by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  September 1, 2014 here.  September 1, 2013 here.

On September 2, 2014 we had a huge windstorm that blew over the cages containing the tomatoes and Tromboncino. As it turns out, we had a huge windstorm yesterday, and the cages were rocked, though not to the same extent. (Gusts to 45 mph!) This time it mostly bent and twisted the cages, probably because they were braced a little better. We were able to haul everything more or less back to “square” without too much trouble. We got really lucky in that we did the “big harvest” for the week shortly before the wind hit. Still… ugh.

That’s two years in a row of having tomatoes fall over. It’s time to figure out something sturdier.

Having said that — Saturday’s harvest was 28.7 pounds (counting the basil leaves, but not the basil stems and branches):

Saturday closeup 1 — tomatillos (3.3 lbs). The tomatillos got roasted and frozen, to eventually become green salsa. Note the rogue strawberry:

Saturday closeup 2 — tomatoes. Mostly Tigerella, Taxi, Sun Gold, and Sweet Million. Some of the tomatoes are less than perfectly ripe — the plants are actively throwing fruit on the ground, and we decided to beat them to it. (16.3 pounds of tomatoes today, spread between a few sheet trays):

Saturday closeup 3 — The Last Of The Tromboncino (2.4 lbs yesterday. 26.0 lbs for the year. That’s a 27% improvement over last year’s yield.) Also pictured are Bullnose Bell peppers, Yellow Bell peppers, Tigerella tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, and one stray leaf of basil. The former Tromboncino box was replanted with garlic — The Tromboncino were probably 95%+ done anyway:

Saturday closeup 4 — Romas (6.6 lbs):

Saturday closeup 5 — Mostly Peppers. Carmen peppers on the right. King of the North on the left. Lipstick peppers on the top left. The tomatoes are Cosmonaut Volkov:

Monday’s harvest (3.5 lbs). The non-cherry tomatoes are Tigerella and Cosmonaut Volkov:

Thursday (8.8 lbs). Oregon Spring, Taxi, Tigerella, Sun Gold, Sweet Million:

The total harvest for the week was 40 pounds. Of that, 29 pounds was tomatoes.

An overview picture, before the Saturday harvest. You can see “Fall” if you look closely enough:

The radishes are exploding. For reference, here’s last week:

And this week (a reverse angle picture of the box):

The Carmen peppers, prior to Saturday harvest:

The Romas:

The salad table is overdue for thinning. Here’s the middle shelf:

The top shelf:

The scallion/bunch onion starts. Note the small amount of copper tape around the foot of the salad table. I doubt it’ll really deter the slugs, but it’s worth a try:

 

2013 total weight to date:  93.1 pounds

2014 total weight to date:  108.7 pounds

2015 total weight to date:  199.7 pounds

More Progress!

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Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  August 24, 2014 post here.  August 25, 2013 post here.

47.1 pounds of produce this week, including 38.5 pounds of tomatoes.

The days are getting shorter, and the nights are getting cooler. The cucumbers are completely finished, and the Tromboncino may not be far behind. The tomatoes have begun to randomly drop fruit. If it’s not Fall already then it’s coming real soon.

To the pictures —

The “non-cherry tomato” part of our Tuesday tomato tasting (8.4 pounds).

The Comsmonaut Volkov is still doing it’s own thing. We’ve harvested one fruit. Three more are ripening on the vines. The rest are just sitting there. For reference, here are the yearly totals to date for the tomatoes (one plant of each):

Type	Weight (lbs)	Weight (g)
Black Krim	15.8	7168
Taxi	14.0	6348
Oregon Spring	11.7	5314
Sun Gold	7.8	3530
Sweet Million	5.8	2642
Roma	3.0	1357
Tigerella	2.4	1095
Cos. Volkov	1.3	581

The difference is that everything else except the Volkov have a whole bunch of ripe fruit on the way. We’ll see what the endgame looks like.

