OmahaJB's 2010 Garden Journal

[MargeH]

Jeff,

The color of the Big Green Dwarf does change from a green to more of an amber-yellow green when it is starting to ripen. You will see the difference. My smallest ones grown in pots with potting mix have been around 6 ounces. You may still have some time before they are ripe.

Marjorie

[OmahaJB]

Thanks Marge. Now I can stop bruising mine from all the squeezing. I do like the productivity of this one, although I think my tomatoes are more likely around 3 ounces (in poor soil). Once I taste one I'll update the project thread.

Jeff

[Tormato]

Jeff,

I'm not going to smack your garden again. The day I ranked on your watermelon mix-up, my first watermelon, to fruit, split wide open. It would happen to be Cream of S.

I'll keep it limited to the Browns.

Gary

[OmahaJB]

Karma's a funny thing Gary. And sometimes not so funny depending on the circumstances.

[OmahaJB]

Tasted my first Delikatesse cucumber. Mild but pleasant. Would be a good one for making pickles out of at the proper size. Lots of vining and blossoms, but only a few cucumbers growing so far.

Took another Rossa Bianca & Diamond off the eggplant plants. They are not for me but I do enjoy growing them. Rossa Bianca is really attractive.

Have one ripe Big Green Dwarf project plant sitting on the shelf in my kitchen. Will post in the proper dwarf project thread after weighing and tasting. It does have an amber color to it. Will get to it tomorrow most likely.

On a personal note I finally have a computer and this is my first post using it. Have to get used to looking a little different as opposed to how it looks on my old webtv.

Now I'll have to think about getting a digital camera one of these years!
Although I'm not sure how long my current browser will be capable of surfing the net. Some websites are already letting me know my browser is 8 years old and that I need to upgrade. I believe I have IE6 if that sounds right.

Getting back to the garden....not too many tomatoes yet but some are growing. It'll be awhile.

That Troyka pepper plant has been productive in the 5-gallon grow bag. About a dozen peppers so far, most still green on the plant.

Jeff

[OmahaJB]

Alot of things going on around my neck of the woods lately and haven't paid as much attention to my garden as I should have. My step-father passed away a couple weeks ago and as you can imagine my 71-year old mother took it pretty hard. I was not close to him as they married when I was in the military, but am to my mother so it was tough watching her go through that loss. He had Alzheimers for the past 7 years and she took care of him at home rather than put him in a nursing home like she could have. Kept her tied to the house watching him, and sleep deprived as he would wake up numerous times every night. Family helped as much as we could.

On the good news side of things I have a 2nd hand computer now rather than my old webtv. For some reason I haven't been visiting this website as much now that I have this. Maybe because I can view more websites now than I could with my webtv. But even this browser is old, IE6, and I can't download IE7 or IE8, so still some websites are hard or impossible to navigate.

The garden hasn't been as productive as I had hoped. The tomatoes are starting to produce a little now that we've had a few days in the low to mid 80's, rather than the 90's. Although we'll be in the high 80's again I think this coming week.

Grow bags really helped production but watering has to be kept even or there will be alot of BER.

The first Toedebusch Pink tomato was picked. Very nice looking and I gave that to my mother. So I'll wait for the next one . Disease has hurt some of my plants. Not sure if it's late blight but it has stymied production on many of my plants. Not even sure if I'll get another TP tomato.

The tomatoes produced this year from the variety I thought was a cross from a seedling I received from Patty last year, is looking much like it did last year. I have a tomato ripening on my counter right now. With the exception of Black Cherry I've never grown a dark tomato, so it's tough for me to tell, but I'm guessing this is considered a chocolate tomato. Could it have been a mis-labeling last year? Patty didn't think so at the time. If I remember right she said she didn't grow chocolate varieties. Regardless, it's a beautiful tomato, ripening darker with green shoulders just like last season. And the plant is one of my two biggest and healthiest. I am curious if this is an unintended cross or just some stray seed or a mislabelled seedling from last year. And the taste last year rivaled my favorite so far, Kellogg's Breakfast, in terms of taste. Really great tasting. I wont know about this season's taste until this first one finishes ripening which may be today. Haven't looked at it yet this early AM.

Pink Girl turned out to be a decent tasting tomato for a hybrid. Let's put it this way, it taste better to me than Big Beef and Better Boy did last year. It's not quite up there with Kellogg's Breakfast, but it is not totally bland.

Black Cherry has really tasted good this year compared to a rainsoaked August of 2008 when I first grew it.

