Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 313 Entries. Friday, January 5 View Page Finally got a little time to start working on tomato stuff. Work went crazy this year for the Hollidays. Usually construction slows way down. But this year it's insane. Now I'm way behind with my asking growers for tomato seeds for our club auction, and updating the tomato genetics tree with this years tomatoes. That crazy brown seed is going to make me have to rearrange the whole chart to make all the tomatoes grown from it fit.   Friday, January 5 View Page Poor Big Zac tree. This is the last tomato to make it into the 7+lb and only one from 2021. None in 2022 or 2023. Kicking around the idea of doing a "Bring back Big Zac" lot for our club auction. If there are no Big Zac next year I will probably chop that side of the genetics tree off archive it and save room for the ever expanding Domingo tree. I'm a sucker for an underdog so I'm rooting for ya BigZac.   Saturday, January 6 View Page Look at all the baby flowers on the overwinter clone of the 9.65.   Saturday, January 6 View Page Might be one or two megas. Plant seems to love it in the southern window with the sun at such a low angle this time of year.   Saturday, January 13 View Page It's -11° outside but the 9.65 is starting to flower inside.   Saturday, January 13 View Page It's -11° outside but the 9.65 is starting to flower inside.   Thursday, January 25 View Page Working on the RMGVG auction list. This is a sneak peak at my "bring back Big Zac" lot. A lot of good and interesting Zac maters.   Thursday, January 25 View Page Also doing a megadom and megazac (bring back Big Zac pt2)   Thursday, February 1 View Page Google's A.I. called "Bard" just introduced drawing images. Figured I'd give it a go "Farmer holding a giant tomato" pretty good.   Thursday, February 1 View Page They seem to have made it a point to make the thing very inclusive. Not every photo is of a white male lol. It did a great job on the tomato I added the line "more realistic" for this one.   Thursday, February 1 View Page It seems to be better at creating logos than the other image generators i've tried.   Thursday, February 1 View Page hit and miss I guess ha ha ha.   Thursday, February 1 View Page A.I. is just amazing honestly. You might have to try several times but you can just talk to it like a normal person and it will adjust the image how you want it.   Saturday, March 2 View Page So you get busy and don't watch your plants and they quit growing......hummmmm   Saturday, March 2 View Page So what is going on with my overwintering 9.65. it is the bacterial wilt from last year??? Oh wait what is under the leaf?!?!?. UGH.white flies......for frick sake..... seriously. Hello Amazon one case of Neem oil please.....   Monday, May 6 View Page A few weeks ago I selected my seeds. Too much work and such. Could someone slow down my life please and thank you.   Monday, May 6 View Page Going to stage the plantings this year. First batch.   Monday, May 6 View Page Just an update the 9.65 overwintering didn't make it. The white flies were too much and for some reason the roots never really took off.   Thursday, May 9 View Page Butternut 103 jarosh   Thursday, May 9 View Page Butternut 103 jarosh   Sunday, May 12 View Page And the first tomato up is the......(Drum roll).....9.06 Brown Why does this not surprise me.   Sunday, May 12 View Page Second tomato up......do you do a drum roll for the second tomato or only the first...hummm. anywho.....7.94 LaRue Again not a surprise. Those two seeds are beasts and have both are in a very select club having grown a 10+ lb tomato.   Tuesday, May 21 View Page Had problems with seeds sprouting again this year :(. I used a different starter dirt. Went from miracle gro to black gold but it didn't seem to make a difference. Silly tomatoes.....sigh.   Saturday, June 8 View Page Finally finally FINALLY..... Found some free time to post and get things ready. (Stupid work.....I think maybe I take my job too seriously) Anywho..... Look what I got....a Megabloom. Sadly is on one of our eating maters (Cherokee purple) ha ha ha. I hope the competition tomatoes take note. I started the tomatoes a bit later than the last few years to see how that goes.   Saturday, June 8 View Page And of course we haven't had rain in a couple weeks until I go out to start the new patch. The way I work in the garden must look like a rain dance to the gods.....I guess at least it's not too hot.   Saturday, June 8 View Page Out with the old in with the new.   Saturday, June 8 View Page The 100+ year old rhubarb plant I rescued from Wyoming is doing gang busters this year.   Saturday, June 8 View Page Now it's starting to look like something. At least it stopped raining.....kinna   Saturday, June 8 View Page I was missing the secret sand last year. I'm sure that was my downfall. Not this year. I have plenty this year. I got this sand two years ago (my first year growing) I needed it for the nasty hard clay here plus I knew that it has special properties. It couldn't be used for construction sand because it deteriorated. This is because it has lots of calcite, gypsum and other soluble minerals. I figured it might be good for my patch. Then this winter I was doing research on humic and fulvic acid. Come to find out it is derived from lignite coal veins. Well it just so happens that the creek (sand draw) cuts several coal veins. So this sand should have some ancient organics from this also. We will see.   Sunday, June 9 View Page This is the new patch after spending several hours beating the weeds knee high+ into submission.   Sunday, June 9 View Page Another day of work on the raised box. Layer of sand then a layer of half decomposed leaves.   Sunday, June 9 View Page Minecraft dirt blocks IRL. If you know know ask your kids or any gamer. They will laugh. :)   Sunday, June 9 View Page Getting there.....   Sunday, June 9 View Page Phew.... Done. Oh look at that. Like a blank canvas waiting for an artist. Ok state record tomato you will grow here. Still got a bit of work to get the watering system rearranged for this new box.   Monday, June 10 View Page TaDa! Plants in the new box. (Hopefully bacteria free this year). Around a week later that I wanted but it will be fine. It will be interesting to see how the plants grow with a later start. 9.06 Brown health plant.   Tuesday, June 11 View Page 7.94 LaRue. This seed was great last year for me before that which must not be named happened.   Thursday, June 13 View Page Got the watering system set up. In a few days the other tomatoes should be ready for the bed. I really wish work would slow down a bit. It's hard to do everything I want to do with it being so crazy.   Tuesday, July 16 View Page Too much work. Ugh :( and to add insult to injury I'm wiring someone else's green house here at work. *Cry   Tuesday, July 16 View Page I did get a 2 week vacation tho and came back to the mater plants kinna tipped over. Had to tie them up and stuff. This is the 9.06 Brown going to town.   