pepperhead212's 2025 garden

[pepperhead212]

Those volunteers can produce well, but I don't save tomatoes because they could be seeds from hybrids, and unpredictable - could have a good flavor, or not - my friend discovered one last year that looked and produced like a sunsugar, but was a "spitter". And many years ago another friend had a volunteer pop up by his front porch, and he let it grow, and it got huge, with flowers all over, but never set a single fruit! Some might turn out ok, but I'm not a gambler.

Tomatillos, however, produce well from volunteers, and years ago, I grew them from volunteers, because when I would start seeds, it seemed the stalks were always so thin and brittle, that I had to put a stake in each pot, and even this didn't always work well (I haven't had this problem since I've started using silica from hydroponics when watering). The volunteers were always strong, and I would dig them up, and transfer them to their final spots. Only problem with those was that after 5 or 6 years, the fruits slowly became smaller, and would ripen too quickly, so I had to switch back.

Epazote I have gotten in volunteers before, which surprised me, because it was the red Oaxacan epazote, which I figured was not cold hardy, and the seeds were killed in the winters. But one spring I had a couple of them pop up in the edges of the EBs, that the okra was planted in the year before! It was right next to where the epazote was growing, which made more sense, than getting to that spot in my back garden!

[pepperhead212]

It's been over a month since that first bok choy started bolting, so these two lasted a lot longer. The Wu Choy surprised me, since it's a cold resistant (down to at least 17° F) variety, too!
Just bolting greens, 6-7, Dark Wu Choy, and the Koquie Bok Choy, with some garlic chives. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Before harvesting these, I did a lot of trimming of my tomatoes, removing those very low branches, as well as some of those suckers, and training those plants through the trellises - they are all taking off now, even those few that don't have any visible tomatoes yet, like Amish paste, they are growing wild. I also gave them all a "snack" of calcium nitrate, for the BER - not really near their ripening times, but that's a preventative started early, which usually works.