It Won't Be Long Now!

Things are really coming along with the tomatoes, although some of the plants are doing much better than others. The ones in my homemade E-Buckets just aren't as green and lush as the ones in the 14 gallon plastic totes I am using for the first time this year. I thought the smaller determinants would fare better, but they have a lot of leaf-curl and look sort of spindly.

The strawberries I have planted in those buckets, though, look great. I think next year I'll plant more strawberries in the buckets, and maybe try some eggplant and bell peppers in them to see if they'll do okay. I'll have to buy more totes, though, for tomatoes... maybe smaller (10 gallon?) ones for the determinants!

Here is the Bella Rosa, along with the basil I'm growing:

The Bella Rosa is getting a bit bushier at the top and it finally set some fruit. It's supposed to be a more heat-tolerant variety but it's definitely more late-season than the other heat-tolerant ones I tried this year.


Not all of these are mine-- just the four in the E-Buckets right next to the deck:



The ones in the buckets in front are my friend Karen's. She hasn't been able to plant them yet because she's been trying to close on a house for months so she hasn't had anywhere to put them. She was finally able to close last week, so all of those buckets will be going to their new home soon!


Here are some pics of the monster Chocolate Cherry plant:





That's Manalucie in the tote container to the left of the Chocolate Cherry plants. There is a lot of fruit set on the Chocolate Cherries... Now if it would go ahead and ripen!




The plants I've put in the corner between the deck and the house are doing really well, for the most part:



You can see, though, the difference between the plants in the E-buckets and the totes and tub. From left to right, it's Carolina Gold x 2 (these are the ones that got a bit sunburned... they're finally bouncing back), Moreton and the one in the white round tub is Pink Potato Top. This is my second year trying PPT, and it's doing *so* much better than it did last year-- I'm sure it's because of the larger container.



These four in the purple totes (from right to left: Big Beef, Marianna's Peace, Arkansas Traveler and Giant Belgium) are lush and green and just beautiful. Again, I'm thinking that the container is making a difference. Also, this is the first year that I've moved almost everything off of the deck. The plants are more sheltered this way, both from the ridiculously intense sun (I can't even imagine trying to grow anything in Texas, Arizona, or any other state that's hotter than here) and from storms. In the past, the plants would get blown over in storms so they lost branches and fruit. I'm hoping that I won't have that problem this year.

All of the tomatoes have now set fruit, and I'm hoping that I can pick the first one by July 4th... I'd love to have tomato sandwiches and BLTs over that holiday weekend!

Well Underway

I'm growing even more tomatoes this year than last year, and they seem to be doing pretty well so far. They do have some leaf roll, but it's probably because of the heat we've had. Several of them have set fruit, and most of those are the plants that are supposed to be heat tolerant. So far, Solar Fire is far ahead:

Thessaloniki is another heat tolerant variety:




My Minnie's Pinstripe also has fruit already... I don't know whether this is a heat tolerant variety because the seeds were given away by someone on Tomatoville.com:




Moreton is a new hybrid for me this year:




The Chocolate Cherries are monster plants:




They're a different variety from the cherries I grew last year, but they're just as huge. Already fruiting, too!





Carolina Gold was supposed to be heat tolerant, but both of my plants got burned in the sun and I ended up having to "top" both of them... they're bouncing back well, though, and one of them has even set fruit:




My strawberries seem to be plugging along, but not getting much fruit yet:




I'll need to get some bird netting soon, though, because it's only a matter of time before the mockingbirds and doves notice them and decide they look snack-worthy. Finally, my herbs are doing great! First pic is of thyme, cilantro, sage (only got a couple of sage sprouts so far-- germination for these was not very good) and oregano and the second is of four pots of basil:





I can't wait to start making pesto... I've missed it! This year I want to make and freeze enough to last me through the winter. When the tomatoes start coming in, I can make Caprese salad, too. Really looking forward to that!

Year Three

A comment from "z" on my last post from May of last year prodded me to update this thing... I have never been very good about keeping up long-term with any type of journal! Maybe this year will be different-- we'll just have to see.

I'm going to paste my response to z's post:

So sorry I fell off the face of the earth after this entry! Last year ended up being pretty much a bust for my maters. I got a some off of every plant, except the Pink Potato Top. As beautiful as it looked when I posted this, it ended up with little leaf-- the bucket I had it in stayed too wet and got overheated. It made LOTS of tomatoes, but they were all afflicted and tiny.

I think my problems last year were a combination of the heat and the buckets I used. As much as I like my homemade E-Buckets, they are just too small for the honking-huge heirloom plants! This year I'm going to try some other, bigger containers.

I'm growing a few heirlooms (Marianna's Peace is still my favorite so I will try to always grow that) but most of what I'm planting this year will be hybrids that are heat-tolerant. I'm hoping that *this* will be my year for a bumper crop!

I *did* get lots of cherry tomatoes last year, and I didn't baby those nearly as much as all of the other plants. Looks like "benign neglect" worked just fine for those! I also had a couple of bush-type plants that did pretty well, so several of the hybrids I'll grow are smaller, determinate types. I'm starting my seeds this weekend-- a little later than I did last year, and I'm hoping that by doing this they'll be less leggy when I go to set them out (and give away my extras to friends and coworkers!).