O' well. I am in zone 8 GA and have few walnut size maters. Not bad.
Those are celeberty, better boy and early girl.
I am hoping to pic my firs before June arrives.
After unusually warm April, we are having very spring like May so far, that is cooler than April.

Anyway, Silvia beats the crowd as usual. No contest there.lol

Hi Star, Cyrus and tomato fans,

The recipe is salsa roja from the book How to cook everything vegetarian, the good thing is while you are waiting for your fresh tomatoes you can make this salsa with the pantry items, it can be done with canned tomatoes and smoky dried chiles.

Here is today's picture

Silvia

Here's some of my smaller fruited varieties. This batch of seedlings didn't get the best care, and suffered from cold exposure at one point, then sunscald a couple of days later, so some lost a lot of foliage. The larger plants are about to get potted up.

Amish Paste:
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Black Cherry:
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Supersweet 100:
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Sungold:
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Yellow Pear:
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These Early Girls are still quite small considering they were potted up mid-Feb:
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All of the plants that I potted up in that mix have had slow growth (4 parts partially composted pine bark, 2 parts pearlite, 1 part MG potting mix). The plants I potted up in 3 parts Dr Earth, 2 parts pearlite in March have surpassed them.

These Rutgers (bottom) and Polish Dwarf (top) were also from mid Feb, but have perked up nicely after being potted up in 3:2:1 (Dr Earth/pine bark/pearlite). The little plants top right are Wintersown Polish Dwarf:
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Here's an Amish Paste potted up in a 5 gallon SWC. This plant has always been a bit wispy:
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That SWC uses the upper half of 5 gallon bucket as a riser to increase the size of the water reservoir to almost 2 gallons. The unused lower half of the cut bucket gets used as a soil bench to make a small SWC in another 5 gallon bucket.

Here's some Wintersown Bloody Butchers:
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..and while not technically tomatoes, they are cousins...

Fairy Tale Eggplant:
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Trinity Bell Peppers:
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Orange Sweet Crunch Peppers:
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Here are a few pictures from my high tunnels

April 24th

May 10th, most plants are blooming and setting fruit

Hanging baskets of tomatoes for sale I have beets growing below them.

Plants for sale at my farmers market booth

Night time picking and prepping

Hi Jay,

That is amazing! I love those hanging baskets, what variety are you using for them?

In the picture above of the color tomatoes, the 2 red ones are Estiva, some time ago you recommended them and I grew them this season and I am very happy with them. Thanks.

Silvia

Silvia,

I am glad that you like them. They produced very well for me. I planted them again this year. I am glad someone is willing to try something new. I hear too many people only grow one variety (around here that is Celebrity and Jetstar). I had one person bought tomatoes from me last weekend and said I want 5 tomatoes. She bought a Celebrity 4 pack and I talked her out of a single Celebrity. I think I talked her into a Cherokee Purple or Black from Tula. I told her she would be very happy. I hope I am correct.

The hanging baskets have two plants in each. They are Tumbling Tomatoes. One red and one Yellow. The have been selling very well.

More pictures to come. I still have the cherry tomatoes to take pictures of.

Jay

Finally got off my butt to upload pictures so I can start playing!

This is the only picture I took of a couple of the actual plants in their SWCs. Still slowly getting everything moved into it's actual home for the season.

The first fruit of the season. Of course, it's on a plant that lost it's marker somewhere along the way, so I'll have to wait awhile to determine what the heck this actually is.

Campari (from wintersown.org)

Tamina (from wintersown.org)

Lida Ukranian (from wintersown.org)

And some of the mess that still needs to be potted up to a permanent home.

Pretty good year so far. I picked my first ripe, a Sungold, today. I'm growing 24 plants this year, the varieties pictured plus Porter, Black Cherry, Jetstar, Rutgers, Bradley x Cherokee Purple(courtesy hoosiercherokee), Azoychka imposter(mystery), Mystery Tomato(courtesy wintersown.org), Marianna's Peace, Spudakee, and Stupice.

