The first plant to the left is Sunchocola, with growing tomatoes. The first on the right is Yellow Perfection.
The plants are going crazy mostly because of the heat but the prep work with compost and the seedless hay is obviously helping...
Thursday, May 1, 2014
"Koi Pond" Image
Here's a picture of our "koi pond" in the front yard. I believe this was taken on Tuesday.
The first plant to the left is Sunchocola, with growing tomatoes. The first on the right is Yellow Perfection.
The plants are going crazy mostly because of the heat but the prep work with compost and the seedless hay is obviously helping...
The first plant to the left is Sunchocola, with growing tomatoes. The first on the right is Yellow Perfection.
The plants are going crazy mostly because of the heat but the prep work with compost and the seedless hay is obviously helping...
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Sunchocola Has Growing Tomatoes!
Yesterday the back yard tomato plants in the ground were double watered. Today, the container plants were watered and the front yard tomato plants were double watered. Some minor plant training was done as well.
The heat wave has already kicked in...
I noticed that Sunchocola has several growing tomatoes! And the fun continues...
The heat wave has already kicked in...
I noticed that Sunchocola has several growing tomatoes! And the fun continues...
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Finished Tomato Planting for 2014
During the week I did a little bit of training and a little bit of watering.
On Thursday we planted in more of our containers. We planted Green Zebra, Golden Rave and Japanese Black Trifele.
On Saturday our lemon tree was finally trimmed. I made four holes underneath the lemon tree and my wife planted Blush, Great White, Blue Gold (Siberian Tiger) and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1). The Pink Berkeley Tie Dye grown from seed is now a keeper and will be designated as Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2).
My wife had tested the bottom of the pulp pot containing Green Zebra. Unfortunately, it gave. However, we had an extra pulp pot container so this evening we transferred Green Zebra into the new unused container.
This may be it for the tomato planting this year (Famous last words). My wife has the seedling count at 64 but I'll defer to my on line spreadsheet after it's fully updated.
Just about all the tomato plants look terrific. I'll list the ones that aren't. These include Paul Robeson and Black Cherry in the back yard. Both aren't growing as rapidly as the others, they have leaf curl and the color isn't as healthy as I would like. Both of these plants appear to have come from the same grower. Hmmm.... In the front yard, Vorlon has very good color but isn't growing as rapidly as the other plants in the "koi pond".
Other than that, we're off to the races!
It's my understanding that we're getting a big heat wave in the middle of the week, so we'll try to get all the tomato plants watered before then.
On Thursday we planted in more of our containers. We planted Green Zebra, Golden Rave and Japanese Black Trifele.
On Saturday our lemon tree was finally trimmed. I made four holes underneath the lemon tree and my wife planted Blush, Great White, Blue Gold (Siberian Tiger) and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1). The Pink Berkeley Tie Dye grown from seed is now a keeper and will be designated as Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2).
My wife had tested the bottom of the pulp pot containing Green Zebra. Unfortunately, it gave. However, we had an extra pulp pot container so this evening we transferred Green Zebra into the new unused container.
This may be it for the tomato planting this year (Famous last words). My wife has the seedling count at 64 but I'll defer to my on line spreadsheet after it's fully updated.
Just about all the tomato plants look terrific. I'll list the ones that aren't. These include Paul Robeson and Black Cherry in the back yard. Both aren't growing as rapidly as the others, they have leaf curl and the color isn't as healthy as I would like. Both of these plants appear to have come from the same grower. Hmmm.... In the front yard, Vorlon has very good color but isn't growing as rapidly as the other plants in the "koi pond".
Other than that, we're off to the races!
It's my understanding that we're getting a big heat wave in the middle of the week, so we'll try to get all the tomato plants watered before then.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Stupice and Volunteer(2) Have Growing Tomatoes!
On Thursday we planted Sugar Snack, Captain Lucky and Michael Pollan in containers.
Before we planted, we dumped the dirt in two of the containers onto the concrete patio. I carefully went through the dirt and picked out what I had previously thought were cutworms. We had found out earlier in the day that they were fig beetle larvae.
Today I pulled the grass out of the remaining cutout area that I said we weren't planting. That took a couple of hours. It went faster than I expected. I used a claw-like tool to separate the grass from the dirt. Then I turned over the top layer of dirt with a shovel and picked out more grass.
