The Garden of Woz...

[Whwoz]

I had just enough time after sleeping between night shifts today to transplant some potted up bulbils from last season into the bed with the rest of that variety and mulch the beds with sugarcane mulch today. The first of the garlic went in on Tuesday and has already started to pock its heads through the surface, very happy with that.

[Whwoz]

Garden of Woz summery, written 18/4/2020

Eggplants
Fairy Tale, Do not think that these were overly happy with the cooler and wetter than normal summer here. Managed to =get some fruit of them but plants seemed to struggle.
Hmong Red, Plants definitely did not like the cool, wet summer, really only started to grow properly in March which was far to late. Only had smallish fruit on them when I pulled them out today. Nothing harvested for use at all.

Snow Peas
Joni’s Taxi, these did really well and were universally well liked by all here. A yellow snow pea that has up to 8 peas in a sweet pod. They went in late due to the wet weather and only got up to 1.5 m high, but produced prolifically. No fibre in the pods at all. Second crop in and already 20cm high

Heather, These did really well as well, however some of the plants had fibre develop in the purple pods once the seeds started to swell, no seed was kept from these for growing on, mature pods were harvested and seed will be used for sprouting. 6 or 7 peas would be the regular amount in each pod. As I harvested for seed, immature pods off each plant were tasted and checked for fibre with mature pods going into different buckets as a result.

Both of these varieties got hammered by sparrows when small and needed to be netted.

Sugar Ann dwarf snow pea did really well also. These commercially available green podded snow peas did not get touched by the sparrows while the two above were being eaten regularly if not covered.

Oregon Giant Snow pea. These reach around 1 meter in height and are another reliable commercial green snow pea. Once again these did not get attacked by sparrows.

Gold Rush F1 x Jade Numbat Zucchini F1
Four out of five of these plants did really well, producing a lot more fruit than we really need, rest has been frozen for later use. The fifth plant was growing well before having the centre stalk blown out of it by the wind on one occasion and it struggled to get going again. This was a pity as it was they only one showing any real variation other than a slight colour difference in the stalk. The fruit of this plant had stalks roughly 3 times longer than standard, which would have made them easier on the hands to harvest. Fruit from two plants are being held pending checking for viable seed.

Capsicums of a number of different varieties were grown for limited yield off them mainly due to the cool, wet and overcast summer. They simply could not get away and growing properly without sufficient light to do well.

[Whwoz]

Now the big one

Addition 1: Weather comments. This season just gone was most unusual for a summer here in Vic, December was hot with lots of smoke from fires which were burning months ahead of normal fire season peak. Then in Jan and Feb, the rains came and came and came...seemed like they wouldn't stop, 275mm when we normally get 100mm if we are lucky. With the cloud came lower light and cooler than average temps, which affected the plants, later season ones less so than earlies I believe. End Addition.

Tomatoes: Once again I believe these were impacted by the weather this summer, overall summery they were 4 to 6 weeks late to starting fruiting and ripening those fruits. Some were average in taste, probably down on sugars compared to what they should be, but there were some stand outs.

