Tomato Update
by Colleen Vanderlinden • June 10, 2009 • Miscellaneous • 19 Comments
Things are going really, really well with our tomato plants right now. Almost all of the plants have blossoms now, (except for a few, which I’ll talk about in a minute) and some are downright huge for this time of year.
The tomatoes in the new garden are thriving. I’m surprised, because the soil here is not great. It was very clayey, and we amended it with a bit of peat, topsoil, and manure, but not a lot. We also dumped tons of shredded leaves on this bed last fall. I did prepare the planting holes more carefully to try to make up for the rough soil, so I’m guessing that (and maybe the red plastic) is what did it. (Oh, and “preparing the holes” means doing the following: dig holes deep, up to the bottom-most set of leaves on the plant. Add crushed egg shells, granular organic fertilizer, and a little bit of compost to the soil I removed from the hole. Fill the hole. Repeat with next plant 
)
On to the old raised bed gardens. I have one tomato planted in each corner of both beds, and they’re doing pretty well. They aren’t as large as the ones in the new garden, but they also have some blooms and are coming along nicely.
Oh, and then there’s the other raised bed. We used this one to grow salad greens last fall and in late winter/early spring this year. I have three more tomatoes stuck in here. I’m pretty happy with how they’re coming along, especially given the fact that this bed gets only around five hours of full sun per day. I know they won’t produce as much as the other tomatoes with that amount of light, but hey–some tomatoes are much better than no tomatoes! Oh, and next to the raised bed is this little area that my beloved lavender once called home (you can read about what happened over at my Detroit News garden blog post, if you like). It holds, you guessed it, one more tomato plant, surrounded by basil and a few marigolds. This spot gets a little more sun than the raised bed (funny what a difference a couple of feet can make…) so the tomato is already a bit bigger than its neighbors.
I also have tomatoes planted in the beds behind the garage.
And then, there’s our awesome self-watering storage container garden. I’ll write more about this later. It is home to two ‘Early Girl’ tomatoes.
But here’s the fun news. I mentioned a while back that I was sure that Mouse, the tomato-munching cat, had destroyed my ‘Japanese Black Trifele.’ Well, there were a couple of teensy leaves left on it, so I babied it along, not expecting much. It’s put on plenty of new growth, and now lives behind the garage. It’s much smaller than the rest of the plants I started indoors, but if I get even one tomato off of it this year, I’ll be happy.
And, joy of joys, I was weeding one of the raised beds yesterday and found four stocky little tomato volunteers. They were growing in the spot that held a ‘Yellow Pear’ last year (one of my all-time favorite tomatoes!) so I dug them up and transplanted them into the large bed behind the garage.
So, the final tomato tally (unless I go crazy and end up buying more plants…) is 30 plants. Wondering which varieties we’re growing? Here’s a list:
Brandywine (2 plants)
Yellow Pear (6 plants–four of which were volunteers)
Juliet Grape
Red Pear
Early Girl (3 plants)
Chudo Rinka
Stupice
Manitoba
Kellogg’s Breakfast
Green Grape
Tiger-Like
Goji Faranji
Red Currant
Japanese Black Trifele
Heatherington Pink
Livingston’s Golden Queen
Russian Persimmon
Sub-Arctic Plenty
Ozark Pink
Dix Doights di Napoli
Polish Linguisa
Banjan Roomii
How are your tomatoes coming along?
Great minds think alike. I built some self watering Earthtainers out of storage containers too.
And I’m looking forward to the post that shows how you built it. We can compare notes. I changed up the design of the water chamber a bit.
Hi Anthony!
Too funny. I’ll be posting on it soon. We changed up the design of the reservoir, too! Interesting…
Thanks for stopping by!
I love Juliet Grape Tomatoes!
I ordered your book yesterday- can’t wait til it comes!
Hi Laura!
Juliet tomatoes are wonderful! My kids eat them like candy, right out in the garden. In all honesty, so do I
Thank you so much for ordering the book! You just made my day. I hope you enjoy it!
Have a great day!
Looking at your tomato pictures has made me nearly cry. I was forced to move ‘in town’ this winter and with a postage stamp yard that gets no sun afraid no fresh tomatoes for for me this year. Gardening vicariously through the internet.
Wow, your maters are way, way huger than mine, but I started mine from seeds. I keep hoping for sun and heat! (Not for me; I like it cool, but for the tomatoes!) It’s funny none of our plants are the same. Hmmm, maybe we should have a little reciprocal tomato tasting later in the year?!
My tomatoes are short and stocky — due to a good bed with lots of compost etc (I tried your lasagna gardening method) but exceptionally cool weather here in MN. We need heat!!! The highs last week barely got out of the 60s and the lows were too low for tomatoes. I’m trying to find some red plastic, because that looks like a good way to make up for the cool temps. I also found some yellow pear tomato volunteers — it’s a great one and makes a fabulous tomato jam.
Hi Mary!
Yellow Pear tomato jam sounds delicious! It has been a funny spring–I hope temps start normalizing for everyone soon!
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Monica!
I started mine from seed as well (there are a couple of posts here and here that show their progress) but I also admit I was a little fanatical about it–heat mats and the whole deal this year
WE should definitely do a tomato tasting, or, at the very least, a seed swap!!
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Faith,
Oh, that has to be tough
No sun at all? Could you maybe grow some tomatoes in a container? If you can find even one tiny spot that gets at least six hours of sun, I’d toss a container there and grow a tomato!
Thank you for stopping by!
My tomatoes up here in western Massachusetts are sulking in the wet cold, but I have hopes. The little yellow pear tomatoes are one of my favorites too. They always self seed, and the plants grow fast enough so that I have ripe tomatoes, and ones that fall into the soil to self seed again. I’m interested in your self waterer and await further info.
That is a lot of tomatoes.
If you need it I have an extra JBT that I haven’t planted that I could ship you.
I was feeling like my 8 tomato plants were too much! I’d love to have 30 varieties, but I think it would be a tad too much for me:) I can’t wait to read about your harvest!
Pretty good post. I just came by your blog and wanted to say
that I have really liked browsing your blog posts. In any case
I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you write again soon!
I just found this site and really enjoyed reading it. I am growing many varieties of tomatoes in CT. It is cold and wet this year here just as “common weeder” from Mass mentioned above. So far, my tomatoes are doing fine despite the weather.
I am really excited to see your opinion on the red plastic since I have not tried it. I wonder if it works as well if the season is cloudy?
I planted Red Current for the first time this year. Do you find them really sweet? Thanks!
Yoooo hoooo… where have you been, Colleen? I keep coming here to look for updates–these tomatoes ought to be growing gangbusters by now!
Colleen
I hope you can answer a tomatoe question: I try hard every year to raise a garden here in hot dry Okla. panhandel, anyway, I have several variety this year and was excited how well they’re doing. Then I find two small ones have ripened ahead of time with a rot on the bottom. What can I do to save The rest of my crop. I always get the fungal protected ones. Last year we had such a drought I couldn’t raise anything. Help!
Wow! What a selection of tomatoes! It has taken a long time, but I think I will get a few tomatoes – at least those wonderful yellow pear. It’s been so cold and wet here, but the plants look great. But we need heat to ripen the few tomatoes that have set.
Your tomatoes are looking GREAT! Do you have any ripe ones now – a month and a half later?