2011-05-31. 2011 Texas Drought.
Dateline: 2011
According to the National Weather Service, “The warm spring from March to May was the 10th driest ever at Camp Mabry and the warmest since 1854.” Worse than the heat, the drought is now exceptional. Most of May felt like August. We did get one lovely heavy rain two weeks ago but my rain barrels are already empty and the pond is quickly evaporating.
Speaking of the pond, Monday (5/30) AJM noticed a heron stalking around. The fish are in hiding. Or eaten. We can’t tell yet how many fish have been taken. We didn’t see any for a few days. Then a couple peeked out. We’ve put the netting up again until they have a chance to recover and the pond water clears up again. When critters chase the fish, they stir up the water and the pond gets all mucky.
First flowers: Asclepias curassavica (6/1); water lily ‘Helvola” (6/1).
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Category: Week by Week in the Garden | 11 Comments »
The first ‘Persimmon’ tomato we harvested tipped the scale at 1 pound 3 ounces.
Hands down ‘Persimmon’ is the best tomato I’ve ever eaten. And I will absolutely grow it again. However, it is the most challenging tomato I’ve ever grown. So far, we’ve gotten two tomatoes, each tipping the scales at over a pound.
Unfortunately, we’ve mostly gotten misshapen tomatoes that develop rot.
Twining Vine Garden says that ‘Persimmon’ requires “heavily fertile evenly moist well draining soil”.
I agree that it’s a heavy feeder. Although ‘Persimmon’ was planted in a newly dug bed filled with compost, it produced a giant deep-green vine (over 6 feet tall) with no flowers until I gave it some tomato food. It wasn’t that I’d filled the bed with high-nitrogen fertilizer or anything, just sifted compost from my pile out back. The other plants in the same bed flowered just fine.
The same site says that without calcium it will develop blossom-end rot. It did…not just at the blossom end but along the ridges and cracks.
Thomas Jefferson is said to have grown ‘Persimmon’. I’m amazed that it’s been around so long. The flavor and texture takes the tomato to a new level. It seems like some mysterious cross of tomato and mango (or perhaps persimmon)…almost something dreamed up in a laboratory. In short, ‘Persimmon’ is almost too good to be true.
Am I the only person who has trouble growing it?
Category: Plant Highlights | 11 Comments »
