Someone wanted me to report on Silvery Fir Tree. The plants are 18-24 inches tall and except for the initial fruit set have not set any more fruit nor have they flowered again. The plants do not like the wind and now look dry and crispy. I can't find any insects on them. The oxheart, mountain pride, black prince and copia tomatoes near them are all beautiful and loaded with fruit. Fruit on SFT was not very tasty, small and unimpressive. So disappointing, they were such beautiful plants in the beginning.
What Peppers and Tomatoes are you Starting for 2012?
Calalily, that might have been me. I have one of those SFT tomato plants that I received as part of a tomato growing class I took. Mine was potted up two weeks ago and has no flower set as yet. Thanks for the update, I'll let you know the results I get.
I had the same sad results last year- pretty foliage, but disappointing fruit, and very few. If I want pretty leaves I'll grow ferns! I want tomatoes!
Hah! no kidding Jo.
Yellow Pear & Red Grape Cherries, Brandywine Pink and Rose Heirlooms and Big Dipper and Snapper Sweet Bell Peppers
A friend grew 'Momotaro' in her Pennsylvania garden last summer and got a large crop of good looking tomatoes. She reported flavor was very good but a little sweeter than her usual choices. Other family members raved about the flavor. Here in Zone 6a I like 'Matina' (indeterminate) for my early crop for its good flavor and depend on 'Big Beef', 'Mexico', 'Viva Italia' and 'Wild Cherry' for flavor, disease resistance and producivity. Trying the cherry 'Sweet Treats' as a new variety this year.
I can attest to the Momotaro being the SWEETEST tomato I've grown so far. It has subtle undertones that give it just enough zing to make it the kind of balance I like in a tomato. But, definitely more sweet than tang.
Be forewarned.
Sweet Treats is a fantastic tomato that is very hardy, I have some plants that are over a year old. It reseeds all over the place from birds dropping fruit/seeds and comes fairly true from seed.
I bought Momotaro seeds but havenf't planted them yet. Copia set fruit and then the plants started dying (horrible tomato year in the Valley so far), I pulled out yellow and red pears, Legend, most of the Black Prince and Tiffen Minnonite, Black Krim, German Green, Cosmonaut Volkov because they look terrible. Mountain Pride, Coure de Bue Box Car Willie and Abe Lincoln still look good along with Chocolate Cherry, Juliette and Sweet Treats.
King Arthur, Big Dipper and Chichimeca peppers are producing.
Searching for a space for our Tomatoberry Garden and 12 Roma Tomato plants...
The main garden is full we got in the black truffles, rutgers, big beef, celebrity, pink caspian, caro rich, & Abe Lincolns. Cabbages pacific giant, ruby red, apollo, kale. Beans, Yellow Squash, ZXucchini, and patty pan. Carrots thumbellinas and danver's half long. Waiting for the peppers, okra, watermelons, cukes, and pumpkins until after Easter. Now comes the work
Cala-Do the tomato plants show signs of disease?
I sure hope that y'all are enjoying your tomatoes. I won't be able to put any out yet, as it snowed again yesterday, and there is still snow on the ground, though most of it has melted, most likely a hard frost tonight.
I've started 5 peppers: Heirloom white Habanero, Jalapeno, Anaheim, and Hungarian Banana and Casca Mini Bells. For tomatoes I'm trying doing Heirloom varieties: Beefsteak 2 new (to me) Heirlooms; Tasmanian Chocolate and Mexican Midget.
Nice picure evelyn, just the way I prefer to see snow - from a distance. ;-)
My peppers, all hot peppers, no sweets, sure are slow to start. The Aleppo's have progressed the most and the best. Chiltepins are lagging. Not dead but certainly not going anywhere. I think they are waiting for higher temps. Same for the jalepeno's and a couple of others.
Mary, I'm having the same issue, even with the seedling greenhouse.
Pepper disaster! My peppers were outside, hardening-off, while I was away over the weekend. Apparently, we had some large gusts of wind at some point. The pepper tray blew off the table on my covered porch, landing pepper-side down. All the plants were crushed, and appear to be killed. Looks like I'll be buying sweet pepper plants at an Austin nursery this year...
Oh David, what a shame. All that work. We had a very windy weekend as well.
Frogy, at least I'm in good company! Thanks for the input.
Mary-have you grown tepins before? They are always slow and they can have the same amount of true leaves and still look much smaller then other peppers. I started some on Feb 23rd for this Market order. They are just slow to grow if the conditions aren't perfect (hot with shade) last year they grew really fast due to the heat.
They ask for the plants just before I sowed them but the plants will lag until the conditions are right.
David-feel free to dmail me I might be able to help. How many plants were there. They may not be dead, if the tops got cut off they'll still grow and produce they'll just look different. I couldn't even leave mine outside without being home, they need to be watered daily. Please dmail me if you would like.
I lucked out! The peppers were wilted enough that they bent rather than broke, so after a good soaking most of the plants have pretty well recovered. There are a few scuffed leaves, but I think the plants will survive. I am planting tomorrow, regardless of the weather. Wish me luck!
David
Tough little peppers!
GREAT news, D!
Mary said:
>> according to a chart honeybee posted last week, 60° is okay for planting out tomatoes. Someone here (Shoe I think but am not certain) suggested 75° and that's what I'm really shooting for...nice warm soil for those roots.
