Can a Slug-Caused Tomato Tragedy Be Saved? 14 May 24.

 This is the Supersweet-100 cherry tomato that I bought yesterday but didn't plant yet.  Overnight, something ate the stem.  I blame a slug.

Tomato plants are famous for growing roots from the stems, easily.  I will try to water-root the top.

I cut it with a single-edge razor for a clean cut.

Then, into water.

I'll keep it in my East - facing window and see what happens.

Meanwhile, here is the gaping wound.

I placed the cut iff "stump" outside with my other plants.  If it was planted above the cotyledon level, maybe it will regrow.  But I doubt that.

Tomato Seedlings Planted. 14 May 24.

Over the past four days, I planted the slicing / eating tomatoes, and the paste / salsa / cooking tomatoes.  I replaced the in- line drip irrigation (for last year's garlic and beans) with rescued individual emitters, one for each plant.  These are almost all dwarf tomato varieties, most from saved seeds.  They should reach about the tops of the supports.  The exception, Reisentraub, is more vigorous but can be trimmed.

The emitters all seem to be working.  This year, I invested in heavy duty wire ring supports to keep them more vertical.  That makes the cardboard mulching a bit more complicated but I will figure it out.

Similar for the sauce / salsa / cooking tomatoes.  Half are "Roma", a not-vigorous bushy determinate.  There are a couple of hybrid paste tomatoes too, last seeds from the packs.  Paisano and Plum Regal.  They are determinate and bushy but more vigorous and sprawling than Roma, so the supports will help keep the tomatoes clean and safe from slugs and sun exposed for sweetness and flavor.  The hybrids are more productive and larger, meaty tomatoes and are less work than Roma, but I also grow Rons because of sentimental reasons, and I can save Roma seeds each year.  So I feel like they  are "mine".

The redcurrent on the left needs to go.  It was accidental a pruned stick, stuck into the ground.  At the back are Egyptian Walking Onions, which will remain there until fall.

I also added an extra Reisentraub to the sauce tomato bed.  My cherry tomato seedlings didn't thrive, so I bought three plants - a dwarf type, similar to my heirloom dwarf tomatoes but is a hybrid cherry, called "Husky Red Cherry".  It should fit in, and I prefer dwarf types.  The other two are "Supersweet  100" which is too vigorous for these raised beds so needs a different location, and "Red Cherry" (!?) which might also need it's own location.

Blooming Roses. Cutting Rose Shows It's Color. 14 May 24.

 This climbing rose was grown from a "stick cutting", started three or four years ago.  Two years ago, it had  a set-back when I dug it up and moved it to its current spot.  It lost most of its roots in the process.  Now it's too tall for me to reach the top.  There were a couple of meager flowers last year.  Now or's covered with buds, and is among the first two blooming (Miniroses, kept growing all winter, are different of course).

Something tells me this is "Climbing Nr. Lincoln" but I'm not certain.

This rose is in its second Spring in my hands.  I planted it as a bare root, mail order, last year.  The variety is "Tropical Lightening".

I think there was more yellow / orange last year, in the variegated areas.  It's also covered with buds.

Reviving Overwintered Brugmansia. 11 May 24.

 I overwintered the Brugmansia in the garage with no watering at all.  Last month it bloomed, despite having no leaves.

I got it out and lightly pruned the top stems.  There are many growth buds.

I have watered it several times, to rehydrate the soil.  I don't want it to grow much larger, so I'm not sure about fertilizing.  It probably needs a larger container.

Planting The Chili Peppers. 11 May 24.

 Given a day in the 90s and another in the high 80s, I'm motivated to get everything into the garden.  I had the peppers containers mostly ready, so it went pretty quickly.

I added home made bone meal and coffee grounds to the soil before planting.  The drip irrigation system is flowing all of the way through.  I might change the one high flow emitter to slow flow to match the other flow rates.

I also planted the two pots of cilantro with two groups of pepper plants.  I want to space out the cilantro this year.

When I feel good about the drip systems, I'll add a crunchy leaf mulch to all of the plants.  They also get slug bait.

Last year, most of these had three plants per container.  This year I'm planting two.  I think they will benefit from the space, especially since I think these hybrid plants will be more vigorous.