Adelaide Black and Adelaide Green, seed kept from two commercial fruits that when grown out was nothing special, certainly not worth growing again unless I am absolutely sure I am going to get a long hot summer.
Bloody Butcher, not as prolific as in previous years, but still the same taste wise. Will be regrown
Blue Ambrosia – not what it was supposed to be, seed kept from Tasmania trip last march so who knows.
Blueberries plant had its stem scraped by some beastie as it was about to fruit, no replacement available. Will be regrown as well liked by all. Antho.
Blush A very nice elongated cherry, a bit light on for flavour I feel in comparison to description I hear of it. After effects of season, worth growing again.
Brads atomic Heart. Antho, predominately red under the antho, has its own flavour that was appricated by all, will regrow at some stage.
Brads Atomic Heart For second year in a row, was a small wimpy plant, barely made 70 cm high and only produced one ugly fruit that went off before it could be tasted. Will not be returning.
Captain Lucky. Big potato leaf plant producing lovely beefsteak tomatoes. Would have easily have been the biggest grower this year and produced well late in the season. Will be returning.
Carbon Did well producing a good amount of beautiful fruit, perhaps not as prolific as last year due to the season.
Caro Rich, once again down on production due to season effects, but otherwise as expected
Chang Li Cherry, small yellow pear to grape cherry sized fruit. The star of the cherries grown this year, prolific and tasty. Will be returning, probably as a regular
Cherry Browines, large brown cherries to mini beefsteaks that while tasty in their own right, tended to get left as others were picked around them
Chocolate Stripes, Big plant, big fruit. Nice enough but not really prolific down here
Costuloto Genovese ‘Sal Valente’. Not as prolific as last season, definitely weather effected. As it is a compact grower, thinking that I might try getting it growing earlier under cover at some stage.
Dana’s Dusky Rose. Easily the most prolific of the black beefsteaks grown. Very tasty fruit up to 550g early in the season. Not having grown this one before I am impressed with production, taste and size in what was an average season, looking forward to seeing this perform in a good year.
Dr Wyches Yellow, aside from seasonal effects lowering productivity, a beautiful yellow tomato that should reappear sometime, if it does not, it is because I like others better.
Duncan‘s Dutch Pear. A large Italian style pear for saucing. Grew two plants, one was a wimp, the other a good solid plant. Late season, when I pulled the big plant there would have been 15 or so green tomatoes on it. Would have been perfect for relish if I needed to make it. Biggest fruit around the 220 – 250 g mark, say half pound on old scale. Thinking of 5 or 6 of these next year to see how they go for a varietal sauce.
Duncan’s Egg, Sibling to above, a much smaller, almost Roma style tomato on a full size indeterminate plant. Once again, better suited to sauce me thinks. Not sure about next year, it may get pushed out due to better varieties
Dwarf Low Acid Yellow. A selected line from a chance seedling from “Low Acid Yellow”. Definitely an improvement over its parent. Dwarf growth habit against indeterminate, fruit up to twice the size (300g vs 150g) and delicious – I will often snack on one if working in the veggie patch. Meaty, not overly juicy so will not send bread to mush in a sandwich. Gets up around the 1 to 1.2 metres high (3-4 feet). Happy to send seed out under the name of Bowerbirds Yellow, as it definitely needs a new name to separate it from its parent.
Garrote Bicolor Aracenes, A Spanish heirloom that is big, bold, meaty and delicious. Capable of producing multiple fruit over half a kilo or 18 ounces. Productivity may not match some of the newer varieties but flavour exceeded most of them. I find that I prefer to grow tomatoes in colours other than red, but this one is a definite keeper.
Gold Mini Roma, seed from a commercial yellow grape, pulled early.
Golden Roma. Its name says it all about its appearance, a beautiful yellow Roma fruit of typical roma size, around the 100 to 130 gram mark. Another that I quite happily snacked on, not the largest of plants and productive for its size. Good for sauce. keeper
Green Gables did not appreciate the season at all, really struggled to finish a fruit off, but they were delicious, do think one made it inside the house. Definite Keeper
Green Sausage, highly compact multiflora plant that got smothered by the Zucchinis. Affected by the weather, it set very few fruit. Need to regrow in a better season to fully review it.
Heidi, productive roma plant. Not overly tall but certainly packs the fruit on. Good saucing tomato that will return.
Ivory Pear. Tough little so and so this plant, had most of its roots burnt off when small but came back with a vengeance. Very tasty, run rings around Yellow Pear but not as prolific although a plant that got off to a better start in life might change that. Fruit would be rough twice the volume of yellow Pear, more of a tear drop shape than a necked pear, more lemony yellow in colour than the true yellow of yellow pear. Need two plants to replace the yield of one yellow pear.
Japanese Black Triffle. Affected by the weather, much smaller plant than last year and produced accordingly. Very nice tomato, unsure about next year as so many others to grow.
June Bug F2 Grow out here. Two plants grown, one a cherry the other a saladette or mini beefsteak sized fruit. Parentage is Jaune Flammee x Black Cherry
Plant 1, Bright Orange cherry, something scraped bark of plant as first fruit started to ripen. Tasty and well liked by kids. Will be following up this one . Earlier than plant 2 but never got to access full productivity unfortunately.
Plant 2 red saladette or mini beefsteak, plant had fruit that had 3 or 4 seed cavities then some with 6 to8 seed cavities on it. Never new which you would get until you cut them open. Round red 30 to 40 mm across. Do not see any advantage to following this one up, nothing outstanding about it in a style of fruit that is well populated already.
