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. 

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... 

Front Yard Plants Are Burned Out

Today's harvest includes 5 Matt's Wild Cherry, 4 Sugar Snack, 3 Sunchocola, 3 Indigo Rose, 2 Bloody Butcher, 2 Orange Paruche, 2 SunGold, 2 Green Grape, 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Michael Pollan, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Porkchop(1), Bread and Salt, Volunteer(4), Speckled Roman(2), Jaune Flamme, Nyagous, Garden Peach(1), Aunt Ruby's German Green and Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 37 tomatoes.

Remember back in mid to late June I was commenting on how tall and beautiful the front yard tomato plants were? It was like they were three weeks ahead of normal.

I tend to pull a lot of plants around Labor Day...but it looks like this year I'll be pulling out a lot of plants right about this weekend. They are burned out. The only one that looks like will get a second wind is Sunchocola.

Outside of Porkchop(1) the rest of the harvest was unremarkable.

No milestones hit today, but we should hit a couple milestones tomorrow. 

Harvested 100 Garden Peach(1) Tomatoes This Year

Today's harvest includes 11 Sugar Snack, 9 SunGold, 7 Matt's Wild Cherry, 4 Orange Paruche, 3 Sunchocola, 3 Indigo Rose, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), 2 Nyagous, 2 Black Cherry, Speckled Roman(1), Indian Stripe, Porkchop(1), Jaune Flamme, Evan's Purple Pear, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2), Garden Peach(1), Green Grape, Husky Cherry Red(1), Husky Cherry Red(2) and Michael Pollan for a total of 56 tomatoes.

Not much to say about today's harvest. The two Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) tomatoes look pretty nice.

The front yard tomatoes are nearly burned out. As mentioned several times, Adriana's Grande is ready to be pulled. Yellow Perfection has one more tomato to go before it is ready to go. Orange Paruche looks like it will not recover and will be pulled in about a week. Bloody Butcher isn't long for this world. Look at the harvest totals for the last three days for the front yard -- 16/14/12. They are just burned out, simple as that.

In the back yard, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) can now be pulled.

We've now harvested 100 Garden Peach(1) tomatoes this year. 

A Little Butter in the Tomato Sauce Rocks!!

Today's harvest includes 17 Matt's Wild Cherry, 8 Orange Paruche, 8 SunGold, 8 Sugar Snack, 7 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 7 Sunchocola, 5 Jaune Flamme, 5 Black Cherry, 4 Indigo Rose, 4 Stupice, 4 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Blue Gold, 2 Nyagous, 2 Purple Bumble Bee, 2 Garden Peach(1), Bloody Butcher, Indigo Apple, Adriana's Grande, Earl of Edgecombe, German Orange Strawberry, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon), Green Grape and Michael Pollan for a total of 99 tomatoes.

Today's harvest was nice, but nothing really outstanding. I needed to make up some time at work so I didn't pull any plants.

However, last night's pasta sauce was worth crowing about. My wife tried making sauce in a slightly different fashion. She didn't peel the tomatoes before boiling. Instead, she took out the skins as they separated during the boiling process. I don't think that made much of a difference with the final product, it was just faster to do it that way. More importantly, she added a little butter (and probably other things as well). That gave the sause a fuller texture...and it was wonderful.

We've now harvested over 550 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes (554), exactly 125 Evan's Purple Pear tomatoes and exactly 50 Green Grape tomatoes. 

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 Paul Robeson, Porkchop(2) and Japanese Black Trifele!

Today's harvest includes 30 Orange Paruche, 18 SunGold, 17 Matt's Wild Cherry, 15 Sunchocola, 6 Garden Peach(1), 5 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Jaune Flamme, 4 Green Grape, 3 Bloody Butcher, 3 Indigo Rose, 3 Evan's Purple Pear, 3 Black Cherry, 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Garden Peach(3), 3 Sugar Snack, 2 Paul Robeson (new), 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Snow White, 2 Stupice, 2 Michael Pollan, Porkchop(2) (new), Japanese Black Trifele (new), Indigo Apple, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Yellow Perfection, Hungarian Heart (7.5 ounces), Blue Beauty, Ananas Noire (7 ounces), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) and Garden Peach(2) for a total of 140 tomatoes.

The Japanese Black Trifele was no surprise, neither was Paul Robeson (not sure if I mentioned this tomato as maturing) but Porkchop(2) was a bit of a surprise. However, the Paul Robesons and Porkchop(2) are undersized. Japanese Black Trifele, in a container, isn't undersized.

I had a screw up in yesterday's blog post. I originally posted it as 39 Sunchocola/15 Orange Paruche. These totals were switched; it was 39 Orange Paruche/15 Sunchocola. The blog post was fixed as well as the Orange Paruche total for the year at the bottom of the post. Exciting news to read, I'm sure...

