Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 308 Entries. Thursday, January 5 View Page link to new revised genetic tree for giant tomatoes https://ibb.co/d4ZYLwY added 2022 tomatoes and cleaned up stuff enjoy   Thursday, January 5 View Page second link----------------https://iili.io/HRIW3N9.jpg   Thursday, January 5 View Page So I was playing with AI (Artificial Intelligence) text to image. this is where you type something and the AI draws it. Soooooo... just for fun I typed "Jack LaRue carrying a giant tomato" :O   Friday, January 6 View Page So when I asked AI to draw "porkchop carrying a giant tomato" I got this.......   Friday, January 6 View Page Then I asked AI to draw me the biggest pumpkin in the world.   Friday, January 6 View Page Then I realized maybe it could predict the future.......OMG "biggest pumpkin in the world 2023" Looks like it will come from the Rodebaugh clone.   Friday, January 6 View Page I might of made a mistake lets try "Worlds heaviest pumpkin in the world 2023" hummmm... Anybody recognize that weighoff? looks european...... Probably British ;)   Wednesday, January 11 View Page gpc-3.90 680 hand lots ds cross extention clone late gpc-3.88 730 hand lots ds cross good mega early gpc-3.11 580 none ds cross big single early gpc-2.66 480 hand some ds cross first mega early uow-2.61 130 hand lots lyons good mega early uow-2.40 100 none strickler old man early gpc-1.76 670 hand lots strickler inside mega late uow-1.51 100 none lyons singleish early   Wednesday, January 11 View Page gpc-3.90 680 hand lots ds cross extention clone late******************************** gpc-3.88 730 hand lots ds cross good mega early********************************* gpc-3.11 580 none ds cross big single early***************************************** gpc-2.66 480 hand some ds cross first mega early**************************************** uow-2.61 130 hand lots lyons good mega early*************************************** uow-2.40 100 none strickler old man early*************************************** gpc-1.76 670 hand lots strickler inside mega late**************************************** uow-1.51 100 none lyons singleish early*********************************************   Wednesday, January 11 View Page Someone save me from playing with AI....."Giant pumpkin farmer dragon" ha ha ha ha.   Wednesday, January 11 View Page I dare you to tell him his marrow is disqualified because it has orange color!!   Friday, January 13 View Page Transporting your giant pumpkins in the future. A.I. is scary good with a few trial and error images.   Friday, January 13 View Page Transporting your giant pumpkins in the future. A.I. is scary good with a few trial and error images.   Monday, January 23 View Page A.I. created "measuring a giant tomato" ha ha ha A.I. is too smart   Monday, January 23 View Page Lest do pumpkins next A.I. "measuring giant pumpkins" wow that plant is huge. :))   Monday, January 23 View Page its scary how real some of these look :/   Monday, January 23 View Page OMG!!!! Not funny A.I.   Tuesday, January 31 View Page A.I. text to image "monster farmer growing giant pumpkins"   Tuesday, January 31 View Page The other amazing thing about AI is it makes great logos. Need a logo for your club :) I typed in "Giant pumpkin with mountains in the background logo" it's crazy   Tuesday, January 31 View Page Another. I selected multiple image so I have several to choose from.   Tuesday, January 31 View Page Just wish it wouldn't put it's weird AI language on the logo.   Tuesday, January 31 View Page Just wish it wouldn't put it's weird AI language on the logo.   Tuesday, January 31 View Page I didn't double post.....:/   Tuesday, February 7 View Page Aliens are stealing my giant tomato!!!!!   Tuesday, February 7 View Page Aliens are stealing my giant tomato!!!!!   Friday, February 10 View Page A.I thinks this is what the 5-gallon tomato bucket challenge looks like. It seems to have no idea what a 5 gallon bucket looks like lol   Friday, February 10 View Page A.I thinks this is what the 5-gallon tomato bucket challenge looks like. It seems to have no idea what a 5 gallon bucket looks like lol   Friday, February 10 View Page Another   Friday, February 10 View Page Another   Friday, February 10 View Page Maybe A.I. knows something we don't. Grow a tomato in a tomato???   Friday, February 10 View Page Maybe A.I. knows something we don't. Grow a tomato in a tomato???   Monday, March 13 View Page Finally got some time in the evenings to finish this thing. It takes a stupid amount of time to do this silly little chart and make everything fit. I'm going to have to expand the 5.71 Lambchop tree next year again I bet. What an amazing seed. It also made it hard to shuffle things around for the insane 9.06 Brown seed (under the Lambchop tree) Both of these seeds are going in the dirt this year. https://ibb.co/CnZkhwt   Saturday, April 1 View Page This is where the 3.90 grew. It was in the extension box I built mid season to give me a place to put the clones in. It was the second biggest tomato ever grown in Colorado. I was trying for the state record but missed it by a little over 1/2 lb. It's time to say goodbye to this extension box and build a bigger better set up.   Sunday, April 2 View Page Last year's dirt into the new box... Ummm I need more soil...   Sunday, April 2 View Page Ok no messing around this year. We are doing this right. One trip to Fort Collins Nursery (I love them). And boom.   Sunday, April 2 View Page I also got some compost that CSU had from their "no waste" program. It looks great. Bre and I agree it smells like hamburgers. Definitely some compost material from the cafeteria. Ha ha ha. Much much better than from the feed lot.   Sunday, April 2 View Page Some of last years leaves to protect it all and done. Just in time as the forecast is calling for snow later this week.   Sunday, April 2 View Page Notice the shadow from the shed. It will be an interesting experiment to see how this effects the tomato growth. A bit of equinox calculations determine that this is what it will look like September 10. I've been watching the shadows quite a bit to determine what it will look like later in the year.   Tuesday, April 18 View Page Today is start the seeds day!!! I'm going with mostly all proven seeds and personal for my first set of tomatoes. I'll stagger a second batch in a several weeks.   Tuesday, April 18 View Page Starting dirt ready.   Tuesday, April 18 View Page This year we are going to get some biology in there. I didn't do any of this fancy stuff last year. Fingers crossed.   Tuesday, April 18 View Page All tucked in and snuggly under the lamp and on the heat mat. Let's see how fast they germinate this year.   Saturday, April 22 View Page This is a true "Spring time in Colorado photo" woke up to 2-3" of snow and this on the black current bush.   Saturday, April 22 View Page This is a true "Spring time in Colorado photo" woke up to 2-3" of snow and this on the black current bush.   