tomato care for this year

[littleminnie]

also Kozula #125 has some adorable fruits in a nice cluster. They are green and green striped right now but I think they will ripen soon. Funny they have the same grayish lower foliage that Green Zebra has (instead of brown- it's gray).

[littleminnie]

I finished pruning and spraying all the tomatoes today. I found some squash vine borers in my zucs in the process.
There are getting to be some real standouts and some real losers, especially with the bad conditions this year. the weather was beautiful today- almost too cool to move the vines around. No dripping sweat and no mosquitos! I gardened for 9 hours straight. (also on Prednisone for my zucchini rashes so have lots of energy! )


JD Texas- number 2 favorite variety this year. None ripe yet but loaded and so healthy.

Number 1 fav this year- Chinese purple. not purple but brown and small with green shoulders. Looks just like the Kumato tomato at the store. No fungal spots, beautiful to look at and productive!


Isis Candy that is not Isis Candy. No idea what it is but it is a very nice plant.

Kellogg's Breakfast look quite good disease-wise and I am looking forward to ripe ones.

I'll add more pics when I have time.

Stinkers- disease and growth-wise

Purple Russian- spindly but incredibly productive, early and large fruited. However every fruit has a long deep crack that makes it useless because it starts to leak and rot. I pulled the plant out today. I couldn't pick the fruits early and let them ripen OTV without splitting so I said good riddance.

OFPS- no purple and a really strange whiteish thing going on with the plant. No others have it. About to be thrown away (in pot)

Sungold OP -well all the cherries are doing badly and have spotty ugly fruit but this one is pathetic.

Hege- really looks bad this year and most of crappy foliage has been removed.

Gold Medal- same thing- really diseased and no fruits

OR #117- same thing but also so spindly. I don't expect anything from it.

[littleminnie]

I want to do a disease test at the U of M for my tomatoes and potatoes (red and finger not gold) but it is $37 minimum. That seems pretty high. yet they can never tell you what diseases have been coming in to help you out or whether we have pepper maggots in MN or not. sigh

Here is another odd thing: last year with our bad tomato year many of the fruits that should have been red were pink (clear skin) and this year it is the opposite. Most everything I have picked has been rather red except Caspian Pink and the purple ones. McClintock's, JDs, Granny Cantrell i believe have all been red (yellow skin I suppose). Very odd.



Black Krim. Not as expected. I was told it would be early, not very large and very cracky. It is late, large and no cracks so far.


Black Truffle


OSU blue. Doing well for me and a workmate. She also says they taste good.


3 Goldman's Italian American

Cassady's Folly is producing very pretty fruit in a decent quantity given the considerations. however they have spots and that takes away from the beautiful colors.

[littleminnie]

I regret what I said about Casady's Folly and Speckled Roman not needing stripes because they are paste tomatoes. OMG the Casady's are so awesome! I made salsa with Casady's, Marzano and Orange Banana tonight and it was delicious. Casady's are a very good tomato- early, prolific, beautiful and tasty!

[littleminnie]

Nibbles dang it!

Here is the plant from above that is not Isis Candy. It has grown!


Picking like 1/2 bushel a week from 106 plants. Not a good year! But it does show the standout varieties.

Here are 2 more odd things: I planted 3 JD Texas and 2 got huge, but now that they are ripening there are major differences. One is a big pink beefsteak as it should be and the other is a small purple globe tomato and quite prolific. I am afraid I will have to say only isolated seed next year in trade.
The Mc Clintock's Big Pink are still a standout but no they are not pink but red.

Still no ripe Green Drs or Isis Candy. Green Zebra is super disappointing this year too. OSU Blue is doing very well. A big surprise since I didn't expect much.

[littleminnie]

Well I am extremely bummed about this year! My tomato care did not work. The plants look awful now and there are potato bugs everywhere.


I spent the day pruning and squishing/stomping bugs and tossing tomatoes with holes in them while wondering what to do next year. I was close to giving up but I know I would miss it.