Author Topic: For those who are into the occaisional experiment (Read 789 times)

longwinters · « **on:** January 10, 2012, 11:34:33 AM »

I got a new plant catalog today from Burgess Seed and Plant. One of the tomato plants is called the Burgess Trip-L-Climbing. A 70 day tomato that grows tomats up to 6" diameter. Boasting up to 2 bushels per plant. If you trellis the vines will grow 12 to 25'.

I don't have room in my small yard for such a beast, but it would be fun to see someone try it and report the outcome.

Long

BUGEYE · « **Reply #1 on:** January 10, 2012, 11:41:16 AM »

I love seed catalogs. I saw the picture of that tomato and it looks good, but I tried those upside down tomato things and all I got was a few blooms. so I'm skeptical.
that said, I can still spend hours looking at the catalog.

keith44 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 10, 2012, 02:40:29 PM »

I'll give 'em a look, I've got the room

powderman · « **Reply #3 on:** January 10, 2012, 02:43:43 PM »

LONGWINTERS. I'll look it up but doubt I'll try it. Like Bugeye said, the hangers were the pits. I did put out several of the so called TREE tomatoes and they were carefully watered and fertilized all summer. They got to a ht of 4 1/2 - 5 ft in cages and stakes. The fruit was delicious and good sized but certainly not as advertised. I saved seed but never planted any more of them. I think we threw the seed away. POWDERMAN.

longwinters · « **Reply #4 on:** January 10, 2012, 03:58:04 PM »

I tried the hanging strawberry plant deals, but typically we end up going away for a week in July and whoever waters our garden seem to always forget something....that year it was the strawberry hanging things. I've talked to 2 guys who tried the up side down tomato hangers and neither had good success. Course when I asked them if they watered them everyday, as container planters tend to dry out quick, both said no, that they had never thought of that.

Hey talking about experiments...anyone going to try anything new this year?

Long

jvs · « **Reply #5 on:** January 11, 2012, 01:07:09 AM »

My last experiment was with Grape Tomato's. We always liked them when we bought grape tomato's in the supermarket and the first time I saw them at the plant nursery in early spring I bought 4 plants.

Needless to say, I was over-run with grape tomato's.

Last year I only bought one grape tomato plant, I used a 8' tomato cage, and still had all of the grape tomato's I could use. It grew completely up the cage, back down the outside of the cage to the ground and started to invade my grape vines for support. I figure it was over 25 feet long at the end of the growing season and still loaded with tomato's.

We ended up freezing alot of the tomato's for soups ans stews and cut the small green ones up for homemade relish.

So I guess if you want a tomato that will put out 5 inch tomato's on a vine 20 feet long, you might want to have a plan for the end of the season... Just in case it works out.

Ranger J · « **Reply #6 on:** January 11, 2012, 05:16:28 AM »

The climbing tomato is not a new thing. I grew one thirty years ago as a novelty. I ran it up a TV tower and it did grow tall and produced good fruit. Just for giggles and grins you might grow one but I have trouble keeping my regular tomatoes from over topping my cages.

RJ

longwinters · « **Reply #7 on:** January 11, 2012, 05:20:07 PM »

I use 6' fence posts and tie them up as they grow. If they get over 5' I trim them back. The problem with grape/cherry type tomatoes is that they don't ripen any earlier than my regular tomatoes. Seems like someone would come up with a cherry tomato that is set to pick at say.....40 days.

I can just see those vine type tomatoes invading your yards and houses. Who needs Zombies.....we got tomato plants.

Long

Graybeard · « **Reply #8 on:** January 11, 2012, 07:02:09 PM »

Burgess and all its aliases is a good one to stay away from.

Yeah I know I need to follow my own advice. Most everything I've ever gotten from them died and even tho they will replace those you report ONCE most of the replacements usually arrive dead and rotting and I've considered myself lucky to get 10% of what I paid for to live even with the replacements considered.

Seeds I've gotten from them have a low germination rate and they plants are never healty.

If you'll do some online searching you'll find they have more complaints written about them than all the rest combined.

longwinters · « **Reply #9 on:** January 12, 2012, 01:43:09 PM »

Thanks GB. That's good info. I have never gotten anything from them. In fact I'd never heard of them until I got their catalog the other day. Guess I'll stick with the companies I know and have had good luck with seed wise.

I did order some tomato plants from, I think Gurneys, last year. 3 out of 6 were dead. I had enough from my seed starts so didn't worry about it, but don't have much confidence in ordering any plants from anywhere anymore. Being up north I think the plants don't have much of a chance getting shipped with our colder weather.

