Friday, May 9, 2014

Two More Front Yard Tomato Plants With Tomatoes

This evening I watered the front yard tomato plants. I double watered the "corner office" plants but the sun set before I could double water the tomato plants in the "koi pond".

While watering I noticed that Adrianna's Grande and Hungarian Heart have growing tomatoes.

We've decided to replace Black From Tula with the new volunteer tomato and we planned to do it this evening...but we couldn't get to it.
 

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Three More Plants With Growing Tomatoes

The back yard tomato plants in containers and raised beds got some tomato fertilizer today. Then I watered all of the back yard tomato plants.

During the watering I noticed that Evan's Purple Pear had a growing tomato.

Last evening my wife noticed that Black From Tula looked like it had gone into shock for some reason. She watered it but it looked no better this morning. I watered it as well and later watered in some fertilizer but I'm afraid we're going to lose this plant. My wife had a good suggestion -- transplant Volunteer(4) (the one growing through the cinder block and destined to be pulled) into the spot where Black From Tula is located. I just want to wait a day or so to see if Black From Tula recovers.

Our best guess is that a fig beetle larvae chomped on it. We see no obvious points of stress above ground that would cause the plant to go into shock.

I looked at the front yard tomatoes as well and discovered that Earliana and Bread and Salt have growing tomatoes.
 

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Tomatoes Trimmed; Three More Plants With Growing Tomatoes

Because I live in the west San Fernando Valley I let the tomato plants grow as much as they want. That way, the branches and leaves provide a canopy over some of the fruit. There's plently of sun to provide energy to the plant. I don't need to prune branches or suckers to provide more energy to the rest of the plant.

But I do make one exception. Scott Daigre said during a tomato 101 classes at CSUN struck home. He stated "Tomato plant diseases tend to come from the soil. So trim the low branches that are in the dirt." That made sense to me.

Yesterday I trimmed (most) all the lower branches from the all the tomato plants. That took a while but I'm glad it got done. Not only are there no dragging branches but the plants themselves look better without all the low growth. Well, today I noticed a few more I could have cut but they look a lot better.

During yesterday's cutting I noticed that Jaune Flamme has growing tomatoes.

Today I noticed that Sugar Snack and Green Grape have growing tomatoes.

I should mention that there was a pretty heavy heat wave last week. It got into the mid 90's for several days. Also, several days were quite windy. Paradoxically, non-damaging wind storms tend to make tomato plant trunks more sturdy in the future.
 

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Four More Plants With Growing Tomatoes!

Yesterday the back yard tomatoes were watered. Today the front yard tomatoes were watered. I did some training on the tomato branches.

I did notice four more plants with growing tomatoes! The list includes SunGold, Orange Paruche, Yellow Perfection and Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red. Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red was a little bit of a surprise because the plant isn't that tall yet and planted only three weeks ago.

The three or four tomato plants that didn't look so good a week or two ago look all right now.

There was a fourth volunteer found next to Volunteer(2), growing in the cinder blocks. However, my wife indicated that she wished to pull it.