Lots of seeds are now planted. Let's start walking through my slowly forming plans for 2023 gardening

We’ll consider this major spring garden update Part 1.

On one hand, the pace of my gardening season seems slower. Then I look at the flats germinating in my office, or already transplanted sitting in my driveway, sizing up and getting ready for planting into our raised beds. This is our 4th season gardening here. We are (mostly) beyond the bizarre of COVID. I worked hard on the Growing Epic Tomatoes course with Joe Lamp’l, which was a key “busy” feature of the last two seasons. Already, this year feels different.

On January 31, I made my first planting - some flowers, some greens and other cool weather crops. It is they that have been transplanted. For flowers, I planted yellow and pink canna sent to me by my friend John. Germination was slow and spotty and I may go back when it gets warmer and repeat. Older packets of Echinacea and Balcony Petunia and Blue Wood Aster didn’t germinate. Pansies and Snapdragons did, and they are progressing well.

I planted Golden Beet, Crosby Beet (both of which germinated well), and an older packet of Detroit Red Beet, which did not. I have lots of plants of rhubarb and Bright Lights chard, and a few plants of a mustard, collard and kale. I’ve got plenty for my needs.

Seaside, Space and Nobel spinach germinated great; Acadia did not. All the lettuce - Gabriella, Green Ice, Rouxai, Magenta and Cherokee - are doing wonderfully. All of this will represent our cool weather garden that will reside in containers and our raised beds.

transplanted spinach, lettuce, etc - living outdoors

On February 20, I planted a flat with a few different flowers, a basil and lots of saved Hibiscus - the main reason being I wanted to explore how hibiscus seed maintains viability with age. The flowers planted were Thunbergia, Salvia Coral Nymph, a few saved Baptisia, and Carmel Chianti basil (saved seed). I am waiting on the baptisia, but all else germinated quickly and well.

As for the hibiscus, most were swamp mallow of various colors,, two are coccinea, the other being Hibiscus manihot, tall with yellow flowers and very spiny seed pods. Of 2014 saved seeds, so far 5 of 7 types germinated. 2015, 3 of 7; 2016, 6 of 7; 2017, 5 of 8, and 2022, 3 of 4 - in total, 21 of the 33 types I planted germinated. I have at least one plant of each color - white with dark red eye, pink with dark red eye, pink with pale eye, one maroon, and both coccinea red and white (Texas Star). I have no idea where these will all go, but I do want to get one plant of each for fresh seed saving. In general, they seem to be perennial here as well.

The hibiscus flat - thunbergia is lower left

Also on February 20 I undertook a planting of older tomato seeds that are quite close to those I obtained. The intent of this planting was to check on germination of older saved seed. Germination continues, even today on day 16, so the results are incomplete. No shows to date are Anna Russian (2012 and 2013 seeds), Bisignano #2 (2011 and 2013 seed), Eva Purple Ball (2011), Hege German Pink (2012), Rasp Red (2008), Red Brandywine (2006), and Yellow Brandywine (2011 and 2013). I do have seedlings up and growing from Big Sandy, Brandywine, Lucky Cross, Cancelmo Family Heirloom, Cherokee Chocolate, Cherokee Purple, Coyote, Dester, Gallo Plum, Giant Syrian, Hugh’s, Indian Stripe, JD Special C Tex, and Monticello Mystery. The oldest germinating seeds are from 2009 and 2011 - 12 and 14 years old. At that age, germination is slower and erratic - 14 days or more.

In addition, in that flat I planted some peppers and eggplants - all 7 peppers (seed saved 2022) and all four eggplant (seed saved 2022). Fresh pepper or eggplant seeds, thus take 6 to 8 days to germinate, compared with fresh tomato seeds, that take between 3 and 5 days.

old tomato seed and fresh pepper and eggplant flat - getting some filtered sun

I will discuss last night’s marathon planting of 3 flats, 150 cells, of tomatoes - and also discuss possibilities of where they will be grown. With the nearby Veterans Healing Farm greenhouse, my options will be flexible and interesting.

Progress on what's been planted - thoughts on what comes next

Every year, a new spiral notebook.

Let’s get caught up on what’s going on with the 2023 garden, which is of course mostly seed starting, but, in addition, some transplanting too. Rather than visualize the season, this year will be a bit different. I am sorting it out in pieces by making rather quick decisions when certain types of seeds need planting. The last part, the main batch of tomatoes, is targeted for planting tomorrow, but I won’t decide on which until tonight!

