The Tomato Listener

Seedlings take 2: Tomatoes, peppers, zinnias etc.

In our little plot, we grow lots of tomatoes, from seed, mostly. Almost all for sauce. And some cherries for salads. We start the seeds indoors around April 5, move them to the porch May 1 and plant them Memorial Day. This year, we had a crop failure, and lost all our seedling tomatoes by April 26. I used old peat moss as the starter medium. They all pinched off at the soil level.
Despair lasted only a day though. I thought about it: The end result we want is 30-40 lbs of plum tomatoes by Sept. 30 or so. These we wash and grind up, skins, seeds and all, and freeze them. Starting over in late April will likely yield that result, I reasoned. Part of the reason I knew this was because the tomatoes themselves told me. I chose to listen to them instead of the foot-tall plants at Home Depot. All they were telling me was "you're too late, bro." Our volunteers, however were whispering, "it's OK, dude. It's not too late!"
Our volunteer tomatoes were trying to tell us something.

For the past 4 years, we've had a healthy crop of volunteer tomatoes, of which we let a half dozen have their heads. Some are Roma-like, some are cherry, some are medium-sized slicers. You never know. 

Lately, I had been thinking about tomato genetics because I read this: "Scientists Map the Tomato's Genome." We know Solanum lycopersicum has 35,000 genes on 12 chromosomes. Every tomato trait - flavor, germination date, size, days to harvest, membrane thickness, texture, color - is encoded on those chromosomes. I also know that hybrid tomatoes — which we like because of their disease resistance — revert to parents starting with the next generation. 

Having read "Botany of Desire," I knew that what looks like a dictatorship between us and plants — with us in the Kim Jong-Il role — is actually much more symbiotic.  I also learned from my adventures in Winter Sowing that a plant's genes are way smarter than I am about plant culture. Trudi Davidoff figured this out a few years ago in an amazing insight into gardening, and has built an open-source movement around winter sowing. Not saying tomatoes are good winter sowing candidates, because they aren't. But the takeaway is that plants know best. That's what Michael Pollan and Trudi Davidoff are saying.  
Over the past 4 years we've grown these tomatoes: Black Cherry, Sungold, San Marzano, Super San Marzano, San Marzano 168 F1, San Marzano 15 F1, Sweet Aroma, Nepal, Cosatluto Fiorentino, Bellestar, Brandywine, Sweet 100, Roma VFN F1, EarlyGirl, Celebrity, Ace 55.  Pretty good mix. So our volunteers are the offspring of those varieties. Since the parents of the F1 hybrids are trade secrets, we'll never know for sure the provenance of these volunteers.
I DO know that the Roma-shaped volunteers have been stellar. And I also know that any volunteers make their appearance around Memorial Day — or at least that's when I notice them with their 1st or 2nd set of true leaves. I also know, thanks to Teh Google, that tomato fruiting is highly dependent on nighttime temperatures. The ideal range is 59-68F. And around here, the average minimum daily temperature for May is 52F. So while I lost 3 weeks of top growth, nothing much had been lost as far as fruiting.
What those little plants are telling me is that their genes have encoded for these conditions: mid-to-late spring germination, and harvest ready by Sept. 30 at the latest. In other words, generally speaking, the natural course for tomatoes at 42.43 N, 70.91 W, is to sprout in May and be done by early October. So starting over April 27 or so became no big deal.
And so far so good. Our second seedling crop is about at the same stage as our volunteers: sprouting their second set of true leaves They're hardened off. And with an average days to maturity of about 70, we should be OK by end of July. Assuming the weather cooperates. And the blight stays away. And we find the tomato hornworms in time.

April 27 - A Day I Remember

My father died April 27, 1992, 17 years ago today, about 5 weeks after turning 70. He died in his sleep, taking a nap in the house I was raised in, and now own with my wife, Roze. This is to remember him, and to thanks him for the ability I seem to have inherited to not sweat the small stuff. He was an artist at heart, a great friend, child of his era, orphan, uncle, husband and father. From him I got the gift of music, my love for gardening and nature, and my ability to be the diplomat. So I'll take a few minutes today as I walk among the just-sprouting plants, seedlings and newly-planted veggies to remember my dad, Jim Malone Sr., "Knuckles" to his loved ones.

Mexican Sunflowers

They're here!

Good Fences

When I lived in Sacramento, I was directed to an article by the New Yorker's Calvin Trillin, in which he discussed the ubiquitous fences that squared off every home site into mini townships and ranges. Being a New Englander, I was well aware of the value of fences in terms of neighborliness, having of course read "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost, and its aphoristic line, "Good fences make good neighbors."

My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.

Well, we now have a few fences defining 8 Tudor Road. The latest is a cool little farm fence designed by Roze and crafted by Luke, our 18-year-old aspiring photographer. It really is a triumph of recycling and hard work. Luke took the knotty pine paneling that once graced the Den (which exists no more per se) and ripped the panels down to 3" wide. He - along with girlfriend Emma and friend Jack -- then sanded and stained the boards to make stringers. The posts were made from a bunk bed used by daughters Kate and Sara 20 years ago. Thank God we moved that thing around 6 or 7 times!

