Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

Discuss your tips, tricks and experiences growing and selling vegetables, fruits, flowers, plants and herbs.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old July 10, 2017   #391
clkeiper
Tomatovillian™
 
clkeiper's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: ohio
Posts: 4,350
Default

Cole_Robbie you table looks wonderful! how many tomato plants are you picking from to have that many cherry tomatoes?
__________________
carolyn k
clkeiper is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 10, 2017   #392
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

Thank you everyone for the kind words.

Only the multi-colored tomatoes toward the front of that pic are mine. The rest are from the family garden. I really ought to have ten times the amount of fruit as what I am currently picking, but the fusarium I have in my soil has limited my yield. Next year, hopefully grafting will get me past that problem.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 12, 2017   #393
Starlight
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: AL
Posts: 1,993
Default

Beautiful tomatoes and table set up again this year! You can tell just from your produce and table how much you care about what your selling and that you have high standards. Vendors around here should could learn a thing or two from you. Nothing like going to fresh market and veggies look wilted and sad and what's worse is when you pick up a tomato and it must be old because even though you handle gently your fingers squish right through the skin.

Me too, I'd buy from you in a heartbeat if I was there. : )
Starlight is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 12, 2017   #394
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

Thanks, Starlight.

To update on my summer flower growing experiment, dwarf zinnias are the biggest success, followed by the Strawberry Blonde marigold. The gerbera daisies are a joke. I can't see how anyone manages to grow these things from seed. Mine have stayed sprout-sized for months. The sunflowers are proving more difficult to grow in summer. I should have put them in larger pots, because they dry out too quickly.

Another thing I am going to do is try to make my tables hold water. It occurred to me that I really don't need the drain. If I just flood them with about a half-inch or so of water, the plants use it up and the water disappears, letting the pots dry out, instead of staying soaked, which they need. I have been rotating all my plants in and out of bins of water by hand, which is a lot of work, but I think soaking is the only good way to water a container, especially in hot weather.

Market is in three days, I will have flowers to add to my colorful market table.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Resized_20170712_1450162222222222.jpg (386.7 KB, 127 views)
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 12, 2017   #395
clara
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Germany
Posts: 1,350
Default

Cole Robbie, if I lived close to you, I'd probably grow way less tomatoes - but buy them from you!

In one of your previous posts, you talked about selling micro-dwarfs next season. When saving seeds, I will be thinking of you.
clara is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 12, 2017   #396
Gerardo
Tomatovillian™
 
Gerardo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: San Diego-Tijuana
Posts: 2,594
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie View Post
The sunflowers are proving more difficult to grow in summer. I should have put them in larger pots, because they dry out too quickly.

Another thing I am going to do is try to make my tables hold water. It occurred to me that I really don't need the drain. If I just flood them with about a half-inch or so of water, the plants use it up and the water disappears, letting the pots dry out, instead of staying soaked, which they need. I have been rotating all my plants in and out of bins of water by hand, which is a lot of work, but I think soaking is the only good way to water a container, especially in hot weather.
kiddie pools work great, relatively cheap too, the one in the pic was $5 .

If you place them at an angle and simply rotate it, you insure some of them dry out a bit while others are slightly wet, just in case some have more pronounced water needs, or are more susceptible to going anaerobic.

check it out, max vol is NC-1, and they handled a really bad heat wave in stride. At 9
o clock you can see Mohamed, and right next to it towards the middle is another cool Choc Cherry micro cross.

If you don't have those micros say the word and blah blah blah


IMG_20170710_085713.jpg
Gerardo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 12, 2017   #397
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

I grew Mohammed next to Dan's (dfollet) varieties, and I have two microdwarf red cherries that both beat Mohammed easily on flavor. One is a multiflora and the other is not. So I should be the one sending you seed. The chocolate does sound cool, though.

I think Aztec still has my yellow cherry spot in the micro camp. I would most like to expand to other colors besides red and yellow, stripes maybe, or oblong shape.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 12, 2017   #398
clara
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Germany
Posts: 1,350
Default

Peardrops (NOT Peardrop!) is yellow with an elongated shape. Brilliant color!
clara is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 12, 2017   #399
BigVanVader
Tomatovillian™
 
BigVanVader's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Greenville, South Carolina
Posts: 3,099
Default

Beautiful flowers dude, 3 per pot on the zinnias or ?
BigVanVader is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 12, 2017   #400
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

Thanks. That is just one per pot, which are trade-size gallons. Short Stuff and Zinnitas from Johnny's. They are hard for me to tell apart.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 12, 2017   #401
MissS
Tomatovillian™
 
MissS's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin
Posts: 3,145
Default

Those plants look very lush and healthy. They surely will brighten the table.
__________________
~ Patti ~
MissS is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 12, 2017   #402
MdTNGrdner
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie View Post
Thanks, Starlight.

To update on my summer flower growing experiment, dwarf zinnias are the biggest success, followed by the Strawberry Blonde marigold. The gerbera daisies are a joke. I can't see how anyone manages to grow these things from seed. Mine have stayed sprout-sized for months. The sunflowers are proving more difficult to grow in summer. I should have put them in larger pots, because they dry out too quickly.

....

Market is in three days, I will have flowers to add to my colorful market table.
Looks great Cole_Robbie, love the enterprising spirit and wish you success in the flower venture! The butterflies sure go crazy for our zinnias
  Reply With Quote
Old July 13, 2017   #403
efisakov
Tomatovillian™
 
efisakov's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NJ, zone 7
Posts: 3,162
Default

Great ideas. Excellent job, CR.

btw, thanks for introducing Osmocote. I am boosting grow of my cuttings with it.
__________________
Ella

God comes along and says, "I think I'm going to create THE tomato!”
efisakov is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 13, 2017   #404
BigVanVader
Tomatovillian™
 
BigVanVader's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Greenville, South Carolina
Posts: 3,099
Default

Only one, nice. I bet they sell out quick. I'm going to do a couple hundred next year. Zinnias sell like ice water in the desert here. Even before flowering I took some and gone in the first 20 mins of market. The different named dwarfs are all the same I think. Just marketing to differentiate. How long was it from seeding to that stage?
BigVanVader is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 13, 2017   #405
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

I think I planted the seeds just six weeks ago. They are even faster than the sunflowers.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:07 AM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★