Long

keith44 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 12, 2012, 05:49:58 PM »

glad I read this, I got their catalog yesterday and found a couple deals on some fruit trees. Better look locally from the sounds of it

smokehouserex · « **Reply #11 on:** January 12, 2012, 06:23:44 PM »

Park Seed, Greenwood SC,29647 has a lot of stuff.
HM

Graybeard · « **Reply #12 on:** January 12, 2012, 06:38:12 PM »

Burgess has such a bad reputation they seem to invent a new seed company annual to avoid the association. But they use the same mailing address so ya can always tell besides the new company's catalog is a clone of theirs tho most times in smaller format.

Gurney and Henry Fields are good companies with a life time guarantee on their plants. All ya had to do was call them and replacements would have been on the way. If they didn't have them available they would have refunded your money. It's really still not too late I'm sure if you told them they likely would replace them this spring.

Most of the stuff I've gotten from them has been fine tho with it being rare to need replacements.

One thing that burns me on Burgess is they sell what they call a "sweet chestnut" and claim it's a real chestnut and that it is both sweet and edible. Yeah right. I wanted chestnuts real bad so I bought prolly 30 or more from them knowing the success I'd had with their trees. I have two that this year bore nuts. They are ACORNS not chestnuts. They do have a chestnut like burr but only one nut per burr like an acorn and man are those things bitter. Ain't no way I'm swallowing one but I've opened a few and chewed enough to find they are not for human consumtion.

Oh well these two are making nice shade trees but I didn't want a shade tree I wanted a chestnut tree. I do have several growing from Gurney/Fields and fully expect one day to get real chinese chestnuts from them.

The rest of the trees from Burgess will be removed and I might replace them from Gurney but it takes so dang long for nut trees to produce I'm not sure that at my age it's worth it.

I've got pecan trees I planted 15 years ago that only now are producing a few nuts a year and the dang crows and squirrels seem to beat me to the few that have been produced so far.

keith44 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 12, 2012, 07:34:59 PM »

sounds like you need to host a squirrel hunt

So I am wanting to put in a small orchard this coming fall (yeah I know I could do it in the spring but the site is not ready yet) I intend to use Dwarf and semi dwarf varaties where available. I want a couple dwarf apples (like the gala apples), a couple dwarf pears, cherry, plum, and four hazelnut (or filberts). These trees will share space with three or four grape vines(with appropriate spacing for each)

Who is the best supplier for these trees and vines (quality with good price)

Graybeard · « **Reply #14 on:** January 13, 2012, 06:35:41 AM »

Depends on what you consider a "good price" to be.

Gurney and their sister company Henry Fields are both dependable and sell quality plants but cheap is not something I'd associate with them. There is one other big name outfit big into fruit trees but at the moment I can't think of their name. Again far from cheap.

You might want to consider buying them locally. Don't you have some nursery outfit near you who can sell you potted or balled and burlaped trees? Both are usually easier to get to live than the bare root trees you get via mail order and will be a couple years older most of the time.

Rock Home Isle · « **Reply #15 on:** January 13, 2012, 07:02:22 AM »

I have several Filberts trees, and some Black Walnuts, and I'll hopefully be planting a few English Walnuts this year.

All the trees were started from seed...The Filberts trees (more like bushes) were started from nuts that I got at the store in the fall a few years ago. The Black Walnuts came from a tree that I planted as a kid and now they are producing nuts in my backyard.

I've been having trouble getting good viable English Walnuts. My source from last year was a bust...nothing sprouted. I'm hoping that my source from this year will be better.

keith44 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 13, 2012, 01:50:36 PM »

Rock Home Isle, I tried to sprout some filberts a few years ago, without any luck. The pecan trees I sprouted died out when they reached about 8" in height. So I thought a two year old tree would be the best way to go.

Graybeard, my reference to cost comes from pricing the trees at the local nurseries. The fugi apple tree can not be had locally for less than $50 for a three year old tree. I am wanting three of those, and I'll need a Gala apple to pollinate them. The Gala is also a great apple, but is just not avaliable locally. With what seems to be quality trees available for ~$30 and I get the trees I want the local guys are just gonna miss out on this one. The pear and plum and cherry trees I will get locally.

Rock Home Isle · « **Reply #17 on:** January 13, 2012, 02:46:23 PM »

Sprouting Filberts Nuts from Seed
In the fall (October-Novemberish), collect and sort seeds. I sort for the largest in size for my seedlings.
Soak the seeds for 5 days in clean water. Change the water every day.

