Five More Tomatoes Harvested; Two Plants With New Tomatoes

In the evening my wife harvested 3 Sweet Olive and 2 Sweet 100 tomatoes.

I did some training in the afternoon and discovered that Berkeley Tie Dye has a tomato! The plant was as least four feet tall and thick and I was mildly surprised I hadn't found a tomato yet. Yesterday it was found and now I know why – like Polish Pastel of last year, the first tomato spotted was near the top of the cage and not the bottom.

Then I went to the front yard and noted the Husky Cherry Red has a tomato. After the training I went into the back yard to check on the Husky Cherry Red in the back yard. No tomato there, though that plant is taller.

It looks like some of the tomatoes on Husky Gold may be darkening (maturing).

This morning there was a light drizzle. This may become a broken record but this will really help the tomato plants. The plants will get pounded in the summer sun but for now they're being nurtured by nature. It's not so much the water (which is minimal) it's being allowed to grow buds (and hopefully, tomatoes) without getting pounded by the sun. You want the sun to do come out when there are plenty of tomatoes on the vines.

Back From Vacation

Today's harvest: Nothing.

On Saturday, however, I did get to harvest 2 Aker's Plums, 2 Piccolos and Evan's Italian Plum.

On Sunday, I harvested Prairie Fire and Evan's Italian Plum.

Yesterday, my wife took out Kimberly and Polish Pastel. Unfortunately, while cleaning up the roses in the front yard she also decided to cut a wayward branch on Old Ivory Egg. Trouble was, this branch had a half dozen tomatoes on it.

Twelve Tomatoes, Ten Caterpillars

Today's haul includes 3 Salisaw Cafes, 2 Evan's Italian Plums, Stupice, Old Ivory Egg, Italian Market Wonder, Black Plum Paste, a tiny Polish Pastel, Carbon and Piccolo.

Forgot to mention in the last post: Micro Tom was pulled on Wednesday.

Last evening I taped up several plants, including Thessaloniki, which needed lots of tape. The taping exposed the caterpillars that I suspected were on the plant. From that evening, night and this morning I believe I found three adult caterpillars and a couple small caterpillars on Thessaloniki alone, a couple on Evan's Italian Plum and several others for a total of around 10 caterpillars.

I need to get some more of the thin tomato tape.

We've had mild weather this past week. I'm seeing blooms on tomato plants that I haven't seen in about a month.

Salisaw Cafe is ahead of Piccolo again for second place (313 – 312).

I've had requests to post more pictures on this blog. Unfortunately at this time of the year, the tomato plants aren't very picturesque at all.

There won't be any weekend updates to this blog. My wife and I will be leaving tonight to go to the Carmel TomatoFest. The next update will be Monday (our first wedding anniversary!).

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

Today's haul included 6 Piccolos, 4 Stupices, Polish Pastel, Painted Ukrainian (6 ounces), Carbon, Black Plum Paste, Evan's Italian Plum (6 ounces), Cherokee Chocolate, Pierce's Pride (8.5 ounces), Italian Market Wonder and Olga's Round Yellow Chicken.

Yesterday we pulled out Blue Fruit to make more room for the winter tomatoes.

I turned the dirt in the “Corner Office”, mixed in some planting mix and turned again. My wife and I planned on planting four tomatoes here, but only planted two. It simply got too hot to do more gardening. The ones planted were Glacier and Patio.

On Saturday, my wife did a lot of gardening. Included in the gardening was moving some of the tomato container plants in the back yard. She watered the front yard and when I came back from my appointments, I watered the back yard. Yesterday I moved to last two containers into the back yard.

This morning I got up early and planted a third tomato plant in the “Corner Office”, Siberia. Another cold weather tomato planted on a day that will get over 100 degrees (yesterday got up to 104 here).

I took off the blooms on Siberia and Glacier to encourage root growth. However, Glacier already had two tomatoes on it! I discussed this with my wife and we decided to leave the tomatoes on the vine.

As predicted earlier, today was the first day I only picked Piccolo for the front yard tomatoes. I still consider the containers moved to the back yard to be front yard tomatoes. Also, I picked off a full sized caterpillar on Thessaloniki.

