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Posted on 07/10/2009 3:59:55 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning to all of you gardeners. Toward the end of last weeks Gardening Thread there was a short discussion about saving Heirloom Tomato seeds. Many of you might have missed the information so I thought I would start this weeks thread on that topic.
Well, it looks like they are starting to tassel out which means (someone might need to correct me) that the stalk will quit growing and use further nutrient to grow the fruit. The tassels start to grow before the silks appear so that they will be fully developed in time to fertilize the silks. Each silk goes to one kernel and it's my understanding that if the silk is not fertilized there won't be a kernel for that particular silk . This is my first year for corn and I'm still learning.
When I worked for Seed Savers, I met Jeavons on a few ocassions. He was a nice enough guy, but had a mid-life crisis and ditched his original wife and kids for a young honey.
I met him after the dust had settled, but here was this nearly 70 year old guy with a toddler in tow, LOL!
Good luck with THAT, Grandpa. ;)
Never heard of Chadwick, but I’ll check him out. :)
WOW!
Very interesting! LOL
But hopefully all that double digging kept him in shape at 70. I tried to meet Jeavons in Norhern California in 1985 but just missed finding his place
I’ve long said she is too smart for MY own good. LOL
Goofy garden story.
I have this neat hand too which has both a hoe and 3prong cultivator, but part of the handle had snapped off. I still use it anyway. The other day I grabbed it out of the planter it was sitting in and didn’t realize that handle was full of mud, really liquidy mud/muck. Needless to say, it went all over me.
That was amusing in and of itself, but I was alone so no biggie. I did what I was going to do and then was sitting reading when one of the kittens jumped up on me and proceeded to scratch the heck out of my wrist. The little brat dislodged a scab from a previous similar attack and so just as hubby comes home I’ve got blood leaking down my arm.
He totally freaked out because he saw the blood and immediately thought all of the mud from the hand tool was also blood. Poor guy. I didn’t realize what a sight I was until I took a gander in the mirror -— I had somehow gotten both blood and mud on my face and didn’t realize it :)
My favorite blueberry patch uses bird netting to ward off them off...we pick under the nets with no airborne competition...sweet!
...not as weird as upper 40's in July. Geez...
I will be trying heirloom tomatos next year along with trying the seed saving fermentation process (my wife is just going to love that)! Varieties I am looking at are Omar’s Lebanese, Black Cherry, Stupice, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Tasmanian Blushing Yellow, Speckled Roman and one or more of the Brandywine varieties. If anyone has a favorite heirloom variety be sure to let me know so I can possibly give it a try! My list is a mix of early and late maturing since frost can be a problem up here at the Colorado Rockies zone 4 location of Casa MtnClimber. It is still dropping to the low 40’s many nights. I have some big floor-to-ceiling windows facing south and west so I can start early indoors. One of my indoor tomato starts this year did very well while others just stayed about 1-inch tall. I have to figure out what was different.
Ditto...plants grown from last year's saved seeds are flourishing, and setting loads of fruit. This is the year where I am going to be taught how to enjoy a tomato sandwich in a pita pocket.
Nobody said food production was gonna be easy, LOL!
Do you have those huge fields of tomatoes around you this season? We have 700 acres of Sweet Corn; praise the luck! :)
That all depends upon where you're located. LOL!
It's barely 80 right now, when normally it would be closer to, if not over 90.
As I said, I'm not complaining, not in the least. But if it were dropping into the 40s overnight, yeah I'd be complaining :)
As always. but it's no where near harvest time yet, even for the earliest of the crops put in. Never fear when harvesting begins I will once again get on my high horse about the wanton waste promulgated by the corporate farming interests.
You need some chickens to glean those fields for ya!
Please add me to the ping list. Thanks!
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Wow I wonder what the comment in #96 was? - I mean this is just a gardening chat thread.
I tried the Brandywine my first year gardening. It was the pink variety. It did ok had a strange “U” type shape but was good tasting. It did not like the heat where I live and of course I had no idea what I was doing which is probably one reason why it did not do well.
I noticed you were on the TX message board talking about gardening. You may check here as well.
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