Horse Tradin' Time...

Trading Time at the Bird Ranch for Wayward Heirlooms

It has arrived. One of my most favorite times of the year is here at last. The summer tomato garden is mostly planted. We have 24 plants in -- and I will most likely find room to plant another eight to ten. This doesn't count the massive numbers of cherry tomatoes that spring up in every nook and cranny of the backyard now. They don't count.

Nope -- we're talking "real" tomatoes here.

So -- what's on the list? What eight to ten heirloom tomato varieties will round out the heirloom tomato garden in the Bird Back 40 this spring? That's a good question! I don't really know the answer just yet. And this is when "horse tradin' time" comes in.

It's time to check in with other gardeners who have also been nurturing heirloom tomato plants from seed during the cold winter months. The question to them is  -- "What You Got?" They return the same question in a coy sort of way. Nobody gives away their hand. This is serious business, friends. It's a bit like five-card stud or any other good hand of poker. Each plant is like a card in a 52-card deck. Some are worth more than others.

Angela Lyons: Knows her Heirloom Tomatoes

The goal of this game? It's the same goal as a high-stakes game of seven-card Follow the Queen: Get the best hand possible. I don't know what eight to ten heirloom tomato plants will round out the Bird summer garden just yet. I'm still drawing cards from the deck. This hand has yet to be played.

This "game," which has some fairly loose rules, is already underway thanks to the super-charged and picture-perfect growing techniques of Sacramento Starter Plant Star Angela Lyons. Once again, this lady has enlisted the help of a magic waterbed to grow some magnificent starter plants -- two of which have already been delivered (plus one pepper starter to boot!).

Angela's gift to the Bird Garden this year is an Early Girl -- which has already produced three small tomatoes just since it was planted into its final home five days ago. But the real prize in this exchange? It's not the Early Girl -- it's the Black Cherry starter that came with it. Black Cherry starter plants are ALWAYS in high demand -- and this one has already found a home in in the garden of a shall-not-be-named, high-ranking, political operative.

Ssssh!! We won't tell the Fair Political Practices Commission. Like they read the blog anyway...

Early Girl is EARLY (no complaints here)

Heirloom starter tomato plants not only serve as trade material for other -- more desirable -- starter plants, they're also good for making friends in high places. In Angela's case -- she received a Tigerella starter in trade. It's not just any Tigerella starter either -- but the best looking and most lush of the Bird Bunch.

So -- if you're going to play this game of Heirloom Tomato Horse Tradin' -- best come prepared. Fortunately -- Mother Nature smiled upon the Bird seed starting efforts this year. We didn't lose a single starter to disease. We didn't lose a single plant to hardening off efforts that took place earlier this April. What does this mean? It means Bill and Venus Bird have drawn the proverbial "Full House" in this year's trading game.

Although it can be hard to assign a "point value" in a trading game like this one (everyone's tomato tastes are different) -- there are some general rules that are universally recognized by most heirloom seed starters. They are as follows:

There's a potato-leaf or two in here somewhere!

POTATO LEAF TOMATOES: Potato leaf starter plants normally produce some of the best and most legendary of tomato names. Brandywine, Marianna's Peace, Pruden's Purple, Stupice, Yellow Brandywine, Magnus, Galina's Yellow and MANY others. A detailed listing of potato-leafed heirloom tomatoes can be found here. If you have potato-leaf starter plants in your collection of seed-starting efforts, you've come to play.

BLACK TOMATOES: Black tomatoes are legendary for their size shape, color and TASTE. The Black Cherry heirloom is -- as I've already related -- highly prized. But it's not the only black tomato on the prized heirloom tomato list. There are others. Why are they so special? It might be due to the fact that you can trace the history of black tomatoes to the Crimean Peninsula. Others defer to the taste. Japanese Black Trifele, for example, is highly prized. Other growers have developed a passion for Black Krim tomatoes. Black tomatoes are good trading partners.

A Livingston Original? Mebbe...

LIVINGSTON TOMATOES: The father of the modern tomato, Alexander Livingston, is credited with developing close to half of the heirloom tomatoes that are grown around the world today. Although many of the "Livingston Originals" have been lost to time, a few like Paragon and Golden Queen are still offered online by a variety of sources. If you've got starter plants that harken back to the days of of the Livingston Seed Company? You're in the "horse tradin' game."

TOMATOES WITH HISTORY: Tomatoes with well-doccumented histories such as Cherokee Purple (grown by Cherokee Indian tribes) and Mortgage Lifter (wondeful story on Radiator Charlie here) are highly prized by heirloom growers. Others on this list include Dr. Wyche's Yellow (fertlized by circus animals) or Homer Fike's Yellow Oxheart (grown by, guess? Homer Fike!). If you've grown a starter plant with an interesting and well-documented history? Welcome to the horse tradin' table!

