Garden 2024

[BCMtnHound]

I trim off the leaves of the bottom 1/3, or to the first fruit, as the season goes. With the turn of the season, I trim the tops down the first leaf above a fruiting stem, remove any suckers not yet bearing fruit and branches still only in flower.
No idea if this helps with ripening, but it makes me feel like I know something about tomatoes. And I can see the fruit in the jungle that those tomato plants can become.

[The AD]

I have a metric fuckton of tomotos still on the vine here in the PNW, and they are nearly all green. Finally had a couple cherry tomatoes pop ripe and they were decent... i think the 2week long cool and heavy rain spell we had recently kind of watered down the flavor. Then again, these are a new tomato to me, so maybe they just arent that sweet? Really hoping that fall doesnt hit too soon and i can get a decent tomato harvest this year... i started these fuckers 3 weeks earlier than last year to try and ensure id have a summer harvest and the weather just didnt cooperate with a really late spring, and an early fall. ugh.

I feel like we'll really know climate change has taken hold when we can consistently grow tomatoes in the PNW.

[californiagrown]

I feel like we'll really know climate change has taken hold when we can consistently grow tomatoes in the PNW.

See my username. A decade in and i'm still learning up here lol.

[Boissal]

the problem is -

year one you have ten tomatillos
year two you have one hundred tomatillos
year three you only have tomatillos

This. They will come back, and take over. Same with ground cherries. Harvesting both is a PITA as the bulk of the fruits are hanging out on the ground under the vines. Knowing what to do with them is the next challenge unless you want to eat chile verde for a month straight...

[LongShortLong]

If the cold kills your tomato plants, keep all your tomatoes. IME, most will eventually ripen if you bring them inside. Same goes for broken branches, wind dropped green tomatoes, and so forth.

[Cisco Kid]

The only tomatoes we've had any success with here in a river valley with the PNW low angle sun are the Sun Gold and Sweet Million. Bumper crops. Sweet eaten right off the bush.

[riser4]

I love sun gold.

[babybear]

I agree, sun golds are my favorite tomato ever
We usually have to finish them inside with our cold nights/ short growing season but maybe with some more climate change we can get there :P

[tgapp]

man we got wrecked on our tomatoes this year. everything was so slow to start, and even our neighbor (whose garden has been featured in at least one home and garden magazine at this point - she's the real deal) is having an incredibly hard time getting things to ripen. we've had probably 5 tomatoes this year. so frustrating.

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[babybear]

we had a pretty decent year here because we had more nights over 50*F

We had a 33-34* night last week. Lost a couple annuals-nbd

[m2711c]

man we got wrecked on our tomatoes this year. everything was so slow to start, and even our neighbor (whose garden has been featured in at least one home and garden magazine at this point - she's the real deal) is having an incredibly hard time getting things to ripen. we've had probably 5 tomatoes this year. so frustrating.

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i'm sorry to hear that. it's usually feast or famine for us with the tomato harvest. but, for once, we had a perfect middle of the road season with the tomatoes. just enough beefsteak for our tasty fuckin' blt needs and plenty of the cherry types for our two person salad needs with out the usual overabundance going to waste.

never happened before, so a repeat performance next season is highly doubtful... but we gonna try anyways!



fact.

[Boissal]

The season's been weird in SLC as well. I'm usually drowning in tomatoes by now and have canned multiple batches but so far I've been able to keep up with the supply by eating it at breakfast. A couple plants died early (looks like a soil issue, possibly over fertilizing) and the others are slow. Lots of green fruit that is starting to come in. The peppers are blowing up after a slow start, I need to ferment some asap (have a brutally hot macedonian variety that smells very smoky, will be interesting), make some ajvar, and freeze some as well. The squashes are under control for once, it helps that I didn't plant a zucchini (even the chickens get tired of those). The beans are not doing too great, I can keep up with the 2 plants without issue. I'm getting seriously annoyed with the okra though, it usually gives a few pods so this year I planted 3 and they're insanely productive. Not the easiest thing to cook with. I have 2 eggplants that are about 5' tall with about 3 fruits between them. Not sure those will ever ripen. The cucumber is doing great and the cantaloupes are plentiful but not tasty this year. I think I'll go back to the trusted French varieties, a lot of the more exotic ones I've tried look cool but taste boring. The raspberries are in their 1st year and not established enough to fruit. Overall it's a bit of a bust...

