RobertSmalls' 2011 Garden

[PaleMelanesian]

They're especially cheap when you saved them yourself last year.

Ironic that my Better Boy seeds - the most expensive ones - have the worst germination. That was to be my anchor variety in case the others didn't work. Looks like a Cherokee Purple year for me. These I may have some to share.

[strider3700]

I forgot to label which jar held which type of tomato when I was rotting them down to get the seeds out so I've got 4 unknowns. one golden jubiliee, one roma, one cherry of some sort and one purple and red but not a brandy wine

So I'll have to start a bunch of each and maintain until hopefully I can identify based on the leaves.

[PaleMelanesian]

Heads-up, Walmart has their cheap American Seeds packets for $0.20 in stock. I hear some stores don't, but most do and mine is included. All (and only) the old classic varieties, but if that's what you want, they're cheap.

Look in the back corner of the indoor garden section or in the fish/bird area. They'd rather you find the $1+ packets right out front.

[basjoos]

Planted fava beans (3 cultivars), onion (3 cultivars) and leek (1 cultivar) transplants last week. Yesterday I planted peas (4 cultivars), spring radishes and broccoli in the cold frames. I noticed self sown tomato seedlings popping up in the cold frames, so its time to start planting cultivar tomato seeds in the frames. Currently harvesting lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, broccoli from the cold frames and cabbage, collards, and kale from the outdoor beds. Removed the winter protection from my Satsuma and orange trees.

[RobertSmalls]

I found a really neat resource last week: Garden Seed | Vegetable Garden Seed | Garden Seed Catalog | Garden Seed Company | Jung Garden and Flower Seed Company. They have an enormous selection of seed packets at okay prices. They also sell live plants, including 3 year old bare root blueberry bushes for $10 a piece. One issue with Jung: their product descriptions aren't exactly written with neutral tone.

My tomatoes still haven't germinated. I read somewhere on the internet that you don't need to rot the slime off of the seeds, but either that's not true, or it's too cold in my house to germinate tomatoes. If I don't see some vitality soon, I'm going to go ahead and drop $2 on a packet of tomato seeds.

Another issue: I want sauce tomatoes (only), and Jung tells me sauce tomatoes are determinate varieties, meaning they fruit once a year, then lose vitality. If starting them early in a cold frame means the plants reach the end of their life cycle in August instead of September, that's not very exciting, nor worth the effort. But I will run the trials anyway.

[PaleMelanesian]

Try here:
http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...Paste_Tomatoes

Amish Paste is one popular indeterminate.

[strider3700]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

I

My tomatoes still haven't germinated. I read somewhere on the internet that you don't need to rot the slime off of the seeds, but either that's not true, or it's too cold in my house to germinate tomatoes.

I've always heard that you have to rot the slime off as it's the only thing that stops the seeds from germinating inside the fruit. Once rotted off those seeds are tough as hell.

[basjoos]

There are a lot of indeterminate paste tomatoes, but you have to search the heirloom cultivars to find them. They include Amish Paste, Mama Leona, Opalka, Napoli, Orange Banana, and Sausage tomato. The more commonly found cultivars such as Roma and Heinz were developed by the vegetable canning industry who wanted a small sized plant that didn't need trellising and fruit that all ripened at the same time for ease of mechanical harvesting. The typical home gardener didn't mind trellising and welcomed an extended harvest that lasted for much of the growing season.

You will also find this commercial versus heirloom cultivar dichotomy in beans (bush versus pole) and in peas (short versus tall). Often the cultivar that everybody has heard of and is familiar with is the commercial one, since that is the one that shows up in the grocery stores, but for home gardening, the taller, longer-bearing heirlooms are often the better fit (unless you enjoy the canning/freezing marathon that results when the commercial cultivar's 2 week long harvest window hits).

[PaleMelanesian]

Basjoos, I'm wondering what your experience has been with tomatoes and leaf diseases. Even the hybrids (VFFNT and such) don't do much for Septoria and bacterial speck. What's been your best for hot and humid conditions? (large tomatoes, I know cherries are tougher plants)

---
update on mine - the Better Boys are FINALLY germinating. They were the slowest. My oxi-clean processed seeds were the first and still the only ones with 100% germination. Saves time and odor vs fermenting.

[basjoos]

I have very little problem with leaf diseases on my tomatoes, probably because I've built up the microelement levels in my garden soils which improves their disease and pest resistance (the microelements also work on me, its been years since I last had a flu or cold). Also I try to scatter my domesticated tomato plants throughout the garden so there are no mass plantings of tomatoes for the pathogens to run wild in. The wild self-sown cherry tomatoes that come up all over the garden have never shown any sign of leaf disease. For beefsteak tomatoes, I grow mostly Brandywine and Better Boy.