FLUORESCENT LIGHTING TIPS: Grow plants indoors and get a head start on t...

Learn how to select inexpensive and effective fluorescent tubes to grow plants indoors. Beginner or advanced, this video will share tips and tricks to help you select the best type of bulbs for your situation. So, grab a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy a video created just for you!

How to save heirloom tomato seeds

Learn how to save your own seeds and grow heirloom tomato plants for your garden. Garry will demonstrate a step-by-step process with illustrations and photographs showing seed saving to germination. If you are planning to grow your own plants this spring, this video will give you the right tools to growing big and healthy plants.

Organic fertilizer - egg shells and banana peels

Learn to make free organic fertilizer for your spring garden. After watching this video you will be able to make your own garden fertilizer to help grow big juicy tomatoes and plump green/red peppers. A great winter project while you are browsing the seed catalogues in anticipation of the spring planting. So, grab a cup a coffee and click play to enjoy a video created just for you.

Baked Yukon Gold Potatoes

This recipe for crunchy baked Yukon Gold potatoes will awaken your taste buds and soon become a family favourite . 
It involves a great Canadian Potato eh, oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and a bit of science. Yukon Gold variety was developed in 1960 at the University of Guelph Department of Agriculture. 
Its characteristics make it great for baking, boiled, mashed or french fries. In this recipe, we are going to bake them in the oven or on the BBQ. 

Start with about 1 pound of potatoes per person. This recipe calls for about 4 lbs of potatoes to serve 4 adults. Clean potatoes, cutting them into larger pieces and rinse them. Rinse them twice to remove the cloudy starch water. Don't cut them too small because they will fall apart in the cooking process. Let the potatoes sit in clear cold water for at least 1 hour. Rinse again, add fresh water, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 2 tablespoons of salt and boil for 10 minutes. 

The baking soda is the science part! It modifies the pH level of the water, making it more alkaline. This will break down the protein that holds the potato together - specifically the outer edges where the crispy crunch will appear!

While the potatoes cool, prepare 5 tablespoons of olive oil, 3 cloves minced garlic and freshly chopped rosemary or thyme. Cook and stir until the garlic starts to turn brown. Be careful not to burn the garlic otherwise you will need to start again. Separate the oil from the garlic and spice and pour it over the potatoes in a large bowl. Using two spoons, mix the potatoes and oil in a rough fashion. You will notice the edges of the potatoes are mushy and that's exactly what we want! Spread potatoes on a baking sheet and bake 20 minutes at 450 °F or 400 °F convection.

Oil, garlic, rosemary leaves

Yukon Gold Potatoes Covered with garlic oil

Garlic and Rosemary bits

Rotate potatoes and return them to oven for additional 35-40 minutes until they are golden brown. They should be brown and crunchy on the outside and soft inside. Return them to the mixing bowl and add the remaining brown garlic bits and spice, mixing again. Yummy!

They are ready to be served or cover with foil and place in your oven warming drawer to mellow.

Crunchy on the outside and soft inside

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How to grow Strawberries

Everyone loves strawberries! This coming month of June, families will gather at the local strawberry patch to pick baskets of fresh strawberries. Besides tasting great, strawberries contain a vast amount of vitamin C and fibre for our health conscious public. They can be eaten fresh, in shakes, pies, salads and a multitude of desserts. As you know, we always pick more strawberries that we can eat, so it's important to note that you can freeze strawberries for future use. Don't wash the strawberries. Spread them out on a tray and put them into the freezer. Once frozen, remove them and store in ziplock bags up to 6 months. You should rinse them when you take them out of the freezer before use.

Would you like to have fresh strawberries all year long?

The following video explains the difference between June strawberries and strawberries used for hanging baskets and raised garden beds that will extend the harvest of fresh strawberries all year long. Learn how to plant strawberries in a raised garden bed and get a head start on the gardening season. Strawberry fields forever, my friend.

What's in peat moss?

