2015: Tomato HOA Rehab journal - Page 2

Dewayne mater · April 21, 2015

Interesting list! I'll be especially interested in how your dwarfs turn out! Love the back yard! I grow mine on both sides of the house to best work with the shadows and sunlight inherent with the tall houses of today and narrow yards! Good luck and happy growing.

Dewayne Mater

PS So far, I've been lucky to avoid any disease even with tons of rain this Spring. I was having quite a lot of green peach aphids (typical) and have put out one round of lady bugs. Gonna do more releases soon and hope to keep them around long enough to help with population control. I really need to find a green lace wing source as I understand they will help quite a bit.

Vespertino · April 22, 2015

Ordering 50 little newly hatched carolina mantids. They should arrive Friday, I'm psyched! I'll be raising them through a couple of molts and then let them into the garden. So exciting!

BucksCountyGirl · April 23, 2015

Great looking list, Vespertino!

I was curious about Evan's Purple Pear as it was on my short list to try this year. I see you are growing again this year...how did it do for you in 2014? What's the taste/yield like?

Vespertino · April 23, 2015

Hey Kelli

Evan's purple pear was a pleasant surprise, and one of the best in the garden for 2014. Despite having curly top virus and a secondary disease on top of that (TSWV highly suspected) they were among the few tomatoes to produce any fruit in the Texas summer heat, and production perked up when temperatures cooled in September. I enjoyed the flavor, I wouldn't call it an old-fashioned tomato; it wasn't sharp or too acidic, it had a nice slightly sweet taste but not as sweet as a cherry or, had a firm texture that wasn't mealy. They weren't as sweet as a cherry or grape tomato, closer to a salad type, but I enjoyed their little size and they were perfect in caprese salads

Worth1 · April 23, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vespertino

Hey Kelli

Evan's purple pear was a pleasant surprise, and one of the best in the garden for 2014. Despite having curly top virus and a secondary disease on top of that (TSWV highly suspected) they were among the few tomatoes to produce any fruit in the Texas summer heat, and production perked up when temperatures cooled in September. I enjoyed the flavor, I wouldn't call it an old-fashioned tomato; it wasn't sharp or too acidic, it had a nice slightly sweet taste but not as sweet as a cherry or, had a firm texture that wasn't mealy. They weren't as sweet as a cherry or grape tomato, closer to a salad type, but I enjoyed their little size and they were perfect in caprese salads

So what did your Evan's purple pear tomatoes look like.
I got on line and searched Tatiana's tomato base and it looked like they came in all shapes.
If you liked it you would surely love Black Plumb it does great in the heat also.

Worth

Vespertino · April 23, 2015

Black plum is now on my list! thanks for the suggestion Worth, I'll see if I can pick up the seeds and germinate a few in case a few plants go kaput after the summer and need to be rotated out. I'm sure I can find an unused grow bag in case I have no dead plants to swap out.

Here are some pics of EPP from last year:

The two small pear-shaped tomatoes (uppermost left) on the paper plate are Evan's Purple Pear at different stages of ripeness. My seed source for EPP is Heritage Tomato Seed. Excellent seeds, I've had wonderful results with them.

The sizes were very consistent for me, I'm wondering if there might be some slightly different types available.

Vespertino · April 24, 2015

Now I have two types of babies: tomato babies and carolina mantis babies. Here's one of them noshing on a fruit fly.

Vespertino · May 21, 2015

I found some newly hatched stinkbugs on a tomato leaf, then promptly stuck them into one of the mantid enclosures. Last I checked a few of the the stinkbugs have been rendered into mantis poop. I'll try to see if I can get a pic of one of the little stinkbugs getting eaten, knowing how much we all hate those things I'm sure the image will make most gardeners feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

April 23, 2015	#18
BucksCountyGirl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Holland, PA/Zone 7A Posts: 692	Great looking list, Vespertino! I was curious about Evan's Purple Pear as it was on my short list to try this year. I see you are growing again this year...how did it do for you in 2014? What's the taste/yield like? __________________ - Kelli Life's a climb...but the view is fantastic

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April 21, 2015	#16
Dewayne mater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: DFW, Texas Posts: 1,212	Interesting list! I'll be especially interested in how your dwarfs turn out! Love the back yard! I grow mine on both sides of the house to best work with the shadows and sunlight inherent with the tall houses of today and narrow yards! Good luck and happy growing. Dewayne Mater PS So far, I've been lucky to avoid any disease even with tons of rain this Spring. I was having quite a lot of green peach aphids (typical) and have put out one round of lady bugs. Gonna do more releases soon and hope to keep them around long enough to help with population control. I really need to find a green lace wing source as I understand they will help quite a bit.

April 22, 2015	#17
Vespertino Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Southlake, TX Posts: 743	Ordering 50 little newly hatched carolina mantids. They should arrive Friday, I'm psyched! I'll be raising them through a couple of molts and then let them into the garden. So exciting!

April 23, 2015	#19
Vespertino Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Southlake, TX Posts: 743	Hey Kelli Evan's purple pear was a pleasant surprise, and one of the best in the garden for 2014. Despite having curly top virus and a secondary disease on top of that (TSWV highly suspected) they were among the few tomatoes to produce any fruit in the Texas summer heat, and production perked up when temperatures cooled in September. I enjoyed the flavor, I wouldn't call it an old-fashioned tomato; it wasn't sharp or too acidic, it had a nice slightly sweet taste but not as sweet as a cherry or, had a firm texture that wasn't mealy. They weren't as sweet as a cherry or grape tomato, closer to a salad type, but I enjoyed their little size and they were perfect in caprese salads

April 24, 2015	#22
Vespertino Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Southlake, TX Posts: 743	Now I have two types of babies: tomato babies and carolina mantis babies. Here's one of them noshing on a fruit fly.

May 21, 2015	#23
Vespertino Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Southlake, TX Posts: 743	I found some newly hatched stinkbugs on a tomato leaf, then promptly stuck them into one of the mantid enclosures. Last I checked a few of the the stinkbugs have been rendered into mantis poop. I'll try to see if I can get a pic of one of the little stinkbugs getting eaten, knowing how much we all hate those things I'm sure the image will make most gardeners feel all warm and fuzzy inside.