My tomato progress

You know how it seems like for much of the season you only get some ripe tomatoes here and there, and then suddenly one day something changes and they're all over the place? Well, for me, that day is today.

I really need to get permanent markers with edible ink (so I can mark my tomatoes for seed-saving purposes). I have so many varieties, and lots of them are ripening at once, this time (I've got lots of other things besides tomatoes, too).

Anyway, just so you're aware, most of my 100 or so tomato varieties (150-something plants) are sprawling on the ground, uncaged. It's pretty dry here; so, it doesn't bother them too much. I have learned that cages still help considerably, however, but I can only cage so many tomatoes. I might trellis some of them on a panel instead next year (if I can get strong enough poles for it, and stake them in somehow). Nevertheless, this year, I only put up one tomato cage (a huge one that should have been pretty strong). The tomatoes pulled it down, eventually, however. Apparently, they grew a lot more than anticipated. I should have made it at least seven feet tall, apparently.

As I've mentioned before, because the plants are sprawling and close together, a number of my tomato varieties are hidden, or guarded by other tomato plants. So, last night I decided to take action and begin making a path to them. I decided to pull up my Celebrity F1 plant, and strip off the tomatoes to eat and store. I was tired of not knowing which tomatoes were Celebrity F1 and which were Coustralee, and which were George Detsikas Italian Red, and with it gone, I could get a little further into the tomato jungle. I had already saved seeds from it (yes, I save F2 seeds, too); so, I figured pulling the plant could be a good move. I pulled it up. It had a bunch of tomatoes on it. I'm glad I didn't wait until the end of the season to harvest them all. Even just seven plants at the end of the season is a lot of work (imagine 150-something!)

I made tomato soup with the ripe Celebrity F1 tomatoes and a couple Matina tomatoes, and I put a Carbonero pepper and a few Ring of Fire peppers in it (as well as herbs, spices, salt, cheese, olive oil, a whole wheat pancake mushed up for protein, etc.) It was pretty tasty, and the Ring of Fire peppers felt pretty healthy, too (so, they're like Cayenne in more than just appearance and heat; I may actually prefer them to Cayenne). They made my ears hot inside, too.

Anyway, it worked. Now I know that those other two plants' tomatoes aren't Celebrity anymore, and I found an enormous Cuostralee tomato even bigger than the huge George Detsikas Italian Red tomato I previously talked about. The plant wasn't big enough for its removal to pave much of a path through the jungle, though, but it still feels like I'm making progress.

Today, I decided to go back to the tomato jungle and do some pruning. FYI, I've never really pruned outdoor tomatoes before, since I like to let them grow rampant. However, I wanted to prune in order to discover the ripe tomatoes, give them more sun, make the sidewalk more accessible and hopefully find more varieties of tomatoes. I found a whole bunch of tomatoes underneath all the foliage that I pruned off.

The yellow tomato that was supposed to be Ambrosia Red, which previously had almost no flavor, now tastes pretty awesome. I'm not sure what changed, but I'm glad about that, since it's turned out to be more productive than it used to be (a lot of the tomatoes are like that). It seems that the large tomatoes are also tasting better, too. They were kind of mealy for a while (probably due to watering, clay loam soil, and potassium levels in the soil).

I harvested my huge George Detsikas Italian Red tomato, today, as well as two others that approach it in size.

Pink Cheeks is giving me a lot of tomatoes. The first ripe ones it produced a while ago kept rotting and stuff, but it seems to have gotten over that and is producing fine tomatoes. The taste is decent. I'll probably grow this one again next year.

Matina is still setting loads of new fruit, but it's harder to find the ripe ones now that the cage is collapsing. It was the caged tomato (to be fair, part of the Cuostralee plant and maybe another variety had a branch or two on the cage, also). The cage is still there, technically (it just leaned over, a lot).

Many of my container plants are starting to look like they need fertilizer, especially the peppers after I harvest their fruits. So, if I want more fruit from them, I guess I should fertilize them. Ovita has really yellowed, probably from lack of nitrogen, but it's still been producing like it has plenty of nutrients.

I've hardly fertilized, this year. For the tomatoes in the ground, I just gave them fertilizer once or twice in the early season when the plants were much smaller. They're all still looking great, except a few of the plants (Punta Banda, Sophie's Choice, and Cherokee Tiger Black Pear). I fertilized the container plants a bit more, but not much.

Sophie's Choice only gave me three tomatoes, after all, and then it started to die. I didn't get seem to get any viable seeds from them. So, I won't be able to do a second generation from that line of plants. I gave it plenty of water; so, I don't think drought killed it. I think it's probably just not used to semi-arid air, and our sun, or something.

Cherokee Tiger Black Pear only gave me a few tiny tomatoes, without seeds. It seems to be somewhat parthenocarpic. The plant is suffering, but doesn't seem to be diseased. It's probably suffering because of the dry air or something, too. It could be the soil, though. The only Cherokee-type plant I've grown in this area that seems to have done well has been Cherokee Green Pear. That one doesn't mind the climate and soil.

Punta Banda looks diseased. I probably watered it too much, seeing as it's supposed to like it dry. I'm not convinced it is diseased, though, even though it looks diseased. All the plants around it look perfectly fine. It does have fruit.

