Berkeley Tie Dye, Super Snow White Maturing

Today's harvest includes 32 Red Currant, 16 White Currant, 11 Red Grape, 9 Yellow Perfection, 8 front yard Garden Peach, 8 Snow White, 7 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 5 Sweet 100, 5 Babywine, 4 Black Cherry, 4 Green Grape, 3 Italian Ice, 3 Japanese Black Trifele, 3 Tiger Paw, 3 Aunt Ruby's German Green (7 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 Turkish Striped Monastery, 3 Black Krim (6 ounces, 6 ounces, 12 ounces), 3 back yard Garden Peach(1), 2 Orange Blossom, 2 Amazon Chocolate (9.5 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 Sweet Olive, 2 front yard Mexico (one 8.5 ounces), 2 Cuor de Bue (one 6 ounces) Vintage Wine, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Black From Tula (15 ounces!) and Paul Robeson for a total of 144 tomatoes.

Today's Black From Tula is the heaviest tomato picked this year.

We'll pick Super Snow White tomorrow. Finally, Berkeley Tie Dye has a couple of maturing tomatoes. The back yard Mexico has a maturing tomato but it looks like it's rotting out. I've already thrown away one large rotting tomato from this plant.

A couple things...our totals may start leveling off as the container plants are looking more and more exhausted. Now both Red Grape and Italian Ice are on the downslope of the harvest curve. Both plants could get a second wind but their numbers are dropping and will continue to drop in the next several weeks.

All the plants with no harvested tomatoes look good. The Zebras look especially good. Early Annie has a lot of blown out blooms but that's to be expected with a very late planting and hot weather.

I used the stakes bought a couple of days ago.

I watered the front yard tomato plants this morning.

I should also mention a possible “volunteer” in Alongi Row. Alongi Row is the strip of dirt north of our driveway that we shared with the prior owner, Mr. Alongi. The volunteer is now about 3 or 4 inches high.

A volunteer tomato plant is one growing out of the ground that one didn't intend to have grow there, usually from seeds from fallen fruit. It's growing next to a planted sunflower. Everybody I know has had a volunteer tomato plant...except me. I thought I had one last year, but that proved not to be true later on. I held off mentioning it until now, making sure it looked like a tomato plant. It does.

It's Cuor de Bue's Day! Jeff Davis pulled

Today's harvest has 40 Red Currant, 12 Red Grape, 11 Yellow Perfection, 9 Black Cherry, 8 White Currant, 8 Italian Ice, 5 back yard Green Grape, 5 Snow White, 4 Cuor de Bue (8 ounces, 13.5 ounces, 13 ounces, 8.5 ounces), 3 back yard Garden Peach(1), 3 Sweet Olive, 3 Black From Tula (10 ounces, 8.5 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 3 Aunt Ruby's German Green (6 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 Oaxacan Jewel(2), 2 front yard Garden Peach, 2 back yard Paul Robeson (one 6 ounces), 2 Tiger Paw, a front yard Mexico, back yard Husky Cherry Red, Plum Tigris, German Orange Strawberry, Sweet 100, SunSugar, a back yard Speckled Roman (with end rot), Babywine and Orange Blossom for a total of 133 tomatoes.

Today was Cuor de Bue's day. The plant isn't all that big but was growing some big, big tomatoes. Today we picked off a few of the largest ones and they look very, very nice.

I came home at lunch yesterday to water and fertilize the back yard container plants. In the evening I found out that my wife had watered the back yard container plants in the morning. Oops! This isn't a big deal, though.

My wife watered the back yard while I staked and taped afterwards.

We've had indirect indication of a caterpillar on Red Currant and Black Krim. But neither my wife or I could find it last night.

Jeff Davis was pulled out last night.

Late in the evening we purchased some more tomato stakes.

I forgot to mention that yesterday's back yard harvest was the largest this year (86 tomatoes).

Harvested Silvery Fir Tree

Today's harvest includes 37 Red Currant, 16 Red Grape, 15 White Currant, 9 Yellow Perfection, 9 Sweet Olive, 5 Black Cherry, 5 Snow White, 4 Aunt Ruby's German Green (7 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 3 Green Grape, 3 Sweet 100, 3 Italian Ice, 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Babywine, 2 Orange Blossom (7 ounces), 2 Tiger Paw, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 back yard Garden Peach(1), 2 SunSugar, 2 back yard Husky Cherry Red, Oaxacan Jewel(1) (8 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel(2) (7 ounces), Black Krim (7 ounces), a front yard Garden Peach, Turkish Striped Monastery, Cuor de Bue (8 ounces), a back yard Speckled Roman (with end rot), Amazon Chocolate, Beaverlodge Plum and Silvery Fir Tree (new!) for a total of 139 tomatoes.

