Pulled Five Tomato Plants

Today's harvest includes 2 Piccolos, 2 Old Ivory Eggs and Evan's Italian Plum.

My wife noted last night that our Manchester Terrier has gotten thinner. I've noticed how a lot of the smaller tomatoes are disappearing, such as Stupice, Salisaw Cafe and Italian Market Wonder. I remember tomatoes on all of these plants and suddenly there are few or none.

I also found three caterpillars, one on Pierce's Pride, one on Salisaw Cafe and one on Green Grape. None were full sized.

We also had several tomato plants pulled this morning. Gone are Jaune Flamme, Yellow Brandywine – Platfoot Strain (which means we got zero tomatoes from this plant), Black From Tula, Zhezha (back yard) and the Zhezha in the container.

Reached 1000 Harvested Tomatoes For The Month

Today's harvest included 4 Piccolos, 3 Black Plum Pastes, 2 Cherokee Chocolates, Evan's Italian Plum, Zhezha (back yard) and Salisaw Cafe.

In spite of the consistent harvest over the last couple of weeks for Piccolo, it's starting to lose steam.

The gardeners came late on Saturday, so we never saw them. So the tomato plants that were to be pulled, weren't. We still have one more to plant.

We brought many of the remaining tomatoes down to our mother in law. We had a pleasant time with them.

We reached 1000 tomatoes for the month on the last day of the month.

Kimberly Is Coming Back...

Saturday's harvest included 4 Piccolos, 2 Kimberlys, Cherokee Chocolate, Italian Market Wonder, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken, Zhezha (back yard) and Stupice.

I did a couple of minor repairs to a couple tomato plants in the morning. Later in the afternoon, we brought some of these and other tomatoes to our seed lady.

Planted Two More Winter Tomatoes

Today's harvest includes 4 Piccolos, 2 Stupice, Old Ivory Egg, Lime Green Salad (back yard), Golden Jubilee, Salisaw Cafe and Zhezha (back yard).

I got two more winter tomatoes planted, Husky Cherry Red and Jetsetter. We have one more tomato to plant.

My wife and I discussed which tomato plants will be taken out by the gardener on Saturday. Big Rainbow and Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter will be gone.

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.

LA Fox User Group Loves Tomatoes!

Today's harvested tomatoes include 3 Black Plum Pastes, 3 Piccolos, Salisaw Cafe, Evan's Italian Plum, Zhezha (back yard), Golden Jubilee, Cherokee Chocolate and Micro Tom. That's all!

Last night I brought a bunch of tomatoes to our computer user group. There were no tomatoes to bring back! I got home around midnight.

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.

Kellogg's Breakfast Is Ripening!

The harvest for today includes 10 Salisaw Cafes, 7 Stupice, 3 Blue Fruit (6 ounces and 6 ounces), 3 Zhezhas (back yard), 2 Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifters, 2 Jaune Flammes, 2 Black Krims (back yard, 8 ounces, 8.5 ounces), 2 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 Piccolos, 2 Thessalonikis, Old Ivory Egg, Black Krim (front yard, 6 ounces), Cherokee Chocolate, Carbon, Arkansas Traveler, Prairie Fire, Snow White, Black From Tula, Golden Jubilee, Pierce's Pride (8 ounces) and Black Plum Paste.

Last night we visited our friends back from Florida. The have a really cute house in the San Gabriel Valley. We went out for dinner and the time just flew by. We dropped off tomatoes for them as well as our dinner friends from Saturday night.

A Kellogg's Breakfast tomato is maturing...

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.

Harvested Painted Ukrainian Today!

Today's harvest includes 8 Salisaw Cafes, 8 Stupice, 6 Black Plum Pastes, 4 Kimberlys, 3 Green Grapes, 2 Husky Cherry Reds, 2 Old Ivory Eggs, 2 Paul Robesons, Piccolo, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Garden Peach, Snow White, Lime Green Salad (from the “koi pond”), Lime Green Salad (back yard), Black From Tula, Zhezha (back yard), Cherokee Chocolate, White Bush, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken, Arkansas Traveler and a new one: a beautiful 13 ounce Painted Ukrainian!

While picking in the front yard, I looked over some of the damage. There was a Red Yellow Cap tomato left, but it too was damaged beyond repair. A couple of Snow White tomatoes had broken, too.

Our Manchester Terrier had picked off two tomatoes of unknown origin. A different tomato that he picked off last week is ripening...but we can't tell what plant it came from.

It looks like we lost between 11 and 12 pounds of tomatoes yesterday.

My wife took a look at the Painted Ukrainian and said “It looks like Mr. Stripey!”. Later on I looked at it and I'll be – it really does look like Mr. Stripey. Do we have another mislabeling?

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!

Neighbor's Daughter Likes Our Tomatoes...