Yesterday we spent most of the afternoon and evening celebrating my wife's birthday at Downtown Disney, at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen. We've never been disappointed going there and had another fun time with family and friends.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

Removed Eight Tomato Plants Yesterday

Today's harvest includes 8 Piccolos, 4 Italian Market Wonders, 3 Stupice, Old Ivory Egg, Big Rainbow, Pierce's Pride (10 ounces), Evan's Italian Plum, Black Plum Paste, Arkansas Traveler, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken, Kellogg's Breakfast, Salisaw Cafe, Polish Pastel and Zhezha (back yard).

The slightly larger harvest was due to the fact I didn't pick on Saturday. I was out the door by 7AM and not back until 4PM or so, so I decided not to harvest.

However there was still news: 8 tomato plants were pulled by the gardener. 6 in the front and 2 in the back. The pulled ones were Aunt Ruby's German Green, Chocolate Stripes, Husky Cherry Red, Snow White Cherry, Garden Peach, Gregori's Altai, Jeff Davis and White Bush.

I saw damage to Green Grape and after about two minutes found a caterpillar on it. I got rid of it. Also, I spotted another tomato growing on the vines.

We reached the estimated harvest of 900 tomatoes today.

On another somewhat odd note, I found the shell of two grasshopper skins in a couple of the front yard tomato plants, one Old Ivory Egg. The grasshoppers molted while sitting in the plant.

Petering Out...

Today's harvest includes 6 Black Plum Pastes, 5 Cherokee Chocolates, 4 Piccolos, 2 Green Grapes, 2 Kimberlys, 2 Kellogg's Breakfast (one 7.5 ounces), Black Cherry, Prairie Fire, Stupice and Polish Pastel.

I got the front yard watered last night. I was going to work out but the gym after work but the gym was packed. I think it's the Olympics effect – people are getting their workouts in before the Olympics come on the air.

The tomatoes are slowly petering out, especially the front yard. In the near future we'll have days where the only plant harvested in the front yard is Piccolo. Speaking of which, we're closing in on 3000 tomatoes in the front yard, but it may be several weeks before we reach the mark.

Piccolo Getting a Second Wind

And today's haul includes 10 Piccolos, 4 Black Plum Pastes, 3 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Stupices, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, Kellogg's Breakfast, Polish Pastel, Micro Tom, Evan's Italian Plum (8.5 ounces), Painted Ukrainian (9 ounces), Blue Fruit and Jaune Flamme.

Both Piccolo and to a lesser degree Micro Tom are getting a second wind. Before yesterday, the prior harvest day for Micro Tom was July 2.

The Manchester Terrier picked off another tomato of unknown origin.

My wife found a caterpillar on Blue Fruit.

It looks like a half dozen tomato plants will be pulled in the front yard next Saturday.

Reached 4000 Tomatoes Today!

And our harvest today includes 5 Piccolos, 4 Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Salisaw Cafes, 2 Black Plum Pastes, Stupice, Evan's Italian Plum, Green Grape, Micro Tom, Polish Pastel (6 ounces), Italian Market Wonder, Jaune Flamme, Black Krim, Gregori's Altai, and a gorgeous Painted Ukrainian (16.5 ounces).

Today we reached 4000 tomatoes for the year! This pales compared to last year's numbers but we trudge on nonetheless.

We visited a farm in Fillmore that had an open house. This farm grows tomatoes for the Encino Farmer's Market (and other Farmer's Markets). Wow, what an education! They had a very scientific method to their watering and growing of their tomatoes. I'm not joking when I say that some of the tomato vines were 20 and 30 feet long. Again, no joke. Playing on an old joke, they've forgotten more about tomatoes than I'm ever going to know. We came away with a lot of good ideas for next year's tomatoes!

Our Manchester Terrier knocked off a good sized Kellogg's Breakfast and an Evan's Italian Plum, ruining them both.

Here Come The Kellogg's Breakfast Tomatoes!

And today's haul includes 6 Piccolos, 6 Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes (7 ounces, 6 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Black Plum Pastes, 2 Arkansas Travelers, 2 Polish Pastels, Salisaw Cafe, Stupice, Sioux, Aker's Plum, Evan's Italian Plum, Gregori's Altai, Snow White and Painted Ukrainian (8 ounces).

I finished watering the front yard and completely watered the back yard last night.

We found a new spot where the Manchester Terrier dropped his picked tomato. On his bed in the bedroom. It looked like an Aker's Plum.

