Next Year's Tomatoes

It's time to get next year's crop underway. We had a ripe tomato on New Year's Day this year.

Research indicates that Better Boy is the best variety for greenhouse growing under my circumstances and climate. We've had success with Better Boy.

These are ready to pot into big containers. They're staying outdoors until the greenhouse is cleaned. They sat out in the rain today while we were in town.

I lost my enthusiasm for many of the plants I used to grow but the idea of a ripe tomato every day or two from January through half of July is very good incentive for tending a couple of plants.

Still Turning out Tomatoes

We've eaten tomatoes since January 1. A few at first and as spring opened up, we are able to eat daily tomato sandwiches of which we never tire.

He-Who-Mows took over tomato watering and fertilizing. He was already in charge of picking. 

Next month I will either buy a couple of new plants or root suckers off the old ones the way I did for the past couple of years. It started as an experiment. Now it's a way of life.

Persian Shield grew bigger last winter than I ever imagined that it could.

I put it all into one big pot with Purple Heart and some wandering jew.

This fern put on new growth when Spring came. Now that hot weather is

upon us, most everything is moving outside for summer. The Staghorn

seems happy enough under the mist system.

A December Peek at Tomatoes and Hyacinths and Things

We've moved into typical Gulf Coast December weather, where there's fog at night and mist in the daytime. He-Who wonders about these things could not decide why we had no tomatoes in the fall.

Sure enough, as soon as night-time temperatures fell, we commenced to see small tomatoes.  Pollen fails in heat. There are tomatoes that set fruit in hot weather but few are indeterminate types, which are necessary for continued growth and fruit set over months, even years.

Tomatoes are sharing space with Thanksgiving Cacti in bloom.

Holiday Cacti are sharing space with Hyacinths. My hyacinth trials using last years' bulbs that were allowed to grow on in their little pots were a success considering that many of them did set buds and bloom again after chill; a failure as far as size.

 They have as great a fragrance as ever despite the small size and sparse blossoms. The bulbs will go into the garden after blooms fade.

Arrowhead vine and Foxtail fern keep company with Chlorophytum and a bromeliad decorated with a begonia flower.

Areca palm culm that I pulled out of the big pot by accident has made another plant. Rooted Persian  Shield with Purple Heart and Purple Jew are crowded in with Begonias and Dark Alternanthera that grows in pots and in the floor at will.

Still outside awaiting a freeze to encourage dormancy are potted Agapanthus.

Inside, I'm waiting for the sun to shine. Maybe I'll make a fruitcake today.

Easing Back to Greenhouse Mode

It's too hot even with shade cloth to keep much in the greenhouse in summer. I kept 2 tomato plants going but they can't set fruit above 90º so they just grew vines.

 This tomato has bare stems up to 5 feet. Old Leaves turn brown and are cut off. I saw photos of the tomato trees at Epcot and decided I could do that, too.I just opened up a board or two on the shelves so the vine could grow up and be supported. It eventually got taller than the shelving.

 Some PVC pipe and a strip of hardware cloth improvised a trellis of sorts for the vines which were falling down among everything else. I did some pruning and now we wait to see if fruit will set when the weather moderates just a little more.

Notice I'm bringing in Bromeliads: Tillandsia cyanea above. Below is a Bilbergia I bought about 4 years ago for $1.25 after it had bloomed and the original plant was dying. There were three pups. They bloomed for the first time after I put a ripe pear beside the pot and let it rot.

Bilbergia. Rabbit's Foot Fern at right is new this year.

Bilbergia pyramidilis

 The big tomato in the corner grew in every direction. When I was cleaning the old foliage off, I had to give the vine in front of the fan a haircut where it was growing into the fan blades.

I think it kind of likes growing across and down. I hope we'll see tomatoes this winter.

Some of the trimmings went into a glass jar to see it they'll root. The jar went into a cache pot to help stabilize the jar. Behind is an Episcia, new this year and blooming for the second time.

Episcia in bloom

Something is chewing on the Episcia leaves and I saw frass. There must be a little worm feasting on it, maybe a moth larvae.

Pink and White Pentas cuttings took a whole year to reach blooming size. They will bloom through the winter and be ready to plant out next spring.

Our first frost date will be here soon. Still have cuttings to take and jungle cacti to bring in. I did manage to fill 2 pots with Agapanthus that will stay outside until the first frost hardens them as instructed by Claus Dalby.

Did I tell you that I gave away the white Agapanthus that I grew from seed? The friend who brought me the Rabbit Foot Fern and the Episcia among other things took it home with her. She sent a photo when it bloomed. I'll post when I find it again. The joy for me is in the growing.

