Covers are Off

We have a bit of respite before our next hot day, so I have removed the shadecloth covers on the garden beds. Hard to believe it, but we’re getting a few showers of rain, which will do wonders for the garden.

End result with the rain was that we managed 2.5mm in the rain gauge.

Didn't Take Long

Like all before it this season, Wandocka tomato cutting has rotted in the water after just a few days. I half expected it to do this, as I haven’t managed to get one cutting of it to strike using the water method.

I don’t really have room for more plants, so no loss, but I’ll use the wet potting mix way, next year.

Tomatoes Under Shade

Well I’ve answered my own question with growing tomato plants under shadecloth, yes, they do grow leggy. With the odd day over 35C, or maybe two close together, I’ll have the shadecloth so it can be just tacked up on the hot days and removed or lowered when it’s cooler.

One thing with the shade is that the plants are alive and not showing burnt foliage, like they can be prone to do. With regular sunlight, they will thicken up again, so no dramas.

GGWT For Short

Probably the last tomato cutting to strike going on past efforts, but this one is Girl Girl’s Weird Thing, which I’ll plant somewhere and use as a spare if need be. I haven’t grown this one before, so we’ll see what we get from it and the single plant in the garden bed.

Almost There

Today is Boxing Day and I have two varieties of smaller fruited tomatoes with ripening fruit. The first one I noticed is Chang Li Cherry (photo) which has been quite a vigorous plant. 

This variety has been by far the tallest of all in the garden.

The other is McSee’s Grape, which is a small mini Roma type fruit. Still nothing close on the bigger fruited plants, but I’m in no hurry

My New Local Tomato - Wandocka

During 2018 I did a stint at Admin on a Facebook page, where the offer of seeds for a Tomato called Stratford Giant were made. The guy offering the seed named Eric responded to my message and told me to call in and grab some, which we did, so I offered him plants as a swap. 

He gave me two envelopes of seed, so I grew some and ended up with a single Potato Leaf plant, while all others were Regular Leaf. I grew both leaf types and the Stratford Giant threw big red fruits, while the potato leaf plant threw a smaller size fruit, but pink in colour.

Here’s Stratford Giant on the scales, smaller than later fruits.

I’m tipping that the Potato Leaf plant, which I gave a working name of Wandocka (A local farming district) is a sport of the Giant, but to be sure, I had to grow it again this year to see if the fruit grows the same. It will be a while before I get ripe fruit, after the season starting so cold, but the plants are looking good.

Here’s Wandocka’s pink fruits, smaller than anything the Giants have thrown, so fingers crossed I have a new tomato variety.

Today's Pick

Petal is keeping up with the Zucchini’s she grew this season, with another good pick from them today. Some are Gold Rush, some are her cross, which is almost impossible to pick the difference between them, shinier skin perhaps plus stalk colour.

Garden Layout 2019/20

More for my own use, I’ve made a layout of what’s in the big garden bed. A few old favourites, but they’ll be of use in seed swaps later in the new year if I ever get to save any seeds.

Mocha Splash	Chang Li Cherry	Sweet Scarlet (PL)
Zena’s Gift	Village Red (RL)	Mandarina
Sweet Ozark Orange	McSee’s Grape	Chang Li Cherry
Sweet Ozark Orange	George Detsika’s Red	UK2000
Mandarina	UK2000	UK2000
Biyaskaya Roza	UK2000	Nicoleta
Mocha Splash	Sweet Ozark Orange	Nicoleta
Dana’s Dusky Rose	Girl Girls Weird Thing	UK2000
Sweet Ozark Orange	Kodiak Brown	Wandocka
Village Red (PL)	Chang Li Cherry	Wandocka

In the other garden beds I have:-

Sweet Scarlet (RL)
Sweet Scarlet (PL) X2
Pauls Italian Pink
Pauls Italian Red

Pepper Signs

I have signs of Peppers growing fruit. This plant is the remaining plant from 3 I originally planted, but Spring winds created havoc here and destroyed the other two plants. 

The variety is Liebesapfel Pepper, a nice red apple type Pepper.

Labeled Rare

Here’s a photo from last season in my garden, of a tomato that I was lucky to germinate, from seed labeled as “Rare”. The variety is from Spain and is called Valenciano Clemente and the seed originated from someone I’d made contact with from a Garden Forum and who was living in Spain at the time.

I had about 7 or 8 seed for this variety, and although it was about 12-15 years since I was given the seed, I thought I’d try and grow it. The first try with 80% of the seed sown didn’t produce any seedlings, so I tried again with the last (3) seeds, eventually getting one to germinate.

The plant was quite weak to start with so I took a cutting and ended up with two plants growing in my garden. The season was pretty bad here for me but I ended up with a couple of bagged fruit and managed a small few seeds from the almost seedless bulky red heart tomato.

Sweet Scarlet Dwarf Tomatoes

This variety is Sweet Scarlet Dwarf Tomato, released as a Potato Leaf plant, but it has given me both Potato leaf and Regular Leaf, so it will be interesting to see if any difference can be seen.

