Recent content by Decoy1

Thank you @heirloomgal. That is very interesting. Did you receive any response from Prairie Garden Seed? The main diagnostic difference between Blue Gold, which you mentioned, and Wagner Blue Green seems to be the colour of the inside flesh which is red-yellow in Blue Gold and definitely green...

I’d love to be able to identify this mid-sized tomato. I received it several years ago labelled ‘Wagner Blue Berries’. I think this was a guess from a vague memory. As far as I’m aware, varieties with ‘berries’ in the name are Brad Gates, not Tom Wagner. The nearest I can get to a Wagner variety...

My instinct and horribly basic understanding of genetics suggest that you wouldn’t get separate strains but would have the same happen again from both batches, ie. pale flowers until the plant is moving into older age. A rather lovely thing to happen - two treats in one.

It is my experience too that it’s very early. It’s a favourite with me. I love its cheerful earliness and also very much like its lovely frosted seeds.

It looks a great crop. And I was about to ask the same question. In England there aren’t very many different varieties of garlic available, except for one well known source based on the Isle of Wight. But I don’t like the fact that they have selected and renamed all the varieties they offer...

That is very similar to the random plant sickness I’ve been experiencing. I’m thinking some varieties are particularly prone to it. I had it quite big-time last year with Ruth Bible and this year, from a different source of seeds, I’m experiencing it again. And yet other growers seem to...

That’s beyond awful @heirloomgal. My heartfelt sympathies. It makes the one or two giving up the ghost, which I was worrying about, seem very minor. Have you identified the destructive caterpillar? You seem confident the attack is under control now, thank goodness. Have they moved on, or into...

I’m heartened to find I’m not alone in this phenomenon. It’s natural to either feel one has done something wrong - any manure in the soil wasn’t well enough rotted was one thought I had - or fear a disease which will spread or be in contaminated soil etc. It has been unusually hot here too. No...

I’m growing Sunshine too from your gratefully received seeds. Not quite as far advanced as yours (sown 14th May) but growing strongly and not too far behind. Looking forward!

I have a kind of sudden death issue. Sometimes one plant in a row which seemed to be doing fine, will look sick and all the growing points wither and die. This often happens quite late on when they have lots of flower buds. I pull them up in case it’s catching, but there’s no obvious sign of why...

Understood. Just to pursue this to the bitter end (!), have you observed that planting deeper, in whatever way, encourages speed? Is there an argument for thinking that the plant might put its energies into forming new roots rather than producing flowers and fruit? On the assumption that a...

I I find this interesting too. I grow tomatoes in a polytunnel in cordon style. But for me, the vigour of tomato plants, when I plant them normally without worrying too much about depth or angle, is definitely as much as I would want. If there’s a problem for me, it’s that many tomato varieties...

They eat them voraciously, from the edges inwards, often just leaving the veins. More and more of my vegetables here are netted. Certainly all brassicas all year, to protect from pigeons and from egg-laying butterflies. More recently all alliums, in my case to protect from allium leaf miner...

A photo of my tomato chaos just to illustrate the different methods. Sunviva, the tallest in the photo, is a strong grower and is already six feet tall at least, and still June when the photo was taken.

And a few bush bean flowers, just because they’re so lovely.