cukes wat r u doin

7/11/15 - just a few tomatoes so far. etc. etc.

Today despite a lingering cold I managed to get to the garden.  The tomatoes are all self sufficient now - not much else to do till harvest, though I did add a few more loops of twine to a few plants that were tied on solo poles.    It's definitely true that the mat has pretty much eliminated the weeding right around the tomatoes themselves.  The florida weaving (while mainly in better shape than last year), still sort of requires heavy pruning of bottom branches else they are gonna just grow all under and around anyway. Otherwise you definitely need a very wide row space to get in between the rows of plants.   Some are too close.  

Tomato harvest is a week or two behind last year and I still have some plants that look like they need a few more weeks to produce.  So maybe they will, or not.   Anyway there will still be a good harvest in the next few weeks.  Today I picked one cherokee purple that is underripe but will ripen nicely at home in a few days, and about 2 dozen Hawaiian Currant.  Boy those HC plants grow big - they have really long branches that invade their neighbors.

Also I picked a few peppers - 1 banana, 1 "mild jalapeño" and what I believe are 2 of the "salsa peppers".  Nothin' on the poblano plant.  Unless the 2 "salsa peppers" are really very young poblanos.  But they look too skinny to me.

I've got several pumpkins growing! Although the plants look a little dry.  Also, I weeded onions some more - a pain, because they are too close to the edge of the plot and got overgrown.   And picked some basil.

The IRxCP F1 hybrids now have nice, round green fruit that are now about the size of a nectarine.  Definitely bigger than IR, smaller than CP - and not a trace of purple color visible.  Nice fruit set.

Finally, I did one cross, between Reisetomate (female) and Mortage Lifter (male).  Would rather have used Cherokee Purple pollen but couldn't find good flowers on CP.   I think I managed to get a little pollen from ML flowers, using black paper plate material to collect.  After brushing this onto an RT stigma, for good measure I just took a ML anther and brushed the stigma with it.   Tagged OK. This cross is = 2015 #1 RT x ML.

At the home garden, the Straight Eight cucumber is a winner.  Lots of very long straight fruit and no bitterness at all! so it lived up to the "burpless" marketing.  This is a great cucumber.   The home tomatoes are not much to shout about.  2 died and 2 are still very small due to having late starts and just not much root system before planting.  The home IRxCP has some fruit but the others are not doing much yet.

Update 6/27/15

Got almost all my stakes and twine up today.  All 4 pepper plants are ok with a few little peppers already.  Pumpkin plants are really taking off!   I had to hand weed onions and only got about halfway thru them.  And I discovered a Reisetomato wa thriving - I thought the last one had died but I was wrong!

Summer heating up.

Finally back at the garden after a long vacation with the family.   Weeds had been getting a bit rowdy, but I pretty much got them under control.  I realize now that with onions planted 4 inches apart the weeding is tough.  On the other hand I've got so much tarp down that I actually do have the whole plot sort of weeded, which I was never able to do at all last year.  So the tomatoes are pretty much okay as far as weeds.  Other things of note... The pepper plants are alive although not as vigorous as I would like.  On the other hand the pumpkin plants are doing great.  Finally the tomatoes.  I lost a couple more - including the single reisetomate that was left.  But most everything else is doing okay; some of the first ones I planted have nice green fruit.

So after I did weeding, I put in about 10 stakes to do some Florida Weave-ing.  I still need to put up more stakes and twine.  Next weekend.!

Just a few peppers.

The other day I bought 4 pepper plants on a semi-impulse purchase; my reasoning is that homemade salsa will require it of course!  They are:  Banana, Poblano a.k.a. Ancho, "Mild Jalapeño", and "Salsa pepper", which is some sort of hybrid marketed as a salsa ingredient.  I don't want super hot peppers, just a little heat.  The poblano and "mild jalapeño" have Scoville numbers around 1000-1500 which is not super hot.

Well, the three most recent planted IR and the remaining KB didn't survive transplanting to the garden.  So I planted the 4 peppers in their spots.  I forgot to check if the one other IR was still alive. Probably not.  So no IRs this year for breeding purposes.

The pumpkins didn't look too good today - pretty wilty despite the moist ground...I drenched 'em with water but I don't have high hopes.  It's getting hot out there.  Summer heat is beginning and if the plants aren't well established by now they are gonna have a hard time.

On the other hand, in the home garden several of the plants are growing well, especially the IRxCP hybrid.

In one of the other community garden plots someone has a bunch of huge tomato plants.  Like chest high, big and lots of flowers.  Made me feel inadequate...Although they are planted too close together for my taste, so I give myself points for careful layout.  :)  

Later than last year

Just realized how far behind I am vs last year.  In 2014 I planted from Apr. 19 - May 3.  This year it was from May 18 - June 3.  A full month later.  C'mon guys, grow!!!

Noticing that although the seed starting mix certainly gives healthy plants, it might be good for the potting stage to use a mix of seed start mix plus other things to encourage more root growth.  E .g. Something with plant food?  Just a thought.  Maybe 5 inch pots instead of 4.   Maybe I should just build a freakin' greenhouse next spring.

At last, I finished planting.  I took a Tuesday off to do errands and this was number one on my list. I've mega-tarped out the community garden now.  The final count is 46 surviving tomato plants as of today, although I bet 3 or so won't make it .  Most are doing OK though.  We got some hard rains over the last few days, and unfortunately a few of the ones I planted on Sunday were buried a little by mud.  But boy the ground is good and wet.

In addition to the tomatoes I have: 2 basil, 2 pumpkins, about 3 or so garlics, and a row of 40-odd onion.