Our backyard magnolia in bloom a full month sooner than our last three springs here in Hendersonville.

I planted the first seeds on January 31. I planted 7 cells of flowers, 1 of rhubarb, 3 of beets, 2 of chard, 1 each a mustard, kale and collards, three with spinach and 5 with lettuce. Of the flowers, Echinacea, Balcony Petunia, and Blue Wood Aster are yet to germinate (seeds are a few years old). One each seed of yellow canna and pink canna, 2 rhubarb, and some pansies in snapdragons are up and growing well. Golden and Crosby Beet are in good shape, but Detroit Beet was older seed and didn’t germinate. I’ve got plenty of chard, mustard, kale, collards, Seaside, Space and Nobel spinach, and Gabriella, Green Ice, Rouxai, Magenta and Cherokee lettuce. I’ve already separated out and transplanted all of the above into 3.5 inch pots or (for the beets and snapdragons), 1 inch cell plug flats. The greens are in 3.5 inch pots with up to 6 plants in each. They’ve been spending most of the time outdoors, being cool weather plants, and will come into the garage if a frost is likely.

Here come the greens described in the above section

On February 20, I planted 49 cells - a few random flowers and herbs (Thunbergia, Coral Nymph salvia, a few baptisia, a purple leaf basil and a celosia), but mostly wanted to test germination on a slew of hibiscus that were collected in the wild and grown out since 2014. I had no idea how these (mostly Swamp Mallows) kept their viability. As of today, 5 of 7 varieties saved in 2014 (9 year old seed), 3 of 7 saved in 2015 (8 year old seed), 6 of 7 saved in 2016 (7 year old seed), 5 of 8 saved in 2017 (6 year old seed), and 3 saved in 2022 (1 year old seed) popped out of the planting mix. I have at least one plant of each of the types that I want to grow out this year.

Here’s my messy hibiscus planting page

Finally came a major planting of older tomato seeds, and fresh pepper and eggplant seeds, on February 20. I wanted to use my tomato family trees tracking genealogy and see how older seed as close to the received seed as possible for each variety would germinate. This flat is still on a heating mat, so this is work in progress.

So far, Big Sandy saved in 2012 and 2013 is up and growing. Lucky Cross from 2011, Cancelmo Family Heirloom from 2016 and 2017, Cherokee Chocolate from 2011 and 2012, Cherokee Purple from 2011, Gallo Plum from 2009 (the oldest seed that is up - 14 years old), Giant Syrian from 2012 and 2013, Hugh’s from 2013 and 2014, JD Special C Tex from 2012, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom from 2015, Monticello Mystery Tomato from 2013, and Yellow Brandywine from 2011 are up.

I’ve no growth yet from Anna Russian (2012, 2013), Bisignano #2 (2011, 2013), Brandywine (two from 2011), Coyote (from 2011 and 2013), Dester (from 2012 and 2013), Eva Purple Ball from 2011, Hege German Pink (two from 2012), Indian Stripe from 2011, Rasp Red from 2008 and Red Brandywine from 2006. All of the peppers and eggplant are up and growing. As far as days to germination, peppers ranged from 6-7 days, eggplant 6-7 days, and tomatoes 6 days for 2016 and 2017 saved up to 11 days for seeds saved in 2011. I will keep hope that more will appear and provide an update in a few weeks.

That’s it for the update. As far as what I will plant tomorrow, the parameters I am using - a set of standard indeterminate varieties that are favorites (choosing from most colors), a set of works in progress or newly sent indeterminates - and ditto for the dwarfs (some favorites, some works in progress). My other decision will be which to grow at the Veterans Healing Farm greenhouse (I can probably fit 80 indeterminate and 40 dwarf there), and which to grow here in our back yard in straw bales (probably 20 -30 varieties).

Magnolia close up

Happy New Year, 2023! Let's get this thing going again...

Holiday light display at the NC Arboretum, seen in a mid December visit

Last year was a busy one for my blog, with my periodic seed collection review and the entire republishing of Off The Vine. It will be impossible to match that, so I am pondering what this blog will be for the coming year. It has been a bit of a rocky start to the new year, with me, then Sue, coming down with COVID. We are both on the mend, thanks to having had all of our vaccines and boosters, and prescriptions of Paxlovid.

