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torquillI just hauled in two baskets of tomatoes, the flood has begun, and it's time for my initial harvest report.
The raised beds have really paid off, even the ones in the back where the soil broke down and settled about three-quarters of the way down in the raised bed. It's still rich and dense enough to keep the tomatoes happy (and I'm even having some success with peppers, hurray) and they seem to mostly be getting enough water. The sudden heat waves this year are sometimes a little rough on them.
The end result, however, is that even the ones that are doing poorly (straggly or mite-ridden) have made it to the tops of the posts -- five feet -- and the ones that are really successful are either running at about 7-8 feet or have flopped over and almost reached the ground again (9 feet). This is the most success I've ever had, or at least the most consistent success. And it's only midseason.
The mites are here, but the only thing they're really threatening so far has been the eggplant; I washed those plants yesterday, and hopefully between that, some food, and mild weather, they may be able to catch their breath. The lower leaves on the tomatoes have dried up from mite damage, and I pulled a bunch of handfuls of dead leaves out of the cherry tomato today, but the vast majority of every plant is green. Well, I have a couple that seem to have some Fusarium, so the lower leaves are yellow, but that doesn't seem to slow them down much.
Zero pests other than the mites. I've seen regular paper-wasp patrols, possibly from the nests at my brother's place, and I disturbed two praying mantises yesterday, so between those predators they seem to be taking care of even the leafrollers and fruitworms. That's one thing: I haven't seen a single tomato damaged by fruitworm this year, which is a refreshing change.
And the fruit. Oh man, the fruit. I had a bit of early blossom-end rot, exacerbated by the May and June heat waves, but I'm pulling off the last of the really bad ones. The beds out front haven't really gotten started yet, other than a handful of tomatoes from the faithful Dwarf Stone plants. So the guys in back are puling most of the weight at the moment. I did try to duplicate in front and in back, so most varieties are represented right now...
Dr. Carolyn Pink - Not the egg-shaped ivory cherry of regular Dr. Carolyn (one of my favorites), but a dainty, clear pink, slightly flattened cherry with very good flavor. It doesn't have quite the same sweetness as regular DC, either, sporting more of a standard red flavor profile. The early fruits were ribbed, which seems to be environmental from what I can gather on the forums. The plant is a huge and prolific monster, like most cherries, and is one of those that would be close to ten feet tall if I hadn't let it flop back down again.
Baylor Paste - Just starting to ripen now. The fruits are really chunky large pear tomatoes, shaped almost like butternut squash, and they're reputedly quite solid. No BER that I can see, which is impressive for a paste type. It looks like it'll be the proper red by the weekend. I'm afraid my plant in the back got a bit smothered by its roommate (DCP), but the one in front has an end spot and it's quite vigorous.
Black Krim in back turned out to be a small plum that closely resembles Principe Borghese. Given that I didn't sow PB myself this year, I have no idea how it turned up in two slots here (my backyard Dr. Lyle is another one). Every fruit has BER so far, though the green fruit gives me some hope of getting at least a few usable tomatoes off of it. I can't evaluate the flavor simply because BER fruit don't ripen well.
Yellow Oxheart in back has mites, which I expect from a wispy-leafed critter, but it's still growing well and setting a few properly-shaped fruit (small hearts, somewhat ribbed). I should get seeds off of it, at the very least. The one in front isn't especially vigorous, but it doesn't seem to have issues, either. I usually figure I can't grow hearts at all, so it's doing well.
Dr. Wyche is not variegated this year, which is a shame but sort of expected. I planted seeds saved from a white-streaked mutant last year, and then found out that white-streak mutations are almost never stable. Ah, well, Dr. Wyche is still a lovely yellow beefsteak which has set quite heavily in front and in back, and gave me its first fruit today. Very vigorous as well, despite the signs of Fusarium wilt in back.
