SETTFest V one month away
 

The fifth anniversary of SETTFest is fast approaching. It's been an early year for me with Tomato production going well and in full swing. I just hope my plants will still be producing one month from now. How is everyone else doing? Early year? Late year? Good year? Bad year?

No year, I think I will stop by the store and buy the hardest tomatoes I can find and bring them.
I dont think any one in the history of any fest has ever brought something that bad to compare the others with.:P

Worth

I think a better idea would be to buy the [B]best[/B] tomatoes you can find in a super market. Maybe buy one of the best and one of the worst to get a full range of supermarket tomatoes.

The cool snap in the last ten days has resulted in some late-season setting. I should be able to bring a small smattering to Gonzales. Problem: the best fruits are (burp) already gone. Ate a 1.3 lb Earl's Faux (yes, it produced this year!) and have two more sitting on the counter that won't last the weekend.

Anticipated offerings:
ATKINSON!
Aunt Ginnie's Purple
Goose Creek
Kosovo

Maybe:
Black Krim
Earl's Faux
Marmande
Zebra Stripe

Doubtful: BHN 44

I don't want to get too cocky - but I am having (at least) a slightly better than avg year so far. My timing for harvest of many varieties has definitely been accelerated this year. I've been picking stuff in the last week or two that I normally would not pick until the end of May or close.

However, I'm still getting plenty of fruit set. About a week or so ago, a cool front moved in, I got over 2" of rain, and since then it has remained in the 80's day / 60's night tops. I thought I was going to lose that 80's day temp in the next day or two, but another front has recently moved in. :-)

For the most part, my plants still look pretty good. One problem I've had this year is spider mites but I'm keeping them down to manageable levels with a spray of seaweed emulsion + actinovate every 4-5 days or so, and so far they haven't really been able to get any sort of major foothold and do damage. The actinovate is preventative for fungal disease, and has no effects on mites that I know of - I mix with the emulsion as a sort of 2-in-1 just to save time for any needed spraying.

Anyhow, I should have plenty of tomatoes to bring to the tasting as usual. Impossible to list out which ones I think it might be, but I'm growing over 100 vars this year and will of course bring whatever I can that is available and good and/or interesting. :cute:

Suze, does the seaweed have an effect on the mites? I don't think I have ever heard that.

[quote=snappybob;214913]Suze, does the seaweed have an effect on the mites? I don't think I have ever heard that.[/quote]

Seaweed emulsion helps keep the population down significantly if you use it regularly.

[url]http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1116&bih=478&q=seaweed+spider+mites&aq=f&aqi=g-v1&aql=&oq=[/url]