Jeff Bezos delivered these plant covers just in time. I wanted one size larger, but they wouldn’t have gotten here today. There’s a little flare out at the base that allowed me pile a bit of soil on so the wind wouldn’t knock them off. Some of the plants are a bit cramped on their width, but I think they will recover.

A centimeter sized hole on top allows the plants to breathe a bit.

Should protect against a brief light frost if it happens overnight. About what I expected, the flare at the bottom is nice and there is a small hole or two to further secure these if needed.

Dimensions are 7.8” Diameter and 9.4” height. Good thing I buried the tomato main stems some.

With a projected low of 36 degrees tonight, I'll probably leave these guys in their house for another couple days.

@karstopography
You know Jeff Bezos?
OMG OMG like how cool is that OMG OMG.

*resurfaces*

I don't have the bandwidth this year to go from seed. However, transplants mean instant plant-out, so I had my first ten out Feb. 4, and the next ten out this past Thursday. Still avoiding heirlooms because of ToANV prevalence out back.

On that note: anyone in Houston area who has transplants of anything with demonstrated ToANV resistance, let me know. Curious to try Skyway and GinFizz but haven't seen any locally.

My small but mighty tomato crop is going to bask in the sunshine today underneath the shed. Target plant in the ground date is still March 1st.


On a side note, this is the first year I've seen varieties called Early Girl Plus and Better Boy Plus in the big box stores... supposed to have better disease resistance

Today I picked up a packet of Super Sioux in Tractor Supply. (As well as a live 'Aphrodite' hibiscus plant and a bunch of onions) Anybody have experience with Super Sioux? Apparently it sounds good for Texas; packet says produces well in hot, dry conditions.

TomatoNut95 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 7:03 pm Today I picked up a packet of Super Sioux in Tractor Supply. (As well as a live 'Aphrodite' hibiscus plant and a bunch of onions) Anybody have experience with Super Sioux? Apparently it sounds good for Texas; packet says produces well in hot, dry conditions.

I grew Super Sioux last year and made quite a few posts about it in my grow Blog on this forum.
viewtopic.php?t=4238&start=100

I also highly suggest you check out @Worth's posts. His Juliets had amazing production in the middle of summer heat.
viewtopic.php?t=3333&start=200

Four, all four tomatoes in smaller bed, look like they got some significant cold damage on the leaves. None of the now seven in the 4X10’ bed have any signs of damage. All the plants were covered in an identical way with identical cloches. Beds are perhaps ten feet apart if even. Smaller bed might be a few inches lower in elevation and how ever many feet, ten, more distance from the lake. Chalk it up to vagaries off frost? 34° was the official low at the airport 3 miles distant. Our regional airport is in a semi rural setting not unlike my own. 34° on a NWS gauge certainly carries a frost potential at ground level.

I’m going to watch the cold damaged plants for a couple of days and then leave them in or replace them with spare plants. Too wet the soil to mess with now. Week looks dry and warm.

So far, one definite casualty, Aker’s West Virginia, due to the wind breaking off main stem approximately 3” below the tip and four plants in Hospital. I’m glad I have spare starter plants.

Note to self, start seeds 7-14 days later next year. Easier to manage starter plants that are undersized than oversized. January 15th or 20th might work better to sow seeds.

The problem with cloches @karstopography is that leaves touching the plastic with cold condensation will suffer damage. In my experience of covering with plastic it was never as good as a bit of row cover, to prevent damage from cold. Other types of cloth can be used as well in a pinch, but plastic is deadly if touching the leaves on a too cold night. The cloth has no surface for condensation and I think this is the key deadly factor, for plastic.

Replaced the broken Aker’s West Virginia with Dr.Wyche’s Yellow today. Also, I harvested the remaining arugula and put a Black from Tula transplant in the spot vacated by the arugula.

That makes 13 tomatoes total and that’s less than half what I did last year. Don’t see myself adding any more.

