New Product Review Update 1 - Gardener's Victory Self-Watering Planter Garden Kit

First ripe non-cherry sized tomato of the year! A delicious, bright yellow tennis ball sized Taxi

In late May, I described the set up and use of a very nicely designed self-watering container - the Victory Self Watering Container Kit - from Gardener’s Supply Company; that review can be found here.

Only a month has gone by, and progress is just remarkable. The first Taxi tomato (a determinate variety perfect for this planter), shown above, was harvested and enjoyed in 39 days (!!!) from transplant (and, yes, it was delicious).

Pictures are worth a whole lot of words, and views of both Victory planters are shown below. Both are perfectly healthy, and the self watering nature of the planters has been very welcome in the consistently hot weather being experienced thus far in Raleigh, NC. The planter design removes the need to stake and tie the plants, making maintenance a snap.

Happy Taxi tomato in the Victory planter

A whole lot of Taxi tomatoes on the way

The second Victory planter contains a Dwarf Tomato Project variety, Dwarf Sweet Sue, which is a later maturing variety than Taxi. It too is thriving and fruit set is going very well - see below.

Dwarf Sweet Sue filling up the planter

Dwarf Sweet Sue tomatoes decorating the plant

All in all, I love this planter!

Update on the Bouquet Ornamental Hot Pepper Mini-Project

Back in 2002 I was ambling through an arboretum (JC Raulston, I presume, though it could have been elsewhere) and there were gorgeous colorful hot pepper plants growing with a profusion of ripe, red peppers. Somehow, one of the quite small fruit (Thai pepper shape and size) ended up in my pocket. I saved seeds from it, and it is designated “Arboretum Purple Leaf” in my seed log.

Seeds were saved, and a few were planted in 2003, and the project for which the latest update is provided in this blog was launched (though I really didn’t know it at the time). There was quite a bit of diversity of leaf color, flower color and fruit shape and color. One form seemed quite easy to start to stabilize, and I named it Gemstone. Possessing dark green leaves with heavy purple shading (especially in full sun) and purple flowers, the pointed cone shaped peppers transition from a vibrant deep lavender, through cream, yellow, and orange, finally ending up red. I am growing Gemstone this year and will show it once the peppers start to form and mature, so that the full range of color is provided.

Another type emerged from that arboretum-borrowed pepper that had nearly normal green foliage, white flowers tinged with purple, more slender, darker purple fruit that also went through color changes on their way to red. This one was named Bouquet, and proved to be far more challenging to nail down, with all sorts of variations popping up on each attempt.

Last year I grew a number of various saved seed lots in an attempt to finally nail down the pepper I wish to call Bouquet, and sharing the pics on Instagram drummed up lots of interest. Therefore, many samples of seed made the rounds, and I am already seeing early results. I do want to take a look at the ones I am growing and provide my opinion on where we may go next with each.

A pepper plant given to me by a friend last year isn’t formally part of the project, but I distributed seeds anyway, designated P18-2 - I believe it to be the variety Trifetti, and it has the most beautiful foliage.

Picture of plant P18-2 taken on June 22, showing the complex foliage pattern and purple flowers

Last year, P18-3 had green stems, green leaves, white flowers and pale yellow to cream colored, slender peppers that ripened orange red. I seem to be getting the same results this year. All of the seedlings seemed uniform - this is a pretty pepper that has yet to be named.

P18-3 plant showing the leaf and pepper color and shape; flowers are white.

My seedlings for last year’s P18-4 looked quite uniform, shown below. The growth is more upright/columnar. Foliage is true green, flowers are white tinged with violet, and the peppers are a vibrant deep lavender, sort of a slender upward pointing cone in shape. This is not a Bouquet candidate in plant habit, but is quite lovely.

Pepper plant from P18-4

Once again, plants from P18-5 seemed quite uniform, so only one was planted. This is a more spreading plant with colors similar to P18-4, but the fruit seem to be forming more in clusters. This is not the primary Bouquet candidate, but is close, and really gorgeous so far.

Plant from P18-5

With P18-6, there seemed to be more seedling variation, so I planted two seedling types. The plant on the left, below, has dusky green leaves, pale lavender flowers, and dark lavender upward pointed slender cones - this will be the main Bouquet candidate. The plant on the right is another of the cream colored fruit, white flowered, green foliage types seen with P18-3.

P18-7 also showed seedling variation, and two seedlings made the cut for the garden. As you can see, they are quite similar, with slender lavender peppers. Not Bouquet, most likely, but nice nonetheless.

Finally, we have the most variable seedling sample of all, P18-8, of which I grew three plants, see below. The first and third plants are quite upright/columnar, with more cone-shaped fruit - the first having green leaves, white flowers and cream colored peppers, the last having beautiful lavender cones. The second plant has very distinctively dark, purple peppers with a slight hint of brown.

The diversity remains quite broad, and all plants are attractive and productive…these are all growing in one gallon pots. Please find me in Instagram - @nctomatoman - and use the tag #bouquetpepperproject to show pictures of the ones you are growing. Use the number on the packet I sent to designate them clearly. What remains is to see the full color range on these - the transition between the pics above (the initial/unripe) color, the transitional colors, and the final color, to determine the next steps.

Sad news - Carolyn Male died on June 14. She and I go way back....

My friendship with Carolyn male began with a Seed Savers Exchange request for the tomato Anna Russian. With the seed request was a long, lovely hand written letter which began “I would love to take a walk through your garden when the tomatoes start to ripen”. Carolyn was a New York gardener just dipping her toes into the SSE herself at that time.

