Pondering our Dwarf Tomato Project releases - my revised impressions and plans - part 1

Peak Harvest in mid-late July. Alas, this type of pic is but a memory!

August - the end of my productive gardening season (particularly early this year due to the intensity of the heat and humidity - the harvest was so generous but so concentrated and quick!), is a good time to begin to take stock - look back a bit, and think ahead…but, again, just a bit. There is still a driveway to clean up, makes sense of, and in some cases, harvest.

We conceived the Dwarf Tomato Project in 2005, rolled up our sleeves and really dug soon after, and began releasing our discoveries in 2010. Nine years later, with 106 or so varieties listed in seed catalogs and many more on the cusp of release, I think it is a good time to take them in batches and provide my latest impressions. I got to try lots of new releases this year, and am mighty impressed - so I can now add those alongside my long time favorites.

Let’s consider this part 1, where I will cover releases from 2010-2012, 17 of our varieties. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are my favorites to grow and eat.

Dwarf Jade Beauty * - I’ve grown it often, and though it is not a very large tomato, it is productive, resists disease well for me and is simply delicious. Our green when ripe dwarfs are really fine!

Dwarf Beryl Beauty * - I alternate this with Dwarf Jade Beauty and Dwarf Kelly Green as similarly sized, green fleshed, delicious tomatoes. Beryl is a bit larger than Jade, and I’ve noted a more pronounced pink blush at the blossom end. The foliage is also slightly different, being more rugose, though both it and Jade are potato leaf.

Dwarf Emerald Giant * - Another of my favorites of all of our releases, and to me, very close to being a “dwarf growing version” of the father of the Sneezy family, Green Giant. It isn’t quite as large, and isn’t quite as sweet, but it is to me one of our best creations. It yields well more consistently for me than Summertime Green.

Summertime Green * - When compared to similarly sized Dwarf Emerald Giant, it is not quite as oblate and is regular, rather than potato, leaf. I’ve not grown it in a few years, which is a shame, since it is simply delicious - I actually find the flavor a tiny bit fuller and more complete than Emerald Giant.

Rosella Purple * - I remember being shocked when a purple tomato popped up from one of Patrina’s pink X red crosses, but that’s what we have! Rosella Purple is, I suspect, one of the most widely grown of our dwarfs, and is a great ambassador for our project. It looks and tastes like Cherokee Purple, and is similarly sized, on a nice compact dwarf growing plant. I’ve grown it many times and love the variety. One thing I’ve noted is that foliage disease can hit it pretty hard in some years, due to its dense growth and heavy fruit set.

Tasmanian Chocolate - Though the size, yield and color are impressive and it gets many great comments, it just has never tantalized my taste buds nearly as much as most of our other releases. I am delighted so many enjoy it, and think it is time to return to it for another try. It is another of the dwarfs that can get pretty hard with foliage disease.

Summertime Gold - Though this was one of our initial releases, some remaining instability has created a bit of confusion. It was reselected and re-released as Summer Sweet Gold, as some samples of the released Summertime Gold looked essentially like Dwarf Mr. Snow. No matter what its true identity, it is always delicious. At some point, a comparison between Summertime Gold, Summer Sweet Gold, Summer Sunrise, Dwarf Mr. Snow and Dwarf Sweet Sue would be very useful to see if we are maintaining the differences.

Dwarf Mr. Snow * - I simply love this ivory colored good sized, productive release because there is a distinctive tartness to the flavor, not all that common in large fruited tomatoes (many of which tend to the sweet side). It stood out at one of our Tomatopalooza events as one of the best tasting tomatoes at the tasting.

Dwarf Wild Fred * - One that is near and dear to me, as it is named for my dad Wilfred, it is very similar in color and size to Rosella Purple. I’ve not grown it nearly often enough, and really need to do some comparative grow outs and tastings of our various purple fruited releases. The year that I selected it, the size potential from our dwarf project showed itself right off the bat. My impression is that the flavor intensity is just slightly lesser when compared to Rosella Purple, but this is an impression that needs to be revisited.

