Tomatoes (Part 3)

It’s been about 11 weeks since we planted our tomatoes and the Love Apple Farms fertilizer combination has proven to be quite efficient. My Sungolds are currently 8’ and growing with several of the others close behind. Several of them will definitely grow taller than their supporting cages! The plants have become so lush you have to look very closely and carefully to see the developing fruit. So far we’ve harvested and eaten a couple of Super Sweet 100s, a couple Sungolds and three lovely Jaune Flammes. And there is clearly more to come! In general I don’t think the plants could be happier and provided we can get some sun and warm weather sometime soon it looks to be a promising harvest.

Here are some more details about how each varietal is doing:

Super Sweet 100: creating a tall (7’ so far), lankier plant, not particularly bushy, but putting on lots of fruit; Brendan reported the couple we’ve harvested were quite sweet; in more sun than the others, may be affecting fruit production.

Jaune Flamme: put on fruit pretty quickly and continues to grow (about 6’ so far) ; in more sun than the others, may be affecting fruit production; 3 tomatoes harvested so far with a couple more almost ready to eat.

Green Zebra: this one seems to be struggling, but it’s still growing and trying to put on fruit; some of the leaves started to look shriveled even when properly watered and the end of some leaves are starting to die; I haven’t been able to find any pests of signs of disease, luckily whatever is wrong is not spreading to the other plants.

Sungold: amazing grower, already about 8’ tall; two plants in one cage with this much fertilizer is clearly not enough room, only plant one per cage next year; starting to produce fruit, putting on lots of flowers so should be a heavy producer.

Black Prince: another great grower, about 7’ tall so far; bushier/dense plant, slower to develop fruit but seems to be starting to develop more; in a little bit more shade than the others, may be affecting fruit production.

St Pierre: good grower, about 6’ tall so far; bushier/dense plant, slower to develop fruit, only a couple visible so far and less flowers than some of the other plants; in a little bit more shade than the others, may be affecting fruit production.

I may try planting them in a different area of the yard next season both to rotate my vegetables to help improve and not exhaust the soil and because there is an area that gets more morning sun which may help the fruit ripen.