Friday, June 10, 2011

Harvested Matt's Wild Cherry

Today's harvest: 2 SunGold, Matt's Wild Cherry

There are more Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes maturing. Within a couple of days we should be harvesting this tomato every day for some time to come. Several Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe tomatoes are maturing as well.

Last evening I checked with my wife regarding the container plant with a new tomato on it. I thought it was Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) and she verified it.

I had to use a stake this morning on one of the plants underneath the lemon tree. I'm already constricted in my manuevering through these plants because they are simply thriving. I can only imagine trying to navigate my way through this area 60 days from now.

Every plant in the "corner office" has growing tomatoes. I believe every container plant has growing tomatoes. Every plant in the "Middle East" (the area around our eastern fence which traditionally has not done well for tomatoes, where we harvest asphalt and rocks when planting) has tomatoes. Every plant in the south garden has tomatoes.

The "koi pond" has two plants without tomatoes. The area by the lemon tree in the back yard has one plant without a tomato. The three plants look healthy and it's just a matter of time before they show tomatoes.

Three of the four plants in the backyard cutout appear to be too weak to support tomatoes. The fourth -- Black From Tula -- was planted on May 15. It's too early to tell if it will get tomatoes but it is a good sign that I do see a bloom on it.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Volunteers In The Raised Bed

Today's harvest: None

One SunGold, perhaps two, will be ready tomorrow along with a Matt's Wild Cherry. More Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes are beginning to mature.

I was going to report that another container plant has a tomato but I first need to do some checking as to which plant it is.

By my count I have 9 plants left without tomatoes.

Our second volunteer in the raised bed continues to grow. If it continues to grow and get flowers, I'll have to add it to our list.

Now that I mentioned it, I believe we now have four volunteer tomato plants in one of our raised beds. One has tomatoes -- the tomatoes look good but the plant doesn't. Another volunteer sprung up in the exact same spot as this volunteer. The plant looks great but has no tomatoes yet. Since they are so close -- the base of the two plants are less than a half inch apart -- I'll treat it as one volunteer plant unless the second plant produces tomatoes that are different than the other plant.

About eight feet away is a third volunteer (which I'm calling the second volunteer) about four or five inches tall and looking healthy.

And my wife spotted another volunteer just starting to grow.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Where'd These Snails Come From?

Today's harvest: SunGold

No real news, except I broke another branch off of Matt's Wild Cherry that had a couple of tiny tomatoes on it. The plant itself is sprawling and my attempts to corral it have met with some failure.

On a strange note, I found about two dozen snails within about a 10 foot circle on the grass near our lemon tree. I tossed them on our roof for the birds to eat.

No new plants with tomatoes. More SunGold tomatoes are ripening.

Monday, June 6, 2011

2nd Tomato Harvested; 2 More Plants With Tomatoes

Today's harvest: SunGold

I've broke out the tomato tape this weekend. A few of the tomato plants have grown out the top of their cage and are sprawling out over the top of the cage. I used clear tomato tape to corral them for a bit longer. I also used tomato tape on several wayward branches that I couldn't tuck back in their cages.

Today I noticed that Neves Azorean Red and Hungarian Heart have small tomatoes. I'm especially happy to see Hungarian Heart have a tomato. Last year we grew Hungarian Heart in a pot and had no tomatoes.

Around 7 plants are turning shades of gray and showing leaf curl. We attribute this to getting too cold at night, though we're not positive that's why it's occurring.