Tuesday, May 18, 2010

May Blooms and Fruit

wild strawberry bloom
Wild Strawberry Blossom

I just wanted to do a short post on some of the plants that are blooming in the garden at the moment. My conventional strawberries have been flowering for quite some time now and fruits are beginning to form. I'm guessing that they are due for a good foliar feeding. However, I was quite surprised to find that my Red and Yellow Wonder wild strawberries are starting to flower as well. I wasn't sure if I would get any fruits this year. I thought I read somewhere though that I should pinch off any and all blooms for the next 8 weeks to allow the plants to focus all of their energy into producing strong roots. What you do think?

pea flowers
The snow peas are growing like crazy! I'll wait until the plants produce more flowers before harvesting some pea shoots. For those of you who've never tasted pea shoots before, they are delicious!

fava bean flowers
Fava bean flowers are really interesting. I've read that they are pretty tasty too but since I only have 7 plants this year, I'll patiently wait for the pods. And finally...drum roll please!...

baby sungold tomato
The other day I was really surprised to find this little guy on one of my Sungold tomato plants. All of my super early tomato plants are now looking lush and green. We've been really blessed with mostly fine weather this Spring. Hopefully we'll get our first ripe tomato sometime in June. (JUNE!)

22 comments:

  1. Congrats on the first fruit! I only grew one early tomato and it crocked. Good thing there is always next year....

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  2. HA! I knew that was a strawberry bloom just by looking at it. Practically a master gardener, now, I am. Also, very nice on the tomatoes. Our first two roma's are coming in. I can practically taste the marinara.

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  3. Man, that tomato plant looks gorgeous, I love the dark green foliage.

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  4. Congratulations on the baby tomato! I have blossoms on four of my 24 varieties (including Sungold), but no fruit yet. None of my peas have blossomed, either. Our beautiful, warm days are coming to an end....again. Our night temps are expected to fall back into the low 40s this weekend :-(

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  5. Awww...cute baby tomato...I wish mine were at that stage. As usual Thomas, everything looks great!!

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  6. I am not sure about pinching off blossoms on strawberries. Only way I propagate them is via runners. That way, they are setting fruits first year and I never pinch off flowers.
    Do wild strawberries grow runners?

    I am glad your tomatoes are OK (that picture few days ago was scary).

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  7. baby tomatoes are so dear!

    Thomas, do you grow any flowers? We used to grow marigolds and calendula in the garden. They are said to help repel dastardly menencing bugs.
    Not to mention, they bring a certain brightness! Last year my DH allowed the calendulas free rein, so later we will have their cheery presence.

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  8. Thomas - We grow a ton of strawberries here to make jam and to serve to our guests. Liam loves them, also, so I just planted 100 more ever bearing plants. I know it's hard, but it is best to pinch off the flowers the first year to let the plant mature and grow. I've read that strawberry plants only produce for 3 years and should be pulled. We've had ours for 4 years now with no decrease in yield.

    Congrats on your peas and tomatoes. I planted 50 feet of snow peas and will get nothing. I don't know if it was too warm or why they aren't growing. I'm jealous of your peas.

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  9. Those peas look lovely growing on the twigs! Congrats on your first tomato, I discovered my first the other day and it's just as exciting as my first year, it never gets old!

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  10. It is like a gift from heaven isn't it Thomas? And let me tell you, that first ripe, sun warmed Sungold won't let you down come June either. Congrats on all the fruiting!

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  11. all of your TLC is paying off! look at all those beautiful blooms!

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  12. I love pictures of flowering vegetables and that sungold looks well on its way to being good enought to eat!

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  13. Your plants look very healthy and happy. No sign of whitish leaves on that tomato plant!

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  14. Hi Ken, thanks for the tip. I made the mistake of not doing that with conventional strawberries that I bought a couple of years ago and ended up with a decent harvest the first year but a very poor one the following year.

    These wild strawberry I hear are different. They supposed produce all summer longs and don't send out runners. Also unlike conventional strawberry, they will fruit for years and years.

    It think I'll pinch off the flowers for the next couple of months and hope for a small harvest this fall.

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  15. Hey Susan - I have some marigold and zinnias in the garden at the moment, though they are very small. The morning glories that I set out died...my fault for not hardening them off first. I have some nasturtiums and calendula waiting to be transplanted. That's basically it on the flower front. Maybe next year, I'll get the motivation to do more.

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  16. Congratulations on spotting your first tomato fruit so early in the season! Like Annie's Granny, I have lots of flowering going on with several varieties - but so far I have not spotted any fruit set.

    On the strawberries, I always start from runners, always grow ever bearing varieties, and never pinch back blooms. If I were starting from seed, I am sure I might do differently, but I always propogate my next replacement beds using runners from my current (mother) plants.

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  17. YAY to the first tomato! Everything looks incredibly green and healthy!

    I couldn't bring myself to pinch off the blossoms. I guess I'll have smaller berries, but they are GOOD! :) Either way you go will be fine!

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  18. My snow peas don't have flowers on them yet. They are growing well, but no sign of blooms.

    We have had mostly nice spring weather. It would be amazing if you get your first tomato in June. Last year my first Sungold was picked on July 14th. Then again it was a really bad year in June. Sungold really can produce though even in weirdly cold weather.

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  19. Hi Thomas,
    I am not sure about wild strawbearries, but last year I planted ever bearing strawberries and I did pinch the flowers for a few weeks. I still got a bunch of strawberries during the summer. This kind of strawberry sent few runners and I cut all of those during the summer so the plant can concentrate on growing. I stopped cutting the runners after the plant was done producing berries. Here is an article I found last year.
    http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/hort2/mf598.pdf

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  20. Oh wow, a baby tom ! It's lovely ! :D
    Your plants are looking great !

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  21. Man, I thought we got an jump start by planting our early tomatoes the 2nd week of April. Haven't set any fruit yet but we've had blossoms for weeks. Like you, we're hoping for a June harvest.

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  22. Awww~~~you have tomatoes already, my tomatoes have lots of flowers but no fruits yet. The peas are not flowering at this time, maybe I pinched off too many shoots.

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