Harvested Over 700 Husky Cherry Red(2) Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 37 Black Cherry(1), 24 SunGold, 18 Husky Cherry Red(2), 12 Snow White(2), 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Snow White(1), 6 Sweet Million, 5 Nyagous(1), 5 SunSugar, 4 Black and Brown Boar(2), 3 Black Cherry(2), 3 Speckled Roman(3), 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Sweet 100, 2 Indigo Apple(2), 2 Red Currant, 2 Neves Azorean Red (8.5 ounces), 2 Amazon Chocolate, Redfield Beauty, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Oaxacan Jewel (11 ounces), Crimson Cushion, Pineapple Pig, Yellow Furry Boar, Delicious, Omar's Lebanese (11 ounces), Ramapo, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red and Porkchop(2) for a total of 154 tomatoes.

Yesterday's high: 105.8. It was particularly warm at night, making it difficult to sleep.

My wife made sauce out of some of the tomatoes but other than that, not much happened. It's been so hot that other house items have backed up.

We've now harvested over 500 front yard tomatoes this month. Also, we've harvested over 700 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (715) and over 200 Snow White(2) tomatoes (205) this year. 

Harvested Over 200 SunSugar Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 25 SunGold, 20 Snow White(2), 14 Sweet 100, 8 Snow White(1), 8 Husky Cherry Red(1), 7 Black Cherry(2), 5 SunSugar, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 5 Black Cherry(1), 4 Sweet Baby Girl, 4 Nyagous(1), 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Speckled Roman(3), 2 Redfield Beauty, 2 Gypsy, 2 Ramapo, 2 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 2 Delicious, 2 Porkchop(1) (7 ounces, 7 ounces), Speckled Roman(1), Chinese Tea, Speckled Roman(2), Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, Red Currant, Oaxacan Pink, Creme Brulee, Garden Peach, Italian Heirloom (11 ounces), Indigo Apple(2) and Omar's Lebanese (11.5 ounces) for a total of 133 tomatoes.

And yesterday got up to 106.3 degrees. The blistering heat wave continues. This heat appears to be pushing Snow White tomatoes to maturity as well as keeping the SunGold numbers higher than I would expect.

My wife has been battling a cold and a possible sinus infection. A couple tomato recipients came by our house to pick up tomatoes as opposed to my wife driving to their residences to drop off tomatoes.

My wife pulled out Nyagous(2). Now Creme Brulee can also be pulled.

We've now harvested over 200 SunSugar tomatoes (202) and over 100 Sweet 100 tomatoes (107) this year. 

Harvested Over 2000 SunGold Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 106 SunGold, 33 Husky Cherry Red(1), 25 Black Cherry(1), 18 Husky Cherry Red(2), 15 Snow White(1), 13 Garden Peach, 8 Black and Brown Boar(2), 7 Indigo Rose, 6 Black Cherry(2), 6 Marmara, 5 Berkeley Tie Dye (7.5 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 5 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 4 Delicious (7 ounces, 14 ounces), 4 Pink Furry Boar (6 ounces), 4 Big Bite (6 ounces, 7 ounces, 7 ounces, 7 ounces), 4 Jaune Flamme(2), 4 Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg (6.5 ounces), 3 Snow White(2), 3 Sweet Baby Girl, 3 Black Krim(1) (9 ounces, 9 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Indigo Apple(2), 3 Creme Brulee (8 ounces), 3 Indigo Apple(1), 2 Jaune Flamme(1), 2 Red Boar(1), 2 Ramapo (8.5 ounces), 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Redfield Beauty, 2 Crimson Cushion, 2 Yellow Furry Boar, 2 Speckled Roman(3), 2 Gypsy, 2 Noire Charbonneuse(2) (6 ounces), 2 Purple Dog Creek (12.5 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Omar's Lebanese (10.5 ounces, 20 ounces), 2 Amazon Chocolate (6 ounces), 2 German Orange Strawberry (11.5 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 Black Krim(2) (11.5 ounces), 2 Thessaloniki, 2 Brad's Black Heart (9.5 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Matt's Wild Cherry, 2 Chinese Tea, Nyagous(1), Pierce's Pride(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Speckled Roman(2), Sweet Million, Sweet 100, Red Currant, Green Grape, Yellow Perfection, Big Zebra, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2), Pineapple(1) (7.5 ounces), Marianna's Peace (6 ounces), Persimmon (13.5 ounces), Earl of Edgecombe and SunSugar for a total of 340 tomatoes.

As mentioned previously, this number is artificially inflated due to the lack of a harvest yesterday. I still consider the high harvest number to be 303 for this year.

Outstanding tomatoes in this harvest include Persimmon (as always), German Orange Strawberry and Omar's Lebanese.