These are quite robust/stocky plants, which are currently powering on in growth and flower production. I have these growing in garden beds with other plants, but I’m more than happy with them.

Top photo is two PL plants back to back, while the RL is in bottom shot.

Seed Saving - Petals Zucchini Cross

Petal got in early this season and has pollinated her Zucchini cross with a cross male flower, so hopefully the good taste will continue with them in the next generation. 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained I suppose.

Sweet Ozark Orange

I found an info page on Sweet Ozark Orange Tomato on Dave’s Garden Website, which I’ve attached to this post, so you can have a look at this beauty and it’s breeding.

The Breeder wrote:-

I intentionally crossed German Red Strawberry with Dr. Wyche’s Yellow in 2009. The resulting F1 generation hybrids in 2010 were large red semi-heart tomatoes with only fair flavor. This large orange beefsteak strain with excellent flavor appeared in only one plant among many wild variations the following generation, in 2011. I have grown this new open-pollinated variety for three seasons now, and I believe it is stable. The tomatoes are large, sweet, bright orange when ripe, and meaty. The plants have thick regular-leaf foliage and are very productive. I believe this is a much-improved descendant of Dr. Wyche’s Yellow, benefiting from the addition of German Red Strawberry genes which show up in the characteristics of excellent flavor and meatiness with little pulp.

Click on the link below.

https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/210442/

Not Banana Currant - Red Currant

If you ever get the chance to grow Banana Currant tomatoes, you maybe in for a shock, or even disappointment as I found last season.

Advertised as being a cross between Banana Legs with Goldrush Currant, they are a small yellow currant tomato, but what I got could have either been a cross, or it is unstable and threw a red currant.

Still a nice tomato for the home garden (2.0m+ Regular Leaf) with lots of small tasty red fruits, a typical cherry tomato in growth habit.

Tomato Cuttings

I have a couple of tomato cuttings ready with good root systems, so this time I’m trying them straight into the soil, instead of giving them time in potting mix first.

These are Sweet Ozark Orange, so hopefully I’ll get a good yield from these, plus what’s planted already.

Another Cutting

I decided to feed the tomato plants in the big bed tonight and saw a lonely Wandocka cutting, so I took it as I’ve had no luck with striking one this season. 

I’m tipping this variety is a sport from Stratford Giant, but will know better if it throws a pink fruit like last season. Either way, it’s a new tomato variety and I’ll treat it that way.

Two More Cuttings

Two struck cuttings I need for gap filling in my big garden bed, are now almost ready to plant out. In the jar below are two Chang Li Cherry cuttings, which will will replace some of the non performers I pulled out. 

This variety, although cherry tomatoes grow quick in the right position, has been 15cm ahead of every other plant here from the start and is now 60cm taller, which means I will grow them on strings to the roof of my shade structure.

Always a sure fire way to replace plants in your garden, the cutting process is usually complete in a fortnight.

Hotter Than Hot

Get ready for a hot week in the garden, as heatwave temperatures head our way in the later half of the week, with forecasts showing above average temperatures at least two days.

Moon & Stars Watermelons

Somewhat of a first for us this season, is that we’re growing two Moon and Stars Watermelon plants.

I had the offer of seeds on Instagram, so took the challenge and grew a couple.

They went in later than they probably should have, but with our Summers being long and hot, they should do alright.

High Hopes On This One

I think this Sweet Ozark Orange will be my best tomato variety of this season, as it’s starting to jump away, even with 4X leaders which I’m allowing to grow.

I’ll get a photo of the fruit for this variety from the grower, so you can see what it looks like. It does come with great reports on growth, taste and yield, so can’t ask for more than that.

This variety is the same as the two struck cutting I had, which I planted last night while cool.

Village Red Tomatoes

Let me tell you about a Tomato I called Village Red, a self sown potato leaf seedling that ‘appeared’ in my garden in Cranbourne many years ago. The season before this seedling appeared, I grew 6X Casey's Pure Yellow tomato plants as a grow out for Jeff Casey in Canada to help him out, because my garden was already full I grew these plants in tubs. These plants were a yellow fruited tomato, which had accidentally crossed in the growers garden a few years earlier and he was attempting to grow them out. The story is that the plants grew well in the tubs and yellow fruit grew as expected, but I didn’t much like the taste, so sent seeds back to the grower and then gave away the remaining seeds to a friend in Marysville.

After the tomatoes finished, I later planted some Chillies in the tubs so as not to waste the potting mix. In one pot a self sown tomato plant emerged, so I pricked it out and grew it. This I know had come from one of the yellow fruited tomatoes, but I found it confusing as to where the seed came from. To cut a long story short, I grew the plant and it threw red fruits, but these fruits were great looking, large globe shaped and when cut showed a velvet like texture inside.