Monday’s harvest (8.1 lbs):

Wednesday (15.4 lbs):

Finally, three pictures from Saturday (13.2 lbs):

and

The tomatillos and the last of the cucumbers:

The Yellow Bells before the Saturday harvest:

Two pictures that sum up the state of the Tromboncino –

The Tromboncino are invading the Sun Golds, and vice versa. Note the Tromboncino fruit all the way to the left of the photo. The trellis is about four feet to the right:

Many of the peppers are almost ripe:

and

Fall in Vermont has nothing on the tomato plants right now:

The salad table has been a pleasant surprise. The spinach will need to be thinned this week:

The radishes are doing well, I think. Or are they leggy?:

The scallion starts will go into the vacated cucumber box when they’re big enough to handle. They’re currently living at the foot of the salad table:

 

2013 total weight to date:  65.4 pounds

2014 total weight to date:  82.2 pounds

2015 total weight to date:  157.7 pounds

More Progress!

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Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

 

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  August 19, 2014 post here. August 10, 2014 post here.  August 18, 2013 post here.

19.1 pounds of produce this week.

This harvest picture was taken on Wednesday, just before our first tomato tasting of the year:

(L-R, and top to bottom)  Roma, Oregon Spring, Tigerella (top), Taxi (yellow), Cosmonaut Volkov (bottom), Black Krim

Monday:

(top to bottom) Boy cat, Tromboncino, Lemon cucumbers.

Tuesday:

(L-R)  Sun Gold, Tomatillo, Sweet Million

We had a heavy rain storm on Friday, after basically no moisture for weeks. Some of the tomatoes split, and a pepper branch fell over. Overall though, we got off pretty light on damage. The next picture is Saturday morning’s harvest. 13 pounds total, including 6.7 pounds of Oregon Spring tomatoes:

The tomatoes are Taxi and Oregon Spring, with Sun Gold and Sweet Million. In the nearer sheet tray are King of the North peppers (the big ones), Carmen (top), Yellow Bell (the orange ones on the far top right), Lipstick (middle right), and Bullnose Bell (bottom right).

There are lots more yellow bells to go:

One Iko Iko is almost ripe:

The Black Krims are all getting really close to ready. It looks like we missed a few Sweet Millions (left rear of the photo):

The Romas. The cascading perspective of the picture reminds me a little bit of a Van Gough painting:

The Lemon cucumbers, Tomatillos, and Tromboncino. We almost pulled the Lemon cucumbers today to make room for garlic. That will happen next weekend at the latest:

The Marketmore cucumbers were pulled on Wednesday and replaced with radish seeds — French Breakfast, Cherry Belle, and “Dragon Hybrid”. The Dragon variety should overwinter, the other two types we’ll consume this fall and then replant with more Dragons. We used Ultomato stakes as a reference to make sure that we got even rows:

The salad table is taking off. The spinach (center) has a five day head start on the other plants:

(L-R) Dill, Spinach, Cilantro, Arugula. There are a couple of tiny Little Gem seedlings in between the Dill and Spinach too.

The girl cat in her favorite spot — basking in late afternoon sun on the bed:

 

 

2013 total weight to date:  52.0 pounds

2014 total weight to date:  62.7 pounds

2015 total weight to date:  110.6 pounds

More Progress!

———-

Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  August 10, 2014 post here.  August 11, 2013 post here.

Total harvest for the week was 13.5 pounds. It was a little bit of everything, including the first Oregon Spring tomatoes and a sheet tray of tomatillos. We roasted the tomatillos, buzzed them up, and froze them for easy future green salsa (The link is to Rick Bayless’ Roasted Tomatillo Salsa on this website. It’s especially good when combined with avacado.)

Wednesday — (L-R) Two Tromboncino, Sun Gold tomatoes, Sweet Million tomatoes, tomatillos, a Lemon cucumber, Tigerella tomatoes:

Friday — (L-R) Oregon Spring tomatoes, Sweet Million tomatoes, Lemon cucumber, tomatillos, Tigerella tomatoes, Tromboncino, Sun Gold tomatoes.

I expect it’s going to be an even bigger week this week — everything pictured below is still on the plants.

We’re almost even with last year’s total harvest of Tromboncino, and there are still more to come. (20.7 pounds in 2014. 19.0 pounds to date this year.)