Again, I want to thank all that came to our tomato party on Saturday. We had a great time and hope you did as well. Thank you Irina and Bob for coming all the way from San Jose to join us!

We've now harvested over 2000 SunGold tomatoes (2041), over 600 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (617) and 100 Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes. Also, we've now harvested over 3500 back yard tomatoes in July (3538) and over 4000 tomatoes in the back yard this year (4136). 

Harvested Over 600 Husky Cherry Red(1) Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 60 SunGold, 42 Black Cherry(1), 26 Husky Cherry Red(1), 14 Husky Cherry Red(2), 7 Garden Peach, 6 Snow White(1), 6 Indigo Rose, 5 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 4 Black Krim(2) (8 ounces, 11 ounces), 4 SunSugar, 3 Black From Tula (6 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Thessaloniki, 3 Amana Orange (13 ounces, 11 ounces, 14.5 ounces), 3 Persimmon (21 ounces, 16.5 ounces, 13.5 ounces), 2 Pierce's Pride(1) (6 ounces, 10 ounces), 2 Oaxacan Pink (10.5 ounces, 11 ounces), 2 Black and Brown Boar(2), 2 Big Bite, 2 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 2 Japanese Black Trifele, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Red Currant, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Delicious (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Berkeley Tie Dye (11 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Italian Heirloom (12.5 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 2 Black and Brown Boar(1), 2 Yellow Perfection, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2), Porkchop(1) (16 ounces), Noire Charbonneuse(1), Indigo Apple(2), Redfield Beauty, Snow White(2), Green Grape, Speckled Roman(1), Speckled Roman(3), Yellow Furry Boar, Oaxacan Jewel (16 ounces), Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg (6 ounces), Nebraska Wedding (7 ounces), Red Boar(2), Omar's Lebanese (20 ounces) and Purple Dog Creek (8.5 ounces) for a total of 230 tomatoes.

Even though today's harvest has lower numbers than yesterday's, it's clearly a heavier harvest. There's plenty of beautiful large tomatoes today's harvest, including Omar's Lebanese, Persimmon, Oaxacan Jewel, Porkchop(1), Oaxacan Pink and Amana Orange. Today's harvest was a really nice one.

My wife pulled out Yellow Currant yesterday.

We've now harvested over 1700 SunGold tomaotes (1733) and over 600 Husky Cherry Red(1) tomatoes (623). Also, we've now harvested over 4500 tomatoes in July (4618). 

Harvested Gypsy, Paul Robeson, Omar's Lebanese and Amana Orange!

Today's harvest includes 87 SunGold, 21 Husky Cherry Red(1), 19 Husky Cherry Red(2), 11 SunSugar, 9 Black Cherry(1), 8 Jaune Flamme(1), 8 Yellow Perfection, 7 Yellow Currant, 6 Garden Peach, 5 Crimson Cushion (7 ounces, 6 ounces), 5 Pink Furry Boar, 5 Japanese Black Trifele, 5 Matt's Wild Cherry, 4 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 4 Green Grape, 4 Speckled Roman(3) (6 ounces), 3 Gypsy (new), 3 Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) (9.5 ounces, 6 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Noire Charbonneuse(1), 3 Snow White(1), 3 Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg (8 ounces, 8.5 ounces), 3 Carmello (6 ounces), 2 Red Currant, 2 Redfield Beauty, 2 Black and Brown Boar(2), 2 Speckled Roman(2), 2 Watermelon (8 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Black Krim(1) (6 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Pineapple Pig (19 ounces, 13.5 ounces), 2 Nyagous(1), 2 Indigo Apple(2), 2 Black Krim(2) (7 ounces, 7 ounces), Omar's Lebanese (new) (17.5 ounces), Paul Robeson (new), Amana Orange (new) (15 ounces), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1) (7.5 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel (9.5 ounces), Speckled Roman(1), Vorlon, Jaune Flamme(2), Indigo Apple(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (10 ounces), Black From Tula (8 ounces), Pineapple(1) (7 ounces), Thessaloniki (6 ounces), Noire Charbonneuse(2), Taxi and Indigo Rose for a total of 262 tomatoes.

One of the only disappointments in 2007 was Omar's Lebanese. From memory, our largest tomato off of that plant that year was 9 ounces. It didn't taste special at all. But the one we harvested today looks beautiful! The 2 Pineapple Pig tomatoes are exquisite and Amana Orange is quite attractive as well.

Do you know how silly it is to write that even though we harvested 87 SunGold tomatoes today we may finally be slowing down?

A Ramapo tomato is maturing. A Red Boar(2) was maturing but it had severe blossom end rot and was tossed yesterday.

We've harvested over 400 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (411) and 100 Yellow Perfection tomatoes (102)

We've now harvested over 3000 tomatoes in July (3147) and over 4000 tomatoes for the year (4011).
 

