Peas off the Bush

 Jan took the pods off the bushes for both lots of peas, so they are drying well and we'll pod them soon.

New Seeds

 A friend of mine sent me some late seeds, so what do you do when you only get 5 seeds for a variety, you plant 2 seeds, which I did. I sowed them on the Friday and they were up on the Monday and I pricked them out Wednesday. So from the other seeds, so far I have nothing else come up, which isn't a worry as I am mainly growing these tomatoes for seed for next year.

Forgetting to Post

I've been a bit slack with posting, so hopefully I can add a few posts to catch up.

Most recently, we've pulled out the peas we left for seed, so on the airing rack we have both Greenfeast Peas and Oregon Giant Snow Peas, so hopefully by the weekend they should be starting to dry out so we can pod them and get rid of the waste. The peas inside the Snow Peas are quite large, so it looks like we may have done the right thing with them.

Getting Bigger

 UK2000 are my biggest tomato plants, partly because we had two weeks of rain and overcast conditions which slowed them down, but with 3 weeks until planting, I'm sure they'll be just fine. I'm planning a staggered planting this season in the hope of getting more seeds to sow a later couple of varieties before I think it will be cut off time.

In The Hothouse

 I took these photos so I'd remember what I had quantity wise of each variety when I decide to make a grow list. In this lot, they're mostly tomato seedlings, along with a couple of Moon & Stars Watermelon, some Candy Cane Capsicums from a glued flower,  some Red Panama Passionfruit, and finally a stray zucchini left from our recent planting.

Today in The Garden

 I'm slipping, by not keeping up with what's happening in the garden, so here's a look at what it's like as of today. The Zucchini's are in and mulched, the Strawberries are also mulched and some Parsnips have been pulled, although a few were very immature. Plus the Royal Gala Apple tree is bursting with leaf and blossom.

 

 

 

 

 

Zucchini Cross Planted Today

Today is Zucchini planting day, where our zucchini cross moves on from its current F2 status. These are Gold Rush X Jade Numbat and hopefully will give us some nice zucchini's again this season.

 

A Mixed Lot

 Here are a few photos of what's growing here, both in the garden and hothouse. The first photo is a raised garden bed 3.6m x 1.5m with a row of Parsnips and two rows of Greenfeast Peas.

Next are some photos in the hothouse, with potted seedlings starting to kick along nicely.

Here the last of the tomato seedlings are emerging, with these a type I called Macalister, an orange tomato I crossed in 2019 and I'll try again this year with F2 seedlings.

Macalister Tomato Seedlings

Last but not least are these Peas we picked from the garden. These are Greenfeast peas and if they make it inside they are nice cooked, although someone eats them raw without any side effects.

Feeding Strawberries

I had a Spring reminder set to fertilise my Strawberries which are waking up after Winter, most noticeable are the Torrey variety I got at Goodman's Seeds moths ago. With no access to Bunning's at the moment, I ended up using the liquid Dynamic Lifter Fertiliser, which is high in Nitrogen, which is what's needed.

My Contribution

About 20 years ago I came upon a Correa growing in a Maffra garden that really took my eye, being a Correa grower for many years. I asked the owner about the plant and was told it was a plant found by the late Bill Cane, Nurseryman from Maffra, so asked if I could get cuttings from it. Since that time, the original plant had died, so I had the only one of these plants known to exist. Since moving to Maffra 4 years ago, I now have this plant growing in my garden and it is doing well.

Now, the Sale Botanic Gardens is planting a new garden bed in honour of Bill Cane and they'll be planting known plants of Bill Cane. Mitch from Woolenook Nursery in Maffra contacted me about 6 or 7 weeks ago asking for cuttings to grow plants for this garden in Sale.

To say I'm happy would be an understatement

Correa Bill Cane

Macalister Again

I sowed a couple of seed today for my tomato cross 'Macalister' which I did the year before last (2019), between Nicoleta X Sweet Ozark Orange an F2 if they germinate. I didn't like it last year as it produced soft fruits when ripe. I'll try again this season, nothing to lose I suppose.

 

 

Passionfruit Seedling?

 A bit over 3 weeks ago I sowed some Red Panama Passionfruit seeds from a fresh fruit, thinking it wouldn't grow, but I was wrong. Yesterday I noticed a green shoot appearing, from the first seed to germinate. We've tried so many times to get a plant to grow here, without success, so maybe growing our own from seed will change that.

Here's the emerging seedling.

New Seedlings

Here are a few seedling tomatoes that have recently germinated in my hothouse. I was going to restrict what I grow, but that's gone out the window now.

Glued Flower

Over the past few years, I've been experimenting with gluing the flowers shut on Capsicum & Chilli plants, keeping them to self pollinate. Here are some Candy Cane Capsicums from a glued flower, which will be interesting to see what it actually throws. 

Theoretically it should be slightly different to the F1 original plant and should exhibit some traits of one of its parents.

 

New Ladder

 A new to me extension ladder turned out to be a bit different to what it was advertised as. Rather than an aluminium extension ladder, I ended up with a fibreglass ladder. It's a lot heavier than aluminium, but it will do just fine. It's 2.4m to about 4.5m when extended.