Tuesday, July 16 View Page 7.94 LaRue with blooms. Nothing big yet, fingers crossed.   Tuesday, July 16 View Page 7.06 Jolivette. I had to restart it because I had 2 seeds that didn't sprout. That is why it is a bit behind. It has what looks to be a fantastic mega on it. We will see what the flowers does as it grows   Tuesday, July 16 View Page Mega 7.06   Tuesday, July 16 View Page 7.06 Jolivette mega just starting to grow bigger. It is the only flower on the flower truss. Good sign so far.   Tuesday, July 16 View Page The 7.06 plant. Don't know what I did but the photo didn't post   Thursday, July 18 View Page Finally got a bit of time to take care of the matter plants. 3.62 Harnica. You will see a theme here this year. Plants directly off the lambchop seed. This is the only plant in the bunch without a Megabloom. Infact it is lacking in flowers all around. Time will tell.   Thursday, July 18 View Page 7.06 Jolivette it is not directly off the lambchop seed but from the 5.32 Howell/Jolivette. The same seed that grew the 9.06 Brown seed, enough said.   Thursday, July 18 View Page 7.94 LaRue plant. This seed is directly off the lambchop seed. As I was taking care of it from two weeks of neglect I found it has a couple megablooms. Guess I'll be getting out the pollination kit.   Thursday, July 18 View Page 9.06 Brown plant. This plant also has megablooms. This one is so so much better than my 9.06 brown from last year.   Thursday, July 18 View Page 3.90 Luers plant. My personal seed. This plant has been a bit slow getting started. We will see. I didn't till up the ground right here since there was already a very short raised bed. I have a suspicion the roots might be having a harder time getting through the soil. Who knows. What I did find today was a fantastic Megabloom on it today.   Thursday, July 18 View Page The megabloom on the 3.90 Luers. It will be a few days before it is ready.   Thursday, July 18 View Page You know what time it is! Break out the spongebob vibrator.........toothbrush and lets go make a baby......tomato. buzz buzz gimme your seed.   Thursday, July 18 View Page Success!!!! Now let's take this pollen and cover the stigma with it so it can penetrate down to the ovary and make a baby....... tomato. *My wife from the porch* "Your such a plant pervert" :0. I look at it more as a tomato reproduction councilor.   Thursday, July 18 View Page So this year I'm using these foam (makeup?) applicators. I was having a bit of problem with the paint brush turning the stigma brown. This should be a bit more gentle and more accurate.   Thursday, July 18 View Page Megabloom on the 9.06 Brown. This one is fairly normal looking and might self pollinate but it's pointing up instead of down so the pollen will fall back instead of onto the end of the stigma.   Thursday, July 18 View Page You can see here where to place the pollen. You can tell it's a fused blossom (Megabloom) because on a normal tomato flower the stigma (circled in red) is a small round dot. Here it is a line and nicely set up. Not all megabloom stigma are so nicely grown.   Thursday, July 18 View Page This is the same flower after I hand pollinate. See the pollen sticking to the stigma.   Thursday, July 18 View Page This is another Megabloom on the 9.06. infact it is right next to the other one. It IS facing down and might of self pollinated. You can see how it grows weird and doesn't put the anther cones (yellow parts where the pollen comes from) right next to the stigma like a normal flower.   Thursday, July 18 View Page You can see the anther cones are all twisted up growing this way and that. This makes for very poor pollen application to the stigma if you can even get any pollen at all.   Thursday, July 18 View Page You'll notice the stigma on this Megabloom is not as nice as the last one. It has three sections. You can see I've placed pollen on all three sections. It's really a pain if the sections don't all pollinate at the same time. You get one part of your giant tomato ripe and the other section still green.   Thursday, July 18 View Page The megabloom on the 7.06 Jolivette should open in the next couple days. Can't wait to see what it will look like.   Thursday, July 18 View Page As was almost done I found one more smaller Megabloom on.the 7.94 LaRue plant hiding under a leaf. This is a great plant, no wonder why jack grew a 10 lber off this seed.   Friday, July 19 View Page This mega on the 7.06 looks better and better each day. The main stem terminates right into the flower. This is the same set up I had last year with the 9.65 porkchop plant. If the bacterial wilt hadn't hit that plant it would of been pushing 6lbs. It will be exciting to see what this one does.   Friday, July 19 View Page It is starting to open also. It's interesting that the 7.06 is in the 9.65 tree. It's mother, the 5.32 H/J was grown from the 9.65 seed. Is this stem terminating into a Megabloom a trait of this tree? Hummm   Saturday, July 20 View Page Looks the this Megabloom pollinated (hopefully) the flower is starting to wither. *Fingers crossed*   Saturday, July 20 View Page The megabloom beside the previous one is still going, so we pollinate. There was very little pollen today on the giants even tho there was a pile of flowers ready. It's weird.   Saturday, July 20 View Page The Cherokee purple is growing right next door let's see if it has pollen. This crazy plant, see the megabloom tomato down in the middle. Ok now to buzz some flowers I doubt there will be any pollen since the giants don't have any.   Saturday, July 20 View Page Megabloom on the 7.06 is getting close to being ready. I did lightly spread a bit of on this one today but it needs to open more.   Sunday, July 21 View Page The megabloom on the 7.06 is now open enough to pollinate. There is not much pollen from the flowers on the plants yet. It has been raining a bunch over the last day .that could be stifling the production. It's going to be much dryer and warmer over the next few days so that should help me find more pollen   Monday, July 22 View Page The megabloom on the 7.94 LaRue looks like it might of taken. Can you see the baby tomato between the fading flower petals?   Monday, July 22 View Page The megabloom right beside the previous one is still flowering. Need to spread some more pollen on it.   Monday, July 22 View Page The megabloom on the 3.90 is looking more and more like a ribbon. It will be interesting to see what it does. It terminated on the main vine like the 7.06 so that's good.   Monday, July 22 View Page Hummm. The single blooms are setting.....common megablooms   Monday, July 22 View Page My Cherokee Purple is doing gang busters. It even has a tiny little guardian. You go. Eat them bad bugs.   Monday, July 22 View Page Well due to lack of pollen on the giants I'm going to pollinate the 7.06 with the Cherokee purple pollen. It has many of the giant traits it should be interesting seeds.   Monday, July 22 View Page Ok common pollen on this Monday afternoon.....Pleeeeeeease......   Monday, July 22 View Page YES!   