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Tomatoes

Posted on July 18, 2009 at 5:34 PM

We are continuing to enjoy some warm and dry weather and the forecast calls for it to stay around for a while.   This is good news for the tomatoes, green beans, and pepper plants.   The biggest challenge is to keep up with the watering so that these plants keep thriving and progressing to a state of providing harvestable produce.   While I was busy watering the green beans, peppers, and tomatoes today, I took some pictures of the tomatoes to share with you.   The plants are tantalizingly loaded with lots of green fruits.   I am trying to be patient, but I am really ready for the tomato season to get underway.                                   

     

The Stupice tomato has already provided the first ripe tomato and has another small ripe one available for me to pick.   More importantly, it has large clusters of tomatoes that are showing indications they will soon be ripening.                       

                

 

 

 

It is pretty amazing how many fruits this one Stupice plant has on it, and lots of blooms too  . It appears it will be a generous producer throughout the summer.                              

                                       

The Legend tomatoes have some really big fruits, which are also showing signs of wanting to start to ripen.                               

                     

  

 

 The Siletz plants are not as big as the Legend but they are more plentiful.                                 

               

   

      

And the Celebrity, while a later maturing tomato, is working hard to rapidly catch up to the Siletz and Legend plants.                             

 

   

 

I did not get around to taking a picture of the sauce tomatoes, but they are plentiful now too.                                 

 

Hopefully soon I will being seeing red in the garden!

Categories: Vegetables, Watering, Weather

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7 Comments

Reply hsheather
06:30 PM on July 18, 2009 
Wow! That's a lot of tomatoes. My sister in law grew Stupice this year as well. I'm going to have to ask her how it did around here. Mine are still behind because of the weather, but I do have quite a bit of fruit coming along. I'm very happy to have it, as many gardeners I know still have no fruit on their vines.
Reply Dan
08:23 PM on July 18, 2009 
Your tomatoes are looking great. The second set of tomatoes on my siletz plant are just starting to turn. I hope the creature of the night doesn't get them as well. I can hardly wait to have fresh tomatoes & cucumbers from the garden with feta, olive oil & good vinegar!
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
09:43 PM on July 18, 2009 
hsheather - I have been hearing alot of sad stories about blighted tomatoes and failed gardens in the mid west, east, and south east, this year. Seems it is either raining like a monsoon or drought conditions - neither works well for gardens.

Dan - I will keep my fingers crossed for you that your tomatoes do not end up with the same fate (whatever that actually was!) of your Mr. Early tomato..
Reply Judy
08:40 AM on July 19, 2009 
Your tomatoes are looking great... I've never grown Stupice before. You'll have to let us know about the taste of the fruit from this variety.

Your garden is looking so nice!
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
10:54 AM on July 19, 2009 
Judy - I grew some Stupice last fall as a late crop of tomatoes in the greenhouse. Was able to get some ripe ones despite direct seeding them in the container in July before the damp and cold knocked the plant down. I would characterize their flavor as a nice blend of sweet and acid - leaning more to sweet than to acidic. The nice thing is that despite being a small saladette sized tomato - they are not overwhelmingly full of seeds (like cherry tomatoes can be). The first fruit off of the Stupice this spring was actually a little bland tasting. I have found that happens sometimes on first tomatoes probably because they took so long in coming to maturity. I expect the subsequent tomatoes to be sweeter and more flavorful.
Reply Sandy
08:00 PM on July 19, 2009 
I've harvested one small tomato. I'm pretty disappointed, so far, with my tomato pollination. I don't have nearly as many fruits forming as I'd like to have. I didn't realize how much I would need to stay on top of pruning. My plants (San Marzano in particular) turned into giant, 8-foot tall plants without a ton of actual fruit. I did a pretty good prune on all the plants so hopefully this will help.

And, hey, I tried my hand at cannning for the first time today. I posted about it. I might need some advice as well!
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
08:43 PM on July 19, 2009 
Hey Sandy! I will pop over to your blog and check out the canning post! Might be a bit as I am just heading out the door to go see a movie this evening.

On the tomatoes, you may have too much nitrogen in their mix which will give you all plant and little fruit. What has your soil prep and fertilizing routine been with them?