Southern New Jersey Tomatoes

[hoffman900]

Here are a few shots of my tomatoes this year. All plants are close to double digits with fruit sets (and are FILLED with blossoms), and the Granaderoes (plums) are setting their sixth cluster and have already passed the 5' mark (as have the Brandy Boys). It's hard to get photos of all the tomatoes since they're covered under foliage. All plants but two are taken to a single stem. The other two are dual stems.

The two shorter looking plants had their stems break off. Not a big deal. I'll just let another sucker grow and use that.

Varieties seen:
Brandy Boy
Delicious
Cherokee Purple
Green Zebra
Granadero
Red Ponderosa

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.

[augiedog55]

i can't see the pictures

[hoffman900]

Hmm..

Try this until I figure out why it won't work: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52563404@N02/

[PA_Julia]

They all look great and appear extremely healthy.


Julia

[kath]

They sure are doing well! Your photo reminds me of summers at the Jersey shore!

kath

[hoffman900]

Kath,

I'm a native of Ocean City. My garden is at my grandmother's house which is in the center part of the island. I live / grew up on the south end (I have pole beans and sunflowers growing at my parent's). After 4 years at school, I moved home and commute to school which saves me some money. Not sure if I'll do this again next year as I'm looking at grad schools out west.

Here is the current count. I'm not so much interested in count as I am in weight, but that will come later. I'll being doing statistical analysis on the data at the end of the season. I'll post the results here.

Red Ponderosa (RP)
Granadero (G)
Green Zebra (GZ)
Cherokee Purple (CP)
Delicious (D)
Brand Boy (BB)

RP1: 5
RP2: 7
RP3: 7
RP4: 8 (vine broke, so I'm waiting for another sucker to get long enough to start training)
G1: 21
G2: 23
G3: 22
G4: 13 (vine broke as well)
G5: 25
G6: 28
GZ1: 17
GZ2: 8 (interesting)
CP1: 9
CP2: 6
CP3: 8
CP4: 9
D1: 7
D2/3 (trained to two vines): 15
BB1/2 (trained to two vines): 16
BB3: 7

I just fertilized Monday evening, so all plants are in the 20+ bud range. I'll see how many set in this heat. I suspect the Red Ponderosa plants will set well as they're supposedly good in warm/humid environments.

[kath]

You're really south! I lived in north Jersey- we used to stay near Seaside in the 50's and loved to visit Island Beach when it became a park in the 60's. Happy memories...

[Mudman]

I can't see any pictures.
But then I clicked on your other link.

[dpurdy]

hoffman900,
Love the pictures. I like race cars just about as much as I do tomatoes. Is that cam shaft from your race car? Nice tomatoes and nice car.
DP

[hoffman900]

DP,

Thanks! I help wrench on that TR4. We were having camshaft reliability problems, so I had to send those pictures to a cam grinder to come up with a more reliable set up. I crew on a SCCA GT car as well.

Here is in-car from the TR. The driver qualified 2nd of 55, but started mid pack do to some issues in the qualifying race. He is 76 years old at the time of this video. He's a former top IMSA and SCCA driver from the '60s and '70s and does almost all of his own car prep and engine assembly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH5UweSaS3o

Bob

[dpurdy]

hoffman900,
Thanks for the video. Have been to the Glenn a few times over the years. I live about a hour and a half from there. I grew up with stock car racing, my father drove for years. Hard to imagine motor-heads working in the garden. Funny thought. Be careful not to get any grease or oil on your tomato plants.
DP

[hoffman900]

Originally Posted by dpurdy

hoffman900,
Thanks for the video. Have been to the Glenn a few times over the years. I live about a hour and a half from there. I grew up with stock car racing, my father drove for years. Hard to imagine motor-heads working in the garden. Funny thought. Be careful not to get any grease or oil on your tomato plants.
DP

I find it very similar to working on a car. When you understand how a plant works, it's really just like an engine of sorts.

Here is some recent garden pictures:

1st: Red Ponderosa
2nd: Delicious cluster
3rd: Today's pick

[lakelady]

wow, very nice !! I wish I had that many ripe tomatoes yet! You're only one zone ahead of me though...mmm..maybe 2.

[hoffman900]

I've picked 48lbs to date. My Granandero's are leading the way with 18lbs of that total. The Red Ponderosa's are second with about 12lbs.

[hoffman900]

I've crossed the 50lbs mark!

Here are my current picked totals:
Red Ponderosa (4 plants): 11.42lbs _ 18 tomatoes _ .63lb avg _ 10.08oz avg
Granadero (6 plants): 19.01lbs _ 65 tomatoes _ .29lb avg _ 4.64oz avg
Green Zebra (2 plants): 2.9lbs _ 9 tomatoes _ .32lb avg _ 5.12oz avg
Delicious (2 plants): 2.625 _ 4 tomatoes _ .65 avg _ 10.4oz avg
Cherokee Purple (5 plants): 8lbs _ 17 tomatoes _ .47lb avg _ 7.52oz avg
Brandy Boy (2 plants): 7.88lbs _ 12 tomatoes _ .65lb avg _ 10.4oz avg

Most plants are single vine, but a few are two vines. It will be interesting to compare the productivity between the two methods.

Here is my largest so far (1st picture). It's a Brandy Boy, but I have a Red Ponderosa that I'm picking before all the rain today that should beat it.

The 2nd picture is of a Biltmore that came through work. If I was growing determinates, they would be all that I would grow.

I've been picking Cherokee Purples. While I like the flavor, they're having horrible splitting problems that the others aren't having. I don't think I would grow them again. The Red Ponderosas have been the beefsteak winner so far. They're smaller plants the Brandy Boy's, but I'm getting much more large tomatoes and heavier sets. The Delicious variety so far has been m'eh. They're nothing special.