I did a little tomato taping this morning.

My wife tried Painted Ukrainian. She found it good, but saltier than other tomatoes.

Also, I did find a few unripe tomatoes on the Kimberly tomato plant.

My wife is currently making tomato sauce, some from today's tomatoes. Yum!!!

Behind On Watering...

And today's harvest has 5 Stupices, 4 Piccolos, 3 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Kellogg's Breakfast, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Evan's Italian Plums, 3 Arkansas Travelers, 2 Jaune Flammes, 2 Olga's Round Yellow Chickens, 2 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 more beautiful Painted Ukrainians (7 ounces, 8 ounces), 2 Black Plum Pastes, Blue Fruit, Gregori's Altai, Black Krim (front yard, 6 ounces), Pierce's Pride (6 ounces) and Polish Pastel.

I didn't get to any more watering. We're behind, simple as that.

I forgot to mention that we finally tried Big Rainbow. We didn't like it.

The Kimberly plant is a bit odd...the plant is as green as ever, very little or no browning of leaves but there are simply no tomatoes on it that I see, let alone ripe ones.

The Manchester Terrier picked off another tiny Evan's Italian Plum.

Harvested Kellogg's Breakfast Today!

Today's harvest includes 7 Salisaw Cafes, 6 Stupices, 3 Jaune Flammes, 2 beautiful Painted Ukrainians (6.5 ounces and 14 ounces), Aker's Plum, Green Grape, Italian Market Wonder, Cherokee Chocolate, Polish Pastel, Piccolo, Blue Fruit, Black Plum Paste, Carbon, Sioux, Zhezha (back yard), Arkansas Traveler, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken and a new one: Kellogg's Breakfast! (8 ounces)

I don't know if I mentioned this previously, but there was a Painted Ukrainian at the recent tomato tasting. It looked like our Painted Ukrainians and similar to Mr. Stripey.

I watered part of the front yard yesterday but missed almost all the tomato plants.

At lunch, I bought four tomato plants for winter harvesting. From memory they were Oregon Spring, Jetsetter, Siberia and I forget the fourth. They and the other two tomato plants received a slight watering but they all need to be planted somewhere.

We picked only six tomatoes in the front yard today.

Our Manchester Terrier picked off an Evan's Italian Plum but didn't do any visible damage to it.

The Harvest Is Dwindling...

And today's harvest includes 8 Stupice, 4 Blue Fruit, 4 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Painted Ukrainians (8 ounces, 11 ounces), 3 Polish Pastels, 2 Evan's Italian Plums, 2 Black Krims (front yard, 11 ounces), 2 Piccolos, Cherokee Chocolate, Arkansas Traveler, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Green Grape, Black From Tula, Jaune Flamme, Carbon and Sioux.

I completed the watering in the back yard, staked several plants and taped a lot of them. I'm pretty much caught up with the tomato maintenance but it's time to water again.

Forgot to mention, we passed the 1000 mark in harvested back yard tomatoes yesterday.

Our harvest totals are dwindling and that's to be expected. I expect that to continue as I've picked the last tomato for several plants. The harvest numbers for the last five days are 58-58-46-39-36.

Earlier, I had predicted to harvest 900 tomatoes in August. We're now at 653 for the month. It looks like will do better than 900 for the month, but the original number looks like a very good estimate. We'll see.

How'd It Get So Brown?

Sunday's harvest included 15 Stupices, 12 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Lime Green Salads (back yard), 2 Cherokee Chocolates, 2 Polish Pastels (one 6 ounces), 2 Black Krims (front yard, 6 ounces and 6 ounces), 2 Thessalonikis, 2 Gregori's Altai, 2 Black Krims (back yard, one 7.5 ounces), 2 Evan's Italian Plums (one 7 ounces), 2 Aker's Plums, 2 Black Plum Pastes, Carbon, Big Rainbow, Green Grape, Blue Fruit, Husky Cherry Red, Lime Green Salad (from the “koi pond”), Pierce's Pride (12.5 ounces), Italian Market Wonder, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken and Arkansas Traveler.

On Saturday night we met with the officiant from our wedding and his wife, who was one of the bridesmaids, for dinner last night. We got caught up with what's going on in their lives at a Korean BBQ restaurant. It's always great to meet up with them!

