Tip Shop Greenhouse

I needed a greenhouse to get my tomato seeds in early but all the ones in shops are either too expensive or look they'll fall apart in a light breeze. A visit to the Balcatta Recycle Centre, better known as the Tip Shop, produced this old bread bin for $10. I think it's going to work out well and it will hold about thirty 100mm pots.
 This summer I'll be trying heirloom varieties Tommy Toe, Jaune Flamme, Costoluto Genovese and Wapsipinicon Peach. I grew Costoluto Genovese last year and they didn't work out but I have some plans to correct that this year. If last year was anything to go by Jaune Flamme will always have a place in my garden. Wapsipinicon Peach is from Iowa with tiny hairs on it's skin like a peach. It's reputed to have a better taste than Tommy Toe which is one of thhe best tomatoes I've tasted. I've also put in some capsicum seeds from a pack of Mixed Italian Fryers that include Jimmy Nardello, Cubanelle, Golden Marconi and Bulls Horn. I have no idea which ones are which in this packet or what any of these look like. A bit of research is in order. All of the above were bought through Diggers.



Costoluto Genovese

Here's one of the few Costoluto Genovese that made it through the blossom end rot that wrecked most of it's cousins. There's no denying it's a good looking beast. And it has flavour to match. Despite it's general failure this year I might give it another shot and hopefully, with a bit more care on my part, it will work out a bit better.





Jaune Flamme

  Have I mentioned I really like this tomato? I think I have. It really is perfect, a good combination of sweet and tart, really meaty and perfectly formed. It's a French heirloom that seems to be completely free of the problems that are being experienced by the rest of my crop, particularly blossom end rot but also no bugs! I only found one plant up at Zanthorrea Nursery when I was looking for something else. I found it after I had planted out the bed for this year's tomatoes so it ended up in a pot. Pots can be a bad deal for tomatoes in our environment, they dry out easily and the roots get hot. You need to have a spot where they get full shade in the afternoon. This one does get shade in the afternoon but so does the Amish Paste that's sitting right next to it and that one's as good as dead.

Jaune Flamme will feature highly in my garden in summers to come.



Tomatoes in the heat

Summer hit yesterday and today with 39 degree days. To prevent sun scorch and and general ruin I've put up some shade cloth to help them cope.

All my varieties are performing differently. The Costoluto Genovese are fruiting well, after that initial mutant flower, but none are ripe to date. There's a bit of blossom end rot on these especially the one in the pot.

The Mortgage Lifters are about the same but with fewer fruit. I'm unsure as to why the blossom end rot is happening, I feel like i'm doing everything right with regards to watering and the ph is right. The Amish Paste are the worst affected, particularly the one in the pot, so much so I may as well pull them out.



Mortgage Lifter



Poor Amish Paste

Meanwhile the beautiful Jaune Flamme, which is in a pot, continues without problem. As do the indesctructable cherrys and romas. All of which add up to a nice breakfast.

First Pickings

The tomatoes are starting to come on line and here's some picked tonight. Hopefully a start to a good season. There's some Tigrellas, Cherrys and a couple of Jaune Flamme. I'm pretty happy with the latter, a really beautiful tomato.



Tomato update

I've had a problem with the first Amish Paste fruit set with what looks like blossom end rot. This usually appears as the fruit matures as a result of uneven watering making it hard for the plants to take up calcium. This plant is in a pot but I was very careful with the watering and as you can see the Jaune Flamme growing in another pot right next to the Amish Paste is unaffected.

 I noticed the problem right after a hot day of about 36 deg C, which sprung up in the middle of some mild weather. Maybe it was just the sudden temperature fluctuation that caused this and Amish Paste are more susceptible, some varieties are. I checked the ph and it was just below 7.0 so all should be well. I've moved the pot so it gets slightly less of the hot afternoon sun and given it a sprinkle of dolomite lime as a precaution.

Amish Paste



Jaunne Flamme

Mutant Tomato

My Costoluto Genovese tomato has a large mutant flower cluster where the growing tip of the main stem shoud be. I think this is called fasciation. There are conflicting views on what causes this, genetic mutation or a virus. Most views lean towards a mutation. I'm going to take a risk that it is a mutation, leave the plants in place and simply chop of the mutant, and hence to top of the main stem, to encourage the side shoots. Hopefully all will be well.



