My 'maters (just boring Early Girl, etc) were doing great...until the blister beetles found 'em! But I managed to dehyrdate about 5 dozen or so before their untimely death.
Early Girls are coming on strong. First ones were picked about 2 weeks ago, and then there was a protracted "pause" before any more started to turn.
Romas (uncertain of exact variety) are covered with full-size but GREEN fruits. This past week, some finally turned. Picked about 22 between yesterday & today. No photos yet, but maybe soon!
Grape tomatoes are still vigorously flowering and setting fruit, but all are still green.
I am in NW Oregon, Hardiness Zone 8a. We had an unusually cold, wet and prolonged spring, so everything is about 2 to 3 weeks later than usual.
We had a cold windy spring so everything is behind here too. Found my first black krim almost ready to pick. Still get lots of yellow plum, sweet 100s and large cherry. NOM!
Third week of picking tomatoes, third basket like this. And yes those are all tomatoes. Early girl, Roma, Big Boys, Lemon Boys and Green Zebras. The basket measures 18" across and is 10" high not including the handle.
Also filled a quart sized basket with cherry tomatoes too. And for those of you wondering that's raspberry jam (directly behind the basket) and elderberry jam in the darker colored jars. Both will be Christmas gifts this year. Just noticed too above the raspberry is Tomato soup. We save the boxes that the jars come in, helps us keep them organized till its time to store them since we've expanded and need to make more room for our canned goods.
We don't get many edible large tomatoes, but these are two Amana Orange and two Pineapple tomatoes. Both varieties were very tasty, and the Pineapple had the most unique flavor I have ever tasted in a tomato. The largest of the Amana orange was nearly two pounds!
You guys are still going strong, mine are pretty much done. I have about 12 tomatoes left hanging no the vines at best. Time to start removing plants and thinking about what to do next. I'm so late on so much!
But I have to say, I did get a LOT of tomatoes this year, and I have a good stocked up amount of sauce, salsa and chopped tomatoes for the winter. Oh... and LOTS of sundried tomatoes as well Those are the BEST part.
Going Strong? Only the cherries are on a steady pace for the last 2 months.
My little beefsteak plants are filled with big, green tomatoes but ripening on those plants still seem to be stuck in 1st gear!!
The cool early season should have told me that the slugs would be a problem. I am harvesting the beefsteaks when they just have a blush! Catch me if you can, slugs
!
About this time of year my Mortgage Lifters always seem to catch a second wind and start producing like crazy. The trouble is that by this time they are swallowing half of the garden. I never saw such huge sprawling plants. The original cages are buried so deep they're hard to find. I call them free range tomatos.
I used to hate growing tomaotes, SPECIALLY FREE RANGE MATERS Here is my new tomato system for some gifted mater plants, and it worked so well I'm doing it again next year with a few improvements. What worked so well, is that birds could get their heads in, but not ruin the plants. Geese could trim the grass, although they didn't as much as I would've liked, and chicken could pick bugs & fallen fruits, but no one could mess up my plants!
Starting with a broken down dog run, we put in 6 rebar posts to carry 6 plants, and put plant #s 7 & 8 against the back "wall".
Next years improvement will be to mound up the center where we planted, this was a 1st time dug garden and we only dug a hole in the clay and set in the plants. Next year we'll seriously make that pretty, loose, deep & fertile.
Then later I strung some bad twine around the top, next year plastic clothesline stuff instead, for the plants to flop over the top and then down the sides again (maybe next year they will grow that big)
Just this weekend
and there are still lots of flowers although I don't know if I will get any maters from them.. depends on the rest of the season I guess
It's really neat because you walk in, under shade! I can now pick some tomatoes in their own shade! I feel so smart, please don't rain on my parade! Next year I hope they are so big it's like a private little garden area you can hide in! Of course, it's only like that toward the back this year... but like I said... NEXT YEAR