Tomato plants here, Tomato plants there. What you got?

TOMATOES YOU CAN'T FIND AT A NURSERY: Most Sacramento area nurseries do an excellent job at stocking heirloom tomato plant starters. Capitol Nursery is one place I go often. I'm sure that Green Acres Nursery offers the same kind of selection. Eisley Nursery in Auburn is another location that also stocks up. But when it comes to heirloom tomato plants, you can't possibly stock them all. There are thousands of varieties to choose from. If you're growing a rare variety that can't be found anywhere else other than your backyard? GAME ON!

So -- it's horse tradin' time peoples. What you got?

A Haircut That HURT!

Leggy Heirloom Starter Plants Flopping Over

It was time. I just couldn't bear to look at them anymore. "Them" is pictured to your right. This is how my heirloom tomato starter plants look at the moment as I put them through the "hardening off" process by introducing them to the harsh sunlight of outdoor life.

I was hoping that the introduction to outside conditions would be the kind of "tough love" my heirloom tomato starter plants would need to develop tough stems at the base. And while the "tough love" approach of direct sunlight, cool spring temperatures and breezy days is having the desired effect -- it's not going to result in the kind of stem growth we need that will allow these plants to stand upright.

Leggy starters like these aren't a problem if you've finally arrived at the magic "plant out" date. You can take a variety of actions when faced with the problem of "leggy" starter plants. You can either dig a deep hole and plant the root system and most of the stem deep into soil. Or -- you can dig a long trench and bury most of the plant in soil except for the top four or five inches.

There's just one problem. We're not at "plant out" date yet. In fact, as much as I hoped for an early plant out date -- it ain't gonna happen children. It's still too cold outside. Oh -- sure -- the afternoons (like this afternoon) are wonderful. But our nights are still cold. There's also a chance of another cold rainstorm or two in the long-range forecast. To plant out now? That's like rolling the dice at a craps table. And I don't want to come up snake eyes -- not after caring for these starter plants for as long as I have.

A Leggy Stupice Heirloom Starter

So -- what's the alternative? Continue to let them flop over like they have been? That's a three foot long Stupice starter plant that I'm holding in my fat paw in that photo to the left! Do you know what happens to starter plants that flop over like that? Eventually -- they break in two. Or worse yet -- they snap at the base of the plant. Know what that means? GAME OVER!

No thanks.

The second option? Transplant into larger pots. In my case? I would need much LARGER pots that would allow me to plant these leggy starters deeply. Stems that are planted into soil WILL develop a secondary set of roots. That's one of the nice things about tomato plants -- you can bury them deeply and not hurt them. But -- there's just one problem. I didn't have that many half-gallon pots. I certainly did not have the extra soil on hand. Finally, transplanting into that large of a new pot could possibly delay plant out which should come at the end of this month.

Time for a haircut? Mebbe!

Transplanting is only half the battle. Once transplanted, you've got to allow the starters to expand and grow a new set of roots -- otherwise you can shock them by removing the plants from starter cups during plant out. Even worse -- you can snap a tender starter in half. Know what that means? GAME OVER!

So -- what's a tomato nutcase like Bill Bird to do? I suddenly remembered that I had rooted several varieties of basil in a glass of water during the last growing season. Sacramento area gardener Carri Stokes assured me it would work. And -- it did work. Rooting those basil starters brought back an even more distant memory where Venus and I had taken the same steps with a cutting of lemon thyme that Venus received from a colleague at work. The cutting developed root systems while placed in a cup of water before we transplanted it into the herb bed. Today, it's one of the most prolific herbs in the backyard bed (it's also a good pollen source for the bees -- but more on that later).

And so the inevitable thought crossed my mind. If you can root herbs like basil and thyme by placing cuttings in a glass of water -- can you do the same with tomato plant cuttings? Will they take root in a glass of water? Can they successfully transplanted into starter cups after rooting in water?

Snip, Snip!

For questions like these and more -- I usually turn to the TomatoMania forum or Group on Yahoo. It's a community of like-minded heirloom tomato nutcases like myself -- where you can ask questions and get quick answers. Sure enough -- they all answered in the affirmative -- so the haircut activity took place in earnest earlier today.

Trust me when I tell you: this was anything but EASY. Venus and I have babied these starters from seed for months. We've made every effort to provide them with good soil, light, water, heat -- all the elements one needs for producing starter plants indoors. To suddenly WHACK them back by several feet seemed a little inhuman -- but it had to be done.

