The Best Type of Seed

You know what the best type of seed is?  One that has been shared by gardening friends.  These seedy treasures warm my heart, every time I see them in the garden.

Earlier this year, Dave from Our Happy Acres generously shared a number of different seeds and all of these varieties are now growing in my garden.

First up is a hot pepper - Aji Golden.  This year, the peppers were really set back early on when I went away shortly after transplanting them.  I didn't set the irrigation timer correctly and, of course, there was a heat wave at the same time with zero rain.  I've been taking good care of them since then but most of the plants are still runty.  Even with the setback, however, Aji Golden is performing admirably well, being one of the largest plants in the pepper bed (on the left in the photo below).

Aji Golden (on the left) is one of the few pepper plants
that is recovering incredibly well from the early setback

Not only was it one of the largest plants in the bed, but it had already set a good number of peppers.  I was so excited about harvesting them that I goofed and harvested a bunch of them while they were still yellow, completely forgetting that they ripened to a bright orange.  Oops.

Their fragrance was wonderful - very citrussy - and they were wonderfully fruity and not too spicy, at this stage anyhow.  This is what I had hoped "Lemon Drop" (aka Aji Limon) would be like - it too is gorgeous and fruity but the searing heat completely overshadows any flavour it may have.  I can't wait to harvest the next batch of Aji Golden when they are properly ripe.  Hopefully it won't be too much longer as there are, once again, numerous fruits on the plant:

Aji Golden

Dave also shared some tomato seeds including one of the first varieties to ripen this year, Mexico Midget:

Mexico Midget

This year, I decided to skip Sungold in favour of trying a few new cherry tomato varieties.  The goal was to find a cherry tomato that tastes great, but wouldn't split on me, which Sungold is very prone to.  So what do I think of Mexico Midget?  I love it!  The taste was amazing...in fact, I would describe it as a tangy Sungold.  And while the tomatoes themselves are small (which I quite like 'cause that's what a cherry tomato is supposed to be!), the plant is one of the most vigorous of all those ones I'm growing.

Another cherry shared by Dave was Champagne Cherry, but these are not ripe yet so I haven't had a taste.  One of the things I'm experimenting with this year is growing tomatoes in pots.  I placed one Champagne Cherry seedling in a Smart Pot and another in a smaller plastic pot.  The potted plants are not doing nearly as well as those in the beds and I'm fairly certain I know why.

This year, I'm growing 5 tomato plants in pots,
including two Champagne Cherries

One of the issues when it comes to growing in pots is that plants don't have access to the nutrients found deep down in the soil, especially when that soil has been amended for several years.  In fact, tomatoes are such heavy feeders that, even in the beds, I should be fertilizing them throughout the season.  I'm so busy, however, that I only end up fertilizing them a couple of times over the summer but it's not something I fret about since I usually end up harvesting more than enough tomatoes (I'm still working on the freezer stores from last year, even as the new crop is coming in!).

When the leaves on the potted plants started to yellow a bit, indicative of nutrient deficiencies, I realized my mistake and gave them a good dose of fish emulsion.  I'll continue to feed them for the rest of the summer (when I remember!) & I'm sure this will make a big difference.

Regardless, potted plants will never get as large or produce as much as those grown in a bed but I'm ok with that especially as I always seem to end up inundated with cherry tomatoes each year.  We really only need a couple of plants to keep us supplied but it's so much fun trying new varieties - I just can't help myself!  This year I planted 6 - four more than I need - and that's why I don't mind in the least if the potted plants don't produce as much as those in the beds 😁

The last of Dave's tomatoes that I'm growing is his Stripey Marzano Rogue.  Since these were seeds from a "rogue" plant (Marzano Fire), I decided to grow 4 of them to see what kind of variation I would get.

Stripey Marzano Rogue

Three of them, including those pictured above, are producing round, stripey tomatoes similar to what Dave's plants produced this year.  One is starting to ripen up so it won't be long until we can see how meaty the interior is.

Three of the Stripey Marzano Rogue plants

are producing round fruits

One of the plants, however, is producing elongated, paste-type tomatoes, although the stripes do not appear nearly as pronounced as in the round ones:

Can't wait for these to start to ripen so we can check out the insides!

How exciting!  At this point, I'm not sure if these will be closer to the original paste tomato (Marzano Fire) or Dave's rogue which was larger/blockier.  We'll have to wait and see once they start to ripen up, but I'm thinking some seed saving may be in order!

There is always something exciting happening in the garden, but it's doubly exciting when plants have a special meaning.  Thank you Dave for adding more "happy" to my garden this year 😊