Minderella, This is why a lot of us plant many different types of tomatoes. Some ripen much quicker than others. I'm still waiting for many of my tomatoes to ripen but a few of mine have been producing red tomatoes for weeks now. The smaller types will produce very quickly. By planting the different early tomatoes for my salads I don't get exasperated waiting for the pick and eat out in the garden tomatoes to ripen. Lou

My wonderful husband spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday building me tall, sturdy, permanent trellises on my raised beds for my tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatillos. To make them sturdier, he added cross braces on the top - connecting the trellises to each other. Reading your post, it makes me think how easy it would be to put some netting over it! But more importantly, I think I now know how to make a netted enclosure for my blueberry bushes. I've wanted more blueberry bushes, yet I want the blueberries for myself, not for the birds!

The angular cuts at the edge of the hole suggest birds.

I am laughing my head off because I am having the same battle. My prize Gold Medal tomatoes that I have been anxiously waiting all summer for have been attacked, both the lower ones and the higher ones. I put rigid meshing around them and the bugger chewed thru them too! Personally, I'm thinking raccoon, but who knows. I'm finding cherries, green and ripe all over the ground with the insides sucked out. Other tomatoes they aren't bothering. It seems the tomatoes that are in the ground next to a fence are at the most risk. My container tomato plants have had fewer attacks. It's not fair! I am going to try blood meal for next year, altho permanently eliminating them has crossed my mind! I have now picked most of my tomatoes and brought them in otherwise I won't have one to eat! AAAHHH! Sharon