High Tunnel 2016
 

I finally got my high tunnel planted today. It's 18 1/2' by 48'. With about three feet to walk around the end of each row, I'd guess each row to be 42 feet. I just counted my list below, and there are 60 plants.

The high tunnel puts me about 30 days ahead of the outside gardens. I will have tomatoes for the market in June, before everyone's garden tomatoes ripen in July.

Here are some pics:
[url]http://i.imgur.com/0pbP3fN.jpg[/url]
[url]http://i.imgur.com/eqQFtK4.jpg[/url]
[url]http://i.imgur.com/1BXRTYD.jpg[/url]
[url]http://i.imgur.com/SZFS61D.jpg[/url]

I found a 4-pound bag of Tomatotone and about half a pound of greensand. I spread that over the three rows. It's a ridiculously small amount of fertilizer. I may feed through the drip irrigation later. I mounded the beds back up with a hoe; that buried the fertilizer a little.

Here is the variety list. The number in parenthesis is the number of plants of that variety, if more than one. Some names are the English translation with the Russian listed next to it.

100 Pudov (5)
Agatha (4)
Aura
Big Beef x Eva Purple Ball
Black Amber (4)
Bradley
Brandwine Cowlick’s x Big Beef
Buckbee’s New 50 Day
Cosmonaut Volkov (3)
Early Glee
Efimir
First Love - [I]Pervaya Lyubov[/I]
Gloria
Great Warrior - [I]Velikiy Voin[/I]
Grot
Productive from Altai (9) - [I]Altajskij Urozajnij[/I]
Rebel Yell (2)
Russian Soul - [I]Russkaya Dusha[/I]
Sol Gold (9)
Sweet Doughnut - [I]Sladkij Ponchik[/I]
Tarasenko 6 (5)
Titan Red (3)
Ton of Sugar - [I]Sakharnyi Pudovichok[/I]
Yuvel
Zarca

Cosmonaut Volkov and Titan Red came from my own saved seeds. Everything else was from swaps and trades. Thank you to all the people who traded with me and participated in the swaps.

Good start Cole. Hope things grow well for you this season.

Looks good Cole. Lots of room and interesting varieties.

Great list, hope to sample some of the Russian varieties in your offer next year.

Does the Cosmonaut Volkov grow short and stocky for you? How was the fruit size and shape. Seems to be a lot of variation in the variety, but everyone says the taste is good to excellent. I'm growing it this year from MMMM seed and will have at least a couple going to replace the Big Beef that was dropped completely. Your suggestion on that.

Thanks guys. I had actually planned to grow a few expensive hybrids and Taxi, but those plants got sick from the cold in the greenhouse. Except for Titan Red, these are all substitutions. If I only cared about making money, I would only grow Titan Red and Taxi in the high tunnel, but maybe some of this year's challengers will be even better. I'm eager to see how Sol Gold compares to Taxi. I'm guessing better flavor, but lower yield; we'll see how much lower. Cosmonaut Volkov vs Tarasenko 6 will be an interesting versus challenge as well.

I have to admit, it was fun shopping for plants in my own greenhouse, next door to the high tunnel, with a couple thousand plants and 100+ varieties.

Cosmonaut Volkov should grow a large, indeterminate plant. The fruit looked just like Big Beef; they weren't catfaced or irregular at all.

The plants are taking off. They're twice the size in a week and starting to bloom.

That is, except for Gloria, and 2 of my Black Amber. I think stem rot got them. They were replaced with an Agatha, a Shadow Boxing, and a Hazelfield Farm Red. My other Black Amber looks great; I'm looking forward to it.

Sorry to hear the hybrid showdown fizzled out.

Cole or Gerardo, do u guys notice how tall the GWR type dwarfs get compared to other dwarfs?
They are for me significantly.
Beryl beauty and golden gypsy.
Almost look like they want to keep going up and not throw out and side branches.
I really am not a fan of their growth habit thus far, but suspect all will be well in the end.

Edit: obviously golden gypsy is not a GWR.
Also, I think my wild Spudleaf are unstable. Not stocky at all and are tall like indeterminates.

Looking good, John!

[QUOTE=PureHarvest;554767]Cole or Gerardo, do u guys notice how tall the GWR type dwarfs get compared to other dwarfs?
They are for me significantly.
Beryl beauty and golden gypsy.
Almost look like they want to keep going up and not throw out and side branches.
I really am not a fan of their growth habit thus far, but suspect all will be well in the end.

Edit: obviously golden gypsy is not a GWR.
Also, I think my wild Spudleaf are unstable. Not stocky at all and are tall like indeterminates.[/QUOTE]

I've got Shamrock and Emerald Giant, the first is pretty large and in charge, the 2nd is on its way there. Unless you know the growth habit already, it's hard to guess how they will do next to each other. I put a Bushy Chab in the same container as a Tasm Choc. It worked out well, one took the high road and one the low. Perhaps a very short one and a "larger"one can be the way to go for the two in a bag experiment.

