Spent a few hours yesterday sitting in and working on the garden. I should have pulled my three almost ripe tomatoes off the vines Fri when I got home because two of them have split from a bunch of rain we got Fri and Fri night.
They’re the Red Deuce I got from the Amish and it’s turned into quite the experiment. They’re determinate. All had flowers when I got them but were short plants and not really big enough to be producing.
This one plant I pulled the nearly ripe tomatoes off of has no more flowers or maters. It’s still short and kind of yellow. I think it’s done.
One plant I pulled the flowers off of right off the bat is now the biggest of the three, nice dark green, has 12 maters and at least a dozen flowers. I’ll probably get 25+ maters from it.
The third plant I pulled three maters off when they were mid sized and green. It grew and got nice color, made more flowers and has half a dozen baby maters and will probably give me 10 maters. It’s not near as big as the one I pulled flowers off of early.
Lesson learned; let those determinate mater plants get big before letting them make maters. I do plan on growing paste tomatoes at some point and those are pretty much all determinate and imho, determinate are preferred for paste maters.
One of my Chadwick Cherry vines is a good 8 foot long and has plenty of clusters. Another is right behind it and a couple of Tappy’s Heritage are also doing really good. Chadwick and Tappy’s is all I started from seed this year. Not too much though because I like my disease free nightshades.
I bought four tomato plants from Lowes that were on sale 4 for $12. Regular price for 4 inch pots was $7.99 and what they put on sale were small plants people passed over. They all took off pretty well.
One is a Black Cherry which I tried to grow from seed several years ago but didn’t have heat mats or grow lights so they didn’t do well. Maters are forming and I’m excited to be able to finally taste a Black Cherry.
Another one is a Cherokee Purple so likewise, excited to try.
One is Early Girl but definitely won’t be early. Just now getting a few flowers.
The fourth one, the plant marker seems to have disappeared and for the life of me, I don’t remember what it is so those will be a surprise. I’m thinking yellow maters. Hopefully Sungold.
Gave my neighbor one of the Red Deuce and two plants I started from seed, plus he bought some. He’s just about managed to kill most of them off and the rest aren’t doing well in his bare soil that’s never been amended. He relies on chemical powders and sprays and evidently his math was off when he mixed something this year. Most of his garden looks like he sprayed them with RoundUp or something. Luckily he didn’t put anything on the Chadwick and Tappy’s I gave him.
Couple of pole type beans are doing decent but the rest are tiny. I don’t think they like my 5-5.5 pH soil. The Dragon’s Tongue are the ones doing decent and have a few purple flowers.
Shisito plants look better than the ones I grew last year. Did them in a raised bed with store bought organic raised bed soil. Got some peppers that are almost ready to pick and more on the way. Hopefully I’ll get a lot because that soil was $45. I was thinking it was $7/bag or something but it was $11 and I got four of them.
We went from drought to having thunderstorms and heavy rain. Can’t wait to get under plastic. I had a lot of split maters last year from the same weather pattern. Definitely going to lime the big garden and high tunnel area.
Yep. One of the hardest gardening chores is to pull those blooms off of not-big-enough tomato and pepper plants! Been there, done that many times.
I’m growing a good share of Determinate tomatoes this season...I go back and forth. I HAVE to have my ‘Chef’s Choice’ colorful tomatoes, though those plants turn into monsters by the end of the season - you need a machete to get in that row, LOL!
This upcoming week my tomatoes and peppers are getting a top dressing of bone meal, and their usual fertilization. Having that fresh compost tilled in is making a huge difference in QUALITY this season. I may do that every 2 years now, versus waiting 3 years. I find with the raised beds and all the straw mulch, my soil quality really keeps from year to year.