Perth Pride - One of our saladette sized dwarfs, Perth Pride really catches your attention due to the intense tartness. This is another dwarf I’ve not grown very often, but it yields well, but is best picked prior to full ripeness due to its tendency to crack. Perth Pride was one of the best tomatoes as judged by Tomatopalooza attendees at one of our tasting events.

Iditarod Red - One of our earlier ripening dwarfs, I consider this a reliable saladette types with a heavy early fruit set. Never the best flavored tomato in the garden, its earliness, vigor and high yield make it very useful to grow. It is another I’ve not grown often in recent years.

Yukon Quest - This is another early ripening dwarf that can produce some pretty good sized, sweet pink tomatoes. It is also another that hasn’t graced my garden recently.

Sleeping Lady - A continuing theme, this is another early ripening variety that yields very well, with variably sized tasty chocolate colored tomatoes. It joins the list of varieties I’ve not focused on recently.

Dwarf Kelly Green * - This is the medium sized, green fleshed gem with regular leaf foliage, unlike the potato leaf Beryl or Jade Beauty it is related to (the Sneezy family). It is prolific, healthy and delicious.

Dwarf Arctic Rose - Similar to Yukon Quest, this is a very good sweet pink tomato that comes on early. I really need to do a comparative grow out, as the original intent was that one of the two was more compact in growth habit. I’ve not grown it in some years, so it is time for it to return to my garden.

Dwarf Sweet Sue * - To me, this is simply one of the best. It should be medium sized, vary from smooth oblate to more round, have a medium yellow color with a distinct pinkish blush at the blossom end when very ripe. Mostly, it should delight the taste buds with its sweetness and intensity. I’ve seen selections that are not yellow enough, too large, or too oblate. This one is very special…and it is named for my wife!

Summer Sunrise - I’ve never been terribly lucky growing this selection. The tomatoes I’ve had from the variety are simply delicious. I’ve battled disease and yield issues, and I should give it another try soon. There should be a distinction between this and Summertime Gold (now, Summer Sweet Gold), though it is subtle.

In summary, the above initial releases contain lots of favorites. The yellow, white and greens come from the Sneezy family - created when Patrina crossed Green Giant with Golden Dwarf Champion. David Lockwood, a most wonderful early project year volunteer from Australia that sadly left the earth when way too young, did lots of the initial dwarf hunting and his first finds created lots of the excitement about our project, because they essentially confirmed our hypothesis - that it was possible to create great new dwarf varieties that had the size, flavor and color interest of indeterminate varieties. Already, back in 2006, we could see the beginnings of “mission accomplished”!

Promising heart shaped lead, purple with green stripes, from the Hearty line. No name yet…but tasty and gorgeous!

2019 Season Update and Analysis part 2

Major garden reorganization happening in early August - bye to the small grow bag indeterminates, severe pruning time for the dwarfs. Harvesting and regular watering and feeding continue.

Blogging from the beach - what fun! We are in the midst of Topsail Island Family Vacation 3 (a lovely tradition we hope to keep going for as long as possible). After three days of heat and humidity, sun and sea and sand, kayaking and walking, it is a perfect time to keep cool indoors and return to pondering this year’s fascinating garden.

In the last blog I went through some data on first ripe fruit from transplant dates. Now I’d like to discuss tomato quality and dwarf tomato project results (both with released varieties and work in progress).

Always late, always worth waiting for - Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom

First - considering indetermiante tomato varieties

• the following rated 9 out of 10 in flavor: Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, Stump of the World, Yellow Brandywine, Green Giant, Casey’s Pure Yellow, Lucky Cross, Sun Gold, and Fruity.

• Rating 8 were JD Special C Tex, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Chocolate, Cherokee Green, Indian Stripe, Mexico Midget, Hibor, Sun Lucky, Blue’s Bling (both tall and shorter - possibly dwarf - versions), Berkeley Tie Dye, Lillian’s Yellow X Zlutu Kytice F1 hybrid, Little Lucky, Abraham Green, Abraham Purple, “not” Carbon (pink fruited), Striped Sweetheart, Great White, Aunt Ruby’s German Green and Roman Figun.

