Planted 5 Tomato Seedlings; Catching Up (somewhat)...

Yesterday we planted Hungarian Heart, Black Krim, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Blue Beauty in the back yard.

So where have we been for the last few months? Well, we've been around. Silent, but we've been around.

Here's a partial explanation...on October 17, 2014 my wife and I formally adopted our son, Tony. He was two weeks shy of two years old at the time of adoption and as two year old boys are wont to do, he is increasingly active. We've had less time for soil preparation this year (As in, none.). Tony takes first priority.

During the last six or seven weeks we've all been under the weather in one form or another. In fact, Tony has had two febrile seizures during this period. Tony will be fine and will outgrow his febrile seizures, but it has been a somewhat scary time while these occur.

The first occurred in late February on a Thursday while at a restaurant. We called 911 immediately and got him to a hospital. That was quite scary and concerning for us. However, he was released several hours later with no ill effects.

The second febrile seizure during this period was again on a Thursday night in March. In this instance we drove him to the hospital, anticipating the upcoming seizure. He was seizing while he was brought into the hospital. This time, however, he was kept in the hospital for three days. Again, he will be fine but through it all we've learned to be acutely aware of any potential fevers he may have and "get out in front of it" if necessary.

The second seizure was the night before the main TomatoMania Encino event. Because Tony was in the hospital for three days, my wife and I missed the event.

We get a lot of tomato plants from the TomatoMania Encino event, and volunteer to help during the three day extravaganza. But not this year.

I did work the TomatoMania event the next weekend at Descanso Gardens and got a selection at that time, 5 of which were planted as noted above. I had worked Roger's Gardens about a month ago but passed on tomato seedlings because of the upcoming TomatoMania Encino event...but you know the rest of the story.

As a matter of fact we going to visit relatives yesterday but apparently Tony got a touch of food poisoning Saturday night and that scotched our Sunday plans. So we planted some tomatoes.

I did a couple of speaking events, speaking about tomatoes at the San Fernando Iris Society in early February and Sunday afternoon at the Descanso Gardens TomatoMania event. Both went well but I have to watch how I meander from topic to topic...

Speaking of meandering, I lost the "corner office" to my wife's roses and irises. We're not going to grow as many tomatoes as previously because of that and the fact we're starting later than ever. 

Harvested Neves Azorean Red!

Today's harvest includes 22 Matt's Wild Cherry, 12 SunGold, 10 Orange Paruche, 8 Indigo Rose, 6 Evan's Purple Pear, 6 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Sunchocola, 4 Green Grape, 4 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Sugar Snack, 2 Snow White, 2 Garden Peach(2), Neves Azorean Red (new), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Earl of Edgecombe, Blue Gold, Pineapple, Black Krim, Nyagous, Stupice, Cherokee Purple and Michael Pollan for a total of 94 tomatoes.

The new Neves Azorean Red is undersized.

In fact, today's harvest was simply disappointing. The numbers are there but the size isn't. The heaviest tomato was maybe 3 ounces. It's like a harvest in September.

We've now harvested over 4500 tomatoes this year (4539)! 

Harvested Over 4000 Tomatoes This Year

Saturday: No harvest

Sunday's harvest includes 22 Matt's Wild Cherry, 22 Sunchocola, 14 SunGold, 13 Orange Paruche, 12 Husky Cherry Red(2), 9 Husky Cherry Red(1), 8 Green Grape, 7 Garden Peach(1), 6 Evan's Purple Pear, 6 Garden Peach(2), 5 Michael Pollan, 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Sugar Snack, 3 Pineapple (6 ounces), 3 Stupice, 2 Adriana's Grande, 2 Hungarian Heart (6 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Blue Beauty (6 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Jaune Flamme, Bloody Butcher, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, German Orange Strawberry (8 ounces), Volunteer(4), Yellow Perfection, Black Krim, Paul Robeson and Garden Peach(3) for a total of 156 tomatoes.

We were too busy all of Saturday to get a harvest. Friday night, my wife watered the tomatoes in the "koi pond". Late Saturday evening she got to the back yard tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 4000 tomatoes this year (4079) as well as over 1500 back yard tomatoes in July (1559)! 