KARMA Peach, Quite like this one, probably the best of the 4 KARMA’s that I have grown, this virus going about making things difficult to try the other two plus Tundra. Will probably bring this one back next year, late ones tended to split a bit once we started getting rain in late March.
KARMA Pink Like this one but it definitely struggles here, more so this year than last.
KARMA Purple Like this one also, but every drop of rain seemed to split another fruit as soon as they started blushing, needs a dryer season to be judged anything other than a spliter.
KARMA Purple Multiflora, as per above
King of Siberia, a nice small heart, but there are better about.
La Case de Apuila plum size paste/sauce tomato, yields well and tasty enough but will probably miss next year
Lithium Sunset, beautiful red striped, yellow fruit. Pick and eat at right time, delicious but can go a bit mushy. Will be returning at farm, Mum and Dad like it enough to keep seed from plant I gave them. Not sure here. Have another similar that needs growing out.
Madagascar. Red golf ball size tomato, nothing special, will not be returning.
Mat-Su Express. Had a tendency to throw a lot of megablooms for an extended period, maybe something to do with its heritage, not sure, settled down and produced a lot of nice tomatoes that were well liked by the females of the household, less so the males.
Midnight Sun The STAR of the season, KarenO’s big orange and red heart was producing big fruit all through its season, need to grow it in a long dry year to have it available for an extended period, this crazy season was just to short for it. Produced well with loads of fruit, but still had a lot that were well off ripening when pulled
Old Ivory Egg. Light yellow Egg shaped fruit, similar to a roma style fruit in a lot of respects. Another that I snacked on, may well return, undecided at this point.
Pink Thai Egg – Not. We picked up some Pink Thai Egg fruit to eat on our Tassie trip last year and I saved seed out of one as they were larger than what I had grown here previously, maybe environmental conditions. Grew some of that seed out and got something that was pink and about the 150g/5 oz size that one regularly sees in the supermarkets here. Needs to be grown again to see what comes out of it as it was tasty.
Polaris, another Northern gardener plant, delicious as they all are. Had the unfortunate year to come up against Dana’s Dusky Rose, otherwise one of the best blacks I have eaten.
Red Mini (not Cherry) Roma, a bit larger than Red Cherry Roma, which I originally intended to plant, probably not as prolific but as well liked. Will go back to Red Cherry Roma next year, better suited to the kids snack boxes for school, or maybe grow both, not sure.
Reinhardt Kraft’s GWR Heart. Not sure what happened here, but a red around golf ball size it was.
Regina Red Micro. Spanish micro, nothing special with regards to taste, recon it was the summer ruined the flavour. Very productive for the size of the plant
Robledillo de la jara, another Spanish beauty, red delicious and many happy returns to you. Not as big GBA above, but sometimes size is not everything
Rosa Melillero, a third Spanish tomato, pink rather than red, probably maxed out around the 220g/8oz size. Will return again for sure
Taiga Another of KarenO’s creations, tasty and well worthy of a return, unfortunately tended to get lost in the mix of good tomatoes so should really get another run.
True Colours , as above.
USDA 97L97 A compact short roma style bright orange tomato. Dry fruit, recon it would go well as a sauce tomato. Mum made 3lb into a varietal batch, but with Corona have not been able to get it to taste. Compact plant, less than 2 feet tall, but productive, estimate 10lb off plant. Welcome back next year.
Verde de les Landes. Spanish GWR that requires a long season, normally would not be a problem, this year struggled to get any ripe ones. Considering how highly Nico rates this one it is a return simply to see it at its best and maybe cross it with GMG or MS
Wes, magnificent red heart, did not like the season in comparison to last year when it did much better. Always welcome back
Worlds Largest, This is more truly known as Delicious I believe, name was adopted as a marketing ploy not that long after a certain world record was set. A tasty tomato that earns it rightful name in my opinion.
Yellow Pear, trusty, reliable yields if not overly tasty, well known. Will be replaced by Chang Li and Ivory Pear in my garden from now.
Yellow Striped Roman, a yellow roma type that makes a good yellow sauce. Have grown multiple plants of this for several years now and will continue to do so, particularly if 97L97 does not measure up to my hopes for it sauce wise
Zena’s Gift was not, hoping Coronas does not get in the way of tasting the true version
“Trout Cod” I have written about these before, unfortunately the 7 plants that grew did not have the taste I was looking for, indeed most were more a red or red striped fruit. Two however are still of interest, TC 1 and TC 7. These two topped out at around 500mm, around the upper limit of a Micro, the fruit however are anything but you typical micro cherries – TC 1 most fruit wer 65 to 80 mm and TC 7 they were a bit smaller around 50 to 60mm. TC 7 has a much stronger taste, almost pineapplely if I recall correctly. This taste was present in the other 6, but very weekly. Will probably grow some again out of curiosity. Growth habit was grow to a height, throw a terminal set of buds, grow again, throw some more buds and repeat.
That only leaves the ramallet types, Bombetta, Ibiza Blanca and 100. I have tasted these and quite like them, just waiting for a half decent day to harvest the plants, allow the fruit to dry and put them into storage. All are well loaded, especially 100, which looks to have its usual trusses of fruit upto a good 60mm in size.

