Pulled Four More Back Yard Tomato Plants

And today's harvest includes 18 Snow White(2), Snow White(1), Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Black Krim, White Currant, a back yard Husky Cherry Red and Patio Princess for a total of 25 tomatoes.

My wife watered the front yard tomato plants yesterday.

Yesterday I turned the dirt in the “corner office”, preparing for a winter garden.

Today I took out four tomato plants in the back yard – Red Grape, Italian Ice, Turkish Striped Monastery and, sorry to say, Yellow Perfection was pulled as well.

I count 18 tomato plants still in the ground.

Harvested Over 900 Snow White(2) Tomatoes!

I didn't harvest on Saturday. The gardeners came and pulled out Silvery Fir Tree and Jaune Coeur de Pigeon for me.

Today's harvest includes 23 Snow White(2), 4 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Snow White(1), Italian Ice, Yellow Perfection, Green Zebra(2), Old Ivory Egg, Babywine and a front yard Husky Cherry Red for a total of 35 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 900 Snow White(2) tomatoes (921)! The harvest is picking up for this plant again and there's still plenty of blooms on the plant. Snow White(2) may continue producing tomatoes until the end of the year. It looks quite healthy.

Another plant that looks healthy is the back yard Husky Cherry Red. There's new growth and new growing tomatoes.

Italian Ice, Yellow Perfection and Turkish Striped Monastery can be pulled. I thought that Turkish Striped Monastery had tomatoes on it but on closer inspection they appear to be tied to Garden Peach.

No Back Yard Tomatoes Harvested Today

And today's harvest includes 14 Snow White(2), 2 Babywine, Mong and Silvery Fir Tree for a total of 18 tomatoes.

What's notable in today's harvest is there were no back yard tomatoes in the bunch. I found a ripened tomato on Green Zebra(1), but it had just enough of an open crack in it that I put it in our compost pile.

Originally I couldn't find any Snow White(2) tomatoes. But I looked in areas I normally don't look and kept finding two tomatoes here, two tomatoes there.

You have to trust me on this but it's actually a bit difficult to harvest from this plant. The plant is quite bushy. It's traveled up the chicken wire fence and completely down the same fence. So it's twice as thick in spots as compared to Snow White(1). And it's hard to move branches this late in the season without breaking them. There are areas that aren't as explored as others and I tapped that today with good success.

Italian Ice actually has one more tomato on it, so it will be spared. Yellow Perfection has a tomato ripening on the vine and when that is harvested, it will go. Silvery Fir Tree and Jaune Coeur de Pigeon are ready to be pulled.

Harvested Over 5500 Front Yard Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 5 Babywine, 3 Snow White(2), Yellow Perfection, Italian Ice, Red Grape, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Snow White(1), Mong (6 ounces) and Dr. Wyche's Yellow (8.5 ounces) for a total of 15 tomatoes.

In spite of an understandably small end of season harvest, we've now reached over 5500 harvested front yard tomatoes (5502)! The back yard harvest, now at 5287 tomatoes, will not reach 5500. Red Grape and Italian Ice can now be pulled, though my wife is arguing to keep Red Grape around.

What's surprising with today's harvest is to have two good looking tomatoes over 6 ounces so late in the season.

My wife told me about a caterpillar on White Currant, which I found and removed in the evening.

Back From An Out Of Town Conference

Today's harvest includes 6 Snow White(2), 5 Babywine, 5 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Old Ivory Egg, 2 Red Grape, Snow White(1), White Currant, Sweet 100, Italian Ice and Cuor de Bue for a total of 25 tomatoes.

I haven't harvested in a while because I was out of town at a conference. I got back in the late evening. Here's some random thoughts after being away for a while...

The fence surrounding the “koi pond” is being bent on the west side due to the weight of the tomato plants growing on it.

I'm surprised at the low count for the Snow White plants. It is what it is.

Snow White(2) has a bunch of brand new blooms. It is the healthiest remaining plant.

A caterpillar or two is eating the Mong tomato plant, but I couldn't find any this morning.

A lot of tomatoes had to be tossed due to cracking. That's an indication of a cold night following a hot day. The internals of the tomato heat up faster than the tomato can grow. This was disheartening for Old Ivory Egg. Four were harvested but two were cracked beyond usability. I kept two but my wife may toss them.

