Blush is Crushed; Two More Plants With Growing Tomatoes

I've been too busy with life to give as much attention to the tomatoes that they need. Fortunately, my wife has filled in admirably.

My wife watered all the tomatoes over the last several days.

On Wednesday we pulled out the dead Black From Tula and my wife transplanted Volunteer(4) -- the volunteer tomato plant that came up through a cinder block. Earlier in the day she had purchased Purple Bumble Bee. We pulled out Red Pear Piriform and replaced it with the newly purchased Purple Bumble Bee.

Today my wife noticed that the stem for Blush was broken. I thought a lemon could have directly landed on it but my wife thinks that one of our dogs broke it by biting it.

Yesterday I noticed that Indigo Rose has a growing tomato and today I noticed Earl of Edgecombe has a growing tomato as well.

Stupice has maturing tomatoes! Two or three are darkening and one tomato is a light red. 

And Four More Plants With Growing Tomatoes

Last week was mostly too hot to do anything, short of tomato training in the morning. One day I did trim the bottom branches and leaves on the back yard tomato plants. Friday through Sunday we were out of town.

Monday morning I did a bunch of tomato training. I did discover four more plants with tomatoes, all in the back yard. These include Michael Pollan, Volunteer(3), Matt's Wild Cherry and Ananas Noire. There's probably new front yard tomatoes, but I don't have a mental list of the front yard plants already reported as having tomatoes.

Some of the front yard plants are really high already. Sunchocola is about four and a half feet tall already.

Red Pear Piriform doesn't look much better. Volunteer(4) now has blooms so that complicates the transfer into the ground. 

Another Heat Wave; Four More Plants With Growing Tomatoes

Yesterday my wife watered the back yard tomato plants and this morning I watered the front yard tomato plants in preparation of this record breaking heat wave. I also got in some tomato training.

I found four more plants with tomatoes. These are Janet's Jacinthe Jewel, Cherokee Purple, Odoriko and Husky Cherry Red(2). I am particularly happy with Cherokee Purple having a tomato. A few weeks ago this plant looked like we could lose it. Now it has a growing tomato and appears healthy.

We did lose Black From Tula. It's dead. We haven't had the time to transfer the latest tomato volunteer into the hole because we were out of town over the weekend and now it's simply too hot and windy. Also, Red Pear Piriform is whiter than before, has some leaf curl and looks stiff. Not good. 

Two More Front Yard Tomato Plants With Tomatoes

This evening I watered the front yard tomato plants. I double watered the "corner office" plants but the sun set before I could double water the tomato plants in the "koi pond".

While watering I noticed that Adrianna's Grande and Hungarian Heart have growing tomatoes.

We've decided to replace Black From Tula with the new volunteer tomato and we planned to do it this evening...but we couldn't get to it. 

Three More Plants With Growing Tomatoes

The back yard tomato plants in containers and raised beds got some tomato fertilizer today. Then I watered all of the back yard tomato plants.

During the watering I noticed that Evan's Purple Pear had a growing tomato.

Last evening my wife noticed that Black From Tula looked like it had gone into shock for some reason. She watered it but it looked no better this morning. I watered it as well and later watered in some fertilizer but I'm afraid we're going to lose this plant. My wife had a good suggestion -- transplant Volunteer(4) (the one growing through the cinder block and destined to be pulled) into the spot where Black From Tula is located. I just want to wait a day or so to see if Black From Tula recovers.

Our best guess is that a fig beetle larvae chomped on it. We see no obvious points of stress above ground that would cause the plant to go into shock.

I looked at the front yard tomatoes as well and discovered that Earliana and Bread and Salt have growing tomatoes. 

Tomatoes Trimmed; Three More Plants With Growing Tomatoes

Because I live in the west San Fernando Valley I let the tomato plants grow as much as they want. That way, the branches and leaves provide a canopy over some of the fruit. There's plently of sun to provide energy to the plant. I don't need to prune branches or suckers to provide more energy to the rest of the plant.

But I do make one exception. Scott Daigre said during a tomato 101 classes at CSUN struck home. He stated "Tomato plant diseases tend to come from the soil. So trim the low branches that are in the dirt." That made sense to me.

Yesterday I trimmed (most) all the lower branches from the all the tomato plants. That took a while but I'm glad it got done. Not only are there no dragging branches but the plants themselves look better without all the low growth. Well, today I noticed a few more I could have cut but they look a lot better.

During yesterday's cutting I noticed that Jaune Flamme has growing tomatoes.

Today I noticed that Sugar Snack and Green Grape have growing tomatoes.

I should mention that there was a pretty heavy heat wave last week. It got into the mid 90's for several days. Also, several days were quite windy. Paradoxically, non-damaging wind storms tend to make tomato plant trunks more sturdy in the future. 

Four More Plants With Growing Tomatoes!

Yesterday the back yard tomatoes were watered. Today the front yard tomatoes were watered. I did some training on the tomato branches.

I did notice four more plants with growing tomatoes! The list includes SunGold, Orange Paruche, Yellow Perfection and Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red. Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red was a little bit of a surprise because the plant isn't that tall yet and planted only three weeks ago.

The three or four tomato plants that didn't look so good a week or two ago look all right now.

There was a fourth volunteer found next to Volunteer(2), growing in the cinder blocks. However, my wife indicated that she wished to pull it. 

"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... 

Sunchocola Has Growing Tomatoes!

Yesterday the back yard tomato plants in the ground were double watered. Today, the container plants were watered and the front yard tomato plants were double watered. Some minor plant training was done as well.

The heat wave has already kicked in...

I noticed that Sunchocola has several growing tomatoes! And the fun continues... 

Finished Tomato Planting for 2014

During the week I did a little bit of training and a little bit of watering.

On Thursday we planted in more of our containers. We planted Green Zebra, Golden Rave and Japanese Black Trifele.

On Saturday our lemon tree was finally trimmed. I made four holes underneath the lemon tree and my wife planted Blush, Great White, Blue Gold (Siberian Tiger) and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(1). The Pink Berkeley Tie Dye grown from seed is now a keeper and will be designated as Pink Berkeley Tie Dye(2).

My wife had tested the bottom of the pulp pot containing Green Zebra. Unfortunately, it gave. However, we had an extra pulp pot container so this evening we transferred Green Zebra into the new unused container.

This may be it for the tomato planting this year (Famous last words). My wife has the seedling count at 64 but I'll defer to my on line spreadsheet after it's fully updated.

Just about all the tomato plants look terrific. I'll list the ones that aren't. These include Paul Robeson and Black Cherry in the back yard. Both aren't growing as rapidly as the others, they have leaf curl and the color isn't as healthy as I would like. Both of these plants appear to have come from the same grower. Hmmm.... In the front yard, Vorlon has very good color but isn't growing as rapidly as the other plants in the "koi pond".

Other than that, we're off to the races!

It's my understanding that we're getting a big heat wave in the middle of the week, so we'll try to get all the tomato plants watered before then.