• In the 7-7.5 category are Egg Yolk, Andrew Rahart’s Jumbo Red, Redmon Giant, Aker’s West Virginia, Nepal, Azoychka, Swamp Sweet, Kocher volunteer cherry, Mackey Ferry cherry, KBX, Black Krim, Honor Bright, Black from Tula, Italian Heirloom, Velvet Red, MMT, Abraham Lincoln, Surprise, Civil War, Russian, Variegated, and Wapsinicon Peach.

• 6-6.5 ranked tomatoes were Matchless, Peak of Perfection, Bartelly Cherry, Overman family heirloom, Peach Blow Sutton, “not” Mocha Stripe and Japanese Trifele Black.

Another that tends to be later for me, but much loved….Dwarf Blazing Beauty

Dwarf, microdwarf and determinate variety tomato flavor rankings:

• In the 9 category are Dwarf Sweet Sue and Dwarf Blazing Beauty

• Ranked 8 - 8.5 are Beastly potato leaf yellow heart from 6838, Dwarf Emerald Isle potato leaf green flesh from T13-78, Teensy yellow, Choppy ivory with pale stripes from 5552, Scotty regular leaf, normal foliage, pink and gold striped heart from 6702, Freezy oblate purple with green stripes from 5550, Beauty green with purple stripes from 12-179, Fancy both regular and potato leaf from T13-71 pale orange, Vince’s Haze, Velvet Night, Sarah’s Red, Maura’s Cardinal, Egypt Yellow, Parfait, and Hannah’s Prize

• Ranked 7-7.5 are Hearty purple heart with green stripes 6542, Dwarf Speckled Heart 6530, Taxi, Microdwarfs 6627 (prolific chocolate tear drop with green stripes) and 6628 (more compact round large chocolate cherry with green stripes), Tiny Tim scalloped 6630 (came out round, not scalloped), Teensy Pink (ended up ivory), Chocolate, Purple (ended up large green when ripe cherry), and Green, Buzzy pink and gold striped cherry, Beauty shades of green with deep crimson veining from 11-152, Scotty yellow potato leaf white to pink hearts from 6702, Scotty yellow regular leaf medium large red oblate from 6697, Pink Ink (which turned out ivory), Fancy 13-88 regular leaf 3 oz white, Beastly regular leaf which turned out much like Dwarf Speckled Heart but with a rather hard core, Scotty normal color regular leaf foliage medium red oblate from 6697, Ivory Ink, Sweetie red cherry, 5 Emerald Isle selections - potato leaf green flesh from 14-60, potato leaf green flesh with orange core from 14-79, regular leaf green flesh with orange core from 14-59, potato leaf green flesh from 14-79 and regular leaf green flesh from 13-78 - none of these showed distinct heart shaped, though a few tended to do so; Sunny’s Pear, Dwarf Tiger Eye, Bendigo Dawn, Bendigo Drop, Quarter Century, Melanie’s Ballet, Jasmine Yellow, Sneaky Sauce, Cream Sausage, Andy’s Forty, Grandpa Gary’s Green, Mystic Lady

The above is really quite unprecedented in recent gardens - so many excellent flavors, so few disappointments…..and all of this despite having to water often to keep the plants as stress-free as possible in our oven-hot, humid summer. Of everything grown, only a taste of Ann’s Dusky Rose and Laura’s Bounty remain (courtesy of deer theft of the initial set of tomatoes on the plants).

What comes next is for me to assess my Dwarf Tomato Project discoveries and results against not only our high expectations for future releases, but results of the many people growing test plants. Thus, though the harvest will soon be coming to a close, the work continues…and is more about analysis and decisions than harvesting, tasting and seed saving.

Full set of the Dwarf Emerald Isle candidate work. So many delicious green fleshed tomatoes (with two of them with distinct orange cores - one of them is essentially release Dwarf Parfait).

Tomatoes galore! Updates on the harvest and season to date. Part 1.

July 19 harvest

It has been a rather overwhelming month of July. Between speaking events, the regular watering that goes with endless heat and humidity, a very welcome family visit (ongoing, culminating in a beach trip next week), and a huge and relentless tomato harvest, it is hard to even ponder where July has gone…but essentially gone it is!

Let’s start with some garden statistics to get a sense of the relative success of this summer for my tomato efforts.

