Long time no post

It's been a while since my last post due to the fact that the weather has been awful and my illness leaves me very tired.

However April has seen the start of seed planting.

The heated propagator has been switched on and currently has the following tomatoes in it.

Madame Jardel's Black Koralik Kenilworth St.George Betimes Macbeth Monkey's Ass Slovenian Black In an unheated propagator I have started off the following. Bishop's Children Dahlia Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy and Rustic Dwarf Aubergine Black Enorma First In Field and Maskotka tomatoes Sweet Genovese and Red Basil

Seed saving Tomato seeds

A simple guide to saving your own tomato seeds.

Here is Early Tanana,Koralik,Latah and Monkey's Ass in their containers at various stages.

Stage 1 remove seeds from the tomato,I tend to use a penknife.I put them into containers,add water,give them a stir,cover them and leave for 3 days.I label the pots.I stir this smelly mixture on a daily basis.Then I pour off the water and rinse several times in a sieve.I then pour the seeds onto a plate and cover them with kitchen tissue.I then put them somewhere safe and forget about them for a week or two.

After a week the seeds should be dry so I use a pair of tweezers to separate them and place them on a plate.

Then they get bagged up and labelled.I then put them away until required

Start of another month.

I managed to get a bit of weeding and harvesting done today before the rains arrived

 My first attempt at growing swwetcorn,this is Headstart F1 and there are some cobs showing.

 In between my sweetcorn I have planted some Black Beauty courgettes which are flowering but as yet no fruits,

 The runner beans are climbing and are in flower but as yet no beans

Due to the blight on the plot I have cut down the haulms and this is today's harvest of Pentland Javelins,I also harvested some Charlottes,the last of the Albignesian Wight garlic and an Early Nantes carrot.
The Early Onward peas have finished so are now in the compost bin.
I don't hold out much hope for the allotment tomatoes and seem to spent ages snapping off discoloured leaves,at least there are a few green tomatoes which have had a borage mulch to see if it gives any protection.
I have planted rows of Autumn King and Flyaway carrots,Ishikara spring onions,Axima and Blue De Solaise leeks.
I have finally had some Latah,Early Tanana and Koralik tomatoes from the garden,some Chioggia beetroot and some Piccolino cucumbers.
I have potted up Sungella,Principe Borghese and Sweet Million tomatoes as well as a batch of Sweet Genovese and Purple Basil.

Olympic torch

 As it was only a 200 yard stroll I went to see the olympic torch,well that is 5 seconds of fun.
On the allotment front we have come down with the dreaded blight,Thus I have cut the halms off of my Pentland Javelins and harvested a whole row.This area has now been dug over and fertilised for the next crop.This obviously doesn't bode well for the tomatoes down there so I am going to be growing a lot more in pots in the garden.From the allotment I have harvested my first batch of Charlotte potatoes,Golden Gourmet shallots,Senshyu yellow onions,Early Onward peas and some Albignesian Garlic.
I planted some Mrs Connell black runner beans from the seed circle.

It seems that my neighbours at Plot72B have given up,they didn't even last a season,at least Plot 72  are there are still there.
At home I have potted up Koralik,Sungold,Mortgage Lifter,Dwarf Mr Snow and Tasmanian Chocolate tomatoes and some Partner F1 gherkins.

Koralik tomatoes

 I bought some Koralik seeds from Pennard plants last year for my seed saving circle.It was my first attempt at seed saving.

I planted the seeds in late february in 3 inch pots and waited about two weeks for them to germinate.They were the slowest of all the tomato seeds that I started.I potted them on a couple of times and then placed them in a plastic greenhouse for isolation as I wanted to save the seed.
I started having fruit in the early part of July and my final crop was in late November,the indian summer helped.
They were sweet but not as good as Sungold which I grew for the first time last year as well.
I managed to save lots of seeds, so this year I will be trying them down the allotment to see if they have any blight resistant properties.
I am also going to try an early sowing for a test on the Grapevine forum to see how early i can get some fruit.