Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

The variety that wins the growth (height) contest in Maybelline’s Garden this year is Henderson’s Pink Ponderosa.  The wooden supports are about 6’ tall.  Old Henderson overshot that by some distance.

There’s still a bunch of tomatoes remaining.  One of the DBE gals came to harvest with her husband.  I really appreciated that someone came to pick and enjoy the tomatoes.  Things are slowing down a bit though.  There are still blooms on all the varieties.

I can’t decide whether to say good bye to the tomatoes and pull them out so I can prepare for the fall or continue to harvest tomatoes. 

In 2010, I had 72 tomato seedlings with 37 staying in the garden.  All the others were given away for other gardeners to enjoy.

Notes for 2011: 

• Try to settle on one variety with a focus on seed collecting.  I learned that I planted different varieties too close to each other producing seeds that may give me an unusual variety.  I may save the seeds regardless to see what happens.
• Don’t thin the vines.  That seemed to be unnecessary work.
• Consider varieties that will grow within the limits of the supports.  This support system is great and is much easier on my busted back.  I would love to try draping thin cloth (cheese cloth?) over the tomatoes ala the Godfather.
• Plant only three rows per bed to allow movement between rows for the gardener.  It got pretty cramped.
• Don’t plant as many tomato plants.  How much salsa can be eaten in a few months anyway?!  This will be a difficult suggestion to follow.  Perhaps this should be altered to “Give more seedlings away.”
• Plant companion crops like basil, carrots, onions, and chives to benefit the tomatoes.  Start the seeds in the beds allowing germination before transplanting the tomatoes.  Don’t expect fabulous production from the companions.  There will be something to harvest.  Just bare in mind these are being planted as beneficials.

Here’s my rating for the varieties grown this year:

1. If I decide upon a sturdy, red, medium – large sized tomato it would have to be Arkansas Traveler.  The fruit is a nice round shape.  There was only rare occurrences of blossom end rot.
2. Al Kuffa was my favorite plant with its sturdy, bushy plant growth.  There was an over abundance of fruit but they were pretty small.
3. Mule Team was similar to Arkansas Traveler but there were problems with hornworms loving this variety the most and sunburned fruit.  This variety probably ties with Al Kuffa.
4. Henderson’s Ponderosa Pink was a large vine with large fruit.  The tomatoes were odd shaped with blossom end rot being a problem.  The bottoms formed with lots of scars and bumps so peeling is a bit difficult.
5. Carbon just didn’t do well in the heat that Bakersfield, California is famous for.  Most of the fruit cracked and had to be used for slicing or fresh salsa.  The tomato is a beautiful deep, dark purplish red and is rich in flavor and color.  However, because I would like to be able to preserve my tomato crop I do not believe I will grow this variety again.

If you would like to know more about these varieties, there is a list of labels on the right side of your screen. Scroll down and click on whatever you like.

I’m in search of recommendations of heirloom tomatoes grown in zone 9 (Bakersfield, California in particular).  If you have a recommendation, please leave it in the comments section.

Thanks -

Please enjoy this fun 3 minutes:

Tomatoes – Patience, Patience

 Farmer MacGregor overseeing his estate while tending to his Red Flame Grapes.  Bed 1 = tomatoes, Bed 2 = watermelons, squash, Bed 3 = hot peppers, tomatoes, Bed 4 = tomatoes.

July  is here.  We’ve endured our 1st heat wave.  Around here, a heat wave is a cluster of days where the temperature exceeds 100.  Another definition is a cluster of days where you experience swamp pants.  The tomatoes have reacted in a variety of ways to the heat.  There is a push of growth in all the varieties.  Some varieties handle the heat much better than others.  Al Kuffa seems to be the champion so far.  They’re tough.  Every variety has some kind of pest munching on it – caterpillars & grasshoppers.  I spied a wasp in one of the Mule Team rows helping with the pest control by battling a caterpillar. 