Weekend Past

This past weekend I planted out the last of this season’s tomatoes. These were seedlings I grew from seed ordered from Diggers. I planted out two Mortage Lifters as described in this post. Two Amish Paste that have elongated fruit and are supposed to be good fresh or, as the name suggests, for preserving. Two Costoluto Genovese, another all rounder with meaty ribbed fruit and finally two Sugarlump that have largish, cherry type 3cm fruit. The last three have been planted one in the no-dig section of the garden and one in a pot. I've never grown these three so we'll see how they perform.

I pulled my garlic over the weekend and ended up with twenty two heads this year. I grew them in the ground rather than pots and although they take up the space for a long time I think they'll be in the ground again next year. Here's a few of them

And a few of the nice purple cloves that came loose in the process



Tomato Tip

When I pick tomato plants from the nursery I look for ones that have been slightly stressed so they have started flowering. Young pampered ones, when they hit your nice rich bed, will start producing lots of leaves and wont bother flowering until further into the season. The stressed ones that have started flowering will love all the food and keep flowering. Take note though, tomatoes don't need, or like, a lot of nitrogen so stay away from chook poo and stick to cow or sheep. Watering them in with some seasol will help them along and a good sprinkle of sulphate of potash will keep them flowering and toughen them up a bit. Here's my Tigrella that not only has flowers but tiny tomatoes as well. I also trim off the lower leaves and plant the seedlings much deeper than their existing soil depth in the pot. Most plants hate this but tomatoes will send out new roots from the stem.



Sprung Spring

I planted up the first two beds with summer crops on the weekend. This bed is where the potatoes were. This is mostly herbs, coriander, dill, parsley, lemon basil and oregano. There's also some leaves - chicory, mizuna and something called land cress. There's an eggplant tagged Thai Eggplant. I thought these were small black ones similar to the ones I grew last year. Though they may end up being small, green ones like these. I'll found out in a few months I suppose.

I've planted two different types of beans to climb up the black meshing, Blue Lake and Purple King. These will hopefully serve two purposes. To supply beans, obviously, and to provide some afternoon shade for the soft herbs. My back yard gets cooked in summer so with any luck this will work.

The next bed has the first of the tomatoes for this year. A sweet Bite cherry tomato, a heritage type called tigrella and a roma. There's also sweet basil, purple ruffled basil, marigolds and an eggplant called Japanese Long Tom. This is more like what I was after with the Thai Eggplant above. I've also planted beans around the wire for the same reasons above.

Late Tommys

There hasn't been much to post about as the long hot summer roles on. Except maybe suffering and dieing plants, and who wants to hear about them. We're getting some relief this weekend with temps in the high 20s. Bring on autumn weather!

I did plant a couple of tomatoes as an experiment to see how they would perform through Perth's warm autumn. Using superb judgment, and misplaced optimism, I planted these just in time for a two week heat wave with temps up around 37 deg C. They've suffered a bit. Still, they're alive so there is some hope. I planted two small fruiting varieties, something called Wild Sweetie and another described simply as "Cherry", as these are usually the simplest to grow and I figured might be more likely to succeed out of season.

Cherry

Wild Sweetie

Tommy's last stand

The long hot summer has taken it's toll on the tomatoes. They've finally given up and have been pulled up. I still picked quite a few Romas and a few Grosse Lisse from the dieing plants.

Next year I'll spread them out a bit more and be a bit more regular with the feeding. The Sweet Bites also got completely out of control so I'll be a bit more vigilant with my pruning.


Romas



Sweet Bites



Passata

I collected 3kg of tomatoes the other day to make some passata, (tomato sauce). It's a combination of all the tomatoes I've grown, Roma, Mortgage Lifter, Sweet Bite and Grosse Lisse. My poor tomato plants have just about had it. I really did cram too many into the beds. Never mind.
I kept the passata very simple, I can add other ingredients when I use it depending on that use. Here it is

3kg tomatoes
15 peeled and roughly chopped garlic cloves
1 tbs salt
1 tbs ground black pepper
2 tbs sugar

All ingredients in one big pot and cooked for adbout 25mins. I cooled it down then passed it through a food mill. Back into the pot and reduced until thickened slightly. I ended up with about 1.2 litres of passata which I divided up then froze for use during winter.



