Radishrain

Religious threads and posts are allowed.

Complaining about any religion, demeaning or doubting any religion, and contending about religion are each strongly against the rules. Saying things that seem designed to make any religion look bad is strongly against the rules.

Bringing up problems about someone's religion is strongly against the rules.

We got a Green Globe artichoke plant from Walmart in the spring, and transplanted it in an area with black plastic and western shade. Here's a picture of it on 22 July 2019. Yesterday, it had a lot more artichoke heads showing. Yes, there are watermelons next to it, and I don't regret the decision.

Here are pictures of my Galapagos Island tomato, this year, taken yesterday. They were sweeter than previous years. They didn't taste like last year's cross; I think they might not be a cross, this time, after all. This might not be 100% S. cheesmaniae, but it's unique from other tomatoes I've grown.





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Here are a couple Tidy Rose F1 tomatoes that I harvested yesterday. The big one had sunscald, and a more powerful taste that I quite preferred.





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Here are a couple Black Dragon tomatoes from yesterday. They have thicker walls than Black Plum and are larger.


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I saved wonderberry seeds, yesterday. I put a handful of berries in the blender, added water, and blended on the lowest setting. The water turned very purple! I don't think that happened last year.


Anyway, after that, I removed the fluids (and added more to clear it, and removed them again, a number of times) and poured the seeds (which had settled to the bottom of the blender) into an empty herbal tea bag to zap and dry.

I got some Porter seeds from AlittleSalt of Tomatoville once upon a time.

I grew a plant from them in 2016, without black plastic or mulch, in the ground. It got a lot of overhead watering from an oscillating sprinkler. The fruits were very pink, and kind of shiny. They got anthracnose pre-harvest (which was kind of unusual). The taste was bland, and the texture undesirable. I understood that this was probably because I watered it too much (as this variety is said to taste loads better with drought). I saved seeds and zapped them. The plant kind of vined a bit.

Anyway, I grew it again in 2017, from my saved seeds, with dry conditions in less-than-ideal soil (potentially salty), without black plastic or mulch. It didn't manifest any symptoms of anthracnose. The plant was slow-growing and slow to mature. The fruits still didn' taste awesome. I figured maybe it needed more acclimatization, since Idaho and Texas are very different when it comes to gardening. However, I didn't save seeds for some reason. The fruits were quite pink, again.

In 2018, some Porter Plants (or plants that looked like Porter) volunteered in the same area as in 2017, also without black plastic or mulch, also with drought conditions. They were slow-growing to start, but ended up prolific, and they tasted extremely sweet and awesome. I was very impressed. However, for some of reason, I didn't save seeds, again. The fruits were quite pink again. They had good texture. No anthracnose symptoms.

So, in 2019, I used saved seeds from 2016 to grow it again. I figured I might as well start the process of acclimatization again. However, I was also curious how it would do with black plastic, this year. Anyway, I harvested one today. It could have been riper, but I wanted to try it. This fruit was rounder than most. The fruits generally are smaller, this year, but that could be because of the soil (which wasn't condusive to the best growth). The plant growth habit is similar to the previous two years. I caged it. The fruit, while not quite as amazing as last year's (yet) was excellent and sweet. I don't think it's had any BER, this year, so far (nor in previous years), which is awesome. The gel sacks on the seeds were not significant. It doesn't look nearly as pink, today (but it could be riper). No anthracnose symptoms, this year, so far.

Here are some pictures of the fruit I ate, today (I'm zapping/saving seeds from it, too; keep in mind it's usually more oblong, and larger/pinker):




The black dots on my finger are from the marker bleeding through empty herbal tea bags when I was labeling them for seed-saving.

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden
• Tatiana's TOMATObase

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This year, 2019, fruits are taking a while to ripen (except for strawberries and burr gherkins).

We had a little rain on 23 July. It wasn't much, but I think the plants appreciated it.

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So, I was in the front yard on Saturday, and I saw this for the first time!



It's a volunteer Red-seeded Citron watermelon. The seed it grew from was from a plant that I grew in 2015. The fruits kept better than most winter squash. It volunteered last year, too, but this year's plant is much larger (and this year there's just one plant).

A family member had been watering it, apparently.