Sunday, April 23 View Page We have baby tomato plants. The first two out of the dirt are Dan's 9.44 cross and LaRue 5.08. I think they are a day or two behind because I was not watering them enough.   Sunday, April 23 View Page Last year the cross seed I grew was the first out of the dirt also.   Sunday, April 23 View Page This LaRue seed looks to be strong also.   Wednesday, April 26 View Page most everything sprouted. missing the lambchop 5.71 **CRY** and the 5.70 Macdonald. A couple of my personal seeds were no shows also the 3.10 and 2.66. No biggie tho as I have tons of seeds for them and they are replanted. The lambchop was very painful tho. I replanted another one so finger crossed. I think part of the reason the sprouts are later than last year is i planted the seeds deeper and packed the dirt just a bit. I did this as i had a problem with the seed coats coming off last year. It didn't seem to make a difference i still had seed coats stuck to a few sprouts.   Wednesday, April 26 View Page So this year I'm going to break the colorado state record! I got oh so close last year. I put 3 tomatoes in the top 10 biggest tomatoes ever grown in the state Second, Third, and ninth. Not bad for my first year growing giants. Even tho I didn't get my goal of breaking the state record, I grew the top 3 biggest tomatoes in the state for 2022. All I need is another 3/4 of a pound and the record is mine!   Wednesday, April 26 View Page And this is the beast I'm chasing.......(The Tomato not the guy).... :)   Saturday, April 29 View Page Seriously.......I'm having sprouting problems. Sigh. Time to replant this one. It's the Sutherland cross.   Saturday, April 29 View Page Going to post pictures of the tomatoes that are growing fine So I can keep track of growth over time etc. This is the LaRue 7.94 is it grown from the Lambchop directly.   Saturday, April 29 View Page 4.28 Spaziani. The f1 seed that grew the 6.66.   Saturday, April 29 View Page 9.06 Brown. Last year's hot seed. Grew the WR 11lb Faust   Saturday, April 29 View Page 5.61 Konieczny cross seed that grew the 8.355 Stickler   Saturday, April 29 View Page 5.08 La Rue. This plant is by far the best one. It is the same size as some tomatoes I started a week earlier that I'm giving some other people.   Saturday, April 29 View Page 4.71 Palmer. This seed grew Randy's 2 - 6lb tomatoes. It is just two generations from the Lambchop seed. I think any seed descendent from the Lambchop seed has potential.   Saturday, April 29 View Page 9.65 pork chop. Former WR seed. Has a fantastic tree under it. Has 13 descendents over 7lb including the 9.06 Brown and the 11.65 Faust. Lambchop mother seed.   Sunday, April 30 View Page I think I'll try to start one of these seeds. It might be interesting to cross this with one of the other seeds. Brown....LaRue.... Konieczny with the marv genetics.....hummmm   Sunday, April 30 View Page The club grow this year is sunflower. I'm going to put 3 in the ground. I cut the bottoms off the black pots out and put a nice soil mixture in them. We'll see what happens.   Sunday, April 30 View Page Now what seed to pick.......hummmm.... These are all from the erotic seed exchange.   Sunday, April 30 View Page This one for sure......then one more ...   Sunday, April 30 View Page This one for sure......then one more ...   Sunday, April 30 View Page Wife says she wants the tall ones so this will be our picks. Young and Butler. It will be interesting to see how we do. I don't have a lot of vested interests in these and I noticed in others diaries sometimes the ignored or less fiddled with plants do best. :)   Wednesday, May 3 View Page Time to add dirt to the leggy little tomato sprouts. This week I will start hardening then off as it looks like great weather this week.   Friday, May 5 View Page Guess what.......   Friday, May 5 View Page It sprouted. :O   Friday, May 5 View Page The Sutherland cross also came up better than last time with the weird growth.   Friday, May 5 View Page Looks normal this time.   Friday, May 5 View Page Looks normal this time.   Wednesday, May 10 View Page All three sunflowers sprouted and are growing. They seem to have survived the marble sized hail yesterday.   Wednesday, May 10 View Page Time to add dirt to the 8.41 MacCoy '14. I can't believe it sprouted. It's almost a 10 year old seed.   Wednesday, May 10 View Page Welp.. 3 strikes and your out. Very painful......   Wednesday, May 10 View Page After the problems with germination this year on my second go around I planted 6 seeds of each of my 3.90, 3.88, and 3.10. all 6 of the 3.90 and 3.88 sprouted. Now I'll pick the best 2 of each. The 3.10 seems to have germination problems. My 2.66 also. It's a weird thing. Probably just a coincidence but the 3.10 and 2.66 were NOT hand pollinated.   Thursday, May 11 View Page 5.08 LaRue is just a beast. I am going to put my maters in.the dirt tomorrow or Saturday. This one needs it. The roots are poking up out of the dirt on top :O   Thursday, May 11 View Page Doing good   Thursday, May 11 View Page 7.94 LaRue   Thursday, May 11 View Page Doing just fine   Thursday, May 11 View Page 9.65 porkchop. This one excites me, since my three lampchops didn't germinate.   Thursday, May 11 View Page 9.06 Brown. Yummy! Will it grow a 11lb tomato for me? Fingers crossed. 11lbs would beat the Colorado state record. :)   Thursday, May 11 View Page 4.71 Palmer. I'm really curious to see what this one does.   Thursday, May 11 View Page The replants and a couple others.   Thursday, May 11 View Page So my failed germinations that I tried twice were the 5.70 MacDonald, 7.66 LaRue, 5.71 Lambchop (cry), 2.66 Luers. I got one 3.11 Luers out of 8 tries and it sprouted very slow and late.   Saturday, May 13 View Page Today's the day!!!! WOOOOT!!!!   Saturday, May 13 View Page Oh yah dangerously close to root bound. I'm planting the maters while chatting in the chat room for the tomato draft contest.   Saturday, May 13 View Page The 5.08 LaRue is easily the best during the germination phase   Saturday, May 13 View Page Last mater the lowley 3.11 Luers. The only seed to sprout from my 2.66 or 3.11. it will be an interesting experiment to see how seeds from dud mother grow.   Saturday, May 13 View Page Boom! Done.....Now grow grow grow.   Saturday, May 13 View Page I did quite a bit of research for companion plants with tomatoes. There was a couple scientific papers showing basil increasing tomato yield and size. It is also said to keep the pests away. Plus this fall we are going to eat like Italian kings.   Thursday, May 18 View Page We are headed on vacation for a few days. My wife is so worried about hail on my new plants she got me the trash can cage things. I argued a bit telling her they would be fine but i put them on so she didn't fret about it during the whole vacation. I left one off the lowly tiny 3.10 sprout. My wife asked why and I told her it didn't deserve one. I got "that" look and now it has a cage.   