daylight and aliens

the tomatoes seem to be stuck in rather a slow growth rate...they have gotten to be nearly two feet tall since i planted them, but they do not show any signs of producing actual tomatoes before the season ends...being that they are sub-tropical perennials and nowhere near native to indiana and i am wondering if they are having daylength issues...i was researching andean tubers at one point because i was thinking of growing some next season ( an idea that has been put aside for a more focused second season )...most of them were eliminated as candidiates because too much daylight would shut down thier productivity...the plants would grow, but the length of the days here in the growing season would inhibit their production of tubers....they want a more even distribution of light and dark than we get here in summer...i'm wondering if our tomatoes aren't suffering form the same issue...there's some time left in the year, but i'm not sure if we'll see tomatoes.

the season is just booming along...august is winding down and i will begin harvesting jerusalem artichokes soon...i will have to if i do not want them to over-run the entire garden...all the plants in the garden are busy insuring another generation...even though they are perennials they seem to be prolific procreators...i have harvested over one hundred aerial bulbs from the yam vines and they just keep appearing and i can't help but wonder what kind of impact putting all this energy into vining and bulb production is going to have on the actual yam production...we'll find out soon enough, but i am in some suspense...the wheat grass continues to prodduce new seed heads as well...awned and resembling emmer wheat, another perennial making sure there's more where they came from...there are strangers in the wheatgrass bed and i am having a bit of difficulty identifying exactly what they are...they take after fountain grass but are not tinged with purple...timothy hay is another possiblity...stockman seed sold me the wheatgrass and the tag on the burlap bag they came in says the seed is only 96.62% pure...stockman seed does sell seed for timothy hay and it's possible some stowaways arrived with the wheatgerass...but then there's the fact that the same stuff is growing in my yard and i haven't planted any of those wheatgrass seeds here at home...so more research is in order to find out what it is exactly...it is curious looking stuff, and not unattractive...if i discover it's a perennial i imagine it can stay.

my accidental Zea mexicana is doing well here at home...now nearing eighteen inches in height it shows me that i was, perhaps, indulging in some overly complicated processes in attempting to germinate and grow it...a more direct and naturalisyic approach seems to be what's called for and it's what we will be doing next year...we may never be able to get it to go to seed because it seems to like warmer weather ( it has occured to me that i may have just been trying to start it in conditions that were simply too cool resulting in the plants' demise when i took them off the heating mat )and we may not have the 155 or so days it needs to do so if it won't start until late july or early august...but i will be planting it drectly in the ground outdoors next season...i may still soak it in hydrogen peroxide for twenty minutes to break down dormancy, but i won't baby it along indoors.

8-21-2010 8:00 p.m.
i just got off the usda national resource conservation service's plant data base and i believe i have identified the intruder in the wheatgrass plot...it is japanese bristlegrass (Setaria faberi Herrm.) and it is an annual, which might make an interesting comparison for the wheatgrass, but dosen't belong there...can't use chemicals to remove it...and that wouldn't do the wheatgrass any good at any rate...so..pull it out like the noxious weed it is classified as..well...i needed something to do anyway.