With spring coming around the corner, bags of Canadian Sphagnum peat moss are starting to arrive at big box stores and garden nurseries in anticipation of the growing season. Everyone is loading up a bag or two for their planter and hanging flower baskets so it must be great stuff! However, with so many different peat moss products and vendors, I tended to purchase by price point and the colour of the bag until I started to look at the ingredients in the bag.

The following video will explain "what's in the bag".

It will also reveal where peat moss comes from and how it is harvested. If you live in Canada, you will be very surprised to know that we are one of the largest producers of peat moss in the world!  The importance of the NPK fertilizer numbers printed on the bag will also be explained along with the pH levels required to grow your tomato plants 6-7 feet.  The video will also show you the results of using this wonderful growing medium to grow massive flowers for your deck. This is very exciting, so let's get started, my friend.

DIY Organic Fertilizer - Egg Shells and Banana Peels

Winter is a great time for gardeners to order new seeds and search the internet for new tips and ideas on organic growing. 
Since outdoor composting is not ideal for the winter months, why not create a free DIY organic fertilizer, indoors, that will save you money and produce big juicy tomatoes and vegetables! Egg shells and banana peels contain calcium, potassium, and trace elements of potassium, phosphorous and magnesium and can be ground up and applied to your plants. It's a natural organic fertilizer so you don't have to worry about burning your plants. So start saving your shells and peels and get ready to produce one of the best organic fertilizers and it's free my friend!

So sit back and enjoy the DIY video.

Hybrid v.s. GMO (Genetically Modified Organisim) Tomatoes

Last week while shopping at Farm Boy I noticed a non-GMO disclaimer on a bottle of preserves. That got me thinking about the differences between GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) and Hybrid tomato plants and how they might be perceived by the average gardener like myself.

A non-hybrid tomato plant is a seed/plant that has been passed down through many generations without any alterations or subsequent breeding. We call them open pollinated varieties and the seed can be saved year to year to produce tomatoes with similar characteristics. One example is the "Brandywine" Heirloom variety.  Open pollinated varieties were sold by seed companies for 70+ years until 1949 when Burpee's Seeds introduced the first Hybrid tomato plant.

Hybrid tomato plants are created by human intervention in a controlled greenhouse environment. This breeding technique results in a new generation of tomato plant that will have a greater resistance to disease with increased production and quality.  A hybrid is created when the pollen from one plant's flower is physically applied to the pistil of another plant which results in a new tomato variety from the two parents. Plants bred this way tend to be stronger, are less susceptible to disease, produce tomatoes of similar size, good tasting and look great. Yummy! The process takes 5-10 years of consistent breeding by professional breeders until optimum and reliable results are achieved. The hybrid tomato is then re-named and generally, it's sold through a proprietary seed company to gardeners. That's why we have so many hybrid variations. That's a hybrid.

Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) a.k.a. Genetically Engineered food is created in a scientific laboratory. It involves splitting the plant genes and the selecting of favorable portions of the DNA characteristics to create a new plant. In 1994 the USA Federal Department of Agriculture approved the first commercially grown GMO food (the tomato) to be approved for sale to the public.

1994 Flavr Savr GMO Tomato

Named the "Flavr Savr " tomato, it could be ripened on the vine and with it's extended shelf-life endure the long road trips to other parts of the US and Canada and still arrive in good condition. This would result in a better tasting tomato for consumers.  It was well received by the general public and sold out regardless of the high price tag. However, the California company Calgene who developed the product could not sustain a profit and sold the rights to the world's largest seed company the Monsanto Company - and for lack of a better word "canned" the GMO Flavr Savr tomato 3 years later.

1994 California canned tomato puree

As of today, we do NOT have any GMO tomatoes in our marketplace. However, genetically engineered corn, canola, and sugar beets have become common in Canada and 85% of the commercial corn produced in the USA comes from a  GMO variety. According to Canadian Scientist and environmentalist  David Suzuki, "we can expect apples and potatoes to become GMO product in the near future".  