Friday, May 26 View Page Speaking of giant plants. The coastal redwoods in northern California are some of the biggest trees on the planet. This is one place we went. Hiking the trail in jedediah smith redwoods state park was abosutly mind blowing. My wife standing beside one of the bigger trees. OMG!!! Pictures do not do justice to the size of these things.   Sunday, May 28 View Page This is the before photo of my mater patch right before we left and 9 days later..............................   Sunday, May 28 View Page What the frickin can of crazy sauce is this??????????????? Colorado has got way way way more rain than usual this year. Now I need some sunny hot days to grow the maters... please. I also need an industrial weed puller. I know what I'll be doing on memorial day.   Monday, May 29 View Page sunflowers are plugging along.   Monday, May 29 View Page Time to weed the garden and see how the maters did in the week we were gone. The 4.28 Spaziani has out performed the other maters during the vacation. It was cramped in the hail cage.   Monday, May 29 View Page 5.08 La Rue doing nicely.   Monday, May 29 View Page 5.08 La Rue doing nicely.   Monday, May 29 View Page 9.06 Brown. 11lb mater? :)   Monday, May 29 View Page 9.65 Porkchop plant has taken off and is second best growth after the Spaziani   Monday, May 29 View Page 5.61 Konieczny   Monday, May 29 View Page 5.61 Konieczny is doing very nice also.   Monday, May 29 View Page 7.94 La Rue. One of the only non proven seeds Im growing this year. It was grown straight off the lambchop seed so good chance at producing.   Monday, May 29 View Page 4.71 Palmer My pick for a sleeper seed. It is the healthiest looking plant in the patch. We will see how good my intuition is. Tho I guess it is a bit of an educated intuition. It grew 2-6lbs maters for Randy. It was grown from another sleeper seed the 5.32 MacDonald '20, that was grown from the 5.71 Lambchop. If you have a 5.32 I would grow it.   Monday, May 29 View Page The 8.41 MacCoy It was started a week and a half later but this 2014 seed looks like it will survive. I am eyeing this plant to produce a cross.   Monday, May 29 View Page Sutherland cross. I had to restart the plant so it is a week and a half behind the others.   Monday, May 29 View Page 3.88 Luers Personal seed doing fine.   Monday, May 29 View Page 3.90 Luers is also doing fine. The 3.90 and 3.88 were both planted week and a half later.   Monday, May 29 View Page This 3.11 tiny sprout did not survive. I couldn't even find its corpse. Got eaten? Blew away? Thanos snaped his fingers? Heard me talking bad about it and ran away? Abducted by aliens? Bigfoot? Interdimensional rip in space time? Sand Worm? Darth Vader? Transporter malfunction? Maybe it was answering a distress call, that is always a good way to get in trouble. *shrug*   Saturday, June 3 View Page Stupid hail.....stupid rain. .....stupid weather.......I don't know which one of you sent your rain this way but you can have it back now!   Sunday, June 4 View Page Minecraft IRL! *Your kids or grandkids will find this funny* (If you miss the joke)   Sunday, June 4 View Page The 3.88 Luers are doing quite well. This is one of the back up plants I have. Look at the roots! Good thing I decided to transplant them.   Sunday, June 4 View Page Finished the extra raised bed this weekend. Look at that blank canvass. Oh yah   Monday, June 5 View Page Got support posts for the sunflowers. They are 15' tall. We will see. I think all this rain and clouds has stunted the growth a bit.   Monday, June 5 View Page Just after I got finished with the sun flower support the rain started again. I had to cover the maters again cause the storm had some hail in it. It missed us. The 5 gallon bucket I have outside had 3" of rain in it from this weekend and it is calling for rain all week..... :(   Tuesday, June 6 View Page I spy with my little eye.......   Tuesday, June 6 View Page I spy with my little eye.......   Tuesday, June 6 View Page If you can guess the plant the megabloom is on I'll give you a years worth of rain for the next week. Pick it up from my patch :/   Tuesday, June 6 View Page If you can guess the plant the megabloom is on I'll give you a years worth of rain for the next week. Pick it up from my patch :/   Tuesday, June 6 View Page And the winner is..... This plant is the biggest and the furthest along. The very young megabloom looks great so far.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 9.65 Porkchop. It has a megabloom on it.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 9.06 Brown. It looks to have a megabloom.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 5.08 LaRue It has megabloom on it.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 7.94 LaRue It has oversized flowers but unsure if it's a mega or just a big single yet.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 5.61 Konieczny. It has a magabloom on it   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 4.71 Palmer. It has a megabloom on it.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 4.28 Spaziani. Best plant has a very nice megabloom.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 3.88 Luers. second round planting.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 3.90 Luers. Second round planting.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page 8.41 MacCoy second round planting   Tuesday, June 6 View Page Sutherland cross seed. Second round planting   Thursday, June 8 View Page Look like it's about time to start the cloning process. The grand plan is to provide plants for crossing and pollination.   Thursday, June 8 View Page Cloning is a great way to produce more plants if you only have a small amount of seeds. (11.65 Faust anyone) The red circles are the suckers that grow in the crook of the leaf nodes next to the vine. Most of these are removed when you are pruning. If you take one and place it in very wet dirt it will produce a clone and vola another plant or 2 or 3 or ????.   Thursday, June 8 View Page I had fantastic success with the clones last year. In fact my biggest tomato came off one of the clone plants. The giant tomatoes really seem to take to cloning. They clone better that the regular eating maters I've done. Quite amazing honestly.   Friday, June 9 View Page Finally found time to build the hail guard over my maters. The weather has been very wet and dangerous all spring/early summer.   Sunday, June 11 View Page I like seeing this!! In case you don't know this is ladybug larvae. Don't kill these little bugs, they eat the bad garden pests.   Sunday, June 11 View Page I like seeing this!! In case you don't know this is ladybug larvae. Don't kill these little bugs, they eat the bad garden pests.   Sunday, June 11 View Page Today is cloning day! But first look at this huge bloom on the 9.65 Porkchop. It's still in it's infancy but it looks amazing so far. It will be cool watching this monster progress over the next week.   Sunday, June 11 View Page The suckers are the small branches that grow from the crook where the leaf stem meets the main stem. These are going to be cut off and made clones.   