It's Over for 2014

It's over for 2014.

The tomato plants were pulled last Saturday. They were meant to be pulled the prior Saturday but the gardeners didn't show.

I didn't harvest at all during the week but I did pick off a few tomatoes before the plants were pulled last Saturday. Sunchocola, which looked pretty darn good and strong three weeks ago, got the fungal disease. The top of the plant looked like it had spider webs on it. For what it's worth the Sunchocola plant also had a couple of hornworms on it, though that's not related to the fungal disease.

Our total harvest for the year ended up at 6904 tomatoes. Here are our top ten harvest totals for 2014:

Orange Paruche -- 1250
Sunchocola -- 1015
Matt's Wild Cherry -- 683
SunGold -- 666
Sugar Snack -- 333
Husky Cherry Red(2) -- 332
Husky Cherry Red(1) -- 245
Evan's Purple Pear -- 189
Black Cherry -- 153
Indigo Rose -- 139

We added a lot of compost in preparation for this year. The plants started out strong but more importantly we were very pleased with the taste of this year's crop. However, most of the plants "hit the wall" relatively soon. Why?

Well, one never knows. For instance, it could have been a weak year for seedlings...but barring a few tomato plants that didn't seem to be the issue. The soil was prepped moreso than in other years. But there were two factors overriding everything else: This was the hottest year on record and we got very little rain during the prior winter.

This record's record heat is consistent with how our plants seemed to peak and die about two to three weeks earlier than before. That is clear. But what about fall and winter rains? We're warming to the opinion that the rains in the fall/winter affect next year's crop. We're beginning to believe that rain brings worms up to the top of the soil, depositing worm castings where the tomato plants can later use it.

2013 was our worst harvest year on record. In that year we had little rain the prior fall/winter and I did not prepare the soil like I did in the fall of 2013. And it showed. In 2007 I could find plenty of worms in our front yard. This year I don't think I saw a single worm anywhere in our growing area.

Our plans for 2015 will involve prepping the soil similar to what we did late last year. That means we should acquire compost in the near future. But if we have a low rain amount during the next fall and winter, we may not plant tomatoes for 2015. Or we'll scale back and try to not "fight nature" as much as in prior years. 

Harvested Over 675 Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes This Year!

Wednesday's harvest includes 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Matt's Wild Cherry and SunGold for a total of 6 tomatoes.

No harvest Thursday. The weather got noticeably warmer, getting up to 95 degrees.

Today's harvest includes 10 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Matt's Wild Cherry, SunGold and Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 15 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 675 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes this year (677)! Right now it looks like Matt's Wild Cherry will hold off SunGold for third place on the 2014 harvest total. Also, we've now harvested 325 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes this year.

It got down to 54.7 degrees this morning but it is supposed to get hotter than yesterday. 

September 2014 Tomato Analysis

Let's take a look at the September numbers from top to bottom...

2011 -- 768 tomatoes
2010 -- 717 tomatoes
2012 -- 700 tomatoes
2007 -- 647 tomatoes
2014 -- 372 tomatoes
2008 -- 204 tomatoes
2013 -- 199 tomatoes
2009 -- 181 tomatoes

This year was fifth out of eight years. That has been fairly consistent throughout the year.

My original estimate of 550 tomatoes was far enough away to be a miss. The adjusted estimate of 400 was good.

German Orange Strawberry and Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red were pretty productive for the month of September. SunGold started fairly strong while Matt's Wild Cherry got a second wind toward the end of the month.

We're down to five plants now, four in the back yard and Sunchocola in the front yard. Sunchocola is getting a lot of blooms but we're due for a heat wave very soon.

However, I'm getting bored with the remaining plants. I'll keep 'em around for a bit but they may not make it to the end of October. We'll see. Because of that I won't make an estimate for October. 

Harvested 650 SunGold Tomatoes This Year!

Last Tuesday's harvest includes 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Matt's Wild Cherry, Porkchop(1), SunGold, Husky Cherry Red(1), Husky Cherry Red(2) and Sugar Snack for a total of 9 tomatoes.

