Spring and Summer Garden, 2022 - The Micro Dwarf Tomatoes

 I had a scare last night - the temperature dropped to 36 degrees! I woke up so worried about my little plants, but thankfully they seemed to sail right through.  I only lost the top off of one of my hanging basket tomatoes, so I trimmed it and it will recover just fine. 

The many micro dwarf tomatoes have been taken out of the greenhouse now and are in the potting garden on a wire shelf for the summer. They do get shade in some of the afternoon there, and I think they will do just fine where I set them up.  If it proves too hot, I will move them again.

These will give us cherry tomatoes of various sizes and colors. Varieties are: 

Andrina - red

Baby - red 

Birdie Juane - yellow

Christmas Tree - red 

Delice de Neuilly - red

Florida Petite - red

Gold Pearl - yellow

Hahms Gelb - yellow

Hardin's Miniature - red

Jochalas - yellow

Laura #5 - red

Lil' Peeps - yellow

Lille Lisse - red

Linda - red

Marco Italiano - unknown 

Micro Tom - red 

Monetka - yellow 

Orange Hat - orange 

Pinnochio Yellow - yellow

Plumbrella F5 red

Red Robin - red

Rosy Finch - pink

The Moment - red

Tiny Tim - red 

Venus - yellow 

Vilma - red

Yellow Balcony - yellow

These micro dwarfs are a lot of fun to grow and don't take up much room. They do nicely in a one gallon pot and are just the right size for a porch or even a window sill.  I encourage everyone to give them a try!

Garden Layout 2020 - Vineyard (Bed G)

John gave me a portion of his vineyard at the very back where there were no remaining grapes to use this year for some of the taller crops. Mainly I was hoping to grow some okra, but I added some corn since the watering system would cover them anyway, and I like to use all available space when I can. And I even threw in a watermelon or two!

The okra are:
Hill Country Red
Simpson
Choppee - Bunny Hop Seeds
Orange Jing
Alabama Red

Corn:
Rustler
Hopi Blue Dent
Trucker's Favorite - Seeds for Thee 
Incredible - Pinetree Garden Seeds

Watermelon:
Desert King 

Garden Layout 2020 - Winter Squash (Bed F)

I have a horrible history with winter squash and pumpkins. Usually the bugs get them before they can produce much. I'm planting them up front this year along a fence so I can train them up and I'm planning a full scale-100% chemical fight with the squash bugs. Enough. It's war! 

Almost all of these seeds came from the FB garden group, except for the experimental 898. 

• Georgia Candy Roaster
• 898 Experimental Squash - Row 7
• Silver Bell
• Butternut Rogosa Violina Gioia
• Tennessee Sweet Potato

Garden Layout 2020 - Tomatoes (Bed E)

This bed is where I planted most of the tomatoes. They are all dwarf varieties, so the tallest will be under four foot, and most will be around 2 -3 foot tall.  During the winter I planted clover and peas in this area to add nitrogen to the soil, and we amended the bed this year with composted cow manure. In each hole when I planted I added my mix of azomite rock dust, guano, more cow manure and worm castings. Thirty tomatoes in this long row.

 

Garden Layout 2020 - Squash House (Bed C)

This year the Squash House is planted in cucumber and pole beans. Not a squash in sight! I guess I should change the name of this structure, but probably won't since the sign is on the front. ha!

                         Front                                                                                                                                                                  Back

Okay, this may seem like a lot of seeds/plants, but most are small amounts of each one, so it's not too crazy. On the left side we have:

• Rozella Purple Tomato
• Prima Gold Tomato

• Ancho Poblano Pepper - mild, about 1,500 shu
• Fish Pepper - medium, about 30K shu

• Juane de Doubs Carrots 
• Dazzling Blue Kale - Baker Creek

• Marketmore Cucumber - Botanical Interests
• "K" Cucumber (I lost the packet, I know it started with the letter K, but have no idea the real name.)
• Boston Pickling Cucumber
• Biet Alpha Cucumber
• Japanese Long Cucumber
• Early Fortune Cucumber - Baker Creek
• Poinsett Cucumber 
• Muncher Cucumber

Then on the right side, I have:

• Shadow Boxing Tomato
• Dwarf Stone Tomato

• Mulato Pepper - Farmacie Isolde - mild, about 3K shu
• Peter Pepper - medium, about 10-20K

• Spanish Tolosano Beans
• Skunk Pole Beans
• Nona Agnes Bean
• Borlotto Lingua di Fucco Bean - Farmacie Isolde
• Fort Portal Bean
• Eye of the Goat Bean

• Miz America Mizuna - Park Seeds
• 605 Summer Mizuna - Baker Creek
• Chantenay Red Core Carrots

Garden Layout 2020 - Bed A2

Another small bed, 2 ft. x 8 ft., another 16 sq. feet.