GMO v.s. non-GMO Potato

Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced March 2016 it approved GMO potatoes in Canada. They will resist browning when cut but they keep the same overall taste and texture qualities. Apparently, potato growers are not required to indicate whether they are GMO or not on the packaging.

Although it's not legally required for growers to indicate non-GMO product content if applicable, but there appears to be a growing trend to do so because many consumers don't want GMO products.

So, next time you are in the grocery store, check the label and you make the decision if GMO is for you! One more reason to grow your own vegetables in your backyard, my friend.

Apple Crisp Recipe

5 varieties from my dwarf tree

It's early October and it's time to harvest your apples and make apple crisp! I got about 65 nice apples from my 5-in-1 dwarf tree this year and that should make plenty of crisps and pies over the next few months. You can find plenty of recipes on the net or in your paper cookbooks, so heat your oven up to 350 deg and let's get started. 

I must admit that I love my hand cranking apple peeler that my son Justin purchased for me some time ago. It peels and cores the apple in seconds and makes the process easy-peasy! Mine comes from Lee Valley Tools but you can find them at Walmart, Bed Bath and Beyond and Canadian Tire. They make a great gift and you might be rewarded with a pie!

Hot from the oven

APPLE CRISP

6 medium apples

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 rolled oats (adds great texture)

Peel and core apples and toss them with the cinnamon and sugar. Cut the brown sugar, butter, flour and oats together and spread over the apples. Oven temperature 350 deg F for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, cream or nada. Better make a double recipe because it won't last long. It's time to make apple crisp my friend.

How to make a compost bin using FREE Wood Pallets

Free wood pallets

Last week I drove by this pile of wood pallets and it got me thinking about making a compost bin before winter arrives. The pallets are piled at the roadway for anyone wishing to haul them away for firewood or alternative projects. They are free! 
I loaded up three heavy-weight pallets and took them home with the intention of making a compost bin. After securing them with 3" screws I placed them next to my rotating compost barrel that I built last spring.

Click on the YouTube video below and see how to construct this bin with a really fancy and removable front panel. I used a power saw and a nailing gun but keep in mind that you can use a hand saw, hammer and nails or drill and screws to build this bin. Some pallets are much lighter than others, so pick the ones that are suitable to your strength and ability to move them.

First stage

I plan on using this bin #1 as the first stage to composting kitchen waste, coffee filters, egg shells, grass, leaves, flower clippings and farm manure. Once it starts to decompose I will move it to the rolling compost bin for the final stage. Using a two bin system will increase my ability to produce more compost in a growing season. Virtually everything that I once put into the city recycling bin gets composted in my back yard. Let's get building my friend.

Tomato Fall Harvest

Today is the first day of fall, September 22nd.  The daily temperature is (°20C/°68F) and the tomato plants are still full of unripened green tomatoes slowly ripening on the vines. It has been a good year for tomato production and time has come to give you some observations and feedback on the 6 varieties in my garden.

Fresh from my garden

Better Boy Hybrid was a heavy hitter. It is my biggest plant, 6 feet tall and full of big tomatoes. The orange tomato in the basket is half ripened but it gives you an indication of size. I understand why this hybrid variety is one of the most popular in North America. This is my first year growing this variety. One note: when growing this variety from seed, approximately 30% of the seedlings succumbed to a disease. However, the surviving seedlings grew without any problems and produced lots of tomatoes. If you are interested in a high tomato production with big tomatoes for your sandwiches, this is my recommendation.

ULTRA BOY HYBRID has been on my grow list for many years. The tomatoes are not as big as Better Boy hybrid, but they are great tasting and an early producer.

BRANDYWINE HEIRLOOM a non-hybrid plant (you can save the seed for the next year) was my first attempt with an heirloom variety. This pink variety in the basket is medium average in size, more susceptible to odd sizes, uneven ripening with green stripes at the top. The interior had fewer seeds and had a softer sweeter taste and made me think of the wine connotation. The plant was a slow starter but caught up to the size of the hybrids, but did not produce as many tomatoes, as expected.