Wednesday's harvest includes Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Matt's Wild Cherry and Husky Cherry Red(2) for a total of 3 tomatoes.

Thursday's harvest includes 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Porkchop(1) and Matt's Wild Cherry for a total of 4 tomatoes.

Friday's harvest includes 2 Matt's Wild Cherry, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Indian Stripe and Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 5 tomatoes.

Saturday's harvest includes 8 Matt's Wild Cherry and Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 9 tomatoes.

I pulled out Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Indian Stripe, Porkchop(1) and Sugar Snack. The gardeners threw them away. I gave the gardeners all of our remaining tomatoes.

We're down to five plants...

No harvest on Sunday.

Monday's harvest includes 4 SunGold and Matt's Wild Cherry for a total of 5 tomatoes.

Today's harvest includes 5 Matt's Wild Cherry, 4 Husky Cherry Red(2) and 3 SunGold for a total of 12 tomatoes.

We've now harvested exactly 650 SunGold tomatoes this year! SunGold still resides in fourth place on the harvest list but could make a comeback.

Some of the Sunchocolas are maturing but look "wobbly" at the moment. We'll see how that goes. Meanwhile, there's another big heat wave coming. That will wipe out the second wave Sunchocola tomato blooms that have been increasingly appearing... 

Harvested Over 650 Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes This Year!

So let's catch up on things...

No harvest on Tuesday. But Tuesday only got to 100.4 degrees (that's bad enough). The prior three days were over 107 degrees.

Wednesday's harvest includes 5 Michael Pollan, 2 Matt's Wild Cherry, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Porkchop(1), SunGold and Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 11 tomatoes.

Thursday's harvest includes 3 SunGold, 2 Matt's Wild Cherry, Sunchocola, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Husky Cherry Red(1) and Michael Pollan for a total of 9 tomatoes.

No harvest on Friday.

Saturday's harvest includes 6 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 5 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Michael Pollan, 2 SunGold, Sunchocola, Husky Cherry Red(2) and Sugar Snack for a total of 19 tomatoes.

Sunday's harvest includes 4 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Michael Pollan and Indian Stripe for a total of 10 tomatoes.

I pulled out seven tomato plants on Sunday. These included Michael Pollan, Captain Lucky, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Pineapple and Speckled Roman(2).

There are nine remaining plants, four in the front yard and five in the back yard. The strongest remaining plant is Sunchocola.

We've now harvested over 650 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes (651)! Also, we harvested over 100 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red tomatoes this year (102).

The Matt's Wild Cherry totals in relation to SunGold have been interesting. Originally, SunGold was out in front but was passed by the hard charging Matt's Wild Cherry. Matt's Wild Cherry was comfortably in third place behind Orange Paruche and Sunchocola but well over 100 tomatoes in front of the fourth place challenger, SunGold.

Then SunGold got a second wind after Matt's Wild Cherry went into recovery mode. Day by day I'd harvest SunGolds while Matt's Wild Cherry lay idle. I'd harvest several SunGolds a day, nothing dramatic. But day after day the SunGold totals began creeping up to where it was approaching the third place total of Matt's Wild Cherry. At that point (a week or two ago) Matt's Wild Cherry appeared to wake up while SunGold was running out of juice. SunGold got to within one tomato of Matt's Wild Cherry (639 to 638) but could not cross into third place. I started harvesting Matt's Wild Cherry again while SunGold appears exhausted. Now Matt's Wild Cherry has a nine tomato lead, 651 to 642 for SunGold.

Today's harvest includes 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Matt's Wild Cherry, Husky Cherry Red(2) and Sugar Snack for a total of 4 tomatoes. 

Pulled Out 8 More Tomato Plants

Sooooo let's catch up on things...

Friday's harvest includes 3 Sugar Snack, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Michael Pollan and Dr. Wyche's Yellow for a total of 8 tomatoes.

Saturday's harvest includes 2 Sunchocola, 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Michael Pollan, SunGold, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Black Cherry, Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 10 tomatoes.

I took the cages off of the tomato plants I wanted to be removed. As I was completing this chore the gardeners arrived. They threw away German Orange Strawberry, Bread and Salt, Speckled Roman(1), Blue Beauty, Black Icicle, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon) and Black Cherry.