• Number of tomato plants - 129

• Number of tomato plants with seed saved (mostly dried, a few still fermenting) - 119

• Number of tomato plants pending harvest for seed saving - 4

That is a pretty spectacular place to be by late July. Of the four pending harvest, one is a volunteer Mexico Midget that has ripe fruit but I’ve yet to harvest and save seed from, another is Dwarf Laura’s Bounty which was pretty much de-fruited by deer (but some small fruit are coming along near the top), and two are late planted Dwarf Ann’s Dusky Rose plum that have been relocated into my back yard. I feel really fortunate that so many things worked so well this year.

Yellow Brandywine, KBX, Casey’s Pure Yellow and Lucky Cross, showing very subtle color differences

Taking a look at the range of maturity dates (days to first ripe from transplant):

• First to ripen - 30 days - a volunteer cherry variety from my gardening friend Sue Kocher

• Last to ripen - 94 days - Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom

Maturity dates (DTM) for my “flavor champion”, favorite varieties in my 2019 garden (all in straw bales)

• Cherokee Purple - 69 days

• Cherokee Chocolate - 85 days

• Cherokee Green - 77 days

• Green Giant - 78 days

• Yellow Brandywine - 74 days

• Azoychka - 65 days

• Andrew Rahart’s Jumbo Red - 77 days

• Aker’s West Virginia - 89 days

• Lucky Cross - 75 days

• Stump of the World - 78 days

Maturity dates for a sampling of the released dwarfs I am growing this year (all in 5 gallon black grow bags)

• Sweet Sue - 70 days

• Blazing Beauty - 71 days

• Mandurang Moon - 65 days

• Sunny’s Pear - 72 days

• Tiger Eye - 63 days

• Vince’s Haze - 66 days

• Hannah’s Prize - 65 days

• Jasmine Yellow - 64 days

• Egypt Yellow - 64 days

• Sarah’s Red - 65 days

Overall fruit set has been excellent considering the consistently high heat. Plant health has been excellent due to the relative lack of rain (meaning dry foliage). Fruit flavors have been uniformly superb, among the best of my experience. It is positively joyful.

Only two plants were lost to disease, in both cases Fusarium wilt (presumably seed-borne) - Nepal and Azoychka, though fruit was harvested and tasted prior to the plants’ demise.

There were a few color surprises, indicative of crossed seed or unstable selections. Two tomatoes from USDA seed are obviously crossed; Matchless (a mix of dwarf and indeterminate seedlings, and the indeterminate plant produced quite small red tomatoes), and Peak of Perfection (small round red, rather than the hoped for large pink). Carbon colored up pink instead of purple, and Mocha Stripe came out as a pink tomato, rather than chocolate with green stripes. Abraham Brown - seeds from last year’s chocolate fruit - came out purple.

In Part 2, I will discuss particular flavors and the work on the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project, some new heirlooms sent to me, present much more on flavors of various varieties, and talk about attempted crosses (and a few that may have succeeded). I hope to get to Part 2 over the next week or so.

A wonderful recent Dwarf Tomato Project release, Dwarf Tiger Eye

Spectacular tomatoes and incessant heat and humidity - are they mutually exclusive? Some thoughts...

View of the pepper/eggplant/bean section of the garden on July 15. The visibility of the bell peppers is due to deer browsing of the plant tops.

It is hot - it is so, so hot. Actually, we here in the Raleigh NC area are in a stretch where it is hard to conceive of even going outside to spend hours tending the garden. Tasks inevitably slip - the staking and tying become undisciplined, chaos begins to ensue. Spotted, diseased lower foliage remains instead of the recommended removal. The rare, odd down burst thunderstorm in the evening brings unwanted rearrangement of the plants. Yet - it is hot, the container and straw bale plants can’t make it through full ways without watering. Tomatoes go from green to blush to ripe fast, meaning cracking. Critters get nosy and begin to probe the defenses.

Yes, all of that is happening, but it is also turning out to be a pretty spectacular gardening season. The key is to focus on the wonderful that is happening, and accept the lack of general order, never mind perfection.

