Some zone 5 garden pics from today July 19

14 years ago

Some pics. Garden looks ok but fruit really behind. Cold weather at end of may/beginning of june delayed planting until end of first week of june or later for some plants. Cool days and cold nights for following week or more saw little or no growth but several flowers. Some nicer weather for a few days saw even more flowers, but then 6 days of very hot humid weather resulted in a lot of blossom drop. After that, plants exploded in flowers (near end of june), and steady weather continued after then until now, with a fair bit of sun and 75 degree days (but still in the low 50's at night). Can finally see results of pollenization, with lots more flowers on most plants. Only one small tomato has blushed so far, the only big toms of the large varieties are the ones that pollenized very soon after planting (after which there was a lull in pollenization except for some small varieties). Some pics:

The below is the garden taken from back corner of yard...toms in the right side garden get less sun, and soil not as deep so plants/production tend to be smaller.

The more productive side of the garden

Plants are creating a solid wall pretty early this year

Side view of the above row

Supposed to be Cherokee Purple, but some of the fruits look a little fluted (maybe 40 fruits on this plant so far)

Plant on left is Cherokee Purple (about 6'6"), to the right of it also along the wall is Black Krim with some stems topping 8 feet

F2 of some seeds that were supposedly saved from Purple Haze...last year this was PL with pink golf-ball sized fruits, this year PL with golf-ball sized fruits, lets see if they have same colour and excellent flavour as last year (production seems good so far)

Close-up of the above plant, lots of fruit and lots of flowers

Brandy Sudduth doing its best to pollenize

Unknown red beefsteak that came from saved seed from unknown pink round tomato that came from packet of black krim seeds 4 or 5 years ago. Last year the beef tasted so good that I saved it, this year I expect it will blush first (as these are by far the most progressed of my large varieties so far this season)

Finally, a passion flower from neighbour's garden (plant kept indoors in winter, brought outside during summer)

In other years I believe we had already eaten a lot of tomatoes by this time of the summer...everything seems 2 or 3 weeks behind. At the very least I hope we can continue with sunny days with low to moderate humidity. Just wish the nights were not so cool.

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Comments (9)

jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Awesome looking plants. You do a very nice job. I hope you will be enjoying them soon.

Jay
holly-2006
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wow. My plants are little twerps compared to yours.
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anthony_toronto
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Trust me when I say I would gladly give up some size to have fruits that were 2 or 3 weeks further along! So many cool nights and poor pollenation conditions early on this season. Well if weather holds up now I should have a massive harvest in 5 or 6 weeks, most of the large varieties have 20-50 fruits and tons of flowers that are likely about to be pollenized. For anyone close to Richmond Hill I might have to leave them on the curb with a 'free' sign...
galiano
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Could that unknown red beefstake be a Brandywine ? Has the same potato type leaves as mine. Anyway, fantastic tomato plants. They are so much taller than mine. What the heck are you growing them in ??
sprtsguy76
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Healthy, lush and green are the words that come to mind when looking at your photos. Here in Ca. my plants are looking pretty old and weathered.

Damon
hooked_on_tomatoes
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Beautiful... You must be so proud! I can't wait to see your harvest pics.
star_stuff
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Amazing! I am so jealous of all of your gorgeous plants! :-) How long is your tomato growing season in zone 5?
sunsi
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
*sigh* I was doing ok till I saw the the last tomato pic then I felt my knees go weak. Up till then I thought I might have that many tomatoes on my plants too but it's hard to tell because I'm letting them sprawl this year. But that last photo I know I don't have anything that big yet in my zone 5 garden. Our weather here is just like you described in your post, anthony_toronto. Good luck with your garden it looks like you're going to have quite a harvest. :)
anthony_toronto
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Galiano, are you looking at the pic above or below my 'unknown beefsteak' comment? The one above is brandywine, but the one below (the unknown) actually has regular leaves, which might not be clear from the pic. Just have them in regular old triple mix. My 'seedlings' were large when planted (if I plant small seedlings, they just don't have enough time to produce a lot of fruit in my short season). I use dilute MG from time to time, some high P initially to help roots, then some high N to get the plants going a bit, then more high P later to promote flowering. I apply a lot less than the directions suggest. Also mulched this year for the first time. Other than that, we have not had a lot of rain so I have been able to control the water, and despite the cool weather there has been a fair bit of sun. However, despite the attractive plants, fruits are still at least 2 to 3 weeks behind where they normally are.

Star stuff, the typically relied upon last frost date is around May 24 (which coincides with one of our statutory holiday weekends), but for the last few years the weather has been far too cold to plant on that date. We had frost near the end of May this year, and in the first week of June last year. So, end of the first week of June was when plants went in the ground for me. Won't get frost again until end of Sept. or maybe October, but I have found that fruits that I harvest after the end of August tend to be a bit sub-par in terms of texture and flavour. With ideal conditions I would usually be harvesting great fruit from the middle of July to the end of August, with a few outliers coming early, and plenty of second-rate fruits in sept and into oct.

Humidity finally starting to show up now, along with some warmer nights, and a few more months of this should help the fruit grow nice and big. Of course that weather tends to wreak a bit of havoc on the foliage, but thats ok as long as I get to start eating tomatoes soon.