hellooooo Sylvia

My tomato season has been pretty good with "Margo" doing well (you rec'd that one). Not the greatest taste but it is whitefly resistant as are most of my plants this year. I miss my heirlooms which were so affected by WF.

The only heirloom this year is Black Prince which is tasty and no WF. Perhaps they all died in the big freeze but I think I saw some on the basils.

Disappointment: Champion II, not many tomatoes and not a good size.

Something new this summer: amaranth, green and red. I am missing collards and cabbage so looked for a good summer green. It grows fast, already stir-fried some. Not bad but I like collards a little more.

I'm not growing anything else this summer, going on vacation Aug-Sept and returning to start the fall tomato seeds (dare I add heirlooms back in??).

Denise

Hi Denise

So nice to hear your review, Margo is a good cropper and when you make tomato salsa or roast them in the oven with some spices at low temperatures all the tomatoes are very good!

I did not care for some paste tomatoes that I am trying now, only a couple. The one that looks promising is a Plum Regal that is supposed to be high resistant to disease. It is loaded but I have not tried one ripe yet.

And I don't think that you should give up on the heirlooms, some seasons are better than other ones, we can not control the weather.

And it is already too hot for any leafy vegetable, time to eat other veggies like today's beans, lol

Denise, have a great vacation!!!

Silvia

Hi, Silvia,

Wow,your beans looks yummy. The tomatoes look very, very tasty.

My time now is spent taking care of my Grandkids while my son and his wife are taking a break. When they come home, it will be our turn and we are ready for our trip!

Heard from my neighbor over there, no rain, but the veggies are getting water from our irrigation system and from manual watering from my neighbor's kindness.

Miss my garden especially the new raised bed.

Have a great summer.

Hugs,

Freya

Hi Freya

Yes, we had no rain lately and is hot! That is good you are enjoying time with the kids.

The harvest is big this season, remember the table? well, I use the biggest dish I could find and it almost use the whole table, lol

I put it in garbage bags in the fridge, tomorrow will be beans delivery and squash along with tomatoes.

You will like the kabocha that I planted, they are all good! Hope to save some when you come back unless yours are producing too.

Here are some, I have more varieties coming.

Cheryl is in Jamaica, everybody is going on vacation, we won't go for a while.

Have the best vacation ever and contact me when you are back.

Hugs

Silvia

Silvia,
in the very first (and really nicely composed BTW) picture - is the little one on the far left a Green Cherry Doctor?
You sent me some GCD seeds and we loved them - really sweet. And they had that kind of bronze color that confused me at first, until I figured out that I needed to wait for that color for ripe.
I don't have pictures, but we ate a lot of Margo, Aliana Orange, Arkansas Traveler, GCD and your and my green zebra. Mine turned out smaller - kind of campari-sized, yours bigger and deeply ridged. Both delicious, but the smaller one produced more, pound for pound.
I'm going to start looking for more tomatoes that size - large enough for cutting up in a salad, but not so large they take forever to ripen and risk all the things that can happen, including puppy love, to a tomato that has to sit on the vine for awhile.
Thanks again for sharing your seeds. We loved our tomatoes this year, in spite of a bad year with the cold and all.
Susannah

Hi Susannah

Yes the little green cherry is Green Doctors and I also like the flavor.

I am glad that you got to enjoy some tomatoes even that the weather did not cooperate.

And you are right about medium to small sized tomatoes, I think they are called saladette, they ripen faster and are very versatile. I have two in mind that I will save seeds and send you for the next season, one is called Tondina, very productive and the color is red. And the other one is a yellow that I am growing this season.

My 3 dogs like tomatoes, the red cherries are for them. And one of them the little one is in love with the blueberries.lol

After the season is over, I will send you some seeds to try.

Silvia

Hi Silvia!

Your tomatoes look so pretty. So perfect and blemish-free. I had posted a couple of days ago on your other thread, but it never showed up.