Monday, July 22 View Page Ok I'm officially converted to the makeup brushes or whatever these things are. You can really see the pollen and can be very exact with it. I also think it's more gentle on the flower stamen.   Monday, July 22 View Page So the mega on the right "2" looks like it has set. The other one is still flowering.   Monday, July 22 View Page Mega 2. Right side one. See the newborn. Awwwww how cute.   Tuesday, July 23 View Page Woo pollen two days in a row.   Tuesday, July 23 View Page The 7.06 mega. So if I pollinate with different pollens do I get a variety of seeds? Is each pollen grain a seed?   Tuesday, July 23 View Page So both Megablooms have taken. (Go go hand pollination) The will need to be a decision made. Left or right. Hummmm   Wednesday, July 24 View Page Ok everybody it's time for......wait for it........Tour De Megabloom WOOT!! All these are on the 7.94 La Rue plant. Tough decision will need to be made.   Wednesday, July 24 View Page This is number 2 and the one I'm leaning towards keeping. 1 and 2 are the megablooms that are side by side on the truss from the previous posts. 1 is right, this #2 is left.   Wednesday, July 24 View Page This is number 3 and when it was flowering looked more like a single but I figured it was a mega because of the big flower with extra petals.   Wednesday, July 24 View Page This one is another one on the plant and is pollinated a day or two behind 1 and 2. It is just starting to show.   Wednesday, July 24 View Page This is the youngest of the batch. Pollinated in the last day or two. It needs to grow a bit to see what it's potentially is.   Wednesday, July 24 View Page 7.06 Jolivette. Pollinated for several days straight. The flower petals are just starting to fade. Very soon we will see if it set, and what this bad boy will look like.   Wednesday, July 24 View Page Megabloom on the 3.90 Luers is just starting to open.   Wednesday, July 24 View Page It looks very long and flat.   Wednesday, July 24 View Page Photo for the post two above. 3.90 mega.   Wednesday, July 24 View Page It's been super hot here for the last week or so. Usually that makes it so the tomatoes won't set. All these baby tomatoes are flowers that I have been buzzing for pollen. When I get pollen I gently bump the stamen against the spoon to get the vibration I need to bump out the pollen. I'm guessing when I do this it also has the bonus effect of sticking the pollen that has dropped into the spoon on to.the stamen. Probably a great way to set tomatoes even if your not hand painting them. You will also get a feel for when the flowers are producing pollen. Better that just shaking and pray method. :).   Thursday, July 25 View Page Hand pollination. Wait.....do bees have hands? Hummm   Friday, July 26 View Page 3.90 Luers. Holy crap.... What a Frankenstein monster. How am I supposed to pollinate that.!?!? Good grief.   Friday, July 26 View Page 7.06 mega. Flower is fading, I should know by the end of the weekend if my couples therapy worked or not. I shouldn't fret honestly, out of all the megablooms I've hand pollinated (probably 30ish) only 2 didn't take. Pretty good odds.   Friday, July 26 View Page Tomorrow is decision day. 5 megablooms on the 7.94 LaRue and there can be only one. *Que Highlander theme song* This is one of the front runners. Megabloom #3   Friday, July 26 View Page Megabloom #4 smaller that the others but pollinated a few days later. Also in the running.   Friday, July 26 View Page Megabloom #1 it is really bulking up fast.   Friday, July 26 View Page Sadly the leading prospect Megabloom #2 the "left" one has a brown spot on it. It will more than likely be culled   Saturday, July 27 View Page Looks like I got plenty of flowers to get pollen from hopefully there is some for the 3.90 Frankenstein bloom   Saturday, July 27 View Page Some. I think earlier in the day might be better.   Saturday, July 27 View Page Oh man where to start......   Saturday, July 27 View Page Ok so I can see a stigma (been using the wrong term stamen) in the circle but I have no idea with the rest. Crazy thing.   Saturday, July 27 View Page Down to the final two prospects on the 7.94 LaRue. Megabloom #4   Saturday, July 27 View Page Megabloom #1 all others have been culled.   Saturday, July 27 View Page This crazy plant. Right above the #1 Megabloom, the one that had two Megablooms side by side is this. Two big (mega?) blooms on the next truss up. Craziness.   Saturday, July 27 View Page There are a few others scattered about also. Sadly these will all be culled.   Saturday, July 27 View Page 7.06 Jolivette it hasn't started swelling up yet. I don't know why the delay. Fingers crossed.   Saturday, July 27 View Page 3.62 Harnica plant is growing like crazy it has caught up to the other plants and is over taking them. Now I just need a nice bloom on it.   Sunday, July 28 View Page Yep pollen is better earlier in the day. Probably helps there was no wind, storms, or rain. This is from 4 flowers.   Sunday, July 28 View Page All right let's do this..... Bit of a guessing game on where to dab the pollen on this mutated Frankenstein flower. If I get it to pollinate can I yell "It's Alive!!!!!" :)   Monday, July 29 View Page 7.06 Jolivette looks to be all fused. It's a little slow on.the uptake so we will see.   Tuesday, July 30 View Page Day 3 pollination. Well kinna 3 1/2 since I did spread a bit of pollen 4 days ago just a bit tho.   Thursday, August 1 View Page 7.94 LaRue. I have 2 tomatoes set and I can't decide on which one. The set tomatoes have been slow growing. I noticed the dirt seemed a bit too dry and I tested the watering timer and the valve was stuck and it hasn't been watering. The plants haven't wilted or shown any sign of under watering so I don't know how many cycles it missed.   Thursday, August 1 View Page The other tomato on the 7.94. hopefully one or the other will grow faster and help me decide.   Thursday, August 1 View Page 7.06 Jolivette. We will see if fixing the water help increase the growth of this tomato.   Thursday, August 1 View Page The 3.90 Luers looks like it set. It will be very interesting to see how this grows out.   Friday, August 2 View Page 3.62 Harnica plant. It is doing great if I can just get a nice mega we will be in business. Fixing the water timer helped tremendously, in just 24 hours I can see the difference in the tomatoes. Silly silly......sigh. I know I lost weight because of that malfunctioning timer.   Friday, August 2 View Page 7.06 Jolivette plant. Growing good with the new Megabloom tomato in the middle of it. Now it just needs to grow. I'm sure it doesn't help it's been in the upper 90's for a few weeks now.   Friday, August 2 View Page 7.94 LaRue growing gangbusters. Hard to keep all the suckers pruned. I will have to make a decision on the two maters growing on it soon. It has grown into the Brown plant and it's hard to see where one quits and the other begins. It didn't help one leaned left and the other right. Go figure. Lol   Friday, August 2 View Page 9.06 Brown also growing gangbusters right into the LaRue plant. Now just one nice big bloom and we will be set.   