This bed started out entirely in spinach, but I've already harvested half the bed. I think the back half was getting more water from the spray system until John found the problem, because the front part of the bed was growing much slower. In the next week or so I'll finish picking most of the spinach and plant more cow peas in the front of this bed.

• Pinetree Spinach Mix - Pinetree Garden Seeds

I recommend Pinetree Garden Seeds highly, this packet of spinach seeds were from 2016 and I was leery about anything coming up at all, and just about every seed germinated. A great company!

The cow peas are:

• Quickpick Pinkeye - Farmacie Isolde
• Calico Crowder

Garden Layout 2020 - Bed B2

This bed is inside the small tunnel and is 2 ft. x 8 ft., so it's one of the smaller ones. Total 16 sq. foot.

Greens and beets in here. For the greens we have:

• De Louviers Escarole 
• Punteralla a Foglia Stretta Chicory - Farmacie Isolde
• Frisee Tres Fine Endive - Farmacie Isolde

The beets are:

• Badger's Flame - Row 7
• Egyptian
• Ruby Queen
• Yellow Mangel
• Piatta D'Egitto - Seedville USA
• Edmunds Extra Early Blood
• Cylindra
• McGregor - Farmacie Isolde

Garden Layout 2020 - Bed D4

Final bed in this row. This one is a bit bigger, 3ft. x 10ft., so 30 square foot. 

The pepper in this bed is also hot, in the 40-50K range:
Aji Orange Drop - Trade Winds Fruit

The tomato:

• Electric Pinky

The garlic is Moroccan, and was a gift from one of my FB garden friends in New York state. It's done very well and I planted it in the fall. I did have to dig them up and move them, and they've recovered just fine.

The rest of the bed are all summer squash:

• Patisson Panache Juane et Verte - Seed Savers Exchange
• Center Cut - Row 7
• Max's Gold - Botanical Interests
• Cupcake
• Costata Romanesco

Garden Layout 2020 - Bed D3

This pepper is pretty mild, about 1/2 of what a jalapeno is, I believe:

• Guajillo Pepper - Farmacie Isolde

The kales:

• Jagallo Nero - Baker Creek
• Red Russian - Seeds Now
• Russian Frills - Adaptive Seeds

The green beans:

• Big Kahuna - Burpee
• Burgundy Bush
• Calima - Pinetree Garden Seeds

The Swiss chard plants are a carry over from the fall/winter garden and have really gotten lush and pretty with the spring weather. They are:

• Rhubarb chard - Burpee 

The rest of the bed consists of:

• Utonyok tomato - orange dwarf
• Mrs. Burn's Lemon basil
• Lettuce Leaf basil
• Yellow Spanish onions - started these from seed in the greenhouse last fall. 

Garden Layout 2020 - Bed D2

You might be able to tell that the theme of my spring garden this year is green beans, tomatoes and peppers! I'm trying my darnedest to get enough to freeze and process as much as possible this year! 

The  pepper is one that I'm growing to share seeds with my FB garden group. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out! Supposed to be about 5K on the scoville scale, so not too hot.

• Monkey Face - Trade Winds Fruit

The white garlic was sent to me by one of my FB garden friends all the way from New York State. It is doing very well, and should be ready around the middle of the summer.

Green Beans:

• Tenderette
• Strike
• Mellow Yellow - Burpee Seeds

The tomatillo is an unusual one:

• Queen of Malinalco - Baker Creek 

To finish off the bed:

• Baroosa Moon tomato - Bunny Hop Seeds
• Toscano Medinetto basil - Nikitovka Seeds
• Thai Siam Queen basil - Nikitovka Seeds
• Unknown variety Dill

Garden Layout 2020 - Bed D1

The outside beds have been planted now and are all growing. The white garlic was planted back in November and will be harvested in early summer if all goes well. This was garlic I purchased at our local fruit/vegetable stand.  

The cabbages are both Chinese cabbages:

• Chirimen Haikasu
• Napa Chinese

The bush beans are:

• Gold Rush - Pinetree Garden Seeds

The rest of this bed includes:

• Dwarf Bush Chaborovsky tomato
• Black Granat Basil - Nikitovka Seeds
• Unknown Dill - the cats down in the garden knocked over my whole tray of herbs and the only cups to lose their labels were the dills. We'll just be surprised with whatever we get! ha!
• Orchid Pepper - This is a hot pepper, although I believe it's in the mild range. I got this through my FB garden group, so I'm hoping it's going to grow true, because I'm excited to try this one. It's in the same shape as a Bishop's Hat, so should be a really pretty red pepper.