I spent lots of December fulfilling seed requests, but that job is not yet complete. Next week I will finish the job, and lots of gardeners will have interesting (and in some cases, important) things to grow in their gardens this year and beyond. I’ve also been working on updating the genealogies of some of the more important varieties in my tomato collection - tracking each seed lot from when I received it to the most recent grow out. It is certainly the super-geeky side of my heirloom seed and gardening passion, but I find it fun and relaxing - as well as a real data management challenge.

Requests for gardening workshops are coming in, and there are already a number of Zooms, and two close by in-person talks, sitting in my calendar. I plan to resume live Instagram sessions from my back yard, probably starting in March, when I start planting seeds. I won’t be selling seedlings on any sort of scale this year - that phase of my gardening life has now passed. For those that are local to me here in Hendersonville, a good friend plans to sell heirloom tomato seedlings - I will provide information when it becomes certain.

The Dwarf Tomato Project is, if not grinding to a halt, now moving at a much slower rate, which is appropriate for where we are, with so many successful releases. Given that, it is going to be a different type of garden for me this year - but more on that later on.

In closing, it will be another, interesting, fun gardening season - I look forward to sharing my findings with you as always. On we go, into 2023!

More of the remarkable display

A Black Friday sale! Seed sending News. An upcoming Instagram Live. It's general update time.

At least we have flowers inside! We’ve lived here for three years and our African violets finally seem happy

I am pleased to share announce that the all on-line, video, self-paced tomato course created by Joe Lamp’l and me - Growing Epic Tomatoes - will be available for a significantly reduced price - $197.00 - from Monday November 21 until midnight Sunday November 27.

Please take advantage of this big saving on this very popular, very well received course! All you need to do is to go to this link and put in the code FALLSALE22 at check out. Please note that this course is “evergreen” - once you purchase, you can jump right in!

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For those of you who requested tomato seeds throughout the growing season, watch your mailboxes over the coming week. I completed half of the requests today, and should get the rest completed by the weekend. I am very low on a lot of varieties now, so can’t accept any additional requests at this time. I look forward to hearing about how the various varieties do for you next year!

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I will probably do an Instagram Live this coming Friday at 3 PM eastern just to say hello and catch folks up on a few things - the GET course discount, seed sending, and touch upon early thoughts for next year. It seems ages since I’ve done one - time just seems to fly these days.

Our other current bloomer

First frost last night - seed saving complete. Reflections on the 2022 season, and a high level view of seeds saved

tender perennials and a few annuals comfy and safe in the garage

We woke up a few mornings ago to frost on lawns, cars and decks. It was 29 degrees. Most recent mornings have been frosty. So - with respect to the 2022 garden - that’s all, folks! Fortunately, we knew this was coming and the garage has lots of potted up tender perennials that we didn’t want to lose, as well as some started from seed that weren’t situated in the gardens. Among the plants now safe and sound are several tender salvias, a cranesbill, a dahlia, one Greek Columnar basil plant, geraniums, portulaca, bougainvillea, red wave petunia, and other various and sundry varieties started from seed but yet to find a home in the garden.

A few days ago I packaged up the last of the saved seeds - from two plants of the eggplant Midnight Lightning. It was a good year for seed saving, as there was only one complete crop failure (the tomato World War II, which will get another chance next year), and the only variety that I didn’t manage to save seeds from is the stubborn, yet to be released dwarf tomato Dwarf Liz’s Teardrop. It simply will not produce seeds. Though that may be an asset for those who can’t, or don’t wish to, consume tomato seeds, that trait makes it impossible to propagate! I didn’t save seeds from Sun Gold (hybrid cherry tomato) either, since I have some from last year, and playing with the F2 generation plants are not high on my list at the moment.

I provided lots of detail on individual crops in earlier blogs in my 2022 Garden Update tagged posts, so this is more about overall impressions and statistics.

For tomatoes, I have seeds up to T22-85. Of the 85 varieties saved, 65 were grown by me, and the other 20 were from fruits given to me by local Dwarf project volunteers or friends. Some were from seeds I gave out, some from seedlings. It was a fine year - more manageable than last year (with roughly half of the plants), 56 but a more abbreviated harvest window due to earlier onset of disease. We canned 7 quarts of tomatoes, far below the 63 and 56 quarts of our first two gardens here in Hendersonville.

