Tomato Tuesday/N. Calif. & Coastal Valleys

Welcome to the first installment of Tomato Tuesday 2011!!

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 it will be fun and informative to read about how other tomatoes in your region progress throughout the season. It's one of the things 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 this thread next week. It will be one looooong thread by October.
  
• Other regional forums may start a Tomato Tuesday as well, double-check that you are in the Northern California & Coastal Valleys forum when you post your report.
  
• Refer to first guideline.
  

Since there is no regional host for N. Calif. & Coastal Valleys 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

Well, I discovered this on Tuesday, but am not posting today b/c it's when I hopefully am on the way to fixing the issue. So with the recent rains in the Sacramento area, I noticed my tomatoes had what I think is early blight. It seemed to make sense with the irregularly shaped brown spots, especially on the lower leaves. Anyway, from this site here, I went out today and trimmed off all the affected leaves and sprayed the rest of the plant with the 1pt skim milk, 4 pt water, 1 tsp baking soda/qt water, few drops of dish soap mixture. Will update next Tues to see if the early blight's been contained or better yet, gone! Hoping for some hot sun beating down on the plants this weekend!

I tried to get these posted yesterday and the entire day disappeared, not sure where it went! Hope it's OK to post today! Al has worked really hard in our backyard with toms strung up similar to what Carolyn Phillips does. Here are a couple of shots...

(All of these plants were started in Feb from seeds) Al planted peppers and eggplant in front of the toms, about 1 per square (the grids were removed and not replaced!) and the sunflowers at the far end are volunteers from last year! They are nearly as tall as the 8' posts. The chair is where Al spends his early morning time, drinking a cup of coffee and planning what to do next!

Below is a Brandy Master that seems to have attached itself to the main trunk, AND the stem on this tom is growing into it's side. Odd!


This is the first time we've tried San Marzano toms...they look pretty good so far!


And if you know these are not the correct names, please let us know! A neighbor started the seeds for these toms, actually for all the plants we have...peppers, eggplant, toms...and somehow her labels were a bit confusing ... not sure the toms are all correctly identified and we know for sure that the pepper plants are not. We'll have some surprises as they continue to produce!

You can find our regular SFG boxes here
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t2996-modesto-central-valley-ca

@PNG_Grandma I'm growing San Marzanos for the first time as well. Yours are looking pretty good! Mine are just starting to show fruit. A friend of mine (originally from Italy), says these are the best tomatoes for making sauce, and from what I've read, it's definitely the tomato of choice for good sauce! Anyway, weird weather we've had the last couple of weeks. Early blight looks contained as the most affected plant hasn't seen any new occurrences of it. Not sure if the milk/baking soda sprayed was what prevented a second round of it after the rains last week. Regardless, everything looking as good as it can with me having to pinch suckers and training them up every few days or so.

07 Jun 2011
Yay, I'm actually posting pictures on TUESDAY! Here is the update on Al's toms in our backyard. In spite of our low temps lately, and waaaayyy too much rain, the toms are looking pretty good!

This plant, along with a few others has us a bit concerned...the toms are growing but the leaves are beginning to curl...any comments??


This guy is interesting, he's stuck up against the trunk and his own stem...and now he's getting a squishy face!


Here are the San Marzonos...lots of them, but again a few curled leaves.


This is a pot of ?? that might end up in my daughter's garden in Mountain View...if the rain stops long enough for us to get her garden boxes planted! In the meantime Al keeps this one right alongside his other toms and we're getting some color here!


Al continues to prune and string up his toms...and they LOVE it!


That's it for this week! Think SUN!!
PS If you have a chance take a look at the new pics in our Apollo Garden too!

I found this online. Mentions stress from overpruning or lack of water among othe causes.


http://www.ehow.com/list_5965949_remedies-leaf-curl-tomato-plants.html

Kay

I think the cool weather and rainy temps are doing it. Mine were doing that here before I ever started pruning them and during the wettest spring in a long time. They did it again today when a thunderstorm came through (temp dropped 15 degrees in about as many minutes). Kind of like the leaves on trees twisting up when it rains.

walshevak wrote:Mentions stress from overpruning or lack of water among othe causes.Kay

busygirl wrote:I think the cool weather and rainy temps are doing it.

Thanks! Al did some heavy pruning on a few of the plants so maybe that along with the rain... it's just been too wet...too much rain, not enough warm weather...today we're finally seeing some sunshine and no rain is predicted for at least a week...but we'll be heading up into the high 80s...gonna be a shock for some of our plants!

This is from P, in Mountain View:
Our tomatoes were planted today. Grandma and Al brought them from their house. They are little. Some have tomatoes on them, and some are turning reddish.

