Posts Tagged heirloom tomatoes

After reading over and over, what great “organic fertilizer” worm castings are, I decided to put it to the test. I’ve included pictures to show just exactly how amazing this stuff really is. If I hadn’t seen this for myself, I would NEVER have believed it could do what I’ve witnessed.

In sowing my tomato seeds (peppers are about to go through the same process) I decided to transplant ONE plant a bit (WAY TOO) early. The starts didn’t even have a set of true leaves yet. In other words they were stems with cotyledons, when I transplanted my Purple Russian tomato plant.

As you can see from the below pictures (now these starts are ALL the same age) the one plant to the far right is the Purple Russian. It was transplanted in 5:1 potting soil / worm castings, 5 days prior to the rest of that tray. I was absolutely SHOCKED at its immediate accelerated growth, so I decided to plant another full tray with worm castings. Those are the ones in the tray next to the Purple Russian.

Purple Russian - First Transplant

As you will see in the next picture, at the same time I planted the tray of tomatoes in worm castings, I also planted a tray of tomato starts in plain potting soil. The difference is absolutely amazing! I have now added some worm castings to the tops of the cups in the test tray, so they may (hopefully) catch up.

2nd Transplanted Seedlings With Worm Castings

2nd Batch Transplants without Worm Castings

If you are interested in trying worm castings, you can either make your own worm bed and raise your own worms, or you can buy packaged worm castings all ready for planting.

My choice was obvious with the number of plants I grow each year, so my worm bin is nestled nicely on my back porch. It’s a wonderful, green way to dispose of table scraps and organic debris.

For a wonderful manual on worm farming, Click Here!

Or for Nature's Solution Worm Castings 5 Lb, Click Here

Looking for Red Wiggler Live Composting Worms? Then Click Here

Well, it’s ready…as I said before, we’ve put together a great Monthly Drawing for FREE Heirloom Seeds! We’re so excited to get this going and get feedback on the varieties we offer and so forth. So don’t hesitate to hop on over to our sign up page for your chance to win one of our amazing packages!

Of course, we’ll ask you to offer feedback on what goodies you receive, but take a look and see what you think!

Enter To Win Here

GOOD LUCK and HAPPY GARDENING

After cutting open the last tomato, to save seed, I realized, “Holy cow! I don’t have any more to do.” What will I do after harvest? Sad thing is that many of my heirloom squash plants sit with fruits with big deer bites in them. BLASTED BEASTS!! If I wasn’t a hunter before, I can sure see a reason to become one now. Such beautiful pests…but pests none the less. I could go into more detail and tell you they PULLED UP MY STRAWBERRY STARTS….simply to leave them on the lawn. Grrrrrrrrrrrr

Well anyway, while the last of my tomato seeds are drying, I wanted to point out that I have decided to run a sale on those that I have quite a batch of. So if you want to take a look at the heirloom tomato seed page, you’ll see some great deals. This sale won’t be around long, so take a look and see if there’s anything you may not be able to resist.

http://heirloomtomatopatch.com/heirloom_tomato_seeds/

Off to do some more weatherizing…so….

Happy Gardening

After a very frustrating last few weeks of chasing deer out of the garden, I was able to salvage at least three quarters of what I planted, for seed. Unfortunately, the pictures couldn’t be taken as they were a bit nibbled on the ends etc.

If you think I’m joking about the deer from H E double Hockey Sticks, they even ate my Lupine (LABELED DEER RESISTANT) down to nubbins, not to mention, they picked it up with the last bite (5 gallon bucket, soil and all) and tipped it upside down.

These beasts managed to find their way into an 8 foot fence, that was guarded by two dogs, ate down every Dahlia plant, Rudbeckia plant not to mention more than 10 fig trees and 6 large grape plants. What is left are leafless stems that will hopefully survive. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to take cuttings from them until next year.

Anyway, it’s slow going, but the tomato seed database is coming along. I’m less than half way done, but it’s finally coming together. Currently, there are another 70 or so varieties drying with another 22 or so fermenting. They’ll all be added shortly, but take a stroll through and see if there is anything you like.

http://heirloomtomatopatch.com/heirloom_tomato_seeds/

In the next few weeks, I plan on putting together a drawing for heirloom seed packages. I'll explain more later, but for now....