We replaced the dead Dark Galaxy seedling with Ananas Noire. In the newly grass cleared area we planted Blue Beauty and Pineapple.
On Thursday I noticed that Stupice has a growing tomato! I checked again today and Stupice has at least four growing tomatoes. Volunteer(2) in the third raised bed has two growing tomatoes as well. Volunteer(2) is the best looking tomato plant of them all right now.
The "koi pond" tomatoes look terrific. Sunchocola looks the best but there is no clunker in the area. They all look good.
Before we planted, we dumped the dirt in two of the containers onto the concrete patio. I carefully went through the dirt and picked out what I had previously thought were cutworms. We had found out earlier in the day that they were fig beetle larvae.
Today I pulled the grass out of the remaining cutout area that I said we weren't planting. That took a couple of hours. It went faster than I expected. I used a claw-like tool to separate the grass from the dirt. Then I turned over the top layer of dirt with a shovel and picked out more grass.
We replaced the dead Dark Galaxy seedling with Ananas Noire. In the newly grass cleared area we planted Blue Beauty and Pineapple.
On Thursday I noticed that Stupice has a growing tomato! I checked again today and Stupice has at least four growing tomatoes. Volunteer(2) in the third raised bed has two growing tomatoes as well. Volunteer(2) is the best looking tomato plant of them all right now.
The "koi pond" tomatoes look terrific. Sunchocola looks the best but there is no clunker in the area. They all look good.
Monday, April 14, 2014
More Plantings...
On Thursday we planted Speckled Roman(2) and Dark Galaxy in the cleared out area that I had said earlier we wouldn't plant in this year (ha ha). We planted Green Grape and Husky Cherry Red(1) in the fourth raised bed.
On Saturday (after working TomatoMania in Fillmore) we planted Bloody Butcher, Indigo Apple and Indian Stripe in the "corner office". However, something whacked Dark Galaxy overnight and it doesn't look very healthy. We'll monitor this closely and replace with a different seedling if it doesn't recover.
Today my wife planted Speckled Roman(1), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red and Porkchop in the "corner office". Dark Galaxy looks the same...
Pulling out the grass and digging the holes for the new area was a chore. We're only about halfway through pulling out the grass but it did create enough room to plant the two tomatoes mentioned above. I pulled out about three gallons of rocks and asphalt before planting Speckled Roman(2) and over two gallons planting Dark Galaxy. These "virgin" areas have a lot of asphalt.
Almost all of the other tomato plants have taken off and look great.
On Saturday (after working TomatoMania in Fillmore) we planted Bloody Butcher, Indigo Apple and Indian Stripe in the "corner office". However, something whacked Dark Galaxy overnight and it doesn't look very healthy. We'll monitor this closely and replace with a different seedling if it doesn't recover.
Today my wife planted Speckled Roman(1), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red and Porkchop in the "corner office". Dark Galaxy looks the same...
Pulling out the grass and digging the holes for the new area was a chore. We're only about halfway through pulling out the grass but it did create enough room to plant the two tomatoes mentioned above. I pulled out about three gallons of rocks and asphalt before planting Speckled Roman(2) and over two gallons planting Dark Galaxy. These "virgin" areas have a lot of asphalt.
Almost all of the other tomato plants have taken off and look great.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Planted Three More Seedlings, But Replaced Two
Today we replaced Green Grape with Black Cherry and we replaced Miss Elliott Persimmon (not Persimmon) with two Miss Elliott Persimmon seedlings. Also, we planted Husky Cherry Red in one of the raised beds.
The planted and remaining seedlings have all been watered over the past two days.
You know what, I need to identify the raised beds. We have five raised beds. One uses redwood while the others use cinder block. I'll identify them by going east to west, north to south. The first east/west row has three beds, the second east/west row has two beds.
The first raised bed contains a volunteer. The second raised uses redwood and contains no tomato plants. The third raised bed has the volunteer that's growing like a weed. The fourth raised bed has the recently planted Husky Cherry Red. The fifth raised bed contains another tomato volunteer.
My wife put shade cloths against some of the back yard tomato cages. Some of the plants were beginning to wilt.
