GENERAL CHAT THREAD FOR CHOPTAGers
 

Here's a great seed deal from Johnny's.

$10 off your next order of $15 or more @ Johnny's Selected Seeds

Good deal, great seeds. I order from Johnny's ever year. If you love squash as I do try Zephyr and Costata Romanesco. Best I've ever grown.

[URL]http://www.johnnyseeds.com/[/URL]

Johnny's Selected Seeds,

$10 off your next order until June 14th!

use offer code 10-1080

Do you have everything you need to make your growing season a success?
At Johnny's we understand the challenges of gardening and growing. One of them is planning all the seeds, tools, and supplies you'll need to take you through the season.

To make it easier for you to pick up some last-minute items, please accept $10.00 off on you next order of $15 or more through June 14, 2010.
To receive $10 savings on any order of $15 or more, use offer code
10-1080 at checkout.
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Some of my stuff in SWCs [self-watering-containers] is starting to do good. My sugar snap and snow peas are starting to bloom and the tomatoes have been blooming for awhile and should fruit soon. Cukes in the Greenhouse are starting to fruit, and the first to fruit was Diamant from Johnny's, an early type that doesn't need pollinating.

Thanks Earl...just placed an order for some squash to grow once the SVB's kill this batch. Also bought some garlic.

I've got my tomatoes and hot peppers planted. Still need to plant some flat runner beans and this year I got some round zukes to try out. Magda I belive is the name. Also need to get my pimento bed planted (gotta weed it first). Rain and more rain here so hopefully I can get the rest of this stuff in the ground soon.

The Johnny's promo offer sounds really great. I'll show my ignorance by asking this, but would the tomato seeds packaged for this year still be viable next March when I'm hoping to venture into growing plants from seeds so I'll have something to swap at the 2011 Choptag plant swap?

Also, it's been so interesting watching the different varieties develop with all their different leaf types and plant habits. This is my first year to have some of the potato leaf types, and there are a couple of the regular leaf types that have such wispy and curly leaves that I think it's almost ornamental. Thanks to everyone who sent stuff home with me. It's a joy every day to watch them all develop!

Tim,
Yes, most seeds packaged for this year will geminate next year. Here's a link to give you an idea of what to expect.
[URL]http://www.growingyourownveg.com/vegetableseedviability.php[/URL]

Saving your own tomato seeds is easy. Why don't you do a trial run with a couple or bought tomatoes.

Squeeze out the seeds into a pint jar with as much juice as you can get. Cover the jar and put it in a warm place for 3-4 days until a white mold/slime forms on top caused when the microbes have finished eating the jel from around the seeds as the jel is a gemination inhibitor.

At the kitchen sink pour the seeds into a larger container [like a half-gallon mason jar] and then use the spray nozzle on high pressure to agitate the seeds and stire them up real good. The seeds will sink to the bottom and you can pour the water off of them. Do this twice.
Then pour the seeds into a small hole strainer over the sink and wash them again with spray nozzle.

Write the tomato name on a paper plate and with a quick motion, flip the strainer over and frap the seeds onto the plate. Spread out the seeds and put the plate in a warm dry place for the seeds to dry out.

Sounds easy enough. I'll give it a try and see what happens. Maybe at the August tasting event I can get more pointers and guidance about the whole process of growing tomato plants from seed.

My plants are doing very well. I know they are loving this heat!

Tim

OK. I'm in need of advice. Most of the plants that are not cherry or determinate plants have such unusual growth habits that I'm wondering if something is very wrong. They have really curly and/or wispy foilage to the point that they wouldn't be able to shade any fruit they might set enough to keep it from getting scorched in the sun. Most are blooming but not many tomatoes on them yet. The cherries and determinates have gone wild with regular looking leaves and lots of little tomatoes on them. Is this just a normal growth habit for the heirloom potato-leaf types, or should they also be setting fruit by now too? The foilage differences in plants right next to each other are so very drastic that I'm concerned.

I'll try to get some pictures and figure out how to attach them here so I can get more feedback. Thanks! Tim

Not the best tomato year for me so far. Hot hot hot causing lots of aborts early, rain rain rain causing lots of spots. Had the most gorgeous big black brandywine tomato in my SWC that was just starting to blush. Normally, I bring my tomatoes in at first blush to ripen on the counter but it's hot and I thought well....it will ripen faster outside than inside.
And don't you know a critter got in the pot and took a big ole bite out of the bottom :x So I let it ripen and it's fermenting for seeds. I did manage to get a couple of hunks to eat that weren't touched by the critter (ack) and it was one tasty tomato.

Of course, you know this means war.