Alright Mr. Beno.That tomato got the ride of its life time, in the Saab.hehe.
Hurry up and plant out that baby along with your other plants. Is it warm enough back there yet ?. Surprisingly today we had a summer-like weather ; high around 85F. Tomorrow will be even better but as of saturday mercury is doing to go south, like 62F. That is for high. But my tomatoes are doing fine. I measured them today. Some of them are close to 20" tall . Bloody butcher is setting fruits.

But nothing, nowhere close to yours, Centex. You beat us by months.
Well , I am so glad that little by little even our Yankee friend are planting out.

Have a productive season, all across the land from ocean to ocean !

Heres mine.1 in front is a red beefsteak and the rest are big beef and parks whopper.Goliath is all the way in the back corner.
Planted march 6th here in NW florida.Counted up green ones and they are averaging about 75 tomatoes per plant right now on the back plants,The front plants were planted at the end of march around april fools day and are a little smaller.

Seysonn,

3 of them are planted to start, I put a red dot to show you the ones that were today. It was perfect temps and they were hardened off. In another 2-4 weeks I will do the rest. I also in the backround are the overwintered peppers which are coming around.

But thte goal this year is to plant the maters in the 9 20- gal bags and a few in the dirt! It was a rought start but making it through!

Greastest of Luck To all of you :)

Here's mine as of May 18, 2014.

They are all Beefsteak.
NAR, Crustolee, Red Brandywine, Another type Brandywine, Kellogs Breakfast, Green Giant, Hillbilly, Black Krim, and some I forget, will hafta checks tags.

They have fruit on them about the size of "Flattened Golf Balls"~~~see next post

Gary

Here's the maters on them.

Kind of amazing as we had "Santa Ana Winds", 50 mph gusts and temps well over 100F

Gary

I am kind of late to the chat, but wanted to show my little babies too. I am in west/central GA and the weather has been a bit odd of late. We had a few days where the temp was barely 50 and now back up to over 85. The picture is on my little garden at home (yes its in the front yard.) We have Rebel Yell, Black from Tula, Belarus Orange and Homestead in this garden. I have a 1 acre garden I share with my brother, out in the country,I will try to take pics next time I am out there. (Thats my husband in the picture for size comparison, he is 6 ft tall)

Welcome to the chat, Missy.
Your plants are real nice and big. The tallest of mine is about 24". (bloody Butcher, sungols, Mortgage Lifter ..) The BB have goe though one set of flower cluster. I hope to see some tiny fruits soon.

I took this picture just today.

Few more pic. taken yesterday;

Silvery Fir Tree

Co planted some lettuce

Great pictures, everyone!

My super sweet 100 continues to amaze.

It only remains to be seen if things ripen in June Gloom.

My tomatoes are way behind schedule due to late cold snaps here in south-central Texas. Finally have some Stupice ripening up - not the tastiest variety, but I'm gonna enjoy every one! It will be at least a week before anything else is ready.....

super, John an melonhedd.

John, that cherry is loaded.
Meelonhedd, my Stupice is in full blood. I am counting days to see a tiny green tomato. Any day now. Probably my Bloody Butchers will be the first.

No need to wish you guys good luck. You've already got it.

EDIT:
melonhedd, I noticed one of your tomatoes pecked, maybe by a bird ? I leave some water under/near the plants for birds, this way they drink the water and won't peck the maters.

This post was edited by seysonn on Sat, May 24, 14 at 8:06

Everyone's tomatoes are looking great. I am growing Black Krim, Sunny Boy, Mortgage Lifter, Steakhouse Hybrid, and SuperSauce Hybrid. The summer heat is heading my way though so I am in trouble. 95 degrees today. No time or money to purchase shade cloth.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kovar Garden YouTube Channel

First Lady II ... lots of fruit setting and first one picked yesterday!

Yeah . That is great. I am tired of reading dying seedling and wilting plants. Your pictures are a picker upper here.

Keep on keeping on. And don't forget to do some preventive fungal spraying. I use Neem oil spray, which is environmentally harmless.
An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure !

Here is a photo of one of my heirloom tomato plants, "bison" planted out on or around 5.1.14 :) super early but we were having great weather and I had back ups. I got them through some cold nights by wrapping the tomato cages in saran wrap with a cover over the top.

Welcome , Aili.
That Bison looks very strong and already setting fruits. Is it an EARLY variety?
It pays to venture some times.
Some of my early ones have fruits already. But I planted out 3 weeks earlier than you've done.