Harvested Over 1500 Tomatoes This Month

Today's harvest includes 47 Orange Paruche, 32 Sunchocola, 13 SunGold, 11 Matt's Wild Cherry, 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 7 Sugar Snack, 5 Snow White, 4 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 3 Black Cherry, 3 Garden Peach(3), 3 Bread and Salt (6 ounces, 10.5 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Jaune Flamme, 2 Adriana's Grande (7.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 2 Garden Peach(1), 2 Garden Peach(2), 2 Earl of Edgecombe (7 ounces), 2 German Orange Strawberry (10 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Nyagous, 2 Earliana, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, Yellow Perfection, Ananas Noire (12.5 ounces), Speckled Roman(2), Black Krim, Persimmon(2) and Green Grape for a total of 167 tomatoes.

I got started a little earlier today than I did on Thursday, trying to beat the sprinklers. But today's back yard harvest is the highest so far this year (70) and I got caught -- they turned on before I completed the back yard harvest.

Our kitchen counter is filling up...this is our largest harvest total this year.

The Clint Eastwood Rowdy Red tomatoes aren't as large as we've seen in prior years but they sure look nice with their deep red coloring. The German Orange Strawberry tomatoes look fabulous.

Today's harvest can be summed up as "more good stuff"!

We've now harvested over 1500 tomatoes this month (1535) and over 700 Orange Paruche tomatoes (725) this year! It looks like will end up over 1000 harvested Orange Paruche tomatoes harvested for the year, perhaps even before the end of the month. 

Harvested German Orange Strawberry and Black Krim!

Today's harvest includes 29 Sunchocola, 20 Orange Paruche, 14 SunGold, 11 Sugar Snack, 9 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Adriana's Grande (7.5 ounces, 11 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 3 Earl of Edgecombe (6 ounces), 3 Earliana, 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Garden Peach(3), 2 Indigo Apple, 2 Bloody Butcher, German Orange Strawberry (new, 13.5 ounces), Black Krim (new), Bread and Salt (7.5 ounces), Nyagous, Odoriko, Garden Peach(1), Green Grape, Husky Cherry Red(1), Berkeley Tie Dye and Michael Pollan for a total of 112 tomatoes.

Today is the largest harvest number so far, barely surpassing the 110 tomato harvest on July 3. The back yard tomatoes are coming in larger numbers. The back yard harvest for the last four days has been 21/29/42/47. The back yard harvest on July 3 was 12.

Today's harvest was pretty. We're getting larger tomatoes as we get later in to the season. The German Orange Strawberry was both a surprise and an absolute beauty. But don't disregard the three Adriana's Grande (the three larger red tomatoes in the image below) and the three Earl of Edgecombe (bright orange tomatoes in front that look yellowish in the image). Odoriko is the tomato to the right with the slight purplish tinge. Black Krim is the brown tomato in the back.

Last night we taste tested Earl of Edgecombe, Michael Pollan, Bread and Salt and Berkeley Tie Dye. All were quite good. Last night's Bread and Salt was the best one I've tasted of that variety. This indicates to me I may have been harvesting Bread and Salt a day too late. This Bread and Salt was firmer than others and that made a positive difference. Berkeley Tie Dye was delicious with a bit of acid at the end. The Michael Pollan tomato was the best tasting of that variety that she has ever had. Earl of Edgecombe was quite good as well.

Green Zebra and Golden Rave have maturing tomatoes. But it is clear that Green Zebra is a mislabel. There are no stripes in the tomato...

We've now harvested over 1000 tomatoes in the front yard (1022) this year! 

We're Harvesting!

Tuesday's harvest includes 3 Stupice.

We're harvesting! We tried a couple of the Stupice and they taste like you'd expect -- a fresh tomato with a "classic" tomato taste. Nothing spectacular, nothing unusual, just a tomato you can slice in half and toss it into a salad. We're off to the races!

