Tomato and Variety Update

Cherokee Purple tomato. I love the hairy stems and flowers, so interesting.

These might be Jersey Giant blossoms

Yoder's German Yellow cascade of tomato flowers

Brandywine tomato blossom 

Might this be a Pruden's Purple tomato plant with its potato leaves?

The potato leaves of Pink Brandywine are so different than regular tomato leaves.

It looks like a Pruden’s Purple tomato plant may have sprouted in a pot that was already growing asparagus. Along with Pink Brandywine it is the only other potato leaved variety that I grew and the leaves are tinged a pretty purplish black along the margins. That means I have all 25 varieties of tomatoes planted in the garden. And now I can do a true taste comparison between them. They should be all open pollinated heirlooms except for the cherry tomato. A lot of these tomatoes I grew in 2013 but by the end of summer I was too pregnant to bend over the tomato fencing to get at them. And my husband is fast and furious when it comes to picking vegetables, so there was no keeping track of varieties.

We're planning on making lots of tomato sauce this year but it looks like Jersey Giant is the only paste tomato, I must have gotten San Marzano Lungo No. 2 mixed up with Ingegnoli Gigante Liscio.

The 6 black tomatoes we are trialing:
Black from Tula
Black Krim
Cherokee Purple
Paul Robeson
Pruden’s Purple
Purple Calabash

Green tomatoes:
Big Zebra
Aunt Ruby’s German Green

Yellow/orange tomatoes:
Djena Lee’s Golden Girl
Golden King of Siberia
Jubilee
Kellogg’s Breakfast
Pilcer Vesy
Yoder’s German Yellow – from a gardening buddy

Multi-colored tomatoes:
Ananas Noire
Big Rainbow
Hillbilly Flame
Pink Berkley Tie-Dye

Pink tomatoes:
Pink Brandywine
Granny Cantrell

Red tomatoes:
Costoluto Genovese
Ingegnoli Gigante Liscio
Jersey Giant paste tomato
Pantano Romensco
Red Brandywine

And one cherry tomato:
Red Grape F1 hybrid

All the tomato plants have flowers on them except for little Pruden’s Purple, and even a few have opened up and blossomed like Cherokee Purple, Yoder’s German Yellow, and both Pink and Red Brandywines. It is just about time to get their trellises up.

And I noticed something wonderful today, the peppers are just starting to form flowers. Summer really is just around the corner.

Unending Rain

 A few rows of bush beans are up, but there's spotty germination and limas on the right are missing.

 Those dull black specks are flea beetles. Some of the eggplants are completely shredded.

On the far end of the broccoli bed dog prints have been found and leaves broken off. 

So much rain. Unending days of rain. The ground is a soggy mess. I haven't been able to do much of anything in the garden except tiptoe around the edges and snap a few pictures. At least the bush green beans are up. Although the germination was very very spotty in some rows and nonexistent when it comes to the lima beans.

It actually started raining while I was out seeding the last bed on May 15th with cucumbers, bitter melon, luffa, Delicata squash, and melons. The pole beans will just have to be planted at a later date, and I couldn't find the seed packet for the Papaya squash. Ah well. Eventually the bed will get trellised.

Hardly any of the Pinkeye Purple Hull summer peas have emerged, so I will probably be replanting the bed with some fast growing gai lan and some yu choy. Once the gai lan and yu choy are finished the bed will be planted in Brussels sprouts.

The Catskills and Brawny Brussels sprouts seed packets say 90 days to maturation, which sounds crazy to me. Doesn't it take like 5 months or more to get Brussels sprouts?

Flea beetles are everywhere. They're decimating the eggplants, the smaller plants now have leaves that are see-through. And they've started eating the tomato plants. The rain means I can't keep the plants dusted with diatomaceous earth, so I'll probably have to figure something else out.

Tomato Blossoms in May

Just about all the tomato plants have flowers. The plants are looking healthy and robust even with flea beetle damage. I had been keeping the eggplants dusted with diatomaceous earth but it looks like the flea beetles have started to include tomato plants in their diet.

 Costoluto Genovese flowering, lower leaves have holes from flea beetles.

 Jersey Giant tomato blossoms.

 Tomatoes settling in after being planted out May 7th.

