Tomato 2022

[ducks4you]

@Alasgun , you might have something there with harvesting at the right time. My tangle of Fall planted cucumbers are producing and DH wants to eat them. He always gives me cucumber slices at restaurants.

https://www.theeasygarden.com/attachments/cucumber-mass-09-18-22-jpg.52072/

 

[digitS']

In my experience the soap taste is more likely with mature cilantro.
(coriander)
At 6-8 inches tall it’s at it’s best.

I think that planting it at the right time, also really helps.

Tried growing cilantro in the shade.

I wrote that a little over a week ago and then realized that the cilantro planted at the end of July was doing well in the open, in the distant fully-exposed big veggie garden. Little plants began to come in for use. So, this makes for another plant that may be planted in our hottest week of the year on average - for maturing during the cooling days of September. Dang ... how does one expect this ? Working out well for salsa with the late-maturing tomatoes.

Planting in the shade didn't work well, I suppose, because it just didn't get enough light.

Steve
edited to replace "month" with "hottest week of the year"

 

[heirloomgal]

In my experience the soap taste is more likely with mature cilantro.
(coriander)
At 6-8 inches tall it’s at it’s best. We grow enough to eat a small handful every day for it’s antioxidant properties and of course use it in all the Mexican dishes. In soft tacos we also chop 4-5 mint sprigs and mix it into the chopped lettuce, cillantro.

@Alasgun it's a super fantastic chelater as well, which given the present circumstances with metals (and human physiology), I think it's one of the most important herbs to have from a longevity perspective.

 

[Alasgun]

@heirloomgal, thanks for pointing out the chelater aspect to folks: i knew that as well but spaced it out. That’s probably why Ruthy’s so big on it
As a Machinist pushing 5 decades; my numbers were always off the chart any time id have blood work done. After doing Chelation therapy a couple times it got somewhat better. Now days it’s all up to me (an Ruthy) so a handful of Cilantro and Parsley and a couple stems of Whole Celery is part of lunch every day; no exceptions.

Getting back to Tomato’s, my Matsu express is flowering and setting fruit again! Due to the time of year these will probably end up as fried tomato’s; this one will be in the starting lineup next year!

 

[ducks4you]

New book:

Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World

New York Times bestselling author William Alexander takes readers on a surprisingly twisty journey through the history of the beloved tomato in this fascinat...

www.grandcentralpublishing.com

 

[digitS']

The author of The $64 Tomato .

I have been thinking about the most useful tomato in my 2022 garden . It's probably Bloody Butcher. This variety I have every year ... despite its unappetizing name !

It isn't entirely a practical decision. The BB surprises me with the amount of BIG tomato flavor it has for an early, little guy. It grows so well in our less-than-ideal tomato gardening environment.

Yes, we make use of big slicers for sandwiches and, my favorite combination with crackers and cheese. Yes, I snack on cherry tomatoes regularly and DW prefers them for her toaster oven salsa. My Summer Tomato Soup varies considerably through the harvest season with several varieties, as they become available. But, chopped up fresh, used for cooking, and even snacked on in the garden - Bloody Butcher always seems at hand, available and useful.

BTW. DW especially opposes using the name. "That's not very nice," she invariably says . We call it Jolly Rancher.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

@digitS' i saw your mention of Big Beef and wonder how long you've grown that one?

i think we've grown it twice now and while it is a good tomato in terms of production and shape, the hard texture of it just isn't what i'm used to in a fully ripe tomato even if it does can easily and i like that it doesn't seem to rot easy when sitting on the ground...

i think the other was Beef Master that we planted this year and those had a lot of "brains" when the weather got hotter and the fruits had a harder time setting. still had a ton on either variety, but we had a lot more useful production from the Big Beefs because they were easier to deal with.

 

[digitS']

@digitS' i saw your mention of Big Beef and wonder how long you've grown that one?

Well FlowerBug, I showed up on TEG in 2007 and mentioned it that first month. Imma guessing but think that I grew it about 10 years previous to that.

I remember 1998 and there were sooo many tomatoes that year.

This is the first year that I haven't had Big Beef in all that time. I wanted to grow special favorites and am somewhat sorry that i don't have it.

Bouncing away from the beefsteaks while reminiscing - '98 was the first year that I grew a paste tomato - always have trouble with them gettin around to ripening but not in '98. By the way, Porter looks like a paste and has few seeds. It's better classified as a saladette. It is really unloading right now and holding up very well to a difficult growing year. A drawback to Porter is that it doesn't have lots of flavor. But, that is of value to those who don't care for strong flavored tomatoes. That one has been in my garden longer than any .

Steve

 

[SPedigrees]

The frost cut my crop of cherry tomatoes short this year. I guess I'd just assumed that because bite-sized tomatoes are small that they would ripen early, but not so. I looked at the seed packets and found that the two varieties I'd planted both have a 65-70 day growing season. Together with not starting the plants until May (instead of April) I guess they were doomed from the start. I bought a variety for next year with a 55 day growing season. Lesson learned. I did harvest a few bowlfuls before the frost nipped them in the bud. Still it hurt to toss out plants loaded with tiny green fruits. At least my cucumbers gave me a bountiful harvest.

 

[ducks4you]

I had virtually NO cherry tomatoes this year. ALL of the volunteers that usually come up...didn't. I Guess I should get serious about deliberately planting some next year.
Fortunately, I have 3 bags of Cherokee Purple seeds, one from last year and I am fermenting another small amount, and also fermenting seeds from an Amish Paste that I bought at a box store.
I plan to harvest seeds from a San Marino that I grew from a box store plant this year, too.
I bought 7 kinds of tomato seeds for growing in 2021. I have them well stored, but I don't remember which varieties they are. I will have to take a look this winter and see.
ReGARDless I have plenty of tomato seeds to grow next year! I think I will try to pick up some grape tomato seeds for DD. She was supposed to leave one for me to harvest seeds...THAT didn't happen!!!