Finally see a tomato growing on the Stump/Guido cross. The plant is in a bad spot, the seedling was super tiny when I transplanted it, and it only had one or two flowers, but one tomato is growing. Plant never grew much, so was surprised to see it producing something. Kind of excited to get something off this cross of two (reportedly) great varieties.

The Emma Pink plants Patty sent me seeds for this year to compare against my 'Not' Emma Pink, have not done well. One went down with disease before producing, and the other is in a bad spot next to the Stump/Guido cross. It only has one tomato on it that was injured I suspect by a squirrel. Plant was pulled down with a very small sliver of an injury to the tomato. I'm allowing it to grow to compare to the possible cross. I'll get to the bottom of this mystery yet, says I!

No squash...giving up on that for this season. Cucumbers like squash put out alot of vines and flowers but only had a few cucumbers.

Not much else to report today...have a great weekend everyone! Smile, it's Saturday! Ya-hoo!!!

Jeff

[RinTinTin]

Can't download IE7 or 8? Why not? What version of Windows are you running?

[OmahaJB]

Thanks for the reply RinTinTin,

I'm running Windows XP. When I tried downloading IE8 I got a message saying something wasn't found in my library - can't recall what that file was that was missing. So I got the bright idea of trying IE7 and it said my service pack was not compatible with no other info given. I don't have alot of memory so I'm wondering if that's the problem. I think it's 256MB RAM. I did download Firefox that seemed to download ok, but it doesn't seem to help with anything, if I'm even using it. Not a computer techie so don't know if I have to do anything special if I want to use Firefox after downloading it.

But thanks again RTT, Jeff

[RinTinTin]

Your small amount of RAM is probably the problem. Most newer programs are written assuming everybody has at least a GIG.

[dice]

XP in 256mb of ram is a fairly major problem. XP takes up
so much memory by itself that it has to swap parts of itself
out to disk in order to run applications. Then the applications
frequently have to wait while parts of the operating system
that were swapped out are swapped back in, something else
is swapped out in their place, before the operating system can
do whatever is the next thing that it must do for the user
application to proceed. Or it might swap out part of the C/C++
runtime library of code that is shared by multiple applications,
including applications that are considered part of XP itself.
It adds up to the same thing: apparently stalled applications
that have to wait on a bunch of (very slow) reading/writing
to disk before they can proceed.

IE7/8 and Firefox use a lot of memory themselves,
exacerbating the problem.

To run firefox, just click that button at the end of the menu
bar (I forget what windows calls it), usually at the top or bottom
of the screen. It might say "Programs". A popup menu will have
a list of recently selected programs. If you don't find firefox
there, select "All Programs". You should find it somewhere
in the next popup menu that comes up.

Usually installing firefox on windows puts an icon on the screen
called "Mozilla Firefox". You can click or double click that to start
it, too.

With XP, you can also run the latest versions of the Opera web
browser. It is faster than IE or firefox, but I do not know whether
it uses enough less memory when running to make a difference.
( http://www.opera.com/ The download page will identify
your cpu and OS and direct you to the appropriate download
link.)

The "missing library" message when trying to install IE8 sounds
kind of hinky. It could be an M$oft thing, an incentive to upgrade
XP to Vista or Windows 7 (completely ridiculous without a
gigabyte of ram), or it could be evidence of some security
breach from awhile ago that removed a piece of the XP
installation necessary for upgrading IE to a slightly more
secure version.

[OmahaJB]

Very good info to know. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Dice and RTT. Also, thanks to the 3 TV'ers here who sent me PM's 6 days ago that I just noticed today as I had been away from the site for the past week. I'll have to work with Firefox to see how that works. I did download it but can't remember why I didn't actually use it. Must have required some further setting up by me and didn't have the time at that moment.

Regarding my garden, not much to report today. Taking a few things off the plants here and there but certainly not an overbundance of produce. Peppers and tomatoes especially. Black Cherry has tasted exceptionally good this year.

Have to believe the 'Not Emma Pink' is indeed a cross, as the taste in nowhere near as good as last year. Same color and shape, although slightly smaller. The one I've picked so far was 6 ounces. Taste was very very mild - not much taste at all. Will plant out next year to see if the F3 taste better. This plant has been one of the two most vigorous for me regarding plant growth. The hybrid Pink Girl is the other good sized plant. They both have a few tomatoes at various stages of growth on them presently.

Looks like I will get a 'real' Emma Pink off the one plant I have left (from the seeds Patty sent to compare against the believed cross). Will be very curious to see how it compares in color and taste. It's still a week or two away probably from starting to show it's true color(s).