CHEROKEE PURPLE HEIRLOOM was also slow to grow at the seedling stage and once it hit the ground running. With time, the plant took off and produced huge tomatoes, some hitting the scales at 2 lbs. However, I noticed when the flower clusters formed, many flowers were dropped leaving only 1-2 flowers to develop into tomatoes. That could be genetics? Or may be the high summer temperatures that cause flower drop? As with the Brandywine, some shapes were irregular with uneven ripening. I also noted the tomato splitting where the flower formed. This is definitely genetics along with the dark purple colour that is produced. When sliced the tomato has a red colour! I has a great taste and I will grow them again next year. 

Great colouring and taste

CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES HYBRID GRAPE TOMATO is a relatively new and small variety sold in small packages of 10 seeds. As you can see below, it is a beautiful tomato with green and orange colours. With few seeds and great taste this tomato is great for snacks, salads and the BBQ. Stick them on a bamboo stick and put them on the BBQ. They will not explode like other cherry toms and WOW the sugar content explodes on your plate! This will be my go-to small tomato for next year.

SUNRISE BUMBLE BEE CHERRY TOMATO was my selection for my upside down hanging tomato plant adventure. As I covered in a previous post growing plants upside down is time consuming (watering) because of the small soil capacity of the pot.  This cherry tomato is very sweet tasting and full of juice. However, I found the skin to be tough. I'm not sure if this is genetics or stress related due to the small pot. I let the plant dry out and left the tomatoes on the vine to ripen out as you can see in the photograph.

MY OBSERVATIONS: 
Growing a variety of tomatoes can be interesting and full of adventure. Tomatoes don't need to be perfect - cut away the blemishes and enjoy. The organic fertilizer that I used in the spring planting has increased production. A top dressing of home made compost was applied in early July.
Organic composted tea from farm manure was also watered into the soil.

Good luck with your harvest, my friend.

How to grow Raspberries

Growing raspberries in your backyard can be very satisfying if you have the space for this fast growing fruit. I recall the first time I purchased raspberry plants on-line from a nursery - I didn't know what to expect. One day they arrived by snail-mail Canada Post and upon opening the package I discovered 15-20 sticks about 12" long with small roots at one end! At the time I had a large garden so I tilled a section about 3' x 24' with my Troy 8 HP garden tiller. Needless to say I was very optimistic!  I planted the  "sticks" about 2 feet apart in the soft soil and mulched them with some left over straw. Over the summer the sticks sprouted green leaves and started to grow....and grow....and grow. It soon became apparent that raspberry plants are fast growing and spread their roots underground. The next spring I tilled each side of the plants to keep the plants from spreading more and they took off producing hundreds and hundreds of beautiful raspberries. It was magical!

Since my first experience with raspberries, we have moved to the city and space is at a premium but the thought of growing raspberries was always on my mind. Then one evening around the BBQ with friends Val and Gerry, they mentioned "we have a ton of raspberries in our small backyard" and that got me thinking.......

Two years ago I picked up 4 small pots of raspberries at Home Depot with my intentions of planting them immediately.  Not so. As time went on the plants sat at the back of my garden shed in the shade where I watered them occasionally. Winter arrived and I forgot about the plants until the following spring when I found them fallen over and partly covered with snow. They looked like dead sticks in a pot! With nothing to lose, I righted them and kept them watered until I saw a small green sprout! They were still alive! 

As the ground began to thaw I dug a trench for the new "tenants" - removing grass and stones behind my shed, a space that I don't use or see. I mixed in some farm manure compost with the native soil a planted them about 2' apart. During the first year they grew but did not produce any fruit. 