Today marks a significant event: It's the first date in July where the back yard total is larger than the front yard total. And it wasn't close (88 back yard, 52 front yard). There were three or four dates where the harvest numbers were close, but not until today did it cross over. The three new tomatoes are all from the back yard.

The first wave from the front yard is over. Sunchocola numbers are down significantly and Orange Paruche numbers will fall soon. This does not mean there won't be a second wave for these two tomato plants -- in fact I expect it -- but the numbers for the next several weeks will be weak. Meanwhile, the back yard is still in the first wave.

Last night we tried some Blue Beauty tomatoes in a salad. Blue Beauty tomatoes taste good but the taste is not nearly as memorable as the tomato's exterior (which is near spectacular, I think).

I found the tomato dehydrator in our garage this morning. We may have dehydrated tomato chips in the very near future...

We've now harvested over 3500 tomatoes for the year (3581)! We've also harvested over 800 Orange Paruche tomatoes in July (804) and over 600 Sunchocola tomatoes in July (603)! 

Harvested Michael Pollan!

Today's harvest includes 39 Orange Paruche, 17 Sunchocola, 10 SunGold, 4 Matt's Wild Cherry, 4 Snow White, 3 Sugar Snack, 2 Adriana's Grande (13.5 ounces), 2 Stupice, 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), Michael Pollan (new), Yellow Perfection, Bread and Salt (12 ounces), Hungarian Heart, Jaune Flamme, Garden Peach(2), Green Grape and Husky Cherry Red(1) for a total of 91 tomatoes.

I harvested about an hour earlier than I normally do so that I could water the rest of the back yard tomatoes. As such, I expected to miss a few harvestable tomatoes due to the low light. This could have affected the Sunchocola numbers today (a dark, prolific tomato). We'll see if they shoot up tomorrow. Then again, I may wake up early one more time...

As I was watering the tomato plants in the raised bed area, I was surprised to notice a ripe Michael Pollan. After looking it over it was clear we couldn't keep it, but a tomato just next to this one was not only ripe but just fine. I also noticed a ripe Green Grape and a hidden Garden Peach(2).

Pierce's Pride looks awful and may be pulled shortly.

I did catch up on the back yard tomato watering, leaving the front yard "koi pond" remaining to be done.

We've now harvested over 300 Orange Paruche tomatoes (328) this year. 

Harvested Snow White!

Today's harvest includes 32 Orange Paruche, 24 Sunchocola, 7 SunGold, 3 Sugar Snack, 3 Earliana, 2 Snow White (new), 2 Bloody Butcher, 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), Yellow Perfection, Janet's Jacinthe Jewel, Bread and Salt (9 ounces), Hungarian Heart, Husky Cherry Red(2), Garden Peach(2) and Green Grape for a total of 82 tomatoes.

I spent a fair amount of time last night taping the larger tomato plants. Adriana's Grande, Sunchocola, Hungarian Heart, German Orange Strawberry, Orange Paruche, Garden Peach(2) and a few others got the tomato taping treatment. I added another stake to Garden Peach(2).

I have some concern that Sunchocola may fall over. The plant is in a large, strong cage. But as I harvest the lower hanging fruit, the plant has become somewhat more imbalanced. The plant will "shift" depending on how I readjust the plant. It's not so much getting tall as the top of the plant is getting wide and flowing everywhere. Think a top heavy ice cream cone. If I stake it it'll need about three stakes outside the cage to trap the cage in place.

Both my wife and I agree that we don't get the Cola taste from our Sunchocola, but we love the tomato. When we tried it at the tomato tasting party last year Loteria Grill, we could taste the Cola undertones. But it's a prolific, pretty and tasty tomato for us.

The German Orange Strawberry plant is amazing. It's now about 7 and a half feet tall and growing like a cyprus tree. Sooner or later I'll have problems with the plant but for now it's perfectly behaved. No maturing fruit yet.

Speaking of which, the two Persimmon plantings (not Persimmon) have maturing tomatoes. And it looks like an Ananas Noire is just starting to mature, but is probably a week away. 

Harvested Four New Tomatoes!

There was no harvest Sunday. We were out of town in the morning but came back home in the early evening.

My wife double watered the "corner office" while I watered the container plants near the south gate and about eight more plants in the back yard. I had single watered the ones in the ground. I did a little bit of training during this watering. I noted that Snow White and Volunteer(4) has maturing tomatoes. Great White has growing tomatoes.

Volunteer(4) is not another Garden Peach. The tomatoes are small and red.

I had a Bread and Salt tomato as part of dinner. The tomato did taste quite good though it was a tad overripe. It's hard to single out the flavor, though, short of "good".

