How are Things in the Tomato Patch?

[Raiquee]

Don't think I posted in the original thread, but my heirlooms are doing great!

Black Krim: Loaded, with almost 2 dozen green toms and have a big bugger blushing on the vine right now!
San Marzano: Worried about this one, but digging through the plant reveals a half dozen green toms!
Lemon Boy: A loooot of green toms
Green Stripey: Multiple green toms
Black Prince: A few, this was bought later in season and is smaller
Cherokee Purple: Same as black Prince

Mystery toms: FINALLY getting their first green toms, they are huge tho.

Volunteer toms: Doubling in size. Will have a late August harvest from them for sure.

In total? 30ish plants

 

[Hattie the Hen]

My black krim is in a large (21") clay pot. It looks good although the leaves are always curled. I deep water it and so far do not have any yellow leaves on it like I usually do. I mulched my pots this year and this seems to help keep the watering more constant. It has one medium size green tomatoe and a few smaller ones.

I've found that plastic pots are much better than clay. Whenever I have something in a clay pot, I can never keep it watered because so much evaporates thru the pot. Maybe switching to the biggest plastic pot you can find will help?

I have a whole lot of clay pots that I bought years ago when I had a house with a huge paved terrace so I put a lining of plastic inside the pots (usually re-using the bags the new seasons soil for them comes in). As long as you remember to pierce some holes in it for drainage it works perfectly & looks great. I never re-use the same compost the following year but dig it into my raised beds or layer it in to the compost heap. I think it is exhausted by the end of the tomato growing season. I have in the past used it for sowing seeds of veg. that are transplanted
quickly.

All my tomato plants are doing very well, SO FAR..........!!

They are all in pots as last year I had real trouble with Late Blight which killed them all off VERY FAST.

Therefore this year I soaked & scrubbed every pot, support & tool in bleach before I started potting up & I have been examining them every day (at least twice.....!!). I have also cut off all the lower leaves & mulched well with stones (this prevents evaporation & holds the heat at the end of the day as well as preventing splash back of soil).

I have a mixture of both hybrids & heirloom varieties, about 25 in total. All have plenty of flowers & about 75% are already have plenty of fruit on them, some of the varieties are on the edge of changing colour but none are ripe yet. We had a very late Spring here in the UK with our last frost in June.....!! I had to keep bringing them inside every night & out again on sunny warm days

Today I will take my notebook out with me & jot down their names & details of the variety & their progress. I have been meaning to do it but something always happens that takes priority ( I have two new broods of chicks with another one due in just 10 days); I can't resist watching broodies with their fledglings!

I want to thank everyone here on TEG who gave me help with how to avoid a return of blight. It was an awful experience loosing about 40 plants.

Good luck with all our harvests & preserving & all our lovely delicious meals to come in the months ahead.

:bee Hattie :bee

 

[bcallaha]

My tomatoes are doing better this year than last year. I think that last year was just too cool and wet around here.

This year I planted only 2 Roma, 5 Beefsteak, and 5 Big Beef. The beef types are doing well. Getting 3-5 tomatoes each day. They are starting to come on, so that will increase!! The Roma aren't doing as well. A lot of blossom rot so far.

Nothing beats a home-grown tomato!!

Brad

 

[digitS']

Raiquee, that Black Krim seems to get good press wherever it goes! It almost looks like it might be early enuf for me to grow here.

Brad, I'm a Big fan of Big Beef!

Hatty, we anxiously await that list on variety & progress. I'm very interested in what varieties are grown outside the US. I think that, for instance, our western BC/Washington/Oregon gardeners could learn a great deal by seeing how things do in your garden.

I've said somewhere that I'm growing Mr. Stripey but that is a variety and how it is known in the UK & Canada (the US "Mr. Stripey" is something else). Since I got the seeds from Canada, I feel I should call it Mr. Stripey . . . even if the American name TigerElla sounds a good deal sexier.

Steve

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hatty, we anxiously await that list on variety & progress. I'm very interested in what varieties are grown outside the US. I think that, for instance, our western BC/Washington/Oregon gardeners could learn a great deal by seeing how things do in your garden.

Steve

Good morning Steve

I haven't forgotten the list etc........ I started yesterday, but got distracted by a pile of jobs that needed to be done.........the story of my life now, after a long life of working to tight deadlines I have kind of relaxed (maybe a bit more than I should.......??)

