Sorry for your setback Critter, life does happen. Just do what you can and then try to do some more.
Thanks Tee. Just wait 2 weeks. The grass and weeds are growing as we speak. But that's a good thing. I don't use any commercial fertilizer. I let the beds overgrow then mow and till it in for green manure. The grass and weeds in the middle are allowed to grow making a trap crop for insects. When I mow the middles it kills a lot of insects and the clippings stay in place to feed the plants on the beds. Rinse and repeat.
I planted this row of tomatoes a month early, trying to get seed from them for a second crop in the middle of summer.
Last year I had a somatic mutation in a Ramapo F9 stem. All the clusters of tomatoes on one stem looked like this (I prune to two stems):
http://t.tatianastomatobase.co...
and all the clusters of tomatoes on the other stem of the same plant looked like this:
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum 'Cherokee Purple')
Carolyn Male (who dehybridized Ramapo several years ago) was kind enough to explain what had happened. A natural mutation. I saved all the seed from the tomatoes on that stem and the plant in the photo of the previous post is part of the first generation from that mutation. All the fruit should look like the Cherokee Purple fruit seen above and be stable as it isn't a hybrid. 38 of the plants are Ramapo Mu.
Six of the plants are Better Boy F4. The F3 parent won 2 double blind taste tests against other F1 Better Boys grown by others last year. The seeds from these plants will be F5 and if I can get a second crop grown this year from the F5 seeds I'll have F6 seeds for next year.
Two of the plants are (not) Sophie's Choice from Tomatofest (one from them in 2012 and one from them in 2014) Sophie's Choice is a determinate tomato (the plant to about 18" to 24" in height.) These seeds produce a plant which is indeterminate and grow 4' to 5' in height. But the tomatoes are red, taste good, and the plants are productive and trouble free. The vendor has been unhelpful (They claim it is Sophie's Choice). So I'm growing them out so I can save seeds and see if it's a hybrid (unstable) or something I want to continue to grow.
After danger of frost is over I'll plant a second row identical to the first row. The seeds were started at the same time for both rows so the later plantout will be quite leggy. I'll trench plant them and see if they start fruiting at the same time as the earlier planting.
The only difference between the 2 rows will be the first row will be interplanted with this variety of Nasturtium:
http://www.selectseeds.com/cgi...
And the second row will be interplanted with this Nasturtium:
http://www.selectseeds.com/cgi...
I'm trying Nasturtiums, Marigolds and Old Fashioned Petunias for insect control this year. A different variety on each row to see if one is more effective than another.
The Coffee cans are holding the wood chips back and warming the soil for the Nasturtiums (Nasturtiums have to be direct seeded).
We'll see how it goes. Claud
