High 103.5 Yesterday,106.1 Today

Today's harvest includes 5 Snow White(2), 3 Snow White(1), 2 Babywine, 2 White Currant, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Black Cherry, Sweet 100, White Zebra and Cuor de Bue for a total of 21 tomatoes.

Yesterday's high at Pierce College got up to 103.5...but today it was hotter. Today it got up to 106.1 degrees! That is quite hot for late September.

The gardener pulled out the back yard Green Grape today. My wife pulled out SunSugar. There may be a couple of more plants pulled out tomorrow.

My wife finished watering the front yard yesterday and watered parts of the back yard today.

Our harvest dropped again, but we still went past the second harvest estimate for September. The adjusted estimate was 1625 tomatoes and now we've harvested 1634 tomatoes for the month.

The Heat Wave Continues...

Today's harvest includes 6 Snow White(2), 6 Black Cherry, 5 Snow White(1), 3 Green Zebra(1), 2 White Currant, 2 Babywine, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, Vintage Wine, Black Krim, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Red Grape, Italian Ice, Paul Robeson, Tiger Paw and Cuor de Bue for a total of 34 tomatoes.

Yesterday it got up to 102 degrees again.

Again, I couldn't find any Black Cherry tomatoes to harvest. I remembered leaving one behind yesterday, thinking that tomato needed another day. So I looked for it. I found it and based on this new angle, found another “stash” of Black Cherry tomatoes. In spite of the reasonable harvest numbers for Black Cherry, we're running out of tomatoes. However, the plant has new growth and seems that if the weather were to become more temperate, new blooms would appear.

My wife watered a part of the front yard.

I see enough tomatoes on the vines to reach 10,000 tomatoes harvested for the year. Barring a surprise, we'll make it to that level.

Still Hot In SoCal

Today's harvest includes 6 Snow White(2), 5 White Currant, 5 Black Cherry, 3 Snow White(1), 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, Silvery Fir Tree, a front yard Green Grape, a front yard Husky Cherry Red, Black Krim, Vintage Wine, Yellow Perfection, Paul Robeson, White Zebra, Red Grape, Sweet 100 and Dr. Wyche's Yellow (6 ounces) for a total of 32 tomatoes.

Yesterday was hot again, getting up to over 101 degrees.

There isn't a lot to say at the moment. We're in another heat wave harvest bump, but there hasn't been enough time between heat waves and therefore there aren't that many tomatoes to ripen. I expect that when this heat wave passes the harvest numbers will fall pretty far.

We did get up to over 9700 tomatoes harvested for the year.

I almost didn't find any Black Cherry or Yellow Perfection tomatoes. I had given up finding either one today but a backward glance found some of each.

Harvested Over 5000 Back Yard Tomatoes This Year!

Before today's harvest I picked off a small caterpillar on Babywine, within an inch or two from where the last one was spotted.

Today's harvest includes 13 Snow White(2), 8 White Currant, 5 Black Cherry, 3 Red Grape, 2 Snow White(2), 2 Babywine, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Yellow Perfection, Silvery Fir Tree, Vintage Wine, a front yard Husky Cherry Red, Italian Ice, Tiger Paw, Japanese Black Trifele, Cuor de Bue and Patio Princess for a total of 45 tomatoes.

It got up to 102.8 degrees at Pierce College yesterday, a mile from where we live. I think we have another heat wave harvest bump occurring. There just isn't that many tomatoes to harvest!

We've reached over 5000 harvested tomatoes in the back yard (5002)! Putting this in perspective, this year's back yard harvest total and front yard harvest total to date (4681) beat the total 2008 tomato harvest of 4503 tomatoes. We've doubled last year's harvest and we have a ways to go.

A little addition will show we've harvested 9683 tomatoes in 2009. This may be the kiss of death but I think we'll make 10,000 tomatoes this year. Even if the harvest drops significantly – which I expect to happen after this heat wave – we'll have enough to get us to five figures.

We've now harvested over 400 White Currant tomatoes (402)!

