Twelve Tomatoes, Ten Caterpillars

Today's haul includes 3 Salisaw Cafes, 2 Evan's Italian Plums, Stupice, Old Ivory Egg, Italian Market Wonder, Black Plum Paste, a tiny Polish Pastel, Carbon and Piccolo.

Forgot to mention in the last post: Micro Tom was pulled on Wednesday.

Last evening I taped up several plants, including Thessaloniki, which needed lots of tape. The taping exposed the caterpillars that I suspected were on the plant. From that evening, night and this morning I believe I found three adult caterpillars and a couple small caterpillars on Thessaloniki alone, a couple on Evan's Italian Plum and several others for a total of around 10 caterpillars.

I need to get some more of the thin tomato tape.

We've had mild weather this past week. I'm seeing blooms on tomato plants that I haven't seen in about a month.

Salisaw Cafe is ahead of Piccolo again for second place (313 – 312).

I've had requests to post more pictures on this blog. Unfortunately at this time of the year, the tomato plants aren't very picturesque at all.

There won't be any weekend updates to this blog. My wife and I will be leaving tonight to go to the Carmel TomatoFest. The next update will be Monday (our first wedding anniversary!).

Seven Tomatoes, Eight Caterpillars

Today's harvest includes 2 Cherokee Chocolates, Salisaw Cafe, Piccolo, Stupice, Evan's Italian Plum (10 ounces) and Italian Market Wonder.

Last night while throwing out the trash I took another look at Kimberly, looking for caterpillars. There's been damage, but I couldn't find anything. But, on the way back to the house, I spotted a large caterpillar. So I went to the south end of the backyard and quickly spotted a caterpillar on Evan's Italian Plum.

So I changed shoes and checked the front and back yards for caterpillars, finding one on Red Yellow Cap.

While harvesting this morning, I found two more large caterpillars on Red Yellow Cap and another one on Evan's Italian Plum.

I noticed clear remains of caterpillars on Thessaloniki last night and today but couldn't find anything. But when I left for work, I spotted a small caterpillar on Thessaloniki. I tossed it, looked again and found an even smaller one. I showed it to my wife who couldn't believe how tiny it was. However, these two caterpillars can't account for all the droppings I see below the plant. Something bigger is munching on the plant.

So I picked seven tomatoes and eight caterpillars.

Reached 3000 Harvested Front Yard Tomatoes!

And the haul for today includes 4 Aker's Plums (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Cherokee Chocolates, 2 Piccolos, Stupice, Black Krim, Italian Market Wonder and Black Cherry.

I was surprised to see the ripe Aker's Plum tomatoes. There was a very bushy area I was afraid to touch. Carefully I moved a few branches in the air and hey, look what I found!

I watered the back yard last night.

Last night, my wife made sauce out of the purchased Garden Peach tomatoes.

With the 2 Piccolo tomatoes, Piccolo has overtaken Salisaw Cafe for the second spot on the harvest total (310 – 309). More importantly, we reached exactly 3000 harvested tomatoes in the front yard!

Salisaw Cafe Passes Piccolo

Tuesday's totals include 5 Salisaw Cafes, 2 Black Krims (one 6 ounces), Evan's Italian Plum (6 ounces), Piccolo, Stupice, Sioux, Italian Market Wonder and Golden Jubilee.

This morning I found a very small caterpillar on Black Cherry.

Now Salisaw Cafe has passed Piccolo for second place in the harvest totals (309-308).

Found Garden Peach...

Monday's harvest consists of 2 Piccolos, Black Plum Paste, Evan's Italian Plum, Aker's Plum, Cherokee Chocolate and Black Cherry.

I forgot to mention that my wife made tomato sauce with all of the remaining tomatoes and stored it in the freezer. We bought Garden Peach tomatoes at the Farmer's Market to make more sauce.

Found Another Caterpillar on Aker's Plum

Today's numbers include 2 Kimberlys, 2 Piccolos, Sioux, Black Plum Paste, Cherokee Chocolate and Old Ivory Egg.

Piccolo has just surpassed Salisaw Cafe for the number two harvest total for 2008 (305 – 304).

I taped up Old Ivory Egg one more time...

I found a second caterpillar on Aker's Plum this morning.

Reached 4300 tomatoes!

Saturday's harvest totals were 3 Stupices, 2 Thessalonikis, 2 Piccolos, 2 Black Cherries, Cherokee Chocolate, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken and Old Ivory Egg.

On Friday night, I found a caterpillar on Pierce's Pride. While picking on Saturday, I finally found a caterpillar on Aker's Plum.

Paul Robeson was pulled.

We reached over the 4300 tomato mark for the year.