For peppers, I have seeds up to T22-10. I was pleased to have gotten representative fruit - hence seeds - from the Islander project selections (Fire Opal, Carolina Amethyst, Royal Purple, and White Gold), as well as Orange Bell and Chocolate Bell, and a volunteer multicolored hot pepper from the Gemstone line. Everything behaved as it should have with regards to the types of peppers. The one oddity was that the first fruit on all of the bell pepper plants formed fine but rotted before ripening. Cooler weather, after the peak of summer heat, seemed to remedy the issue.

For eggplants, I have seeds up to E22-7, with good representative samples from the Orient Express selection varieties, as well as Mardi Gras and Green Ghost. We roasted a lot of eggplant and froze the results, which will mean some nice recipes in fall and winter.

As far as miscellaneous saved seeds, I have samples from Caramel Chianti basil, Coral Nymph salvia, a Baptisia from the Quechee Inn (Vermont), pink, white and red Swamp Mallow hibiscus and red coccinea hibiscus (frost hit before the white variety of coccinea set seed), Ground Cherry from a friend, Lablab from a friend, and some saved Marbel bush bean.

In retrospect, I was quite pleased with the 2022 garden. We wished for more snap beans (there never seems to be enough), but everything, else was ample. For next year, I think Sugar Snap peas are off the grow list - they aren’t worth it with the main place we can grow them. Melons will make a return - it’s been years since I’ve grown them, and strawbales should give good results. As for which and how many of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, summer squash, potatoes and beans - that will be determined over the winter.

Right now, I am ready to turn my attention to fulfilling the many seed requests sitting in emails - after that, the Dwarf tomato book. There is no shortage of interesting things to delve into!

more rescued plants keeping our kayaks company. Yes, the garage is a mess!

Into September we go - state of the garden, plans, and projects

Marlin posing under the Bougainvillea, for some reason.

Whether it is my age, or the love Sue and I have for living here in Hendersonville, or all of the wonderful hiking opportunities, time seems to be racing by faster than ever. It seems to be just yesterday that I was planning what to grow in 2022 - and here we are, most seeds saved, observations made, and most of the wonderful tomatoes but a fond memory.

This morning I made the rounds of the yard with my phone, snapping pictures of things that caught my eye. Most were flowers, with a few late planted dwarf tomatoes and colorful bell peppers, finally producing well in what was a rather odd growing season. The gallery below captures the flowers - you can click left or right to view all of the images. There are rubdeckia, buds on mum country girl, a selection of different salvias, sedum, a nice dahlia ,balloon flower (somehow still blooming) and more. The butterflies, bees and hummingbirds are all very happy with our flower gardens this year.

The bell pepper plants are finally doing what I had hoped, and you can see lots of colorful bells hidden in the foliage. The eggplants continue to thrive, as does Green Columnar basil. Even the 5 remaining Glory F2 dwarf tomato project plants have fruit that should give me at least one idea of size, color and flavor of each selection.

Please ask anything about any of the pictures in comments to this blog.

Koda and Marlin about to have a romp near the flower garden

As far as plans and projects - the planning will take place starting now, leading up to January. I will determine how many strawbales and container, how many and which tomatoes, eggplants and peppers, melons, cukes, beans and summer squash. I suspect it will be quite a different selection when compared to my first three gardens here.

With regard to projects - I’ve received a lot of seed requests, and hope to start filling them within the next few weeks. The dwarf tomato project will continue to wind down. The main project will be completing the book on the project, which will take up most of my time between now and next spring. The main challenge will be finding time in the mornings (when I write best) to do so - meaning more carefully scheduling our up to now highly impromptu morning hikes. I will also be continuing to publish Off The Vine articles (aiming to finish the reposting of the entire series by the end of the year), and blog posts on my tomato seed collection (which has now been resumed).

That should keep me out of trouble!

A pic from 2004 - Zoe (elderly black lab mix rescue, rear), Buddy (block head chocolate lab rescue with his tongue out), and at the time new puppy - my sweet girl - Mocha, pure bred given to us by someone (!), with those green eyes!