And today's harvest includes 11 Black Plum Pastes, 10 Piccolos, 6 Cherokee Chocolates, 4 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Stupice, 3 Husky Cherry Reds, 3 Red Currants, 3 Green Grapes, Jaune Flamme, Old Ivory Egg, Kimberly, a nice looking 9 ounces Pierce's Pride, White Bush and Zhezha (back yard).

My wife watered the front yard and I watered the back yard. While I was watering the back yard, I noticed a ripe Polish Pastel. It was a bit hidden and near the top of the plant, at the highest rung of the cage. I picked it but discovered that it had so much blossom end rot as to be unusable. So I didn't count it. Looking at the plant this morning I noticed that there are several tomatoes ripening on this plant. A couple of Carbons are maturing. Let's hope our Manchester Terrier doesn't knock off the Carbon tomatoes anymore.

Speaking of which, the Manchester Terrier left us another present – he picked another ripening Aker's Plum and deposited it near our back door.

While my wife was watering the front yard, the neighbor's mother and 20 ½ month old daughter came over to visit. Apparently, the daughter picked off a couple of green (unripe) Husky Cherry Reds and ate them! Apparently the skins were too much for her (and who could blame her) but she liked the insides. Later on I brought her in and fed her a ripe Piccolo tomato. She's a good eater!

Harvested Chocolate Stripes and Pierce's Pride!

And today's haul includes 13 Piccolos, 11 Salisaw Cafes, 10 Red Currants, 8 Black Plum Pastes, 7 Cherokee Chocolates, 5 Green Grapes, 4 back yard Black Krims (11.5 ounces, 7.5 ounces, 7 ounces, 10 ounces), 3 Gregori's Altai, 2 Stupice, Zhezha, Jaune Flamme, Kimberly, Sioux and two new tomatoes – a 10 ounce Pierce's Pride and a 7.5 ounce Chocolate Stripes!

Yesterday I put a thick stake into Black Krim but the plant still leaned. It needed more support. With the help of my wife we used two pieces of twine tied to the large stake and metal posts into the ground. This should keep it supported.

Other tomato plants were supported and staked such as Aker's Plum.

Today's totals might be a bit high as I harvested at 2 PM. The totals for tomorrow may be a bit low.

Chocolate Stripes looked great...until I turned it around. Darn it, the birds got it! I weighed it and my wife cut away a generous portion. The tomato looks beautiful on the inside. The birds got to one of the mature Black Plum Pastes as well.

I'm really happy with the harvested Black Krims, Pierce's Pride and the remaining Chocolate Stripes. They're great looking dark tomatoes!

A Polish Pastel may be maturing, but it appears to be maturing unevenly.

Harvested Old Ivory Egg Today!

And today's haul includes 9 Salisaw Cafes, 8 Black Plum Pastes, 7 Piccolos, 6 Husky Cherry Reds, 6 Red Currants 5 Stupice, 3 Kimberlys, 2 Prairie Fires, 2 Cherokee Chocolates, 2 Green Grapes, a beautiful 10 ounce Sioux, Zhezha (back yard), White Bush, Lime Green Salad (from the “koi pond”), Thessaloniki and a new tomato – 2 Old Ivory Eggs!

I had thought the Old Ivory Egg tomatoes weren't progressing very fast. From a distance I didn't see much of a difference. Fortunately I looked up close this morning and two of them were clearly ready, a soft yellow color.

Our Manchester Terrier is at it again. He picked a four ounce unripe tomato yesterday evening. Later on I went outside to throw something in the trash. I heard rustling behind me but didn't pay attention as I didn't have a flashlight. When I came back the Manchester Terrier had a ripening Aker's Plum on his blanket. I immediately tied him up. Yesterday morning I thought I saw two ripening Aker's Plum tomatoes on the vine, now there are none. In other words, he may have picked and eaten one along with the other two I spotted.

I watered all the tomato plants and added worm castings to all the container plants that are growing tomatoes.

The Red Currant plant is completely brown. My wife asked me if it's okay to pull it out of the ground. I still want it around as I think it'll get a second wind.

Harvested Front Yard Black Krim!

And today's harvest includes 12 Piccolos, 8 Red Currants (raising the total to over 1900 for the year), 7 Salisaw Cafes, 6 Stupice, 6 Black Plum Pastes, 3 Cherokee Chocolates, 2 Green Grapes, 2 Black Cherries, 2 Sioux (one 6 ounces), 2 Paul Robesons (9 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 2 Lime Green Salads (from the “koi pond”), 2 Kimberlys, Red Robin, Zhezha (back yard), White Bush, Italian Market Wonder, Black Krim (11 ounces, back yard), Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter, Red Yellow Cap (10 ounces), Black From Tula, Husky Cherry Red and a new one – a front yard Black Krim (7.5 ounces)!

