Moved Some Compost

We got some compost delivered on Thursday.

I spent Thursday through Sunday moving the compost off the driveway. We needed the driveway to park our cars. I worked furiously and was wiped out by Sunday afternoon. Note, we don't have the compost in place, we just got it off the driveway.

I did manage to dig three holes Sunday afternoon. Two of them were in the southeast raised bed. Both holes were "rooty", I assume from the ponderosa pine tree. I was able to pull out a half of a brick from the second hole.

The one hole I dug in the back yard growing area had the bottom of a glass jar within the dirt.

There was no time this evening to do anything about the compost. I worked late and had other things to catch up on.

The plants we planted are doing well. But I need to find time to move the compost to where it's needed and of course, plant more tomatoes. 

Harvested Great White!

Today's harvest includes 17 Orange Paruche, 13 Sunchocola, 12 Matt's Wild Cherry, 7 SunGold, 6 Husky Cherry Red(1), 5 Indigo Rose, 5 Snow White, 4 Garden Peach(3), 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Black Cherry, 3 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Blue Beauty (6 ounces), 2 Stupice, 2 Beauty King, Great White (new, 13 ounces), Bloody Butcher, Indian Stripe, German Orange Strawberry (11.5 ounces), Blue Gold, Pineapple, Speckled Roman(2), Volunteer(4), Black Krim, Green Grape and Sugar Snack for a total of 97 tomatoes.

The Great White tomato was both a surprise and a beauty. Here's an image of it.

The harvested German Orange Strawberry tomato is another beauty.

For those not in our area, we are in the middle of a pretty big heat wave. Two days ago it got up to 101; yesterday it got up to 105.

My wife watered the front yard tomatoes last night. I gave another light spritzing of the back yard tomatoes in the ground this morning.

I started to pull out the cage around Garden Peach(3) in order to pull out the plant. But in so doing I saw one more immature tomato on the vine. When that matures this plant will be pulled.

We've now harvested exactly 350 SunGold tomatoes this year and exactly 300 SunGold tomatoes this July! 

Harvested Blue Beauty!

Today's harvest includes 52 Sunchocola, 41 Orange Paruche, 16 Matt's Wild Cherry, 12 SunGold, 5 Black Cherry, 4 Bloody Butcher, 4 Garden Peach(2), 4 Garden Peach(3), 4 Sugar Snack, 3 Earliana, 3 Jaune Flamme, 2 German Orange Strawberry (12.5 ounces), 2 Hungarian Heart, 2 Pineapple (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Snow White, Blue Beauty (new, 11.5 ounces), Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Yellow Perfection, Berkeley Tie Dye, Bread and Salt, Ananas Noire (8 ounces), Speckled Roman(2), Garden Peach(1), Husky Cherry Red(1) and Husky Cherry Red(2) for a total of 168 tomatoes.

Here's an image of the harvested Blue Beauty next to a quarter...

I'm not sure this image does this tomato justice. The burnt orange color on the underside is more vibrant than shown. The contrast with the blue streaking at the shoulders is striking.

We had our largest front yard total today (108). The Thursday sprinklers went off as planned but I didn't try to beat them this time. I harvested the front yard first, leaving the wet back yard for last. I'm sure I didn't hunt for tomatoes as diligently as I normally do (note the lack of Evan's Purple Pear today) as everything was wet.

A Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2) is maturing.

We've now harvested over 2000 tomatoes in July (2055)! 

Harvested Speckled Roman(1)!

Today's harvest includes 47 Orange Paruche, 33 Sunchocola, 19 Matt's Wild Cherry, 17 SunGold, 11 Sugar Snack, 7 Garden Peach(2), 4 Husky Cherry Red(2), 3 Berkeley Tie Dye, 3 Indigo Rose, 2 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 2 Adriana's Grande (11 ounces, 12.5 ounces), 2 Pineapple, 2 Evan's Purple Pear, 2 Black Cherry, 2 Garden Peach(1), Speckled Roman(1) (new), Bloody Butcher, Earl of Edgecombe, German Orange Strawberry (6 ounces), Earliana, Bread and Salt (6 ounces), Hungarian Heart, Snow White, Persimmon(1), Husky Cherry Red(1) and Garden Peach(3) for a total of 167 tomatoes.

