I can feel your happiness and self satisfaction right thru the computer! Job well done!

I seem to be growing tomato plants more than tomato fruits .... mine are just big foliage with little green marbles now. Neighbors are away and I'm watering their plants for them - sheesh, they've got fist-size rosy-red tomatoes ready for plucking and mine are still ...little, green marbles.

Enjoy your harvest and look forward to much more to come!

Good for you! Mine will probably be ripe about July 1. Can't wait for the first "mater" sandwich.

Awwww,cannadoit..you just proved you CAN do it.
Now, leave the rest on the vine to ripen. The flavor will be so much better. If you're afraid of birds pecking them, you can probably throw netting over the plant but in years with enough water/rain I don't have birds or squirrels bothering the tomatoes.

I had restraint Dottie...and left everything else to ripen on the vine...but, holy smokes I just couldn't leave these three! lol They were the first ones to come out....and, they were just taking far too long to ripen! TOO LONG INDEED! lol

ZigZag...I too feel your pain! I have tons of blooms..and tons of tiny little baby tomatoes...but, only a few big ones...it's almost too much to handle.
It doesn't help that my daughter wants to go out and try and pick them every morning. lol I think our level of enthusiasm toward our future tomato bounty is exactly the same! hehe

I am so worried about when the Japanese Beetles decide to make their way to my garden...this is my first veggie garden.....I know i'll be devistated if they destroy my plants. I have worked and worked and gonna rid of everything out of there. lol
My dad lauhs and says that he just puts his in the ground...waters them when needed and leaves them alone. He doesn't understand why i'm coddling them so much! lol

Spazzy.....you'll have to let me see your tomatoes!!

Don't worry. Japanese beetles don't mess with tomato plants or anything else vegetable that I can recall.
They will decimate any grape leaves you have and wreck your blooming roses. They use my vitex trees as motels and you know what goes on in motels,LOL.
But I've never had to chase any off my veggies.

I have noticed that this year the tomatoes are growing in fits and starts because (at least here in this area) we've had a very long and mild spring with abundant rain. Then we'll get a few days of normal warmth then a few nights of oddly cool temps. Tomatoes like it consistently warm.
My plants are fully fruited but taking their own sweet time to ripen.

I have tiny tomatoes on 2 plants (Better Boy, I think, and ?), and lots of flowers on the 3rd (Stump of the World, one my favorites).

Dottie, I've found JBs to like basil - and if you have a really nasty infestation of them like I had in MA, they'll eat almost anything.

Well, I have huge vitex trees at both houses. Perhaps that draws them away from the veggies and herbs.

Maybe I'm wrong.....but didn't the outbreak of JB last year come at the end of May?

It seems like it did because all I had at that time was three pots of herbs....and everything looked aweful except for my rosemary. lol

As far as JB's and motel activity....It seems like all I saw them doing was eating and doing the deed. lol

I understand your excitement. I too brought in my first better boy tomato this weekend. It barely made it into the house before it was eaten. I have 3 more ripening in the breadbox so the heavy rains this week didn't split them.
I find it hard to leave cherry tomatoes on the plant to ripen. I've been eating them for a couple weeks and can't help but prematurely pull them off.
Nice work and enjoy.

Enjoy those wonderful veggies!! I brought in my first cuke yesterday, my tomatoes are still all green and growing. I do have a bunch of them and my cukes, watermelon, cantalope, are all loaded down with baby veggies. I was a litle late with mine, but it's all coming along very nicely!! Congrats Cannadoit!!

Cannadoit,
I can feel your excitement and I was right there last year!! I actually posted a video of our first tomato that we grew last year. I sent it to all my relatives and of course on this forum as well. This is my second year with tomatoes and I'm still excited. My daughters are 6 and 4 1/2 and they love to help me also.

We had our first tomato last Friday. It was perfect because my parents were visiting from Florida to celebrate my daughter's bday, so we all got a sample of the first tomato of the season.

It was even more appreciated because we had a "tomato tragedy" on Thursday. My container knocked over and the cage was half on and half off, and suffice to say, I had one whole plant which was at least five feet tall, laden with at least 25 green tomatoes, broke off at just about 18 inches. The other plant in the container suffered as well. I'm hoping that it didn't suffer irreparable damage as well.

As an aside, how green can a fried green tomato be? Some were the size of apricots, and I have a few that are the size of small peaches. I have them on the sill, but don't have much hope for them. Any nice recipes?

Thank you Cannadoit, for bringing me back to last year and the tremendous excitement we felt then!! It never gets old! Congratulations!

I have used small green tomatoes in stir fries. they are super zingy and add nice flavor. If you haven't already thrown the top away, you can root cuttings from it. Tomatoes root very easily.

I've been eating tomatoes about every other day for a couple of weeks now. They are SunSugar and 4th of July. These are my Wall-of-Water varieties. The other's like Better Boy and Champion have a ways to go. In addition to Japanese Beatles eating my Basil, I find that they also like to eat corn silk and seem to start infesting the corn ears at the critical fertilization time and early kernel development stage. They also love my peaches.

