Let the transplanting begin! Each cell is labeled - I will pop each cell of seedlings into 3.5 inch pots, which will allow them to hold longer and in better health while I work through transplanting in the coming week.
First - a news item! Last Friday I held my first of a series of Instagram Live shows. It started at 3 PM, and went for 45 minutes - my daughter Sara moderated for me (reading and asking the posted questions). I hope to do this regularly, every Friday at 3 PM EST - please check it out - find me @nctomatoman on Instagram.
In my last blog I listed various plants that will be available in the Hendersonville area, or for my garden - indeterminate and dwarf tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. The missing piece is the 2020 plan for the Dwarf Tomato Project.
As always, I was ambitious in planting seeds. Why not?! I have lots of seeds, and we have lots of work yet to do. We also have some of the really unusual things to finish off. I will write brief rationales as to why I chose each seed to start.
New F1 hybrids to create new Dwarf families - I have four of these, and each provided indeterminate seedlings meaning the crosses worked. The Mikey family is from a cross of a small purple fruited, green striped microdwarf with Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom. Shorty is the result of crossing Cherokee Purple on to Fuzzy Short (a very compact, very fuzzy leaved determinate). Neither of these are actually part of the dwarf project, just curiosity - and though I can guess what the hybrid will look like, all bets are off in the F2 and beyond. I crossed the very unusual, historic Honor Bright (Livingston 1890s, white flowers, yellow foliage) with Dwarf Blazing Beauty to create the Blazey family. Finally, Dwarf Sweet Sue was crossed with Peach Blow Sutton to create the Suzy family - I am hoping for some fuzz fruited, tasty dwarf varieties out of this one.
The Acey family is represented in Dwarf Walter’s Fancy (variegated potato leaf foliage, yellow tomatoes) and Dwarf Elsie’s Fancy (variegated potato leaf foliage, white tomatoes), as well as two others with the sexy names 6939 and 6941 - regular leaf variegated foliage, pale or deeper yellow tomatoes.
I have seedlings of three that are promising, and close to completion - Dwarf Modern Roman, Dwarf Stony Brook Speckled and Dwarf Stony Brook Heart. All three have potato leaf foliage.
From the Anthy family are my latest attempt at Dwarf Ann’s Dusky Rose Plum, and Dwarf Mocha’s Cherry. Both have heavy antho shoulder shading. From the Steamy family will be two attempts at Dwarf Liz’s Teardrop. The Anthy and Steamy offspring can be frustrating, with few to no seeds in the tomatoes!
I am growing Teensy Pink, Dwarf Speckled Heart, Dwarf Buddy’s Heart, Dwarf Kodiak King, Dwarf Gloria’s Treat, Capri Show Stopper (which came up indeterminate, so probably won’t be grown out), Dwarf Waverley, Aussie Drop, Dwarf Laura’s Bounty, Dwarf Snakebite, Dwarf Tanager, Dwarf Strawberry Lemonade, Dwarf Noah’s Stripes, Dwarf Pink Livjia, a Fancy orange offspring with a rose colored center, Sandy vial 7000, a chocolate striped heart (I hope!) from Hearty, and three from the weird and wonderful Scotty family (created by crossing the yellow leaf, white to orange to red fruit Surprise with Dwarf Scarlet Heart) - my T19-51, 52 and 53 - and two green flesh with stripes from the Beauty line I grew last year.
The first 10 straw bales are positioned, and treatment began today
Not counting the four new hybrids, that means I will try to fit in 30 plants for the project (at least - some of the above will have differing seedling types - leaf, color, etc). I also want to grow some of our released dwarfs (either the ones we love to eat the most, or ones that are running short on seeds).
The beneficiary of my over-planting will be gardeners in the Hendersonville area, if they want to join in the Dwarf Tomato Project fun!
Morning hike of the Pink Beds trail in the Pisgah National Forest. Sue, Koda and Marlin a bit ahead of me.