Just a guess, but maybe Shoe was suggesting that 75° is good for germinating tomato seeds, but honeybee was saying that an outdoor soil temperature of 60° is good for transplants above a certain size.
i have seen advice in several places that say many seeds germinate better quite warm, but then the seedlings prefer considerably cooler soil and air in order to become stocky.
The seeds need the heat to germinate. The seedlings grow slower and stockier if they are kept cooler. I think 60 is good as long as the soil is warm, Bee doesnt pot hers up. She does have a method that Ive never tried but she has great results. I dont think Shoe meant the air temps need to be 75*(?) to plant out but it helps if the soil is warm. I believe he was referring to germination temps.
I have to add that when I plant out early (before the soil has warmed up) my plants grow much slower and I really dont get ripe fruit much earlier. Last yea,r the plants that I put out first grew really slow for some reason I didnt get out there for another 10-14 days. The plants that I put in later grew really fast so I yanked the first ones. I noticed that they had very little root development, I replaced them with more plants that were the same kind. I was amazed how quickly they caught up and produced.
There's not much developement if you put them out before the temps are high enough. I do cheat the temp some what on the plants that go into containers. The soil in them warms up faster and I use a row cover on them to keep the air temps higher also.
You can also warm up the in-the-ground soil temp using row covers and an overall plastic cover.
Milestone hit this week: Tomatoes and peppers have been going outside to start the hardening off process.
This message was edited Apr 6, 2012 10:10 AM
No disease that I could identify. They just stopped growing and producing. Cuore de bue is another one that is not doing well. Large beautiful plants, very little fruit. I was going to rip them out and noticed more buds coming on so I left them in the ground. Horrible tomato year for all the growers in the valley. No rain last year so salt is high in soil, crazy fluctuating temps, lots of wind. The greenhouses aren't finished yet, so no help there. I did get my shade cloth finally after ordering from a supplier in TN.
Mountain Pride and some of the cherry tomatoes are doing super well, loaded with fruit. I think I need to retest the soil in some beds, possible potassium and phosphrus deficiency judging from the symptoms.
Bell peppers are loaded with fruit, as are the jalapenos and the plants are beautiful.
Cala-this is a crazy year, especially weather wise. We are lucky up here because we have gotten alot of rain over the last few months so it leached out a lot of the salt, and the amendments : ( so Im adding stuff to each hole, but this is on tiny scale. Nothing compared to your's. We have had minimal wind this spring but much higher humidity then I'm used to. Yuck!
Ill be thinking about you, please keep us updated. Good Luck
It snowed again today, so I will wait to put out the tomatoes. We should have had this weather in winter, not spring!!! At least we are getting snow and water for the state, as it was set to be in a drought.
I think that all farmers and gardeners are many times upset at what weather we have...too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry....LOL!!!
Do you have your tomatoes started? I cant believe the crazy weather you are having.
This message was edited Apr 13, 2012 9:43 PM
Lisa ~ Yes, I have some started, but not yet planted outside. I have started the rest of them last night. I will keep them in until they germinate and then go from there. I have them under lights and on heat for now. The others are under lights with no heat, doing well. Some were started in February. I never know when I will get a chance to put them out. It looked really good in January and February! LOL!! (Ugh!)
The sun is shining and most of the snow is melted, though not quite warm yet, 40° right now. I think it will be warmer later in the day, well at least I surely hope so!
WOW! That weather really does sound "grizzly".
This is the 3rd day of 30 mph wind. We might get a little rain tomorrow when the front finally gets here. I started going around pulling any tomatoes that aren't doing well. I am going to try direct seeding Arkansas Traveler, Top Gun and a few other heat tolerant varieties. I had a few bell pepper starting to wilt, so pulled those out also.
I am trying Red Ruffles this year, peppers are nice size but I want these to get red before picking. I did pick the first fruits that set (we do this with all peppers) and they had nice thick walls.
I have most of the peppers, tomatoes and eggplant in the greenhouse (shade house in summer). Not sure how I'm going to work the rotation of crops since the only other things in there are cucumbers and squash!
All you Texans give me major zone envy! LOL...
I'm not doing beefsteaks this year, our season is just too short. Last year I only got a couple of good Brandywine, not worth the effort. But I am growing tried and true Sweet Million and Sungold cherries, and trying an early Roma type, Pompeii. Funny, Sweet Million is an old favorite, and I've always considered it to be early, but of the three it was the last to germinate. So I have high hopes for good yields this year from all.
Last year I really pushed to get them in nearly three weeks early. I had them hardened off in a cold frame while it was still quite cool and they were nice and sturdy. Then I poured hot water on the 3x6' raised beds to raise the soil temps, planted, laid down plastic on the soil and mulched with wood chips, and covered the whole business with frost blanket fabric over hoops... And they loved it, I got the first red Sweet Million in early July.
Pam
Well, out went my black cherry seeds, 8 weeks and not one germinated. OH WELL, I'll try again later.Planted some yellow cherries (tomato) they dwarfed and didn't grow earlier.So I replanted them today.
I'll get to the peppers.
How old were the seeds and where did you get them? I can't imagine NONE germinating.
1lisac ;Those were half the seeds I had gotten from wintersown. Half the seeds in the package I still have. The others I've gotten from there are all doing pretty well At least those i've grown so far.
Hopefully you can try again. Those are some tasty tomatoes, IMHO.