[Thaleia]

Pepper grower's - what are you doing with your super hots? I usually make various hot sauce's but I still have plenty from last year in the freezer.

I make Trinidadian Chow (I used my cucumbers instead of mango) and jerk sauce sometimes but I'll still have loads left over, looking for some new ideas.

[Buzzworthy]

Now that it is a bit cooler my tomatoes are finally coming in. Lost a my beefsteak plant to the heat, so sad.

[skaredshtles]

Now that it is a bit cooler my tomatoes are finally coming in. Lost a my beefsteak plant to the heat, so sad.

Yep - I'm buried in tomatoes presently... better late than never, though, I suppose.

[gravitylover]

[BCMtnHound]

Pepper grower's - what are you doing with your super hots? I usually make various hot sauce's but I still have plenty from last year in the freezer.

I make Trinidadian Chow (I used my cucumbers instead of mango) and jerk sauce sometimes but I'll still have loads left over, looking for some new ideas.

Wife has been making cowboy candy the past couple years with our jalapeños. Goes really well with breaky eggs, on pizzas, grilled sausage and the like as a garnish. Lots of recipes on the web (wife doesn’t follow any recipe to close, so can’t help you there). Nice balance of sweet and hot.
Can’t really grow super hots, my ladies’ palates are too delicate to justify the greenhouse space. Would love to try and grow some habanero’s, bonnets or ghosts. Jalapeños and cayennes are as spicy as I can grow.

[XXX-er]

man we got wrecked on our tomatoes this year. everything was so slow to start, and even our neighbor (whose garden has been featured in at least one home and garden magazine at this point - she's the real deal) is having an incredibly hard time getting things to ripen. we've had probably 5 tomatoes this year. so frustrating.

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My dad's 1st gen italian buddies from Abruzzi with the whole Vancover city lot completely planted ( no grass) would pull out any whole tomato plants that still had fruit to hang upside down , nothing went to waste in the old country

[Boissal]

Pepper grower's - what are you doing with your super hots? I usually make various hot sauce's but I still have plenty from last year in the freezer.

I make Trinidadian Chow (I used my cucumbers instead of mango) and jerk sauce sometimes but I'll still have loads left over, looking for some new ideas.

That's the curse of the hot peppers right there. You go with a couple plants, shitty season guaranteed, you get barely enough to ferment hot sauce. The following year you go with 6 plants, banner season, you're drowning in capsaicin for eons.
I have 3 types of peppers right now I can't use for anything but hot sauce. Everyone I know is getting hot sauce for Xmas. I tried sneaking one of the least spicy peppers in breakfast this morning, got shouted at by Ms Boissal and little Miss Boissal.

[stapes]

Plum tree had a bumper crop this year. We just pulled off every fruit we could get to a few days ago. Been giving friends, neighbors, kids’ teachers bags of plums and our one corner of the kitchen counter is still covered. Eating them throughout the day. Probably need to end up making some jam or something. I bet we had around 20 lbs just guesstimating based on what I carried in.

Tomatoes also went off. Making a buncha sauce to freeze. More to harvest…

[riser4]

I tried sneaking one of the least spicy peppers in breakfast this morning, got shouted at by Ms Boissal and little Miss Boissal.

That sounds like quite a scene.

[singlesline]

Any hot sauce basic tips?

Never made any before but I have a smallish crop of peppers that I don't really know what to do with.

Bunch of tiny thai chilis and some Hungarian hot wax (plus some sweet big daddy, but those will be used for other things assuming they manage to ripen in time).

Also a bunch of tomatillos.

[MakersTeleMark]

This will get you started: https://insaneinthebrine.com/salsa-verde-hot-sauce/

[John_B]

We may have miscalculated how many basil plants we needed this year.

[Boissal]

We may have miscalculated how many basil plants we needed this year.

Almost worth taking the mower to it...
Make a humongous batch of pesto and freeze in ice cube trays. Once the pieces are solid pop them in a ziploc and you'll never need to make/buy pesto again.
Some people recommend keeping the parmesan out of the recipe for freezing and adding it later. I've done both, can't say I've noticed a difference, dry cheeses freeze well when shredded. I also drown every dish with another large bunch of parmesan so may have missed any weirdness with the frozen part.
Bonus tip: if the ice cube trays are fresh out of the freezer when you fill them with pesto there's a good chance the oils won't soak in and you'll be able to wash and re-use them without having basil taste in all future ice cubes.