Tomato Mania

Intense Heat...

It's been advisory hot outside for the last 4 or 5 days. It's been in the high 90's to the low 100's with a lot of humidity which has been amazing for the tomatoes. Tons of them are ripening on all the plants. I collected at least 10 tomatoes and 2 squash today alone. I took the squash to my moms for her to cook them,like she can only do, for me. Mmmm so good! The heat is miserable but the results are amazing! I hope it stays sunny and fairly hot, maybe just maybe, not advisory hot but tomato hot. 

Today's collection! The yellow is a lemon boy. The small ones are tomato-berries.

Cooked squash with onions. 

Pepino

Ripe for the picking...

I went out early this morning to try with the squash again but it was overcast and sunny in short intervals so the flowers weren't open again. I looked around the bottom after giving up on stigma rubbing and noticed that the crookneck plants are taking over the patty-pan space and some of the space in the cantaloupe bed. We do have some nice medium crooknecks growing so some cross-pollination is taking place between the crookneck flowers but the patty-pan has not only been invaded but hasn't grown anymore fruit, at all. 

After checking on the squash I went over to Container Drive to check on the watermelon, cucumbers, eggplant, strawberries, and peppers. I looked into the cucumber container and saw a medium size cuc was ready for the picking. For some reason I shuffled the leaves and an enormous cucumber popped into vision. I was amazed. The container is half the size recommended for growing cucumbers but keeps producing and produced a cucumber more like the store sized ones. I picked it, it was ready and took them inside. After that I went back pick a strawberry and took a few pictures of the progressing melon and eggplant. 

Since it's been sunny and extremely hot the last two days I decided to water everything with sea magic and spray the foliage. I made a gallon of sea magic mix in a pitcher for the spray bottle and made 6 gallons of sea magic in the water can (at separate times). I watered and sprayed everything then went inside to shower. After my shower I took out the ripening tomatoes I picked yesterday and snap a flick of the last two days hull. Our harvests are looking better and better. We would have had more tomatoes today if I was scared to pick them because of the hornworm. I even had a nightmare about it. Ugh! 

2 days worth of harvest. 

Our first eggplant has grown almost an inch each day for the last 3 days. 

Largest cucumber, yet, peeled and chopped. 

Watermelon 5 inches wide and 4 long. It's starting to really weigh down the branch. It probably weighs 2.5lbs. 

Hornworm Ho!

Yuck...

I went early this morning to try and catch the squash flowers at a time when they were open and check on everything else. The squash has been teetering on the edge of just being nice foliage, unluckily, because the insects aren't cross pollinating between gender and gender enough so I wanted to pull some make flowers and rub there stigma into the female stigmas but, again unluckily, only one male flower was open and all of the rest were closed. They're supposed to open during the day but aren't which leads me to believe that the insects would pollinate enough if the flowers would open up. Anyway, I moved on to check on everything else and was about to start pulling the suckers off of the tomato plants when I saw it, a disgusting long, fat, branch colored caterpillar. YUCK! It scared me to death, almost. I went inside and told Mrs. S about the horned worm sitting on the branch. Eventually, she offered to get rid of it for me. I handed her a gallon size ziplock, a pair of gloves, and scissors. She cut away all the blocking foliage put the bag over the branch with the caterpillar on it and cut the branch into the bug. Then she asked if we should move it or kill it. I figured if we moved it would just find its way back so she put the bag with the branch in it on the ground and smashed it with her foot. The whole thing was very courageous of her. I would never have been able to do that. The caterpillar exploded, disgustingly inside, and we trashed the whole thing. Afterwards I googled "green caterpillar with red horn" and found out that are disgusting little friend was a tomato hornworm. They feed on and destroy tomato plants. I'll be working on finding out how to keep them away for the rest of the day. There gross scary and dangerous. They'll kill the entire bed if given the chance and deter me from reaching in and picking tomatoes. So either way we won't get any fruit. 

Can you find the hornworm? It blends in so disgustingly well. 

Sex Organs?

Pollinating squash...

When I went out today I noticed that we had a bunch of little red tomatoes and one large red/green tomato but I'll talk about that later. Right now I want to talk about why our squash had been shriveling up and dying. It turns out that the squash produce male and female blossoms and they need to be pollinated male to female stigma. So I went online and read a bunch of articles on hand pollinating. Obviously the insects, bees and what not, have pollinate a few of the flowers properly but they don't get them all because they aren't look to go male to female they just go flower to flower. So you have to do some hand pollinating if you want to get the biggest harvest possible. 

I went out and tried but did not really succeed because all of the flowers were closed. The squash blossoms are supposed to open in the morning and stay that way until early evening but they weren't. My guess is the infamous rain. The sky was so dark it did seem like early evening. I did get a feel for what I needed to do and I figured out what the difference between a male blossom and female blossom is...

