to send out buds
Sara's Galapagos - planted 5/17, nice growth so far
Silvery Fir Tree - lots of blooms

Cherryville Row (in homemade EB's)
Black Pearl- buds and blooms, no fruit, staying very compact only 18" tall so far.
Coyote - 1 pea size fruit, 4 other trusses in bud
Cerise- 2 peas, 3 trusses
Golden Pearl - 3 peas, 4 trusses
(?) Rose Quartz Multiflora - showing stringing to new growth, 1 bud cluster but not looking like MF
SunGold - 4 marbles, 3 trusses of buds.
Mexico Midget - 2 trusses of buds
Black Cherry - (twice as tall as Black Pearl) 3 trusses of blooms

Alternating PL/RL Bed
Jeff Davis - 1 open bloom cluster, 1st is a marigold fused bloom
Cherokee Chocolate - beginning to bud
Aunt Gertie's Gold - 3 just set fruits, 2 bloom clusters
Cherokee Purple - 1 bloom cluster
Turkey Chomp - 3 bloom clusters, 1 aborted fruit
Redfield Beauty - 1 bud cluster
Earl's Faux- 2 bud clusters, 1 bloom cluster
Eva Purple Ball - 2 bud clusters

Pasters
San Marzano 1- 1 bud cluster
San Marzano 2- 2 bud clusters
Opalka - 1 bud cluster

Green Gang
Spears Tennessee Green - 2 bud clusters
Aunt Ruby's German Green - 1 mutant bloom (no petals), 1 bud cluster
Grub's Mystery Green - planted small, no buds
Green Giant - planted small, no buds
Cherokee Green - no buds

Wispy Kids
Prue - planted 5/17
Wes - ditto
Mama Leone - ditto
Orange Russian #117 - ditto

Bi-Color Bunch
All planted 5/17 no buds
KBX (yes, it's a solid orange but it needed somewhere to go)
Lucky Cross
Little Lucky
Virginia Sweets

BIG Beefsteaks
Turkey Chomp - 2 bud clusters
Goliath - 1 marble 3 bud clusters
Omar's Lebanese - planted small
Zogola - 1 bud cluster


Now a prayer for patience.......
and would you believe it... I saw a few "scout" squirrels this morning!

[bigcheef]

Hey Dr. R,

Thanks for starting this thread. It’s great to see what everyone has going on, and by the way………. WAR EAGLE! 8)

Well, this being my second season growing heirlooms, I decided to try out all the varieties I had heard so much about on this and the other forum. I chose a couple of hearts, a few cherries, some dwarf’s (including “sleepy” from the dwarf project), and the rest are assorted colors of beefsteaks.

My growing methods are sound, but I’m still making a few mistakes here and there. Probably the one mistake which will have the most impact this year was the decision to till up a section of the back yard. I did this with no planning and at the last minute to add more plants than I had containers for. I ended up putting my in-ground plants in an area that only receives 6-7 hours of direct sun. Already I can see a difference between these plants and the container plants. I feel like as the summer gets hotter and the days get longer, less sun may not be as important as it is now.

In any event, all 36 plants are healthy and blooming. Hopefully I will have some fruit set by next week.

RIK

[Dr_Redwine]

It really is interesting to hear where everyone stands with their planting. My little 19 plants seem like a drop in the bucket compared to some of you!

Jenn- Aphids have really never been bad enough to bother me unitl this year. I didn't realize how hard they are to control until I had to. Man, they are resilient.

nc: I kept up with your near miss with freezing earlier. Glad to hear you got some inthe ground. What did you end up with? 2000 seedlings? I can't imagine it, I really can't.

Jerry: I have a friend from Ohio that went home recently and said it rained every day. Maybe things will straighten out soon for you.

Gandenmama: I didn't laugh at your names. Really, I didn't. But I did smile awfully loudly at a couple. I'm also very interested in Jeff Davis; I understand it was developed in AL and I'd like to know how it does for you. I'm always on the lookout for heat tolerant varieties.

