Seedmama,

I thought of you today when I was harvesting my first tomato from Dana's Dusky Rose. Can you believe it? It is a great plant and a gorgeous pinky-rose fruit. I can't wait to eat it, but it still has green shoulders, so I think OkieTim and I, evil enabler that he is, will have it on Sat. or Sunday.

I will admit to 120 tomato plants. Those are the ones I actually planted in a container or in the ground. In the meantime, I have some seedlings coming up in the area where Tess's Land Race Currant grew last year, and I may transplant and grow some of them to maturity, but they don't count until I figure out what to do with them.

If you think 120 sounds bad, try to imagine the year I planted 434 of them. It was terrible. I couldn't even harvest all the fruit fast enough to keep them from going bad, even if I harvested all day long every day. I learned my lesson----don't plant more than you can maintain! It did serve its purpose...I was trying a gazillion different kinds so I could figure out what grew well here. Guess what? It was 2003 and our driest year ever as far as I know....only 19" of rain for the whole entire year and the poor plants were about 1/3 their expected size. On the other hand, even with watering, they had great flavor...as if I had grown them dryland style. I couldn't water them enough to water them down and ruin the flavor. As it was, I could barely water them enough to keep them alive. That also was the year I learned deer would eat tomato plants that were not inside a fenced garden or yard. The deer, by the way, prefer Ildi to all others. Who knew deer had a preference for heirloom yellow grape tomatoes?

I'll never grow 400+ again. I think that 120 is pushing it, but I doubt I'll ever plant fewer. It is Jay's fault. He puts all those tomato seeds in the mail to me and I just go wild and sow them with reckless abandon.

Wicked OkieTim is eating so many tomatoes he practically overdoses on them. I think he wanted you to plant so many so you could overdose on them too. He's a sharing kind of guy.

Regarding the Cub Scout fundraiser, I don't know what you were thinking. I don't even know if you were thinking. We never say no to Cub Scouts or Girl Scouts, which is why we end up overdosing on Trail's End Popcorn and Girl Scout Cookies.

How did this happen? How did a sweet mama who's so busy with the children, the home, the kids activities, the career and the DH end up with all those tomato plants?? Well, just plead insanity. Say you were expecting the cutworms to take out twice as many as they did. Say you were coerced. Say it was mind control. Say whatever you want, but just remember you'll be laughing all the way 'to the bank' as you harvest and put up all kinds of wonderful tomato products.

With the habs, you can chop them up into the amounts required for jelly and freeze them and then make jelly year-round. I have two habs and that's plenty. I had 4 last year and it about killed me to keep up with the harvest from them. I can't wait to see what you do with the peppers from 14 of them. The funny thing about habanero pepper plants is that it never seems like they have that many peppers on them when the peppers are green. I believe they blend in really well with the foliage. THEN they start turning orange and you start asking yourself 'where did all those peppers come from?". You're going to be in Habanero Heaven....or the opposite of it.

Tomatillos are scary. If you stand still outside the garden and listen to them at night, you can hear them plotting to take over the world. Two plants are all you need (one would be plenty but two ensures that if one dies you still have tomatillos).

Other than the 120 tomato plants that I'll admit to, I think I only have about 50 or 60 pepper plants. I haven't counted them. Maybe tomorrow I'll count them and see what I actually have. I believe we have 6 squash plants (3 crookneck and 3 straighneck) and 2 zucchini plants, about 200 corn plants, about 400 bean plants, a hundred carrots [had more, but Emmitt Smith (the cat, not the retired professional football player) dug them up, rolled on them, ate the foliage and did his best to kill them] and about 60 or 70 or 80 sweet potato plants, 50 okra plants, and an uncounted legion of southern peas...let's just say it is a whole bunch. Potato plants? Twelve rows, but they're short rows...varying from about 6 to 9 feet in length. I'm trialing a lot of new types.

It is the fruit trees that scare me. I've harvested about 120 plums from the earliest plum tree to ripen and haven't even made a dent in them. I expect at least 600 from that tree. The second tree doesn't have as many but it has a lot and so does the third plum tree. I think it will be a plum jam and plum jelly kind of year. The peach tree has hundreds of peaches and they usually ripen by Father's Day so I expect to get really busy really soon.

At least the onions are not producing that well, the broccoli was so-so and I learned that it takes a couple hundred snap pea plants to produce 35 lbs. of snap peas, or at least it did this year. Cabbage....what was I thinking? Fifteen heads is too much for the two of us, so I've been making sauerkraut and freezer slaw and I'm starting to get tired of opening the refigerator and seeing the last few heads of cabbage staring back at me.