There's a tomato on Chocolate Stripes that's maturing. I took another look at Old Ivory Egg and the two ripening tomatoes don't look all that different than two days ago.

I met with a friend of mine for dinner last night and gave him a bunch of our tomatoes. He was very grateful for them.

Our Manchester Terrier didn't eat breakfast this morning. For this dog it's a big deal. It means he's probably munching on our tomatoes again...

Harvested Aker's Plum!

The harvest picked up today. 14 Red Currants, 11 Black Plum Pastes, 7 Cherokee Chocolates, 7 Green Grapes, 6 Husky Cherry Reds, 6 Salisaw Cafes, 6 Stupice, 6 Piccolos, 4 Sioux (one 7 ounces), 4 Kimberlys, 2 Lime Green Salads (from the “koi pond”), Black Cherry, Arkansas Traveler, Black Krim (back yard, 9 ounces), Prairie Fire, Zhezha (front yard) and a new one, Aker's Plum!

The Aker's Plum was deemed ripe enough to make the harvest pile. And yes, I'll wash it well before eating it or handing it out elsewhere.

In the front yard, Black Krim and Old Ivory Egg tomatoes are ripening. I thought Micro Tom was done, but it has new tomatoes on it.

Today I harvested as many tomatoes (79) as I had in the last two days. The back yard total was 42, the highest it has ever been. The back yard totals have been larger than the front yard totals for 4 of the last 5 days.

Also, this is our highest harvest total since July 1. On July 1 we harvested 98 tomatoes, 78 of them Red Currants.

Harvested Back Yard Black Krim and Zhezha!

This morning's harvest includes 10 Cherokee Chocolates, 6 Black Plum Pastes, 6 Red Currants, 4 Piccolos, 4 Salisaw Cafes, 3 Kimberlys, 2 Green Grapes, Stupice, Prairie Fire, Black From Tula (6 ounces), Thessaloniki (6 ounces), Husky Cherry Red, Lime Green Salad, Red Robin and two new ones – Black Krim (back yard) and Zhezha (back yard)!

Again out back yard numbers are higher than the front yard numbers – 26 to 18.

Thessaloniki had pulled to the west during the day, so I staked it up against a long thin green pole. In the morning I noticed that one of the main stems had broken. This is probably due to the initial leaning and not due to my repair work.

I have to say that I'm still surprised at these low harvest numbers.

I had to rescue our poodle when I got home last night. He has a bad habit of trying to chew through his collar and yesterday it cost him. He had tried to chew through the leather collar and couldn't do it. Meanwhile, he had the collar with the metal clasp and id tag in his mouth for several hours. The sides of his jaw and parts of his gums were worn. It took me about five minutes to maneuver the metal out of his mouth and then remove it.

Last night I noticed our Manchester Terrier showing an interest in the ripening Aker's Plum. I shooed him away. Later on, my wife had caught him with the Aker's Plum next to him on the grass – he had filched it. Fortunately he didn't break the skin so it is still good and sitting on a plate to continue ripening.

This morning I caught him sticking his nose in Pierce's Pride. I immediately tied him up.

Because of last night's incident, I picked the back yard Zhezha about a day earlier than I would have liked. As you may remember, I almost lost the back yard Zhezha plant in April. It has come back to life but is only a couple feet tall, within easy reach of our Manchester Terrier. The harvested Black Krim was ready.

Also last night, our feral cat in the front yard was jumping around when we came home after dinner and errands (new collar for the poodle!). Turns out he had caught a mouse and was playing with it. The mouse got away for a bit when we accidentally distracted the cat, but not far enough away. Our neighbor across the street came out and was talking to us when we heard CRACK! -- no more live mouse. Both my wife and I chuckled a bit as we knew what it meant but our neighbor was too far away to hear. She came by, saw the cat tearing up the mouse and, well, she didn't hang around very long.

Still No Tomatoes On The Last Two Plants

Today's harvest includes 10 Piccolos, 7 Red Currants, 6 Salisaw Cafes, 4 Cherokee Chocolates, 3 Zhezhas (front yard container), 3 Black Plum Pastes, 3 Stupice, 2 Lime Green Salad tomatoes (from the plant near the street), 2 Green Grapes, 2 Thessalonikis, White Bush, Italian Market Wonder, Prairie Fire, Big Rainbow, Red Yellow Cap (10 ounces), Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter and Gregori's Altai.

I used some bug spray for a couple of the tomato plants per my wife's suggestion.

I bought some thin green plant stakes from Green Thumb and used them to support Evan's Italian Plum, Polish Pastel, Big Rainbow and White Bush. I did a bit of tomato taping as well.

We have three new tomatoes starting to ripen – Aker's Plum, Black Krim (back yard) and Zhezha (back yard).

Unfortunately, Jeff Davis and Yellow Brandywine – Platfoot Strain still show no signs of any tomatoes on their vines.