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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 8, 2011 9:37:57 GMT -5
That little tomato arrived 32 days after transplanting into the garden. My brother grew the plants for 10 weeks in the greenhouse instead of the usual 6 weeks. (So they were in 3" pots.) Nevertheless it is way ahead of anything else I have ever grown in my garden, even ahead of the huge plants that I bought in 3 gallon pots and planted under a floating row cover.
I am so content! I don't like disappointing the little old ladies that come to market asking for tomatoes. They will never know how much it cost me in time and money to get those tomatoes to market. I don't foresee recovering more than a tiny bit of the cost of the project. But the self esteem and personal satisfaction will never end.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 9, 2011 0:38:09 GMT -5
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 9, 2011 9:36:25 GMT -5
DONE! Thanks for the link!
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Post by johno on Jul 9, 2011 16:12:48 GMT -5
High losses are a good thing, Joseph!
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 9, 2011 16:34:23 GMT -5
What a beautiful cactus garden! The blossoms are so beautiful!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 9, 2011 23:58:03 GMT -5
The problem with cactus blossoms is that they are so fleeting. Here's what the bed looked like a week ago. I almost missed the blooming of the pink flowered cactus entirely. Considering the hundreds of cactus pads I rooted out at the ranch I don't know how I managed to get a pink flowered cactus into my bed at home. Pink is such a rare color around here, most of them are straw colored.  |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 10, 2011 7:45:49 GMT -5
So lovely! Tommy wants to know if these are the sort of cactus that will produce fruit.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 10, 2011 11:38:51 GMT -5
My prickly pear cacti produce large botanical fruits. I don't think that they are culinary fruits. I'll taste some this fall. (Perhaps they'd be useful as wine.) The small round cactus along the left edge of the first photo produces a sweet fruit without spines, but the fruits are so tiny that they aren't worth the effort of harvesting. Close to that are some small seedlings of Maihuenia poeppigii, which may not be winter hardy here. It is a species that produces large edible fruits.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jul 10, 2011 15:07:13 GMT -5
Joseph, I like the taste of the pink prickly pear fruits. They make an interesting jam without the seeds. But it's a pain to pull out or burn off the spines. I've read virtually all cactus are able to breed together. Why not try to breed one with the spineless fruit?
I've thought about trying to use spineless christmas cactus, but i think that one might not cross. Plus it would be hard to trick one into flowering at the same time as the prickly pear i would imagine.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 15, 2011 3:41:41 GMT -5
Here's what my CSA baskets looked like on July 13th.  Leeks, cabbage, beets, garlic, Walla Walla onions, green onions, eat-it-all peas, shelling peas, broccoli. This may be my last broccoli because the bugs are getting after it. Everything else is doing fine. And no post about the progress of my garden this week would be complete without:  From two different plants. And yes, I put them in a wicker basket and took them to the village post office to show off, and to friends and family. These are still weeks ahead of typical tomatoes for my valley. |
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Post by steev on Jul 15, 2011 10:32:34 GMT -5
Impressive pay-off for your efforts, for sure. You could name that variety "Sprinter".
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 15, 2011 12:13:08 GMT -5
I don't know if my ego could stand that: Not having my name, or my family's name, or the name of my village in the name of a variety that I've developed...
I'm currently taking nominations for the name of the landrace of tomatoes that were collected from sewer sludge. The grand prize for the winner: A pack of seeds from the landrace.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 15, 2011 12:30:51 GMT -5
High losses are a good thing, Joseph! In that case I should be in good shape. In one field I planted ~150 watermelon seeds. Last night there were two watermelon plants growing in that field. And one of them was a volunteer!!!! This summer I am taking more care to preserve volunteer cantaloupe, watermelon, and tomatoes. I want those genetics to play a more prominent role in my breeding program. This spring I direct seeded a row of tomato seeds about 500 feet long. Perhaps a dozen plants survived and are growing. They have a huge range of suitability to my soil, bugs, and climate. It will be interesting to see if any of them produce fruits. |
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Post by johno on Jul 15, 2011 13:26:38 GMT -5
Out of 8 kinds, 3 kinds of watermelons made it here: Jemez, Desert King, and one of Alan's grexes.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 15, 2011 13:30:42 GMT -5
A weekly farmer's market will be held at the Hyrum Utah Senior Citizens Center on Thursday evenings from 6 PM to sunset (about 8:30). The first market will be held on August 4th. Vendor fees from the market are being used to benefit the Senior Center. Vegetables I'm expecting to bring for opening day include: Zucchini, crookneck, carrots, green onions, slicing onions, tomatoes, peppers, new potatoes, beets, and cucumbers.
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