Heirloom Tomatoes (Again!)
Planting (Potting) Heirloom Tomatoes
Quick Tomato Update
It has been far to long since I updated you all on the heirloom tomatoes. They have really taken off! Here's a quick review:
Planting (Potting) Heirloom Tomatoes
Quick Tomato Update
It has been far to long since I updated you all on the heirloom tomatoes. They have really taken off! Here's a quick review:
When I left you last my little plants looked like this
June 14th 2010
Then we went to the beach and when we returned they had survived well without us and they looked like this
June 30th 2010
Now...they don't all fit in one picture!
They're 5-6 ft tall each and full of ripening fruit
Purple Russian on the vine and in my hand to give some scale.
Depp's Pink Firefly
Weeping Charlie
If you'll notice in top near center of the bottom Weeping Charlie photo there is a mystery tomato. When I got the seedlings the Weeping Charlie had two main stems growing out of it's little cell and at the time I assumed they were both Weeping Charlie, as the fruits have started to set, however, this is clearly not the case. Not sure what they'll turn out to be, but it does add to the great variety.
Striped Roman
Pantano Romanesco
The vines really took of and caught me off guard, I ended up having to add in new, taller stakes and really dig in through the leaves and vines to tie them up well. I used Vlecro brand plant ties and am very happy with them. They are gentle on the vines, but hold them securely. The other thing that I did to try and control them a bit was to prune off most of the suckers. Yes, they are really called suckers, the new little growths that shoot out between a main stem and an existing branch. If you catch them early you can just pinch them off with your fingers and if you leave them they will become their own new main stem. I left two to three main stems near the bottom and enough through the middle of the plant to allow for a decent crop, but to keep the plant able to concentrate more energy on those fruits. In other words, I wanted enough to have several fruits, but not so many that as they plant divided it's energy, the fruits would become smaller.
A few of the fruits did also succumb to blossom end rot. dark soft spots at the blossom end of the fruit. This can happen when there is not enough calcium in the soil or when the plant is not able to get enough calcium from the soil because of lack of or inconsistent water. I think in my case it was possibly a combination of both these issues. I added a tomato fertilizer and have been more diligent with consistent watering and these steps seem to have headed off further issues.
I have so far harvested only Weeping Charlie tomatoes (and have since discovered that they are not Weeping Charlies - see here) as they are the only ones that have ripened fully and I have found they make a great salad tomato and my husband agrees.
delicious!
