maxikap

first large one of the season, JD's Special C-Tex.



i'm almost afraid to cut and taste.

--meg

[dokutaaguriin]

Hi Meg,
COngrats on the first big one of the season. I can't wait to hear a taste report especially after all of your modifications to your grow system.

Jeff

thanks, Jeff. sometimes even a blind squirrel...

we had tomato basil sandwich last night. awesome! not mealy, no BER. tangy but not acidic (how is that possible?!). it had a sweet and rich taste. not yet as sweet as i seem to remember from another year. but it's already very good. also, it was over 14 ounces. isn't that bigger than usual for a JD's Special?

i planted JD twice, one treated with triple dip (mycogrow, biotamax, actinovate) and the other just with actinovate. yesterday's harvest was from the latter. but both had worm castings and kelp meal in the transplant hole and are being fed with the (shrimp?) fertilizer roughly once a month.

btw, this is still from the one packet of JD i got from you years ago.

--meg

[dokutaaguriin]

If I remember correctly, The first couple of JD's fruits were rather large. It sounds very positive when the first fruit of the season is so very tasty given our weather conditions over the last couple of months. I wonder why the plain actinovate produced fruit earlier than the triple dip???

Jeff

[Quickstrike]

Congrats!

My tomatoes are still very small and green.

Next year I won't delay planting because of the rain.

[dice]

I wonder why the plain actinovate produced fruit earlier than the triple dip???

Do the plants look the same? The triple dip container could be a little
higher in nitrogen (IIRC there are nitrogen-fixing bacteria in Biotamax
and in Mycogrow Soluble).

Otherwise, the light exposure or temperature right there could be
a little different from plants in different spots in the greenhouse.

[Quickstrike]

Ugh. My tomatoes just got decimated from all the rain & hail in Calgary .

It was a good day to own a greenhouse.

Originally Posted by dice

Do the plants look the same? [snip]Otherwise, the light exposure or temperature right there could be
a little different from plants in different spots in the greenhouse.

the plants look the same and they are on the same side of the greenhouse. they are in two different maxikaps, one has triple dip and the other just actinovate, but the maxikaps are next to each other. each maxikap has a JD's Special C-Tex, Kosovo, and Sunsugar, in that order from left to right.

all the 30 plants look pretty much the same---thin, scraggly, top half has vey little leaf cover, and leaves are yellowing and brown-spotted. uh-oh. fruits seem to be okay still except for sunscalding on bigger ones.



the biggest one so far is a Virginia Sweets clocking at 31 ounces right after harvest. didn't take a picture until hours later and already it lost some weight.



all the fruits seem to be bigger than (my) usual.

--meg

Originally Posted by Quickstrike

Ugh. My tomatoes just got decimated from all the rain & hail in Calgary .

It was a good day to own a greenhouse.

sometimes i wonder if growing in a greenhouse is really much better. i've grown tomatoes in the greenhouse for 5 years now, no greenhouse for maybe 10. these are my conclusions:

- with greenhouse is definitely the more expensive way to go. there's the cost of the greenhouse plus heating when it's cold (in spring and our summer nights) and venting when it's hot. then there are the various greenhouse equipment and paraphernalia like SWCs, fans, shade cloth, shelving. with no greenhouse there are the wall-o-waters, tomato spirals, watering system, total is a lot less for sure

- with a greenhouse is also more work. without a greenhouse i'd remove the top 8-10 inches of soil and replace with new soil and compost, transplant the babies, set up wall-o-waters, tomato spirals, automatic watering system, and that's it, maybe taking 1-2 days. with the greenhouse, first i'd clean the greenhouse and the SWCs, set up the SWC with landscape fabric barriers and soil, transplant the babies, all that is probably the same amount of work as the setup with no greenhouse. then plus fertilize regularly, refill water reservoirs regularly, put up/down the shade, regularly twine up the vines, not to mention deal with all sorts of pests and diseases

- with no greenhouse the plants are exposed to the elements like hail, strong winds, heavy rain, and the killer of them all, early frost. i've never had big fruiting varieties till the greenhouse. pretty much limited to cherries, and hybrids at that. but that's just me

- maybe i was just lucky but all the years i've grown tomatoes without a greenhouse i've never had problems with pests and diseases. no whiteflies, no aphids, no ants, no BER, no bud drop, no fiddleheading, no shoestring-ing, no spotty, moldy or yellowing leaves. all that is new to me and somewhat shocking because i've never seen them on the tomatoes all those years pre-greenhouse days

okay, so, growing tomatoes in the greenhouse means more work, expense, and problems. i think i know what to do for next year:

- instead of 30+ plants, try 9 to 12, i.e, 3 or 4 maxikaps. that should cut the overall work in half at least. there will be less fruits but that's fine because i end up giving away most of them anyway

- let the plants sprawl on elevated horizontal trellises since there will be lots of room now. i've already tried it with two plants and it works fine. makes for easier pruning and it's less time-consuming than stringing up vines. also it will be easier to put the shade over the plants than over the greenhouse

- start later (early May) and quit earlier (late September) to cut back the greenhouse season by 1 month. i just learned that starting early doesn't really make a difference when sunny summer starts late like this year. while at the end of the season fruting/ripening slows down anyway so putting in the work and expense till late is probably not worth it

- there will always be some problem so i just need to remind myself that the harvest is still much better than growing them outside. although sometimes i wonder how they managed in the old days esp with the heirlooms and no greenhouse

hmm, now the question of which to keep...

--meg