I read through other posts which suggested blood meal etc. though some people say it doesn't work at all. I live in a crowded neighborhood and would rather not get a BB gun if possible. Any thoughts would be much appreciated! (Those #$%@!! squirrels!)

I haven't had problems with squirrels eating tomatoes (that I know of). Some sort of bird with a very thin beak likes to peck teeny holes in ripe tomatoes close to the ground, but doesn't bother those higher up.

As for growing the darker colors, I can't say I have ever seen or read about any study done on it. Living in the woods and despite a healthy squirrel and chipmunk population I don't have an issue with them because I routinely pick at the break stage when the plant has done it can do for the fruit except make it more watery.

Dave

But I like the idea of picking the tomatoes early. I did some research on it and it looks like you can pick them as soon as they change colour -- does that mean a slight blush of colour on the green? This year I'm also going to plant mostly non-red tomatoes and see what happens. I read an article that birds and animals are most attracted to red fruit because it indicates ripeness. Right now I just put in Black Krim, Black Prince, Black Cherry, Purple Cherokee (looks more red in the pic though), Sungold and Odoriko (the lone pink). Last year's Black Krim was the first black tomato that I ever planted and it was fantastic. It also continued producing into cold weather which killed off the other hybrids I had. Will report back and let you guys know whether my non-red tomato strategy worked!

Here are two versions of a tomato-ripening chart (same text, different photos):
http://ripening-fruit.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/tomatousdacol or.208113432_std.gif
http://www.lagorio.com/assets/pdf/lagorio-tomato-guide.pdf

Hang Christmas ornaments on your plants.

Seriously, get red Christmas balls and hang them on your tomato plant for about a month before it starts fruiting and just leave them there. The squirrels will see the red and come to investigate. They'll try to gnaw on it, realize its glass/plastic, and leave. They'll come back a few more times, try them again, but eventually they'll figure it out that these are not food and will start to ignore them.

By the time the real food comes out, they'll be so used to there being inedible red things on that plant they won't look twice at the real ones.

So I wonder if you can use habanero peppers indirectly instead of spraying your tomato fruits directly. Maybe hanging some among your tomato bushes?

Before my first year of gardening (last year), I actually liked squirrels. I'd think to myself "They can have some and I can have some and we'll all be happy". But no. They had some and I had one. They dug up all my chamomile, basil, thyme and oregano and left them in the sun to die. I don't like them anymore and think of them as a rodent infestation that the city refuses to deal with.

Maybe it's different for those of us that live near parks full of them, but this year I am fencing around my garden with strips of bird netting twisted like barbed wire 3 feet up all the way across. If that doesn't work I'll be going with a capsicum based spray around everything. And if that doesn't work I'll be posting warning signs in my yard and setting up an electric fence.

Very frustrating. :(