Garden Layout 2020 - Bed B1

Bed B1 is the other side in the high tunnel. Same size, so basically 17 ft. x 3 ft. and it is a raised bed.

The remainder of the sweet peppers are in this bed. Description of each is in this post. They are:

• Weaver's Mennonite (1 plant)
• Bogdan (1 plant)
• Largo de Reus (3 plants)
• Tequilla Sunrise (1 plant)
• Zulu (2 plants)
• Petite Marseilias (1 plant)
• Carmagnola Rosso (2 plants)

At the far end there are three types of celtuce:

• Red Mountain Celtuce - Baker Creek 
• Green Mountain Celtuce - Baker Creek
• Pink Asparagus (Lettuce) Celtuce - Farmacie Isolde

Celtuce

Filling in some space are:

• Chinese White Celery
• Dulce Fresca Basil - Park Seeds
• Bibb Lettuce
• Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce
• Bronze Beauty Lettuce
• Paris Island Cos Lettuce

Chinese White Celery

All seeds without a company name by them were received from my FB garden group. The bush green beans in this bed include:

• Contender
• Purple 
• Jade
• Burgandy
• Tenderette

Everything is up and growing in this bed, too! Looking forward to that first pot of home grown green beans! Yum!

Garden Layout 2020 - Bed A1

This bed is inside the high tunnel that John put up for me this year.  It's a 17 ft. x 3 ft. raised bed. I transplanted the sweet pepper plants and direct sowed the rest of it. All of the lettuce were planted using seed mats.

I've already posted about the sweet peppers, so I'll just list the ones in this bed. Go here to see details about each one. 

• Atlant (3 plants)
• Cardinal (3 plants)
• Zoltoy Fazan (3 plants)
• Bill's Striped (3 plants)
• Orange Sun (3 plants)
• Antohi Romania (2 plants)
• Pippin's Golden Honey (3 plants)
• Red Belgium (3 plants)
• Aranyalma (1 plant)

The green beans are all bush type:

• Calima - Pinetree Garden Seeds - a favorite of ours, these are in our garden every year.
• Big Kahuna - Burpee  

The lettuce, several 1ft. square of each. There are LL (loose leaf), B (butterhead) and R (romaine). If there is a company name by them, I purchased them, otherwise they came from a trade in my FB garden group:

• Red Coral - LL - Nikitovka Seeds
• May Queen - B
• Cimarron - R
• Merveille Des Quatra Saisons - LL
• Sanguine Ameliore - B - Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Paris Island Cos - R - Seeds Now
• Bronze Beauty - LL
• Buttercrunch - B - Park Seeds
• Sylvia - R
• Speckled - LL
• Godar - B - Nikitovka Seeds
• Ruby Red - LL
• Manoa - B - Trade Winds Fruit

Everything is up and growing with the exception of some of the lettuce. I may have to replant here and there, but for the most part they are doing great! 

This Year's Sweet Peppers

This may seem like a lot of pepper plants, but I like to freeze them and have them for recipes all through the year, as well as enjoy them fresh while we can. Besides, what else am I going to do during the quarantine? ha!

Atlant - (Red) Mid-season variety (130-140 days) for open ground and greenhouses. Scrub grows up to 70-75 cm high, requires support during fruiting period. Large, cube-shaped fruits.

Cardinal - (Black) The variety is early ripening, unusual coloring. The plant is medium-sized. The position of the fruit is inclined to the ground. The fruit is cone-shaped, smooth, glossy, dark purple in ripeness.

Zolotoy Fazan - (Yellow) Also known as Golden Pheasant. Medium early variety(100-110 days from germination to mature).  Plant height 50-60 cm. Fruits are heart shaped , yellow-orange color, weight 150-200 gr., good taste. The flesh is juicy, sweet, aromatic, the wall thickness of 7-9 mm. Recommended for cultivation in the open field and greenhouses.

Bill's Stripped - (Red) elongated fruit, generally 6 to 8” long, horn-shaped and lightly lobed, sometimes tapering to a blunt 2-4 lobes at the bottom but other times more pointed (even on the same plant), but always red with lengthwise stripes that appear yellow to cream on green fruits and lighter red to cream on fully ripe fruits.

