My Tomatoes

[shlacm]

I'm going to try to post the pictures I took today...

I have 19 plants, all different, the weather here has been AWFUL for the last couple weeks: in the 90's with very high humidity.

Arkansas Traveler & Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red:
arkT RR.jpg

Ark Traveler hasn't been growing like the others and has only produced one bloom, but it set fruit:
arkT.jpg

Rowdy Red seems to curl its leaves at the slightest provocation and the new leaves (seen at the top of the pic) look very odd to me... but it has one tomato, some blooms and seems to be doing well:
RR.jpg

Here are my Mr. Stripey and Cherokee Purple. The Cherokee Purple has taken FOREVER to start doing ANYTHING, but is starting to grow now and is even getting some blooms.
MrS ChPurp.jpg

Here is my German Johnson (PL), it's one of only 2 plants that are actually in the ground... it looks rather unhealthy to me, but growing and trying to produce...
GJ PL.jpgGJ PL2.jpg

And the other "in ground" plant; my 5 yo's Yellow Pear:
YP.jpg

The lowest one in this pic has been there for nearly 3 weeks... not a hint of color yet (other than green):
YP2.jpg

The YP has over 30 tomatoes on it, here's a bunch near the top:
YP3.jpg

My Babywine and Opalka:
BW Opalka.jpg

The Babywine is FINALLY setting fruit... seems like its blooms took longer than others' to turn into toms:
BbyWine.jpg

I tried to get a pic of the Opalka's blooms that are JUST starting to open, but it didn't turn out. They are VERY different, really long and exotic looking... remind me of the plant from Little Shop of Horrors.

Here's my Early Giant and Mortgage Lifter:
EG MortL.jpg

Early Giant is trying to catch up...
EG.jpg

Mortgage Lifter has this SLOWLY growing tomato... hopefully more on their way:
MortL.jpg

Here are the NAR and Chocolate Stripe:
NAR ChocS.jpg

NAR sulked for a week after transplant, but is doing well:
NAR.jpg

Choc. Stripe baby... YES, it IS there:
ChocS.jpg

And here (I believe) are my workhorses! Creole and Super Sioux:
Creo SS.jpg

Creole started just after S. Sioux, but has several tomatoes, here are 2 of them:
Creole.jpg

Super Sioux was one of the first to set fruit, and it seems to plan to do a lot of it, here's a whole truss full!
SS.jpg

A couple Hybrids coming along nicely, Country Taste and Summer Cider:
CT SC.jpg

And an itty bitty baby on Country Taste:
CT.jpg

Matt's Wild Cherry and Paul Robeson (with 5 yo's giant Zucchini plants in back):
Matt PR.jpg

Here's a Matt's that been around for nearly 3 weeks without a hint of color:
Matt.jpg

And more Matt's:
Matt2.jpgMatt3.jpg

And you can just see a Paul Robeson baby:
PR.jpg

And here's Legend... the only one doing NOTHING:
Legend.jpg
The pathetic yellow leaves behind him are Lima Beans... will pull them eventually I guess.

The Mystery babies:
Mysteries.jpg

And the 5 yo's (first) Watermelon:
june 25 003.jpg

[Timmah!]

Garden's looking good; German Johnson looks like it could do with some foliar feeding or something, has a hungry look about it.

[Talon1189]

From one newbie to another.......You are doing a great job Shlacm My two Legends are doing somewhat better thou so far The rule of thumb is "don't pinch suckers" on determinate plants.......They grow lower but more girth. They also give out their fruit within about 2 weeks then they are done for the season......Good luck on your first tomato adventure my friend >>>>>>>>>>Talon

[shlacm]

Thanks to you both!!! I was worried that if I posted pics, a bunch of people would start telling me how horrible they looked and everything I'm doing wrong: they're too crowded, you need cages, the foliage is awfully sparse, shouldn't they be farther along this time of year in your zone?... you get the picture!!!

