I wanted to start a new topic in response to a question Julianna asked in another topic rather than hijack that one, but this is open to all who are growing tomatoes this year. So please chime in. Pics are also welcome! Of course, this is more for us northern gardeners who have YET to taste a homegrown tomato!!

Ciao Julianna! I should have enough mesh to cage all but a few of my plants. I have a couple golf ball sized fruit on Kimberly and 8 total. Others that have set for me are SFT, New Big Dwarf, Lucky Leprechaun, Lime Green Salad, Stump of the World, Omar's Lebanese, Mortgage Lifter, Sungold, Grub's Mystery Green, and Citron Compact. That's all I can remember. There could be more but I haven't checked them all since Tuesday evening. Looking forward to Kimberly ripening soon!

I just recently planted my garden. I have 8 tomato plants, 3 cucumbers, 3 cantalopes, and 1 garlic chive and 1 cilantro. I'm new to gardening so whats the best way to grow maters in zone 6a? My maters are only about 6 in. tall right now but they'er growing.

oh yeah I forgot to mention the types, 4 of the tomato plants are lemon boy and the other 4 were unmarked when I got them.

I'm an extreme northern gardener, I'm yet to see my plants break past the 6 inch high state, our weather is awful. My garden looks the worst it has ever looked in all the years I can remember.

Good luck to all who have nice tomatoe plants, I'm jealous.

I'm growing only one yellow pear tomato now, and it's about 3 feet tall with a few flowers.
I'm growing it up a cedar stake, and it is lightly tied to the stake with twine.
My Celebrity was destroyed by a fungus of some kind, so I yanked it out and bagged it in plastic for the trash.
The Sungold cherry is doing well, but the tomatoes tasted so horrible (to me) that I gave the plant to a neighbor.
My bell pepper has one good sized pepper and two smaller ones.
The strawberries are providing me with warm, sweet snacks, a few ripen each week.

I have one Mr Stripey, and some Sweet 100 cherries. The cherries have lots of blooms, but no fruit yet. Mr Stripey has had some blooms but no fruit yet.

I have 8 tomato plants, cherry,beef,Roma,early girl and a few unknown, there are just starting to get baby tomatoes...
I have 8 garlic chive a ton of parsley,basil,thyme, cilantro,dill,rosemary,mint,lavender.
also green,red,yellow peppers
all kinds onions
squash-yellow-cukes-zukes,green and wax beans
cabbage and some jalepeno and red chilies and banana peppers. I think that is it?

Happy growing to you all

Dang Angie! You can send any extra my way! Did you grow your jalepeno from seed?

Not the Jalepeno,Tonya, but many others.
Speaking of that, I should get out there and get something done

I guess I'll keep the picture of my ripening Cherokee Purple to my self....

{walking away pouting}

John, the Sungold, it had a weird winey/sour flavor that just didn't appeal to me.
But the lady I gave it to is eating them and enjoying them, so this story does have a happy ending !
To me, the best tomato is a tangy tomato, not the sugary sweet ones.
A good beefsteak flavor, if that makes any sense now that there are so many different tasting beefsteaks.

Mator, aw, come on, let us see the picture of the Cherokee Purple !

I've been picking Green Tomatos and frying them, also I am getting LOTS of requests for green ones.

I have I think 12 Celebrity and 12 Roma's.

Have 44 Cherry Tomato type plants planted- 11 Large fruited Cherry Plants, 11 Gardeners Delight Cherry Toms,11 Supersweet 100 Cherrys, and 11 Juliets. I put mine in the garden on Memorial weekend- started them all from seed though earlier. Alot of them are now flowering- but the plants are growing big fast! Hopefully they should fruit soon!

