Anyone Garden?

[pawpawdiv9]

I have had a handful or so down here. Probably was too late for me as well.
I have tons of green ones producing and still.... but not getting enough sunshine I guess to turn color.
I attempted fried-green tomatoes with these and not too shabby.
I did have a issue with the thin skin cracking early on a few.
Last night we dipped into the low 30's. But I keep it under the front porch.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Republicaninmass

Seeds started too late to get more than one or two ripe ones. Tasty!!

Nice picture, the ripe one in front is making my mouth water.

Originally Posted by pawpawdiv9

I have had a handful or so down here. Probably was too late for me as well.
I have tons of green ones producing and still.... but not getting enough sunshine I guess to turn color.
I attempted fried-green tomatoes with these and not too shabby.
I did have a issue with the thin skin cracking early on a few.
Last night we dipped into the low 30's. But I keep it under the front porch.

The splitting can be reduced by picking in the morning before watering. For some reason they also rarely split when grown hydroponically. In dirt I would lose approx. 25% to splitting soon after picking.

I had an unbelievably horrible year with my greenhouse. It started out really wet and cloudy so I had a lot of mold and bacterial problems. Then the temperature was either hot or cold with no consistency. I had catastrophic crop failure near the end of July and lost everything.

[almostdone]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Nice picture, the ripe one in front is making my mouth water.



The splitting can be reduced by picking in the morning before watering. For some reason they also rarely split when grown hydroponically. In dirt I would lose approx. 25% to splitting soon after picking.

I had an unbelievably horrible year with my greenhouse. It started out really wet and cloudy so I had a lot of mold and bacterial problems. Then the temperature was either hot or cold with no consistency. I had catastrophic crop failure near the end of July and lost everything.

That's too bad. I was wondering how it went for you. We started a blueberry garden and it went well. Not much production this year but we weren't expecting much either. Just letting the bushes take good root and hopefully next summer and Koch more the next we will have huge amounts to pick.

We did have one small veggie garden box. Cucumbers were a flop as was the zucchini. Lots and lots of nice but small Roma tomatoes. My wife loves to use them in canning salsa and sauce. In fact she used some in homemade chili yesterday.

Anyway, one of the more unusual but funny things that happened after our growing season was over. I went down to the garden to clean it up some and get ready for winter and noticed a huge tomato plant growing in our compost box. It was filled with ripe cherry tomatoes. Must have planted and taken root from a tomato I threw in while pruning down during the summer.

Anyway, glad to hear of some of the successes and sorry about the tough year for you Ben. Pretty dry and hot here in Georgia so watering was tough considering how we had to do it. Nothing but an old fashioned hand pump. It took 125 pumps to get approximately 5 gallons of water.

Seriously. Labor of love I guess.

Drew

[almostdone]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Nice picture, the ripe one in front is making my mouth water.



The splitting can be reduced by picking in the morning before watering. For some reason they also rarely split when grown hydroponically. In dirt I would lose approx. 25% to splitting soon after picking.

I had an unbelievably horrible year with my greenhouse. It started out really wet and cloudy so I had a lot of mold and bacterial problems. Then the temperature was either hot or cold with no consistency. I had catastrophic crop failure near the end of July and lost everything.

That's too bad. I was wondering how it went for you. We started a blueberry garden and it went well. Not much production this year but we weren't expecting much either. Just letting the bushes take good root and hopefully next summer and Koch more the next we will have huge amounts to pick.

We did have one small veggie garden box. Cucumbers were a flop as was the zucchini. Lots and lots of nice but small Roma tomatoes. My wife loves to use them in canning salsa and sauce. In fact she used some in homemade chili yesterday.

Anyway, one of the more unusual but funny things that happened after our growing season was over. I went down to the garden to clean it up some and get ready for winter and noticed a huge tomato plant growing in our compost box. It was filled with ripe cherry tomatoes. Must have planted and taken root from a tomato I threw in while pruning down during the summer.

Anyway, glad to hear of some of the successes and sorry about the tough year for you Ben. Pretty dry and hot here in Georgia so watering was tough considering how we had to do it. Nothing but an old fashioned hand pump. It took 125 pumps to get approximately 5 gallons of water.

Seriously. Labor of love I guess.

Drew

[pawpawdiv9]

@almstdone: I know, I have not seen rain in ages, except a bit this morning. Wow the 10% chance. I don't know what area your in-- towards the Mtns or near Athens, but its dry everywhere. We had a few forest fires near our areas but nothing close.
The smoke has/had been aweful and our neightbor burns wood for heat.
As for me watering been not as hard as yours, as I only had 1 plant. But dragging that waterhose around got to be a chore. So, best idea ever was to keep a ol' milk jug around and fill it daily from the sink. Still got tons producing, just not turning color.
And sorry to Hear ben on the issues with the greenhouse. That baby is huge.

[pawpawdiv9]

R.I.P.
The last cold snap this past weekend took the plant, literally it was in so poor shape and leaves wilted. I had plenty of promising tomatos on it.
So, next project was pepper jelly!!!!!!

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by pawpawdiv9

R.I.P.
The last cold snap this past weekend took the plant, literally it was in so poor shape and leaves wilted. I had plenty of promising tomatos on it.
So, next project was pepper jelly!!!!!!

You are not alone. Last year I had collards all winter long. This year I got more creative, planting kale and chard. The streak of below-freezing days crushed everything except one kale plant. Very disappointing.

[pawpawdiv9]

OH NO!!!!
We are finally getting our 1st snow coming today in Georgia.
Everyone is in frantic mode and schools are ending early.
WHAT!!! Over 1-4 inches of snow.
Only here in Georgia this happens. Urging everyone off the roads by 4pm. Geesh.

As for Kale..never ate any or grew any. I hear it mention a ton on shows, like Dr Oz and Rachael Ray etc.
Really I don't eat many greens at all. What it taste like??? And how to grow it? Anyhting like spinach, cabbage etc.

[LuckyLarry]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I had catastrophic crop failure near the end of July and lost everything.

Did this include the giant pumpkin project?

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by LuckyLarry

Did this include the giant pumpkin project?

Unfortunately yes. The last major hot streak we had that killed about 80% of my crop took the pumpkin out also. That thing was growing at an amazing rate. You could actually see the size increase day to day.

I even covered the entire plant with shade cloth and it was not enough.

In a very narrow band we had horrible growing conditions. 20-30 miles away in any direction got enough rain that their crops done OK but the rain just kept missing us. Even the outside gardens sucked this year and you can't hardly kill one of those usually.

[bnorth]

Putting the offer of free chocolate cherry tomato seeds out again this year. They need to be started inside 8-16 weeks before you transplant them outside. The time varies by how you start them and how big you want them when you transplant.

Would be happy to answer any seed starting questions.

PM me your address if you would like some this year.