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Growing Tomatoes

My heirloom pics/info so far

16 years ago

Below are some pics of my tomato garden...planted around May 1 here in southern Indiana. Seem to be doing fine except our area is very blight-prone...so it seems like I'm constantly trimming off bottom leaves of some varieties even with black plastic and mulch. Of the 20 varieties, Earl's Faux, Eva Purple Ball, and Mountaineer Mystery have been the worst for blight. The lower third of these plants have already been trimmed almost completely off. Brandywine Red has shown moderate bacterial spec.

On the other hand, Cherokee Purp, Green Giant, Black Cherry, Noire des Cosebeuf, Black/Red Boar, Black from Tula, and Large Pink Bulgarian have been resilient with absolutely no signs of foliage problems. Marianna's Peace is an honorable mention, as I've only had to trim two or three leaves off of two plants due to blight. All others have shown a little (but very manageable) signs of foliage issues.

Here's some pics...as you can see I use black plastic and a version of "Earl's hole method" although a little different soil mixture. I work full time and the garden is at Dad's (no room at my place), so the plastic controls weeds due to a lack of time for tilling/weeding. If the plants look a little white in spots, it's the Daconil!

Garden

Large Pink Bulgarian - PL (my best looking plant!)

Brandywine Red (Landis Valley) - largest green tom in the garden despite leaf spec

Noire des Cosebeuf (note the many, many blossoms...especially in the upper-third of the plant...hope these taste good

Noire des Cosebeuf...again with greenies

Black/Red Boar - 1st time growing, and didn't realize it seems determinate...

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Comments (10)

sunsi
16 years ago
You lucky so & so your garden looks fantastic! I love a neat & organized garden and yours certainly is.

I'm not familiar with, "Earl's hole method" but will do a search here at the forums to read up. Whatever it is it sure produces hearty looking plants.
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yummykaz
16 years ago
Those Noire look amazing!
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The wood is just decoration and doesn't stop the grass. I respectfully disagree, based on many years of experience in different states, with different grasses. When I lived in OH, I had "nice" grass, non-rhizomatous, mostly, like it looks like bgaviator has. Bricks or timbers laying on the ground will stop about 95% of the grass permanently, especially when the bed is well mulched such as this. Wherever there's a low spot, or seam between pieces, the grass may creep under/through. Easy to fix in a few minutes about every-other month. As the timber settles, it will sink a bit and then it's even less of a problem, something to check maybe once in the spring, once in the fall. Even here, with a yard of St. Augustine or Bermuda or whatever type of vine-grass this is in my yard in AL, with Bahia invading that, something like this timber is enough of a barrier to easily achieve control. Agree it's not a type of border that is completely certain, but certainly worth doing, especially compared to the effort and expense required for a completely reliable border. I prefer this type of border because it's easy to pick up the timber and definitely remove any invading grass by the roots. I spend very little time on out-of-bounds grass. Often grass is let to make seeds before it's mowed, then not enough care is taken to direct the outflow away from the bed, or it drops in the bed before mowing. When the seeds sprout, the border gets blamed for not doing its' job.
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well, that didn't work huh? lol
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Great pictures! Your yellow iris look like some I have. Mine are heirloom iris. The came from my ancestors home in Flatonia, TX. They seem to have weak stems. Do yours? So far no one has found a name. I like the look of cilantro and also let it go to seed. The same with the feverfew. Kathy
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Beautiful Maryliz I am sure she will love it. I do!!!! I love the scrappy look and you have all of the material coordinated so it gives it a planned scrappy look. Rosa
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ediej1209 AL Zn 7
16 years ago
Great job! Make sure you get some more pics when some of those lovely greenies ripen (before you start chomping on them!)
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hortist
16 years ago
Looks like youre gonna need some larger stakes!
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texanjana
16 years ago
Wow! You're going to have lots of tomatoes! What a beautiful garden. Wish I had that much space.
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HoosierCheroKee
16 years ago
That Large Pink Bulgarian is a very good looking plant.

What county are you growing in? We don't seem to have those foliar problems over here in Vanderburgh County ... at least I haven't encountered them yet. Oh, an occasional wilt or spot, but not wholesale to where I had to use fungicides. Is your county a tobacco growing county like Spencer, Dubois, Orange, Floyd, etc.?

Bill
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blanesgarden
16 years ago
well done hoosier, well done! I was raised in Knox county and now live in the south, and Maters are waaayyyyy better than mine.....tell Mom I said "hey" Good Gardenen to Ya!
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HoosierCheroKee
16 years ago
Well howdy back at you, Blane. I was raised in Washington County, Mississippi (Leland), but have lived here in Indiana for the past 34 (married) years.

Melons, especially "Posey County" muskmelons, are WAAAAAAY better when grown in Knox County bottom land ... best muskmelons in the whole darn world!

Tell them Mississippi coonasses (that means Cajuns folks ... don't get bent outta shape) hello from me.

Bill
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blanesgarden
16 years ago
Well shut my mouth yankee? Learn sumptin new everyday huh?
me and you might just have a little catchin up to do.

But I would like to know what county Gardenboy85 is from also..? Go Colts!
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dstucki85
Original Author
16 years ago
Hey hoosiercherokee - I too am a vanderburgh co resident! I forgot to mention that our garden was used for years with not-so-good techniques including leaving/tilling diseased tom growth back into the soil and no crop rotation...that coupled with our ohio-valley humidity = blight/fungus heaven. But I'm happy to hear someone else from the area doesn't have these problems! For me though (at least until I find another spot), I'll just stick to the varieties that prove resistant...plenty of them out there with great taste like I mentioned above ie. cherokee purple!
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