Looks like the early blight from the rain in mid-May didn't spread. Was out of town last week, get back and had to do major pruning. Tried to get some of the larger suckers, which even had some flower buds on it to root so I can give some plants to my friend who lost all his starts b/c he forgot to water them during a warm spell back in May, but they don't look too good (wilted). I've never done this before, but I put potting mix into a yogurt cup with holes in the bottom, stuck the suckers into the mix, and set the cups into a tupperware bin filled with water. Does it take a couple of days to get the roots to grow? Or is the wiltedness pretty much mean they're done?

My tomatoes seem to be doing well despite all of the cooler temps and rain. I found two tomatoes yesterday hiding in the middle of my plant. (No detailed pics yet) I honestly can't remember the type of tomatoes I planted. I just got them in the ground when I did my SFG. But holy cow did they take off! I'm only in week 5! I'm wondering how to prune. Does anyone have a link or just some tomato wisdom to share? Is it just pruning off the suckers? (This pic was actually taken last week and they have grown significantly more since this photo!

21 June 2011...the first day of Summer!!
(I tried to post these on Tuesday but had some weird issues with my computer!)
Our toms are lovin' it, but it sure is HOT out there for us. It's 6:50pm and it's still 103...YIKES!!
Here are the pics for this week...



...we think these might be the Beefsteak...any comments? The labels on the seedlings somehow danced their way into other paks...we know what we started, we just don't know for sure which are which...yet!


...these are the best looking toms we've grown in a very long time! Hope they taste as good as they're looking!


...Al plans to can toms this season...hope we have room for all he's growing!


...and this is my Squishy Face guy...interesting to watch him grow!


...and I have to include this REALLY TALL sunflower! It finally grew taller than the roof. The sunflower on the left is taller than the 8' crossbar over the top of Al's strung up toms! These were both volunteers from last year's sunflowers, that were also volunteers from the year before! Kinda like Jack and the Beanstalk, only this is Al and the Sunflowers!


Yesterday (Wednesday) was 104 here in Modesto...today and on through the early part of next week we should be in the 90's, no more triple digits for a while...but the toms are lovin' it!!

Hope the rains here in Northern California don't promote any mold or fungal issues for anyone! I was hoping the rain would stop early enough to maybe have some winds dry off the leaves, but it looks like they will go overnight wet. I do hope that the cooler weather today allowed my purple cherokee plant to actually get pollinated b/c I think the heat's been killing the pollen (ie 2 plants, many flowers, 1 fruit).

29 June 2011 Yeah, I know, it's Wednesday again...but I'm trying!
Yesterday we had a huge rainstorm! It started mid afternoon and continued well after dark. Al kept trying to tell us that it wouldn't rain here in Modesto, that the rain would only be north of Sacramento...yeah...and when it was really coming down my dad called and asked if Al had looked out the windows yet! Very funny. Anyway, here are some pics taken today...

We're finally getting some color on these guys!


This is a Ravello Hybrid. Al bought the seeds through Totally Tomatoes and we thought we'd try these instead of the Sweet 100's that we so like. (Al decided this for us...we're really giving him a bad time about it!! )


THIS is what we really wanted...and we don't know how we got it!! Al did not buy the seeds for this plant so we're thinking that the lady who started the seeds for him gave Al one of her plants accidentally. These taste soooo much better than the Ravellos do...waaaaaayyyy better!!


This poor San Marzano is not doing so well...not sure what's happening to it. Hope the upcoming hot weather will give it the boost it needs!


...and yet our other San Marzano is doing pretty well!


I can't forget my Squishy Face Guy!!


...and our growing taller sunflowers!


Those clouds are keeping the sun off things today...hope the humidity doesn't cause too much of a problem. So far, no rain today, and none predicted for any near future. We're only at about 78 today but over the next few days we're gonna get HOT!! By Monday, the 4th of July we'll be around 104 or so. Yikes!! No wonder our poor toms are having such a time getting set and ripening.

Pulled up the yellow pear b/c it succumbed to fusarium wilt (ie the leaves/stems turned brown and dry from the bottom up) and looks like one of my San Marzanos is doing the same. Others are doing okay and starting to ripen. Been picking a couple of sweet 100's every other day or so. Hope my plants make it to Oct! Hope everyone else's tomatoes are doing well midway through the season!

Here is the second "over a pound" that we've harvested...and more are on the way! These taste as delish as they look.
We sliced the first one for hamburgers with our grandsons on Sunday and the tomato slices were way bigger than the buns!

This is a Beefsteak and this is the one we'll grow next year too!


I'm sure many of you harvest this size every year, but for us this is a first! Yeah, the first of many more years!

You go, Al!

What did the big tomato say to the little tomato while on their walk?