Sunday, June 11 View Page Ok now that we have the pruned off lets go get them planted.   Sunday, June 11 View Page This one is just right and doesn't need any trimming. Get your pot of soil very very wet, make a hole and put the stem in it just to the leaves. Gently but firmly pack the soil around the stem.   Sunday, June 11 View Page This one is just right and doesn't need any trimming. Get your pot of soil very very wet, make a hole and put the stem in it just to the leaves. Gently but firmly pack the soil around the stem.   Sunday, June 11 View Page Ta da. Now fingers crossed it will take.   Sunday, June 11 View Page For bigger suckers remove the larger leaf stems. I have found that the larger leaves cause the clone to take longer to recover or completely fail.   Sunday, June 11 View Page Once the clone is trimmed place it in the dirt as described above.   Sunday, June 11 View Page One key to pay attention to is making sure you identify the grow tip. If you cut this off your clone will fail. Some times it's hard to tell as you can see from this photo. Next photo we will learn how to identify the grow tip.   Sunday, June 11 View Page If you spread out the leaf stems. The grow tip will be located inside the leaf stems where circled in the photo. You can see it is where everything is growing from. That is what will start the new clone growth.   Sunday, June 11 View Page I take my clones inside and keep them in a stable environment it seems to allow them to recover faster. You can also place them in a sunny window. The clones can remain outside but the failure rate is higher and recovery time is longer.   Sunday, June 11 View Page The key is to keep the dirt very wet. After placing the clones in the dirt they will wither for a few hours to a day. Then they will perk up and look normal. Keep the dirt very wet for several days. Taper the water back to normal over the course of a week or so. Pay attention to the condition of the clones if they start to wilt add more water. Eventually once the clones start to grow again you will know the roots are established.   Monday, June 12 View Page The clones are all perked up. The giant tomato plants really are amazing.   Thursday, June 15 View Page Ohhh. See how the yellow petals are bending back toward the back side of the flower. I thinks is ready!!!!!!! Now to get the procreation devices. (Tomato s€x tools?)   Thursday, June 15 View Page Ohhh. See how the yellow petals are bending back toward the back side of the flower. I thinks is ready!!!!!!! Now to get the procreation devices. (Tomato s€x tools?)   Thursday, June 15 View Page I'm ready......I'm ready........I'm ready....ready....ready....   Thursday, June 15 View Page Yay...... time to paint some megablooms.   Saturday, June 17 View Page Even the tomato wizard can't get pollen out of the wet blossoms. The blooms have been at peak readyness for 3 days and it just keeps raining and raining.   Saturday, June 17 View Page Oh sure take a photo of me before I get my renaissance festival gear off. This is how nicknames start. :/   Sunday, June 18 View Page Finally the rain stopped for a day......was able to get some pollen on the megablooms. Especially the monster bloom on the 9.65 Porkchop. It looks crazy the whole stem just terminates right into the flower. I'm going to paint as much pollen on the flower as I can. This will be the first stretch of dry weather we have had since spring started.   Monday, June 19 View Page After looking over megablooms and regular blooms and all the hand pollinating I've done, I've come to some realizations. In this photo is a normal bloom on one of the giant tomato plants. If you look close you can see that the male part of the flower (anther cone) that produces the pollen goes past the female part of the flower (stigma) and almost fully encapsulates it. This is why tomatoes are so good at self pollinating. Sun Gold is an eating cherry tomato I grow every year. It almost always pollinates every flower. When I looked at the flowers on it. The stigma is completely enclosed tightly by the anther cones. My guess is when the pollen drops is has nowhere to go but on the stigma. Now let's look at a megabloom in the next photo.   Monday, June 19 View Page Megabloom are crazy mutant flowers and a lot of times are not built to self pollinate very well. In the photo is a megabloom that is on the same plant at the regular bloom in the previous photo. You can see how the anther cones are weird shaped and not enclosing the stigma. I think this is why we have problems getting megablooms to pollinate without a lot of help. You need the pollen from the anther cones to get to the tip of the stigma. As in this photo, if the bloom is sticking out at any angle except straight down the pollen is going to fall down and never reach the tip of the stigma. Only wind or insects can get it blowing around. The other thing I noticed is the early first truss megas open first before any other flowers. This means unless the mega produces a lot of it's own pollen it's not going to get pollinated. I've also noticed during my hand pollinating that a lot of megas don't produce much pollen if any at all. This is probably due to the mutated way they grow. I love observing and watching how this stuff works it's fascinating.   Monday, June 19 View Page Megabloom are crazy mutant flowers and a lot of times are not built to self pollinate very well. In the photo is a megabloom that is on the same plant at the regular bloom in the previous photo. You can see how the anther cones are weird shaped and not enclosing the stigma. I think this is why we have problems getting megablooms to pollinate without a lot of help. You need the pollen from the anther cones to get to the tip of the stigma. As in this photo, if the bloom is sticking out at any angle except straight down the pollen is going to fall down and never reach the tip of the stigma. Only wind or insects can get it blowing around. The other thing I noticed is the early first truss megas open first before any other flowers. This means unless the mega produces a lot of it's own pollen it's not going to get pollinated. I've also noticed during my hand pollinating that a lot of megas don't produce much pollen if any at all. This is probably due to the mutated way they grow. I love observing and watching how this stuff works it's fascinating.   Monday, June 19 View Page Pollinating day 3. Look at that monster!!!!   Monday, June 19 View Page Pollinating day 3. Look at that monster!!!!   Tuesday, June 20 View Page Stupid phone always double posts no matter what I do. Anyway, here are the clones. I gave them a shot of fertz yesterday and that seemed to perk them up.   Tuesday, June 20 View Page Pollination Day 4 on the monster megabloom 9.65. How many pollen grains can you see on my spoon :)   Wednesday, June 21 View Page :))   Wednesday, June 21 View Page Pollination Day 5.... Common baby.....   