This year was a really hurry up and get a garden in so I had no time to order any seeds and what was availiable was pretty picked over. We didn't have time to build the soil up, just haul in some topsoil, till. and stick in the seeds. It did okay except for the carrots. We're going to have the soil tested in the spring as the carrots were pretty deformed...possible nematodes? I want to get mainly heirloom seeds and start saving as many as I can instead of buying new each year. We are in a short growing season area so I'll be looking for seeds that will do well here.

I tried a couple more varieties of ox heart tomatoes, 'JD's Special' (Thanks, Jay) and 'Ludmilla's Pink Oxheart'. Of the plants that survived the disease onslaught, they both did pretty well - but unfortunately for me, they hit their productive prime relatively late - mid September, which by that time I'm done with much of the canning and processing. They do make great dried tomatoes, however.

A couple of flops. Pritchards Scarlet Topper, an offspring of Marglobe, was bum seed - pingpong ball sized tomatoes. Gail's Sweet plum was plum-shaped, alright, but far from sweet. Thing was a weed.

Then the peppers were fun, raising those crossed offspring of jalapenos. I saved two plants, one with just great flavor - mild heat, sweet when its red, and another thats super thick-walled and really flavorful when green, even better when its red.

And my 3 foot high Russian Red Kale is surrounded by fencing for the winter.

So, mla2ofus, your "something new" was -- the garden! It is always tough starting out on new ground. If there's a new climate to adjust to, it is even tougher.

My gardens are on glacial till so, very rocky. I've read that rocky ground is especially prime for root-knot nematodes. There was one year the carrots were just covered with hair! It seemed likely to me that this was just a response to the nematodes. Yes, there were even knots in the little hair roots but I think that they may cause me trouble even when they aren't so obvious by interfering with normal growth. A couple of years ago, I tried the carrots in a garden with very sandy & not rocky soil - they did wonderfully!

I've wondered about oxheart tomato varieties, David. Do you know that the Early Girls I grow every year start off the year with that shape. Even true with the fruit of those "mystery girl" plants that I've had the last couple of years. I asked Carolyn over in the tomato forum about it. She contends that it is weather stress with those things.

I may try hybridizing tomatoes next year . . . yep, sounds crazy to me. What I want to do is cross some very similar, open-pollinated varieties that I'm already happy with and see if I can't stabilize the offspring in a few short years. (If something simple works, maybe I can try being more adventurous. :o)

Steve

I have grown over 200 varieties of tomatoes and my standbys are Brandywine - pink,Rainbow- bi color large,Azchoyka-early yellow medium, Gold Nugget -earliest yellow cherry determnite,Kotlas -earliest red saladette determnite, Sun Gold-orange sweet cherry -hybrid, Sweet Million - red cherry. Sometimes black cherry but it doesn't ripen as early. Some of the oxhearts were very low producing as well as some of the purple tomatoes. We have cool night and short season. There is a little smaller pink that doesn't crack as bad but can't come up with the name right now.

Grew 2 edamame this year that are suppose to be early. Started under row cover in May. They did produce pods but 1 had about 3 per pod and the other 1 to 2 seeds per pod. A lot of picking for very little harvest. Maybe 10 years ago I trialed soybeans for Ferry Morse but they were longer season ones and they did not mature.

We did some tomato grafts along with the Ag research center. Grafting tomato to eggplant roots to make better disease resistance. Then eggplant to tomato roots. Mine looked pretty good after the initial wilt but when I removed the clips the tops fell off so no luck.

Something that I'd hoped to find for 2013 was a nematode-resistant potato. It just seemed to make sense. There are other veggies where certain varieties are resistant to root nematodes.

Well, UCDavis says there ain't any . . . However, Potato Garden tells us that Sunrise potatoes have nematode resistance . . ?

There are new-to-me seed companies with offerings that I'd like to explore. In the edamame thread, I mentioned that I've never ordered a darn thing from Victory . . . I'm almost embarrassed to admit it. And, I haven't ordered tomato seed from several outfits that have been right in the thick of the tomato patch for years!

A Canadian company which may have been outside of my possibilities because of their location a few years ago (or not - I really don't know), is West Coast Seeds. They were certainly beneath my radar until recently.

Steve

Our 'something new' for '13 is to build a greenhouse, build raised beds, and try to find some decent top soil and compost. We have started a compost pile but there won't be enough for what we want to do. Then we need to finish our privacy fence and finish the basic landscaping. I want to try growing and saving more heirloom seeds also.

New greenhouse??

Here is my "old greenhouse," mla2ofus:

I have never decided if it should be painted. The plastic film is replaced every 4 or 5 years and it began life as "just a wall" 16 years ago. I had moved my old lean-to greenhouse from another home and didn't have anything to lean it to. Later, the lean-to went to the dump and everything to the south of the wall sprung up!

As you can see, it amounts to something of a "sunshed" rather than a more conventional greenhouse. It was all a part of trying to conserve heat.

Heirlooms, mla2ofus? (Have we talked about squash? ;o) C. maxima might be a different story but don't go with more than 1 variety of C. pepo or, admit I warned you. If you try to save seeds - a pumpkin crossed with a zucchini has produced an "inedible gourd" in my gardens.

Ask on this forum about short-season varieties! We are glad you are here.

Steve

Ahhh? I don't see a link for your'greenhouse'.

I don't understand, mla2ofus.

You do see the picture, right?

I didn't post a link to the Picasa image. Picasa does some funny things with my pictures after awhile. It seems to change the url. I'm not sure about why but linking something to the image seems to give it a very short life.

Let me know what I did wrong, please.

Steve