Bottenslams 2023 grow

[Bottenslam]

Started seeds a while back.
Testing out quite many new varietys this year, will compile a list at some point.
These are mostly for produsing seeds, as it is still way to early so start them around here. Also im getting restless. Last Summer most went to flower whidin a month from planting them out, and id like to avoid this this year....

 

[Bottenslam]

Anybody has experience growing tomatillo by any chance? redicolusly fast growing. they are kind of taking over My box...

Other Than that, iwe started some chilies, Jamaikan yellow mushroom, hungarian yellow wax and ghost pepper. Jamaikan yellow mushroom i has some sucsses growing in fieald last year.
Tomato varietes this year is zuckerstrabe, v. Gallo and supersweet f1.
Plenty of preforate ST. Johnsworth also. And as bit of this and that, got an bit carried away when starting The chilies/tomatillo...
Hopefully ill be able to move allt this out from the box by the time its time for The tobaccos... Therese more boxes in The world, more worried about My girlfirends patience.. ;D

I just ordered seeds for some old Swedish varietys of tobacco, Alida, per-pers and Tofta.
Tobacco wise ill mainly be groving some mystery variety that seems to be doing really well here, gonna try to find out what it is eventually.
Varietys im trying this year is the prementioned Swedish ones and:
Rotfront, Burley, Tn86 Tennessee, oriental xanthi, Latkia, narrow Leaf madole and badish geudertheimer.

 

[Knucklehead]

Wow. Your plants look great!

 

[deluxestogie]

Over a decade ago, I grew a single tomatillo plant. I provided it with a wire tomato cage for support. But it continued to grow taller. Eventually, I added a second tomato cage, inverted, on the top.

Mercifully, winter eventually stopped it.

Bob

 

[graytobacco]

Plants look really good man good job!

 

[Bottenslam]

Thank you!
Damn that thing is huge Bob. Are they any Good? Cant get them in the store here, closest thing we get is the small orange physalis... I Guess it should be close

 

[MadFarmer]

Thank you!
Damn that thing is huge Bob. Are they any Good? Cant get them in the store here, closest thing we get is the small orange physalis... I Guess it should be close

I've grown them before. You need more than one plant because they aren't self pollinating. I stopped growing them because I can get them from the store, but I do love the salsas they make.

 

[deluxestogie]

The tomatillo is typical of "green salsa". My single tomatillo bore bountiful fruit. I suspect that some neighbor might have also been growing tomatillo.

Bob

 

[Bottenslam]

I've grown them before. You need more than one plant because they aren't self pollinating. I stopped growing them because I can get them from the store, but I do love the salsas they make.

Okay, Yeah im thinking about salsa as well. Cant Even get salsas made on tomatillo here for some reason

 

[skychaser]

Tomatillo and Ground Cherries (physalis) are very closely related although they are very different plants. Ground Cherries spread across the ground and never get more than about 6 inches high, Tomatillos can become unruly monster plants. Trellising doesn't work very well and they swallow tomato cages. They grow very quickly. Tomatoes need about 8 weeks from seed to be saleable or to set out. Tomatillo takes about 5 weeks from seed. They are very frost tender and the lightest frosts kill them.

Many seed sites still call Ground Cherries Tomatillo. There is a big difference. Buyer beware. They also say they are self pollinating, which they are not. You need two or more plants. I grow a Ground Cherry called Pineapple. They were sold to me as a Tomatillo. They are very productive and delicious. They are so good they rarely make it into the house. I have grown a few different Tomatillos. One type was given to me years ago and was an unknown variety. What ever it was, it was a good one. I've grown one called Verde which is very good. Nice crisp texture with a flavor like a summer apple. They are fairly early ripening and produce 100's of fruit. I grew another that is just called Purple. They are more tart and later ripening. The husks and fruit turn purple when fully ripe and they get sweeter.

This year I am growing a new one called Purple Coban on contract for Baker Creek Seeds. So I can't grow the Verde or they will cross. We are still debating on how to do it since we have tried cages and trellises and they over grew them both. We will need a couple hundred plants. I think we will just let them grow with no supports and give them wider spacing than my standard row spacing because the Purple and Verde completely over took the walkways before. And since I am mainly after the seed, I'm not as concerned with keeping them up off the ground to keep the fruit clean from dirt being splashed on them by the sprinklers. We will pick them after the first frost hits and kills off the foliage. That makes it much easier. I am expecting to get wheel barrow loads of them.

 

[Bottenslam]

Ill Keep that in mind when planting them. Might actually need to start some new ones closer to planting them out, depending on how they handel low lighting, as they soon cant fit in the grow box.
The variety im growing is amarylla.
Speaking of lighting, has anybody tried these lights? https://www.vplux.fi/fi/product/kasvilamppu-iskra-led-70w-6500k-e40/12987
The W to € ratio is quite high, but that could be out of low quality....

 

[deluxestogie]

After some lengthy detective work, digging through unposted photos from 2011, I found the answer to my abundant tomatillos mystery. Although I built only a single Tower of Babel, I actually had 3 tomatillo plants, side by side. If I knew at the time that tomatillos are not self-fertile, I've forgotten that I knew.

Bob

 

[Bottenslam]

I actually had 3 tomatillo plants, side by side. If I knew at the time that tomatillos are not self-fertile, I've forgotten that I knew.

Bob

Do they come in male and female it is any 2 plants fine?

 

[skychaser]

Do they come in male and female it is any 2 plants fine?

They are like Apple trees. They produce both male and female parts but can not pollinate themselves.

 

[Bottenslam]

They are like Apple trees. They produce both male and female parts but can not pollinate themselves.

Okay, thanks
Flowers already forming here, gonna try moving one of them to see If they can handle low humidity

 

[skychaser]

see If they can handle low humidity

No worries there. It's desert dry here in summers.

 

[Bottenslam]

All (sprouted)seeds planted at the same Time. The mystery Virginia (labled "skol-tidig") absolutly dominating as usual. The Mother plant flowered in The fieald widout beinge bagged, so im unsure about "purity".
Took The seeds from the local botanical garden "skolparken" apparently the most nothern botanical garden in the world, or so they say.
"V-inne" is the same, but flowers where produser after i took it in to go to seed.
V-inne was The last plant to go to flower. In retrospect, considering the short seasons here i should probably have taken more care to get pure seeds of "Skol-tidig". Oh well, as the plants i took The seeds from to beguin with werent bagged i suppse its possible its a hybrid anyway. That being Said i took them years before The new tax laws catalysed the tobaccos growing boom in Finland so i guess its possible .

Also planted some rustikas yesterday, variety should be aztec, tho again unbagged flowers.

 

[Bottenslam]

Glamour shot of prementioned mystery Virginia blooming:

 

[deluxestogie]

The blossom color in your "glamour shot" does not look like most flue-cured Virginia varieties that I am aware of. Also, the leaves seem much thicker and darker than I would expect. Both attributes in the photo may be due to the unusual lighting.

Regardless, if you maintain pollination control in the future, and select only true-to-expectation plants for seed production, then you will have a stable variety (which you should uniquely name) in 5 to 7 years of selection.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

Glamour shot of prementioned mystery Virginia blooming:View attachment 45365

Your photography is excellent. Beautiful photo with great lighting.