The San Antonio Sandbur Patch

[worth1]

Darn russets.
For me it's white flies.

[karstopography]

Oddly bug free year here.

[bower]

Believe me I know what you mean about humbling place to grow.
As long as we're not defeated, humble is good. There are treasures in humble, hopefully your wooly and centiflor friends are some.

I have mites in the greenhouse, which mostly affect the upper canopy as they like the heat. So I've been able to stay ahead of them just by picking off the affected zone, and mostly by growing determinates so they don't get up where mites are worst. Still it's work and would be great to not have to deal with it.
My bigger problem in the past couple of hot humid summers is Alternaria blight. It's horrible because I selected my bred plants to be early and cold tolerant and resistant to the cold wet fungal diseases we used to get, and just when they are about stable it's suddenly a different kind of summer with a different set of issues.
Anyway I am growing a bunch of plants this year from some breeding mentors and past breeders who had disease resistance on their minds, and hope to see how my own stack up against them, and make some new crosses to take in respectfully any advantage they selected and which I missed.
Speaking of trichomes, I have Favorie de Bretagne, a Tom Wagner tomato, and it is way hairy!! As well as wispy, compact, and precocious. Looks to be as early as my Skipper Pink. IDK if Tom was breeding for disease and/or pest resistance in this plant but I know he had those objectives in mind, so I'm optimistic!
Looking forward to hear about your season and I hope the woolies and hairies are very mite unfriendly!

[Wildcat82]

Believe me I know what you mean about humbling place to grow.
As long as we're not defeated, humble is good. There are treasures in humble, hopefully your wooly and centiflor friends are some.

I have mites in the greenhouse, which mostly affect the upper canopy as they like the heat. So I've been able to stay ahead of them just by picking off the affected zone, and mostly by growing determinates so they don't get up where mites are worst. Still it's work and would be great to not have to deal with it.
My bigger problem in the past couple of hot humid summers is Alternaria blight. It's horrible because I selected my bred plants to be early and cold tolerant and resistant to the cold wet fungal diseases we used to get, and just when they are about stable it's suddenly a different kind of summer with a different set of issues.
Anyway I am growing a bunch of plants this year from some breeding mentors and past breeders who had disease resistance on their minds, and hope to see how my own stack up against them, and make some new crosses to take in respectfully any advantage they selected and which I missed.
Speaking of trichomes, I have Favorie de Bretagne, a Tom Wagner tomato, and it is way hairy!! As well as wispy, compact, and precocious. Looks to be as early as my Skipper Pink. IDK if Tom was breeding for disease and/or pest resistance in this plant but I know he had those objectives in mind, so I'm optimistic!
Looking forward to hear about your season and I hope the woolies and hairies are very mite unfriendly!

@Bower, it sounds like you're on track with the hairy types. L. Hirsutum crosses, like the Centiflor's and Wooley Kate, apparently do well in cool humid environments and can handle mites (see below).

Why is diversity so important? Caicedo says, “Wild species harbor useful and desirable traits. Some are salt-tolerant which could be very useful as our soils become poorer. Some are drought-tolerant, especially important with global climate change. Cold tolerant species, such as a few wild tomatoes that grow in the Andes Mountains, have begun to be used as root stock.
"One fascinating tomato growing prolifically in South Deerfield features an unusual hairy stem. This species (Solanum habrochaites) makes anti-insect chemicals and is chosen for rootstock because it can also survive in harsh, cold conditions.

https://ag.umass.edu/news-events/highli ... d-tomatoes

Solanum habrochaites (syn. Lycopersicon hirsutum)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanum_habrochaites


I am very interested in hearing how Favorie de Bretagne does for you this summer. Make sure you keep us updated. I will have to try it next year - Sounds intriguing.

[Wildcat82]

Despite the mid -90's we've been experiencing for the past 10 days, my garden looks wonderful. I think it's because the high temps coincide with the departure of broad mites (broad mites can't reproduce in temps above 93 degrees). With Floramite keeping he Russet mites under control, my peppers, okra,and zinnias are now growing like they should.

I've included a few pictures of some of the unusual tomatoes I'm growing: Wooley Kate, Flamenco, and Red Centiflor. I always think it kinda fun to have some unusual plants in the garden. Keeps things interesting.

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[Wildcat82]

The South Central Texas Tomato Roundup
I’ve already given my assessment of my extremely early tomato varieties (Black Cherry, Sun Gold, and Husky Cherry Red) previously. Here is my assessment of the new varieties I’ve planted. The goal was to have these plants begin to produce just as hot weather has arrived to test their heat set ability.