TomatoMike I need your advice.
One of my tomato plants set two fruit early and they've grown nicely to their expected size while the plant grew and set a cluster of 5 other tomatoes. Also attained expected fruit size but despite the warm weather and nice rainfall these buggers just aren't ripening.
How come? The plant isn't overly foliated and there are new blossoms setting but it seems until the first two tomatoes ripen, the rest of the plant is kind of in limbo.
I forget the name of the variety but it is indeterminate.
Do you think picking those first two set (green) tomatoes will get the plant back to ripening and setting more tomatoes?

And another question..what does epson salts in water do for tomatoes?

Hi Dottie!
My main crop guys are also slow because we have had such an interesting spring. I think we have to be patient, darn it. My green peppers are also in slo-mo. Only things going nuts are the vines and green beans. That is why I always plant a few 4th of July and SunSugar, so I can get at least something like a tomato early. I'm going to be out in the morning looking to se how things are going. I put Epsom in the planting mix but never in watering. It might cause too much "saltiness" in the water. I'd go with just a water soluble fertilizer. Picking the first fruits will not stimulate ripening. I share your anticipation for a decent tomato! What types are you growing?

Thanks, Mike. What I have is Heirloom Cherokee Purple and Beefsteak Hybrid.
Always thought the beefsteak was supposed to be a larger fruit but this one must be mistagged because I'm getting clusters of up to 5 2-3" fruits, nothing larger.

So, with the epsom , you use it dry in the planting mix of tomato seeds or when they're repotted before setting out in the ground?

I add it to the planting hole when I set the plants out in the garden. Here is my "formula". I take about 2 Cu Ft of composted cow manure (I buy it at Wallace Farms in bulk P/U truck load) mixed with a little dirt from the holes, add about a cup of 10-10-10, about 1/2 cup slow release gypsum from Lowes, etc. and about 1/3 cup epsom salts. I mix completely in a wheel barrow and replace the dirt in the hole with this mix. Do you recall that I plant a 2-liter bottle with each plant? That is my irrigation method, three rows of holes down one side of the bottle and put it on the outside of the row with the holes facing inside and the plant next to the holes. I can water with a wand with the sprinkler head unscrewed and no splash up onto the follage.

Cannadoit..Congratulations !! Its so exciting when the first stuff starts coming in. Bet it was best tomatoe ever!!1 Last year we had 3 tomatoes planted in large tubs..Big boy, roma, cherry,,All excited waiting for 1st big boy to ripen.came home to find it had been taken off plant & one big set teeth marks in it from deer.Next night deer ate all three down as far as their fat heads could fit in cage :(((
Mike, geat idea for watering the plants w/no splash out.
Years ago former neighbor has set up w/ milk jug up on a hook above cages w/ hose pipe thing..looked like IV tubing.., for lack of finding word right now,stuck into ground where he grew w/ stacked tires...used to put miricle gro water in jug..anyone heard of or used this method? I didnt grow maters then & didnt pay attention.
also, romas last year were disapointing w/ output..too hot here for them ?

There are so many green tomatoes out there....the wait is just too much to handle!!! lol

Jitterbug,
I've never tried that method...but, I think that in order to have a better crop you just have to be on top of the watering. I am sure there will be someone else who will have a better method... because I'm very new to veggies...but, I baby those plants! lol

I have two stow aways in front that do not get as much attention as my main plants do...and they are no where near the size of the main plants....nor do they have the crop production of the others.

I had about 10 left over plants from starting seeds ( I had 100% germination) and I plopped them over in another part of the yard....they have not been getting as much attention as the main ones...but, more than the ones in the front. You can tell....they have fruits and are much bigger. lol

I planted late a black Krim I found at Lowes on clearance maybe 3 weeks ago..it's over near the main crop...and only having been over there that period of time with the same care, it's way bigger than the other plants too.

Ladies and gentlemen.......
I just picked 5 GIANT red tomatoes from the bottom of one of my tomato plants...a noid heirloom.

At this very second I'm enjpying one of the best ever tomato sammies i've ever eaten! :O)

The whole plants worth of tomatoes are finally...starting to turn! WOOHOO! lol

I think I'm going to enjoy some home grown maters on my 4th of July hamburger fresh off the grill!! lol

I thought I'd share...hope I do this right...

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Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:578821}}

Our first year in ages without maters. I'm a little jealous.

I'll share.

What, I wonder, causes some tomatoes to get a really hard pithy center about a half inch under the stem? That part needs trimming out because it's almost fibrous.

Aww.. I know you would.

We are blessed with awesome neighbors. We let them borrow the tiller and they bring us more veggies than we can eat sometimes.

We picked our first red tomato June 30 - more to come soon! :)

Woot Drippy!! Those are the bestest maters i've ever eaten! lol

I've been bitten by the mater bug now.

Yep - store bought aren't even worth looking at - the local farm stand has good ones - but the ones you pick off your own vines & eat right away are the best!

Drippy,
Where at in SC are you? You might be close to me. Perhaps if we were...you could come share a mater with me. lol

Upstate - Greenville/Spartanburg area. We don't have a permanent home yet.

ahhhh...gothcha. I'm in York County.

dottie_in_charlotte. could it be the tomato ailment known as "puffiness"?