I gave away a lot of our harvested tomatoes to the hard working gardeners.

Sunday's harvest includes SunGold, Sugar Snack and Michael Pollan for a total of 3 tomatoes.

I pulled out Evan's Purple Pear, missed by the gardeners.

Today's harvest includes Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Pineapple and Michael Pollan for a total of 3 tomatoes.

We've now harvested exactly 75 Pineapple tomatoes and exactly 75 Michael Pollan tomatoes!

The real story is how the tomato harvest has essentially died. There's not much left to harvest, though the Sunchocola plant is making a comeback. Whether there will be fruit from this comeback remains to be seen.

The other story is the heat. Wednesday's high (mentioned in a prior post), 99.9. Thursday's high, 100.4. Friday's high, 103.1. Saturday's high, 106.4. Sunday's high, 107.3. Blistering heat.

If Sunchocola had blooms, they would all be sterilized by now. But Sunchocola doesn't have a lot of blooms at this point and may still produce a second wind. 

Harvested 325 Sugar Snack Tomatoes This Year

Today's harvest includes 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 Sugar Snack, Pineapple, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Porkchop(1), Bread and Salt (6 ounces), Speckled Roman(2) and SunGold for a total of 15 tomatoes.

Bread and Salt and the German Orange Strawberry were good tomatoes, the rest was ordinary.

It got up to 99.9 degrees yesterday. A heat wave has arrived and records may be broken this weekend. On another note, the .08 inches of rain on September 8 broke the previous record of .07 inches of rain on September 8, 1982. Tell your friends!

We've now harvested exactly 325 Sugar Snack tomatoes this year! Not too bad for a container plant.

It looks like I won't be hitting any imminent milestones so I'll start to combine multiple harvest days in a single post. 

Harvested Over 300 Husky Cherry Red(2) Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 6 German Orange Strawberry, 3 Blue Beauty, 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 SunGold, Sunchocola, Bread and Salt, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Matt's Wild Cherry, Evan's Purple Pear, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Husky Cherry Red(1) and Sugar Snack for a total of 22 tomatoes.

The Bread and Salt tomato and the Sunchocola tomato were pretty good while the rest was unremarkable.

It looks like my inital estimate for this month's tomato harvest of 550 will be too high. A better guess now that we're 10 days into the month is a harvest of 400 tomatoes.

It looks like we'll have a heat wave kicking in this weekend.

We've now harvested over 300 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes this year (302)! Both Husky Cherry Red plants keep chugging along. 

Harvested Over 625 SunGold Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 8 SunGold, 6 German Orange Strawberry, 4 Sugar Snack, 2 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), Bread and Salt (8 ounces), Blue Beauty, Speckled Roman(2), Black Icicle, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon) and Dr. Wyche's Yellow for a total of 30 tomatoes.

Today's Bread and Salt was the star of the show while the rest was rather ordinary.

I got started a little early today and may have missed some Sunchocola tomatoes to harvest. I was going to pull out Speckled Roman(1) but the trash pickup came too soon. So I left it in the ground.

This morning's air had a crisp fall feel to it. It was refreshing!

We've now harvested over 625 SunGold tomatoes this year (631)! SunGold is about to pass Matt's Wild Cherry in total harvest for the year. This should happen later this week. 

Rain!

No harvest Saturday.

Sunday's harvest includes 11 German Orange Strawberry, 6 Evan's Purple Pear, 3 SunGold, 3 Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon), 3 Husky Cherry Red(1), 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Sugar Snack, 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green, Pineapple, Speckled Roman(2), Black Icicle, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Solar Flare, Black Cherry and Beauty King for a total of 45 tomatoes.

After the harvest I pulled out 4 back yard tomatoes -- Solar Flare, Beauty King, Neves Azorean Red and Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon). Later on in the day I determined that Speckled Roman(1) can go but it hasn't been pulled yet.

No harvest today. But there's an explanation...