The following spring the plants took off and looked very healthy but it wasn't until August a second generation of growth shot up 3 feet and produced a massive amount of berries. We are now in mid-September, the weather is still nice around mid 20 deg C, and we are picking raspberries.

I would recommend a dark-red berry called "Boyne"  that's Canadian, eh? Originated in 1960 at the Morden Research Centre in Manitoba as a cross between Chief x Indian Summer varieties, it is hardy in zones 3 to 6 and is a great producer of large fruits. It likes full sun if possible and should be fertilized after planting and in early summer.

I use compost "tea" - a mixture of farm compost and water that has been steeped.  This organic fertilizer will provide your plants with a healthy dose of nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, magnesium and other nutrients to keep your plants green and productive. Grow raspberries, my friend.

Dwarf Apple Tree with 75 apples

It's early September and my apple tree is full of apples. It appears that we will get an abundance of apples for our annual apple crisp bake-off!  
This dwarf tree has been pruned to about 6 feet tall and has 5 different apple branches grafted on a non-apple rootstock that will keep the tree short and manageable. Great for a small garden or city backyard folks who want to grow an apple tree but don't have space for the larger varieties.

My variety is a M7 or M9 type that will stay around 6'-10' (I'm not sure of the exact type because it only said dwarf on the tag). The M designation comes from the East Malling Research Centre in jolly old England where research has catalogued 1,000's of apple trees from centuries past. Hence the letter M precedes the designated number. That's enough about the details.
I counted 75 apples on the tree! Pretty amazing considering the size of the tree and the damage caused by mice ringing the tree during the winter. However, so far the tree has survived and I plan on harvesting them in early October.
Take a look at the You Tube video below and hopefully you will get inspired to plan an apple tree next spring. Plant an apple tree, my friend.

How to grow Yukon Gold potatoes in pots

My favourite potato is the Yukon Gold variety that has a waxy yellow flesh with a great taste. It's from Canada, eh? Developed and released in 1980 by the guys and gals working at the Department of Agriculture, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, a potato throw from where my daughter grows heirloom tomatoes in her garden.

Potato haul in August

On May 1st I planted 3 seed potatoes (cut in half) with one sprout showing on each seed in a 5 gallon bucket (recycled from my neighbour's new evergreen trees)  filled with a mixture of Miracle-Gro potting mix, Triple-mix soil, farm manure and a dusting of my organic fertilizer mix. To start, I just covered the potatoes and as they continued to grow, I kept adding soil until they reached the top of the bucket. I must admit that I watered
them virtually every day due to our hot summer weather that reached +30°C - 88 °F almost every day! The plant was huge, growing 3' tall until one day in mid-August the plant leaves dropped and dried up.  Time to harvest! As I mentioned before, I grow potatoes in pots for a July-August harvest. I especially like Yukon Gold mashed potatoes with butter, salt and pepper. The golden yellow colour and buttery taste goes well with roast beef and green beans from the garden!

This photo shows a bounty of 20+ potatoes in the bottom of the black growing barrel. That's a ratio of 1.5:20 potatoes in one pot!  After adding a caption, flag, date and blogger URL it looks like a poster for Yukon Gold Potatoes! August, a great month to harvest, my friend.

Growing Beets

Carillon long shaped beets

If you like cooked or pickled beets then this variety is for you! I've been growing this long cigar shaped beauty for many summers and I have found it to be the best tasting cooked beet on the market. The variety shown is called Carillon that can grow up to 12" long but I harvest them around 6" in length. The shape is unique and not like your standard round Detroit style variety. Aside from it's shape, the taste is wonderful especially when covered with butter. Opps.... did I say butter?  You will also notice the absence of white rings while the interior is ruby red. 

When cooking, keep the root and leave about 1" of stem on the beet otherwise the natural juices will run out in the pot. Gently boil for about 30-45 minutes depending upon the size. Once cooked, run them under cold water and the skin will fall off without any effort. Now they are ready to be chopped or served full size (small ones) in your dinner plate. If you like pickled beets, chop them up in slices for easy pickling in the fall. The beet greens are also full of vitamins and can be steamed and eaten with kale. The beet greens have more iron content than Popeye's spinach including many other health benefits covered on the net. 

