"The Big Broadcast" Live Sunday 10/30 7-11pm est

WAMU ^ | 10/30/16 | Murray Horwitz

[Viking2002]

LOL I'll be old-school until they throw dirt on my box. Yes, it's laborious and time-consuming, but like gardening and landscaping, I like to enjoy the fruit of my labors that way. We're still picking tomatoes and peppers down here. We had two days of fall, and it went right back to June. Last night, we fixed a thin-crust spinach and mushroom pizza that I topped with thin slices of a vine-ripe tomato the size of a baseball we'd picked hours earlier. And it was guuuuuuud. Mmmmm.

[logitech]

Prison justice is a b!tch... and final.

[Vision]

Huh? I'm thinking a post about grills was posted on a Clinton thread.

[Vision]

My plants are still producing but are slowing down. The cherry tomatoes skins are cracking, any idea why?

[logitech]

Happy Halloween! Not as scary as your place...butt close

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI08582Ubbk

[Viking2002]

Are they still green? We've been picking cherry tomatoes by the handful, even this late. Dry heat can do that, even if you still water them well. We've been in what they call an 'exceptional' drought down here, but since the heat has backed off some, our remaining plants are more productive than they were back in August. In fact, Connie's been freezing them by the pint. We've been slicing and freezing the green peppers that are still coming in. And I've probably gotten a few dozen pimento, jalapeno, and habanero peppers in the last few weeks that I've been freezing. I am a hot sauce nut, and I plan on getting out the vinegar, garlic, and a few other ingredients about February and trying my hand at making some.

[WXRGina]

Happy Halloween, Guys! I checked out last night and didn’t “sign off.” I hope you both have a good week.

[Viking2002]

Gina, I don’t ‘sign off’, I doze off. I gotta be me. LOL

[WXRGina]

HAHAHA!!! I like that way better. :-)

[Vision]

No, they seem to crack as soon as they are ripe. I'll think I have 10+ ripe tomatoes and 8 are cracked. It's really frustrating. I used tomato tone for fertilizer. Haven't been able to figure it out.

[Vision]

Happy Halloween Gina.

[Viking2002]

Yeah, I looked that up a few years ago. I read where it happens when there's a fluctuation in the amount of water the plants get. If they get too dry, then they suddenly get over-watered (like in a heavy storm), they can crack along the sides or up around the stem. They suck up all that water and split open. Doesn't affect the flavor, but it's an eyesore. Here, we have all of the containered stuff on the patio, and the field plot on the back forty. We have a whole irrigation system set up with diverters, multi-connection splitters, etc., plus the previous owner had an entire underground irrigation system buried because they ran a greenhouse/nursery from here. We have a timer hooked to the main valve, so we just turn the water on once in the early evening, and walk away. Works out good, and it keeps the soil nice and moist all season. The only time we don't use it is after a rain. Next year, we're going full-on Green Acres around here since my health as gotten a little better. Our over-winter projects include starting dwarf citrus from seed (Key lime, lemon, Mandarin orange), some Canary Island date palm and Washingtonian palm seed, dwarf red apple, and I got my hot hands on some seeds for Kona coffee bean trees. Throw in two fish tanks and five cats, and it's a regular rainforest around here. We like it like that.

[Vision]

Thanks Viking, that's exactly what's happening. Meh, what a headache to keep them evenly watered.