Reached 1000 Harvested Tomatoes For September

And today's harvest includes 14 Black Cherry, 13 Snow White(2), 12 Yellow Perfection, 7 Babywine, 5 Snow White(1), 4 Oaxacan Jewel(2), 4 Japanese Black Trifele, 3 Orange Blossom, 3 Paul Robeson, 3 White Currant, 3 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Silvery Fir Tree, 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 Garden Peach(2), Plum Tigris, Red Currant, Jaune Flamme, Garden Peach(1), Vintage Wine, a front yard Husky Cherry Red, Husky Gold, Sweet 100, German Orange Strawberry and Pierce's Pride for a total of 87 tomatoes.

Fulfilling a promise yesterday, I pulled out the front yard Speckled Roman, Jaune Flamme, Red Currant, Garden Peach(1) and Orange Blossom.

Yesterday my wife went to a worm composting class with our friend Liz. I was going to come but I had some new consulting work.

My wife came back with the worm compost materials and a bag of worms, plus a bale of hay. I'm not sure what the hay is for, but what the hey! We assembled it and we have our own worm composter as a complement to our regular compost bin made last week. The pulled tomato plants went in to the regular compost pile.

We've reached over 1000 harvested tomatoes for September (1082)! Again, I have no update to the original estimate of 700 tomatoes for the month. I know the harvest numbers will fall but I thought they would have fallen much quicker than they have. I'm happy for that!

If we continue harvesting around 80 tomatoes for a few more days, 10,000 tomatoes will be a possibility.

We hadn't harvested a Pierce's Pride in over a month.

The tomatoes from the volunteer look exactly like Old Ivory Egg.

I'll Pull Some Plants Tomorrow

And today's harvest includes 22 Black Cherry, 11 Babywine, 5 Garden Peach(2), 5 Tiger Paw, 5 Snow White(1), 5 Snow White(2), 4 Oaxacan Jewel(1), 4 Oaxacan Jewel(2), 4 White Currant, 3 Paul Robeson, 3 Orange Blossom, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon , 3 Vintage Wine, 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 Plum Tigris, a front yard Husky Cherry Red, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, a sun scalded Black From Tula, Japanese Black Trifele, a back yard Green Grape, German Orange Strawberry and Black Krim (6 ounces) for a total of 91 tomatoes.

On Thursday my wife watered the front yard. Yesterday she watered the back yard.

My wife has been getting on me to pull out some of the tomato plants. Since we harvested the last Speckled Roman in the front yard, that one can definitely go. But the ones that are hanging on she'd like them to go as well.

Unfortunately...this makes a lot of sense.

I like to keep the tomato plants going and going until they're completely exhausted. But my wife is doing a vast majority of the watering and also we're in a water shortage. Why water for weeks on end for just a couple of small tomatoes?

It's bad enough that she's correct, she's both logical and correct. ;) I'll be looking to pull out some of the tomato plants after tomorrow's harvest.

For no particular reason, here's our top 10 producers for 2009 at the moment:

Red Currant – 1277 tomatoes

Snow White(1) – 1136 tomatoes

Black Cherry – 854 tomatoes

Yellow Perfection – 469 tomatoes

White Currant – 366 tomatoes

Babywine – 365 tomatoes

Husky Cherry Red (back yard) – 357 tomatoes

Jaune Coeur de Pigeon – 346 tomatoes

Red Grape – 336 tomatoes

Snow White(2) – 285 tomatoes.

Made a Compost Bin; The Bump Continues

Today's harvest includes 17 Black Cherry, 10 Snow White(2), 8 Babywine, 8 Yellow Perfection, 5 Garden Peach(2), 5 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 5 Paul Robeson, 4 Oaxacan Jewel(2), 3 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 Oaxacan Jewel(1), 2 Snow White(1), 2 Black From Tula, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, a front yard Speckled Roman, Black Krim, Mong, SunSugar, White Currant, Orange Blossom, Amazon Chocolate and Garden Peach(1) for a total of 82 tomatoes.

The amazing heat wave harvest bump continues! I don't know how long this will continue but we're happy about it, certainly.

On Saturday I added fertilizer to the back yard container plants and watered them. My wife watered some of the back yard tomato plants. Yesterday I watered the front yard while my wife completed watering the back yard.

Saturday I prepared to take out the front yard Speckled Roman. As I prepared, I noticed a good looking tomato growing in the center of the plant. That tomato was harvested today, having matured quite quickly.