Anyway, it is exciting, after all those long winter months germinating, growing under lights .. finally to see some flowers and fruits.

Here is my PSR-37 which is an open pollenated sister line to the hybrid Early Girl. It has at least 30 tomatoes at present. I planted out late the middle of April and we too have been battling high heat and those Santa Ana winds!

Here is an update for mine. I think so far so good. I even picked up a Mircle grow potting mix yesterday for $7 (2 C.U) it was on special this holiday weekend.

Anyway the top picture is 3 early girls surrounded by a Ramapo, or should I say 3 Early Girls are eyeing him down :). I added a 3rd Early girl yesterday from the previous photo that I put on here.

The bottom photo is more of my Ramapos from last years seeds along with a couple of Black Cherrys and not in the photo is the 2 Black Krims and a Yellow kelloggs Beef Steake that I will also plant out. I plan on hardening off the ones under lights within the next few days. I will probably just buy more MG mix for planting in the Bags.

In the backround is are few overwintered Hot Pepeprs and last years hot peppers that will be replaced.

Just a shot of some of my tomato's. These are in a rain gutter grow system and string trellised.

picture 2

my first 2014 tomato on memorial day.

I am excited. Will it be ripe by or before The Fourth of July?

It is growing on one of my SILETZ plants. As seen, there are few more coming along a little behind.

I transplanted all my tomato plants into the garden April 10. I had a couple of smallish cherry tomatoes a week or so ago (SunGold, Tommy Toe, and a runt Super Sioux), but I wanted to know how long it took to get a full sized red ripe tomato.

The first one to ripen up fully was WES, an oxheart. See the picture. Close behind were Rebel Yell and Marianna's Peace. Gonna have a comparative taste test tonight.

BTW, if anyone is looking for a good salad tomato, Tommy Toe is doing very well for me. The fruits are larger than average cherry tomatoes, almost golf ball sized, plants are very vigorous, and the few I've tasted so far are delicious.

Update 6/30: blind taste test with 4 testers all rated the tomatoes in this order: Marianna's Peace, Wes, Rebel Yell, but even the third place finisher was very good. Marianna's Peace, though, was a great big slicer, juicy, fragrant, and made a tomato sandwich you had to eat over the sink.

This post was edited by arley on Mon, Jun 30, 14 at 8:58

Alright, Arley. Congrats. So have ripe fruits for The Fourth. Mines are showing hint of color. Will it happen in 7 days ?

This picture was taken about 18 days ago. The maters have been growing ever since.

This is amish paste. Pic taken a few days ago. The fruit is showing the stripy signs of blushing. I'm amazed at the fact that I have an almost ripe tomato so early in the season. Planted out around may 14.

The top photo is the "early girls from Burpee" and 1 "Rutgers" ramapo F-1 I planted the first 4 May 16th I think.

The second photo are 4 More Ramapo F-1s and Black Cherry and Black Krim, I think in the Green container . They were planted about 7-10 days ago and starting to take off.

Third Photo is just a close up of the side view of the first photo.

last photo is the 'early girl with golf ball+ size tomatoes, I think she will be ready around Jly 20th.

This post was edited by thebutcher on Sat, Jun 28, 14 at 14:36

Left town for two weeks and I came home to a jungle. In spite of crap weather and hail, I'd say they are hanging in there. In the barrel (pic 1), the Silvery Fir Tree has an almost ripe tomato on it ;).

Mr.Beno, things are coming along real good. Anytime now.

Linda, You are getting there to pick your first.

Zack, Thing are growing real wild there. Your Silvery Fir Tree. is huge. Mine if good too . Largest fruit on it is about walnut size. How big the ripe fruits get?

Here is a picture of my SFT taken on Memorial Day.

out-side 3 weeks ago.. yellow mini, early girl, indigo, big beef, red cherry, green zebra, tigerella, husk ground cherry, brandywine, celebrity, and golden rave..

in-side..1 row of red cherry, 1 row of yellow mini, the rest sun gold.. pic 3 weeks old.

Wow, Boston. That is awesome. How many plants do you have ?
I see you are keeping the black ground cover. I removed mine about a week ago.
Interesting. Are you doing FL weave ?

seysonn all most 1000 plants,
not doing a florida weave, if you look close at the pic it gose like this..

think of a suspension bridge, 2 foot hook stake in the ground then a green 6 foot fence post with hooks. then wood stake every 4 foot.. plants are every 2 feet

string from ground, to green stake hook, then down the row twisting around every wooden stake down the row.

every other plant is tied to a stake. The others with no stake have a string to climb.

hope that makes sense. Still drinking coffee

Wow, quite a setup. I'd like to see picture of the non-staked plants - you run a vertical from the string going from stake to stake?

