How's your tomatoes doing?

Just wondering if anybody else thinks that the tomatoes are a little slow this year..??... I've gotten a couple of 'em turn red...but for the most part it seems all the plants I put in are just 'stalled'. They're nice and big...but seems I had a lot more tomatoes this time last year.

Anyway...just wondering.

Jann

mine don't even have fruit yet, still flowers. I am waiting, patiently. I planted them in february! GEEZ!

mine are a few 2 months old

I planted mine around the middle of March, and they're loaded with tomatoes. Most are green and big, and I have harvested a couple of red ones. You're right, Jan...they do seem stalled. We're eating mostly fried green tomatoes at this point, and waiting on the others to ripen up.

I was thinking the same thing. I thought i had a lot more last year

We had a much cooler spring than normal... Usually I'd plant out mid-February but waited until March since they just sulk until it gets warm... I've been harvesting a lot of cherries (Dr. Carolyn Pink, Gartenperle and Sun Sugar). Also a few Steak Sandwich, Phoenix and Bloody Butcher and one Pink Brandywine so far...

Here's a pic of what I grabbed Saturday morning.

Here's a small part of my 'mater jungle - can't say the plants aren't prolific! Now bring on the 'maters - lol...

I like the pretty little blossoms, and I am seeing some bees, I can't wait until I get actual tomatoes though! I only planted Romas!

Hay Kelly ,
Take them Boys off the Juice they don’t need any more LOL . that is one BIG Jungle of maters Bro/Sis I wish mine looked like that, I think I would be feeden them the juice to get maters I don’t think I have seen any yet any Bigger WOW. Take some Photos when the maters come in off them fellers .

Sarg

Wow -- Kelly... whatever is bothering the rest of our tomato plants sure don't seem to be bothering yours.

This is the Dr. Carolyn plant - I figured, cherry tomato = small plant... Boy was I wrong!

The 'maters are mighty tasty - they are "pink" but sure don't look pink - lol. I thought I had planted the yellow ones so imagine my surprise when this is what I saw.

I foliar feed with fish emulsion every two weeks - the 'maters in particular love it. My beds are raised (DH built them) and are a combo of peat, vermiculite and compost. I add compost when I replant and mulch with unfinished compost. Seems to be doing the trick!

Kelly

you are doing it right thats for sure

I have tons of maters, just none are ripening!

Kelly, my maters looked like your jungle last year. This year, we've made improvements to our caging system.

Like you cages Steph! I just got lazy about adding string to mine to keep them in line - lol. I do try and keep them pruned and mulched near the ground, but other than that it's just too dang hot to worry about it! I figure the more leaves I have the less damage the hornworms can do - lol...

Well, I'm getting them earlier this year, mainly due to the fact I planted earlier! Last year, my first serious attempt at gardening, I started kinda late and only grew one strain - Cherokee Purple, but me and my parents, and my neighbors, and my co-workers were thrilled with the results. I did have 13 plants. This year I have 20 plants - 4 each of Cherokee Purple(from my seeds!), Lemon Boy, Mr. Stripey, German Johnson and Bull's Heart. All the LB's have small fruits already, as do 2 of the BH's. The larger plants all are blooming profusely and I'm sure if I looked closer I'd find some little pea-sized starts, but aside from watering them yesterday quickly before work I haven't had much interaction with them since Saturday evening. All my tomatoes are in containers and this year I'm letting some Henderson's baby lima's share the space with them. I have bamboo poles staked outside the pots for the beans to grow on - so far, so good. But the explosion of growth for both plants is right around the corner - this could turn ugly!
I'm determined to get some pics this year - I'm digital camera poor! :-( But last year I had to get the folding ladder out to tie up and harvest some of the plants later in the season! I had CP's at 10feet tall!!

BTW - raw tomatoes aren't really my bag and I rarely eat one!! :-)~

looks like their growing quite well if you need to have a lader to pick-em lol



here's the field market gerden

I have three plants and noticed I have fruit on one of them... I am kind of excited as last year my maters bombed in the full sun. This time I placed them where they get mostly morning sun and are shaded from the hot afternoon sun. The one I put the egg in when I transplanted has done wonderful, no loss from transplanting and has blooms already... I have 2 white and one red... Will get pictures soon.