Tomatoes In The News

Here's the latest batch of tomatoes in the news.

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WZZM (Grand Rapids) – Blighted tomato crop, Bumper apple crop in Michigan

Mother Nature Network – Seasonal recipes: 5 for green tomatoes

ABC News – Wolfgang Puck's Stacked Tomatoes and Mozzarella With Balsamic Reduction

Tampa Bay Online – These Tiny Tomatoes Pack A Big Flavor

Post Tribune (IN) – Hornworms and tomatoes just go together

NewsMiner (Fairbanks, AK) – Two-pound tomatoes and fall garden chores

St. Louis Post Dispatch – Seeds grow Monsanto's business

Leader Telegram (Eau Claire, WI) – Blight-ridden tomatoes stir varying advice

Examiner – Free tomato tasting festival at Santa Rosa market

Reached 1500 Harvested Tomatoes For September!

Today's harvest includes 6 White Currant, 6 Babywine, 4 Snow White(1), 4 Snow White(2), 4 Yellow Perfection, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Black Cherry, Vintage Wine, Mong, Oaxacan Jewel, a front yard Husky Cherry Red, Tiger Paw, White Zebra, Sweet 100, Plum Tigris, a back yard Green Grape, Garden Peach and Cuor de Bue for a total of 39 tomatoes.

This ends the six day decline in the harvest totals.

We've now harvested over 1500 tomatoes for the month (1502)! This is more than twice the original estimate for September. In fact, just the back yard tomato harvest so far (866) has beaten the original estimate for September.

My wife completed the watering in the front yard, which included all of the front yard tomatoes (except the volunteer). This morning I lightly watered the back yard container plants.

Yesterday it reached 95 degrees. That is hot enough to sterilize some of the tomato blooms. Today is supposed to be much hotter, getting over 100 degrees. We'll see.

Harvest Totals Fall Again...

Today's harvest includes 7 Snow White(1), 6 Snow White(2), 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Babywine, Vintage Wine, Garden Peach, White Currant, Italian Ice, Sweet 100, Black From Tula, Black Cherry, Yellow Perfection, Turkish Striped Monastery and Cuor de Bue for a total of 27 tomatoes.

The harvest totals have dropped for a sixth day in a row, dropping to less than half of the harvest total six days ago.

The front yard harvest has been greater than the back yard harvest twice over the last three days. This is due to the strength of the two Snow White tomato plants.

A month or so ago, the front yard harvest totals passed the back yard harvest totals. After that, the back yard totals went up due to the strength of Black Cherry, Yellow Perfection and the back yard Husky Cherry Red. The back yard totals got ahead by over 300 tomatoes compared to the front yard tomatoes.

If we reach 10,000 tomatoes (and we're 401 tomatoes away) it will be due to the strength of the two Snow White plants. The 300+ harvest gap will start to narrow, but by how much? The more it narrows, the bigger our harvest.

Sweet 100 is getting a second wind and is looking quite healthy.

My wife watered the back yard tomato plants on Saturday.

Most of our day was spent with our friends Liz and Ricardo at the Los Angeles County Fair. Not only did we have a lot of fun, but my wife ran into some old neighbors that she hasn't seen in decades.

Harvest Totals Fall For Fifth Day In A Row

Today's harvest includes 7 Snow White(1), 4 Babywine, 4 White Currant, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Oaxacan Jewel(1), 2 Silvery Fir Tree, 2 Black Cherry, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, Black Krim, Snow White(2), Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Garden Peach, Cuor de Bue, Plum Tigris, Sweet 100, Italian Ice and White Zebra for a total of 38 tomatoes.

The harvest totals have fallen for the fifth day in a row and it wouldn't surprise me to continue falling. There just isn't that many tomatoes to harvest!

After the harvest I pulled out Speckled Roman, German Orange Strawberry and Oaxacan Jewel(2).

We've now doubled the original harvest estimate of 700 tomatoes (1436). I'll readjust the estimate now to 1625 tomatoes for the month.

I watered a portion of the front yard today, but not the tomato plants.