My Mexican Yellow tomatoes are orange. I'm excited to taste this one. It looks pretty good. It seems a lot of yellow tomatoes are really orange deep down inside.

Anyway, there are lots of ripe tomatoes. I'm excited to go in there are harvest lots of them. I need to learn how to can. I'm kind of overwhelmed with all the tomatoes and varieties of tomatoes, and all the seed-saving I need to do, though. Does anyone have any advice on mass seed-saving and on harvesting (and what to do after harvesting)?

Maybe I should start a tomato yard sale next week. That would be fun.

[Labradors2]

Sounds as if you are having fun

If you have freezer space, you could store any really ripe tomatoes in bags in the freezer. I save all mine that way throughout the summer, then I make sauce when the weather has cooled enough for me to relish the thought of canning.

I'm curious about your zone being 4-6.

Linda

We have some freezer space. Thanks for the tip.

I say my zone is 4-6 because it's been known to get to about -25° F. or slightly colder where I am (which is potentially barely into zone 4a temperatures), but that's been a very rare occurence (it's happened maybe twice in the last average lifespan). So, it's usually more like zone 5b or 6a (where the yearly cold temperature is between -5° F. and -15° F.) It gets below zero at least a few days every year, as far as I'm aware, though (but how much is quite variable). If you're planting perennials that live longer than a few years, you probably want to plant them for zone 4b or less to be sure, unless you're willing to risk it. The plant maps are usually optimistically warm (like they might say 6b or 7a sometimes, but I don't know where they get that from).

[greenthumbomaha]

Shule1, I don't think you nned to stress about edible ink. In another thread someone mentioned they use a standard Sharpie, the ordinary type you find in the stationary aisle of a grocery store or Wal Mart. I tried it and it works really well. It doesn't bleed through the skin, so you can peel off the small spot with the writing before eating or storing. It makes identifying the tomato easy and FUN. Enjoy your main harvest. Mine came 2 weeks ago with several more still green.

- Lisa

[Gardeneer]

Freezing whole tomato would take a lot of storage space.
I would cook down, reducing volume by on half or more. Then store in zip bags place inside some Topperware type of containers. This is the next best thing to canning. JMO.

[Father'sDaughter]

Freezing whole tomatoes to process later has been my strategy if I'm not getting enough at one time, although it sounds like you have the opposite problem!

When I do have enough and have the time to can, I use a technique I learned from someone here -- pull out the tomatoes the day before and let them thaw completely. I usually just put the ziplock bags in the sink. When they are thawed, I drain off all the clear liquid/water accumulated in the bags, and the skins can be slipped right off at this point. Then I run the now soft tomatoes through my mill to separate out seeds and any remaining bits of skin. This leaves me with a very thick purée which needs very little cooking down.

[oakley]

I'm a bit overwhelmed and have a few methods to keep up with all the harvest.
I freeze cherry toms whole in qrt zip-locks. Use all winter...take a handful or a bowlful and half thaw to cut in half or toss on pizza or make a fresh sauce. A handful in a salad dressing whizzed in the blender, etc. (i must have a dozen bags now)

Others i just slice and zip-lock fresh with skin, seeds and juice pressing out all the air. Makes great salsa all winter. Half thaw and blend in my cuisinart with smoke roasted pepper mix. I have just a half dozen packages now but should have 2-3 dozen in a few more weeks.

If the weather ever chills, i'll make a big pot of sauce, chili, and a roaster pan of harvest veggie lasagna....usually make those the first cold frosty weekend.

I've been smoking chickens for soup and stock and some trays of hot and sweet peppers while i'm at it being wood fired...and a a couple dozen ears of corn i cut off the cob for winter chowders.

By the end of September i'll have lots of good frozen harvest for many meals. And of course we have been eating well all summer feasting on just about 1/4 of what we roast/smoke/grill on the weekends. The rest is frozen like a few pork tips, about 5lbs, for tamales...
I do have a food saver for some tomatoes i want to last until after the holidays, but most i will use soon enough in the fall and just use freezer zip-locks.
Halved or quartered and roasted in the oven on low heat for an hour or two will concentrate the flavor and reduce for the freezer also if you don't smoke or grill.

@oakley

Awesome! Thanks! You sound like a professional. Great ideas. So far, I've just been making creative tomato soups, since that's one way to use a lot of tomatoes. Before I logged in here, I started boiling some down to refrigerate until I decide what to do with it.

It looks like the harvest might last a while. Some of those tomatoes smelled really, really good when they started to cook (I think Big Sungold Select is the one; it gets an interesting taste/smell when the weather cools some, and cooking it somewhat makes it much, much better.

I've found a number of the tomatoes that were lost (e.g. Napa Giant, Indian Zebra, Sweet Orange Cherry, Girl Girl's Weird Thing, Kimberly x something F?, Chapman, Yellow Riesentraube, Abu Rawan, etc.) Most of them had fruit (including all those I mentioned here), fortunately. Two or three were dwindling, though. I have lots of seed-saving on my hands.

I like Cherokee Green Pear a lot. It's pretty tasty and very sweet.

Sweet Orange Cherry sure grew fast after it germinated! It's everywhere!