Yesterday we made a compost pile made of wire fencing curled into about a four foot circle. We pulled Berkeley Tie Dye and placed it in the compost pile. There was other gardening done before the evening sun set and any organic materials were placed in the new wire compost bin.

The front yard Husky Cherry Red has now reached over 200 harvested tomatoes (203)! Also, the back yard Paul Robeson has now reached over 100 harvested tomatoes (101).

Harvested Over 8500 Tomatoes For The Year!

Today's harvest includes 18 Black Cherry, 11 Garden Peach(2), 11 Snow White(2), 6 Babywine, 6 Yellow Perfection, 6 Snow White(1), 4 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 4 Oaxacan Jewel(2), 3 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 3 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 Paul Robeson, 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 Black Krim (one 6 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel(1), Silvery Fir Tree, Vintage Wine, Japanese Black Trifele, Amazon Chocolate and Orange Blossom for a total of 84 tomatoes.

We've now reached over 8500 harvested tomatoes for the year (8512)!

Also, we've already reached more than half the estimated harvest total of 700 tomatoes for September (376) on the 6^th of the month.

The tomato “bump” is both a happy and bewildering event – the tomatoes look pretty good (in some cases quite good) but there was no way to predict this rise in the harvest totals! Exactly one week ago we picked 30 tomatoes for the day. Today, we're nearly triple that amount.

Today we didn't harvest from our container plants! The last day we did not harvest from a container plant was June 13.

We've now harvested over 1100 Snow White(1) tomatoes (1103)! Also, we've now harvested over 700 Black Cherry tomatoes (706) and over 400 Yellow Perfection tomatoes (405).

Now we have a good idea why we're having trouble finding caterpillars! Last night my wife and I were sitting near the back yard Husky Cherry Red plant. I hadn't mentioned yet that this plant has suffered some minor damage due to caterpillars simply because I can't find them! Nevertheless, my wife found one near the top of a damaged stem.

I looked it over (the caterpillar was at an odd angle) and yep, that's our second caterpillar! So I grabbed it, tossed it to the ground...and there was a praying mantis attached to the other end, eating it! That explains everything! The praying mantis bugs are taking care of the caterpillars for us!

We haven't harvested Black Krim or the Oaxacan Jewel(1) tomatoes in nearly a month.

The Heat Wave Harvest Bump Continues

Today's harvest includes 15 Black Cherry, 10 Snow White(2), 8 Garden Peach(2), 7 Snow White(1), 7 Paul Robeson, 7 Yellow Perfection, 4 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 3 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 3 Babywine, 3 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 Green Zebra(1), 2 Oaxacan Jewel(2), 2 Husky Gold, Jaune Flamme, Mong, Red Grape, German Orange Strawberry, Orange Blossom, and Black From Tula for a total of 79 tomatoes.

The only way I can explain this rise in the harvest is that this heat wave is rushing the existing tomatoes toward maturity. Just remember this when I'm picking less than 10 tomatoes at the end of the month.

Yesterday's high was 101 degrees.

It's good to see Black From Tula again! Last time I picked a Black From Tula was exactly one month ago.

It's Still Hot, Dry and Smoky

Today's modest harvest includes 5 Snow White(2), 3 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 3 Yellow Perfection, 3 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 2 Red Grape, 2 Paul Robeson, Snow White(1), Garden Peach(2), Orange Blossom, Black Cherry, Plum Tigris, Sweet 100, Jaune Flamme, Red Currant, a front yard Husky Cherry Red and Babywine for a total of 30 tomatoes.

We ended the month harvesting 3250 tomatoes, 1672 from the front yard and 1578 in the back yard.

The second Snow White plant has reached over 200 harvested tomatoes (203).

Saturday the temperature got up to 104 at Pierce College. Yesterday it reached 105 degrees.

We spent most of the afternoon and evening in Monrovia with our friends, Liz and Ricardo. We brought our rototiller (but couldn't get it started), got out of the bad air and heat of the San Fernando Valley and had an enjoyable time.

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.

Harvested Over 4000 Back Yard Tomatoes For The Year!

Today's harvest includes 6 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 5 Red Grape, 4 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 3 front yard Green Grape, 3 Snow White(1), 3 Sweet 100, 3 Black Cherry, 2 back yard Green Grape, 2 Japanese Black Trifele, Babywine, Jaune Flamme, Turkish Striped Monastery, Orange Blossom, Yellow Perfection, Paul Robeson, Green Zebra(2), White Currant, Oaxacan Jewel(2), White Zebra, Italian Ice and SunSugar for a total of 43 tomatoes.