Vorlon is a champion under any conditions, and is outdoing itself this year. The plants are tall and heavily loaded, without signs of pests or disease. The one in back gave me ten 4" purple beefsteaks yesterday and today alone, and it shows no sign of slowing down. I'm sure the flavor is the rich, sweet delight it always is.
Polish in front looks about like it should, though it's paired with Black Krim so I won't be able to tell who's who until they ripen up. It ought to be a pink beefsteak of moderate size. The one in back turned out to be my "Mystery Red Saladette" (I get one every year) and is cranking out gallons of 2" red tomatoes every week. Unlike last year, this MRS has quite a decent flavor, and I'll happily eat it fresh; I may even save seeds from it, though why I would deliberately grow a red saladette when one of my varieties always somehow turns out to be one...
(For the record, small red fruit is dominant in tomato genetics, so if something's going to cross or revert, that's what you get.)
Dr. Raabe's Large Yellow surprised me by being a determinate, though the one in front is still a pretty large plant. It's given me a few fruits so far, with a light but well-rounded flavor typical of yellows. One striking thing is that it's quite solid and meaty, without a lot of seeds or juice -- good news for sandwich-makers, bad news for seed-savers. Still, it'll give me enough tomatoes to save seed this year.
Master Gardener Red Stripe is a twice-hybridized roll of the dice, but it's come up seven for me -- a robust potato-leafed plant with a good set of 3" beefsteaks, which are ripening up to the same streaky red as last year. It had a bit of trouble with BER, but that's sorted now. The flavor is well-balanced, not sweet or tart but with plenty of tomato-ness, and neither juicy nor dry. If it weren't for the coloring I'd call it a typical good beefsteak, similar to Mortgage Lifter. It's nice that the streaking is stable; since it's the product of a second-generation (F2) hybrid that accidentally crossed with something else last year, I had no earthly idea how it was going to present this year. This is something we could stabilize and name.
Podarok Fei is my "gift from the fairies" indeed this year... I got very poor germination off of the second-hand seeds from Russia, and I was worried it wouldn't make it at all. But the one good seedling grew into a powerfully built determinate, which has spilled out of its three-ring cage and draped itself over the edges of the bed. I took two cuttings, since determinates set one flush of fruit and often give up after that, and I wanted some insurance in case of virus strike or other calamity; both clones are doing well, and may set fruit in the fall. The (plentiful) fruit is, as advertised, a small orange heart, and it has a surprisingly zingy flavor. This makes it incredibly rare: hearts aren't common, small hearts less so, while orange hearts of any size are rare; orange fruit that is tangy instead of sweet (or bland) is uncommon; and all this is on a determinate (bush) plant, when the norm is indeterminate (tall pole types). Even weirder is that it's a commercial variety, which means that Russians have different tastes than Americans, who want their commercial varieties red and perfectly round. At any rate, it's firm and meaty, good for salads because you don't drown in juice and seeds. I'm saving as much seed as I can off of this, and I'll do my best to introduce it to the U.S., especially for gardeners working with containers and small spaces.
Legend is only out front, and while it is a determinate as advertised (it's got two leaves or fewer between flower clusters) it's absolutely huge, smothering the more demure Dwarf Stone. It also hasn't ripened anything, much to my frustration... it's supposed to be a cold-tolerant variety, which usually means early, but if Vorlon beats it it's not early. I'm not seeing a whole lot of fruit either, but it may be hidden in the huge mass of foliage.
Dwarf Stone is this year's dwarf, a classic Livingston variety that's breeding stock for many of the modern dwarfs. It has the typical crinkly dark-green foliage and sort of sprawling low habit I got used to with New Big Dwarf, and produces a moderate number of 2" flattened red fruit. Mine are stressed (one is shaded by Legend, the other by the tomatillo), but I did get a sufficiently typical fruit to discover that it's on the sweet side of balanced... most small reds lack sweetness, so that's a nice surprise. It's quite juicy, and I'll chalk the slightly thick skins up to stress. It seems quite reliable, at any rate.