1. All 3 of my Punta Banda plants are loaded with average sized cherry tomatoes. Tomatoes are firm, more of a paste type tomato texture and nice flavor.
The plants are small, probably 2 foot tall and somewhat bushy. With very firm ridged stems, it resembles Husky Cherry Red.

2. The 3 Flamenco plants are very small plants as well, the same size as Punta Banda. Not as productive as Punta Banda but is producing a respectable harvest of saladette sized fruit. Flavor is good.

3. My only Brandysweet Plum has produced some fantastic flavored pink cherries. The tomatoes have been running about 1.5 ounces and have amazingly thin skins. In spite of being meatier than, say, Sun Gold, the tomatoes practically melt in your mouth. A decent producer on small 3 foot plants, they seem to be more affected by the high heat we’ve been having lately. I will definitely be planting these next year as an early season tomato.

4. Jasper has been not nearly as precocious as advertized but the extremely viney plants are setting a lot of small currant/small cherries. Tangy flavor.

5. Centiflors.Wooley Kate: All 7 of these plants have been very disappointing with very little fruit set and no ripe fruit even after 90 days.

6. Both Prescott and Miel de Mexique have been slow to set but all 5 plants are beginning to set quite a bit of fruit. Nice flavor too.

[Wildcat82]

Finally (after 110 days) I finally got to taste the Wooley Kate and they are really good. Reminds me of a saladette sized Sun Gold. The flavor is more tangy than sweet though I’m not sure if they are considered to be ripe at the yellow stage or after they show more purple striping. Not super productive so far but that flavor means I will be growing a number of Wooley Kate next year. Since it is a small non-bushy plant that tops out at about 2 ½ feet, you can plant this variety very densely.

Meanwhile, Prescott, Miel de Mexique, Flamenco, and especially Punta Banda, have produced a lot of fruit. None of these plants have had their fruit miniaturized by the intense (95-100 degree ) weather we’ve been having the past month. Let’s see if that continues.

In my pepper bed, Mammoth Jalapeno have been the most productive though Carranza Poblano and Cubanelle have been reasonably productive as well. Gypsy and Flaming Flare haven’t been very productive while the shishitos have put out a ton of tiny gnarled 1 inch sunscalded blobs. Habanada has produced nada so far.

So far I have been really impressed with Everleaf Thai Towers and Emerald Towers basil. Have to say these have lived up to vendor hype. Both types of plants are waaaaayyyyyy taller (over 2 foot) and bushier than standard Thailand and Italian basil and have been much slower to bolt that normal basil varieties. These varieties are winners.

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[Wildcat82]

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve picked 7-8 small eggplant from my 3 Black Beauty plants. Unfortunately, I can let the fruit get bigger because the intense heat makes them go seedy if they are any bigger. I’m kind of regretting not having planted them under shade cloth. I’m still waiting for the Ping Tung and Fairy Tale plants to set anything. This is disappointing since these varieties were supposed to be extremely heat tolerant. The plants are very stocky and bushy so there is still hope for them.

Gypsy has been the star of the pepper bed lately with about 20 peppers picked over the past week from 3 plants. Poblanos are starting to come along now. The plants are probably 4 foot tall and starting to set. The shade cloth is helping I think. Like the eggplant, I have to pick them small since larger peppers get scalded.

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[worth1]

I never did find an eggplant set for sale.
I didn't plant a darn thing this year.

[Wildcat82]

I never did find an eggplant set for sale.
I didn't plant a darn thing this year.

I did see a few Black Beauties for sale here (that's where I got mine). No other varieties available. Maybe people here aren't into eggplant like I am. That a shame.

[worth1]

I never did find an eggplant set for sale.
I didn't plant a darn thing this year.

I did see a few Black Beauties for sale here (that's where I got mine). No other varieties available. Maybe people here aren't into eggplant like I am. That a shame.

No kidding.
I used to see all kinds but I didn't look very hard either.

[Wildcat82]

Summer eggplant review
I think I have finally figured out how to grow eggplant here after 15 years of total failure. Starting on the day I planted out my seedlings, I sprayed every 10 days with a rotation of Abamectin, Oberon, Spectre (til temperatures started reaching 90+ degrees) and every 2 weeks with insect killer (a rotation of malathion, Sevin, and permethrin). All 10 plants have good leaf cover and have been producing a steady stream of produce. However, practically all Millionaire, Ichiban, and Black Beauty fruit have been sun scalded and unusable no matter what size I pick them. On the other hand, the hot weather has not bothered Fairly Tale and Ping Tung. Both plants have produced a lot of nice fruit and all of them have been usable. Of these 2 varieties, I probably like Ping Tung the best mainly because it produces bigger fruit.

