But that was last year.....let's talk about this year and what's been planted - and what will be planted today.
Front row main garden cherry tomatoes: Blush, Tiger Tom, Ambrosia (orange fruit), Green Zebra Cherry, Sungold, Sungold, Sungold (no, this is not a typo...), Ambrosia (red fruit), Maglia Rose, Sungold Select II...and ....Sungold! Blush and Maglia Rose are new releases - they are elongated cherries (2-3 inches long by less than an inch wide) - the former is yellow with pink vertical stripes, the latter pink with vertical gold stripes. We tried them last year as a very late planting and the few fruit we tasted were good enough to warrant a more complete trial this year. The size and shape will lend itself very well to dehydration/drying, as well as salads, and perhaps grilling. Ambrosia is another new one - and another attempt to get a non-hybrid version of Sungold. It is still not stable, as we saw both red and orange fruit - but they were both pretty tasty, hence I am growing out both. Green Zebra Cherry, also quite recent, is essentially a cherry sized version of Green Zebra. And Sungold Select II is one of the initial efforts of coming up with Sungold quality in a non-hybrid form. We shall see!
As for the indeterminate tomatoes that are now in large (10-15 gallon) pots: Cherokee Green, Giant Syrian, Cherokee Chocolate, Cherokee Purple, Amish Dester, Green Giant, Brandywine, Lucky Cross, Big Sandy, Mexico Midget, Lillian's Yellow Heirloom, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Selwin Yellow, Don's Double Delight, Caitlin's Lucky Stripe, Bridge Mike's, Little Lucky, Nepal, Large Lucky Red, Abraham Lincoln, Anna Russian, Piennolo, JD Special C-Tex, Tennessee Britches, Torre Canne, Striped Sweetheart, and Hege's German Pink. There is a method to my madness in selecting all of these. Some are my favorite eating tomatoes and tend to get grown every year. A few are older seed of a variety I really liked but haven't grown in far too long. And quite a few are offspring of Lucky Cross. If a variety gets to grow in a large pot, it is something we really look forward to eating!
I planted many of the extreme prune, small pot indeterminates in 2-3 gallon pots. The varieties getting this treatment are: Green Grape, Costoluto Genovese, German Johnson (potato leaf), Yellow Bell, Amana Orange, Druzba, Hillbilly, Anna Russian, Nebraska Wedding, Sunny X Orange Pear F1, Ivalde F1, Reinhart Green Heart, Softy F1, Lazy X Orange Banana F1, Kiwi F1, Dana's Dusky Rose, Strawberry Margarita, Big Willy, Green Doctors, Taps regular leaf, Great White, Stump of the World, Teddy Smooth, Teddy Steak, German Johnson regular leaf, Arkansas Traveler, Lucinda, Taps potato leaf, Virginia Sweets, Cuostralee, Hillbilly potato leaf, Yellow Ponderosa, Regina's Yellow, Reinhart Chocolate Heart, Orange Strawberry, Burgundy Traveler, Abraham Lincoln potato leaf, Casey's Pure Yellow regular leaf, Lucky Cross regular leaf, Summertime Green indeterminate, Green Giant regular leaf, Nelson's Golden Gem, Black from Tula, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Chocolate, Large Lucky Red regular leaf, Kellogg's Breakfast, Cosmonaut Volkov Red, Cooper's Special, Lillian's Yellow regular leaf, Trader Joe Yellow Cherry, Indian Stripe cross F2 (at least two plants), Maiden's Gold, Hege's German Pink, Lucky Cross regular leaf, Sorrento, Tondino, and Cuor di Buie. I didn't plant them all....about a dozen of the above are still a bit small. But there are about 40 pots out there with tomatoes in them.
There are all sorts of reasons for this set of tomatoes - some are old varieties I need fresh seed from, a few are new hybrids for the Dwarf project, some are favorites I am growing for a few fruit to eat and seed to save, there are some that are new to me, some sent to me as their own favorites by various gardening friends, and a few unexpected leaf shapes - likely hybrids, hence starting points for new projects.....it will certainly make for an interesting garden this season, with lots of good eating
Then, I planted the first 41 of the dwarfs in my white handled grow bags - which I bleached first (today was a very, very exhausting, busy day!). I won't list the names right now.....in another week or so I will plant the final 60 or so dwarfs, but in black plastic grow bags. I will blog on the Dwarf project once all of them are planted.
Oh yes - I also planted squash, cukes and melons. And everything got a bit of liquid fertilizer. And the tomatoes in pots got a nice fresh grass clipping mulch.
That's enough - I'm tired just thinking about today's activities....so off to bed!