I am not really having a very good tomato season right now. I tried pruning the suckers of the plants since they were small, because I heard they would have fewer tomatoes, but larger ones. What happened is that I got skinny plants with fewer tomatoes and smaller tomatoes! Go figure. My very favorite, and a keeper so far is the black cherry. The cherries are larger than usual and the taste is so good. The skin is not hard like some cherries. Sugar plum is another cherry, but although the taste is good, the fruit are tiny. It has a good yield, though. Alianas are just ok. My sungold are nice, but I like the black cherries better. The goji were the first to start ripening. However, we don't like the almost fibrous texture, and my fruit have been small for some reason. I have a couple of caspian pink I will soon try, and Burpees big boy hybrid soon to try. The beefmasters have had a very low yield compared to last season. Have not ripened yet. I have a few others, but still untested. Right now, I vote black cherry!

Anna

Hi Anna!

Thank you. The best thing to do is have the tomatoes rotating, some varieties do better or worse than others depending on the weather, rain or not or other variables.

Warmer zones got hit with the cold when it was supposed to be warm. But the seasons change and there is always a new opportunity to grow the favorites again.

And my vote goes to black tomatoes too. Here is one of my favorites Angolan Paul Robeson and black cherries.

And I have a sunflower opening today, can you see it? lol

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Silvia

Silvia, that last picture is a KNOCKOUT! How in the world have you managed to get that old-world European look in a suburban Florida garden? You are truly a master at all you do!

Tom

Thank you Tom, you are always so nice!

Here are more pictures from the garden for you

Underneath the sunflower in a container are 2 Galia melons almost ready, I will report on the flavor

And some flowers, petunias growing around the bananas and another sunflower, this is shorter.

Cosmos with pole beans

Zinnia and ornamental corn, this one has 5 ears and has pink around the edges

And remember the potatoes? I had them for lunch just roasted in the oven, all blue, all red and German Butterball

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Silvia

Silvia,

did you get Bernie email regarding potential visit this Sat?

bernie

Hi Bernie

I did not get any email but this Saturday if you can come will be great! Let me know what time you want to come, mornings are better so you can see the tomato jungle and also not that hot.

My email is vsilvia1@msn.com, put tomatoes on the heading so I know it is you. I will send you directions and my phone.

Silvia

Silvia, it is obvious that my emails are not getting posted to your computer. I have had the same problem with my daughter's email lately. Juno must not be communicating with your mail for whatever reason. Try emailing me at jbker at juno.com with address and phone.

bernie

Bernie, I sent you an email. Let me know.

Silvia

Silvia, I love those colorful potatoes! Where do you find such interesting veggies?

Hi Sharon

Those potatoes are the best! I grew up eating a lot of different varieties of potatoes, I can not imagine a world with only one kind,lol

Those potatoes I got them from Ronnigers potato farm, when is cold we can plant them again. I still have my stash in the closet.

Here is the tomato harvest for today

Silvia

Silvia --- Nice harvest of tomatoes and string beans! Nice colored potatoes too. I picked my first two (grape) tomatoes today. The blueberries are still going strong. Love to see your pics.

Christine

Hi, Silvia,

Miss you!

Your pictures are amazing! The produce from your garden motivates me to keep trying on gardening. Truly, you are a master of what you doÂ

You know why I was out of "commission" for a whileÂ. Busy, busy with the grand kids: in between, doing packing here and there for our Italy trip.

My squash all died. Maybe it is due to the heat? My neighbor had been checking my garden. SheÂs enjoying the herbs. The papaya plants you gave us and the newly planted Brogdon avocados are surviving the heat. No luck with the tomatoes. Our neighbor e-mailed, nothing is repining and no harvest yet, but the tomatoes are loaded with fruit. She said that the bananas that Tom gave us are growing fast. Thanks, Tom! Silvia, the ones you gave us survived the freeze. :o)

IÂll keep in touchÂÂHave a great summer.

Hugs,
Freya

Hi Christine

Thank you, the harvest this season is very abundant, keeping the family, neighbors and friends happy, even the Starbucks lady got some veggies, I told her this are where some of your grounds are going,:)

My blueberries are doing well too, very well picked by Nikki my little dog, she is an emerald type of blueberry girl, she leaves the Sunshine Blues for me. lol
Tiny the other dog is into tomatoes, pole beans and lima beans, he is a veggie kind of guy.