Today's harvest includes 27 Orange Paruche, 24 Sunchocola, 14 Matt's Wild Cherry, 11 SunGold, 4 Green Grape (new), 4 Bread and Salt (10.5 ounces, 7 ounces, 9 ounces), 4 Sugar Snack, 3 Bloody Butcher (new), 3 Stupice, 3 Garden Peach(3), 2 Volunteer(4) (new), 2 Husky Cherry Red(1), Earliana, Vorlon, Adriana's Grande (13 ounces), Jaune Flamme, Pierce's Pride (new), Garden Peach(2) and Husky Cherry Red(2) for a total of 108 tomatoes.

We harvested from 4 new plants today! Bloody Butcher and Volunteer(4) was expected. Green Grape was a complete surprise. I had knelt down to look at the two Husky Cherry Red tomatoes when I noticed a green tomato off the vine. After completing the Husky Cherry Red harvesting I went back to the fallen tomato. Turns out it was ripe! I looked at Green Grape and saw other ripe tomatoes. I harvested two more. During the harvesting another ripe one fell to the ground. While Pierce's Pride wasn't unexpected, it's a small "stress" tomato. The plant is turning white and not growing. Any ripe tomato will be stressed and for the most part inedible.

Today's harvest number is obviously bloated due to the lack of a Sunday harvest.

Volunteer(4) looks like Matt's Wild Cherry but I haven't tasted it to verify. For now it remains labeled as Volunteer(4).

The 13 ounce Adrian's Grande is a beauty. 

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. 

More Plantings...

On Thursday we planted Speckled Roman(2) and Dark Galaxy in the cleared out area that I had said earlier we wouldn't plant in this year (ha ha). We planted Green Grape and Husky Cherry Red(1) in the fourth raised bed.

On Saturday (after working TomatoMania in Fillmore) we planted Bloody Butcher, Indigo Apple and Indian Stripe in the "corner office". However, something whacked Dark Galaxy overnight and it doesn't look very healthy. We'll monitor this closely and replace with a different seedling if it doesn't recover.

Today my wife planted Speckled Roman(1), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red and Porkchop in the "corner office". Dark Galaxy looks the same...

Pulling out the grass and digging the holes for the new area was a chore. We're only about halfway through pulling out the grass but it did create enough room to plant the two tomatoes mentioned above. I pulled out about three gallons of rocks and asphalt before planting Speckled Roman(2) and over two gallons planting Dark Galaxy. These "virgin" areas have a lot of asphalt.

Almost all of the other tomato plants have taken off and look great. 

Planted Three More Seedlings, But Replaced Two

Today we replaced Green Grape with Black Cherry and we replaced Miss Elliott Persimmon (not Persimmon) with two Miss Elliott Persimmon seedlings. Also, we planted Husky Cherry Red in one of the raised beds.

The planted and remaining seedlings have all been watered over the past two days.

You know what, I need to identify the raised beds. We have five raised beds. One uses redwood while the others use cinder block. I'll identify them by going east to west, north to south. The first east/west row has three beds, the second east/west row has two beds.

The first raised bed contains a volunteer. The second raised uses redwood and contains no tomato plants. The third raised bed has the volunteer that's growing like a weed. The fourth raised bed has the recently planted Husky Cherry Red. The fifth raised bed contains another tomato volunteer.

My wife put shade cloths against some of the back yard tomato cages. Some of the plants were beginning to wilt.

I dug into the container that held Rosella Purple last year (if memory serves, this tomato was mislabeled...), hoping to prove that we didn't need to worry about cutworms. After digging around, I found nearly a dozen cutworms, though none were adult sized. However, the point was made, we need to sift through the dirt.
 

Two Volunteers Found, One Seedling Replaced

The next day after the original planting two tomatoes got hit by cutworms -- Green Grape and Evan's Purple Pear. Green Grape was completely sheared off. Evan's Purple Pear was hit but I decided to keep it.

Yesterday Green Grape was replaced yesterday with another Green Grape.

Here's an image of our tomato seed trays...

My wife informed me of two volunteers -- one tomato plant in the southwest corner of our northwest raised bed (which looks fabulous) and another one in the "South Garden" (which looks okay).

By the way, if the tomato seedlings from seeds look like they are struggling, I have no trouble pulling them out and replacing them. They were old seeds, planted a bit late, and raised without a grow light. I'll give them about a month to show what they got. The two Pineapple Pig seedlings do not look promising so far.  

The 2014 Growing Season Has Started!

Today I planted one purchased seedling and 11 of our seedlings grown from seed.

In the ground are Stupice (purchased), Beauty King, Porkchop, Berkeley Tie Dye, Evan's Purple Pear, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Solar Flare, Persimmon (seeds from The Tomato Lady of Beverly Hills, not the more famously named Persimmon), Green Grape and Pineapple Pig.

I also planted two duplicates by mistake: Persimmon and Pineapple Pig. I meant to plant a second Persimmon but in the front yard. There's a good chance I'll still plant one there.

So 12 are in the ground and they look pretty good! All of them were planted in the "Far East" in the back yard.

The 2014 growing season has started!