Harvested 1 Tomande starting to ripen yesterday, ahead of the rain, because I didn't want it to split. There are a number of green fruits on my 6 plants, but I haven't started compulsively counting them yet...

Hey Deb

Mine from October seedlings look awful and I've been yanking the ones that look like they're on death's door. I am intrigued that you are getting new growth after cutting them back because I wondered if I should be doing that.

I don't particularly like paste tomatoes, but I ended up with about 8 plants of San Marzano and Heinz because I didn't research them before sowing the seeds. I know, what a goof-ball, right? So I've been eating them for several weeks now until the Big Boys and Rutgers finally ripen.

Almost all my plants are producing, but I know they are suffering from something........ perhaps it's lack of sunshine. After I pick all the maters, I'm gonna try cutting them back. How far down do you go?

Thanks!

Susie

"I haven't started compulsively counting them yet..." Oh, Carole. You crack me up! I think everyone compulsively counts their first tomatoes -- except maybe Silvia, because she has so many.

Glenn - don't give up on the cherries. They don't start really taking off until it get warmer, then KABOOM!

Hey Susie! Tomatoes do start to decline after about 3 months, so maybe that's what wrong with your October seedlings. The reason I got new growth from my Cherokee is because it hadn't borne any fruit yet. I just cut the top foot out of it, because it was dead from the freeze anyway. I was surprised to get new growth too, honestly. I never clone tomatoes once they start to decline.

What I used to do when I had a huge garden in SC was to just pluck suckers out and stick them into the ground. In fact, I never bought more than two plants of each kind, and I chose the leggiest ones I could find. I'd cut them in half, plant the bottoms and stick the tops into the ground where the next tomato would go. They always rooted. Then I'd pick out and root a sucker every two weeks to keep the crop going until frost. I've never tried sticking them right into the ground here, but I have rooted suckers and done sequential planting. Tomatoes seem to decline so rapidly, it's good to always have one or two going.

D, I am going to have a very interesting season coming up! Around the beginning of the year, I cleaned all my tomato garden, made salsa with the harvest and gave it away, I only like fresh salsa and that one don't last too long in the fridge...

Started the tomato varieties, trying to rotate and picked colors and sizes. It was all decided till I saw new to me varieties at the farm, bought those, sampled them and they were so tasty, I was jealous! lol. I planted the fresh seeds hoping for the best and right now those seedlings are doing better than some of the ones that I started earlier. I will never know the names, one is a big beefsteak black and red, other yellow with red stripes, other medium dark red and the last one is a type of italian red ruffled...all perfect heirlooms.

I thought that I was done, but I wanted to try one more that was highly recommended and I think the seed company made a mistake and send me too many...that one was started yesterday.

I still have in the freezer oven dry tomatoes to be used in the recipes, my favorite!

Silvia

Well, this thread made me curious, so I went out and counted. I have 11 large tomatoes on the Sioux plant, and 87 cherries on the Husky Cherry Red, which I've been picking from quite a bit already.

That's much better than I normally do with full-size tomatoes this time of year, but the weather has been so warm this winter. I'm not sure how well the big ones will mature, though. I've had a couple of sioux ready to eat and they've been fine, but I often find that non-cherry types tend to have a lot of core in the winter months. I'm guessing that's because they don't get as much light.

Silvia, I see the heirloom tomatoes at the market and want to buy one and try it. They have no names on them, just "heirloom,' but I know if they truly are heirlooms, they'll come true from seed, so I figure I get a tomato and seeds too! Can't ask for more than that. My way of thinking of it is that the $5 I spent on the tomato will get me more tomatoes, so worth the price. Let us know how your NOID tomatoes do.

writersblock, I used to love Husky Cherry Red! One year, I planted one close to NOID grape tomato, saved the seeds, and the next year I got a plant that had what looked like either giant grape tomatoes or dwarf Romas. They were not very tasty, so I put them in spaghetti sauce.

D, the best way to try a variety is to sample first, I only go by taste...heirloom tomatoes from Whole Foods or even from the local farmers market imported from Canada when not in season in my garden, were big disappointments, I would not save those seeds, the farm is different, cheaper and freshly harvested like in my garden, no refrigerated tomatoes for me.

I never counted tomatoes on the vines or seeds that I have, it is in a filing cabinet carefully sorted by size and colors, I think I am addicted to tomato seeds:)...When I travel, that is the first thing that I am looking for...

Picked my first Cherokee purple today and put it in the window to finish

My heirloom yellow pear tomato is still pumping out fruit. It is starting to sprout new lower branches so I might prune it.

The other two have fruit they just haven't ripened.

I didnt start tomatoes this fall but a couple of the everglades fruit fell and sprouted and I ended up with about 20 plants. I potted up 6 of them that put in the greenhouse when it got cold and they have lots of green "jewels" on them. As soon as it's warm enough I'll plant them in the garden pots.

Silvia, we have locally grown heirlooms coming in now at the farmer's market held on Wednesday afternoons downtown. I'll probably go tomorow after my dentist appt. I know there is at least one seller there who has homegrown heirlooms of all shapes and sizes.

Glenn, my Cherokee Purple is just coming back out from frost damage, which is sad, since it had tiny fruit already, but it's doing very well and I expect a good harvest.

Bea, yeah, you can't kill Everglades unless you really try. One of mine that is only about 6 inches tall already has ripening fruit. That's one thing I LOVE about them!