Harvestman: The high brix on Early Blush along with very high brix on other outdoor fruit over the years tells me my outdoor shelter project will be worth the effort. I should have had the shelter up to beat this years freeze. When I do get some production I'm pretty sure I can achieve high brix outdoors without root pruning. Deficit irrigation will be the answer. My greenhouse has one flaw, it's a much more mild environment than outdoors. This reduces water demand and makes it critical that I tow the line on water applications. If not I get big watery fruit. All my experience says outdoors will be much easier to grow high brix fruit. This fruit will also be smaller and firmer. The Early Blush I just harvested was half the size of greenhouse specimens, much higher brix, and much firmer. What this tells me for those in mild, humid climates is that a greenhouse like mine would be hard to manage for good fruit. But a high tunnel where it gets hotter might still work. It also leaves me wondering where you guys stand outdoors in regards to water and fruit quality. That's why some brix measurements from you guys would be interesting. It would tell us all where you stand. This post was edited by fruitnut on Mon, May 5, 14 at 9:14

Stasi, Mine is still in a 3 gal nursery pot. It was too small to plant last year but I'm going to plant it this year. It's about 30" tall and wide. It is leggy and octopus-like, by no means graceful... quite an ugly bush in fact, but I love the flowers, so it's a keeper. :) I'm surprised to hear some of you say it has no scent because I found it very fragrant for the first morning of each bud's opening. The blooms seem to last about 4-6 days for me. The bush had more than one open bloom for about a two week period and as of today it's down to the last unopened bud. :'( As far as winter chill goes... I'm not sure what our chill factor in scientific lingo... but our first frost is usually late Oct. to early Nov. and last frost from mid Apr. to mid May... coldest temps can be down to -30º for a few days, -10º for a week or so, and can hover around 0º for months at a time. Our milder winters may never drop below 20º. I don't know if that's the info you need to calculate winter chill, but feel free to ask any info you may need to accurately calculate it. :) Disease resistance... disappointing... After all the talk about it not being disease resistant, I went to examine mine and discovered quite alot of early Anthracnose symptoms, so I sprayed it with Bayer for disease, and it is clean now. It's VERY early for me to be spraying for disease this year, but my two biggest indicator plants are 'L.D. Braithwaite' and 'The Prince'... and they went all lights and sirens about three weeks ago with BS, so I guess I'll be on a regular spray schedule this year. Last year I sprayed once in August and all was well. I feel it was worth the wait... but other than my Faith and family, gardening and roses are my life, so there are very few that don't find a way into my heart and a permanent home here. :) Rob:)

I have harvested many tomatoes this season already..NAR, 444, 589, 640, Celebrity, German Red Strawberry, Husky Red, Stupice, Prudens Purple, Black Krim...list goes on.. What I do pick them at the first sign of blushing and put into paper bags and poke holes in the bag...it helps ventilation and keeps a little of the ethylene gas in with them to help ripening. Some just put them on the counter..which is fine also. Picking them at this stage assures that in the event of a freak rain storm that dumps loads of rain, they don't start cracking and splitting. Happy Gardening.

Based on the info so far I think it is far more a matter of timing rather than just "a matter of preference". Unless you happen to live where pests like stink bugs or hornworms, splitting or cracking, or excessive temps, etc. are never an issue. :) Every year the forum is inundated with questions as to "why are my tomatoes splitting" and the answer is always the same - pick them at blush/break and it won't happen As to how long inside, do you mean if you pick them at blush how long does it take them to ripen? Same amount of time as it would outside - 7-14 days or so depending on the variety and where you put them inside and the degree of blush when picked. If you mean how long if you pick them when already fully ripe then you only have a day or 2 max inside before the fruit flies take them over because the center of the fruit is already going over-ripe. The best way for you to decide when you want to pick your fruit is to try picking at several different stages and see which works best for you. Dave