2016 NJ urban tomato garden

[efisakov]

Marsha, I posted picture of none uniformed ones only because they were so huge. Last year they were mostly 5-8 ounces for me. This year we have cat facing on most if not all of the early varieties. Creasy weather is a factor.
Here is the most common one. Beautiful and tasty.

[kath]

Originally Posted by efisakov

Is anyone growing it this year?

Yes, I'm growing La Vie en Rose for the 1st time this year but don't have any ripe yet.

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by kath

Yes, I'm growing La Vie en Rose for the 1st time this year but don't have any ripe yet.

I just picked the second. Letting it ripe a bit more. Hope it would be as good as the first one.

Most my tomatoes, including black varieties, are not as sweet, more tart then sweet. That weather from cold to hot is not helping at all. Many cat-faces. I like to eat tomatoes without anything added, not even salt. I want to taste the real tomato. With salt they are good, without it not good enough.

We had 5 days in a row with temperature above 90, then two days below 90, then 6 days in a row above 90. Hopefully it end there.

[pinklady5]

Yeah, I noticed the flavor was off on Pruden's Purple. I ate a leftover slice that didn't make it onto a burger and I noticed it was tart, not sweet. I hope it improves.

Originally Posted by efisakov

I just picked the second. Letting it ripe a bit more. Hope it would be as good as the first one.

Most my tomatoes, including black varieties, are not as sweet, more tart then sweet. That weather from cold to hot is not helping at all. Many cat-faces. I like to eat tomatoes without anything added, not even salt. I want to taste the real tomato. With salt they are good, without it not good enough.

We had 5 days in a row with temperature above 90, then two days below 90, then 6 days in a row above 90. Hopefully it end there.

[greyghost]

Ella, I'm growing La Vie en Rose from Secret Seed Cartel as well. Several years ago, maybe '9 or'10, Terry had sent another T'Ville member, BigdaddyJ seeds for
Claude Brown's Yellow Giant which produced a large coral tomato. They decided
to call it Claude's Coral Giant--Bigdaddy gave me seeds-I thought it was great tasting but too often, I got a large yellow (not our favorite). Terry eventually named the stabilized coral La Vie en Rose and the yellow segregate Moonshiner's
Ball -I've read that MB may listed on her site this fall. Mine are good but not quite as good as before-none of mine are this year. I also have a lot of catfaced fruit even though I culled as many as I could. Just not the best year for looks or taste! I should have mentioned that at the time of the cross, Terry thought the parents might have been Claude Brown's Giant Yellow and Fritz Ackerman.

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by greyghost

Ella, I'm growing La Vie en Rose from Secret Seed Cartel as well. Several years ago, maybe '9 or'10, Terry had sent another T'Ville member, BigdaddyJ seeds for
Claude Brown's Yellow Giant which produced a large coral tomato. They decided
to call it Claude's Coral Giant--Bigdaddy gave me seeds-I thought it was great tasting but too often, I got a large yellow (not our favorite). Terry eventually named the stabilized coral La Vie en Rose and the yellow segregate Moonshiner's
Ball -I've read that MB may listed on her site this fall. Mine are good but not quite as good as before-none of mine are this year. I also have a lot of catfaced fruit even though I culled as many as I could. Just not the best year for looks or taste! I should have mentioned that at the time of the cross, Terry thought the parents might have been Claude Brown's Giant Yellow and Fritz Ackerman.

Darlene,
I actually read that Claude Brown's Yellow Giant was one of the parents on the website written by Terry (with pictures of LVeR and M). And was hopping one day to be able to grow it. I like CBYG. I got my seeds for CBYG from Maria/blueribbontomatoes, have being growing it for few years now. I pick at the end of the season few green tomatoes from CBYG and let them ripen. We have them as the last onec of the season. They are big maters. The biggest was more than 2 pounds. They are late for me. None is ripe yet.
Thank you for the seeds of LVeR. It is an excellent tomato.

[efisakov]

The biggest fruit this season so far belongs to Spudakee. Special thanks to Garden boy for the seeds.
This one, as you can see, is 22.2 ounces. Not the biggest tomato for me but the biggest for the season up to now. Few more of the maters from the same plant picked today are in the back. The second biggest picked today from the same plant was 17 ounces.

P.S. I have picked 9 fruits from it and the average weight was 11.3 ounces.

[efisakov]

Some will go to neighbors and friends. My DH will take to work few, they love it there. Some will be processed.

[MissS]

A very nice harvest indeed and well worth the wait. I am so glad that you finally have your crop coming in. It sure is a beautiful one Ella.

[kath]

Your garden is really in high gear, Ella- such a pretty sight! Many of my beefsteaks are only beginning to blush- we've tasted few so far but Indian Zebra and Blackberry are still on top. Margaret Curtain was better than the 1st time I grew it and Tasmanian Chocolate was good, but the dwarf plants are HUGE disease magnets in my garden and won't be back.

From your description, our temps have been about the same as yours. Quite a bit of cat facing here also, but I have that every year. BER is taking its toll on many of the paste types I'm trialing, but there are a few that haven't been affected yet; luckily, they are also healthy plants with large fruits that continued to set fairly well in the heat, so we'll see how that goes.

Enjoy your tomatoes! Looks like many people will be!

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by kath

Your garden is really in high gear, Ella- such a pretty sight! Many of my beefsteaks are only beginning to blush- we've tasted few so far but Indian Zebra and Blackberry are still on top. Margaret Curtain was better than the 1st time I grew it and Tasmanian Chocolate was good, but the dwarf plants are HUGE disease magnets in my garden and won't be back.

From your description, our temps have been about the same as yours. Quite a bit of cat facing here also, but I have that every year. BER is taking its toll on many of the paste types I'm trialing, but there are a few that haven't been affected yet; luckily, they are also healthy plants with large fruits that continued to set fairly well in the heat, so we'll see how that goes.

Enjoy your tomatoes! Looks like many people will be!

Kath, I really liked Blackberry last year as well. Even planned to grow two of them this year. One was killed by squirrels and the second by ants. Next year I will plant more than that.
Had some BER issue as well and on few beefsteaks. Which is not a common thing in my garden.
Found spider mites couple of days ago. Have to spray, but did postponed twice because of the rain. I do not want to work so hard and it all washes off. Plus the temps.

[greyghost]

That's a beautiful load of tomatoes, Ella. I'm sure people will love getting them!

[efisakov]

Thank you, MissS, Kath and greyghost/Darlene.

[Barb_FL]

What a harvest you have going! The Spudakee is beautiful.

I know you've mentioned # of pounds per plant before. How do you keep track of it?

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

What a harvest you have going! The Spudakee is beautiful.

I know you've mentioned # of pounds per plant before. How do you keep track of it?

Sometimes it fills like a work.
I weigh each tomato and record on my computer. I should use excel to count all the ounces for me, but I did not. The funny thing is I know how to do it and it is easy. I use Excel at work.