Saturday, October 3, 2009

Back Yard Paul Robeson Plant Pulled


Today's harvest includes 52 Snow White(2), 18 Snow White(1), 5 Italian Ice, 3 Red Grape, 3 Babywine, 3 Garden Peach, 2 White Zebra, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Black Cherry, Yellow Perfection , Sweet 100, Green Zebra(2) and Husky Gold for a total of 96 tomatoes.

My wife finished watering the front yard yesterday.

I was supposed to water the container plants earlier today – but I forgot. Perhaps later this afternoon. I'll fertilize these plants as well.

Snow White(1) will be the highest harvesting plant of 2009. It just passed Red Currant for the number 1 position (1279 to 1278 tomatoes).

Snow White(2) has reached over 700 harvested tomatoes (715)!

After today's harvest I pulled out the Paul Robeson tomato plant. We really like Paul Robeson!

Friday, October 2, 2009

The Snow White Harvest Haul Continues...


And today's harvest includes 59 Snow White(2), 25 Snow White(1), 4 Italian Ice, 3 Red Grape, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Garden Peach, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Green Zebra(2), 2 White Currant, 2 White Zebra, 2 back yard Husky Cherry Red, Babywine, Sweet 100, Cuor de Bue, Green Zebra(1) and Jaune Coeur de Pigeon for a total of 110 tomatoes.

It looks like Snow White(1) harvest totals will pass Red Currant and will be the plant with the highest harvest for 2009.

The weather got much cooler a few days ago, warming up a bit yesterday. It will get quite cooler over the weekend. I've noticed that Garden Peach has some new growth and some new blooms – it will get another small spurt even though it is spindly.

With a couple more harvest days like the last two, we'll make it to 11,000 tomatoes harvested for the year. But we're getting ahead of ourselves...

My wife watered some of the front yard yesterday.

Paul Robeson may be the next plant pulled and after all the tomatoes are harvested off of Yellow Perfection, it may go as well. The back yard Mexico has been out of the running for quite some time but to take it out means getting torn apart by the nearby rose plant with 10 – 12 foot branches.


Thursday, October 1, 2009

Harvested Over 5000 Front Yard Tomatoes This Year!


Today's harvest includes 66 Snow White(2), 24 Snow White(1), 6 Yellow Perfection, 5 Babywine, 3 Red Grape, 3 White Currant, 2 Italian Ice, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Black Cherry, Plum Tigris, Paul Robeson, White Zebra and Cour de Bue for a total of 115 tomatoes.
Wow, harvesting over 100 tomatoes on an October day. Amazing!
We've now harvested over 5000 front yard tomatoes (5026)! The front yard totals are quickly catching up to the back yard totals. The gap grew to around 350 tomatoes in September, now it's down to 132.
We've now harvested over 600 Snow White(2) tomatoes (604).

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Harvested Over 10,000 Tomatoes For The Year!


And today's harvest includes 54 Snow White(2), 6 Snow White(1), 4 Italian Ice, 3 Red Grape, 3 Sweet 100, 3 Paul Robeson, 2 Yellow Perfection, Mong, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Babywine, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Green Zebra(1), Green Zebra(2), White Zebra, White Currant and Plum Tigris for a total of 84 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 10,000 tomatoes for the year (10,069)! It's been a very good year. It's going strong again, especially considering how late in the year it is.

I pulled out five tomato plants last night. From the front yard, Marz Round Green, Vintage Wine and the last Oaxacan Jewel were thrown in the trash can. In the back yard, Tiger Paw and Japanese Black Trifele were placed in the compost pile.

We've now harvested over 500 Snow White(2) tomatoes. 538 have been harvested so far, of which 335 were harvested for the month of September.

Speaking of September, we ended up harvesting a total of 1933 tomatoes for the month. The original estimate was 700, then a second estimate placed at 1625 tomatoes. An incredible month. Putting it in perspective, two years ago we stopped counting at 10,990 tomatoes harvested. In September 2007 we harvested 647 tomatoes. In other words, there's no precedent for such a rich September harvest!

What are my predictions for October? Easy. I don't have a clue.

My wife did some watering in the back yard yesterday.


Tuesday, September 29, 2009

What a Wacky Harvest This Month!


Today's harvest includes 67 Snow White(2), 6 Snow White(1), 6 White Currant, 5 Red Grape, 3 Green Zebra(2), 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Babywine, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Patio Princess, 2 Plum Tigris, 2 Black Cherry, Green Grape, Oaxacan Jewel, Italian Ice, Green Zebra(1), Paul Robeson, Garden Peach and Cuor de Bue for a total of 110 tomatoes.

