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This year I ran a test on the best varieties of slicer tomatoes for the Houston vegetable garden.  In the past I have had variable success with some recommended varieties, but they were planted in different areas of the garden so direct comparisons were difficult.  Conditions such as available sunlight can change considerably over a small area in an urban garden.  This year I planted 4 determinate varieties right together:  Homestead, Merced, Celebrity and Floramerica.  It was the best year I have ever had for tomatoes, probably because of the cool, relatively dry spring.  I can’t say I found much to choose from among these varieties.  All produced about 15 nice size tomatoes.  All ripened all the way through and were delicious.  I have trouble in other years with the top part of the tomato being white and pithy.

Merced was the first to turn pink, in early May.  All were planted outside from large pots around March 1.  Homestead and Celebrity followed about a week later and Floramerica was the latest.  I pick when they first turn pink on the bottom and let them ripen inside. Unfortunately, the mockingbirds beat me to several, so I bought some netting at Southwest Fertilizer and solved that problem.  For best quality you must let them fully ripen and not get impatient.  Never refrigerate tomatoes unless they are becoming over ripe.  All of the tomatoes were picked by June 1.  As determines, they quit setting fruit in late April.  My experience is that later setting tomatoes on indeterminate slicer varieties never turn out very good.  Thus, in Houston, as opposed to New Jersey, determinates are the best bet.

This year I tried the new triple sweet corn in my Houston vegetable garden.  Triple sweet comes in three varieties: Serendipity (bi-color), Honey Select (yellow) and Avalon (white).   I ordered from Park Seed.  The three are about the same in everything except color.  I planted Serendipity directly in the ground on March 1.  Germination was slow because these varieties need 65+ degree soil temperature.  Only about 1/2 of the seed came up; but I planted two seed per spot so the stand was ok.  I planted Honey Select in a celled flat under the grow light and every seed came up.  I transplanted to the garden when the shoot first showed out of the soil.  Even though it was planted several days later it was ahead of the Serendipity.  I planted the Avalon in flats also about a week later.  The result was 3 varieties maturing over about 3 weeks.  All were area planted on about 1 foot spacings.  I also hand pollinated to ensure that leaves did not block out the silks.

The ears are on the small side (6-8″) but the quality and yield are outstanding.  We made a mistake and overcooking the first batch.  Store corn usually takes 8-10 minutes of boiling, but these varieties should be cooked no more than 5 minutes.  These varieties have more of a “corny” flavor than the super sweet and sugar enhanced varieties, a characteristic that I like.

I picked my first tomato today, a smallish Merced.  As a reader observed, the Sweet Chelsea tomato takes over the garden, but it is loaded with fruit.  I have been pruning the ends of some of the wilder stalks.  Next year I plan to do some early pruning on it. It would grow best in a tall cage maybe 3′ in diameter with the side branches trimmed to force it to grow up instead of out.  I think the determinate varieties have stopped setting fruit.  Night time temperatures in the 70s are not conducive to setting fruit.

The first bean crop from my Houston vegetable garden was picked today, about 62 days from when I planted the seed.  Beans are advertised to be ready in fewer days than that, but it was quite cool when I planted them on March 1 and germination was slow, but good.  The plants for very healthy and loaded with beans.  We picked almost 3 pounds from a garden space of 28 square feet;  a lot of food from a very small piece of land.  Derby beans so outperform all the other varieties I have tried that I no longer experiment.  I had beets planted in the location is the winter garden. 

The earlier corn is tasseling and silking.  I have been doing some hand pollination.  One disadvantage of area planting (which I use for everything) is that leaves of the corn can shield the silks.

Onions have all been harvested and are on shelves in the garage.  I had good luck keeping them for some time last year.  I continue to pick leeks and still have quite a few left.  Also, a lot of collards, but everyone is tired of greens.  The fennel that I cut off at ground line has put out nice new shoots and will be ready in a couple of weeks.