Thursday, June 22 View Page Pollination Day ......hummmm wow what day am I on???? 5...6...7?? Good grief. Anywho guess what I see..... I noticed it yesterday but didn't want to get my hopes up. Today it is definitely bigger. See it just below my thumb. I am cautiously optimistic. I did still pollinate between thunder storms this evening. Denver had a nasty storm roll through big hail and a tornado through the middle of southern part of the city.   Thursday, June 22 View Page The 7.94 La Rue also looks like it pollinated. The 5.61 Konieczny and 4.28 Spaziani seem to be swelling also. The others are still a touch early to tell yet and the shy 9.06 Brown mega finally opened today.   Thursday, June 22 View Page The megabloom on the 3.90 Luers has turned into an amazing flower. It has just opening up and I was able to paint a bit of pollen on it today. I will be cool to watch how big it gets over the next week or so.   Friday, June 23 View Page Yay! 9.65 Porkchop pollinated. Now the work begins.   Friday, June 23 View Page One normal bloom on the 5.61 produced more pollen than I've ever seen. That flower could have a career in the movies. *Wink   Sunday, June 25 View Page Here we go. 9.65 Porkchop It will be interesting to watch over the next couple weeks and see what kind of structure I'm looking at.   Sunday, June 25 View Page 7.94 LaRue megabloom looks to have pollinated.   Sunday, June 25 View Page The single bloom a flower down on the truss from the megablooms is getting bigger faster than the mega. Lol   Sunday, June 25 View Page The 5.61 Konieczny mega is looking really good. Will probably need to prune the plant this week.   Sunday, June 25 View Page 4.71 Palmer mega looks like it took. Hard to get a photo it in a hard to access spot on the plant. The plant looks fabulous. Will be interesting to see what happens here in the next week.   Sunday, June 25 View Page 4.71 Palmer mega looks like it took. Hard to get a photo it in a hard to access spot on the plant. The plant looks fabulous. Will be interesting to see what happens here in the next week.   Sunday, June 25 View Page Pollination Day 3 on the 3.90 Luers. One of the harder things to do with hand pollination is identifying the stigma structure in mega blooms as the stigma are at times fused I'm weird ways.   Sunday, June 25 View Page Every single clone survived. Now I have to decide what to do. Anybody want a clone? If you stop by my house I have an extra 9.65 Porkchop and 9.06 Brown clone. Really I have several clones and not enough room.   Monday, June 26 View Page Pollination Day 4 on the 3.90 Luers. I'm going to have to make some decisions soon on the other megabloom and decide if I'm ready to top the plants and run with what I have or wait for a better flower. The 9.65 has hit the ground running it is turning into a tomato fast.   Tuesday, June 27 View Page Pollination Day 5. 3.90 LuersThe pollen is really flowing now. All the plants are flowering like mad.   Tuesday, June 27 View Page Clone army!!!!   Tuesday, June 27 View Page The best looking roots came from the 5.08 LaRue and the 5.61 Konieczny. This is the 5.61   Tuesday, June 27 View Page 5.08 La Rue   Wednesday, June 28 View Page Pollination Day 6.... success?? I can see the start of a tomato on the right hand side just peeking through the petals.   Thursday, June 29 View Page 9.65 Porkchop. DAP 5. We have a tomato!!!!!!!!   Thursday, June 29 View Page 9.65 Porkchop. DAP 5. We have a tomato!!!!!!!!   Thursday, June 29 View Page 3.90 Luers is also looking like it set! And this will only post once if I can remember to quit hitting submit after google auto generates my password.   Thursday, June 29 View Page 7.94 LaRue megabloom set but the single is growing way way faster. I pruned the plant and now we will let it grow a bit and see what happens.   Thursday, June 29 View Page 5.61 Konieczny set and is growing nicely. The plant is pruned and I'll let the main grow a touch.   Thursday, June 29 View Page I also pruned the 4.71 Palmer. The megabloom set. Once it gets a bit bigger I'll take a photo of it. It's deep in the plant and hard to get a photo of.   Thursday, June 29 View Page The 3.88 Luers has a nice bloom a bit higher up I'm hand pollinating starting today. The first truss megabloom formed weird and I only hand pollinated it once so it doesn't look like it set.   Thursday, June 29 View Page The 8.41 MacCoy seems to be a little slow growing. It has flowers but not anything out of the ordinary.   Sunday, July 2 View Page OMG!!!! Tomato Plants Gone Wild!!! I skip a day or two and the plants have a hey day. 4 plants and I don't know where one starts and the next one ends. 3 of these are not pruned yet waiting for something I like a mega or fruit set. Obviously these plants need to have some discipline. A stern talking to about making sure who witness your blooms. :)   Sunday, July 2 View Page 3.90 Luers good grief .... Instant tomato. This one looks really good. The plant is a bit smaller than the 9.65 but I think we will be ok.   Sunday, July 2 View Page And look at the crazy stem on the thing   Sunday, July 2 View Page Speaking of the 9.65 Porkchop. It is now the size of a regular tomato. Insanity   Sunday, July 2 View Page 9.06 Brown. This was the shy megabloom that took forever to open and when it did the structure was very weird with green leaf parts going through the center of the megabloom. I still tried my hardest to hand pollinate it. I guess it worked but it's a crazy mutant shape. We will see how this grows out. I'm going to wait to prune the plant I think.   Sunday, July 2 View Page There is a nice mega at the top of the 9.06 that will be a new client of mine for tomato couples coupling and copulation.   Sunday, July 2 View Page This is the mega on the 3.88 Luers. As I went to pollinate it I found a tiny spider hanging out in the flower. I got to looking at other blooms and found a couple more. I have had a bit of a thrip infestation from the beginning of the year. (You notice these things when you hand pollinate) I didn't realize it but for the last week or so I have hardly seen any as I harvest pollen. Maybe these spiders eat thrips?   Sunday, July 2 View Page This is the mega on the 3.88 Luers. As I went to pollinate it I found a tiny spider hanging out in the flower. I got to looking at other blooms and found a couple more. I have had a bit of a thrip infestation from the beginning of the year. (You notice these things when you hand pollinate) I didn't realize it but for the last week or so I have hardly seen any as I harvest pollen. Maybe these spiders eat thrips?   Sunday, July 2 View Page I hit the submit button again :(   Sunday, July 2 View Page This is the first megabloom on the 3.88. It didn't set. Not surprising since it was weird shaped and I couldn't see the ends of any stigma. I didn't hand pollinate it but maybe once if at all. There are nice blooms further up like the spider one that looks to have started to set.   