I added fertilizer to Black SeaMan. My wife watered it in and trimmed the burned leaves (the dogs pee on this plant for some reason). The plant does not look good but we hope for a turnaround.

Wednesday's harvest includes 2 Stupice.

My wife replaced the destroyed Blush with Momotaro.

Today's harvest includes 3 Stupice.

I cut a lot of the low branches for all the tomatoes again and did a lot of training. During my cutting and training I noticed several plants with tomatoes. These include German Orange Strawberry, Black Krim, Snow White, Pierce's Pride and Nyagous.

Every plant in the "koi pond" now has a growing tomato except Berkeley Tie Dye.

I added a stake to support Volunteer(2). 

Catching Up On Some Back Yard Plantings(2)

Here's the second half of this week's plantings...

Yesterday I dug the holes and my wife planted Neves Azorean Red, Snow White, Matt's Wild Cherry, Pierce's Pride, Black Krim and SunGold. I pulled out about a gallon and 3/4 of rocks and asphalt.

Today's plantings include Black Sea Man, Indigo Rose, Jaune Flamme, Black From Tula and Brad's Black Heart. A lot of dark tomatoes were planted today! I pulled out over 2 gallons of rock and asphalt.

My wife also started pulling out the grass in the area that I said we didn't have enough time to pull it all out. If we want to plant all our tomatoes, we'll need this area. We'll see how it goes...after all, this area didn't get the compost like the rest of the backyard planting area did. Still, it's better than nothing. 

Loteria Grill Was Fun!

Friday's harvest includes 19 Black Cherry, 11 Snow White, 10 Sweet 100, 9 SunGold(2), 4 Husky Cherry Red, 3 Jersey Giant, 3 Juliet, 2 Porkchop, 2 Isis Candy, 2 Husky Red(1), 2 Supersweet 100, 2 Piement, 2 "Something Orange" (14 ounces, 14.5 ounces) 2 Green Grape, Vorlon, Shah/Mikado, SunGold(1), Jaune Flamme, Blue Beauty, Amos Coli, Cuor de Bue (7 ounces), "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green, 6 ounces) and Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) for a total of 82 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 100 Snow White tomatoes today (104).

Saturday's harvest includes 24 Black Cherry, 14 Sweet 100, 7 Snow White, 7 Supersweet 100, 3 Cuor de Bue (9 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Juliet, 2 Shah/Mikado, 2 Green Grape, 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Jaune Flamme, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (17.5 ounces), Black and Brown Boar, SunGold(1), SunGold(2), Vorlon, Indigo Rose, Pineapple Pig (7 ounces), Piement, Aunt Ruby's German Green, "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green, 7 ounces), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) and Husky Red(1) for a total of 78 tomatoes.

After the harvest, my wife and I quickly got ready for the Tomatomania event at the Loteria Grill. We brought all our Piement and all our Black Cherry tomatoes, most of our Aunt Ruby's German Green and Cuor de Bue tomatoes and today's Dr. Wyche's Yellow for tasting. Based on the comments I overheard, people really liked our tomatoes.

My wife and I ended up as part of Scott Daigre's "groupie" crowd after the taste testing. My wife and I came late -- by the time we showed up Scott was talking and all the tables were taken. During the taste testing we tried to sit down at a half open table but we got booted out. So we tried an open booth in a corner -- it wasn't open during the Scott's talk -- and the "groupies" gathered around after about 10 minutes. Works for me.

The "groupie" table agreed that Shah/Mikado was rather blah. But there were many new varieties that were quite interesting. We all caught up with what's happening in our lives and so on, the meals were great (even better than prior years, IMO) and a good time was had by all. We came away with Lemon Tree and Blue Beauty tomatoes as well as some of Scott's fresh eggs. It was really nice!

Oh yeah, we broke the 2500 harvest number today for 2013 (2532). Also, we harvested over 200 Sweet 100 tomatoes this year (209)!

