1st Tomato Sowings 2017

Golden Sunrise

First Tomato sowings for 2017 were completed today, Monday February 20th.

The following were all sown in the Small heated Propagator:

Black Cherry - 1 * 4 tray module (8 seeds)

Sweet Millions - 3 seeds

Golden Sunrise - 2 seeds

Hahms Gelbe - 3 seeds

Gardener's Delight - 3 seeds

Hahms Gelbe

Sand Propagator 2017

I turned the thermostat heater on in my home made  Sand Propagator on Saturday, February 18th.
I set it to approx 22.5.

On Monday, February 20th, I filled 2 sets of modules with sieved compost and put them sitting in the green trays (like one in attached picture) into which I had added a nice fill of water.
I will sow tomatoes in these in the next day or two hopefully.

As an experiment, I also completed the below task, which was basically to put capillary matting  in the bottom of the pictured green tray and give it a good wetting. I then sowed some Sweet Pepper seeds in the pictured modules and stood them on the tray. I then put them into the Sand Propagator under a clear plastic storage box (see second pic below)

Tray with capillary matting

Trays with water added under clear storage box.

The Sweet Pepper seeds sown were as follows:

Calfornian Wonder - 2 seeds
Pimento saved 2013 seed - 2 seeds
Yolo Wonder - 2 seeds
Doux D'Espagne saved 2014 seeds - 2 seeds
Lipstick (old 2014 sow by) - 2 seeds
Lombardo (old 2015 sow by) - 2 seeds
Giant Aconcagua - 2 seeds
Keystone Giant 2 seeds


As of March 15th, only the Keystone Giant had germinated...

Chilli Seedlings Progress February 19th 2017

Chilli Seedlings under Lights!!

Ideas 2017

Pea & Bean Frame Idea

Chilli Overwintering Update - Feb 14th 2016

Chilli overwintering update

Lemon Drop

The Lemon Drop and Hot Scotch are both still alive and well but have had an attack of greenfly😓

Problem now is whether they will attack the chilli seedlings 😟

Red Manzano

The Red Manzano is still looking good too and has leaves on it that look healthy..No sign of the greenfy on it even though it is close enough to the other 2 plants....

Purple Jalapeno plants are still in the bathroom window and have dropped all leaves, but have green stems so I am still hopeful that they may start growing again...

The 2 Orange Habanero plants in the Study have loads of leaves on them and look pretty good...
...except for bloody greenfly again..I gave all plants a spray with water and washing up liquid today so we will see if that helps...

Sweet Peppers - 2016 Review

Sweet Peppers 2016

Possibly they didn’t get the same attention as the Chilli Peppers in 2016 but a very good harvest nonetheless J

Like the Chilli Peppers, they probably benefitted from the start they had with the new Growlights.

Grown in 2016 were:

·         Californian Wonder (3) – An old reliable that probably wasn’t as good as previous years for some reason; I was possibly late sowing them..

·         Doux D’Espagne (1) – Not as good as previous years and late to fruit and ripen.

·         King of the North (2) – New for 2016 and a good cropper. Seeds from Real Seeds. Will grow this again.

·         Lipstick (1) – Only an ok crop, but fruited early.

·         Mila’s Bulgarian (4) – Good crop in 2016 but susceptible to greenfly.

·         Semaroh (4) - New for 2016 with seeds got from Real Seeds. An excellent cropper of long “goats horn” style peppers. Striking plants when in fruit. They cropped very well in 2016 in large pots. Will be growing this one again!

·         Sweet Banana (1) – Good crop in larger pot than previous years.

Tomato Review of 2016

Tomato Review of the Year 2016

I was still picking tomatoes up to the end of October and into early November this year..

As usual, I sowed and kept way too many tomato plants; but for the weather, I would probably have been buried in them!! The aforementioned weather ensured that, although I had a plentiful (read as too many J) supply, the ripening of them seemed to me to be more staggered than other years..This seemed to be in keeping with the short bursts of good/warm weather we had.   

I grew 41 different varieties of which only 14 were repeats on ones grown in 2015. Not a reflection on the ones grown in 2015 to be honest, but more so, a case of me wanting to try new varieties!

The ones repeated from 2015 (and other years as some of them are established favourites) were:

Beefsteak

Black Cherry

Black Russian

Boxcar Willie

Brian Spain

Brown Sugar

Chocolate Cherry

Gardener's Delight

Goldkrone

Paul Robeson

Sungold

Sweet Millions

Trailing Garden Pearl

Tumbler

Highlights of the newly tried ones were few and far between to be honest, but I will give some a second year. I will (as of now!!) probably grow Silvery Fir Tree, White Cherry, Orange Favourite, Dark Galaxy & Violet Jasper again.

The ones newly grown in 2016 were: 

Amish Paste Black Krim Bloody Butcher......nothing remarkable Caspian Pink Clondoogan Costuluto Genovese Dark Galaxy..I saved seed from these Delicious Elisir Green Zebra...I saved seed from these. Henderson's Pink Ponderosa Hillbilly Manitoba Nectar Rose Outdoor Girl Orange Favourite Otos Papa Raspberry Oxheart Reg di Fasano San Marzano Sandpoint Silvery Fir Tree Tondino Maremmano Tumbling Tom Yellow Violet Jasper White Cherry..tasty Yellow Marble

Every year I say I have learned my lesson and will grow less the following year. I need to be more disciplined in doing this.

Perhaps looking at them in categories might help; so what do I want to grow in terms of Cherry, Plum, Regular, Beefsteak etc ??

I definitely want Cherry varieties. Must grows here are Black Cherry, Goldkrone, Tumbler, Sungold, Sweet Millions. Might try White Cherry again for 2017..

Plum varieties I can take or leave I think...

Regular varieties that are favourites are Brown Sugar, Paul Robeson

Beefsteak (type) tomatoes  that I like to grow are Beefsteak (naturally J ), Black Russian

Decisions, decisions 😛😏