And I made a 3 bean salad, this is the best one I made so far. The big difference is that the cut green beans get broiled in the oven about 6 inches down, depending on the size of the bean mine took about 6-7 minutes, then put chickpeas from a can for a minute and kidney beans for another minute. While warm you can put a vinaigrette of your choice something with mustard would go well and shallots or red onion. I know you don't like curry but the original recipe has a dressing with curry, delicious!

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Hi Freya

I miss you too! And I have good news for you they might be sending Cheryl to Tuscany this year from work, she has been there already like I told you and she loves it over there especially the fresh veggies, wines and scenery.

And remember I said that vegetables in Florida or anywhere else have to be sprayed and take care of, trees are hardier they can be left unattended.

Tell the person taken care of the garden to pull all the onions, we are coming to hot weather and I don't think they would grow any longer but left in the ground they might rotten and cause problems.

Somebody from Hawaii ask in the vegetable forum about curing onions and the pros said to leave the foliage to dry. I said I had the same problem of some of them not bulbing up and they think is something to do with the short days. When I was living in Arizona I bought 50 pound bags of the Vidalia and Cipollino onions from the farm they were the best!

Have a great trip! Take a lot of pictures ( My friend Maggie has the pictures of her and the Pope when she went there, her husband is an Ambassador)

Silvia

Hi, Silvia,

Cheryl is so lucky to be able to travel for work, and she gets to see gorgeous places! Same thing with Willy. lol.

I will be "signing off" for a while, but hopefully I can find some unusual seeds and I'll mail it to you.

XOXO...Freya..Art says Hi to all.

Silvia,

Mail me some of those tomatoes, will you? I'm at the tail end now and will pull my last seven cherry plants next weekend, all but two have TYLCV, even the Everglades :-(

Did you pick those Galia's yet? If so how were they?

Tom

Hi Freya,

Have a lot of fun in your tour!

Hi Tom

I am so sorry that your season is bad, remember us gardeners are very optimistic and will start again.

It is getting time for the big tomatoes now, I am getting the Italian that you sent me, Omars Lebanese. German red strawberry, Neves and more Hat tomatoes.

Here is one

I made 2 different tomato sauces and I use the one for pizza, and I made a fresh dough and topped with grilled zucchini

And I have few Galia melons ripening, they are not ready yet but they are highly recommended by the vegetable guru, they should be good, I will let you know..

Silvia

Hi Silvia,

Tried to send you an email via a friend , hope it arrived!

I did not get to say good by to Cheryl. Hope her Tuscany trip works out. You might actually have to get under the steering wheel if Willy is traveling too LOL

Wow, that pizza looks great! Boy, I had a bunch of tomatoes ripened when I got home. Not putting on many new ones though, so it is going to be a short lived season for us.

bernie

Hi Bernie

The email arrived and I already answered. :)

Cheryl is not going on a trip yet, in the future yes but not now and Willy is always traveling, he is home Friday so it is not bad.

The ripe tomatoes are best for seed saving, I will be doing that next with all the ones that I have in the laundry room.

I hope that you have a very good gardening season!

Silvia

Hi, Silvia,

Please save me some tomato seeds. My "garden watcher" thinks all tomatoes are starting to wilt. I have not save seeds from the four(4) plants you gave me.She also said she gave up on the Moringa. It did not come back. :o(

The sweet potatoes are slow but are growing steady.

Hugs,

~Freya

Hi Silvia,

That's funny that your dogs like fruits and veggies. I never would have imagined such a thing.

The three bean salad does look delicious. I do need to give that recipe a try, but without the curry, of course. lol.

I cooked up a mature Table Dainty this week. I couldn't believe how hard the rind is! I liked how it produced squash first but it seems to not be a heavy producer. Maybe because I let the first squashes go to maturity too soon. I'm still picking Buttersticks (summer squash).

Christine

Hi Freya

Don't worry about the tomatoes, lol. Just enjoy your trip, I am saving seed for the best looking and tasting ones.

Hi Christine

I wish the garden friends would live closer to my area, then I could share the crops and have more tasters! everything is doing extremely well here. I stayed up late yesterday picking tomatoes and squash summer and winter. Today is the same story, lol.