I figured it was time for Speckled Roman(1) to have a growing tomato so I knelt down next to it. As I knelt I saw a maturing tomato. When I touched the tomato it fell right off into my hands. Sightwise it didn't seem quite ready but all other indicators said it was. So we have another new tomato harvested!

During the harvest I was telling myself that yesterday will probably be the high water mark for the year. But when I put in the numbers I was very surprised to see we had the same total as yesterday (167). Yesterday had larger tomatoes, however.

Afterwards, I pulled out Pierce's Pride and Brad's Black Heart. I noticed some SunGolds I should have harvested, but left them on the vine. So today's total could have been bigger than yesterday.

Scott: Here's the Green Zebra tag...

In general, I have better luck with the yellow tagged tomato seedlings at Tomatomania events. The seedlings from other growers act as if they've been more exposed to the elements. They tend to not grow has high nor flourish as much. For instance, I don't think I have a non-yellow tag this year whose plant five feet tall or more.

While I have several yellow tagged tomato plants over six feet tall, I've had some poor luck with yellow tagged brown heirloom tomatoes this year. Vorlon, Brad's Black Heart, Pierce's Pride and Black Seaman have all died early. And come to think of it, in general, I can't think of the last brown heirloom tomato that has gone bonkers in several years. Perhaps Black Krim or Black From Tula from a few years ago. Sunchocola has gone absolutely bonkers this year but that's a hybrid.

We've now grown over 1500 front yard tomatoes for the year (1524), over 1000 front yard tomatoes in July (1058) and over 200 SunGold tomatoes (211) this year! 

Harvested German Orange Strawberry and Black Krim!

Today's harvest includes 29 Sunchocola, 20 Orange Paruche, 14 SunGold, 11 Sugar Snack, 9 Matt's Wild Cherry, 3 Adriana's Grande (7.5 ounces, 11 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 3 Earl of Edgecombe (6 ounces), 3 Earliana, 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Garden Peach(3), 2 Indigo Apple, 2 Bloody Butcher, German Orange Strawberry (new, 13.5 ounces), Black Krim (new), Bread and Salt (7.5 ounces), Nyagous, Odoriko, Garden Peach(1), Green Grape, Husky Cherry Red(1), Berkeley Tie Dye and Michael Pollan for a total of 112 tomatoes.

Today is the largest harvest number so far, barely surpassing the 110 tomato harvest on July 3. The back yard tomatoes are coming in larger numbers. The back yard harvest for the last four days has been 21/29/42/47. The back yard harvest on July 3 was 12.

Today's harvest was pretty. We're getting larger tomatoes as we get later in to the season. The German Orange Strawberry was both a surprise and an absolute beauty. But don't disregard the three Adriana's Grande (the three larger red tomatoes in the image below) and the three Earl of Edgecombe (bright orange tomatoes in front that look yellowish in the image). Odoriko is the tomato to the right with the slight purplish tinge. Black Krim is the brown tomato in the back.

Last night we taste tested Earl of Edgecombe, Michael Pollan, Bread and Salt and Berkeley Tie Dye. All were quite good. Last night's Bread and Salt was the best one I've tasted of that variety. This indicates to me I may have been harvesting Bread and Salt a day too late. This Bread and Salt was firmer than others and that made a positive difference. Berkeley Tie Dye was delicious with a bit of acid at the end. The Michael Pollan tomato was the best tasting of that variety that she has ever had. Earl of Edgecombe was quite good as well.

Green Zebra and Golden Rave have maturing tomatoes. But it is clear that Green Zebra is a mislabel. There are no stripes in the tomato...

We've now harvested over 1000 tomatoes in the front yard (1022) this year! 

Harvested Husky Cherry Red(1)!

Today's harvest includes 23 Orange Paruche, 12 Sunchocola, 5 SunGold, 4 Husky Cherry Red(1) (new), 2 Matt's Wild Cherry, 2 Garden Peach, 2 Husky Cherry Red(2), 2 Sugar Snack, Yellow Perfection, Earliana, Bread and Salt (8.5 ounces), Jaune Flamme and Evan's Purple Pear for a total of 57 tomatoes.

