Why are my San Marzano tomatoes still green? They’ve been full sized for about a month.
Good Morning! :-)
Yesterday was canning day! I had accumulated 4 batches of jalapenos in the fridge. With Sally remnants hanging around a bit & 2 inches of rain making the ground soggy, it was a great day to stay inside and do some canning. The 4 batches resulted in 24 jars of beautiful (& tasty!) Jalapeno Pepper Jelly.
This past week, I cleaned out all the sunflower stalks & took down the fencing around two of my raised beds. The only thing in those beds are marigolds so I don't have to worry about the crows raiding. Currently, the crows are more interested in what is falling off the apple tree & what is ripe on the fig bush.
The fall zinnias are really beginning to bloom. Most are solid color, but I have one that I'm really liking ... I think it's called "Candy Cane". I suspect it's a seed that got in the package by mistake; however, I have a whole package of zinnias like these to plant in the spring.
My first hops harvest. The strong dry smokey East winds blew for three days on my short hops plant. I had watered them heavily prior to the winds, knowing I did not want to be outside in the smoke for a couple days.
When the wind stopped there was a two day window before the rains came so I felt I better harvest them. Took the vines in the garage and dried them for a day with my dehumidifier, the air had gotten muggy prior to the rain but the smoke had pretty much cleared from the air.
I snipped each hops bud off with a scissors and put them in a shallow cardboard box. There was a pleasant hops smell to them. I put the box in our convection oven and dried them overnight, checking the temperature not to exceed 135f.
The hops were beautiful and light green with fine aroma. I turned off the oven and closed the door as the air was still humid.
While my Grandson and I were checking out some sporting equipment upstairs, Grandma pre-heated the oven to bake a cake.
Burnt hops smell is awful and stays in the house for days.
So we would like to try growing them ourselves. But, holy moly, browsing through Park's catalog makes it seem so complicated.
Yes, we're rank beginners. Actually we're what beginners were before they became beginners.
So... What is the best short and easy guide to growing tomatoes? Thx!
Last year I purchased an heirloom tomato from QFC (grocery store) and harvested seeds from it.
Just like the heirloom I bought at the farmer’s market in Lake Chelan...I neglected to write down or memorize the type I heirloom tomato.
I planted seeds from both this year.
The chelan heirlooms are delicious and have the interesting shapes you think of when someone says “heirloom tomato”.
The QFC heirloom is delicious. Very delicious! I wish I knew the variety.
When ripe it is a pinkish color...like a pink wine. Super super sweet...medium sized tomato. The wals between the seed pockets is thick enough that when you slice it, the seeds don’t slough out which is great for snacking or in sandwiches.
And they grow in big groups of 6-10 tomatoes all crowded together on the plant.
One downside is the squirrels love to come chew on them when they are almost ripe. I cthought it was field mice but I caught the little devil doing the deed yesterday.
I may have to put out some food for the squirrels to keep em out of my tomatoes.
Any tomato that has been nibbled on I just cut off that part and eat the other half or if too much gnawing has occurred I harvest the seeds. Btw....the seeds themselves are large compared to most other tomato seeds.
These plants are the ones who I had issues with either sun scald or similar. A lot of leaves turned milky white and many stalks were light green with white lines running lengthwise down the branches from. Stalk to branch
I planted tomatoes in containers outdoors, and only got 3 or four tomatoes. So I cut off a healthy looking section of an indeterminate one that was still alive, about 3 weeks ago, stuck it in fresh potting soil and peat moss, in a new planter, and kept it watered. So far I have 2 tomatoes and more flowers forming. I’m going to move it indoors if heavy frost is indicated, but here in NE Oklahoma, we may get a frost, the get up to 70 or 80 the next day, so I’m hoping I can get a good producing plant before it gets cold.
Sorry so late to the thread. I have a good bit of lemon verbena in a pot. It grew very big. It smells heavenly every time I walk past it. Does anyone have any special recipes or ways they use it? I haven’t tried yet, but I’m dying to do something with it.
It was another week of cool and dry weather here in Central Missouri.
Not much going on in the garden right now aside from picking.
We’re still getting plenty of tomatoes. Mrs. Augie collected ~10lbs of kale/collards last week. I need to get in there with the weed whacker and do some cleanup. Won’t be long til it’s time to plant garlic.
I finally got the last of my seed ordered for next year.
I’m just waiting on my garlic to come in so I can get that in the ground.
We’ve had a hard freeze the last 3 nights in a row and expect another one tonight, then it’s going to moderate.
I’m working on my raised beds and getting them set up for next spring. I’ll have two in and I’m looking forward to seeing how they are going to work out.
Amoeba found in soil kills gardener, turns his brain into mushy liquid
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3887098/posts?page=1
Yikes!