My alarm went off at 6:15AM. I got up and heard a noise I was unfamiliar with. Can that be rain?!?! So I looked out the front door...and it was pouring rain! After 10 minutes the rain had basically stopped but it was too wet to harvest. In taking a look at the nearby Pierce College Weather web site, they got .06 inches of rain between 6:10 AM and 6:20 AM. Not much, of course but for a 10 minute span that's not bad. And in Southern California, we'll take anything. And our Monday sprinklers went off at 6:22 while the rain was still occurring.

Anyway, this "storm" only dropped .07 of an inch so far, but WE WILL TAKE IT, THANK YOU!

To give you an idea how surprised we were about this rain, we had a couple pieces of clothing on a clothesline outside drying overnight... 

Harvested Over 225 Husky Cherry Red(1) Tomatoes This Year

No harvest Thursday.

Today's harvest includes 9 German Orange Strawberry, 5 SunGold, 4 Pineapple, 4 Black Cherry, 4 Husky Cherry Red(1), 3 Blue Beauty, 3 Solar Flare, 2 Bread and Salt (8.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon), 2 Beauty King, 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), Indian Stripe, Sunchocola, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Matt's Wild Cherry, Black Icicle, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Sugar Snack and Michael Pollan for a total of 50 tomatoes.

I don't know if I've ever harvested as many as 9 German Orange Strawberry tomatoes before. That's quite a haul for an oxheart tomato. However, all of them were somewhat undersized. The Indian Stripe tomato was quite nice as well as both Bread and Salt tomatoes.

We hit several milestones today. We've now harvested over 225 Husky Cherry Red(1) tomatoes this year (228)! Also, we've harvested over 150 Black Cherry tomatoes this year (151), over 50 German Orange Strawberry tomatoes this year (55) and over 50 Blue Beauty tomatoes this year (52). 

August 2014 Tomato Analysis

Let's compare the August numbers...

2014 -- 1942 tomatoes
2013 -- 1320 tomatoes
2012 -- 3240 tomatoes
2011 -- 3863 tomatoes
2010 -- 2165 tomatoes
2009 -- 3250 tomatoes
2008 -- 1004 tomatoes
2007 -- 2806 tomatoes

Five years were higher, two were lower. What's notable is that for the July analysis, the 2010 total was slightly higher than 2014. The same is true for August. We may have a precedent...

My original estimate of 1650 tomatoes was a little low but it wasn't too far off.

The tomatoes weren't bad but they weren't great either. They were more like September tomatoes -- a little thicker skin, inconsistent maturing on the skin, not bad but not great taste. Standouts were Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Blue Beauty and Husky Cherry Red.

So why is this happening? Well, we still believe it was quite a good year. The compost really helped and the kelp meal added to the seedlings didn't hurt, either. But Southern California is under drought conditions. We had a second consecutive low rain year and therefore the worms didn't have the environment to do what they do during the winter. Also we had the hottest first six months of the year in recorded history.

To recap, we prepared very well for this year but nature didn't cooperate. This left us with great tasting tomatoes starting out but we had no "staying power" for lack of a better term. The hot conditions burned out the plants and the season sooner than usual.

For the upcoming months Sunchocola will be the wild card. Although doubling over in places, our Sunchocola plant is getting strong new growth. But will this new growth translate into new blooms and new tomatoes? Time will tell. The rest of the plants are burning out, though either of the Husky Cherry Red plants could make a bit of a comeback.

Since we may have established a pattern, let's look at the upcoming 2010 numbers.

September 2010 -- 717 tomatoes
October 2010 -- 261 tomatoes
November 2010 -- 214 tomatoes
December 2010 -- 90 tomatoes
Total 2010 harvest -- 8092 tomatoes

It looks like 2010 had the "staying power" that I believe this year will lack.

Last month's estimate of 7500 total harvested tomatoes looks consistent with the 2010 numbers. But I'll revise that estimate down to 7300 harvested tomatoes for the year. For September 2014 I'll estimate a harvest of 550 tomatoes. 

Harvested Over 6500 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 3 Sunchocola, 3 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Porkchop(1), 2 Blue Beauty, 2 SunGold, 2 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Beauty King, Indian Stripe, Earl of Edgecombe, Bread and Salt, Pineapple, Speckled Roman(2), Black Icicle, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Solar Flare, Husky Cherry Red(1), Sugar Snack and Michael Pollan for a total of 27 tomatoes.

