Tomatoes and Peppers

poblano peppers, an early crop under grow lights

black strawberry tomatoes. just a cool looking striped anthocyanin cherry tomato.

chinese five color peppers. small and hot 30k - 50k scoville. eventually they'll all turn red as they ripen, but while growing they transition through this range from white - purple - orange - red. must be one more color in there. yellow?

dwarf saucy mary, introduced by the dwarf tomato project in 2018. modern tomato as a rule always have cool names, and can look completely unlike any tomato you'll find in a produce department. these ones are ripe when green. and if you haven't tried growing dwarf tomatoes, what a treat. super compact and productive plants, we're trying them for the time this year. they need less support (or none?) and it's like you get just as many tomatoes. I added a new section for dwarfs to our seed shop.

sweet cherry peppers. these small peppers are a fun size and shape to snack on or use in a salad etc, and they have no heat so you can use them like bell pepper. like a cherry tomato but it's a pepper.

scotch bonnet, brain stinger, monkey face, brown jalapeno, sugar rush, lemon drop. the diversity of peppers is fun, these are from our indoor grow, a first isolated crop before moving the pepper plants outside for the summer, this year trying them in gallon pots.

sorting out isolation rows for tomatoes. this year it's one plant per cultivar, one hundred plants.

what a month in southern Manitoba, rain every day and here we got a light frost two nights this week - this thermometer is up high near the house, for sure in low areas it approached freezing. some small grapes and walnuts looked frost damaged, I just figured it was all the rain. in the city you would have been fine. Probably the rain added some protection, think my tomatoes are fine. Peppers were still inside, and they don't enjoy even 5C so another win for planting late.

tomatoes in isolation are both growing excellent this year, but also sparse on tomatoes. we had a few weeks of rain and high humidity, which affects pollination. this week has been try and hot, so hopefully an improvement. tomatoes will self pollinate so this setup to keep the bees away works, we don't get as much fruit but the ones that do set are true to type for our seed shop. it's also somewhat helpful for frost, and given this week maybe i'll find out if it will deter bears.

if you don't have a bluetooth thermometer with localized historical data, you just won't know the crazy peak the temperature can reach. it was a full 5C / 10F colder in my backyard (in southern Manitoba) than the weather app last night, we hit 3C in the middle of july, I think at that temp the pepper plants experience some cold stress. this is a thermometer hanging in a tree in a low part of our yard about 4 ft off the ground, and it's 150 ft from the house where it connects to the wifi through a small device that boosts the signal.

tomatoes growing inside these tents. when they fruit, since there are no pollinators in there despite just being a few ft apart they'll safely all be self pollinated and true to type.

tomatoes a little behind going in the ground but I like how they're doing in these pots. let's hope we can get 12 weeks without frost!

potting up peppers at 8 wks. I grow them in pots because our season is short and I let them fully ripen on the plant in the greenhouse. started mid april in these 6" pots under lights, outside for the last week and doesn't look root bound right? going into large 10-20 gallon pots, and I left a few seedlings in each. this whole row will get netted for isolation. We usually get frost in early september, but then the weather can be nice for another month, so all the pepper finish in the greenhouse into early oct.

surprised by the cool flower on this lichi tomato, a spikey solanum species.

my approach to isolation, to produce true to type tomato and pepper seeds. so far so good. anyone else ever try this?

garden huckleberries are new to me this year, so far they’re productive and the ripe fruit is good raw like a grassy tomato, both are in the Solanum genus.

isolating our tomato and pepper plants for seed. so far so good.

potting up peppers. going with 2-4 plants per large pot, it’s large enough for the plants to grow to full size and easy enough to bring into the greenhouse in September to let them finish ripening. We can get frost here in early june, and then again in early september so mobile peppers are the way to go. these are a couple dozen varieties that will be grown in isolation to save seed. and eat. #peppers

almost done planting. next up straw mulch, drip tape, hoops and isolation netting. this system of tunnel isolation with alternating tomato and pepper plants has been on my mind since last fall, a system for growing heirloom varieties for seed. and for tomato sandwiches.

garden peach tomatoes are actually fuzzy like a peach, tomatoes have so much variation it’s fun to be growing dozens of new heirlooms this year. if all goes well i’ll have seeds available in september

bagging heirloom tomato flowers to try and ensure their seeds are true to type. Tomato flowers self pollinate if you can keep the bees away. This seems to work well on a small scale, and the technique carries over to controlled crosses. Wondering if I should try some . #tomatoes #seedsaving

organza bags to keep peppers from cross pollinating. Does anyone have experience with this, should it be as good as distance separation? pollen is smaller than the holes, but for a self pollinating flower wind pollination should be almost zero, at least I’ve read it is for tomato. I have all pepper plants bagged and 5-10 ft separation, hoping it’s 99.9% for making true to type seed. #seedsaving

project tomato seeds - heirloom tomato bagged to ensure true to type seed. Tomatoes are self pollinating, but bees can sometimes cross them. This summer I’m growing 45 of the coolest heirloom tomatoes for #seedsaving

project peppers, just potted them up and I’m trying these large organza bags to keep the seeds true type. these little plants can’t hold back making peppers, I carefully removed every open flower before bagging. wondering how far apart to space them in case of wind cross pollination, or how unlikely that is with the bags.

godzilla tomato .. can’t wait to see how weird and lumpy they get #tomato

Pink accordion #heirloom #tomato these are a nice surprise, they’re kind of meaty inside which is great for a toasted tomato sandwich

Testing vinyl tree tag printer. First thing to get test labels will be all our heirloom tomatoes, i want to save seeds so labelling all the plants will help.

frost on June 1 is almost guaranteed in Manitoba, we had a few hours of -1C (30F). Planting my tomatoes after the weekend. Maybe just half to be safe. #frost

new notill beds for tomatoes and cucumbers. thinking about adding some post with a cable to hang stings from. I always underestimate the weight of a loaded vine. #notill #notillgardening

(35C = 95F) It’s been so hot this week, can’t believe frost got our tomatoes last weekend. Spring in Manitoba is like 35 with a risk of frost