Male Blossoms have a stigma that looks like a yellow Q-tip top. Female blossoms have what looks like a few round stigma attached to make one big round with a hollow center. It looks like a smaller, yellow, b.b. gun ammunition cap.

Instructions to Hand Pollinate: 
1. Remove a male flower
2. Peel back the petals on the male flower to reveal the stigma
3. Rub stigma against (still attached) female stigma when open (should be easy to tell by stigma and fruit under) 
4. One male flower for every 3 female flowers
5. After 3 cut another and continue

Tomato Time...

I picked the tomatoes and pulled off the suckers. Suckers are usually the small set of leave growing in between to larger branches. Pulling these off allows the plant to put more energy into ripening the tomatoes. As you can see these were not perfectly ripe but they were close enough and they tasted amazing. I never like slightly green tomatoes but these were totally different. I loved them. I wanted leave some for the others to taste and I did but I meant to leave more. I couldn't resist eating more and more.... MMMMMM!

Chipmunk Fence

Bunnies, Chipmunks, or Rats?

Up until now we've been pretty lucky as far as pests go. I've had some personal invasions in Patch Market on my strawberry containers and on the Topsy Turvy but after I moved the containers and wrapped up the Topsy all of that ended. I have had some berries get eaten by the birds but that has been few and far between. Otherwise, we've had a bunny go for the lettuce in Potagar, once, and that's it. Those few times things did go missing we blamed it on rats. There was a storm of rats in this neighborhood last year due to the recently, more, mild winters but we actually haven't seen any rats we just assumed that was the case because they ate every single tomato in the small container garden Mr. S. fashioned last year. Anyway, so we blamed the rats, not the bunnies, because of the bite size but the rats. I was worried we were going to see another swarm of them this year, even though they were killed off by our poison and a few of the neighbors. Yesterday, when I was out put some of the fencing up I saw a tomato, a small cherry one, on the ground with a bite mark in it. I thought, again, a rat and that I needed to hurry up and finish getting the fencing up. I didn't because I ran out and needed to get the rest out of the car but I basically finished today. Anyway, I told Mr. S. about the tomato and he said something that I completely agree with "I haven't really seen even one rat but I've seen a bunch of chipmunks. They have to eat too." He is absolutely correct. I've seen at least 6 or 7 in our area alone and a few running across the street in the neighborhood. The bite marks are so small that it makes sense that they are the thieves not the nonexistent rats. So I made sure to get almost all of the rest of the fencing up to protect against them and hope that we get to enjoy some of the fruits of our labor, literally.  Mr. S. thought that we might not get many pests because we'd been lucky so far but I think I was correct when I said that was because things haven't ripened yet. Now that they're ripening the aroma will attract pests from afar and around. 

Fencing we purchased at home depot for $5 a roll. A good deal and it is not unattractive when up. I used a staple gun to hold it in place on the wooden poles Mr. S. put in but we could have bought metal hook poles that you did into the ground for $3 a piece. Next time we'll know.

The cucumber plant was close to reaching the cement drive so I put a trellis in the container and weave the long stems through the trellis just like I did with the cantaloupe plants. Cucumbers are in the same family so there vines should happily attach to accommodate vertical growth.

Vine of a cantaloupe working its way to attaching to the newly placed trellis and a very young cantaloupe melon forming (the yellow fuzzy globe). 

Ready, Set, Fruit!

Picture Update on Fruiting Plants...

Our first quarter sized patty-pan squash. There are several beautiful squash blossoms on this plant but the patty-pan's haven't developed as quickly. The plant is about a foot wide and 2 feet tall.

The infamous Tomato-berry plant. It took weeks to grown a centimeter then it shot up a foot and stayed that height for another week and produced maybe one tomato. Now its about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide with at least 30 tomato-berries. The name describes the shape and size of this type of tomato, strawberry like.

Our first cucumber. One of many. The biggest of all. It is about 4 inches long and an inch wide. It's been growing in a container for about a month and a week. 

Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. They are starting to ripen in this picture. The plant is about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide with an unknown number of marble sized fruit.

Super 45 Hybrid cantaloupe plant in 10x12 container with a trellis. Picture are the first and 2nd melons growing. The closest is the size of a plum and the second is the size of a kiwi. There are at least 4 other flowers with tiny pea sized and yellow globes starting to form. 

Container cantaloupe plant with 2 sizable melons and several other tiny ones. I made a tepee with a more solid trellis to hold the first and provide more space for the plants growth. Several references said that if given vertical space cantaloupes only needed one square foot (otherwise they needed 4x4 sqft of ground space). So I'm hoping this will be enough trellis space to grow full size melons.

