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Weird Wint (Tomatoes) - 2019 Grower Diary Point your RSS aggregator here to subscribe to this Grower Diary.

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Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 55 Entries.
Friday, April 19 View Page
look at the beautifully packaged seeds.
 
Friday, April 19 View Page
I do have these tomatoes to harvest seeds from. from a very interesting parent. :)
 
Sunday, May 12 View Page
Harvested seeds from my winter grow project. I got many seeds from my 7.00 Maccoy offspring and a few from my 5.91 CA state record plant. I also started some others: 1.64 Peine - From the 4.45 Martin that greg peine grew out. 4.16 Donut 10-toed mater that I grew last year. Truly the freakiest mater I've seen. also 3 stick tomatoes - we'll see if they germinate.
 
Sunday, May 12 View Page
porkchop tomato also in an airpot
 
Sunday, May 12 View Page
Brandywine in a 20 gallon pot
 
Monday, May 13 View Page
The painted lady tomato on my porch in an airpot. the variegated leaves are gorgeous.
 
Tuesday, May 14 View Page
the seeds are curing from my winter grow. then I can start a few and give a few away. I'm trying to sprout the seeds on my front porch this year instead of grow lights and tents and junk. Partly because i'm strapped for time, partly because im interested in the results. I'm going to try hard to cross these two since they both produced Gigantic Flowers last year.
 
Tuesday, May 14 View Page
Throwback to last years biggest maters. from left to right. 5.91 4.16 3.01 ( I think)
 
Tuesday, May 14 View Page
gave my eating tomatoes a dose of WOW Tea. about a liter to the larger plants and half a liter to the smaller ones. I used the wow tea and activator bag along with RAW cane molasses (3Tbsp), RAW B-52 (2 Tbsp), and RAW OminA (1 tbsp.) in a five gallon bucket with aerator. I let it steep for 2.5 days.
 
Tuesday, May 21 View Page
As of today, all of my tomatoes have sprouted. They have been in my windowsill since the weather temps dipped severely and have been hovering steadily around 70-73 degrees. Forgot to mention that my WOW tea I brewed also included one bag of Stinging Nettle tea (2000 mg strength). Still need to try to sprout some of my winter grow seeds though, will try to do that tonight. I have high hopes for them. Also, ordered some new fertilizers to try out so we will see how it goes! I want to do a pumpkin but I don't have any level ground anywhere, and it would need an electric fence because of deer and squirrels, otherwise it would probably last for a day before being eaten. might be a next year goal.
 
Tuesday, May 21 View Page
Last night I was very busy after work. I started with this weak seedling soil drench formula. I dipped each of my sprouted seedlings root riot cube into the mixture and then coated the cube in mykos and azos before up-potting into small little soil pots filled with formula 707 soil.
 
Tuesday, May 21 View Page
All of the sprouts tucked in under the grow lights and on the heat mat. I used the rest of the soil drench solution to fully wet all the pots and the new seed starts. I also put about 3/4 of an inch of water in the trays to make sure none of them dried out under the intense LED's
 
Tuesday, May 21 View Page
My porch strawberries look pretty good. I've never grown any before but i'm mostly just letting them do their thing. these are sequoia strawberries.
 
Tuesday, May 21 View Page
my raised bed plants. the small one in front is a tiny cherry tomato (so i'm told) that my Girlfriend's daughter brought home from school. the next one back is a "Big Beef" variety and the one behind that is a Cherokee Purple.
 
Tuesday, May 21 View Page
Wall O Water teepee insulation for the baby cherry tomato since the temps dipped to 46 last night.
 
Tuesday, May 21 View Page
Lots of blooms on the "Big Beef"
 
Tuesday, May 21 View Page
Close up of the Big Beef bloom. looks kinda odd.
 
Wednesday, May 29 View Page
Update photo from this morning.
 
Wednesday, May 29 View Page
Update on my sprouts from my 5.91 ca record tomato winter grow seeds and the seeds from the offspring of that huge 7lb tomato from maccoy last season. looks like only 2 of the 5.91's came up, I may have put the seed too deep. I really need a tractor to flatten out a patch or something. The hills are too hilly.
 
Saturday, June 1 View Page
The Magic happens here. My front porch lab. First batch of my new concoction of fertilizer applied to all tomatoes and seedlings.
 
Saturday, June 1 View Page
100% Germination
 
Saturday, June 1 View Page
Up-potting time!
 
Saturday, June 1 View Page
Coat rootball with Mycos and Azos on all seedlings.
 
Saturday, June 1 View Page
Its alive! The rarest most elusive tomato, finally seen in the wilds. Get ready world.
 
Monday, June 3 View Page
All tucked in, in their bigger pots.
 
Monday, June 3 View Page
My Tomato helper, Bella, pollinating some Brandywine tomatoes on my front porch. there are currently two tomatoes on the plant and we buzzed all the flowers.
 
Monday, June 17 View Page
I was out in the dark last night planting my 4.16 offspring. It was a strawberry moon last night. I planted this one next to my strawberries and my lavender. I think the mystical moonlight will make it grow bigger. Also, the fact i put TONS of amendments in the "soil".
 
Monday, June 17 View Page
My porch is getting out of hand though.
 
Tuesday, June 18 View Page
The 4.16 getting the special attention in it's forever home.
 
Monday, June 24 View Page
Just got back from Safari West. It was a fun safari vacation you can visit which is nestled in the wine country. Did some wine tasting, then drove around on the roof seat of a vintage dodge power wagon to look at giraffes and zebras and big birds like this one.
 