Those numbers for Snow White(2) are accurate. I can only explain it this way: We recently had a big heat wave, which really helps tomatoes to mature (and blooms to sterilize). And a batch of Snow White(2) started to mature just as the heat wave ended. Other plants simply didn't have enough tomatoes on them, having been harvested during the prior heat wave a few weeks prior.

Three days ago we harvested 21 tomatoes. Today we harvest 67 Snow White(2), 110 tomatoes overall. This date, last month, the harvest was 41 tomatoes. It continues to be a wacky harvest month. Unpredictable.

But here's a prediction I think will stick – we'll reach 10,000 harvested tomatoes tomorrow! We're only 15 tomatoes away from that total.

We've now harvested over 1000 back yard tomatoes for the month of September (1006)! Also, we've harvested exactly 150 Italian Ice and 150 back yard Paul Robeson tomatoes.

What a wild ride this has been!


Monday, September 28, 2009

Tomatoes In The News


Here's the latest batch of tomato stories in the news:


The Buffalo News -- Cooking "Tomatoes Galore"

Chicago Tribune -- Turning To A French Source On Tomato Sauce

WHSV (Harrisonburg, VI) -- Really Tall Tomato Plant Towers Over Its Valley Grower

St. Louis Post Dispatch -- Local Heirloom Tomatoes May Have A Few Weeks Left

ReporterNews (Abilene, TX) -- He Says Tomato, Chef Says Salsa

TribLive (Pittsburgh, PA) -- Late Summer Tomatoes Offer Many Possibilities

Cleveland.Com -- Diseased Tomatoes, Potatoes Should Not Be Put In Compost

The Baltimore Sun -- Hope For Next Year's Tomato Crop

IdahoStatesman.Com -- U of I Master Gardener: It's Maintenance Time For Tomatoes, Forcing Bulbs

CBCNews.Ca -- Heinz Canada Boasts Big Tomato Season

St. Petersburg Times (FL) -- Gene Weingarten: You Say Tomato, I Say Ptooey

The Jackson Sun (TN) -- Tall Tomato Plants Amaze Growers

Trib Today (Warren, OH) -- Suffering Through Tomato Season

NPR -- Site Helps Chefs Find Farmers, And Fresh Produce

The Sacramento Bee -- Not Ready For Arrivederci, A Recipe For Roasted Tomatoes


Harvested 1200 Snow White(1) Tomatoes!


And today's harvest includes 32 Snow White(2), 4 Black Cherry, 3 White Currant, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Snow White(1), Black Krim, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Oaxacan Jewel, Babywine, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Italian Ice, Red Grape, Green Zebra(1), Paul Robeson and Turkish Striped Monastery for a total of 55 tomatoes.

We've now harvested 1200 Snow White(1) tomatoes! Also, we've now harvested over 400 Snow White(2) tomatoes (417).

A while back (September 14 blog post, to be specific) I indicated it wouldn't surprise me to end up with over 400 tomatoes for Snow White (2). Now I'll say it wouldn't surprise me to end up with over 600 tomatoes from this plant before it's all over.

...which also means we would reach 10,000 harvested tomatoes just based on the Snow White(2) plant. And we still have 35 plants or so.

I found another caterpillar on Babywine this morning. My wife indicated that she found a caterpillar on White Currant last Saturday.


Sunday, September 27, 2009

Tomato Plant Pulling Delayed


Today's harvest includes 24 Snow White(2), 4 White Currant, 4 Paul Robeson, 3 Snow White(1), 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 Babywine, 2 Red Grape, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, Green Zebra(1), Green Zebra(2), Black Cherry, Tiger Paw and Cuor de Bue for a total of 50 tomatoes.

Yesterday our total harvest was 21 tomatoes. The Snow White(2) harvest for today beat that total by itself.

We're in a heat wave harvest bump again, it's just that Snow White(2) is the only plant with a significant amount of tomatoes!

I was going to pull out more plants but I found that our green trash can was filled with yard waste by our gardener yesterday. So several plants will live another day. Marz Round Green and Japanese Black Trifele can go. Vintage Wine can go even though there's tomatoes still on the vines. I've been unimpressed with the “second wind” tomatoes from this plant – they look funny and they're constantly cracked. Tiger Paw is on the bubble – it may go or it may stay for a while longer.