3 More Plants With Tomatoes; 2 More Plants With Maturing Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes SunGold, SunSugar and Red Currant for a total of 3 tomatoes.

I spent yesterday evening training the back yard tomatoes. This morning I did the front yard tomatoes.

More plants with tomatoes include Omar's Lebanese, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red and Paul Robeson.

Two more plants have maturing tomatoes. These are Sweet 100 and Sweet Million. 

How Does It Look For This Year?

Now that we're all the tomato seedlings are planted for the year (famous last words), how do I think they will do this year?

Here's some bullets that will indicate we will have a really good year:

1) Look back on our February 20 post of this year. Some of that compostible dirt was placed on our yellowing back yard grass, for lack of any other place to put it. The grass is completely green. A big heaping pile was placed in the "koi pond". Last year we didn't add soil and the soil level had noticeably dropped an inch or so.

There was so much soil we placed it everywhere, including the plantable area of back yard.

2) Based on the great results last year in the "Far East", I continued to dig deep holes there and in the backyard cutout. As a rough estimate, we pulled out about 350 pounds of rock and asphalt over the last five weeks or so from these two areas.

3) The plants look great. The only plant that looks like it may be struggling is Bloody Butcher.

4) The sweet peas and snap peas planted in the "koi pond" this last winter will add needed nitrogen to the soil.

And some bullets that indicate we'll have a mediocre year:

1) Sure we dug some deep holes in the back yard, but it took extra time. The seedlings got huge in their containers. Could they be root bound? Some plants looked to be at least 18 inches tall. That can't be good. Granted, all these seedlings are four to six inches above ground when planted, but we think planting tall seedlings isn't as "safe" as planting smaller seedlings.

2) Some of the larger seedlings had black spots on their leaves. One long seedling had a black bruising in the middle of the stem.

3) Lots of beefsteaks were planted somewhat late. If we hit 110 degrees in late June (like 2008) or early July, the flowers will sterilize and we'll end up with little to no harvest on these plants with longer maturation cycles.

The seedlings look great...but we say that every year. But they really do look great! We think the compostible dirt has really helped the garden overall. Not just the tomato seedlings but the back yard grass, the irises, roses, etc..

I suspect our count for the year won't be that high. As mentioned, we planted a lot of larger tomatoes this year. From memory: Giant Syrian, Omar's Lebanese, Big Zebra, Delicious, Big Bite, Amana Orange and Pineapple are a few of the plants that can produce tomatoes over one pound. We got over 2700 tomatoes from Matt's Wild Cherry last year in the "koi pond", but this year we planted it in a pot. We won't get 2700 tomatoes from this plant this year.

My guess: We're more dependent on the weather this year than on other years. I'm going to guess a total of 7000 tomatoes harvested this year. But we will harvest more pounds than last year.

I'm excited for this year's harvest! 

We're Finished Planting Tomatoes For This Year

On Friday my wife planted Indigo Apple(1), Porkchop(2), Black Krim(2), Paul Robeson, Vorlon(2), Jaune Flamme(2) and Chile Verde in the "koi pond". In the evening I made one hole and started another in an area I expected to have a lot of debris -- I wasn't disappointed. I left it unfinished.

On Saturday my wife planted Brown Berry in a pot and Snow White(2) in the south garden. I continued making holes throughout the day. I took out the largest piece of asphalt I've ever dug and completed that hole as well. My wife planted Neves Azorean Red, Marianna's Peace in the bad hole, a wilting Marmara, Gypsy, Amana Orange and Omar's Lebanese. We watered Marmara again, hoping it would come back. The plant showed signs of improvement later in the afternoon.

It was a long, sweaty day for both of us.

In the morning I checked out Marmara. It was a happy plant again!

Today I finished the holes in the "Far East", completing the work in the hard area of the back yard. My wife planted Black Cherry(2), Amazon Chocolate, Noire Charbonneuse(2) and Indigo Apple(2). We took a break and then dug out a small triangular area next to the post for the patio cover. Here we planted Italian Tree.

Before heading out for an early dinner, I took a look at the "koi pond" to see the new plants. Jaune Flamme(2) was wilting. We gave it some water and left for dinner.

When we came back, Jaune Flamme(2) had clearly improved, so we gave it some more water. Then we planted White Zebra in the "koi pond" and Pierce's Pride(2) in the "corner office".

We now think we're done planting tomatoes for 2012!

Making holes in the back yard has been exhausting. I've dragged through work a couple of times more than I would like and would like to work out again!

I need to add cages to the plants and clip the low hanging stems that are hitting the dirt, but that's trivially easy compared to digging holes with rock and asphalt.

Onward and upward! 

2007 Tomato -- Omar's Lebanese

An okay tomato, but it wasn't memorable for us.