None yet. Too cold a spring &early summer. Next week a few Kotlas & Gold Nugget. They have really grown over the past 3 weeks when it finally warmed up. Am getting some Zs and yellow squash this week.

Got one Black Krim and several Sun Golds so far, Steve. Can't wait for the rest of the green ones to ripen up!! Also have a San Marzano I'm anxious to try :)

That pic of your Kimberley is making my mouth water!!

Although it isn't very far away, I have never been to Kimberley, British Columbia, home of the little Kimberley Tomato. John de Rocque developed the Kimberley, only about 30years ago, Tatiana's Tomatobase tells us.

Kimberley is a mining town in the Kootenay Mountains. Spokane Street is the main drag downtown. Wikipedia says 3,670 feet elevation.

I think I will describe the tomato's flavor as "pleasant." This is the 3rd year I've grown this variety.

Kimberley is a lovely plant and I should do better showing what a cute fruit it has. ( It's beating Bloody Butcher for 1st, 2nd, 3rd ... ripe tomato this year! :o)

Steve
who has also had 1 or 2 Sungold cherries

None here yet, either! I noticed 3 grape tomatoes FINALLY have blush, so they should be good to pick in a few days. I am also very anxiously awaiting the black cherry and San Marzanos (which are huge). Some of my coworkers have already harvested some beefsteaks which is pretty impressive for the third week of July.

I have had about 10 cherry tomatoes ripen. I also picked 2 Romas that were almost ripe, but my daughter couldn't wait any longer so we ate them today!

What is the secret to growing tomatoes in pots? I have 3 in pots that are thin and sad with only a couple tomatoes each. The 5 I have in the ground are as tall as my chin, bushy and covered in tomatoes!

Anyways, stay patient my friends!
~Cat

Looks delicious Steve.

First tomato was from a silver fir tree on July 2nd or 3rd. I kind of cheated because I didn't pinch off the flowers while it was growing indoors as an experiment. Other than that though, I grew an Iraqi variety "Nineveh" that has been putting out ripe fruit for about two weeks now, I think I got my first ripe one last Monday. Though, it has a major tendency to crack and I have to pull all of them before they are truly ripe. The Nebraska wedding has yet to put out a ripe tomato but appears to be very prone to BER anyways (I have never seen BER on my in ground tomatoes, before this).

Some 'maters and bell peppers I pulled the other day.

Ok ZachS and digit - no fair!! Your veges AND your pics of them are too good!!! ;^) This one you posted Zach reminds me of one of the paintings or photographs you see as fine art! Nice :) Love 'em - keep 'em coming.

Checked my tomatoes today and no more ripe yet.

I haven't tried growing tomatoes in pots, catnohat, but I would think the tomatoes just prefer the open ground. Might be the variety, though. I know there are patio tomatoes, which I would assume are suppose to do well in pots judging by their name.

NBM81 - how large are your Marzanos? I've never grown them before this year, so don't know what to expect for mine. They look to be coming along nicely, though.

Marj

LOL Marj, I will sell you a signed and numbered print if you want ;). Even give you a Friends and Family discount haha. But thanks! I appreciate that. Now, if only I could get my flowers to grow as good as my veggies, I'd be happy.

I have awful luck with tomatoes in pots. I can't keep on top of watering them enough. Then they get overwatered when I do. They look beautiful for about a month then they just go to crap quick. I think bell peppers and potted tomatoes are no longer going to be part of my garden. The only exception in my experience is those silver fir tree ones. They are definitely a patio variety (extremely compact plants) and I have 2 in a large half-barrel planter. No problems from them. But I think what Marj says is true, they just do better in the ground from what I have seen, at least, they are much less maintenance which is what I go for in gardening lol.

It is a good picture, Zach!

My only red peppers you can see just off the plate on the table. They are Super Chilies and I cheated, just as Zach, by leaving tiny developing peppers on the (young adult) plants when they were set out.

The plants look healthy but have grown very little. They are all blown towards the northeast because of some very heavy winds. This is also true of the tomatoes but I'm a little more optimistic of their chances this year.