Pictures:

An overview from a 2nd-story window. In retrospect, we had the same bright idea for this perspective in the 2013 post linked above..

The peppers are ripening. The Carmen:

Iko Iko:

The Lemon cucumbers are still cruising along. The others varieties have all gone pfffft. I may remove the Marketmore vines this week and plant garlic or scallions in that box. The Lemons:

We’re going to have a lot of tomatillos this year:

The Cosmonaut Volkov tomato plant is finally “doing something”. The color of the leaves hasn’t ever been very good, and it hadn’t been growing much fruit, but the vegetative growth was crazy. I trimmed back the tops of the plant, and it seemed to set more fruit after that… or the fruit set was going to happen anyway…

The Black Krims:

Taxis:

The Taxis are sharing a box with the Oregon Springs:

The Romas:

This week will see some side-by-side tomato tasting!

On Wednesday we sowed spinach, cilantro, and dill in the salad table. The spinach is already popping up. The spinach should overwinter. We’ll enjoy fresh cilantro and dill for as long as it lasts:

 

2013 total weight to date:  37.0 pounds

2014 total weight to date:  44.1 pounds

2015 total weight to date:  81.5 pounds

More Progress!

———-

Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

 

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  August 3, 2014 post here.  August 4, 2013 post here.

The 2013 post includes one of our more popular pictures — girl cat with bags and bags of green stuff:

It’s about 1.5 pounds of basil, though the internet must have other ideas.

11.6 pounds of produce this week, including the first tomatillos!  Tuesday:

Today. The tomatoes are a mix of Sweet Million, Sun Gold, Taxi, and one Tigerella:

 

A pre-harvest picture of the Lemon cucumbers. They’re still doing well. Note the powdery mildew on the right. I believe that’s the pickling cucumbers calling it a year.

The Marketmores are about done too. In the top left of the picture there are still a few growing, but many leaves are looking terrible:

The Tromboncino. There were actually seven fruits at this size in a small area of the vines. Two lost their blooms early, so I removed those, with the idea that those will wind up being the “losers”. There are still five left, which may still be too many. Pictured are two of the winners:

The big King of the North pepper:

The Black Krims are much larger than last year. They’re starting to show color:

Romas:

Sweet Millions, prior to harvest:

2013 total weight to date:  26.7 pounds

2014 total weight to date:  24.0 pounds

2015 total weight to date:  68.0 pounds

More Progress!

———-

Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

 

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  July 27, 2014 post here.  July 28, 2013 post here.

We think we may have “figured something out” with the Tromboncino. I’ll share that first, then some harvest pictures, then everything else.

Last week a Tromboncino vine looked like this:

The smaller of the two fruits withered over the next few days. I removed it midweek.

By Sunday the “winner” had grown to 28 inches(!)

It seems that each Tromboncino vine sends out two or three fruits at the same time, but can only really feed one fruit. The others just wither away. With that in mind, here are the next two candidates:

If within the next few days one starts to look sickly I’ll remove it. Maybe it’s possible for us to have two “winners” on one vine… as of right now, I’m not so sure that’s the case.

Onto the harvest pictures — Our total for the week was 16 pounds, including 3.7 pounds of zucchini, 1.7 pounds of pickling cucumbers, 4.9 pounds of Marketmore cucumbers, 4.9 pounds of Lemon cucumbers, some basil, and a few tomatoes.

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Sunday. That’s the same zucchini as pictured above, with a smattering of Sweet Million and Sun Gold tomatoes. And an Iko Iko pepper that had a little bad spot on it so I pulled it:

An overview. Note the ballistic basil on the far right:

Cucumbers (foreground), tomatillos (midground), and zucchini (rear). Also a bunch of energetic tomato vines. For reference, the tomatillo trellis is 6′ tall. The zucchini trellis is 8′:

Carmen peppers. The plants have been super vigorous:

Sweet Millions:

The first Tigerellas are almost ready:

 

It rained today. Everything is a little more photogenic when wearing a few water droplets, I think.

2013 total weight to date:  24.6 pounds

2014 total weight to date:  22.3 pounds

2015 total weight to date:  56.4 pounds

More Progress!