About our big dinner salads....and other random musings (begun July 17, finished today)

Busy Bumblebee on our Salvia Coccinea Coral Nymph in late August

What a rare event! We made big salads tonight for dinner where our own lettuce co-existed with our own tomatoes! Typically the lettuce is long gone before the tomatoes arrive. I wish I took a picture - Sue and I make big salads when they are the main dinner course. Aside from lettuce and tomatoes (tonight I used Dwarf Liz’s Teardrop and Glory F1 hybrid) were chopped sweet orange peppers (Trader Joe-sourced), our own cucumbers (Unagi hybrid, which I highly recommend), blueberries (picked just a few miles down the road), a few halves of Rainer cherries (Trader Joe again). I put some sliced deli turkey on mine, and Sue likes Kalamata olives on hers. There were also some craisins, toasted walnuts, some torn basil leaves (it is so nice to have fresh basil to use), grated Syrah soaked Bella Vista (yep - Trader Joe), olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice and black pepper. Sue adds a bit of Balsamic to hers. It fills a plate - but being on average about 95% water, has but few calories - so it is an amazing feast that fills us up. We’ve been doing salads like this for many, many years.

It was such a quiet day - Sundays here seem to be that way. The birds aren’t as vocal as they were, with just the house wren and song sparrows filling the spaces. Hummingbirds are around again after a bit of an absence, at our two feeders or our various flower gardens, particularly loving the phlox, salvia and crocosmia. The main morning task was watering - afternoon was for hammock time and a book, and tomato harvesting. We love our days here in Hendersonville. When Sue and I are in our back yard corner, the three dogs tend to hang around near us - except when some sound sends them running to see if a mole or vole or rabbit or squirrel - or delivery truck - threatened their domain. We could watch them frolic and interact all day (and sometimes it seems like we do!).

I’ve fallen behind on answering emails, which are mostly gardening questions at this time of year. I hope to get caught up tomorrow, but sometimes it just seems a bit overwhelming, working on issues in others’ gardens at the same time that I am working on those showing up in my own. If yours is one of the unanswered emails, apologies - you will get a response soon! (note added August 25 - yes, I did get caught up - but am falling behind again!)

Walking around the garden after dinner is hitting that time when it can be intimidating. Tomato growing means issues, and those issues accelerate as the season progresses, the plants get big, and the warm, humid weather takes its toll. Not only is there the regular watering, feeding, tying and diseased foliage removal, daily harvests are now here - and the decisions on what to do with it. I always have plans to take it slow, sample each variety carefully, take lots of pictures - then - WHAM - there are 20 or 30 or more pounds of tomatoes sitting on this or that table, all ripening at once. Which need to be tasted? Which need their seeds saved? Is it canning time yet? Something is leaking - which tomato is the culprit? It is just about at that point in the year, and I know it will flash by, as I will be very busy daily for the next month or more.

I often wonder how I got to this place - 40 years of gardens, two books, a collaborative on line course, Zooms and interviews and phone calls and emails and Instagrams and blogs. Mostly I wonder what’s next - what to stop, what to start, and how I can be in the moment more, have less “lists” - start to disencumber myself from being so consistently “on” and busy. I am so happy that I left Facebook and Twitter behind. Instagram is really my main sharing format, and though I have a love/hate feeling about all social media, I will likely stick with it for some time. I’ve come to realize that my blogging really is mostly for me - my record, my archive, and a place to do posts like this - thinking out loud, ruminating about things. My feeling is that blogs don’t often get read - too many words, too much time needed to do so, and our society is moving more and more toward brief sound bites. That, though, it not me - I love to write, love words, love the whole act of putting thoughts down (no longer on paper, but through my fingers, from this keyboard). Part of me is ready to do less gardening - smaller gardens for sure, feeling less tied to the yard, feeling more free to take off for days to kayak or hike. Part of me is ready to move away from the Zooms and the sharing. And an even bigger part of me is not ready for that quite yet - even though I burn out each year doing this, I somehow reenergize over the fall and winter and do it all again the following year. It does give me things to ponder as I garden, and mow, and hike, and laze in the hammock.

The above was all written in mid July. Now, on August 25 as I finish this blog, it all still rings true. Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I had wonderful experiences providing Zooms for the plant breeding department at Cornell (on the Dwarf Tomato Project), and Penn State Master Gardeners (on tomatoes). One more Zoom remains - the tomato talk - to an Orange County NC Master Gardener group in late October. Then - that’s it!

Things that are now done - Better Call Saul (for which I am very sad - I loved that series, and thought that the finale was brilliant), the Friday Office Hours for my Growing Epic Tomatoes course with Joe Lamp’l, and my weekly Thursday Instagram Lives. This is a relief for me. It opens up space to do more things, feel less tied down and obligated.

