The chance of morning frost

In the last week we have had our first glimpses of the arrival of winter with a number of mornings nudging 1 degree, extensive frosts around the corner in Nicholls Rivulet, and heavy snow above 800m asl. The fireplace has also kicked into gear for the first time since last October. The forecast for tomorrow is possibly light morning frost and I think I have gambled with the pumpkin long enough.

Today I will be picking all left over pumpkins and tomatos, no matter how underdone some are. With pumpkins I will leave as much vine on the pumpkin as possible and bring undercover on the deck. I will leave them there for 3 weeks to catch the arvo sun and hopefully sweeten up just a little more.

All ripe or having turned colour Tomato will go into the kitchen, the balance will be picked and stored in a box to ripen slowly or left on the plant and hung under a tree. Each week I will go through the boxes of green tomato and take to the kitchen the ones turning colour. I trialled picking a few earlier in the season when they were very green. About 75% of them ripened in the kitchen before some of the green ones on the plant. This shows that temperature is a key factor in the ripening of Tomato and a higher average temp in the kitchen must be the reason.

I will also pick all capsicum and watermelon.

Tomorrow I will plant garlic where some of the tomato are growing. I planted garlic in early May two years ago and they grew just as well as the garlic i planted late March last year, so I have delayed planting this year to allow more beds to open up.

And with the onset of the risk of frost heralds the Oca harvest. Oca or New Zealand Yam tastes a bit like sweet potato but even better in my books. And frosts are the time to harvest when the tops are burnt down. If you have never tasted Oca I highly recommend it.

Happy gardening.

While most tomatoes still seem to be doing well, it is there time to come out with the risk of frost

What are you picking now?

I am often asked what are you picking in your veg patch at the moment. We are always curious to know what someone else has succeeded with or to get ideas on something you may have forgotten to grow or did not know grew at this time of year.

The things we are harvesting at the moment are as follows:

- Carrot (I swear they have grown slower than last year)
- Beetroot
- Tomato
- Beans (Climbing and Bush types)
- Rocket
- Silverbeet
- Chicory
- Lettuce
- Potato (majority now in hessian bags)
- Last lot of Sugarloaf Cabbage
- Radish
- Celery
- Perpetual Spinach
- Zucchini
- hanging is the garlic and the balance of our poor onion harvest

In the Herb garden we have the following, tho some are recent plantings from cuttings or seeds recently transplanted as I am growing this aspect of the patch.

- Rosemary, Sage, Thyme and lemon Thyme, Oregano, Lovage, French Tarragon, Winter Savoury, Italian Parsley, Mint and Peppermint, Lemon Balm, Bergamot.

I have 6 plants of Rhubarb however most are less than 6 months old so still growing.

The tomato harvest is kicking along with 4 1kg strawberry punnets filled yesterday with much blanching of the beans happening for eating through winter.

So what are you harvesting at the moment? I know of some eating Corn, tho mine still need more sun to sweeten up (check photo below).

Capsicum "Antohi Romanian" - Each plant seems to have 10 capsicums

The Corn is still not quite ready

Can you see the tiny watermelon?

Winter Kohl Rabi germinating

So what are you harvest

What is this blog stuff

After reading other blogs for years it occurred to me today that. why not do my own. If not for others, then to refer back to my own posts in the future. These blogs will be predominately about vegetable gardening in Southern Tasmania. We reside on the edge of Cygnet and Cradoc with views of Franklin over the Huon River to the North West. Our soils are made up of Permian mudstone, which in winter is often water logged and in summer dry to a concrete like top. The high clay content of the soil also made vegetable growing a challenge to begin with, however these soils, once the organic content is raised, are quite fertile and holds water well.

We have been living at this location for about 18 months and so far I have set up the veg patch, two chook runs and a pig pen. Over the next few months I hope to post many thoughts on things I have done whether chook, vegetable/fruit or pig related or anything else actually. I enjoy reading other peoples blogs and believe the more of us that put experiences down the more we can learn from each other.

Tomato. 

Since moving from Toowoomba, Qld, I too have caught this strange Tomato growing addiction. Tasmania is not too bad for growing Tomatoes considering the cooler average Summer temps it receives. It is probably this marginal climate for Tomato that creates the addiction. Who will have the first ripened Tomato? will the summer be a cool cloudy wet one?, what varieties have you planted? There are many variables to consider when setting up each seasons Tomato crop. Once thing I have really learned since moving here is to give some thought to the variety you plant. When we first moved here we had no summer (2010/11summer). Many days did not get much over 20 it seemed and I heard many say their tomatoes have not ripened still in March. This was at a time I was experiencing some good harvests. It was by coincidence not skill that I had a good harvest. Through a lady I was working with at the time I bought the variety "kotlas" and "taxi" Tomato and these did very well at the place we were renting near Huonville.

When we bought our place, it was May 2011. There was minimal infrastructure, no fencing, no vegetable patch, nothing. There was an area that must have once grown a few things judging by the spuds coming up along with the infestation of hemlock (Conium maculatum). This area was not far from the house and on the slope so i figured i would pick this area, fence it off amateur style,  stick up a floppy top to stop the possums and get a rotary hoe to turn over the grass and soil. Initially I dug over a few patches by hand to get the garlic and potato onions in but the higher clay content made me get the rotary hoe in quick smart. However all this gave me time to consider my Tomato plantings.

At the time of writing it is Dec 28 2012. The varieties of Tomato I am trying this year are as follows. Most are germinated from seed during August:

1. Kotlas
2. Riesenstraube
3. Gold Nugget
4. Legend
5. Hill Billy (sourced from the Garden Pantry - Kate)
6. Mortgage Lifter
7. Mamma Mia (sourced from Mitre 10 as seedlings)
8. Rouge de Marmande
9. Break O'Day  
10. Roma

I had germinated some Siletz and Oregon Springs also which proved successful the previous year, however I had not put a hothouse up yet until late September and left the young seedlings in the hot sun and they were no more.

Kotlas fruit

At the moment the race seems to be between Kotlas (photo above) and Legend for the first ripe tomato, however my money is on kotlas as they are smaller. Steve Solomon sings the praise of Legend, which I must admit were very tasty but not as early (first picked march 3rd last summer) as I had expected. However this may be due to some issues in raising from seed that year.  The Riesenstraube have grown furiously and look like they will produce a bumper crop of cherry tomato. I normally grow tommy toe but opted to try Riesenstraube this year.

Legend fruiting

Last year we grew 4 plants of Gold Nugget which produced a huge quantity of yellow cherry toms, however we did not really enjoy the flavour all that much so I opted for just the 1 this year for pizza. I also started off with Money Maker seedlings however learnt another lesson in hardening off.

Late October 2012 I planted out the Tomato seedlings with stakes and tree protection cover to give warmth from coolish nights and the possible late frost. Instead we had a really hot day while I was at work and it seems the money maker did not survive this sudden heat. That is what I put it down to anyway. The others survived ok.

The current growing season seems to be going nicely. We had a warmer November 2012 than the previous year which seems to have got things growing nicely. The wireless weather station I have showed the following:
                                                         Avg  Nov 2012
                                          Min                 7.7  Celsius
                                          Max               22.2 Celsius
                                          Rain               44.5mm

The determinate tomato (bush type)

  

This photo shows 4 capsicum (Antohi) - bottom 4, 2 chili (early jalapeno) and 2 watermelon (top)

Being the first post there feels like there is so much to write down. Next post I might look at the pumpkins i am growing this year plus a few others.

Dave

The indeterminate tomatoes (large vines) - I train 4 to 6 main stems up the stakes and pinch off laterals to focus energy into the fruit for ripening.