———-

Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

by A.J. Coltrane

The Lemon cucumbers are really starting to ripen. As for the Marketmores, we must have missed these monsters over the weekend:

(Left to Right):  Six Lemon cucumbers (2.3 lbs);  The two of the four cherry tomatoes that didn’t get eaten before Picture Time;  Three Marketmore 76 cucumbers (3.1 lbs);  One National Pickling cucumber (0.7 lbs).  6.2 pounds total.

The big cucumber weighs just under 1.5 pounds. It was lying sideways on the wood trellis, hiding behind a leaf. I’m hoping that we can peel it and most of it will be usable.

As a group, the cucumbers are starting to look a little haggard. But then, August is only two weeks away, so maybe the cucumbers should be approaching the end of their run.

——–

For reference. Marketmore total weights each year, through July 15:

2013:  0 — none until July 18.   End of season total:  25,414g (56.0 lbs)

2014:  0 — none until July 28.   End of season total:  20,141g (44.4 lbs)

2015:  3932 g (8.7 lbs).       As a flat guess — the warm summer weather is causing the cucumbers to produce and age rapidly, and we’ll still see something around 40-55 pounds of Marketmores by the end of the year. The candle that burns twice as fast burns half as long. Accelerated Decrepitude.

 

by A.J. Coltrane

The first really good week — total production of 15.4 pounds, including the 12.2 pounds harvested tonight:

(Clockwise from top left) — Marketmore 76 cucumbers (4.1 lb);  the first Sun Gold and Sweet Million tomatoes;  National Pickling cucumbers (the darker two, 1 lb);  “Calypso” pickling cucumbers (1.5 lb);  Lemon cucumbers (0.7 lb);  Tromboncino zucchini (4.7 lbs)

We have zucchini bread and a bunch of cucumber salads in our future. Also zucchini crisps, post to come.

—————–

Visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Monday.

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.  July 11, 2014 post here.  July 14, 2013 post here.

Some of the lower (south-facing) leaves of the tomato plants are fried-looking from the intense June sun. It’s been (thankfully) a little bit cooler the last few days. An overview:

The basil got a super thorough haircut this week. I made a point to “open it up”, trimming out some of the larger leaves and “excess” growth in the interior:

The yield was one pound of leaves. This is about half of it:

We’re still well ahead of last year. Lots of things are ripening. The first Sun Golds:

Sweet Millions:

Raspberries:

Lemon cucumber:

The Lemon cucumbers are sharing a box with two varieties of pickling cucumbers. The Lemon cucumbers are easily more prolific:

The tomatillos. People often mistake these for an ornamental — tomatillos aren’t mainstream:

This “Yellow Bell Pepper” is the one plant that we purchased at the Master Gardener Plant Sale. There are a whole bunch of little fruits:

The west facing Iko Iko peppers. The white stuff is diatomaceous earth. It’s intended to discourage bugs:

The east facing Iko Iko:

Totally different… I’m not sure what to think.

The biggest King of the North:

Below is the first pepper that the bugs have ruined this year. I cut it open, and nothing was inside. I’m guessing earwigs or stinkbugs, or… If anyone could tell me what what’s causing it I’d really appreciate it:

Marketmore 76 cucumbers:

The Tromboncino. I think we’ll need to harvest the big ones to see new growth. As it is, they’re basically only making male flowers:

Still no powdery mildew, so that’s nice.

What I’ll call the first “real” caprese of the year. It’s our basil with store-bought everything else. The garlic-cilantro balsamic is by Eleven Olives. They’re local. Highly recommended:

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

The Tromboncino zucchini had two large fruits on one vine, so I harvested the larger one with the idea that the other would get bigger, faster.

(Left to Right)  —  20″ Trombocino zucchini (853 grams, 1.9 lbs).  6″ Marketmore 76 cucumber (251 grams, 0.5 lbs).  Boy Cat looking for interesting smells.  Kitchenaid mixer:

It feels like Marketmore cucumbers have been really “blocky” this year, at least so far.

(Picture taken at 9pm with natural light only, facing east. We just passed the solstice. I’m enjoying the late evening “bright” while it lasts.)