I wanted to start a new topic in response to a question Julianna asked in another topic rather than hijack that one, but this is open to all who are growing tomatoes this year. So please chime in. Pics are also welcome! Of course, this is more for us northern gardeners who have YET to taste a homegrown tomato!!

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Originally posted by Sorellina:

Are you doing that this year or going with the wooden stakes? You've already done sooo much work with those raised beds and the light setup before that! Those cages look like a lot of work, not to mention the band-aids you'll probably need for your hands.

Also, just curious, since we're at about the same growing rate, whose got fruit-set in your tomato garden? I've only got Borgo Cellano, Sungold F1 (your seeds), Kotlas, Moskvich, Orange Strawberry, Kimberley, Sophie's Choice, Whippersnapper, and today Mountain Princess. Flowers are exploding everywhere now, though..finally.

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Ciao Julianna! I should have enough mesh to cage all but a few of my plants. I have a couple golf ball sized fruit on Kimberly and 8 total. Others that have set for me are SFT, New Big Dwarf, Lucky Leprechaun, Lime Green Salad, Stump of the World, Omar's Lebanese, Mortgage Lifter, Sungold, Grub's Mystery Green, and Citron Compact. That's all I can remember. There could be more but I haven't checked them all since Tuesday evening. Looking forward to Kimberly ripening soon!

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John - Zone 6

oh yeah I forgot to mention the types, 4 of the tomato plants are lemon boy and the other 4 were unmarked when I got them.

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people tell me I have the body of a god... too bad its buddah.

I'm growing only one yellow pear tomato now, and it's about 3 feet tall with a few flowers.
I'm growing it up a cedar stake, and it is lightly tied to the stake with twine.
My Celebrity was destroyed by a fungus of some kind, so I yanked it out and bagged it in plastic for the trash.
The Sungold cherry is doing well, but the tomatoes tasted so horrible (to me) that I gave the plant to a neighbor.
My bell pepper has one good sized pepper and two smaller ones.
The strawberries are providing me with warm, sweet snacks, a few ripen each week.

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I have one Mr Stripey, and some Sweet 100 cherries. The cherries have lots of blooms, but no fruit yet. Mr Stripey has had some blooms but no fruit yet.

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Real women don't have hot flashes -- we have power surges!

Dang Angie! You can send any extra my way! Did you grow your jalepeno from seed?

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Bote and Babe's World

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Originally posted by johnCT:
Of course, this is more for us northern gardeners who have YET to taste a homegrown tomato!!

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Nothing like being excluded from the party!!!
I harvested 4 Principe Borghese tomatoes the other day.

I guess I'll keep the picture of my ripening Cherokee Purple to my self....

{walking away pouting}



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Some days there is more laughter than others....Just depends on what/who you focus on....

Mator, aw, come on, let us see the picture of the Cherokee Purple !

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Have 44 Cherry Tomato type plants planted- 11 Large fruited Cherry Plants, 11 Gardeners Delight Cherry Toms,11 Supersweet 100 Cherrys, and 11 Juliets. I put mine in the garden on Memorial weekend- started them all from seed though earlier. Alot of them are now flowering- but the plants are growing big fast! Hopefully they should fruit soon!

Thanks for all the great replies!! Keep us updated on production, taste, disease, etc!

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Originally posted by mator sandwich:
I guess I'll keep the picture of my ripening Cherokee Purple to my self....

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Hey now!! That is completely unfair!!

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Originally posted by Sorellina:

Wow, you already have fruit set on your Silvery Fir Tree..sigh, mine doesn't even have an open blossom on it yet.

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SFT was started early with Kimberly and Taxi on March 11th. I'm actually suprised it's taken so long, but the weather so far this spring has been terrible for growing. Yes, it is getting close. I just wish the weather would start to cooperate. The past seven days have been good, but now this weekend we're supposed to get 6 to 8 inches of rain again.

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John - Zone 6

Dave, you know....I noticed some suspect leaves that I removed last night on my Mortgage Lifter. It might be nothing. It's a little early for blight around here. That isn't seed you got from me is it?

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John - Zone 6

No, John, the seed was Ferry Morse or Burpees that I got from either Lowe's or WM. I've picked off the infected leaves, and they look ok, but we've been having some rain, so I'll have to watch closely. They're not the only plants getting it. It's common to have some here. They are the ones that seem to be the most affected, and they're growing in different parts of the garden among other varieties that aren't affected yet so I suspect it's not the growing conditions...

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Dave
Even my growlights are getting restless!

