My So Cal tomatoes so far

10 years ago

So far, so good. The plants are huge compared to most
years. I'm in SoCal and we've had little or no "june gloom" this year.

Most of them were planted out April 1 except for the
Selbo's Ribbed Red Cherry which went in the ground May 1.

The PVC cages you see are 6 feet tall to give you an idea of scale.
The PVC is 3/4 inch, but the outside diameter is an inch.

Here's Better Boy

Brandywine

One of the Brandywine fruit.

Cherokee Purple

Kellogg's Breakfast

Kellogg's Breakfast fruit

Lemon Boy

Momotaro

Selbo's Ribbed Red Cherry - it's only 4 ft, but was planted
a month after the others.

Selbo's Ribbed Red Cherry fruit - interesting shape.

Sweet Million - it's a MONSTER. It must be 8 feet!

Sweet Million fruit

And the first overall shot.

And the second overall shot.

I find it interesting that the heirlooms are larger than the
hybrids. It's usually the other way around for me.

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Comments (8)

seysonn
10 years ago
Fantastic. Your plant are all very heathy. I just noticed some leaf rolling. I sit due to high temps or thirst?
edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
10 years ago
Beautiful. No wonder most of our food comes from CA :-)
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shermthewerm
10 years ago
Wow.

I just bought this nifty (huge) basket for harvesting all of the tomatoes I will surely get :). I keep picturing myself strolling down your pathway picking all your huge tomatoes on the left & right. Maybe I'll get to use my new basket in September.

Beautiful tomatoes by the way.
fireduck
10 years ago
Nice plants and your operation shows some planning. Your soil must be very good. I see the raised bed is not that deep. I wish my clay soil was not so tight.
HeyJude2012
10 years ago
I'm having tomato envy here!!! Those are gorgeous plants!

How do you anchor your PVC structures into the ground?

I'm going to have to figure out a way to do at least one raised bed. I am so totally inspired. Thanks for sharing!!!
mjhuntingtonbeach
10 years ago
Wow Tom, I am impressed. Here by the coast when the tomatoes get that big half the plants' leaves are dead from mildew. Something to be said for dry inland heat.

And I see my cherry tomato also seems to love the climate and your growing techniques too. Now I know I have a reliable source for back up seeds in case I lose mine :)
qaguy
Original Author
10 years ago
seysonn - not sure what's causing the leaf roll. Temps
have been in the 80's and the soil is nice and moist.
Maybe because that side faces the sun?

fireduck - yes, a lot of planning and it turned out a lot better
than I expected. My soil (before I started working on it) was
also a clay-type called caliche. Mix caliche with water and straw
and let them sit in the sun and you get adobe brick. When
dried out, it's as hard as a rock. Lots of Kellogg's AMEND,
grass clippings and coffee grounds did the trick.

HeyJude2012 - the bottom upright is pounded into the
ground about 12 inches. Very stable. And the cages
are really quite flexible. It all adds up to a nice system.

Mike - the lack of marine layer this year (May grey and
June gloom) is the answer. I'll have plenty of seeds in
case you need them....hope not!
suncitylinda
10 years ago
Just beautiful! The plants and the set up. I am getting a lot of leaf rolling here too, I think it is all the wind I have had lately.