No squash this year, and cucumber vines have stopped producing.

Troyka still producing well. Have to be careful when I pull these off that the branch doesn't break off. Accidently broke one off with 4 green peppers on it. Tasted good on my pizza pie I must say.

Happier with the garden this year compared to last, but must do better next year!

Jeff

[OmahaJB]

Due to many many PM requests this garden update needs to be composed in my mind and typed out. It's about time for one anyways.

Had my first Brandywine Sudduth the other day. It was good but not the standard other tomatoes should be judged by, which is what I've always heard about Brandywine. My growing conditions could be to blame but it's been fairly nice without too much rain, and certainly not too much watering. Not saying it didn't taste good, because it did, but I found it mild and pleasant, about an 8/10 at best.

The Kellogg's Breakfast I tasted in 2006 from a seedling I started and mailed to my mother, is still the best tomato I've had. The only thing that has even come close to it so far was the accidental cross I grew out last summer. KB was at least a 9.5 at worst, and the cross from last year (Not Emma Pink) was at least a 9/10, probably a little higher like a 9.49.

Next year I think I'll grow all my tomatoes in grow bags, and only grow KB - maybe around 50 of them from every seed source I can find to make sure I get great taste! Maybe that would be a little overboard but you get the idea: I want several KB plants next summer if I'm fortunate enough to have a garden.

I've been debating with my mother nearly everytime I visit the garden who's going to take the tomatoes and peppers. She insists I do since she already has a few in the fridge, and I've been insisting she should because she really only has a couple in the fridge. Honestly, production wasn't very good, so the tomatoes have been few so I want her to enjoy them. I enjoy growing them and tasting the different varieties. Unfortunately, some of the plants have only produced one tomato so I haven't tasted those varieties. Brandywine Cowlick's is one I haven't tasted along with Toedebusch Pink. There's another TP growing so I'll try snagging that one when it ripens up.

I hate seeing the squash and cucumber vines dying off, along with a couple tomato plants but that's part of the deal. Making room for next year's seedlings.

Waiting for the Emma Pink tomato to ripen up to compare to the cross from last year, and the Stump/Guido cross. Both have produced exactly one tomato each, which is all I'll need for examination and taste testing purposes. The Emma Pink looks to be at least 6 ounces and the Stump/Guido cross has produced a small tomato of about 2-3 ounces.

Overall some disappointments, too many for sure, but grateful for what has produced and is continuing to produce. The hybrid Pink Girl has several tomatoes on it and it has good enough taste that I wont shy away from growing it again in the future.

I've also learned eggplant probably isn't for me taste-wise, but will grow different varieties of it in the future for novelty sake. There are some interesting and beautiful varieties. Next year I may grow a larger variety, along with Rossa Bianca again. RB for the shape and colorization. They are attractive in the garden and some people like them so can always give them away. And I may try one again before the season is over, fixing it the way my supervisor said she makes eggplant:

She cuts the eggplant into approximately 3/8 to 1/2 inch slices, coats them with egg batter, puts dried bread crumbs on them, then deep frys them. According to her the egg batter and crumbs prevents the oil for saturating the eggplant. Said they don't have much taste, which I've heard before. I may try that method or eggplant parmesian. There are two growing on that plant as I'm typing this important update.

Just now starting to formulate some thoughts on next year's garden. My mother would like one of the round things you plant strawberries in that have different levels, and I still want Valentine rhubarb. And maybe some of those blueberry plants I mentioned a couple months ago. And Kellogg's Breakfast times 50-100~

Good day!

[RinTinTin]

I am with you on the eggplants. It's not so much the flavor (or lack of I should say), as it is the mushy-ness. The only way I have enjoyed them was sliced, lightly oiled, and grilled on BBQ. They actually had some flavor AND crispyness to them.
I'll still grow some for friends/neighbors (and hogs/chickens). They are nice plants, and always seem prolific.

[OmahaJB]

RTT, I may end up buying a couple varieties of eggplant just to watch how some of the larger varieties grow. Some I noticed can get over a foot long, and might be the size for slicing and grilling, so I may try to grill them the way you do. Really isn't fair for me to judge eggplant based on the lazy way I tried baking them. Didn't have olive oil around or dried bread crumbs, so I just basically put them in the oven to see how they would cook up. Wasn't a good result, and probably didn't cook it long enough or at a low enough temp, as the top seemed almost overcooked and inside it was green and mushy. Phtooeey! No wonder I don't think I like it!