Meanwhile, my El Dorado dwarf peach which was planted in April has, amazingly, set fruit. Even my Bearrs limes have set new leaves and even has some blooms on it. It doesn’t appear broad mites have permanently stunted them like the Meyer lemon I planted a couple years ago has been. Daily misting with rubbing alcohol this spring probably kept the broad mites at bay.

Sadly, my Barbados cherry suddenly croaked. I just re-potted the plant this spring in fresh potting soil so I’m not sure what kind of soil borne disease killed it.

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[Wildcat82]

Summer Heat Trial Results

Tomatoes
After 2 months of summer heat its time to post results. Unfortunately, none of my plants have really distinguished themselves. Past winners Juliet and Super Sioux have yielded practically nothing for the past 3 weeks which is odd since both were fantastic in previous years higher temperatures. Punta Banda produced very well during June but nothing during July. It acts just like a determinate. Flamenco acted like a less productive version of Punta Banda. Wooley Kate put out a few fruit til the first week of July then stopped. My Porter tomatoes were a flop. Frankly, I'm tired of buying seeds advertised as 1 oz cherries only to wind up with unproductive plants that put out 2-4 oz fruit. Husky Cherry Red did nothing after June. Jasper with it’s meager production of pea sized fruit got pulled out 3 weeks ago. The best of the bunch has been Prescott and Miel de Mexique. I’ve continued to harvest a couple handfuls of tomatoes per week from 6 plants the last 3 weeks. Surprisingly, their fruit has not been miniaturized by the high heat and have remained 1 oz so that’s noteworthy.

I figured the shade cloths I put up would help a lot but I can’t tell they made any difference at all.

All in all, I had a pretty good production for nearly 4 months so I can’t complain too much.

I have 3 Super Sioux, 1 Juliet, and 4 Punta Banda that were planted mid-May and are 2-3 foot tall. Let’s see if our recent cool spell (upper 80’s) will spur them into production. I’ve also taken 15-20 cuttings from Sun Gold, Black Cherry, Brandysweet Plum, and Wooley Kate in an effort to have some plants this Fall. Getting clones from heat stressed plants is always tricky – hopefully I can get at least half a dozen plants going.

Peppers
Like tomatoes, production has been sparse since summer heat has begun though Gypsy peppers have outperformed Marconi, Flaming Flare, Cubanelle, Jalapeno, Habanada, and Poblano. Shishito has put out a lot of mostly unusable skinny 1' gnarly peppers. Most of my peppers are under shade cloth but the 2 best peppers are 2 Gypsy peppers in full sun. Go figure.

Eggplant
Ping Tung has been a revelation. Highly productive with zero sunscald. I think it’s actually become more productive as the heat increases. Every single Black Beauty, Ichiban, and Millionaire fruit over the past 2 months has been heat scalded and unusable. Fairy Tale is a fairly productive variety but the tiny 2-4” fruit pale in comparison to the more numerous 8 - 10” Ping Tung harvest.

Basil
Thai Towers basil and Emerald Towers basil has performed much better than varieties (Newton, Genovese, Thai, Lemon) I’ve tried in years past. The main problem is that our high heat induces basil to flower and make seed earlier that it should. In addition to being taller and bushier plants, both Thai Towers and Emerald Towers flower much later.

Okra
Over the past month, I’ve managed to harvest 1-2 small pods per day from my 12 Burmese okra plants. In previous years, the same number of Clemson Spineless plants would completely overwhelm me with big handful of pods every day. I had been under the false impression that all okra varieties were really productive. I’ll definitely try a different variety next year.

Fig Update
I’ve been able to harvest 4-5 figs from my JH Adriatic’s. They have a very good berry flavor. Supposedly, the flavor is better in subsequent years so that bodes well for next year.

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[worth1]

Fig

[Wildcat82]

100 days after I set out seedlings, my Burmese okra is now setting pods very well. It’s supposed to be 53 days til harvest for this variety – I have no idea why it is so late. The Ping Tung eggplant continue to be productive though, strangely I see a lot of yellow fruits under leaf cover – the fruits that get the most sun have continued to be purple-ish. I’ve also picked a few small Black Beauties.

Outside of some marble sized Sungolds, tomato season has been over since mid-July. I’ve kept watering all the plants just to see which ones would survive into the Fall. Most of the plants have died though a few are still alive in the heat. One oddity I’ve noticed is that that all my in-ground plants died in July while most of the container grown plants are still alive.