Ciao John,

Wow, you already have fruit set on your Silvery Fir Tree..sigh, mine doesn't even have an open blossom on it yet. And Grub's Mystery Green, too! Lucky duck you are. I've got open blossoms on that one but they just opened up in the last few days. There's a HUGE chrysanthemum blossom on one of them, though. I'm thinking it might be a big honking double. My Kimberleys aren't golf ball sized..only about the size of a nickel..BUT, they are the largest of all the fruit that HAS set at least and I have probably 8 or so of those also. It's so weird, Sungold F1 has set fruit, but it's in Cherry Row along with Galina's, Bicolour Cherry, Green Grape, Snow White, and Black Cherry, so I have no clue why the others haven't set. You're going to love Stumpy. It tastes a lot like Brandywine but it's WAY more prolific. Ooooh, it's getting close isn't it! I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in twine this weekend, they're getting so big!

Cheers,
Julianna

Thanks for all the great replies!! Keep us updated on production, taste, disease, etc!

Hey now!! That is completely unfair!!

SFT was started early with Kimberly and Taxi on March 11th. I'm actually suprised it's taken so long, but the weather so far this spring has been terrible for growing. Yes, it is getting close. I just wish the weather would start to cooperate. The past seven days have been good, but now this weekend we're supposed to get 6 to 8 inches of rain again.

I've got 37 tomato plants. One of my three Black Plum is loading up with fruit, maybe 3 dozen or more, and that's not counting the 10 or so I picked because of BER. One Bloody Butcher is loading up really well, another is just starting to load up. A few tom's on Yellow Pear. My one Arkansas Traveler, the only tom I didn't start from seed, has one tennis ball sized fruit and numerous smaller ones. I'm trying to decide whether to yank all 4 Mortgage Lifters. They all have a lot of leaves with Early Blight. One is starting to set fruit, though. One German Red Strawberry is now setting fruit...that one has been really exciting to watch. About 5 days ago, a grape sized fruit seemed to just suddenly appear. Within 2 days, it just as suddenly had 8 or so fruit, now 12 or so. The first fruit is already golfball sized. I'm amazed.
First fruit showing up on Delicious and Brandywine.
My six tomatillos are completely covered in blooms, I haven't looked closely to see if there's fruit yet.

Dave, you know....I noticed some suspect leaves that I removed last night on my Mortgage Lifter. It might be nothing. It's a little early for blight around here. That isn't seed you got from me is it?

I had a grape size tomato on one of my plants when I got it and a couple of days later it just disappeared.

No, John, the seed was Ferry Morse or Burpees that I got from either Lowe's or WM. I've picked off the infected leaves, and they look ok, but we've been having some rain, so I'll have to watch closely. They're not the only plants getting it. It's common to have some here. They are the ones that seem to be the most affected, and they're growing in different parts of the garden among other varieties that aren't affected yet so I suspect it's not the growing conditions...

Uh, I better get planting, a couple of mine
are still in the pots, huh???

Ciao Dave,

Black Plum, even though it's small, it's kind of in that paste category and those guys are more prone to BER than other varieties. I had some fruits on that one with BER early in the growing season, but I'll tell you what. That plant LOADS up on the fruit, by the middle of harvest season, you won't even bat an eye about it. I got over 50 lbs of fruit, all from one plant last year. I'm not anal enough to record harvest weights from over 60 plants, LOL. Hm, maybe I shouldn't laugh so hard, John and I both know people who do that..*stifled LOL*.

PS Got fruit set on Black Heart and Orange Banana this morning ;o)

Cheers,
Julianna

Best cherry I've found yet is the Jellybean - great to dry also

Black Plum is really loading up on fruit. Bloody Butcher and German Red Strawberry, too, and quite a few on Arkansas Traveler. First fruit on Aunt Rubies German Green and Rutgers, a few on Delicious, ditto Yellow Pear. A few nice fruits on Mortgage Lifter. Looking too be a good season here if all goes well, after a very slow start. Temps have mellowed a bit.

Ciao all,

Here is my update and I thought I'd include only the date of first fruit set for each variety and add to this list as I go along. Hopefully this information will be marginally interesting for people apart from myself, John, and Dave, lol. I considered including date of first open flower and number of fruit, but decided against it because I'm trying to marginalize my tendency to be overly anal-retentive. Ok, here goes and I apologize for some redundancy..an attempt for complete notes. I'm going in order by row and bed.