What was this plant, the filial cross was already in the seed inside the yellow fruited tomato, so the F3 or F4 of the yellow, had now reverted to a red fruited plant in my garden. The seed saved from this original plant actually grew very tasty tomatoes, but that didn’t last very long, as each year after, the plant produced mongrel fruits, the last year I grew it, the fruits reverted back to yellow and the shape had changed to a big Roma shaped egg. I bag all my seed, so with each generation, the changes kept showing.

The last few years I’ve grown out the seed from the very first red tomato I got, but the seed is getting old now and it will eventually be lost. Over the years with the changes, it has thrown both regular leaf and potato leaf plants. The reality is that it’s not worth pursuing any further, but it has been good to see just how a plant can change from one season to the next when it’s unstable, as this one is.

The funny thing is that the yellow fruited plant became a stable plant and its seed is sold online from the grower who gave me the seed in the first place. Apparently the taste is excellent and has been a great seller for the guy.

For this season, I’m growing out a regular leaf plant from last seasons potato leaf seed in the hope something changes in the regular leaf types.

Gold Rush Zucchini

Petal loves her Gold Rush Zucchini’s, so we grow them each season, not that I like zucchini, but she does and that helps offset me having so many tomato plants that I grow. Something this variety lacks early on is male flowers, so we end up losing a few early fruit.

Here’s a male flower, which will get used in hand pollination tomorrow.

Magpies Eating Blueberries

We have 5X resident Magpies who visit us several times a day and when they don’t get any handouts, they help themselves to the ripening fruit of Petals young Blueberry bushes.  I never thought I’d see them eat fruit, but times are tough when they have babies not long out of the nest and a possible second clutch in the nest.

Our Tomato Season 2019/20

All being well there should be a few Kodiak Brown tomato plants growing amongst the members this tomato season. This tomato is a brown skin, about the size of a golf ball and tastes pretty damn good – and I don’t eat a lot of tomatoes.

This is a Raymondo cross, originating in Armidale in NSW for those interested and is from  a cross using Galinas X Black Krim, two tasty tomato varieties in their own right. I grew these last season as a late crop and they are a nice plant to have in your garden.

As the season progresses, more photos can be added to this post.

Growing Goji Berry Seedlings - Rehashed

Ever thought you’d like to try growing a Goji Berry plant in your garden from seed, well it isn’t all that hard. The hardest part is to get seed to use, but a visit to your Supermarket or Health Food Store may help here. Buying dried Goji Berries this way will ensure you get plenty of seed, just buy them and soak them in warm water until they reconstitute. Then it’s just a matter of extracting the seeds and drying them, before sowing.

Sown in shallow soil/seed trays, it won’t take long for your plants to grow and you can prick out seedlings and grow in pots to start with. A word of advice here is to cover seedlings in bird netting, as Sparrows have a liking for the young foliage and will strip them bare.

Goji Berry plants are easy to grow and the rewards can be quite good after a couple of years.

Meeniyan Garlic Festival

Information on the 2020 Meeniyan Garlic Festival are online . Check out the list of Guests for this festival.

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Seeing As We're So Close

With it being in the lead up period to our tomato season, I thought I’d post some previously grown beauties. selected for taste. Amongst these varieties have been some really great tomatoes and some should be more readily available to the home gardener. There are a few Spanish varieties amongst these.

In Need of Shade Here

I spent a few hours today digging some holes in my big garden bed to accommodate 6X posts, the main supports of a shade frame over the bed that can be covered in shade cloth when the weather turns hot again. I had a fair bit of damage from the hot wind last week, so I don't want it happening again.

There's just the posts in for now, the rest of the framework will happen in the coming days. I'm hoping to protect the 30 tomato plants in this garden bed when it's finished.

I will leave the shade cloth off the south side closest to the hothouse, as it will allow the Blue Banded Bees access to the plants, without the sun being a problem on that side.

Heat Damage - From 42C Day 21/11/19

I have about 5 tomato plants showing burn damage from the windy 42C day last Thursday. I've cut two plants back by 50% a few others with superficial burns may grow out of the damage to them.

Butter Beans and Green Beans burnt bad enough to pull out along with two lots of Peas, but I'll see if they come back enough to get a feed from.

Petals Ruby Lou potatoes are scarred from burning as well, but they should be OK as long as we don't get another hot one too soon.

We're looking forward to some forecast rain later tomorrow afternoon and into the weekend.

Planting Guide - Melbourne

This isn't going to suit everyone, but you'll need to check and see what will grow where you live.

https://www.yummygardensmelbourne.com/vegetable-garden-planting-guide.html

Zucchini - Petals Jade Numbat X Gold Rush

Last season, Petal crossed two types of Zucchini we had growing in the garden here, one was the yellow skin "Gold Rush", the other was a striped green skin called Jade Numbat. At the time Jade Numbat was an F6 grow out, from a cross by Ray South aka Raymondo.

This season we are growing both Gold Rush and the "Petals Cross" and both have got off to a good start, growth wise. At least one characteristic of the Jade Numbat is noticeable on the cross, the grey leaf mottle.

Taste will probably improve with age, so what we've got so far can only get better.