And if the action resulted in additional starter plants for family and friends???? Well -- there could be an upside to this endeavour. At least 300 people at work have asked me to "put them on the list" for starter plants. This is one impressive list -- and no I won't be able to fill every last order or desire -- even if every plant roots.

Will They Take Root?

So today -- the three-foot long Stupice got a nice "haircut." So did the two-foot Brandywine. Tigerella also offered up a nice top stem -- as did Bradley, Kelloggs Breakfast, Marianna's Peace and a few others.

The cuttings from each starter plant have been placed in clear plastic cups -- as pictured -- filled with cool water -- labeled and placed on a bright and sunny location on a windowsill. A number of things could happen in the next two weeks. They could root. A marauding cat could knock them into next week (always a possibility in the home for wayward and bratty cats). Or, they could simply shrivel up and die.

As with every gardening experiment? Time will tell!

An Interesting Observation....

An early morning walk through ye olde vegetable garden can yield many interesting discoveries...

First -- my thanks to sister-in-law Leana Barrantes -- who was kind enough to gift me with an old digital camera she no longer uses. It just happens to be the best camera I've ever had -- and the photos prove it.

This camera appears to be idiot proof. I should know -- since I'm an idiot -- First Class.

My friends -- the photo to your immediate right represents one section of the Bird heirloom tomato garden in early August. I have quite the conundrum here. Perhaps you can help me figure it out?

By looking at the first photo above -- you'll notice that the tomato plants in the raised bed to the right are much taller than the plants in the raised bed to your left. The taller plants represent the starter plants I received earlier this year from Farmer Fred Hoffman. The plants to your left represent my starters.

This comes as no surprise to me whatsoever. Fred's starter plants TOWERED over our sickly offerings this year. Although my plants are now catching up and fruiting quite nicely -- they still haven't caught up to Fred's starter plants and may never catch up to them.

Here is the same shot of the two beds taken at a different angle. The bed containing my starter plants is in front. Fred's starter plants are located the next bed over. The PVC cages that you see in these photos stand about six feet high. The starter plants from Fred Hoffman have grown through the top of these PVC cages and stand at a height of about eight feet.

My starters -- meanwhile -- have barely begun to approach the six foot level.

Why is this so confusing? Well -- to be honest -- it's not. I expected as much. When you start with tall and healthy starter plants -- you're bound to get better growth. The proof is in these two photos.

BUT -- that's not all.

There's another section in the Bird Back 40 also dedicated to our heirloom tomato efforts. It's yet another raised bed located on the other side of the backyard. This is an 8X8 wide raised bed that we use for growing tomatoes -- and another section has been reserved for all things melon.

The plants located in this bed -- pictured to your right -- are not Fred Hoffman's starter plants. They are -- or were -- our sickly starter plants. Notice how these are growing through the top of the PVC cages. And -- keep in mind -- that this bed was planted one week AFTER we planted out in the two beds pictured above.

The tomato plants located in this bed are about the same size of the bed that contains Fred's starter plants. These starter plants were just as sickly as the rest of our starters. They were nowhere near as tall or lush as the plants gifted to us by Fred -- yet as the photo clearly shows -- they are now just as tall as Fred's plants if not taller.

How could this be. Why are these plants so lush -- green and tall? Why are they so much larger than my other starters in the photos above?

But that's not all.

The tomato plants located in this bed -- again pictured to your left in a somewhat wider shot (those are wifey's sunflowers in the background) -- were slow to produce fruit this year. I had blamed the lack of production on the weather (which continues to be less than ideal) -- but yet another strange development took place about two weeks ago.

These plants -- after growing to a height of six or seven feet and not producing much -- suddenly set a large and surprising crop of tomatoes. I'm not complaining mind you -- no not at all. Some of our best heirloom offerings are located in this bed. That includes the time-honored classic of Brandywine and other varieties like Tigerella, Arkansas Traveler and German Orange Strawberry (a new addition to the Bird heirloom tomato garden this season).

In fact -- the numbers of tomatoes that have formed on the German Orange Strawberry would bring a smile to the face of any heirloom grower. The plant is simply loaded with fruit from top to bottom. The same development has taken place with the Brandywine -- which is planted right next to it and the Tigerella (which is rather hard to reach because it's blocked by melons).

So -- what gives? Well -- to be honest -- I'm not sure. This has happened once before -- with a black tomato variety that Venus and I planted two years ago. Oh -- the plant grew to an impressive size sure enough. But production was lacking. In fact -- to be honest -- this black variety didn't produce a single, solitary tomato.

But -- upon reaching a height of five to six feet -- the tomato plant stopped growing and suddenly fruited a crop of 30-40 tomatoes within the space of a week. It went from the "least productive" category to "Whoa" in the space of a few hours. I still haven't figured out how or why that happened.