So, do you think I overplanted?

It only took OkieTim three years of living here with unlimited space to figure out that I never really stop planting. The first year, I think he kept waiting for me to be finished with the garden. The second year he began to think I ought to be finished with the planting by June. The third year he realized that as soon as I was "in danger" of having everything planted, I just started more seeds. Finally! After 20 years of marriage, he finally understood me. (In the city, we had a tiny 8' x 10' garden so I had to behave myself there and it took all of one day to plant the garden.) We've been married for almost 27 years now and he now realizes he has a wife who "needs" to be planting something every single month of the year. What? Huh? No, there's not anything wrong with that!

Dawn

Dawn,
I planted everything with a purpose. The Anaheims and Pablanos are because I cook with SO MANY cans of green chiles. Cans have gotten, in my mind, very expensive. Though technically not a gallon, we use a "gallon" of Pace every three to four weeks. Even with 105 plants, I won't be able to make enough pints of salsa, but I'll darn sure try. We use tons of sweet peppers and bells in Asian and Italian dishes. You know where the Habneros are going.

Kiddus interruptus. More later.

Y'all crack me up! I have two tomato plants. Yes, two. Why? because *I* am the only who likes tomatoes in my entire family of six...except for salsa and tomato-based sauces, but I have no room to can right now (a problem we're solving by adding on a new kitchen--but we're three years into that project, so I'm cabinet-less for now).

BUT, my two plants are doing just fine, thank you very much. I planted them two weeks ago in five gallon buckets. They are both nearly two feet tall at this point and beginning to blossom. One of these days!

Anna

Anna - Two plants??? For most of us that might take care of breakfast. LOL

You people are off your rockers. I mean, really! Over 100? No self control whatsoever. What is wrong with you? You need therapy.

I, on the other hand, am one to admire. I am eternally in complete control. I only ended up with ninety-something.

You may now heap praise upon me and dedicate yourselves to becoming Diane-like.

Diane

I was wondering this morning how long you and wicked OkieTim had been married. I didn't even have to ask. I counted the fruit on the Dana's Dusky Rose you saved for me. Eight, with the largest the size of a golfball. Lots of blooms promising more. I have lots of fruit set on many plants, but have yet to harvest any tomatoes. My first fruit set on the Brandy Boy (Select?) from you, but it is still growing and not turning color. I noticed others this morning turning color, but didn't stop to identify.

I have fruit on Yolo Wonder and Mini Belle TM from Carol, and Numex Sunset from P-mac.

At some point, after I count the pepper plants, I'll need to count the okra. Pretty certain I over did it there too. No doubt I over did it on beans, but rust and deer will keep me in check. We'll just call that one advanced planning. I grew melons for the first time in years, but only four or five varieties, so I should have comfortable summer eating there. I quit counting strawberries at the 100 gallon point

I have been harvesting Fooled You Jalapenos. She didn't give them to me, but p-mac told me about K&K nurseries where I bought the peppers, so she gets credit there. I picked the first one too early, and it tasted much like a Sweet Banana. I've left the others on longer and they have the characteristic nutty Jalapeno flavor with absolutely no heat. They've been very good sliced in rings on home made pizza.

I have reached out to Jay regarding my visit to the Panhandle, although I fear the consequences. I long ago ID'd him as an enabler, and I stay far away from threads where he talks about mailing seeds. Worse yet, he could meet my South Texan husband, and they could start talking garlic. I could lose a lot of tomato real estate that way! At one point I promised myself that if I would stay within reasonable bounds with tomatoes, that next year I would ask him for a token quantity of Red Zebra and Black Zebra, because I love Green Zebra so much. Alas, I did not stay within reasonable bounds, so I've called off my own deal.

Kiddus Interrupus again. Looks like I'm done for the day.

Seedmama

In 2006 I planted 50. I had more than I knew what to do with--given that NO ONE would eat them but me. So I set the kids down at the end of the road and let them sell the extras--wound up selling my car along with the tomatoes.

When the new kitchen is complete, I WILL can. Then I can plant more.

Diane,
I often think you and I are two peas in a pod. At the very least we came from the same strain.

Do you make your kids call you Queen Mommy, or Your Royal Momness? It's a fund little came to delude myself into thinking I'm not really the scullery maid in a houseful of men.

My sin is STRAWBERRIES. They are SO easy to grow, and my kids eat them quicker than I can grow them. 175 plants this year. Will probably cut the runners and replant for next year.

