Sneak Peak - Tomatoes

I'm posting a sneak peak at my tomato plants, one day after  I would normally have planted them.

Here are a few of them.

A Rainy Day Job

We're currently getting some light rain from an East Coast Low Pressure System, so a good opportunity for me to pot up my tomato plants that I intend to grow in in the garden. I bought a 50 litre bag of Osmocote Potting Mix yesterday, so I'll start getting them into 140mm pots at some point this week. I think from the bag I should get about 50 plants potted up, so money well spent on the mix.

Into the potting mix I'll add some Brunning's Tomato & Vegetable Food, which is similar to Blood & Bone with additives and the tomato plants love it. Don't look for this fertiliser at Bunning's as they only stock it during the tomato season, shame really

Here's the Potting Mix I'll use.

Growing Tomatoes Differently

This came up on Facebook as a Memory from six years go, so I thought I'd comment on it.

In another lifetime, I worked in a Glasshouse growing tomatoes, not just ordinary tomatoes, hydroponic tomatoes. I treated myself to a Horticulture Course, although it didn't turn out to be what I had originally planned. My intention was to learn how to properly do Plant Propagation, but there was no course for that when I started, so got shunted into Certificate 3 in Production Horticulture, a somewhat harder course more suited to Market Gardening.

I didn't let it put me off though and I'm sort of glad it worked out the way it did, because I ended up working in the TAFE College Glasshouse, a $1.5M structure only two years old at the time. The course included tractor driving and Ploughing, Weed Spraying and a myriad of other activities all the way to Irrigation.

I aced most subjects and wasn't really stressed doing it, the whole thing gave me a buzz. During the course, I spent a lot of the year working on the tomato and capsicum crops and became quite good at what I was doing. When the year ended, I was approached to join the crew at TAFE and become a Crop Technician, eventually assisting with the training of three Trainees, plus contact to lots of students.

I worked here for the combined total of 7 years up until the day we decided to sell our house in Cranbourne and moved to Maffra.

A breakdown on what I'm growing in 2020/21

Here's a breakdown on what is growing in the hothouse as of today.

1. Rosado de Huelva - 2
Spanish by origin, Huelva is the town/district that this tomato would normally grow. A mid size tomato with a great flavour. Use in cooking or sandwiches.

2. Rosado de Ademuz - 6
As per above, this one is Spanish, from the town/district of Ademuz. The difference with this tomato is the size and shape. It looks like a miniature tomato, great in salads etc. Very tasty.

3. Valenciano Clemente - 3
When I first got this one, it was labeled as "Rare"so I never grew it until some years later. It is a red fruited Spanish Heart shaped tomato, suited more to cooking, but very fleshy otherwise.

4. Negrillo di Almoguera - 4
This one is very nice, one we keep going back to, great flavour and texture. The Spanish name gives this one away, Negrillo meaning black. Well worth having in the garden for an alrounder tomato.

5. Roma - 5
I'm growing these for a friend and won't be keeping any.

6. Kodiak Brown - 1
I only managed the one plant this year, a very tasty golf ball sized fruit which is technically a brown coloured fruit. Great tomato to use in any meal.

7. Amurskiy Tigr - 2
Described as a ping pong size red cherry tomato, often with yellow stripes giving it the Tiger name. Untried here but looks and sounds nice.

8. Korichnevyy Rebristyy - 3
Another of the black tomatoes, not as dark as you think. Mid size tomato with great taste. One to add to the grow list.

9.Striped Rumplestiltskin - 2
Not a tomato I've grown before. I found this one listed as a dwarf size plant, so not sure what it will give in the way of fruit colour/size.

10. UK2000 - 5
This is one we've grown for 30 years and shared them with 100's of growers over the years. A mid size red tomato,, great tomato with many uses.

11. Wandocka - 6
We've been greedy with this tomato and not shared it until this season. A potato leaf plant with large pink fruits. Great tasting tomato.

12. Macalister - 17
This is  a new one here this season and is the results of a cross I did over Summer. Using the pollen from an orange tomato onto a red fruited tomato from Romania.

Still Growing

I'm not really sure that starting the tomatoes off early this year was a good idea, although I grew them for a reason and it looks like panning out OK.

Here are a couple of tomato plant varieties that you won't buy in the shops, with one variety (UK2000) grown by us for over 30 years, sort of our own variety. The second variety here is my new cross that I've named Macalister after our river here. This one has had pollen from an orange fruit used onto a red fruited tomato from Romania.

 UK2000

Macalister

Spuds for Dinner

Jan dug a few plants of Ruby Lou Potatoes and got some nice size potatoes to have with dinner.

Winter Vegies

We pulled a few carrots today and also picked a few peas too, not that the peas produced well enough to eat heaps from them. We ended up pulling one lot of peas which grew in a shady part of the garden and didn't really set any pods.

Plant Support

No need to ask why I am using plant support on the tomato seedlings, but I'll answer anyway.

When tomato plants are about 6 inches tall (15cm) they are weak in the stems and as they grow they will fall over, or even follow the light of the sun (tropism). The skewer and clip just help support them through this stage. It's a cheap easy process to keep your seedlings erect.

Here's the clip onto the skewer.

Tomato Seeds - In The Mail

With today being the 9th of July and getting close to everyone starting their tomato seeds, I think I may have sent out my last envelope of tomato seed varieties to fellow growers today. I save heaps of seeds each year and get the opportunity to share with growers, some from forums, some from Instagram, some near and some far. Overall I get back enough to keep the varieties list full and promises of some great tomatoes - Next Year.

I'm not planning on having many seedlings available this year as I have in the past, last year I donated about 100 to the Op Shops and gave lots away. This year I want to concentrate more on a few varieties including the new cross, which I have 17 seedlings which will get shared with a few locals who can keep an eye on what they do as they grow.

Some out of a seed tin.

Hardenbergia violacea

Our Happy Wanderer we purchased is doing quite well, after a big section of it got sunburnt over Summer and I cut it back. This is one of three varieties growing on this arch in the garden, the other two are wild forms.

Weaning Off The Heatmat

A couple of freezing nights ahead this week, then these seedlings will be coming off the heat mat and be on their own, without bottom heat. With growing these outside in a polyhouse/greenhouse, I guess I've lost about a month of growing with it being such a cold Winter here this year - so far. I still expect that these plants will be bigger than normal at planting time and give me a head start on the season. The frosts here have been very ruthless this year, something you wouldn't have picked after three milder Winters here.

Frosted Peas & Potatoes

I have two lots of Peas in and they have been doing it hard over the past two months with the severity of the frosts we've been getting. Something else that took a hammering was the small crop of Ruby Lou potatoes, which are almost dead after being burned off.

Peas with noticeable frost burn to pods

Ruby Lou Potatoes Frost Burnt

Starting to Get Some Size

My seedling tomato plants are finally starting to get bigger, but realising that they were sown only six weeks today that they haven't done too bad, growing through some terribly cold nights, often below 0C temperatures. I'd expect that in the coming fortnight they will double their size and be more manageable. I will at some point give them a stake to keep them erect in growth, for this I have some skewers.

Still, the main standouts are the cross 'Macalister' and 'UK2000' plants, but that could change quickly as there are other varieties also not far behind.

 Macalister in the foreground

Wandocka getting some size now