A couple of my beds

Indian Stripe

Giant Belgium

Florida 91

Super Sioux

Sungold

Pete

ferretbee, have you grown Amish Paste before? Mine turned out to be a
huge plant. You will have to do some pruning on that one. Mine was wispy
too. Lots of tomatoes.
Silvia, that salsa looks delicious. Don't have the book, so maybe you need
to give us the recipe.

Here is my Bloody Butcher again. Now have some baby tomatoes. I think
I will have these before July 4th. That should hold me over until the
more tastier heirlooms are ready.

Cherokee Purple
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Sungold
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Pomodoro
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Hi Roper

Here is my picture for today, 2 of my favorites black tomatoes Paul Robeson and Black cherry

And Mark Bittman salsa roja

2 large guajillo or other medium-hot dried chiles, toasted, soaked, and cleaned
1/4 cup neutral oil, grapeseed or corn
2 large onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds tomatoes. cored, peeled, seeded, and chopped, with their liquid (about 3 cups, canned are fine)
1 tablespoon of sugar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

1. Mince the chiles. Put the oil in a medium saucepan or deep skillet with a lid over medium-high heat. When hot, add the chiles, onions, and garlic and cook stirring occasionally, until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sugar, some salt, and plenty of pepper.

2. Adjust the heat so the mixture bubbles gently and cook. stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened and come together, almost 20 minutes.

3. Stir the cilantro and lime juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve hot or at room temperature. Store covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Hope you like it,

Silvia

I'm getting impatient waiting for these babies to ripen so
I built them some new cages over the weekend to pass the time.

It's my first year growing so I stuck with hybrids
(early girl and better boy).

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Suburbangreen, when did you put your plants in the ground? I am a few hours south of you, and i'm just getting tiny fruit setting now...Your plants are gorgeous btw!

driftwood, how do you resist the urge to say to your toms every day, "How's it going, boys and girls?" ;) (Which was my first thought when I saw that's all you were growing.)

Thanks Silvia. I will save this recipe for when my Bloody Butcher is ready.
I have some good hot peppers growing and a dehydrator..I have seeds
for Paul Robeson potato leaf, but no room this year. .. I grew Black Cherry
last year, very good. Only black I'm trying this year is Black Krim.

Pete/Suburbangreen: Those are niced sized plants and I recall you and I talked about you planting around April 1, right? How big were your transplants at that point? You must get lots of full sun in your suburban back yard to have that kind of growth and setting in a month and a half! If I could get that much growth and fruit set in that time period, I wouldn't plant until April 1 either. Well done.

My containers are that far along, but my in grounds (the pitiful 3 plants that weren't subject to the foundation problem) are not, with much smaller fruit set. However, due to sun angles and confined spaces, they were getting about 6 hours of light in April, which has increased in May and will be even more for the rest of the summer.

Here in IL, its really not warm enough for tomatoes yet. But, I got overly excited and planted mine.

13 so far, and they are taking being dragged in and out of the garage pretty well. They are getting moved to their new home, which is about 5 blocks away at the end of the month. :)

Thanks Armymomma and Jerry.

I planted mine out on March 7th and protected them on cold nights. We had one cold snap when it dipped around freezing. I made covers for my raised beds using small tomato cages and clear plastic and strung xmas lights for a little heating. I also used strips of black plastic to help heat the soil until late April when I applied a mixture of grass clippings and chopped leaves.

As far as the sun, I'm lucky. I used to have a big tree in my backyard that made it tough to get good production. Now, I get at least 7 hours of sun on two of my beds pretty much year round and in the summer neighborhood trees block out the sun after around 4 p.m. One of the beds gets a little less sun in March and April, but catches up by May.

Jerry, sorry to hear you lost some of your plants. Let me know if you need any seeds, I'm going to try to save mine for the first time this year.

Armymomma, since you are South of me you might want to check out the tomato festival East of Austin, http://www.settfest.com/. Suze, a gardenweb member who gives great advice for Texas, is involved in the festival I think.

Pete

driftwood, how do you resist the urge to say to your toms every day, "How's it going, boys and girls?" ;)
(Which was my first thought when I saw that's all you were growing.)

Courtcourt -- who says I resist? I talk to them all the time. LOL.

platys, your planting yours 5 blocks away? Are you planting in a
community garden?

