Two Rose Heirloom whoppers that are as firm as can be (H/T to seed provider @MissS): Top one 22 ounces/624 grams, bottom 20 ounces/567 grams. The Gotch

They are a beautiful tomato to behold and taste great too.

Yes ma'am, and we have you's to thank!

The Gotch

tried a slice of one of those uncle steves yet gotch?


keith

@rxkeith; "tried a slice of one of those uncle steves yet gotch?"

No yet, will report back.

The Gotch

Ladies-n-Gentlemen, I present the Guido Heirloom...all 25 ounces/709 grams of it! The Gotch

Yin-n-Yang displayed by a coupla whoppin' Giant Marconis! Today's LUVley Pepper Harvest (bottom yellow Mama Mia Giallo Hybrid is 12"/30.5 cms!) will be traveling up to Iron County with us tomorrow, accompanied by beau coup Tomatoes & Zukes. All were started six (6) months ago, nearly to the day, in the basement. What breathtakingly glowing beauty; SO well worth the wait!

The Gotch

@jmsieglaff; "How's that Greenbush Italian Heirloom?"

Per the lovely and long suffering Mrs. Gotch: "Very tasty, but a bit on the juicy side."

Juiciness may have been due to 3.5+"/8.9+cms of rain last weekend, and the resulting widespread splitting.

Seems to be a later season ripener, with any number of sizable greenies still vine-bound; bear in mind how late everything has been/is/will be for 2022.

Glass half full?

It's shown enough to make it into next season's Jardín del Gotch rotation.

The Gotch

Look what came..

@Amateurinawe; It just got there?

Sheesh! I sent it on August 22nd!

The Gotch

Left tray/bottom left: Jersey Devils. Pinks up top Mortgage Lifters. Lower right Greenies & Reddies Greenbush Italian Heirlooms.

Right Tray/two (2) bottom right came from seed labeled Marzano Fire (The Gotch has his doubts!). OxGlobes just above are Santa Maria Heirloom. Others up top are Mountain Merit.

The Gotch

Top Left Tray/Clockwise from upper left-Greenbush Italian, Sheboygan Heirloom, Red Sausage, Mortgage Lifter
Top Middle Tray/bottom right Cornue des Andes, the rest Giant Garden Paste
Top Right Tray/Dark Green at bottom-Ananas Noire, left-n-top Guido Heirloom, yellow Italian Gold
Lower Right Tray/lower left Mountain Pride, right Costoluto Genovese
Lower Right Tray/ Inzhir Rozovyi

Them there big Orange Guidos are Da Bomb!

The Gotch

Quite the yummy looking haul!

@PlainJane; yer too kind!

Many of the two (2) most recent photo's...um...subjects were pressed into the lovely and long suffering Mrs. Gotch's Tomato (and beyond!) Soup, yesterday.

At least nine (9) different varieties of Tomatoes, plus our Kale, Parsley, Garlic (some other...um...outside influences), AND chunked, firm Inzhir Rozovyi added in later.

The image (W12"/30.5cm-D4"/10.16cm tupperware) doesn't do it justice; it was dispersed from a 75% filled 16Q/15.1 liter pot, which she dutifully tended most of yesterday. Soup's a process, am I right? Don't get me started on Chili...

Anywho, we's got money in the bank...er...freezer...

The Gotch

In a fitting, albeit wistful, end to September, I pulled the last ten (10) Tomato plants.

Harvested a number of promising Greenies, and filled a 25 gallon/94.64 liter bucket ~3/4s with the Also Rans.

As our composting facilities must maintain some space for the long winter ahead, I dug a ~ 8'/2.44m long-1 1/2'/.46m wide-1 1/2'/.46m deep trench in the largest raised bed and buried them along with all the Garlic stalk/skin and some Kale detritus.

It was a beautiful day (cloudless, windless, upper 60'sF/20°C, dry) & wildly productive to boot...yet my guitar gently weeps....

The Gotch

The Tomato Harvest has ceased, but The Gotch GOES GREEN on FUTURES:
TOP-Left Mountain Pride--Middle-n-Right Boxcar Willie BOTTOM-Left Mortgage Lifter--Right Inzhir Rozavyi

Gotch that's a nice harvest. I am still holding out on pulling my plants in hopes a few more will be ripening on the vine.

On another note, I would like to give you a word of advise on composting tomato plants. It is usually frowned upon and most of us will go out of our way to pick up every little leaf and stem from the garden plot in order to prevent leaving any soil born infections the following year. Tomatoes are so very vulnerable to disease such as the soil born wilt diseases that can live for years in your soil that we just clean it all up and dispose of it and don't even allow it to hit our compost piles either.

@MissS; our vines were death suckin' on a Life Saver, ergo, it was time.

Because of space restrictions, I haven't composted any of our vine detritus; glad to hear there's a method to my madness...

The Gotch

@MissS; "most of us will go out of our way to pick up every little leaf and stem from the garden plot in order to prevent leaving any soil born infections the following year."

Any organic way to treat/pretreat beds to mitigate such dastardly things from taking hold?

The Gotch

@Cornelius_Gotchberg I wish there were but none that I'm aware of. Once you have something like wilt's in your soil your only choice is not to use the soil for tomatoes or plant resistant varieties. This is why hybrid tomatoes have all of those letters behind them, they tell you which disease that they are resistant to.