So Texans, Where do you Stand on Tomatoes?

[Rockporter]

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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.

I wish I had the drive to keep track of weights and measures on my harvest, especially the tomatoes.

[karstopography]

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Busted through the 2 pound and the kilogram plus tomato barrier with the Domingo tomato. 1,102 grams, 1.1 kilograms or 2 pounds, 6.9 ounces. MMMM seed received early in January, seed planted mid-January, then transplanted into raised bed the last week of February, maybe on the 24th. First fruit to reach 2 pounds for me after trying the last couple of years. Hoy got to 1#13ounces last year. Domingo, based on this fruit and the others still on the plant, is better at producing big fruit than Hoy.

[karstopography]

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Best first half of the spring season ever. 80 pounds plus inside not counting cherry/small fruited types. All but Pineapple have given up at least one tomato. Black Krim is the current leader at 18 fruit inside. No hornworms in a month. One or two armyworms. A few leaf-footed bugs mainly bothering the out of control cherry tomatoes. Dozens and dozens more large fruit, more currently on the vines than have been brought in, with plenty of newly set ones setting up ripe tomatoes well into July. Squirrels have gotten two True Black Brandywine, that’s all. BER got a total of three tomatoes. Never have things gone this smoothly.

Biggest to date is the two pound 6.9 ounce Domingo. That will likely be the high water mark. There’s a couple more on Domingo that are edging towards two pounds, but I doubt they get there.

Grateful for such an outstanding season.

[karstopography]

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91 pounds with a count of 134 tomatoes as of yesterday evening.

Tomatoes picked at color break gradually lose a little weight as they continue to ripen inside, they all do. The big Domingo has shed a little over 1/2 an ounce. But, I’ve yet to cut into anything like a dry tomato other than something like San Marzano in previous seasons and those aren’t supposed to be so juicy.

I had the first Domingo I picked, a runt at just over 13 ounces, and it was really good! The ripening of the big one is smoothing out with pink breaking out all over. There’s two more beauties out on the vine that are getting close to color break and are single blossom fruits, very symmetrical, and really big for single, uncomplicated flower fruits. Domingo was on my MMMM please save seed list card and I plan on saving quite a bit. I forgot to examine the first fruit 13 ounce Domingo for seediness. Some of these big tomatoes are surprisingly very low on seed numbers.

Pineapple still has not yielded its first fruit. Probably shouldn’t have spilled the composted chicken manure around the root zone! The plant is full of medium to large fruit now and likely well over 10 feet tall. I can tie the tomato plants up to the stakes to about 8 feet above the raised beds, but above that they are on their own. Pineapple has tumbled beyond that point and is forming the curvy shapes indeterminate tomato plants do that have grown beyond the supports.

If our Spring tomato season has a heart, I’m in it. Should blow by 100 pounds of tomatoes by the end of the weekend. Still appear to be setting fruit out there with these nights in the 60s. Thank goodness for the Columbia Bottomlands forests cooling off so well at night. Out in the far less leafy and not too distant urban sprawl air temperatures are 5 or more degrees warmer at night. Flow off the Gulf of Mexico has been inconsistent and mostly weak and a goodly amount of drier air is in place allowing for the nightly cooling. The weather was just like this last season at this time of year.

I only wish all of the tomatoes were blooming well now, but enough are I think to keep the supply of fruit going into mid July and perhaps beyond. Last season, I had a reasonable amount of August slicer/beefsteak fruit and I think things are trending that way again.

[PlainJane]

A few duds, but overall a great year for me too in North Florida. Next year I’m going to stagger my planting out by 2 weeks instead of 1 to see if it makes a difference with disease. I had a lot of early blight and septoria crawling around; how about you @karstopography?

[karstopography]

@PlainJane I won’t say the foliage is blemish free on all or any the tomatoes, it varies. Whatever they have had has been mostly limited to lower branches or not especially spreading. Some of the heirlooms like SOTW and Persimmon are fighting or have been fighting with early blight, but nothing fatal. Septoria, same story. I’d have to go out there and study the foliage to see how each variety has faired. Pruden’s Purple seems pretty strong with vigorous healthy growth. Pruden’s Purple is eight feet tall and still flowering. SOTW, on the otherhand, is half as tall and has been one of the weaker, less resistant to disease plants. It has stopped flowering . But, SOTW still has seven or so tomatoes on it and those look good. Pruden’s and SOTW are in the same bed and receive the same treatment.

