Last fall I wanted to
extend my tomato season by buying some more Celebrity tomato plants.
Unfortunately the plants that I found at my favorite nursery were thin and weak
– but I bought them anyway. One of them made it through the winter – really close
to the wall in the kids’ garden. Over the last few weeks we have been really
enjoying the 2-3 tomatoes this plant produced each week.
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| A few of the last tomatoes from the winter Celebrity Tomato Plant |
As birds will even
try to eat green tomatoes, I decided to put the netting up early. Birds have a
knack for getting around barriers to get to food and I have had several
casualties recently. The holes in the tomatoes along with a wave of spider
mites making their home on the old plant indicates to me that it is time to say
goodbye to this little plant.
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| Any tomato that is not covered with netting is bird food. |
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| A very small opening in the netting allows a bird to munch my tomato. |
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| A closeup of my winter Tomato plant in April |
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| Only good hygiene and distance postpones spider mites from infesting new plants. |
On the other end of
the spectrum, my new Celebrity and Legend plants are doing fantastic. Even the
F2 hybrid plants I have are doing well – except that some are not fruiting as
quickly as I thought and I had to cull one for growing too big. One unfortunate
part about gardening is that the gardener gets to administer death to some plants
just as much as he administers life to others.
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| Culling the beautiful F2 because of its sprawling habit. |
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| The more compact F2 tomato plants get to stay |
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| A few of my Legend Tomatoes |
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| Some more Legend Tomatoes |
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| Scars on premature Celebrity tomatoes from attacks by a small delicate insect. |
To conclude, it has
been really nice to pick my first red tomato from my new Celebrity plants on
the same day that I am still picking tomatoes off my old plant.
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| Wait - what's that red thing back there? |
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| It's my first summer Tomato! |
Home grown tomatoes are the absolute best. I have Rutgers and Beefsteaks planted from seed. I did not transplant. They are about one month old now and are about 8 or 10 inches tall. My cherry tomato plant is about twice the size but no fruit yet.
ReplyDeleteyou only need about 4 or 5 Trusses on you tomato ,then they will grow bigger and better so you can cut the top off after as i say 4 or 5 trusses.
DeleteThanks for sharing Ted. I hope everything grows well and hope you have some tomatoes soon! =)
ReplyDeleteJay what a great way to enjoy tomatoes, old and new, even with the birds and insects. I wish we could have them year round. I have seedlings that are over a foot tall waiting to be planted out in a few weeks...
ReplyDeleteChe fortuna avere i pomodori maturi anche durante l'inverno. Complimenti!
ReplyDeleteSì - questo inverno è stato molto mite.
DeleteSenza congelamento a tutti! (=