2015 SFG in Brooks, Ga

How did I miss your garlic, Yolos...?  Good heavens, that's a bunch!    

Tomatoes looks great.  I've got a Juliette on the plant, but still very green...

Wow yolos, I haven't visited this thread in some time and it was a real treat to see all your pictures. It looks like you have one heck of a knack for gardening! Grats on your garlic, and those tomatoes make me very jealous. Way too early for tomatoes yet, around where I live.

Not sure why you pulled the tomatoes before spraying with BT. It's a bacteria that's harmless to people.

Oh ... and you sure do love peas!

Love how clean and organized your garden looks. Somehow I find gardening much more of a pleasure when a garden is neatly kept.

Very nice tomatoes yolos!  I planted far later than you, so I only have some small green babies.  Already need the BT huh?  I better get mine ready to go!

Marc Iverson wrote:Not sure why you pulled the tomatoes before spraying with BT.  It's a bacteria that's harmless to people.

I mainly pulled them because they were cracking due to torrential rains on and off the last few weeks.  It helps to harvest them just after they blush if you are having cracking problems.  Also, tomorrow I will be spraying with Copper Fungicide to try to stop the spread of early blight.  I just hate to think of any kind of spray on the tomatoes also.  I don't even spray anything on my grape tomatoes so I can just pluck them off the vine and eat as I walk around the garden.

Garden Update 06/10/15

Cool Season Crops - Peas finished producing and vines were cut down on 6/1 and added to the compost pile.  Bok Choy bolted before producing any harvest.  Winterbor Kale already bolted also.  Lettuce was a great success but have all bolted now and added to the compost pile.  Garlic was a great success also and has all been harvested.  Onions are about baseball size and ready to be harvested.  We have harvested a few potatoes but now the tops are dying back and we will probably harvest the rest this weekend.

Warm Season Crops - Tomatoes are now producing nicely.  Have had to start clipping diseased leaves on some varieties and spraying fungicide.  Worms are attacking them and I have been spraying with BT but they are still drilling into the ripening fruit.  Picked my first cucumber and first zucchini today.  I planted 16 squares of corn every 2 weeks and now have 48 squares of corn growing. Rattlesnake Beans are growing nicely and I harvested about 3 lbs today from 4 squares.  They will continue producing for quite some time.  I planted 4 squares every 2 weeks and now have 16 squares. 

Here is a picture of my first harvest of Rattlesnake Beans (3 lbs).


Here is a picture of a Brandy Boy Hybrid we sliced for dinner tonight.  The taste was exceptional.  If you like Brandy Wine, this comes close to that taste but is much more prolific.

yolos wrote:...If you like Brandy Wine, this comes close to that taste but is much more prolific...

Brandywines are what we think a good slicer should taste like. I'll give it a try next year.

Oh, that tomato looks wonderful...

Harvested a few things for dinner tonight.  Potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, Texas onions, bell pepper and patio eggplant.

Never heard of patio eggplant. Seems like a cool idea though; eggplant is much better eaten the first day than as leftovers.

Who sells the seeds? Can you tell me anything about them or where to find them?

Marc Iverson wrote:Never heard of patio eggplant.  Seems like a cool idea though; eggplant is much better eaten the first day than as leftovers.

Who sells the seeds?  Can you tell me anything about them or where to find them?

Here is a copy of the package.  We had them for the first time last night.  Unfortunately the person responsible for cooking them dumped a pound of butter in the sauce pan and sautéed them to mush so I can't recommend the taste yet.  But they were significantly early producers compared to my other eggplant.  They are fairly small but as the package says, you don't need to peel the skin.



Patio Baby Hybrid – (Totally Tomatoes) – Hybrid – Days to Harvest – 45

This plant is so cute, pretty and petite that it can be used as an ornamental edible in garden beds and containers. It grows less than 24 inches tall, yet produces a prolific number of 2 to 3 inch egg-shaped, glossy, purple-black fruits. Flavor is always a top priority in AAS judging, and judges agreed that the taste was excellent, mild and less bitter than comparison varieties. Try them roasted or in dips and salads. Yum! Thornless leaves and calyxes allow for painless harvesting and makes Patio Baby child-friendly, too. Plants will continue to produce fruit throughout the entire season. First pickings in northern areas were up to a week earlier than other varieties, just 45 days from transplanting.

45 days?  Nice...!  And they're so small, they could easily be used as a side dish.

Hmmmmm................................

AtlantaMarie wrote:45 days?  Nice...!  And they're so small, they could easily be used as a side dish.

Hmmmmm................................

I just came back from the garden.  In a 2' x 2' bed, I planted 2 Black Beauty eggplants and 2 Patio Hybrids.  Started from seed at the same time and planted in the garden at the same time.  On the two Patio Hybrids, I counted 22 eggplant fruits.  On the two Black Beauty eggplants, there was only 1 eggplant fruit.

Yolos, Can you post that info under an eggplant topic so I doesn't get buried? Sounds like a neat little plant.

Thanks yolos. Too late to plant around here this year,, but that looks like a pretty neat crop to consider trying in the future.

Around here, black beauties kind of run the gamut when it comes to productivity. Usually we get a few, but sometimes only the first one is really big.

Tomato Taste Test today on 06/19/15

I finally harvested 5 of my 6 varieties at the same time so we could do a taste test to see what we wanted to plant next year.  The Brandy wine are still not ripe.


And the winner is - Brandy Boy, then Gilbertie, then Goliath, and last is Mountain Merit.  (with a few of the small Persian Cucs to round out the taste.


And my best helper my Grandson tasting the fruits of his labor.

Oh I love to see success pictures!  What beautiful produce.  Doesn't it just figure that the Mountain Merit would be your least favorite?  Well, is it still worth planting again despite the flavor?  Does the disease resistance make up for it?

Windmere wrote:Oh I love to see success pictures!  What beautiful produce.  Doesn't it just figure that the Mountain Merit would be your least favorite?  Well, is it still worth planting again despite the flavor?  Does the disease resistance make up for it?

I will have to wait and see.  I only had one ripe one to do the taste test and it was not as fully ripe as I like.  So we shall continue testing.  Also I will wait till the end of the season to see what happens with any disease and the number of fruit I get from the plant.  But right now I would say, no it is not worth planting again.  I think next year I will substitute Big Beef.  I have heard good things about it.

Yummy looking taste test. What did the dinosaur (?) like the best?

Today's Harvest 7/5/15

Eggplants
Bell Peppers - red, yellow, green
Rattlesnake Beans
Cucumbers
Grape Tomatoes (Juliet)
Slicing Tomatoes

Looks wonderful, yolos.

Woo-Hoo!  Looks GREAT, Yolos!  Congratulations!

Guess what I will be doing today ?


Windmere - do you need any tomatoes.  I could drop them off on my way home or to work on Tuesday??  But maybe you already have enough from your harvest.

Holy cow what a spread! And so many ripe at once!