pretty funny...hows the tomatoes coming along?
Man, I fkd up. Or should I say that the nursery I bought six starter plants from fkd up. The little marking paddle said "Roma". Cool. Those are my sauce tomatoes. The plants were growing incredibly well. (It has been very dry and hot here. I'm discovering that the veggies and fruits love this climate). But when the little yellow flowers began turning to fruit I noticed that the little green tomatoes were round, not Roma elongated. Piss!!! Turns out I had nurtured 6 cherry tomato plants for the past two months. So I found them five new tenders who don't have veggie gardens but would love a potted cherry tomato plant. I wasn't sure how this experiment of transplanting would work so I proceeded very cautiously. The plants themselves have about 6 or 7 or eight vines of about 3 or 4 feet each. So I pitch forked them up from the rich, loose soil I have built into my raised beds. The roots were in some cases about two feet long. Yowza! Didn't expect that. But in the big plastic pots I have I filled the bottom with a layer of compost, then a layer of wet horse manure I keep in a barrel, then another layer of compost filling in for the plant root ball. Picked up the pot and vines with the help of my nephew very carefully so as not to snap the vines and placed them on 4x4 pallets which I put in the back of my van and carefully drove to each of their new homes one at a time. I made five people happy. Most really, really happy, especially my ex who I am still in love with so good outcomes can trickle out of not great situations!
So aside from that fk up, I'm having pretty damned good success with everything else this season. The cuke plants are going crazy and have climbed near to the top of an eight foot trellis I devised. I'm going to have hundreds of cukes out of four little plants planted. The green peppers are actually growing for me for the first time ever. The eggplants are looking good. Same with the swiss chard. I've been eating lettuce straight from the garden for several weeks now. The strawberry patch is lush but chipmunks ate near the whole first crop. I've been trying different things to ward them off from the second crop which is fruting right now. Fingers crossed. I think I'm succeeding by sticking moth balls down the holes where they live. Sorry Chippies but I tried to warn you with less toxic means but you just wouldn't listen!
THe concord grapes are on target and plentiful. The cantaloupe and watermellon plants are thriving after a slow start. Little cantaloupes have started to form. My little potted fig trees are blossoming with many more figs than ever before. The blueberry plants I planted last year are slow to grow and not blossoming blueberries. I'm trying to have patience there.
Back to the tomatoes. I have two each, Big Boy, Better Boy, and Jet Star. They are growing well and have set some nice looking green tomatoes. THey are probably a few weeks away from ripeness.
Gonna go cut some rhubarb later this afternoon and make some strawberry(from the market) rhubarb compote. Psyched.
You get any tomatoes yet in that cold wet climate you live in? Does it dry up ever? Does it get to the eighties ever? Doesn't sound ideal for growing veggies.
Enough. I've got baseball handicapping to do.
