23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
There is a guy named TravisE here who grew gigantic pumpkin that I think you should really have at look here at this address below:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg0600431112829.html
The guy is really awesome! You should ask him about it!
Well, with the shriveling fruits, I guess my bees just aren't getting to all of them. My plants are too crowded. So that doesn't surprise me. I was just afraid it was something new to worry about.
By losing blossoms, I guess I mean there are many, many blossoms that just bloom and then wilt and die. Also, it seems like I have an inordinate number of male blossoms in comparison to female blossoms. Maybe this is normal. I just love my squash, and I want more of it.
It could have been eaten by something like a squirl or racoon, try an all natural spray, either store bought or homeade. I fill a windex bottle with warm water, add a tbspn of hot sause, murphys soap and cayanne pepper, plray it on the fruit.
Well, based on my gardening experience for many many years, you're getting a perfectly normal crop. I don't know why the little short chubbies appear. My guess is it has something to do with pollination. But, they do appear regularly, and, as you say, they taste just as good as the pretty ones. I wouldn't worry over much about it.
My favorite way to deal with them is to pick them off and feed them to the chickens. I figure they are improving the omega-3 content of the eggs. This year I stopped counting after removing 6 dozen but I am sure there are still more out there. No way that I would let that many be. If things are quiet enough, you may be able to hear them munching.
Donna, we are in a different climate with different growing conditions than you, but I thought I'd throw this out for your consideration... we don't plant paste-type tomatoes but we do plant oxheart types - most notably German Red Strawberry and one just simply called Yellow Oxheart. These cook up beautifully; they are much larger tomatoes so it doesn't take as many to make a kettle full, great taste and very "meaty", not to mention prolific. You might try a plant next year to see how well it does in your climate.
Edie
Thank you all. I have done some occasional stalking over on the Harvest forum, and you bet those folks know their stuff. Maybe I worded my search wrong, but couldn't seem to find the info I was looking for. (maybe because most people have enough sense to figure it out for themselves...)
Thank you, Dave, for your words about Victorio. I bought it last year for dealing with blueberries, but it was an incredible help with my tomato harvest this year. It absolutely does leave the pulp. Last year (when I grew sauce tomatoes), I had lots and lots of sauce after I ran it through a wire strainer. I just didn't have enough sense to know what to do with it. This year, I did strain the first couple batches of tomatoes I ran through it, and the small amount of pulp that was in those beefsteaks made lovely sauce. Just not enough of it. What I especially liked was how quickly the pulp cooked down into sauce once it was strained out.
After using this amazing gadget this year, I don't think there's much of anything that anyone could say to make me fall out of love with it. It's a huge labor and time saver!
As a note, I discovered by accident, that if I filled the hopper with tomato pieces before I cranked them through and then emptied the bowl right into a hot pan, I had minimal separation of pulp and water in the jars.
Re: Determinate Sauce tomato. I grow my vegetables organically, and honestly don't even like to spray organic concoctions. Add to that the fact that the entire county here seems to have Early Blight in the soil, plus the fact that our incredibly hot mid summer heat puts a stop to tomato production anyway, and I have decided that it really doesn't matter whether I grow determinates or indeterminates. I am still only going to get the first crop. I will try Opalka as an experiment. Sounds intriguing. But I am very grateful for the extra mention of Italia. All three recs are on my list to try.
Well that explains it for me. Last year I had what was shaped like a spaghetti squash but had a pattern on the outside resembling a hubbard. i as both and some other varieties in the same squash patch. Thought i'd gotten a random mystery seed or simething. Didn't know I could get a mix from cross pollination. Tasted pretty good as I recall :)
Only the seeds are affected by cross-pollination, not the fruit in this season. You only see weird fruit if you save seeds that have crossed and plant them the following year.
So if you had a weirdo then it was from a random crossed seed.
Dave
I love to grow eggplants and I love more eating them. I lov them fat an plumb because I cut and fry it, boil it and add vinegar and lemon juice and diced red pepper. I pickle it too. My woman like the long skinny ones she peels the inside and stuff it with rice and ground beef. I plant the black beauty and few trees of whatsmacall it to produce the long skinny ones for stuffing. When this thing works it over produce and the trees grow huge I had to put stakes for support. Last season I had 25 huge trees and now I just ate some pickled ones from a jar.
Sicilian are big and plump, good for eggplant parm, grilled, fried plain, sauteed in pasta and roasted. If picked early enough the skin is usually tender, except when roasting. Asian are smaller, ideal for dicing up in pasta and other vegetable dishes, good on cabobs on grill, and sauteed in scrambled eggs or omlets since there smaller. Both could used interchangably though. Asianhave less seeds so better for people who cant digest too many seeds cause its less to take out. In the past I found I got a larger abundant of sicilian. Sicilan coukd be very seedy for people with
some digestive problems.
This post was edited by krissylovesplants79 on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 15:34