Woohoo!! Found my first ripening tomato this morning!

Congradulation stephanietx maters seem to be growing a lil slow for some folks this year all plant and or big maters but still green so good job i think the sun is having a hard time reaching the maters through the vines their so Big LOL.

My maters are now at eye-level, but the fruits are still green. So far, there's still no sign of blossom end rot. I'm going to give them some more seabird guano this weekend, I think that's what keeping the BER at bay.

I've also asked hubby to give them water, water and more water!

My goal is to have ripe maters by July 4th - only 25 days to go!

If it doesn't rain all weekend (again) I'll shoot some photos.

Honey Bee dont count them chickens yet look at the news you are not too far from me and they are callen for rain for the next 5 to 7 days and i aint going to be stengy with it i am going to share with you when i am done with it I'm gona send it your way Honey LOL he he he . Momma always said share with folks ~;{>)

I only got one ripe so far. But it is nice looking. Heatwave, 8 oz.

Quyen,

Pass the salt He he he ~;)

My plants are small but they all have fruit set. Some of them are starting to turn. I have 60 different varieties so its fun to see the different colors and shapes.
I have a "Royal Hillbilly", and I was so excited because many of the blossoms had set. However, the fruit is long so I don't think it is RH. I'll take pictures when it stops raining.
I started all my plants from seed so I don't know if I messed up or if the seeds aren't pure.
I also had a bunch of blossoms set on my White Wonder (only got 1 tomato last year and it was really late) then a tomato warm chewed some of them off. ARGH.....

I think I have zone envy.

I've got two Champion plants, one Italiano roma, one Black Krim, one Eva's Purple, a kellogg's breakfast, and a creole.

The two Champions are ripening now. I think the roma is done, but we got lots of maters off it. The rest of them have set fruit, I'm waiting on it to grow and ripen now.

I'm behind the curve, sapphire. My supersweets are starting to ripen, but the birds got to the 1st good fruits, %&*@^. My wife just bought some bird seed so hopefully they will go for the feeders again.

My Costoluto's are starting to set fruit as well.

Oh suck. I got a sure fire bird defense this year. Its called the outdoor kitty. :D She showed up one day and I haven't had a bird issue since. In return, she gets a bowl of kitty food and my gratitude. :D I do have a feeder too, but it hasn't been filled in a while.

In this neck of the woods we do not call outdoor cats 'bird defense' we call them coyote treats.

no fruit yet, i'm patient. I will be leaving on tour with my band for a week in about 10 days, so my kind roomie is going to water my babies for me, I am just anxious because I won't be able to check them out every day!

I have Babies (Romas)

oohhh I have romas too!! We got a lot of rain this spring so hopefully the temperature is evening out now and my tomatoes can grow~!

quiltygirl, I know what you mean. I lived on the edge of Poway in San Diego County for a while. We didn't let the cats out then either since we had heard all the stories. The worst "predator" other than the outdoor kitty I have seen in my yard in the last three years is a bunny and the occasional loose dog.

WOW alot of Ca. transplants here in TX. Sapphire have you found gardening is a lot more difficult here in TX?

LOL, actually, I'm a native Texan. I went out to Cali for a few years to "see the world". LOL, gardening here is much easier actually. We get this thing called rain...:) I gardened in pots in Cali since we lived in apartments most of the time. I actually couldn't get anything to grow in the little in-ground garden I had in Cali. The soil was too poor and I hadn't learned about enriching it yet. However, my grandfather had a huge garden in southeast Brazoria County (Lake Jackson, Tx) and I learned to garden mostly from him...so I know some of the tricks for dealing with our climate.

Hey Liberty.... I'm originally from CA....been in Texas for about 30yrs now...AND...'yes' I think it's a lot harder to garden here. You have to REALLY work at it here in TX...whereas in CA it just didn't seem to be that much work. Our weather here in TX is just so extreme --> HOT, HOT summers, and where I live in N. TX we get freezing weather and snow sometimes.