Progress Report for May

I have decided to post progress reports for the mid point and end of each month. I'm hoping this will help me keep track of what's working and what's not.

Tomatoes:
Stupice (55-60 days) - Stupice is growing in a pot on my patio. It's the first time I've tried to grow a full-size tomato in the pot. In previous years, cherry tomatoes have done well and kept going through the summer. The Stupice has a good number of nice-size babies. Unfortunately, it also is showing evidence of a foliar disease despite a "preventive" spray of Daconil and the fact that potato leaf tomatoes are supposed to be the most disease resistant. OK. I didn't finally decide that I would spray this year (I've stubbornly refused to since I started my garden here) until I saw the first disappointing signs of spots and yellowing. I've sprayed twice and I remove the damaged leaves when I see them. I wonder how long the plant can go on losing several leaves every week. In the photo, the yellow and brown is the disease. The white is the Daconil.

Sungold (57 days) - Sungold is a "gotta grow". I'm not sure why. Everybody else loves it so I grow it. It is a very nice cherry — which, I suppose, is a good enough reason. No excitement but usually abundant fruit all summer long. Sungold has blosoms. It's growing in the tomato enclosure and here is a pic of all the tomatoes growing there.

Black Cherry (65 days) - Black Cherry has the first buds. I've never grown this tomato before and I was excited to find it at Goto Nursery shortly after I discovered its existance. It's growing in the tomato enclosure where all the plants have been sprayed twice, are well mulched with straw and, so far, show no signs of disease.

Dona (65 days) - Dona is a well-loved favorite. I always have great results with it and it's one I always begin my garden with. Dona is growing in the enclosure. It presently has blossoms.

Black from Tula - YUM! My favorite tomato even if it (like other beefsteaks) usually has lower yield. I had hoped to grow 2 but one snapped off when I watered it with too high a spray. I tried to root the broken stem but without success. It's growing in the enclosure, has lots of healthy foliage and buds.

Carmello (70 days) - Another backbone choice like Dona. Carmello is growing well in the enclosure. It has blossoms.

Noire Charboneuse (80 days) - This is another tomato that's new to me. It's black. It's French (like Dona & Carmello). What more could I hope for? So far it's growing nicely in the enclosure and it has blossoms at this point.

Kellogg's Breakfast (80-85 days) - This is a delicious, meaty yellow. Yellows have a light, citrusy flavor and make a fun tomato sauce. So far Kellogg's Breakfast is doing very nicely (though I broke off a stem tying it up a couple days ago). It's in the enclosure and has blossoms. The broken stem has perked up and might supply me with a second plant if I can find a spot for it.

Marvel Stripe (90-110 days) - Marvel Stripe is planted in the enclosure. It's got a tremendous amount of really luxuriant foliage and it's already sporting blossoms. I've never grown MS before but it will be fun to have a bi-color. MS is reported to be a marbled affair of red and yellow-orange with a balance of sweet tart flavor. Sounds good, no?

Volunteer I - This one is growing midway across the back fence. It's hip-high at this point and has blossoms and a few babies. It isn't clear if it will turn out to be a cherry (as most of my volunteers are) or a full-size tomato. It's looking good but has some evidence of a foliar disease. It isn't mulched like the tomatoes in the enclosure but it has been sprayed twice. It may be time to put down some straw to see if isolating the foliage from the soil will help inhibit the progression of the disease.

Volunteer II & III - I rescued these two from the shade garden close to the house and the hard clay floor of the compost area (about 50 yards away). They appear to be the same mystery variety but they have clearly different foliage than Volunteer I which came up months earlier. Here is a pic of The Twins. They look tiny here but I started them in the very bottom of those pots so they've already grown 8" or 9" at this point. Since the photo, they've outgrown their gallon pots and I put them in the ground. I planted them deep so they've still only got a few top tiers of leaves on them. They're at the south end of the back fence. This area only gets limited sunlight but I wanted to save all the sunny areas for the plants I chose. These guys are survivors. I'm sure they'll do what they're going to do where they're planted.

That is more entry than I expected to write -- but I'm sure all this info will be useful to me when I assess the results of this year's garden and plan next years.

I'll report on the other types of plants tomorrow.