Addition 2: Ramallets. these are still in the ground, but I finally got around to giving them some TLC. Got a pleasant surprise at how much fruit is on these plants. Bombetta had suffered the worst with Ibiza Blanca and 100 both the worse for wear. Limited amounts of fruit were salvaged from the Bombetta, daughter went silly after eating the one I gave her so I will definitely be growing again and looking after better next year. Would have over 50 fruit from Ibiza Blanca in the shed and a couple of hundred from the 3 100 plants harvested so far, with lots more on them. Some of these may have been collected early due to stem breakage.

100 is an extremely impressive plant, with clusters of upto 30 fruit per truss, five , six seven or more trusses per plant and it unusual lobed fruit up to 100 x 80 mm, think 4 x 3 inches, across. Tastes good to. End Addition 2

[eyegrotom]

Very good report lots of details

[Whwoz]

The garden expander has been busy, first all the soil arrived

IMG_5303.JPG

Then I got busy

IMG_5307.JPG

And moved a bit more and got some Broccoli and cabbage seedlings in

IMG_5309.JPG

On a different not, lots of garlic starting to come through over last couple of days, very happy about that.

[Growing Coastal]

Thanks for the detailed descriptions of all the tomatoes, above. It's good to take notes as things get forgotten just a few years later.
Your expansion looks delicious!

[Whwoz]

Thanks for the detailed descriptions of all the tomatoes, above. It's good to take notes as things get forgotten just a few years later.
Your expansion looks delicious!

Thanks GC, those descriptions are there for everyone's benefit as well as mine, keeping this thread as a sort of garden dairy so that as I get older I do not have to rely on my memory so much. I should really be including a few more comments about the weather, particularly where we have had unusual seasons like this past summer.

What comes out of the expansion will be delicious, don't fancy eating that much sand lol..

[Whwoz]

Made a couple of additions to post 203, copying here so that they are more obvious for those who have already read the summary.

Addition 1: Weather comments. This season just gone was most unusual for a summer here in Vic, December was hot with lots of smoke from fires which were burning months ahead of normal fire season peak. Then in Jan and Feb, the rains came and came and came...seemed like they wouldn't stop, 275mm when we normally get 100mm if we are lucky. With the cloud came lower light and cooler than average temps, which affected the plants, later season ones less so than earlies I believe. End Addition.

Addition 2: Ramallets. these are still in the ground, but I finally got around to giving them some TLC. Got a pleasant surprise at how much fruit is on these plants. Bombetta had suffered the worst with Ibiza Blanca and 100 both the worse for wear. Limited amounts of fruit were salvaged from the Bombetta, daughter went silly after eating the one I gave her so I will definitely be growing again and looking after better next year. Would have over 50 fruit from Ibiza Blanca in the shed and a couple of hundred from the 3 100 plants harvested so far, with lots more on them. Some of these may have been collected early due to stem breakage.

100 is an extremely impressive plant, with clusters of upto 30 fruit per truss, five , six seven or more trusses per plant and it unusual lobed fruit up to 100 x 80 mm, think 4 x 3 inches, across. Tastes good to. End Addition 2
4

[Nico]

Whwoz how glad I am that you can enjoy the ramallet tomatoes, I wish that they hold you for a long time in perfect conditions, all of them that you mention usually last more than 6 months in perfect conditions, although there are always some losses.
This year I am producing a cross (f2) of white ibiza and 100, I hope to get something interesting, I will keep you informed.
Thanks for your reports. Whwoz

[Whwoz]

Finally had an opportunity to pull the ramallets 100 and Ibiza Blanca today. Not the greatest weather wise but time very limited atm with home schooling for to kids going on. Not a lot left on the IB, but the 100's were still loaded pretty well, here is one that I have already picked a couple of bunches off.

Ramallet 100 (1).JPG

last week, before the weekends 33mm /1.32 inches of rain we had a couple of nice sunny hours, brought the Eastern Water Skinks out

Eastern Water Skink (2).JPG

[Whwoz]

Garlic:

the path between the beds for the garlic is 11 m / 36 feet long with most varieties having some up, including the Johnstons Creek Giant garlic which I picked up at the Meeniyan garlic Festival that can push 15cm/6 inches across

Garlic Beds.JPG

Johnstons Creek Giant Garlic.JPG

and for comparison this is Purple Stripe

Purple Stripe.JPG

, a Standard Purple Stripe group member.

both of these are in the patch about half way down next to the peas.

