Late Start with Replacement Tomato Vines

At least 70 tomato varieties that I planted in March and April perished due to cold weather and inadequate care – mostly damping off disease.

So on May 29th, I replanted two seeds of each of those 70 varieties.  The extreme heat has been just about as rough on them as were the cold and wet conditions of a couple of months ago.  I transplanted one seedling each of those varieties that survived in Cedar City; but the deer and rabbits promptly destroyed about half of those.

So over the weekend, I planted what I had left, 57 varieties, in my sister’s garden in American Fork.

These are laid out in a 6X11 grid, 22″ from neighboring vines – very tight, but that’s all the space that was available.

In the other spots, I planted hills of Densuke watermelon and Yubari King melon seeds.  I’m very curious to see whether they live up to their claim of outstanding flavor!  And I only WISH I could charge $100+ per melon…

At Fumarole Farm, there are some moderate disease and bug problems, but overall, the plants are doing well in the 5-gallon buckets:

Contenders for first ripe tomato of the season include:

Utyonok –

Ditmarsher –

and Forest Fire –