The combination of all the tomatoes in the morning and the Korean food in the evening made for a sleepless night for me.

The Manchester Terrier is getting into the backyard Zhezhas now.

Our front yard plants have been getting more and more brown, but today it all of a sudden looked as if most of the plants should be pulled. I mentioned this to my wife, who had the same thought -- “How'd it get so brown so fast?”

Staked, Taped and Watered

And today's haul includes 11 Salisaw Cafes, 10 Stupice, 4 Kimberlys, 3 Black Krim (back yard, 7 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Zhezhas (back yard), 2 Pierce's Prides (10 ounces, 8.5 ounces), 2 Evan's Italian Plum (6 ounces), 2 Blue Fruit (6 ounces), 2 Piccolos, Jaune Flamme, Zhezha (front yard), Gregori's Altai, Green Grape, Paul Robeson, Black From Tula, Snow White, White Bush, Red Currant, Chocolate Stripes, Black Krim (front yard, 10 ounces), Sioux, Black Plum Paste and Polish Pastel.

Last night I tomato taped as much as I could until the tape ran out. Also, I staked several plants with some of the remaining stakes.

Our Manchester Terrier grabbed one of the back yard Zhezhas but we were able to save it in time.

I watered the back yard last night.

The back yard Black Krims and Pierce's Pride look quite nice.

I don't see the blooms on Yellow Brandywine – Platfoot Strain any more.

Harvested Evan's Italian Plum Today!

And today's harvest includes 16 Salisaw Cafes, 7 Stupice, 5 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Zhezhas (back yard), 3 Snow Whites, 3 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 Lime Green Salads (from the “koi pond”), 2 Piccolos, Aker's Plum, Black Plum Paste, Kimberly, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Black From Tula, Paul Robeson, Black Krim (front yard, 6 ounces), Polish Pastel, Green Grape, Black Krim (back yard), Lime Green Salad (back yard) and a new one: Evan's Italian Plum (9 ounces)!

Last night I took another look at the Lime Green Salad next to the curb, the plant that got munched by the trash can falling on it. Turns out it had been completely uprooted and was no good anymore. I threw it away.

My wife watered the front yard yesterday.

I picked a ripening Thessaloniki today but it was another damaged one. Sigh.

I need to do some tomato taping this evening and water the back yard, time permitting.

Today I had a first: While looking at Black Plum Paste, I noticed a caterpillar on it! My first caterpillar of the year.

I've noticed what looks like caterpillar damage and remains, especially on Salisaw Cafe. I've thrown out around 30 partially eaten tomatoes on the plant and I've seen signs of what looks like caterpillar poop on this plant and others, but I haven't seen any leaves being eaten. Since I've seen one today I'll look more closely at the other plants.

Tried Polish Pastel -- Quite Enjoyable!

Today's haul includes 6 Paul Robesons (one 9 ounces), 6 Stupice, 4 Black Plum Pastes, 4 Salisaw Cafes, a very nice looking Black Krim (8.5 ounces, front yard), Kimberly, Chocolate Stripes, Cherokee Chocolate, Piccolo and Green Grape.

The tomato totals dropped off dramatically today, only 26.

A Painted Ukrainian continues to mature. Right now it looks a bit like Red Yellow Cap – quite yellowish with some faint reddish markings – but the mature tomato should be pinkish. Fortunately, it's in a position on the plant that is impossible for our Manchester Terrier to pick off.

We tried Polish Pastel last night and liked it a lot. It has a complex taste, but quite enjoyable.

San Jose Friends Visited...

And today's mighty haul includes 23 Piccolos, 8 Salisaw Cafes, 6 Paul Robesons (sigh, the birds got to two of them), 4 Stupice, 3 Green Grapes, 3 Thessalonikis, 2 Kimberlys, 2 Old Ivory Eggs, 2 Cherokee Chocolates, 2 Polish Pastels, 2 Black Plum Pastes, 2 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 Red Currants, 2 Black Krims (back yard, one a beautiful 12 ounce tomato), 2 Sioux, 2 Carbons (one 8 ounces), Aker's Plum, Italian Market Wonder, Zhezha (back yard), Lime Green Salad (from the “koi pond”), Black Cherry, Pierce's Pride (9 ounces, very nice), Red Yellow Cap (16 ounces, really nice looking) and White Bush.