Delora: Give your hubby specific instructions when you leave on what to do and when. On second thought, that wouldn't work with my wife, either.

Tom: I have been known to wait until May to plant a lot of stuff here. Good luck to you.

My little patch has 2 Mule Team, 2 Black Krim, 3 BW (Sudduth's), 3 Cherokee Purple, 2 Giant Belgium, and 3 Red Brandywine that were planted in March. I couldn't stand the thought of waiting until next year for Cuostralee' and Omar's Lebanese, so i ordered seeds at the VERY last minute and ended up with 2 each of those. They were set out in mid-April and are just starting to set fruit now. These were really too small when they went out, but I chanced it. They survived and have grown well.

DrR

[Reign]

I guess I'm the slowest. I've been nursing a bad cold so it has been work 10 minutes, sleep a few hours.

Pot Dwellers have moved into their pots. All the others should make it into the garden over the weekend. If I'm to sick to plant them myself, I'm sure DH will suffer through me talking him through planting. If you don't hear from me next week...he murdered me.

[barkeater]

Planting Day is Sunday and Monday for me. And perfect weather is forecast next week. Highs 75-85, lows 55-60.

Spent almost 3 hours today forming 100' of raised beds, laying out the landscape fabric and burying the sides. The ground finally dried enough after 11 straight days of rain, but storms were predicted overnight again so had to git 'er done. Even took 2 hours off work to finish.

That 100 feet will handle 32 plants. Going back for more weedblock tomorrow, and hope to lay it out and plant the last 10 tomato plants, and 20 hot peppers Monday, among other things.

Monday and Tuesday are the perfect days with the moon in a water sign to sow cukes, zukes and melons, and they'll get the landscape fabric too.

Can't wait!

[SharonS]

My planned planting days are the same--Sunday and Monday. Of course, as usual, I have not planned which toms are going where. Project for tomorrow at work, during my lunch break. garden is 25% larger this year, DH turned it over again yesterday between showers. Am supplying one up-scale restaurant with basil and heirloom toms this year, should help pay for my addiction to trying "too many kinds of tomatoes". I'll probably have a few more in large pots than last year's dozen or so...
Sharon--hoping the rains will cease for a few days...

[Suze]

DrR, good call on planting early. My feeling on the matter is that I can always protect and warm up the soil if necessary (or container plant), but I have no way to take away the heat once it starts. :wink:

I started planting some of mine as early as late Feb, and staggered the bulk of my planting thoughout March 15. A handful of varieties went in a bit later, like GMG pl, Orange-1, Vorlon, etc.

At last count, 79 plants are in, and 63 varieties.

I'm already starting to see a bit of disease -- mostly early blight. That last rain a couple of weeks ago on and off for three days in a row sure didn't help. Plants in containers under the south facing overhang still look fairly pristine, though.

Been picking fruits since April 11, mostly thanks to Kimberly, with a little help from Taxi, Jaune Flammee, Azoychka, and various cherry types. Med/lg fruited ones picked so far include CP, Kosovo, Azoychka, OTV Brandywine...

We also have a variety of basils in (already to the needs pinched stage), a few ground cherries (so far, I'm really enjoying Aunt Molly's and waiting for some fruits from Cossack Pineapple), and several peppers (already had to freeze several).

Hope your season goes well.

[cottonpicker]

Almost too early here in SE PA to report on tomatoes; however, the Chinese (bok choi) cabbages (put in as seedlings) did very well as usual and we're now enjoying an abundance of Romaine lettuce--put in as seedlings-- and direct seeded leaf lettuces for our daily salads. Have a steady supply of
wild Lambsquarter to satisfy my "southern taste" with wild Poke "salet"coming on strong.
Just today I planted KY Wonder Pole beans & Bountiful bush beans. Tomatoes--- Azoychka now has a few small fruit on it but ALL other tomato plants are just putting on buds but looking like very strong, healthy plants. Hoping for a good harvest this year....

GOOD luck to all!!
LarryD

[Dr_Redwine]

Bigcheef, You speak my language... 8)