Thanks, James.

Jade Beauty is the GWR dwarf I grew last year. It was about the same size as my other dwarfs. I agree with Gerardo; you don't know a variety until you grow it.

I'm comparing them right now as seedlings in 3.5" deep pots as I'm getting ready to put them in bags.
So to look over the trays, it's interesting to see the growth habit of the 9 different dwarfs I have.
They all look awesome to the point that I don't know that I can tab a favorite at this stage. Maybe a lean to wild Fred right now.
I have decided to do 2 bags that will get one plant each and 2 bags that will get 2 plants each. Replicated over 9 dwarf varieties.
Decided to do no pruning on any of them.

Wild Fred is a cool one. Fred's Tie Dye is similar, in habit at least.

Titan Red: [url]http://i.imgur.com/wejK5O9.jpg[/url]

Sol Gold: [url]http://i.imgur.com/G97tpOX.jpg[/url]

Black Amber: [url]http://i.imgur.com/mIJiw9S.jpg[/url]

Sugar's magic is having a Rob Ford effect on Black Amber. They sure look happy.

I get leaves that eventually look like giant fern leaves.

Here's a Russian Soul: [url]http://i.imgur.com/DWhqGTN.jpg[/url]

Productive from Altai: [url]http://i.imgur.com/up6d8xC.jpg[/url]

The stem on the Altai is so thick that it reminds me of a dwarf.

Cloudy days like today seem to take clearer pics, at least from my cheap phone:
[url]http://i.imgur.com/HgBWqc6.jpg[/url]

Looking good! Keep posting, always good to know how plants doing. I wonder how much earlier you get Yuvel work for you. Stunning tomato but late for me.

Nice looking plants, I always enjoy watching your progress.

Rick

Russian Soul is setting fruit exceptionally well down here. Your plants are happy under protection.

Agatha trucking along: [url]http://i.imgur.com/f4j2hpD.jpg[/url]

High tunnel this morning: [URL]http://i.imgur.com/eV0iJr2.jpg[/URL]

Beauty!

Cole, when did you plant into the tunnel?
I feel like that is where we should be right now as far as growth and size of plant.
We went 19 straight days in late April into may with zero direct sunlight/full cloudy days.
Never experienced that in my life and never want to again.
My plants really missed out on grow time but are starting to go now with 2 days, about to be 3 of nice sun and 70-75.

Thanks. I planted on April 14th. The weather has been unusually cool and wet for the past month here as well.

I just picked a handful of cherry tomatoes off of an outdoor Anmore Dew Drops and Anmore Treasures. Those two varieties beat the high tunnel in earliness as outdoor plants.

Here are a couple high tunnel pics taken just now.

Productive from Altai: [url]http://i.imgur.com/7DrizTk.jpg[/url]

Buckbee's New 50 Day: [url]http://i.imgur.com/qSSI7vQ.jpg[/url]

Those two varieties are leading the way in the high tunnel. Agatha and Grot deserve a mention, too. It's been cloudy and wet. In the first pic above, you can see some sporadic yellowing. I have that intermittently around the garden. I don't know if it's early blight. I am always reluctant to spray, and am hoping most plants will grow out of it. If they don't I don't want them back, anyway. Sol Gold looks like the weak sister in that regard, but the plants are looking ok otherwise. It will still need to taste very good to get me to keep it.

High tunnel plants in the background: [url]http://i.imgur.com/A2TFY3C.jpg[/url]

Looks awesome Cole, lots of plants that look nice and healthy.

Thanks, Mark. My Cowlicks x Big Beef is doing well. I'm looking forward to trying it.

Mouth watering looking at that crop of Productive Altai. :yes: It was so tasty for me last year. And great texture - overall an exceptional quality fruit. I managed to fit one into my grow again this year, but just transplanted a few days ago and it isn't flowering yet. :wait:

Agatha wins the race to ripeness: [url]http://i.imgur.com/NuyzfIG.jpg[/url]

I just ate one, and it was very good. Agatha is my fourth variety of the year to ripen, behind a Bosky in the greenhouse, and one each of Anmore Dew Drops and Anmore Treasures outside. It is by far the best I have tasted so far this year. Texture and flavor are both great. I like it better than Gribovski from last year. The skin is not nearly as thick and the fruit are larger.

The bad news, which one can see from looking at that pic, is that my whiteflies are back. Curiously, they only seem to be on the Agatha, the first ripe fruit. Maybe that is the sweetest plant to eat right now. I'm going to spray Met52 tonight.

Those whiteflies are tough customers. I thought I'd sprayed everything and found them hiding in droves under big [I]Nicotinia [/I]leaves. Met52 to the rescue.

I read an old post on tville that I couldn't find again when I searched. It said that "overly rich" soil - whatever that is - will attract insect pests. My soil is so rich that I can hardly use my fertilizer injector without burning everything. I think the whiteflies are another "victim of your own success" type of problem. I'm glad I had the whitefly experience last year, so I can spot them now and kill them before the population spirals out of control.