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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 1, 2021 12:47:07 GMT
Today’s harvest
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 17, 2021 16:19:15 GMT
Got some blight on the tomatoes which I was expecting due to the awful weather. As they change colour I am picking and bringing them in to ripen.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 17, 2021 16:22:31 GMT
This year’s onion crop. Smaller than last year.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 17, 2021 20:02:21 GMT
Lazier, too, by the look of it.
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Post by lugg on Aug 17, 2021 20:15:15 GMT
I just looked and immediately thought " French onion soup" - Yum
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 19, 2021 16:13:53 GMT
GettIng there with the tomatoes but it’s a struggle this year due to lack of sun and warmth.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 19, 2021 16:44:35 GMT
Mick, do you save the seeds of the extra-successful tomatoes for next year, or are they all hybrids? I have a couple of very tall, skinny tomato plants which are volunteers I put in big pots with good soil. One of them is flowering & fruiting, but not nearly as well as the completely neglected one in the back yard. That's a space only used by the landlords. The tomato plant in question is growing up against an east-facing wall in rubbly soil. It's a gorgeous green with no bugs or diseases and has big round tomatoes on it.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 19, 2021 16:50:38 GMT
I mostly grow heritage so I could save seeds but I tend to buy.
I will have to save seed of the Chinese tomato (top left) though.
Sounds like yours are thriving on neglect! I fuss over mine all the time.
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Post by tod2 on Sept 15, 2021 9:42:25 GMT
You have had some fine crops Mick! I hope my onions looks as good. I think we have got the recipe right for growing a few tomato plants. This time no Bottom End Rot. I should darn well hope not after all the instant milk powder and bone meal they have had! My beans are thriving. If you saw them two weeks ago when we had that bitterly cold snowy weather....sad very sad curled up leaves. But I class beans with weeds. Cant get rid of them that easily!
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 15, 2021 10:42:29 GMT
Looking very good indeed tod!
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 15, 2021 13:31:19 GMT
I think we have got the recipe right for growing a few tomato plants. This time no Bottom End Rot. I should darn well hope not after all the instant milk powder and bone meal they have had! Do tell!!!
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Post by tod2 on Sept 15, 2021 13:43:50 GMT
Bixa my husband found some information on tomatoes suffering with Bottom End Rot which they say....."They" being the experts, that it is caused by lack of calcium in the soil. Suggested remedies included crushed egg shells but that takes months even years to dissolve. A quick fix-meaning months, is to sprinkle milk powder generously around the root area and water it in. Any milk powder will do as long as it dissolves well......and is the cheapest! He also gave them generous helping of bone meal. Careful....your dogs will go mad for it scratching and maybe even rolling where you put it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 16, 2021 15:24:39 GMT
Growing vegetables as an amateur sounds really complicated!
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Post by tod2 on Sept 19, 2021 15:26:29 GMT
Our success story with tomatoes! A single haul today.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 20, 2021 12:51:08 GMT
Thanks for that information, Tod -- the proof of its worth is in your harvest!
My tomatoes are volunteers & are in pots. They're strong growers & are producing, but they are plagued with what I think is early blight (Alternaria solani). It's not stopping growth, but it's very ugly.
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Post by tod2 on Sept 20, 2021 16:00:41 GMT
One teeny bit of knowledge I have gleaned since growing vegetables is when it comes to tomatoes they are best ripened on the vine. It has been years since I tasted a plum red tomato with flavour! Yes, I am sympathetic to the farmer who cannot transport ripened vegetables as they may spoil. Nowadays if the packing plant has got it right you can pack some ripe and some still ripening on the same stem/vine.
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Post by lugg on Sept 22, 2021 20:39:30 GMT
I love home grown tomatoes - nothing beats their taste. And Tod and Mick yours are beauties. I love tomatoes when they are slightly green and crisp rather than red .
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 27, 2021 17:15:41 GMT
I finally have something to contribute to this thread! Here are my crops, both from volunteers. First, some kind of round tomato ~ There are more on the way further up the plant ~ A different pot, with three scruffy plants crammed in together, all producing some kind of plum tomato ~ And more on the way here too ~
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Post by tod2 on Sept 28, 2021 7:49:50 GMT
Gosh those look GOOD! The photo of the plum tomato looks like it could well be San Marzano. If it is you are truly blessed as that is the number one tomato for a lovely flavor. Almost every tinned tomato from Italy will be a tin full of those. Oh I do hope it is.....Mick, what do you think?
