These four groups of tomatoes are grandchildren of "Sunsugar." Their parents are called F1 and they are called F2. Their children will be called F3. Sunsugar is a hybrid with the sweetest, highest brix readings that I have grown. The F1 generation seed planted from the hybrid, were not as sweet as their parents and didn't taste as good. But I took their seed and planted them to get what you see in the picture. The two big ones are 6 brix and taste ok. The five to the left of the big ones, taste sweet, like Sunsugar, but are smaller. The three at the bottom taste sweet like Sunsugar, and are the same size. The large group at the top right are actually more apricot colored than shown in the photo and aren't as good looking as the rest. But they surpassed Sunsugar in sweetness and have a wonderful rich, fruity flavor. When that plant dies we will never see it again. We hope that the F3 generation, from it's seed, will produce more or even better than their parents. I will be experimenting and planting, to see what I can find in this gene pool.

On the left top row are potassium deficient cucumbers. The stem end is bottle-necked. The second row shows nitrogen deficiency. The stem end is fully round and the blossom end tapers. The bottom cucumber has been fertilized with NPK fertilizer. Both ends have plenty of nitrogen (N), and potassium (K). But it is rotting, even though freshly picked, because the nitrogen has lowered the mineral content. This cucumber came from a garden where chemical fertilizers were used. The top two rows are organic, from soils that are potassium and nitrogen deficient.

The cucumbers in the bowl here have plenty of nitrogen and potassium.

These are asparagus plants. The tall ones are about 7'. The small ones were planted in early spring of this year. They say it takes 3 years to grow to maturity, but with this sawdust/horse bedding material that I use, they grow to 7' the first year. This is mid July and we've had drought for a month. Yet if we get enough rain, I wouldn't be surprised to see these new plants reach 7'. At this height, they will produce a full crop of asparagus in the spring.

I just harvested these potatoes. This is an early variety. When I first dug them, the color was even more intense. They are delicious! Notice that the eyes are not sunken; this is typically a sign of good quality and nutrition.

I like my onions sweet! Candy onions fill most of my year's supply. I fill in with Egyptian onions, used for greens, from March til May. I start pulling immature Candys in June. I use the bulb and greens, and the dried onions last til March. Almost year round onions!

This is Bloody Butcher, a red eared corn. Note the deep red stems and red silk, even some red in the tassels. It is a type of corn used for flour. but is mostly used for decorative purposes.

These are Jimmy Nardello peppers, an Italian heirloom variety brought to Naugatuck, CT by the Nardello family. They produce wonderfully here in CT, where it is hard for peppers to set fruit because of the cool nights. These will be fully red when ripe and are very sweet. They are thin walled, but the sweetness makes up for it.

Stages of fruit growth , beginning of July, 2010

It is dry, dry, dry! The earth has turned to powder. No rain in sight.

I previously gave up growing melons. The nights aren't warm enough when the fruit is ripening to set sugar in them. In the greenhouse I can give them hot nights. Hopefully I'll have nice sweet melons. These already have melons the size of baseballs.

The yellow flowers are birdsfoot trefoil. It is a legume. We mow these fields with riding mowers and catch the grass and legumes. We mulch our plants with them to conserve the moisture in the soil, to prevent the weeds from growing and as fertilizer. This legume is our nitrogen fertilizer.

I am training my kiwi plants up the wild cherry trees. They have grape size, fuzzless fruits. These are called kiwiberries in the stores. They are very delicious and sweet! They will grow as high as the tree will grow and from tree to tree. I have seen vines over 200' in Massachusetts. Having them in the trees will keep the birds happy and hopefully keep the birds out of my kiwi arbour.

This is a rice plant, native to Connecticut lakes. I just put it in. It is caged to protect it from being eaten by muskrats; they love wild rice! If I can get it to mature and produce, without being eaten it will produce so much seed that it will keep coming up on it's own, even if the muskrats eat some. I put in about 20 plants along the mucky shores of the pond.