Friday, October 9, 2009

Not As Cold Yesterday


And today's harvest includes 10 Snow White(1), 10 Snow White(2), 4 Sweet 100, 2 back yard Husky Cherry Red, Babywine, Green Zebra(1) and White Currant for a total of 29 tomatoes.

The weather warmed up in the afternoon yesterday and clearly wasn't as cold in the morning as it had been for the last three days or so. Probably not coincidentally, the harvest total went up compared to yesterday.

This is probably where we should be harvesting for some time, around 25 tomatoes a day until the stores of Snow White tomatoes are depleted.

My wife watered the front yard tomato plants yesterday.

I'll be pulling some plants over the weekend if time permits.


Thursday, October 8, 2009

Harvested 100 Turkish Striped Monastery Tomatoes!


Today's harvest includes 10 Snow White(2), 9 Snow White(1), Black Krim, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Italian Ice, Garden Peach and Turkish Striped Monastery for a total of 24 tomatoes.

Our harvest total has fallen for the seventh day in a row – but this drop is simply a heat wave causing a harvest bump followed by a cold spell causing a harvest drop. When the weather warms and the Snow White harvest settles down, our harvest should become steady again.

Turkish Striped Monastery has now reached 100 harvested tomatoes! I'm happy about that – I like this tomato.

Today's low was 43.5 degrees, still cold. But the cold snap should be over!

We have a maturing tomato on our Volunteer/Old Ivory Egg! The tomato should be ready tomorrow or Saturday. I'll keep an eye on it.


Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Told Ya...


In my post on September 2nd of this year I warned about rockslides and mudslides in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Times – Grim Forecast Warns of Mudslides In Burn Areas


Harvested Over 800 Snow White(2) Tomatoes!


Today's harvest includes 15 Snow White(2), 13 Snow White(1), Babywine, Turkish Striped Monastery, White Currant, Patio Princess and Sweet 100 for a total of 33 tomatoes.

The low today was 43.7, still cold. The cold nights are affecting the harvest, especially the back yard harvest. Only four tomatoes harvested today from the back yard.

Snow White(2) has now reached over 800 harvested tomatoes (813)!

I found a tiny caterpillar on Snow White(2) this morning.


Tuesday, October 6, 2009

It's Still Cold!


Today's harvest includes 22 Snow White(2), 20 Snow White(1), 2 White Zebra, Pierce's Pride, Cuor de Bue, Amazon Chocolate, White Currant, Babywine, Mong and Jaune Coeur de Pigeon for a total of 51 tomatoes.

Today's low got down to 42.5 degrees, at 6:10 this morning. By the time I was harvesting it was up to 43.0 degrees. I look pretty silly harvesting in kick around shorts with a jacket.

My wife watered portions of the front yard yesterday.

It's good to see some tomatoes that I haven't harvested in a while, like Amazon Chocolate and Pierce's Pride.

For some reason, Blogger only allows up to 10 labels now. Therefore I've retired the 2009 Day-To-Day and Day-To-Day label tags.


Monday, October 5, 2009

Tomatoes In The News


Columbian.Com (Clark County, WA) -- Gardener Nutures Towering Tomatoes

NewsTrib.Com (North Central IL) -- Tomato Blight Strikes Again

LivingstonDaily.com (Howell, MI) -- A Bountiful Harvest; Genoa Woman Grows Top Tomato

The Washington Post -- Creamy Tomato-Basil Soup

The New York Times -- Tomato Éclairs With Creamy Ricotta and Basil Filling

Weekly Calistogan (CA) -- Casa Nuestra Winery Goes Tomatoes

Chicago Tribune -- Embracing the Tomato Dessert Challenge

Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA) -- Faces Of The Farmers Market: The Patch's Lazaro Calderon in Sonoma

KGO (San Francisco, CA) -- Heirloom Tomato Bisque

Lake County News Chronicle (WI) -- Glorious Red, Ripe Fruit Of The Vine

Detroit Free Press -- 2009 Disappointing For Midwest Tomatoes

Guardian (UK) -- Nigel Slater's Green Tomato Recipes

Examiner.Com (San Francisco, CA) -- Using Garden Tomatoes

Where Did The Summer Go?


And today's harvest includes 17 Snow White(2), 9 Snow White(1), Babywine, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Garden Peach, Green Zebra(2), White Zebra, Sweet 100, Italian Ice, White Currant and a back yard Husky Cherry Red for a total of 35 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 1300 Snow White(1) tomatoes (1304)!

Also, we've harvested exactly 10,500 tomatoes for the year.

Where did the summer go? Yesterday's low was 44.8 degrees at Pierce College. Yesterday's high was 67.8. Today's low was 42.9 degrees!

The cool evenings are the reason our harvest numbers have fallen dramatically. That's okay, it was going to happen eventually. However, if it warms up again, don't be surprised if the numbers start to rise again. There's still a fair amount of tomatoes on both the Snow White plants.

Because yesterday was so temperate during the day, my wife and I did a lot of gardening. A patch of soil in the back yard was turned and prepared for planting. A bunch of winter crops were planted in that space. In the front yard a rosemary was pulled out, a rose was transplanted, another plant was pulled out and a lantana took the space.

The garage was cleaned and rearranged by my wife. We took out our air conditioning unit in the bedroom and put it away. Hey, where did the day go?

On Saturday my wife and I were in the front yard. I mentioned to her that several mature Black Krim tomatoes were partially eaten and had to be thrown away – there's probably a caterpillar somewhere. After about 20 seconds of searching...hey, there it is! Hopefully that problem is now resolved.

My wife watered the back yard tomato plants while I was preparing the winter vegetable garden.


Sunday, October 4, 2009

Front Yard Harvest Passes The Back Yard Harvest


Today's harvest includes 44 Snow White(2), 16 Snow White(1), 3 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 White Zebra, 2 Red Grape, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Garden Peach, Babywine, Italian Ice, Yellow Perfection and a good looking Dr. Wyche's Yellow for a total of 75 tomatoes.

The front yard harvest total has caught up and passed the back yard harvest total!

There was a time a couple months ago where the front yard harvest total had passed the back yard total. Then Yellow Perfection and Black Cherry kicked in and the gap between the back yard harvest total ahead of the front yard harvest total got to about 350 tomatoes.

Due to the strength of the two Snow White plants over the last week or so, that gap has closed completely. The front yard harvest is ahead of the back yard harvest 5252 – 5213.

I fertilized and watered the back yard container tomato plants.