Many stories happening here, but mostly, tomatoes on the counter picked half ripe, but ripening quickly

Gardeners in hot, humid areas are likely noticing several things. First, tomato plants grow fast. The cages and stakes assumed to be adequate are likely to be over-topped already. The decision of if or what to prune, if or what to top often get overwhelmed by the effort in the heat and other garden tasks (hand up here). Gusty storms then put so much pressure on fruit-laden tall vines that bending occurs, and perhaps snapping of the stake itself. I’ve experienced all of this over the years.

Second - gardeners will also notice (as evidenced by FB, IG and Twitter comments, as well as emails) that flowers are dropping without setting fruit. Many large fruited beefsteak type heirlooms in the 1 pound and greater range really don’t care much for 90 degree and above, and add in elevated humidity and those blossoms on impacted varieties open, fail to pollinate, shrivel and drop off, leaving fruitless gaps along the stem.

Upper region of Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom showing the effects of blossom drop

Lower area on Lillian’s showing good fruit set- blossoms opened during relatively cooler temps

Cherry tomatoes, golf-ball sized tomatoes, right up to medium sized varieties are far less fussy with fruit set temperature and will drop blossoms much less. The main things you can do if you are growing the monster sized tomatoes and forecast temperatures are 90 and above during flowering are to gently flick the flower clusters once the flowers open a few times each day (or use an electric toothbrush to gently vibrate the blossoms). Some may find success using a shade cloth over the plants during mid-day; I can’t personally comment on its effectiveness, as it doesn’t impact humidity, though may offer a few degrees of relief. Choice of tomato type will have the greatest impact on success, but of course, those of us who are smitten by the one pound colorful super delicious heirlooms will stubbornly stick with those and go with using season shifting strategies (planting out so that flowering occurs before or after the extreme heat) to get our tomato fix. The other thing to focus on - keep the plants growing well (well watered and fed, remove blemished foliage) and don’t overprune suckers. You want those plants to continue to flower so that as the temperatures start to ease, flowers will set fruit and you will get a nice later summer harvest.

My parting words for this blog - don’t let your plants get stressed - indicated by wilting during the hot part of the day. Keep them well watered. And keep them well fed. And please - remove that nasty looking lower blemished foliage - it spreads the fungal spores quickly. It isn’t fun, but eating tomatoes is certainly a LOT of fun!

A riot of colors from plants from the Bouquet hot pepper mini project

The glorious, out of control, impending mess of the mid-summer garden

One of several “improvisations” - keeping an Egg Yolk plant somewhat upright using a ladder!

Once again the phrase “best laid plans…” comes to mind. Each garden is like New Year’s Day, filled with resolutions - “I will pay more attention to what my plants are telling me”. “I will space my garden out more”. “I will plant less plants so that I can attend to those I do plant more successfully”. And, my favorite broken resolution, “I will sucker my plants, make them simpler to stake, and top them when they reach the top of the stake”. Yeah, right.

Another improv - using a large box to keep developing tomatoes off of the ground

I am really not complaining…just poking fun at myself a bit. To tell the truth, this has been a most delightful start to the harvest phase of the 2019 garden season. A friend came by to see it the other day and I told her “the garden will never look better than today - it is downhill from here”. I was correct - tipping plants, lower foliage disease, the effects of extreme heat and humidity are now taking their toll, as the picking commences.

I think of the coming weeks as the “keep it watered and fed, do the best that is possible with keeping the plants tied and upright and healthy, and pick those ripe tomatoes and enjoy” part of the experience. It will all go by way too fast, as the blur of daily watering, weekly feeding, regular harvesting, and eating/cooking/seed saving/preserving make each day seem like a mere few hours. Oh, what fun! And we get to do it anew every year!

Area rearranged by weather (windy storm) and heavy plants laden with tomatoes that are too much for my support system

A few stats for the 4th of July - every plant growing has excellent fruit set…eggplants are ready to harvest and peppers are right behind them. I’ve picked tomatoes from 28 different plants (there are another 100 or so yet to ripen a tomato), with Taxi, Azoychka, Indian Stripe, Cherokee Purple and a heart shaped pink striped variety from the Scotty family (dwarf tomato project work) as the initial non-cherry tomatoes to ripen. Flavors of nearly everything are just delightful.

Aside from working in the garden, I am getting ready for events at Logan, Acme, the Raleigh History Museum, Duke Garden and Longwood garden - all details are on my speaking page, found here. I am particularly happy with the timing of the local events…it is tomato time and I hope to do some small tastings at each!

