2022 Garden Thread

My tomato plants are barely more than knee-high now. Usually they are at least 5 feet tall by this time. Nonetheless, I harvested 3 Early Girl and 4 Sungold for yesterday's dinner salad, along with some lettuce. Fresh vine-ripened tomatoes are sooooo good! I transplanted a bunch of Walla Walla onions from my window sill seed tray to the raised bed Saturday. I've managed to keep them alive so far; plus some onion seeds that I direct planted in the raised bed have come up. So it looks like - knock on wood - I might get an onion crop this year. Finally have a decent number of green bean plants up and growing, so I might get some fresh beans this year if they can mature before frost.

My little Honeycrisp apple tree that produced so well last year has a total of 14 apples on it this year. And they are no where close to ripe. At least the blueberry bushes appear to be doing well, and I should get a good first picking in a couple days with this week's heat.
 
My pole beans (camirat, Kentucky wonder, golden gate) had a really hard time getting going this year, but are now up to 6 feet tall and the camirat (purple string bean) are flowering. IMG_20220726_102158.jpg

The italenischer lettuce loves growing underneath the bean tripods
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And my tomatoes are now about 5.5 feet tall with fruit on all 3.
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I need to zip tie extensions to the supports today because the tomatoes have a good bit of growth left
 
Gary Knowels said:
All good Skip! I'm no expert either, Earle Grey is just my favorite tea!
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Lemon balm is a good substitute if you want citrus flavor in a northern climate. I have so much growing wild I want to build an essential oil still and run a bunch of it through.
 
Gary Knowels said:
We had a 4'x20' patch FULL of it when we moved it, it was hell removing it to the point where it didn't just spring right back up.
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Not one to put in the ground, best in a container.
 
Earlier this year I thought my hardy fuchsias were gone after sitting under ice and snow.
Got some good advice here on this thread and they are bouncing back pretty good.
The before and after pics.
SF

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What’s the consensus on tomatoes as far as fruit setting and ripening on the vine?
If they set this week or next and take 60 days to grow and ripen, that puts you at the first of October.
I always seem to have a lot of green tomatoes at the end of the season.
I’ve still have a ton of blossoms, more so then I can remember in the past at this time of year. Maybe due to the late, wet spring?
Are we kind of in the make or break timeframe for setting and vine ripening in western WA?
SF
 
Stonedfish said:
What’s the consensus on tomatoes as far as fruit setting and ripening on the vine?
If they set this week or next and take 60 days to grow and ripen, that puts you at the first of October.
I always seem to have a lot of green tomatoes at the end of the season.
I’ve still have a ton of blossoms, more so then I can remember in the past at this time of year. Maybe due to the late, wet spring?
Are we kind of in the make or break timeframe for setting and vine ripening in western WA?
SF
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Well a few years ago we got a really early frost. I believe it was 2020. (What a year right ??)
My tomatoes were ruined.
I’m finding that if the fruit doesn’t look like it’s going to ripen on the vine I pick it and ripen it inside.
This usually works out pretty well
 
Stonedfish said:
What’s the consensus on tomatoes as far as fruit setting and ripening on the vine?
If they set this week or next and take 60 days to grow and ripen, that puts you at the first of October.
I always seem to have a lot of green tomatoes at the end of the season.
I’ve still have a ton of blossoms, more so then I can remember in the past at this time of year. Maybe due to the late, wet spring?
Are we kind of in the make or break timeframe for setting and vine ripening in western WA?
SF
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I culled all mine already last week. I had 12 varieties and 2 or 4 starts of each still in seed trays. They were 5" tall still so no way that's happening. Another year without a garden, I need to get my hours below 90 a week if I ever want it to work out.
 
Stonedfish said:
What’s the consensus on tomatoes as far as fruit setting and ripening on the vine?
If they set this week or next and take 60 days to grow and ripen, that puts you at the first of October.
I always seem to have a lot of green tomatoes at the end of the season.
I’ve still have a ton of blossoms, more so then I can remember in the past at this time of year. Maybe due to the late, wet spring?
Are we kind of in the make or break timeframe for setting and vine ripening in western WA?
SF
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Here in Vancouver where sheltered and 241 ‘ elev. ihave until the beginning of november. They will and are setting now. Any late green tomatoes will get picked and placed on trays with ripe bananas that expel ripening gas that speeds ripening. I call it the tomato lab. Depends where you live, night time temps, solar gain during the day. Late season for you will vary but you can speed up ripening with pruning late season blooms. Tip pruning of indeterminate tomatoes and at the very end of season( here end of September) rot pruning to shock the plants into a hurry up- and they will respond like clockwork. But it is way too early to worry about this. Keep an eye on weather forecasts to be proactive with your timing.
 
Stonedfish said:
What’s the consensus on tomatoes as far as fruit setting and ripening on the vine?
If they set this week or next and take 60 days to grow and ripen, that puts you at the first of October.
I always seem to have a lot of green tomatoes at the end of the season.
I’ve still have a ton of blossoms, more so then I can remember in the past at this time of year. Maybe due to the late, wet spring?
Are we kind of in the make or break timeframe for setting and vine ripening in western WA?
SF
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August 1st used to be the rule, but we found the best fruit set was about now...so just let them keep going till mid August.
There's always green tomato chutney, we made a bunch and its very good.
We canned it in a water bath, and I had some on sandwiches this week from last years batch.
 
Mossback said:
August 1st used to be the rule, but we found the best fruit set was about now...so just let them keep going till mid August.
There's always green tomato chutney, we made a bunch and its very good.
We canned it in a water bath, and I had some on sandwiches this week from last years batch.
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Got itdo not know
Where you garden so I-just mentioned what my wet side southern zone and microclimate is like
 
Mossback said:
August 1st used to be the rule, but we found the best fruit set was about now...so just let them keep going till mid August.
There's always green tomato chutney, we made a bunch and its very good.
We canned it in a water bath, and I had some on sandwiches this week from last years batch.
Click to expand...
I made a green tomato "ketchup" last year with a bunch of green tomatoes, white vinegar, fish sauce, onion, garlic, brown sugar. Cooked it down for 4 hours, blended and strained. It was super! Best application was mixed into the ground beef and pork when making meatloaf.
 
Gary Knowels said:
I made a green tomato "ketchup" last year with a bunch of green tomatoes, white vinegar, fish sauce, onion, garlic, brown sugar. Cooked it down for 4 hours, blended and strained. It was super! Best application was mixed into the ground beef and pork when making meatloaf.
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That sounds great. I made green tomato chutney with too many ingredients to recall. One ingredient I have been using for about 5 years for sauces and such are dried celery leaves! Helps build complex flavors
 
Some good ideas for green tomatoes.
Anyone fry them?
I never have but always order them if I see them on the menu at a restaurant.
May need to try it this year.
SF
 
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