Sunrise Bumblebee, showing its stripes even when green.

Went ahead and picked all the color breakers late yesterday with the forecast getting increasingly worse. Good thing as we’ve had 2” and it’s still raining.

9 tomatoes exceed 400 grams. Biggest two are Persimmon and Kellogg’s Breakfast at 555 grams a piece. The dark tomatoes have all made an appearance by now as have the Pinks except Domingo and Dester. Pineapple and Gold Medal still a long way off. Hopefully, I won’t get too many split fruit.

The year I should have grown more tomatoes.
But you just never know.

worth1 wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 11:32 am The year I should have grown more tomatoes.
But you just never know.

I’m growing too many, but they’ll all find good homes. My mom’s Monday mah jongg group has ordered some. I’ll freeze any I can’t eat fresh or give away.

Late on my tomatoes this year what with hail, bad weather and health issues. But they are in and a couple blooming already. They are shaded from the worst of the late afternoon sun and heat a bit. Better late tomatoes than none at all. The strawberries are in full sun, and will scatter some chervil seed in with them soon, to hide the berries from the birds.

I have about 25 pounds of fruit ripening on the counter now not counting the cherry tomatoes. Every tomato I eaten has been excellent this year thus far. Only two small tomatoes have gotten BER on one Kellogg’s Breakfast plant. Zero squirrel or worm damage to date. Too many things going extremely well, it’s kind of freaking me out.

I ate my first wee little Juliet tomato today.
Better than store bought.
Hopefully I'll get enough for a fresh salsa and a few other things.

We got somewhere between 3 and 4 inches of rain on Wednesday. Some of my ripening cherry tomatoes have split. They are in the lowest bed in the most wet spot. My garden sits on a slope, rare around these parts, thanks to some meander scars from the Brazos river or whatever the Karankawas called it, likely sometime between 200-300 hundred years ago and maybe as old as a thousand years. These oxbow lakes form when a river changes course, but the lakes themselves are on a geological clock and have a lifespan. The Karankawas had large camps on the shores of the lake as evidenced by the extensive trash heaps of clam shell, oyster shells, turtle shells, alligator bones, ruminant bones and the ceramic shards, and chert. The Karankawas were pretty much wiped out by 200 years ago by anglo settlers or the Comanche. Oxbow lakes expand and shallow up as they age and eventually get too shallow to survive the droughts, then becoming vegetation choked swamps. This lake is still 11’ feet deep and gets supplemental water pumped in from its mother river, the Brazos, during droughts through Harris reservoir, down Oyster Creek and then into the lake.

The premier pink tomatoes and other large fruited tomatoes sit at the top of the slope and are about three feet in elevation above the cherry tomatoes maybe 60’ to the east and downslope 3’. The pink tomatoes sit on the same ridge as the house. The lot has four ridges and three basins. All the basins fill with water in big rains and drain to the south, but they tend to collect water in extra heavy long duration rains.

Anyhow, the top of the ridge drains especially well and helps the tomatoes growing there not to take up too much water and split.

I’m trying to keep track of my harvest of the slicer/beefsteak types. These are the numbers as of this morning. Total and average weight for each variety. Domingo, Gold Medal, Aussie, Dester, and Pineapple have yet to ripen a fruit. Lost two True Black Brandywine to squirrels this morning, first losses to those rodents this year.

BTW, you people that say squirrels are eating tomatoes solely for the water, please stop saying that. There’s literally puddles of clean water surrounding the garden and yet the squirrels are going, as they do every year, for the tomatoes. Maybe moisture and the lack of the availability of moisture is a reason squirrels bite into tomatoes, but it isn’t the sole reason.

karstopography wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2023 8:25 am IMG_5852.jpeg

I’m trying to keep track of my harvest of the slicer/beefsteak types. These are the numbers as of this morning. Total and average weight for each variety. Domingo, Gold Medal, Aussie, Dester, and Pineapple have yet to ripen a fruit. Lost two True Black Brandywine to squirrels this morning, first losses to those rodents this year.

Thanks for posting this; I'd love to see updated results periodically if you can post them. I wish I had the self-discipline to keep track like this. I try, and my efforts last about two weeks before I give up.

Are you including the weight of lost/spoiled fruit in your totals?

Seven Bends wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2023 8:56 am

karstopography wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2023 8:25 am IMG_5852.jpeg

I’m trying to keep track of my harvest of the slicer/beefsteak types. These are the numbers as of this morning. Total and average weight for each variety. Domingo, Gold Medal, Aussie, Dester, and Pineapple have yet to ripen a fruit. Lost two True Black Brandywine to squirrels this morning, first losses to those rodents this year.

Thanks for posting this; I'd love to see updated results periodically if you can post them. I wish I had the self-discipline to keep track like this. I try, and my efforts last about two weeks before I give up.

Are you including the weight of lost/spoiled fruit in your totals?

No to keeping track of weights or numbers on the lost or spoiled fruit. I also lost two small Kellogg’s Breakfast to BER. I think I’ve knocked off two or three unripe fruit also. No tracking on the cherry/grape or Japanese Black Trifele.

I’ll try to keep going with updates. In previous years, various things frustrated my efforts to keep track, losses to vermin, untimely absences, lack of discipline, etc.

Losses have been exceptionally low this season to date as compared to previous seasons. The squirrels can change that in a hurry, but I’ll do what I can to mitigate their damages. I’ve been on top of the worm activity so far much better than in previous efforts. BER was a serious issue last season, but has barely surfaced this year.

There’s still a lot of fruit on the plants.

Another downpour today, could have been worse, though, we got an inch, but others nearby got more, plus hail.

Tomato plants out there are fine, the only issues I see are that my sungold tomatoes are splitting. The bigger fruit types aren’t splitting at all.

I just picked the ones in the colander.

karstopography wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2023 6:19 pm IMG_1392.jpegIMG_1384.jpegIMG_1390.jpegIMG_1382.jpegIMG_1383.jpegIMG_1381.jpeg

Another downpour today, could have been worse, though, we got an inch, but others nearby got more, plus hail.

Tomato plants out there are fine, the only issues I see are that my sungold tomatoes are splitting. The bigger fruit types aren’t splitting at all.

At first I thought that black truck in the background was a bear.

Updated numbers. 31 more fruit picked since last Tuesday. Just shy of 20 pounds picked in the same time frame.

There’s some big ones getting close. Looks like I might have my first ever 2# plus tomato with Domingo. Last year’s biggest was a 1#, 13 ounce Hoy. This Domingo looks quite a bit bigger than that.

Domingo (MMMM swap seed) tomato looking rather large. Photos don’t do this tomato justice. I put a 1 pound 3 ounce tomato i had picked next to this one and the Domingo tomato was much, much larger. Could it make a kilogram or is that too much to ask?

This is one weird looking Black Krim. Obviously the product of fused blossoms.

Finally, just picked three Loki, and one mortgage lifter and it isn't very big, lol.

My biggest now this season is 605 grams, a rather ugly dester tomato that is a product of a fused blossom.

Latest harvest numbers as of this afternoon. Over 100 fruit and over 70 pounds. Still not much in the way of losses from bugs or squirrels.

Lots more to come. Looks like more good numbers of fruit coming in the following weeks up into July. Biggest ones still out on the vines.