There's at least four tomato plants in the back yard that can be pulled. Cour de Bue, Pierce's Pride, Turkish Striped Monastery and Amazon Chocolate can go.

The ground is still damp in both the front and back yards. That's an indication we must have had quite a storm last Tuesday/Wednesday.

These conferences wear me out. I need more sleep.

We've now harvested 250 Sweet 100 tomatoes.

Harvested 100 Turkish Striped Monastery Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 10 Snow White(2), 9 Snow White(1), Black Krim, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Italian Ice, Garden Peach and Turkish Striped Monastery for a total of 24 tomatoes.

Our harvest total has fallen for the seventh day in a row – but this drop is simply a heat wave causing a harvest bump followed by a cold spell causing a harvest drop. When the weather warms and the Snow White harvest settles down, our harvest should become steady again.

Turkish Striped Monastery has now reached 100 harvested tomatoes! I'm happy about that – I like this tomato.

Today's low was 43.5 degrees, still cold. But the cold snap should be over!

We have a maturing tomato on our Volunteer/Old Ivory Egg! The tomato should be ready tomorrow or Saturday. I'll keep an eye on it.

Where Did The Summer Go?

And today's harvest includes 17 Snow White(2), 9 Snow White(1), Babywine, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Garden Peach, Green Zebra(2), White Zebra, Sweet 100, Italian Ice, White Currant and a back yard Husky Cherry Red for a total of 35 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 1300 Snow White(1) tomatoes (1304)!

Also, we've harvested exactly 10,500 tomatoes for the year.

Where did the summer go? Yesterday's low was 44.8 degrees at Pierce College. Yesterday's high was 67.8. Today's low was 42.9 degrees!

The cool evenings are the reason our harvest numbers have fallen dramatically. That's okay, it was going to happen eventually. However, if it warms up again, don't be surprised if the numbers start to rise again. There's still a fair amount of tomatoes on both the Snow White plants.

Because yesterday was so temperate during the day, my wife and I did a lot of gardening. A patch of soil in the back yard was turned and prepared for planting. A bunch of winter crops were planted in that space. In the front yard a rosemary was pulled out, a rose was transplanted, another plant was pulled out and a lantana took the space.

The garage was cleaned and rearranged by my wife. We took out our air conditioning unit in the bedroom and put it away. Hey, where did the day go?

On Saturday my wife and I were in the front yard. I mentioned to her that several mature Black Krim tomatoes were partially eaten and had to be thrown away – there's probably a caterpillar somewhere. After about 20 seconds of searching...hey, there it is! Hopefully that problem is now resolved.

My wife watered the back yard tomato plants while I was preparing the winter vegetable garden.

Front Yard Harvest Passes The Back Yard Harvest

Today's harvest includes 44 Snow White(2), 16 Snow White(1), 3 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 White Zebra, 2 Red Grape, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Garden Peach, Babywine, Italian Ice, Yellow Perfection and a good looking Dr. Wyche's Yellow for a total of 75 tomatoes.

The front yard harvest total has caught up and passed the back yard harvest total!

There was a time a couple months ago where the front yard harvest total had passed the back yard total. Then Yellow Perfection and Black Cherry kicked in and the gap between the back yard harvest total ahead of the front yard harvest total got to about 350 tomatoes.

Due to the strength of the two Snow White plants over the last week or so, that gap has closed completely. The front yard harvest is ahead of the back yard harvest 5252 – 5213.

I fertilized and watered the back yard container tomato plants.

Back Yard Paul Robeson Plant Pulled

Today's harvest includes 52 Snow White(2), 18 Snow White(1), 5 Italian Ice, 3 Red Grape, 3 Babywine, 3 Garden Peach, 2 White Zebra, 2 Dr. Wyche's Yellow, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Black Cherry, Yellow Perfection , Sweet 100, Green Zebra(2) and Husky Gold for a total of 96 tomatoes.

My wife finished watering the front yard yesterday.

I was supposed to water the container plants earlier today – but I forgot. Perhaps later this afternoon. I'll fertilize these plants as well.

