The Garden of Woz...

[Whwoz]

Today is going to be a rough day. There is a heat advisory issued. Temps in the 90's with 70% humidity. Rain is in the forecast too. You can cut the air with a knife. Heat index is in the 100's . Great weather for growing fungus! The humidity here is high during the summer which makes the heat all that much more worse.

[mention]MissS[/mention], glad I don't have to deal with that summer humidity. Agree perfect for growing fungi, not something you want to do. So much of the weather in the USA is different to what is regarded as typical of it down here, been an eye opener reading weather comments here. Our weather would be closest to some in California from what I understand

[Whwoz]

Update on seed sown, 72 tomato varieties are on the heat pad, along with 14 capsicum and chilli varieties. May yet increase tomato numbers, received another package of seed from a swap today, with at least one coming from [mention]Volvo[/mention] with some old seed that needs to be woken up. Have several tricks I will try, but have seen mention on here or TV of some blue stuff that Carolyn Male used to wake up old seed. Is this Calcium Nitrate or something else. Will search shortly for further information.

[Whwoz]

Actually worked out at 71 varieties of tomato sown, I managed to double up on one.

Full list below, a lot are new to me varieties

Tomatoes 2020/21

Ambrosia Orange UBX
Big Zac 2 generations from McCoy 8.41
Black Beauty
Black Brandy
Black Keys
Black Plum Cherry
Blondkopftchen
Bloody Butcher
Blue Ambrosia
Blueberries
Bogatyr Maslov
Bombetta ramalett
Bowerbids Yellow
Brindabella
Cape Teaser
Captain Lucky
Carbon
Chang Li Cherry
Costuloto Genovese "Brokenbar"
Dana's Dusky Rose
Delicious
Domingo
Dragon's Eye
Duncan's Dutch Pear
Dwarf Orange Grosse Lisse
Earliana
Early Wonder
Franchi Giant Pear
Garrote Bicolor Aracenes
Great White Blues
Green Gables
Honey Of Mexico Chery
Ivory Pear
June Bug F3 (PL1-F2)
Kellogs Breakfast
Kodiak Brown
Leitor
Lime Green Salad
Lithium Sunset
Little Flame
Mat-Su Express
Midnight Sun
Mr Mercury F3
Negrillo di Almoguera
New Berlin Gold
New Big Dwarf
Not Pink Thai Egg
Oxheart
Pertsevidnyy
Pervaya Lyubov
Polaris
Rebal Alliance
Red Pear Granissimo
Regina's Yellow
Rita's Black Pear
Robledillo de la jara
Rosado de Ademuz
Rosado de Huelva
Skorpion
Small Egg
Spoon
Sweet Ozark Orange
Valenciano Clemente
Verdal
Verde Claro
Volvo's Apple Cherry
White Chery
White Grape ex commercial
Zena's Gift
Zolotoe Serdste
Zuckertraube


Capsicums or Bell Peppers 2020/21

Beaver Dam
Chocolate
Cuneo Giallo Yellow
Elephant ear
Orange
Taibei
White Hungarian
Yellow

Chilli 2020/21

Ajvarski
Big Bertha
Espelette
Jimmy Nardello
Oranjevote Chudo
Sweet Datil

[Ginger2778]

Great list!

[MissS]

Update on seed sown, 72 tomato varieties are on the heat pad, along with 14 capsicum and chilli varieties. May yet increase tomato numbers, received another package of seed from a swap today, with at least one coming from @Volvo with some old seed that needs to be woken up. Have several tricks I will try, but have seen mention on here or TV of some blue stuff that Carolyn Male used to wake up old seed. Is this Calcium Nitrate or something else. Will search shortly for further information.

"Blue stuff" is simply a pinch of Miracle Gro fertilizer. It's the nitrogen that seems to help.

[Whwoz]

Update on seed sown, 72 tomato varieties are on the heat pad, along with 14 capsicum and chilli varieties. May yet increase tomato numbers, received another package of seed from a swap today, with at least one coming from @Volvo with some old seed that needs to be woken up. Have several tricks I will try, but have seen mention on here or TV of some blue stuff that Carolyn Male used to wake up old seed. Is this Calcium Nitrate or something else. Will search shortly for further information.

"Blue stuff" is simply a pinch of Miracle Gro fertilizer. It's the nitrogen that seems to help.