Friday, August 2 View Page 3.90 Luers it's a bit stunted but it's starting to take off. Plus it has that supermegaFrankenstein bloom that just set. Now we wait........I'm not good at waiting.......Grow damn it.....right now.....now now now. Just kidding I have a lot of patience I have a wife. *Looks around* don't tell her I said that.   Friday, August 2 View Page The megabloom tomato on the Cherokee purple is ready to pick. This thing looks like a monster. Too bad it's in miniature. It is an eating mater so it's been a bit neglected. It wasn't planted in the best spot either. I'll save the seeds from this one it has giant tomato plant qualities. Maybe I'll weigh it just for fun and to put something on the board for my team.   Friday, August 2 View Page The Cherokee purple is just Huge. Look at it.....ok not to close......no need to zoom in or analyze the photo.....I'm sure it's totally legit.   Friday, August 2 View Page huge I tell you. What??? fake photo? na I'm sure I would not waste my precious time uploading the photo from my phone to computer and using free editing software Gimp to make a very bad photoshoped photo. Na you are mistaken.   Saturday, August 3 View Page Omg 9.3 poun..... wait......ounces.......:) it's funny how much this looks like a giant tomato in miniature. Not too surprising since it was a really good Megabloom on the Cherokee purple. You can see it somewhere earlier in my diary.   Saturday, August 3 View Page We ate it on burgers tonight. I saved some of the seeds. The seeds are large in size. I'll play with it next year.   Saturday, August 3 View Page Does it look bigger in grams? Lol *gets out the calculator* 5.8 wow......wait.... decimal point.....goes.....hummm oh. .58 lbs. :)   Sunday, August 4 View Page 7.06 plant. It's amazing what some consistent watering will do. In just 3 days it's triple an n size. The timers valve stuck again today probably should go buy a new one.   Sunday, August 4 View Page 7.06 plant. It's amazing what some consistent watering will do. In just 3 days it's triple an n size. The timers valve stuck again today probably should go buy a new one.   Sunday, August 4 View Page Still can't decide.......   Sunday, August 4 View Page This one is the smaller of the two but feels like it might have better potential if it will grow.   Sunday, August 4 View Page Realized why it was smaller the stem had a pretty good kink in it. There all better. Guess I'll wait a couple more days to decide   Sunday, August 4 View Page Man it's all I can do to keep up with all the sneaky baby tomatoes hiding in the foliage.   Monday, August 5 View Page Now we're growing. It's cool to see when the plant syncs up with the tomato, boom growth. 7.06 Jolivette.   Monday, August 5 View Page Of course there is another nice mega on the Jolivette plant....why can't it be the Brown or Harnica. I wish I could just transplant it to the other tomato plant.....wait.....can you? Hummmmm   Monday, August 5 View Page The 7.94 LaRue plant also has a mega and this one set. Sigh. Common guys share the love with the other plants.   Monday, August 5 View Page 7.94 maga front on view. Sadly this is a cull   Monday, August 5 View Page Here is a good example of why Megablooms have problems pollinating and why hand pollination is so important. This is a normal tomato flower I cut off today. You can see the anther cones are tightly bound to the style and stigma (female flower part) The pollen is released by the anther cones inside and has to travel down the anther cones and go right by the stigma (the green tip and the end of the anther cones) now let's look at another flower that is more like a Megabloom in the next entry   Monday, August 5 View Page This is probably not a Megabloom but it has the mutated flower you see in them. Notice how the anther cones curl and are mishaped. Because of this the style and stigma are sticking clear out of the anther cones. Instead of the pollen being forced to come out across the stigma, with this flower it can fall out before it reaches the place it is supposed to go. Megablooms have even more twisted and mutated anther cones. Just shaking or vibrating the flower may not be enough to get it to pollinate.   Tuesday, August 6 View Page AAAAAAHHHH OMG!!!!! Hornworm eggs........   Tuesday, August 6 View Page Finally a mega on the Harnica plant. You will notice how the anther cones go all this way and that. This is what I was talking about in the hand pollination entry a couple days ago. Luckily there was plenty of pollen to put on it.   Wednesday, August 7 View Page A.I. at its best...... Has anybody ever gotten something helpful from this b.s. ? Search is getting almost worthless.   Wednesday, August 7 View Page And this is the end of my research on hornworms and the moths they come from ........ somethings you just can't unread. The male and female moths attach together at their abdomens, with the male using his “claspers,” which are short, hand-like appendages on his anus, to …Oct 19, 2017   Friday, August 9 View Page We have had rain and storms for the last 3 days pretty much non stop. One strong nasty one moved through the first day and dropped a bit of hail. Luckily most of the plant and maters survived with just the very outside leaves with some damage.   Friday, August 9 View Page Another Megabloom on the 3.90 Luers. Which of course already has a set tomato on it.   Friday, August 9 View Page This is another good example of how a good portion of the anther cones are not where they need to be. I have realized lately that using my phone camera I can zoom in on the bloom to see the places I need to pollinate. Very handy.   Friday, August 9 View Page 3.90 Luers Megabloom. Finally starting to take off.   Friday, August 9 View Page 7.06 mater is starting to put on some weight.   Friday, August 9 View Page 7.94 LaRue. Mater 1   Friday, August 9 View Page Mater 2.   Friday, August 9 View Page And because some person we will leave unnamed played into my fear of culling tomatoes Mater #3. Sigh...... Somebody's gotta go.   Friday, August 9 View Page Looks like the Harnica mega set even tho I only got to pollinate it for one day before the rain came.   Saturday, August 10 View Page RMGVG patch tour was today. It was great. This is the place to get advice from seasoned growers. It was held in the Colorado springs area this year. Great job. Thanks for letting us invade your patches.   Saturday, August 10 View Page Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers 2024 patch tour.   Saturday, August 10 View Page Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers 2024 patch tour The tallest pumpkin leaves I've ever seen.   Saturday, August 10 View Page Pumpkin patc......WAIT.....You can't put a selfie in your diary?!?! It's against the unwritten rules...... That's it!!! Enough is enough. 100 lashes with an old rusty heating cable.   Monday, August 12 View Page Ok I have been having such a hard time choosing between the two (three kinna) tomatoes on the LaRue plant I decided I needed more days. So I've been putting a tape on them for the last 3 days. This is the front one more single looking.   