When Carolyn’s brother, David, contacted me on Friday, June 14 with the news of Carolyn’s passing, it brought an end to a frequently close, sometimes stormy and ultimately fragile friendship that spanned 29 years and countless sharing of seeds of all sorts. Starting in 1991, by 2009 Carolyn sent me 130 different packets of tomato seeds. Some real favorites were in those transactions - Soldacki, Opalka, Eva Purple Ball, Jaune Flamme, Cuostralee, Sandul Moldovan, Druzba, Zogola, Orange Strawberry, Indian Stripe and Neves Azorean Red among them.

Carolyn and I co-published the heirloom tomato publication Off The Vine. We always felt like we were running behind, had no idea really what we were doing (except sharing our parallel passions with heirloom tomatoes), but it was a fun three years doing so.

We were both contributors to various on line gardening forums, mainly Garden Web and Tomatoville. Carolyn had far more patience than I with regard to answering pretty much every tomato question that was posed. She held strong opinions for sure. We butted heads more than once. That’s what friends do.

Carolyn was the first of the two of us with a book - in 1999, Smith and Hawken: 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden was released. It documented the remarkable world of heirloom tomatoes in print for the very first time. It was such a pleasure to have contributed seeds to many of the varieties that she featured in the book.

When it became difficult for Carolyn to start her seeds but she still wished to grow her many recent heirloom tomato acquisitions, some of her garden friends started plants and shipped them to her to grow. In 2011, Sue and I were to travel to Massachusetts for our niece’s college graduation. One possible route could take us by Carolyn’s house, allowing an in-person plant delivery and my first chance to meet her in person. We jumped at the chance.

Carolyn and I during our spring 2011 visit to her home in Salem, NY

Most recently, Carolyn, with growing physical challenges, maintained her presence on the internet sharing her knowledge and opinions (which she never ran short of!) and grew what she could, helped by local friends. We drifted apart in these later years - inevitable, but sad, nonetheless.

Carolyn joins a stellar group of the SSE tomato people - Ben Quisenberry, Thane Earle, Faxon Stinnett, Edmund Brown, Gary Staley, Calvin Wait, and more recently, Glenn Drowns, Bill Minkey, Neil Lockhart, Jeff Fleming and me. She provided lots of history and detailed tomato descriptions in her hundreds of seed listings. I suspect that receiving seed requests, packaging up and sending seed samples was one of the true joys of her life. The garden world suffered a significant loss with Carolyn’s passing.

There is so much to blog about, I can't decide. Gotta start somewhere! The 2019 Garden - mid June status

The tomatoes are in full bloom! This unusual one is a tiny cherry tomato, from one fruit plucked from a plant growing in front of the Mackeys Ferry Peanut shop on Route 64 last year.

Enough with events and product reviews (though I love to do events, and am happy to try out new products). It’s gardening time! There is really so much going on out there that it is hard to stop gardening and start sharing results and observations.

First, some data - at last count (I add things all the time), there are 123 tomato plants, 10 eggplant plants, 35 pepper plants, a ground cherry, two types of summer squash, two types of bush green beans, 2 types of cucumbers and one type of pole beans up and happily growing. The garden was planted in two major efforts - indeterminate tomatoes in straw bales on April 26, and all of the rest on May 15.

As of mid June, the indeterminate tomatoes are approaching 4 feet tall and dwarf tomatoes are 2 feet tall on average. Pretty much everything out there is in blossom, and most tomatoes set fruit. The weather has been “unusual” - much of May hot and dry, much of June wet, relatively cool and when not raining, delightful.

Full driveway garden, taken standing in the bed of my truck

My days are starting to fall into a regular, delightful pattern. Daily chores are watering (unless it has rained), examination of all plants for blemished foliage (fungal infections, followed by removal of damaged leaves), tying to the stakes, and close observations. The weekly chore is feeding. I’ve also done the first dozen crosses (more about that in a future blog).

I am excited about so much of what I am growing this year. This is a garden with multiple research efforts, and a major culinary focus. It will be fun to describe each general project; there are 2 involving peppers, one project focusing on eggplants, and continuation of the dwarf breeding project, as well as carrying out new crosses to make new families, or just explore genetics. I am growing several family heirlooms sent to me for evaluation (what an honor to be able to do that!).

I will be therefore blogging much more frequently to get everyone caught up. By the way, I feature one plant each day, posted on Instagram, but also cross posted to Twitter and my Facebook author page; be sure to look for it (I am @nctomatoman on IG and Twitter, and my FB author page is under Craig LeHoullier).

There are a few other surprises ahead - in fact, my weekly meeting to discuss them with my main helper (my daughter Sara) is just about to begin!

Butterfly weed grown from seed collected from a neighbor’s plant

Gardeners, Seed Savers, my Seedling customers - come to Durham tomorrow evening! Seed Savers Exchange meet up...

Tomato diversity from a 2018 August harvest

Imagine what our gardens would consist of had Kent and Diane Whealy not conceived of and launched the Seed Savers Exchange in 1975. The great diversity we enjoy today would be but a dream and our gardens would likely be quite boring. When I discovered and joined the organization in 1986 it truly changed my life. The thousands of active members trading varieties through the exchange over the years changed the world.

Tomorrow evening, between 4-7 PM, Heather Haynes, SSE Director of Development, is hosting a meet up with free appetizers in Durham at Local 22 Kitchen and Bar. I will be there throughout, and Heather and I would love it if local lifetime, active and former SSE members, gardeners and seed savers join us to meet and chat and find out about the current and future direction and activities of the SSE. Bring your questions, ideas, and energy. The Facebook event details can be found here. We hope you can make it - it’s be fun (and, I am now convinced that gardeners will save the world!)

View of my 2019 garden a few days ago.