I think it's winding down for many of us. I've planted lettuce again, since it likes this weather, and still have to clean up my garden area and get it somewhat ready for spring.

Have fun! Though I think it's more fun to garden in the spring than clean up in the fall!

I knew I had some greenies still on the vine, but I didn't know I had three of the paper shopping bags full!! One can only eat so many fried green tomatoes.

Have to agree with you Anney. It is so much more fun in the spring. Now if I can only get some drier weather, I can go out and start working on the soil.

Bill

How about mock apple pie? Green tomato jam? I have a feeling I'm going to be in the same boat in a couple of weeks. It's to be in the 80's the rest of this week, very strange for North Central Ohio this time of year, but it can go downhill very very quickly. I'm hoping that more of the greenies will quickly ripen.

All I can say is Green Tomato Salsa! Yummy! I found a recipe for it last year, because I had tons of green tomatoes to harvest just before frost, and didn't know what to do with them. I may have a lot again this year, although we've had a freakishly warm fall, and they're still ripening on the vine!

Yes, I'm calling it quits too. Though I have yet to find a dry spell coinciding with my available time to get things pulled up and cleaned out. But I'm seeing little patches of white mold or whatever it is on a couple of container plants, so I'd better get out there soon. Definitely an off year for me, especially compared to last year, which was outstanding.

MA

I harvested all my tomatoes with the slightest hint of blush yesterday, and got 2 plastic grocery bags full! I'll probably make some spaghetti sauce this weekend. They never taste as good at this time of the year when they ripen inside. I had quite a few that had cracked badly from the rain, so my dog got those- he loves tomatoes! I still have quite a few green ones out there, but I don't like fried green tomatoes, or green tomatoes in any other form, so those will go back to Mother Nature.

Ah, out here in zone 10, I'm just getting ready for round 2! Most of my plants perished in July. I still have two Druzbas going (they are VERY hardy), although they have taken some damage and only have one fruit between them. The Burgundy Traveler that I nearly wept for seems to have made a slight comeback, so I haven't yanked it.

Everything else is gone and replaced with new cherry tomato plants: Sungold, Snow White, and Matt's Wild. (Because those were the only cherries I already had seeds for in my drawer last July). It's interesting how slowly Matt's Wild was getting off the starting line compared to the other two. In my experience, it is a VERY rapid grower in the spring, but slow starting this time. Snow White has been outstripping the others. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping for blossoms from the Sungold and Snow White sometime soon.

Hey Bill in Everett, this was kind of a bad year for tomatoes here in the PNW. I grow mine in a poly greenhouse, but we've let it slide so it didn't get the heat it needed this year.

The only consistent performer (as usual) was Stupice. And a Stupice/Brandywine cross I have named Brandice (long story).

Everything else that I've grown successfully, was horribly late this year. Am still harvesting now. I will leave them on the vine up until the first dip into the low 30's.

Bill and other PNWers. I've pulled all my plants except one and am happy this worst of all years is behind me. The one I didn't pull is the Sunset Red Horizon/Rostova which is still putting out Tomatoes. I read once that it will produce in the PNW as late as November so I thought I'd check it out. It's a nice heart type tomato that is quite large. I'll have plenty of seeds if anyone is interested.
Jim

Hi Jim,

Shoot me an email, hgpilot2000@yahoo.com, with your address and I'll send you an SASE. Thanks for the seeds.

Bill

My Black Plum is finally forming tomatoes. They're about 3/4 inch long.

Yes, yes. I know the whole lecture about how I'll never get any decent tomatoes this late in the year, yadayada, but I was thrilled to see them. They're tear-drop shaped, and I never knew tomatoes could be so cute.

It will get down to 37 they're predicting, tomorrow night. I might lose quite a bit then. But maybe not. After that, the highs go up into the 70s and the lows don't go lower than the mid-40s, so the game may not quite be over yet.

I'll keep them going as long as I can. Next year, I'll do something different. I'm a beginning gardener, so right now it's all experimental.

It would be nice to have a serving or two of homemade pasta sauce.

Lilacs,

Get some old blankets or sheets and cover those babies. You can protect them and they should last up until the really cold weather hits. You should be able to get some homemade pasta sauce yet from those babies.

Good luck,

Bill

The forecast is for showers and cool for the next couple weeks. I picked the last of my geen ones today. I picked most of em two weeks ago. Blight is killing most of the plants now and probably about half the maters I just picked will rot before they ripen cause of the blight, even though they look fine now. They ripen super slowly in this weather so they are better of in the basement where its dry and warm. Slug population seems to be exploding too and rats are getting hungry now that theyve run out of peas and beans to eat.

