2011 Earliest Tomato Contender

All 2011 Container varieties are thick and healthy, growing even better than the last season. But one is rather "very early"...

Danko. Originally brought to US from somewhere in CIS. At only 4 weeks after germination, under 6500K grow lights, it already set the flower buds on all the seedlings.

Determinate, but ever-bearing red oxheart with wispy foliage. Here it is, buried as deep as the 6" pot allowed. Exactly 5 weeks after germination:









It is regarded for it's flavor, and healthy production at only 3' to 4' tall. Well, so far it is also appears to be a possible contender to be the earliest! If everything goes as planned, mid May tomatoes maybe on the table!

2011 Tomatoes Updates

Some updates on tomatoes...

First batch of Main Garden varieties are germinated, and now transplanted into their 2.5" pots:




Five week old seedlings of "earlies" for container are now in their dedicated 6" pots:




My $2.00 garden tomatoes Beefsteak and Delicious are doing very well in their 2.5" pots at the moment, in 2-3 weeks will go into 6" pots as well.



No issues with germination on these $0.20 seeds at all, and all healthy!

2011 Tomatoes Germination

Main varieties for the garden germinated! New life has begun!

Few snaps of the life of a seedling:

The "embryo". Some rare or old seeds I bleach prior to seeding. The dormant life inside the seed:



Germination, it comes to life!



And reaches to the light:




It gains more colorful appearance and unmistakable "fur" on the main stem



First true leafs are now formed



In a week, these seedlings will be ready for transplant into a larger pots, and there will grow very quickly from that point!

New life has begun!

2011 Tomato Varieties - Main Garden

I do have to take a little easy on tomatoes this year, and add more vegetables to the table to keep up with the better eating habits. So I'm limiting myself:

Ananas Noir
Armenian
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Big Rainbow
Black Krim
Brandeva
Brandywine Sudduth
Bull's Heart Pink
Cherokee Green
Cleota Pink
Cleota Yellow
Dawson's Russian Oxeheart
Dynnye
Everett's Rusty Oxheart
Hazel Gold
Heart Of The Bull
Jumbo Jim Orange
Lithuanian Crested Pink
Orange Minsk
Pink Berkley Tie-Dye
Prue
Reif Red Heart
Roger's Best Black
Sakharnyi Zheltyi
Spudakee
Spudatula
Striped Red Boar (Red Boar)
Wes
Wisconsin 55

Few others will include (as a part of my $2.00 garden)

Delicious
Beefsteak

And looking forward to growing out 4 dwarfs: 3 from amazing work of some folks from Tomatoville:

Dwarf Beryl Beauty
Dwarf Emerald Giant
Dwarf Mr. Snow

And last, but not least:

New Big Dwarf

I'm actually quite excited growing out dwarfs for the first time. Will there ever be a full dwarf garden for me? Surely not, love getting up on the ladder to reach 10' plus vines to gather late season tomatoes from them. But for the patio and limited spaces gardens, dwarfs indeed have their place. And all 4 are bred for their taste!

2011 Garden Beginnings!

After somewhat rough ending to the last year, it is time to bring a spring a little closer to home!

2011 Tomatoes for containers are:

Danko
Janune Flamme
Lambada
Noire de Crimee
Taxi
Early Treat
Lubasha F4

These were started on Jan 29th

First seedlings started to pop-up on 02/01/2011, and still coming:

As of 02/11/2013, all of the first batch are in their 2.5" pots:



And as of 02/19/2011 are in the basement, getting a cold treatment.

2010 Fruit Trees - Freezing Night

Sometimes I think mother nature confuses a little =) Fruit trees don't like the freezing nights, and yet, peaches and pears are already in bloom!

So we wrapped all the blooming fruit trees in huge plastic drum liners - and I'm glad we did, temperatures last night dropped below freezing, my thermometer this morning was showing 24F. But this morning, after the rays of sun hit the fruit trees, I was very pleased to see healthy blooms still

2010 First Tomatoes Update

It's been a while, too busy at work, but time to update blog...

Few weeks ago, first, earlies were transplanted into the larger pots. Healthy, thick stems developed in the cool basement under the florescent tubes:




And now, sitting in the 6" azalea pots, reaching near 16" in height:




Since most of these are determinate (as with most "extra early" varieties), next weekend these will be planted into 10-18gal containers (depending on the mature growth habit). There is a nice south side wall of the garage where the sun is on all day from 7:30am and till about 5pm or so. So during the day, until the weather stabilizes, out they go, and back inside the garage with the sundown. Really hoping for some May tomato, but June will do too!