No, they are staying in the pots. We bought a house and are closing on the 26th of this month. So, they'll have to move over there. :) (We rent now.)

New additions, but no room for them! What else is new? hehe

But seriously, I was surprised how sad I was when somebody stole my baby Stupice plant a couple weeks ago. I vowed to replace it if I got a chance. So today, braving the thick 90º afternoon heat, and the horrible Saturday crowd, and visited the FarmerÂs Market in search of a replacement. No Stupice to be found of course, but there were several vendors with decent selections.

What did I find? ...I have absolutely no room for these, but hereÂs what I got anyway...only $3.50 for all 7 tomato plants. :-)

~ A nice tall Black Cherry, for only 50¢! Already has several fruits. Amazing how teeny tiny the pot is!

~ Japanese Black Trifele, $1 for four plants. Unfortunately, IÂll have to give three away. And notice the vendorÂs spelling of ÂBlack TrifeleÂ...hehe...ÂBlack Taful'...could it be the Southern accent? lol

~ Druzba, $2, plus the grower threw in a German Black for free. Has anyone grown ÂGerman Black, or have info on this variety? I cannot find it anywhere.



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~ A beautiful Asiatic Lily (from Walmart):

~ And I couldn't leave out this lady bug friend on my California Wonder:
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I will get them into their large permanent containers soon, so the thieves will be less likely to walk of with one of these!
~Caroline

Here are some of my tomato plants:

Brandywine

Brandywine flower

Carbon

Carbon fruit

Hi everyone, I am new here, its my first day and your tomato plants look great. I think my plants might be in trouble but I have to load up a pic so you all can see. I will do that soon today. I live in Georgia close to Atlanta, it is already 85 and above after 12:00p.m.

It's been a while since I posted an update on my tomatoes with all that I currently have going on in my life...but somehow, I always find time for gardening. I hjave tons of flowers opening, berries budding & flowering, veggies growing, plants propagating, etc.. Here's a very small taste of the tomatoes...

Rutgers:

Sungold:

- Steve

Looking good Steve, nice to hear from you! How are your plants doing after the flood?

These are some pictures of my tomatoes and other vegges. I think my tomatoes are experiencing something bad, Can you tell? Someone said that they are dehydrated, are they?

Here is a link that might be useful: VEGETABLE GARDEN ON PHOTOBUCKET

Oh, I almost forgot. I finally yanked my dubbed "butt mater" off the plant since I am not going to eat it & to allow the plant to put energy into making the ones I will eat. He's the final picture of the weird little thing...lol.

Everyone's tomatoes are looking beautiful! As always, i'm jealous of people in hotter zones already picking theirs. =)

suburban & sckitchen: How long does it take for your Sungolds to grow & ripen once you see the fruit? This is my first year growing it. They are doing awesome. I already have 40-50 or so wee Sungolds. A few of them are almost full cherry tomato size. What do you think. 3 weeks until they're ripe, about?

- Steve

I refuse to show pics of my scraggly assortment of tomatoes. :( Maybe in the fall, when we actually are SUPPOSED to be growing tomatoes in S. Florida.

Steve:

I keep a fairly detailed blog so I just checked the dates on the Sungold (Fruit set and harvest dates are a big deal for a newbie like me, and exciting). Fruit set on 11 April. First one was harvested on 11 May. With warmer temps, you might save a few days I guess.

I have been able to pull about 7 off so far. The sweet 100s have a nice blush, and I had to pitch a ripe white currant today because of a worm.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alster Kitchen Garden

Here are my Tumbling Toms in their permanent home. ItÂs a big hanging basket...16 inches wide...quite large, but I probably still overcrowded them...hehe...we'll see how it goes. Others who have grown Tumbling Tom, what size basket do you use?

Sorry for the dreary pictures, itÂs been raining for a few days straight. The plant in front is smaller, because thatÂs the one my dog chewed the most...down to a stump, lol. I can post more pictures when they fill in a bit. :-)

~Caroline

May 22 photo's

I shouldn't have looked at this thread..
I live in SLC, Utah and it has been a cold wet spring.. I usually plant in mid April with wall o waters but it was snowy and has just been no sun.. I finally planted my 15 plants by mid may. but Sundays frost took about 14 of them. the super sweet 100 up in a planter survived but the rest are burned bad. And then I see salsa and big batches of ripe toms and I am sad.
I am not sure if I will replace these plants or see how they do.
I had some nice plants in there some black Krims that were stout.