Since I was kneeling near the Husky Cherry Red(2) tomato plant I poked around Husky Cherry Red(1). Not only was I surprised by mature Husky Cherry Red(1) tomatoes, all four could be a bit overripe. They're a beautiful deep crimson red but will be eaten sooner later than later.

My wife gave away most of Tuesday's harvest to a neighbor. She was appreciative.

We've now harvested over 200 Orange Paruche tomatoes (213)!

Today we had harvested more front yard tomatoes (38) than our highest harvest total for the year (36).

Here's a picture of me taken last night next to German Orange Strawberry. The plant is seven feet tall. In June.

 

The Scrub Jay Is Destroying Our Maturing Tomatoes In The Back Yard

Today's harvest includes 5 Orange Paruche, 2 Yellow Perfection (new) and Stupice for a total of 8 tomatoes.

Very late last night I remembered that Jaune Flamme had maturing tomatoes and I hadn't checked on them in the morning. I went out and looked...it looked like one of the maturing tomatoes was simply gone and the other one was 80 percent eaten away.

This morning I checked on Sugar Snack. 2 of them were mature and both of them were torn apart by birds.

All the bird damage is coming from the back yard.

Today's Stupice was a maturing tomato from the broken branch from a few days ago. The other tomatoes on the branch will not mature and will be thrown away.

My wife bought some more bird netting and other items designed to placate or scare away this evil scrub jay. However, we didn't have time to install any of it today.

Here's a picture of some of our harvested tomatoes over the past few days.

 

Bread And Salt, Sugar Snack Have Maturing Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 14 Orange Paruche and 3 Sunchocola for a total of 17 tomatoes.

I was a bit aggressive with the Orange Paruche harvest, making sure that the birds didn't first pick them off.

I took a look at SunGold and I could tell which tomato was lost to the scrub jay.

Solar Flare has a growing tomato. And Bread and Salt has a maturing tomato.

My wife watered the rest of the back yard tomatoes and noted that Sugar Snack has maturing tomatoes.

I forgot to mention that I cut away the yellowing branches on Pineapple Pig yesterday. Today I hand pulled out some of the dead and yellowing branches and leaves on Adriana's Grande.

Here's a picture of me next to Sunchocola.

There's a bit of an optical illusion with the potato bush against the house (they kind of merge together), but Sunchocola is as tall as me (and I'm a shade under six feet tall). Some of the top branches are taller than me. There are tomatoes all over this plant. IT'S ONLY JUNE 10!!!!!!! 

Koi Pond Image; Wanna watch the numbers?

Here's an image of our "koi pond", taken last Friday.

The closest plant to the right is Hungarian Heart. The closest to the left, Bread and Salt. And you can see there's a forest toward the back end of the "koi pond". Sunchocola is nearly 5 feet tall now.

Would you like to follow on line? I have an online spreadsheet of the upcoming harvest. If you have any sort of interest or curiosity, provide me an email address and I'll grant you view access to the spreadsheet. 

"Koi Pond" Image

Here's a picture of our "koi pond" in the front yard. I believe this was taken on Tuesday.

The first plant to the left is Sunchocola, with growing tomatoes. The first on the right is Yellow Perfection.

The plants are going crazy mostly because of the heat but the prep work with compost and the seedless hay is obviously helping... 

Stupice Image

Here's an image of Stupice. Every day I find two or more new growing tomatoes on the vines...

 

Friday's "Koi Pond" planting

Here's an image from Friday's "koi pond" planting. It might not show...but I'm really tired in this shot. This was after the Descanso Gardens TomatoMania preparation day, a full day in and of itself.

 

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.  

Harvested Black Cherry, Vorlon and Hungarian Heart!

Today's harvest includes 2 Black Cherry (new), Vorlon (15.5 ounces) (new), Hungarian Heart (new), Porkchop and Husky Cherry Red for a total of 6 tomatoes.

The Vorlon tomato was a thing of beauty, just short of a pound. That's pretty large for mid-June. The Black Cherry tomatoes were a pleasant surprise. They looked quite good as well.