We reached 4000 harvested back yard tomatoes for the year (4015)!

My wife watered the back yard on Tuesday.

The tomato harvest really fell off the table again. I'm surprised I was able to only find three tomatoes among the two Snow White plants. I looked and looked and just found those three tomatoes.

Reached 3000 Harvested Tomatoes For August!

Today's harvest includes 16 Snow White(1), 15 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 8 Black Cherry, 5 Sweet 100, 4 Red Grape, 3 Jaune Flamme, 3 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 3 Snow White(2), 3 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Garden Peach(2), 2 White Zebra (one 6 ounces), 2 White Currant, 2 Italian Ice, a front yard Green Grape, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (8 ounces), Babywine, a back yard Speckled Roman (with end rot), Turkish Striped Monastery, Orange Blossom, Yellow Perfection, Tiger Paw, Japanese Black Trifele (8 ounces) and Paul Robeson for a total of 78 tomatoes.

We've reached over 3000 harvested tomatoes for the month (3051)! It looks like we'll be right on target (perhaps a tad short) for the updated estimate of 3500 harvested tomatoes for the month.

The front yard Mexico is ready to be pulled and Berkeley Tie Dye is getting close to being pulled out of the ground.

It is still tough to harvest the front yard Husky Cherry Red tomatoes. Babywine is completely draped over the plant. There are areas on the north side of the Husky Cherry Red plant that I simply cannot reach.

Also, the weather has warmed up considerably. Yesterday's high was 98 degrees, which is hot enough to sterilize the pollen in the recent blooms. This isn't unusual weather by any stretch of the imagination – after all we're still in summer – but we're due for a significant drop in the September harvest totals.

Harvest Up Due To Saturday "Bump"

Today's harvest includes 14 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 14 Snow White, 11 Black Cherry, 9 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 8 Babywine, 6 Green Zebra(1), 6 White Currant, 6 Super Snow White, 5 front yard Green Grape, 4 Yellow Perfection, 4 Sweet 100, 3 Jaune Flamme, 2 White Zebra, 2 Husky Gold, 2 back yard Mexico (6 ounces, 9 ounces), 2 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, Red Currant, Vintage Wine, Dr. Wyche's Yellow (10.5 ounces), a front yard Speckled Roman, Orange Blossom, Plum Tigris, Green Zebra(2), SunSugar and Red Grape for a total of 107 tomatoes.

The harvest totals reflect a Saturday “bump”. On Saturday I harvest later in the morning. There's a bit more time for the tomatoes to mature but more importantly, the sun is higher and there are less shadows. I simply see the tomatoes easier in higher light. The higher totals for some of the front yard tomatoes and the back yard Green Zebra(1) are a direct result of simply being able to see better in the higher sun.

The volunteer is in a growth spurt. It's nearly as tall as Marz Round Green. There are no tomatoes on either plant.

We are now ahead of my original harvest estimate for August of 2700 tomatoes (2778).

Some Plants Getting A Second Wind

And today's harvest includes 22 Snow White, 12 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 11 Super Snow White, 8 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 7 Black Cherry, 6 Red Currant, 6 White Currant, 5 Jaune Flamme, 5 Italian Ice, 5 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 4 Yellow Perfection, 4 Sweet 100, 3 Plum Tigris, 2 SunSugar, 2 Turkish Striped Monastery, 2 Green Zebra(1), 2 Green Zebra(2), 2 Babywine, Red Grape a back yard Paul Robeson, Orange Blossom, White Zebra, a back yard Garden Peach(2) and a back yard Speckled Roman for a total of 114 tomatoes.

Black Cherry has reached 600 harvested tomatoes and the Garden Peach(2) has reached 100 harvested tomatoes.

Turkish Striped Monastery is clearly having a second wind and it appears that Yellow Perfection is having a second wind as well.

Last night we held our computer user group meeting in Westchester (http://www.lafox.org). Our speaker was Jason Gordon and the subject was Drupal. We had a blast at the meeting! Later on my wife joined me at Jerry's Famous Deli in Marina Del Rey. We didn't get home until after 1AM. We slept well.

Harvested Over 2000 Tomatoes For August!

