Harvested 4 New Tomatoes!

Saturdays' harvest consisted of 5 White Currant (new!), 4 Sweet Olive, 3 Red Grape, 3 Beaverlodge Plum, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Red Currant, Jaune Flamme, Italian Ice, Sweet 100, Patio as well as a back yard Garden Peach (new!) and a back yard Speckled Roman (new!).

My wife watered the front yard tomatoes on Friday.

Early in the day my wife's parents came over to pick up their dogs. We had been watching them for a week in anticipation of them visiting relatives in New Mexico. But one of them was sick and the trip was canceled. They asked us to come down with the dogs but I insisted they come up in order to see the tomato plants. They were very impressed with both the height and the number of tomatoes in the vines.

In the afternoon they left with their dogs and I did more tomato taping. After that my wife asked me to water the back yard tomatoes. Although it was hot (It got up to 97.8 at Pierce College, about a mile away) I did water them as well as the back yard flower pots.

Earlier in the week my wife mentioned to me that she now sees why taping is so important where we are– it keeps the plants under some control. And now I see why it was important for my wife to dig deeper trenches in the “moats” around the tomato plants in the back yard – it enabled me to water at a faster rate than before. I saved at least a half hour in the watering.

We met a friend at a restaurant and brought tomatoes. We tried Cherokee Purple and liked it. We tried Jaune Coeur de Pigeon and I thought it was okay but the other two (my wife and our friend) didn't like it at all. Basically we waited too long to try it and it got too ripe.

If I told you we stayed at the restaurant for five and a half hours would you believe me? We did, getting home early in the morning.

First thing I did when I woke up was to harvest more tomatoes. This included 9 White Currant, 3 Sweet Olive, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Red Currant, 2 Patio, Red Grape, Sweet 100, a 13 ounce front yard Paul Robeson and Plum Tigris (new!).

I left out Turkish Striped Monastery in the list of maturing tomatoes. I can't find a picture of this tomato so we'll be surprised with what we get.

It was too hot for tomato work. I got up to 104 at Pierce College.

This hot weather will burn out a fair amount of tomato blooms. The pollen in the tomato buds becomes sterile at around 93 or 95 degrees so a fair amount won't make it. But some blooms in the interior of the plant won't burn out, as they're shaded by the leaves. Another effect of this heat will take the tomatoes on the vines and mature them quicker.

My wife and I tried Paul Robeson at dinner and we both agree it was delicious.