One of the things we are doing this year is experimenting to see how early we can start our plants. We started many plants a month earlier than usual. In February we sowed plants like tomatoes, corn, and watermelon. Sweet corn usually requires warmed to sweeten up so we started with non sweet varieties first like ‘Strawberry Popcorn’ and ‘Seneca Red Stalker.’ Since these varieties are flint corn we had to wait until the plants dried before harvesting them. With them dried and the ‘Roma’ tomatoes ramping down in production, we took this time to clear and transition the beds to plant something else.

With the space, my son and I sowed seeds and are hoping to see 20 strong ‘Oaxacan Green’ dent corn plants.

As for the watermelon:
The ‘Klondike Blue Ribbon’ could have used a few more days to develop its exquisite crispy texture. Nonetheless, the flavor and sweetness was present. On the second tasting of a ‘Sweet Siberian,’ we find that the flesh is rather smooth and just sweet. Once again, the typical watermelon flavor is either non-existent or rather subtle.

Zone 10b / San Gabriel Valley / Los Angeles / Southern California / USA

Music: Dan Lebowitz, “Jeremiah’s Song”

A couple of varieties new to our garden. This is our first tasting. These tastings are very subjective. Good tasting or not so great, I encourage you to grow and judge for yourselves.

Note on the Druzba: They taste much better fully fully ripe. Very ripe ‘Druzba’ has sweeter taste and flesh is not grainy.

Zone 10b / San Gabriel Valley / Los Angeles / Southern California / USA

Music: Dan Lebowitz, “Tipetoe Out the Back”

Today we prepare crab ceviche with ingredients we harvest from the garden; and direct to our dish.

Ingredients (to be adjusted according to your taste)
1 lb imitation crab
4-5 limes
1 bunch cilantro
1 medium to large red onion
1 1/2 lbs of ripe Roma tomatoes
1 Serrano pepper
1/2 cucumber (optional)
1 teaspoon salt

Zone 10b / San Gabriel Valley / Los Angeles / Southern California / USA

Cumbia No Frills Faster by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100275
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

A look at and tasting of tomatoes we are growing for the first time:
‘Black Vernissage,’ ‘Weissbehaarte,’ ‘San Marzano,’ ‘Sun Gold,’ and ‘Sun Cherry Extra Sweet.’ ‘Roma’ is one we have grown for at least 8 years.

0:09 Harvest Montage
3:51 Harvest Overview
5:30 ‘Black Vernissage’
9:30 ‘Weissbehaarte’ (Special thanks to @realhensofoc for the seeds)
11:53 ‘Sun Gold’ (hybrid)
12:47 ‘Sun Cherry Extra Sweet’ (hybrid)
15:53 ‘San Marzano’
16:28 ‘Roma’

Music: Chris Haugen, “Ibiza Dream”
Zone 10b / San Gabriel Valley / Los Angeles / Southern California / USA

After the last episode, more tomato samples were had from the plant in the greenhouse. The sweetness level did not change much. It is worth noting that allowing the tomato more time to ripen did increase the sweetness a bit.

In this episode, we sample from a different plant grown in a different part of the yard; in soil that is more established. The tomato test was allow to vine ripen.
Like the first plant, the tomatoes from this plant missed the expectation for the level of sweetness. Additionally, the peel is tough.

Seed packet description: Suncherry Extra Sweet is a leading variety in Japan. Colorful and sweet, these bite-sized, deep red cherry tomatoes can be harvested over a long growing season with steady fruit set. They resist cracking and are particularly disease resistant to fusarium wilt race 1 and TMV. The fruits are very sweet with a 9-10 brix degree in sugar content.

Additional remarks: in the video, I said that 36 cents per seed is expensive. I mean that in relative terms. Additionally, these being hybrid means that the seeds from these tomatoes may not grow into plants that produce the same fruit characteristics. This means that unlike heirloom varieties that allow us to seed save, hybrid seeds will have to purchased every time we run out.

Zone 10b / San Gabriel Valley / Los Angeles / Southern California / USA

Many of these plants were started much earlier in the year (early February) than last. The early starts is an ongoing trial to see how soon we can start our plants outside here in the Los Angeles area.

Crazy About Citrus” is a series chronicling our connection with citrus.

In this episode:
The reveal on how we did on our first grafting attempt.

As an avid citrus collector, we will reach a point where it is necessary to attempt to acquire the skill of grafting plants. The reason for this is that more varieties of citrus exists in bud wood form than can be purchased as trees. In order to add rare citrus varieties to our collection we must now try our hand at grafting. On March 7th, we recieved bud wood from the Citrus Clonal Protection Program. Because of the Huanglongbing disease that is terminal to citrus trees, it is necessary to acquire bud wood from certified sources as a measure to contain the spread of the disease.

The bud wood received are:
‘California Rojo’ navel orange
‘Boukhobza’ blood orange
‘Melogold’ grapefruit

From the nursery we purchased two grafted citrus trees to use as root stock. On the ‘Cara Cara’ navel orange tree, we Tbud grafted the “California Rojo’ onto the root stock. On the ‘Eureka Lemon’ tree, we cleft grafted the ‘Boukhobza’ onto the Eureka scion. A back up Tbud graft was placed on the root stock. With success of the cleft graft, the Tbud back up is no longer neccessary. The Tbud graft of the ‘Melogold’ grapefruit on the last tree was not successful.

Special thanks and acknowledgement to Dan Wiley and the fruitmentor YouTube channel for his work and sharing of information used to graft our trees.

Music: ALBIS, “New Land”
Quincas Moreira, “Firefly”

Zone 10b / San Gabriel Valley / Los Angeles / Southern California / USA

First ripe tomato of the year! ‘Suncherry Extra Sweet’ (hybrid) tomato. The seeds were sowed on the 1st of February. In the greenhouse, the plant is allowed to grow multi-stem.

While the sweetness of the tomato falls short of expectations, there is hope that the upcoming crop will be much sweeter. Perhaps more heat is needed to sweeten the fruit. Maybe when May Gray eventually ends and things heat up will we get to taste a truly sweet tomato.

Additional notes: I believe the large presence of aphids on the tomato plants is due to the early start. Greens growing early in the year tend to have more aphids on them. It so happens that this is the period in the year when their natural predators like ladybugs are still dormant. As temperatures warms up, more and more the predators will arrive to feast on the aphids.

Speaking of aphids, the tomato plant growing in the greenhouse has been sheltered from aphids that blow in with the wind.

Thanks, to my brother and his family, for the t-shirt. I was hoping to be able to join them on their trip but was not able to.

Zone 10b / San Gabriel Valley / Los Angeles / Southern California / USA