NW July 1st NO Fruit Club?

[janezee]

Filmnet and dd, thanks for letting me know I'm not alone in waiting.
All those pictures of big, juicy, ripe tomatoes are getting to me!!!!

dd, I'm dying to know how those Rumi Banjan are. Mine didn't make it this year, and I'm sure trying harder next time. They are beautiful, aren't they?

j

[maricybele]

Glacier ripening - picking those for a few days now, it has a mild taste juicy and a nice texture not acidy tasting. I will grow it again next year due to good taste and earliness.

Ddsac Rumi Banjan looks like one I would like to try. ~ Would love to see one open. Hows the taste?

[janezee]

maricybele, how do you like the flavor? I'm growing them next year, thanks to a gift from someone here on TV.

j

[pdxwindjammer]

maricybele, don't be surprised if you hear a knock at your door and see me standing there begging for ripe tomatoes! I can't wait for mine to ripen but it will be a while. I have many plants showing fruit during this heat wave and it seems like the sun has no end in sight!

[maricybele]

Just come by and pick from the right side of the fence, along the street, that garden is for neighbors (they seem to put up with my wild side gardening when they get to eat some and rest goes to food bank... Right now its just here and there ripening. .

[pdxwindjammer]

Do you have enough so that I could come pick just a few? I don't eat store bought tomatoes so I am going through withdrawls! Thanks! You are my first tomatoville member that I have met face to face and it was so nice to have met you!

[indo]

I only have flowers at the moment but isnt that normal for atleast Vancouverites in BC? I grew tomatoes last year and i remember getting mature ones in august and september.

[janezee]

Hi, indo, we've not met before. I have almost the same temps as you, being on an island off the coast of Washington, and so very cold this year. I think I might be just equal with you, just getting some flowers now. I only get ripe early tomatoes in August, and mid-season in September, if the blight doesn't hit them first. So, yes, I think that's normal. Of course, if you're growing in a greenhouse, I guess that would move it up somewhat.

jane

[plainolebill]

Hi, I just joined and saw this thread so thought that I'd chime in. In Corvallis the spring was better than last year with warmish weather in May and the first part of June. We set our tomatoes out May 22nd and covered them whenever the temperature looked to go below ~45 degrees.

We've harvested a few Sungolds and more coming soon. Lots of fruit - some quite large - on the Jet Stars, so so on the Stupices and the same with Moskvich which we're trying for the first time this year -in all fairness the Jet Star starts were much larger.

I built a bed near the south side of the house adjacent to the driveway last year and that area stays quite warm - 4 tomatoes are in the bed and the plants are enormous (by my standards). Last year after the worst spring in memory every fruit on the vines in that bed ripened. (nice hot September helped).

I lived in Kitsap County Washington way back when and that's where I grew my first garden in 1971. Tomatoes were pretty dicey back then, not much variety to pick from. Probably the biggest drawback was lack of information, the internet has sure changed that for the better.

That is quite a setup with all the covered buckets - I'm not sure I could muster the energy for that at my age.

Best regards and happy gardening, Bill

[indo]

Originally Posted by janezee

Hi, indo, we've not met before. I have almost the same temps as you, being on an island off the coast of Washington, and so very cold this year. I think I might be just equal with you, just getting some flowers now. I only get ripe early tomatoes in August, and mid-season in September, if the blight doesn't hit them first. So, yes, I think that's normal. Of course, if you're growing in a greenhouse, I guess that would move it up somewhat.

jane

Hi Janezee,

We'd had another ugly June this year but July has been amazing so far

I'm getting flowers on my mortgage helpers, early girls, and hybrid romas. However, my old German isnt doing much at all and my black krim has no flowers at the moment. Have you grown those two types? Thank god i didnt get blight on my tomatoes last year and hopefully it will be the case this year as well.

[maricybele]

Right now they are coming on a few at a time. I think it'll be a week or so, before they start popping up like crazy especially the sungolds.

[ddsack]

Welcome, Plainoldbill! This is a great forum for growers in all sorts of climates and gardening challenges.

Here are a few pictures for those who wondered about the Rumi Banjan. I think I got my seeds from Trudi at WinterSown. It's listed on Tania's as a bicolor, and mine seem to have two color variants, one more yellow and the other red. Both of these were very ripe, and the red one did have more yellow at the stem end to start with, but I'm not sure I'd call it a bicolor, and certainly not an end yellow. So I don't know for sure that the seeds are true. I can't remember if both of these came from one plant, or one from each plant. I guess I need to have more ripen to find that out.







The taste was pretty good, more of that old fashioned tang without sweetness. The yellower one had a bit more bite than the red one, which is usually not the case. I will have to wait to pick a whole lot more before I can make a true judgement.

Here is a link to Darwin'slair blog with some pictures of the real thing - mine don't seem to be as ribbed as his so far, though I see a few small ones there there look smoother.
http://threedaughtersfarm.com/wp/?p=967

[plainolebill]

Beautiful tomatoes Dee, I'm jealous.

Here's a link for Western Oregonians, OSU's Hyslop Farm just NW of Corvallis keeps a GDD log. I read on another gardening forum that, depending on variety, it takes about 600 GDD from the time small fruit are set until harvesting.

http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/farmunit/weather

[maricybele]

Thanks for posting dd... I think I would like to try those next year.