Deirdre's Garden Diary

:: Tomatoes ::

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:: 06.13.08 ::

2008

I am still waiting on the first of this year's tomatoes to turn ripe. They are close and as of today are beginning to loose the whitish cast to their skin. I'm starting to see some yellow creep in. I covered them with brown paper today to hide them from the birds. Hopefully in a few days they will be ready.

Most of the larger ones I have are on the Early Girl (?) vines. My tomato plants got all mixed up this year. I didn't do a good job of keeping them organized. Some of the first ones I bought were damaged by the late freeze and then I bought replacements and those were not labeled at the store properly so now I am getting tomato that I never intended to buy... mostly of the small variety.

I was so happy when the bushes started filling up with small round tomatoes, but then they just stopped getting bigger. One plant has small pear shaped fruit that is going to be yellow, like this.

Another bush looks like your basic cherry tomato and then another has medium small ones that are slightly oblong so I am guessing those are some kind of mini Roma, which I think I might have picked, but I thought I had put it back. Who knows.

Oh well. The good thing is...I know where I bought these and I won't be going back there again to get vegetable starts because nothing was tagged or labeled and the pots were black so you couldn't write on them either! I knew this was going to be a problem but I was trying to be positive. The nursery may have started out with them separated but by the time people pick them up and set them down again; how can you be sure what is what? Tomato seedlings look all the same. Not the best way to do business in my opinion. I wonder how many people are calling to complain that the large juicy red tomatoes they thought they were getting turned out to be little yellow one inch pear shaped varieties or vice versa?

I guess I should be grateful that at least those bushes are producing SOMETHING...I have some that haven't put out any blooms and there isn't anything on them at all despite the bountiful foliage (which I recently had to spray with NEEM to keep the bugs away). I am thinking that at this point, with it getting hot, thebushes without anything probably aren't going to produce. So that has made me kinda pissy this month while I await the first ripe tomato.

Fall ...I am going to start my own seeds this year for Fall if it kills me!
I swear it!

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:: 07.08.07 ::

FINALLY!

Well I wouldn't say it was a bumper crop, but I did get a few good size tomatoes from the "Celebrity" vine. It has certainly been a drastic improvement over previous years! The "Heatwave" vine also produced a few tomatoes but they have been small. It hasn't exactly been hot. For once I bought the right kind of tomato for my climate, but we had freaky cool temperatures this year. It hasn't been much over 90 degrees and it is already July. The plants could probably use some fertilizer too after all the rain we had. I really need to do that this week.

I have been picking the tomatoes as they turn red and bringing them in the house to finish ripening. I'm not a tomato aficionado, but mom said the ones I gave her were very yummy. I have been giving them all away. I guess I will have to save the next one for myself.
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:: 05.30.07 ::

2007

UPDATE: The damn birds are pecking holes in the tomatoes and making them drop off the vines. All the ones in the photo below are gone. Sniff.
I need to buy row cover. There are still some blooms, and time, so maybe I will get more....there is also one large tomato hiding down low in the leaves that might survive.

And I was doing so good...

Ha Ha! I planted these early, in February. We have had a lot of rain. They are doing good. I think I may get a tomato this year...cross your fingers!

"Celebrity" - matures 70 days, 8oz
Plant with lowest leaves 1inch above the soil level. Cage or Stake
24-36" apart.

"Heatwave" - matures 70 days, 8oz
Produces a high yeild crop early in the season, even in hot weather.

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:: 06.10.06 ::

UPDATE: Everything is dead. It's just too hot and I can't afford to keep the plants watered. Next year I swear I am planting tomatoes in January!

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:: 04.23.06 ::

2006

I don't know why I am torturing myself by trying to grow these again. I just can't beleive it is so easy for everyone else to grow these damn things and I can't even get one! It pisses me off and has made me want to grow them even more! So I am going to try again despite my track record from the last two years.

I have a better feeling about it this year because I tested the soil and have made some amendments. The temperatures are already getting high and it looks like it will be a VERY hot summer... so I am afraid the plants will have trouble setting fruit. I need to get them in the ground ASAP! Here are the varieties I bought for this year:

"Green Zebra" - (determinate) matures 70days, 2-4oz
Green fruits with lightgreen stripes. Spicy-tart flavor.

"Heirloom Tomato - Pineapple" (indeterminate) matures 85-90days,
Large fruit red striped yellow fruit. Has few seeds. beefsteak fruity, sweet.