Sunday, July 2 View Page Another mega on the 3.88 just starting to form   Sunday, July 2 View Page The 4.28 Spaziani mega looks like it also didn't set really. It is the only first truss megabloom that didn't set with my hand pollination. Tho to be honest I didn't concentrate on this one like I did some of the others. :(   Sunday, July 2 View Page The 4.28 Spaziani does have several nice new blooms on it tho. Pollinating this one starting today   Monday, July 3 View Page My wife said "You have a problem" I panicked "What!!!! BER?? Bugs!?!?! Oh no not raccoons??!!????" Then I got the look and I realized I was way off base. "No you are a tomato Horder...you have too many plants." I shook my head "naaa it's fine" she glared "count them all" ..... When I got past 40 I realized I didn't have a leg to stand on. So today I waited until she left to trim the suckers. The ones in the right side are 9.65 and 9.06 figured a nice even number like 50 seems reasonable.   Wednesday, July 5 View Page It another rainy day. The weather is crazy this year. No pollinating it's too wet :(. But here is a pic of the 9.65 at DAP 12. It's big enough to start throwing a measuring tape around it. Just for reference I have pretty big hands. There is a long way to go but we are headed in the direction of a Colorado state record!   Wednesday, July 5 View Page This is the mega on the 3.88 Luers. picture is from Monday July 3. Today it is much bigger. It is the one I was hand pollinating and looks like a keeper. I will probably prune and train the vine later this week or weekend.   Wednesday, July 5 View Page The sunflowers are looking good. At least I thought so until I saw Brad Bledsoe's his are bigger than mine. I feel so inadequate.....   Saturday, July 8 View Page The 4 plant corner of doom has been pruned into submission.   Saturday, July 8 View Page Looks like the mega on the 4.28 Spaziani I was pollinating set. Finally I can prune this crazy plant. It definitely has hybrid vigor. I just wish I could get a better bloom.   Saturday, July 8 View Page The new tomato on the 3.88 Luers is looking very nice.   Saturday, July 8 View Page The 3.90 Luers is starting to swell nicely.   Saturday, July 8 View Page 7.94 LaRue. What to do....What to do.... Keep the nice fast growing single or cul it and keep the slow growing mega....*sigh   Saturday, July 8 View Page 5.61 Konieczny hiding down in the middle of the plant   Saturday, July 8 View Page 4.71 Palmer also hiding in the middle of the plant   Saturday, July 8 View Page WTF tomato on the 9.06 Brown. Needs to swell a bit more to see if the freaky thing is fused   Sunday, July 9 View Page Transplanted the green cross today. Look at all the roots waiting to escape   Sunday, July 9 View Page This is the mega on the green cross. I hand pollinated it while it was still in the pot. It looks like it set. We will see how transplanting into the ground effects it.   Wednesday, July 12 View Page My backup tomatoes were looking too good to cul. Sooooo.   Wednesday, July 12 View Page I carved out a patch to transplant them in. Look at those roots. 2- 3.90 Luers and 2-3.88 Luers all had amazing roots.   Sunday, July 16 View Page Today was cul day or as my wife called it ,with tears in her eyes, "murdering the poor baby tomatoes". Go back in the house you don't want to be an accomplice. As you can see I murdered the single off the 7.95 LaRue leaving the smaller mega. We will see if this pays off.   Sunday, July 16 View Page 3.90 Luers is looking good all snuggled down in the middle of the plant.   Sunday, July 16 View Page 4.28 Spaziani is starting to grow.   Sunday, July 16 View Page 8.41 MacCoy has a tomato on it and the plant is finally starting to grow and flower.   Sunday, July 16 View Page The Dan Sutherland cross from the seed exchange is also finally starting to grow and has produced this nice mega. Hopefully I'll find time to pollinate it this week.   Sunday, July 16 View Page The green cross has survived the transplant without missing a beat. We will see how this nice mega does in the next few weeks.   Sunday, July 16 View Page The 9.65 is an amazing plant. It clones super great. I have gotten over 15 clones from it. This is one that is in the clone box. Is that the beginning of an amazing first truss mega I see?   Saturday, July 22 View Page Clone army. Growing very nicely. In fact a bit too nicely as some were starting to fall over. So cages and now that I am starting to see flowers it's time to get to work on the crosses. I'm have a hard time getting the 4.28 Spaziani to grow after transplant I've lost one and the other two are struggling. I can always pull pollen from the main big boy plant I guess. I'll have to let a sucker grow on it to get a flower truss. It will be fun next year to see what happens from crossing these great genetics.   Saturday, July 22 View Page The 9.65 is doing the best of any tomato I've ever grown. It is roughly 3lbs and has hopefully 20 or more days to go.   Saturday, July 22 View Page It hit 20" today. Unlike my 3.88 or 3.90 it has almost no air gaps in the measurements so it's all tomato and should weight heavier that they did at the same measurements   Sunday, July 23 View Page The 3.90 Luers just hit 15" and is starting to pick up steam.   Sunday, July 23 View Page The 5.61 Konieczny is still growing but has slowed down I don't know why. Probably bigfoot or aliens or some such thing.   Sunday, July 23 View Page On the other hand the plant directly beside it the 4.71 Palmer is growing fast and has now overtaken the 5.61 in size.   Tuesday, July 25 View Page 9.65 beast of a tomato. I was going to put the hammock on it Monday but s back problem has delayed that for a couple days. It's taping 3.5lbs and is getting close to PB territory. It's puting on .20 Lbs a day. If it goes to 45 like the ones last year that is 6lbs+. If it keeps growing it should be in state record weight in 5 days. It looks sooooo much bigger that my biggest from last year.   Tuesday, July 25 View Page See Dan Sutherland and I both have 14" tomatoes........wait......what do you mean diameter not circumference???!?!?!!!. :/   Sunday, July 30 View Page Well......if you look close you can see the right lobe of just starting to blush on the 9.65. unfortunately that is 4 to 5 days early compared to last year. The growth had slowed significantly over the last few days and I wondered if I had over fertilizer it. Nope it's just ripening early. This is very unfortunate as I needed to extra days to get to where I was for sure I had the Colorado state record. Now.......well it will be close. Most likely a personal best and it is still pretty hard so hopefully it will still put on weight for a few days and ripen slowly. Fingers crossed.   Tuesday, August 1 View Page Rough day to be a giant tomato farmer. Lost the 5.61 Konieczny today. I had a suspicion something was wrong a week ago when the growth had nearly stopped.   Tuesday, August 1 View Page Also lost the 3.90 Luers but this one is not a surprise. It has had problems from the start, weird mega and weird growth etc.   