Snow White(1) will be the highest harvesting plant of 2009. It just passed Red Currant for the number 1 position (1279 to 1278 tomatoes).

Snow White(2) has reached over 700 harvested tomatoes (715)!

After today's harvest I pulled out the Paul Robeson tomato plant. We really like Paul Robeson!

The Snow White Harvest Haul Continues...

And today's harvest includes 59 Snow White(2), 25 Snow White(1), 4 Italian Ice, 3 Red Grape, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Garden Peach, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Green Zebra(2), 2 White Currant, 2 White Zebra, 2 back yard Husky Cherry Red, Babywine, Sweet 100, Cuor de Bue, Green Zebra(1) and Jaune Coeur de Pigeon for a total of 110 tomatoes.

It looks like Snow White(1) harvest totals will pass Red Currant and will be the plant with the highest harvest for 2009.

The weather got much cooler a few days ago, warming up a bit yesterday. It will get quite cooler over the weekend. I've noticed that Garden Peach has some new growth and some new blooms – it will get another small spurt even though it is spindly.

With a couple more harvest days like the last two, we'll make it to 11,000 tomatoes harvested for the year. But we're getting ahead of ourselves...

My wife watered some of the front yard yesterday.

Paul Robeson may be the next plant pulled and after all the tomatoes are harvested off of Yellow Perfection, it may go as well. The back yard Mexico has been out of the running for quite some time but to take it out means getting torn apart by the nearby rose plant with 10 – 12 foot branches.

Harvested Over 5000 Front Yard Tomatoes This Year!

Today's harvest includes 66 Snow White(2), 24 Snow White(1), 6 Yellow Perfection, 5 Babywine, 3 Red Grape, 3 White Currant, 2 Italian Ice, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Black Cherry, Plum Tigris, Paul Robeson, White Zebra and Cour de Bue for a total of 115 tomatoes.

Wow, harvesting over 100 tomatoes on an October day. Amazing!

We've now harvested over 5000 front yard tomatoes (5026)! The front yard totals are quickly catching up to the back yard totals. The gap grew to around 350 tomatoes in September, now it's down to 132.

We've now harvested over 600 Snow White(2) tomatoes (604).

Harvested Over 10,000 Tomatoes For The Year!

And today's harvest includes 54 Snow White(2), 6 Snow White(1), 4 Italian Ice, 3 Red Grape, 3 Sweet 100, 3 Paul Robeson, 2 Yellow Perfection, Mong, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Babywine, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Green Zebra(1), Green Zebra(2), White Zebra, White Currant and Plum Tigris for a total of 84 tomatoes.

We've now harvested over 10,000 tomatoes for the year (10,069)! It's been a very good year. It's going strong again, especially considering how late in the year it is.

I pulled out five tomato plants last night. From the front yard, Marz Round Green, Vintage Wine and the last Oaxacan Jewel were thrown in the trash can. In the back yard, Tiger Paw and Japanese Black Trifele were placed in the compost pile.

We've now harvested over 500 Snow White(2) tomatoes. 538 have been harvested so far, of which 335 were harvested for the month of September.

Speaking of September, we ended up harvesting a total of 1933 tomatoes for the month. The original estimate was 700, then a second estimate placed at 1625 tomatoes. An incredible month. Putting it in perspective, two years ago we stopped counting at 10,990 tomatoes harvested. In September 2007 we harvested 647 tomatoes. In other words, there's no precedent for such a rich September harvest!

What are my predictions for October? Easy. I don't have a clue.

My wife did some watering in the back yard yesterday.

What a Wacky Harvest This Month!

Today's harvest includes 67 Snow White(2), 6 Snow White(1), 6 White Currant, 5 Red Grape, 3 Green Zebra(2), 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Babywine, 2 Husky Cherry Red, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Patio Princess, 2 Plum Tigris, 2 Black Cherry, Green Grape, Oaxacan Jewel, Italian Ice, Green Zebra(1), Paul Robeson, Garden Peach and Cuor de Bue for a total of 110 tomatoes.

Those numbers for Snow White(2) are accurate. I can only explain it this way: We recently had a big heat wave, which really helps tomatoes to mature (and blooms to sterilize). And a batch of Snow White(2) started to mature just as the heat wave ended. Other plants simply didn't have enough tomatoes on them, having been harvested during the prior heat wave a few weeks prior.