Our friends from San Jose visited us and we had dinner in the evening. My wife made a typically great meal and a good time was had by all.

We ended up with 1629 tomatoes for the month, slightly surpassing last month's totals of 1538 tomatoes.

Harvested Polish Pastel Today!

And today's haul includes 18 Piccolos, 7 Salisaw Cafes, 6 Green Grapes, 4 Black Plum Pastes, 3 Paul Robesons, 3 Black Cherries, 2 Kimberlys, 2 Lime Green Salads (from the “koi pond”), 2 Red Currants, 2 Husky Cherry Reds, Stupice, a nice looking 7 ounce Blue Fruit, Red Robin, Zhezha (front yard), Jaune Flamme, Italian Market Wonder, Thessaloniki, Black From Tula (6 ounces), Red Yellow Cap (7 ounces), Gregori's Altai, Garden Peach and a new tomato – 2 Polish Pastels!

One of the Polish Pastels was a beautiful looking 10 ounce tomato. It was hidden behind one of the wooden stake supports. Had I noticed it yesterday I would have picked it then.

We finally got around to eating Arkansas Traveler. It's a meaty tomato and we all liked the taste. Also I should mention that we tried Old Ivory Egg a few days ago. We liked it as well - a softer, gentler taste, clearly good for sauces.

I'm having second thoughts about keeping Red Currant around. There are still tiny tomatoes on the plant but they're getting mealy and not lasting very long. I'll keep it around past this weekend but it may be removed a week from Saturday unless I see a change. Nevertheless this has been a wonderful plant and we've been very happy with it.

We just surpassed last month's harvest totals. We'll end up with about 1600 tomatoes harvested for the month of July. Last year, 6154 tomatoes. Quite a difference.

Today we had visitors watch me pick the tomato harvest and “talk tomatoes”. More on that later. Also, today is the last day for our on line wedding pictures to be displayed. We had such a great time at our wedding – what a blast!!! Today is the day (I believe) our friends from Florida have their first day living in SoCal again. And a friend of ours from San Jose and her son are driving down to stay in Westwood for five days. There's a lot happening!

Salisaw Cafe Harvested; Polish Pastel Has A Tomato!

Tonight I picked 53 Red Currants, 10 Husky Cherry Reds, 3 Salisaw Cafes, a Jaune Flamme, Prairie Fire and White Bush tomatoes. This is our first harvest for Salisaw Cafe. After dinner we tried one, and we both liked it.

I'm very happy to report that Polish Pastel has a tomato on it!

There's a relatively small Big Rainbow tomato that's changing color.

With 17 tomatoes picked over the last two days, Husky Cherry Red appears to be ramping up a bit.

Picking tonight's Red Currant tomatoes was a bit of a chore. All the other tomatoes are larger and easier to pick. Somehow this is related to the fact that I'm now picking tomatoes in both the front and back yards.

First Jaune Flamme Harvested!

After work I came home and harvested. 39 Red Currants and 3 Green Grape tomatoes.

At some time I'll move the harvesting to the morning but for now I can handle it in the evening.

I fed the dogs (we have four of them this week). I took some tomato tape and went in the back yard. There were a lot of branches growing near the ground that needed to be picked up.

I used a lot of tomato tape on Stupice. The tomato cage for this plant is too small. Branches have grown over the top of the cage and are bent over due to a lack of support. I used tomato tape to “girdle” all the branches together, then taped individual branches to each other. It's a bit ugly but they're not bent over. Also I taped up the ones dragging on the ground.

Then I went to Polish Pastel. There were several branches dragging on the ground. I fixed them. It appears that Polish Pastel is the most affected by the current heat wave (108 degrees at Pierce College). The plant itself looks great – it rivals Black Krim in size, color and thickness, though a few of the ends of the branches have permanently wilted. The trouble is that most of the blooms have died. Simply put, it's too hot for fruit to set. This tomato plant is too healthy not to get more blooms and hopefully, tomatoes.

So I went to the front yard and did the same thing. I put tomato tape on one of the plants while looking over to Jaune Flamme. Hey, there's a mature tomato on it! I barely touched it and it came off. It was ready. A pleasant surprise!

Update: After dinner, I brought my wife over to a ripe Prairie Fire tomato. My wife decided to pick it.