First Green Tomato

And the second one, too. It wasn't until I looked at the attached photo that I noticed a second, smaller tomato appearing at 2 o'clock from the first one in the same cluster. Big Beef, 28 days after transplanting into the garden. My gardening season is 'way behind that of the Texas folks here, but I know I've got the best end of that deal. If no disasters happen, I'll be in production now straight through into October.

I've learned another big lesson from my garden this year. Note to self: NEVER get careless again about 'rotating crops', it makes too big a difference.

For the last 7 years or so, knowing better, I've grown the same kinds of veggies in about the same places in my garden. The way the fence, gates, and faucets are located it just works out easier that way, and I reasoned that since the whole garden gets tilled several times a season, any pathogens in the soil must be evenly distributed so rotating where I plant things isn't really necessary. WRONG.

This year I moved everything around in my 35' x 50' garden as much as possible and as far as possible from where they were last year. Tomatoes and beans are where corn grew, peppers, potatoes, and beets are where cucumbers and melons were, corn, 'cukes, basil, tomatillos, okra, and eggplants are growing where they've never grown before. The results have been wonderful - everything is really thriving.

Best of all, in this very wet spring where it's raining every doggone day and night and splashing soil up on my still un-mulched tomatoes - they show no sign of fungus disease. None. That's remarkable because normally at this time of year I'm pinching off yellowed/spotted bottom leaves and branches and spraying often to keep the plants covered with Daconil. Not this year - those fungus spores are in the soil 'way down at the other end of the garden, far from my tomatoes! :>)

Congratulations! Don't group all of use Texans together, like you, I think tomatoes now until frost. We are having more rain then we have had in a long time and the plants just love it. I've talked to a few people around here when I see them pulling up tomato plants in the summer and their answer is that they slowed down production and that's what they've always done. I can't imagine trying to put seedlings out mid summer and they aren't going to produce for at least 2 months.

I know, Lisa - Texas has many different climates, too many to make general statements like that. It's the folks down around the Gulf Coast who have Florida-like backwards gardening seasons. But their area of Texas seems real, real desirable to me when it's snowing and blowing here in February.

Here's a picture of my whole 35' x 50' garden, taken a few minutes ago. Beets, potatoes, lettuce, dill, basil, cucumbers, beans, okra, corn, eggplant, peppers, tomatillos, and tomatoes. You can see we live in the woods, near the top of a south-sloping hill, and in the photo you can see a little bit of the gray roof of our house in the right background.

I can't go in my garden today for the mud, and we've got another rain front coming in. While I was out there I emptied the rain gauge (1 1/4" since this time yesterday) and it started sprinkling rain. No problem - drizzle, drizzle, sprinkle, sprinkle, WHOOMP! I actually heard the deluge coming from up in the sky a few seconds before it hit - a real toad-strangler! I headed for the barn, and the good news is that I can still run, pretty doggone well. The moles seem to have quit digging - maybe they've all drowned. LOL



This message was edited Jun 9, 2014 11:45 AM

Wow, your garden looks so nice and neat. I see room that I could jam more stuff in. Lol. I've been outside and heard the rain coming..it hasn't happened in a while. I'm glad you can still run. Lol

boy would i love a garden space that big, lol! im finally starting to see little tiny buds on my tomato plants (after the first round of pinching the first ones off to make sure the plants will get stocky enough before the real fruiting starts)

Nice looking garden!

A healthy vege garden there!
I am just transplanting tomatoes to outdoors now.

Ozark, are those tomatillos you planted or volunteers?

"Ozark, are those tomatillos you planted or volunteers?"
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Volunteers now. I planted tomatillos a couple of times and I grow them every year, but I haven't had to plant seeds for the last 10 years or so. Tomatillo seedlings are now one of the most common springtime "weeds" in my garden - I plow 99% of them out and place a few where I want them. I'm growing 4 plants this year.

Back when I bought seeds I planted both the yellow and purple varieties, and I guess they crossed because now all my volunteers produce yellow/purple striped tomatillos. Suits me - they go good in my garden salsa.

I've read that in Mexico, tomatillos are just weeds that pop up in corn fields and long ago people figured out that the fruits are edible and started adding them to various dishes. That sounds right - they really are weed-like in their sprawling growth habit and in re-seeding themselves.

