And Mortgage Lifter Pulls Ahead!

I really thought that Pink Potato Top was going to set fruit first, but Mortgage Lifter is actually first, with three babies set already:



I'm glad, because fruit is setting two full weeks sooner than it did last year-- I'm really hoping most of the plants will set some fruit before the weather gets so hellishly hot and the plants start dropping blossoms. My Spudakee Purple has finally developed some tiny flower buds... and the new growth on it is oddly wrinkly and curled, but seems to smooth and straighten out as it continues growing.




I was glad to find that Ananas Noir is putting out new growth-- it's the only plant so far that has no flower buds whatsoever, and I think it's because I accidentally "topped" the plant when I was pinching off suckers. I really do try to be careful, so I can't figure out how I did this. It's a really good thing for me that tomato plants can be so resilient!



I'm going to post one last picture tonight, of the lettuce I'm growing. The bigger plant is one I bought at the farmers' market and the tiny ones are from seeds I just planted this past weekend. I'm amazed at how quickly they came up.



I'm going to let them grow a little bit bigger, then thin them out and use the ones I pull in salad-- I can't wait to taste my own homegrown microgreens!

So far, so good!

I hesitate a bit typing that title-- I feel like I might be tempting fate. Weather this year has me a bit concerned, because we've had cooler, rainy days alternating with warm/hot, humid days. This is a recipe for fungal diseases, which can destroy tomatoes in no time. To be safe, I'm going to start spraying today as a preventive measure. I was just out visiting the plants, tying up the newer growth to the stakes where needed. I'm amazed at how fast these grow!

Here are pictures of all of the plants:





They really are getting tall, and I'm having to stay on top of pinching at least some of the suckers off to keep them from getting totally out of control. I want to keep them staked as opposed to caging them-- I was NOT a fan of the whole caging thing last year. It is easier, but I think that letting the plants get so bushy in the cages encouraged disease. I know staking isn't a guarantee they won't get sick, but I feel like I can monitor the plants better and more closely when they're staked.

I took pics of some of the blooms appearing on the plants. This one is Mortgage Lifter-- it has lots of blooms on it, and I'm cautiously optimistic that it looks like couple have already fertilized-- they're closing up and don't show signs of dropping.



Here are the blooms on Marianna's Peace, my favorite from last year. Don't know why, but these are noticeably bigger than the blooms on the other plants-- this plant can bear LARGE fruit, so maybe the size of the bloom is comparable to the size of the fruit? I really don't know, but find these beautiful.



Finally, here's a pic of the "star performer" so far this year-- Pink Potato Top. This one is a MONSTER! It's taller, bushier and has lots more blooms than the other plants. Mortgage Lifter may give it a run for it's money, but for right now PPT is bigger and badder than the other plants. I tried it specifically because I read that it's a heavy and reliable bearer and it looks like that might, indeed, be the case.



It's also supposed to have good flavor, which I hope is true since it looks like I may have a lot of fruit from it. I just hope I can keep these plants healthy (at least, healthier) this year-- I'm really looking forward to trying all of the different tomatoes to see which are best!

One Year Later...

Well, true to form, I essentially abandoned this blog last year when things got "hot & heavy" with my tomatoes. Unfortunately, I say "heavy" not in terms of yield; just indicating that I got overwhelmed. My plants started having issues with discolored leaves and other stuff that appeared to me to be disease that I never was able to clearly identify. I did get pics of that, but they are on my other laptop and I don't feel like hauling it out to post a few pics that will just bring back bad memories. :o)

I did manage not to totally lose any of the plants until the very end of the season. One of the things I did successfully that helped was I took cuttings from the plants that seemed to be having the most trouble. That's one cool thing about tomatoes-- you can pinch off a sucker, stick it in some potting mix or water and it'll grow roots like nobody's business.

After I rooted the cuttings, I learned to make eBuckets via Dave's Garden. One of the folks I met there, Lane, came up with the design after some folks started speculating on and easy and cost-effective way to make a self-watering planter. After some brainstorming about using 5 gallon buckets (like the ones paint or pickles come in) and colanders, Lane came up with a design that works beautifully! Here are the directions for the eBuckets. My husband I made 4 of them last year, I put cuttings in 3 and had more tomatoes off of those 3 plants in just a few weeks than I got off the parent plants all season before that.

Too bad I didn't plant them up, though, until late in the season... it was August, I think, so I got a few ripe ones before first frost, at which time I then had LOTS of green tomatoes! Good thing they will ripen after picking, so we did get to enjoy them even after the frost took the plants.

This year, I'm even more ambitious. Thierry made me 6 more eBuckets so I now have 10 in total. I have planted a different heirloom plant in each one, plus two cherry tomatoes in my old EarthBox. The only one making a repeat appearance this year is Marianna's Peace-- those were my favorite tomatoes last season, and she withstood the mystery disease fairly well.

Here are pics I took of my plants yesterday:







I'm hoping that this year I can be a little more laid back than I was about everything last year. Now that I know a little more about what the plants can handle, I'm hoping I won't go into a tizzy with every little leaf spot or discolored stem. I guess we'll find out!