This new fence stands 2 feet high, high enough to accomplish its main goal - keep Perdie out of the new flower beds.

The second-newest fence is a little deal Roze picked up at the local Made-In-China outlet. 1-foot high pickets keep Ms. Perdie out of the campanulas and nasturtiums.

The third-newest fence is the cedar pickets than now enclose the yard.

It joins a cedar plank fence the neighbors put up on the east side last year,

and a stockade fence that's marked the back end of the property for more than 15 years now.

Seems like a whole lotta fences goin on. So we must be very good neighbors, by Mr. Frost's neighbor's reckoning. I've come to like them. The define and contextualize space. Especially for the dog.

And they can be quite beautiful, in the proper context.

First of July

This really is my favorite time of year. Despite the fact that days are actually getting shorter, one would hardly notice. The sun sets after 8 p.m. It's 80 degrees and humid. The band will play three gigs over the holiday, including our 4th year at the Street Festival for Marblehead Arts. Just fun!

The garden is cranking along. We're going to move the peppers and eggplant. Raspberries are coming on. Strawberries are about done. We have fresh beans fro tonight. Friends Eddie and Lynnette are coming by with their Golden, Lana. We're dog-sitting in a week or so, and this is a way for Lana and Perdie to get acquainted on Perdie's turf. She looks ready, no?

Test for Pic

Is this thing on? You should see some columbines from last month.

Laggards

Here are some problem children:
Peppers and eggplants - Just sitting there. Including some we bought as plants. Could be the soil in a certain part of the garden. It's basically an old driveway. And in Nahant, the driveways in a home this old were almost always composed of crushed clamshell. Add to that some coke - the residue of the old coal furnace - and some shale and it can be a mess. We amended it with compost and garden soil, but I suspect it's the culprit. We shall amend again.

Mexican sunflowers - We always take the package, catalog and garden book information with a grain of salt. Oftentimes experience trumps the printed word as far as culture and care go. Still when the seed package for the Tithonia "Torch" said "quick summer hedge," I was expecting more than 7" of plant by the end of June. They're healthy as heck, and in full sun about 6 hours a day. Everything around them is thriving.

Bulbs - We bought dozens of montbretia and freesias and threw them in in April. And of the 30 or so a total of 3 have come up. Could I have actually planted them upside down, a rookie mistake? We like to think not!

Rain and flowers

June 23, and we're getting our first rain in over a week. We've accomplished a lot. Which isn't surprising, given our obsession. We threw in the final 8-foot section of fence right on the street, protecting the morning glories and liatris. Funny, when the fence comes last, how the space is suddenly defined. Now we have a little corner planting of Liatris, kniphofia, cannas, Maximillian sunflowers morning glories and annual sunflowers.

We also just finished a run of 8 gigs in 8 days, including two with two gigs per day. Starting with a wedding at Tuscanino, the B&B run by our friends Greg and Martha, we next played the Landing that night, Kendall Square with Mikey D., open mic at the Landing, a jazz trio with Robb at the The Dolphin Yacht Club , a fund-raiser for our Irish Step Dancing friends, back at the Landing, then a wedding Sunday. Wait is that 8 or 9? Anyway, throw in 2 rehearsals for a wedding June 28 (with a 40-song custom playlist, about half of which is Latin music!) and we've been busy.

Still, we managed to spend a fair amount of time in the garden, and here's what's happening.

* First sunflower, a strawberry blonde, has bloomed at about 4.5 feet.
* The Prince Sikorsky clematis on the garage popped on Tuesday (6/16) and is now covered, and tops the garage roof.
* The Dan & Pat clematis bloomed today, about 8 days behind the garage one. There exists at the garage and intense micro-climate that spans probably about 8 feet of the side of the garage. It gets about 4 hours of sun, and the dark color of the wall intensifies it. This is where the gaura, normally dicey in our zone, has made it. The heat is exacerbated by a window that reflects and amplifies the intensity of both the light and heat. So Roze tossed in some 15" high Marguerites that are thriving in half-day sun.
* Morning glories in half-day threw a deep royal purple blossom at the arbor.
* The little yellow ground cover from Jerry and Susan opened with lemony cup-shaped flowers in the rock garden.
* First zinnia, a cut n come again from River's Edge in Framingham, has shown its orange-itude by the Northwest fence.
* Green beans, chard, spinach, Romaine and peas all doing well, though we think we will start the spinach, peas and lettuce earlier next year.
* Strawberries! From one All-Star last year to dozens of plants. We've taken at least a gallon of berries, and that's only counting the ones that made it into the house. Neighborhood kids Elijah, Matthew and Ryan ate about a quart in 5 minutes Saturday.
* Zucchini and tomatoes are on or ahead of schedule. (Romas, Celebrity, Early Girls, Bush goliath and a couple of volunteers.) Brussels sprouts are about to take off amid the zucchini. Cukes are gaining momentum too, as are the sweet potatoes (!).

Finally, spotted our first monarch butterfly, so maybe they're on their way!