I now embark on completing the book on the Dwarf Tomato Project - that will be my main focus between now and next spring. When not working on that, it will be all about hiking, or kayaking, or reading, or listening to music - or lazing in the hammock with Sue. This all makes me very, very happy.

Finally - some ripe sweet bell peppers! Royal Purple, Chocolate Bell and Orange Bell, late August. Seed saving time!

Updates finished, looking ahead a bit...

A very different view after removing plants today

Today (August 16) I yanked the dead or dying tomato plants from the straw bales and tossed them over the fence into our back woods. I still have 8 tomato plants growing in 5 gallon grow bags sitting on top of the front bales where indeterminate tomatoes resided earlier this season. Six are F2 generation from the Glory family (Dester X Dwarf Gloria’s Treat) - four are regular leaf, two are potato leaf. Two are chartreuse foliage Dwarf Jade Beauty, sent to me by a Growing Epic Tomatoes student - they appeared in a packet of Dwarf Jade Beauty from Victory Seeds. They may be a mutation or a cross - we will find out once fruits from the combined efforts of three of us begin to ripen. These plants are doing battle with septoria and early blight, so the possibility of them bearing ripe fruit is not assured.

The line of cherry tomatoes and other random varieties along the plant continue on. Two, from plants given to me by my garden friend Eddie at the Marion event this spring, will most likely provide ripe tomatoes. Tennessee Surprise will be a large bicolor, and the other is an unusually shaped tomato, a ridged plum shape, that is a mystery. I just saved a batch of seeds from Mexico Midget. The other of interest is from the Suzy family - it is indeterminate, the plant is dead, but a few fruit were appropriate for seed saving - very odd, matte/fuzzy skinned, and a green/pink mottled color. The flesh was very seedy. My goal are fuzzy dwarfs, so this is a dead end, albeit a curious one. Once we harvest the many cherry tomatoes present, these plants will be pulled, probably in a week or two.

bell peppers loading up - White Gold near, Fire Opal rear

I just harvested a load of eggplants from the still healthy, productive plants in straw bales, as well as lots of Shishito and Padron peppers. There are fruits on the bell peppers, and I am hoping some will ripen to the final color before they rot, so I can save seeds.

My next task are to plant spinach and lettuce seeds, so we can get salad greens throughout fall, winter and next spring. I will start those in small containers and transplant them into my two raised beds in a few weeks. I will also plant a few garlic cloves - perhaps aiming at a dozen plants. I overdid it last year, but we’ve enjoyed eating our own garlic. I’ve also got a very full plant of Greek Columnar Basil, which is soon to become pesto.

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Now on to the future. This coming Thursday - August 18 - will be my last weekly Instagram Live weekly ask me anything/garden update. It was great fun doing them between March and now, but it is time to bring them to a close. It is highly likely I will do one per month, just to keep connections going, before starting the weekly instances again next spring. So - one each in September, October, November, December, January, February - then regular weekly sessions starting mid March 2023. This matches the last of the Friday Office Hours sessions for Growing Epic Tomatoes, weekly Zooms done with Joe Lamp’l. He and I are both ready for a bit of a break!

I will continue posting blogs - there are lots of articles in Off The Vine to post, and I expect to finish that little project by the end of 2022.

In June, I suspended the review of my tomato seed collection, stopping at #250. I will restart this review in September, realizing that there will be quite a lot of filler - varieties that I never did get to grow out, or with little background info. We’ll see how it goes.

It is time for me to focus on finishing the Dwarf Tomato Project book. Reduced gardening activity and the Instagram Lives, as well as less frequent posts on Instagram and less frequent garden updates on my blog, will provide some of that time I need to do so. In addition, I will be reducing time spent on answering emails. My plan is to focus on responding to garden questions email on one day per week - to be determined. I will start this process on September 1.

Finally - about the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project. It has been an incredible ride - begun in 2005, it is now 17 years later - with 145 releases in various seed catalogs. Efforts on this, particularly with regard to my role - making crosses, decisions, distributing seeds - will now reduce considerably. This project will likely never formally end - work will be devolved to those who wish to take responsibility for moving various parts forward. It simply is time!

In my next blog, I will start to post my ideas on what next year’s garden - including various mini-projects - might look like. It’s way too soon for me to know for sure, but I can share some first thoughts and options!

Chartreuse foliage Jade Beauty

Thoughts on a very brief tomato harvest....or was it all that different?

kayaking on Lake Santeetlah - on our August trip

“Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, this happens!”

