Ok, so good lead into a momentary textile thread slide!
Posted on 07/23/2022 5:37:13 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
I don’t remove suckers either so you are not the only “sucker for suckers” LOL!
Yes you talked about celtuce awhile back. I had never heard of it before. Interesting!
My tomatoes, the bulk of the sauce ones, are now a light yellow. Those are the determinate ones.
The indeterminates are at various stages of ripening.
I’m keeping an eye on the garlic as I figure if I let it go more than two days, I’ll miss prime harvesting time.
Tomorrow is supposed to be very hot and thunderstorms evening and into Monday, when the temperatures will moderate. I expect to start needing to harvest stuff by Tues, I’m guessing.
I will give the soil a chance to be picked over by the birds, We have a few that are almost living in the garden. Like it’s their personal smorgasbord. I saw a hummingbird as my tomato plants yesterday. He was picking up a meal. I have NEVER seen that before. I need to find some more hummingbird attracting plants.
I would make a jam and either can or freeze small batches. Fig preserves with cream cheese on crackers, mmmmmmmm.
This is my first year deliberately growing determinates. I gritted my teeth and pruned them. Mostly I took off suckers that weren’t even flowering yet, although a few got inadvertently trimmed. The plants look very healthy and an heirloom variety I tried called Old Brooks.
https://www.totallytomato.com/product/T00518/88
They are every bit as good looking as the pictures. Don’t know about the taste. They need to ripen first.
But it does look like the pruning helped the plants. It’s supposed to give you bigger and better quality fruits instead of lots of small stuff.
I did a little ‘pruning’ - cut off everything low that was not flowering & a few further up that were nothing but leaves. Between that and finding at least 5 hornworms thus far, my plants are looking really good and are loaded with tomatoes.
The Sungold has gone ballistic ... taken over the 4 x 8 raised bed and is spilling out all over - I’ve even cut a few branches off to keep it out of my fencing.
Send them here! Seriously, though I am in MA, would these grow in central Fl.? What kind are they?
Ok, so good lead into a momentary textile thread slide!
That is SO beautiful - I LOVE It!!
https://www.mckaynursery.com/canadice-grape
That is a great looking rose!
We’re at 102 now with a high of 103 expected. 102, 103 same difference.
Heck of a year to try and get serious about growing. Started getting close to 100 in May. That pretty much finished the cold weather crops whether they were ready or not.
Now I’m just keeping the tomatoes alive but they’re in a state of suspended animation. Blossom drop. Green maters not growing or ripening. Vines are still growing and I’m pruning suckers all the time and also pruning down low to reduce leaf area so they don’t suck up so much heat.
I was told here once it cools down, they’ll start producing again. I figure mid September. LOL By that time, the vines might be 20 foot long. Probably a good thing I went with lean and lower trellis system.
I started six varieties to choose 1-2 from that I like the best to grow again next year. I’ve gotten a dozen Barry’s yellow cherry, one yellow pear and one chadwick cherry but I don’t think it was quite ripe. All I really know so far is the Barry’s are ok tasting and do better than the rest in the heat. Yellow pear has more flavor and does half way decent in the heat. Tappy’s and Brandywine red slicers, not so good in the heat. The other two cherries, plants look ok with the heat but all green maters that won’t ripen in the heat and those maters have been like that for over a month. All new blossoms drop.
Will be cooling down after another day of 100 and then I’ll fertilize them to give them a boost. Watered two days ago and will water tonight. Not watering a whole lot. Just enough. Don’t want to have tomatoes start splitting or start getting blossom end rot. I’m mulched so twice a week watering will be fine after the cool down.
Growing a whole lot of nothing this year. At least I started a ton of things from seed for the first time. Started over 20 different things, 6 each of most. Many were things I’ve never tried and most of those, I didn’t like. A few things I do like and would have grown were it not for the early heat wave but didn’t.
Also started four types of pepper plants but killed them and had to start them again. Between that and the heat, I’ve been able to taste one shisito that probably wasn’t quite ready but ready enough. Will be growing more of those and I might get some started asap and do them in pots.
Green that have mild pink interior. Turns. Brown when past ripe. Figs are new to me.