There are companion plants growing amongst most all of the crops.  The radishes are bolting and I don’t care.  I’m leaving them alone.  I did notice something rolled up in one of the radish leaves.  Any idea what it could be?  I don’t want to disturb it if it’s beneficial.

I picked a couple of tomatoes for Farmer MacGregor to participate in a taste test in the kitchen.  Al Kuffa and Arkansas Traveler went head to head with no winner determined.  Farmer MacGregor instructed me to let them ripen a bit more before the next test.  Meanwhile, a few miles east of Maybelline’s Garden, my mother harvested her 1st tomato of the season from her Al Kuffa plant. She is very weak when it comes to tomatoes.  Right there in her garden she simple plucked the fruit, wiped it on her shirt and ate it.  She’s tough.  The review was “delicious”!

Arkansas Traveler – July 1, 2010 (Planted March 1, 2010).

Garden Update on a Full Stomach

This evening I had a nice spaghetti dinner with Farmer MacGregor’s Hungarian style sauce.  Doggies, I’m stuffed.  I couldn’t bend over and work in the garden after dinner.  All I could do was take photos and some of those are really out of focus.  Here’s a report of progress in the garden using only photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stringing Tomatoes

Alright.  The Farmer MacGregor series continues today with his creation for tomato supports.  This season I’m growing heirlooms from seed.  Most of the varieties are vines rather than bushes.  I decided to try stringing the plants to be economic with my garden space.  Plans were drawn.  Lumber was ordered.  The beast known as MacGregor was set into motion.  Points were cut on the top of each stake resembling ancient Egyptian obelisks.  Paint (green of course) was applied to all the lumber and metal stakes.  The frames were constructed and screwed into the metal stakes.  There was a lot of measuring, marking, and leveling going on.  The gentle farmer is a stickler for detailed accuracy.  These are the essential tools for construction: A square and a durable marker.

A level.  (MacGregor has several to choose from.)

  Power drill (Snort snort.).

Heavy duty clamps (Don’t let one of these things bite you!).

Also make sure to have a variety of words to use that when spelled look something like this:

F&%K, D@M^ it, $H1zt

Farmer MacGregor is a wordsmith when it comes to using special words to show exasperation.  Noun, verb, adjective – it doesn’t matter.  He’s so skilled he doesn’t even realize what he says sometimes.  Remarkable.

Eye bolts were inserted to the bottom of each stake to string jute.

The jute line helped to mark a nice straight line to plant the tomatoes. 

Once the tomatoes were planted, jute was tied to the top stake and run down to  the jute below to use as a support for the plants.  It’s difficult to see the jute until the tomatoes grow taller.  The photo above was taken on May 11, 2009.  Below is the same tomato bed today.

The western most bed is planted similarly.

Please ignore the make shift shade for the camellias and the lounging garden kitty in the background.

Here’s an Arkansas Traveler starting the trip up the line.  I come out and check the growth progress and wind the plants skyward up the jute.  I believe I might need to trim some of the side branches to encourage growth upward. With the heat turning up, the tomatoes are developing on most all varieties.  This is the same Arkansas Traveler photographed today.  The center stem is quite a bit thicker and fruit is abundant.

The whiskers on the Arkansas Traveler are really profound.

The tomato supports can be dismantled and stored when not needed.  They will probably take up less room than the old wire cages.  So far, I really like them.  The garden is kept nice and neat.

Tomatoes Are In!

30 tomatoes are in the ground. 

8 Arkansas Travelers + 8 Carbons + 6 Henderson’s Pink Ponderosas + 8 Mule Teams = 30 tomato plants

The Al Kuffas need to go in; but I ran out of daylight.  I will probably have 36 tomatoes to work with this summer.  As the plants go in the ground, they get an extra kick of Dr. Earth’s All Purpose Fertilizer.

The rest of the plants will be divvied up between neighbors, friends, and the Daughters of the British Empire plant auction.  All the plants are heirlooms and all the plants need to get in the ground soon.