I hope those of you on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter are following my #DailyPlant2019 posts in which I feature one tomato, pepper or eggplant type daily. I am @nctomatoman on Twitter and Instagram, and my Facebook author page is craiglehoullier. Follow along and comment freely on what you see!

One more thing to add - it amazes me to think of the time that has gone by since Epic Tomatoes was released (December 2014) - somehow, nearly 5 years have passed. My friends at Storey Publishing shared a bit of data with me on my books that staggered me a bit - there are more than 60,000 copies of Epic Tomatoes in print (it will soon be in a 6th reprinting) - it has hundreds of reviews on Amazon and Good Reads (sincere thanks to those of you who went through the effort of providing a review! It is never too late to do so, and it helps me improve as a writer to receive and read your reviews, so if you have not done so, please share your thoughts). As for Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales, there are nearly 20,000 copies in print and the next reprint will be its 4th. Thanks to you all for your support - it means a lot.

Summer squash growing well in straw bales

The first Indian Stripe. Great internal structure, color, texture and flavor!

Yellow Brandywine, Azoychka and Matchless

New Product Review Update 1 - Gardener's Victory Self-Watering Planter Garden Kit

First ripe non-cherry sized tomato of the year! A delicious, bright yellow tennis ball sized Taxi

In late May, I described the set up and use of a very nicely designed self-watering container - the Victory Self Watering Container Kit - from Gardener’s Supply Company; that review can be found here.

Only a month has gone by, and progress is just remarkable. The first Taxi tomato (a determinate variety perfect for this planter), shown above, was harvested and enjoyed in 39 days (!!!) from transplant (and, yes, it was delicious).

Pictures are worth a whole lot of words, and views of both Victory planters are shown below. Both are perfectly healthy, and the self watering nature of the planters has been very welcome in the consistently hot weather being experienced thus far in Raleigh, NC. The planter design removes the need to stake and tie the plants, making maintenance a snap.

Happy Taxi tomato in the Victory planter

A whole lot of Taxi tomatoes on the way

The second Victory planter contains a Dwarf Tomato Project variety, Dwarf Sweet Sue, which is a later maturing variety than Taxi. It too is thriving and fruit set is going very well - see below.

Dwarf Sweet Sue filling up the planter

Dwarf Sweet Sue tomatoes decorating the plant

All in all, I love this planter!

Update on the Bouquet Ornamental Hot Pepper Mini-Project

Back in 2002 I was ambling through an arboretum (JC Raulston, I presume, though it could have been elsewhere) and there were gorgeous colorful hot pepper plants growing with a profusion of ripe, red peppers. Somehow, one of the quite small fruit (Thai pepper shape and size) ended up in my pocket. I saved seeds from it, and it is designated “Arboretum Purple Leaf” in my seed log.

Seeds were saved, and a few were planted in 2003, and the project for which the latest update is provided in this blog was launched (though I really didn’t know it at the time). There was quite a bit of diversity of leaf color, flower color and fruit shape and color. One form seemed quite easy to start to stabilize, and I named it Gemstone. Possessing dark green leaves with heavy purple shading (especially in full sun) and purple flowers, the pointed cone shaped peppers transition from a vibrant deep lavender, through cream, yellow, and orange, finally ending up red. I am growing Gemstone this year and will show it once the peppers start to form and mature, so that the full range of color is provided.

Another type emerged from that arboretum-borrowed pepper that had nearly normal green foliage, white flowers tinged with purple, more slender, darker purple fruit that also went through color changes on their way to red. This one was named Bouquet, and proved to be far more challenging to nail down, with all sorts of variations popping up on each attempt.

Last year I grew a number of various saved seed lots in an attempt to finally nail down the pepper I wish to call Bouquet, and sharing the pics on Instagram drummed up lots of interest. Therefore, many samples of seed made the rounds, and I am already seeing early results. I do want to take a look at the ones I am growing and provide my opinion on where we may go next with each.

A pepper plant given to me by a friend last year isn’t formally part of the project, but I distributed seeds anyway, designated P18-2 - I believe it to be the variety Trifetti, and it has the most beautiful foliage.

