L'orto di Bruno [Bruno's Vegetable Garden]

Today I planted various seeds in the bed #1 (refer map).

Specifically I planted the following:
* Capsicum
* Strawberry
* Chives
* Dill
* Basil

I'm using a technique that seems to have helped germinate the cherry tomatoes. After popping the seeds into the ground and watering well, I covered the area with plastic wrap - the standard food type. This should help keep the moisture in and allow me to see if/when the seeds germinate.

Today I planted tomato seedlings for the summer season of 2008/2009. I put in 20 tomato seedlings. Here's a rough plan of the tomato plants in bed #2 (refer map).

   [South]
[East] [West]
   [North]



      +-----------------------------------------------+
      |                              {Olive Tree}     |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
Row D |     D1       D2       D3       D4      D5     |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
Row C |     C1       C2       C3       C4      C5     |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
Row B |     B1       B2       B3       B4      B5     |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
Row A |     A1       A2       A3       A4      A5     |
      |                                               |
      +-----------------------------------------------+

Legend

Variety	Location(s)
Big Cherry	B3, C3, D3
Costoluto di Marmande	C1, C2, D1, D2
Grosse Lisse	A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5
Roma	C4, C5, D4, D5

Actually, this year I'm experimenting with sowing the "Big Cherry" plants directly from seed in the soil. The seeds were saved from fruit from a very productive plant from a couple of years ago. If they don't sprout "in situ", I'll probably replace them with seedlings raised separately.

All seedlings were purchased from the nursery section of my local hardware store.

I also sowed two groups of basil seeds at each end of the space between rows B and C.

As I did last year, I kept track of the tomatoes picked in the 2007/2008 season. So far, I've picked 542 "good" tomatoes this season, weighing in at about 33.8 kg. The table below summarises the "good" crop.

In addition to numbers picked, I've included the total weights of fruits picked from the individual plants. This year I didn't bother keeping track of the "bad" fruit - i.e. those that were diseased and thus picked early and discarded.

"Good" Tomatoes

Plant ID	Total Weight (grams)	Number picked	Average Weight (grams)
A2	36	6	6.00
A3	20	4	5.00
B1	80	1	80.00
B2	555	17	32.65
B4	4	2	2.00
B5	51	5	10.20
C0	75	1	75.00
C1	1245	17	73.24
C2	1190	16	74.38
C3	455	12	37.92
C4	4315	78	55.32
D1	265	8	33.12
D2	185	5	37.00
D3	1670	29	57.59
D4	2125	37	57.43
E1	395	4	98.75
E2	3270	22	148.64
E3	2745	17	161.47
E4	2595	14	185.36
E5	270	6	45.00
E6	3020	35	86.29
F1	1445	43	33.60
F2	1870	46	40.65
F3	1177	40	29.43
F4	1038	26	39.92
F5	880	10	88.00
F6	2120	21	100.95
G1	25	1	25.00
G2	225	7	32.14
G3	420	12	35.00
TOTAL	33766	542	62.30

This season was quite a bit shorter than both the 2004/2005 and 2006/2007 seasons. The 2005/2006 season was a write-off (see earlier posts for more details). By early March I had removed all but one plant. Despite the shortened season, the total weight of edible tomatoes picked was more than 2004/2005. However, it fell well short of the bumper harvest of last season (2006/2007).

I've finally got round to summarising the tomatoes harvested back in the 2004/2005 season. The weights were written down on paper, but I hadn't entered them into my computer for analysis.

The summary is nowhere near as detailed as that for later years, since I didn't keep records for each plant. Instead I just recorded the weights and the crop. As a refresher, here are the two crops I planted back in 2004/2005:

* Crop 1: Zio Pasquale's seedlings, (15: mixed beefsteak, grosse lisse, whatever) planted in September 2004
* Crop 2: Costolato di Marmande, 5 seedlings, planted in January 2005

Also I should mention that I didn't start weighing the tomatoes until a few weeks into harvesting, so I had to estimate the number picked and assume were the average weight of the weighed tomatoes.

"Good" Tomatoes

Crop	Total Weight (grams)	Number picked	Average Weight (grams)
Crop 1: Zio Pasquale's seedlings	23968	125	191.74
Crop 2: Costolato di Marmande	1960	28	70.0
TOTAL	25928	153	169.46

The average yield for each plant in crop 1 was a bit over 8 tomatoes, and 1597 grams. The average yield for each plant in crop 2 was 5.6 tomatoes, and 392 grams. The combined average yield: 7.6 tomatoes and 1296 grams per plant.

Comparison with recent years is a little distorted, due to the different varieties that made up the crops.

It's also worth noting that the harvest period went from late December to early May. This is very similar to 2006/2007, which is the best season to date on all counts: total number of tomatoes, total weight and length of harvest.

This season (2007/2008) I've planted about 30 tomato seedlings. Here's a rough plan of the tomato plants in bed #4 (refer map).

   [South]
[East] [West]
   [North]



      +-----------------------------------------------+
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
Row F |   F1      F2      F3      F4      F5      F6  |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
Row E |   E1      E2      E3      E4      E5      E6  |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
Row D |     D1         D2          D3          D4     |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
Row C |     C1         C2          C3          C4     |
      | C0                                            |
      |                                               |
Row B |     B1       B2       B3       B4      B5     |
      |                                               |
      |                                               |
Row A |     A1       A2       A3       A4             |
      |                                               |
      +-----------------------------------------------+

Legend

Variety	Location(s)
Apollo	E1, E2, E3, E4
Big Cherry	A1, A2, A3, A4, B3, B4, B5
Costoluto di Marmande	E5, E6, F5, F6
Grosse Lisse	B1, B2, C0, C2, C3, C4, D1 D3, D4
Pink	C1, D2
Roma	F1, F2, F3, F4

The Big Cherry (for want of another name) seedlings were grown from seeds saved from last year's fruit. The Grosse Lisse seedlings, apart from D3 and D4, were provided by my uncle (Zio Pasquale). All other seedlings were purchased from nurseries.

The seedlings were planted in three stages: Zio Pasquale put in about nine seedlings on September 29, 2007. I put the bought seedlings in on October 22. The Cherry tomato seedlings were planted in late November/early December.

A few extra seedlings were also planted in bed #3, but we'll see how well they go. I'll be concentrating on looking after the plants in bed #4.

I've been using the same basic techniques as in previous years. For information about soil preparation, staking, pruning, fertilizing and mulching, refer to posts in past seasons.