That could be the defining phrase for all gardeners. We are all constantly grappling with change on both macro and micro levels. There is variability within every season - temperatures, weather, critters, diseases. Then, there is the broader variability of how things are changing on a more broad scale - amount of rainfall, average last frost dates, length and intensity of heat waves. We get to deal with both, every year. Sometimes things work out just fine - and sometimes they don’t.

We moved to Hendersonville in January 2020. The first garden was pretty delightful. The first tomato ripened on July 15, yields and flavors were excellent - we canned 63 quarts, a record that we will never break (because our gardens will be smaller from now on), and all plants were removed - the tomato season ended - on August 25. That’s six weeks of tomato production. Weather was quite ideal throughout, with few 90 degree days and a reasonable amount of rain.

2021 was unique in that the garden was tended in a very disciplined fashion, in order to support filming for the course Growing Epic Tomatoes that Joe Lamp’l and his team created, focusing on his and my tomato gardens. Harvest began on July 10, yields were heavy, and it all came to an end on August 30. Duration of tomato production for 2021 was therefore was a little over 7 weeks. The weather was perfect, and we canned nearly as many quarts - 56.

2022 started out quite well. With less pressure to film, I still focused on many of the techniques that led to such a successful 2021. Fruit set was excellent early on, and plant health held well. First tomato harvested was a bit earlier - on July 4. Then….the heat cranked up, along with humidity. Then the daily late afternoon thunderstorms began. It became impossible to keep up with the spread of diseases - initially septoria and early blight, but also more fusarium wilt than I’d experienced here yet. I am about to remove all of the plants - the season has come to an end, on August 15. Total quarts canned - 7 - very low, even considering my garden contained 60 plants, about half of what I grew the last two years. Duration of tomato production ended up at 6 weeks.

In writing this blog, it is the first time I crunched the numbers on my first three gardens, to compare. I’ll pull out the pertinent data here. In each case, the plants went into the bales on roughly May 1.

2020 - 130 plants - harvest duration July 15-August 25 - 6 weeks. 63 quarts canned.

2021 - 110 plants, harvest duration July 10-August 30 - 7+weeks. 56 quarts canned.

2022 - 60 plants, harvest duration July 4-August 15 - 6 weeks. 7 quarts canned.

There are some interesting trends. First ripe fruit are coming in a bit more quickly each year. The pressure from disease is increasing. There were more days at 90 and above this year, and more late day rain which kept foliage wet overnight.

As far as critters, this year was largely free of hornworms, army worms, fruit worms, Japanese beetles and stink bugs. This was a disease year as far as issues. 2020 and 2021 had more hornworms and fruit worms, Stink bugs have not been a problem here. But - this was also a slug year, due to the rain. I’d not experienced slugs in my straw bales in 2020 or 2021, but they really came on late here, and mostly impacted my cukes, beans and squash.

Clearly next year will be different once more - the conditions (warmer? cooler? wetter? dryer? more or less humid?), and the critters. It will also be different in terms of my approach. I’ll discuss that in my next blog.

So in summary, my first take on 2022 - spinach, garlic, lettuce, cucumbers, eggplants, and tomato quality excellent. Bush snap beans and summer squash not quite excellent, but very good. Tomato yields very good early on but dropped off. Sweet bell peppers disappointing - rotting prior to ripening.

My first guess on 2023 - no bell peppers, less eggplants, a different mix (and location?) of tomatoes - less or no containers, less on the Dwarf tomato project. Better location for beans, squash, cukes - add melons. Nearly full turnover to straw bales.

Stay tuned for more in the upcoming blogs.

View from our airbnb in Robbinsville

Hendersonville Tomato Report - part 2. First Look at New Dwarf Families

A selection of uninspiring new Dwarf Tomato Project selections

Well, you can’t win ‘em all! As impressive as the F2 selections from my indeterminate X indeterminate crosses were (as reported in my last blog), the F2 dwarf selections from a set of indeterminate X dwarf hybrids (to form new dwarf families) didn’t particularly impress. For one thing, they seemed to be much more prone to disease than expected (particularly Septoria leaf spot, but also Fusarium wilt). Despite that, yield was fine - but having plenty of tomatoes that don’t light up the taste buds, even if unique and impressive looking, represent likely dead ends.

