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Post by theozarkan on Apr 28, 2021 19:29:16 GMT -6
Here is my list for this year. This is my final list. I will not be adding any more plants. Not sure when I will get them in. Looks like it will be awhile before I can till the garden. As you can see I'm more into fresh eating than canning. Kentucky Beefsteak Big Cheef Trip-l-Crop Early Girl Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red Dr. Wyche’s Cherry Varieties Blush Sunrise Bumble Bee Barry's Crazy Cherry
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 28, 2021 21:10:00 GMT -6
Early Girl is always on my list of favorites. They're not necessarily the best flavor but they are reliable, and of a good, uniform size, shape, and color, and are the easiest to peddle to restaurants or grocery stores. I think Heidi tomatoes are my favorite canners. Probably German Johnson Pink would be my favorite heirloom tomato. George's black cherry tomatoes are my all time favorite salad tomato.
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Post by theozarkan on Apr 28, 2021 23:29:27 GMT -6
Yea I agree about the flavor of early girl but I keep growing it for the other reasons.
Last year I bought a four pack of early girl from a local flea market. I didn't notice at the time but when I planted I saw that one was a potato leaf. All four plants produced like fruits. So anyway I thought I would try and save some seeds. This year I have mostly regular leaf and only one potato leaf.
I got to reading up on early girls and found out that if you save seeds from this hybrid that about 25 percent will be potato leaf. Maybe the flea market vendors were saving their own seeds? They are super cheap so I won't complain too much. I paid a dollar for the four pack and they were probably 5 to 6 inches tall at the time. I have read of others finding PL early girls at big box stores and that was blamed on poor quality control of the Asian seed suppliers. Who knows really.
I think I will try saving the seeds from the potato leaf one more year and see how that goes. I have also found out that there is a stabilized potato leaf variety called PSR-37. I see that sand hill carries them and if I don't like my f3's next year I may just scrap my project and go with the PSR-37 in the future.
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Post by macmex on Apr 29, 2021 3:57:56 GMT -6
I'm growing:
Baker Family Heirloom Heidi Black Cherry
and probably, for a fall crop: Black
I want to focus more on growing pure seed, which, in my environment, now requires a lot more strict isolation procedures. The native pollinators have burgeoned here, and they work bean, pepper and tomato flowers.
Just heard from the Seed Savers Exchange, that they want to offer Baker Family Heirloom through their catalog, perhaps as early as next year. They are impressed with the variety and want to promote it more.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 29, 2021 10:47:53 GMT -6
Baker Family Heirloom is a really good one too. I had forgotten about that variety. Usually, potato leafed tomatoes have a good flavor in general. That's interesting to hear that Early Girl carries that gene. I never would have guessed.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Apr 29, 2021 20:27:00 GMT -6
This is our big tomato year for our garden in Texas. I’m using up some seeds from packets my kids chose for their little garden beds years ago, as well as trialing some new seeds to see how they do in our climate. I have lots of varieties therefore but mostly only two of each plant. The list is long, but the number of plants pales in comparison to what y’all grow.
I’m going to try this from memory by how I’ve arranged my garden.
Thessaloniki Sweet Million Sunrise Bumble Bee Maglia Rosa Lime Green Salad Tomato Rio Grande Sub Artic Plenty Big League Floradade Yellow Brandywine Agi Red Madera (German) Orange Strawberry White Tomesol
A number of these are new varieties to me, some of which I chose, some of which I received for free, and you just never know what will prove to be a good variety. We really like cherries for garden salad and tabbouleh, and I also use a lot of sauce. We like the occasional slicer, but they’re not the highest priority. I’m very eager to see how these do this season.
I’ve also just received some Heidi seeds from Macmex, and I have those germinating now, but they’ll be for a later crop than these others. A good number of my plants are already blooming, and a few have set fruit. We have to push the season early on because the heat is so intense in the middle of summer that plants don’t tend to produce.
My plan was not to save any tomato seeds this year and concentrate instead on saving Rattlesnake pole beans and Heavy Hitter Okra. In the future I hope to concentrate on a few favorite open pollinated varieties and be able to save those.
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Post by hmoosek on Apr 29, 2021 21:14:31 GMT -6
I’ll be concentrating on saving cowpea seed this year. I have Texas Longhorn growing at the moment. I’m hoping to plant Pigott Family Heirloom, Big Boy and Texas Elite Cream.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Apr 30, 2021 17:16:03 GMT -6
Where are you gardening, hmoosek? It sounds like some place hot.
