Thursday, May 8, 2014

Out with the old and in with the new – Tomatoes!

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.


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.
 

Any tomato that is not covered with netting is bird food.


A very small opening in the netting allows a bird to munch my tomato.


A closeup of my winter Tomato plant in April


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.

Culling the beautiful F2 because of its sprawling habit.


The more compact F2 tomato plants get to stay



A few of my Legend Tomatoes



Some more Legend Tomatoes



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.

Wait - what's that red thing back there?


It's my first summer Tomato!


6 comments:

  1. 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. you 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.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for sharing Ted. I hope everything grows well and hope you have some tomatoes soon! =)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jay 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...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Che fortuna avere i pomodori maturi anche durante l'inverno. Complimenti!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sì - questo inverno è stato molto mite.

      Senza congelamento a tutti! (=

      Delete

Dear Gardening Friends,
I look forward to learning more about gardening with you. Your comments help me recognize that gardening is a life-long journey.

To advertisers: Note that this blog is concerned with gardening and gardening techniques. Please do not attempt to advertise here by leaving a comment. Depending upon how egregious the comment is, it may be deleted.