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My wife was given some Sun-Gold tomatoes a few years ago and she really liked them, and the person gave her a couple seed packs. For the past few years I planted a few, perhaps two to four Sun-Gold plants to have to eat among the many we grow for canning. I am not sure what happened in order to get half of my crop this year as Sun-Golds. My wife blames in on my marking system when I start my plants. I think I either used the wrong pack, picking Sun-Gold over Mariana, or that even Jung Seeds had the wrong seeds in the marked pack. It could not be my marking system, since I thought I only planted four Sun-Gold plants, and marked them with their own letters.
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| Mariana Hybrid on vine |
My marking system involves numbering or lettering on cut up pieces of yogurt containers to fit in each four or six pack of plants. I may have six to eight six packs of Mariana Hybrid and each pack gets its own marker, using a different letter or number. I then mark this by day planted in my gardening journal. Land Girl says each type of plant should be marked with the same letter. But, my plants may vary by year. For example I used to grow 3 six packs of broccoli, but because it always seems to be ready at the same time, I have cut that down to about six or maybe nine plants (a pack or pack and a half). The only thing that has not much varied is the number of tomatoes I plant, although that has been cut back over the years, too. Of course, this year with the mismarked pack of seeds, we may lack sufficient quantities to can what we need. Sun-Golds would be difficult to can, due to their small size, so they are really an eating tomato. I don't tomatoes unless processed as sauce, or salsa, etc. Thus, it is hard for me to think I would have planted 18 or more Sun-Gold plants. Because I did not think they were Sun-Golds, I would not have had them marked as such. The problem with the Sun-Gold is that the plants are indeterminate and they go everywhere, long legs of branches hanging over the other tomato plants.
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| Sun Gold |
Overall, but for the issue of too many Sun-Gold tomatoes, and the issue of rabbits eating my broccoli and kale plants before I got the fence up (although I had a row cover on the plants) my home garden has been successful. My garden at Sun Prairie is another story with something, rabbits, woodchucks, or whatever, eating the beans, and Brussel Sprouts to nothing but nibs. The few tomato plants and the eggplant seem to be doing fairly well at that garden.
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| I had to put up netting to keep the deer from grazing on the tomato plants |
Our gardens bountiful harvest, from last fall, has extended to this summer, as on Friday night we had a dinner made with spaghetti squash, tomato sauce canned last year, and peppers fried from last year as well. It contained fresh basil and garlic harvested earlier this week. Only two ingredients were from outside the household--the sausage and the cheese. Perhaps I need to purchase a cow so my Land Girl can make homemade cheese, and raise a pig for her to butcher for pork sausage. The pig raising and milking may be new to her, but the Land Girl is a willing learner. Raising animals will take her back to her early teen years.
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| Sun-Gold Overload |
As for learning, I either have to pay more attention to the seeds I plant or perhaps find another supplier. And when it comes to marking plants next February to April, as I start them, time will tell if I continue with my old method, or change up and do what the wife has suggested. As for this year, I will have a load of Sun-Gold tomatoes. My wife, who likes Sun-Golds, may have her skin may turn the color of her hair. Whatever I do, I do not wish to have another tomato surprise next year.
Sun-Gold Are Ripening
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