No Back Yard Tomatoes Harvested Today

And today's harvest includes 14 Snow White(2), 2 Babywine, Mong and Silvery Fir Tree for a total of 18 tomatoes.

What's notable in today's harvest is there were no back yard tomatoes in the bunch. I found a ripened tomato on Green Zebra(1), but it had just enough of an open crack in it that I put it in our compost pile.

Originally I couldn't find any Snow White(2) tomatoes. But I looked in areas I normally don't look and kept finding two tomatoes here, two tomatoes there.

You have to trust me on this but it's actually a bit difficult to harvest from this plant. The plant is quite bushy. It's traveled up the chicken wire fence and completely down the same fence. So it's twice as thick in spots as compared to Snow White(1). And it's hard to move branches this late in the season without breaking them. There are areas that aren't as explored as others and I tapped that today with good success.

Italian Ice actually has one more tomato on it, so it will be spared. Yellow Perfection has a tomato ripening on the vine and when that is harvested, it will go. Silvery Fir Tree and Jaune Coeur de Pigeon are ready to be pulled.

Harvested Over 5500 Front Yard Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 5 Babywine, 3 Snow White(2), Yellow Perfection, Italian Ice, Red Grape, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Snow White(1), Mong (6 ounces) and Dr. Wyche's Yellow (8.5 ounces) for a total of 15 tomatoes.

In spite of an understandably small end of season harvest, we've now reached over 5500 harvested front yard tomatoes (5502)! The back yard harvest, now at 5287 tomatoes, will not reach 5500. Red Grape and Italian Ice can now be pulled, though my wife is arguing to keep Red Grape around.

What's surprising with today's harvest is to have two good looking tomatoes over 6 ounces so late in the season.

My wife told me about a caterpillar on White Currant, which I found and removed in the evening.

Found More Cracked Tomatoes Than Good Ones

Today's harvest includes 2 Snow White(2), 2 White Currant and Babywine for a total of 5 tomatoes.

I “harvested” more cracked tomatoes than good tomatoes today. Speaking of which, I should clarify why a bunch of them became cracked. We had a cold spell, then a big rainstorm (a step I left out of prior posts), then a heat wave. The tomato plants absorbed the water from the rain, gave it to the tomato, which couldn't grow fast enough in the heat. Therefore, they burst.

I did find a large caterpillar on Black Krim this morning.

Tomatoes In The News

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

Guardian (UK) – One Tomato, Two Tomatoes

HeraldNet (Everett, WA) – Eat Your Greens: Four Ways To Use Up Unripe Tomatoes

Gaylord Herald Times (MI) – Keep It Simple: Tomato Or Not Tomato?

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) – Upside-Down Tomato Experiment – The Verdict Is In

BusinessWeek – Meet The Celebrity Gardener

The Redding Pilot (Georgetown, CT) – Guitar: The Year Of The Tasteless Tomato

Cincinnati.Com – Garden Detective – What Happened To My Aunt's Tomatoes?

NJ.Com – Late Blight: How To Deal With The Scourge That Ruined Your Tomatoes

Tulsa World (OK) – Ripen Green Tomatoes Indoors

Bangor Daily News (India) – Turn Unripened Tomatoes Into Salsa

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – Take Steps Now To Control Tomato Blight

National Post (Toronto, Canada) – Creative Spaces: Visual Artist Greens Workplace For “Happiness” – And Tomatoes

Minneapolis Star Tribune (MN) – A Thing For Tomatoes

Daily Freeman (Hudson Valley, NY) – Two Story Tomato Plant

Western Farm Press – Tomato Grower's Final 100 Acres Harvested

Pulled Out Five Back Yard Tomato Plants

Today's harvest includes 7 Snow White(2), 3 Babywine, 3 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Red Grape, 2 White Currant, Black Cherry, Sweet 100, Snow White(1) and a front yard Husky Cherry Red for a total of 21 tomatoes.

I pulled out some back yard tomato plants last night. Turkish Striped Monastery survived the (literal) cut, as I discovered a couple of tomatoes on it. But the ones pulled include Cuor de Bue, Pierce's Pride (with a cracked tomato on it), Amazon Chocolate, Plum Tigris and Black From Tula (with an overripe, cracked tomato in the hidden middle of the plant).

There's some caterpillar eating up Black Krim (which also had an overripe cracked tomato that had to be tossed) as well that I can't find.

As noted in the prior paragraph, I'm still finding plenty of cracked and overripe tomatoes on the vines. Our city must have gotten hot while we were away. (Looking it up...) Ah, it got up to 97.0 one day and 97.1 the next. Remember, we were in the low 40's for several days earlier in the year.

We've harvested exactly 700 tomatoes for the month. That was my original estimate for September.

Back From An Out Of Town Conference

Today's harvest includes 6 Snow White(2), 5 Babywine, 5 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Old Ivory Egg, 2 Red Grape, Snow White(1), White Currant, Sweet 100, Italian Ice and Cuor de Bue for a total of 25 tomatoes.

I haven't harvested in a while because I was out of town at a conference. I got back in the late evening. Here's some random thoughts after being away for a while...

The fence surrounding the “koi pond” is being bent on the west side due to the weight of the tomato plants growing on it.

I'm surprised at the low count for the Snow White plants. It is what it is.

Snow White(2) has a bunch of brand new blooms. It is the healthiest remaining plant.

A caterpillar or two is eating the Mong tomato plant, but I couldn't find any this morning.

A lot of tomatoes had to be tossed due to cracking. That's an indication of a cold night following a hot day. The internals of the tomato heat up faster than the tomato can grow. This was disheartening for Old Ivory Egg. Four were harvested but two were cracked beyond usability. I kept two but my wife may toss them.

There's at least four tomato plants in the back yard that can be pulled. Cour de Bue, Pierce's Pride, Turkish Striped Monastery and Amazon Chocolate can go.

The ground is still damp in both the front and back yards. That's an indication we must have had quite a storm last Tuesday/Wednesday.

These conferences wear me out. I need more sleep.

We've now harvested 250 Sweet 100 tomatoes.