Tommys

The tomato picking is picking up pace with the Mortgage Lifters stating to ripen. They're a great tasting tomato, with more of a ruby colour than the normal tomatoe red. I'm having a problem with leaves dying back on these plus one of the romas. I've had this happen late in the season, which I think is a normal part of the plant's cycle, but not in spring. There doesn't seem to be any mites around, but we've had such a hot spring this year, with days varying from mid thirties back down to high twenties, so maybe that's to blame. I've also been a bit ambitious with the plant numbers and they're badly overcrowded.

Mortgage Lifter

My suffering Roma

Todays picks



First Fruit

I'm starting to eat the fruits of my labours witht the first of the tomatoes being picked. It's just a few here and there at the monemt but there's plenty of fruit on the vines.  My Roma's below, in front of the taller Mortgage Lifters are so dense that it's hard to see the fruit. I'll plant them further apart next year.

The Sweet Bite are also starting to ripen too. Only a handful so far but plenty to come.

Mid Spring

In the last week everything has started to boom. The bed below, the lower leg of the E shaped bed, has the Mortgage Lifter and Roma tomatoes. The Mortgage Lifters to the left are about 600mm high with stems as thick as my thumb. If they keep going like this they may well be monsters as advertised.

The marigolds are there for a couple of reasons. They attract bees and wasps as well as, apparently, protecting against root nematodes in tomatoes. They look good too. There's plenty of basil amongst the tomatoes, a good companion plant plus you can never have too much basil in your life. The bed below, bed three, has the Sweet Bite and Grosse Lisse tomatoes along with the eggplants. This was the bed full of green manure during winter. That gold/green patch to the left is Golden Oregano. Maybe not quite as flavoursome as the standard oregano but worth growing for looks alone.

Below are the zucchinis. They're in the middle part of the E which is in the no-dig section. In the last few days their roots seem to have escaped the little pockets of soil and are into the composted manure/straw layers. They are growing like crazy now. The small things in the middle of the four zucchinis are cos lettuce. These grow quickly enough to utilise this space before they are overwhelmed.

Next are the Golden Nugget pumpkins these are in bed two, where I grew some green manure during winter. They are coming along fine as well and are just showing their first little flower buds.











Tomatoes

Right, back to the tomatoes. Here's what we've got......

Sweet Bite, a cherry variety. They end up huge plants and are easy to grow.
Grosse Lisse, an Australian favourite with medium sized fruit. Usually pretty reliable.
Mortage Lifter, a beefsteak, heirloom variety that can grow up to 3 meters tall. Apparently it was developed in the 1930s by a guy known as Radiator Charlie who used the profits from selling his plants to pay off his mortgage. I've never grown these before so we'll see how big they get.
Roma, these mostly end up being preserved as sauce for winter. They tend to ripen their fruit all at the same time,(determinate), so they're good for this.

All the seedlings are well advanced and already have flowers. I think this is important as sometimes, if the plants are too young, when they hit the rich soil they will be happy to just grow without reproducing. Once they've started to flower they tend to keep flowering. I also planted them deep, well below the pot level, to encourage more roots. They received a good pinch of sulphate of potash to encourage more flowers. It also helps toughen the leaves up against attack. This little guy is one of the Sweet Bites



First Fruit

The Roma tomatoes are already on their way. That's the benefit of buying seedlings that are already flowering. A little bit of stress in the pots before planting out is a good thing and starts the flowering process early.

Ready to go

It's nearly time for the main crop. I went to an agricultural supply place in Carlisle and got some 2400mm star pickets. These will be strung with wire to form a sort of cage for the tomatoes to grow in. I don't know why you can't get decent sized stakes from nurseries for tomatoes. They sell the seedlings knowing the stakes they supply wont be tall enough. Why? Anyway, this long weekend is planting time.