When Size Matters

When size does matter, the Oregon Giant Pea is a stand out as far as size goes, as you can see with the comparison here with a Greenfeast Pea. Neither are mature yet, so I'd expect some growing by the Giant in the coming weeks.

We have a few growing here which we''ll be saving for an Autumn/Winter growout next year.

Second Thoughts with Tomatoes

 I thought about it for a while, then changed my mind with the tomato varieties I'm growing this year. I've decided not to continue growing the Greek Witness tomatoes and limit what others I grow. I have put in a couple of seeds of each Alaskan Fancy and Japanese Pink Cherry for something different.

I was hoping the Alaskan Fancy were up by now, but they've only been down a week, but a couple are germinating this morning.

Growing Fast Now

 Wow, the Zucchini seedlings have kicked on with a growth spurt and are starting to get big now. Here's a look at what they look like tonight. The cotyledons are about 140mm across.

Fertilising Your Tomatoes???

 Do you fertilise your tomatoes? If not, why not.

Always a question a lot of people don't know or talk about, is whether to fertilise your tomato plants, but in reality the plants are probably screaming out for some form of nutrient and fertiliser gives them that. Over the years I've fed my new seedlings on a diluted does of liquid Fertiliser. For many years, a product called Lush was my go to fertiliser, but they took it off the market some years back and finding a substitute is a real pain, but there are some that will suffice. My substitute this year is Dynamic Lifter Organic Liquid Fertiliser, but it will be slow trial and error process because I haven't used it before.

A few years ago I started using Powerfeed for Tomatoes with mixed results, as it can be quite strong on seedlings and care must be taken when dosing the watering can with it , as it's a soluble and mixes easily. Then as the seedlings grow, you can increase the strength to somewhere near what's recommended on the bottle. When the plants are big enough, change from the Powerfeed to the dry fertiliser Brunnings Tomato and Vegetable Food, which is usually sold at Bunning's for around $8.00 for a 3kg bucket, although it never made it to the shelves at my local store last year. This is my go to fertiliser and use a handful under each plant at planting time. It isn't something the stores actually order in as it's a Head Office allocation to stores, so controlled at the top. This year at the time I'm writing this, it hasn't shown up in Stores as yet, but it will be something I look for from now on.

Tomato Varieties 2021/22

 I'm listing the varieties of the Tomatoes I have growing this season, more so that I can keep a track on the seedlings once they are big enough.

So far, these are what's sown..

Macalister *Late sown

Cherry Brownies *Late sown

Japanese Pink Cherry* Late sown

Alaskan Fancy * Late sown

Giant Syrian * Late sown

Giant Belgium * Late sown

UK2000

Greek Witness

Nicoleta

Lavender Lake

Lithium Sunset

Village Red

Village Red is one I've been playing with for a number of years and I think if it throws a red tomato like last few years will be a winner.

Lithium Sunset is a mystery tomato and has two form in circulation, one yellow inside, the other is pink. It should be a yellow tomato with red stripes.

Lavender Lake is a Lavender/Purple fruit with good taste and sizable fruit.

Nicoleta, a tomato seed that came to Australia many years ago with a Romanian family who migrated here. The seed takes the name of their daughter, Nicoleta.

Greek Witness, a huge red paste type tomato from Greece. A tomato that also came to Australia with travelers/tourists and was given a name some years ago after its origin. A neighbour had the seed given to him to pass on to me by a lady Jehovah Witness. The name takes Witness from the religion and Greek from its country of origin. 

UK2000 is our named tomatoes. A nice medium to large oblate tomato, originating as self sown seedlings in a farmers vegetable garden in the 1980's.

A green UK2000

Aggressive Roots

I had to pot up the Zucchini and Watermelon seedlings today as they are too aggressive on the heat mat with their roots growing into the felt mat, seeking warmth and moisture. They all have good root systems, so should be fine in the pots.

Both these seed lots were sown on 8th August 2021, so a week and a day until now.

 

 

Pencil Drawing

 Not sure this will work very well, but I'm trying a converted jpeg to Pencil Drawing photo. Finding the happy medium with line strength is the only problem.

The old Wairewa Road Trestle Rail Bridge. The first pylons on the r/h side start at number 11 - the first 10 lost to a bushfire.

Seedlings Today

 Activity with the Watermelons today, but only one showing from above. Looking at the bottom of the seed tray, the roots in the top right quarter are actually the Watermelons, so germination happening quite well there by the looks.

Our East Gippsland Drive

 

We spent the day doing something we haven't done in ages, we went looking for Australian Native Plants away from home. We found a great selection on the road up to Mt Raymond Fire Tower, even found a solitary Donkey Orchid amongst the numerous plants in the section we looked in. Other places we visited were Cann River and the Point Hicks Road, Orbost, Pettman Beach and last but not least a favourite spot of ours, the old Wairewa Road Trestle Rail Bridge, half destroyed in the Bushfire the year before last.

 

Mt Raymond Tower

Diuris - Donkey Orchid

Tetratheca Ciliata

Wairewa Road Rail Trestle bridge

Another Day in The Hothouse

 We spent the day in East Gippsland today so the Zucchini's were left to their own devices and are looking good 5 days from sowing the seeds.

Not much more happening that warrants a mention, but here's what the seedlings are starting to look like.