The Kimberley in a 5 gallon pot is doing fine. It's the one in the garden that has the ripe tomatoes, however. Last year I had a Kimberley in a much smaller pot and it was a very poor specimen, indeed. Potted tomatoes are not my forte.

Steve

I'm making a real mess of my keyboard--salivating all over it looking at all your incredible pics, guys! I want to say stop posting them--but they're way to pretty to not look at! More paper towels!

I've had ONE ripe Sungold tomato!!! Just picked it today! Might need to just keep it for lookin' purposes! That one tomato was on the plant when I put it in the ground! And (if you read the Westy post you know this!), I didn't get my tomatoes into the ground until four weeks ago, so I don't even have GREEN tomatoes to be petting at this point! But they are WAY growing, and have lots of flowers. The cherries are looking really good, and I'm hoping to have at least a few green ones to take along with me when I go trippin' again in a few weeks. Time will tell! As for the others, I'm hoping they develop enough green tomatoes before frost so I can just hang them in the garage again and let them ripen slowly that way. And, fingers crossed, hoping for a late enough freeze that I might still actually get a few ripe ones while they're still in the ground!

For all of you folks with the Photographic Tomatoes, I'm enjoying them vicariously thru you all!

Drip, drip,
Skybird

Well thank you all!

I never pinch pepper flowers, I fear I would never get peppers otherwise lol. Bells are pretty unproductive plants in general, so the 6-8 that I have gotten off 4 plants is about standard for me. Mine haven't grown either, Steve, until I pulled the peppers off them. Now they are putting on some new growth, but, I doubt if I will see many more peppers from them. I'm going to try a different kind of sweet pepper next year.

I have gotten about 10 habaneros though. Most of them are pretty tiny, but a few average sized ones. The one plant got left in a 1 gal. pot too long, then it got infested with aphids. It's coming back now, and putting on new growth and new flowers. The other plant has just exploded into a nice shrub loaded with flowers. Course, for every one that turns into a fruit, at least one flower drops. (But how many hab's does one REALLY need?)

As for the tomatoes, I have 5 in the ground, and 7 in pots. I thought that by getting bigger pots and smaller tomatoes, I would be okay, Boy was I wrong. The ones in ground, 3 of them look really good, though, a little gangly and sprawly, they are putting out tomatoes about every 2 days. The other two are having BER problems. Like I said, I have never seen this on my in ground tomatoes before, so, this variety doesn't make the cut. The other varieties in the ground are fine, other then the cracking which I can mitigate by pulling them a little early.

Don't worry Skybird, you'll have ripe tomatoes eventually. I just moved some volunteer plants to a new spot about 3-4 weeks ago too. Hardly any flowers on them yet, so we'll see if they work out.

My black cherry tomatoes are FINALLY starting to get some color. About 6 of them were showing blush this morning. Also, I've noticed they are very large for a cherry tomato and also they are not round, but shaped more like a huge grape.

I also have about a dozen grape tomatoes showing some color, as well as one Fort Laramie strawberry so far. I have many clusters of berries forming, for which I am ULTRA excited. Strawberries have failed year after year for me and they are thriving this year.

Lastly, since I don't have TOMATOES to talk about, I thought I'd share photos of a really nice harvest on Saturday (07/26/14). Two yellow straightnecks, two carmen peppers, two eggplant, one pickling cucumber, 7 sweet banana peppers, 7 beets, handful of bush beans, 7 enormous green onions and a bunch of basil, parsley and rosemary for the dehydrator.

Photos below, as of 07/28/14.

Black Cherry tomatoes..

This post was edited by NBM81 on Mon, Jul 28, 14 at 15:46

Grape tomatoes..

Fort Laramie strawberries. 18 plants in a plastic half-whiskey barrel. They have been thriving all summer long.

Harvest in the basket!

Harvest all cleaned up.

Green onions. I planted the root ends of a bunch I bought at the grocery store on May 4th and they averaged 3' tall when harvested. I pulled 7 and there are still 7 in the garden.

