Friday, July 31, 2009

July 2009 Tomato Analysis


My estimate for July 2009 was 4000 tomatoes, then later dropped to over 3000 tomatoes. Due to a late flurry we ended up with 4576 tomatoes for the month. Not a bad harvest!

While the original estimate turned out to be too low, it turned out to be a pretty good guess.

Still, in 2007 we harvested 6154 tomatoes with less plants. How come? From memory, the weather was better. Also, I had completely dug out the dirt in the “koi pond” and used a wheelbarrow to take it in to the back yard for a raised bed. We shipped in some compost and put it in the “koi pond”, then mixed some of the dirt back in (using a wheelbarrow to bring it back). This year we didn't get around to shipping in compost.

Also in 2007 we brought brought in some mulch from the city, which helped. We believe that program has stopped.

We've gone past the crest of the tomato wave, but not by much. The high harvest total day was July 24. My memory of the heaviest harvest was the day one of the days in the three day stretch with July 24 in the middle of it.

Most of the plants are weather beaten and doubled over, but that's natural. A couple plants haven't borne any fruit yet, which will hit in August.

In August 2007 we harvested 2806 tomatoes. In August 2008 we harvested 1004 tomatoes.

In 2007 the high point of the harvest was about July 8 or so. In 2008, the high point, if you could call it that, was around July 23, like this year.

Based on the relation of August to July tomatoes over the past two years and the late high harvest point, my tomato harvest estimate for August 2009 is 2700 tomatoes.


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