The tomatoes are busy setting fruit in my Houston vegetable garden.  This year I planted all the tomatoes together so I could do a good test on varieties of slicer tomatoes.  Previously,  I have followed the general recommendation of scattering them around the garden.  While good for disease control it limits comparison because of the variability of sunlight and some differences in the soil.  I planted Homestead, Merced, Floramerica and Celebrity as well as the cherry/plum tomato Sweet Chelsea (far left in the picture). 

 Sweet Chelsea is indeterminate to put it mildly and quickly takes over half the garden.  The others are determinate, which I generally think are best for growing tomatoes in Houston.  Homestead is a heirloom variety that we used to raise commercially when I was a kid growing up in Lavaca County.  So far all are doing well, but I think Homestead is moving to the front in terms of production and Celebrity is lagging behind.  Merced was the first to set fruit and has the largest tomatoes.  I plant to measure production of each variety and do a taste test.

 In the background you can see the corn I started indoors in now tasseling.  On the left you can the parsley going to seed.  I am letting practically everything (arugula, cilantro, bok choi, mustard and lettuce) go to seed.  The flowers are good to have to attract beneficial insects and I plan to save the seeds.  I planted a couple of the Osaka Purple Mustard seed and they seem to have come up true.  Of course, hybrid seed will no come true and is hard to know what will and will not.  The butterfly iris in the foreground has been beautiful this spring.

I pulled out the sugar snaps today.  It was a record crop, but mildew had about finished the plants.  They were about finished anyhow and were putting too much shade on the corn.  I have not found an acceptable way to control mildew on sugar snaps.

We have a threat of frost tonight, but I think we will be ok in the central area.  The temperature is still in the 50s at 10 pm and the wind is blowing.  I watered well but did not put the frost cloth back on–what a year of weather.

Quite a few little tomatoes.  Merced set fruit first but the others are not far behind.  Plants look really good.  Corn is also doing well.  Cilantro, arugula and parsley are all blooming and bringing in beneficial insects.  Tomorrow I will mulch the blackberries with newspapers and some hay I brought back from the ranch.  Beans did germinate well in spite of the cold spell when I planted them

The wonderful Contessa onions and the leeks are now ready.  We had a salad tonight of the onions with avocados and cherry tomatoes–wonderful.  The avocado from Costco are great, but they need a few days to ripen.

All the spring crops are planted and the final harvest of the winter Houston vegetable garden is about complete.  I planted the beans last week right before the cold snap.  Hopefully, the seed did not rot; I am sure they did not germinate.  But, warm weather is here now.  Not much to do now except watch things grow.

Sugar snap peas are in full production; they liked the cooler weather.  Probably a record crop this year.  Hardly any vegetable is better to grow in terms of upgrade from the supermarket.   Onions and leeks are developing nicely, but it will be another month or so.  Parsley, cilantro and arugula are going to seed.  Bush tomatoes are blooming.

The corn I started indoors is really kicking the seed planted outside.  Not only is it further developed, but the plants are stronger.  Certainly the way to go from now on.

Time to get rid of the last of the winter vegetables in your Houston vegetable garden and plant the spring crop.  Last week I planted the tomatoes from pots into the ground and yesterday put frost cloth around them for the cold weekend. See previous post on how to do this ( http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2008/02/07/growing-tomatoes-in-houston-cont/)  I planted some corn in the garden and some under the grow light.  I hope the warm weather last week was sufficient to germinate the triple sweet varieties which require soil temperatures of at least 65.  The seed under the light came up almost at once with 100% germination.  They need to be put in the garden but I will wait until it warms up a bit tomorrow.  Corn develops large roots fast so the starter flat gets overwhelmed rather quickly.

I still have some beets and carrots to pull before I plant the beans.  They should go in next week sometime.

Still overwhelmed with lettuce–having been giving it to anyone in sight.  Sugar snap peas should be ready this week.

