Good Morning, Gardeners, I hope this Saturday morning finds you all healthy, wealthy, and wise! As y’all know, I was pretty much housebound for most of the month of February, but better now, and back at work. However, my month long hiatus from the rigors of the daily work grind gave me ample opportunities to check out some cool, new (mostly tomato), gardening forums. The more I looked around, though, I was amazed at just how many gardening forums there are out there. Plant specific...region specific...the list of gardening forums is almost limitless. See these links: here...and, here
I’ve talked frequently here about Tomatoville.com. I’ve only been a member there for a little more than a year, but have learned more than I can really express. Tomatoville is truly a treasure trove of tomato knowledge and wisdom. One very interesting tidbit concerning Tomatoville is their “hosting” of “The Cross Hemisphere Dwarf Project.” I’ve never grown dwarf tomatoes. Heck, before I joined Tomatoville, I’d never heard of a dwarf tomato, or a potato leafed tomato, or a bi-colored tomato. I could go on for days about how much I (apparently) don’t know about tomatoes. Over the last month or so, I’ve had the opportunity to dig a little deeper into the wonder that is “the tomato”.
I will not attempt here to describe the scope and importance of “The Cross Hemisphere Dwarf Project”, but these links, I think, will.
www.craiglehoullier.com/…
www.dwarftomatoproject.net/…
I am currently active in 4 (mostly tomato) gardening forums. All of them have their attributes, but one, in particular, has become my absolute favorite. They have built a very nice community of like-minded folks who love tomatoes (and peppers), and who are very comfortable with each other. It’s a cool place! Their members are from all over the globe: The U.S….Germany...The Netherlands...France...Russia...The Philippines...Australia, and Canada. They swap information, and seeds (LOTS of seeds!)...and they collectively “grow out” interesting new tomato (and pepper) varieties, whether they be accidental or intentional crosses. I volunteered to participate in 4 of their ongoing “grow outs” this season; 3 peppers and 1 tomato. The one that most fascinates me is a segregate of a Giant Marconi Pepper (here) that exhibited “stripes”. One plant out of six produced striped fruit. Seed from that plant were saved and grown out through multiple generations. Take a look:
Ain’t that purty? Also, this pepper plant has been reported to grow to over 7ft tall. I was hooked!! I currently have five of these seedlings hanging out downheah in the cave waiting on Spring!
Ah, yes, Spring…. I guess for all intents and purposes, it’s been “Spring” here for about a month now. A very WET Spring. We had a tornado touch down here about three weeks ago, doing some significant damage, and killing one person. Since then, we’ve had consecutive weeks with “tornado warned” storms producing minimal damage, but that dumped copious amounts of rain. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if it didn’t rain again til July….
My youngest Son came in last weekend to help me with some outside work in the tomato & pepper Patch. If it weren’t for all his help, I’d be hopelessly behind in my planting schedule.
If you were to look down inside those pipes, you would see the groundwater sitting at almost ground level. The black plastic coverings are in place to help raise the soil temperature and speed up the decomposition of alfalfa and crab meal added to the planting holes in an attempt to mitigate the root knot nematode population.
I’ve decided to stop using RoundUp completely, so we laid down black landscape fabric under the pepper pots to help with weed/grass control.
I’m going to be using some “self watering containers”, similar to “EarthBoxes” for the first time this year. Check them out here. I’ll be using these containers for growing some heirloom (not nematode resistant) tomato varieties. These containers require the use of a peat moss based potting mix to facilitate water/nutrient uptake, so we picked up a couple of bales of ProMix BX at the plant farm over in Alabama.
We also picked up some Big Beef seedlings. For my money, you cannot beat this tomato for production, heat tolerance, or disease resistance. If, for some reason, I could grow only one tomato variety, it would be Big Beef; no doubt.
Temperatures are gonna be down in the 30’s for the next few nights, so my tomato & pepper seedlings are residing inside at the moment. Right now, I’m looking at a plant out date somewhere around the 3rd week in April, but, with the way the weather has been thus far, who knows…?
Many thanks to Craig LeHoullier for his vision and dedication as regards The Cross Hemisphere Dwarf Project! I hope y’all will take a look at those links. Craig, Patrina, and a ton of worldwide volunteer growers have made a mighty bigly contribution to the Tomato World. Also, to the guy in North Carolina who noticed those striped peppers and decided to save seeds: Good job; thanks for the seeds, and for the use of your pictures! Thanks, also, to Geoff, from Downunder, for the use of his pic!
That’s about it from downheah. Any of y’all planning on growing tomatoes or peppers this year? I’d love to hear about it!