Papa Tomato and the Tomato Factory

How can I quickly tell the Papa Tomato's story without so much background? Suffice it to say that I first had ripe tomatoes indoors in the winter of 2013 from  plants started late summer 2012, on nice determinate plants that were meant to grow in containers.

Summer of 2014 I took a Better Boy sucker off a garden plant and started a new venture with an indeterminate tomato that would have no ending point. I'll spare you its baby pictures.

By the end of August, it was in the greenhouse corner. 5 feet tall, corralled by shelves and GH walls with a metal fence post and a piece of PVC pipe as stakes in a 4 gallon bucket.

Before mid-December, we were eating tomatoes.

By mid-April of this year I'd already decided that first tomato plant could not last forever and had 4 rooted suckers growing, planted in containers and on their way toward producing tomatoes enough we could share with the neighbors.

I didn't reckon with Papa Tomato's determination. The other day I mistook some of his branches for new growth on one of the newer plants. Not so. Papa Tomato reached out and mingled and produced tomatoes, hanging onto a bungee cord that secures the roof vent.

Lower branches look dead but there is a green canopy above.

This trunk supports life and tomatoes.

I do not expect that Papa Tomato will last into next winter. 

The heritage of Papa Tomato will persist as new plants put on tomatoes. These plants are experiencing stress from heat and bright sunlight -- the blue is a plastic tablecloth for a little shade from afternoon sun. I've already passed on Papa Tomato's DNA in tomato plants produced from suckers off these plants to Marvin's Gardens. 

 Papa Tomato will soon be a year old. How many years is

that in people years?

Hot Plants in and around the Greenhouse

They definitely get warm, even with mist and exhaust fanning. Many have moved out to shady spots, like the Burro Tail Sedum and Mistletoe Cactus.

Inside the greenhouse, all those little 'beans' I collected when they fell from the long tails, have turned into tiny plants, all clumped together in a yogurt container. How does one prick these babies out and plant?

Blooms in a Bromeliad

If you are not blooming, you're a prime host for a tiny frog calling for rain.

I tired of watering Calla lilies and they kind of outgrew their pots, so I planted them out along the Gardenias on the north side of the greenhouse.

Gardenia blooms are about done.

Inside, there's this:

The first tomato to start ripening on the plants I started 

early spring.

Bloom Day Preview

Last night I realized how long it had been since I made a blog post. Spring sprang and then summer followed right behind.

We'll have a Brugmansia bloom in another night or two, maybe. I failed to mention before that when they first put out new growth, two of the stems fainted and fell over. I never knew why. I cut them off at ground level. The stems looked fine, there was no insect damage nor evidence of disease.

I got the Okra bed dug and seeds planted alphabetically before an inch of rain fell this afternoon. The electricity went off for 2 hours during which I had a nice nap which I needed after all that digging in the sun.

I bought Ferry-Morse seeds: Clear Clemson Superb and Louisiana Green Velvet.




In the Greenhouse, blooming:

My new Pelargonium, which we call zonal geranium.

Pentas cuttings needing planting out for butterflies.

Look closely behind; there is a green tomato.

My tomato plants have green tomatoes and lots of

blossoms on new plants and the old one. 

Just outside the greenhouse:

   
Calla Lilies, so far only in yellow.

 

Agapanthus bloom about to pop open. This is a seedling from seeds 'borrowed' off plants in a parking lot in Florida. 

The REAL Bloom Day post with more flowers is here: Bloom Day in the Hot and Humid Coastal South.

The Great Big Tomato Experience

At the end of January I rooted 4 suckers off my famous winter tomato plant. Sometime later I bumped them up from the little pots to bigger pots that hold maybe 2 quarts of soil. They grew and grew.

Yesterday I bought the biggest bale of potting soil and He-Who-Mows dumped it off the back of the truck per my instructions, so nobody had to lift such a heavy thing. I put the tomato plants on my little green wagon and improvised a potting table right there.

They were getting near pot-bound. Circling roots were easily teased out.

These pots are 4 gallon, I think. The biggest I have, anyway. I clipped off lower leaves and planted plants deeper than they were growing before.

I can't pass up a potential new plant -- sucker -- sucker for a sucker, 3 of them.

I'll show you later how they will be supported in the greenhouse. I think I can grow tomatoes indoors through the summer. Last year purple Alternanthera grew to the top of the walls, why not tomatoes? Alison did it.

I moved the single plant that produced all winter into the greenhouse in August, still about as hot as it gets here. I can shade these from the evening sun from the west if necessary. 

The original single plant has green tomatoes still. We ate one last Friday. Actually it isn't an original plant. It was a sucker off one of last summer's outdoor plants. Wonder how long I could keep clones of this tomato going?

The new plants are blooming and nighttime temperatures are just right for forming fruit. I can hardly wait.