Here is a picture of the harvest over the last two days. It's a modest harvest, but growing...

A Supersweet 100 tomato is maturing and will probably be picked tomorrow.

We tried the Vorlon tonight at dinner. I tried it, liked it, but my wife just loved it. She cut off another slice and she loooooved it. Later on I tried some more and I can see her point -- it got juicier and more delicious in a different part of the tomato. Great stuff!!! 

Grafted Tomato Plants In the South Garden

The grafted tomato plants in the "south garden" are doing particularly well. 

South Garden Grafted Tomatoes

Granted, plant size isn't the payoff window, it's the taste. But you can see there's a good, solid foundation to support a large harvest.

                                 

Does it look good to you?

                      



The last image makes it look like one long hedge.

These plants are Black and Brown Boar, Gold Medal, Michael Pollan, Jersey Giant, Shah/Mikado and Missouri Pink Love Apple. These grafted plants are awfully high for mid-June!

I Couldn't Remove The Rock. Planted Kentucky Beefsteak

This morning I only spent a few minutes on the rock left by last night's digging. No luck.

My wife was too busy to plant or prepare any tomatoes. So when I got home from work I continued working trying to get the rock out.

As you'll see I was unsuccessful.

You can see the shovel next to the rock or concrete structure that I simply could not remove. To the right is a one gallon container filled with rocks and asphalt. Laid out in front of the one gallon container are several asphalt pieces that couldn't fit into the container. On one hand it's good to get the rocks and asphalt out of the ground. But it's a pyrrhic victory. The area where this dreck was removed isn't much of a plantable area.

Here's a closeup of the rock:

We planted Kentucky Beefsteak just west of the rock and called it a night. 

Harvested Over 7500 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 32 SunGold, 12 Husky Cherry Red(2), 11 Snow White(2), 10 Black Cherry(1), 8 Snow White(1), 7 Redfield Beauty, 7 Husky Cherry Red(1), 4 Creme Brulee, 4 SunSugar, 3 Pink Furry Boar, 3 German Orange Strawberry (8 ounces, 9 ounces, 6.5 ounces), 3 Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, 3 Garden Peach, 3 Speckled Roman(3), 2 Nyagous(1), 2 White Zebra, 2 Red Boar(1), 2 Black Cherry(2), 2 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Pineapple Pig (7 ounces), 2 Indigo Apple(1), 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (6 ounces, 11.5 ounces), 2 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 2 Sweet Baby Girl, 2 Gypsy, 2 Sweet Million, 2 Ella's Pink Plum, 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Indigo Rose, Kellogg's Breakfast, Chinese Tea, Pierce's Pride(1), Noire Charbonneuse(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (7 ounces), Sweet 100, Red Currant, Brad's Black Heart (14 ounces), Black Krim(2), Black From Tula, Nebraska Wedding (8 ounces), Yellow Furry Boar, Black and Brown Boar(2), Delicious (8 ounces), Amazon Chocolate, Amana Orange (12 ounces), Indigo Apple(2), Earl of Edgecombe, Marmara, Ramapo, Red Boar(2) and Green Grape for a total of 162 tomatoes.

This is being written just after the tomato tasting party at Loteria Grill but I'll save that for tomorrow's post.

Yesterday my wife completed watering the back yard. She also made fig jam. However, she said she used the wrong pectin so it's more of a fig sauce/syrup than a jam.

In the evening we tried Aunt Ruby's German Green and it was delicious!

We've now harvested over 7500 tomatoes this year (7576) and we're still going strong. This could be a tremendous year. Also we've harvested over 650 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes (657) for the year. 

