Heirloom Tomatoes – Great Tasting and Easy To Grow

	What’s an Heirloom? Modern supermarket “hybrids,” are bred for their long shelf-life, but classic “heirloom” varieties are picked for their superior flavors. There are hundreds of varieties of heirlooms that gardeners around the world have carefully selected and preserved for generations, so you’ll find much more than just red tomatoes – you’ll discover green, yellow, orange, purple, and even black ones (man say these tastes best). Some will be sweet, some spicy and others smokey; they’ll range in size from tiny cherries to giant fruit that weigh over two pounds.
	How Do I Pick? With so many heirloom varieties, nurseries and chain stores are only able to carry a limited selection, so small gardeners have been stuck with just a few options. Recently though, specialty farms have begun shipping sturdy young plants direct to gardeners. Some even offer themed collections made up of popular varieties, so picking which plants to grow is easy. You can find these collections and a huge selection of individual varieties through websites like the online gardening center, Windowbox.com. They offer a range of packs, each with a different theme, including: beefsteak tomatoes container growers, high yeild plants, huge fruit plants, Italian paste & sauce, weather tolerant, cherry tomatoes, and more.
	From UPS to BLT Once you’ve got the right plants for you, it’s just a matter of raising them. Thankfully, heirlooms are hardy (they have to be to have lasted so long), and they’re easy to grow. Most heirlooms are “indeterminate,” which means they grow like a vine, and they’ll produce fruit all season long – until the first frost. “Determinate” plants are more like a bush, and they typically produce all their tomatoes in one batch. Depending on which you’ve selected, they’ll require slightly different care. Basically though, with sun, water, a little fertilizer and pruning, you’ll be enjoying delicious tomatoes all summer long.
	Where Do I get Help? Many tomato growers share their knowledge on the web, and this increased communication has helped the heirloom community expand significantly. Many sites feature growing hints and tips as well as discussion forums. Windowbox.com offers a detailed tomato growing guide (download here) that is a great help throughout the season, and if that’s not enough, their group of online experts shares basic growing tips and answers specific questions.

Raspberries…Yummy!

Who doesn’t love raspberries? Rubus idaeus (red raspberries) and R. occidentalis taste good! Your best bet for growing raspberries is to transplant them. They should be planted in early winter or spring when the suckers are dormant. If you live in zone six or higher (read further south) you can plant in the fall. They should be planted two to three feet apart in rows that are four feet apart. If you use deep beds, you may plant three feet apart. The plant should be mulched about six inches deep to keep the roots warm in winter and cool in the summer.

Raspberries may be propagated by taking cuttings. Make sure to take your cutting from a cane (branch or stem) that did not produce fruit. The fruit producing stems die back after fruiting and cannot be used for propagation. If your cutting doesn’t root, it is most likely due to exhaustion from fruiting earlier in the season. Don’t use tired canes!

Raspberries like on inch of rain per week prior to fruiting and one and a half inches of water while fruiting. The water can be from rain or your watering system. Feed them with slow acting fertilizer early in the season and spray with the liquid seaweed extract three times during the growing season for the happiest berries. Happy berries taste better!

There are numerous pests that may afflict your berries. If your foliage curls, puckers, and turns yellow, and then is also stunted, you may have aphids. If there are ants on your bushes, they are attracted by the honeydew from the aphids. There will be clusters of aphids under the leaves. Dang pestilence. Be gone! They are the about the size of a pinhead and may be green, brown, or pink. They will be destroyed by insecticidal soap sprayed on them every two to three days until they are gone. The big concern from the aphids lies in the virus carrying properties. They bring the mosaic that can kill your plants.

If a cane borer comes a calling you can expect to see sudden tip wilting. Closer examination of your plant will reveal two rows of punctures about one inch apart at the tip of your cane. The adult beetle has deposited eggs in your cane and is killing your berry. You just have to cut off the wilted tips below the low row of punctures and burn up the beetle larvae. Nothing to it as long as you pay attention to your plants.

