I've been harvesting tomatoes daily for the last week, but I "cheated" and have them in an unheated greenhouse. These are Legend and Oregon Spring that were started from seed in March and planted in the greenhouse around May 1st. I have one plant of each variety in my garden and these were planted out on June 1st. These outside plants are in pretty much the same stage as yours. I also think that I'll be bringing in a lot of green tomatoes to ripen. I live on the north Olympic Peninsula and we've only recently started to see average or above average temperatures.

I also have Golden Nugget cherry tomatoes that were planted out on June 1st that are loaded with fruit and I expect to begin harvesting within the next week. I've found the cherry tomatoes to be very reliable in this area and there are a number of excellent varieties out there. I'm hardly an expert, but I don't believe that one can expect good results for regular tomatoes unless they're in a cloche or greenhouse.

Bill

My tomatoes have been virtually stalled with all of our cool, grey weather. Last Thursday summer finally arrived and we went away for the weekend. I can't believe the growth that the tomatoes have put on over the past few days! I'm a long way from fruit but at least something is happening.

We are five miles from Seattle and started picking tomatoes mid-June. Our plants are trained to grow up a string along a sunny south wall. They are protected by a sheet of plastic which keeps them warmer and dryer and extends the harvest into December most years.

I have mine set against SW wall, under eaves in dark 5 gallon containers and wall-o-waters. Started from seed mid March are Sungold, 2 Brandywines, and a couple Principe Borghese (got a late start on the PB).

I almost have a ripe Sungold and the Brandys have greens. I will probably grow a couple of cherrys next year to get earlier toms. I have yet to find a tasty enough larger tom that ripens early. My Oregon Spring last year tasted gritty (like a fridged tom) and the Stupice were ok but not as nice as others.

If we have another growing season as this, I will probably also drape a sheet of plastic over them. I use the sturdier square wire cages.

I've still got at least three weeks I think. I've got a lot of half-grown green ones, but they're not even their full size yet, I think. THe only exception might be some black cherry tomatoes... it's not supposed to be a very early variety, but I've had some fruit there for a while and it's already full size, so maybe it will ripen up soon.

I'm in the Portland area. After too many fatalities in late spring, I've finally resolved to planting 8" or so plants at the end of May/ first week of June, and catching a mid August thru October bonanza. 2 or 3 summers ago, the summer that wasn't, I got bushels in late September thru end of October.

My plants are right on (their) schedule - lots of ping pong balls, marbles, and flowers. Nothing special. Good loose dirt (my mix) in raised beds with good sun between mid morning through late afternoon.

So glad I found this forum! Sundevil, I'd love to see a picture of your tomato set up?

been harvesting sunsugars for about a week.

i gave up on starting from seed myself. i buy large plants with fruit on from a local nursery for $3.50 each. plant in late may. lime/compost/some fertilizer if things are looking off. planted in not quite full sun. maybe 6-8 hours of sun if they are lucky. out in the open, no warmth advantages.

early girls are looking close...

I planted 29 plants/17 varieties, mostly 6-9" tall seedlings on June 3rd. My tomatoes finally started setting fruit last week, so I'm still at least a month or more away from picking ripe fruit. I've been out shaking the plants to insure pollination. The shaking may or may not help, but last year I shook my plants early in the season and got fruit but didn't shake them from mid-July on and got new fruit forming only on Sungold and Jaune Flamme. No new fruit formed on the larger varieties (Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Black Prince, etc.) until the weather started cooling in September.

Both this year and last I planted in slightly raised beds with 1.5-2' of Sky Nursery planting mix that I amended with a few inches of compost in April. I put black plastic over the beds in May and kept the plastic on until I planted the seedlings in early June, then I used PVC and white plastic to form a hoop house over the beds. I left a small opening on each end of hoop house to allow air flow, and I kept the plastic on until early July.

The cherry and smaller varieties (e.g. Sungold, Isis Candy, Kimberley, and Jaune Flamme) were the first to have fruit beginning July 10th, then a few of the larger tomatoes (e.g. Orange Russian 117, Red & Black Boar, White Queen, and Indian Stripe) started setting a few days later. A new cherry, Blush, also started setting this week. The other black/purple varieties (Cherokee Purple and Gary'O Sena) have a lot of open flowers, so they're probably close to setting fruit. On June 10th I also planted two New Big Dwarf plants less than a foot away from a south-facing concrete wall but didn't use hoop houses. A week after that I planted the other black/purple varieties (C.P. Spudakee, Vorlon, and Paul Robeson) against a south-facing wall but with no hoop house. The NBD and other black/purple tomato plants have blooms that are just now opening, so they're at least a week or two away from setting fruit.

Last year my favorite tomatoes were the Sungold and the Cherokee Purple, but I wasn't that impressed by Black Krim or Black Prince. This year I planted a few other black/purple varieties similar to C.P. to see if any are earlier and/or more productive or taste similar/better than C.P.

I've been really impressed by the NBD. I've been pruning all the other plants to 2-3 stems since I'm staking them, and it's so time-consuming pinching suckers. I've left the NBD alone, and they're beautifully compact at only about 2' tall. I already bought seeds for Rosella Purple and Tasmania Chocolate for next year, and if the fruit from these dwarf plants taste as amazing as people have posted, I may just stick with the dwarf varieties and my trusty Sungolds.

Embarrassing update: all my Brandywine have blossom end rot this year. I amended as always with lime and bone meal so it must have been uneven watering. I think I might be done with the variety. Cherry toms are looking better and better. Luckily my first year try with container zucchinis are easing my pain as is the eggplant (so far).

Any reports on the taste and reliability of Isis Candy?

Never done Isis Candy but you can't go wrong with Sungold. Reliable and taste great and produces all summer. Last year my only cherry Tom. had over 800 cherries until I lost count.

Here are the 1st to ripen here. These are Early Girl tomatoes that were purchased as a 1 gallon pot from Earthworks in mid April and transplanted at the end of May

I got 3 Juliet F3?- several generations of saved seeds, yesterday. Many green tomatoes, some on what was supposed to be Napoli bur wasn't, saved seeds from last year, that make a nice clustered small tomato with unusual rounded foliage. I started seeds in February under lights, planted out in April under tunnels. I'm growing mostly short season under 70 days, determinate again, to minimize staking. NBD, Martino's Roma, Legend, Juliet, Verna's Orange Oxheart, Lucky Cross, Jetsetter F3.

I started all mine in an unheated greenhouse then planted them in big white buckets. I've moved half of them outside about 2 weeks ago, this half is at the same stage as the ones inside. I have Cherokee Purple, Box Car Willie, Indigo Rose, Celebrity, Ernesto, Provenzano, Rinaldo, Cheerio, Snow White and Black Cherry.
We've been eating Cherokee Purple for a couple of weeks, the rest are just starting to get some color with the exception of Indigo Rose these are really black but still as hard as bullets.

Annette

Jetstars, we got the first one about 10 days ago but now they are really starting to produce. Supposed to be ~100f here tomorrow and it's still nearly 80 at 11pm so they'll be firing away now.

Picked my first today! It's an "Oregon Spring." Is that irony? It's August 4th and 89+ degrees F.