Five Tomatoes to Grow

Five varieties of tomatoes were planted in my garden this year. Clockwise from the biggest one, they are: Pink Brandywine (indeterminate), Mountain Fresh (determinate), Amish paste (indeterminate), Tommy Toe (indeterminate), and Bellstar (determinate).

Without compare, the Amish paste tomatoes were my favorite. They are incredibly bountiful and had almost no disease or pest problems, aside from a few cases of blossom-end rot. Being a meaty tomato, they made great tomato sauce, but they are heavenly in bruschetta and salsa, sliced up on sandwiches, or salted and eaten by themselves.

Tommy Toes were an easy second: large and flavorful cherry tomatoes. I only had two of these planted and they were plentiful. I'm sure there would have been even more, had I gotten them in the ground earlier and staked them higher.

Pink Brandywines were tasty, but they seemed to be the vine of choice for the hornworms and other pests. They all looked great when green (and made great fried green tomatoes) but most had some kind of decay or bug problem by the time they were ripe. I only harvested about a dozen of these tomatoes in total. The vines haven't been killed off by frost or anything yet, but I don't expect much in the later season.

Mountain Fresh and Bellstar both grew fine and had lots of fruit, but I think I got them planted in the ground too late. I was able to use some of the Bellstars in sauce and salads. The Mountain Fresh ones are nice, firm, round tomatoes, exactly what you expect a typical tomato to be, and they were tasty. But determinate tomatoes is that all their fruit ripens within the span of a couple weeks. Indeterminate varieties keep bearing fruit as long as they keep growing - even now some of the Pink Brandywine plants are blossoming. They require a bit more attention since they grow much taller and, ideally, should be pruned as they go, but the benefit of having fresh tomatoes for a prolonged period of time makes them the better choice for me.

Bountiful Harvest

September arrived with an overflowing garden! I spend as much time harvesting as I did on some earlier days of tending the young plants. And it is worth it... behold:

Patty pan squash, yellow and purple string beans, cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, and hot peppers.

Moving into Harvest Time

As August comes to an end, I know there may be only a few weeks until frost, so I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Here's my colorful harvest of tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, patty pan squash, cucumbers, and a few mini red bell peppers.

Life is a Bowl of Cherry Tomatoes

Yum! Cherry tomatoes are plentiful and tasty. This variety is Tommy Toe, and they are big enough to quarter in salads... though they don't always make it to the salads. Lots don't even make it out of the garden before I pop them into my mouth.

The trellis they are growing on is a variation of the Florida weave, which has worked really well to support them as they continue growing taller and taller through the summer.

Blossom-end Rot

One of the most disheartening moments in my garden is when I plunge my hand through the tomato leaves, closing my fingers around a juicy red tomato...

... and pull it back to find the underside taken over by a nasty black splotch.

This is blossom-end rot. It occurs on the blossom end of the tomato (duh) and is a result of inadequate calcium at a critical stage during the fruit's growth. This deficiency means the cell walls are not sturdy enough, and results in a soft spot on the tomato, which then begins to rot while the tomato is still ripening.

What causes the calcium deficiency? It can be a lack of calcium in the soil itself, but it can also be a result of inconsistent watering or soil that is too dry or too wet, all of which affect how calcium is absorbed by the plant. Basically this disease is one that needs prevention, not treatment, since there's nothing you can do to reverse rot! If you get a lot of rainfall, unfortunately you may not have control over moisture levels, but in general it is something you can deal with by being diligent.

Fortunately the problem doesn't seem to be widespread in my tomatoes. These Amish paste tomatoes are an indeterminate variety, so they are continually flowering and producing new fruit throughout the season. So even though a few were deprived of calcium at one particular time, others seem to have gotten the nutrients they need and are ripening just fine.

Hornworms Begone

Ew, what are these tiny little grenades? Deer droppings? Too small. Rabbit? Still too small. Let's consult the internet. Ugh...

This is caterpillar poop. Left behind by either the tomato hornworm or the tobacco hornworm, both big fat types of caterpillars that demolish tomato plants (and tobacco plants, judging by the name). A little grossed out, but determined that my tomatoes will not be destroyed, I set out in search of the invaders.

I found one! But... wait... this is not a tomato plant. It is not a tobacco plant. This is a tomatillo plant. Mr. hornworm, you are confused. While mocking the destructive little idiot, I was able to identify him as a tobacco hornworm (the stinger on his butt is red instead of black, and he has seven diagonal stripes on each side instead of eight V-shaped marks). I found some gloves, peeled this guy off the stem (they hold on tight), and dropped him in a bucket of soapy water. The soap keeps them from getting out, and they drown. Muahaha!