The summer heat is starting to beat down the container plants. The Patio plant is burning out and SunSugar is ragged.

Some of the recently harvested tomatoes are showing some sunscalding.

Harvested Gardener's Delight...Sorta

Today's bountiful harvest includes 37 Red Currant, 16 Red Grape, 13 Snow White, 12 White Currant, 9 Sweet Olive, 7 Yellow Perfection, 6 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 5 Tiger Paw, 5 Black Cherry, 5 back yard Garden Peach (1), 4 back yard Paul Robeson, 4 Japanese Black Trifele (8.5 ounces, 8.5 ounces), 4 front yard Garden Peach, 3 back yard Speckled Roman (One without end rot!), 3 Mong (7 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Orange Blossom, 2 Amazon Chocolate (9 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 German Orange Strawberry (7 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Black Krim (6 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 2 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Babywine, Oaxacan Jewel (1) (10 ounces), Italian Ice, SunSugar, Sweet 100, Plum Tigris, a back yard Green Grape, Turkish Striped Monastery, Aunt Ruby's German Green (7 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel (2) (6 ounces, was labeled Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe) and a back yard Garden Peach (2) (was labeled Gardener's Delight) for a total of 155 tomatoes.

My wife told me that Liz told her that her Gardener's Delight looked like Garden Peach. I responded that I forgot to mention to her and to the blog that we have a Gardener's Delight that's maturing...and it looks like Garden Peach.

We went out to view it. My wife thought it was ready, so we harvested it. It had a bit of fuzz. My wife tried it and it tasted like Garden Peach. Rats! Another mislabel.

This morning I harvested a Oaxacan Jewel and what was supposed to be Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe. Putting the two tomatoes next to one another made it clear – Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe is another Oaxacan Jewel.

I could tell by the weight of the harvest basket that this was the heaviest harvest to date. Today is also the highest 2009 daily harvest (155), the highest back yard harvest for 2009 (84) and front yard for 2009 (71).

I gave my wife permission to pull Jeff Davis and Black Zebra whenever it is convenient.

I did some more tomato taping this morning, trying to clear pathways in the "koi pond". I also staked a couple more plants that were leaning over. I'm running out of stakes!

Newly Harvested Tomatoes

Me with 11 recently harvested tomatoes on the evening of July 8. From left to right: Mong, Husky Gold, Amazon Chocolate, Tiger Paw, Black Krim, Mexico, Oaxacan Jewel, back yard Paul Robeson, front yard Speckled Roman, Orange Blossom and Cuor de Bue.

Turkish Striped Monastery

Here's an image of Turkish Striped Monastery. I'm putting up this image because I haven't found any on the Internet.

Front And Back Yard Watered

Today's harvest includes 33 Red Currant, 19 Red Grape, 11 Yellow Perfection, 6 White Currant, 5 Sweet 100, 4 Sweet Olive, 4 Black Cherry, 4 Italian Ice, 4 Snow White, 3 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 3 Babywine, 3 Japanese Black Trifele (one 6 ounces), 3 Tiger Paw, 2 back yard Garden Peach, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (8 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Speckled Roman (with end rot, but not so bad), 2 Orange Blossom (9.5 ounces), 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 Green Grape, 2 Black Krim (one 9.5 ounces), 2 front yard Paul Robeson, a front yard Garden Peach, Mong (7.5 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel (9 ounces), Cherokee Purple, Black From Tula (7 ounces), Jeff Davis, German Orange Strawberry, Amazon Chocolate (12 ounces) and a back yard Husky Cherry Red for a total of 127 tomatoes.

No new tomatoes were picked today. That hasn't happened for a while. A Silvery Fir Tree is clearly ripening but it appears to be a couple days away.

My wife watered both the front and back yards yesterday. Considering this takes a couple of hours to do and it got up to 99 at Pierce College, it's a big deal.

I found Tiger Paw had fell down this morning. I woke my wife and she came out to hold it while I staked the plant. Hopefully things will be all right. I didn't notice any damage.

It's good to see Japanese Black Trifele being harvested again.

I'm amazed at the consistent output by Yellow Perfection.

We've picked nearly 1000 tomatoes in the back yard (997) and 600 in the front yard (599) this year.