Carillon Beets growing with my tomatoes

Another great use of beets is to make a traditional Russian Borscht soup or search the net for alternative recipes. 

This year I planted seeds in my soil blocks and got them going before they reached the garden. It's best to keep the plants 1-2" apart in rows about a foot apart. This year I'm growing them at the foot of my tomato plants and they are doing well. The good news is, they are relatively free of bug and disease. If you want to store them, they will keep for several months at a very cool @ 32°F/0°C.  Stay healthy and grow beets my friend.

Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomato

Cherokee Purple Heirloom

This is my first summer growing Heirloom tomato plants (non-hybrid) and this is an update on their progress. As the history pundits purport, this purple coloured tomato originated from the Cherokee Indians living in Tennessee over 100 years ago. The seeds were passed down by generations of families who loved the taste of this seed saving beauty. Thats right, you can save heirloom seeds year-to-year and get the same genetics from the previous plant.  

You cannot save seeds from hybrid tomatoes like Ultra Boy and expect to get the same plant genetics, therefore you need to purchase seeds from a grower like Stokes Seeds. 

In the early 1990's, tomato rock star Craig LeHoullier was given seeds belonging to the purple tomato plant. After growing the plant and being impressed with the quality, he named it "Cherokee Purple" and sent samples to the Southern Exposure Seed exchange and eventually became available to the general public.

It's appearance is purple with a splash of green on top, until fully ripe. The taste is sweeter and has a texture unlike your standard hybrid. The interior is plump and has fewer seeds that your average hybrid. However, some tomatoes did have a scab growth on the sides known as "cat facing" but it was easily removed before eating. In my situation, I have attributed the cat facing scab growth to cool growing conditions in June when we had one week of very cold temperatures. The cool day and night temps affected the pollination of the flower which causes scab growth. Once the spring temperatures warm up, the next set of flowers should be free of this physiological condition. See this link for greater detail.

Another observation when growing this plant is how slow it was to grow during the first 4 weeks under the grow lights. It was much smaller that the hybrids and when it hit the ground it was again slow to grow. However, it eventually caught up to the hybrids in height and the early tomatoes were hugh! This 4.5" purple beauty was too heavy for my 16 oz. kitchen scale so I can only estimate it to be 1-1/2 to 2 lbs. Go ahead and make great toasted tomato sandwiches, my friend.

Cat-facing and Blossom End Rot Tomatoes

Cat-facing

Both of these photographs are examples of Physiological conditions especially affecting large tomatoes and Brandywine is one of them.

The first photo is a condition called Cat-facing which could be caused by cool day and night temperatures around 15-18°C 60-65 °F which I believe is the cause. This tomato was one of the first to flower during a one week period of very cold weather in June. High nitrogen in the soil and over pruning could be another cause, but I have ruled them out in this case. 

With the cat face removed, the tomato was delicious! Do you see the cat face? Perhaps one of those long-haired flat faced Himalayan cats?  😄

Blossom end rot (BER)

The second photo was taken by Justin, a dedicated tomato grower, who experienced Blossom end rot (BER) on his first Brandywine tomatoes. This Physiological disorder is caused by lack of calcium within the plant. This can happen when the pH is outside the ideal range of (pH 6.2-6.5). The addition of lime will raise the pH and add calcium, however, if you believe your soil is within the pH range, then the cause may be lack of water when the plant is growing quickly. We are experiencing prolonged hot weather 29-34°C  84-93 °F therefore moisture variations or drought stress can reduce calcium uptake. One recommendation to prevent this disorder is to add calcium based agricultural gypsum and ground egg shells when planting, but nothing is guaranteed. Also, adding Epsom Salts at the planting and watering stages will help with the intake of nutrients to the plant. The good news is, BER is usually limited to the first clusters of flowers and dissipates with the following flower sets. Who would have thought, tomatoes and science together!  Garden on my friend.