I have some questions

@jwr6404
I would love some seeds. please contact cw@ponyshow.com with instructions

@everyone
I refuse to give up the fight. Today I built a cold frame arround my more prized plants. Can I expect much more time
from these plants?

For those not under the cold frame, should I pick all the near ripe tomatoes now?

Being such a newb I am unsure if I had a good or bad year.
Most plants have not had ripe ones yet, but the 4 or 5 plants that have ripe ones
fill a plastic grocery bag a week for a few weeks now. Is that good or bad?

I'd like to give a shout out for stupice. Small fruits, but tasty, earliest producer of this years plant.

Hope everyone's next tomato year is wonderful and it is sad to think of the end of everyone's plants. I couldn't garden on the mainland, Fall would be just way too depressing! I'm always impressed at how stoic everyone seems this time of year.

Hey, Doof! Your plants will start growing again faster after the Winter Solstice. They are getting less sunlight so things will grow slowly from now until after Christmas. Although you could try adding grow lights to get them to grow quicker? We generally plant out salad greens since those are things we don't want to grow fast and bolt. We also put out peas now, too, since they don't like the warm summer weather. Our current problem is the rains flatten the plants if they aren't big enough or protected from direct rain.

I'm in Pasadena, CA and I started 12 cherry tomato plants from seed on 8/18. Eight of the seeds germinated and on 9/15 I pulled out my Big Boys and Beefsteaks from my garden and transplanted the seedlings.

The sun gold tomato started flowering on 9/30. The sun sugar started flowing this past week. This weekend I saw the sun gold plant had a couple o f little fruits starting to grow.

All of the plants are now 18" to 30" tall. I am looking forward to harvesting starting in November.

elskunkito,

I'll follow up your question with my best guess. :)
**************************
I refuse to give up the fight. Today I built a cold frame arround my more prized plants. Can I expect much more time
from these plants?
***************************

depends, where are you? One thing you might try is putting out a 75 or 100 watt bulb in the cold frame at night and cooler days. But with the shorter days, rain and cloud cover, I don't think you'll get too many more.

***********************************
For those not under the cold frame, should I pick all the near ripe tomatoes now?
***********************************

I think so and the greenies too. If we get a hard frost, they will turn to mush.

******************************
Being such a newb I am unsure if I had a good or bad year.
Most plants have not had ripe ones yet, but the 4 or 5 plants that have ripe ones fill a plastic grocery bag a week for a few weeks now. Is that good or bad?
******************************

This has been a bad year and that is a so-so harvest. last year I gave away over 20 plastic bags full. My late season plants have only given me a few this year. My early and mid season plants haven't faired much better. I need to do some soil prep for next year which is another reason I pulled mine.

Good luck with the cold frame.

Bill

Oh forgot to add; another thing you can do is get an old blanket and cover you cold frame at night. Then remove it in the morning.

Bill

dang, ok, thanks for the info.

Thought I would post what I harvested last week. I've been waiting most of our short summer to see if these would ripen. But the rats and birds started getting to them and I wanted some for myself.

{{gwi:1393819}}

Bill
I hope gou got the picture of the Sunset Red Horizon/Rostova. I picked yesterday. I have many more on this plant that is larger and ripening. You should get seeds this week. Still don't seem to be able to post to this board

Hi Jim,

Yes I did and they look wonderful. I also received your seeds today and I sent you an email. I'll be building a green house this winter and your plants to be will be in there in a prime spot!! I can't wait to taste them. I was out today adding amendments and turning the soil.

Thank you again for the seeds.

Bill

do you have any off the vine ripening techniques other than paper bag and apples?

I have a ?hundred pounds? out there i'd like to not lose.

I didn't cover my tomatoes. I just brought the containers and put them on the back porch against the house. Lo and behold they survived the frost. My zucchini, which were twice covered, definitely look frost touched, although they're still alive. How much anything grows from this point on is anyone's guess, but if there's life I won't give up.

elskunkito,

There are as many different ways to ripen your greenies as there are opinions. :) Some people like to individually rap in newspaper and store in a box out in the garage, if you have a warm/insulated garage. Some also like to pull the whole plant and hang it in the garage. you can use your ripening tomatoes like the apple trick. Personally I just do like my mom did, leave them out on the counter to ripen or use them up making salsa, chow chow or anything that sounds good. I'm pretty new at that part of it too.

Best thing to do is experiment and see what works for you. Thats fun to do also.

Bill

Last year I put an old thin sheet blanket over a tomato plant that had large green ones. They ripened and had some up to the middle of Nov and that was the last of the tomatoes but the plant was still green. I never removed the blanket days, just raise up a corner to look and put back down. Never tried it before. It is worth trying things.

Chow chow is good. Pickled they are too.