After this morning's harvest I pulled out Earl of Edgecombe. My wife wanted it out so she could plant sweet peas. I was waiting for one more tomato. The tomato was maturing but I picked it a day or two early -- today was trash pickup day (delayed a day due to Labor Day). So I harvested and pulled out the plant.

We haven't had a double figure harvest in the front yard in several weeks. Today we harvested 11 in the front yard. I didn't harvest on August 25 so I'm not counting the August 26 front yard total of 13...we have to go back to August 20 to find the last double figure front yard harvest of 11.

The Indian Stripe tomato was nice and the Bread and Salt tomato was all right. The rest was unremarkable.

It looks like I missed a milestone that occurred a few days ago. We've now harvested over 6500 tomatoes this year (6566)! It looks like we crossed the 6500 threshold on Monday and I missed it. If Sunchocola gets a second wind we should get past 7000 harvested tomatoes. Then again I may just get tired of it and pull 'em out before the 7000 mark. But for the forseeable future, we continue on... 

Harvested 175 Evan's Purple Pear Tomatoes This Year

Monday's harvest includes 9 SunGold, 5 Evan's Purple Pear, 3 Black Cherry, 3 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Sunchocola, 2 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), 2 Pineapple, 2 Black Icicle, 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), Porkchop(1), Blue Beauty, Neves Azorean Red, Solar Flare and Sugar Snack for a total of 37 tomatoes.

I pulled out five tomato plants. These were Momotaro, Blue Gold, Volunteer(4), Porkchop(2) and "Green Zebra" (not Green Zebra). All were back yard tomato plants. I was tempted to pull out more but decided at the last minute not to do so. Black Cherry, you're on borrowed time...

I did water the remaining back yard tomatoes in the ground one more time.

We did hit one milestone. We've now harvested exactly 175 Evan's Purple Pear tomatoes.

Today's harvest includes 4 SunGold, 2 Speckled Roman(1), 2 Porkchop(1), 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Matt's Wild Cherry, 2 Black Cherry, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Pineapple, Black Icicle, Evan's Purple Pear, Beauty King, Husky Cherry Red(2) and Sugar Snack for a total of 21 tomatoes.

Again, the Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) tomato was nice while the rest was unremarkable.

The only thing notable for today was that I've been miscounting Beauty King as Solar Flare. Oh well. I won't go back and fix it. 

Harvested Over 1500 Back Yard Tomatoes In August!

Saturday's harvest includes 3 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 3 Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon), 3 Black Cherry, 3 Sugar Snack, 2 SunGold, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), Speckled Roman(1), Indian Stripe, Porkchop(1), German Orange Strawberry, Volunteer(4), Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Aunt Ruby's German Green, Husky Cherry Red(2), Michael Pollan and "Green Zebra" (not Green Zebra) for a total of 29 tomatoes.

One of the Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) tomatoes was nice while the rest was ordinary. Notable was the fact that there were no Sunchocolas harvested today. You'd probably have to go back to June before we didn't harvest Sunchocola.

No milestones hit today.

Sunday's harvest includes 10 Evan's Purple Pear, 5 SunGold, 3 Blue Beauty, 3 Black Cherry, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Sugar Snack, Sunchocola, Bread and Salt, Blue Gold, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Pineapple, Matt's Wild Cherry, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Solar Flare, Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon) and Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 37 tomatoes.

The German Orange Strawberry tomatoes were fine and my wife commented how nice today's Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) tomato was. The rest were okay.

My wife made a nice pasta dish with shrimp and some of the harvest over the last couple of days. The dish was definitely a success.

My wife watered the front yard, including the tomato plants. I assumed she double watered the tomatoes. I got in one round of watering for the back yard tomatoes in the ground.

And we have some milestones today. We've now harvested over 1500 back yard tomatoes for August (1532)! Also, we've harvested exactly 600 SunGold tomatoes this year. 

