July 26, 2009
Mindfulness & Pruning Beefsteak Tomatoes
and still learn something new every growing season. Beefsteak and Big Boys are the tomato of choice of for the BLT and Tomato Burger. The ripe fruits are big, well flavored, not too seedy, fairly easy to skin, and meaty. A single slice is often large enough to more than cover the bread or bun. I have grown some almost every year for the last 21 years; and am still fine tuning my methods. Both of these of these varieties are known as indeterminate vine tomatoes. That is the opposite of a bush tomato, also known as determinate vine tomatoes. Indeterminate vine tomatoes will produce long, fruit bearing vines until killed a heavy frost or otherwise terminated. They also produce side vines called suckers.
New suckers can removed by pinching, with a caveat -- moving from one plant to another can transfer harmful spores. Larger suckers should be angle cut with a sharp knife. Something new I just learned; be careful pruning a plant that has been neglected. If the suckers are out of control and too large, go ahead and remove any blossoms on the sucker stems; but otherwise prune out one at a time; then wait a few days. Over pruning too fast will cause leaf curl and a thickened, woody main stem. I damaged two Cherokee Purple plants this season. At first, I thought it was a virus, and almost destroyed them. My wife talked me into waiting. As of now, they appear to be recovering; which probably rules out a virus; and rules in over pruning. If the tomatoes are dry and coarse; then I was likely right to begin with. One good thing, the leaf wilt virus is not transmitted from plant to plant. 
This results in a stronger plant, and makes it harder for rabbits to reach the 'maters. Finally, misshapen, split, or pest damaged fruit should be removed as soon as it is detected. Another thing I just learned; do not plow the trimmings, or rejected tomatoes, back into the soil. Not doing this goes against all my recycling instincts. However, the problem with recycling them is that it helps blight spores and other bad things get established. Misshapen fruit that is otherwise healthy and unblemished can be salvaged for fried green tomatoes. Ideally, the stem trimmings should be dried and burnt -- this applies to plants in the fall too; once the tomatoes are 'done.' In early spring, I will leave some of the thinner, softer trimmings someplace away from the garden, where nesting birds can easily steal them. Birds like the soft new growth tips to line their nests; and will even pluck them off the top of plants.
These include the Beef Master, Cherokee Purple, and Mr. Stripey. All of these tend to produce misshapen fruit; tomatoes that are flat, lobed, ridged, or split. Besides being less than desirable for human consumption, these are easy targets for insect pests and blight spores. Such problems are much more pronounced if the suckers are not pruned. Removing suckers is not quite so important for Big Boy type plants; which include the Better Boy and Park's Whopper. However, plants that are not properly pruned will produce smaller tomatoes that tend to split. Odd shaped tomatoes are less of a problem, but some might tend to be a bit oblong or have some funny looking lobes.
They think more vines will mean more tomatoes; and especially wonder why I would remove the early blossoms -- after all, those turn into tomatoes, right? However, the effort yields long term results in the form of much larger and better tomatoes. It is also a chance to practice Mindfulness; satipatthana / smrti-upasthana; 念住 {nenju}, or 念處 {nenchu}. This can be described as a sort of attentive, non-judgmental observation of forms, feelings, thoughts, and conditioning -- seeing things as they are; not as we wish them to be; nor as we fear they might be. Pruning suckers is like weeding out our own unskillful and unwholesome volitions;thoughts, emotions, and desires that suck out our vitality and yield bad karmic fruit; such as greed, envy, hatred, anger, and nescience. Letting go of our attachment to bad fruit that is already growing is like changing bad habits; it can be tough, but it might be for the best.July 23, 2009
July 18, 2009
The Tomato Vandal
This is a Park's Whopper Tomato Plant. Normally, I buy Big Boy, Beefsteak, and Roma bedding plants. However, we had a very late spring. The bedding plant suppliers pay no attention to that, they ship in early to mid May. By the time it warmed up, and I got around to driving to the nursery, there was not much selection left. All the Big Boys, Beafsteaks, and even Romas were gone. This Park's Whopper was 'green housed;' it was already quite large, in bloom, and a bit expensive. I was told this variety is similar to the standard Big Boy, so I bought one. It was already early June, and I figured a more mature plant would be a good idea.
BTW, the Big Boys and Beefsteaks are vine type tomatoes, so I stake them and prune out the side branches, called 'suckers.' That helps prevent odd looked, misshapen tomatoes with cracking on the blossom end. Normally, also I pick the low hanging blossoms off. That results in a stronger plant; with bigger tomatoes. This one was already large, so I left the early blossoms alone.
