You're growing some very nice varieties. Its normal for your Opalka to look the way it does. Some describe it as a "wispy" look.

We always enjoy seeing pictures if you can provide them.

Yes Nitsua, will follow-up with picture(s) sooner rather than later!

Nugrdnnut,
You have an impressive selection of varieties. I am growing Big Beef, Brandy Boy and Kellogg's Breakfast too.
Also, for zone 6, you have done a good season pushing too.

Good luck for the rest of season. !

Sey

thanks Seysonn... growing a little north of you and 3 hours east makes a difference.

The Pacific Ocean provides enough buffer that your summers are cooler and winters are much more mild.

The summers are cooler here on the west side of the Cascades but it's more humid here which tomatoes like. My friend lives in Bend, Or and was snowing last week, something I don't have to worry about this late in the season. Good luck everyone.

The tomatoes may like humidity, but so do fungus. It gets warm and dry enough here that I don't have to worry about that. And the tomatoes like warm and dry air and moist soil.

sorry about the pic... I rotated it, but upon using in this threat it went sideways again.

Has to do with your system, nugrnnut.
I copied one of your picture ( In Brandy Boy Contest forum), rotated and reposted. It worked fine.
Let me try this one too.

thx Sey!

Update:

The NAR are most vigorous growing of the tomatoes, at this point, followed by Brandy Boy and Big Beef (tied). Most others are looking good, but Opalka and GRS are sickly looking as has been described before.

The plants in the raised bed appear to have 20- 30% more growth than the ones in the ground.

Of the ones in the ground, the Sunsugar is the least vigorous, although my experience with Sungold is that is starts slower but then really takes off almost overwhelming all other plants within a 5 foot radius.

The Sunsugar has a few small tomatoes on one truss. No other plants are showing any tomatoes yet, but there are plenty of blossoms, so it won't be long before small tomatoes are showing.

Thanks for the update, Nugrdnnut

My front runners are : Big Beef ;; Brandy Boy and Cherokee Purple. But no visible fruits on them yet. Even though the fruits are set.
The so-called EARLY ones ( Siletz, 4thOJ, Legend, Willamette, cherries..) are far behind. But every one of the 30 vars have buds/flowers and growing very nicely. Thanks to the recent warm weather. May was pretty decent this year. I hope June will follow through.

Well I hope that things are even better on the other side of the Cascades .

Sey

Update: It is ~100 degrees today, a good 20 degrees warmer than normal.

My tomato plants continue to grow well, although this 20 degree hotter than average heat is making them all look wilty, from Big Beef to Sunsugar.

I've had significant blossom drop on many of my tomatoes, but they have now all set fruit. My Indian Stripe has not had any significant blossom drop and looks to have > 100 blossoms or tomatoes on it. One truss has 22 blossoms.
My Neves Azorean Reds continue to be the most vigorous growers, but do not have a significant # of blossoms or fruit. Brandy Boy and Big Beef are just behind the NAR in growth. Both Big Beef and Brandyboy have had significant blossom drop.

My in-raised-bed tomatoes plants are approximately 6-12" taller than my in-ground plants and are more lush/bushy.

I am surprised that the Sunsugar is the smallest of the plants. As I recall, the sungold I had last year was, at this point, starting to overtake all other tomato plants in my garden. The only difference this year is that I have it in the ground vs last year in the raised bed.

My largest tomato, a big beef, is about the size of a golf ball.

I hate to think what this withering heat will do to the blossoms on my plants. The forecast is for another hot few days then down to about 82 degrees by Saturday, June 13th.

Pics to follow!

as you can tell, significant growth since the May 17th photo above.

nugrdnnut,... your garden and plants look great and you are rewarded with fruits. That is doubly nice.
We are also getting temps about 20 degrees above normal. We had 92F on Sunday .
Talking about wilty , mine were the same, wilty. I checked the soil, there was enough moisture in there but tomorrow I will give them some water for faster uptake.

I am still waiting to see visible fruits. There are some tiny ones inside the calyx.
With this warm trend I hope the fruits that already are set will grow faster.
So far my dwarf Hahms GT(the smallest plant) is the only one with fruits and it keeps pumping.

My tallest ones are : BrBoy, CP, , Big Rainbow, Rutgers, Black from Tula, and Rio Grande. The smallest one is Kumato. I started it a month late and it has been a slow grow.

