Some of The Later Seedlings

A look at the newer seedlings this morning to see how they're going and I took some random photos for the blog while there. I have a single seedling emerged overnight for my F1 Red Velvet, which I'm regrowing from 2009 seed. I decided to try again with this tomato, it's shape and size at F1 was great, but it went down hill after that.

Here are some photos of the newer seedlings.

 Red Velvet F1

 Donskoi

 Orlinyi Klyuv

 Poil Blanc

 Giant Belgium

Greek Witness

On The Home Run With Seedlings

The saga of the poor germination continues, with the last couple of seedlings to emerge from the first heat mat being Monomakh's Hat and Arkashin.

The second heat mat started off fine with my White Cherry jumping out of the soil in numbers, but then the progression of single seedlings continued with :-


Greek Witness
Belgium Giant
UK2000
Donskoi
Poil Blanc
Black Krim
Purple Russian
Morado
Orlinyi Klyuv
Truffaut Precoce

Now I don't particularly mind getting one or two seedlings in a variety, but some have had stuck seed coats and I've lost the only seedling, where Arkashin for instance, I managed to get it off.

Most varieties from the first heat mat have had some seedlings potted up, the rest will become compost when I know they have survived the transplant.

Orlinyi Klyuv, known as Eagles Beak, is a red heart tomato and one I'm looking forward to growing, along with Donskoi a monster fruited plant if it grows true to form, so it and Belgium Giant should make a great pair.

As of today

The First Hundred

I didn't realise I'd potted so many up, but a check on them sees over 100 plants potted up into single cups, so far. Years ago I would do about 450 plants, but now I've slowed down and from now, only my specialty plants I'm growing especially for seed will be potted up. Although growing later, I think with our Summers getting longer, the varieties I'll be growing will do just fine here.

Watering Your Tomato Plants Where They Need It.

When you look at a tomato plant growing in your garden, you may find roots close to the surface of the soil, but don't think for a minute they're going to be used solely for giving the plant a drink, as these are the feeder roots. These roots absorbs nutrients at soil level and actually feed the tomato plant from the soil, the actual roots that deliver moisture to the plant are much deeper. To be able to water your plant efficiently, the water needs to get to these roots and this is the best, quickest way to do it. Using 50mm slotted flexible aggie pipe, cut into 500mm lengths and before you plant your tomato, bury the tube into the hole so it protrudes about 50mm above the mulch if you use it.

Take a look what I've done here, then when you do it and it works for you, then you'll know the water is going where it's needed.

 Close up of the slots

 50mm Slotted Aggie Pipe

Cut to lengths - depending on plant types

The finished tube placed below tomato plant.

Feeding Your Garden Bed

My grandfather lived up the road from me as I grew up and he grew Grosse Lisse tomatoes every year and had a reputation for his gardening skills in the town. Two things he always told me about growing tomato plants were 'Feed the soil to support a crop' & 'Don't water tomato plants so the foliage gets wet', two things that I remember well.

My grandfather has been gone for many years, but I guess I listened to him as I still do these things now, the only thing is my grandkids aren't interested in gardening, so what I've learnt over the years won't get passed on.

So with feeding the soil, my vegie garden has been added to with a great topsoil with Mushroom Compost added, along with Dynamic Lifter and now today we'll add Cow Manure, Sheep Manure  and Straw Mulch, so my tomato crop lasts a long dry Summer and will be fed right through.

As for watering from above, we have used a technique on each plant, where a poly drain hose is buried below the plant so watering can be achieved from above without splashing water on the leaves of the tomato. I'll look up some photos and show how this works.

Improving our garden bed soil after adding new soil/mushroom compost. 

Before this cow manure and straw mulch went on, Jan dug a trench down the middle of the two garden beds, while I opened up the compost bin. We filled both trenches with compost, as both gardens were devoid of worms. The compost had 1000's of worms, so half are residing in each garden bed now. The trenches were covered with soil which will allow the worms to move through the soil.

Dutch in Origin

My latest and last lot of tomato seeds for the season is now planted. I was told about these seeds ages ago, but thought they were Italian, but it turns out they're Dutch in origin, so I'm up for the challenge. Apparently a nice red tomato of some size, so we'll see what eventuates, if I can get them to germinate..

New Seedlings - Last Weeks Sowing

Here are a couple of photos of the latest seedlings planted last weekend, with my White Cherry and Poil Blanc first up and running. Some seeds in the last trays are double ups, as they have grown at least one plant in the original planting and one plant is all I need.

Today's Sowing

Well, sowing of Tomato seeds will end tomorrow after I get seeds for one more Italian variety my friend has, not sure if it has a name, but I'll try and grow it anyway.
Here is the last tray that I'll be doing this year, the varieties are some I've tried before along with some 'untried' varieties. As you can see in this photo, some varieties are what I've already tried and because of no shows, I've redone them.