Monday, August 12 View Page This is the back one. More double fused looking. You can see they are close to the same size. This was not the case three days ago. This one is growing quite a bit faster and has caught up. I will be culling the other one tomorrow. It will be painful but it has to be done. I will be cutting the other mega I let grow a bit also. One tomato one plant.   Monday, August 12 View Page I have a single on.the Harnica I've been letting grow since I had no Megablooms. It's grown pretty good. I will have to make a decision in a week or so depending on what the mega does that set a few days ago.   Tuesday, August 13 View Page I don't know what happened but I wish I could replicate it every time. Almost every bloom on the 3.90 Luers is giant.   Tuesday, August 13 View Page Was it temperature, the rain, fertilizer, pure confidence.   Tuesday, August 13 View Page Of course the question is.... Did I bite the bullet and cut off the front mater on the 7.94. Well I was full and ready but it got a days reprieve since it grew the same as the back mater. Maybe it heard me talking yesterday and decided it better get in gear. Lol   Wednesday, August 14 View Page It's just crazy to see so many giant blooms all at once. Of course I already have a nice tomato set on this plant and most of the giant blooms are not really megas. Very interesting tho.   Wednesday, August 14 View Page 7.06 Jolivette growing ok. The next week or two will tell. It has a couple little dings from the hail a week ago but other than that it's going good so far.   Wednesday, August 14 View Page 3.90 Luers. Really starting to show it's shape. I was hoping I could leave the trellis wire there for support but it is going to cause problems. I'll have to remove the wire this weekend.   Friday, August 16 View Page The deed is done! There is now only one tomato on one plant. Painful   Friday, August 16 View Page The winner on the 7.94 LaRue. We will know in a few weeks if I choose correctly. It will be interesting to see if cutting of the other one increases the growth rate of this one.   Friday, August 16 View Page 1 lb 2.4 oz. Culled before it's time. 1.15 lbs biggest cull I've ever had. Probably should of cut it off sooner but I was hoping one or the other would of made it clear which to choose.   Sunday, August 18 View Page Good grief! I go away for a couple days come back and the plants are trying to grow more babies. Crazy plants...all energy goes into the ONE tomato.   Sunday, August 18 View Page Houston we have a problem. The tomato stem on the 7.94 LaRue looked a little weird. Upon closer inspecting I realized it was kinked and had split some time ago.   Sunday, August 18 View Page Readjusting of the hammock and one tomato cage later.....we will see. I think it's ok.   Sunday, August 18 View Page 7.06 Jolivette is starting to put on some weight.   Sunday, August 18 View Page The 3.90 Luers seems to be a little behind where I would like to see it but it's still early.   Wednesday, August 21 View Page Ok this is getting out of hand. Let's play count the baby tomatoes. That is 26. It actually was 29 because I still found 3 more after I took that photo. This energy needs to go into the "one" maters. Silly plants.   Wednesday, August 21 View Page And as I was doing the plant thing I had a WTF moment. I only have 5 plants and I've been keeping pretty good track of them. I have a big single on the Brown plant as I wait for a late season mega. Well I went to cut a baby tomato off and found this crazy huge mater hiding in the leaves. It's almost the same size as the other one. What the heck. How can I miss something like this. Just craziness. So I have 2 15" maters on this plant.   Wednesday, August 21 View Page Another view of the surprise mater on the Brown plant.   Wednesday, August 21 View Page I've let the Brown plant go wild with very little trimming just to see what happens. It should have no problem supporting 2 maters. I do think letting the plants go with no trimming might suppress Megablooms. Who knows   Thursday, August 22 View Page For early tomato registration click the link the arrow is pointing at.   Friday, August 23 View Page So it looks like the culling of the other tomato on the 7.94 LaRue plant has given this one a bit of a boost by an extra 1/8" per day. Interesting   Sunday, August 25 View Page Sooooo..... When your tomato flower really really is in the mood to be pollinated.   Sunday, August 25 View Page I finally got some bigger blooms on the Brown plant. They are just singles but at this point I'll take what I can get.   Sunday, August 25 View Page Three to be exact. They are at the produce pollen stage. Plus I have been leaving the flower nodes on when I pinch of the suckers and grow tips so I have several pollen producing flowers. Just for this circumstance. This is the last week I need to worry about this. After this next week anything that would show up would be too late to get to the weighoffs.   Sunday, August 25 View Page I was also super excited to see these two big blooms show up on the Harnica plant. YES!!! ......wait....upon closer inspection and tracing down the vine thay are on the Jolivette plant........crap.....sigh.   Sunday, August 25 View Page I'm going to pollinate everything and sort it all out later because I'm so good at deciding to cull good looking tomatoes off plants and not waiting till they are half grown. :/   Sunday, August 25 View Page If the big blooms set in the Jolivette I might cut off the older tomato. The megabloom had so much promise but just never really took off with the growth. One of the cursed to keeping good measurement record keeping is you can do a pretty good estimate to the final weight. I almost wish I didn't know and could pretend it was going to hit 6 pounds. Sadly even with generous numbers for the future it is looking to top out at 20" :(   Wednesday, August 28 View Page As the Jolivette under performs the 3.90 Luers is really taking off doing .75 a day. There might be hope for a PB yet.   Thursday, August 29 View Page The single I left on the Harnica plant is blushing. I will not be able to check on it for a few days so I have to decide if I should just cut it off now or wait. It's only somewhere between 16-17" so 1.5 to 1.75ish.   Thursday, August 29 View Page I measured the Harnica it had not grown at all. So now it is Luers 1.49 That will be a tiny upgrade to my contest tomatoes. It was just only "16 so it was a touch heavy to chart. Not surprising since it's is a big single with no gaps in the measurement.   Thursday, August 29 View Page It will be interesting to see if cutting off this one will help the other single grow on this plant   Friday, August 30 View Page This crazy 3.90 plant. This is like the 15+ giant bloom on this thing. I wish I could transfer this nice Megabloom to the Harnica or Brown plant. I've been pinching the suckers off above the blooms in case I need pollen, if you were wondering why I still had blooms on a dead ended plant.   