Only two tomato plants are without blossoms, one Jubilee plant that had been attacked by birds and a Hillbilly Flame plant that was just planted on Friday, May 15th. We just might be eating ripe tomatoes by the end of June or beginning of July.

Eventually the tomato plants will be supported by being sandwiched between rows of fencing. Supported plants usually produce more tomatoes than those allowed to sprawl on the ground. The beds are 3 feet apart with rows 2 feet apart and 1.5 feet between plants within a row.

Garden Tilled, Go!

50 tomato plants out of 23 varieties were planted in three rows, the Prudens Purple plant perished in a terrible accident. Plants were seeded just 42 days prior.

A row of tomatoes sharing a bed with 15 eggplants. Eggplants take a couple weeks to germinate but they size up quickly once they get their true leaves.

Sweet peppers and the mildly hot Poblano pepper.

Di Cicco, Waltham, and Summer Purple broccoli. Di Cicco are the smallest plants of the three varieties. Leeks will be sharing the broccoli bed.

In the middle are 3 beds seeded with bush green beans, bush limas, Purple Hull Pinkeye summer peas, and summer squash.

The empty bed next to the tomatoes will have a trellis for cucumbers, pole beans, luffa, bitter melon, Delicata squash, and Papaya squash.

The garden is finally tilled on May 4th! Yayyyyy! And now the planting and watching things grow.

A few people raise rabbits around here, so rabbit manure is available for free if you shovel it yourself or $5 per 50 pound bag. And our city provides mulch for $5 a truckload and compost for $15 a truckload. A truckload ranges between 1000-2000 pounds depending on who is working the front end loader, but they're usually a bit more generous with the more expensive compost.

The new garden space was amended with 500 pounds of composted rabbit poop, and it will be mulched with 2000 pounds of compost.

On May 7th the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers were planted out. And then on May 8th the broccoli was planted out, and the bush beans and Pinkeye Purple Hull peas and summer squash were seeded. It started raining while I was planting the broccoli bed and then proceeded to rain for 3 days. Hopefully the beans don't end up rotting in the ground.

The leeks still need to be planted in the broccoli bed, and the last bed still needs to be trellised and seeded. Then the whole garden can be mulched. The flea beetles are already starting to decimate the eggplant leaves, so I dusted them with food grade diatomaceous earth since it's going to be dry the next few days.

We were going to till and plant the old garden space, but there's just too many other things going on. There won't be a big stand of corn, and no winter squash or melons. And I ended up giving away a few dozen plants to coworkers and friends.

Broccoli and Peppers Potted Up

The Summer Purple, Waltham, and Di Cicco broccoli were sowed by putting a pinch of seed in peat pellets, so they needed to be separated right away. I ended up with way more seedlings than anticipated, 30 broccoli seedlings seems excessive. It's probably a good thing the Calabrese Sprouting broccoli didn't germinate.

Waltham broccoli

I finally got the peppers and eggplants all potted up in a growing medium on April 21st. 

Poblano pepper

Aswad eggplant

The Mary Washington asparagus, Percoce d'Argenteuil asparagus, and Purple Romagna artichokes have all finally been separated and put in individual pots. It is very odd how asparagus keeps its seed coat attached to the plant, first a root forms then eventually a spear forms from the upper root near the seed. And no matter the size of the seedling it seems the seed stays firmly attached at the midway point between root and spear.

I started the asparagus in a fluffy coconut coir as well as peat pellets. The asparagus roots had problems penetrating the dense peat pellet with some pushing their roots up out of the pellet. The ones started in the coconut coir came up a week or two earlier and have already started to fern.

Mary Washington asparagus

All the plants that are potted up in growing medium are growing so much faster. The tomatoes are sizing up quickly and some of the peppers and eggplants are getting their first true leaves.

Potato leaved Brandywine from two sources, one says Red Brandywine tomato and the other Pink Brandywine

All the seedlings started so far: leek, onion, flat leaf chive, shallot, celery, ground cherry, broccoli, asparagus, artichoke, tomato, pepper, and eggplant

So much to do, there are still flowers and lavender to be started which will go in beds in the front yard with the artichokes and sunflowers.

Is it a bad idea to plant asparagus in beds against the front of the house? Are they invasive and will the roots interfere with the foundation? The front yard is on the south side, so it gets full sun all day long.