Three days ago we harvested 21 tomatoes. Today we harvest 67 Snow White(2), 110 tomatoes overall. This date, last month, the harvest was 41 tomatoes. It continues to be a wacky harvest month. Unpredictable.

But here's a prediction I think will stick – we'll reach 10,000 harvested tomatoes tomorrow! We're only 15 tomatoes away from that total.

We've now harvested over 1000 back yard tomatoes for the month of September (1006)! Also, we've harvested exactly 150 Italian Ice and 150 back yard Paul Robeson tomatoes.

What a wild ride this has been!

Harvested 1200 Snow White(1) Tomatoes!

And today's harvest includes 32 Snow White(2), 4 Black Cherry, 3 White Currant, 2 Yellow Perfection, 2 Sweet 100, 2 Snow White(1), Black Krim, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Oaxacan Jewel, Babywine, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Italian Ice, Red Grape, Green Zebra(1), Paul Robeson and Turkish Striped Monastery for a total of 55 tomatoes.

We've now harvested 1200 Snow White(1) tomatoes! Also, we've now harvested over 400 Snow White(2) tomatoes (417).

A while back (September 14 blog post, to be specific) I indicated it wouldn't surprise me to end up with over 400 tomatoes for Snow White (2). Now I'll say it wouldn't surprise me to end up with over 600 tomatoes from this plant before it's all over.

...which also means we would reach 10,000 harvested tomatoes just based on the Snow White(2) plant. And we still have 35 plants or so.

I found another caterpillar on Babywine this morning. My wife indicated that she found a caterpillar on White Currant last Saturday.

The Heat Wave Continues...

Today's harvest includes 6 Snow White(2), 6 Black Cherry, 5 Snow White(1), 3 Green Zebra(1), 2 White Currant, 2 Babywine, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, Vintage Wine, Black Krim, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, Red Grape, Italian Ice, Paul Robeson, Tiger Paw and Cuor de Bue for a total of 34 tomatoes.

Yesterday it got up to 102 degrees again.

Again, I couldn't find any Black Cherry tomatoes to harvest. I remembered leaving one behind yesterday, thinking that tomato needed another day. So I looked for it. I found it and based on this new angle, found another “stash” of Black Cherry tomatoes. In spite of the reasonable harvest numbers for Black Cherry, we're running out of tomatoes. However, the plant has new growth and seems that if the weather were to become more temperate, new blooms would appear.

My wife watered a part of the front yard.

I see enough tomatoes on the vines to reach 10,000 tomatoes harvested for the year. Barring a surprise, we'll make it to that level.

Harvest Totals Fall Again...

Today's harvest includes 7 Snow White(1), 6 Snow White(2), 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Babywine, Vintage Wine, Garden Peach, White Currant, Italian Ice, Sweet 100, Black From Tula, Black Cherry, Yellow Perfection, Turkish Striped Monastery and Cuor de Bue for a total of 27 tomatoes.

The harvest totals have dropped for a sixth day in a row, dropping to less than half of the harvest total six days ago.

The front yard harvest has been greater than the back yard harvest twice over the last three days. This is due to the strength of the two Snow White tomato plants.

A month or so ago, the front yard harvest totals passed the back yard harvest totals. After that, the back yard totals went up due to the strength of Black Cherry, Yellow Perfection and the back yard Husky Cherry Red. The back yard totals got ahead by over 300 tomatoes compared to the front yard tomatoes.

If we reach 10,000 tomatoes (and we're 401 tomatoes away) it will be due to the strength of the two Snow White plants. The 300+ harvest gap will start to narrow, but by how much? The more it narrows, the bigger our harvest.

Sweet 100 is getting a second wind and is looking quite healthy.

My wife watered the back yard tomato plants on Saturday.

Most of our day was spent with our friends Liz and Ricardo at the Los Angeles County Fair. Not only did we have a lot of fun, but my wife ran into some old neighbors that she hasn't seen in decades.