Tomatoes

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Winter squash

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And Tom's Galia melon

Silvia

So, tell me, how does the Galia taste ;-)

Hi Tom

It had a very nice smell and it was good. On the other hand Cheryl the other taster said it could of been a little sweeter, I think she also prefers an orange flesh one. I harvest the other melon today with a white watermelon, I am planning on eating them tomorrow.

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Silvia

Silvia --- That's a huge tomato harvest. What will you do with all of those? And, I can see that you will be eating winter squash everyday too. Nice squash harvest. Some look like acorn squash. What are the other varieties and do they taste alike?

My tomato harvest this year is modest because of the extremely cold winter but that's OK because I have lots of winter squash coming along. Today I prepared the garden soil and got a number of sweet potato starts planted.

Tom --- My Galia melons are only the size of golf balls. I'm way behind Silvia. I sure hope they taste good because they sure look great.

Christine

Christine - Those tomatoes are left after I gave baskets of the best looking tomatoes to all the people that I know, few days ago I made salsa and 2 kinds of sauces, also slow roasted tomatoes and today I harvested more tomatoes. I should of keep Bernie here to help me with the harvest, lol

All the winter squash are so good and prolific, I have many varieties mostly kabocha, I have like 10 varieties planted. Also planted acorn and it is time to harvest them too, the ones that look like acorn are baby delica. I like them all, at least they keep well and will be in the closet.

Summer squash has been very good too, especially the yellow pattypan or scallop, everybody got bags of those too.

And I have tons of beans, best snacks for my dogs, they love them! And cucumbers are also been harvested and all the orientals are good, the suyo, tien-chin and other varieties that I planted.

I am looking forward to some sweet potatoes...

Silvia

Silvia, how do you keep powdery mildew off your squash plants if you don't mind my asking? My summer squash (Early Prolific Straightneck)got a bad case of pm and stopped producing, I had to pull them up yesterday.

Cathy

When Bernie was here over the weekend, he asked me the same question,lol.

In my experience in the beginning all the plants look good and if we begin early on to spray with fungicide and pest control, I only use organic. This kind of delays the process of any disease, enough to harvest a good crop, then the plant declines and with our weather hot and humid you can not completely stop. My plants get the lawn sprinkles 2 times a week and with the rains that also adds to the problem.

What I usually do is keep cutting the bad leaves so it does not spread.

Next time that you grow any squash or cucumbers, start a few seedlings, leave the strongest, I spray serenade and spinosad but you can use substitutes, there are other products. Google a cornell homemade formula that uses natural ingredients if you want to go that way. While the plants are growing keep cutting any bad leaves, don't forget the feeding it is very important! in soil or in containers. Diluted feedings make the plant stronger also keep consistent watering, I let them dry out a little bit before watering again.

Choose good varieties, the best is to have a few different ones, then you will be the judge on what did best for you and what you like.

Succession planting also works for a good harvest, lets say you plant 1 variety one week and the next another. If something happen to one, you are left with something.

It is all about experimenting, and being flexible and do not get discouraged.

Silvia

Hi Silvia,

"Christine - Those tomatoes are left after I gave baskets of the best looking tomatoes to all the people that I know, few days ago I made salsa and 2 kinds of sauces, also slow roasted tomatoes and today I harvested more tomatoes. I should of keep Bernie here to help me with the harvest, lol "
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Yep , I could have stayed and helped with all those squash and beans, but have had tomatoes galore here at the end of the season. Some brandywines who may top 1.5 lbs, tons of small tomatoes, lots of 444's and jetsetters. Both big producers, pulled 6 jetsetters off one vine yesterday, did not weigh them before giving them away. Believe they weighed about 12 oz a piece. Like Silvia I give the best looking ones away.

What was the tomato Silvia that you gave me that is about 1.5 in diameter, red, and has a little point on the blossom end.

I would post some pics, but something has changed since I last posted pics here and illiterate computer guy can' t figure out how to do it. Someone want to post how or tell me where to look for help ??

bernie

Hi Bernie

So we were both busy with the tomato harvest, good for you!
If you are talking about the small pointy one is Principe Borghesse, if you are talking about the large pointy one is German Red Strawberry.