Happy Gardening

Well it has been a frustrating yet rewarding experience of Tomato Gardening this year. As I may have mentioned, we have some aggressive deer that think they own the land we reside on. They have figured out how to penetrate an eight foot fence, 3-6 times per day. They eat anything and everything in their path, and they could care less if you want seed, they’ll simply slurry them all over the ground as they munch munch away at your hard work and efforts.

So, needless to say, it has been a strategic harvest this season. Though several varieties that I had planted, didn’t survive the deer attacks, I did end up with a nice variety of saved seeds. I’m still in the process of fermenting many of them, but with about 150 varieties saved from the nearly 200 planted, I didn’t do too badly.

Once the seeds are dry, I’ll be posting more available on the website.

Here are a few pictures of the process….

Needless to say, my kitchen counter is COVERED with seeds drying and fermenting.

Next season will be AWESOME!!!!

Today we harvested another beautiful tomato fresh from the vine. It’s called a Black Master and what an amazing flavor and color! It looks like we will soon be harvesting tomatoes daily.

This amazing plant has produced a number of fine looking tomatoes, which means there will soon be tomato seeds available for it. Well that is after they are ripe, fermented and dried. The flavor of this Black Master is absolutely outstanding with it’s sweet and rich earthy flavor. The scent is so amazing, I’ve so waited to actually smell a tomato that really smells like a tomato! LOL Those things in the grocery store may as well be used for baseballs, cause they sure don’t resemble tomatoes at all.

After weighing the wonderful specimen you see below, it was a 6 oz beauty! It’s quite a nice producer of 4-8 oz purple brown beefsteaks. This is one tomato I will definitely grow again next season.

Black Master Tomato

Happy Harvesting

Tomatoes are coming on, so you need to save seed from your favorites to grow next year!

Well, you have those wonderful heirloom tomatoes that you have harvested ripe, right off the vine. I do hope you grew enough that you are able to can or freeze some for later use. Oh home grown canned tomatoes are so much better than store bought. I may have to give you instruction on how to can them.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. How can you keep growing those yummy tomatoes without having to purchase plants or seeds again next year? Or maybe even share some of them with a friend, neighbor or family member.

Saving seed from a tomato is very easy. Just make sure the tomato you are trying to save seed from is NOT a hybrid. It does not have to be an heirloom, but it cannot be a hybrid if you want it to grow true to what you had in your garden.

As you may already know, tomato seeds have a protective gel around them to keep them from sprouting. So this needs to be removed in order to get them to germinate later on.

First take the tomato and slice it in half. Squeeze all of the juice and seeds into a small container.

I use Styrofoam ice cream cups that you can pick up at your local cash and carry or one of the large wholesale supply warehouses. They come with lids and you can label the outside to remember what type of seeds they are.

Next you need to double the contents, that you just squeezed into the container, with water. So if you squeezed an ounce, you would put in about an ounce of water. It is not an exact science, but approximately double. I’ve tried without water and ewww!! It’s still not pleasant, but it’s less disgusting with the water in it.

Stir the contents and either cover with a paper towel and a rubber band or use one of the cup covers that allows it to breath. Just note that if you leave it open, the water will evaporate and it will attract fruit flies.

Store the cup or container, in a warm area for about 3 days. The back of your counter is a perfect place. This will allow the contents to ferment. The fermentation process actually breaks down the gel casing and treats the seeds, giving them anti-bodies to protect against certain bacteria. I’ve heard of other methods that give instant results, however I am leery of trying them as they are not fermented, and I really do not want to take chances with my treasured tomato seeds.

After the 3 days, you’ll find a container with stinky muck in the bottom. There are two ways to do this, but I prefer the outcome when I use a fine mesh strainer. Pour the contents into the strainer and run under cool water. With your finger, gently rub the seeds against the strainer to remove all the tomato debris from the seeds. Continue until you have nothing left but clean seeds. From underneath, use a paper towel to blot as much of the water off the seeds as possible. The other method is to continue to run cool water over the seeds and pour out the top water, until the water is clear of tomato debris. As you continue, the tomato pulp, debris and immature seeds will wash out and the viable seeds will sink to the bottom. Turn the strainer upside down on a plastic, ceramic or Styrofoam plate. I don’t use paper plates due to the fact that the seeds will stick to them as they dry. Tap the bottom of the strainer or container (depending on what method you used) so that all the seeds come out on the plate. Set aside to dry for a few days and viola, you have just saved your own tomato seeds. Store seeds in a dry, cool place.

