The Garden, Week 18: It's Getting Closer to Tomato Time

It rained a few times this week and I had a lot of family visiting, so I ignored the garden for a couple of days. When I finally dragged myself out there to inspect things, I was OH SO PLEASANTLY SURPRISED. Here, virtually walk with me through my garden, friends.

First up, we have the first Cherokee Purple tomato of the season! Now, I have HIGH HIGH hopes for these suckers, so I was really pleased to see a tomato FINALLY happening on one of these plants. I might have yelped a bit when I spied it.

And then I was very happy to see a second Cherokee Purple on the same plant, with a handful more starting to form. Excellent.

This makes FOUR of the six varieties that are producing actual tomatoes so far. (Amish Paste, Cherokee Purple, Yellow Pear, and Black Krim all have infant tomatoes. Mr Stripey and Brandywine have none, but they're the BIG tomatoes so maybe they just take longer?) (Although, one of the Brandywine plants IS still recovering from the mauling our resident Very Hungry Caterpillar gave him, so I'm not really harboring negative feelings towards him for not yet producing. He has an excuse.)

I think part of the change in tomato status is it hasn't been as hot lately. We haven't hit 95 in two weeks and I think that probably helped with the blossom drop immensely. We're slated to run up to almost 100-degrees by Sunday though, so I'm curious to see if tomato production drops off again.

I also have several clusters of Yellow Pears on two plants. Easily 20+ of these little guys on each plant.

And, two biggish Amish Paste tomatoes with several other tiny ones starting out.

We even have what appear to be the spiky beginning of some cucumbers! So, you know, food! In a garden! That I'm growing! This is kind of cool! 

***

At this point I am about 126 days removed from sticking seeds in the plastic tray. Remember this? All the way back in February? Back when it was cold enough to wear pants and Newt Gingrich was still a candidate? Yes, this was a long time ago.

The plants have been in the ground for about 63 days (9 weeks). Most of my seed packets say it'll be 85 days after transplanting until harvest, so that would put me at eating a home-grown caprese salad the week after Fourth of July, which is only a few weeks away. (!!!!!) When I put it that way it doesn't make me feel as badly about all of the already-harvested tomatoes I'm seeing on Facebook. I'm still on schedule. I've planted indeterminate varieties, which should produce consistently all summer until the frost kills the plants, rather than determinates, which produce all of their tomatoes at once (but early) and then stop.

I will be verrrrry satisfied and possibly a little bit smug if I'm still getting tomatoes in September, is what I'm saying.

Comments

[HereWeGoAJen]

Go, tomatoes! And tiny cucumber!

[Life of a Doctor's Wife]

YAY! I am so glad your tomatoes are doing so well! And that cucumber is ADORABLE! I don't think I've ever seen a baby cucumber before.

[DC Zia]

Yum! Caprese salad! I have serious tomato envy. Especially for the yellow pear tomatoes, which are some of my favorites. My dad used to grow them, too. SO GOOD! Now, you just need a cow for your own mozzarella.

[PinkieBling]

YAAAAYY! Go, little garden, go!

[Mia B]

My yellow pear plants have been the most prolific so far, and are delicious. Something about the different colored tomatoes just gets me! Of course, things started going crazy just as we were leaving for vacation, so I froze several gallons of tomatoes whole to deal with when I get back. It does take a loooong time for them to change from green to red, though. It's a whole "watched pot" thing, I think.

When I did the all-from-seed thing last year, that coupled with the heat and drought really slowed down fruit-set, so the tomato plants didn't go gangbusters until early fall, which meant some last-minute, near-freeze covering with sheets I got cheap (then laundered!) from Goodwill and designated "garden sheets". This was a PITA because the wind about blows the sheets off, and anywhere the sheet touches a tomato will "burn" the tomato if we get frost. I did find that you can pull an entire plant out of the ground, shake all the dirt off and hang it upside down in your garage, and the tomatoes (and peppers, too) will slowly ripen over the winter. Home-grown tomatoes at Thanksgiving! The downside is the foliage makes a dried-leafy mess in the garage. I wonder if I could strip the leaves and just leave the green tomatoes and branches? Might try that this year.

Congrats on your green babies and luck to you for that July 4th caprese!