Parsley and cilantro are started to bloom and seed.  Their blooms attract beneficial insects as well provide the seed for next years crop.  They will reseed indefinitely, but be careful not to over mulch after the seed have fallen.

Tomorrow is February 1 and time to start thinking of the spring Houston vegetable garden.  I transplanted my tomatoes to large pots today and will set them in the garden later in February with frost cloth around them.

Every lettuce seed I planted in the flat seems to have come up twice.  I have set out about 15 plants and reluctantly tossed the rest.

Sugar snaps are growing well.   The beets and carrots are being picked.  I may be pushed to find spots to plant the beans, corn and tomatoes.  Speaking of corn I ordered some triple sweet varieties to plant.  Two varieties–Honey Select and Serendipity–are now recommended by the Extension Service.  Park Seed offers a 3-fer package of those two plus Revelation, a very early maturing variety.  So I will try their three-fer deal.  I have not any extra sugar types before but other gardeners have told me that they are difficult here, but I thought I would find out for myself.

Seems rather a cold day to be thinking of tomatoes for the Houston spring vegetable garden, but it is time to start the seed indoors.  In posts from last year I described the method so I won’t repeat.  This year I planted 2 of my remaining Merced seed.  Merced is (or was) a great tomato for here but no one sells the seed any more.  I also planted Sweet Chelsea, Floramerica, Celebrity and Homestead.  I have not tried Floramerica before but it is recommended for the area.  I gave up on Champion after last year.  It is recommended here by various experts but I have never had good luck with it.  Homestead is an old variety that we raised commercially when I was a kid so it has been around for a while.  I have not planted it in many years–will be interesting.  I normally plant Sun Gold, but found that I had run out of seed.

The seed will probably come up in 3 or 4 days and be ready to transplant to 4″ pots in a couple of weeks.  I will then put them in gallon pots before ultimately planting them in the garden in mid February.  In the old days on the farm we started the seed in “hot beds” and transplanted to “cold frames” before finally planting them in the field.  We raised about an acre.  It was hard manual labor but at least the work was in a pleasant time of the year.  The market collapsed in the early 1950s when mechanized planting in the Rio Grande Valley started.

I also threw is a few lettuce seed to get a late crop.  The lettuce planted in October is now in full production.  The mustard greens are about finished, but it has been a great crop.  I really like the Osaka purple; beautiful plant and a nice milder flavor.  I will let it flower out and save the seed, but I am not sure if the seeds will come back true or not.  The collards planted later are now producing well–may be sick of greens by the time the winter is over.  Parsley and cilantro are everywhere from reseeding.  Next year I will try to find some chervil seed.  Chervil is from the same family and has a mild licorice flavor.

I planted my remained turnip seed to get a second crop.  The Royal Crown turnip seems to be an improvement over the regular purple top.  The turnips stayed sweet even when they got quite large. 

Sugar snaps are one of the highest reward vegatables for the Houston vegetable garden.  I planted them yesterday, a little earlier than the recommended date of between Christmas and New Years.  I prefer to get them started a little sooner before really cold weather typically comes.  Some people plant them as early as Thanksgiving, but you must wait until the chances of weather in the 80s are low.  A fence of at least 6 feet is needed.

Other vegetables are coming along fine.  We have more greens and turnips than we can eat.  I have really been pleased with the Osaka purple mustard greens.  They have done well, are beautiful in the garden and have a very nice flavor–somewhat milder than traditional mustard greens.  The Derby beans gave one last burst and I will have enough for 2 people for one more dinner.  They were burned a little by the frost last week.  After this picking they will be heading for the compost pile.  Lettuce is being harvested by clipping off leaves.  The bok choi is ready as “baby bok choi”.  Beets are doing well but it will be a while yet.  Cilantro and parsley are coming up everywhere and they have to been thinned for control.

I have been putting last year leaf compost around the vegetables.  The plants are big enough now and I need to make room for this year’s leaves.