Main Bed

Opalka #6: 25 June
Orange Banana: 23 June
Borgo Cellano: 18 June
Cuostralee: 23 June
Cherokee Purple: 24 June
Aunt Ruby's German Green: 23 June
Brandywine Yellow Platfoot Strain: 23 June
Black Heart: 21 June
Prue: 25 June
Anna Russian: 25 June
Manyel: 23 June
Black Krim: 25 June
Sungold F1: 18 June

Left New Bed

Aunt Gertie's Gold NOT: 24 June
Grub's Mystery Green: 24 June

Right New Bed

Kotlas: 18 June
Moskvich: 25 June
Happy F1: 24 June

Munchkin's Garden

Sophie's Choice: 20 June
Whippersnapper: 12 June

Front Patio

Patio Orange (pot): 25 June

Driveway

Mountain Princess (bucket): 22 June
Kimberley (bucket): 18 June

This last week of cooler weather has helped all of the plants set fruit. A full truss of Manyel and Green Grape abcissed I'm pretty sure due to high heat and humidity. Most of the plants are between 3-4' in height now, with a few exceptions which were very small at transplantation and are not showing any signs of buds at the moment. I have what I think may be curly leaf virus on the smaller of my Kotlas plants..I need to confirm that with a picture sent to "the experts". I counted 23 flowers on one German Red Strawberry flower cluster. Holy Mary, mother of God if all of those set fruit!

Cheers and happy growing,
Julianna

All my mater plants have flower buds, and hopefully they'll all turn into maters.

Julianna, I attempted to get Sophie's Choice, but couldn't come up with it. Let me know how that one is. Yellow BW too.

Dave, your plants are really coming into full swing!

Mothman, how many cherry varieties have you tried?

Well I'm a Southerner and I'm already eating my tomatoes but I'll chime in anyway lol.

I have one Tiny Tim I should harvest the first two tomatoes off of it this week. They are orange but not red yet.

I have one Cherry tomatoe from phoenix that is producing several tomatoes every week.

I have one cherry tomato that I planted from some that I got at the grocery store. It produces great but the tomatoes don't taste as well as the parent did.

I have several Romas and the first tomato from them should be ready to harvest this week.

I have one surviving brandywine that has one green tomatoe on it that is still growing. And that's my tomato story and I'm sticking to it lol.

Thanks for the post John I've enjoyed reading and participating in it.

Seed saved from hybrids, which most supermarket tomatoes are, do not normally taste anything like the parents. This is exactly how the big commercial seed companies want it. FORCES you to go to them for the seed. :rolleyes:

No problem TK! Did you have other brandywine plants that succomb to disease or something?

Ciao John,

I've got lots of Sophie's seeds, I'll hook you up. I'm hopefully going to have lots of Yellow BW seeds as well for distribution in Fall.

TK,

I'm assuming you had more than just the one green Brandywine? You've harvested some? How were they for you? We had the sweetest BLTA (A is for Avocado) sandwiches with those last year. One sometimes frustrating thing about Brandywines is that they are quite sensitive to humidity and their blossoms will drop like crazy if it gets hot and humid. So far so good, I haven't had that problem yet, but maybe it's like that in Virginia? Could be why you might be having a dearth of fruit right now.

Cheers,
Julianna

I planted 6 La Roma II tomatoes. My first ripe tomato off of them probably weighed close to a half pound! It was huge. My neighbor kept insisting that I should have picked it while orangey-yellow and ripened it in the house, which I absolutely refused to do. When do you guys pick your mators? I've probably thrown away 2 dozen BER tomatoes, and each plant still has a least a dozen healthy mators. These tomatoes (even when ripened on the vine) are a little on the bland side. Not like the slicing tomatoes I'm used to growing.

Sarah

You're the best!

I have 8 tomato plants--4 are Roma's, one is a cherry and the other 3 I don't know what they are--a big boy maybe and an early girl? I have some pretty green tomatoes on all the plants but it'll still be a while yet before I get to eat/harvest any.

Except for the cherry tomatoes. I expect to have some in a week or two from it.