Sunday's harvest includes 18 Black Cherry, 8 Sweet 100, 7 Supersweet 100, 6 Snow White, 5 Juliet, 3 Porkchop, 3 Husky Red(2), 2 Jersey Giant, 2 "Rosella Purple" (Aunt Ruby's German Green), 2 Blue Beauty, 2 Shah/Mikado, 2 Cuor de Bue (8 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Isis Candy, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Yellow Perfection, Vorlon, Black Krim, Missouri Pink Love Apple, SunGold(1), SunGold(2) and Piement for a total of 74 tomatoes.

My wife pulled Black Krim today.

We've now harvested over 400 Black Cherry tomatoes this year (417)!

My wife prepared some of Scott's eggs this morning as well as cutting up a Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) for me. The eggs were great and the Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) was quite good. I'd call it good tasting and refreshing.

However, there was no harvest today due to back trouble. Let's hope it clears up enough for me to harvest tomorrow 

Harvested Pineapple, Speckled Roman(1) and Jaune Flamme!

Today's harvest includes 7 Yellow Perfection, 4 Black Cherry, 4 Stupice, 2 Sweet 100, Pineapple (new), Jaune Flamme (new), Speckled Roman(1) (new), Pierce's Pride, Hungarian Heart (7 ounces), Porkchop, Black Krim (9 ounces), SuperSweet 100 and Brad's Black Heart for a total of 26 tomatoes.

The heat has started. It got up to 96 today. My wife did water some of the front yard tomatoes yesterday and today.

We had a tomato salad tonight with some of the new tomatoes. Speckled Roman was good but uneven, Hungarian Heart was excellent while Black Krim was "wicked good" per my wife. My wife had a Porkchop in the salad and rated that better than Black Krim. A friend came over and thought the Porkchop was best. I didn't have one in my salad. So from best to worst: Porkchop/Black Krim/Hungarian Heart/Speckled Roman. 

Harvested Black Krim and Missouri Pink Love Apple!

Today's harvest includes 9 Yellow Perfection, 6 Black Cherry, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Sweet 100, Black Krim (new) (11 ounces), Missouri Pink Love Apple (new) (6 ounces), Stupice, Pierce's Pride, Porkchop, Brad's Black Heart, Berkeley Tie Dye and Nyagous for a total of 27 tomatoes.

Last night we tried the Michael Pollan tomato. I liked it and my wife really liked it. We got a good report from her mother just the other day and this Michael Pollan didn't disappoint.

Missouri Pink Love Apple looks cute and the new Black Krim will be delicious, you see...

Update: We tried Missouri Pink Love Apple and Black Cherry tonight in a salad. Black Cherry was solidly good. But Missouri Pink Love Apple was downright delicious. Light, smooth, juicy, consistent with a slight watermelon flavor underneath the juicy tomato deliciousness. This specific tomato is highly recommended. Too bad there's no more to share. 

Three More Tomatoes Maturing!

Today's harvest includes 6 Yellow Perfection, 4 Black Cherry, 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Husky Cherry Red, Hungarian Heart (12 ounces), Black Seaman, Brad's Black Heart, Michael Pollan and Nyagous for a total of 20 tomatoes.

The Michael Pollan was prematurely picked about three or four days ago. It was left to ripen on the kitchen window sill.

The reason Brad's Black Heart tomatoes are maturing is because the plant is dying. This may be a similar story for Nyagous.

The Hungarian Heart tomato looks very nice. And I can tell the Yellow Perfection plant will be a machine, just cranking out tomatoes left and right.

Plants with maturing tomatoes include Speckled Roman, Jaune Flamme and Black Krim. We could be harvesting a good sized Black Krim tomorrow. 

Descanso Gardens TomatoMania was a Success!

On Friday my wife planted four more grafted tomatoes in the south garden -- Missouri Pink Love Apple, Michael Pollan, Gold Medal and Black & Brown Boar. She caged all the grafts with our homemade cages from last year. Also she added two layers of green ribbon twine across the bottom two holes of the cages to keep our dogs away from the seedlings.

In the evening I planted Vorlon, Black Krim, Black Cherry and Pineapple in the front yard "koi pond". My wife did help out toward the end of that planting, making sure we finished before the sun set.