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Originally posted by weezie13:
a couple of mine

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John - Zone 6

Best cherry I've found yet is the Jellybean - great to dry also

Ciao all,

Here is my update and I thought I'd include only the date of first fruit set for each variety and add to this list as I go along. Hopefully this information will be marginally interesting for people apart from myself, John, and Dave, lol. I considered including date of first open flower and number of fruit, but decided against it because I'm trying to marginalize my tendency to be overly anal-retentive. Ok, here goes and I apologize for some redundancy..an attempt for complete notes. I'm going in order by row and bed.

Main Bed

Opalka #6: 25 June
Orange Banana: 23 June
Borgo Cellano: 18 June
Cuostralee: 23 June
Cherokee Purple: 24 June
Aunt Ruby's German Green: 23 June
Brandywine Yellow Platfoot Strain: 23 June
Black Heart: 21 June
Prue: 25 June
Anna Russian: 25 June
Manyel: 23 June
Black Krim: 25 June
Sungold F1: 18 June

Left New Bed

Aunt Gertie's Gold NOT: 24 June
Grub's Mystery Green: 24 June

Right New Bed

Kotlas: 18 June
Moskvich: 25 June
Happy F1: 24 June

Munchkin's Garden

Sophie's Choice: 20 June
Whippersnapper: 12 June

Front Patio

Patio Orange (pot): 25 June

Driveway

Mountain Princess (bucket): 22 June
Kimberley (bucket): 18 June

This last week of cooler weather has helped all of the plants set fruit. A full truss of Manyel and Green Grape abcissed I'm pretty sure due to high heat and humidity. Most of the plants are between 3-4' in height now, with a few exceptions which were very small at transplantation and are not showing any signs of buds at the moment. I have what I think may be curly leaf virus on the smaller of my Kotlas plants..I need to confirm that with a picture sent to "the experts". I counted 23 flowers on one German Red Strawberry flower cluster. Holy Mary, mother of God if all of those set fruit!

Cheers and happy growing,
Julianna

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Julianna, I attempted to get Sophie's Choice, but couldn't come up with it. Let me know how that one is. Yellow BW too.

Dave, your plants are really coming into full swing!

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Originally posted by Mothman:
Best cherry I've found yet is the Jellybean - great to dry also

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Mothman, how many cherry varieties have you tried?

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John - Zone 6

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Originally posted by tkhooper:
It produces great but the tomatoes don't taste as well as the parent did.

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Seed saved from hybrids, which most supermarket tomatoes are, do not normally taste anything like the parents. This is exactly how the big commercial seed companies want it. FORCES you to go to them for the seed.

No problem TK! Did you have other brandywine plants that succomb to disease or something?

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John - Zone 6

I planted 6 La Roma II tomatoes. My first ripe tomato off of them probably weighed close to a half pound! It was huge. My neighbor kept insisting that I should have picked it while orangey-yellow and ripened it in the house, which I absolutely refused to do. When do you guys pick your mators? I've probably thrown away 2 dozen BER tomatoes, and each plant still has a least a dozen healthy mators. These tomatoes (even when ripened on the vine) are a little on the bland side. Not like the slicing tomatoes I'm used to growing.

Sarah

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Sarah - Zone 5b/6

I have 8 tomato plants--4 are Roma's, one is a cherry and the other 3 I don't know what they are--a big boy maybe and an early girl? I have some pretty green tomatoes on all the plants but it'll still be a while yet before I get to eat/harvest any.

Except for the cherry tomatoes. I expect to have some in a week or two from it.

I'm in northern South Dakota and got my plants in well before the recommended time for my area--I think mine were in in very early May.

Yes, I am north of there but pretty close. I have been to the pageant (?) they do there, but not since I was a little girl.

JohnCT, what does tomato blight look like? And what causes it?

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UH OH

I just read, that some pick off the flowers when the tomato is set.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Have I somehow missed a whole step?

Also does anyone here use copper spray or dust for tomato plants.

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Thanks, John, that's a really helpful site-I've bookmarked it for future reference.

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Thank you,John, for the help on my 'mater' questions.
I am sooooooooo ready for mine to ripen. Maybe I will have a few by late next week. MMMMMM I spied a little zucchini today.

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I picked my first New Girl on Monday, and another yesterday. My New Girl and my earlier Brandywine are now over 6 feet tall!.

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Terry

May the force be with you

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Originally posted by Sorellina:
largely compulsive,

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LARGELY!!

Julianna, I wouldn't say WAY ahead. The largest fruit on Kimberly hasn't shown any sign of ripening.

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John - Zone 6