Tragedy Tamarillo [ braamekraal/ ]

The sad remains of our newest Tamarillo/Tree Tomato after strong winds yesterday. I was so looking forward to propagating this one, as it is a new strain -- much taller than the other strain we already have, and bearing much larger fruit.

In other, better, news, the Spelt is forming beautiful heads and flowering. The tallest stalks are shoulder high, and so far (knock on wood) the pesky Finches have shown not the slightest interest. On the other hand they have uncanny knack for sensing when seeds are 3 days short of fully-ripe!

27.Oct.09 12:19 PM, SAST | Words (92) | 2 Comments | 0 Trackbacks | Link Cosmos

Comments on this entry:

The spelt looks great! I don't think mine ever got shoulder high. This is even in spite of the drought, or have you been getting a bit of rain? You must be in your dry season now, right?

Thu Oct 29 12:03:42 SAST 2009 Patrick - http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/

We've had some rain -- decent amounts, even, last month (Sept) -- but things have been pretty dry through the Winter, as you know, and I haven't had sufficient water to irrigate the Spelt, so it's been left pretty-much to its own devices.

There's a lot of variability in the height, related, I believe, to water availability... the tallest spikes are closest to generally-wetter soil.

Historically Oct/Nov are our wettest months here, often being the Flood Months. So far, though, October has seen about 30% below-average rainfall.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AvJitrvGE8NMcGY2TldTTjhQY0hXTENmUV81UE16Qnc&hl=en_GB

Thu Oct 29 17:16:38 SAST 2009 Mike (planbe) -