Harvested Over 400 Black Cherry(1) Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 23 SunGold, 18 Black Cherry(1), 10 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Sweet Baby Girl, 6 Snow White(1), 5 Black and Brown Boar(2), 5 Creme Brulee, 5 Husky Cherry Red(2), 4 Garden Peach, 3 SunSugar, 3 Snow White(2), 3 Black Cherry(2), 3 Pineapple(1) (12 ounces, 17 ounces, 13.5 ounces), 3 Speckled Roman(3) (6 ounces), 3 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 3 Sweet 100, 2 Big Zebra, 2 Indigo Apple(1), 2 Chinese Tea, 2 Gypsy, 2 Indigo Rose, 2 Ramapo, 2 Pineapple Pig (10 ounces), 2 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Berkeley Tie Dye, 2 Redfield Beauty, White Zebra, Vorlon (12 ounces), Black and Brown Boar(1), Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, Matt's Wild Cherry, Sweet Million, Red Currant, Yellow Perfection, Pink Furry Boar, Nebraska Wedding (9 ounces), Yellow Furry Boar, Purple Dog Creek (8 ounces), Italian Heirloom (6 ounces), Amazon Chocolate, Marianna's Peace (6.5 ounces), Indigo Apple(2) and Red Boar(1) for a total of 140 tomatoes.

My wife made 8 jars of tomato jelly yesterday. Also, she watered more of the back yard and pulled out Brown Berry. Here's an image of the tomato jelly jars:

The harvested Pineapple(1) tomatoes look really nice!

At dinner we tried Big Zebra. This was the 19 ounce tomato harvested last week. We both liked it a lot! Beautiful to look at, tasty, tangy and delicious, leaving a slight acid aftertaste.

We've now harvested over 4500 tomatoes in the back yard this year (4600). Also, we've now harvested over 400 Black Cherry(1) tomatoes (407), 150 Red Currant tomatoes, over 100 Sweet Baby Girl tomatoes (105) and over 50 Black and Brown Boar(2) tomatoes (54). 

Harvested Over 7000 Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 33 SunGold, 20 Black Cherry(1), 13 Husky Cherry Red(2), 10 Sweet Baby Girl, 9 Husky Cherry Red(1), 6 Snow White(2), 5 Snow White(1), 5 Garden Peach, 5 Noire Charbonneuse(2), 4 Porkchop(1), 4 Indigo Rose, 4 SunSugar, 4 Pink Furry Boar, 4 Black Cherry(2), 4 Black and Brown Boar(2), 3 Black Krim(2) (6 ounces), 3 Gypsy, 3 Ella's Pink Plum, 2 Red Currant, 2 Carmello, 2 Big Zebra (6 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Nyagous(2) (not Nyagous), 2 Ramapo, 2 Speckled Roman(3), 2 Yellow Furry Boar, 2 Indigo Apple(2), 2 Black and Brown Boar(1), 2 Jaune Flamme(2), 2 Purple Dog Creek (10 ounces, 11 ounces), 2 Berkeley Tie Dye (6 ounces), 2 Redfield Beauty, 2 Jaune Flamme(1), Nyagous(1), Pierce's Pride(1), Olga's Round Yellow Chicken Egg, Sweet Million, Marianna's Peace (12 ounces), Big Bite, Yellow Perfection, Marmara (6.5 ounces), Creme Brulee, Delicious (6 ounces), Amazon Chocolate, Earl of Edgecombe, Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red and Green Grape for a total of 181 tomatoes.

On Monday my wife watered the front yard tomatoes. Yesterday she got to some of the back yard tomatoes and pulled out Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2).

In the evening we tried a taste test between Brad's Black Heart and German Orange Strawberry. Going in we thought German Orange Strawberry would win because Brad's Black Heart was a little soft. Turns out the opposite occurred -- Brad's Black Heart was the clear winner. Brad's Black Heart was delicious, with a deep, complex, juicy and a bit winey tasting tomato. German Orange Strawberry wasn't quite ripe enough. And it "suffered" from a problem that sometimes occurs with larger heirlooms -- the maturity level varied within the tomato. Parts of the tomato were ready to eat and parts of it weren't quite there. We're big fans of German Orange Strawberry. It's just that parts of this particular tomato wasn't quite ready.

Here's a picture of the two tomatoes, with some crackers and round mozzarella cheese slices. The glare on the German Orange Strawberry slices makes it look a bit like egg yolks, but it's all tomato slices.

We've now harvested over 2100 SunGold tomatoes (2114) and over 7000 tomatoes (7133) this year! 

Lots of Tomatoes Around

Here's an image of some of our remaining uneaten, unprocessed tomatoes as of today. Enjoy!