Thursday, 11 August 2011

mystery berries, Sungold toms, strawbs



Speaking again of the "potato" plant (grown from a pack of dahlia tubers) carrying little green fruits. A few of the green fruits have turned into small blue berries - I wondered then if they are blueberries or blackcurrants! But after searching the web I found a page saying that these berries could still belong to a potato, since that is where the seeds are. How strange! I haven't tried to dig down and see if there are actually potatoes yet as it is right in the middle of my flower bed amongst poppies and sunflowers, but I should do at some point.

More gardening advice from the web - a branch had almost snapped off in the wind from a tomato plant with several green tomatoes on. Apparently I could have taped it up and it might have healed with time, but since I've already broken it off fully, I have pushed the branch down into a new pot of soil to see if it may grow roots and start a new plant. (As apparently this can work). Last time I threw a branch of tomatoes in the compost bin not knowing this, hope it works!


I had thought none of my sungold plants had made it, but now I can tell the difference between the larger red Gardener's Delight tomatoes and the more plentiful and flavourful yellowy-orange Sungolds so I do have both after all - in fact more Sungolds than GD's. I thought they were ripening past yellow (to red), but they stopped at orange. The smallest ones are the tastiest. I've been able to pick 5-10 at a time (only 1 or 2 GD), and there are always more green ones growing to take their place. It does make growing them worthwhile - enough to put in a salad whenever I want. It's cost a bit to buy seeds, tools and compost etc but is better value than buying a big box of cherry tomatoes and wasting most of them each time, as is normal from a supermarket. The plastic packaging is wasteful too, and they taste nicer. Also of course it is fun to grow them. :)

F1 Sarian strawberry plant - grown from seed and now complete with little baby strawberries! It is a couple of months since the Homebase Cambridge Favourite strawberry plant stopped fruiting (bought as a small plant). But now this one has nearly got to that stage. I'll be very pleased if I see ready to eat berries, after all the other seedlings didn't germinate or died.