Get a 5 gallon plastic bucket and drill 1/4 inch drainage holes in the bottem. Then after the Filberts Nuts have finished soaking, layer the soaked seeds evenly into the 5 gallon bucket. Use potting soil or peat moss as a layering mediun to separate the layers from each other. Layer of peat moss, layer of seeds, layer of peat moss, ect., until the bucket is full to within 3 inches of the top...The last 3 inches is all peat moss.

Bury the 5 gallong bucket half way in the ground in the garden and then cover with a very deep layer of leaf litter. Water heavily for 1 hour and then let it sit over winter. This will allow the seeds to over-rippen during the winter months.

In spring (mid to late April where I live) collect 1 gallon pots. I get mine from a local green house for about .25 cents each. Pack the pots with potting soil. Then pull the bucket and start soorting the seeds. Seeds that have started sprouting will be cracked and you should be able to see green of the young seedling, plant these in the pots at a depth of 2 - 3 inches depth. Any seeds that are moldy discard and any seeds that are whole but not cracked are restratified in the 5 gallong bucket and re-buried in the garden for a few more weeks.

Repeat process until all the viable seeds have been potted or you have as many seedlings as you need. I try to get as many as I need plus 15% or so.

Maintain the seedlings for the follwoing year in the one gallon pots in a filtered light environment ( I keep them under my deck). Plant the follwoing spring.

Few years ago I had 110 seedlings, planted 10 of them in my yard and sold the rest at a garage sale for $10.00 dollars each. I still get people calling me to see if I have any more....

chefjeff · « **Reply #18 on:** January 13, 2012, 02:56:09 PM »

I grow 4th of July ,a trellis variety,Is always my first tomato ripe,first week of june.And usually the last one,up into december,central NC. Hundreds of fruit. It runs over fifteen foot here.

briarpatch · « **Reply #19 on:** January 13, 2012, 03:10:21 PM »

In NC where I am from You can call the County extension agency and they sell fruit trees and grape vines of all sorts. They are cheap and hearty. If I remember right you have to have your order in before sometime in March.
Dont know if it is like that every where but is a good place to look.

powderman · « **Reply #20 on:** January 13, 2012, 04:05:28 PM »

I used to buy a lot from Henry Fields. We've tried raising a bit of most everything, including peanuts. Now I have time to garden my health limits what I can do, but I still enjoy it. POWDERMAN.

keith44 · « **Reply #21 on:** January 13, 2012, 04:09:02 PM »

Thanks Rock and briarpatch. Good ideas worth trying.

jvs · « **Reply #22 on:** January 14, 2012, 03:37:41 AM »

The two vendors that have the best reputation for quality in my area are Henry Fields for Trees, and Burpee for seeds and plants.

Not oddly enough, those two also have the reputation for being the most expensive for their products.

In the end though, that after many years of trial and error, and listening to others who have had similar experiences, I believe you get what you pay for when it comes to mail-order supplies. It's not that you can't get something inferior from Burpee or Fields but the company policy and replacements are top notch, in my opinion. If you want quality products, you gotta pay for them.

Now I have Nurseries I can go to that have Burpee seeds and plants and/or Henry Fields Trees. I make sure I know where their supplies come from before buying locally.

reliquary · « **Reply #23 on:** January 14, 2012, 02:53:08 PM »

In my local area (East Texas) are three nurseries with excellent reputation who get most of their fruit-stock from the same distributor about 50 miles away. Two of them guarantee replacement within one year. Every Wal-Mart also has a nursery and charges only about...oh, twice...what the locals charge for comparable stock. Why order sight unseen when there are things you can eyeball before buying?

The problem with Wal-Mart is that they will sell you fruit trees that don't produce well in your area...not the right chill hour requirements...and the managers say they have no control over what the warehouses send them.

The county extension agents don't sell stock here, but will recommend varieties that will do well locally, and give growing/spraying/pruning tips.

For veggies, I've had good luck with Willhite seeds, or the local nurseries if I'm not in the mood to fool with trays.

Keith44: You might want to check out Anna and Golden Dorsett for apples. They are a recommended mix for my area and cross-pollinate very well, although the Dorsett is not as heavy a producer; I don't know why. My trees are standard size, but even with my lackadaisical pruning, they're not more than 10' and easy to harvest from. I get ~5 bushels from the Anna and ~3 from the Dorsett every year...even 2011 with the drought. And they are also very forgiving; I don't spray them at all. This is their 12th year.