Tomato Tuesday/Upper South region

I saved seeds from a Juliet tomato that I purchased last year from the local nursery. The plant on the right seems to be a true Juliet, but it's neighbor seems to be a different animal, but they are both supposed to be Juliet. There was a yellow tomato nearby. It has just started to blush, so I can't tell what color it will end up.
In-breeding in Kentucky. Who would have imagined that?

Squat_Johnson wrote:
In-breeding in Kentucky. Who would have imagined that?

ROFLMAO If only I had the weather to have such problems!!!

Inbreeding in (insert state you wish to insult here)? Go figure.

Tomato Tuesday - Week 26

I'm seeing tomatoes!!

Mountain Princess. I think one problem with the SFG is the grid...you think you can get away with planting one per square -- but I never had a determinate that bushed out like this one does! Oh my goodness! I am going to have to trim these plants back a lot just so they can breath. What was I thinking when I planted ten plants in adjacent squares? There must be hundreds of tomatoes on these plants.





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Opalkas. Look at this cute little Opalka tomato!



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WV 63s. I did work in some more compost around the four plants that were smaller. However, looking at the thick stem and leaves on the lower four makes me think that they are abnormally large and the smaller plants are the normal ones. In the end it will be the tomatoes that count!


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Mystery Grape. Watching closely for some red on this cluster...


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We've had perfect tomato growing weather the past two weeks. Rain showers and 80 degree temps. I only had to water the garden once!

Tel me about your tomatoes now!

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pattipan

Tomato Tuesday - Week 27

Is it Tuesday again already??? The July 4th holiday has messed with my mind (not that it takes much!) and I've been thinking it was Monday all day. My tomatoes are doing great and I even have one little grape tomato turning red -- oh ye! I didn't get my weekly pictures taken this morning, but I will do that tomorrow and post them along with more of a report.

Meanwhile, my fellow Upper Southerners...tell me how your tomatoes are doing...

pattipan

Good Morning,
If my first post on the Tomato Tuesday thread is to say "I have ripe tomatoes all over my plants and counter tops, will I get rotten tomatoes thrown at me?" I do. The first tomato of the season was a 4th of July, followed by a pink Brandy wine. I grow about 15 or 17 plants of a random variety. A little bit of this or that. I try something new each year, plus trade with a neighbor. This year I have tried German Johnson's. They seem to be big healthy plants. I do not like the potato leave varieties, as they seem to have more of a bug problem, however this year I have a lot of them. Go figure. I also read that the potato leave varieties need isolation if you want to save seeds, not that good yet. Oh I guess I should confess that I plant around tax day, as we were well clear of our frost dates by then. I will enjoy watching this tread for the rest of the summer. Sorry it took so long for me to find it.

Patty in Yorktown

Patty from Yorktown wrote:Good Morning,
If my first post on the Tomato Tuesday thread is to say "I have ripe tomatoes all over my plants and counter tops, will I get rotten tomatoes thrown at me?" I do. The first tomato of the season was a 4th of July, followed by a pink Brandy wine.

Patty,
I wouldn't throw tomatoes at you...but could throw one of your ripe ones this way? I'll eat it!

Here in the mountains we would be pressing our luck to plant before mid-May. The thought of trying to run around and cover them in my SFG every time the temps dip to 32 and below is too much. It's less stressful for me and the tomatoes to wait!

I did pick a ripe grape tomato this morning.

pattipan

Tomato Tuesday - Week 27
Took these tomato photos early Wednesday morning and then promptly forgot to post them until now.

Mountain Princess:

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Opalka:

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Trying something different this year with my Opalkas. I let the sucker just above the first blossoms grow so that each plant has two main stems. I am hoping for double yield. The jury is still out...

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WV '63:

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I love the looks of these WV '63 tomatoes. No green shoulders, just all red goodness to the stem. Well...they will be red eventually!

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Mystery Grape. My first ripe tomato!!! Think it's enough for a salad for two? I wonder how many slices I could get out if it....


pattipan

Through a lot of process of elimination and investigation, this square foot novice believes that ALL 6 of her tomato plants have cucumber mosaic virus/ What do I do ? pull them out and destroy them? they are setting a few fruit, some of the cherries are ripening. The 2 early girls that are on that vine aren't ripening fast. The orange tomato appears to be setting fruit, that looks like it may be ready before the early girls. Since everything else in the garden is doing great (especially the cukes! I harvested 8 this week!)should I just let them go and see what harvest I can get? It appears that this virus is not transmitted in the soil, so I should be okay there right? Any advice is appreciated… this is my first square foot garden and I was sooo excited! Square Jo

@Square Jo, I don't have specific experience with cucumber mosaic virus, but I know that I have has one thing or the other all of the 15 years I have grown tomatoes. I got at least some harvest every year. A tomato can still produce with a great deal of disease. The only exception to that was the year of Late Blight.

I know it's not Tuesday, but I don't take the camera to the garden that often...


Dixie's Sweet - Many thanks again to Dixie for the seeds last fall. I haven't picked any yet, but they are ripening nicely. It's so humid you can see the fog on the lens...



Brandywines - I had one for lunch...


Jet Stars have the biggest production every year.

Okie Dokie..Here are my first mators....Still-A-Growin'

All of your mators are looking ((yummy))

I have had some early harvest, been eating lots of toms. I had enough to make a dozen jars of salsa. This year all ingredients (except lemon, cumin and salt) came from my sfg.



Above are some of the biggest, from left, Dixie's Sweet, 2 Jet Stars, and two Brandywine.

I am starting to have a lot of Early Blight, trying to prune and spray this evening to keep up. I have been losing a lot of fruit, most I pick early because I know the blight will rot them if I don't... I have been spraying with Neem Oil, once a week. I am thinking of going to Mancozeb zinc spray. My 6'-8' plants are about 30% leaf loss to early blight. Thoughts anyone?