You will find that these seeds, if harvested from vine ripe tomatoes and stored properly, will be more fresh and more viable than those you purchase from the store.

I’m sure you’ve all watched the commercials about the Topsy Turvy and, if you haven’t already found out for yourself, wondered if they really work. When they first came out, I had already tried growing tomatoes upside down, in a 5 gallon bucket. The tests I did were nothing more than a complete joke and a waste of time and tomato plants. The measly little plants that came from growing upside down, finally produced two tiny little tomatoes on deformed looking tiny stems, where the plants that I had planted in the ground were beautiful, lush and full of tomatoes.

The only question in my mind was whether there was something different with the design of the actual Topsy Turvy. So this year, I managed to gain results with another test, but with actual Topsy Turvys and not my 5 gallon buckets.

During my tomato planting season, I had a huge amount of extra tomatoes, so I shared them with family and friends, so the results I am about to share are from plants that were planted at the same time mine were planted and have been grown only a few hundred feet away from mine.

As you can see, the container tomatoes, in the upright buckets are a bit stressed from our move, but they are doing beautifully. There are little tomatoes on nearly every single plant and some are so loaded with tomatoes, I’m wondering if there is a tomato food bank somewhere local I can donate some.

Container Tomatoes July 28, 2010

Now for the picture of the Topsy Turvy grown tomatoes. Amazingly, the upside down tomatoes look very similar to my previous test in the upside down 5 gallon buckets. The plants do not grow well upside down and as you can see, there are very few branches and so far, no tomatoes. The amount of energy it takes the plants to turn their branches upward, toward the sun, takes away from their overall production and growing season. Personally, I would never spend the money on a Topsy Turvy.

Topsy Turvy July 28, 2010

In searching the internet, I have read some reviews on the Topsy Turvy. The results were similar to mine, so why on Earth, would someone recommend these things when they deteriorate within the first year and they don’t hold enough water to keep them moist for even one day? You can bet you won’t find them hanging around my home in the near future!

Happy Gardening

We’re finally in the midst of our move. Sorry I’ve been away for a short time, but may not have many updates for a week or so. I’ll keep you posted as to how things are going.

Being away from the house in the evenings, we ended up with a red tail hawk in the greenhouse. It didn’t harm anything, simply knocked over my WAY overgrown tomato plants….took me about 2 hours to pick them all up so they could be watered. WOW I had no idea they would get so tall in their small cups. Another lesson in how they do when not transplanted. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll post a picture of what I mean. We’re talking 2-3 foot tall plants in 3 inch pots.

So wish us luck on the move and I’ll post pictures as I can. Oh yeah, SUMMER IS HERE! Of course it hits as the move starts. So it’s moving in the early morning and evening and sitting in the AC in the heat of the day. No working our way from 60 degrees to 95 degrees, so the blood is still thick.

Happy Gardening!!!

If you chose to use tomato cages to support your tomatoes, then there are a few things that you need to do on a regular basis. While they are a simple fix for the support issues, they will quickly become unstable and unable to hold the weight of your large indeterminate tomato plants without being in danger of toppling over.

To begin with, due to the fact that tomatoes grow at such a quick pace, during the warm summer months, they need to be checked daily as they grow. What I mean by this is that they need to be trained to follow the cages upward as they grow. If branches are not pulled up over the rings, they can grow and actually split off from the main branch as they are forced up against the rings.

The pictures shown below give examples of branches that if left to grow as they are, the lower section will grow below the ring and the upper section will grow above the ring, thus splitting the two branches from one another. In order to prevent this, as the branches grow, they need to be carefully pulled above the ring and left to rest on the ring. They will then be supported by the nearest ring.

Tomato Branches

Tomato Branches

Another necessity is to support those beautiful big indeterminate tomatoes and their continued increasing weight. I find that the easiest method to do this is to use wooden slat material or even rebar. It only takes one stake to stabilize the cages. Simply weave it through the rings and down into the soil. Others can be added if needed, when some of these extra tall indeterminate tomatoes get up there in size. You can also tie the branches, that are heavy with those big beautiful tomatoes, to the stakes used for supporting the tomato cage.

Happy Gardening!