Christmas tree pasta shapes?

Sorry Catman, I forgot to add the year 2011 to the thread.:)

Today's harvest in my Central Florida garden

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Silvia

The season is so short, it seems like I just put the plants out. It has been barely 2 months since setting out the transplants. I have harvested about 6 tomatoes already, with weights ranging from 12 ounces to 7 for the beefsteaks. Not bad for my 99% organic approach. I used Daconil once on the leaves topside so I am not sure how badly that set my soil back. As you can see in the photos below, I feel confident I'll get a great harvest, but the leaf diseases are taking their toll already. I am planning on a second season by taking cuttings (suckers) off of my Sun Golds, or whatever looks like it might survive. I am not sure when to take the suckers and root them - "now" to ensure they might be healthier, or "later" to ensure the seedlings will not be rootbound by set-out time (last week of July according to the calendars for my zone, 8b). I would appreciate any suggestions.

Big Beefs

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Cherokee Purple
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Hi sckitchen gardener

Your tomatoes look great! and you are going to have a bountiful harvest!

I am no expert but last year I took cuttings of the tomatoes that looked very healthy for the fall season and did well but I also started new seeds. In my zone 9b I get two seasons.

Here is today's picture of the harvest. I have 45 tomato plants and now the tomatoes are coming fast, between giving them away, making salsas and oven dry them is keeping me busy.

Silvia

You have a very bountiful harvest. I am very thankful for what is trickling in.

I know my setout date for the fall tomato season is July 25-30 for my zone, 8b. What I don't know is how long it takes for a rooted cutting to be ready to set out. One month? That is the part this is a mystery. I have only grown from seed or from big box seedlings, not from cuttings. Assuming I have fairly good success, can anybody make a stab at when I should pluck suckers/cuttings and start them for a target set out date of 25 July? Thanks.

If you start them outside, rooted cuttings (from plants that are already outside) can be planted immediately, but they should be shaded from direct sun for the first few days until they perk up again.

Betsy

Mmm, that pasta salad looks good. The florida growers are really
harvesting now. It will be awhile for me. No early varieties.

Isis Candy
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Green Giant
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Tony's Italian
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Ludmilla's Red Plum
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Danko
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Eva Purple Ball
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Cherokee Green Pear
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Group photo! Harvests from the past few days.

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Today we had an Italian tomato party and it was great!

Picked some tomatoes from the garden

And we made risotto with fresh tomatoes and pesto from the garden

Panzanella and pasta salad

Thank you Roper.

I hope that all of you without tomatoes get a wonderful harvest later on.

Happy gardening!

Silvia

Silvia,

I love the picture of the fast and furious risotto stirring! It made me smile and made me hungry for some too!

'naders, hail, frost, heat ... at last, maters showing here. Amazing how it all seems to land eventually. One of 280 plants ( so far)

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Since I just got my tomatoes in the ground two weeks ago because of the weather; I'm going to sum up all the feelings of the cold and wet weather people. We HATE you all and your beautiful ripe tomatoes. :P Just kidding. Good work guys, hopefully our toms will be looking like that before too long. :D
Here's to good weather and bountiful harvests!

Hi tomato friends

Deb, I have a lot of risotto leftover, you are invited! :) We had a chef from Italy show us how to cook from the garden, I encouraged him to sample all varieties and I told him that I have about 45 different varieties planted and that taste is personal. He liked the beefsteak the most, he picked the hearts, Neves Azorean Red and a Kellog's Breakfast to use them fresh at the end of the risotto. He peel the tomatoes but he said to use all the seeds because that is where the flavor is.

Cozy, your harvest is coming next, all those tomatoes! I will be looking forward to see your harvest!

Candie, I am so sorry about the weather in most of the country, but don't give up, your tomatoes also will come through, my tomato harvest is almost winding down, it is getting too hot.

The party made me feel very proud about the tomatoes, real experts were sampling tomatoes from my humble garden, I never heard such a nice reviews about the taste of the tomatoes.

Looking forward to see everybody's pictures, have a great tomato season!

Silvia

All the tomatoes have lots of flowers and a few first tiny fruits on the Cherokee Purple. They seem to be doing lots better so far than last year, they must like the composted horse manure.

Nice pics!!