Moving on to the tomato plants... I found quite a few more. How? One, look for that nasty black poop on the ground. I usually found them somewhere on the top of the plant I found the poop beneath. You can also look for stems that look like the leaves have been pulled off. The guy below is in the process of doing so. They are thorough eaters, they consume an entire leaf and move on. Did I mention they are huge? They're huge. The size of my index finger.

Most of the damage I found was near the top of the plant, which is also where all the hornworms were. During the hotter part of the day they tended to be slightly in the shade, but as the sun started going down they were happy to be right there on top of the plant. The guy below was happily munching away on a tomato, even with all those nice leaves around him. Bastard.

So he went swimming. Adieu!

The Big Picture

This is the most prolific part of the garden. The picture is a little embarrassing, due to the weeds that are, well, everywhere. But all the plants seem to be getting plenty of water, thriving actually, and I don't have 8 hours a day to spend on the garden, so there you have it. In the foreground are the summer squashes (zucchini in the lower left). Behind that is a row of cucumbers, but you can't see them. Behind that you can see bell peppers, and behind those are the tomatoes. I've used a modified version of the Florida weave to trellis them. Look it up! It works very well.

The first row of tomatoes has determinate varieties (meaning they have a pre-determined size they will grow, i.e. they will stay short). They are trellised using shorter wooden stakes (I think they are 4' stakes stuck about a foot into the ground). The two rows behind are indeterminate, meaning they will climb up to the sky if you give them enough time and a tall trellis. Those are staked with 6' metal rods, the kind that you can get at the garden store and are coated in green plastic. I also have metal T-posts at the ends of each row for reinforcement, so the whole thing doesn't fall over.

How Doth My Garden Grow?

Everything is getting big, and a few things are ripe enough to pick. All the hard work is paying off! First we have some tomatoes.

Aji Cristal peppers, they should be harvested when they are nice and yellow like this (they do eventually turn red but the flavor is not as good). They are hot peppers, not sweet, so don't mistake them for banana peppers.

Mini bell peppers... "Cupid" is the name of this particular variety. They should turn red in another month.

Ugh... this guy has built his luxury condo right among all the Pink Brandywine tomatoes. I'll let the squatter stay, since presumably he's catching bugs.

Dear lusciously plump tomato, please turn red soon. Thanks.

Patty pan squash (also called scallop squash, UFO squash, or pâtisson for the Francophiles out there).

Gherkins! These will be slicing cucumbers but they look so cute when they're the size of my pinky.

Envying the Whistle Stop Cafe

Green tomatoes! Nothing much to be said but they are growing and growing... I cannot wait! It's so tempting to pluck a few just to make fried green tomatoes...

Flowering Tomatoes

Little yellow flowers mean tomatoes are on their way! This is a Pink Brandywine, a late season tomato and it may be September before I actually get anything from this variety, but there are plenty of others that should come earlier!

Tomatoes Growing Strong

This one of 110 tomato plants happily growing in the garden.

It's an indeterminate heirloom variety, Pink Brandywine, which means it's a vine that will keep growing all season and will need support - more than just the wire cages you get at the garden store. I plan to use a variation of the "Florida weave" method, which I'll talk about in a future post!

Tomato update

I can't wait to get these guys in the ground! These are Amish paste tomatoes that I started from seed, an heirloom that will be great for paste and sauce, as the name suggests.

Green Growing Things

Seedlings continue to pop up fully. I was late on getting them started but I am way ahead of last year, so I count it a success! Here are the Pink Brandywines.

Meanwhile, the sugar snap peas are doing great outside. The snow and thunderstorms haven't bothered them at all, and they are pushing up vigorously through the soil to spread their little leaves.

Pink Brandywine Wins the Race

The first seedlings have sprouted! Here are the lovely young Pink Brandywines (Burpee).

I was worried the temperature might not be warm enough; they are in a building where the heat is only set to 55F, but the fluorescent lights (5000K daylight bulbs), seem to be giving off enough heat to bring that up to snuff. I am not sure about the peppers, though; they like a warmer soil temp than others (80-90F) and I don't think it's quite that warm. I can move them to a sunny windowsill if needed.

Checking up on the other few things growing around the place... the rhubarb we transplanted at the beginning of April is doing great, and the strawberries are slowly adding some new leaves to the ones that survived the winter.

The plants from last year have a touch of sunburn (frost burn? I don't know) around the edges. Those are the two larger trios above. The rest are all new this spring. Happily there are about 3 dozen other spots starting to look just like this one, so it should be a nice productive patch this year!