The Heat Has Broken: Get Your Fall Crops in Now!

The days have fallen to the 80's and the nights have dropped to the 60's and 70's according to today's forecast. It is time to clean out your beat up vines and tomatoes and clear away over grown garden spaces.

I am a bit gardened out as always happens about now. However, I am going to coffee up this weekend and plant a complete Fall garden. Every year I slack on it and I regret it come late September.

Some definites for this weekend are peas. The seeds can handle cold weather and some light frost while germinating but the plants will be killed by frost. You want to get your peas in now. A good trick to speed up germination is to soak the seed for about 2 hours. Let them absorb some water. Don't over soak them. The swelling seeds can be come fragile. But definitely get the peas in your garden.

Lettuces and kales should go in the ground. If you don't have room right now. Start them in seed trays or cups and transplant them into the garden later.

Radishes can go directly in the ground. Carrots should go in now too.  What you want to do is check the maturity date for the vegetables you are planting and you want to them to hit maturity about a week before your average first day of frost.  Remember lettuces and kales can handle light frost.

August 15th to September 15th (General Guidelines)

Radishes
Kale
Lettuce
Peas
Cabbage (transplants)
Cauliflower (transplants)
Spinach
Beets
Carrots
Broccoli (transplants)
Basil
Cilantro

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Yelp! A Place to Find Real Reviews by Real People

While I plan family vacations, I also often ponder the idea of buying property in a favorite vacation area. Sure renting has its benefits but I often wonder what might be for sale. Housing has been an issue in the US for a while so I figured I search homes for sale in Hawaii. I stumbled across Yelp. I saw a review for a real estate service in Hawaii and noticed the website was full of thousands of reviews about anything you could imagine. Yelp boasts it has real reviews by real people.

The site is set up in a way that allows you to easily find reviews by category or by city. They have messaging and talking forums that let you easily share and gather information. Not only can you find reviews but you can write them. Have you had a great experience that you want to forward or did you have such a terrible experience that you want to share it so no one else has to share your pain? Yelp is the place to find reviews and post reviews. The site is built on real people making real reviews on everything they encounter in life.

Tomato Seed Saving a Few Pictures

I am in the process of learning how to save seeds. Another week or so of experimenting and using different techniques and I will write a formal picture blog. So far so good. Here is what it looks like.

Tomato Seed Fermentation:Gary Pilarchik

The purpose of fermenting your tomato seeds is to improve the germination rate. When tomatoes rot, they naturally ferment and dissolve a gel sac around the seeds that inhibit germination. You are doing what nature does but in a jar. After about 5-7 days of fermenting, the seeds settle to the bottom of the jar.

Tomato Seeds Settling: Gary Pilarchik

Below are different days of fermentation. The liquids separate. Seeds fall to the bottom and a gentle swirl helps mix things up. The goal is to allow fermentation, as mentioned, to work and remove the gel sac around the seeds. When seeds settle to the bottom that typically means they are good to go.

Moldy Fermented Tomato Seeds: Gary Pilachik

Different Points in Tomato Seed Fermenting: Gary Pilarchik

A Light Swirl to Mix the Tomato Fermentation: Gary Pilarchik

Rinsed seeds are set out for drying. Use a coffee filter. The seeds will not stick to that. Drying can take 7 days or more. They must be dry before you store them or they will mold.

Drying Tomato Seeds for Next Year: Gary Pilarchik

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Tomato Profile: The 'Brandywine Red & Suddath's Strain' Heirloom Tomatoes (Video)

Basic Tomato Shapes and Heirloom Tomato Varieties

This is the 'Orange Russian 117' heirloom variety. It is classified as an ox-heart shape based on the clear shape of the tomato.  It is also a bi-color variety that is just starting to turn as of this week. The fruits are surprisingly large over 12 oz.

Heirloom Tomato 'Orange Russian 117': Gary Pilarchik

These two tomatoes are 'Brandywine Suddath's Strain'. They are approaching 16 oz. The are classified as beefsteak tomatoes which typically push 12+ oz and approach 2 pounds based on the variety. This variety is the 16+ oz.

Heirloom Tomato 'Brandywine Suddath's Strain': Gary Pilarchik

This variety is the 'Baxter Bush Cherry'.  Without my hand in the picture they might look larger but typically fall in the 1-2 oz range. Cherry size is just as it sounds.

'Baxter Bush Cherry' Tomato: Gary Pilarchik

'Baxter Bush Cherry': Gary Pilarchik

This is 'Brandywine Red'. It grows 12 -16 oz which is a bit smaller then the 'Suddath's Strain' above.

Heirloom Tomato 'Brandywine Red': Gary Pilarchik

This variety is 'Homestead'. It is your standard 8 ounce tomato. They will grow 6 -10 ounces. They are typically classified as slicing or globe tomatoes.

Heirloom Tomato 'Homestead': Gary Pilarchik

This is the 'Black Plum' and it is classified as a plum tomato. You can tell by the oblong shape. It might look similar to a grape tomato with out my hand to give you some perception. Grape tomatoes are about the size of grapes at 1 ounce if that. This plum is 2 or 3 sizes larger then a grape and it is easily 1ounce.

Heirloom Tomato 'Black Plum': Gary Pilarchik

This is another cherry tomato called 'Glacier'. It was one of my early tomatoes and it turned out to be great. It fruited early and still is producing. These are smaller cherries when compared the the 'Baxter Bush Cherry'. These are well under 1 ounce.

Heirloom Tomato 'Glacier': Gary Pilarchik

What is interesting about the 'Delicious' variety is that is a beefsteak type that is suppose to challenge 2 pounds. These guys (all of them) are lucky if they push 8 ounces. Why? This plant did battle blossom end rot which I corrected. There is also 40 plus fruit on the plant. Tomato size is based on a lot of factors. Blossom end rot and over 40 tomatoes to mature probably caused the smaller size. 

Heirloom Tomato 'Delicious': Gary Pilarchik