After reading the other thread about slow growing gardens in nearby zones, I suppose I should be counting my blessings! Every one of my tomato plants have substantially sized fruit (one of my heirloom toms is about the size of two baseballs- I have no idea how it is going to stay on the vine and grow/ripen for another 1+ month!).

But I am still a bit frustrated that my early tomatoes are still completely green! My hot peppers and concord grapes look like they are almost ready to ripen, but still nothing from my tomatoes :-(

OK, I guess I get to gloat a bit - I picked my first 2 ripe 4th of Julys this morning. Officially my earliest ever. I always try to make the 4th, but I think I only made that once since I found this variety probably close to 10 years ago. Most years, sometime between the 7th and 12th of July.

I got kind of lucky this year, though. I found 4" started plants about a foot tall at a garden center in late April -- they were a lot bigger than my seedlings at that point. They were potted up and kept in the greenhouse until the first weekend in June, when I put them in the ground.

I guess its not really cheating, is it?

It looks like a lot of us are growing 4th of July. I've switched from Early Girl.

I started mine in the g'house.........the rains came and still are coming. Didn't get the soil turned until early this month. Meanwhile kept bumping up the tomotoes and they started bearing in the g'house in three gallon pots. I dug holes halfway to China when I sat them out into the garden June 5th, and they never missed a lick. We've been eating BLTs since late May. LOL.

I'm not a midwesterner, but I am in the South and have no ripe tomatoes yet (so does that make you feel better?)

I'm outside of Chicago, and so far have only had 4 cherry tomatoes ripen. Nothing else looks even close.

I have been selling tomatoes since June 15th. We picked some of the first ones, around June 1. I have a bunch more to pick on Friday. This is most of what I had to sell on Wednesday of this week.

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These are all grown in my High Tunnel

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Those are 8 foot "T" posts, just an FYI. These tomatoes were planted on March 20th and March 30th.

I live in Zone 5, North Central Kansas, 40 miles from Nebraska.

Jay

i harvested my first tomato yesterday. it was from a cultivar called patio kebab - a somewhat small determinate tomato plant.

my indeterminate are big (almost 6 feet) and have greens. except for Mr. Stripey (yellowish tomato), he is tall but has no green fruit yet.

Very nice, Jay!

What varieties of toms are you growing?

Mine are all green but plentiful. I have been able to harvest some pineapple tomatillos. They are sweet - almost like a grape. Just enough for snacking while I'm in the garden.

Had some downpours last night so the weather has been good for growing so far this year. Today, we're having a tropical forecast. Hope it doesn't last too long.

Digdirt - Dave --- How does your garden grow? I wonder how your toms are getting along with temps in the nineties?

-gloria

Not in the midwest, but just about to harvest my first tomato from my first year of container gardening!

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Varieties I have growing right now.

Big Beef, Polbig, Estiva, Florida 91, BHN 589, BHN 640, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Taxi, BHN 871, BHN 876,

Cherries:
Sweet Gold, Sun Gold, Black Cherry, Golden Sweet, Red Pearl, Red Pear, Yellow Pear, Apero, Sweet Million, BHN 624 and Tumbling Tom red and yellow (in hanging baskets and 2 gallon pots)

Outside:
Celebrity, Early Wonder, Mountain Gold and Taxi

Last planting to go out early next week:
Florida 91, BHN 589, BHN 640, Taxi, and Cherokee Purple.

Jay

Still in the flower stage for me. :( The low land I have did not mesh well with all the spring rain this year. So I got a late start. Interestingly enough, my plot ammended with compost and tilled the year before, is producing slower growth than the rocky/unammended soil in the other bed tilled only a few months ago. Go figure.

Kim

Seriously? I don't even have baby green tomatoes yet. I might have, but they experienced some low temps. (or who knows what) and the blossoms yellowed and fell off. There are new blossoms forming tho. Maybe if we can escape frost until Halloween there'll be a chance, right? I'm consoling myself with an excellent rhubarb crop and lots of flowers. :-P

~Cindy

Nope. Got a ton of flowers on all the plants, but nothing even close to full size yet. The rain and cold snap set everything back a bit this spring I think. I have been eating tons of herbs though, and I should have my first cucumber in a few days, so that's keeping me happy for now.

I'm still waiting for my first blossom........i don't know why they are growing so slowly.....the cukes and zukes planted a month after are doing nicely.....

sigh...

waiting....

buying from the store....

I picked some Sun Golds and Sweet 100s in the last couple days.

Got one "4th of July" fruit showing color.

I have one ripe roma. Not enough to make tomato sauce :)

I finally got my first 4th of July tomato today! It was still a little under-ripe, but it was the only red tomato in the entire community garden, so I wasn't about to let someone walk by and steal it!

I have one ripe roma. Not enough to make tomato sauce :)

None ripe yet. Black Krims coming along nicely... about the size of 1/2 a chicken egg. Still green. Yellow pears and millions cherries have nice size tomatoes on the vines, but aren't getting any color yet. I planted a few varieties of grape tomatoes a little later, and those are just flowering, I haven't seen any tomatoes on those yet.

I'm new to the forum, and haven't really figured out where/how to post this yet... My pattypan squashes and 2/3 cucumber plants don't have any blossoms yet. Am i the only one in the 5b/6a zone with this problem???!!! Thanks!

Also, Jay, you are my hero!! Love your grow tunnel. =)

mid-July and still nothing ripe in northern IL. At least there are lots of blossoms and green ones. Mostly growing heirlooms.

started 30 varieties from seed. Most are heirlooms.
Nothing to harvest yet.
...mouth is watering at the thought :)

Got one 4th of July. A few others starting to color.

I only have container tomatoes started inside my greenhouse a month before I started my garden (in ground) tomatoes.

But they are getting cooked before they get ripe. Has been over 100F almost every day since I brought them outside in mid-May.

Since I planted my garden tomatoes, it has been too hot for them to set any fruit.

Not in the Midwest, but similar. I picked 2 4th of July before the holiday (they had fruit b4 I transplanted from a 3-gal pot in late June). That's it. Have a couple green ones, also have baby tomatoes on the Speckled Romans, cherries, Brandywine and some that my cousin gave me I think are romas b/c they're oblong (still too tiny to tell). Glaciers are coming along nicely (transplanted June 13) but none ripe.

Every month this spring we got an inch above average rain (often an inch at a time, once a week!), now we've had barely an inch of rain since June 23, only scattered showers forecast for the next 10 days. July is supposed to be our rainiest month (though last year wasn't). The way things are looking we might be lucky to get 2" instead of our "normal" 5 this month. 95 today - climate change at work!

I'm starting to despair of getting any good juicy blackberries (raspberries are doing well though) unless we get some decent rain next week, the blueberries aren't too productive (I think the spring rains caused problems with pollination), and who knows about the indeterminate tomatoes planted 4 weeks ago, the cucumbers and the squash I planted 3 weeks ago? At least I may get some hot peppers since I'm seeing blossoms.

I'm in zone 5b in Illinois and I've got about 12 very large Roma plants. So far we've gotten 30 good ripe tomatoes and there are probably 20 or so that will be ready tomorrow.