The Garden of Woz...

[Whwoz]

The first of the Santa Fe Grande's is starting to ripen fruit. 3 plants in , all well loaded with what ;look to be typical size fruit. Just a couple of fruit starting to blush at the bottom of the plant.

Santa Fe Grande.jpg

[Whwoz]

The Sweet Pickles are likewise starting to ripen a few fruit, 3 plants all well loaded.

Sweet Pickle (1).jpg

Sweet Pickle (3).jpg

[Whwoz]

Sweet Potatoes,

Around a month ago I received some tubers from Queensland that were grown from seed and following the advice mention earlier in this thread, planted them in a couple of pots. 6 of the tubers had previously started to form shoots which were a bit worse for being in the mail. These were planted in a pot on end and within a week had started to produce shoots, 5 of 6 are doing really well, number 6 is just starting to kick on now.

Sweet Potato (2).jpg

Number 7 had no shoots showing, so it went into a separate pot horizontally, with a cluster of shoots coming from one end and a couple starting to show from further down the tuber.

Sweet Potato (1).jpg

I will within the next couple of weeks pot these up to allow roots to get established, then most will go into the ground, holding back 2 or 3 from each tuber for protected potted growth over winter incase not tubers form on those in the ground. The likelyhood of seed making it into Oz again is slim, so I need to protect these and get them flowering for seed production

[bower]

That Sweet Pickle is nice looking - is it no heat? I also love Santa Fe and need to grow them again if I can get my seeds to sprout. Great and productive pepper, so useful and never any bitter as you do get sometimes from the dark green-unripes.
I always dreamed of finding a sweet pepper as productive as the hots, but I guess we use more sweets than hots, so you never do have enough of them... but I did think that something along the size of Santa fe would be really useful and maybe more productive than larger fruits.
I grew another hot called 'Guerito' and it was even more insanely productive. Similar bullet shape but a bit smaller.

[Whwoz]

The rest of the family is not into hot chillies, so I am hoping that the Sweet Pickle peppers have no heat @Bower , I must admit that I have lost my taste for them a bit over the last 20 years.
@Tormato maybe able to help you with fresh seed.

[Nan6b]

Sweet Pickle has no heat. Not a ton of flavor, though, with thin walls. It's a tough little plant that thrives & survives despite tons of neglect, drought, etc.

[Whwoz]

Have Managed to pick over 3/4 of the plants today, most have been individually photographed per variety, which I will post over the next week as time permits. So far a couple of crates worth and another 1/2 crate to still be picked I reckon.

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[Whwoz]

Forgot to mention the 18 lb of tomatoes, Costuloto Genovese 'brokenbar' , Costuloto Fiorentino and Rosso Sicilian Togeta that I gave to mum, who will make them into sauce

[MissS]

Forgot to mention the 18 lb of tomatoes, Costuloto Genovese 'brokenbar' , Costuloto Fiorentino and Rosso Sicilian Togeta that I gave to mum, who will make them into sauce

How did Brokenbar's Costuloto Genovese perform for you? I am thinking of starting a few plants for a friend who grows paste types and saves seeds for me too.

[Whwoz]

Brokenbars does well for me here in the two years that I have grown it. Not large fruit, 5 Oz at best, but lots of them. Planted 5 plants this year, picked 10 lb off them 2 days ago more ready to pick now. From comments here and on TV, I would say it prefers a warmer dryer summer in which to grow. Quite edible straight off the plants too.

[Whwoz]

Part of tonight's dinner was this tomato, a 262 gram / 9.24 oz Bowerbirds Orange. Picked today, probably not fully ripe but nice enough.

Bowerbirds Orange 262g (1).jpg

Bowerbirds Orange 262g (2).jpg

One that I have had for a few years now, a chance selection from seed kept from a hybrid sold here as Orange Gross Lisse, probably no relation to Grosse Lisse, just marketers trying to play on the name. This is the third or fourth year I have grown it and it seems to be consistent, a rugose leaf dwarf around the 75cm mark that crops well.

May well find its way into a MMMM soon.

Apologies for the top photo being blurry, but phone cameras are not as good as an old DSLR.

[GoDawgs]

That is a pretty tomato. Bowerbird. I remember watching a PBS show on Australian wildlife showing a bit on the bowerbird and Richard Attenborough going on about the bird's efforts to attract a fair lady.

Does the bowerbird have some orange feathers? I don't remember that.

[Whwoz]

@GoDawgs the local Bowerbird is the Satin, the mature male a very dark blue, almost black to look at, shimmers in the light, females and young are a mottled green. They happen to be great collectors of things to display, as is my Mrs, mention I want a given volume of something and five or six times that turns up......she wants to name our place 'The Bower', which is what they call a male bowerbirds "Love tunnel" of sticks for want of a better term. If I use Bowerbird for a tomato, it simply means a personal selection. These are proving to be quite productive for the size, have been fairly well consistent in plant form, fruit size and colour. Just need someone with better taste buds than myself to assess them properly, saving plenty of seed this year.

[Whwoz]

Grabbed a different tomato tonight for dinner here at work, absolutely delicious. Afraid that my description of its taste would pale in comparison to that of whom I got it from, but then who could match @Tormato . Never got around to taking a photo of the Elbonian Mudball, which is pretty as well as delicious, plenty more on the bush, will be saving plenty of seed. Are these meant to have stripes on them @Tormato ? Very productive as well, definite keeper. Have to add photos after I get up from snooze after night shift.

[Tormahto]

I think the sent seed of Elbonian Mud Ball was F4? That's where I get the most variable fruit. The original EMB had the faintest of striping, so faint that I couldn't see it in unnatural light, nor in natural light on a cloudy day. I went through most of the season not realizing it had those ultra faint stripes.

I did get a red/vivid green striped beefsteak on one F4 plant. The flavor was so hideously beyond EMB, which at first I couldn't imagine, that I threw away all of those red/green striped tomatoes (after taking one small bite from a few of them throughout the season) and didn't collect any seed. I also didn't want them anywhere near my sauce pot.

Was the fruit a striped dark tomato? I await any photos.

(hmm, I do need a new selection for the "Elbonian Muckraker" moniker)

[Whwoz]

Ok, photos, first up the southern plant of Elbonian Mud Ball, this is the one I ate and mentioned above.

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The plate is 7.75 inches in diameter. Colouring makes me think of Pink Berkeley Tie Dye

[Whwoz]

Now, the photos of the northern plant of Elbonian Mud Ball, have not tasted these yet. Checked tags, says F4.

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These are definitely pinker than south plant, more even in shape, less ribbed.

[Whwoz]

Comparison time , tops first up

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Bottoms up

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To me, the south plant has more eye appeal and character in the fruit, it is the shorter of the two plants, 4 vs 5 feet. Will be saving seed from both.

[Tormahto]

All the character of an irregular mole. The pink one looks almost edible, to me. Does it have less green gel than the darker one?

https://dilbert.com/strip/2011-10-18

[Whwoz]

@Tormato , have not cut one of the pink ones yet, will photograph when I do