Japanese beetles will make your leaves look like skeletons of leave. The shiny green beetle is about a half an inch long and has copper colored wings. If you put up pheromone beetle traps at least fifty feet from your crops to lure the beetles away. If the traps can’t handle the infestation, the infestation won’t be able to handle pyrethrum. The pyrethrum will get rid of the infestation. Leave traps up id beetle infestation is regular in your garden spot

The raspberry root borer in an insidious foe. Your plant will break off easily at the base and show general lethargy and lack of vigor. You may often find the half inch grubs eating your plant in the crown of roots. Sometimes you and off the buggers by stabbing them with a wire; however the only surefire way to rid yourself of the pestilence is to cut the affect canes below the soil line and destroy them. Dang those bugs.

Whiteflies are another common garden pest that may affect your berries. The whiteflies honey dew encourages fungus growth on your leaves and weakens the plants. You can tell you have them if, when the plant is disturbed, it looks like dandruff is flying around your plant. Insecticidal soap applied daily for a few days will control the outbreak and send the whiteflies to an appropriate end.

Pay attention to your raspberries and take good care of them. Plant them where they are happy and protect them from evil. You will be rewarded with big, fat, juicy fruits! Raspberries are fun to grow, fun to pick, and even more fun to eat in jams, tarts, salads, cakes, breads, and even right off the plant. Plant some today!

How to read a seed catalog!

If you are new to gardening, the catalogs, equipment, planning, planting, and growing can seem a bit daunting.  Just keep in mind that plants grow wild… you’ll probably mess up…. it’s okay… don’t think it hurts the team…… and read all of the words.  Failing that, get started, write down what you do, and don’t do something that doesn’t work more than one time. Also remember, that, like a doctor, the first rule is DO NO HARM!!  Keep petroleum products, pesticides, herbicides, and generally nasty stuff OFF your organic vegetable garden.

If this is your first organic vegetable garden, you may consider starting with live plants.  This will/may increase your success and enjoyment of your early gardens.  If you, like me, are silly and believe, hey I can do that, then you will go with seeds and save the money.  Here, keep in mind that there are lots of seeds in the packet.  Don’t use them all at one time and you can have lots of do overs if something goes wrong. But it won’t.  Here I am getting ahead of myself.  First you have to buy seeds.  Where do you do that, there are so many catalogs and websites out there….what do I do?

First look for a catalog or site that is in the same geographic region as you.  You will then know that the seeds are generally good for your climate.  Failing that, figure out the zone in which you live. The catalog will have a map with the states and the zones on them. You can also just google climate zone map and have more choices than you can shake a stick at!

So you know your zone and you have a catalog.  What do all those words and symbols mean? You’ll see words that look this under a fancy picture of a vegetable:

Purple Sweet (F1): 90 Days. (V, T, FF, N) An award winning  variety with a dark red flesh.  Very widely adaptable and disease resistant. Good producer even under adverse conditions. 25 lbs.
62679-A Packet (50 Seeds) Zone 6-10. $2.95 [this is made up]

F1 is the genetic line of the hybrid.  F1 one means that two genetically dissimilar plants were crossed and the offspring resulted in a plant with increased yield and heartiness. You cannot take seed from these plants and replant with the same results. If is says OP, it is open pollinated, which means that seed collected will produce offspring that is genetically very similar to the parent plant. Heirloom varieties are open pollinated.  I prefer OP. 90 Days is the time to maturity of the plant.  How long until you can eat it!??! Hooray for organic vegetables! (V, T, FF, N) indicates the disease resistance.  Every catalog has its own key for decoding disease resistance.  While this is not glamourous, it is very helpful.  Match the disease resistance to prevalent pestilence (say that real fast) in your area. Adverse conditions means its weather tolerant.  Zone 6-10 are the zones in which the plant will thrive.  Be sure to match the plant to your zone (see google: climate zone map referenced above – remember… you have to read all the words) …and, finally, 25 lbs.  is the size to which it grows.

Now you know how to read your seed catalog.  Now get outside and plant your organic vegetable garden!!!