Today's harvest includes 39 Snow White, 26 Black Cherry, 12 Super Snow White, 10 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 9 Red Currant, 6 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 6 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 5 Babywine, 4 Sweet 100, 4 Jaune Flamme, 3 White Zebra, 3 front yard Green Grape, 3 Red Grape, 2 back yard Garden Peach(2), 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green, 2 Plum Tigris, 2 White Currant, 2 Green Zebra(1), 2 Italian Ice, 2 SunSugar, Husky Gold, Orange Blossom, Japanese Black Trifele (6 ounces), Green Zebra(2), Turkish Striped Monastery, Oaxacan Jewel(1), Yellow Perfection and a back yard Green Grape for a total of 152 tomatoes.

We've reached over 2000 tomatoes for the month of August (2093). Also, we've reached over 3500 harvested back yard tomatoes for 2009 (3508).

Tomorrow we'll reach over 1000 back yard tomatoes for the month and over 7000 harvested tomatoes for the year.

Several bags of tomatoes were given away yesterday to friends and people who requested some through this blog. As you'll see by clicking on the links we're harvesting a lot of cherry tomatoes.

When I mentioned the two plants pulled out earlier this week, Early Annie was pulled as well.

Harvested Pierce's Pride And Berkeley Tie Dye!

Today's harvest includes 33 Red Currant, 26 Snow White, 19 Black Cherry, 10 White Currant, 9 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 8 Yellow Perfection, 7 Babywine, 6 Tiger Paw, 5 front yard Garden Peach, 4 Super Snow White, 4 Japanese Black Trifele, 3 Oaxacan Jewel(1) (10 ounces, 6 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Amazon Chocolate (8 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 Sweet Olive, 3 back yard Paul Robeson, 3 back yard Garden Peach(2), 3 Turkish Striped Monastery, 3 back yard Green Grape, 3 Orange Blossom (6.5 ounces, 8 ounces, 7 ounces), 3 Black From Tula (12.5 ounces, 10 ounces, 10.5 ounces), 2 front yard Mexico (one 7 ounces), 2 Oaxacan Jewel(2) (6 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Black Krim (10.5 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Red Grape, 2 Italian Ice, 2 Plum Tigris, 2 Berkeley Tie Dye (New! 10.5 ounces, 16 ounces), 2 Cuor de Bue (9 ounces, 11 ounces), Sweet 100, German Orange Strawberry, SunSugar, a back yard Husky Cherry Red, a front yard Husky Cherry Red, Silvery Fir Tree, Mong and Pierce's Pride (New! 8.5 ounces) for a total of 182 tomatoes from 36 tomato plants.

Again, today we had the largest front yard harvest for 2009 (96 tomatoes). Yesterday's front yard total was 86 tomatoes, not 81 as posted.

I think the number of tomato plants harvested in a day (36) is the most for 2009.

Based on the feel of the harvest basket, today's harvest was the heaviest to date. There's some beautiful and large tomatoes in today's harvest. Also, there's a good amount of 4 and 5 ounce tomatoes in today's harvest – for instance, Japanese Black Trifele normally weighs that much – that isn't recorded.

We've now harvested over 1400 tomatoes from the back yard this month and over 2500 tomatoes overall for the month of July.

My wife noticed that the Berkeley Tie Dye tomatoes were a little of the soft side. She's right. I noticed it when I picked them.

I harvested Pierce's Pride before Berkeley Tie Dye today. But Berkeley Tie Dye started to mature before Pierce's Pride, so I felt the ripening Berkeley Tie Dye tomatoes. They probably should have been picked yesterday. I was thrown by the color. I thought it would be more red when mature. It turns out that when mature it's green with reddish striping, not red with green striping.

The one pound Berkeley Tie Dye is our heaviest harvested tomato this year.

I noticed that Black Zebra is gone so I assume it was pulled out by my wife yesterday.

Largest Front Yard Harvest For 2009!

Today's totals include 41 Red Currant, 19 Snow White, 12 Tiger Paw, 10 front yard Garden Peach, 9 Yellow Perfection, 9 Black Cherry, 8 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 8 Sweet Olive, 6 White Currant, 5 back yard Green Grape, 5 Red Grape, 4 Turkish Striped Monastery, 4 Sweet 100, 4 Aunt Ruby's German Green, 2 Japanese Black Trifele (one 7 ounces), 2 Amazon Chocolate (one 6.5 ounces), back yard Garden Peach(1), back yard Garden Peach(2), Orange Blossom, back yard Speckled Roman (minimal end rot), front yard Speckled Roman, back yard Paul Robeson, Black From Tula (9 ounces), back yard Husky Cherry Red, front yard Husky Cherry Red, Italian Ice, SunSugar, Vintage Wine, Oaxacan Jewel(1) (11 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel(2) (7 ounces), Babywine, Mexico (6.5 ounces) and Black Krim for a total of 165 tomatoes.