Willy is at work today, very busy, I can not ask anything unless is an emergency. Maybe Tom can help you through when he gets home. If I explained to you maybe I don't make it too clear.-(

Here are some of my big tomatoes: The pointy ones are German Red Strawberry, the one in the back Neves, the one with green Italian tree tomato from Tom, the kind of purple Indian Stripe and the yellow Kellog's Breakfast. My biggest ones so far are the Hat tomatoes.

Silvia

That sounds like good advice, thank you.

Cathy, you are welcome.

Tom, I had the other Galia melon today and that one was really good! What a big difference to the first one, the only thing that I did different was to chill it overnight, some way the flavor intensified and it still had a nice aroma. You should try them when you have your season, I have one in a container and other in the raised bed, that also has fruit developing.

Cristine, the winter squash that I planted are Baby Delica, Sweet Dumpling, Shishigatani from Kitazawa, Futsu from Sandhill, Table Queen acorn from Peaceful Valley and Lakota squash from Burpee. Other seed companies also carry these, but that is where I got them. I like them all for production, flavor and size.

Silvia

Silvia - you are truly the QUEEN BEE!

Perhaps a little dehydration in the frig was what brought out the flavors in the Galia melon, same principle for why citrus sweetens after a cold snap. We NEVER eat pasta the first time around, it gets cooked, moved into the frig for a day or two, then re-warmed to really bring out the flavors :-)

Christine - let me know how yours do. If you two like them I'll probably try them in the fall since I do better here with melons in the fall than in the spring, less excessive moisture/mildew problems and virtually no bugs from October on....

Tom

Hi Tom,

This morning picture of morning glory flying saucers

Silvia

Beautiful Silvia, is that the same light blue you sent me seeds of? Probably not, I think the seeds you sent me are Star of Yelta.

The one I got from Saintpfla is really filling out my arbor now, I can't wait for the others to get there....here's a few shots from this morning.

Tom

Tom, Silvia it a real "QUEEN BEE"

My dad would die laughing in his grave if he knew you guys were planting morning glories in your gardens after the many hours he spent hoeing them from his veggie garden LOL

Tom , could you give me a short tutorial on posting pics. I haven't done it in a while and can get them to album at photobucket, but can't get them to a GW post???

bernie

Bernie,

CYE

Some older pics if they come through??
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These are Jetsetters which has been very productive and we enjoy the taste. Somewhat acidic compared to all the tomatoes that Silvia gave me, but that is what we grew up with in NC.

If this works , I'll start making some pics and post them.

Trying to sun dry some plum size tomatoes. Anyone had any luck doing this??

bernie

Tom, those are beautiful!!!it is filling the arbor really nice.

Bernie, I see that you master the photobucket and I can see some beautiful tomatoes.

I already divided the tomatoes by taste, Willy likes black tomatoes and I made him black tomato salsa.

Cheryl likes the fruity ones and I made her yellow and orange tomato salsa.

And me, I like them all except very few. The jetsetters that I have were in the middle of the garden.

About sun dry tomatoes in the sun I don't think is a good idea because of the humidity and the bugs, I used to do that in Arizona with apricots.

You can roast them in the oven at the lowest temperatures for a few hours and they are even better, you can also add anything you like like spices, salt, pepper, herbs, olive oil, balsamic vinegar. Roast them for a few hours till done.

Silvia

Sivia, yea but my youngest grandson thinks I'm a greenie, but really I more interested in shutting us off from oil imports from unfriendly countries. If I can do something with the sun's energy, I sure hate to use electric even though I know most electric is not from their fuels. Can't wait to get an electric car to charge up with my 5000 watt PV system. My electric bill this month was ZERO!
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Hangar roof with photovoltaic cells and Hayden mango.
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thanks Tom for pic hints.
bernie

Sivia, yea but my youngest grandson thinks I'm a greenie, but really I more interested in shutting us off from oil imports from unfriendly countries. If I can do something with the sun's energy, I sure hate to use electric even though I know most electric is not from their fuels. Can't wait to get an electric car to charge up with my 5000 watt PV system. My electric bill this month was ZERO!
{{gwi:854805}}
Hangar roof with photovoltaic cells and Hayden mango.
===========================
thanks Tom for pic hints.
bernie