We're Harvesting!

Tuesday's harvest includes 3 Stupice.

We're harvesting! We tried a couple of the Stupice and they taste like you'd expect -- a fresh tomato with a "classic" tomato taste. Nothing spectacular, nothing unusual, just a tomato you can slice in half and toss it into a salad. We're off to the races!

I added fertilizer to Black SeaMan. My wife watered it in and trimmed the burned leaves (the dogs pee on this plant for some reason). The plant does not look good but we hope for a turnaround.

Wednesday's harvest includes 2 Stupice.

My wife replaced the destroyed Blush with Momotaro.

Today's harvest includes 3 Stupice.

I cut a lot of the low branches for all the tomatoes again and did a lot of training. During my cutting and training I noticed several plants with tomatoes. These include German Orange Strawberry, Black Krim, Snow White, Pierce's Pride and Nyagous.

Every plant in the "koi pond" now has a growing tomato except Berkeley Tie Dye.

I added a stake to support Volunteer(2). 

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. 

Six More Plants With Growing Tomatoes

I did a fair amount of tomato training on Saturday. Also, I added cages to the three container plants near the south gate.

I looked over the tomatoes and found a few more plants with tomatoes. In the "corner office", Bloody Butcher and Indigo Apple had tiny tomatoes. In the "koi pond", Vorlon had a very tiny tomato.

Among the raised beds in the back yard, Volunteer(1) and Husky Cherry Red(1) have growing tomatoes. In the ground within the back yard, Persimmon(1) (not Persimmon) -- the south plant of the two plants -- has a growing tomato. I think there were others but it's too warm at the moment to back check.

Orange Paruche has stiff branches that are hard to train. I've already broken a couple of branches off of this plant. The tomatoes on Bread and Salt are growing rapidly.

Stupice has about a half dozen tomatoes ripening. We should have ripe tomatoes before the end of the month! 

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.