Tomato Tuesday - Week 32

Holy cow! I've haven't been able to give a report since July 8, which was Week 27. A lot can happen to tomatoes in 4 weeks! Like they start to ripen when I am not a home!



I picked the first ripe Mountain Princess tomato on July 22, which was 70 days from transplanting them outside. We went to Florida on July 13 to help family move out and cart furniture home in a U-Haul. That was an adventure in itself. We took our Jeep intending to rent a U-Haul trailer. The Jeep broke down so we ended up with a U-Haul truck + car trailer to carry the Jeep! Got home July 19 and I picked almost 2 pecks of the Mtn. Princess on the 22nd. I've never grown a determinate tomato before, so I was definitely impressed. I processed them into pulpy juice with a food mill, so I could make pizza sauce later. Meanwhile my house is turned into chaos with furniture and books everywhere that we have to figure out where to put.

Off again on July 26 to SC to help daughter and family move to Maryland, just north of DC. TIP: DO NOT move on the hottest day of the year to a 4th floor apartment that has no elevator! Got home on August 2, took me a couple days to recover. All I had energy to do was water myself and the garden. Both rain barrels were empty, so had to use city water. Picked another peck of Mtn. Princess! And over the week and a weekend for family reunion, I have another peck full. We've eaten a lot of them too, but most of these are going for pizza sauce and just plain canned tomatoes.

The WV '63's are now getting ripe, they are beautiful as usual, but several have cracks from the heat. Cracking is very unusual for them, which says something about how hot it's been! The hub and I did a taste testing comparison between the WV '63 and the Mountain Princess. Both are slightly acidic like we like them, but there is just more "meat" to the WV '63. I'll probably grow both again next year. I like having the early determinates.



The Opalka paste tomatoes are not doing well this year. They started off okay, but now a lot of the leaves have leaf spot and a few fruit have blossom end rot. They are a strange looking tomato anyway, but when that nipple gets BER, they look sci-fi. The plants are not as tall as they were last year either. They are in an 8" deep box with all new Mel's Mix, so I'm not sure if it's the heat or the soil mix this time. I really thought they would like the deeper soil. My experiment with trying to let two main stems grow is the only reason I am getting a decent amount of fruit from these plants. I may try another paste tomato next year anyhow, since I've learned that Septoria leaf spot can be passed on through the seed.

Mystery grape tomato vines have topped the trellis, I have about half gallon of those picked that I am going to slow roast in the oven.

That's it for now, so now I need to go can some tomatoes!

pattipan

WOW! Pattipan Picked a Peck of Princesses! Say that 10 times fast! Great haul! I can't wait until mine start ripening. The thought of homegrown pizza sauce has me drooling

Goosegirl wrote:WOW! Pattipan Picked a Peck of Princesses! Say that 10 times fast!

Here are a few shots of my tomatoes starting out. The first one is my seedlings that I started, but have yet to decide what to do with... I have something snacking on the ones in the ground, so these may be back ups... I have 10 different varieties of tomaotes started. Some of these are pepper seedlings.

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Here are 4 plants that I planted with wire tomato cages.



These tomatoes will get a cattle panel trellis for support.

Just can't wait until my babies get to producing!

Eighteen varieties started. 17 pots all in a line plus 2 in a 4x4 pond bed. Duplicated the roma because DIL likes to cook with them. This is at my son's. Planted 4/8





I have 16 of the 18 going at my house. Gave up my Roma and I don't really like the Celebrity, but I direct sowed a Roma to a bucket. Some in buckets. some in bed and one in a pretty pot on the deck. (the Patio tomato) planted 4/16





Kay

Oops, should have been in lower South.

WoW! Look at all the great tomatoes down south
Kay, just out of curiosity, what are all the little cups for?

RoOsTeR wrote:WoW! Look at all the great tomatoes down south
Kay, just out of curiosity, what are all the little cups for?

+1! Inquiring minds want to know!

GG

Goosegirl wrote:

RoOsTeR wrote:WoW! Look at all the great tomatoes down south
Kay, just out of curiosity, what are all the little cups for?

+1! Inquiring minds want to know!

GG

Must've been from the garden gnomes that were partying

Too Tall Tomatoes wrote:

Goosegirl wrote:

RoOsTeR wrote:WoW! Look at all the great tomatoes down south
Kay, just out of curiosity, what are all the little cups for?

+1! Inquiring minds want to know!

GG

Must've been from the garden gnomes that were partying

Wrong color - not Red Solo Cups!

RoOsTeR wrote:WoW! Look at all the great tomatoes down south
Kay, just out of curiosity, what are all the little cups for?

They were the cups that I up potted into from the vermiculite started. They have the variety names printed on them. Was too lazy to print up sticks.

Kay

Varieties

• costuluto firoentino
  
• thessalonki
  
• superboy
  
• costuluto genovese
  
• san marzano paste
  
• eva purple ball
  
• homestead 24
  
• arkansas traveler
  
• yellow pear
  
• celebrity
  
• patio
  
• large red cherry
  
• sungold F1
  
• brandywine
  
• great white beefsteak
  
• roma
  
• purple calabash
  
• mortgage lifter
  

Mostly heirlooms.

Kay

My Grow List...

Orange Flesh Purple Smudge
Wapsipinicon Peach
Purple Calabash
Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red
Eva Purple Ball
Costoluto Genovese
Box Car Willie
Red Brandywine
Lescana
St. Ivy
Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter
Omar's Lebanese
Fireball
Black Early
Sungold F1
Black Cherry
Bloody Butcher