Tomatoes, Kumquat, Bargain Basement Peace Rose

It's been a week of hot days, high 80s. The tomatoes obviously like it because they're turning red. Would they turn red anyway, simply as a function of time, regardless of the temperature? I heard that citrus definitely need heat to ripen. The two tomatoes are different types with different times to mature, but they seem to be getting red at the same rate. Maybe one gets deep, deep red over a longer period and the other one is ripe when more pink? Here are two pictures.

I missed the peak flush of the Nagami kumquat, but you can see that there were quite a few blossoms. I forgot to sniff them -- citrus fragrance is wonderful. I hope many of the blossoms form fruit. This plant didn't make any fruit last year. The Bearss Lime tree seems to be still recovering from the root pruning I gave it 2 years ago. This Spring, it flowered and formed a few tiny fruit buds but they fell off.

Other developments in my garden is the Peace hybrid rose is recovering well from near-death. Surprising that it did not tolerate full sun. It has been in bright shade for at least 2 months and is leafing out again. It was one of the very cheap bare-root plants that was on final sale at the hardware store for $3. I thought that it was not bred to be a bargain basement plant so should have as good genes as its expensive cousins; therefore, after a few seasons in a good environment, it should be fine. It seems that I was wrong.

It's naive of me to believe that plants would have less variability within a given specie than in animals. Derivatively, I thought that nurserymen might sort their plants for sale, like transistors are sorted, or like California olives, into "Ultimate," "Superior" and "Fine." But among plants for sale, there is no such grading system displayed; only the reputation of the nursery, or the breeder, like Graham Thomas would be a mark of quality for a rose.

Unusually Cool Summer

Global Warming, huh? We've had two really hot days so far, the rest of the time only high 70s. The plants don't know what to do.

In early May, I planted two tomato plants, taking it seriously this time. Dug a foot deep trench, added more than 25% soil amendment, got premium 4" plants from Yamagami's. I even buried a soaker hose, put on bark mulch and fancy tomato cages. The good part of these expensive cages is the supporting bars clip on so I repositioned them as the tomatoes grew, to support the heavy fruits. Worth the money.

I pointed the sprinkler heads away so that I can water them less frequently but deeply, and not water spot the leaves. I turned on the soaker hose, just a trickle, for an hour or so once a week. Last week, I forgot to turn the tap off so it was on for more than 6 hours! Then I read that soaker hoses emit a gallon per minute per foot. Seems too high a rate, but in any case, that deep watering should ding my water bill.

The big 'muscular' tomatoes are supposed to take 60 days to ripen. See? They're multi-lobed rather than spherical. The fancy 'French chef favorite' ones are supposed to take 70 days. It's been, oh, 65 days. Maybe they'll turn red in the next 5 days? Too much water and no warm weather means even when they turn red, they might not be very sweet.

Here's a picture of the French Chef's Favorite

(not their real name). Smaller fruit, smaller leaves, fewer fruit per branch, shorter plant, and not as red when ripe.

Well, I gotta say, growing big tomatoes is more rewarding than growing cherry tomatoes. All those years of growing various varieties of cherries only end up feeding the bugs. These tomatoes are high enough up, I guess, to keep them bug-free, so far.

Other garden notes: My Nagami Kumquat was looking sad: yellow and no blossoms. I thought it was root bound so finally bit the bullet and put it into the ground. Highly amended soil in a wide but not so deep hole: planted 2-3 inches above soil level; landscape cloth to control soil erosion and bark mulch. Two weeks go by, no reaction at all; leaves still yellow. But today, presto, lots of little flower buds. maybe I'll get some kumquats after all? Will post a photo when the flowers bloom.