Ready, Set, Go.

I've decided to start sowing a portion of my Chilli/Pepper seedlings now (late February) instead of June/July when I'd normally start. The reason is that I want to try and get some sizable plants by the time Spring rolls around, giving me a head start with my stock plants that I'll use for seed saving purposes. I think I have about 30+ varieties sown and currently have about half germinated as sowing has been staggered.

Here's something that always amuses people, "Tricots", or seedlings with 3 seed leaves or cotyledons. Of the 7 seedlings in the photo, 3 are tricots.

What's Being Picked This Week.

As the Tomato season winds down here there isn't a great deal to be picked in the garden at present. Here's what came in over the weekend and tonight.

Some Gogosari Peppers from Romania



Some Red Robin tomatoes


Or maybe some Father Tom tomatoes

Here's a half a bucket of Cherries just picked, which comprise Ida Gold, Totem & Tiny Tim with a couple of my latest cross. Given good growing conditions, you'll be well rewarded with any of these. Black Cherry are in a league of their own as far as taste goes and are good producers as well.

Here are a couple of Takanotsume Chillies



Not forgetting the 'Vittoria' Eggplant.

Zucchini - Saving some seed.

We had this given to us and although a little larger than expected, will still use and try and save some seed along the way. This is a 'Romanesco' Zucchini, so should be a good addition to the garden next season.

Picked This Evening

A few of what else we grow here. These include Jimmy Nardello Peppers, Barkol Chillies, Ariane Hybrid Capsicum, Gogosari Pepper, Balassa F1 Hybrid Paprika.

I'm Not Complaining.

I grew a tomato plant for seed, just based on the name only and bagged lots of trusses early on in the season only to find that the plant is a cross. I'm not complaining as this plant was a heavy producer of golf ball size red fruit which taste pretty good, so I'll use this seed for my sales next season.

These Got Away

These couple of "All Green Bush" Zucchini's that grew too large to really do anything with, so I decided to save some seeds from them. Little did I know at the time, but there were no mature seeds in either of these two fruit. There was a third fruit from the plant which I have now obtained seeds from. This will save buying seeds next season, if we decide to grow them again.

Village Red - Update

This is more the size I'm expecting from this variety, although the shape could be a little better. This is my 'Village Red' tomato which has Casey's Pure Yellow in its parentage. Earlier fruit were more heart shaped as shown in an earlier posting, but this one is more oblate if you can call it that.

Weight here is 472 grams.

Some of The Different Ones this Year

Something different for the home garden and maybe something you're interested in trying, is this great little tomato called Konig Humbert (King Humbert), with supposed resistance to Wilt & Blight.

More to come on this one I think.



Here is a nice little tomato for those who want a good producer with heaps of flavour, this one is 'Le Case di Apulia'.

And for something to cook with, why not try 'Speckled Roman', one of the many paste type tomatoes.



Here's 'Siberian Cherry', one from the Digger Collection which I bought on a whim at the B Store one day. Taste is about 8/10 to be fair and a solid little tomato which will be great in salads etc.

The Paradise Tomato

I grew a Hungarian tomato with the name 'Paradicsom' (translated to Paradise) this year with good results before the hot 44C burnt off a lot of my tomato plants in the yard here. I've managed to obtain enough seed to keep me going next season as I think I'll include them in my plant sales in October. They are a sweet tomato, very meaty and although not really big this year, I do think they'll get to their normal size next season. The good thing with them is that they are a determinate plant, growing about 1 metre high, so what more can you ask for.

Here's what it looks like:-

Something Odd Here

Towards the end of 2008 I received some seed from a friend in the UK, for a tomato called 'Tamina' which I grew one plant late in the season and managed one fruit as the plant succumbed to the excessive heat of our Summer. The plant was a Potato Leaf Indeterminate, which seemed true to form - as you can see here.

This season I grew just one plant and we have been gathering some very sweet, golf ball size fruit from it, not previously noticing something very odd about the plant until I decided to post photos of it on the forum. As you may know, Tamina is a Potato Leaf variety, but the plant I have growing is a Regular Leaf, which has got me thinking that there is something amiss here with this plant.

I suspect there would have been either a cross, or a mix up with seed at my friends garden, so I now have this 'Odd' variety with sweet tasting fruit, that I can't really call Tamina, so looks like they will have to take on a name, so I've come up with something appropriate. I've named these 'Surrey Cross', because the cross most likely occurred in my friend Mark's garden in Surrey, England.
Oh well it was a good name at the time.

A Different Year - A Different Shape

Last season I grew out a self sown tomato which I first called Red Velvet as shown in a previous post, which was a globe shaped fruit as you can see in the photo in that post.
This year the very first fruit showed that it had changed shape and was looking more and more heart shaped in its appearance.

The interesting thing first noticed when looking at the fruit on the three plants I grew this year, was that two plants had oblate fruit, while this one had a mix of oblate and heart shape. For my seed saving efforts this season from this variety, I have selected only seed from the heart shape fruit, maybe not a wise move but as only at F2 I'll see what happens next season.


I still have my work cut out for me with growing this tomato I've called 'Village Red' - but it's all good fun.

Odd Fruit - Fused Blossoms

Often you get the misshaped tomato that is the result of fused blossoms. Here are a few photos from this seasons crops.

New Tomato Name

I had previously called my newest tomato 'Red Velvet', but I've been informed from Tania (Tatiana) and Carolyn Male that the name is already being used in one form or another, so a new name was needed. It's now called 'Village Red', so I hope this time it will last a bit longer than the last one.

