Seedling Follow-up 2019
Season 2019
2019-11-08: first frost, last harvest, the 2019 season is over! The big cleanup will continue in the greenhouses to make a clean sweep of this campaign in half-tone or the worst has coté the best. Occulting the worries generated by this last season, our thoughts are already turning to the next one with optimism...
2019-10-27: without doubt the last substantial harvest of the season...the remaining mildness and the absence of frosts allowed us to make this last beautiful harvest! A few varieties stand out at the end of the season like Baron Solemaher which has been producing since the beginning of May and is blooming again. Many varieties of the Dwarf Tomato Project (Dwarf Suz's Beauty, Dwarf Vince's Haze, Dwarf Hazy's Dream, Chocolate Lightning, Dwarf purple Heart...) are also playing the game with many fruits to come. The cleaning of the greenhouses began with the pulling up of the plants without fruits thus releasing place and offering more light to the remaining plants.
2019-10-12: the end of the season is approaching, but we still have a significant harvest! Certainly the fruits don't have the flavor they had in the middle of the season but it's better than nothing. The last peppers are slowly ripening thanks to the return of more favorable weather conditions. These last ones will have produced in abundance this season and almost all the fruits will have had time to ripen before the first frosts, which will not be the case of tomatoes, indeed many big fruits have appeared, but little chance to see them changing color before the arrival of the first frosts. Seeding is almost finished and we have to admit that this year's seed harvest was not very generous! In general the seeds are healthy and of beautiful sizes but in small number, I still seek the causes of it undoubtedly the weather is there for a little but undoubtedly not only...
2019-10-05: Still good harvests in the last few days, but the return of gloomy, cold weather is causing fears of an early end to the season.
2019-09-27:
2019-09-21:
2019-09-17: return of a summer weather, the thermometer not stopping to make the yoyo this season switching from hot to cold without real transition. The production of bell pepper and chili is in full swing while for tomatoes still some beautiful fruits are harvested.
2019-09-13: after a cold (first frosts) and cloudy episode, the sun is back and the temperature is more in accordance with the calendar. The harvests, for tomatoes, are reduced as skin of chagrin, only the dwarfs and some rare other varieties still carry many fruits. Peppers are on stand-by, the lack of sun and heat of the last decade have strongly slowed down the ripening of the fruits. This season, most of the fruits contain only few seeds, a phenomenon probably due to the whimsical weather conditions of this summer.
2019-09-07: autumnal week as well as for the weather as for the temperatures, in spite of that the harvests are still consequent. For tomatoes, some nice and big fruits which will probably be the last ones while for peppers and chillies it is the full production...
22019-09-02: the harvests are again more important, the "hole" caused by the burning of the intermediate clusters seems filled now. A big storm, +/-50mm of rainfall, last Saturday sounded the death knell of summer and autumn has set in since 2 days with the return of cool nights and foggy mornings. As for tomatoes, there is a great disparity, some varieties have nothing left to offer while others, the most numerous, still have many fruits. For peppers and chillies it is going well, the different cultivars producing one after the other. On the other hand for eggplants it is almost finished, the remaining fruits will be used to harvest the seeds.
2019-08-28: finally the peppers and chillies are starting to take on their mature color and the harvests are becoming consistent. For tomatoes it is a transition period, while waiting for the numerous fruits on the upper clusters to ripen, the pickings are relatively low.
2019-08-25: the time has come to harvest the eggplants with their various shapes and colors. Seeding is in full swing and it is clear that the seeds, although nice size, are not numerous this year, indeed it is not uncommon to harvest only a dozen seeds per fruit and paradoxically the more the fruit will be large, as the "Moya" or "Bulgarian old sort no mane" for example. The peppers and peppers are ripening by the drop just like the tomatoes did at the beginning of the season. The summer weather, in spite of very cool nights, should facilitate their ripening.
22019-08-21: return of a sunny weather after a rather heavy rainy episode, 55mm in 3 days. It's been a long time since it fell so much water... In the greenhouses it is the status quo, the harvest is reduced and the fruits, numerous, of the upper clusters are growing but are still far from maturity, let's hope that the weather of the back season is favorable.
2019-08-15: big drop of production!... Approximately 50% of the plants are bald, without intermediate clusters (in general the 3rd and 4th or even the 5th), it will be necessary to wait a little before being able to pick new fruits on these cultivars. Peppers and chillies are starting to ripen nicely despite the return of a gloomy weather and very cool nights, it feels like autumn already...
2019-08-11: the peak of production has just passed!... For most of the plants the first and second clusters have provided their fruits, the upper clusters, depending on the cultivars, are non-existent or reduced because of the heat episodes. Fortunately, some varieties withstood the heat well and these have been well spotted for the future. The bell pepper and chili plants are loaded with fruit but are also slow to ripen. Concerning the weather, we can notice the return of rain in the form of stormy showers, more than 50mm since the beginning of the month.