The survivors (so far) are Flamenco, Husky Cherry Red, Sungold, and 2 Black Cherries I cloned in mid-May. In addition, I have a number of clones growing inside that will hopefully survive. Getting clones togrow from weak heat stressed plants is always iffy though.

I’m not sure which method works best here for a Fall crop:

1. Yank all tomatoes and peppers around 1 July, start new seeds and plant out when temperatures moderate in Fall.
2. Keep existing plants alive into the Fall
3. Yank all tomatoes and peppers plants 1 July after taking clones and grow the clones inside til temperatures moderate.

Probably some combination works best.

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[MissS]

@Wildcat82 It will be interesting to learn which method works the best for you. It's a very worthwhile experiment.

[Wildcat82]

Every few days in July I clipped off a few tomato suckers and tried to root them. Eight of 20 clippings survived but when I transplanted the clones last week, I saw that all of them had just a couple tiny 1 inch roots. I had hoped they would have a large root ball after 45 days growing inside under a grow light. Since planting out 3 more clones have died. I think it was a mistake to wait til July to begin taking clones. Its probably better to continually clone plants all spring so you always have some vigorous young plants handy.

In addition to the clones, I moved my Tycoon, Heatmaster, Yellow Pear, and Ruby Crush tomatoes outside into pots. I got lazy and didn’t spray any miticide til 5 days later when I first saw mite damage. In the 2-3 days after I sprayed there was a huge increase in mite damage (I think it takes a few days for Floramite to begin working). Lot of damage now but the new growth is fine.

The Black Cherries I grew from seed seem really off. I got the seeds from Tomato Growers Supply. Since they developed the Black Cherry variety I assumed the seeds I bought from them would come true but it doesn’t look like it.

My peppers have outgrown their puny 3 foot cages and some branches are 6 foot long. I hoping for a huge harvest this Fall. I've harvested a bare handful of edible peppers over the past few months so I think next year I’ll just pull the plants at the end of June. It's too much of a pain to keep unproductive plants alive all summer.

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[karstopography]

Quality control at seed companies isn’t what it used to be.

[Wildcat82]

My peppers have hibernated through the summer months and look poised to have a big burst of productivity this Fall. The Ping Tung eggplants have slowed production considerably over the past 30 day otherwise look to be in great shape. The tomatoes I over-summered (Sungold, Black Cherry, Flamenco, Punta Banda) generally look pretty ragged. I held off fertilizing this summer since I really didn’t want the plants to put on pointless vegetation. With cooler weather slowly approaching, I’ll begin hitting them with some 10-10-10 to try to get them growing and producing again. My July clones (Brandysweet Plum (2), Sungold (1), Black Cherry (1) Wooley Kate (2) are all about 18” tall and seem like really weak growers.

Given the uncertainty about my over-summered plants and clones, I bought 9 plants at big box stores and local nurseries in late July. The hybrids (Heatmaster (2), Tycoon (2), Hot Spell (1), Lemon Boy (1), Yellow Pear (1), and Ruby Crush (2) have all been flowering for 10 days but no fruit set yet. Outside of Tycoon, I haven’t tried any of these varieties before so I’m curious how they will perform.

A couple weeks ago I received 25 bare root Jewel strawberries from Jungs’s and planted them in small containers indoors under grow lights. Looking good so far – 100% survival rate and growing! I’ll probably plant them out in late October.

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[Wildcat82]

Sorry for the lack of attention to my growlog but between 3 ER visits and a stay in the hospital, I haven’t had been able to do much the past few weeks.

My store bought tomatoes (Heatmaster, Tycoon, Hot Spell, Lemon Boy) look absolutely horrid from mite damage. This is surprising since I have been spraying with commercial grade miticides every 10 days over the past month (Minx, Oberon, Spectre). On the other hand, my clones and 2 purchased Ruby Crush’s have little mite damage and look way better. I counted 19 little tomatoes on Wooley Kate and she looks to be the star of the fall garden along with Ruby Crush.

So one grouping of tomatoes is ravaged by mites while the other group 40 yards away is undamaged by mites. I’ve noticed this behavior in years past so it looks like geographic diversification is one of your best solutions for mite control.

In other garden news:
Mexican Mint Marigold is growing fast and has put out it’s Fall flowers. Doesn’t seem bothered by mites.
The potatoes I planted late are growing well and I may well get some new potatoes in December.
The strawberries I planted out a few days ago are struggling mightily but it looks like most may survive. Fingers crossed.

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