On Saturday I helped out with the Descanso Gardens TomatoMania event. The Descanso Gardens location gets more popular and this year kept to that tradition. It was extremely busy in the early morning followed by a pretty steady pace throughout the day.

The tomato seedlings are kept on foldaway tables as opposed to being placed on the ground. I seem to be the designated person moving the stock forward and let me tell you, it's much easier on tables. I interacted with the customers a lot more than I did at the Encino location because I was (somewhat) less fatigured and there was simply less stock to manage. Keeping up at the main event in Encino this year was hopeless, but I did catch up with things at Descanso Gardens just before closing time.

We met some friends for dinner in the area and that was a lot of fun. I didn't get home until around 8:30 PM.

On Sunday I was back at Descanso Gardens. Our original plans were to have my wife working on Sunday but she changed her mind. So I worked it. It was a slower pace but by no means slow. Again, I got to talk with the customers more.

When I left for the day there were approximately 80 tomatoes remaining. From what I'm told, the Descanso Gardens event started with 370 flats (usually there's 16 seedlings per flat but a few had 25 per flat), or roughly 6000 seedlings. A successful event!

During the day my wife watered the planted tomatoes in the "corner office".

I check the planted tomatoes this morning and the plants were doing just fine! 

More Plants Going Soon...

Today's harvest includes 9 Black Cherry(1), 6 Snow White(1), 5 Indigo Apple(2), 4 Amana Orange, 4 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 4 SunGold, 3 Brad's Black Heart (6 ounces, 7.5 ounces, 8.5 ounces), 3 Indigo Rose, 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green, 2 Black Cherry(2), 2 Marmara, 2 Snow White(2), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Carmello, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), Pierce's Pride(1), Black Krim(1), Oaxacan Jewel, Big Bite, Yellow Perfection, Thessaloniki, German Orange Strawberry, Japanese Black Trifele and Speckled Roman(3) for a total of 61 tomatoes.

The gardeners will come by again and pull out some tomato plants. The "fungusy" ones are likely to go with other random ones as well. In the front yard, Black Krim(1), Jaune Flamme(1) and Oaxacan Jewel can be pulled. The back yard has a few "fungusy" ones that can go.

Today's harvest was a little aggressive in anticipation of some of these plants being pulled.

No milestones were hit today unless you count 25 Brad's Black Heart tomatoes. 

July 2012 Tomato Analysis

We harvested 6088 tomatoes for July. By all measures it was a very successful month -- an overabundance of large, tasty tomatoes. How does this compare to other years?

2007 -- 6154
2008 -- 1629
2009 -- 4576
2010 -- 4108
2011 -- 3876
2012 -- 6088

So we nearly matched 2007 but with nearly three times the amount of plants. While I romanticize the 2007 year -- and it was an absolutely incredible year -- we did have a higher percentage of cherry tomatoes that year. In 2012 we didn't grow many cherry tomatoes in the ground. In pots, yes, but not in the ground. SunGold, 2 Snow White plants, 2 Black Cherry plants and 2 Husky Cherry Red plants. About 10 percent. Yes, the ones in pots are almost all cherries, but they're also constricted by the very same pots. We grew 2727 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes last year in the ground, this year we've grown 100 so far in a container.

Speaking of which, there's a better than 50 percent chance that SunGold beats our high harvest number of 2727. There's a chance that SunGold could reach 3000. The harvest will slow down to a trickle for a couple of weeks. The plant will recover a bit during those two weeks and get a second wind. If the plant is still strong enough for a good second wind, that should be good enough to pass 2727 and beyond.

That back yard harvest has been rock solid. All that digging in April has paid off.

The tomato plants in the raised bed have been a mild disappointment, except Indigo Rose. Could there be more bricks underneath the raised bed?

The south half of the "koi pond" has been disappointing. We've already pulled Paul Robeson. Black Krim(1), Vorlon and White Zebra have been sleepy. If I can I need to work the "koi pond" next year.

Still it's been a great month. The tomatoes have been tasty and plentiful -- what more can you ask?

I never got around to posting a June recap but in my mind I was predicting 5000 tomatoes for the month.