It just did.

If I had to guess? I think I may have been a little too *generous* with the amendments that I added to the soil last spring before Venus and I planted. The 8X8 bed was amended with chicken manure compost -- which is a tad hotter than the steer manure compost that I normally use in the other beds. I may have also added in a tad too much in the way of pelleted fertilizers -- which I also use when I recharge our raised beds for the upcoming season.

Too much nitrogen will result in a strong and healthy tomato plant with very little fruit set. I do like to experiment somewhat when recharging these beds for the upcoming growing season (you learn through screwing up) -- and it's possible that I "crossed the line" when it came to the all important nutrient of NITROGEN. Yes -- it's essential for tomato plant growth or any vegetable plant growth.

But -- to be honest? This is really just a guess on my part. It could be too much nitrogen. It could be something else entirely.

Your thoughts?

To Prune? Or Not to Prune?

I was inspired to write this entry about pruning tomato plants after reading Farmer Fred Hoffman's take on the issue. Bottom line? I'd listen to Fred. Fred doesn't prune. He doesn't advocate the pruning of tomato plants. In fact -- he's got the scientific research to back up his claims. I've been burned far too many times by ignoring that man's good advice --  so whatever he says? Take it to heart. It's the real truth.

But -- at the same time -- I am also reminded of a very good gardening friend by the name of Tom Matkey. Tom was fortunate enough to recently retire from the rat race of a 9-5 job -- and now splits his time sitting on a beach in Hawaii or tending his tomato plants in the backyard of his Craftsman home in the Southern California community of Glendora.

Where did I meet Tom? Where I meet most of my gardening friends on the internet: which is usually some chat room dealing with one of my most favorite subjects in the whole wide world: Heirloom Tomatoes.

Tom had posted up some pictures of a unique looking tomato cage that looked strangly like 3/4 inch PVC. I wrote to him and asked, "is that really PVC?" Sure enough -- he wrote back -- and it was PVC indeed.

Tom had come up with a unique design for a PVC cage that just looked -- well -- rather ingenious. I'd had some troubles keeping my plants standing straight up in those dinky wire cages the previous year -- a situation that he also faced. That's when he informed me that those dinky wire cages are like a modern-day slinky -- and will fail the moment you need them the most.

So -- being the good gardener that I am -- I copied (ripped off) Tom's cage idea and continue to use it to this very day. I've never lost a plant since -- not even during a rare windstorm in late August. The PVC cages stand up to every challenge that has been thrown at them. As a matter of fact -- this will be my third year of using the PVC cage design -- which you can access here or read more about here.

But there's another tip that Tom also passed along with his cage design: Tom prunes his tomato plants. He doesn't just prune. He REALLY prunes. I mean -- a HARD PRUNE. As Tom explains: "I never let my plants get beyond four leaders (stems). Every other leader that develops gets pruned off immediately."

Now -- I had heard of pruning before. But never pruning in a method such as this one? FOUR LEADERS? That's ALL? My tomato plants usually grow into a jumbled mess of nearly 100 LEADERS by the time growing season is in the books. I can't imagine the kind of work it would take to prune a tomato plant to just four leaders.

But then again -- there's no arguing with the results. You can plainly see them in this photo. This is a photo of Tom's Tigerlla tomato plant taken in 2007. I was amazed by the fruit set on this one plant. I may have come close to duplicating this feat last year -- which by the way was one of the best on record. But I don't get this kind of fruit set every year.

Tom -- it appears -- does.

That's not the only photo Tom would sent of the tomato garden in his Craftsman home backyard. The luscious Lemon Boy harvest in 2008 also caught my eye and attention. And again -- Tom used the same method: Tomato plants were pruned to four leaders and four leaders only. Each leader was then tied to one of the four PVC uprights and trained to grow straight up and out.

All tomato flowers and subsequent fruit were generated from just those four leaders.

I've never seen anything like this before. To this day -- despite my various conversations with heirloom tomato lovers from around the world (there are a lot of us folks) -- I've never come across anyone who does a hard prune like this and keeps it up through the entire growing season.

Oh sure -- there are people who do prune. There are also advocates of pruning. But not anything like this. Do the math people! If you're growing 30-40 heirloom tomato plants in the backyard -- and you're pruning to just four leaders? You're out in the garden every darn day and pruning those tomato plants whether you like it or not!

For me? I think I'm going to stick with Fred's advice and leave my plants alone. They're been doing just fine without human interference for centuries -- so why upset the apple cart? Plus -- Fred -- as a Certified Master Gardener -- has the scientific evidence and study to back up his claims.

Then again -- a picture says a thousand words -- doesn't it?