Today we had the largest front yard harvest for 2009 (81 tomatoes).

We've now harvested over 1000 front yard tomatoes for the month.

My wife spent most of the afternoon canning tomatoes with our friend Liz. They did tremendous work together and from what I understand, they had a lot of fun together. Happy Birthday Liz!

My wife also watered the “corner office” last night.

It was slightly cooler yesterday, “only” getting up to 101.

Harvested Gardener's Delight...Sorta

Today's bountiful harvest includes 37 Red Currant, 16 Red Grape, 13 Snow White, 12 White Currant, 9 Sweet Olive, 7 Yellow Perfection, 6 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 5 Tiger Paw, 5 Black Cherry, 5 back yard Garden Peach (1), 4 back yard Paul Robeson, 4 Japanese Black Trifele (8.5 ounces, 8.5 ounces), 4 front yard Garden Peach, 3 back yard Speckled Roman (One without end rot!), 3 Mong (7 ounces, 7 ounces), 2 Orange Blossom, 2 Amazon Chocolate (9 ounces, 9.5 ounces), 2 German Orange Strawberry (7 ounces, 6 ounces), 2 Black Krim (6 ounces, 7.5 ounces), 2 front yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Babywine, Oaxacan Jewel (1) (10 ounces), Italian Ice, SunSugar, Sweet 100, Plum Tigris, a back yard Green Grape, Turkish Striped Monastery, Aunt Ruby's German Green (7 ounces), Oaxacan Jewel (2) (6 ounces, was labeled Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe) and a back yard Garden Peach (2) (was labeled Gardener's Delight) for a total of 155 tomatoes.

My wife told me that Liz told her that her Gardener's Delight looked like Garden Peach. I responded that I forgot to mention to her and to the blog that we have a Gardener's Delight that's maturing...and it looks like Garden Peach.

We went out to view it. My wife thought it was ready, so we harvested it. It had a bit of fuzz. My wife tried it and it tasted like Garden Peach. Rats! Another mislabel.

This morning I harvested a Oaxacan Jewel and what was supposed to be Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe. Putting the two tomatoes next to one another made it clear – Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe is another Oaxacan Jewel.

I could tell by the weight of the harvest basket that this was the heaviest harvest to date. Today is also the highest 2009 daily harvest (155), the highest back yard harvest for 2009 (84) and front yard for 2009 (71).

I gave my wife permission to pull Jeff Davis and Black Zebra whenever it is convenient.

I did some more tomato taping this morning, trying to clear pathways in the "koi pond". I also staked a couple more plants that were leaning over. I'm running out of stakes!

Newly Harvested Tomatoes

Me with 11 recently harvested tomatoes on the evening of July 8. From left to right: Mong, Husky Gold, Amazon Chocolate, Tiger Paw, Black Krim, Mexico, Oaxacan Jewel, back yard Paul Robeson, front yard Speckled Roman, Orange Blossom and Cuor de Bue.

Harvested Two New Tomatoes

And today's harvest includes 19 Red Currant, 10 Red Grape, 9 Yellow Perfection, 7 Sweet Olive, 5 back yard Paul Robeson (one 6.5 ounces), 4 back yard Speckled Roman (again, blossom end rot on all of them), 4 Italian Ice, 3 Mong (6 ounces, 8 ounces, 8 ounces), 3 White Currant, 2 Green Grape, 2 back yard Garden Peach, 2 German Orange Strawberry (one 6 ounces), 2 Black Cherry, 2 Black Krim (10.5 ounces, 11.5 ounces), 2 Aunt Ruby's German Green (New! 11 ounces, 6 ounces), Cuor de Bue, Jeff Davis, Orange Blossom (9 ounces), Sweet 100, SunSugar, Babywine, a front yard Garden Peach, a front yard Speckled Roman, Paul Robeson, Snow White, Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, and Black From Tula (New! 8 ounces) for a total of 88 tomatoes.

We've reached over 1000 harvested tomatoes for the month. It doesn't look like we'll reach my estimate of 4000 tomatoes for the month but 3000 or more isn't out of the question, especially if Snow White and Black Cherry start producing a large number of tomatoes.