In this lot are Chocolate Stripes, Cebrino, Grub's Mystery Green, Crisana, Purple Russian, Russo Sicilian, Collioure Long Plum, Fargo, Nicoleta & Morado. I'm not sure how I'll go with Morado, as I only had 6 seeds left and I had to ask a friend if he could send me some seed, which arrived today. The Nicoleta that have germinated have mostly had stuck seed coats, so I've tried again with these. Crisana, Cebrino and a couple of others have been good in the past, so retrying a few.

Today's sowing

And So It All Begins

Today, I started to pot up the tomato seedlings as they are breaking out their first true leaf, so time to get them into pots of their own now. I've shopped in advance and got the potting mix and polystyrene cups in readiness for today. The foam cups aren't ideal in our environment, but as they're here, I use them instead of my good plant tubes.

The foam cups have drainage hole melted into them with a soldering iron, as shown here.

I don't use plastic labels either, as they tend to fall out over time, so the variety name is written on the lip with a ballpoint pen.

I have some orders for this variety (MS) so at this stage 20 seedlings have been potted up. Something to remember when potting up your tomato seedlings, that is to plant them deeper than how the grew when starting out, with the cotyledon about 5mm above soil level. What happens here is, the stem below the cotyledons will eventually grow roots up its length, making your plant a bit stronger. 

Hibiscus trionum

One of my favourite Australian Native Hibiscus flowers would be the Hibiscus trionum, a plant that is a perennial and will probably get killed off with the first frost here, but I'm growing some and giving my friend some to grow too. These plants produce an abundance of seed if allowed to stay on the plant after flowering and will readily self sow from dropped seed.

These plants look great planted in an open garden bed with other natives and will be sure to please. Saved seeds from these plants keeps quite well in a ziplok bag and the best part is they germinate fairly quickly.

I'm hoping to repay a favor with the rest with Mitch at the Nursery, after his donation of some Propagation Mix one day when the Hardware store was closed and I needed some.

 Seedlings pricked out today

Hibiscus trionum flower

Some Tips on Using a Heat'n'Grow Thermostat Controlled Heat Pad

I'm writing this with newbie propagators in mind, who want to use bottom heat to grow cuttings, or germinate seeds using a Heat Pad. In order to make the job as foolproof as possible, I'd suggest using a heat pad with inbuilt thermostat. If we were to use the Heat'n'Grow Range of pads as examples of what's available, we start off with  the following. The numbers listed are the wattage of each pad.

TPS 020 is a single tray unit.
TPS 040 is a double tray unit
TPS 080 is a four tray unit.

 

https://heatngrow.com.au/

No matter which of these you use, the principal is going to be the same and although it sounds easy to sit a tray of seed raising mix on the pad, you've really got to know a bit about growing with bottom heat in the first place. With all three models of the heat pads listed above, each will come with a piece of felt like material, cut to fit the top of the pad. This material is the most important part you'll use, because this is the conductor for transferring heat to the seed tray, simple as that. When you set up your heat pad ready to start your cuttings or seed, this felt like material needs to be wet thoroughly and excess water squeezed out. The growing medium used for seeds or cuttings should have been wet and allowed to drain prior to placing on the pad.

Once you get to this stage, you should also have some sort of thermometer to show what the temperature in the tray is doing. Depending on the wattage of the unit, the thermostat should be set to approx. 30C as the initial temperature and then and only then adjust it up or down by using your thermometer. The thermostat can't see what the medium temperature is doing, so be careful here and adjust it to attain an average temperature of 22C.

It's now at this stage where the variables come into using the heat pad efficiently as well as effectively. One variable that will trick you at some point in using the pad, is the amount of water in the felt as when it dries out, the temperature will not stay where the thermostat is set, so water needs to be added to the felt and the temperature will rise to where is was originally set.
Another variable, and there are a few to know, is the moisture in the tray, "what's the mix doing", as with anything where heat is involved the mix will dry out. A higher temperature may give you the indication that the mix is drying.

The most important thing here when watering the felt material, is that if you wet the felt too much, you risk the chance of starting a capillary action, where the excess water will be taken up from the mat and actually soak the growing medium in the tray, damping off will be your friend if you're not careful.

I write this knowing full well that when I grow tomato seeds, I sometimes water with the nozzle on the hose and actually flood the felt. Different people will tell you different things, but whatever you do using the heat pad, is to remember that it's controlled by one person, 'you'. I've been playing with both seed and cutting propagation for a long time and of the two Heat'n'Grow TPS 080 pads I use, one is set to give me 22C at the root level of the growing medium, the second needs to be adjusted when I set up, just like I've described above.