I dug into the container that held Rosella Purple last year (if memory serves, this tomato was mislabeled...), hoping to prove that we didn't need to worry about cutworms. After digging around, I found nearly a dozen cutworms, though none were adult sized. However, the point was made, we need to sift through the dirt.
The planted and remaining seedlings have all been watered over the past two days.
You know what, I need to identify the raised beds. We have five raised beds. One uses redwood while the others use cinder block. I'll identify them by going east to west, north to south. The first east/west row has three beds, the second east/west row has two beds.
The first raised bed contains a volunteer. The second raised uses redwood and contains no tomato plants. The third raised bed has the volunteer that's growing like a weed. The fourth raised bed has the recently planted Husky Cherry Red. The fifth raised bed contains another tomato volunteer.
My wife put shade cloths against some of the back yard tomato cages. Some of the plants were beginning to wilt.
I dug into the container that held Rosella Purple last year (if memory serves, this tomato was mislabeled...), hoping to prove that we didn't need to worry about cutworms. After digging around, I found nearly a dozen cutworms, though none were adult sized. However, the point was made, we need to sift through the dirt.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Catching Up On Some Back Yard Plantings(2)
Here's the second half of this week's plantings...
Yesterday I dug the holes and my wife planted Neves Azorean Red, Snow White, Matt's Wild Cherry, Pierce's Pride, Black Krim and SunGold. I pulled out about a gallon and 3/4 of rocks and asphalt.
Today's plantings include Black Sea Man, Indigo Rose, Jaune Flamme, Black From Tula and Brad's Black Heart. A lot of dark tomatoes were planted today! I pulled out over 2 gallons of rock and asphalt.
My wife also started pulling out the grass in the area that I said we didn't have enough time to pull it all out. If we want to plant all our tomatoes, we'll need this area. We'll see how it goes...after all, this area didn't get the compost like the rest of the backyard planting area did. Still, it's better than nothing.
Yesterday I dug the holes and my wife planted Neves Azorean Red, Snow White, Matt's Wild Cherry, Pierce's Pride, Black Krim and SunGold. I pulled out about a gallon and 3/4 of rocks and asphalt.
Today's plantings include Black Sea Man, Indigo Rose, Jaune Flamme, Black From Tula and Brad's Black Heart. A lot of dark tomatoes were planted today! I pulled out over 2 gallons of rock and asphalt.
My wife also started pulling out the grass in the area that I said we didn't have enough time to pull it all out. If we want to plant all our tomatoes, we'll need this area. We'll see how it goes...after all, this area didn't get the compost like the rest of the backyard planting area did. Still, it's better than nothing.
Catching Up On Some Back Yard Plantings(1)...
So let's catch up on some of the back yard plantings...
On Tuesday my wife replaced the back yard Berkeley Tie Dye (from seed) with Odoriko, replaced Evan's Purple Pear (grown from seed) with Cherokee Purple and replaced the now non-existent Pineapple Pig(2) with Red Pear Piriform.
On Wednesday I dug the holes and my wife planted Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Black Icicle, Paul Robeson, Nyagous and Evan's Purple Pear. I pulled out about a gallon and half of rocks and asphalt.
The dirt for the back yard and "koi pond" tomatoes looks great. After I dig out the dirt I've been adding some kelp meal, a handful of worm castings and a handful of tomato fertilizer, then mix it all together. This is on top of all the compost we added a few months back.
On Tuesday my wife replaced the back yard Berkeley Tie Dye (from seed) with Odoriko, replaced Evan's Purple Pear (grown from seed) with Cherokee Purple and replaced the now non-existent Pineapple Pig(2) with Red Pear Piriform.
On Wednesday I dug the holes and my wife planted Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Black Icicle, Paul Robeson, Nyagous and Evan's Purple Pear. I pulled out about a gallon and half of rocks and asphalt.
The dirt for the back yard and "koi pond" tomatoes looks great. After I dig out the dirt I've been adding some kelp meal, a handful of worm castings and a handful of tomato fertilizer, then mix it all together. This is on top of all the compost we added a few months back.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Friday's "Koi Pond" planting
Here's an image from Friday's "koi pond" planting. It might not show...but I'm really tired in this shot. This was after the Descanso Gardens TomatoMania preparation day, a full day in and of itself.
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