How to grow tomatoes upside-down v2

Bumble Bee Sunrise Cherry Tomato

Earlier this spring I planted a Bumble Bee Sunrise Cherry tomato in a hanging pot that I got as a gift from a budding gardener.The upside down container kit composed of a pot, specialized 2 part bottom ring to feed the plant through and a top water reservoir that wick feeds the plant with water. In principle, you keep the pot full of water and it wick feeds the plant. 

This allows you to play golf or go fishing and not worry about watering every day! 😄

The plant was a little slow off the start but eventually started to grow - until 2 months when it started to wilt. I removed the top reservoir and discovered the plant to be very dry. The wick was clogged with a white substance and was no longer working. I think the substance was Epsom Salts that I occasionally use as a fertilizer. It appears, while being wick fed, it reverted back to a hard crystal. I've since removed the water reservoir and added my freshly made compost to the top.  

This summer, the temperature in Ottawa, ON, Canada has been very hot with temps averaging 29 C - 34 C so I've been watering this plant every day! An ideal temperature for growing tomatoes is between 21 C and 29 C.  If the plant gets too many hot days it will drop it's flowers or fruit similar to an apple tree in June. I've noticed that the plant produced virtually thousands of flowers but many were not converted to fruit. Flower drop can be very prevalent in hot weather or when the plant is stressed. In addition, hot nights above 21 C will also contribute to flower or fruit drop. Lack of water or a large fruit set will also cause flower drop. Who said gardening was easy!

Water fed wick

The same observation was made with my other mainstream tomato plants. The second and third generation flowers are not producing as much fruit as the first set. Or - are my expectations too high? Regardless, I expect a bumper crop of tomatoes and I have not seen any BER (Blossom end rot) so far.  Topsy-turvy my friend.

Chocolate Sprinkles Hybrid Grape Tomato

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder..... It's July 19th and we have our first tomato!  Its' called Chocolate Sprinkles (Hybrid Grape Tomato) - UT338B and as you can see, the tomato is beautiful. It bears red/orange stripes on a rich green background. The overall oblong size is 1-¼" long by 1" and it has a dark "chocolate" interior with few seeds. I found the skin a bit thick, however, it posed no problem when eating the fruit. The tomato is more meaty as compared to your average smaller "Sweet 100" cherry 1" style with greater  juice content.

This variety took some time to start growing as a seedling and when planted in the ground, however it has since taken off and is 5 feet tall with plenty of flowers and new baby toms. It is a new indeterminate variety offered by Stokes Seeds that should be staked and requires an estimate of 70 days from when the plant hits the ground to harvest. Seed suppliers claim it is resistant to fusarium wilt (F1), nematodes (N), and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and that can't be a bad thing.

I would recommend this marbled tomato for your salad because of it's taste and visual appearance. I'm also anxious to try them on a BBQ skewer. Their meaty interior may prevent them from "exploding" on the grill. A real beauty to grow, my friend.

Potato harvest in pots - 10 weeks growth

One potato, two potato, three potato, four...... you get the idea. After 10 weeks growth, two Yukon Gold seed potatoes in a pot has produced 15+ potatoes. This is good news considering we did not have potatoes for Father's Day at 7 weeks growth. The purpose of growing potatoes in pots, in my mind, is to have fresh potatoes from the garden in July. Once the potatoes have dried, store them in a brown paper bag at room temperature and clean them just before preparing them for the kitchen table.

One observation I made when harvesting is the dryness of the soil. I watered my pots almost every day, yet the bottom of the pot was dry. It's now apparent that the large potato foliage requires a tremendous amount of water when grown in a confined pot. However, the ratio of 2 seed potatoes to the 15+ harvested is reasonable. Now let's go BBQ, my friend.