Your garden is just too neat. Could you take a photo around say Sept 1st so I can see if it is still neat? Mine always looks like a jungle and the more rain the thicker the jungle!

Ok, I'll be nice now. You have a beautiful garden.

Just went out and had the first major harvest of the year!! Wow Wow! The chicken manure I used this year seems to be doing the trick!!

You've got a great clearing there, Ozark. Was it a natural one? It makes your garden look like a jewel. With a chicken wire (?) setting.

Major harvest indeed drkenai!

No, not a natural clearing. Unless there's solid bedrock right at the surface to produce a "glade", there aren't any natural clearings in the Ozarks. Any ground not kept mowed turns into oak / hickory / red cedar forest in just a few years.

We live on six acres, about half pasture and half woods. My garden is in a corner of our east pasture, right next to our barn.

steadycam3 - Yep, my garden won't look so neat later in the season. I make sure things start out orderly, but toward the end nature always wins. :>)

Sam, I remember your comments about tomatillos so I was teasing you when I asked that question.

"Sam, I remember your comments about tomatillos so I was teasing you when I asked that question."
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You're like my grandkids, who know all my stories and try to get me to repeat them so they can make fun. I guess that's what I get for being able to remember when Truman was president. :>)

drkenai
great harvest!!!!

drkenai - nice haul on the tomatoes. How many plants do you have.

Ozark - You seem much younger whipper-snapper than a guy who remembers Truman as president. BTW - Where did you get the tomatillos originally? :-)

I have 39 varieties and a total of 75 plants. I started all the plants from seeds late in January. Many of them were saved seeds.

Ozark - You seem much younger whipper-snapper than a guy who remembers Truman as president. BTW - Where did you get the tomatillos originally? :-)
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Well, thanks. Besides mowing grass and taking care of the garden, I'm building a gazebo by our patio. I've been mixing and pouring concrete and cutting and hanging rafters. I went through three shirts and three showers, working in this humidity today - so if I can work like that maybe I'm not too ancient yet. :>)

Tomatillo seeds? It's been so long since I bought any, I dunno - probably Johnny's Selected Seeds or maybe Baker Creek. I remember I planted both yellow and purple varieties, and so they've crossed.

Jeez now I feel bad, that's what I get for having a memory like an elephant. I just know you had no trouble growing them and they got all tangled up....how about if I tell the story.

Thanks for the info. I'll look for them.

Yes. Like I said pretty active. BTW - My in-laws used to run into Truman periodically when he was still living in Independence.

This message was edited Jun 19, 2014 8:56 AM

Drkenai- Cant wait to start harvesting! Quite a load you have there! :)

Ozark your going to have a mess of them too! gosh I cant wait! lol very excited for canning season :D

Heres my jungle of Beefsteaks, had to go out last night and pound in some tree limbs in and string binder twine between them lol

Looks like you've got a couple of good helpers there, badcat.

Don't feel bad, Lisa - I'm just messing with you back. I've been shot at and missed, I've raised three daughters through their teenage years, I've eaten in Tijuana, and I got an Aces-full-of-Kings full house beaten last week - I can take it! LOL

New development. I've mentioned that I planted some of the old F2 generation seeds, saved in 2010, from the original cross that resulted in S.O.O. F2 of course is the unstable generation in which genes line up in unpredictable ways, and the plants and tomatoes can show no-telling-what characteristics. I've got three of those plants, big and healthy.

Right now, my Big Beef Hybrid plants have the most little green tomatoes set on, though all the others including S.O.O. are setting on too. A couple of Big Beef plants have as many as 8 tomatoes set, other varieties fewer.

But ONE unstable F2 generation plant has 28 tomatoes set on that I can count, and more appearing every day! They seem like they're going to be very large (as all tomatoes coming from that cross have been), they're setting on in clusters of 4 or 5, and they're very FLAT (oblate) with strong vertical grooves, striations, all around. There's no telling what color they will ripen - red, pink, and orange tomatoes have appeared from that cross so far.

If it turns out that this super-productive thing has good flavor too, S.O.O. may have a new cousin!