Monday, June 24 View Page
Here are the power wagon jeeps and Bella.
 
Monday, June 24 View Page
My girlfriend Sarah, rocking the safari look. We were all decked out!
 
Monday, June 24 View Page
The stag's leap winery was wonderful. They have vines that are over 30 years old and still producing. I thought that was interesting. There were exhibits about the volcanic soil that they attribute to their success. may have to start growing tomatoes in volcanic rock. :)
 
Monday, June 24 View Page
After I got back from the safari, I noticed this. This is on my Cherokee purple eating tomato plant. quite a specimen. :) they have been getting fertilized like my competition plants.
 
Monday, June 24 View Page
I set up a battery powered bucket reservoir drip sprinkler. right now I have it set on 60 seconds every 12 hours. I'm going to up that later after I get the smaller plants into their bigger air pots. I like that I'll be able to fertilize this way too, through the sprinklers.
 
Monday, June 24 View Page
A better view of my little giant tomato porch. :) I will try to up pot as soon as I can, but that porch is HOT. I was dripping sweat putting that irrigation in and the sun wasn't even hitting me directly. these plants will mostly get indirect light since it is a covered porch. My big Brandywine plant in the corner is loving life though, as you can see! I already ate a ripe tomato from that one.
 
Monday, June 24 View Page
Oh yeah, here was the Glamping tent we stayed in overnight. The animals made a lot of noise at night, but it was oddly relaxing.
 
Tuesday, June 25 View Page
I had a drainage mishap with my moonlight planted 4.16 tomato. I put the tray under the pot and way too much water in and the plant has been looking floppy every since. so I bought 8 cubic feet of this huge perlite to go in my pots. I put 3 liter scoops on the bottom of my 5 gallon (7gallon advertised) pots. and then 4 liters mixed in with the 707 dirt and some alfalfa meal and feather meal and mycos. I planted 2 tomatoes in their airpots last night. both were my winter grow offspring of the 5.91 tomato and the 7 pound maccoy.
 
Wednesday, June 26 View Page
I've got 8 tomatoes planted on my porch now. The drip system is giving about 2 ounces of water to each plant at 3 hour intervals. I infused the water in the drip system with Triple 12 (100ml per 5 gallons). We'll see what happens! my plants are more spindly this year for sure. I attribute it to placing the seedling 3 feet from the plant light when I was sprouting them instead of 1.5 feet away. also, I started much later this year so the plants weren't as cold, they are consistently warm. I plant to put the remaining plants in the greenhouse dome when my fan arrives from amazon and the soaker hose.
 
Wednesday, June 26 View Page
This tomato is steadily growing. the leaves are smaller than I imagined they would be.
 
Wednesday, June 26 View Page
My 1.64 peine plant is growing well. Thanks Greg!
 
Wednesday, June 26 View Page
This one from my winter grow is looking like it has a chance for greatness. I'm interested to see how well these do under shade here vs. the ones that will go in the greenhouse.
 
Sunday, July 7 View Page
I spent a good 4 hours tilling in leftover potting soil, amendments, perlite, etc on Sunday. It was rough, but i got the sprinklers set up and the exhaust fan is now automatically venting when the temperature gets over 88 degrees in the greenhouse. I set the sprinklers to turn on for 10 minutes at 7am and 10 minutes at 3pm everyday which is when it is usually the hottest. I now have 7 giant tomato plants planted directly in the ground for the first time ever, as well as two stick tomatoes or pompom tomatoes. each plant got 2 wow starter packs, 150 ml of alfalfa meal, 100 ml feather meal, 1 cup of mycorrhizae, 1 tablespoon soil booster, tilled into the soil with a paint stirrer drill attachment.
 
Monday, July 8 View Page
The big Cherokee Purple tomato is throwing lots of megas. I'm tempted to top it and grow these big ones out like my giant tomatoes. I'm thinking i will save the seeds. there are two circular fused tomatoes like this on this one plant along with lots of other regular sized tomatoes. The big beef tomato that is its neighbor is a beast as well with a huge trunk and lots of good sized flowers so if it did crosspollinate it wouldnt be a bad thing. I'm excited that my eating tomatoes are so vigorous and healthy!
 
Monday, July 8 View Page
My Mini Bell Peppers are doing well in the swiss chard bed.
 
Monday, July 8 View Page
The megabloom on this tomato which is an offspring of my 10 toed mater "donut" from last year was already there when it was in its little pot still. took me too long to transplant it this year!
 
Monday, July 8 View Page
Stick Tomato
 
Monday, July 8 View Page
from right to left: 1.64 Peine 7 Maccoy winter grow by Weird Wint (unknown weight) 4.16 Wint 5.91 Wint winter grow tomato (unknown weight)
 
Monday, July 8 View Page
from right to left: 4.16 Wint 7 Maccoy winter grow by Weird Wint (unknown weight) 5.91 Wint winter grow tomato (unknown weight) stick stick
 
Monday, July 15 View Page
1 week later update in dome greenhouse. power outage yesterday. temps at 102F all plants are fine.
 
Monday, July 15 View Page
1 week update continued
 
Monday, July 15 View Page
from my winter grow seedstock originating from the 7pound maccoy.
 
Monday, July 15 View Page
porch grown (winter grow 7 pound maccoy) offspring plant
 
Monday, July 15 View Page
cherokee purple growing well
 
Monday, July 15 View Page
on the donut plant (10 toed mater)
 

 

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