We got lucky & are having some cloud cover coming/going - 97-98 with a heat index of 102. The breeze is starting up so that will help suck what moisture is left out of the plants (except the weeds -doing just great!).
Trying not to overwater the tomatoes, but they looked pretty parched today & hadn’t been watered in a couple of days, so I did a heavier watering. By the time I finished all the beds, the tomatoes actually looked a little better & the wilty cukes were perking up.
Tomatoes don’t set fruit when it’s in the 90’s. As soon as a tomato shows any ‘blush’ of color, I pick and bring them indoors. They ripen beautifully on the counter & I don’t have to worry about bugs, birds or anything else getting to them.
The two Home Depot jalapenos are doing great - blooming & growing some peppers. My Lowe’s pepper (had 2, one died) is actually starting to look pretty good after being resurrected from yellowing leaves & almost total wilted collapse with lots of water, some organic fertilizer & shade from the afternoon sun. I’ve been letting it get more sun gradually & finally took the shade off today .... I’ll see how it looks tonight to determine if I still need to shade it some. No blooms yet - no idea what variety ... Lowe’s plants weren’t marked other than ‘hot pepper jalapeno’. The variety I wanted to grow were Jalafuegos - got 4 nice seedlings & they died within a week of going in the garden - too small, despite being protected/shaded ... maybe better luck next year with them. The Lowe’s/Home Depot plants were a desperation buy since I didn’t have time to try again with seeds. I’m really craving a batch of jalapeno poppers, but not close to having enough yet.
Yeah, got a breeze here too and it's like standing in front of the oven as the heat rolls out. NWS actually says 103 with heat index of 101 right now. LOL
As soon as a tomato shows any ‘blush’ of color, I pick and bring them indoors.
I just topped off all the animals' water and looked at the maters and I swear, they lost color since yesterday and went back towards green. I may yank some in the morning and let them ripen indoors.
I've got some tiny Pumpkin Spice Jalapenos and hopefully they'll take off with cooler weather coming, if that cooler weather lasts. I'm fine with the heat level of jalapeno but have never liked the taste but I guess these pumpkin spice have a different flavor profile. "Fruity" according to rareseeds. I've got one Kalugarista pepper plant and I'm anxious to try them. Pretty rare so there's not much info out there on them.
I'll be getting some shade cloth to have on hand for future years. Summers have been pretty mild for the last ten years here so I didn't think about it.
Awesome quilt!!!!
I’ll take a long warm fall here in NH.
Once winter settles in, we kind of go into semi-hibernation so the longer the nice weather, the better.
Zone 9 on the mid Texas coast. Was going to do a small garden with tomatoes, peppers and sweet potatoes. Wife wanted to go bigger some we did some other things. The weather went from cool to hot and dry really quick. Should have stayed with Celebrity tomatoes but wife went with other types which have not done so well. Does not help that I did not feel like putting up shade cloth. Okra got eaten by some bugs early and have not tried to replant but still can. Have a 2 year plus old Jalapeno that is still producing very well. One thing I have noticed is that older Jalapenos (with hot weather) produce smaller fruit. Ordered pepper plants from Burpee, some have not done well, but what I thought would be an Ancho type is smaller than Ancho but is producing what would be very large type Jalapeno with very mild flavor like crazy even with the heat. Those peppers have been a good addition to many dishes. Finally I tried growing Tobacco again. Tried it in Central Texas years ago a time or two and it died just after seedling stage. Ordered 3 types of seed. The Jasmine flowering type died at seedling, the Tennessee Redleaf and Dominican Oro are going gangbusters. I smoke but don’t have any real hope of curing it just wanted to grow tobacco for the historical context. Waiting for it to maybe flower.
I was desperate for shade cloth earlier this year & there was none to be had locally - had to order it. I was able to borrow some from my SIL for about a week to get through a hot spell in May (98-99!) - tomatoes were only in the ground 6 days & I didn’t want them broiling in the heat. They did fine with shade & lots of water.
It is SO hot here, I think I could make roasted tomatoes by taking a metal cookie tray outside, picking some Sungolds, mixing up with olive oil/salt & leaving them out a while. The tomatoes are already very warm when picked off the vine & that metal cookie tray would heat up in a hurry (ha ha). :-)
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