Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 19 Entries. Friday, April 26 View Page First year growing with genetic seeds. Thanks to several very generously loaded bubbles, here is the lineup this year. Friday, April 26 View Page Under the grow light for a few days. Weather should permit them to go out in a cold frame a day or two after I get them to germinate Monday, April 29 View Page Last years tomatoes. Plant on my left is a Juliet. It reached 13 ft. and produced over 4,000 fruit. Plants froze the night after this photo with 1,500 still on it. Two of the plants are German Johnson Pink's and produced 80-100 lbs of fruit despite it being a difficult year for tomatoes. Going to try for some big ones next year. I plan on using two German Johnson Pink's as practice this year and then get some good seeds next year. I am going to attempt two different methods; one with a single vertical pruned vine and the other with a single pruned and buried vine. Monday, April 29 View Page All five AG's germinated on day three. Day four; two are out of the soil. Day five; the other three are pushing up. Monday, April 29 View Page Last years attempt with generic AG seeds. This is DAP 21 at 91 lbs. Lost this plant that day due to the SVB damage evident. I grew AG's several times when I was younger, and even got a few over 150 lbs. I never did anything except plant the seeds and harvest the pumpkins. Last year I tried the techniques I have been learning on this site and hope to have good success now that I have genetic seeds and some grasp of the methods. Monday, April 29 View Page Fall crop of Calabrese in mid October. Plants survived three times down to 16 degrees and once down to 12 degrees. Harvested full, crisp, and sweet heads the first weekend of December. Be careful about following the growing advice of someone who is selling a growing product. You may find yourself in need of his product. Monday, April 29 View Page Behold the Garden of Neglect Herein the seeds of laziness are sown And the harvest? Thereof Thursday, May 2 View Page On the even of the fifth day, I realized that I have underestimated the aggressive growth rate of these genetic plants. I started out with the seeds in tennis ball containers with the idea that there would be more depth for the taproot. I turned the containers around and saw roots showing all the way down at the bottom, so I carefully transfered them to upside-down coffee containers. The forecast for the week changed so I set the plants out in good light, but with the temp at 60 deg. to slow growth for a few days. Should be warm enough early next week to put them in the garden. I also noticed today that three of the plants are decidedly behind the other two in leaf development. These are the three plants that I assisted in removing the seed husk. I theorize that the plant needs the stress of removing the husk to stimulate strong grown. I plan to leave them alone in future years except for extenuating circumstances. Friday, May 3 View Page For some of us... it comes early, deep down inside. Friday, May 3 View Page No other garden helper can compare. Friday, May 3 View Page Fall well on it's way, and still growing strong Friday, May 3 View Page The fruit of the harvest is more than what you eat. Wednesday, May 8 View Page First megabloom of the year. Now if I can just get the tomatoes to do the same... Wednesday, May 8 View Page All plants in the ground. After just one day in the sun and open air, there was a very noticeable surge in growth. 1086 Hallowell and 1723 Marshall are by far the stoutest plants. My son chose the 1110 Rea to be his plant. Wednesday, June 5 View Page Almost a month in the ground now. Had really good weather for a few days after transplanting, but 5-6 days out of each week have been cloudy and/or rainy. Has been in the mid to upper 70's but with the lack of sun there has been little progress. 1640 Wolf DMG is the biggest and 2 ft long now. The 220 DeBacco is the slowest and smallest plant by quite a bit, but the main is the thickest. I suspect a sleeping giant. Several 80 degree days, and more sun is in the forecast. Hope to see a surge in growth. Pollinated on June 12th last year and had 20ft vines. Grateful for the rain, but it is discouraging to see the garden creep along so slowly. Friday, June 7 View Page Full day of sun yesterday, and sunny or mostly sunny with low 80's for the next week. 1640 put on 4 in. yesterday. All plants looking better with just one day of warm sun. 220 DeBacco is barely starting to vine now, but it has the thickest trunk by almost 3/8 in. Compost tea applications will be every other day now that we are getting sun. Giant sunflowers are 3 ft. tall now and are probably enjoying the sunlight even more than the pumpkins. Monday, June 10 View Page 220 DeBacco Still slow, but a strong healthy plant Monday, June 10 View Page Fish get big around here too. Tuesday, July 30 View Page Been a long time since posting an update. Google Chrome is everywhere I go... May was a tough month. 5-6 days of each week were cloudy. It was plenty warm, but with no sun there was very little growth. Weak plants succumb to various maladies very easily. Only two plants have survived so far; the 1723 Marshall and the 220 DeBacco. The 1723 has a set at 14ft pollinated with the 220 and is growing slowly but steadily. The 220 ran into trouble shortly after I started burying vines. I lost the stump and first 5ft of main to rot. The soil covering the vines was retaining too much moisture. I also lost the end of the main to cucumber beetles. Now have four fruit set on secondary's with the closest at 19ft and all pollinated with the 1723. Both plants remain healthy otherwise and chugging along slowly. Hope to get viable seeds and go at it again next year. Soil prep for next year is already well under way with 8 tons of horse manure composting and being turned every 4-5 weeks, and 3 tons of grass clippings/yard refuse cold composting next to it. Mongolian sunflowers did well. All topped out between 11 and 13ft and are bending over growing big heads. Have a few tomatoes between 2-3 lbs. Nothing spectacular to show, just trying what I have learned with the German Johnson and Yellow Brandywine but hope to get some Big Zac's for next year.