We have just had a couple of days of very high winds -- it blew some of my potted tomatoes over but nothing was damaged, luckily.

This year I had to buy all my tomato starter plants in because the winter was so very long & cold. I usually like to grow them from seed (as I did last year, when I lost everything to late blight).

I do know I have a couple of Black Krim Which are a bit on the shy side at the moment -- not many flowers or set fruit yet but the starts were tiny when I got them from the growers. Most of the other starts I bought from various stalls in my local markets over a period of a few weeks.

I was surprised by the number of varieties that were being offered -- things have definitely changed here, with more & more people digging up their lawns & turning to growing their own veg & fruit. In fact the movement is definitely growing every year. I think people are finding that not only does it provide food for their table which is both healthier (& maybe cheaper) but the process is beneficial to their minds & means they spend more time with their families (rather than at the supermarket buying the stuff as they used to. Younger friends are so surprised at how different things taste. They report much less wastage of food & they have more meals which are mainly vegetables. The children are getting interested in the way things are grown & now help out with the cooking. You have to remember that here being a chef is seen as being very trendy to the young & a lot of our chefs also have large vegetable gardens which they feature on TV. It has been such a good trend to reinforce the links between growing & cooking & enjoying a good meal together with family & friends. It also emphasises the seasonal eating of food, something we had lost for years.

Right, I'm off to finish my list........................................................... :bee


:tools Hattie :tools

 

[Kim_NC]

We're having a fairly good season with ours:

Overall we escaped blossom end rot with the exception of just a few single tomatoes here and there.

German Johnson and Mr Stripey: Both set fruit well, some very large tomatoes, nearly over now. These are 'standards' for us every year.

Black Seaman: was a mislabeled plant My best guess is it's some sort of paste tomato

Dr Carolyn: Yellow cherry type, has produced well, a little later than the others. The skin is very pale, almost opaque

Aunt Ruby's German Green and Green Zebra: We LOVE both of these. They're sweet and have great texture.

Mountain Spring: Won't grow these again. They've done well and fruited well. But we don't like the tomato. The texture is mushy. Very dissapointing.

Mountain Yellow: Overall failed with these. In a different section of the garden that didn't get as much water. They're ust starting to ripen a few smaller fruits. Haven't tasted any yet.

Roma: So-so. For whatever reason they set small fruit, but lots of it.

Grape: Went gangbusters! We've picked and picked. Plan on pullng at least two plants as green tomatoes to make pickled Tomolives.

Brandywine and White Queen are at the green tomato stage. They were planted later. Doing well so far.

We also have hybrids - Supersteak, Beef Master, Lemon Boy. All doing well.

ETA: We're entering 2 favorite salsas in a contest at one of the city farmers markets on Aug 3rd.

 

[the lemon tree]

A few pics of some of my tomatoes. These were taken a few days ago, and the Black Krim has started to show some blush since then.

'Principe Bhorgese'

'Black Krim'

'Nyagous'

 

[vfem]

Wow... you guys are having amazing luck with your tomato collections!!!

Mine are starting to fill in nicely, but I noticed my purple cherokee which are the only one's ripening at all are cracking bad. My Italian Market Tomatoes are starting to crack too.

All the rest are big and beautiful and GREEN!

 

[Whitewater]

I haven't had any issues with cracking . . . and only a few have catfaced (which I don't mind at all, proves they came out of my garden and not from frankenseeds destined for the grocery store!), mostly on the Mortgage Lifter.

My big issue right now is blossom drop. Now all the 'maters have it, not just the heirlooms. *sigh* But it has been pretty dang hot here lately, even the peppers are showing signs of dropping!!

Everything looks great, though, even if there's not a hint of a blush. Not even my Early Girls, which went in almost 6 weeks before the heirlooms, are showing any sign of redness. The early hybrids are *yellow*, but not red. Not yet!

I swear, I don't know which is worse, waiting for tomatoes to ripen or for my young pullets to give me that first egg!!!


Whitewater

 

[the lemon tree]

I'm getting a lot of splitting, especially with the Cherokee Purple. The only almost-ripe tomato is so severely split, only half of it will be edible. It's pretty small, to boot.