2019-08-07: the production is in full swing and between 15 and 20 kilos of fruit are harvested daily. The return to a more favorable weather, sun and heat without excess with cool nights, is a good omen to eventually help replace the many clusters burned by the two heat waves. Almost all varieties have produced at least one fruit and therefore we can see the non-conformities, although few in number, but all the more regrettable as they come from purchased seeds. For example, two of the seven new varieties of the Dwarf Tomato project do not conform to the announced description... Fortunately there are some nice discoveries that compensate for these disappointments!
2019-07-30: the second heat wave, of lesser extent than the previous one, went away, not without making some additional damage... On its side, the morning coolness is back with the thermometer yesterday morning a small 7°!... The 33 mm of precipitations in the form of thunderstorms, this time without hail, will allow to relieve us of some watering sessions, but it will be without effect on the drought which continues. Finally, the good news is that the fruits are finally starting to ripen and that the first real harvest has been done this weekend. These heat waves will have the merit to highlight the most heat resistant varieties. Indeed on some cultivars the flowers were falling like flies, reducing the clusters to nothing, while on others the fruit set seemed to be without problems.
2019-07-22: it's a given that 2019 will not be a year of tomatoes, already at the end of July and still no harvest worthy of the name!... and it's not the new heat wave that is affecting us that will not help things, the clusters 2 and 3 (or 3 and 4) of many varieties are already bearing no fruit because of aborted or burned flowers. On the other hand, the peppers are magnificent and start to produce.
2019-07-18: still no harvest worthy of the name, a few fruits here and there and yet the plants are well supplied or even very busy for some! The harmful effects of the heat wave are behind us and the rather favorable weather should finally help the fruits to reach their maturity. Compared to the average of the last years, the delay should reach 3 weeks which is enormous, let's hope that consequently the season lasts longer, which is far from being won...
2019-07-12: les plants distillent au goutte à goutte de nouveaux fruits et les récoltes de cette semaine sont maigrichonnes. Il est vrai que cette saison avait pris du retard tout au long du printemps et malgré la vague de chaleur celui-ci ne semble pas s'être comblé. La météo est redevenue conforme avec le calendrier, il fait beau et chaud sans excès un temps idéal pour les tomates...Paradoxalement les plants sont énormément chargés et pourtant, pour la plupart, ils continuent leur croissance, certains atteignant le haut de la serre!
2019-07-08: beginning of the harvest under a weather always so hot and stormy... Little by little the plants are starting to distill their first fruits, most of them are showing the stigma of a chaotic growth due to the extreme temperature variations since the beginning of the season. A lot of tomatoes with rough and/or cracked skin and with a strange shape for some of them. Thanks to the heat of the last decade, the peppers and eggplants have recovered their health and are showing a resplendent foliage, many flowers and already some fruits. The imprint left by last Monday's storm is fading, the few vegetables less affected are regaining their vigor by regrowing some leaves.
2019-07-01: big storm tonight, a lot of water and especially a lot of hail! By chance, this had a size not exceeding that of a large olive. It is especially the violence and the duration of the phenomenon which is responsible for the big damage outside, fortunately all that was under greenhouse is unharmed. After a week of heat wave it was almost inevitable that this one ends with storms all the more violent as the heat was intense... Unfortunately this kind of phenomenon develops and cultivating one's garden becomes more and more random... If one wants to test optimistic one can see the positive side of the things, the heat wave went away and that it fell finally a little water...
2019-06-30: The early installation of the shade sails was a good initiative, they played their role in mitigating the heat of this week inside the greenhouses. The temperature never exceeded 50° at the hottest time of the day, it was usually around 42° to 45°, which is not bad. The number of burned flowers remains reasonable and not very damaging considering the very full clusters. The first fruits started to turn and the tasting can finally begin!...
2019-06-24: The greenhouses have put on their shade cloths to mitigate the harmful effects of the heat wave that has just begun. To fight against robins, nets have also been put on the openings. Let's hope that the heat will boost the ripening of the fruits and that the harvest will finally start. As for the peppers, they are starting to produce their first fruits...
2019-06-13: the spring which is ending will remain one of the coolest of these last years...We still had night frosts these last days with values worthy of a month of March! The delay of the vegetation is consequent and the first harvests are still far. In spite of the stress caused by the strong amplitude of the temperatures, the plants are of a pretty green sustained proof of vigour and good health...
2019-06-05: after a chilly month of May, the sun and the heat are back, finally a weather more in adequacy with the calendar... The formation of fruits is relatively slow, about 25% of the varieties present some and although the clusters are very provided with flowers many of them abort! We can also note a great disparity on the development of the various cultivars, some of them seeming to have better supported the cool, even cold, conditions of the beginning of the season.