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Post by hmoosek on Apr 30, 2021 21:08:46 GMT -6
Where are you gardening, hmoosek? It sounds like some place hot. Right in the heart of Texas. Yes, it do get hot and as this year has shown, it can get cold. Haha!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 18, 2021 8:38:49 GMT -6
Everything is behind this year because of cold, rainy, and exceptionally cloudy weather, so all my harvest dates are out the window due to my planting dates being skewed, but through it all, my tomato plants are looking pretty good this year. Some are reaching a height of 4 feet already, most are blooming, and a few even have small, green tomatoes forming. The leaves are lush, dark green, and so far, disease-free. (That is an unusual description for me), as my plants are often weather-beaten, tired, and bug eaten by this time of year. I guess all the extra mild weather was right up their alley this season.
I've only planted about 25 tomatoes this year. I thought I needed respite from the 200 to 300 plantings that I used to do back in my market days. Covid-19 really had a huge impact on the Farmers Market last year, sticking many growers with tons of surplus that they were unable to market and causing huge losses of investment capital. (farming tomatoes on a large scale is not cheap or free). I have handmade, concrete reinforcement wire tomato cages, 1/8" steel cables, and Tee-posts stacked sky-high from shifting over to mostly okra this year.
On a brighter note; although I have but a few plants this year for kitchen purposes only, I do have a fairly wide variety. I'm growing Baker Family Heirloom, Heidi, Early Girl, a type I've never tried before called, "German Queen," Black Cherry, Juliet, and Beef Steak.
From the extra healthy look of the tomato plants and the way the Farmers Market seems to be bouncing back this season, after being quarantined all of last summer, I'm beginning to wonder if shifting away from tomatoes was such a good idea? My okra plants are looking sadder than they have ever looked before, due to the extremely cool, much too wet start they got this season. Many of my older plants are severely stunted as a result.
I'm telling you, "If a man could accurately forecast the weather; he'd be a millionaire!" For the past few seasons, trying to guess what color of plastic to use, and trying to guess what crops to plant to match the weather has been worse than a person's chances of rolling a seven while throwing only one die. German Queen starting to set fruit.My very, very, short row of cages this season. A few of the lower leaves have tiller exhaust burns, but other than that, they are looking great.My plants are about 4' feet tall right now. By the end of summer, they'll top these cages and have to be trellised horizontally along the top space from cage to cage.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 21, 2021 23:46:47 GMT -6
This is an old video from 2014, but still interesting, as not many things enter the record books from Oklahoma gardeners. This guy is from Edmond. At the time of this recording, I believe the World Record tomato was in the 8-pound range. Since that time, Dan Southerland has broken this old record 3 times. Still, hearing of a gardener from Edmond growing anything remotely approaching a record gives me a glimmer of hope.
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Post by hedgeapple on Jul 5, 2021 20:46:27 GMT -6
Everything in the summer garden is coming together now and we'll be eating and sharing with our neighbors.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 6, 2021 7:51:52 GMT -6
What varieties of cherry tomatoes are those, Hedgeapple? We grow a lot of cherry tomatoes because they do well in the Texas summers compared to the larger-fruited varieties. I have a couple new ones this year from Artisan Seeds, and I have been very impressed. They are also some of the prettiest fruits in my garden. Sunrise Bumble Bee Maglia Rosa Madera F1 Sunrise Bumble Bee and Maglia Rosa are both open pollinated, and I am trialing them as a replacement for Sweet Million. I’m very pleased with the flavor. The breeder also sent me a free packet of Madera F1 with my order, and I grew out a couple of plants even though I wasn’t really looking for a hybrid. It is, however, an excellent tomato. My five year old asks for it by name just about every time we’re in the garden.
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Post by hedgeapple on Jul 6, 2021 10:16:35 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum,
I just went with a few local hardware store varieties: Husky Cherry, Black Cherry, and Sun Sugar. Hopefully next year we'll expand into more paste tomatoes and a few slicing tomatoes.
This is a first year garden here in Virginia, and between the tree roots I had to fight with, soil condition needs, and a few late cold snaps I am pleased with the few things we were able to get in. All my plants are happy so far.
One thing different about Northern Virginia is the pollinator density! Wow! So, so many bees, wasps and other pollinators around compared to where we lived in Arkansas. Will have to be extra vigilant to save true seed for a few of my heirloom and experimental plants.
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Post by macmex on Jul 6, 2021 10:49:12 GMT -6
I have a friend who gardens in both Florida and Massachusetts. He hasn't seen a bean cross in his garden, even though he grows two or three varieties side by side, saving seed, for years on end.
Here, where I live, I have seen beans cross from a 40' distance. I keep reducing the number of varieties I grow in any given year, planting in larger block plantings, and giving greater isolation distance. The fact is that we are RICH in native bees and pollinators and those critters love both bean and tomato flowers.
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