I predict a harvest of around 2400 tomatoes for the month of August. 

Harvested 5 New Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 53 SunGold, 18 Red Currant, 18 Husky Cherry Red(2), 12 Husky Cherry Red(1), 7 Carmello (7 ounces, 6 ounces), 7 SunSugar, 5 Black and Brown Boar(1) (9 ounces), 5 Jaune Flamme(1), 5 Japanese Black Trifele, 4 Black Krim(1) (new) (9.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces, 7.5 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 4 Chinese Tea, 4 Crimson Cushion (7.5 ounces, 7.5 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 Indigo Apple(1), 3 Yellow Currant, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Noire Charbonneuse(1) (6 ounces), 2 Big Bite (10 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Garden Peach, 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Green Grape, 2 Pink Furry Boar (6 ounces), 2 Watermelon (20.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 2 Black From Tula (9 ounces, 9 ounces), Persimmon (new) (26 ounces), Marmara (new) (6 ounces), German Orange Strawberry (new) (8 ounces), Marianna's Peace (new) (12.5 ounces), Berkeley Tie Dye (12.5 ounces), Redfield Beauty, Speckled Roman(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (11 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel (17 ounces), Speckled Roman(2) (7 ounces), Sweet 100, Pineapple Pig (14 ounces), Black Cherry(1), Black Krim(2) (10 ounces), Oaxacan Pink (10 ounces), Giant Syrian (17.5 ounces), Black and Brown Boar(2) and Black Cherry(2) for a total of 191 tomatoes.

Pineapple Pig fell over into Black Cherry(1) yesterday. My wife told me about it when I got home from work so I propped it up immediately.

In the morning it was obvious another big Pineapple(1) tomato got hit by an animal of some sort. About half the tomato was eaten, similar to other tomatoes under the lemon tree.

Marianna's Peace wasn't a surprise -- I had misidentified it as Purple Dog Creek. I forgot to check Delicious so I'd better check it tomorrow. The Persimmon tomato was both a surprise and a beauty. It looks very similar to Dr. Wyche's Yellow.

We've now harvested over 900 SunGold tomatoes (929), 300 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (316) and 100 Red Currant tomatoes (111).

Oaxacan Pink is most likely another Oaxacan Jewel. I'll probably change the name over the next few days.
 

Harvested 4 New Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 47 SunGold, 19 Husky Cherry Red(1), 15 Husky Cherry Red(2), 10 Red Currant, 8 SunSugar, 7 Nyagous(1), 6 Sweet Million, 6 Yellow Perfection, 4 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Yellow Currant, 3 Tolstoi, 2 Black and Brown Boar(1) (new), 2 Black Cherry, 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Black From Tula (12.5 ounces, 8.5 ounces), 2 Speckled Roman(2) (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Crimson Cushion, Chinese Tea (new), Indigo Apple(1) (new), Brad's Black Heart (new), Redfield Beauty, Speckled Roman(1), Ella's Pink Plum, Black Krim (10 ounces), Jaune Flamme(2) and Green Grape for a total of 149 tomatoes.

My wife watered all the back yard tomatoes on Monday. Yesterday I cleaned out some of the decaying leaves and branches in the evening.

My wife is going to try to salvage yesterday's Black Krim. Today's Black Krim is flawless, but Brad's Black Heart looks like it was pecked by a bird.

Here's an image of Black and Brown Boar(2), harvested a couple of days ago.

Maturing tomatoes include Watermelon, Japanese Black Trifele and Jaune Flamme(1).

We've now harvested over 400 SunGold tomatoes (409) and over 200 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (210). 

Harvested Giant Syrian, Black Krim and Black From Tula!

Today's harvest includes 29 SunGold, 19 Husky Cherry Red(1), 11 Husky Cherry Red(2), 8 Nyagous(1), 6 Sweet Million, 5 Matt's Wild Cherry, 5 Red Currant, 5 Yellow Perfection, 4 SunSugar, 3 Crimson Cushion (8 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Speckled Roman(2) (6 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 2 Sweet Baby Girl, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Carmello, Black Krim (new) (9.5 ounces), Black From Tula (new), Giant Syrian (new) (15 ounces), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (19.5 ounces), Yellow Currant, Black Cherry(1), Thessaloniki, Jaune Flamme(2), Tolstoi and Green Grape for a total of 113 tomatoes.