I'm in northern South Dakota and got my plants in well before the recommended time for my area--I think mine were in in very early May.

Stuspot, are you anywhere near the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites in DeSmet?

Yes, I am north of there but pretty close. I have been to the pageant (?) they do there, but not since I was a little girl.

Wow, how neat. I'm really interested if you saw and went into, any of the Ingalls' houses or other sites?

JohnCT, what does tomato blight look like? And what causes it?

Have a look for yourself Deb. Blight specifically is caused by fungi, but there are also bacterial diseases that affect tomatoes. Certain weather conditions are also necessary for the presence of blight. Specifically the kind of cool, wet, rainy weather that we are having in the northeast for the past month!!

http://www.avrdc.org/photos/tomato_diseases/

UH OH

I just read, that some pick off the flowers when the tomato is set.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Have I somehow missed a whole step?

Also does anyone here use copper spray or dust for tomato plants.

It means that some people prefer to pinch flowers off when they transplant their maters in the garden. The theory is that it forces the plant to expend it's energy into root growth and establishment rather than producing fruit. It's nothing to get worried about.

You mean copper spray for use as a fungicide? There are better ones available. From what I've read, they do not provide any control for late blight. Get a product containing Daconil like Ortho's garden disease spray or something similar which will help provide control for both early and late blight. They are two completely different diseases.

Thanks, John, that's a really helpful site-I've bookmarked it for future reference.

I picked close to a 20 Roma's tonight, I plan to make sauce out of them very soon.

Thank you,John, for the help on my 'mater' questions.
I am sooooooooo ready for mine to ripen. Maybe I will have a few by late next week. MMMMMM I spied a little zucchini today.

Man am I jealous! I can only eagerly await my first fruit to ripen on a couple plants.

I picked my first New Girl on Monday, and another yesterday. My New Girl and my earlier Brandywine are now over 6 feet tall!.

Ciao all,

LOL John, you're ahead of me if you've got some close to ripening. None of mine are close. The gap is closing on ones left to flower and set fruit, though. Less than 10 out of 60 now, whew.

lakegran,

Some of us also take the spent flowers off the plants when we can see a small tomato underneath the petals. This is an extra step, largely compulsive, and unnecessary, but some of us can't help ourselves, nonetheless.

Cheers,
Julianna, a self-proclaimed compulsive tomato flower puller offer

LARGELY!!

Julianna, I wouldn't say WAY ahead. The largest fruit on Kimberly hasn't shown any sign of ripening.

Pulling off spent flowers? I've done that on a few plants, here and there, to see if a certain variety is setting fruit. Where'd anyone get the impression that's necessary?
John, when did you become an advocate of Daconil? I wish I knew more about that product. Copper sprays and Serenade may, reportedly, do as well, though I've never used any of these. I'm trying Serenade for the first time this year, I like all the Bt products I've ever tried, but I'm scared of products that aren't organic. On the other hand, I'm seeing leaf disease on many plants already. In years past, I assumed this was normal, but I'd like to get maximum yield for my efforts. What do you do, Julianna?

I wouldn't call myself an advocate because I have zero firsthand experience with it. I've never used any fungicides on tomatoes Dave. I simply did not know better until reading what Carolyn, Craig and others have experienced and used for years. I am planning on picking up a bottle this weekend to experiment with this summer. I am not opposed to non-organic methods and do not consider myself a completely organic gardener. From my reading I see that Daconil has been around for many years and has been studied ad nauseum.

I'd be tempted to use Daconil at this point. I'm seeing disease starting to run rampant on many plants. I can't really tell if I'm looking at primarily fungus, virus or bacteria, or some combination, and I don't even know if spraying now would be effective. Grrrrr.
I'll be eating tomatoes this year, for sure, but I'm starting to get discouraged.

I have my first tomato. It is a Taxi. Have never tried them before so looking very forward to it!

I found one too on one of my young plants, its the size of a marble but it wasn't there yesterday I'm sure. Perhaps its a scout to see if its safe for them to come out

Serious question - should the top shoots be pinched out on the plants or left to grow unabaited?