Harvested Over 100 Husky Cherry Red(1) Tomatoes in August

Today's harvest includes 6 Husky Cherry Red(1), 5 Evan's Purple Pear, 5 Black Cherry, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Pineapple, 4 SunGold, 4 Sugar Snack, 2 Sunchocola, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green, Speckled Roman(1), Porkchop(1), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Blue Beauty, Black Icicle, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Solar Flare and Michael Pollan for a total of 47 tomatoes.

The Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) tomato was nice and the Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes were nice to see. The rest was unremarkable.

We'll stretch with the milestones...here goes: We've now harvested over 100 Husky Cherry Red(1) tomatoes in August (104). We're approaching 6500 harvested tomatoes this year and 1500 harvested tomatoes in the back yard in August. SunGold approaches 600 harvested tomatoes...but we're not there yet. 

Harvested Over 3500 Back Yard Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 7 Black Cherry, 6 Sugar Snack, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Pineapple, 3 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), 3 SunGold, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Evan's Purple Pear, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Porkchop(1), Sunchocola, Blue Beauty, Neves Azorean Red (8 ounces) and Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon) for a total of 46 tomatoes.

The Neves Azorean Red is nice but it needs to lose the uneven maturing over the next day or so. One of the Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) tomatoes was nice, most of the Husky Cherry Red tomatoes are nice and the rest was unremarkable.

We've now harvested over 3500 tomatoes in the back yard this year (3535)! The back yard tomatoes keep chugging along. Also, we've harvested over 300 Sugar Snack tomatoes this year (302)! 

Harvested 1000 Sunchocola Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 11 Black Cherry, 7 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 SunGold, 5 Pineapple, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Sugar Snack, 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Sunchocola, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Matt's Wild Cherry, Porkchop(1) (6.5 ounces) and Bread and Salt for a total of 49 tomatoes.

Today's Porkchop was a nice tomato, though the maturing was uneven. The "sun" (west) side of the tomato was more mature than the "shade" (east) side. That will even out over the next day or so. The Bread and Salt tomato was okay while the rest of the harvest was unremarkable.

I did find a small hornworm on Captain Lucky today. This is the first one I've officially found this year. I noticed damage on the Captain Lucky plant and noticed the maybe one inch hornworm on the underside of a leaf. I tossed it away.

Earlier this year I noted what looked like a full sized hornworm underneath our lemon tree. It appeared that the dogs had played with it and/or birds picked it off of a plant -- it wasn't clear. The next day it was gone. Then on the day of our tomato party I saw hornworm poop underneath Ananas Noire but never found the hornworm. So I assume the hornworm laying in the dirt underneath the lemon tree was the culprit.

We did hit a bunch of milestones today. We've now harvested exactly 1000 Sunchocola tomatoes this year! Sunchocola is our strongest remaining plant and could get a second wind. Also, we've now harvested over 200 Husky Cherry Red(1) tomatoes this year (203), harvested exactly 150 Evan's Purple Pear tomatoes this year and harvested exactly 75 Bread and Salt tomatoes this year. 

Happy Birthday!

No harvest Monday.

Today's harvest includes 19 Husky Cherry Red(2), 12 SunGold, 10 Black Cherry, 8 Sunchocola, 8 Sugar Snack, 7 Husky Cherry Red(1), 3 Blue Beauty, 3 Pineapple, 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Porkchop(1), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, German Orange Strawberry, Bread and Salt (6 ounces), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Matt's Wild Cherry, Black Icicle and Porkchop(2) for a total of 82 tomatoes.

The Bread and Salt was nice and felt heavier than the reported six ounces. The Porkchop tomatoes were small but nice to see. And the mass of Husky Cherry Red tomatoes are always welcome.

No tomato milestones today though we should hit one or two tomorrow.

But I do want to wish a Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife! It was her birthday yesterday. And I'm very lucky to have married her. I love you! 

Harvested Over 250 Husky Cherry Red(2) Tomatoes This Year!

Sunday's harvest includes 19 Husky Cherry Red(2), 7 SunGold, 5 Sugar Snack, 4 Sunchocola, 4 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 Blue Gold, 2 Black Cherry, German Orange Strawberry, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Pineapple, Volunteer(4), Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon) for a total of 50 tomatoes.

