Category Archives: Tomatoes

Truly Exhausted but Triumphant

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So, yesterday, March 25, I planted around 4000 tomato seeds with the help of two friends, Heidi Eutsler, Kathy Kjelgaard and my lovely husband, Steve. It’s not back breaking (unless you count hunched over for hours) but when you are doing 168 plus varieties, it’s a lot of work. I use a sterile seed germinating mix and sterile containers. This cuts down on the problem of damping off. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I transplanted 2000 babies (tomato plants). Now that’s back breaking! Friday night it got really cold and the two heaters we had in the greenhouse didn’t cut the mustard and when I checked on them the next morning, they looked like canned spinach. Not a good thing. I lost 300 plants. The next night, we put in 4 heaters, (space heaters) and ti worked like a charm. Good thing since I had spent the day transplanting. Today, I am going to transplant pepper plants. 

“Early” Season Tomatoes

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In our neck of the woods (Inland Northwest – Spokane and surrounding areas) summer seems to come later and later. Lately, June seems to be more rainy than usual. Last year, I started telling everyone that tomatoes were a fall crop!

I entered several in the fair and by the time it rolled around in the beginning of September, I still didn’t have any large tomatoes to share. I had plenty of cherry tomatoes and some smaller varieties but no prize winners… until two weeks after the fair. Sigh. After that, I had billions of tomatoes to eat and share and can (I put up 75 quarts).

One of the ways we cope with our shorter climate (and I have absolute sympathy for Deer Park gardeners) is to plant “early” tomatoes. One thing I have found is that they aren’t substantially earlier than mid-season tomatoes. As for late season, I always get beautiful crops of those also, probably due to our actual frost date being sometime in later October. Here is some info on early tomatoes.

Early season tomatoes ripen fruit in 55 to 70 days after being transplanted to the garden as 6-8 week old plants.

Because great tomato flavor comes with just the right combination of sugars and acids that are the product of sunlight and photosynthesis, early season tomatoes are often dismissed as less tasty than mid- and late-season tomatoes (which require 80 to more than 100 days to ripen) because they spend fewer days in the sun.

Many “early” tomatoes—which are often smaller and less leafy than later season tomatoes–can flower and set fruit in cool, early-season conditions. Given optimal conditions, early-season tomatoes can produce fruit equally flavorful to the best late-season varieties. I like the pink “Early Wonder”, “Stupice”, “Anna Russian”, and “Subarctic Plenty”. Those are very tasty.

Cherry tomatoes are also earlier than the larger varieties but that is another post.

Anna Russian (open-pollinated). Slicing tomato. Pink-red, heart-shaped, 10 oz. fruits; juicy, excellent sweet flavor. 70 days. Indeterminate.

Early Wonder (open-pollinated). Slicing tomato. Dark-pink skinned to 6 oz.; full flavored. 55 days. Determinate.

Stupice (open-pollinated). Slicing tomato. Red-skinned, small to medium-sized to 4 oz.; sweet, juicy. 50 days. Dwarf determinate, compact. For short-season regions. From Czechoslovakia.

Sub Arctic Plenty (open-pollinated). Slicing tomato. Small, round to 2 oz.; good flavor. 50 days. Determinate. Compact. Sets fruit in cold weather. Those were the last to succumb to the weather and I loved the taste.

In order: Anna Russian, Early Wonder, Subarctic, and Stupice.

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Peppers Are Finally Coming Up

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Boy, it’s taken a very long time for them to start germinating.Yesterday, the serranos started poking there heads above” ground”.  One of the new varieties that I am growing is called “Fruit Basket” It is supposed to be for hanging pots. They are 68 days. Its low, spreading form reaches just 10 to 12 inches tall but spreads up to 2 feet. According to the literature, it is supposed to be a sweet bell with a peppery bite and sometimes will grow as large as 5″ long. I can’t wait to try it!

Tomatoes Are Up!

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Sunday, the first of babies started showing up. I’ts amazing, we check several times a day hoping to see a shoot and nothing. The next morning you look and  lo and behold they are there! The odd thing is that the peppers have only shown one volunteer, a giant marconi. It is the only one and they were planted at the same time as the tomatoes on the third of March, I think it was. As for outside, there are some yellow anenomes that are cheerfully blooming in the garden. After a tour of the garden beds I see a whole row of garlic that we missed and an onion that are about 3 inches high. No asparagus yet although I do see the tips of the rhubarb. 

In the greenhouse, I have cabbage “Copenhagen” that I transplanted into cell packs. I’m thinking that I can put them outside since they can take quite a bit of cold. The hollyhocks and geraniums have been transplanted in cell packs and the alyssum and lobelia will be next. One of our cats got into the greenhouse and there are big footprints in some of the single cell starter packs. I am not happy.

Still it is wonderful to go into my little greenhouse and and see the blooms of the geraniums that I carried over last winter. One of my miniature roses is even starting to bloom!

Big Rainbow on a Scale

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Big Rainbow on a Scale

Almost 3 pounds and I can prove it!

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8586769_157Gardening Forever

I rec’d a catalog form Gardener’s Supply and this is on the front cover. I thought I’d share this since there are a lot of people who want to garden but can’t get ont heir knees. I will post other things that you can do to make it easier in the coming weeks and days. This is one way of gardening when you have physical challenges and limitations.

Orange Russian Tomato

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Orange Russian Tomato

Exceptionally beautiful tomato, one of my favorites. It truly is as striking as this photo. some of them get very big, others are more moderated. The one in front is heart shaped and the one in back is a little more round. Their golden flesh is marbled inside with streaks of red. They are delicious and sweet, somewhat fruity in flavor, and are meaty with very few seeds. Indeterminate. 85 days

Catalog Fever: Botanical Interests

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I’ve started going through my seed catalogs. If I recycled them by the pound I’d have about 20 dollars worth. Some of these catalogs are miniature works of art. Beautiful pictures and fascinating information make it a pleasure to read through them. So far, I’ve gotten through 3 catalogs. One I’d like to recommend is “Botanical Interests”. Their website is http://www.botanicalinterests.com I was intrigued with their hand drawn illustrations which brought out the beauty in the flowers and the vegetables. Of course I’ve always thought that veggies are decorative in themselves. This year I will order the “Calypso Beans”, Lettuce; “Butterhead Speckles,” and a couple of melons; “Minnesota Midget” and “Canary Tweety”. I know, I know, I’ve never had good luck with melons but these look interesting and have shorter maturation dates. All gardeners keep trying, don’t we? For flowers, I will order a dianthus called” Rainbow Loveliness” one of the sweetest smelling and most delicate flowers I’ve ever had the pleasure to grow. I’m a big fan of impatiens and they have “Swirl Monet Blend”, a picotee blossom that looks like it’s in shades of pink. With all of the catalogs out there, most of whom are offering the same varieties, it can be hard to choose who to order from. It’s nice when a catalog goes above and beyond just trying to sell you seeds and treats you to a satisfying, visual experience, That alone sets them apart from the crowd and makes me want to purchase from them. Check out their catalog!

Purple Tomato Debuts as ‘Indigo Rose’

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Purple tomato debuts as ‘Indigo Rose’. I will be carrying this tomato this year if it is still available when I order seeds.