Orange Sun -  (Orange) 80 days. Capsicum annuum. Plant produces good yields of 5" long deep orange sweet bell peppers. Peppers turn from green to deep orange when mature. Plant has green stems, green leaves, and white flowers. Peppers are very sweet and have thick walls and are excellent for salads, stir fry, and gourmet dishes. A variety from the USA.

Antohi Romania - (Yellow/Red) Eastern European frying pepper. Smooth, 4" long by 2" wide, tapered, pointed fruits are pale yellow and ripen red. The upright plants have good branch strength and yield early and heavily. 

Pippin's Golden Honey - (Orange) This colorful sweet pepper ripens from a deep dark purple to a bright honey-mustard, to a cheerful golden orange. The 3-4" fruits have thin walls, making it great for stuffing, pickling, or eating fresh. This is one of the many peppers traded by Philly Area folk artist Horace Pippin for bee stings from H Ralph Weaver's hives in West Chester in the early 1940s. In a deep freezer, nearly half a century ago, William Woys Weaver found these seeds (as well as those of the Fish Pepper and many others) in labeled baby food jars.

Red Belgian - (Red) Capscium annuum, Excellent sweet early pepper. A heavy producer, Red Belgian Pepper starts out yellow and ages to red. Crunch 3-4″ fruit are great fresh picked or on a salad. 50 days from transplant for yellow fruits and 70 days for red.

Aranyalma - (Yellow) I couldn't find a description of these online, but from the photo, these are a pimento type pepper. Should be fun to see what develops.

Carmagnola Rossa - (Red) “Carmagnola Rosso” is one of the four morphological types of regional peppers grown across 26 neighboring towns in Italy. The Carmagnola peppers have been successfully cultivated in the area of Carmagnola in the province of Turin for over a century. The four shapes include: ox horn (lungo o corno di bue), square (quadrato), tumaticot o mujá, and trottola.

Petite Marseilias - (Orange) Petit Marseillais is an heirloom sweet pepper from the South of France.  These sunset-orange fruits are about five inches long, two inches wide, and beautifully wrinkled or wavy. The plants are two feet tall and consistently loaded with peppers 

Zulu - (Black) Sweet pepper 'Zulu' (Capsicum annuum) is an interesting variety, whose fruit turn almost completely black as they ripen. These plants stand out with high yield and produce attractively looking, rectangular fruit consisting of thick, dense and sweet flesh.

Tequila Sunrise - (Orange) Fruits ripen from green to orange. Carrot-shaped fruits grow to 5 inches with firm crunchy flesh is mildly peppery and sweet. 60-78 days from transplant.

Largo de Reus - (Red) Mid season. Largo de Reus from Spain is a huge sweet bell pepper from Spain. Plant height is 70-90 cm. The aromatic, red pods can reach lengths of 12-15 cm. They are thick-walled and juicy. Great for salads, stuffing, cooking, roasting, stewing, grilling. High yielding.

Bogdan - (Yellow/Orange) A sweet yellow and orange pepper from the Ukraine. 

Weaver's Mennonite - (Red) Capsicum annuum, old heirloom of the Weaver's family from Lancaster County, Pennysylvania, USA. Documented around 1860 and possibly even older. 
Small round flattened peppers, stuffing type. 3 to 4 cm in diameter. Ripens from green to red. Very firm and crispy thick flesh with a good taste, no heat. Bush-shaped plants of 60 cm with a compact structure. 
Strong, early and highly productive variety. The fruits can be left ripe on the plant for a long time.

That's the sweets. Next post I'll document the hot peppers that I'm growing!

This Year's Tomatoes - The Dwarfs (S-Z)

Finishing out the dwarf tomatoes I'm growing this year:

Shadow Boxing - Short plants. 78 days. From one of the most respected breeders in the tomato industry, Tom Wagner, who brought us Green Zebra and many other wonderful varieties. Delightful, large saladettes are an amazing kaleidoscope of colors with deep purple shoulders. Some of our fruits had less anthocyanin, and a few had none. Nice complex flavor. Juicy.

Sharpei Pink -  Mid-season (110-120 days) open pollinated variety. Determinate (bush) tomato, plant grows 70-100cm (27-39in.) tall. Medium sized, ribbed, pink heart-shaped tomatoes, weight 250-300g (9-10oz.) with an excellent taste.

Siletz - 52 days. Solanum lycopersicum. Open Pollinated. Early maturing plant produces high yields of 10 to 12 oz deep red tomatoes. They are sweet and flavorful. Perfect for salads, sandwiches, and canning. Plants will yield well even in cool weather. Cold tolerant. It is parthenocarpic, meaning it can set tomatoes without pollination.