This may very well end up being an eggplant year for me.

karstopography wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 6:03 pm Replaced the broken Aker’s West Virginia with Dr.Wyche’s Yellow today. Also, I harvested the remaining arugula and put a Black from Tula transplant in the spot vacated by the arugula.

That makes 13 tomatoes total and that’s less than half what I did last year. Don’t see myself adding any more.

Your garlic, onions, kale, etc look great @karstopography.

I think it's gonna get too hot too fast for matamoes this year for me.
Maybe one or two plants.

PlainJane wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 7:43 am

karstopography wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 6:03 pm Replaced the broken Aker’s West Virginia with Dr.Wyche’s Yellow today. Also, I harvested the remaining arugula and put a Black from Tula transplant in the spot vacated by the arugula.

That makes 13 tomatoes total and that’s less than half what I did last year. Don’t see myself adding any more.

Your garlic, onions, kale, etc look great @karstopography.

My broccoli really picked up steam after giving rather mediocre central heads. Hard to keep up with all the side shoots and those are delicious sautéed or air fried. I have to remember to plant Green Magic is it does great with making side shoots. My Windsor fava bounced back completely and are blooming like crazy now.

karstopography wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 8:34 am
My broccoli really picked up steam after giving rather mediocre central heads. Hard to keep up with all the side shoots and those are delicious sautéed or air fried. I have to remember to plant Green Magic is it does great with making side shoots. My Windsor fava bounced back completely and are blooming like crazy now.

Broccoli has been doing fantastic here. I started transplanting the second week of September. I like sprouting types or ones with more side shoots so I can harvest over a longer period. Piracicaba, Calabrese Green Sprouting, Gypsy (hybrid from Johnny's), and Burgundy (hybrid from Johnny's) have all been great. I'll have to try Green Magic. Burgundy is gorgeous, early, and has lots of side shoots. It also had a huge central head for me the last 2 years, even though the description implied it wouldn't. I also tried crimson flowered favas from San Diego Seeds and I love the pop of color! It's been very windy so I've had my tomato and pepper transplants inside but just set them out on the porch.

I think I’m going to transplant two more tomatoes to the west southwest of the pole beans and in line with them on the north side of that bed. I’ve got about five feet to work with. I’ll put one tomato about 1.5-2 feet from the beans and out away from the wall a bit and the other in the corner. I’m leaning towards Japanese Black Trifele if it looks reasonably healthy for the one near the beans. It’s a smaller semi-indeterminate/indeterminate type every time I’ve grown it so I’m thinking it won’t shade the beans in any harmful way. I can lean JBT to the north if it ends up getting huge. The corner is still up for grabs and will likely be the best looking of the remaining plants, although I’m still curious about Gardener’s sweetheart so that might get the spot no matter how everyone else looks.

So the tomatoes already transplanted are

Large Pinks
Pruden’s Purple
Brandywine Cowlick’s
Dester
Hoy
Missouri Pink Love Apple

Large Red
Red Barn

Large Dark/Black
Black from Tula
Black Krim

Large Orange
Dr.Wyche’s Yellow

Anthro
Sart Roloise

Small fruited/dehydration
A.Grappoli D’Inverno
Principe Borghese
Creamsicle Grape

Two yet to be determined.

@karstopography I can’t remember - have you grown Creamsicle Grape before?

PlainJane wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2024 2:13 pm @karstopography I can’t remember - have you grown Creamsicle Grape before?

No, and I wanted to and want to because I read it was great dehydrated.

In my estimation, the tomatoes at this early stage post transplant could not look any better. Weather conditions are amazingly helpful to boot. Anyway, glad the plants are liking their beds. I’m not planting so many tomatoes this year so I hope they are at least moderate productive.

Last two tomatoes to be transplanted happened today. Cuostralee and Aker’s West Virginia. Now 15 tomatoes out there. Twelve large fruited and three small fruited ones.