So Texans, Where do you Stand on Tomatoes?

[karstopography]

I’ve got some suspended tomatoes like that @TomatoNut95 . Seems like last season that after a few tomatoes got ripe and I removed them from the plant, some of those suspended ones “woke” up. Those fused, mega-blossoms tomatoes can get pretty ugly, though, if they do eventually grow. Cherokee Purple was notorious for this type of thing in my garden and one of the reasons I don’t grow it anymore.

What’s sort of weird is how some of the plants have a whole lot of mega-blooms and others don’t, in the same garden at the same time. I’d rather the tomato be less complicated and I could see myself cutting off a weirdly formed tomato at that early stage.

[karstopography]

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Instead of cutting more bamboo I decided to run sisal baling twine between the existing bamboo. Figured the wind load on the bamboo could be shared and distributed the bamboo that way and it was less labor intensive than cutting new poles.

The Cat-faced tomato is Red Barn.

[PlainJane]

You’ve got some serious production happening on that Red Barn.

[bower]

FWIW @TomatoNut95 we get those 'stunted' early fruit sets up north here as well, on some varieties. They do sometimes come on, and if you really want to see them, try cutting down the plant at the end of season to the point just above the tiny sets. Most will try or manage to grow a fruit out of it, but might not be full size.
I think some varieties made these no-grows because night temperature wasn't 60F. When they get busy with babies higher on the vine and better temperatures, they grow the upper fruit first.
In other cases, I think there's been a bit of mite damage at the early stage of setting. The plant isn't sure they'll make a healthy fruit - and when I've had them grow at the end of season, they had a lot of scarring on the peels which looked like damage.
OTOH the really catfaced fruit that are growing up lumpy, I also remove them if there are good looking sets, because mine usually ripen unevenly and are not worth the energy put into them, in the end.

[SpookyShoe]

A hornworm(s) ate about half my Paul Robeson plant before I even knew what was happening.

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[karstopography]

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Several of the larger types now breaking color including this Pruden’s Purple. Black From Tula, Black Krim, a couple more Pruden’s Purple tomatoes have broken color, most I let remain on the vine.

Possibly others, I didn’t do a thorough search. A little rain was happening and I had places to go.

BER been showing up with a few of them. Not Pruden’s Purple. Worst still is Black From Tula. Hoy had I think three tomatoes get BER.

[MissS]

I'm excited for you. It won't be long now at all. Now you can show the Gotch how to make a delectable BLT and make him drool.

[SpookyShoe]

Cherokee Carbon is blushing.

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[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Now you can show the Gotch how to make a delectable BLT and make him drool.

Gotchberg Compound resident BLT Assembly Engineers aren't needful of any manufacturing tips whatsoever.

Seeing there exist some who would require initial...(remedial?)...assistance, the lovely and long-suffering Mrs. Gotch is willing to provide it at no charge!***

***Although there may be some costs.......

The Gotch

[karstopography]

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BLT ammunition.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

BLT ammunition.

Keep yer 'Maters dry....them there coupla Avocadoes may supply some Guacamole, into which I'll always mix some fresh Tomatoes

The Gotch

[TomatoNut95]

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Young Nicky Crain.

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Young Megablossom on my Westerlund.

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A wadded up bud on my Domingo. I hope it unfurls!

May the 4th be with y'all!

[SpookyShoe]

Paul Robeson

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[SpookyShoe]

Carmello.

These first ones are rather small.

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[TomatoNut95]

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I'm rather concerned about this blossom. Looks like someone scrunched it all up. I'm assuming it's just deformed?

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Megablossom on Westerlund.

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Nicky Crain.

[SpookyShoe]

The Black Krim and Carmello are loaded with tomatoes.

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[karstopography]

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An update and general impressions from the 2024 season.

1. No regret for planting only 12 non-cherry types. Still getting more fruit than we can eat and plenty to share. Taking care of the reduced amount of tomato plants is a bonus.

2. Red Barn, Pruden’s Purple and Sart Roloise are the current favorites. I had a tremendously delicious Red Barn tomato for lunch the other day. We all shared a really nice Sart Roloise last night and that tomato won the taste test against a large Black Krim tomato. Pruden’s purple continues to shine.

3. Foliage Disease is virtually nonexistent. Thanks to very little rain, the tomatoes have been very healthy. All the rain has been 100 miles north of us.

4. BER rears its ugly head. Black from Tula, Hoy and Brandywine Cowlick’s are the worst. Pruden’s purple Red Barn. most of the rest have zero BER. I’m running the tomato plants on the dry side in spite of the BER.

5. Insect and rodent pests few and far between.

Anyway, still a lot of fruit out on the vines. Pretty pleased with the season.

[TomatoNut95]

Today I planted seed to Hoy and Micheal's Portuguese Monster.
Pruned on my other plants, stomped on a worm that was eating on one of my plants and potted up more microdwarfs. The Chocolate micro doesn't like Texas heat too well, it seems. My other micros, Valentine's Day, Zimmertomate Blau and Fat Frog don't seem to mind it. 1 Zimmer is loaded in green fruit with black streaking on the shoulders.

What would cause green fruits to stop growing? They're literally just stalled, probably because of the excess rain the past couple of weeks. The past two days were great but alas its going to rain again tomorrow.

[karstopography]

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The small tomatoes are piling up in spite of our best efforts to use them fresh. Means it is time to dehydrate a few.

[TomatoNut95]

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Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!