Tuesday, August 1 View Page The 9.65 is blushing more each day. Luckily we have had cloudy weather and a bit cooler temps. I really need another 3/4" to feel comfortable having a shot at the state record. I'm hoping I can stretch this out to the weekend. Half of it is still very green, infact the blushing part is not very soft yet so there is a chance.   Tuesday, August 1 View Page It looks nice from this angle. We will just hide that big gaping hole in the back side. :) 2.22 Luers UOW DAM. Probably was closer to 2.5 without the damage of a full seed cavity drained out. Most likely cause was aliens probing my mater. I know it was you......the truth is out there!!!!   Wednesday, August 2 View Page I've learned from last year to have a couple plants that I just let go wild. Flowers all over to help the bubble bees. I like seeing this.   Wednesday, August 2 View Page The 9.06 Brown tomato is blushing. It's quite small and never really took off like some of the others. I have a nice new megabloom on it. None of my flowers had pollen so hopefully tomorrow they will so I can make sure it pollinates. I've had tons of problems with the 9.06 clones. Time will tell.   Thursday, August 3 View Page Every evening..... thunder storms roll in with potential for hail. So every evening this happens. The 9.65 is pretty red now and will be weighed on Saturday. I am now unsure if I'll get the state record with it blushing early. I was expecting another 1" + of growth before it ripened. Oh well guess we will see. It should be a PB at the least. Common Saturday.....   Saturday, August 5 View Page My wife. "STOP fertilizing the eating tomatoes!!!!! Seriously..." As they over take the walking path to the back door. 2 plants sungold and stipice. probably around 300 tomatoes set between them :)). :)) And yes today is the day!   Saturday, August 5 View Page It's time!! 9.65 Porkchop grew a nice mater. I took a chance and let it get pretty ripe.   Saturday, August 5 View Page Unfortunately it feels light :(   Saturday, August 5 View Page It should of had at least another in on it if it hadn't blushed early. Sadly our unofficial home scale doesn't say anything nice. Ugh....   Saturday, August 5 View Page It went super light. I have no idea why. We will know when I cut it open to get the seeds. (Shrug) 3.38 Luers is born. I can't believe how red it is. Lol   Saturday, August 5 View Page It went super light. I have no idea why. We will know when I cut it open to get the seeds. (Shrug) 3.38 Luers is born. I can't believe how red it is. Lol   Saturday, August 5 View Page 3.38 Luers. I'm a bit disappointed honestly but this is still the 6 largest tomato ever grown in Colorado. I have the 2nd and 3rd spot from last year. We are still looking for that #1 spot tho. I have some other prospects, so we will see.   Monday, August 7 View Page I was hoping to weigh this tomorrow or the next day. Sadly the aliens got it again. I was checking it and it's leaking. Ugh. 2.82 Luers UOW DAM off the 4.71 Palmer   Monday, August 7 View Page I was hoping to weigh this tomorrow or the next day. Sadly the aliens got it again. I was checking it and it's leaking. Ugh. 2.82 Luers UOW DAM off the 4.71 Palmer   Monday, August 7 View Page This is why I'm having problems. Bacterial wilt of one kind or another. This is the stem of the 9.65. it's amazing I got what I did.   Monday, August 7 View Page This is the stem of the 3.88 Luers. It's no wonder I had so many problems with that tomato. There was much pruning and pulling in the patch today. I was trying to ignore all the wilting leaves but today was the day of reconning. I learned on line that you can check if its bacterial wilt by placing a fresh cut stem in a glass of water and if the bacterial slime stringers come out you have the tomato crud. Ugh....time for damage control.   Monday, August 7 View Page This is the 3.90 Luers I figured since it blushed I'd pick it and weigh it since the plant looks like it has the crud.   Monday, August 7 View Page Blossom side   Monday, August 7 View Page 1.95 Luers I'm not registering it with the gpc but I will submit it for the tomato competition just in case.   Sunday, August 13 View Page Cut down another plant. The 4.28 Spaziani. I was trying to ignore the fact that it had the tomato crud. I also cut down a couple others and cut my losses.   Sunday, August 13 View Page You can see the weird ridges with just a hint of brown and when you feel the stem it's hollow.   Sunday, August 13 View Page Ugh......   Sunday, August 13 View Page On to better news. This is the 5.08 LaRue that had a surprise tomato on it I found a couple weeks ago. This plant is one of the few that still look good.   Sunday, August 13 View Page The 9.65 tomato (now 3.38 Luers) looks fine when I opened it. I don't know why it went light. (Shrug)   Sunday, August 13 View Page I pruned the heck out of the 9.06 Brown after I picked the tomato that never really took off. It produced this nice megabloom. Sadly I'm pretty sure it has the crud.   Sunday, August 13 View Page The tomato off the 9 06 Brown. The seeds in this could be amazing as I hand pollinated it with the pollen from the other plants.   Sunday, August 13 View Page The 8.41 MacCoy has a nice tomato on it but it's not growing very fast.   Sunday, August 13 View Page Luckily the clone box plants are clear on the other side of the house away from the crud. This is the 9.65 Porkchop x 5.61 Konieczny. I've never done this before so we will see.   Sunday, August 13 View Page All neutered and ready.   Sunday, August 13 View Page Another crazy megabloom. This one is on a tomato plant I randomly put at the top of the strawberry box in the part where the strawberrys didn't come back. It was a seed from the late tomatoes that missed the weighoff last year. (Smiling heart, twin singles etc.). I'll hand pollinate it and see what happens. Lol   Sunday, August 13 View Page Here is a close up of it. Crazy Frankenstein flower. It's no wonder these things tend to not pollinate. Those anther cones are everywhere but where they should be. If they can even produce pollen in the first place.   Sunday, August 13 View Page These are some eating tomatoes my wife bought from Bakers creek. I always figured the "Black" tomato photos were doctored a bit but nope they really are that dark. They look really cool and weird. Maybe I'll cross them with one of the extra 3.90 or 3.88 plants that I let go wild for the bees. I wonder what would grow from those seeds lol   Monday, August 14 View Page R. solanacearum. I have a suspicion it came from the bags of compost I got from the university here. They have a huge program to try and recycle everything compostable. Might of come from food scraps or such. I bought 6 big bags of it. I think only a few (or one) was tainted since I'm only having problems in two areas. Sadly it's the area that has/had most of my main tomato plants. Now I will probably have to ditch the dirt and start over from scratch next year. Live and learn.   