Well, we'll cross our fingers and hope this one delivers as well! One of my friends to whom I gave two SOO's showed me a photo of the one she put in her Earthbox. It is growing like gangbusters so I did warn her to plan on staking it!! She took the other one to her vacation place in upper NY state and said that it is behind because it is colder up there. But that one she put in the ground. So we will get another perspective.

Gardadore,

My experience with SOO in an Earthbox is that your cousin better be ready to stake it, cage it, and do anything she can to keep it contained. The two SOO that I put into an Earthbox got completely out of control. The EB fell over several times in the wind, and the plant took some damage. The heat hit and the plants I had in the EBs seemed to suffer substantially. Only the cherries are continuing to bloom and produce.

David

Thinking I should have named the variety Audrey II instead of Sweet Ozark Orange. We'll see if anyone here gets the reference. :>)

Baddy, do you not have humidity problems with your beefs so jungly?
~ Turtle

Ozark- Great helpers for picking..just dont askem to weed ;). Sorry, I dont get it lol

Turtles- Been very humid here, they just keep growing and setting flowers. Theyre loaded with tomatoes. Might need a ladder to pick them

I got some Steak tomatoes from one of my friends last year . I saved some seeds and sowed them, and to my great surprise the plants are doing well.Usually I like to plants a variety, 2 steak, 2 grape, 1 bush and each one have fruits already

Little Shop of Horrors? "Feed me!" lol.

"Little Shop of Horrors? "Feed me!" lol."
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Yup, Audrey II was the totally out-of-control cannibalistic plant from outer space in "Little Shop of Horrors".

I'm glad to see there's someone here with a similarly-warped sense of humor as myself - I have to re-watch that one occasionally (along with Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and The Princess Bride). I blame my now-grown daughters. LOL

One of the young people working here is into carnivorous plants. Audrey is a running joke at Amargia Farm. Don't forget Monty Python. No matter where I hide it, every generation seems to re-discover that one.
My DH has finally developed the knack of judging when a green ripening tomato is ready to pick and I’ve changed my mind about Cherokee Green Grape. Not bad! mk*

Here's what that Big Beef Hybrid plant from the original post, above, looked like this afternoon. It not only set on the first green tomato back then, but now it has the first ripe one there in the middle.

I almost didn't grow Big Beef this year, then dreaves here on the Tomato Forum asked why I wasn't, so I did. I've got five B.B. plants and it's a great variety as always. Thanks, David - don't know what I was thinking.

A ripe tomato! *swoon*

It's nice to have somebody not in Texas to compare timing to. I don't have any ripe tomatoes yet, but they are coming, and at least now I don't feel so out in left field. Thanks for posting.

Those Big Beefs look really nice. It's always good to have a known producer growing in your garden! :)

Here's another variety I'm growing, Tarasenko Rozhevyi (Tarasenko Pink) of Ukrainian origin, seeds kindly sent to me by a lady in Finland who got some Sweet Ozark Orange seeds.

This year has been close to perfect for growing tomatoes. We've had rain every few days and moderate summer temps - all my plants are still setting on fruits. I'm having to tie up a lot of tomato clusters so they won't break from the weight, and that's got to be a good thing. With all the rain, weeds got away from me and I'm just now getting them pulled out of the tomato patch.

In removing 18" tall weeds, I'm finding that my plants have little foliage at the bottom but lots of big tomatoes that were hidden by the weeds. These are big plants with tomatoes set or setting on all the way to the tops, but the big ones are at the bottoms. I've had almost no fungus disease in spite of the rains - and strangely I think those out-of-control weeds have helped by preventing soil from splashing up and by minimizing the amount of foliage that the plants grow on bottom branches. Maybe I'm onto a new technique, here?

wow ! This is fantastic !

Nice looking tomatoes!

We've had more rain and colder weather than is normal. The tomato harvest here is about two weeks behind. The first tomato generally ripens just before the fourth of July and they just started ripening last week.

I am in zone 6 and my tomatoes are ripening already and is picking them everyday before they fall off .This is the first year that I have such early and nice crop.

My crop is later but much more abundant. I planted late and a few I planted really late but every plant is covered in green tomatoes of various sizes. I'm also picking a bucket full each day. As far as I can tell they are all still setting bc when I pull out the faded flowers there are little tomato buttons. : ).