Romas are a bush tomato, so those do not need pruning. Instead, I always cage them and just let them grow. From time to time, in the past, I would notice odd bite marks on a Roma tomato that was hanging outside the cage. Romas are so productive, I never gave it a moment's thought. I had never had this happen to my big vine tomatoes. Not until now. I learn something knew every growing season.
This photo is actual size. We had been waiting until this big puppy was fully ripe before we picked it. Then, a few days ago, my wife found it in this condition. She figured the grandkids might have poked it. However, I recalled seeing this same damage on isolated Romas in the past. I figure an animal must have taken a bite out of out. Lesson learned. There is a yet another reason to pluck off the early season, low hanging blossoms from the "indeterminate vine" varieties of tomatoes. We are also going to pick the other low hanging Park's Whoppers as they start to turn, and let them ripen indoors.
July 15, 2009
Good News
Summer is here, and that means Camp Gramma is open. My wife and I have had 4 here much of the time; they are ages 16 months to 12 years. 'nuff said?
Meanwhile, since early May, I have been sitting up most nights, nursing a sick dog. Sylvia is almost 14, rather old for her breeding and large size. She went through a lengthy bout of severe text book canine peripheral vestibular disease in May. It is a scary looking condition, easily confused with seizures or stroke. I have a chronic human form, so I was able to diagnose it from the nystagmus and head tilt.
The dog was unable to stand or walk at all for 4 days or so, and was scared of motion and stairs for another week. The good old girl held her stools, but we had to mop uf pre from the wood floor once a day or so -- she actually held that for as long as 32 hours. All of that, including the head tilt {it is sometimes permanent}, finally completely cleared up. Next came bladder troubles and early stage canine hip dysplasia. Since Saturday, she was unable to stand or walk again.
We got her on antibiotics and carpoten. Plus, I have been doing the Kuan Yin water cure. That is a healing ritual, btw, not a form of torture. Meanwhile, she developed puffiness that looked like a return of an aggressive mammary cancer. She had been in remission a couple years now. I figured she was done. TMALSLL, today she got up, went out, bunny hopped down the stairs, took care of 'bidness' and had a nice hose bath. She still has the hip issues; but things are looking better. In another week, if things are still good, we are going try to try glucosamine therapy.
I am still exhausted.
July 14, 2009
The Elongate Eggplant Plot
Despite global warming; we had one of the coldest springs on record. As a result; we did not start a garden until the first week of July.
By then, the bedding plants were pretty much picked over. I found some curious looking 90 day eggplants. The last time I grew eggplant, it took from early May to early October; to get a few small, roundish eggplants. Despite my dubious, I figured it was a worth a shot; as there was not much else available. So we bought 4 bedding plants
I actually never liked eggplant much. The ones we grew the last time were delicious though. We picked them before they seeded; mainly because there was a pending fall frost. My wife cut them in pieces and cooked them with pork, peppers, onions, and mushrooms. The eggplant was was sweet with a smooth texture and it soaked up the sauce like sponge.
BTW, the red plastic mulch is primarily to block blight transfer from the soil. Three kinds of blight wiped out our tomatoes last year. It even damaged our peppers. The red color is supposed to increase tomato yields; it is not because I live in a red town. It was back orfered, and arrived too late, wer already had our tomatoes plants out. I figured I would try it with the other plants. It does seem to have helped, as the eggplants are growing fast and yielding already.
The plants were labeled Black Beauty. However, the young fruit looks more like the longer, narrower, Asian eggplants. The picture on the tab shows much rounder fruit. I guess we shall see if they fill out. Sometimes the nursery tags get switched on bedding plants. Maybe it is part of a CIA conspiracy? There might be bugs in my eggplants?
July 12, 2009
sabbe sankhara anicca
All compounded phenomena are inconstant.
Yet lurking behind phenomena, there is an unconditioned, pure, radiant, constancy.
Atthi bhikkhave ajatam abhatam akataü asamkhatam. No ce tam bhikkhave abhavissa ajatam bhatam akatam asamkhatam, na-y-idha jatassa bhatassa katassa samkhatassa nissaranam passayetha. Yasma ca kho bhikkhave atthi ajatam bhatam akatam asamkhatam, tasmà jatassa bhatassa katassa samkhatassa nissaranam passayata.
There is, oh monks [and nuns], an unborn, a non-arisen, an un-fabricated, an un-compounded or unconditioned. If there were not an unborn, a non-arisen, an un-fabricated, an unconditioned, then there would be no basis to discern or intuit emancipation from that which is born, arisen, fabricated, and conditioned. However, since there is a an unborn, a non-arisen, an un-fabricated, an un-compounded or unconditioned; there is a basis whereby emancipation from that which is born, arisen, fabricated, and conditioned is intuited / comes into view.