Geeboss, your plants are getting tall, and I see a big basil! Where are you at in zone 7?

I'm in No VA in Fairfax/Burke area 18 miles from DC. By July my townhouse small backyard will be a jungle of 8 & 9 ft plants with the walkway of small dwarfs and a couple of caged Blacks ... Spudakee and JD Special C Tex. I'm using a trial of 2 different fertilizers to start the plants to 5 ft and now switching back to old Tomato Tone and New Plant Tone once they flower...which should be any day now.````````````

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I lived up that way in Quantico and Stafford 25 years ago as a child. :-)

Your use of space is great! I remember seeing your pictures last year. I'm in sort of a townhouse, well, it's a ground floor condo, so I have very limited space. Never the less, I'm still growing 11 tomato varieties, plus peppers, herbs, etc. LOL! I will make it all fit somehow!

My plants are putting on good size, but not nearly as big as yours yet. When did you start them, and when did you plant out? I'm guessing your last frost date is probably pretty close to mine. Thanks a bunch!

Caroline

Seeds sown end of January for many of the planted maters, 2nd sowing 2nd week of February that are back up plants for 1/2 of what I'm growning. We had an early Spring this year and I planted out ````````````````````````````````````````1st week of April with fingers crossed and avoided freezes/frost so I was lucky this year. Basil, peppers, cukes, and squash started in early March.

TNVG, just curious, why did you pull the double tomato? when I get one I let it ripen and it's still good eating.

Wow geeboss, that is really early! I will take note of your dates for next year. This spring was very warm here in NC as well.

A couple more questions, if you don't mind. Are all of your plants in containers? And do you happen to have a blog or link to more pics of your garden? Thanks!

Backyard maters in SWC - self watering containers; Front yard has 8 maters in 5 gal growbags and several in SWC.

Here is a few pics of my tomatoes..
Red Beefsteak with plenty of tomatoes.

German Queen (Heirloom)my tallest tomato tree so far but not producing well.
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Early girl with plenty of tomatoes.

Celebrity also producing well.

Here is a few more pics of my strawberry patch,eggplants,and some of my sweet bell peppers.

My kids have been picking fresh strawberry for 2 weeks now.They get half a dozen or more every morning and none for me;-)

Few bell pepper also producing and sweet banana.

Here is a few container plants ichiban eggplant,celery, freson chili,and bonnie select tomatoes.

My Tumbling Toms went nuts in just a week or so, despite the cool cloudy weather. This variety is probably a keeper! In fact, I took two cuttings to make another hanging basket. Hope the taste is good! Forget about flowers in a hanging basket, lol...grow tomatoes!

Will post photos soon of the cuttings, and my other 10 tomato varieties. Gosh that's alot...I cannot believe I ended up with so many, especially in a condo, LOL!

May 18

May 26
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star stuff, I have a tumbling tom in a hanging basket also. Just
for fun. I heard they don't taste all that great. We'll both find
out. I have little tomatoes starting to form.

I picked my first tomatoes! In May, hooray! Just a couple of little Husky's, but I'll take them! I will eat them tomorrow after they turn a bit more red, hehe.

Darn about the Tumbling Tom taste, Roper. Are you doing the red or the yellow? (mine are all reds.) They are fun to grow, nonetheless. :-)

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star stuf nice looking maters

just a shot of lucky leprechaun dwarf with first red mater in May N. VA 7a

New Big Dwarf has a red mater however I can photo it it's hidden by leaves.

George

My first Purple Cherokee

A handful of Grape Cherry tomatoes (I think there's 9 so far)

all my others are growing great (I think I killed one of the Green Zebras though), but no tomatoes yet. Crossing my fingers...!
Thanks everyone for putting up so many awesome photos.

Hydroponic heirloom tomatoes

Here is a link that might be useful: The Greene Tomato