I wonder whether they will both reach maturity? Actually, it's quite possible that neither will. I have seen several embryonic cucumbers go yellow and prematurely fall off - presumably because the flowers were not pollinated, which is a shame. If all the flowers produced by my two plants had gone on to form fruits I would have had a very good harvest by now. As it stands, they have only yielded six fruits between them so far.
On a different note, how about these for very different cousins? They are both the product of tomato plants called "Speckled Roman", but as you can see, my two plants have fruit of two very different shapes:
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| Speckled Roman #1 |
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| Speckled Roman #2 |
To be honest, I'm not particularly fussed what shape they are, as long as they look and taste nice. The visual aspect of gardening has a big attraction to me (you will have noticed this if you are a regular reader of my blog!), and Speckled Roman is supposed to have fruits that are stripey red-and-yellow, so they should look good. In terms of productivity though, I don't rate them highly. Each plant has so far only set a small number of fruit. I suspect that next year I will revert to growing "Tigerella" - a type that has medium-sized fruit which are mainly red, but with some darker (green, almost black) stripes. It is also a good cropper, as are most of the "-ella" varieties. I had "Sungella" a couple of times (golden yellow fruits), and that did very well indeed.
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| "Sungella" - photo from 2010 |
Right now I am harvesting loads of the cherry-size tomatoes:
In this medley are "Sungold" (top), "Maskotka" (the bigger red ones), "Losetto" and "Lizzano" (the small red ones). The latter two types are indistinguishable; I'm glad I labelled the plants.
Not everything in my garden is as good though. This Kohlrabi is not going to be much good, and I think we know who to blame...
Your cherry tomatoes look good, I've got lots of green tomatoes but no ripe ones yet. I think I may see signs of blight on mine as well.
ReplyDeleteI really like the photos in your Saturday post; they're very effective. Thanks to the reference to your 8 Aug post comments on eggplant; aubergine might just be the plant of the year for me (here's hoping).
I have resorted to hand pollinating a lot this year, but especially the tomatoes. Yesterday behind the store I found a seagull feather that is going to be perfect for the job!
ReplyDeleteWe might have two ripe Gardener's Delight by next weekend. Those cherry tomatoes look really good.
ReplyDeleteMy cukes often set twins this year. And usually one develops before the other. Then the other finishes up. Well right now I have barely any cukes getting big. Most of my plants are dead from wilt. I have one that is hanging on though.
ReplyDeleteWHAT?!!?!?
ReplyDeleteOh is see....phewph...cucumbers!
Now really Mark that's just showing off? ;D
Amazing produce coming from your plot as usual. The photos showcase them beautifully. I think you might have caught the culprit for the Kohlrabi damage in the last photo red handed!
I've just been pottering around outside here (well the sun's arrived an it's about 15 degrees celcius) I think it's time I started to plant! Yeeha! :D
and at your ripe old age!... good for you!... what will you name them?
ReplyDeleteHmm, naughty hungry little caterpillar! Like your twins (congratulations!) and the variable veg. They are lovely looking orange tomatoes!
ReplyDeleteI like your multi shaped tomatoes - it will be interesting to see if they have the same taste and texture. My bet would be not but I have been wrong before...many times....
ReplyDeleteTo avoid the cucumbers and courgettes falling my friend pollinates the flowers manually. He keeps the stamen from the male zucchini flower in the freezer and brings it out every time he sees a new female zucchini flower.
ReplyDeleteLove the look of all those tomatoes... really beautiful!
Do you hand pollinate at all? Those Sungellas from 2010 are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI love the look of these I hope they make a lovely salad.
ReplyDeleteThere are so few pollinators around this year because of the cold damp start, I wouldn't give up on that type of tomato this year, I know lots of people have had to hand pollinate toms, cucumbers, chillis, courgettes, you name it, just to get a decent crop.
ReplyDeleteI must admit I have never had twins lucky you - I have just eaten my first crystal lemon cuke today - I was expecting it to taste lemoney - sadly it just looks like a lemon.
ReplyDeleteCongrads on the twins! lol. Nice looking harvests
ReplyDelete