Thursday, August 17 View Page This has not been my year so far. I lost the last big early tomato today. I guess I should of picked it at first blush a few days ago. We had 95+ temps for the last couple days. That must of did it in. Now we will have to wait and see if I can get a nice tomato from the clone plants for weighoff season. 2.10 Luers UOW DAM. Off the 5.08 LaRue seed.   Thursday, August 17 View Page This has not been my year so far. I lost the last big early tomato today. I guess I should of picked it at first blush a few days ago. We had 95+ temps for the last couple days. That must of did it in. Now we will have to wait and see if I can get a nice tomato from the clone plants for weighoff season. 2.10 Luers UOW DAM. Off the 5.08 LaRue seed.   Thursday, August 17 View Page 2.10 Luers UOW DAM. I guess you gotta go through the bad to enjoy the good.   Thursday, August 17 View Page 2.10 Luers UOW DAM. I guess you gotta go through the bad to enjoy the good.   Thursday, August 17 View Page The sunflower experiment didn't turn out too bad. 9+ feet. They were planted on the south side of the house and I think they may not like THAT much sun. They wilted during the heat of the day when it was over 85. I guess they are partlysunflowers. The grasshoppers like the leaves a bit also. It still neat to see them in bloom. I'll plant them again. (In a less sunny spot lol)   Thursday, August 17 View Page Hummmm. Now what to cross the 9.65 with........   Thursday, August 17 View Page Hummmm. Now what to cross the 9.65 with........   Thursday, August 17 View Page How bout the 8.41 MacCoy 2014. (You know 2014 doesn't seem like that long ago......)   Thursday, August 17 View Page Yummy 8.41 pollen. Now back to the other side of the house. This is probably a little dangerous hopefully there is no bacteria in the pollen. Tho the box the MacCoy is in didn't seem to get the tomato crud. It has the old soil from last years "clone extension". I didn't amend it with the university compost like the other boxes.   Thursday, August 17 View Page Done. Now grow a nicely seeded tomato so I can share you with all my friends.   Thursday, August 17 View Page Still working on that black tomato cross gritty. Eventually one should take. The Dan Sutherland cross I grew my 3.90 and 3.88 from seem to be prolific seed producers. Both tomatoes had well over 700 seeds. I haven't counted yet but the 1.95 I just got off my 3.90 plant seems to be loaded with seeds. So hopefully.   Thursday, August 17 View Page Does the pollen from the black tomatoes look the same as the MacCoy. I wonder if it's bigger......anyone have a tape measure that goes to microns?   Thursday, August 17 View Page This mega on the 5.08 LaRue clone has taken off growing before the flower petals have even dried. Good sign. This is just about right for weighoff season.   Thursday, August 17 View Page The strawberry mega looks to have set also. Hopefully it's fused. *Cross fingers*   Sunday, August 20 View Page Tomato off the McCoy plant.   Sunday, August 20 View Page 5.08 LaRue clone. Looking good early.   Monday, August 21 View Page Tomato off the 3.90 Luers backup plant im going to save seeds from. I just let this plant go wild and there are several tomatoes on it. This is slightly bigger than the rest so far. I wonder what would of happened if id made it the only tomato on the plant.   Thursday, August 24 View Page So my wife told me I grew another 3lbs. I was like REALLY!!! I must of missed it. Then she sent me this photo. 3.13 Luers unconsolidated. :))   Monday, September 4 View Page Secret Wyoming sand! I should of had this this year!   Tuesday, September 12 View Page The next photo he sent me was this one.   Monday, September 18 View Page Well my second season has been very rough. It looks like I'm not going to get anything over 2lbs for the weighoffs. None of the crosses took. I'm not sure why. So we are down to seed saving from the maters that were UOW DAM. I also have a bunch saved from the 3.90 Luers clones. These seeds will be F3 for the Sutherland Big Zac x Domingo cross.   Monday, September 18 View Page I'm going to be real honest, this is my least favorite part of the giant growing process. There is some better news from this year. I'll tease a photo next.   Tuesday, September 19 View Page This tomato is from Colorado this year. The state record is 4.65......i was sent this photo from a grower. Little did I know he was trolling me lol. Because.......   Tuesday, September 19 View Page Then he sent me this one...... OMG.....yup the state record has been broken.....in fact it has been smashed. It's so great to see that you can grow giant tomatoes at altitude. Who is it you ask? I'll give you a couple hints. He has a YouTube channel and he is currently the state record holder for another fruit that seems to be a bit more popular. Yes this is a "New" state record.   Tuesday, September 19 View Page Wrong photos. :(   Tuesday, September 19 View Page Here is the "New" state record. I don't know why it put the diary entries in the wrong order. I probably pushed the wrong dates. You'll just have to figure out what order they go in when you read them ha ha ha. Yup it's been that kind of year.   Saturday, October 21 View Page Last Colorado weighoff of the year. Smiths farms!!! Woo hoo   Saturday, October 21 View Page Get your pumpkin to the weighoff ANY WAY YOU CAN!   Saturday, October 21 View Page There was a nice showing of tomatoes. Last year I was the only one with my 3.90. Sadly I had nothing to weigh. It was nice seeing others tomatoes.   Saturday, October 21 View Page There was a nice showing of tomatoes. Last year I was the only one with my 3.90. Sadly I had nothing to weigh. It was nice seeing others tomatoes.   Saturday, October 21 View Page I gave a buddy Roger one of my extra 3.90 starts and he got first place 3.84 Schlack. He somewhat ignored the plant and grew several 2 and 3 lbs maters and this monster on this one plant!?! Maybe I'm trying too hard. Sigh   Saturday, October 21 View Page I gave a buddy Roger one of my extra 3.90 starts and he got first place 3.84 Schlack. He somewhat ignored the plant and grew several 2 and 3 lbs maters and this monster on this one plant!?! Maybe I'm trying too hard. Sigh   Wednesday, November 29 View Page Trying to overwinter the 9.65 porkchop. The clones have had problems with the stems rotting before they establish roots. Lucky this one seems to have taken and is now growing. Phew   Friday, December 22 View Page The overwinter 9.65 porkchop clone basking in the sun of the shortest day of the year. This happens to also be my birthday. Every day after my BD gets longer. The clone seems to be doing great. I am thinking I will clone a few more suckers once the plant gets bigger and needs pruning. As this is the last and only clone to survive an insurance policy would be good.   Sunday, December 24 View Page The overwintering 9.65 porkchop has some very early flower buds on it. It's amazing how early you can tell you are going to have a megabloom   Sunday, December 31 View Page 9.65 porkchop overwinter plant loves it in the south facing window. Really starting to grow now.