Jeff Davis and Black Zebra will be pulled soon, maybe later this week.

Harvested Still Two More Tomatoes!

And today's harvest numbers include 30 Red Currant, 16 Red Grape, 10 Yellow Perfection, 7 Sweet Olive, 6 Sweet 100, 4 White Currant, 4 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 4 Amazon Chocolate (9.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces, 7 ounces), 4 Snow White, 4 front yard Garden Peach, 3 Jeff Davis, 3 back yard Garden Peach, 3 Italian Ice, 2 Mong (one 6.5 ounces, 2 Black Krim (9.5 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Black Cherry, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (10.5 ounces, 11 ounces), 2 Vintage Wine (New! One 7.5 ounces), 2 back yard Husky Cherry Red (New!), a front yard Paul Robeson, SunSugar, Black From Tula (12 ounces), Tiger Paw, German Orange Strawberry and a back yard Paul Robeson for a total of 116 tomatoes.

My wife and I spent most of yesterday afternoon at Liz and Ricardo's house. They have been growing some of our seedlings as well as their own. Their harvested tomatoes look like apples! They're doing something right over there. My wife prepared a salsa from our smaller container tomatoes to bring over. It was a hit.

We had a tomato tasting while we were there. But first, my wife cut up about four or five tomatoes and put slices on four different plates. Green tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, red tomatoes, orange tomatoes and brown tomatoes, it was pretty just to look at. I dubbed it “tomato sushi”.

Everyone's favorite was Aunt Ruby's German Green. It was delicious! German Orange Strawberry was a hit. While Yellow Perfection is nobody's favorite, everybody likes it a lot. On a side note, it's remarkable how prolific our plant is. Cuor de Bue was good and meaty. Paul Robeson was good but seemed to be a day early, meaning that it would have tasted a bit better on Monday. We also tried one of their Kornesevije tomatoes. First off, this tomato is huge. I think the one we tried was 14 ounces. It is a very mild and good tasting tomato. My description would be that it was slightly soapy but don't let that scare you. It's a good mild and juicy tomato.

Liz and Ricardo have picked over 10 pounds of Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe. We tried them and we like it a lot. It's the closest to the “classic” tomato taste of all the tomatoes we tasted today. Also, their Quedlinburger Freuhe Liebe looks exactly like the pictures I've seen of this tomato, unlike our first harvested one.

A tomato on Silvery Fir Tree appears to be maturing.

Harvested Two New Tomatoes

And today's harvest includes 19 Red Currant, 10 Red Grape, 9 Yellow Perfection, 7 Sweet Olive, 5 back yard Paul Robeson (one 6.5 ounces), 4 back yard Speckled Roman (again, blossom end rot on all of them), 4 Italian Ice, 3 Mong (6 ounces, 8 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 White Currant, 2 Green Grape, 2 back yard Garden Peach, 2 German Orange Strawberry (one 6 ounces), 2 Black Cherry, 2 Black Krim (10.5 ounces, 11.5 ounces), 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (New! 11 ounces, 6 ounces), Cuor de Bue, Jeff Davis, Orange Blossom (9 ounces), Sweet 100, SunSugar, Babywine, a front yard Garden Peach, a front yard Speckled Roman, Paul Robeson, Snow White, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, and Black From Tula (New! 8 ounces) for a total of 88 tomatoes.

We've reached over 1000 harvested tomatoes for the month. It doesn't look like we'll reach my estimate of 4000 tomatoes for the month but 3000 or more isn't out of the question, especially if Snow White and Black Cherry start producing a large number of tomatoes.

Turns out I have a couple of goof ups to fix. I mentioned earlier how I thought Sweet Olive's numbers were getting goosed by Red Grape and Sweet 100. So what I did was to count the Red Grapes before putting them in the harvest basket (good) and following the branches down to the ground for the Sweet 100/Sweet Olive container (again, good). Only now do I realize that what I thought was Sweet Olive was Sweet 100, and vice versa. I've fixed the on line spreadsheet numbers but I need to update the blog and some other items.

On another matter, I recently posted a comment that said our Quedlinburger Freuhe Liebe's first tomato looks a lot like Oaxacan Jewel but the leaves are clearly different. I looked at it again this morning and now I'm not so sure. I asked my wife. She said the leaves at the bottom of the plants look very much alike. So we may have a mislabel. And we hate getting mislabeled plants. But we did it! Anyway, we'll see what happens with the next harvested Quedlinburger Freuhe Liebe.