Harvest Totals Fall For Fifth Day In A Row

Today's harvest includes 7 Snow White(1), 4 Babywine, 4 White Currant, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Oaxacan Jewel(1), 2 Silvery Fir Tree, 2 Black Cherry, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, Black Krim, Snow White(2), Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Garden Peach, Cuor de Bue, Plum Tigris, Sweet 100, Italian Ice and White Zebra for a total of 38 tomatoes.

The harvest totals have fallen for the fifth day in a row and it wouldn't surprise me to continue falling. There just isn't that many tomatoes to harvest!

After the harvest I pulled out Speckled Roman, German Orange Strawberry and Oaxacan Jewel(2).

We've now doubled the original harvest estimate of 700 tomatoes (1436). I'll readjust the estimate now to 1625 tomatoes for the month.

I watered a portion of the front yard today, but not the tomato plants.

Reached 4500 Harvested Back Yard Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 41 Black Cherry, 18 Babywine, 15 Yellow Perfection, 8 Snow White(2), 6 Oaxacan Jewel(2), 6 Snow White(1), 4 Garden Peach(2), 4 Dr. Wyche's Yellow (7 ounces, 13 ounces, 6 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 4 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 3 Black From Tula, 3 Plum Tigris, 2 German Orange Strawberry, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Orange Blossom, Garden Peach(1), White Zebra, White Currant, Sweet 100, Husky Gold, Italian Ice, Japanese Black Trifele, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Vintage Wine and Red Currant for a total of 128 tomatoes!

Well, I don't know what to write that hasn't already been written about this heat wave harvest bump. But I'll try...

Now we have gone over 4 times the harvest amount than just seven days ago. On September 2 we harvested 31 tomatoes.

My original harvest estimate for September 2009 was 700 tomatoes. As of today, we've harvested 699 tomatoes for the month.

I had concerns when I made that estimate that we wouldn't reach 9000 tomatoes for the year. 10,000 harvested tomatoes was out of the question. Now 9000 harvested tomatoes for the year will happen (at this pace, it will happen in two days!) and the magic 10,000 mark is now an outside possibility.

We will have a drop off. I guarantee that. But every time I write it in this blog, I harvest more the next day.

The weather has settled down. Yesterday was quite pleasant and even had a touch of crispness in the air. Fall?

We've reached over 4500 harvested back yard tomatoes for the year (4527)!

Today's harvested Dr. Wyche's Yellow look great!

Found The First Caterpillar Of The Year

Today's harvest includes 14 Black Cherry, 9 Snow White(1), 7 Babywine, 7 Snow White(2), 7 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 5 Yellow Perfection, 5 Sweet 100, 3 Garden Peach(2), 3 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 Vintage Wine, 2 Tiger Paw, Jaune Flamme, Red Currant, Oaxacan Jewel(2), Dr. Wyche's Yellow (10.5 ounces), Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, SunSugar, Italian Ice, German Orange Strawberry, Plum Tigris and Mexico (12.5 ounces) for a total of 76 tomatoes.

I found our first caterpillar of the season! If was about an inch an a quarter long on the White Currant tomato plant. I gave it to our Manchester Terrier to play with.

Yesterday it got up to 102 again at Pierce College.

My guess is that the increased harvest totals are due to the hot temperatures this past week. If that's true we'll have a severe slide in the harvest total in a couple weeks, if not sooner.

Harvested Over 4000 Front Yard Tomatoes!

Today's harvest includes 5 Snow White(1), 4 Red Grape, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Snow White(2), 3 Black Cherry, 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 White Zebra, 2 Sweet 100, 2 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Italian Ice, 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 Red Currant, Orange Blossom, Mexico (18 ounces), Babywine, a front yard Husky Cherry Red and Oaxacan Jewel(2) for a total of 37 tomatoes.

My wife and I spent most of our afternoon in Thousand Oaks. That got us away from the bad air in the west San Fernando Valley (due to the fires), off to an early dinner in Newbury Park and then to a soccer game in Thousand Oaks where a cousin's daughter was playing soccer. They lost 2-1 and she got red carded. Oh well.

We've now harvested over 4000 tomatoes in the front yard this year! Earlier this month, we had harvested more front yard tomatoes than back yard tomatoes. But the harvest on the two Snow White plants dropped significantly and the back yard harvest total took over once again (4013 – 4093).

This is the first time the air was bad in the morning. The fires must be spreading.