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 28, 2021 14:11:55 GMT
Gosh those look GOOD! The photo of the plum tomato looks like it could well be San Marzano. If it is you are truly blessed as that is the number one tomato for a lovely flavor. Almost every tinned tomato from Italy will be a tin full of those. Oh I do hope it is.....Mick, what do you think? Could well be. Know more when they ripen.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 28, 2021 15:39:03 GMT
Tod, it's hard for me to get excited over the fact that I have plum tomato volunteers. Overwhelmingly, the tomatoes sold in Mexico are something called saladet. If you click on the link you will see that their big selling point is "shelf life". Okay, they are almost always better than supermarket tomatoes bought in the US. They are reliably tomato flavored, but don't give nearly the exciting burst of flavor that good home-grown tomatoes matched to the climate where grown can give. I know I've griped sadly about this elsewhere, but the saladets have taken over Mexico, which is after all the original home of tomatoes. When I first visited this country back in the early '70s, I was astounded at the variety of tomatoes -- at least a dozen -- at any given produce stand. Now it's saladet everywhere, with occasionally some ball-types and "criollos" -- a pleated, supposedly natural variety. Whatever, my volunteers are probably the from parents to hybrids.
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 28, 2021 15:52:24 GMT
Can you not grow from seed?
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 30, 2021 10:47:50 GMT
France has gone in the opposite direction with tomatoes. There used to be only 3 or 4 varieties at the market and now there are at least 15 or 20. Naturally, growing heirloom tomatoes industrially kind of defeats the point, though. But those of us who can't grow our own vegetables are happy to find any kind of variation.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 30, 2021 14:23:59 GMT
Can you not grow from seed? Spoken like a man who has access to garden centers and catalogues featuring tons of varieties. Mick, you can buy commercial seeds here, but the options are pitifully limited. Occasionally, in something like a pop-up organic market, there might be someone selling a wider range, but somehow never tomato seeds. The best I could hope for would be to come across some wonderful tomato & buy it for the seeds. Ditto chiles.
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Post by tod2 on Sept 30, 2021 17:19:10 GMT
Bixa wrote: The best I could hope for would be to come across some wonderful tomato & buy it for the seeds. Ditto chiles.
That is certainly the way to go. But, if you are keen and want to have some wonderful Heirloom varieties and others, I suggest you go onto the web=site where you can also order seed from: Bakersfield Heirloom Seeds in the USA. I have bought seed from them some years ago and was so excited to get some strange but true vegetable seeds! Google them to order.
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Post by fumobici on Sept 30, 2021 18:12:54 GMT
France has gone in the opposite direction with tomatoes. There used to be only 3 or 4 varieties at the market and now there are at least 15 or 20. Naturally, growing heirloom tomatoes industrially kind of defeats the point, though. But those of us who can't grow our own vegetables are happy to find any kind of variation. Same here. 20 years ago the tomato situation was pretty dire in the US but I can usually get a really nice selection of tomatoes except mid-winter. Heirloom tomatoes I see here are all conspicuously different colors and shapes as if they were open-pollinated, many look quite similar to traditional Italian lobed varieties like the Cuore di Bue (ox heart). I even get these from Mexico at times, they are generally excellent and they must be a bear to transport as they are very delicate. I'm sorry to hear they aren't available in Mexico.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 30, 2021 18:15:06 GMT
"Coeur de boeuf" (ox heart) seems to be one of the most common varieties here. They look too big and clunky for me, but I'm sure they would be good for making stuffed tomatoes.
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Post by bjd on Sept 30, 2021 18:47:54 GMT
When coeur de boeuf tomatoes first appeared some years ago, they were good, but now that they have become so common, I find they don't taste of much at all. In fact, all the big tomatoes tend to have less taste than the small ones. In any case, this year in France has been a bad year for tomatoes -- too much damp and rain.
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Post by tod2 on Oct 26, 2021 16:30:01 GMT
Some months ago Mickthecactus and I swopped some seeds. I could not find any Savoy Cabbage seeds here - so he sent me some and here they are all grown to perfection and ready to be enjoyed!
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 26, 2021 16:51:20 GMT
Those are magnificent tod!
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