Tomatoes and Peppers: Summer Field Notes

poblano peppers, an early crop under grow lights

black strawberry tomatoes

just a cool looking striped anthocyanin...

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...

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...

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...

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...

sorting out isolation rows for tomatoes

this year it's one plant per cultivar, one...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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?...

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...

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

isolating our tomato and pepper plants for seed

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

godzilla tomato

can’t wait to see how weird and lumpy...

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

Testing vinyl tree tag printer

First thing to get test labels will be all our heirloom tomatoes, i want to save seeds so...

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...

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...

(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...