Sophie's Choice - 55 days. (Determinate) Introduced 1997.] Highly productive, flavorful and large-fruited. Ripens ahead of all other extra-early varieties in our trials. Unlike other extra-early varieties, the fruits are flavorful and large, averaging 6-8 oz and weighing up to 12 oz. Large fruits with orange-red exteriors and deep-red interiors on small plants, only 18-24 in. tall. 

Spiridonovskie - I had a hard time finding anything about this one, only that it is an early producer and from Russia. 

Sweet Adelaide - Sweet Adelaide is a regular leaf dwarf variety that produces oblate medium to medium large fruit that ripen to a crimson pink color. The flavor is well balanced, on the sweet side, and the variety is quite prolific.

Tasmanian Chocolate - A small plant with abundant flavor, Tasmanian Chocolate retains the superior qualities of its heirloom parentage. Unlike traditional heirlooms, it is well-suited for patios and containers (owing to its tidy plant habit and short stature) and only needs a standard tomato cage for support. These burgundy 4–6 oz., ribbed tomatoes are richly flavored and perfect for slicing onto sandwiches. 

Tennessee Suited - 80 days, determinate dwarf — 'Tennessee Suited' is a vigorous, rugose, regular leaf variety that produces fruits that are a rich purple color (clear skinned black) with green stripes. They are medium-sized (four to ten ounce), smooth, oblate in shape, very juicy and tender with a delicious, well-balanced flavor that is neither too tart or too sweet.

Uluru Ochre - 65 days, dwarf — The vigorous, dwarf, rugose, regular leaf plants are relatively compact, quite early to produce and prolific. Producing a good yield of medium to large sized (six to twelve ounces) oblate uniquely colored tomatoes that are essentially the first "black/orange" variety we've seen - orange flesh with green overtones, and somewhat amber/orange/green in appearance. The flavor can be a bit variable season to season, but at its best, it has an absolutely delicious, smokey flavor.

Utonyok - An orange dwarf and that's all I have on this one. Nothing online.

That's the entire list now of the dwarfs that I'm planting this year. Some have already been planted out and the rest will be put in pots. Should have them all in this week if the rain will let up!

Next I'll post on the couple of indeterminate tomatoes I'm growing and then next up is the peppers! The sweets are all planted, and about 1/2 of the hots are in. If this rain lets up, I'll be able to get those done in a day!

This Year's Tomatoes - The Dwarfs (N-R)

I'm just about done planting out all of these dwarf tomatoes that I have room for. A few more this week and then I'm done! I'm pulling plants out of the greenhouse now and setting them out for the spring. Lots of work to be done!

Here are a few more of the tomatoes I'm growing:

Pink Passion - 65 days, determinate dwarf — The plants are vigorous, dwarf, with rugose regular leaves producing heavy yields of medium sized (four to seven ounce), heart-shaped, pink fruit with a delightful, balanced, sweet flavor.  Developed by members of the "Dwarf Tomato Project" as a selection out of the "Nosey family" (a cross between 'Roza Vetrov' and 'Anna Banana Russian' made by Patrina Nuske Small).  


Polish Yellow - This dwarf potato leaf type foliage tomato is from heirloom seed from Poland. Get a decent crop of attractive bright yellow tomatoes in the 4 ounce range.

Prima Gold - I can't find anything on this one on-line. It's another one I got from one of my Facebook garden groups. 

Purple Heart Dwarf - 70 days, determinate dwarf — The vigorous, rugose, regular leaf plants are among the most spreading and branching of the dwarf varieties.  Producing heavy yields of medium to medium large sized (six to sixteen ounce) heart shaped purple tomatoes. ‘Dwarf Purple Heart’ has deep crimson flesh with a delicious, well-balanced flavor. Although fairly large, the fruits also ripen relatively early.

Rosalinda - Dwarf Rosalinda tomato is the prettiest pink fruits that are ping pong ball sized. These are sweet, tasty, slightly fruity and inviting. Texture is very nice! Plants are 2.5 – 3 feet tall and would do good in containers. Indeterminate.

Rosella Purple - [Italian heirloom] 65 days. (Dwarf indeterminate) OSSI variety [Bred by the Dwarf Tomato Project, an international group of tomato enthusiasts devoted to breeding short tomato varieties with great flavor.] Similar to Cherokee Purple for great flavor and 6-10 oz. deep-purple fruits, but on shorter plants suitable for container gardening. Productive 36 in. plants need some staking to keep upright and to prevent sunscald. Fruits have few seeds. Rugose foliage.