[Whwoz]

Garden of Woz Summary Part2 11/5/2020

Saffron:
Wound up with 6 flowers this year with plants in foam boxes and big pots. Will be extending what is currently a garden for native pollinators and the Saffron will have a permeant place in that bed.
Kang Kong:
Only had three plants of this this year and they did tolerably well considering the season was cooler than ideal for them. The plants flowered but have not set seed.
Beans:
Bonaparte: Dwarf Bush, less than knee high, 400mm/16 inches would pull them up I think. Two punnets of seedlings that went in late after the first lot of sugar snaps came out, produced very well even if only for about 6 weeks due to timing of planting. Lots of old pods on them still for seed collection.
Windsor Long Pod: Long time family favourites, were planted as seed at the same time the Bonaparte’s went in as seedlings. Delayed there crop even more to the point where we only got three or four picks off them before they toughened up. Lots on the plants still for seed.
Some more comments on the Ramallet Tomatoes:
Bombetta: The smallest of the three grown this year, only One plant grown, produced a good crop under the environmental conditions that were well short of ideal for this type of tomato from what I understand. Definitely a favourite of the Daughter. Think large pointed cherry in size.
Ibiza Blanca: Medium sized of the three grown this year, probably best described as 40 to 50 mm across, typical saladette size to my thinking. Best tasting to me. Lightest yielding, but still no slouch in production.
100: A real mind blower to see the fruit clusters in the flesh. Multifloral, capable of setting upto 30 fruit in a cluster, with each plant producing upto 7 or 8 clusters this year under non-ideal conditions. Would love to see this plant grow under a good long summer. Largest fruit on each cluster upto 100 mm x 80 mm in size. Shape is unusual in that looking down on top of the fruit it appears partially lobed. Must get photo for clarity

[GoDawgs]

That's a great summary, Woz. LIke you, I gotta write stuff down things from this year or next year will come and I'll be thinking, "Now what did I put there last year?" or "How did I do that?"

You've made the best of a strange season. I'm wondering what ours here will be like as the weather has been odd. A very wet first four months and now a cool May. Definitely different but then, aren't they all in some way?

[Nico]

Whoz, thank you very much for your report of the ramallet tomatoes, I'm very glad you liked it.This year I follow a line f2 of a white ibiza cross and hang 100, look for a potato leaf with the flavor of white ibiza, and multiflora like hanging 100, right now they are starting to have tomatoes, it will be fun, I hope to get something interesting

[bower]

Whwoz, I can't believe it we are almost at the identical stage for garlic now
Your purple stripe are a bit ahead of mine, but... we're nearly in sync!

[Whwoz]

That's a great summary, Woz. LIke you, I gotta write stuff down things from this year or next year will come and I'll be thinking, "Now what did I put there last year?" or "How did I do that?"

You've made the best of a strange season. I'm wondering what ours here will be like as the weather has been odd. A very wet first four months and now a cool May. Definitely different but then, aren't they all in some way?

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] making the best of any season is all we can do, hotter, clear sky days are much easier to cope with if one has water and some shading if it gets real bad than these wet cloudy days where nothing dries out and plants don't really get the amount of sun that they need.

All the best for your season, you look to be off to a good start, and yes i find writing stuff down very useful, too much going on in life at the moment!

[Whwoz]

Whoz, thank you very much for your report of the ramallet tomatoes, I'm very glad you liked it.This year I follow a line f2 of a white ibiza cross and hang 100, look for a potato leaf with the flavor of white ibiza, and multiflora like hanging 100, right now they are starting to have tomatoes, it will be fun, I hope to get something interesting

[mention]Nico[/mention] I am looking forward to hearing how that cross goes for you. Any photos for your thread now?

[Whwoz]

Whwoz, I can't believe it we are almost at the identical stage for garlic now
Your purple stripe are a bit ahead of mine, but... we're nearly in sync!

[mention]Bower[/mention] Strange how things work out at times. I know you have lamented not being able to grow hardnecks, or only a select range of them, wondering if you have every considered attempting a spring planting of a creole or Silverskin? The main chart that I use to guide my planting and approximate harvest times indicates that some of these at least are capable of producing from a spring planting down under.

TAS-Harvest-Storage-Chart.jpg

This version is for Tasmania, which would be more relevant to you than the Victorian one, just adapt the planting time to your normal of course.

[Nico]

Whoz, thank you very much for your report of the ramallet tomatoes, I'm very glad you liked it.This year I follow a line f2 of a white ibiza cross and hang 100, look for a potato leaf with the flavor of white ibiza, and multiflora like hanging 100, right now they are starting to have tomatoes, it will be fun, I hope to get something interesting

@Nico I am looking forward to hearing how that cross goes for you. Any photos for your thread now?

Whoz I still have no ripe fruits, I think that in about 30 days or so I will send photos

[Whwoz]

Fabulous [mention]Nico[/mention] , cant wait, but I will have to.