Welcome to all who join us each Saturday Morning: gardeners, non-gardeners, bird lovers, photo lovers and browsers! Grab a cuppa and enjoy. (mahdalgal)
Morning y’all, and welcome to another downheah edition of Saturday Morning Garden Blogging. Back in April, I posted a diary here about the tomato breeding project that I have going this season, The Sully Project. As of this writing, I have 19 Sully plants, 11 are planted in-ground; 8 in containers.
Early last week, I saw the first fruit set on one of the in-ground plants.
So far, the most surprising development has been the appearance of what seem to be “dwarf” variants.
I’ll be the first to admit that I know next-to-nothing about growing dwarf tomatoes, so I have also been in email contact with Craig LeHoullier, founder of The Dwarf Tomato Project. He agrees that these are indeed dwarf variants; note their rugose foliage.
16 plants are of the “regular leaf” variety; 11 in-ground and 5 in containers.
This project will be ongoing for quite a few years. So...the goal here is to find a good tasting, productive tomato that can be grown out going forward from these F2 plants. There may well be more than one line to follow; stay tuned, it’s gonna be a long process…
As regards the rest of The Tomato Patch, things are coming along nicely. Big Beef are doing what they do best, which is to set alot of fruit...
Chef’s Choice Pink (F5) are showing some unusual looking bloom stalks; about a dozen blooms on each stalk...
So far this season, the weather has generally been cooperative, but we head into the mid-to-upper 90s next week, so fruit set may be impacted. I’ve lost 2 plants to Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV), and the weeds and insects have been problematic. I’m holding my own, for now, but it’s early yet...
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On a sad note, it looks like Teddy the T-Rex and his family have moved; there’s now just a bare spot where he once stood. Here’s the last pic I have...
On a more positive note, one of the Bottlebrush Buckeyes that Beaky gifted me last year has popped up a bloom.
Please, everyone take care in this heat and let us know what’s going on in your garden.