Nice! And, nice pictures but you are making the same mistake with those Carmen sweet peppers I did, NBM81!

If "Carmen" is "red" and they are supposed to be early maturing - we are supposed to be leaving them to ripen ...

Two years running! I've harvested those peppers with the other Italian Sweets - green! This year I have a plant marker and I'm determined not to pick ALL of them green. I've already bypassed them once, with my bucket of about 5 or 6 green Marconis. They look pretty good despite bad windstorms and the too-cool June before all this July heat!

Tomatoes! There is almost another ripe Kimberley. Still lookin' for anything else ...

Steve

Been getting one or 2 ripe ones since about the 4th. My best tomato year so far in a while.

I still have 2 in containers that are waiting for a home in the ground maybe one of the weeks. Though the 2 in containers are doing fairly well. A yellow pear and a Viva Italia.

Been doing my version of the Florida weave this year for support. Started out in pretty nice cages with EMT conduit and rebar a few feet out from the center. Then I've been wrapping jute twine around them when needed.

Last Sunday, I attended a talk by Pikes Peak Urban Gardens director Larry Stebbins, who's such a vegetable fanatic that he has compost tea flowing in his veins. Anyway, he suggests cutting all foliage away from tomato stems up to 18" high in mid-July so the sun can warm up the soil to help tomatoes ripen faster. I figure it's worth a shot.

Here is a link that might be useful: No strain garden method

VERY nice harvests, everyone!

I'm playing catch-up, having been away for 3 weeks. The tomato patch was on a timed drip and did very well. Given my absence, losing only 3 of 35 is great. The rest of the gardens didn't do as well, but we still have time to get them up to speed. Had my first tomatoes before I left, Alpatieva 905A and Polyarne. Kimberley is a wonderful tomato, Steve. I like it, but not as much as BB. ;)

Found this BIG fused blossom on Taps tonight. This should be fun! Everything is loaded with greenies or blossoms. The grow bags worked!

The Early Girl is ripe and, somewhat oddly, 2 Big Beef tomatoes have been ready to pick. I'll leave them a day or two for better ripening. Goliath is supposed to be about 5 days earlier and there is always 1 tomato/plant that is - not this time. Anyway, I no longer need to complain about the wait (I'll just complain about the searing heat that has hurried things along. :o)

#5 Kimberley came in with the Big Beef. Still no Bloody Butcher, or as we have come to call them in this home, Jaliranchers .

I may have set myself up for failure with my tomato breeding project. Or, I may just be blaming the weather again as an excuse to not risk another failed attempt to use Kimberley in a crossing with several other smaller varieties. How in the world does someone with XL hands manipulate his way around with tiny tomato flowers?!

I may just let it go and hope for a cooler 2015. I mean, pollen isn't supposed to behave properly anyway, when temperatures are near or hitting triple digitS, right??

Oh! I need to tell you that "my version" of the Woodle Orange is just covered with fruit! Lots of ripe tomatoes on those plants, soon!

Steve

This post was edited by digit on Thu, Jul 31, 14 at 0:34

Of the 8 tomatoes I put in this year, 3 are in pots and 5 are in the ground. The ones in the ground are huge and have lots of tomatoes and the 3 in the pots are thin and sad. (I believe I already complained about this on some thread.) Anyway, it was hard to decide which ones to put where. I really wish I had made some different choices. I got a Green Zebra plant from lisaluwho that I put in a pot. I have harvested 4 small tomatoes from it and I have to say they are some very tasty treats! I wish I had put this one in the ground so I could have lots of them and bigger! Lisa, if you're reading this, will you grow one of these for me next year too? I will try to save seeds and start some myself, but I'm new to it!

I have been picking 5-15 small tomatoes (cherries, romas and bells) everyday now, which my daughter promptly eats the majority of. Still waiting on the big ones!

The picture is the Green Zebra. Small and unripe still, but I'm having a love affair with it ;)

~Cat

How are the green tomatoes for eating? I never have really liked the taste of unripe green ones (I don't even use actually green tomatoes for fried green tomatoes, I use ones that are a little bit pink). Do the green-when-ripe varieties sweeten up?