Dester is strong and largely disease free. Pineapple and Gold Medal are almost identical plants in looks, with blue-green tinted foliage that is very disease resistant. Brandywine OTV and True Black Brandywine are both not the most vigorous of plants. Of my potato leafed plants, Pruden’s Purple is by far the most vigorous.

I have not had to prune much off beyond about two feet off the soil/mulch level and some plants less than that.

I did notice the beginnings of spider mites on True Black Brandywine. That tomato is about done, anyway.

[karstopography]

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@PlainJane since it is said a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought I’d take a few of what I was attempting to describe.

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Above is SOTW with foliage

Below is Pruden’s Purple with Foliage

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Some others, Gold Medal

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Pineapple

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[PlainJane]

@karstopography your foliage is definitely in better shape than mine. Your plants are spaced further apart is another thing I’m noticing. (I have 2 per 30 gallon grow bag so they’re pretty intermingled.)

[karstopography]

@karstopography your foliage is definitely in better shape than mine. Your plants are spaced further apart is another thing I’m noticing. (I have 2 per 30 gallon grow bag so they’re pretty intermingled.)

I decided to space them out a bit more this year. Overall, I like the more spaced out plan I’m doing now. I want to grow fewer tomatoes with the increased spacing next year and focus more on some varieties that I really like. I’m pruning less and I think that has overall been a positive. More spacing allows me to let the plants form more stems without crowding.

I do spray kelp emulsion every two weeks or so. I don’t know if it helps, but If I spray Bt, I put the kelp in there with it. Kelp does have significant copper and other metals and metals like copper fight fungus.

[PlainJane]

I am absolutely going to rethink my tomato spacing next year, and may even restrict to 1 tomato per grow bag.

[karstopography]

I am absolutely going to rethink my tomato spacing next year, and may even restrict to 1 tomato per grow bag.

I gave them all a major haircut today. Filled up my geo-composting bin with tomato foliage. Fruitworms are suddenly making their presence known

[Seven Bends]

@karstopography Beautiful fruit cluster on that Gold Medal plant! I'd been wondering why your chart kept showing only one fruit from that plant, and a small one at that. Now I see it's just taking its sweet time ripening them.

[karstopography]

@karstopography Beautiful fruit cluster on that Gold Medal plant! I'd been wondering why your chart kept showing only one fruit from that plant, and a small one at that. Now I see it's just taking its sweet time ripening them.

Yes, there was a weird little runt down low that must have set extra early.

[karstopography]

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Crashed through 100 pounds and now stand just over 110 pounds harvested and 159 tomatoes. Lost a couple more to fruitworms, a pineapple and persimmon, then a young Pruden’s purple in a big wind last night, but still nothing really bad. Tied up the couple of plants the windstorm, sans any appreciable rain, tossed around. The wind broke the dried out inadequate bamboo support stakes. Put out some organic granular 7-6-9 to continue to support the fruit and foliage development. Looks like we are entering a wetter period after a long stretch of dry.

Top tomato plant for production currently is Black Krim at over 14 pounds and 29 fruit. Running smaller on the fruit than last season, must be the numbers of fruit keeping down the weight. There’s still more out on the plant so maybe it will get to 20 pounds. Last year, the squirrels got all but one black krim, but this year they are steering clear.

[karstopography]

I’m working on my ideas for grow lists for 2024 based on the middle of the season results from 2023.

Pruden’s Purple will certainly return in 2024, that’s the plan. Too gosh darn good to eat not to grow again, the plant seems reasonably resilient and resistant to disease, and the production is at least good enough at this stage with potential for more. I saved seed and also might use the seed from the commercial vendor seed packet and grow two, three or even four of these plants in 2024.