Picture of plant P18-2 taken on June 22, showing the complex foliage pattern and purple flowers

Last year, P18-3 had green stems, green leaves, white flowers and pale yellow to cream colored, slender peppers that ripened orange red. I seem to be getting the same results this year. All of the seedlings seemed uniform - this is a pretty pepper that has yet to be named.

P18-3 plant showing the leaf and pepper color and shape; flowers are white.

My seedlings for last year’s P18-4 looked quite uniform, shown below. The growth is more upright/columnar. Foliage is true green, flowers are white tinged with violet, and the peppers are a vibrant deep lavender, sort of a slender upward pointing cone in shape. This is not a Bouquet candidate in plant habit, but is quite lovely.

Pepper plant from P18-4

Once again, plants from P18-5 seemed quite uniform, so only one was planted. This is a more spreading plant with colors similar to P18-4, but the fruit seem to be forming more in clusters. This is not the primary Bouquet candidate, but is close, and really gorgeous so far.

Plant from P18-5

With P18-6, there seemed to be more seedling variation, so I planted two seedling types. The plant on the left, below, has dusky green leaves, pale lavender flowers, and dark lavender upward pointed slender cones - this will be the main Bouquet candidate. The plant on the right is another of the cream colored fruit, white flowered, green foliage types seen with P18-3.

P18-7 also showed seedling variation, and two seedlings made the cut for the garden. As you can see, they are quite similar, with slender lavender peppers. Not Bouquet, most likely, but nice nonetheless.

Finally, we have the most variable seedling sample of all, P18-8, of which I grew three plants, see below. The first and third plants are quite upright/columnar, with more cone-shaped fruit - the first having green leaves, white flowers and cream colored peppers, the last having beautiful lavender cones. The second plant has very distinctively dark, purple peppers with a slight hint of brown.

The diversity remains quite broad, and all plants are attractive and productive…these are all growing in one gallon pots. Please find me in Instagram - @nctomatoman - and use the tag #bouquetpepperproject to show pictures of the ones you are growing. Use the number on the packet I sent to designate them clearly. What remains is to see the full color range on these - the transition between the pics above (the initial/unripe) color, the transitional colors, and the final color, to determine the next steps.

Sad news - Carolyn Male died on June 14. She and I go way back....

My friendship with Carolyn male began with a Seed Savers Exchange request for the tomato Anna Russian. With the seed request was a long, lovely hand written letter which began “I would love to take a walk through your garden when the tomatoes start to ripen”. Carolyn was a New York gardener just dipping her toes into the SSE herself at that time.

When Carolyn’s brother, David, contacted me on Friday, June 14 with the news of Carolyn’s passing, it brought an end to a frequently close, sometimes stormy and ultimately fragile friendship that spanned 29 years and countless sharing of seeds of all sorts. Starting in 1991, by 2009 Carolyn sent me 130 different packets of tomato seeds. Some real favorites were in those transactions - Soldacki, Opalka, Eva Purple Ball, Jaune Flamme, Cuostralee, Sandul Moldovan, Druzba, Zogola, Orange Strawberry, Indian Stripe and Neves Azorean Red among them.

Carolyn and I co-published the heirloom tomato publication Off The Vine. We always felt like we were running behind, had no idea really what we were doing (except sharing our parallel passions with heirloom tomatoes), but it was a fun three years doing so.

We were both contributors to various on line gardening forums, mainly Garden Web and Tomatoville. Carolyn had far more patience than I with regard to answering pretty much every tomato question that was posed. She held strong opinions for sure. We butted heads more than once. That’s what friends do.

Carolyn was the first of the two of us with a book - in 1999, Smith and Hawken: 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden was released. It documented the remarkable world of heirloom tomatoes in print for the very first time. It was such a pleasure to have contributed seeds to many of the varieties that she featured in the book.

When it became difficult for Carolyn to start her seeds but she still wished to grow her many recent heirloom tomato acquisitions, some of her garden friends started plants and shipped them to her to grow. In 2011, Sue and I were to travel to Massachusetts for our niece’s college graduation. One possible route could take us by Carolyn’s house, allowing an in-person plant delivery and my first chance to meet her in person. We jumped at the chance.

