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The Little Tomato That Could

Posted on July 20, 2011 at 11:25 PM

While the vast majority of the United States has been sweltering this summer, the Pacific Northwest has remained a dark blue blob amongst the sea of deep red on the weather maps.    Our weather has been much cooler than normal this year, which is saying a lot because we are known for our mild summers and winters.   In fact, it has been at 80 degrees or warmer in the Seattle area this year for only a total of 78 minutes - 12 minutes on July 2, and 66 minutes on July 6.   If you are willing to settle for temperatures that at least climb above 75 degrees, the statistics improve, but not by very much.  We had a total of 18 hours and 48 minutes of temperatures above 75 this summer.   Yes, you read that correctly, less than a day cumulative of temperatures above 75.   You can read more about it HERE.         

 

Despite all this, I have a Legend tomato plant that is determined to produce a ripe tomato.                                           

                       

       

    

This morning as I was doing a garden walk about, I noticed that this plant was seriously breaking color on a single fruit.   I am not so sure it is actually ripening normally or just coloring up from old age!   Regardless, I admire the plant's persistence and hope the rest of the tomatoes will follow suit and defy the weather too.                                

           

For those of you suffering through the widespread and horrific heat waves, many of us here in the Northwest would be glad to take about 10 degrees off of your hands to help out.   Or at least I would, if I could!                      

         

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Categories: Weather, Tomatoes

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11 Comments

Reply Robin
07:41 AM on July 21, 2011 
I would be happy to give you 20 degrees right about now!!! Hopefully your weather will warm up a bit and ours will cool down!
Reply Mike
08:31 AM on July 21, 2011 
Your weather sucks.:) So does ours but what can we do. Looks like you are going to beat me to the first ripe tomato but I do have a couple that are at least fully formed...but no color yet. Our black and red raspberries are both going to ripen at the same time this year, that has never happened before...weird weather.
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
09:03 AM on July 21, 2011 
Robin - 10 only 10! LOL!

Mike - I have a Defiant plant that has several tomatoes that are slight yellow but they have been like that for more than a week now. If we got some warmer weather (at least above 75) they would go the final push as well. There is a bit of hope on the horizon. The weekend and following week weather is looking somewhat better - albeit still cooler than normal. My raspberries are doing their summer crop right now but they are just getting started. The fall berries will probably be in October this year due to the significant delays.
Reply Daphne
11:33 AM on July 21, 2011 
I'll give you 10 degrees. lol HIgh 90s is no fun at all. Tonight is supposed to get just barely under 80. I would love some of your moisture too. Some places in our area got water, but not at our place. Those scattered thunderstorms, just haven't been kind to us. I hope you get a little warmth. And we get a little cool.
Reply Mike R
03:47 PM on July 21, 2011 
Here in SW Indiana the low this morning was 77 degrees. Right now it's 98 degrees. No rain in almost two weeks. Just hoping the heat and humidity cause some popup storms this evening.
Reply Annie's Granny
09:25 PM on July 21, 2011 
Go, little tomato,go!

I feel your pain. If it weren't for the Bloody Butchers, we'd still be nearly tomatoless. I have picked two Pink Brandywines, both small (3-4 oz.) and my first Cherokee Purple, which was also a small one. I doubt I'll be harvesting the 300-500 pounds like the past couple of years. If I'm lucky, maybe 30-50 pounds!
Reply GrafixMuse
10:38 PM on July 21, 2011 
I would gladly give you some of my heat. It is 10 pm here in Maine and the temps are still in the 80s and the humidity is so high that it is difficult to breath. The garden is loving it as long as I am watering.

I hope you have some warm temperatures soon.
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
11:40 PM on July 21, 2011 
Daphne - We had a real soaker earlier this week and the garden was a soggy mess. We seem to have at least moved on to just cloudy and grey but at least not raining. Too bad we don't have a way to magically even out the extremes from one region to another.

Mike R - I will keep my fingers crossed for you that you get a storm to break up the heat and dry.

Annie's Granny - You might have a whiz bang August ahead and you could end up closer to your prior year totals. I can never grow that many ripe tomatoes in this area but I would be happy to get "some"! LOL!

GrafixMuse - Don't let up on that watering! Got to keep that garden happy and growing despite the extremeness of the weather.
Reply Dan
12:44 AM on July 22, 2011 
Hope it warms up soon, there is still a good bit of summer left! I have been hearing about all the cool weather in British Columbia on the news lately. We had quite similar weather all spring. Now it is hot and dry, we have only had 4mm of rain in the past 30 days.
Reply Jason
05:13 PM on July 23, 2011 
The hot temperatures in Illinois have been great for my tomatoes and pumpkins, but I would gladly trade you 10 degrees for some rain. We've only had 0.17" of rain since June 27 (guess this was a bad year to buy or transplant all those shrubs and perennials)!
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
09:45 AM on July 24, 2011 
Dan - It feels like we are getting the flip side of what everyone is typically experiencing. In the bigger scheme of things I would rather deal with our ocnditions than the excessive heat.

Jason - I can imagine your tomatoes are indeed enjoying the heat. The dry conditions would be hard to contend with though. Hopefully your newly planted shrubs and perenials will make it with regular watering from you.