Turns out I have a couple of goof ups to fix. I mentioned earlier how I thought Sweet Olive's numbers were getting goosed by Red Grape and Sweet 100. So what I did was to count the Red Grapes before putting them in the harvest basket (good) and following the branches down to the ground for the Sweet 100/Sweet Olive container (again, good). Only now do I realize that what I thought was Sweet Olive was Sweet 100, and vice versa. I've fixed the on line spreadsheet numbers but I need to update the blog and some other items.

On another matter, I recently posted a comment that said our Quedlinburger Freuhe Liebe's first tomato looks a lot like Oaxacan Jewel but the leaves are clearly different. I looked at it again this morning and now I'm not so sure. I asked my wife. She said the leaves at the bottom of the plants look very much alike. So we may have a mislabel. And we hate getting mislabeled plants. But we did it! Anyway, we'll see what happens with the next harvested Quedlinburger Freuhe Liebe.

Five New Tomatoes Harvested!

And today we harvested 31 Red Currant, 10 White Currant, 7 front yard Paul Robeson, 7 Yellow Perfection, 7 Sweet Olive, 3 Jaune Coeur de Pigeon, 3 Snow White, 2 Red Grape, Turkish Striped Monastery, back yard Garden Peach, Husky Gold, SunSugar, Jeff Davis and five new tomatoes: Mong, front yard Garden Peach, Japanese Black Trifele, a beautiful 12 ounce Amazon Chocolate and Orange Blossom for a total of 80 tomatoes.

Today was the largest front yard haul to date (46 tomatoes).

This harvest was unusual in that no Sweet Olive tomatoes were harvested.

We have another plant with a maturing tomato. The back yard Paul Robeson has a tomato that has just started to mature.

Marz Round Green has at least one bloom on it.

I needed to reset the stake for Black Krim this morning. The plant was falling into Jaune Flamme.

Back Yard Tomato Work Caught Up!

On Saturday my wife and I went to a graduation celebration out in Murrieta. That took all day, so no harvesting or tomato work of any kind.

On Sunday there was a lot done. First, we picked 7 Sweet Olive and a Sweet 100 tomato.

I began working on the three chores on the back yard tomatoes but I quickly ran out of tomato twine used to obstruct the Manchester Terrier from nosing in the plant. I continued on, getting through all of the back yard tomato plants in the ground.

I added paper mulch to White Currant and the new Patio Princess.

I began to do the same work in the front yard “corner office”, but began having a sneezing fit and soon had to stop. After my sinuses settled down about an hour later, I finished up the “corner office”. Also, I did a lot of tomato taping in that area in order to make paths just to reach the other plants.

While this was going on my wife watered the back yard (noting that Orange Blossom was looking particularly weak), including the tomato plants in the back. Jeff Davis was only watered lightly.

While working in the “corner office” I noticed that Jaune Flamme has a maturing tomato! On the one hand this is good news but on another front, bad news. I've noticed that damaged plants tend to mature faster than normal and I think that's what is going on here. This should be ready to pick in a day or so.

I fertilized the container plants as well as most (but not all) of the plants in the ground, both front and back yards, that didn't get their second round of fertilizer.

In the afternoon Liz and Ricardo came over to finish off the patio cover frame. Soon my wife and Liz went out for supplies and I helped with Ricardo when needed. In between those times I tomato taped many of the back yard tomato plants as needed, as well as adding stakes to several others. For instance, Black Cherry had grown so much that it was leaning in one direction and actually pulling the cage out of the ground. I ran out of tomato tape for a while but after a half hour or so found another roll.

By that time the women had come back and my wife had bought additional tomato twine. During the construction I used the twine on the rest of the cages in the ground in the back yard.

German Orange Strawberry is now the tallest tomato plant. Not only is the plant over six feet high, it has tomato blooms over six feet high. What will be funny is that in a month the plant will have grown even more, but not be as tall. Why? The branches at the top will get heavier and fall in one direction or another. I'll be able to tape them together for a period of time but soon they'll get too heavy and naturally droop, also due to growing fruit on the vines.

So the back yard is completely caught up with the tomato chores – moats remade, loose branches taped up, twine used to obstruct the Manchester Terrier from below, low branches growing into the dirt removed.

All that is left is to clean up the “koi pond” before the hot weather hits.

Speaking of which, we experienced something on Sunday that we hadn't experienced in quite a while. The sun! The sun came out for most of the day yesterday though it did cloud up a bit in the afternoon.

By evening, Jeff Davis looked a bit better. We're guessing that Jeff Davis is being watered too much (because the plant is also in the range of the sprinklers that go off twice a week, including today) and not enough sun. We'll monitor Jeff Davis to see if it improves.