Thursday, June 30, 2016
Game Over
The Champ finally has a bloom. Unfortunately it doesn't look like a Megabloom....IT LOOKS LIKE A GIGABLOOM!!! Honestly, it could be a terabloom. Unfortunately for the rest of you it also looks like GAME OVER. Although a little disturbing, I am glad The Big Dog posted his artificial tomato insemination technique...I will probably get my wife to the dirty work for me.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Pollinating megablooms
Giant tomatoes start with giant fused blossoms, or "megablooms". But the biggest megabloom won't do you any good if it doesn't get properly pollinated. Tomato blossoms normally self-pollinate without difficulty, but for some reason, big megablooms need a little help setting fruit. This is probably the most important thing that I learned last year, so pay attention...
Keep your eye out for larger than normal blossoms. A simple count of the green petals or "sepals" will give you an idea of how big your blossom is. Normal blossoms have 8. Anything with 12 or more sepals is good. I think last year's winner had 12 or 14. This is the biggest megabloom I've ever seen at 22 sepals.
The best time of day for pollinating is supposedly 10-4, but I've been successful doing this in the evening after work. First, you need to gather pollen from as many blossoms as you can find. With a vibrating electric toothbrush, gently vibrate the blossoms and catch the pollen as it falls out. Some people recommend using a lens from an old pair of sunglasses, but I've found with even the slightest breeze, the pollen tends to blow away. So I prefer a dark bowl to catch the pollen.
BTW, one person on a tomato forum said she gets about 75% success rate just vibrating the blossoms with the toothbrush, and not doing any of the following steps. I've been regularly vibrating the blossoms on all my eating tomatoes, and I seem to have set a larger than normal amount of green tomatoes.
Once you've collected the pollen, you need to prepare the blossom for pollination. The blossom should be receptive to pollinating as soon as the yellow part opens up. Don't wait too long, because the window of opportunity for pollination is only a few days. After vibrating off any pollen from the male yellow part, you want to remove the yellow to provide easy access to the female tip, or stigma. I just pinch them with my fingers, and they peel right off.
The emasculated blossom will look something like this. On a normal blossom, there will be a single pistil, and the stigma will be just a dot in the middle. But on a really good megabloom, it will form a long ridge, and may have multiple ridges, like this one.
With your finger, wipe the pollen out of the bowl until your finger tip is all chalked up.
Then gently dab the pollen onto the stigma. You don't have to push. The tip should be sticky, and just a gentle touch should coat it with pollen. If you look closely, you can see that the ridged tip of this one has been dusted with pollen.
If you do this correctly and the pollination takes, you'll see the tomato start growing after a few days to a week or so. Here's a nice megabloom that I apparently pollinated correctly, because it's growing.
This one was on a Big Zac that I had slated for growing eating tomatoes. But dang, that tomato is looking so good, I may need to repurpose this plant! It's already as big as anything that Fred grew last year, and it's only a few days old.
Keep your eye out for larger than normal blossoms. A simple count of the green petals or "sepals" will give you an idea of how big your blossom is. Normal blossoms have 8. Anything with 12 or more sepals is good. I think last year's winner had 12 or 14. This is the biggest megabloom I've ever seen at 22 sepals.
The best time of day for pollinating is supposedly 10-4, but I've been successful doing this in the evening after work. First, you need to gather pollen from as many blossoms as you can find. With a vibrating electric toothbrush, gently vibrate the blossoms and catch the pollen as it falls out. Some people recommend using a lens from an old pair of sunglasses, but I've found with even the slightest breeze, the pollen tends to blow away. So I prefer a dark bowl to catch the pollen.
BTW, one person on a tomato forum said she gets about 75% success rate just vibrating the blossoms with the toothbrush, and not doing any of the following steps. I've been regularly vibrating the blossoms on all my eating tomatoes, and I seem to have set a larger than normal amount of green tomatoes.
Once you've collected the pollen, you need to prepare the blossom for pollination. The blossom should be receptive to pollinating as soon as the yellow part opens up. Don't wait too long, because the window of opportunity for pollination is only a few days. After vibrating off any pollen from the male yellow part, you want to remove the yellow to provide easy access to the female tip, or stigma. I just pinch them with my fingers, and they peel right off.
The emasculated blossom will look something like this. On a normal blossom, there will be a single pistil, and the stigma will be just a dot in the middle. But on a really good megabloom, it will form a long ridge, and may have multiple ridges, like this one.
With your finger, wipe the pollen out of the bowl until your finger tip is all chalked up.
Then gently dab the pollen onto the stigma. You don't have to push. The tip should be sticky, and just a gentle touch should coat it with pollen. If you look closely, you can see that the ridged tip of this one has been dusted with pollen.
If you do this correctly and the pollination takes, you'll see the tomato start growing after a few days to a week or so. Here's a nice megabloom that I apparently pollinated correctly, because it's growing.
This one was on a Big Zac that I had slated for growing eating tomatoes. But dang, that tomato is looking so good, I may need to repurpose this plant! It's already as big as anything that Fred grew last year, and it's only a few days old.
Friday, June 17, 2016
More MBs
The megablooms keep coming! Check out this bad boy on a Big Zac. I thought I had a dandelion growing in my tomato patch. I count about 18 sepals, with a wide fused pistil in the middle.
And check out the thick stem feeding this sucker. You know it'll be capable of supporting a monster in a couple of months.
I went out yesterday armed with my electric toothbrush and did my best to pollinate this beast. I left it dusted like a powdered donut, so hopefully it takes. The problem is it's growing in a container, which historically has produced small tomatoes for me. I intended this plant to produce eating tomatoes, but I may have to repurpose it now.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Blooming giants
My giants are getting their first trusses. Three of my five plants have big, fat blossoms. It's too early to say if they're true megablooms, but this one on the 1.64# Hrenchir Big Zac looks promising.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Green Giant
Do not adjust the color on your monitor. These are the darkest green leaves I've ever seen on a tomato plant. I read on a gardening blog about a guy who added epsom salt to his containers and got crazy green growth. For this plant, I added 1 tbsp in an 18 gal container.
For reference, here is what I would consider a normal plant, with no added epsom salt.
The downside to epsom salt is supposedly increased blossom end rot. So my plan is to kick start the plants with epsom salt, get them all jacked up, then allow it to wash out by the time the plants start fruiting in a few weeks.
For reference, here is what I would consider a normal plant, with no added epsom salt.
The downside to epsom salt is supposedly increased blossom end rot. So my plan is to kick start the plants with epsom salt, get them all jacked up, then allow it to wash out by the time the plants start fruiting in a few weeks.
Friday, June 10, 2016
Early Megabloom
I just finished planting the last of my tomatoes, and already I've got a giant megabloom. This one is as big as I've ever seen. It's hard to say what is and what isn't a sepal on this gnarly beast, but I count about 20 (8 is normal). It's about as big as Fred's #2 and #3 plants, combined.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Goal setting
Aim for the sky...
Near-world record from late last year. Might have been a new world record if it
had stayed on the vine a bit longer.
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=250090
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=250091
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=250403
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=250090
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=250091
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=250403
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Oh hail
Yesterday's hailstorm was tough to watch. Good timing. I just finished planting the last of my tomatoes a day earlier, doh! With much trepidation, I checked on my babies last night. This was the worst of it, and it was no big deal. I just stood her back up. Did anybody lose any plants?
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
The Table is Set!
The baby giants are all in place and ready for warmer weather. The lettuce, etc. will all get cleared out once the tomato plants start doing their thing.
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