The mass of Husky Cherry Red tomatoes was nice. Blue Gold was also nice while the rest was rather mundane.

We've now harvested over 250 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes this year (252)! Also, we've harvested exactly 50 Pineapple tomatoes this year. 

Harvested Over 100 Black Cherry Tomatoes!

Saturday's harvest includes 12 Husky Cherry Red(2), 8 Sunchocola, 7 SunGold, 6 Husky Cherry Red(1), 5 Sugar Snack, 3 Pineapple, 2 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), 2 Matt's Wild Cherry, 2 Black Cherry, German Orange Strawberry, Evan's Purple Pear and Michael Pollan for a total of 50 tomatoes.

The Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) tomatoes were cool while the rest were pretty ordinary.

Five tomatoes were pulled -- Great White, Ananas Noire, Purple Bumble Bee, Green Grape and Golden Rave.

We've now harvested over 100 Black Cherry tomatoes (101) this year! 

Harvested Over 550 SunGold Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 10 SunGold, 6 Sunchocola, 6 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Husky Cherry Red(2), 5 Sugar Snack, 3 Porkchop(2), 2 Pineapple, 2 Speckled Roman(2), Speckled Roman(1), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Blue Gold, Blue Beauty, Volunteer(4), Black Icicle, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Solar Flare, Black Cherry, Green Grape and Michael Pollan for a total of 51 tomatoes.

Last night I had a turkey sandwich with sliced Blue Gold tomato. From what I could tell, Blue Gold is a good tomato.

Today's Blue Beauty was a fairly nice tomato, so was Blue Gold. The rest was fairly routine. Notable was the lack of any harvested Matt's Wild Cherry.

We've now harvested over 550 SunGold tomatoes this year (554)! 

Harvested Over 6000 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 9 SunGold, 8 Sunchocola, 7 Sugar Snack, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Husky Cherry Red(1), 2 Black Cherry, 2 Green Grape, Bread and Salt (6 ounces), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) (6 ounces), Volunteer(4), Black Icicle and Michael Pollan for a total of 44 tomatoes.

The Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) and Bread and Salt tomatoes were nice, the rest was pretty much unremarkable.

We've now harvested over 6000 tomatoes this year (6041)! We've had a great tomato tasting year but the numbers aren't going to be as good as the taste. There's a good chance that we do not make it to 7000...but we'll see. We've also harvested over 1500 tomatoes in August (1502). 

Harvested 625 Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes This Year

Today's harvest includes 10 Sunchocola, 7 Sugar Snack, 6 Husky Cherry Red(2), 5 SunGold, 4 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Michael Pollan, 2 Green Grape, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), Earl of Edgecombe, Blue Gold, Speckled Roman(2), Volunteer(4) and Black Cherry for a total of 44 tomatoes.

Not only did we harvest a fair amount on Sunchocola tomatoes, there were some really nice ones in the bunch. Sunchocola had been getting "wobbly" with inconsistent maturing on the tomato. But there were several harvested low that were both perfect and large. Blue Gold was interesting as well.

We've harvested exactly 625 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes this year, though that barely qualifies as a milestone. We'll hit a major milestone tomorrow. 

Harvested Over 200 Husky Cherry Red(2) Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 9 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Sugar Snack, 5 SunGold, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Sunchocola, 3 Green Grape, 2 Pineapple, 2 Michael Pollan, Matt's Wild Cherry, Evan's Purple Pear, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon) and Dr. Wyche's Yellow for a total of 39 tomatoes.

The harvested Pineapple tomaotes looked all right but the rest was unremarkable. Well, Husky Cherry Red is unremarkable at best but that's why we like it. It's just a normal, productive tomato plant.

Now there are at least three tomato plants to be pulled. We're in pulling mode...

We've now harvested over 200 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (204) this year! The Husky Cherry Red(2) plant is producing more than Husky Cherry Red(1) due to the fact that the leaves of Husky Cherry Red(2) are draping over Husky Cherry Red(1). Husky Cherry Red(2) is blocking the sun from Husky Cherry Red(1).

