Congrats Mantis!
Nothing ripe here as yet, but hopefully not too far away.
See your BCW post for more details.

NIce one Richard!

Does that mean you won the prize?.

No Adam. I cut him tonight and the BER had gotten to good of a hold.
My first tommy went to the chooks :-(

*barrel girls disrobe and resume their usual duties*

Sorry to read about the BER. I think. Just an early. And I guess it's a hybrid?

Dang, speaking of "the Prize" - Finbar has absconded with it!

I had two Polar Babies a few days ago. Wouldn't have picked them if mum hadn't spotted them. They were not bad, but I'm looking forward to better ones. (I had overwintered that plant in my greenhouse. It looks miserable now.)

Picked another Big Beef this morning. No BER on this one.
Polish Dwarfs are starting to show colour as are Cherokee Purples
Now we have started :-)

Here tis. Bottom up to show no BER eh. Not quite ripe yet but he will be the star attraction in a BLT on Sunday me thinks.
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I know this is about tomatoes BUT we ate our first cucumber last night. I found it by accident while weeding. Never thought they would be ready so soon didn't even think of looking. I'm happy :)

Nice one, Lyn. I've only grown cukes once, last year, and the crispiness of them hasn't left me. I'm jealous and can feel a Greek Salad coming on. Good growing to you :)Grub.

Good stuff Lyn
Still trying to get Volvos Cypriot cukes up. They took about two months to germinate last year. Great cukes when they finally got there.

Mantis,
Mine came up in a few days! I guess that's the climate difference. One crispy, snappy cuke, that's for sure.

Dice, add some chopped heirloom tommys, some cubes of Greek fetta, few kalamata olives, chopped flat-leaf parsley, some fresh oregano if you like, backyard-grown lemon, juiced, in an olive oil dressing w/ garlic.

And now you have a bowl of life-giving goodness to accompany your bbqed lamb w/ rosemary. And a bottle of red red wine. Bliss.

All thanks to Volvo :)

Ok, so you don't like hybrids.
My first Gregoris Altai. A handsome fella he is too.

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Oh God!!!. Are the scales for when he diets to get strong enough for next year????.
And Grublet, Thank you for not incorporating Capsicum into your Greek Salad.
It just isn't Kosher.
It's Bee Ute Offal without it.

This be the start of a flood of tommys from the greenhouse. Big Delicious is colouring, as is a huge Soldaki, a whole truss of Cherokee Purples, a truss of Polish Dwarfs and more Gregoris Altais.

Great news, Mantis. I hope the GA is nice and that later ones are even better. It was a very good producer of yummy slightly tangy fruits for me. A workhorse in some ways. I'll be interested to see what you think.

Mantis, great pic of GA...got my mouth watering!
Nothing ripe here yet, but I'm heading off in the morning for a week with the inlaws so hopefully there will be something waiting for me when I return.

Grub. The plant I picked this one off is loaded with fruit but a lot of them are misshapen. The other GA plant has less fruit but much better shaped and fuller fruit.

Mark, I hope you get a suprise when you get back.

Had the Big Beef just now sliced in two and done in the pan with bacon and fresh eggs. Salt and pepper on the tomato on the slice of freshly made bread. YUM. I am going to grow these again. They would be the best tasting hybrid I have tried. Very fleshy as well.
It always suprises me to find just how bad the bought tommys are. After having to eat them for months I was beginning to think they tasted OK. Blah.

Heres todays pic. Another GA and three Polish Dwarfs
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It's starting alright. GA was a bit mishapen for me, too. But tasted very good. And a hardy sucker.

Let me know what you think about Polish Dwarf. I haven't go this one. I have Kimberly, New Big Swarf, Sohpie's Choice, Mountain Princess, Totem (a dwarf dwarf lol) and Victorian Dwarf (just got true leaves) as shorties this year. I kinda like them too. Well-behaved babies :)

(Any word on leaf shape for GMG from either seed batch?)

Best, Grub.

Three from each batch of seed up. Three from D's seeds all PL and very strong seedlings that I potted on yesterday.
Two of the three from yours PL the other hasn't true leaves yet. So, it looks like the PL is becoming dominant.

Mantis

Todays harvest
Cherokee Purples, Soldaki on scale, Big Beefs and another Gregoris Altai
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Yum. They look really good.

I've only got 2 Jaune Negib coming up, might be able to pick one today, and still a few Polar Babies. Might pick some of those for tonight's salad, too.

Had a quick walk the through tomato patch and saw Ida Gold had set a fruit or two, same as Broad Ripple Yellow Currant. It's all starting now! Yeah! Must bag some flowers for seed saving. And start tying them up a little. :)

Knocked up a lazy lobster mornay tonight, and the missus made a salad with Cherokee Purples diced up and Polish Dwarfs the same.
Where am I going here you ask. Well, durr, Grub asked above, my opinion of Polish Dwarf... Yummy
I don't know how to explain the difference really, but CP has a rich back of the tongue type taste, where PD has that tomatoey taste on the top of tongue.
I hope that clears it up Grub LOL

Help - a couple of basic questions:
At what point do you bag for seeds - at flowering or fruit set. How long do you leave the bag on. I'm assuming the idea is to stop cross pollination but there must be a point where you take the bag off?

Also, how much leaf pruning can be done on the hothouses tomatoes because they attacked Bobby and the dog the other day and now I'm the only one that can tame them.........
Linda

Bag the flower truss before the flowers open and take it off after the fruit has set.
As for pruning, I pull off any leaves that look to diseased to be any good for the plant. Some of my greenhouse plants are looking very skeletal and some are bushy.

Thanks muchly. That makes sense. I don;t have any diseased leaves ( touch wood) but they are leafy. The potato leafed ones don;t seem to be as leafy as the others.

Cheers
Linda

Yesterdays harvest.
Cherokee Purples, Delicious up back, two Anna Russians, first Brandywine sudduths and more Polish Dwarfs
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Great effort Mantis!
It puts me to shame looking at all those lovely tomatoes. You will find Anna Russian a beautiful flavoured tommie. Was for me the past two seasons.
My plants have been laggards up until the past few weeks. Just sat there and slept over late Oct-early Nov. If I am lucky I will get some cherries before Christmas.
Cheers
Craig