It’s gonna be salsa time before I know it.

Tomatoes Gone Wild

During Spring Break, other types of tomatoes (the real ones) go wild.  The heirlooms were planted on March 1, 2010.  Less than one week later, the seedlings sprouted on March 6, 2010.  On March 28, the seedlings were transplanted into the kegger type Dixie cups until they are ready to be planted in the ground.

Here’s how the varieties look today.

Al Kuffa (red) – This variety is the stockiest of all the varieties I’m growing this season.  It really looks like a healthy start.  Mule Team will be another red competitor.  Manicure mandatory.

Arkansas Traveler (pink) – Taller and more slender than Al Kuffa.  This pink variety will compete with Henderson’s Ponderosa Pink for the Best in Pink competition.

Carbon (purple) – Will win the purple competition by default.  It’s the loan entry in this slot.

Henderson’s Pink Ponderosa (pink) -  These seeds were sent to me courtesy Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  This is supposed to be a big, beefy variety introduced in 1891.

Mule Team (red) – These were ordered because they were out of Jersey Girl.  They are described as being resistant to heat and disease on vines that bear heavily over a long season.

One bed is ready to accept 16 (4X4) of the 53 tomato plants.  53?!  What the heck was I thinking?  There will be a second bed planted with tomatoes once the peas, garlic, beets, carrots are finished.  That leaves me with 21 plants to adopt out.

Farmer MacGregor will be designing and constructing the frames to string these plants.  Stay tuned.

72 Seedlings?!

Insanity struck me yesterday.  I started 72 seedlings of mostly heirloom tomatoes and peppers.  All the seeds are mail ordered through Baker Creek except for the Serranos I picked up at Floyd’s (Where else?).  I’ve grown tomatoes from seed before with great heartbreak.  I’ve plucked up enough courage to give it another go.  Here’s the list:

Tomatoes (all heirloom):

 Carbon (purple)– Winner of the 2005 “Heirloom Garden Show” best-tasting tomato award. Henderson’s Pink Ponderosa – Huge size, some over 2 lbs.; a meaty pin-red beefsteak introduced by Peter Henderson & Co. in 1891.  Mule Team (red) – Medium sized plants produce perfect 8 0z. red globes that have very little cracking, making this a good choice for market growers.  The fruit have a sweet but acid flavor; a good all-around standard red variety.  Good resistance to heat and disease. Arkansas Traveler (pink) - A medium sized pink tomato that is smooth and a beautiful rose color.  Tolerant to heat and humidity, crack and disease resistant.  Good flavor, an excellent hillbilly favorite.Al Kuffa (red) – Early tomato produces 3-4 oz fruit on compact, dwarf vines that yield till frost.  Mild tasting from Iraq.

Peppers:

Black Hungarian – Heirloom, unique, black colored fruit that are the shape of jalapeños.  Mildly hot with delicious flavor.  Tall plants with purple flowers.  Rare & colorful.

Serrano – Hot peppers grown successfully in 2009.  Lake Valley seed purchased at Floyd’s.

I don’t have room for all of the plants IF the seeds successfully sprout.  I’ll be giving away healthy seedlings to relatives and neighbors.  Chives seeds will be sewn among the tomatoes when they are planted out in the garden to prevent pests and harvest as needed.  Nasturtiums will be planted at the base of the fruit trees to repel borers. These are some ides I want to try from a book I purchased at Baker Creek along with my seeds – Carrots Love Tomatoes.

In case anyone reading  this doesn’t know, Floyd’s is a local hardware store.  It’s great.  You can buy gardening stuff (seeds and seed starting kits), plumbing junk, canning supplies, crickets, and ammunition.  They have everything.  I wish they would consider bridal registries.  Very practical.

Note:  Pictures of the vegetables were lifted from the Baker Creek website.  Their service was great and quick; so go there and order something OR move next door and reap the benefits.