I adore tomatoes, but obsess about them TOO MUCH, so I need to keep the numbers low. And, I only have trellises for so many spaces. If I had room for 100 tomatoes, I might be tempted!

With Dawn and Diana around I'm running 3rd fiddle or below. I ended up with 101 I planted. Have 1 nice volunteer that is doing better than anything in the garden. I don't count it as I didn't plant it. It only counts if I move it. I have another small volunteer. I keep telling myself I'm done. Then when I go to the garden and see how nice the Big Cheef plant looks I think I have one I haven't planted yet. The same goes for others. And I was thinking I have 19 containers. I have enough of everything to mix up enough for another container and then I could have an even number. Makes good tomato sense to me. Jay

Seedmama,

I planted everything with a purpose too. It is the way I've been gardening for a couple of years now...guesstimating how many of each plant/variety it will take to give me the yield I need to can, freeze, dehydrate, etc. all the food I plan to put up for the year. I don't always meet my goal but I have fun trying. Some years, like last year, something--and it was peppers and tomatoes for sure--overachieves and then I know what everyone is getting for Christmas. I also went overboard on cucumbers and canned two year's worth of pickles and relish, and this year I think I planted too much cabbage, but then you can always make sauerkraut and freezer slaw, so it is hard to say if it is really too much...though it is too much for fresh eating.

If it is truly possible to plant too many peppers, I haven't figured that out yet because even though I canned, jellied, smoked, and dried them like mad, we still ran out of Candied Jalapenos and Annie's Salsa and frozen jalapenos for poppers, although we still have some jars of Tim's favorite salsa from the BBB (because I made it too hot for anyone else to eat). I probably should plant as many peppers as I do tomatoes, but what if every plant has a great year all at once? I might have a kitchen nervous breakdown, like I almost did last year when I had those 1800 peppers on the kitchen counter and every table in the house and Tim was conveniently out of town.

I have a lot more to say but we're having serious thunder outside. I need to go outside and see if it is about to rain....that is, if I remember what rain looks and sounds like.

Be back later.

Dawn

seedmama - Have you noticed how 'worked up' Dawn gets every time she begins to reminisce about her pepper yield and Tim being out of town. So much turbulence this time that it caused serious thunder noises.

Carol,

lol It was real thunder, not me having a temper tantrum. We had about ten or fifteen minutes of thunder. We had clouds. We had wind. We had a slight drop in the temperature. We had a narrow storm on the radar with red at its core. We had rain. How much rain? Not much. I looked in the rain gauge and couldn't see anything, so I turned it upside down and shook it and finally got three measley drops of water to fall from the rain gauge into my hand. Three drops! Another false alarm. One day again we will have measureable rainfall, but this wasn't it.

Well, you know, the spouse is going to be in the doghouse and hear about it all year long if he was sitting at the beach sipping margaritas with his sisters while I was sweating in the kitchen for 16-18 hours a day every day while he was gone. The peppers are mostly for him because I am ALLERGIC to them. Cutting, seeding and cooking them makes me have symptoms similar to an asthma attack (Tim and Chris don't react to peppers like I do), so normally Tim does the cutting and de-seeding. Then, if we're making pepper jelly, he stirs it while the peppers are cooking so I don't have to inhale the fumes.

Processing peppers without him was a horrible experience. I wasn't mad, but I also wasn't perfectly happy either. He's joining his sisters at the beach condo his sister owns again this summer, and all I have to say is that his week with them had better not fall during pepper processing week again. I tease them and call it their mid-life crisis vacation because they used to spend the summers at Myrtle Beach when they were kids. None of the spouses accompany them on their midlife crisis vacation either, so they can act as goofy as they want.

Seedmama, I grew some no-heat jalapenos this year but haven't tried them yet. I'm looking forward to enjoying the flavor without the heat.

I've about decided that it is imposssible to really have too many peppers because there's so many ways to use them and to preserve them. No matter how many I can, dry, jelly or freeze, we always run out. See there...I need to plant more!

Tim and I have been married for so long that it is increasingly hard to remember what my life was like before I met him. I do remember that on the morning after our first date, my then-roommate asked me how the night went and I told her he was "the one" and we were going to get married and live happily ever after. How funny is that? So far, though, it has proven to be true.

Diane, OK, but tell the truth. If you hadn't had a rough spring with adventure galore, how many tomatoes would you have had? Hmmmm. I thought so. We'll be watching next year to see how many plants you have in a year when Steve doesn't attempt to fly and break all his bones in the process, and the weather isn't crazy, and the goats don't eat every plant they find. Heck, in a good year, you could have 200 plants!