Monday, September 2 View Page Crazy thing....   Tuesday, September 3 View Page Away for Labor Day and.......Well crap....the 3.90 Luers wasn't fused and when I was inspecting it the bottom fell off. The stem has been split for quite awhile as it's all dry and healed. Welp what ya gonna do. Nothing you can do about it fusing. At least it's not grower error. :)   Tuesday, September 3 View Page Something decided to take a chomp out of the front single on the Brown plant.   Tuesday, September 3 View Page The tomato on the 7.94 LaRue is blushing. It's a few days early but it will be weighed. Luckily the grasshoppers don't like to eat the maters.   Tuesday, September 3 View Page The 3.90 is still making huge blooms. Now that the 3.90 will not be a personal best ill pollinate everything and see if I can get one to weighoffs.   Thursday, September 5 View Page Tomato weighting time!   Thursday, September 5 View Page Off to the fort Collins nursery to use their official scale. The first one is the back tomato (surprise tomato) on the 9.06 Brown plant. 1.91 Luers. I guess not bad for something I didn't even know existed until it was a week or two from blushing. :))   Thursday, September 5 View Page The next mater is from the 7.94 LaRue. The 2.87 Luers. It is about what I figured it would weigh. You always hope for more but I'll take what I can get. This whole year has been a bit of experimenting anyway since I couldn't grow in the patch on the other side of the house.   Thursday, September 5 View Page Just for fun (and science) I weighed the front Brown mater that had a bite taken out of it. It was picked yesterday and weighed on my home scale. My home scale matches the official one weight wise. Tested with the current tomatoes. The question is how much weight was lost in just one day.   Thursday, September 5 View Page So here it is on the home scale yesterday. With a bit of conversion. Add....subtract....carry the 2... multiply by infinity...and 1.94 so I little bit but not that much.   Thursday, September 5 View Page One of the more promising megas on.the 3.90 plant set from my hand pollination. I have begun to use colored zip ties to keep track of the ones I have selected to hand pollinate. This has helped tremendously as the flower loses its petals and starts to blend in with the rest of the plant.   Thursday, September 5 View Page The 7.94 currently has no tomato on it obviously since it has been weighed. Luckily it is producing some very nice late season Megablooms.   Thursday, September 5 View Page This crazy thing is also on the 7.94 LaRue.   Thursday, September 5 View Page It's just a mutated monster. This looks to me like a transition type thing where you can get an idea how multiple flowers fuse together. This one will probably need some surgery in a few days.   Thursday, September 5 View Page I know I'm all tomatoes on this diary but here is my wife's pumpkin plant. Since I couldn't grow tomatoes in this patch she decided to do a pumpkin here. The plant has been struggling (we don't really try very hard) she finally got one to set but it just wouldn't grow.   Thursday, September 5 View Page Today she was looking around the plant and discovered something on the backside of the tomato raised bed.....WHAT!!!!!   Thursday, September 5 View Page There pinched between one of the loose hail screens and the side of the raised bed was a poor squeezed pumpkin. Oh no   Thursday, September 5 View Page Oh boy.....this was going to take some careful manipulation. I moved the screen just a touch and the pumpkin slid down and inch or so. My wife gasps. "That is why I didn't touch it"   Thursday, September 5 View Page As I inspected the situation I realized the vine had actually snuck it's way in between the screen and the wood frame. Good grief.....after careful inspection I formulated a plan to rescue this poor stuck squash.   Thursday, September 5 View Page The pumpkin had grown so much it had actually ripped the metal screen where it attached to the wood with screws.   Thursday, September 5 View Page I went to my work van and got my tools........a screw gun....this will do the trick. Slowly I pulled the screen off the frame.   Thursday, September 5 View Page Next task is to remove the frame and lower the pumpkin to the ground.   Thursday, September 5 View Page After removing one side of the frame and getting the pumpkin to the ground you can see just how smashed it really was in that tiny little space. Wow......   Thursday, September 5 View Page After removing all the frame and adjusting the vine you could really see the crazy shape. More than likely because of being squished.   Thursday, September 5 View Page It's final resting place. Well I guess we're growing blossoms down. :)). I got a surprise tomato and my wife got a surprise pumpkin. There is also a hidden pumpkin guardian in this photo. Do you see it?   Thursday, September 5 View Page Even after all the moving and shaking this huge spider just hung out on the leaf right above the pumpkin. I'm sure I probably touched him a few times. Lol.   Monday, September 9 View Page The 7.06 Jolivette blushed while I was gone for the gem and mineral show for a few days. I will probably weigh it on Tuesday. The weight doesn't do justice to this seed. It is a great seed, it was a great plant. The location this year I'm pretty sure is holding me back. Full sun is important.   Monday, September 9 View Page The second megabloom on the 7.94 LaRue was open when I got home also. It is the weird monster bloom.   Tuesday, September 10 View Page Pollination day 2. It is a week later than I want but we will see.   Tuesday, September 10 View Page The 3.90 is still growing even tho I lost about 1/3 of the tomato that wasn't fused.   Tuesday, September 10 View Page I'll probably pick and weigh the Jolivette tomorrow. I got off work a bit to late today to make it to the nursery. It might surprise me. It has a bit of heft to it. We will see.   Wednesday, September 11 View Page The 7.06 Jolivette had such potential. It is bigger than a thought it might be. I wasn't sure it would even break 2lbs. But here we have the new Luers 2.19.   Wednesday, September 11 View Page Megabloom 1 on the 3.90 is doing that weird delay growing thing.   Wednesday, September 11 View Page Megabloom 2 on the 3.90 is starting to grow. One of these will replace the tomato that is currently on it that will be blushing soon.   Wednesday, September 11 View Page The first megabloom on the 7.94 LaRue plant looks to have pollinated and is growing.   Wednesday, September 11 View Page It looks nice. We will see. There is another one that might be better.   Wednesday, September 11 View Page This is the other one. It has been hand pollinated for the last three days. This is also on the LaRue plant. It is surrounded by an entourage of blooms. I'm going to let it pollinate before I start killing off it's friends. This will probably be the last pollination of the year. In fact I'm guessing it is about a week late honestly. It's such a gorgeous beastly Frankenstein bloom you just have to pollinate it.   