USA Today -- Tomato lovers sound off on heirlooms vs. hybrids

http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2010-06-15-tomatoes14_ST_N.htm

Harvested Lyn's Mahogany Garnet and Taxi!

Today's harvest includes 4 White Currants, 2 Red Currant(1), 2 Lyn's Mahogany Garnets (new), 2 Stupice, Black Cherry, SunGold, Sweet Tangerine and Taxi (new) for a total of 14 tomatoes.

My wife weighed today's haul. The weight was 14.5 ounces.

Lyn's Mahogany Garnet wasn't a surprise. I forgot to add it to the list of maturing tomatoes. Now we can add Sweet 100 and SunSugar to the list of ripening tomatoes.

We spent most of last night putting in our air conditioner in the bedroom. It took us a while but we got it accomplished.

I spent a little time “training” during the harvest this morning but mostly taped up wayward branches.

Harvest Numbers Climbing...

My wife watered the entire back yard on Friday.

Saturday's harvest: SunGold (new), Violet Jasper and Nyagous (new) for a total of 3 tomatoes.

My mother in law came up on Saturday. We showed her the front and back yard garden. While showing her the back yard tomatoes, I noticed a ripe and possibly overripe Nyagous. She peeled it and ate it right then and there – loved it! There was a second on maturing but it had blossom end rot. We picked it and put it in the compost pile.

While my wife and her mother went to the movies I watered the entire front yard. I added stakes to a couple of the front yard plants for support.

At dinner we did some tomato tasting with what few tomatoes we had. Most were okay but my wife did not like Violet Jasper. I was okay with it but so far it's pretty but the taste is not memorable.

Sunday's harvest: 2 SunGold, Black Cherry, Violet Jasper, White Currant and Jaune Flamme(1) (new) for a total of 6 tomatoes.

All the Sunday tomatoes were given to our mother in law.

We spent the afternoon at the Dodger-Angel game and in the evening saw Henry Rollins at the Largo, treated by Liz and Ricardo. A full day of fun!

Monday's harvest: 3 White Currants, 2 Violet Jasper, Stupice, Red Currant(2), Red Cherry (new), Principe Borghese (new) and Sweet Tangerine (7 ounces, new) for a total of 10 tomatoes.

A Taxi tomato is maturing and looks like it will be ready for harvest tomorrow. Another Jaune Flamme(1) is maturing.

Front Yard Volunteer is Snow White

Today's harvest: Patio, Violet Jasper, Black Cherry, Red Currant(2) and the front yard Volunteer (Snow White) for a total of 5 tomatoes.

My wife purchased a bird netting and wrapped it around Stupice to keep the birds away. She also noticed that Black Cherry had a couple of tomatoes that were ripening, one of which we picked today.

The front yard volunteer had a ripening tomato as well. It looks like Snow White. I've adjusted the two documents to reflect this identification.

There's a ripening tomato on Jaune Flamme(1) and perhaps Sweet Tangerine as well.

The above picture is from our “koi pond”, looking southward.

Backyard Volunteer Is White Currant

Today's harvest: 2 Stupice, Violet Jasper, Volunteer(1) (White Currant).

Unfortunately, the birds got to the Stupice tomatoes again. We put them in the compost pile.

In the evening I did a bit of training but spent most of the time looking for hidden, ripening tomatoes. I found a ripening tomato on Volunteer(1) (though it wasn't so hidden). I harvested it this morning and it looks exactly like White Currant. The distance between where it was grown last year and this year is something on the order of 50 feet. I don't know how the seeds got there but we're happy it germinated! I've updated my on line documents.

A tomato in one of our containers is maturing. I believe it is Red Cherry.

Birds Peck At Today's Harvest

Today's harvest: 2 Stupice, Patio.

Unfortunately, the Stupice tomatoes were not edible – they were pecked open by birds. To counteract that, we moved our front yard birdbath to it's previous location near the “corner office”. (Side note: This type of damage to tomatoes is from the birds wanting the water within the tomato, not the tomato itself.)

My wife set up a fish emulsion drip system using our used half gallon plastic milk carton on Depp's Pink Firefly. All the previous plants looked great after this fish emulsion treatment.

I did some more “training” and some tomato taping. I know it's a broken record but on the whole the tomato plants look great.

Harvested Violet Jasper

Today's harvest: 2 Stupice, Violet Jasper.

As if on cue, I noticed tomatoes on Paul Robeson and Aunt Ruby's German Green(2). Now all the plants in the ground (as opposed to in containers) have tomatoes on them.

The Violet Jasper tomato plant looks great. It has at least 200 tomatoes on it already. It will clearly be a heavy tomato producer. I hope the tomatoes taste good!

I forgot to mention that over the weekend my wife was emptying out a pot. That's no big deal. But she found cutworms in the dirt. So she carefully sifted through the dirt and found more cutworms. And more cutworms. By the time she was through sorting through the dirt she threw away an astonishing 29 cutworms.

My wife will add fertilizer to Depp's Pink Firefly. Most of the buds are shriveling and the plant is not looking as good as it was a few weeks ago. We hope the fertilizer will help turn it back around.

We have more Violet Jaspers and Stupices ripening as well as Patio.

The Tomatoes Are Growing Like Weeds...

The weekend was hot – but not as hot as originally forecast. That's good news for our tomato plants. It didn't get hot enough to sterilize the tomato blooms.

And the plants are growing like mad. You can see the difference just over the past several days.

Friday evening I completed the watering of the front yard.

Some time on Saturday my wife completed the watering of the back yard. No harvest, though several plants had ripening tomatoes. Large Pink Anna and Poma Amoris Minora Lutea had new tomatoes on them.

Sunday we harvested Red Currant(1). I did my normal “training”, as I do most every day (especially now with the tomato plants growing at a faster pace). We installed a couple more lattices on our back yard patio cover. This will provide extra shade for the house and for some of the container plants.

My wife and I toured the back yard tomato plants in the ground. In general – they look fabulous.

This morning I harvested Red Currant(1) and Yellow Perfection. Persimmon has a tomato on it.

The list of plants without tomatoes is dwindling. There's only two tomato plants in the ground (as opposed to in containers) without tomatoes. In the front yard, Aunt Ruby's German Green(2) doesn't have a tomato on it. In the back yard, Paul Robeson does not have a tomato on it. Both plants look healthy, have blooms and are growing so I'm not concerned about it.

My wife clearly identified one of the seedlings as Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe. Since Ildi has been pulled, I'll swap Ildi with Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe in the spreadsheet and in the back yard tomato document.

Harvested 2 Red Currants

Today's harvest: 2 Red Currant(1).

Yesterday my wife watered most of the back yard, including about half of the tomato plants. Yesterday evening I watered portions of the front yard, but the only tomato watered was SunSugar.

This morning I watered all the other tomato plants in the front yard.

I noticed that a couple of Stupice tomatoes are ripening. In the back yard I noticed that a tomato on Red Currant(1) was ripening and hey! There's two ripe ones!

The above image is the south side of our Yellow Perfection tomato plant. As you see, it's doing quite well.

Heat Wave Coming...

I spent another half hour or so training and taping the tomato plants this morning.

I noted that Aunt Ruby's German Green(1) in the “koi pond” has a tomato on it.

Our seed lady informed us that her Ildi died as well, under similar circumstances. Perhaps the wind got it...who knows.

We're going to have a heat wave in the west San Fernando Valley. It should be hovering around 100 degrees for four days starting Sunday. That's too hot for the tomato buds to germinate – they get sterile at that temperature.

My wife was watering as much of the back yard as she could in anticipation of this heat wave. That's also why I've been doing more “training” than usual.