Anna, The fewest tomato plants I've ever had was six, but that's because in Fort Worth our property was almost 100% shaded so I couldn't grow many tomatoes at our house. My dad grew enough for us back them because he had a big garden in a sunny yard.

You'll get your kitchen finished and be back in the tomato canning business in no time.

Joellen, I wish we had the soil to grow a lot of strawberries like that. We have dense, slow-draining red clay, so adding more would mean building yet another raised bed. I may do it though.

Jay, If you'd just move the horse pasture fence and shrink the horses' pasture down a little smaller, you could have 200 plants, you know.

Carol, It will be impossible to have 1800 peppers ripe at one time this year I think. About 600 of those were Bird Peppers and I didn't plant them this year. I think I dried and froze a lifetime supply of them from that one planting. So, I think Tim is safe this year.

Dawn

Dana, funny you should mention that. Just this evening, I put one of my kids in the Vulcan death grip until he proclaimed that I was the most beautiful, intelligent, and kindly mother. Ever. He finally belted it out for all to hear after his face turned purple. Then I had to chase after his siblings with a fly swatter (complete with fresh fly guts) for snickering.

I'll bet I get voted Mother of the Year one of these days...

Diane

The more I read this thread the more I realize I'm not even among the top tomato power growers on this board. With Dawn, Dana, Diane and others I'm just a lowly also ran. And Carol will be there in another year or so. Jay

BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!

To my accomplice Carol - All is going according to plan!!! (insert scary organ music) Just THINK what we can do next year.....(shhhh, we need to catch them unaware!)

Seedmama - with that many plants, I'm sure you can put up enough salsa for your family....you just might not be able to afford all the jars! ha!

I have become more Diane-like. I only about 40 plants each of tomatoes & peppers.

However, I think I've gone over board as usual on the yellow straight neck, zuchinni and cukes....at least 7 each. Growing both Howden and Pie pumkins as well as butternut squash. My Early Sunglow and Supa Red (thanks, Tigerdawn!) corns have tasseled and I have those little silk thread thingy's on the stalks. (yes, first time corn grower here). I'm okra-challenged this year....maybe 10 plants combined of Clemson & burgundy.

Now, back to my watering.......

Paula

Jay,

No matter what the rest of us do, you are now and forever the Tomato King and don't you forget it.

Last night I was weeding beds and admiring the tomato plants as I worked around them. JD's Special C-Tex, Dora and Indian Stripe have simply gorgeous huge tomatoes on them and I can hardly wait for those to ripen. The cherry tomatoes are fully edof course, and most other plants have great fruit set. I just hope the cool spell allows them to set more.

I need to get serious about fall tomatoes and start seeds soon if I'm going to have any of them.

Paula,

That's a lot of pumpkins and squash. I hope the SVBs don't find them. Some years I grow a lot of pumpkins and squash, but this year I don't have as many.....I am space challenged because I'm growing so many peppers, tomatoes and beans. I'm having a hard time keeping up with the harvest of summer squash. Usually by now the SVBs have gotten them, but so far, so good here.

Dawn

Y'all have gone BONKERS! I think you've actually gone beyond the need for psychiatric help, and are now within the realm of neurosurgery!

Annie - I laughed about your kids selling your leftover tomatos and the car! I just hope you don't get confused and sell the kids and keep the tomatos and the car next time!

Dawn, you started out with 6? Really? Uh oh, I will be growing 6 this year at least. Does that mean I see heavy machinery in the future in my shady backyard?????

I have a Rutgers and a Jet Star that should be ready about the same day - same coloration stage on both. I can hardly contain myself (let alone 4 or 5 more plants). I was yearning for one today as I made my canned spaghetti sauce for Kenna's favorite Meatballs Stuffed with Mozzarella cheese. A lot of times I do it with Pizza Sauce. Now there's something I'd like to cook up and can.

I think I'm gonna be able to plant that Baker Family Heirloom (I can't find any info on the net or at BF's website in regard to this tomato) and Burpee Super Beefsteak, along with Lime Green Salad, Victorian Dwarf, and ta da! Black Cherry! Oops! That brings the total to 8. Am I really planting 8 tomato plants this year? OMG! I have never planted more than 1. What is happening to me? I think I've been Lycopersecuted by y'all!