WATCH! Fruit Set

Fruit Setting...

When I first started my garden I didn't quite know what all the references meant when they said "fruit set" which caused me anxiety to no end. Things change when fruit starts to set in... I could of guessed that it was when the fruit started to grow but I didn't know what point in there growth was true setting. So now that I do know and can tell you that it means when the flowers start to turn I wanted to show you. 

All of our plants are at "fruit set" or have been "setting" for awhile now. 

Doubling Trouble!!!

Growth Galore...

After being in Atlantic City for 5 days I came back to a giant garden. Everything had basically doubled in size. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea.

When I left the green arrow beans were maybe an inch long. Today 40-50 were ready for picking. I picked 21. 

The branches on all 4 of these tomato plants have grown at least 6 inches in every direction. We have about 40 tomatoes in all different shapes and sizes, at all different stages. 

All three of the crookneck plants have grown about 4 inches higher and 3-4 wider. The patty pan (front left) has grown about 2 inches each way. 

The only plant without at least 2 baby squashes to offer is the patty-pan, it has none so far. 

The carrot greens have gotten so thick you can't see any soil. They'll probably be ready for harvest in 10 days.

First radish from my second sowing. This one is twice the size of any of the first sowing but most of them probably won't produce because the roots became long and exposed. I'm not sure why. 

Container cantaloupe in Patch. Almost to the 3rd rung on the trellis. It was barely at the 2nd when I left and only covered the very center now its covering almost the entire trellis in width. 

Tomato-berry plant. This is the plant that wouldn't grow past 4 inches for weeks then shot up 12 and stopped. It's shot up another 3 inches, at least, and out another 4-5. Amazing! 

**More to come in another entry, it won't load properly with too many pics**

Picture Entry

Rain again...

I'm pretty sure most of our crops are going to get rained out but for right now they're doing okay. It keeps raining on and off in major downpours of water. As far as I know this is the way this summer is going to be on the East Coast. Baltimore has flooded streets. Virginia isn't flooding but I contribute that to good drainage not to the fact that we've gotten less rain. I'm considering pulling the containers inside the sunroom during storms from now on unless we suddenly start to drought. Ugh! Of course the first year we plant two gardens we get a wet as heck summer. Sucks! 

Yellow Crookneck squash

Biggest Tomatoes in the bunch, Lemon Boys.

Peanut plant flowered.

First trellises plant climbing the trellis, cantaloupe. 

Color Everywhere

There are different colors of fruiting plants popping up all over the garden. 

Our beautiful and light green tomato-berry.

Dark green and striped super fantastic tomatoes.

First baby yellow stuff-able patty-pan squash blossom.

First sign of pink/red on the ripening strawberries. This one is from the Topsy.

How does your Garden Grow

In the HEAT!

The plants have absolutely boomed. I was 1000% right. The heat has changed the garden completely over the last 4 days, for the better. 

Tomato Plants...

The tomato-berry plant that didn't grow one inch taller for two months has grown about a foot in height and has put on about 4 more blossoms. Mr S. pointed it out to me and I was shocked. It's completely shot up. 

The first tomato in the far right and front plot has doubled in size and all of the tomato plants are breaking out of there tepee stakes. I had no idea they would get so big and be so strong. The tomato plant in the back, on the right, has completely cured itself. It use to had rust and now its a beautiful vibrant green and large plant. The tomato that was taken down by my wooden "Charlie brown" box trellis has overcome its shock and grown about 4 inches in width along with all the rest. It's amazing, truly. 

Plants are so big there breaking the tepees. 

Carrots...

The Danver126 carrot plants have shot up in part I'm sure to the thinning and most of all because of the heat. They are at least 3 inches taller and much fuller. The red core Chantenay's are doing the same. They haven't grown as tall as the Danvers but they are filling out and looking lush. I think the red cores needed the warmth but don't have the same properties a the Danvers. I specifically chose Danver126 carrots because they are one of the few varieties that likes the warm/hot weather opposed to the usual  cool/warm weather carrots enjoy. So it makes sense that the Danvers are thriving just a little more. 

Seascape Strawberries...

The 5G strawberry bucket, the container I thought was a dud, is doing better than the rest. Te plants are at least a foot tall, the berries are bigger and closer to being ripe enough to pick, and there are at least another 20 flower buds ready to bloom on top of the 30 strawberries already growing. It's unbelievable because it was the slowest to start but has changed so quickly and surpasses the rest. 