Wow Triss! Very nice. Make sure to let us know how it tastes. I'm also growing Taxi in a container.

I will John. So far it is my first and only so it is exciting!

Something is eating my Mator's, I am seeing bite marks, don't know if it's a turtle or rabbit.

Turtles????? You mean you have wild turtles there?

Ciao Dave,

A picture is still worth a thousand words. I think we might be able to help you a bit more if we could see what you're seeing on your plants. Last year, the only really major case of blight I had (until Fall when any plants that might have looked great start to look awful with all the lower leaves withering) was on my Sungolds. I had one in the ground and one in a 15 gal IKEA bucket. The one in the bucket was in direct sun and produced a fair bit, not typical for its variety, but still decent enough for a couple of bags of dried tomatoes as well as some tasty pastas and some marmalade and of course lots of snacks. The one in the ground was in a partially shaded area in the front of the house and was a spindly plant from start to finish. Neither of these plants had a lot of foliage from the start. Midway into the season, after I had harvested some, but not the bulk of the crop, I started to see some yellowing on the leaves which lead to crispy edges and eventual falling off the plant. I helped the plants out by taking these leaves off when I saw the yellowing progress up the leaf to where the leaf meets the stem. Never compost these, always toss them with the yard waste. I haven't tried the Daconil, I don't know enough about it yet, and I try not to use chemicals if at all possible. Bottom line here...you may not have the prettiest plants, but it shouldn't affect your overall harvest all that much. You'll still get fruit and you might even get it all the way into the Fall like I did with my Sungolds. I rooted a sucker off the bucket plant, but it ended up getting the same thing so I'm pretty sure this was a viral or fungal or bacterial thing and not a weather or Julianna thing.

Julianna, thanks for the encouraging words.
I have a creedo I have lived by for 20 plus years.
"If I get to eat homegrown tomatoes, it was a good year for gardening."
I'll get to eat homegrown tomatoes.
Last year was my best tomato year ever, I ate tomatoes every day for close to 3 months, and gave away a lot. Between the heat and what I thought was early blight, the plants shut down production in August. This year, I have some of the best fruit set ever, but only on some plants. I'm also seeing the worst onset of foliar disease I have ever experienced. I've looked at numerous pics, and I just can't figure out what I've got. My camera isn't great for close-ups. I thought I had early blight, now it's looking like that, maybe bacterial spot, plus septoria, maybe some verticillium, and what would be spotted wilt if the tops were dying, which they're not. I don't get it. I'm discouraged. All that work. Shoot me now.

Oh Dave, I am sorry you are having such a rough time. Very frustrating when all your hard work is being plagued and you cannot even figure out what it is.

well, reading this thread has been an emotional rollercoaster for me. on the one hand, i'm completely depressed for realizing that a number of my plants are exhibiting symptoms of DISEASE. kinda scary sounding. on the other hand, i've learned that i can trim off the sickly stuff and add straw to help; maybe even spray with something. kinda reassuring.

but, given the fact that all of the plants seem to be growing well and, as of today, are producing flowers and, as of today, quite a few have set fruit, i've decided NOT to be too panicky a parent and see how the kids do without too much fretting on my part. i'm getting way too much pleasure out of every new development to succumb to fear. next thing you know, i'd set up a phone out in the garden and then, every hour, leave a message for the tomatoes wondering why they haven't called to tell me how they're feeling (they wouldn't be answering for being too loaded from drinking the beer in the slug traps).

Keep your chin up guys! We're still learning!

Learning is right John,

Saw the first baby yellow pear tomato this morning !
And a whompin' big bell pepper that I didn't know was hiding !

Had my first worms hit a pepper and tomato plant this week. Almost stripped one of my bigger peppers. So will have to check closely now. Otherwise my tomatoes set more this week and really growing now.
Dave hate to hear about the problems you are having. JD

I'll post pics tomorrow, but I think I'm losing the cream of my crop. I'm literraly sick.

Oh Dave, I just hate reading that. I am so so sorry you are having such a rough year.