My silver fir trees are on their way out, just a few more tomatoes left on those. The Nineveh are just now going through a burst of ripening and then they too will be done, and I've only got 4 tomatoes off the Nebraska wedding and I don't have high hopes for many more after all the blossom drop and BER problems.

I'm with you on that, Zach.

I'll go a step further - anything that I have tried with a green tomato would have come out better if I'd used an eggplant.

Jaliranchr's "BB" (Bloody Butchers). The first ripe in my garden. I have only grown Kimberley a couple of years. "BB" is usually my first non-cherry to ripen and there will be lots of flavorful fruit from those plants for the remainder of the season.

:o) Steve

I don't eat the green zebras until they are ripe you sillies! They get a little yellow on the tops when they are ready. They have a great flavor just sliced.

Don't you know, Catnohat, a tomato's s'pose to be red and round?

(Seems like my Casey's Pure Yellow and the pink Rainy's Maltese should be along next!

Oh, I should put up a picture of Coyote to tease you. Yeah! ;o)

Steve

This post was edited by digit on Sun, Aug 10, 14 at 15:35

LOL, I know that you wait for them to ripen, I was just wondering if a green-when-ripe tomato tasted better/different then an unripe red/rellow/pink whatever.

Zach,
I've grown the green zebras before, and just like a purple tomato tastes different than red tomato tastes different than a yellow tomato... the green ones taste different as well. I seem to remember not being overly crazy about the flavor, but then maybe we were picking them before they really were ripe? All I know is it was difficult for the "other" (AHEM!) harvesters to know when they were ripe, so likely we were getting some "green tomatoes aren't supposed to be THAT green" in our kitchen. I do recall that they grew well but weren't as prolific as some of the other varieties that we grow. You should try them, so that you can decide for yourself if you like them!

That is true. I will have to try them, some day. I have what I think is a good one this year, and depending on how it does next year, it will probably be the only one I grow for a while since I think I will be cutting way back on my tomatoes. Too darn many this year, and Im really feeling a bit too lazy to start canning, though, I will definitely put a few jars away so I can make chili when my beans dry up.

Small disaster. My three plants in large containers were doing great - about 6' tall and probably 125-140 fruits between them. About a week ago, we had a huge wind event and two of the plants blew over - pots that weigh about 70LB and all. Plants are Park's Whopper, Early Girl and Big Beef. We have had about 15 ripe despite losing probably 30% of the tomatoes in the blow-over. Big Beef is the best so far. BTW, I was able to right the two plants. I had them anchored in the pots with standard 54" cages anchored with 3 5' lengths of rebar each. The entire plants went over but the stems did not break. Next year they will go in the ground.

I've had so much trouble from windstorms this year ... well, maybe not so much me as the plants, especially the tomatoes.

They were supposed to be in their usual sprawl except for the few that I have found to be particularly attractive to the slugs. Everything blew off to the northeast. Most of the staked cages blew over. This is why I stopped using cages. That and I have way more plants than I ever had cages. It got so I was putting in 3 stakes/cage. Ridiculous. May as well just use the stakes and string. Then, the sprawl ....

Steve
who now has nearly everything ripe!

Posted by digit ID/WA (My Page) on Sun, Aug 10, 14 at 15:32
Don't you know, Catnohat, a tomato's s'pose to be red and round? ...

Oh, I should put up a picture of Coyote to tease you. Yeah! ;o)

Coyote cherries! I have decided I like these tiny guys.

Usually, I'm not delighted to pick 'n' pick 'n' pick and after 20 minutes still only have a handful. Tasting just one Coyote tomato, however, will give you an idea of what you are in for!

The tiny things have an incredible amount of flavor and sweetness. If you are one of those people who claim that Sungold is bland, you should give Coyote a try.

Steve

I have one monster tomato plant thats covered with green tomatoes, and I just discovered that it must be a Casey's Yellow that grew from seed left in the garden last year -

This is a good thingâ¦â¦