Domingo was a surprise on how big it can get here and also the overall great flavor. The plant is open and airy, but vigorous and disease resistant. Got to make a return in 2024.

My two best overall dark tomatoes have been Carbon and Black Krim. Flavor, production, disease resistance, they both top Bear Creek and True Black Brandywine. Bear Creek is tasty, but not especially vigorous. True Black Brandywine, maybe I need to taste a couple more, but so far, I’m not connected with this one.

Most the rest are in limbo, although Dester will likely be a 2024 finalist. Healthy vigorous plant, productive, maybe not quite as good as Pruden’s Purple on flavor, still, very delicious and popular here amongst the family.

Brandywine OTV will not make a return in 2024. It has a terrible habit of making tomatoes with enormous, misshapen blossom scars, the plant isn’t especially healthy or robust, and it isn’t all that productive.

I’ll try to give a more detailed rating towards the end of the season when I get a better handle on all the particulars.

Next year, I want to grow out more determinate cherry or small fruited tomatoes. These indeterminate cherry tomatoes become far too large and unmanageable here in our climate even if they tend to crank out a lot of fruit. Principe Borghese will certainly be back in 2024. I’ve grown fond of drying these tomatoes and they seem pretty perfect for that application and the plants are very manageable.

[karstopography]

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I dehydrated some of the Cherry types. This time, I left all the seeds in and only went semi-dry, they should be safe in the freezer. The first batch I did a week or so ago I went full dry and took out most the pulp and seeds, but I think the pulp and seeds in, semi-dried is a better option. Prinicipe Borghese is the gold standard of dried tomatoes I believe, perfect little coins of tomato deliciousness.

Meanwhile, the bigger tomatoes are piling up in spite of efforts at giving them away. I won’t let them rot, however, so some will go into the freezer before the rot sets in. If I can get my act together, I’ll attempt a tomato tart today.

[worth1]

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I dehydrated some of the Cherry types. This time, I left all the seeds in and only went semi-dry, they should be safe in the freezer. The first batch I did a week or so ago I went full dry and took out most the pulp and seeds, but I think the pulp and seeds in, semi-dried is a better option. Prinicipe Borghese is the gold standard of dried tomatoes I believe, perfect little coins of tomato deliciousness.

Meanwhile, the bigger tomatoes are piling up in spite of efforts at giving them away. I won’t let them rot, however, so some will go into the freezer before the rot sets in. If I can get my act together, I’ll attempt a tomato tart today.

Now's the time to make an authentic Italian meal not an American Italian meal with your garden produce.
Pasta Grammar on YouTube has been one of my favorite channels to watch.
Comical too.

https://youtube.com/@PastaGrammar?feature=share9

[karstopography]

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Over 200 tomatoes weighing over 145 pounds harvested as of lunchtime today. I feel like I’ve just reached peak tomato this week and the pace of fruit coming inside should slowly taper off from this point on. There’s still a lot of fruit outside, but some of the plants don’t have anything much other than some baby, much more recently set fruit. We are keeping ahead of it with my wife finding people she works nearby to or friends to take some. I’m freezing some whole tomatoes and we eat about all we can fresh. None of the tomatoes are rotting or getting tossed in the compost bin other than a couple spoiled by fruitworms.

I don’t want to grow quite so many next year, especially all these tall indeterminates. Too much time and effort involved keeping them inbounds and under reasonable control.

I want to enjoy gardening, but all these tomatoes and their time and materials needs are a little much. Half as many plants would be better. I keep saying this season after season, but I need to stick with the reduced numbers plan in 2024. It’s going to be hard to cut out growing tomato varieties that I like enjoy, but I have to realize I can’t grow everything I want to.

[PlainJane]

I fight that battle every year @karstopography but have yet to win. Good luck!

[karstopography]

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This is the time of year where I’m delivering tomatoes to people. Today, we are going to our first ever gender reveal gathering. The host of the party likes the bicolor tomatoes I’ve grown in previous seasons so today she’s getting a Gold Medal and a Pineapple, plus a Carbon and Big Zac.

I wish I had a Pink Anthro to bring…