Wednesday, September 11 View Page The big bloom on the Brown from a week or so ago looks very lackluster. :/   Thursday, September 12 View Page Tomato on the 3.90 plant is still growing. It's still painful 1/3 of it fell off. Will it reach 2lbs. It's still hard but I can see that telltail sign of a very slight color change. It will blush in the next few days I'm guessing.   Friday, September 13 View Page Yup called it. It will be interesting to see what it weighs. It looks bigger than the one I just weighed. The 2.19 Luers. Technically it will be the 2.18 on the official GPC list because I sat for a day and lost .01 lbs. I also screwed up the form for the 2.87 Luers (I'm guessing google auto filled my online form) because it's listed under my wife name. She said "What I grew a tomato?" She looks at me with that look. :/ ha ha very funny.....   Friday, September 13 View Page The 3.90 blushes just in time. The back mega on the plant is just starting to take off.   Friday, September 13 View Page This crazy flower it did some weird bend over backwards thing. It has 24 other blooms on this truss. We will see what it does as it grows out. I wish it had shown up a week or two earlier. The other mega on this LaRue plant has taken and it starting to grow nicely. I will probably cull this one since the other has a week+ head start but not till I satisfy my curiosity and see how it grows out.   Tuesday, September 17 View Page Picked the 3.90 today. I'm going to try to put it in the fridge for a week and a half to get it to the weighoff. We will see never done this before. 2.16 Luers. I might take it to the Nursery and get an official weight tomorrow.   Wednesday, September 18 View Page Even in the fridge it still lost .01. interesting. It will be interesting to see how much it loses over the week   Wednesday, September 18 View Page The crazy boom. 7.94 LaRue front   Wednesday, September 18 View Page The back tomato 7.94 LaRue.   Sunday, September 22 View Page This 3.90 Luers. It's doing ok. We will see with the evenings getting cooler the growths will slow.   Sunday, September 22 View Page The brown big bloom, continues to underwhelm. Shrug   Sunday, September 22 View Page The 7.06 Jolivette plant big single bloom is looking nice. Will probably start measuring it soon to keep track of growth. It is set to be ready for one of the first weighoffs. We will see.   Sunday, September 22 View Page The back tomato on the LaRue. It is growing nice and is 5 days ahead of the front maga. But......   Sunday, September 22 View Page The front tomato has caught up with the back one. It is growing fast. It will only have 35 days by the last weighoff. Oh if only a week or two earlier. We will see. It's fun to see this monster fill out.   Monday, September 23 View Page It's build supports day for me. The single on the Jolivette was starting to kink the stem as I couldn't put the hammock high enough. So .... Doesn't it look comfy. I should find a place to put my hammock up....   Monday, September 23 View Page This crazy thing got a string. This tomato is growing so much faster I culled the back tomato even tho the back tomato was 5 days older. This one will only have 35 days on it by the last weighoff so we will see.   Monday, September 23 View Page There are still a few flowers left here at there. This is another nice Megabloom on the 7.94 LaRue. Such a great seed.   Thursday, September 26 View Page Don't judge me. :)   Thursday, September 26 View Page Fun watching this thing grow   Saturday, September 28 View Page First weighoff of the year. The 3.90 tomato survived in the fridge. The rehydrate thing worked thanks guys.   Sunday, September 29 View Page Wow....this was the least psycho photo of me. Anywho. Do hundreds matter on a tomato? Should I of spent a bit more time letting it grow or keeping weight on it?......the answer is.......   Sunday, September 29 View Page Yes. Because as you can see Michael Lee just beat me by .03 of a pound. Wow!!!!   Friday, October 4 View Page How an electrician makes a hammock.   Friday, October 4 View Page All nice and snug.   Saturday, October 5 View Page The single on the LaRue plant is still green hard and growing so I guess I'll wait to take it to a weighoff. Nick's garden center weight off is today. There is a chance that we could see Colorado's first 2k pumpkin and have the state record broken for a third time in three weeks. Exciting times!   Saturday, October 5 View Page Ta Da. Colorado's first 2k kin. Congratulations Brad Bledsoe   Tuesday, October 8 View Page Houston we have a problem. Well there was a deep crack and it just kept growing. this is the single on the Jolivette plant. I was hoping to have something to take to my local weighoff. Oh well.   Tuesday, October 8 View Page The cold nights have really slowed down growth. This still has 12 days till weighoff but sadly I doubt it can grow fast enough now.   Tuesday, October 8 View Page The continuous underwhelming single on the Brown plant.   Tuesday, October 8 View Page The tomato on the 3.90 Luers. It is slow also. The location along with the cold nights and here we are.   Tuesday, October 8 View Page The 3.90 is still ...yes still producing mega and giant flower after flower. There is currently not a single small flower on this plant. All of them are at least an inch+ across. It's crazy   Tuesday, October 8 View Page Look at all the giant flowers. There are around 10 on here now. Too bad the season is over lol.   Friday, October 11 View Page Look at these crazy giant late season flowers.   Saturday, October 12 View Page Fort Collins weighoff   Saturday, October 12 View Page 4th week in a row the Colorado state giant pumpkin record has been broken. Brad has got it going on. He won the weighoff by 1 lb......ya......wow   Saturday, October 12 View Page Great weighoff. We had 3 over 2k and I mean common 1lbs between 1st and 2nd......OMG!!   Saturday, October 12 View Page Omg 14lbs?!?!.......oh....wait ......oz. hummm :/   Wednesday, October 16 View Page Bre with the comet. We had to drive up to Wyoming to see it but it was so worth it. Best comet on 20+ years   Wednesday, October 16 View Page So. .....what am I going to do with you .......weighoff is Saturday......final day for tomato contest........you still have 10 to 15 days left to grow after that if I don't pick you then.....hummm.   Wednesday, October 16 View Page Maybe I'll leave the nice growing one and take the tiny blushing underwhelming Brown plant single.   Wednesday, October 16 View Page Getting almost end of growing season. Two plants down three to go.   Wednesday, October 16 View Page What the heck? Lol   Saturday, October 19 View Page Decisions decisions........7am on a Saturday one tomato awaits it's fate.......   Saturday, October 19 View Page I guess I'll take the smallest tomato ever grown on the 9.06 brown seed. :))   Saturday, October 19 View Page I'm going to let the gnarly tomato grow as long as I can. I'm more curious to see how big it will get than giving myself a chance to get a ribbon. This one tho small is pretty.   