Thank you [mention]MissS[/mention]

[PlainJane]

Wonderful looking list, both old faithfuls and interesting new ones!

[Whwoz]

Wonderful looking list, both old faithfuls and interesting new ones!

Yes, and I must say that applies to both the tomatoes and capsicums/chillies

[Whwoz]

First 21 tomato varieties have popped up to some extent by 3 pm today. Includes Volvo's Apple Cherry, Black Brandy, Pertsevidnyy (hope I got spelling right on that one) Brokenbar's Costoluto Genovese answer a number of cherries. Happy with the speed of the first ones and which varieties have germinated

[Whwoz]

A few more varieties up today, some purchased spring onions and celery in the ground and some beans potted up from punnets into 3 inch pots. As we are still in frost season beans are sharing quarters with the tomatoes

[Whwoz]

As of 9:30 am this morning, Saturday 1/9/20, 39 varieties of tomatoes have germinated here at the garden of Woz. Have shuffled some trays around to get some of the ungerminated seeds more into the centre of the pad, where they seem to do better

[Whwoz]

Just checked germination at 12:00 on the 4-8-20 and 60 out of 71 up. Some of those that have not come up are repeat failures, others old seed that I have not sown previously. Have no miracle grow, but do have some different Nitrate salts, think it might be time to give some of them a shot to see if I can jolt them awake.

Better add that first capsicums, an orange collected from a commercially grown fruit, is up

Had some seed turn up today from 'The Lost Seed'. Some corn, beans, lettuce, watermelons and Tasting. As per usual from this lot, well packed.

[Whwoz]

Another tomato up today. Only Rebel Alliance up so far is a helmet head, which is a pain.

Pulled the pin on the Jostaberries today. We had picked enough to make a couple of bottles of jam and compared it to what we brought while in Tasmania. Chalk and cheese in comparison, Wether this is a variety thing or to do with climate not sure, but cut them down and will finish digging the stumps out tomorrow. Bed that they were going to be moved into will be used for blueberries instead.

[bower]

That's too bad about the Jostaberries. Black currants, red currants and gooseberries all do really well here in a cool climate, and the jam or jelly is delicious. My brother's place has green gooseberries which I picked last year and made jellies of all three - it was very good but the red and black are still my favorites. Gooseberry seems to have a milder flavor, I wonder why they crossed them into the Josta - for size probably. (Have never tasted a black gooseberry, mind you, so IDK if they are also mild.)

[Whwoz]

[mention]Bower[/mention] We are definitely borderline for getting Jostaberries properly ripe here due to our summer heat. Last season, being so mild in comparison to normal enabled me to pick about a kilo off the three bushes. Going from what I've read, at the size of these we should be getting around 4 kilos per bush, never going to achieve that.

Jostaberries are a complex cross between (black current x American gooseberry) x (American gooseberry c English gooseberry), colchicine treated to double the number of chromosomes. This treatment is often done where plants will not grow well due to a genetic imbalance. They are German breed and date from the mid 1970s. That they have been around for 45 years and are not well known must say something.

[Whwoz]

Only 7 varieties still to germinate, weather here is cold, wet and snowy with hail thrown in for good measure. Was going to start potting up today but not with this weather.

[mention]Nico[/mention] Leitor has finally germinated on what is my third attempt. Just hope I can keep it going

[Whwoz]

Repotting day today, got roughly 2/3 way through the tomatoes, will get rest done tomorrow if home schooling allows or Tuesday if not. Capsicums to follow.

[Whwoz]

Got the rest of the tomatoes potted up last Tuesday, along with the first three lots of capsicums. 3 more lots of capsicums ready to pot up this week. 5 no shows among the tomatoes and 3 lots with just Helmet Heads. Have put in some Snow Peas and Sunflower seed for sprouts and they are coming up nicely. Though I had some photos of setup, but they must still be in camera.

[Ginger2778]

Is the repot your final transplant, or just stepping up the pot size to let young seedlings get bigger?

[Whwoz]

The repot is from seedling tray into 70mm (roughly 3 inch) square pots or 50mm (2 inch) forestry tubes, depending upon numbers of pots I have available. From here the seedlings will grow on and be planted straight into the ground when around 6 inches tall or time and weather suit.