The main thing here is to remember that the water in the felt beneath the seed tray is the conductor for your heat, hone your skills on how wet this felt needs to be and you'll have far less problems using one.

 The TPS 080 - 4 Tray in use

A TPS 040 - 2 Tray in use.

Some Supplies

Tomato season isn't close unless you've made the trip to Bunning's to get some supplies in so you can get the soil ready to plant. Now as Bunnings isn't in our town, we need a list so we don't miss getting it all, today was no exception. We got potting mix to plant up the seedlings, then we got Rooster Booster to annoy the neighbours for a few days, some Seasol to use as a tonic for when the seedlings go in the cups and some Dynamic Lifter to sweeten the soil after the mushroom compost starts to break down, plus some Tomato Fertiliser to add to the potting mix.

Last but not least, some polystyrene coffee cups from the Cheap Shop as these are what I use as plant pots. What else have I missed.

First Tricot for the Season.

I haven't looked at Lime Green Salad seedlings yet, but the only seedling to come up so far of the Cows Tit tomato is a tricot, not that it's anything special, although in the past I have seen LGS have quite a few. Tricots and quadcots, which is the seed leaf, which isn't a true leaf as it drops off as the plant grows always gives you something to look at after germination.

Not a good shot from my phone.

New Tomato Plot

I've just had a load of Blended Soil/Mushroom Compost delivered for a garden bed I planned to grow Correas in, but the Mushroom Compost will need time to break down, so a good opportunity to grow some tomato plants in first. I'm hoping to get the soil well fed in both plots so the tomatoes will get off to a good start.

I have some 38% Nitrogen fertiliser that I'll dig through to help the Mushroom Compost break down, then some Dolomite to sweeten things up - after a soil test of course.

Red Velvet (Village Red) Tomato

Way back in 2010, I grew some seeds for Caseys Pure Yellow Tomato for Jeff Casey in Canada, with average results, seed was saved but Lomatia ended up with it as we didn't like them. I originally grew five plants in big 24inch pots and when they finished, I used the mix for chillies.

To cut a long story short, in 2011/12, I had a Regular Leaf self sown tomato come up in one of the pots sometime later, so I grew it and got a beautiful red beefsteak which I later named Red Velvet, but after receiving information from Tania (Tatianas Tomato Base) and Carolyn Male that the name was already in use in one form or another, so I renamed it 'Village Red', after where I lived at the time. (Junction Village). I saved seeds 02/12 from a Regular Leaf plant.

.

The story continues in 2012/13 with the F1 seeds being grown, but somehow it produced Potato Leaf plant that threw a red heart tomato as F2.

The plant was unstable as I could see with what I'd got so far, so in 2013/14 I grew the F2 seeds, but this is where it went belly up as I got a pointy yellow Plum as F3

I found some original F1 seeds today and with room on the heat mat, put down a few seeds as in theory, they should throw a red heart if they germinate, if not, nothing lost. The seed save was in 02/2012 so not the most ideal seed age to be doing grow outs on..

The photos show how good it looked as F1.

The F2 ended up being hearts.

Now this it where it went belly up, I got a pointy plum, that was yellow as my F3's, so thinking I got it wrong, I'm hoping to grow seeds from F1 again.

Name the Tomato Colour

Here are some cups of squeezed tomato juice/pulp. Can you see what colour tomatoes was used in each cup.

The 'Greek Witness' Story.

This story appears on this Blog, but back in 2008.

It helps to clarify how the name Greek Witness came about and how I came to get them in the first place. Just remember that what I got was a dry conglomerate of tomato pulp, as shown.

 The dry Conglomerate

Washed seed drying on a filter paper.

The Story on the Seeds - Charlie, my neighbour from two doors down got bailed up one day by the Jehovah Witnesses and being the chatterbox he is, got talking about growing tomatoes. One of the JW's said his wife was Greek and she grows tomatoes from her home country and he would give him some seed. These seeds are what he was given and then in turn he gave them to me, so it will be interesting to see what eventuates with them.

They don't have a name, but one has been suggested - 'Greek Witness'. Thanks Ray. lol.

****Well it's now 10 years later and these seeds did in fact grow huge red tomatoes and have been grown by several growers. I've grown them many times, but sold them at my Tomato Stalls at Markets. This year I have some seed sown to grow at least one plant in my own garden.

'New for Old' - Refreshing Old Stock

With a noticeable decline in germination due to aging tomato seed, I grabbed out a few varieties that I'd like new seed of and got busy with another couple of trays. First I had to get some more seed raising mix, so off I head and the Hardware Store is closed, so rather than let it spoil things, I stop in at the local Native Nursery, knowing Mitch has what I want. After a chat I had enough mix to get two trays up and running, so while they were draining, I set up heat mat #2.