Carolyn and I during our spring 2011 visit to her home in Salem, NY

Most recently, Carolyn, with growing physical challenges, maintained her presence on the internet sharing her knowledge and opinions (which she never ran short of!) and grew what she could, helped by local friends. We drifted apart in these later years - inevitable, but sad, nonetheless.

Carolyn joins a stellar group of the SSE tomato people - Ben Quisenberry, Thane Earle, Faxon Stinnett, Edmund Brown, Gary Staley, Calvin Wait, and more recently, Glenn Drowns, Bill Minkey, Neil Lockhart, Jeff Fleming and me. She provided lots of history and detailed tomato descriptions in her hundreds of seed listings. I suspect that receiving seed requests, packaging up and sending seed samples was one of the true joys of her life. The garden world suffered a significant loss with Carolyn’s passing.

There is so much to blog about, I can't decide. Gotta start somewhere! The 2019 Garden - mid June status

The tomatoes are in full bloom! This unusual one is a tiny cherry tomato, from one fruit plucked from a plant growing in front of the Mackeys Ferry Peanut shop on Route 64 last year.

Enough with events and product reviews (though I love to do events, and am happy to try out new products). It’s gardening time! There is really so much going on out there that it is hard to stop gardening and start sharing results and observations.

First, some data - at last count (I add things all the time), there are 123 tomato plants, 10 eggplant plants, 35 pepper plants, a ground cherry, two types of summer squash, two types of bush green beans, 2 types of cucumbers and one type of pole beans up and happily growing. The garden was planted in two major efforts - indeterminate tomatoes in straw bales on April 26, and all of the rest on May 15.

As of mid June, the indeterminate tomatoes are approaching 4 feet tall and dwarf tomatoes are 2 feet tall on average. Pretty much everything out there is in blossom, and most tomatoes set fruit. The weather has been “unusual” - much of May hot and dry, much of June wet, relatively cool and when not raining, delightful.

Full driveway garden, taken standing in the bed of my truck

My days are starting to fall into a regular, delightful pattern. Daily chores are watering (unless it has rained), examination of all plants for blemished foliage (fungal infections, followed by removal of damaged leaves), tying to the stakes, and close observations. The weekly chore is feeding. I’ve also done the first dozen crosses (more about that in a future blog).

I am excited about so much of what I am growing this year. This is a garden with multiple research efforts, and a major culinary focus. It will be fun to describe each general project; there are 2 involving peppers, one project focusing on eggplants, and continuation of the dwarf breeding project, as well as carrying out new crosses to make new families, or just explore genetics. I am growing several family heirlooms sent to me for evaluation (what an honor to be able to do that!).

I will be therefore blogging much more frequently to get everyone caught up. By the way, I feature one plant each day, posted on Instagram, but also cross posted to Twitter and my Facebook author page; be sure to look for it (I am @nctomatoman on IG and Twitter, and my FB author page is under Craig LeHoullier).

There are a few other surprises ahead - in fact, my weekly meeting to discuss them with my main helper (my daughter Sara) is just about to begin!

Butterfly weed grown from seed collected from a neighbor’s plant

Gardeners, Seed Savers, my Seedling customers - come to Durham tomorrow evening! Seed Savers Exchange meet up...

Tomato diversity from a 2018 August harvest

Imagine what our gardens would consist of had Kent and Diane Whealy not conceived of and launched the Seed Savers Exchange in 1975. The great diversity we enjoy today would be but a dream and our gardens would likely be quite boring. When I discovered and joined the organization in 1986 it truly changed my life. The thousands of active members trading varieties through the exchange over the years changed the world.

Tomorrow evening, between 4-7 PM, Heather Haynes, SSE Director of Development, is hosting a meet up with free appetizers in Durham at Local 22 Kitchen and Bar. I will be there throughout, and Heather and I would love it if local lifetime, active and former SSE members, gardeners and seed savers join us to meet and chat and find out about the current and future direction and activities of the SSE. Bring your questions, ideas, and energy. The Facebook event details can be found here. We hope you can make it - it’s be fun (and, I am now convinced that gardeners will save the world!)

View of my 2019 garden a few days ago.