Hello from hot and humid Houston

[heycmo]

Hi everyone, I am in my third year of growing tomatoes in southwest Houston, TX (9b). I also graft and grow figs and - new this year - persimmons and mulberries. I post on OurFigs and Growing Fruit under the same name. I am a very small scale grower - I have maybe 10ft of container row space to devote to tomatoes, peppers, and herbs - but I've been absorbing a lot of wisdom from here via Google (as well as the other place before it seemingly went poof - thanks to Google I am generally aware of the history) and thought I would say hi.

Last year I grew dwarfs in 5G SIPs - Fred's Tie Dye (excellent), Mint Streak (split horribly, flavor not exciting) and Eagle Smiley (so good I grew it again in the fall). This year I switched to Earthboxes and am growing Velvet Night (love it), Jaune Flamme (I grafted to Celebrity Plus as an experiment, but the graft broke and the stem started rotting out - between its short life and the squirrels I only got about 5 fruit, but they were good and my 5yo loved the orange color), and a mystery striped tomato which is obviously the result of a mix-up. It could be WB Janet's Jewel, of which I started a few and culled, or it could be an incorrect seed that was in the Jaune Flamme packet, which is what I was expecting it to be. I'm also growing Fred's Tie Dye in a pot, but it has been hit hard by what I think are russet mites. I've also had spider mite issues on the Earthbox plants. Spinosad, soap, and water seems to be knocking them back for now. Previously I have only had issues with caterpillars and maybe late blight, so I was slow to identify what was going on.

Would love to hear what people would grow here if they could only grow a few plants. Next spring I think I am going to try 4 single-stem plants in my Earthbox - Big Beef+ as a safety, a couple more "special" hyrbids or OP varieties - Genuwine, Prudens Purple, Black Krim, and Cherokee Carbon sound interesting and reports from growers here are encouraging - and maybe Japanese Black Trifele or Jaune Flamme again for a saladette.

[karstopography]

Howdy from Brazoria county just south of Houston.

I grow my tomatoes (this year twelve plants) for the most part in 12” or 14” deep raised beds, half my garden is in the ground and the other half raised beds. Pruden’s Purple is an excellent choice. Checks about every good box I can think of for a tomato. Black Krim is essentially the same for box checking. Black Krim was my most productive tomato two seasons ago and Pruden’s Purple was my second most productive tomato last season. I keep production logs each season. Both tomatoes are super delicious. I’m growing two Pruden’s Purple tomato plants this season. I like this tomato especially since it is, for such a large and delicious tomato, consistently early.

The only other tomato I have any real experience growing on your list is Japanese Black Trifele. It’s another great choice. It was or is in my estimation tops for salsa. Has a Worcestershire sauce flavor note.

Good luck and glad to see another “local” gardener here.

[PlainJane]

For a workhorse small tomato I like Hoosier Outlaw Black Cherry.
For sheer beauty, Maglia Rosa.
Fav slicers are Noir Charbonneuse, Vorlon, Daniel Burson, GGWT.

I’m I N. Florida, pretty similar to Texas growing conditions.

[Whwoz]

Welcome to the Junction from Down Under @heycmo , from someone who will probably quiz you on propagating figs soon

[worth1]

Welcome from Central Texas.

[Wildcat82]

Great to have another Texan on board. Lot of good people here to keep you company.

[heycmo]

Howdy from Brazoria county just south of Houston.

Thanks for the feedback - your posts may very well have been among those that led me to choose those varieties. JBT sounds like a definite choice, then - Dwarf Velvet Night has a nice umami note as well and I really like that. Just wish it wasn't such a gangly bush for a dwarf, although that might be because the mites kept causing it to need to grow new foliage.

For a workhorse small tomato I like Hoosier Outlaw Black Cherry.
For sheer beauty, Maglia Rosa.

I am going to grow 1 or 2 cherries in the fall. Maglia Rosa was already on my shopping list but I'll look for the Hoosier!