Candie, I understand. I am so jealous of the warmer zones. I keep looking at those pics and remembering my soil is great and it does not get so hot here that the plants fizzle out.

lois,
did you put those stones there for a reason? I am asking because I have 4 landscaping natural stones I moved from a flower bed with no where to put them. If they can benefit a couple of my tomatoes I will put them there.
thanks!!!
Karen

Hi there Karen,

The stones are left over from my homemade cloches that I used earlier in the spring to give the plants a little head start. I cut the bottom out of a large water bottle, cut a hole in the middle of a grocery bag, then taped the edges of the grocery bag hole to the bottom of the bottle, like the bottle was wearing a skirt. Then I put the bottle over the plant and weighted down the 'skirt' so the bottle wouldn't blow away. I left the stones there mostly from laziness, but also to see if they would help keep the moisture and heat level better in the soil. I think the soil got too hot and dry last year, because it's a raised bed.

Why would I want to post tomato pictures when it's only March in California? Drooooling...

Very Nice Lois!!
Thanks for the reply.
Karen

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Just a couple. First, my limited space for a garden. Got a little bit of a late start, but I'm starting to get flowers now. The ground cherry on the far end already has about a dozen small fruit on it, I'll have to remember to get pictures of that..... I've also been a little lazy with the grass, I'll be pulling it out more later. some of the little sprouts you're seeing around them though are direct seeded basil, but it's mostly grass I didn't do a good job of getting rid of.

And a picture of an early girl I planted in a topsy turvy about a month before the others, it got a little herbicide damage early in the season and is only just now recovering, so much for early tomatoes. It's also having a lot of blossom drop problems, which is annoying. I have one tomato growing right now though! I don't think I'll go for the upside down gimmick again next year though...

My early girls.

ya'll are killin me,lol,love the pics

Meanwhile in upstate NY.....Nice blue leaves. I prolly should cut back on the nitrogen.....LOL.
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My tomatoes aren't as green as normal as you can see in the picture above. Nords pic made me think about it! Think they need a shot of N? The only thing different this year, I grew Crimson clover over the winter and turned it under.

A little more than just tomatoes but this is what we harvested today. The size of the bag with the handles is a little deceptive the way its positioned. My son estimated its weight at about 30lbs.

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Im going to cheat and post from last year :)

We do mostly hybrid, although we also grow black krim (those are not in the pic).

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1338674}}

I am so jealous of those with SPACE for huge gardens. But here are mine. This is Mac-I named him because he is a volunteer who popped up last summer. Thanks to people here for helping me prune him over the winter and tell me not to pull him. I still haven't figured a way to keep him from looking like he is taking over the planet, but I like the harvests we are getting. Every 3 days or so I get this:

And here is Mac-that is my 4 year old daughter and a patio set for idea of size-yes, it is 1 plant!

And my regular growing area:

Some ripening Moskvich

And these are either Fargo or Sophie's Choice-I also have Martino's roma planted nearby, so maybe soemthing crossed? I've never grown these before, so I'm not sure if Fargo/Sophie's are this big. I know they are NOT Sprite which I also have in there soemwhere.

So I just got this big 'ol tomatoe plant from a Home Depot and I replanted it from a 5 gallon to I believe about a 30 gallon pot. I can't wait for it to fill out!!! It's gonna be a monster. When I got it it just had two green tomatoes on it and now its been almost 2 weeks since I replanted it and it has about 10 green tomatoes. YAY!! I counted 59 blooms so it looks really promising.

You guys are all making me jealous! My tomato plants are pathetic - battling black spot. I have to live vicariously for now by browing your great pics! Hopefully I have some tomato pics in Part 5's posts. Thanks for sharing.

No fruit yet, but its still quite early in my neck of the woods. These were taken last night just as dusk was approaching, so some of the colors are a bit off looking. None of the leaves actually have any red tint, for instance.

Yes, those are little rubber snakes in the garden.

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Do the snakes work Riceloft?

I have some baby tomatoes. They look pitiful compared to the warm zones but seeing these little baby tomatoes has made me so very happy!!!

Maybe by July 4th I will have some to eat :)
Karen

Cayene pepper plant that got munched on. It does not seem to care cause I have peppers.

my 11 year old's strawberry plant...

I think this one is black cherry?

Reistentruble (sp?)

Bush Early Girl...She has lots of hair

another Reistentruble (sp?

Azinine:
Do the snakes work Riceloft?

They seemed to last year. However, when I used to help my mom with her Garden as a child I recall bunnies destroying many things, so I'm a bit paranoid and have added to my defenses this year.

I have the snakes, I've sprinkled ground pepper on my plants a couple times, and I have a small barrier line of used kitty litter outside the edge of the garden area. So far, not a single nibble has been taken of any of my plants, and we have deer, LOTS of rabbits, raccoons and skunks in and around our yard on a regular basis.