Saturday, October 19 View Page Our farthest weigh off.....the Colorado springs weigh off might be a little wet.   Saturday, October 19 View Page There were some tomatoes this year. Yay.   Saturday, October 19 View Page Ok who forgot the white board. Lol. You will notice somehow I was NOT the smallest tomato. Thanks T-Rod. :))   Saturday, October 19 View Page And OMG the Grubbs did it again. This was easily the prettiest pumpkin I've ever seen. Look at that frickin color. The photo does not do this thing justice, and it was over 1k which I think was a PB for them.   Saturday, October 19 View Page We also had a huge lunga di napoli squash from Michigan weighed here. This thing was huge. State record.   Saturday, October 19 View Page We also weighed Bre's surprise pumpkin. See the diary entry at September 5th. It's a crazy thing.   Saturday, October 19 View Page Of course we celebrated in style for having the smallest tomato and pumpkin (ok fine second smallest but still) With a carrousel ride for bre and a trip to..........*hint it's pink and is impossible to get reservations to.........   Saturday, October 19 View Page Casa Bonita. For those not in the know this is the restaurant the creators of South park (cartoon) spent 40 million renovating. it's .....hummm cliff divers and...well....there is a lot of stuff. As Cartman from South park says "it's the Disneyland of Mexican restaurants."   Tuesday, October 22 View Page And now we are down to just two plants. Having taken the Giant (sarcasm) tomato from the Brown plant and getting second to last place...the Brown plant is now out.   Tuesday, October 22 View Page The "just let everything grow wild" experiment was a success......at what NOT to do. As I cut down the plant you can see how much energy probably was wasted on foliage and not the tomato. The main vines were also much smaller as the plant was splitting up the energy between several. It also made it nearly impossible to keep up with any sort of maintenance type pruning.   Tuesday, October 22 View Page The 3.90 just keeps making these huge blooms and megas. It's insanity. Look at all of them.   Tuesday, October 22 View Page The tomato on the 3.90 is stunted tho. Go figure.   Tuesday, October 22 View Page Too bad it's not June. :)   Tuesday, October 22 View Page Look at these things almost all are over an inch across   Tuesday, October 22 View Page There is probably 50 flowers on this thing. All huge, and 3 or 4 nice megas. Crazy thing. If you could replicate this you would have it made every year.   Tuesday, October 22 View Page Well here we are......the last tomato. (The one on the 3.90 doesn't count) I decided not to pick it and take it to Smiths farms, the last weighoff of the year. I want to see how long I can keep it going. This October has been crazy warm. Eventually this will change, then we will see. The tomato is growing very slowly last few days since it was cloudy and nights in the 40's. It's at dap 38 green and hard as a rock. If I can get it to three pounds I'll consider that a win. What are the chances I can get another two weeks of above 32 deg weather? *Cross fingers*   Wednesday, October 23 View Page I couldn't wait to know what the final result of the tomato would be so I asked A.I. to show me. Obviously it's never wrong.   Thursday, October 24 View Page Now I have to make a decision on the tomato. Build a tent to keep it warm and frostless or cut it off ...hummm   Thursday, October 24 View Page Even if I get a few more days, next week is looking bad. How hard do I want to try to keep this tomato going just for curiosity..... decisions decisions decisions......   Friday, October 25 View Page It survived.   Monday, October 28 View Page Decision time. Build a makeshift green house or not. A vote for my diary is a vote for the tomato ....ha ha ha jk. The forecast shows 28 at night and 60 during the day for the next week or so. The tomato is growing 1/8" a day consistently. Dap 44. It is starting to get that color look like it might be thinking of blushing maybe. It's still hard as a rock so maybe not. Another ten days will put it at 18 or 19". Hummmmm....   Monday, October 28 View Page The 3.90 Luers plant I haven't covered. It's frostedish and STILL is producing giant blooms.........crazy thing.   Monday, October 28 View Page Welp.....this is officially silly and not worth it but here we are ....we will see how long we can keep the winter yeti at bay.   Monday, October 28 View Page There we go. I'll let it go one more day before I close it all the way in. Tonight is 48 and then the cold front moves in.   Tuesday, October 29 View Page All snug like a bug in a rug.....it will be interesting to see if we can survive prolonged below 32deg temps.   Tuesday, October 29 View Page Winter yeti proof box......maybe? :)   Thursday, October 31 View Page So good so far......tonight will be the big test 26deg.....will the tomato survive Halloween?   Saturday, November 2 View Page Yay it's working. Giving it some air today since it's going to be close to 60. The tomato grew another 1/4".   Saturday, November 2 View Page It is still pretty green and hard. Dap 49. I'm really curious to see how many days the cold weather will extend the growing length. I think the longest I've ever had was 59.   Tuesday, November 5 View Page The tomato in the frost protection box my not survive this. This morning there was a hard frost. First time I had to scrape my window this year. *The end is near*....   Tuesday, November 5 View Page Last peek untill this weekend. Looks ok. It's growing but very very slowly.   Tuesday, November 5 View Page Still green and hard. (No not hard from being frozen)   Wednesday, November 6 View Page Brrr. This is not tomato growing weather. Ha ha ha....   Friday, November 8 View Page Snomato! It's going to be nice Sunday but tomorrow (Saturday) is going to be crappy.   Sunday, November 10 View Page Yay SUN! I bet the tomato plant is very happy about it. It's nice a warm in the makeshift green house.   Sunday, November 10 View Page Not too bad for having 20 deg nights and 30 deg days.   Sunday, November 10 View Page And of all silly things it's blooming. With a megabloom even. Ha ha ha.....I will not try to keep this going......I will not try to keep this going.....I will not......I.......   Sunday, November 10 View Page The days are numbered. It has a blushing stripe and the bigger part is just starting to get that about to turn ghost red hint. It's 58 dap so not surprising. At this point I will be lucky to get 18". Fun experiment tho.   Wednesday, November 20 View Page The experiment has come to an end. The smart outlet seems to have turned off and it was very cold the last few nights. The tomato didn't put on any size in the last couple weeks. I only had the temperature up enough to keep it from freezing, it's probably been too cold to grow.   Wednesday, November 20 View Page 1.61 Luers Uow off the 7.94 La Rue. It was a fun experiment honestly. Silly but fun.