As for my garden, still pulling peppers and tomatoes off a few at a time. Cleaned up the squash and cucumber vines, and allowing the tomatoes and peppers to continue producing.

This may be the first year for not planting garlic in the fall after growing it 3 years in a row. Just haven't been using it. Had a good number of heads this year, although they didn't get very large for the most part. As much as I enjoy watching them grow in the spring, it doesn't seem practical to take up gardening space for them. What I may end up doing is planting a few cloves of hardneck varieties to keep them going. Maybe over the next year or two I'll get more involved with making chili. Keep saying I want to start making it but never do for some reason. Pizza and tacos have ruled the day, so I need to broaden my horizons when it comes to being a home chef.

Almost forgot....my mother said she saw what she thinks was a raccoon in the backyard last week. A big one. She now isn't sure if it was a raccoon or a possum because she wasn't able to get a good look at it and couldn't see the head. She's planning on calling to report it. Isn't sure exactly who to call but she's tired of the neighbor allowing his backyard to overgrow to provide habitat for the critters. Possum spent years back there.

Neighbor on the other side of her has a tree that's probably 100' tall. After a windy couple of days she had all kinds of large branches in her yard. She has asked him before to take the branches that hang over her yard down but he refused. He had someone come out and take some lower branches down last summer but they were mostly just over his yard. Funny how some people have absolutely no concern about troubling their neighbors. So I didn't feel so bad about throwing some of the larger branches back into his yard. I broke up quite a few but after about 1/2 hour of that just did what my mother said she wanted to do in the first place and started sending them back where they came from. If he loves that tree so much he'll just have to love the downed branches as well. Bad enough she gets tons, and I mean tons of leaves from his tree that take hours and hours to clean up every year.

Anyway....can't wait until I make my first million so I can buy some land in the country.....hah....

Have a great day of pro football everyone....and good job Toledo Rockets. A couple of years ago you beat the Big10 team from "up north", and yesterday you beat another Big10 team, Purdue. Not bad for a MAC school. Big10 teams normally crush MAC teams.

[OmahaJB]

Very late in the growing season here in my zone. Still have 7 tomatoes on Pink Girl, quite a few Black Cherries that haven't started ripening up yet, and a couple others.

There is one tomato left on the 'Not Emma Pink'. I really messed up with seed saving from the first tomato. Too much going on at the time and didn't clean them once they were ready so threw them out. Now I need more seeds. I'd like to grow out the next generation to see how close it tastes to the F1 from last year. This year it was bland, but I've been wondering if it's due to the spot it had in the garden. It was close to Toedebusche Pink and Brandywine Sudduth and neither of those had much flavor either. Had to be a problem with the growing conditions.

Also have a couple of peppers growing, although they and the eggplant haven't liked the cooling temps. Ended up taking off my last good Rossa Bianca. It was still small but a critter took a huge bite or two out of the other RB on that plant right next to the one I picked so knew he'd be back to ruin the good one.

Wasn't planning on growing the garlic again, but now thinking I'll plant a few cloves to keep it going. I just haven't been using it. I've given a couple heads away to a lady at work who cooks with it a little, but no one in the family uses it. Although this winter I will be getting started in making chili. I know what my taste are so should be easy finding a recipe I'll like. Garlic will be used to some extent. I also watched Jacque Pepin make potato pancakes including using a couple cloves of garlic, and I think I still remember most of the recipe, but not all of it. I remember the two potatoes, two eggs, two cloves of garlic, and....will have to figure out the rest. Think he said flour can be used. Would think there'd be milk involved but don't recall him using any. All of it went into a food processor. Looked good anyway.

Don't know what the future holds for me between now and next spring, but guessing I'll still be here in T-town, and planning another garden. Just not sure where I'll be able to start seeds. It's been a disaster in my apartment the past couple of years, so may end up with hybrids and growing things I can direct seed or that only need a week or two of indoor growing before transplanting. Melons, squash, etc..

Always a little depressing cleaning up the garden after just transplanting things into it a few months prior, but it's part of the cycle of life. And in a couple of months I'll be buying seeds not knowing where I'll be able to start them, eager to start all over again!

Hope you all had great growing seasons. Mine was very warm which helped some things and seemed to affect pollination of others. But overall it was a decent year. Will need to improve the soil and use better fertilization techniques. Also plan on using more growbags but with better watering habits. Maybe a drip hose would work best.

No frost in sight yet. Might get a few more ripe tomatoes before old man winter sends us a message he's on the way.

Jeff