I love all the tomato pictures!

Went on vacation to Jamaica for a few days and came back to harvest more tomatoes, lychees, avocados, eggplants, peppers, figs and forgot to put the okra in the picture.:)

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Happy gardening!

Silvia

OMG Silvia! I am so jealous. I think I see starfruit in the photo. WOW.

I am really having zone envy right now. I also wish I had a bigger garden to grow more.

Karen

Thank you Karen and I have to tell you my garden is small but I get everything packed in.:) and yes, I have star fruit, my favorite is the tamarillo but is not ripe yet.

And some of my favorite tomatoes are the bi-color beefsteaks, here is one ready for a sandwich. Tomato and avocado sandwich is really good!

Silvia

OK, here is mine:

From Garden
Yellow Red Butt
From Garden
Same Yellow Red Butt.
From Garden
Unknown. Supposed to be Chapman, but it's a heart.
From Garden
From Garden
I have to pick them green before the birds get to them.
From Garden
Crnkovic Yugoslavian
From Garden
From Garden
From Garden
From Garden
From Garden
Here's a lot of them once ripened, getting ready to be scalded, peeled and frozen.

This post makes me so excited for tomatoes! Mine are still just babies... but here they are!

Brandywine:

Mountain Fresh (still recovering from a windy entry to the world):

Sun Gold:

And his container:

Grow little plants! GROWW!!!!

Well not quite there yet but in a day or so I'll have 2 nice juicy tomatoes : D YAY!!!

Happy Gardening All,
-Kristina K.

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Farm Wife

These tasty tomatoes grew on my window sill.


It's too early here to have any from the garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: My (mostly) indoor gardening

Hi

I hope that all your tomatoes are growing well

Caprese salad made with Neves Azorean Red and Pineapple tomatoes, they were a big hit at the get together in a friend's house, they were impressed at the size of the slices and the rich tomato flavor!

Silvia

Perhaps not the bountiful harvests like some of you, but I am getting my first fruit of the season.

I feel really far behind this year, but have some fruit set in my 'Street Garden':
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Sungold was first to set fruit:
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Bloody Butcher was right after Sungold:
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These are volunteers from last years' Sungold. This container was supposed to be for peppers this year, but these look so good I think I'll let them be:
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Some more SWC tomatoes from the 19th of June:
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Here's what a groundhog did to 4 of my tomatoes a couple weeks ago (TG for backup plants):
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In ground Rose Tomato from the 19th:
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In ground Big Beef Tomato (inspired by Bingster to try this variety) from the 19th:
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Maybe time for part 5?

Yesterday my wife felt the inspiration to pick SunGold's, Black Cherry and Juliet's to make a spaghetti/lasagna sauce with. When she was to tired to pick anymore there were still a lot more Sungold's and Juliet's to be picked. The Juliet's are still flowering and setting fruit like crazy so I guess we will be having a steady supply till frost.

If you click on the photo you will be taken to my photobucket album where you can see other pictures of my garden.

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This is my first time lurking and posting on this forum, and boy what I have been missing! Beautiful tomatoes!

I just have to say that your pics of the food you prepare, WHgille, are making me salivate!! They look delicious. Wish I could snap my fingers and have those dishes appear on my table. :)

My tomatoes are small, between 6 inches and 2 feet, with some flowers showing up on the Sungold. No pics as yet.

Hi Terrene

Thank you, you should post your pictures. We enjoyed all tomato pictures, plants, flowers, fruit and dishes.:)

When you and the colder zones than mine have tomatoes, I will be starting my fall season tomatoes and I will be the one salivating, lol.

Here are more pictures of recent meals.

Tomato tart, it is always good!

Roast pork, corn salsa and sliced beefsteak tomatoes, they were all good this season!

Silvia

I really didn't need to see this post. You all made me hungry. Mine have not started turning color yet, but they are coming in. mmmmm

All of your pics and recipes look great. Thanks for sharing

This is my first year growing tomatoes, so it's been quite an experience given our unusually cold and wet spring here in Seattle. I planted several plants from seed at the end of March and transplanted them just after Memorial Day. I had to keep them under hoops and plastic for the last month since we've barely reached 70ðF all spring. We're finally getting sunny, warm weather this week. Now my tomato plants have dozens of flowers, and they're finally setting fruit.

Cherokee Purple heirloom plant
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Sungold with 3 tiny fruits and about a dozen flowers
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Flowers on a Black Krim heirloom plant, including a megabloom in the middle
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Closeup of the megabloom on a Black Krim heirloom plant
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