Also, we've harvested over 250 Sugar Snack tomatoes (255) this year. 

Harvested Over 1000 Back Yard Tomatoes In August!

No harvest Sunday.

Today's harvest includes 17 Sugar Snack, 10 SunGold, 7 Matt's Wild Cherry, 6 Green Grape, 6 Husky Cherry Red(2), 5 Sunchocola, 3 Volunteer(4), 3 Michael Pollan, 2 Blue Gold, 2 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow, 2 Porkchop(2), 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Ananas Noire, Purple Bumble Bee and Golden Rave for a total of 72 tomatoes.

Ananas Noire, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Blue Gold and Porkchop(2) were relatively interesting tomatoes while most of the rest were unremarkable.

My wife watered the front yard tomato plants over the weekend. The back yard tomato plants are still to be watered.

Two more plants can be pulled. We'll see if I can get to them tonight.

We've now harvested over 1000 back yard tomatoes in August (1046)! Our back yard harvest still hums along. Also, we've harvested over 950 Sunchocola tomatoes (951) this year. 

Pulled 12 Tomato Plants

Saturday's harvest includes 5 Sunchocola, 5 Matt's Wild Cherry, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Sugar Snack, 3 Bloody Butcher, 3 SunGold, 2 Purple Bumble Bee, 2 Green Grape, 2 Michael Pollan, Blue Gold, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Speckled Roman(2), Indigo Rose, Evan's Purple Pear and Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 37 tomatoes.

The Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) and Blue Gold tomatoes were nice, the rest were unremarkable.

After the harvest I pulled out a lot of tomato plants. The pulled plants include Bloody Butcher, Indigo Apple, Yellow Perfection, Orange Paruche, Hungarian Heart, Indigo Rose, Jaune Flamme, Snow White, Nyagous, Cherokee Purple, Garden Peach(1) and Japanese Black Trifele, 12 in all. A few of these still had tomatoes to ripen but I simply wasn't interested in the final product. I would have pulled Captain Lucky as well, but the cage is supporting a leaning Michael Pollan so I left it alone.

No milestones today. 

Harvested 1250 Orange Paruche Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 6 SunGold, 4 Sunchcola, 4 Matt's Wild Cherry, 4 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Michael Pollan, 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 3 Sugar Snack, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Garden Peach(1), 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), Orange Paruche, Speckled Roman(2), Volunteer(4), Indigo Rose, Beauty King and Green Grape for a total of 40 tomatoes.

There really wasn't much of anything to today's harvest.

It looks like there may be a lot of tomato plants pulled tomorrow. I think I'll not only be pulling out the ones with no more tomatoes left, I'll also pull out the ones that have just a few left. Also on the target list are ones like Ananas Noire, Snow White, Jaune Flamme, Indigo Rose and Garden Peach(1) in the back yard. The plants for Hungarian Heart and Earl of Edgecombe are okay but I don't remember any fruit on them. If there are none I may pull them.

We've now harvested exactly 1250 Orange Paruche tomatoes this year! And that may be it for Orange Paruche... 

Harvested Over 3000 Back Yard Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 7 Sunchocola, 7 SunGold, 7 Husky Cherry Red(2), 6 Matt's Wild Cherry, 6 Michael Pollan, 5 Sugar Snack, 3 Persimmon(2) (not Persimmon), 3 Garden Peach(1), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Solar Flare, Bloody Butcher, Great White, Volunteer(4), Indigo Rose, Snow White, Evan's Purple Pear, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Porkchop(2) and Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 57 tomatoes.

Outside of Great White and perhaps Aunt Ruby's German Green, there wasn't much to today's harvest. Well, 6 Michael Pollan tomatoes was nice to see.

If the gardeners come on Saturday I'll have them be aggressive in pulling out the burned out tomato plants.

I just checked on my original harvest prediction for August -- 1650 tomatoes. We've harvested 1226 so far this month, but the harvest numbers are falling fast. It looks like this prediction will be accurate.

We've now harvested over 3000 back yard tomatoes this year (3020)! Also, we've harvested over 600 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes (604) and over 500 SunGold tomatoes (506) this year!