That's about it... we'll see how things ripen up in a few weeks.
The raised beds have really paid off, even the ones in the back where the soil broke down and settled about three-quarters of the way down in the raised bed. It's still rich and dense enough to keep the tomatoes happy (and I'm even having some success with peppers, hurray) and they seem to mostly be getting enough water. The sudden heat waves this year are sometimes a little rough on them.
The end result, however, is that even the ones that are doing poorly (straggly or mite-ridden) have made it to the tops of the posts -- five feet -- and the ones that are really successful are either running at about 7-8 feet or have flopped over and almost reached the ground again (9 feet). This is the most success I've ever had, or at least the most consistent success. And it's only midseason.
The mites are here, but the only thing they're really threatening so far has been the eggplant; I washed those plants yesterday, and hopefully between that, some food, and mild weather, they may be able to catch their breath. The lower leaves on the tomatoes have dried up from mite damage, and I pulled a bunch of handfuls of dead leaves out of the cherry tomato today, but the vast majority of every plant is green. Well, I have a couple that seem to have some Fusarium, so the lower leaves are yellow, but that doesn't seem to slow them down much.
Zero pests other than the mites. I've seen regular paper-wasp patrols, possibly from the nests at my brother's place, and I disturbed two praying mantises yesterday, so between those predators they seem to be taking care of even the leafrollers and fruitworms. That's one thing: I haven't seen a single tomato damaged by fruitworm this year, which is a refreshing change.
And the fruit. Oh man, the fruit. I had a bit of early blossom-end rot, exacerbated by the May and June heat waves, but I'm pulling off the last of the really bad ones. The beds out front haven't really gotten started yet, other than a handful of tomatoes from the faithful Dwarf Stone plants. So the guys in back are puling most of the weight at the moment. I did try to duplicate in front and in back, so most varieties are represented right now...
Dr. Carolyn Pink - Not the egg-shaped ivory cherry of regular Dr. Carolyn (one of my favorites), but a dainty, clear pink, slightly flattened cherry with very good flavor. It doesn't have quite the same sweetness as regular DC, either, sporting more of a standard red flavor profile. The early fruits were ribbed, which seems to be environmental from what I can gather on the forums. The plant is a huge and prolific monster, like most cherries, and is one of those that would be close to ten feet tall if I hadn't let it flop back down again.
Baylor Paste - Just starting to ripen now. The fruits are really chunky large pear tomatoes, shaped almost like butternut squash, and they're reputedly quite solid. No BER that I can see, which is impressive for a paste type. It looks like it'll be the proper red by the weekend. I'm afraid my plant in the back got a bit smothered by its roommate (DCP), but the one in front has an end spot and it's quite vigorous.
Black Krim in back turned out to be a small plum that closely resembles Principe Borghese. Given that I didn't sow PB myself this year, I have no idea how it turned up in two slots here (my backyard Dr. Lyle is another one). Every fruit has BER so far, though the green fruit gives me some hope of getting at least a few usable tomatoes off of it. I can't evaluate the flavor simply because BER fruit don't ripen well.
Yellow Oxheart in back has mites, which I expect from a wispy-leafed critter, but it's still growing well and setting a few properly-shaped fruit (small hearts, somewhat ribbed). I should get seeds off of it, at the very least. The one in front isn't especially vigorous, but it doesn't seem to have issues, either. I usually figure I can't grow hearts at all, so it's doing well.
Dr. Wyche is not variegated this year, which is a shame but sort of expected. I planted seeds saved from a white-streaked mutant last year, and then found out that white-streak mutations are almost never stable. Ah, well, Dr. Wyche is still a lovely yellow beefsteak which has set quite heavily in front and in back, and gave me its first fruit today. Very vigorous as well, despite the signs of Fusarium wilt in back.
Vorlon is a champion under any conditions, and is outdoing itself this year. The plants are tall and heavily loaded, without signs of pests or disease. The one in back gave me ten 4" purple beefsteaks yesterday and today alone, and it shows no sign of slowing down. I'm sure the flavor is the rich, sweet delight it always is.
