Tomato Tuesday/Mid-Atlantic Region

First off you are probably wondering what Tomato Tuesday is, right? It's simply a weekly report or update on how our tomatoes are progressing. Join in and post your reports . It doesn't have to be a long drawn out report and it is not required, but I think it wll be fun and informative to read about how other tomatoes in the region progress throughout the season. It's one of the thing we hold in common as a region.

Very easy guidelines for posting your Tomato Tuesday reports...

• Have fun with this!
  
• Report only on Tuesday if at all possible.
  
• Use this same thread to post your reports through the end of the season. In other words, don't start a new thread each Tuesday. That way it will be easy to find the next week. It will be one looooong thread by October.
  
• Other regional forums may start Tomato Tuesday as well, double-check that you are in the Mid-Atlantic forum when you post your report.
  
• Refer to first guideline.
  

Since there is no regional host for Mid-Atlantic region yet, anyone can start their tomato report today if they like. Don't wait! You can check the other regional forums that have Tomato Tuesdays going on if you want to see what others are posting about.

Got tomatoes? We want to hear about them!
pattipan

My cherokee tomatoes are about 5 inches tall, and my amish paste are even smaller than that.
I have some bradleys that are about 7 inches tall and I planted some cherry seeds yesterday.

They all seem to be doing well!!

Can't wait until I can enjoy my first harvest (probably in late June)

Weatherkid

I moved a roma tomato plant into a pot because I ended up getting two other varieties (sungold and ramapo) that I wanted to put in my SFG. All three are doing okay, the roma is getting quite big, the other two are growing okay, but I've got a couple yellow leaves. I'd guess the two in the SFG are about four or five inches high.

Sorry I'm a day late . . .

This year I've decided on San Marzanos (hoping to make sauce). I've got a few other varieties, but I wanted to put this separately.

I'm wondering if anyone else used the "trench" method to plant? Taking off the lower leaves, laying the stem in a trench to produce more roots that are closer to the surface. This also makes them a bit shorter. : )

Anyway they're growing really well and I've had to pinch off suckers every few days. Yesterday I noticed they are going to flower soon.

They were started in the greenhouse on Jan. 25th and are ranging between 12 - 15" in height.

Well the San Marzanos are averaging 20" (again I used the trenching method when I transplanted them so they will be shorter than usual). Seeing a few flower buds (and even one open blossom). I saw a bee around some nearby clover so I'm hoping for some good pollination.

OPINIONS please . . . when the blossoms seem to be finished, the fruit just about to change from green to red, should I cover with a really thin gauze to keep the stink bugs out?

Here's a picture from today:

I would take a gauze type fabric and wait until the fruit sets and then wrap them. Perhaps you have an old pair of panty hose that can expand with the growing fruit? I live in the eastern part of Baltimore county and have not seen too many stink bugs. I am putting out the sticky yellow fly paper as I have heard that may work. Haven't tested it yet but the time is getting here.
I have a very vigorous Brandywine tomato that is setting fruit already. Grew it in my basement this winter. Buried it about 6" with lime and compost mixed in. It is now about 15-20" tall I would guess. Love that homemade compost. If anyone is in the region and would like me to help you get started composting, let me know. It's very rewarding. I will post pictures of my newly renovated garden after we get past all the graduation hoopla if you know what I mean. After my son's graduation in early June, I'll have lots of time and I love to help people with gardens.

I have 8 tomato plants currently that all seem to be doing rather well. The one doing the best is my Lemon Boy Tomatoes (yellow!! ), but the others look good too.


I have 6 Lemon Boy's about the size of a smallish baseball and on the other plants I've probably got about 25 "in utero" tomatoes. My plants are about 3' tall.

Yay me!!

hhhmmm not sure I'll have the patience to wrap each tomato (12 San Marzanos + 1 cherry & 2 zebras) and I don't "do" panty hose. But it sounds like a good idea.

The only stink bugs I've seen so far are (behind the shutters on the house when they were doing the siding), maybe 5 in the house (now gone) and a baby on (of all things) my lettuce.

I've heard that earlier fruiting crops should be pretty safe & San Marzanos fall into that category.

I understand not having the patience to wrap them. The alternative may be to wrap the entire plant. But, my guess would be that all of that would be futile if the stink bugs do show themselves. So far - so good at my house. Hopefully, they will only eat a few and I'll just eat the rest. LOL!

It's my understanding that they only show up on the plants when the tomatoes start turning red. I think my plan will be to wrap the whole plant when the fruits are still green.

Just one week and the San Marzanos have gone from 20" to 32.5". Will have to break out the tape measure next week

Sorry this isn't on Tuesday, but on Tuesday I saw my first blossom on my tomato plants. Very excited!!

LOL I can't wait until next Tuesday . . . I saw little tomatoes today.

Well the Zebra's are doing well. 27" and fruiting:





And the San Marzano's also:





Well I won't be posting for 3 weeks as I'll be on vacation.

Enjoy your vacation. Hope you have fun and come back to a garden filled with ripe tomatoes

Alas, I have good news and bad news. The roma tomato plant is doing fairly well and has some little tomatoes on it, but I found aphids on it too.

And my two tomato plants in the sfg are not in great shape. The sungold (on the left) looks better, and has some little buds, but it definitely had aphids on it. And the ramapo (on the right) looks really rough. Any suggestions?



HEre's a close up of the ramapo:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/973270/natural_aphid_pesticides_10_ecofriendly.html

Have a fun and safe vacation.

Well I got back 7 PM last night and took a quick tour of the garden when I got home. It looked like "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes"!

Woke up at 6 AM, and with pruners in hand, ventured out into the garden to do battle.

The San Marzanos are between 4-5 feet tall and the fruits are looking beautiful. The eating tomatoes are also doing well.

San Marzanos are starting to ripen. Put on a row cover to HOPEFULLY keep the stink bugs off. So far so good.

Sungolds and the Romas from the first flowering that survived are ripening. The Moretons and Ramapo I planted later in June are flowering nicely, and I've seen a few tomatoes on them too, so life is good. It was so great to taste my first sungold of the year!

Finally got my first Brandywine tomatoes! One was huge that I actually weighed and it was slightly over 1 pound. I wanted to leave it on the plant just a day or two more but we are going to have horrific heat until Sunday so I picked it now. Didn't want to lose it. Other tomatoes are doing ok but by far, the best producer this year is my Brandywine. I take special delight in knowing I started this plant from seed myself.

I have been slowly receiving cherry tomatoes which are orange in color when ripe (I didn't realize it that would be the color! - so cool and yummy).

All my other tomato plants have alot of green tomatoes - with all this heat you would think they would ripen quickly - I can't wait!

Dunkinjean

I know it's not Tuesday, but nowadays I do what I can when I can.

Here's a picture of the San Marzanos I pulled out of the garden this morning. I've had to take some of them early so the stink bugs don't get them (I've lost 6 to them so far).



Hope y'all are doing well.

Kim

What a HAUL! Sauce time!

GG