Sorry to hear that Dave. Take some pics and post them when you can.

These pics don't do a good job of showing the disase problems I'm having. The yellow leaves may look like overwatering or nitrogen deficiency, but that's not it. There are blotches, curled brown leaves...too many symptoms to name. This all happened literaly overnight a few days ago. The worst affected plant is the German Red Strawberry I started a topic on earlier. It's loaded with fruit, and I'm afraid to even pick off the infected leaves for fear of scalding the fruit. The diseased leaves are throughout the plant, not just bottom leaves. We had not had rain for a number of days when this all appeared, and I do not allow the leaves to get wet when I water.




[IMG http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/peppereater/S4300188.jpg[/IMG]

I don't know what to say Dave. Definitely some sort of disease. Hard to tell from the pics. Wilt of some kind maybe. I hope they pull through and produce some maters for ya. Good luck.

I have seen a turtle or two in the garden, I normally leave them so they can eat bugs.

How I love to see all you pictures and read about your tomatoes.

Thanks for helping a novice mator grower, you all sure give us enough encouagement to do more then we tho't we could.

Dave, did you plant from seed? If you planted plants could one have been infected with something that's gone wild?

Dave I have never seen anything like that on mine yet. Hope they recover and produce tomatoes. I know how disheartening it is at this time when they are looded. Keep us informed. Best wishes for a recovery. JD

How neat to see a turtle just living naturally. As backyard wildlife, I mean. I wonder what kind it is?
BTW, I was just bragging about finding a bell pepper that was hiding, and while peering into the plant to admire it........ yep, another one broke off.

Dave,
That's what mine do everrrrrry year..
It's the
Tomato Septoria Alternaria
and Here\'s some reading info for you on Leaf Spot of Tomato

It's in the soil..
And really goes to havoc when the water splashes the soil and up on to the plants..
and I almost don't care what you do to prevent it, it'll always be there.. just with different coverings it may slow it down..
I've tried everything..

I do get a crop of tomatoes though, so I wouldn't worry toooooo much...
But in the future, always clean everything from year to year that gets stuck into the ground with the tomatoes... ie: stakes, cages, etc..
***I don't, too much d@mn work*** but that's how it's helped not to continue it..

And don't use any of the infected plants in the compost bins, it over winters, clear the top area's of your beds..

I think the only I haven't done is to try a green crop under it *while growing* and I will try that, when I get some extra $$$...

Just plant alot of extra tomatoes.....

Sorry to hear about your tomato problems. At least you HAVE tomatos. I have 2 plants that are somewhat small (1 foot tall) a volenteer (could be either a roma or big boy I think) and I was given a Red October whatever that is.

I have about 25 yellow tomato plants but there like new plants. Just 2 weeks old. I`m in Iowa next to Missouri so I should get some tomatos before the cold weather gets to them (usually mid to late oct.)

Don't feel bad... I am still planting mine too!!

We get Possum, Skunks, and Coyotes as well.

I have rabbits, squirrels, crows, birds, lizards, (shudder) and occasionally, raccoons.

Oh, and owls that settle the canyon rats' hash....

Here are just some of my Tomatoes.

Roma and Celebrity

Woooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww, are those great lookin'!!!
Fire up the grill and get out the pasta and salad..
It's almost tomato time!!!

I have always had probelms growing Tomatoes, but this year I have the biggest bunch of Tomatoes ever!!!

I planted 2 Tomato plants about 6" apart, for a total of 6 groups. I have 12 Roma's and 12 Celebrity.

I guess added a bit to much compost this year.

as of 7/4, i have fruit of varying sizes (from barely embryonic to mid-term, i'd guess) on these plants...

orange banana
eva's purple
striped cavern
green zebra
Arkansas traveler
Burbank Red Slicing
Yellow Perfection
Brandywine

so far, about half of my plants have set some fruit (though nothing's going wild yet). i promise photos when they get more photogenic (i was never one for carrying around the ultrasound of my son, either).

a happy & safe anniversary of rebellion to everyone!!