I'm trying Jay's (jrslick) modified FL weave in my new tunnel, and just tying various points to CRW fence behind them in my outside rows. No staking of determinates (yet). Have to get pix sometime.

But while I was out taking pix of 1 troubled cherry tom, I took pix of one of my Krims that has multiple baby tomatoes - finally, a positive note! I do have more Krims with tomatoes set, this one had the most - and yes needs to be tied, and yes it has some leaf roll but we had over 3" of rain this week and now it's 83 and windy, more rain expected.

I have 1 plant with 1 tomato set in the (uncovered) tunnel, that one was from trade and was either a Camp Joy or Cheeseman's (I'm tending toward Camp Joy now looking at size) but was from saved seed so could have been a cross. I'm growing both of those varieties from Sand Hill seed this year but had started the last few seeds I had from trade, only got 2 plants in that 6-pack and mixed them up when potting up so I don't know which it was supposed to be. The other 1 is right next to it, no tomatoes yet but similar growth habit (Tania says Cheeseman's is determinate?) so I'll say that's a Camp Joy too.

ajsmama picture of the non-staked plants ,
yes ran a vertical from the string going from stake to stake with a tomato clip. Twist as it grows. The picture isn't that great but... uhg pic is side-ways..

P.S. I did post a topic about green zebra tomatoes, my first year growing them and I have no clue how to tell when there ripe...if you respond plz don't do it here..do it on my post thank you

Outside (Dutch Bucket) six 5 gal containers of Big Beef Hybrid in water and 20-18-38 Hydroponic Fertilizer!

This post was edited by EEvernham on Wed, Jul 9, 14 at 20:22

Finally took pix of the (almost all) planted tunnel (I still have 36ft of beds left going to try carrots). 62 tomatoes in 2 rows in middle, plus 10 determinates on left (east) all the way at (south) end, 80 peppers on right (west) and I just threw in another 16 today b/c they still looked healthy in the cell packs and I figured I'd see what they'd do. If the tomatoes shade them too much (east bed, on south 2nd bed after determinate tomatoes) I'll pull them out.

Counted and besides the 72 tomato plants (and now 96 peppers) in the tunnel, I've got 47 cherry toms outside just the other side of that knob of ledge, plus 4 near the house. 19 more determinates at the end of the bean row (plus 1 volunteer I thought was CP but now looks like a cherry), 43 indeterminates I just tied to fence on the west side (plus 1 volunteer BW that might have to go b/c it's too close to a BK but it's getting flowers), plus 15 more determinates in the house garden (Best Boy, 3 Latah, and the rest unknown Burpee beefsteak DD started for science fair) PLUS 13 more dwarf tomatoes (4 varieties) in pots on the porch PLUS 2 Cosmonaut Volkovs in 1/2gal pots, 1 flowering, I might try those in large pots since they're doing well. I'm composting the rest left in smaller pots.

So how many tomato plants is that I lost count LOL? I didn't count the bean plants...

Photos from July 6th, I think I may have some early girl tomatoes ready in about 10 days or so. I calculated July 20th That would be around their 59 day maturity so I think they are on schedule. They were planted around May 20th I think. The Ramapo is also becoming very vigorous now.. I know I will run into a staking problem with both.

The Black Krim, Black Cherry and other Rampos were planted around June 20th I think

My Latah tomato. We already ate the first 3 ripe tomatoes. More will be ripe in a few days.
I swear it has more tomatoes than leaves. I wish it had better taste (too sour for my taste - I love sweet tomatoes):

Alright . Everybody getting close to big harvest. That is good.
I, myself, picked my first ripe tomato yesterday: It was a Bloody Butcher. Siletz, Stupice, Silvery FT and Sun Gold, any day now.

here is a pic of my SFT

Picked my first ripe tomato this morning in zone 6a. This is from bison heirloom determinate. Planted out May 1.

OK, I think it's "safe" to show my sliced Neves Azorian Red now. (If not, we will miss our "NW Poster", here!

Gary

Ajsmama I thought my 19 tomato plants were work! Wow, impressive! How do you do that? Anyways, everyone, great stuff! Seysonn, how did you like the Bloody Butcher? I'm kind of sorry I didn't grow it this year myself. Gave away the seedlings.
Gary, the NAR looks yummy! Can't wait to try one myself. Definitely have to get some WOW's for next year to get a head start!