Sey

Update;
In the last month we have had extremely warm weather with with near 100 or 100+ weather for several weeks, which is extremely unusual! Keeping that in mind, here is my report. Largest size of fruit is what would be typical with the variety, unless otherwise stated.

Plant out was ~ the first of May. I will report on the growth & productions of the varieties planted.

Amana Orange: Planted in ground. It is ~ 3.5 feet tall and has ~ 15-20 fruit on it. Blossom drop has been insignificant compared to others. No ripe fruit as of yet.

Big Beef x 2: Both planted in a raised bed. Each is 4.5 - 5 feet tall with 30-35 fruit on each. I've had 1 fruit break with color about 2 weeks ago,but it had BER so tossed.

Brandy Boy: 1 planted in the ground, 1 in the raised bed. The raised be one is ~ 5 feet tall with ~ 15 fruit on it. The in-ground plant is ~ 4 feet tall and has ~ 24 fruit. Both have had significant blossom drop. The raised be plant has several tomatoes with BER. No fruit harvested yet.

Cuostralee: One plant in ground, 1 in raised bed. Both are ~ 5 feet tall and each with ~25 fruit. None harvested. Several on the raised bed have BER.

German Red Strawberry: 1 plant in the raised bed. This is a smaller plant and wilty looking just like the Opalka. It is a smaller plant, ~ 4 feet tall. It has ~20 fruit, only one with BER. No fruit harvested.

Indian Stripe: 1 plant in-ground, 1 in raised bed. Although each of these is on the smaller size, ~3 feet tall, they have ~35 tomatoes on each plant and some with some radial cracking. Although several are blushing, none have been harvested yet. So it appears that this will be my first (non-cherry) tomato to ripen.

Kelloggs Breakfast: My 1 plant in ground is ~5 feet tall and has ~24 fruit of which none have been harvested.

Moskvich. 1 in a 18 gallon container. This was planted ~ the 25th of May and is behind the others. It has a completely different growth pattern which may be consistent with the variety. It is not yet 2 feet tall and has ~ 15 fruit the largest of which is about the size of a ping-pong ball. None have been harvested yet.

Neves Azorean Red: Two plants in a raised bed. Each are about 5 feet tall and have 6-15 fruit on each. These have had significant blossom drop, although a few nice looking tomatoes have formed, with the largest about baseball size. I hope they taste good as I want to try again next year.

Opalka: 1 plant in-ground, one in raised bed. Plants are 4.5-5' tall, with the plant in the raised bed taller. Tomato formation is nothing like last year, again may be due to extreme heat. About 15 - 20 fruit each, none of which has been harvested.

Sunsugar: 1 plant in-ground. I have grown sungold the last several years and it was a very prolific grower and producer. This plant is only ~ 3.5 feet tall at this point. We have harvested several tomatoes, which were good and I expect the flavor to improve after the first few. No blossom drop.

Overall, there has been significant drop and BER with our plants in raised beds, but those in-raised bed plants have been able to grow more vigorously. It has been an unusually hot early summer and I am sure this is negatively affecting fruit production. As I live in a drier climate I have not had any disease to contend with and troublesome critters have not been a problem. Fortunately, we have enough plants that we should still produce enough tomatoes for fresh eating and canning.

hth & regards,
Tom

I also meant to say that Opalka and Cuostralee are my only repeat plants

nugrdnnut,

Could I trouble you with a pic of your Opalka? Just trying to establish if that is what I have. I would post a pic of mine but it is raining at the moment. I will try to get one some time today.

Opalka (plant & fruit)

see next post

indian stripe

big beef (?)

Thanks.

Here is what I have that is supposed to be Opalka. Very short, det, or semi det. with about Roma like fruit.

Here is what is supposed to be San Marzano Redorta. Tall, very wispy, with long bomb shaped fruit.

Hoosier,

My Opalka are not determinate. They are now 5 feet tall and although the upper reaches of each stem looks "sickly", my understanding is that is what an Opalka looks like. Most of my fruit are pointy, although some have a more blunt blossom end.

I am not familiar with San Marzano Redorta as I have not grown it before, but the pictures of your plant/fruit look like my Opalka.

hth, tom

Thanks.

That is my assessment as well. This is the second year that I have grown these and it was the same last year. My San Marzano Redorta are actually Opalka. What exactly my Opalka are is a mystery. I brought this up in a thread last year, and these are not the only seeds from this company that seemed to be wrong last year.