The Black Krim would look gorgeous if there wasn't a gash out of it. The gash doesn't look like birds, but something got it. The tomato was laying on the ground as it was maturing. Yesterday my wife took off a leaking, maturing tomato off the vine about a foot off the ground from this plant and threw it away.

We have more images to post when the time permits.

Sweet Baby Girl may be picked clean. I've only looked casually, but I don't see any tomato on the plant.

The maturing tomato list includes Brad's Black Heart, Indigo Apple(1) (!), Berkeley Tie-Dye(!), Black and Brown Boar(1), Oaxacan Jewel, Big Bite, Garden Peach and probably others. The tide gets heavier! 

Eight More Plants With Tomatoes!

Today's harvest: Husky Cherry Red(1).

Yesterday evening I spent a lot of time training as many tomato plants as I could. I got a close look almost all the tomato plants. From that I discovered more plants with tomatoes.

A partial list includes Noire Charbonneuse(1), Oaxacan Jewel, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken, Garden Peach, Black Krim(2), Earl of Edgecombe, Jaune Flamme(2) and Black and Brown Boar(1).

Today my wife and I made six more cages from concrete reinforcing wire. We replaced some of the weaker cages with the new tomato cages. We took out the weaker cages. There was some minor damage done when removing the cages but we believe it is not serious.

The weaker cages were mostly "leggy". We cut them down to size and used these cut down cages on the container plants. We replaced the original cages and again there was some minor damage. For instance, I knocked a tomato off of the Taxi tomato plant. 

Planted Five More Seedlings

Last night I dug three more holes, one in the backyard cutout area and two holes east of the lemon tree. I continued to hit significant asphalt and rocks, but the chunks weren't as big as around the redwood raised bed. Pesky, but not overwhelming.

In these holes my wife planted Black Krim, Brad's Black Heart and Nebraska Wedding.

She also planted Pierce's Pride and Sweet Baby Girl in pots.

My wife also watered the front yard tomato plants.

We're slowly but surely getting them into the ground. The upside -- the holes are deep and the debris is being removed. The downside -- it takes longer to plant and some of the remaining seedlings are getting very tall and potentially root bound. 

Harvested Speckled Roman (not Speckled Roman)

Today's harvest includes 75 Matt's Wild Cherry, 19 Husky Cherry Red(2), 14 SunGold(1), 8 Haley's Purple Comet, 5 Husky Cherry Red(1), 5 Garden Peach, 5 Coyote (not Coyote), 4 Green Zebra(2) (not Green Zebra), 3 Crimson Cushion(2) (6.5 ounces), 3 Sweet 100, 3 Persimmon (9 ounces, 12.5 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Snow White, 2 SunSugar, 2 Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, 2 Orange And Green Zebra, Speckled Roman (new) (not Speckled Roman), Green Zebra(1), Bloody Butcher, Golden Mama, Pineapple, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Black Krim(1), Cassidy's Folly, Green Grape, Stupice and Oaxacan Jewel(2) for a total of 163 tomatoes.

Well, we harvested Speckled Roman...but it's not Speckled Roman. It's orange. The shape can pass for a Speckled Roman -- perhaps it's Banana Legs -- but it sure looks like the Persimmon we grow, named by the Tomato Lady of Beverly Hills. Strange. Looking on the Internet, Banana Legs is clearly yellow but the tomato I picked is orange in color. Whatever it is, it's not Speckled Roman.

We've now harvested over 6000 tomatoes for the year (6064)! And we've now harvested over 1000 tomatoes in the front yard for August. Based on the strength of the Matt's Wild Cherry harvest, our August numbers could be the best we've ever had. Stay tuned.

We've now harvested over 400 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (417) and over 1500 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes (1547).