What's Growing You Ask

Here are some 'Totem' seedlings sitting in the cold frame waiting for someone to purchase them. They are a short plant and grow about 30cm high with loads of cherry size fruit.

Totem

In the hothouse I have just about pricked out the last remaining Gogosari Peppers, which originate from Romania and will make a welcome addition to my plant list next year. The fruit looks like a tomato when ripe and I have been assured they are sweet and tasty.

Here's one of the babies emerging.

Gogosari Pepper

Also something that has been potted on, is some Purple Explosion Chillies, which are an ornamental variety with small hot fruit. Here you can see a genetic mutation where two colour forms have grown, I managed 2 green and 12 purple seedlings.

Explosion Chillies

I haven't sat down yet and got the final figures on Tomatoes and Chilli/Peppers, but it looks to be around 650-700 maybe more in total plants. I'll get that done next week where I can sort the good from the bad and bin a few and work on the final numbers once sorted.

Different

Here's my volunteer tomato plant from last year that came up in a tub with a Zucchini. (Note that it's a regular leaf)

This plant went on to grow a nice big red tomato which I've called Red Velvet.

Volunteer

And now one year on - can you spot the difference? (all 4 seedlings the same)

Red Velvet seedling

I'll be happy if it improves, although we liked it last season.

All Sown

The last of my tomato seeds that were sown on Monday are germinating, so the germination process is closing for me for another year. My grow list is larger than I'd hoped for.

After giving several varieties the chop, it looks like this will be what I'll grow at home. Some will be mainly used as a seed source for future sowings, plus a couple that will be grown to improve their filial status.

Black Cherry
Collioure Plum (Seed)
Cornue des Andes (Seed)
Crisana
Grub's Mystery Green
Konig Humbert (Seed)
Le Case di Apulia (Seed)
Lime Green Salad (Quad cotyledons)
Little Heart (Grow Out)
Nicoleta
Peron (Seed)
Red Velvet (Grow Out)
Siletz
Speckled Roman
Hungarian Paradicsom (Seed)
Tamina (Seed)
UK2000

Varieties I'll be selling at my Plant Sale will be listed at a later date.

Germination - I just love it.

Some seeds have germinated today, which is no surprise and I now have Speckled Roman tomato, Gold Bullet Habanero, Tahitian Goat Chillies, White Habanero, with Thai Silk, Cayenne Peppers coming up in past days.

Working out what to keep and what to sell now will be the hardest part of the process - well perhaps.

Update to last post

Fast forward the last post to Monday morning when I opened my P.O. Box and found two envelopes of seeds inside. Where to start...............

First to be sown are the tomato varieties, Collioure Plum, Cornue des Andes & Konig Humbert, so I will hopefully be able to increase my seed supply after this season..

Now for the interesting items, the chillies. Petit Marseillais, Piment d'Espelette, Hot Portugal, Aribibi Gusano and Takanotsume. Talk about some good varieties, now all I need do is get some of each to germinate and grow.

All varieties with the exception of Hot Portugal are sown into a nice moist mix sitting on the heat pad.

Let the season begin.

Last seeds sown

I've sown the last of the seeds for this season, the last tray taking up room that two seed swaps would have filled, but failed to eventuate. In their place I have resown, Granka & PCR Peppers from Slovakia, plus trying White Habanero, Gold Bullet Habanero, Explosion Chilli, Thai Silk, Orange Habanero and my last for the season Giant Aconcagua.

A few more tomato seed has been planted, with Sarnowski's Polish Plum, Noir de Crimme, Speckled Roman making up the list.

What are the chances?

In a small row of germinated seedlings for Lime Green Salad tomatoes, there is a Tricot and a Quadcot within a few centimetres. It's not very often that 'quads' come along, but add to the excitement of growing.

Off and Running

Six days out from sowing the tomato seeds, the hothouse is looking really good, with seedlings in trays and doing well.

Here's some seedlings that were sown last Tuesday:-

Sweet Temptation Chillies forming their first true leaves. These were sown earlier than the tomatoes.

Here are some of the Chillies, with lots of gaps where the seed didn't germinate, possibly too old.

'D-Day' 28 July

Tuesday 28 July is the date I sow my tomato seeds each season, in an effort to have salable size plants for sale in the first week in October. The varieties are changing this year and rather grow 20+ varieties for sale, the figure will only be 8-10 varieties as it's too hard to explain the characteristics of the plant to so many people who buy the plants, that we'll only go with a few.

In my own garden at home, I will be trying a few new ones so I can collect seed and maybe offer them next season. Three of the newer ones are Cornue des Andes, Konig Humbert and 'Collioure Plum' tomato, which I hope are as good as they say and that I can manage seeds from them.

More to come later when I sort some seeds. :-)

Early Start

I have a small heart shaped tomato that I've been 'growing out' for the past 2 seasons, last year I achieved two filial generations in the one season with it and got to F3. So, once again I am attempting to grow this tomato, then from a ripe fruit, extract seeds and grow and other generation in the same season, well that's the plan anyway. I put some seeds in to germinate last week and have now a few seedlings to select from for this task.

The tomatoes are aptly called "Little Heart" from the shape in their beginning and which still bear a similarity in the later generations.

Here's my babies today.

A Few Late Seeds

I was given some Chillies last week for seed so I could grow them myself this year, so now I have a bit more variety in my plant list.

Here's what I got:

Chilli 'Explosion'

Chilli 'Thai Silk'

Chilli 'Orange Habanero'

Chilli - unknown variety.

Some of the washed seed