"Yellow Pear" - matures 78days, 2"
Plant in warm weather, lowest leaf 1" above soil surface.
mild flavor.

"Homestead 24" - (determinate) matures 80days, 8oz,
Crack resistant, firm meaty flesh. Disease resistant. Does well in hot and humid conditions and high temperatures.

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:: 06.27.05 ::

Update: Not one tomato this year!
That TOTALLY SUCKS!

The tomato plants have increased in size but I am having a few problems with them. So far they seem to be bug free, but all the plants are slowly loosing their bottom leaves again just like last year! Man I can't figure out why that is happening! They start by turning yellow, then they dry up and get crispy turning brown, start to droop and eventually fall off. I tried pinching them off when they start turning yellow...but this only seems to be speeding up the process as it moves on to the next set of leaves. I am wondering if maybe I am watering the plants too much to over compensate for the heat?

Early on I had a couple of small tomatoes on the Improved Porter plants...but the plants were only about eight to ten inches high, so I picked them off to let the stem get taller, thinking they would be able to better support the weight of the tomatoes later. But nothing has bloomed since. No blooms. Nada.

The plants that I think are the Chadwick Cherries just got blooms this last week...they are really tiny flowers and some of them dried up quickly. they don't seem to be setting fruit though. they just drop off and die before getting pollinated. The eggplants are also doing this!

I tried to look it up on line and found a site that said if the weather is to hot that it makes it harder for the insects to pollinate them. there is suppose to be some kind of spray you can buy at the nursery to help the plants with pollination. I guess I have to go buy some of that now! The weather is just too hot. I think I waited too late to get them in the ground.

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:: 06.27.05 ::

2005

This year I got my tomato plants from Brian. He ordered organic seeds and sowed them himself. He did a great job, with tons of plants everywhere. He gave me a lot of different varieties to try to grow.

Porter Improved Pink Slicing Tomato
Rare, (Indeterminate.) 80 days maturity, 3-4 oz., Prolific early vines yield unusually colored fruits with delectable flavor. Resists cracking.

Chadwick Cherry Tomato
(Maturity 80-90 days) (Indeterminate.) 1.5 oz.,
Large for a cherry, with sparkling, full-bodied tomato flavor. 6 ft. vines are vigorous and highly productive.

Garden Peach Yellow Slicing Tomato
Heirloom, Indeterminate. (matures 80-90 days), 3-5 oz.
Sweet with a bit of tartness. Pale-yellow fruits have a pink blush and soft peachy skin. Uniform and productive variety.

Tigerella Orange Slicing Tomato
Heirloom, Indeterminate. (55-65 days), 4-6 oz. Tender Annual
Fine, tangy flavor from unique, red and orange striped fruits. Highly productive.

Red Calabash Tomato
Rare - Heirloom, Indeterminate. (80-90 days), 2-3 oz. Tender Annual
Traceable to Chiapas, Mexico. Delicious, thin skinned, ruffled fruits resemble miniature beefsteak tomatoes. Documented by William Woys Weaver as appearing in a 1793 painting by Raphael Paele of Philadelphia.

Verde Tomatillo
Reseeding, Maturity: 60 days
Green tomatillo is great in salsas or salads. This variety has diverse gene traits that produce two distinct variations of plants - one is erect and branching, the other more compact. Both are equally prolific. Does best when transplanted. Does not need trellising. Harvesting tips. Pick for salsa when the husks turn brown and begin to open. With additional time, they will become more seedy, but also get sweeter, for eating raw.

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:: 03.20.05 ::

2004

These were planted in the Spring of 2004. They were called "Better Bush". I had a terrible time getting the tomatoes to grow! I think I had maybe three that could be eaten and they never really got very big. It was a big disappointment.

They started out great! There was lots of leafy green foliage that got really tall and had a good amount of blooms. Then it rained...and rained...and the plants started to wilt from the bottom. I was told to remove the dried leaves and stems from the bottom, but as soon as I pinched them off, the next ones up from the bottom would die...and so on and so on till there were no leaves left!

I don't know if I will try tomatoes again any time soon. I don't really like tomatoes; I only wanted to plant them to share with friends and family, or to make sauces from them.

I will have to get some advice before trying them again since I have no idea what went wrong...too much rain or some kind of plant fungus or fertilizer (?)...it was probably all of the above. It is strange because the peppers that were planted right next to them in the same raised bed did wonderful. To see the 2004 vegetable garden as it progressed through the growing season click HERE.

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