There are so many beautiful tomato plants showing off here! Really jealous of those people who have a early start of the growing season! I am trying three heirlooms as a first-year gardener, black Krim, persimmon and costoluto, and a cherry type, Juliet. I transplanted on May 24th. So far, there are a lot fruit set on Juliet, costoluto, and black krim (in order). The persimmon is just starting to bear little fruits. The picture shows costoluto. I heard people are not liking its flavor. Hopefully it's not too bad 'cause this is the most productive of the three heirlooms. Black krim is the earliest to set fruit and it has the largest two tomatoes that seems to have reached peak size and is ripening hard.

Aaron - does look like a lot of fruit set, hope it tastes good. Can you post a pic of your BKs?

sharonie - it's a lot of work, hard to do by myself. DH helps with hammering things into our rocky ground and mowing/weedwhacking, but I start all the seeds, do all the transplanting, weeding, mulching, watering, pruning, harvesting and marketing. DS helped me pack, set up, and tear down at a few markets last year but he's getting older and getting busy (mostly Scout stuff this summer), next summer he might have a job (counselor at Scout camp) so I'm really thinking I have to start a CSA.

Oh, and I counted - besides 200 tomatoes and 96 peppers in the ground, I've got 13 tomatoes in pots (and 2-6 more I'd like to pot up for my cousin), and some suckers trying to root in water before potting up since I only have 1 Sungold and 1 Black Cherry another GWer gave me and I'd like more, 1 long sucker was broken this AM so I trimmed it back, think I can get 3 plants out of it.

8 peppers in 4" pots I want to sell at market, 6 overwintered peppers in pots that need to be potted up, 183 bean plants plus a dozen or so cukes (didn't count), a couple of yellow squash (that haven't even flowered yet), 3 cantaloupe and 3 watermelon plants (not growing much), I think 6 zukes. Cilantro is bolting, dill is ahead of cukes so seeded more, just seeded basil but it rained that night so probably all washed away (I did sneak out and mulch it the other day), and as soon as there is a break in sight I will seed kale, chard, and Asian greens. Oh, and more carrots (I only put in two 12ft rows b/c I thought last week was a little early but now I might be behind - at least the carrots are going in the tunnel so a little late doesn't matter).

I posted a pic of what I think is same BK plant with 4 good sized fruit on it on the Golden Tomato Prize thread. Not a good pic here (was trying to get more of a shot of peppers, sweet non-bells are closest to camera) but this morning the soon-to-be tunnel looked like this:

Had to tie up a few more at the far end, need to get some small 3-ring cages for some determinates on left side far end, but the indeterminates in the middle are getting pretty bushy. I did prune some last week but the past few days of rain have caused everything to just explode - and I think I've got some EB in there. Once it dries out (raining again now, too wet this AM though clear) I've got a lot more pruning and weeding and mulching and spraying to do. I have to get those lamb's quarters off the sides of the mounded bed and staple the fabric that's in the aisles down coming up the sides of the bed - the hay keeps sliding off. Next year the middle bed will be framed in wood like the side beds.

This post was edited by ajsmama on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 17:19

ajsmama, this is the black krim (left one). It has out grown the >5' cage. It set fruits early, but not a lot so far. I only have one plant, so I don't know whether that's normal.

Aaron - looks like another near top of stake right hand side. I can't tell you how long til those bottom 2 ripen but be sure to pick them when the tops (shoulders) are still green and bottoms (blossom ends) are dark but not yet soft if you wait til they are soft they will disintegrate before you get to the house! BK are very thin skinned and will also split easily so if you find yourself having to water in the next few weeks go easy. As they get riper you may even want to pick them early to ripen inside (common practice) if rain is predicted.

I don't know about Costuluto taste but BK is one of my favorites. Cherokee Purple is easier to market and similar in taste but I just can't decide which I like better!

ajsmama, thanks for your advice. I will keep in mind. Weather forecast predicts dry days ahead. I guess that's great news.

Here are 3 of my tomato plants. I can't remember the variety

Here are 3 of my tomato plants. I can't remember the variety. Minus the 2 peppers in front

I got my first ripe one. These are early girlts. I took the other 2 off because they were almost touching the ground and the green one did have color break on the bottom.

The first ripe one took almost exactly 59 days as stated. Give or take a day, they were planted around May 17th.

My first-ever German Johnson. Sink sandwich today. Hope it tastes as good as it looks.