Welcome to the Junction from Down Under @heycmo , from someone who will probably quiz you on propagating figs soon

Happy to nerd out when you're ready. Most figs are super easy to root from cuttings. Varieties are a rabbit hole that goes almost as deep as tomatoes and are driven by many of the same factors (rainfall, humidity, length of season, cold tolerance). They are thankfully much less disease prone than tomatoes and suffer less bug pressure unless invasive pests are present (so, California). Everything with fur or feathers will rob you blind, though.

There are a few varieties where grafting to a rootstock seems to be more successful (although I've never heard of a fig being impossible to root, like stone fruits or persimmons). I'm pretty much maxed out (in terms of space and spousal patience) with two large potted trees, so this year I have narrowed it one "favorite" (currently Harry's Crete) and the rest are getting multi-grafted onto the second tree.

[pepperhead212]

Welcome to the forum!

[SpookyShoe]

Welcome fellow Houstonian. I live in the Clear Lake area, a stone's throw from the Johnson Space Center.

[rxkeith]

welcome from da U.P.
we could use some heat up here. snow showers today.
sure can't help with growing down your way. i will second
maglia rosa though for productivity, looks, and taste.

i would like any advice on how i can get my container grown chicago fig
to start producing actual figs. the plant bought as a twig with a few leaves
at a local green house is about eight years old. every year it get a little bigger
but so far no fruit. growing up in detroit, my great uncle steve grew figs, and
showed me how to bury them prior to winter. here where i'm at now is not fig
country, not by a long shot. so, i keep the plant in the unheated basement during
the winter, and haul it back out in mid may. growing them down state, figs started
producing about the third year or so.
what to do?


keith

[heycmo]

I would settle for something in the middle. I took my son out for a bike ride around noon and every time we broke out of the shade it was like cycling in a steam oven set to broil. March and April were great but now it's just misery until sometime between mid-October and Thanksgiving.

How big is the pot and how long has it been in that pot? Figs fruit on the current year's new growth, so if it's not growing it's not going to fruit. A root pruning, up-potting, and structural/rejuvenation pruning may be in order. This video showing the process is pretty good (minor quibble at 2:00, don't cut at an angle, that is a myth and makes a bigger wound):

Another good video on training after a hard prune:

Lots of people do the "fig shuffle" every winter, nothing wrong with that.

[MissS]

Hello and welcome to the Junction!

[TX-TomatoBug]

Welcome, @heycmo, to the Junction from another Texan. Just northeast of Austin. Yes, hot and humid and mosquitos. I am also in 3rd year of growing container tomatoes on my patio. This is the first year for growing all from seed - heirlooms, a couple hybrids, and some dwarfs. The dwarfs are Eagle Smiley, Sweet Sue, Maralinga and New Big Dwarf. Glad to hear a good report on Eagle Smiley; I'm waiting for my first one to get good and ripe before tasting.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Welcome from America's Dairyland. I was based out of Houston February to June 1976 and part of Spring Summer 1977.

I covered much of the Lone Star State, and have been from Texarkana to Nacodoches to Sulphur Springs to Amarillo to San Angelo to Pecos to El Paso to Eagle Pass to Laredo to Brownsville to Freer to Corpus to Victoria to Pasadena to Orange (and New Braunfels & Paris) and a whole lot of other towns in between.

The Gotch

[rxkeith]

hey thanks a bunch for posting those you tube links on the figs.
i am basically doing several things wrong. i have a multi stem tree
that i can probably separate into three trees as two branches are coming up from below
the soil line. i need to do a whackado on the tree to get it down to a single leader,
and the same on the root ball. the tree is in at least a 10 gallon pot, and has been in
the same pot for several years now. it is most likely root bound.in the fall, i will perform
surgery on the tree. in the mean time i will try a couple different methods of rooting cuttings.
first try is rooting in water. i will try a few more in a tented pot. figs are one of those things
that i really miss from my younger days.


keith

[Shule]

@heycmo
Welcome to TomatoJunction! I'm excited to hear about your mulberries. What species and breed are they?