What Is and Heirloom Tomato?

 Hey everbody, I know I have been away for some time, but I'm Back! I have had a few things going on, like a mix of school starting, my phone dying, my boss leaving so I had to run the shop, and a few other things. But enough with my excuses , I'm here to show off the stuff growing from my garden!

First, Let me define a word for you that I will be using . Heirloom: (in the context I'm using it) A tomato that is the same since or before the 1940's . So if you took one of these tomatos and time traveled back to the 1940s and compared it to one from then it would be almost the exact same thing! This is only important because some people have created these varieties for their taste , size and appearance, and have kept them pure, so they are the classics, where as the new genetically altered stuff nowdays might grow better but they typically dont have the same character ore appeal.

Now on to what I have been doing!

Here we see a Tomato, the pic above being one week prior to the picture to the left. As you can see this tomato is not a normal tomato, and if you care to guess at the name then do so now before scrolling down.  It is of the Heirloom variety

 That's right! It's a Black Krim! These babies are so good! and the strange thing is they almost always split. If you look at the above photo you see the split in the tomato, that is usually from over watering when the tomatoes is fully grown. Over waterting forces the plant to drink more water and it "pops" the tomatoes on the plant, but this variety is weird in that it pops all on its own.

Next up is a Non Heirloom Variety, and again I will show you the progression of the ripeness of the tomato. As you can see it's typical in ripening, starting green and gradually working it's way down to bright red!

 Well now, if you would like to guess at the name I'll give you a hint , the name does not really describe the size of the tomatoes shown, however the color is a better way of describing it.

This one is ripe an ready to be picked!

That's right! You guessed it, it's a Watermelon Beefsteak Tomato!  Now look again at the wonderful color scheme, can you see the cool watermelon like coloring! So cool. Although it does not taste like a watermelon, it was still great on my turkey sandwich!

Then to end on a bright note, my sunflowers are doing wonderfully! They are however more droopy then I would like, probably a lack of nitrogen, but That's just fine. They are doing what I wanted them to , attract the bees for my tomatoes!

Ok guys Thanks again for reading, and putting up with my absence, My next blog will cover two more tomatoes I have been growing! So come back again soon!

Volunteer Pepper Plant.

At my grand fathers house I limited the number of plants I put in the ground at the start of the season to allow them all to get really big.

That means I did not plant a pepper plant into the ground. With this in mind I'm wondering why there is a Pepper Plant growing in the garden. haha. The picture above and below show the same pepper plant. I do not know if it is a Red pepper, a Jalapeno or what, but I plan on finding out once it starts to flower!

Then I planted a bunch of Sun Flower seeds here to get some beez in there. Because you know, bees are about the only source of pollination. With out beez your plants would probably not bear fruit! These sunflowers are about 7 inches tall. Gettting pretty big. Cant wait to see the flower.

Then I got bored at my house, so I got a Earth box and put in a tomatoe plant, basil and one piece of chard. We will see if I get any fancy stuff from this box! wish me luck!

KK! Thanks for the reads guys! come back soon!

Progress In my sisters Garden

Hey All! My sisters garden is doing pretty good. So far we are having about a 78% success rate. I will highlight a few of the things that are of interest today.

Above you can see the cantaloupe . It is still small, but growing everyday. I do believe I saw a bud on it a while ago, but I picked it off to force the plant to focus on getting bigger before it starts fruiting. As with most plants, once it starts to fruit all other aspects of growth will take second place with the growth of the fruit taking most of the nutrients. As wtih all the other plants in my sisters garden they have been active long enough that I need to apply the second application of fertilizer.

As it grows the weather is getting warmer, which is a great plus for this type of plant. They love the heat, as long as they have enough water.

 Next in line Is my Basil. When I planted it in my sisters garden it had lived inside her house for a good few weeks, and had been a steady supply of basil leaves. yummy! But as with most plants that are treated as a baby and allowed to be in a very steady climate (inside her house) then moved outside and planted without warning, it has died back quite a bit from the shock. I even used a transplant fluid on it to lessen the shock. That is probably the only saving grace it has received.

In the background you can see the watermelon doing poorly as well. But

 The only tomato plant that is doing well is the Early Girl.
This saddens me, I am not really sure why only 1 of the 4 plants are doing well. It might be due to the weather, it might also be that the soil is too clay-ey . Once this growing season is over I need to put a WHOLE BUNCH of top soil into that garden. I think it's lacking in nutrients.

The Fruit of my harvest! a single tomato! I'm sure I have more , but they are too small to find. I'll go back soon and take another look!

Let's Show in detail What I have planted At My sisters house.

I eat uno, dos, tres, quatro burritos
Pretty soon I can't fit in my Speedos

-Weird Al

I know I have told you in text what I planted. But I figure you might like to see pictures too. they are more fun anyway.
I planted a variety of Tomatoes; Sun Gold, Early Girl , and 3 Roma's. Also I put in a Watermelon and a canalope. 3 different kinds of pepper , jalapeno red bell and orange bell pepper. and a bunch of herbs/spices, oregano, chives

The Sun Gold tomato is really just a new thing to try for me. I typically don't like the flavor of tomatoes that are not red.

 The Early Girls Are a good choice because they will produce earlier in the year and allow me to have a harvest for a longer period of time.

 I like to use the Romas for cooking. One of my favorites for sauce and on sandwiches they are perfect!

You gotta have your spices. I consider Onion a spice , haha, also cilantro because I plan on having LOTS and LOTS of salsa this summer! Home grown salsa is the Plan, well see how it works out!

 I Am not sure I will have the room to put the strawberries into the garden itself, so I stuffed it into a pot. However I do think it should do OK there for now. Once I see how big the watermelon and cantaloupe are going to get I might move it. But it seems to like living in it's pot.
The Watermelon and cantaloupe are going to get huge, assuming they get the heat and water they need. I just wish I had the materials I wanted when planting. I was thinking of putting a whole bag of chicken manure under the watermelon and cantaloupe. dig a deep hole, pour manure in, cover with 1 foot regular dirt with veggie fertilizer mixed in. then plant them. For first month or so they will grow normal. Then when the Manure starts breaking down in the soil under the plant and releasing heat it will give them a huge boost. To top it off when the plants roots hit the pocket of manure it will be at just the right time and they will get a second boost. BUT, I did not have the two bags of manure to do this. So sad. Maybe next year.

 For now I'm battling the strange weather. One day it is 90Degrees(F), the next its raining and about 50 Degrees (F). When it levels off and starts to become hotter my peppers will will do much better. For now they are just above dormant then get growing with hot days and get knocked back on cold. two steps forward one step back.

Next Post I will show progress of how my plants are doing. I will Also have my cages set up, so you can see my set up 100% done. Well... it's never 100% because it is always a work in progress. BUT I'll give my opinion on what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong!

So, thx for reading all! Tune in next time for a more complete view of my garden, and the TOMATO CAGES!