Blue’s Bling X Dwarf Mocha’s Cherry - Blingy family. I grew one dwarf, regular leaf, variegated foliage. The tomatoes were uniform, round, 3 ounces, purple in color with antho on the shoulder. The flavor was not great - I rated it 6.5. My hopes for this cross were to find a variegated leaf purple dwarf with antho on the shoulders with decent size and an excellent flavor. I got the color and the variegation, but not the size or flavor. It may be considered a dead end, but also may be worth a look to see if something better emerges in the next generation. In the above picture, it is the variety at the bottom of the pic.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Dwarf Speckled Heart - Lilly family. I have such high hopes for this family, as both components are great tomatoes. I grew out two F2 dwarf selections, both regular leaf. I didn’t spot a potato leaf dwarf in my seedlings, but my garden friend Denise has some growing. Neither of these are represented in the above picture. There was one really good result, and one so-so. The first Lilly F2 to ripen produced a nice yield of very pretty round pink tomatoes with gold stripes. The flavor was actually quite good - not earth shattering, but sweet, balanced, quite lovely, 7.5 rated. I think it is well worth seeing what appears in the next generation. The second plant was pretty ordinary, yielding 4 ounce slightly oblate scarlet tomatoes, very meaty, with a mild, non-offensive flavor that I rated 6.5. I have high hopes that others will find some real stunners in this family.

Lucky Cross X Dwarf Mocha’s Plum - Crossy family. I did a number of crosses onto Dwarf Mocha’s Plum, mostly out of curiosity - what the small plum shape and size, purple fruit color with antho shoulders would do combined with large fruited tasty indeterminate varieties. I planted one regular leaf dwarf and one potato leaf dwarf. The regular leaf plant produced lots of 2 ounce purple plum shaped fruit with antho shoulders of no outstanding flavor - rated 6. The potato leaf plant looked very promising, with variable size near hearts up to 5 ounces, red/yellow bicolors. Alas, they were quite bland, also rating a 6. I hoped for more. Rather than growing out each of these, I would likely return to the F2 seed to grow out a few additional selections to see what else there is to find. Already, I am thinking that the size and fairly weak flavor of Dwarf Mocha’s Plum is dominating in the resulting selections.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Dwarf Mocha’s Plum - Plummy family. I planted one regular leaf and one potato leaf selection. The regular leaf plant produced 3 ounce plum shaped pink fruit with antho shoulders of a slightly better flavor, rating a 7. The potato leaf plant was pink with antho, round, smaller at 2 ounces, and less flavorful, coming in at 6. I don’t see either of these as being worth pursuing further, and would return to dwarf hunt with the F2 seeds to see what else may be found. I am now really thinking that Dwarf Mocha’s Plum was a poor choice as a crossing partner.

Don’s Double Delight X Dwarf Mocha’s Plum - Donny family. I grew only one plant, and it has potato leaf foliage. It was really prolific, providing chocolate colored plum shaped fruit averaging 2 ounces, with prominent antho and faint stripes. Alas, I found them lacking in flavor, rating them a 6. They are colorful, and it may be worth growing out a plant from saved seed, but it may be better to go back to dwarf hunting with F2 seeds.

Lucky Cross X Dwarf Buddy’s Heart - Lucky family. I grew but one of these as well, choosing a potato leaf dwarf. The tomatoes were pretty, bright yellow with red swirls in and out, and in the 3 ounce range, oblate in shape. Flavor was lacking, and they were too tart - another 6. The color was fine, the flavor was not - back to the F2 dwarf hunting drawing board.

Blazey F4 dwarf selections (Dwarf Blazing Beauty X Honor Bright) - I grew two plants, one regular and one potato leaf. This is a lead sent to me by Susan from Idaho. The plants were as expected - green foliage tending to yellow with age, showing their genetic legacy from Honor Bright. In both plants, the 2-3 ounce slightly oblate tomatoes started pale green, then went to white, ripening to bright orange. Flavor was lacking, ranking in the 5-5.5 range for both. Swing and miss for these. You can see them in the pics as the two groupings of orange tomatoes, above the pink or purple ones.

So, that’s it - a fun season trying some new dwarfs from new families, with only one really worthy of progressing - the round pink with gold striped selection from the Lilly family. As to what’s next - we shall see.

Here’s the other view of this set of F2 dwarf selections. Colors included chocolate, purple, pink, orange and red/yellow bicolor, some with antho.