The 8G bucket is just doing okay. It has a few strawberries but the plants are much shorter and the berries much slower. They'll definitely produce a few tasty morsels but I don't think I'll be getting a pint from each of the 4 plants in that container. I may be wrong like I was with the 5G container but its doubtful. They should have rooted and strengthened and started to grow, in height at least, by now. 

On the other hand, the Topsy Turvy is doing very well. It has at least 20 berries growing at the moment and another handful of buds in the waiting. The plants are about 10-12 inches tall and the berries are big. Not quite as big as the 5G bucket just yet but big enough. The Topsy Turvy has finally found a stable spot. The hook is holding and the plants seem to thrive from that and the heat. 

I wouldn't be surprised if I was eating my first berry by Weds. of next week. 

Biggest berry in the 5G bucket.

Bush Sugar Baby...

I planted the watermelon plants in the recycling bin container a few weeks ago and like the tomato-berry plant the little seedling hasn't grown almost at all since the transfer. I was worried that I had shocked them or that the day of chilly weather had stunted them permanently. That wasn't the case though they needed that long hot day heat just like Smart Gardener said they would. The watermelon plants have absolutely tripled in size. They have four huge leaves that were not there Sunday. The heat has awakened them and they are ready to work. It's great. That's really all I can say. I've been looking forward to eating two main items from my garden; watermelon and strawberries. So I'm excited to see that they are finally moving. 

Original size at transplant and for the few weeks after.

Size after 4 hot long days. Still looked like the above on Sunday. 

Cucurbits...

The patty-pan and crookneck squash plants are doing pretty well they aren't in the best spot for there needs. The raised bed tends to become completely shaded after about high noon. So they haven't gotten to enjoy the hot days as much a the other plants but they are still thriving. The patty-pan plant has 4 new squash blossoms. The left-back crookneck has 2 yellow baby squash on it that have grown about a quarter of an inch and the front-right crookneck has new blossoms and one baby squash growing. So they are doing well but would be doing better had they been able to enjoy the direct sun more. 

The cantaloupe in the container had grow significantly in width and height and has 3 new blossoms on it. The cantaloupe still in the Bonnie store containers need to be planted, desperately need it. They have blossomed and grown and I'm sure there running out of room but the bed they were supposed to be in has an enormous amount of grass growing in it. Way more than that of the problematic squash bed. That's why we haven't transferred but need to.

Left-back crookneck plant.

Cucumber flowers. 

Everything Else...

Everything else is growing well and has loved the heat. Even the lettuce and spinach have remained crisp and are standing tall. The sweet potato plants in Potagar are doing amazingly but the ones I planted in Patch yesterday don't seem to be doing that hot. They were all wilted and dead looking when I went to water them today which is weird because sweet potato plants absolutely love the heat. They were the plant that required the latest transfer date. So I don't know if it was the slips or the overbearing heat right at transfer but they aren't looking too hot. I hope they make it.

The lemon balm has doubled in width and is a beautiful shade a green with a beautiful fragrance. The basil is taller than ever and the green beans finally have beans forming. 

Leafy Greens Galore

Harvesting the Leafy...

I went out this afternoon and checked on everything but didn't water because I knew rain was coming. It was overcast and humid so it was definitely coming. The next 5 days are going to be a game changer. The weather is supposed to be in the low 90's and sunny. All of the crops are warm/hot crops except for the lettuce and spinach. Even the carrots I planted are specifically attune to warm/hot weather so the next 5 days should make everything really blossom, not flower blossom, well maybe some but grow quickly. 

After I checked on everything I noticed that some of the spring mix leaves had bolted, gone to seed, flowered. So I decided to harvest. I harvested 2 full baskets between all four heads and the mix green leaves. Even after the two full baskets I yanked there is still at least 4 more baskets for mixed greens and another unknown high number of lettuce leaves since I'm using the continuous method. 

Basket one.

Basket two. 

After harvesting I went back into Patch and noticed that the cantaloupe container had a new flower and that there was a much larger strawberry than the one I deemed "largest yet" hiding in the 5G bucket. I thinned some carrots and radishes while I was there because I remembered what happened with the last batch of radishes. When I thinned the carrots even though they were orange or large I could tell the small roots were starting to form carrots. It was nice to see that they were "working." 

New! Largest berry.

Thinned carrots. If you zoom in you an see the roots starting to take carrot shape. 

Cantaloupe flower.

Slips...

I forgot to write about how I pulled my slips off of the sweet potato yesterday and stuck them in a glass of water to take root. I did. I did so because the leaves had lost there vibrant green and purple color and turned yellowish but I didn't feel they were tall enough. They haven't started to root yet and I'm not sure that they will but I do hope. 

I took pictures of the changes in the patty-pan and crookneck squashes. They'd grown and lost blossoms. 

Blossom wilted and fruit growing.