Was it that 6 FEET of compost that did it!! (wink~wink!!)

I have 37 Cherry tomato plants, they are VERY VERY small at the moment, I mean they are about 2-3 inches tall . But then, I did plant them late and they are growing quite quickly.

EDIT: Here are some pictures...



And here they are all together...

Bamboo, best of luck!
Quick update on mine, disease has not progressed, big fat 'maters on several plants, if sunscald or disease doesn't get 'em. Black Plum is disease free and prolific, some color on a few fruit.

Bamboo,
Those look great..

Question???????
Are you going to seperate those plants
in the long rectangle planters/container?

You really could only put one in a planter..
They get realllllllllly big *mine grow 6+ft in the garden*....
The root system can be really big/large...
And they need good circulation..

You can get "foodgrade" buckets, drill holes in the bottom and you'll have great containers for them...

Internetowl - "Serious question - should the top shoots be pinched out on the plants or left to grow unabaited?"

you mean sort of like topping off the plant? i do- just so they don't get too huge to handle but i think it's just a personal preference. you can do whatever you want. i do them when they are around 5 ft tall. i also trim back the huge leaves and pinch out all suckers. the trunks of my plants get nice and huge and they prodeuce nicely- unless of course they get some funky disease like this year. i am hoping to save them- i've cleaned them up a bit and they look god for now so we will have to wait and see. i have 3- super sweet 100 cherry plants (they produced loads last year), 3- yellow pears and 4- 4 of july plants. there are tons of fruits on there now, i'm just waiting for them to turn red so i can chow down! LOL my basil plant is nice and big so i'm ready.....

Good to hear Dave.

Yeah, eventually I will have to seperate the tomatoes...can they really become 6 ft tall?? AAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!
Looks like I have a job on my hands. Thanks for all the great tips.

...and THEN some!

I picked 54 tomatoes tonight, the most for one night. I have probably picked 3 to 4 times that many already.

I don't know what I did this year, but I have damndest bunch of tomatoes I ever saw.

And the Celebrity's are pretty this year, in years past all I had were ugly ones.

I'm tellin' ya Pat,
it was that 6ft of COMPOST!!!

Yes, when planted in a garden, they can get 6ft and then some like John said...
Even in 5 gallon buckets they can get pretty tall...

You'll have your hands full, but you'll be lovin' every minute of it, when you're eating that scrumptuous home~grown tomato...

Please keep or Bad That's how we all learn

54 tomatoes????
Wowie !!!!

54 tomatoes and no pics of the bounty??!!

I'm a west coaster and I want to chime in.

My first Early Girl ripened and was picked in May. I didn't pick any more ripe tomatoes until June.

Right now Champion, Early Girl, Sun Gold and Juliet have been picked pretty steady. The first Momotaro was picked yesterday. Big beef and Supersteak have set fruit and are taking their own sweet time to ripen.

Just for grins, here's an Early Girl that I overwintered last year:

Holy Cow...
Or should I say Holy Tomato!!!
That is AWESOME!!!

I don't think I have ever seen one so big
and filled out....

Do you pull the suckers off, or let them go????

That one was allowed to go wild, and it did so freely.

My tomatoes have the yellow leaves about 2 ft. down and some of my plants have the curled leaves, but since the plants are 9 ft tall (big boys and better boys) and full of tomatoes, i hav'nt worried to much. but after seeing pepereaters plants, i'm getting afraid. My main novice question is? is it best to let the tomatoes of the better boys and better boys turn red on the vines. mine are the size of baseballs and green as ever. i'm so excited its hard for me to keep from picking them.

Well.... I have ALOT of green tomatoes on my Celebrity plants (4)...12 fruits, but all greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnn

Remember Im new.. what does over winter mean??

Overwintering is bringing it indoors to keep it alive. I do the same with my peppers. Gives them a great head start for the next season.

You can pull them off when they're half-way ripe and let them fully ripen in the kitchen.

I have to close this one down, but I did
start a new one..
Here\'s a quick link to the next Part II

So, go post your results there...

Here\'s a quick link back to the
beginning of Part I