Wow! That is quite a haul. Congratulations! I'm especially impressed that you know what each of them are. :-)

Oh My Heavens!! Thank you for laying them out and tagging them, Jerry.

I just this afternoon ate my first Bloody Butcher. Tomatofest says Bloody Butcher's a 54 day-to-maturity tomato. Burpee says it is 8 weeks. Maybe the tomato plants will hurry up, bloom and make a crop but ... I've had frost in my garden in August.

No way is that happening this year. Mid-month August and we had a 100° afternoon, yesterday. Saturday is supposed to be our next one. So ... it wasn't warm enuf through the growing season? Good Grief! It was 113° a week into the summer. It's something of a new experience for me - high temperatures must have hit some kind of threshold and be interfering with tomatoes blooming. The plants are very large and the property owner at the big veggie garden is very conscientious about irrigation. His garden is on the same system and field sprinklers water both. Corn has done well, peppers and eggplant just fine and we are eating them! It will likely be my best melon year EVER! Tomatoes -- lagging.

Here at home, the 4 plants in pots at the foot of the backsteps are okay. Well, not really okay but kicking out a few red and gold cherries.

Steve

who will now peruse Jerry's pictures and learn something!

Steve,

Tomatoes bloom, but tend not to set fruit whne the temps hit about 95. Last year, we hit a streak of those temps early and we had a very poor crop. This year, we have had hot days, but had a grace period of temps around or below 90 in June when most of these tomatoes set.

I usually have these gaps in my plants at the height the plant was blooming during a hot streak. That's why I mentioned that some of my plants kept setting though the hot periods.

Jerry, this is the first year in many that I haven't had the Thessaloniki.

What I have always appreciated about it is that I can bring it in green or blush - and it can sit on the kitchen counter for weeks without becoming over-ripe. It is an excellent "keeper."

It seems odd that different varieties can have somewhat counter intuitive behavior. The Thessaloniki can proceed through its development, as your experience indicates, despite extra-warm temperatures. So, pick the fruit in September and bring it into room temperatures so that it doesn't freeze outdoors. What does it do? It just sits there slowly, slowly ripening.

I've mentioned Bloody Butcher as my medium sized, very early tomato. I once made the mistake of moving flats of tomato plants into a temporary hoop house with no overnight heat. Lots of varieties that had grown in the greenhouse where overnight temperatures were always 60° or above. It froze that night and the hoop house was 37° by morning. I know that it was 37° because the remote thermometer was right beside the Bloody Butcher plants. Many different varieties had loss of leaves or growing tips. Some of the BBs died. The only ones that died out of many! Here they can go out in the garden early, withstand cool Spring temperatures ( after conscientious hardening-off! ) and produce ripe fruit early. And yet, they couldn't take going from 60° plus to 37°.

Steve

Great summer for tomatoes!

My goodness I do need some Big Rainbow!

Hi Popmama,

I just tried my first Big Rainbow yesterday - awesome flavor.

So glad you like it, Jerry. I wish everyone would grow them so I could get more of them! I stopped growing tomatoes years ago. It was too stressful for me. Funny thing is, I still get volunteer tomato plants in my bed. They are all cherry tomatoes. But I'll take 'em!

Jerry, great job!

The tomatoes here have been straggling in since July 2nd so most days we have some to use. Not big harvests yet but the plants are fairly well loaded up.

Hi gjcore

Some of my plants are going to run out of green tomatoes, but others should pull us through. I think that the eraly start helped in that lots of fruit set before the really bad heat.

Did your grapes escape the japanese beetles? I found two on my vines with minor damage. Finally a good grape year.

The grapevines in Aurora are overrun with Japanese beetles. I need to get over there and cover the bunches with the gift bags. There are many clusters just turning ripe. Hard for me to keep up with because I'm staying in Westminster now. The Japanese beetles are here in Westminster. They seem fond of the blackberry flowers. The don't seem to be doing damage but I'm not sure. Every morning I knock them into a jar of soapy water