Sjoerd:: can you please take more pictures...I'm living through you as a gardener...lol... I love looking at your greenhouse...and yes...I"M STILL JEALOUS!!
Hiya Hummer, I am well chuffed that you liked the pics. Interesting that you guys do have community gardens there. are they far away from you? It sounds like they could serve as interim gardens for you until you could find a more suitable place. I am suspecting that the black stuff will soon stop getting all over everything. What is already there may not just go away so easily though. I hope you do not have to park an auto under the trees. What about that tom! You just stuck it back into the soil and it went merrily along. That isn't surprising because if you look closely at tomato stems you will often see things that look like "chicken skin", or as you may say, "goose bumps". these little swellings are actually rooting cells that are just waiting for the opportunity to come into contact with soil and a bit of moisture. The greenhouse is almost empty. There are still some toms, one melon and a handful of paprika's.This weekend our gardening club has a "Years' End Exhibition" and an "Art Route'. I will be busy with this but will try and take some pics to show on here.
I can't decide if I should be more envious of Donna or Sjoerd. Absolutely amazingly beautiful, both. Sjoerd, the Rose is awesome.
Ach---go for Donna....for she has a truly beautiful and organised garden. Thanks for your compliment though. I appreciate it.
Sjoerd, Your tomatoes, vegetable, fruits, and flowers are looking great and it sounds like you will be enjoying them through the winter also, with the canning and freezing. I have read about the method you use to grow you tomatoes but haven't seen it until I saw your picture. Do you keep trimming off any side branches and tying the main stem to the bamboo pole? Does this method work with larger tomatoes also?
GREEN FINGERS--I am well chuffed that you liked the posting. Thank you very much for your warm compliments. 2OFUS--Thanks so much. I sure will be enjoying my own veg throughout the winter. About the tom techniques: I do indeed keep pruning off the suckers and side branches little by little. I do ~4 pruning's a season and sucker more frequently than that. You realize of course that I am talking about the cordon style of toms (indeterminate). The plants with the bushy habitus (determinate) I do not prune that much, because every thing that one prunes off is a loss of fruit. The extra branches are meant to be there. Having said that, I HAVE to trim my determinate toms because I grow then in a greenhouse only. It is a question of room and ventilation, you see. I have done this with larger "beefsteak"-type toms. The trusses did not break off, but if I had not tied the cordons in, they my well have broken the main stem. I always use what we here call, "tonkin stiocks"-- a medium sturdy bamboo stick. The planting method I use for the cordon and bushy toms alike. The third category of tom is the so-called "Dwarf" sort. I do not grow these, and could not comment on handling techniques with any authority. Sorry for waffling-on.
Sjoerd, Have you tried any potato leaf plants in your garden? I have noticed they seem to withstand the disease pressure better than reg. leaf varieties. I have some dwarf varieties in the garden and some in the greenhouse. I do believe they are both indeterminates. The outside ones are a dwarf project for another group and they are about 5' out in the garden this year ( this is the third year I have grown them). It has been downright cold at nighttime all Summer. They are much shorter than last years plants and are potato leaf type. They look much better than the regular leaf tomatoes right now, but aren't producing much in the way of tomatoes (I think because it has been too cold). The ones in the greenhouse are popping out tomatoes to pick every 3 or 4 days. they are fabulous and just now starting to topple over the tops of their cages. They have done well without the disease pressure like the outside toms have had. Anyhow, their care is basically the same as regular tomatoes whether determinate or indeterminate. I grew "sweet and neat" last year in little pots and again this year (so I could try them) and they are BORING!!! Very tiny plant with very tiny flavor. "as always...don't waste your money"....is a very famous quote here.
Thanks GP and Sjoerd foe the compliment. My gardens are slowly winding down. Starting to plan next years rotation.
Quote from Sjoerd. "About the tom techniques: I do indeed keep pruning off the suckers and side branches little by little. I do ~4 pruning's a season and sucker more frequently than that. You realize of course that I am talking about the cordon style of toms (indeterminate). The plants with the bushy habitus (determinate) I do not prune that much, because every thing that one prunes off is a loss of fruit. The extra branches are meant to be there. Having said that, I HAVE to trim my determinate toms because I grow then in a greenhouse only. It is a question of room and ventilation, you see. I have done this with larger "beefsteak"-type toms. The trusses did not break off, but if I had not tied the cordons in, they my well have broken the main stem. I always use what we here call, "tonkin stiocks"-- a medium sturdy bamboo stick." Sjoerd, I grew both, but I actually forgot to prune. I did cut off lower branches which were near ground level, but very few suckers. The Rutgers are growing across the ground and aside from a few tiny bites, they're doing rather well. I saved seed from Soldaki, Ekerts, Malinowy, Linguisia, and a couple of others. New seed from Kanner Howell. New plants are Black Krim and Burgess Mammoth. I thought I had put them in the ground too early, but after our nights warmed and we got a huge rain, they began to grow like weeds.
Hi CAROLYN-- I do not know what "potato leaf plants" are. I do not think that I have ever tried them. Are they something other than tomatos? Are they resistant? DONNA--Are you already making plans for next season? GP--It sounds like you are having good success there. Your noting of how they began to improve when the nights began to be warmer says something important about the nature of tom plants.
Sjoerd, Potatoleaf refers to the type of leaf the plant has. Either they are rugose, potato or regular leaf. I have found the rugose and potato leaf to be the longest living/most resistant tomato in the garden. A potato leaf plant has a three part leaf. Very wide, very long. Great cover for the fruit. A rugose leaf is a five part leaf that is very wide per part and also makes great cover for the fruit. Regular leaf is the type we see on many of the hybrid varieties. there is also a ferny type leaf or a very wispy leaf. Poor coverage and quick to succumb to disease. I just think from my experience with the ones I have grown that the potato leaf and the rugose leaf plants seem to be less likely to keel over if they get a spot on them. Maybe due to the shear quantity of leaf they have?
Thanks so much for the explanation. Those are terms that we don't hear or use over here. I find that knowing terms helps one to communicate better. Thanks again.
You are welcome. Now that it is daylight here, I will try to get a few pictures of the types. I have all of them but the wispy one in the garden this year.
I was thinking about the terms that we have been discussing and it isn't immediately clear to me why the plants have been classified in this way. I mean, classifying them in terms of habitus I can grasp...but do you know why the potato plants have been classified in terms of foliage sorts? What do the foliage sorts mean to you? I find this interesting.