Susan

Susan,

I started out with six when I was about 26 years old. I had NO sun so I tried growing them in a tiny one-foot-wide strip of land between the house and the driveway. They got about 3 hours of direct sun and several hours of dappled shade, so they produced all right, but weren't terribly prolific or anything. Back then I worked full-time and had a small child, but my parents lived within shouting distance (three houses away) and my dad grew enough tomatoes for all of us.....and, in fact, probably grew enough to feed the entire town. I just wanted to grow some myself. Since the shade was from all the neighbors' trees, there wasn't much I could do about it.

The MINUTE we moved here (actually, the year before we moved here) and had sunny garden space, I planted more. I think I had 50 plants the first year, and haven't had less than 100 plants in any given year since then.

Baker Family Heirloom is only available via seed savers like George, as far as I know, so any info about it would have to come from him, someone he's given it to over the years or from someone's old copies of the Seed Savers Exchange members' yearbook from years in which George has listed/offered seed of it. If you do a search here on this forum, you can find what he's said about it in the past.

What is happening to you is you're becoming indoctrinated and addicted. Now that you have been successfully recruited into the Cult of the Tomato Obsessed and are are one of us, we can move on to our next victim and practice mind control on them.

By the way, how's Charlotte Lily, Kenna, and the new mom and dad? I hope all is well and that somebody (preferably everybody) is sleeping well.

Dawn

Jay, I am not even in the running, but it isn't because I don't want to be. I think I have about 50 or so, I guess that makes me half as bad as you. LOL

I could have had more, but I use a lot of my garden for peppers and other things. Next year I will have a little more room when Al moves all of his stuff out of the end of my garden. There is a tree there so I can't plant the entire thing, but it should add about 12 x 20 feet of additional space. I could have done a little better job of planning this year, but I was kind of planting as I got an area finished and ready to plant.

We actually have a fair size lot, but we have eleven very large trees and 210 feet of infiltrator lateral line. As it is, I have 18 tomatoes and 2 berry plants in a sunny spot near the south lot line. That area and the garden get the most sun, but because of the laterals I only put containers in that area. They are not over the lines, but are fairly close. I gained a little more sun for this season when the two cedar trees were cut, and there is a chance that we may take down two redbud trees. They have electrical lines running through the forks of them and they create a lot of headaches for one of my neighbors who gardens near them. He would love to see them go. I would miss the spring blooms, but must admit they are kind of a pain with seed flying everywhere. I have one more sunny spot that has potential, but I am saving it for my "wishing I had a greenhouse someday" plan.

My garden area has a chain link fence, but the rest of the yard is not fenced. I only plant container edibles and flowers outside that fence because we have so many darn dogs that run loose. We have deer very close but I have never seen them come into the neighborhood. We get a lot of rain so they are probably well fed in the wild areas and don't get hungry enough to come looking for food. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they continue to stay away. They would sure find a big tomato snack if they came into my yard. It's funny because none of us have tall fences, and some have no fences, but the deer don't bother us.

It is just amazing to me how much there is to do around a home. If it's new you have lawn, trees, and flowers to put in and if it's older you have to replace things and repair things, and just simply change things that don't meet your needs. A homeowners job is a lifetime career.

We were in OKC today and although it was hot, there was wind so it didn't feel too bad. When we got home it was very hot with a heat index over a hundred again today. It is so humid that my tomato containers didn't need to be watered today although it was a hot day. The garden had a few things with a slight wilt, but the ground still has moisture so I'm sure they are fine now that the sun has gone down.

On our last trip to Baker Creek, I bought a blackberry plant and a raspberry plant and they were little more than sticks with very few leaves in a gallon pot. The soil looked like it had just been dug from the ground. I decided that I would put them in pots for the summer and let them establish a good set of roots, then maybe put them in the ground in early fall if they looked strong enough to survive. That was just over a month ago, and they are great looking plants already. Now I have to get serious about finding a permanent home for them. The two blueberry plants that I put in last year seem to be doing very well. I need a farm, but I don't want to move to one. LOL

I planted a short row of Contender beans and have picked them twice. I took both pickings and cooked them all last night with onions and crumbled bacon and they were sure good with a big hunk of cornbread. I may have to go finish the leftovers in a minute.

I had zukes for a few days and I thought they were making, but they srivelled and died so I guess they aren't getting pollinated yet. I have 4 types of summer squash blooming, plus tons of blooms on the winter squash and I am seeing some bee action, so it shouldn't be long. It will be a DIY project if I don't see progress in a few days.

Paula, I did not plant as many squash as you did, but I planted four zucchetta seed so that is just as bad. I had all of the squash I could use last year from three.

I hope Monday is a dry day because I have lots of garden chores to catch up on.