Timmah - is that what that is? lol. I'll have to try and feed him something! He's always been a bit "light" but I'm thinking he's gettin' more sickly... Truth be told, I'm amazed he's made it this long! The dirt he's in is AWFUL, it wasn't supposed to be his permanent home, but, I ran out of room very quickly and they seemed okay there. There is some 10-10-10 Miracle Grow CRF and I've given them all the new TomatoTone twice, but I'm not sure how healthy his roots can be... a few inches down the ground gets very hard and compacted! He's stood up to some SERIOUS wind though (pre-staking), so he's really hangin' on somehow!

Talon - Fortunately, I'm not very attached to the 4 hybrids, ESPECIALLY Legend... that's how he ended up relegated to the Lima Bean container.

[shlacm]

Here's my July 7th update!

Opalka is finally setting fruit - aren't they the CUTEST things ever?!?!
opalkas.jpg

And here are the 3rd & 4th ripe tomatoes! The 1st (Matt's) and 2nd (YP) weren't around long enough to photograph!
yp's.jpg

And a new melon:
melon1.jpg

And the 1st watermelon... bigger now and moved to a softer "bed!" Wish I remembered what kind they are!!!
melon2.jpg

While I was taking the pictures, the "baby" was raiding the neighbor's flower bed:
ollie1.jpg

[Timmah!]

Nice pictures. The look on the youngun's face is priceless.

[shlacm]

Thanks Timmah... I'm rather smitten with my little garden!
I think one of the neighbors is secretly irritated by my little flower thief (the one whose flower he has in his grubby little mits), the other one couldn't care less, lol!

And my counts:
July 8th
Arkansas Traveler - 1 (the only one with no blooms, but it's still puny)
Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red - 6
Mr. Stripey/Tigerella - 0
Cherokee Purple - 1 (FINALLY)
German Johnson (PL) - 6
Yellow Pear - 9 trusses(?)
Babywine - 10
Opalka - 2
Early Giant - 6
Mortgage Lifter - 6
NAR - 1 (FINALLY)
Chocolate Stripe - 1 (dang disease magnet plant!)
Creole - 7
Super Sioux - 11
Country Taste - 8
Summer Cider - 4
Matt's Wild Cherry - 9 trusses(?)
Paul Robeson - 5
Legend - 0

The temps have been super high for weeks... with high humidity and NO rain. My plants are troopers!

[Timmah!]

Are these numbers of fruit set? Amusingly ironic that a plant named Legend has 0 of whatever the count may be. =D Sounds like a real swell neighbor that would begrudge a kid the occasional flower.

[shlacm]

Yup, that's fruit set. I'm tickled!!! The Legend plant is a joke! Fortunately it was a "bonus" 'cause it's pathetic in every respect compared to the others.

Ah yes the neighbor! She's... interesting. She has 10 cats that poo everywhere, including neighbor's gardens and even in the middle of the yard!!! She thinks that's just fine!!! So I don't worry too much about her being annoyed by my flower picker... or my husband's drumming for that matter! Heck, I GAVE the woman a car, she can forfeit some flowers!

[Talon1189]

I got 4 babies between my 2 Legend plants. They are a little slow to set fruit despite being about 3 feet tall in height

[shlacm]

Talon, good to know. Mine just isn't very "robust" at all. It's the only determinate of my 19 plants, so I guess it's not a real fair comparison...

[shlacm]

And now there are about 10 tomatoes... $%#@&^%$@% deer!!!

[Talon1189]

Originally Posted by shlacm

And now there are about 10 tomatoes... $%#@&^%$@% deer!!!

Always think "positive" here....at least they did not eat the Legend tomatoes >>>>>>>>>> Talon

[shlacm]

They ate the Legend PLANT!!!

The positive is they mostly ate JUST tomatoes, only a few leaves (except for Legend).

I have literally piled "junk" around them to try to deter the deer until I can afford something better - yard toys, a garbage can filled with water, chairs, LOTS of ribbon!!! If only I had a bb gun!!!!

[Talon1189]

Them daaaayuum deer knew what was productive and what was a dud.... "The positive is they mostly ate JUST tomatoes, only and a few leaves (except for Legend)." I have a stomach ache from laughing here >>>>>>>>>> Talon