Polish in front looks about like it should, though it's paired with Black Krim so I won't be able to tell who's who until they ripen up. It ought to be a pink beefsteak of moderate size. The one in back turned out to be my "Mystery Red Saladette" (I get one every year) and is cranking out gallons of 2" red tomatoes every week. Unlike last year, this MRS has quite a decent flavor, and I'll happily eat it fresh; I may even save seeds from it, though why I would deliberately grow a red saladette when one of my varieties always somehow turns out to be one...
(For the record, small red fruit is dominant in tomato genetics, so if something's going to cross or revert, that's what you get.)
Dr. Raabe's Large Yellow surprised me by being a determinate, though the one in front is still a pretty large plant. It's given me a few fruits so far, with a light but well-rounded flavor typical of yellows. One striking thing is that it's quite solid and meaty, without a lot of seeds or juice -- good news for sandwich-makers, bad news for seed-savers. Still, it'll give me enough tomatoes to save seed this year.
Master Gardener Red Stripe is a twice-hybridized roll of the dice, but it's come up seven for me -- a robust potato-leafed plant with a good set of 3" beefsteaks, which are ripening up to the same streaky red as last year. It had a bit of trouble with BER, but that's sorted now. The flavor is well-balanced, not sweet or tart but with plenty of tomato-ness, and neither juicy nor dry. If it weren't for the coloring I'd call it a typical good beefsteak, similar to Mortgage Lifter. It's nice that the streaking is stable; since it's the product of a second-generation (F2) hybrid that accidentally crossed with something else last year, I had no earthly idea how it was going to present this year. This is something we could stabilize and name.
Podarok Fei is my "gift from the fairies" indeed this year... I got very poor germination off of the second-hand seeds from Russia, and I was worried it wouldn't make it at all. But the one good seedling grew into a powerfully built determinate, which has spilled out of its three-ring cage and draped itself over the edges of the bed. I took two cuttings, since determinates set one flush of fruit and often give up after that, and I wanted some insurance in case of virus strike or other calamity; both clones are doing well, and may set fruit in the fall. The (plentiful) fruit is, as advertised, a small orange heart, and it has a surprisingly zingy flavor. This makes it incredibly rare: hearts aren't common, small hearts less so, while orange hearts of any size are rare; orange fruit that is tangy instead of sweet (or bland) is uncommon; and all this is on a determinate (bush) plant, when the norm is indeterminate (tall pole types). Even weirder is that it's a commercial variety, which means that Russians have different tastes than Americans, who want their commercial varieties red and perfectly round. At any rate, it's firm and meaty, good for salads because you don't drown in juice and seeds. I'm saving as much seed as I can off of this, and I'll do my best to introduce it to the U.S., especially for gardeners working with containers and small spaces.
Legend is only out front, and while it is a determinate as advertised (it's got two leaves or fewer between flower clusters) it's absolutely huge, smothering the more demure Dwarf Stone. It also hasn't ripened anything, much to my frustration... it's supposed to be a cold-tolerant variety, which usually means early, but if Vorlon beats it it's not early. I'm not seeing a whole lot of fruit either, but it may be hidden in the huge mass of foliage.
Dwarf Stone is this year's dwarf, a classic Livingston variety that's breeding stock for many of the modern dwarfs. It has the typical crinkly dark-green foliage and sort of sprawling low habit I got used to with New Big Dwarf, and produces a moderate number of 2" flattened red fruit. Mine are stressed (one is shaded by Legend, the other by the tomatillo), but I did get a sufficiently typical fruit to discover that it's on the sweet side of balanced... most small reds lack sweetness, so that's a nice surprise. It's quite juicy, and I'll chalk the slightly thick skins up to stress. It seems quite reliable, at any rate.
That's about it... we'll see how things ripen up in a few weeks.