I sat and took my time, trying to sow at least 6 seeds of each if I had that many, some I planted lots as the plants will be well used. While I had the room on the heat mat, I also put down 6 seeds of Hibiscus insularis, from Norfolk Island as the frosts killed one plant and burnt half on another.

Anyway, I now have more seeds to keep an eye on, but don't expect much from them in the next fortnight. Names in Bold have germinated from this list.

Purple Russian
St Pierre
Aunt Gerties Gold
Morado  (last 6 original seed)
Orlinyi Klyuv (Pink Eagles Beak)
Donskoi
Teton de Venus
Poil Blanc
UK2000
Banana Currant
Mexico Midget
Austins Red Pear
Black Crimea (Black Krim)
Millefleur
Caspian Pink
Tappy's Heritage
White Oz Cherry
Belgium Giant (late inclusion)
Korall (late inclusion)
Greek Witness  (late inclusion)

Sown on 11/09/18
Red Velvet F2
Golden Sunray

Tray #1

Tray #2

Two X 4 Tray Heat Mats

Bagging Tomato Blossoms

This will help with knowing what the two items in the previous post are used for. This process is used so tomato plants don't cross pollinate with each other. A process rarely used, although most who say they do it, actually don't.

What's It For?

I posted this photo on Instagram, but I don't think many know what the items in the photo are for.

So what do you do with Curling Ribbon and Blossom Bags. The answer will come soon. lol

Gluing Capsicum Blossoms to Enhance Pollination

Wow, I can't believe it was back in 2010 that I first tried this, but due to the toxicity in the PVA Glue, it actually burnt off the flowers and the project died through lack of interest.

A Chilli flower dipped in PVA

The idea behind this is pretty straight forward, as with Capsicum and Chillies being self fertile, the idea of gluing the petals of the flower closed to stop cross pollination occurring. These plants are notorious for cross pollinating and there would then be no need to bag blossoms in order to collect 'pure' seed..

After 7 years growing Tomatoes and Capsicums 12 months of the year, I am more familiar with the Capsicum flowers and will be experimenting with this type of 'saving pure seed' again this Summer.

Slowly germinating

*** I'll Update this Post as seedlings emerge.

The first two trays of tomato seeds have been down a week and I currently have several varieties that have emerged or showing stems before straightening up, so even if I don't get  more to show, I can fill the garden with this lot.

One of interest that has germinated well, is Bychok, a red Oxheart tomato, similar in size and shape to Monomakhs Hat (photo) which is a big pink Oxheart, which hasn't germinated as yet.

One or More Germinated Seeds so far to show. Varieties shown in red have been potted up.

UK2000
McSees Grape
Malakhitovaya Shkatulka
Greek Witness
Vodar
Siletz
Totem
Rosado de Ademuz
Rosado de Heulva
Bychok
Sakharnyi Zheltyi (Sugary Yellow)
Speckled Roman
Negrillo de Almoguera
Lime Green Salad
Morning Rose
Nicoleta
Le Case de Apulia
Ceylon
Black Russian
Cow's Tit
Kotlas
Prairie Fire
Toedebusch Pink
Grub's Mystery Green

Monomakhs Hat
White Oz Cherry
Arkashin
Poil Blanc
Purple Ukraine
Donskoi

Monomakhs Hat

 Malakhitovaya Shkatulka

 McSee's Grape

Hibiscus trionum from seeds.

As a garden filler, I've sown some seeds for Hibiscus trionum, which are usually an Australian Native grown as a perennial, although the frosts we get here will almost surely knock them. The good thing about these plants, is they self sow readily and will regrow very quickly from self fertile seed.

Here are some I planted on Sunday and were up like this on the Wednesday.

Seed Sowing #2

The Next Two Trays Get Sown.

I finally got around to sowing two more trays of mixed seeds, mainly so the heat mat didn't lose too much heat from being exposed. I had a scrounge through the 1000's of seeds I bought with me and chucked in some old favourites  as well as some untried types. In the list of sown seeds, apart from the regular varieties is a couple of stand outs for us here. 

Tray#1 - Cows Tit, Lime Green Salad, Prairie Fire, Speckled Roman, Kotlas, Ceylon, Negrillo de Almoguera, Donellas Superb, Dwarf F4, Toedebusch Pink, Black Russian, Grubs Mystery Green.

Tray #2 Mixed - Ceylon, Polish Linguisa, Le Case di Apulia, PCR Peppers, Morning Rose, Barkol Chilli, Takanotsume Chilli, Orange Gogosari Peppers, Jimmy Nardello Peppers, Monomakhs Hat, Arkashan, Collioure Long Plum.