Friday, June 24, 2011

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!

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